Probably the same reason that having him wear headphones while speaking wasn’t a feasible idea. He did very few radio speeches and very many personal addresses. That might have changed during the war, but they couldn’t have known that ahead of time. He had to plan for showing up in front of crowds.
Saw it today. Duly seconded. Solid film. Great acting. I was also glad to see Beethoven’s 7th applied to judicious effect (I just saw Knowing the other day, and was appalled).
Chiming in to say this was an excellent film. Colin Firth should win an Oscar, easily. I think Geoffrey Rush should also be nominated as Supporting Actor.
One question for those who know about Royal Family traditions:
I noticed the King (Colin Firth) was only wearing one small ring, on his left pinky finger. Is that supposed to be his wedding ring, or do Kings not wear wedding rings?
There may well be some royal tradition, but I’d suggest it’s more likely to be that men, in general, used not to wear wedding rings. Only women wore them. In my experience it’s been a recent trend (early 1980s onwards) for both spouses to wear a ring.
Don’t monarchs usually wear a ring with their seal on it?
There was an interesting article on Lionel Logue in today’s Australian newspaper (Saturday 1 January): Performer from Perth Lionel Logue gave voice to a king
We saw it yesterday. I will comment that the corgis are not historically accurate, but I don’t think throwback corgis are being bred these days. Here is a story with pictures of both corgis of the day, and the modern breed:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/castlekay/2626043240/ Look how long their legs are!
They have one, but they rarely wear it.
Great, great movie - just saw it tonight. Best of 2010, I’d say. Firth was very, very good, but Rush… good Lord. I couldn’t keep my eyes off him! That expressive face - those eyes - simply mesmerizing. The early scenes in which he calmly but firmly laid the ground rules for his therapeutic sessions were just masterful.
To me the best scene in the movie is when Bertie is talking about how his nanny abused him, pinched him until he cried and then wouldn’t feed him, and then how he was forced to become right-handed. It’s heart-breaking listening to what’s being said, and Colin Firth is so good at trying to be matter-of-fact while saying it, but when the camera cuts to Geoffrey Rush’s face, you can tell exactly what he’s thinking, that he not only feels sorry for Bertie, he realizes all this contributed to the stammering problem.
Off topic, but when Kate Bush named her son Albert and nicknamed him Bertie, there was a lot of snorting and guffaws because to some it was a silly name. She even wrote a sweet little song called “Bertie” for her son that I think is beautiful but gets a lot of shit. I just LOVE that this movie is doing well, and will do better, getting multiple Academy Award nominations and a few wins, most likely for Firth as the very sympathetic king. Lots of people who needed to know are discovering now where she came up with the name Bertie. It makes me happy.
Firth and Rush were fantastic. I took a friend to see the movie for her birthday, and she and I loved it.
Does anyone know, are Logue’s techniques still considered useful and advisable?
In truth no-one knows what his methods were. According to this article:
*Dr Caroline Bowen, a Blue Mountains speech and language pathologist, has long been fascinated by Logue and has written a paper (Lionel Logue: Pioneer speech therapist) pulling together the surprisingly little that is known about him.
The most intriguing thing, Bowen says, is that no one really knows what his methods were. There have been many conflicting reports and theories but the secret of his techniques appears to have died with him.*
I must say that he was the only thing I didn’t like about the film; he seemed like a comedy caricature. That might be because Timothy Spall is too familiar to me from more lighthearted roles though.
There’s a book out called The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy, that says it’s “based on the recently discovered diaries of Lionel Logue”. It has a movie cover. (There’s a Kindle edition too, but it doesn’t seem to be linked properly with the paperback edition, because it doesn’t show up on that page.)
I still haven’t seen the movie, but I’ve just read Sarah Bradford’s biography of George VI, which was pretty good. It covers the abdication crisis in great detail.
Fascinating references to Shakespeare. For example, the first time Bertie speaks successfully was with the headphones doing Hamlet’s soliloquy. Of course, Hamlet was a man who was consumed by the duty to fulfil his dead father’s expectations…
This only came out last week in the UK. I thought it was excellent (though like StGermain I wondered why he couldn’t wear headphones for the vital radio speech).
The only thing that took me “out of the moment” briefly was the casting of the little girl from Outnumbered as Princess Margaret. (I don’t know if that show is exported to other countries, but it’s a very contemporary family sitcom so the casting jarred slightly.)
Saw it, loved it, and loved it again. Agree, Colophon on one brief thing that took me “out of the moment” - though not the delightful and gorgeous Ramona Thingy from Outnumbered, but Jennifer Ehle’s subtext of a “dingo took my larynx.” (And her, married to a speech therapist!)
The King’s Speech is most rewarding film experience I’ve had since…since…good grief there must be something…
As to why they didn’t try other methods for the radio broadcasts, the actual answer is that, in non-cinematic version of the events, they were simply unnecessary.
The script plays fast and loose with the chronology for dramatic effect.:smack: Logue began treating the Duke of York far earlier than the film suggests, so the treatment had in fact already worked by the mid-1930s. Yes, speaking in public always remained a huge ordeal for him and he continued to be dependant on Logue. And there were real doubts in 1936 about whether he would be able to cope. But by then he had the stammer largely under control. That he had managed to do so was indeed as impressive as the film indicates; it’s just that he had done so in slightly less dramatic circumstances.
I couldn’t help wondering if that wasn’t supposed to give her casting an extra edge - one kept expecting her to come out with some surreal ad lib. Which would have been very Princess Margaret!
And I agree with Elendil’s Heir that Geoffrey Rush is even better than Colin Firth. It’s not too difficult to see that he pushed so hard for the film to be made because he realised just how perfect that part would be for him.