The first Duke of Wellington was among the commanders who led the British army to victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. 13 years later he became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The protagonist of the film named after him is not the Duke, but a working-class man named Kempton Benton, who in 1961 stole his portrait from the National Gallery in London.
In the days of the art robbery, the case of the Duke’s theft – painted by Francisco Goya and sold to the National Gallery for £ 140,000 (equivalent to more than £ 3 million today) – is one of the strangest of them. In 1963 the lost painting riddle even provided inspiration for a joke in “Dr. No” (James Bond is surprised to discover the painting in the Doctor’s lair). The drama.
The strangest element in the story is the lightness with which the painting was stolen, 19 days after it arrived at the gallery. So it’s not a thriller about a sophisticated thief in the style of “The Thomas Crown Affair,” but more a light-hearted comedic drama in the taste of the eccentric comedies of Ealing Studios (“Lavender Hill Gang,” “Passport to Pimlico”), produced in post-World War II London. However, “The Duke” borrows stylistic gestures from “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968) – especially the split screen he is so identified with – and the smiling combination of two cinematic traditions contributes to the film’s great education. Talented director Roger Michel (“Notting Hill”, “Weekend in Paris”) managed to read the collection of acclaimed reviews the film won after its premiere at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, before dying in September 2021 for undisclosed reasons.
“The Duke” (Photo: PR)
“The Duke” has benefited greatly from Jim Broadbent’s endearing performance as the 60-year-old Kempton Benton, a self-taught self-taught man who fought against paying the BBC fee and even demanded that the right to watch free public television be given to all UK elders. At the same time he writes plays that he sends to the BBC in the hope that someone there will be convinced that they are worthy of production, and loses job after job due to this or that social principle that he insists on. Helen Mirren is no less good as his wife, Dorothy explains, a cleaning worker who is forced to take on the forced role of the responsible breadwinner in the family. No wonder their son Jackie (Finn Whitehead from “Dunkirk”) is more inclined to side with the father, joining him in his struggles and craziness. But despite the noticeable differences in temperament and the variety of frictions they yield, there is no doubt that there is a lot of love there, and it sweeps into it the viewers as well.
The Benton family lives in a neglected workers’ neighborhood in Newcastle in the north-east of England. At the end of the street, smoke chimneys are visible. The gray space does not obscure Kampton’s good spirit. The Eternal Warrior of Justice, who sees himself as a kind of Robin Hood but more like Don Quixote, was not at all taken into account by the establishment – the museum management, the BBC, the police, the court. The film gains quite a bit of humor from the arrogant assumptions of the establishment representatives (Michael Wilby is sour in the role of judge) and so the theft of the duke is seen as a symbolic defiance against all snobs. “Not that good,” Kampton says, looking at the portrait closely. And the portrait as if looking back at it.
“The Duke” (Photo: PR)
Two representatives of the upper class nonetheless bridge the gap and offer support. One is attorney Jeremy Hutchinson played by the handsome Matthew Good (the film does not mention that in 1960 Hutchinson participated as a defense attorney in another famous lawsuit in which the publisher of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was charged with distributing obscene material) The second is a fictional character – Mrs. Goeeling (Anna Maxwell Martin, the director’s wife) that Dorothy works in. The elegant lady’s joining the fan stand is on the verge of over-flattering, but the film does not exaggerate with that. When Kampton finally gets an attentive audience that responds to his speeches about responsibility and mutual help, “The Duke” is reminiscent of Frank Capra’s comedies from the 1930s, about the little man who challenges power systems. The fact that this tale is based on a true story certainly contributes to the enjoyment of the captivating film, whose filming ended about three weeks before the start of the closure in the UK.
★★★ ✯ 3.5 stars
The Duke Directed by Roger Michelle. With Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Finn Whitehead, Matthew Good. UK 2020, 96 min
“The Duke” (Photo: PR)