«Rare to see a woman in a male world»- time.news

by time news
Of Barbara Visentin

From March 8 on Paramount+ the six-episode miniseries directed by Hugo Blick starring an aristocrat and a Native American in 1890 America

An English aristocrat and a Native American ex-cavalry scout join forces, each seeking their own revenge. In the background is America in 1890, an arid and violent land that puts them to the test and, little by little, brings them closer. Competing in a western adventure that keeps the historical frame intact, but reinterprets the dynamics of the characters with a modern look are Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer, protagonists of the six-episode miniseries «The English»arriving in Italy on Paramount + from March 8th.

“We play two people with opposite backgrounds but deep inside they both seek recognition of their identity – explains Blunt, 39 years old, grappling with the role of Lady Cornelia Locke -. She wants blood revenge, finding whoever killed her son, he reclaims the land that was taken from him. They desperately need each other on this journey that presents ever greater obstacles.” The journey also turns into a love story «tender and intimate, despite the brutality of the setting», continues the British actress of «A quiet place» e «Mary Poppins Returns”happy with the project because “it combines a romantic side with a scarier one”, but also because, during filming, he spent a lot of time on horseback, “loving every second of it”.


«The English»(already released in Great Britain on the BBC
and in the USA on Prime Video) also contributes to the revival of a genre that in recent years, between cinema and seriality, has opened up to renewal: once upon a time there was the western made up of cowboys and sheriffs against the Indians. Today there is the one populated by androids of «Westworld», which, in a sci-fi key, gave a driving force to the relaunch. There is the contemporary one of «Yellowstone», (the fifth season arrives on Sky and Now on March 1) led by Kevin Costner, fresh from the Golden Globe, with the spin offs «1883» e «1923». There is “Django», always arriving on Sky on February 17, which reinterprets Sergio Corbucci’s cult film, and is directed for four episodes by Francesca Comencini. Not to mention an Oscar-winning film like «The Power of the dog» by Jane Campion who introduced the theme of latent homosexuality to the sexist lands of the Far West.


«The English» of the western reverses the protagonists
, emphasizing the expropriations and violence against the native populations: «Most westerns celebrate the whites who create a new life in those parts of America, but I would like to reiterate that this was someone else’s land, before that the State established something different, it was not a free land – underlines the director Hugo Blick -. The fact that the protagonists of this story are a woman in a male world and a Native American, played by a native actor with a big name in the credits, is still relatively rare in such an old-fashioned genre. And that’s something to celebrate.” A point of view which, hopes Chaske Spencer, here in the role of Pawnee Eli Whipp, aims to make people think and excite: «I hope this series makes the public think. There’s a lot of politics, there are serious themes, but the western is still a genre to go back to being a child again».

January 31, 2023 (change January 31, 2023 | 20:49)

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