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The Duke (2020 film)

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The Duke
Theatrical release poster with original release year
Directed byRoger Michell
Written by
Produced byNicky Bentham
Starring
CinematographyMike Eley
Edited byKristina Hetherington
Music byGeorge Fenton
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Entertainment UK[1]
Release dates
  • 4 September 2020 (2020-09-04) (Venice)
  • 25 February 2022 (2022-02-25) (United Kingdom)
Running time
96 minutes[2]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Duke is a 2020 British comedy-drama film directed by Roger Michell, with a screenplay by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. Dealing with the 1961 theft of the Portrait of the Duke of Wellington, the film stars Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Anna Maxwell Martin and Matthew Goode. It was Michell's final film before his death on 22 September 2021.

The film was awarded 5 stars from The Guardian[3] and The Daily Telegraph[4] following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.[5] It was released in cinemas in the UK on 25 February 2022.

Plot

Sixty-year-old self-educated working class Kempton Bunton (Broadbent) appears in Court Number 1 at the Old Bailey, pleading not guilty to charges of stealing Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington and its frame from the National Gallery in London. Six months earlier, in spring 1961, he sends a script to the BBC from his native Newcastle upon Tyne. Soon afterwards he is jailed at Durham for thirteen days for watching TV without a licence. Although he can afford one, he refuses to do so as part of his campaign against pensioners having to pay for it, part of his wider strong socialist beliefs about supporting the common man.

Kempton's son Jackie meets him on his release and on their way home they visit the grave of Marion, Jackie's sister, who had been killed in a bicycle accident aged only 18. Kempton's wife Dorothy (Mirren) works as a housekeeper and babysitter for a local councillor and his wife (Maxwell Martin), Jackie aims to become a shipbuilder and move away and his elder brother Kenny lives in Leeds, working in construction but also involved in low-level crime. Kempton himself is sacked from his job as a taxi driver due to being over-talkative to passengers and giving a free ride to an impoverished disabled World War One veteran. He gets Dorothy to allow him a two-day trip to London to drum up press and parliamentary attention for his campaign and BBC interest in his scripts, on the condition that if he does not get that attention he will give up writing and campaigning and get a job. An unseen man with a north-east English accent steals the painting and after Kempton's return to Newcastle he and Jackie make a false back to a wardrobe to hide it.

Kempton sends a series of ransom notes to the government, saying that he will return the painting on the condition that the elderly be exempted from paying for a TV licence. Kenny and his separated lover Pammy come to visit his parents and she spots the painting in the wardrobe, revealing this to Kempton in private in hopes of getting half the £5,000 reward offered. Panicked, Kempton abandons a suggested Daily Mirror plan to raise money for his campaign via an exhibition of the painting and instead walks into the National Gallery to return it and confess to the theft. Though the case seems hopeless, his barrister Hutchinson (Goode) defends him on the grounds that he had no intent to deprive the Gallery of it permanently, but instead simply 'borrowed' it to further his campaign, an impression Kempton bolsters by voluble testimony under cross-examination by Hutchinson at the end of the trial.

Back in Newcastle during the early stages of the trial, Jackie reveals to his mother that it had in fact been him who stole it for his father to use in his campaign, with his father covering up for him and taking the blame. The jury acquits Kempton of all charges except the theft of the £80 picture frame, which Jackie had removed from the painting at his London lodgings and then lost. After his three-month sentence, Kempton and Dorothy forgive each other over how they had mishandled their grief at Marion's death. Their reconciliation is evident when they are sitting together in a cinema watching the James Bond film Dr. No and chuckle when they see the scene which shows Sean Connery spotting the "stolen" Goya painting of the Duke of Wellington.

Four years later Jackie admits his guilt to the police, but they and the Director of Public Prosecutions fear that a new trial could lead to Kempton being called as a witness and again becoming a embarrassing cause celebre. They therefore agree that if Jackie does not go public they will not prosecute. Text at the end of the film states that the frame was never recovered and that no plays by Bunton were ever produced, but that forty years later TV licences were made free to over 75s.

Cast

Production

It was announced in October 2019 that a film about the 1961 theft was in development, with Broadbent as Bunton and Mirren as his wife and Roger Michell set to direct.[9] Fionn Whitehead was added the following month.[10]

Filming began in November 2019, with Goode joining the cast.[11] Location shooting took place in Bradford and the production team also used Prime Studios in Leeds.[12]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 4 September 2020.[13] It was also selected to screen at the Telluride Film Festival in September 2020, prior to its cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[14] Shortly after, Sony Pictures Classics acquired the Latin America, Scandivanian and US distribution rights to the film.[15] Pathé's distribution arm will release the film in France and Switzerland.

The film was originally scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom by 20th Century Fox via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on 6 November 2020,[16] but Pathé later delayed it to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[17] On 7 June 2021, it was announced that Pathé would release the film on 3 September 2021, after announcing a new distribution deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.[18] On 23 July, Pathé announced that the film release would be again delayed, this time to 25 February 2022.[19]

The Duke was released as a rental home premiere and is available on iTunes, Curzon, Amazon Prime Video, Sky Store, Google Play and Microsoft Store.

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Duke has a 97% approval rating based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Warner Bros, Pathé Strike U.K. Distribution Deal". 7 June 2021.
  2. ^ "The Duke". Venice Film Festival. 20 July 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  3. ^ "The Duke review – art thief takes one for the common man". The Guardian. 2020-09-04. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  4. ^ Collin, Robbie (2020-09-04). "The Duke review, Venice Film Festival 2020: Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent shine in this zingy Ealing-style caper". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  5. ^ "Biennale Cinema 2020 | The Duke". La Biennale di Venezia. 2020-07-20. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  6. ^ "Obituaries - Eric Crowther". 8 June 2006.
  7. ^ "Obituaries - Nina Lowry". 23 April 2017.
  8. ^ Maher, Kevin. "The Duke review — Jim Broadbent at his best in this foolish and infuriating role". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  9. ^ Grater, Tom (29 October 2019). "Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren Art Heist Story 'The Duke' Greenlit At Pathé – AFM". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  10. ^ Grater, Tom (4 November 2019). "Fionn Whitehead Joins Jim Broadbent & Helen Mirren In Roger Michell's 'The Duke' For Pathé – AFM". Deadline. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  11. ^ Grater, Tom (10 January 2020). "'The Duke': First Look At Jim Broadbent & Helen Mirren In Art Heist Story". Deadline. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  12. ^ "First look at Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent in the Duke as filming starts in Yorkshire".
  13. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (July 28, 2020). "Venice Film Festival 2020: Competition Light On Studios, Strong On Global Arthouse & Women Directors – Full List". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  14. ^ Keegan, Rebecca (August 3, 2020). "Inside the Telluride Film Festival That Would Have Been". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  15. ^ Ramachdran, Naman (22 September 2020). "Sony Pictures Classics Nabs 'The Duke' For U.S., Latin America, Scandinavia From Pathe". Variety. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  16. ^ "The Duke". Launching Films. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  17. ^ "British Comedy-Drama the Duke" to Premiere at Venice Film Festival :: The Pavlovic Today". 29 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Warner Bros, Pathé Strike U.K. Distribution Deal". Variety. 7 June 2021.
  19. ^ @patheuk (July 22, 2021). "THE DUKE will be released in cinemas in Spring 2022" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  20. ^ "The Duke". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
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