There is an unexpected (and very pleasant) multiplication of twists in the theatrical version number 2 of Downton Abbeythe most successful TV series of the last twenty years. A gold mine of audience that is proposed here as a praise of cinema tout court, celebration of a small ancient world with many connections with current events. Adorable goals declared right from the title, A new eraand which therefore do not only concern the evolution of the history of the aristocratic Crawley family (with attached servants) and their splendid home.
It is well known that it all began with an idea by Julian Fellowes which started the saga in 1912, the date of the sinking of the Titanic, with the Great War and the first disasters of the short century to gradually become the background to loves, mourning, conflicts, tears, rich people of excellent specific weight and well-disposed proletarians. A new era brings us at the twilight of the Twenties, when the sound cinema is imposed con The jazz singer by Al Jolson and sends the stars of the Mute to the attic. At that moment, the ironic Lady Violet, Countess Mother of Grantham (Maggie Smith), having to deal with poor health, entrusts her magnificent home in the English countryside to the fearful Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) while the family, after the wedding between Lucy and that Ton Branson of modest origins and socialist ideas, is grappling with a double event.
On the one hand, Lord Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) and sweet Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) go to the French Riviera to take possession of the inheritance, a princely villa, which a certain marquis left to Lady Violet: the reasons we will discover along the way. . On the other, Downton Abbey opens its doors to the filming of a silent Hollywood film with two stars on the crest of the wave, Guy Dexter (Dominic West) and Myrna Dalgleish (Laura Haddock). He, a British transplanted to California, is a fake macho but of great class. She is a hysterical, fatal platinum blonde, but with a cracked voice.
Cinema in cinema, fiction over fiction. The need to adapt the sentimental drama and make it sound creates confusion, unmasks bluffs. On the upper floors and on the lower floors there are those who turn up their noses in front of the newcomers. But everything is needed, the wise Lady Violet objects, “to repair the roof and keep the estate alive.” Meanwhile, minor events flourish around the two main branches of history. Lady Mary is courted by director Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy) and with her good accent she lends herself to the dub of Myrna; the new valet has a crush on Guy; old butler Jim Carter regains possession of his livery; the servants make an appearance in the film and remember when the Royals were guests at the castle.
In France then the secrets between intellectual walks fall and Great Gatsby parties. The comedy fades into drama and Cora makes a moving revelation to her husband. She cries and laughs. You play, you despair. Simon Curtis, husband in the life of Elizabeth McGovern, cuts, sews and mends using a light-hearted and amiable style and a chorus of voices, faces and vaudeville psychologies. Although forced to an inevitable happy ending, the film has its own uniqueness: it can be appreciated in itself, without thinking too much about the television and film precedents, on the border between good entertainment and the colossal in costume. Among the performers, all amused and convincing, Maggie Smith should be mentioned: sarcastic and bizarre British lady capable of teaching the world even to noisy guests from Hollywood.
DOWNTON ABBEY II – A NEW ERA by Simon Curtis
(Great Britain, 2022, duration 125 ‘)
con Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Elizabeth McGovern, Nathalie Baye, Dominic West, Jim Carter, Myrna Dalgleish
Rating: *** 1/2 out of 5
In the halls
April 30, 2022 | 07:17
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