Сообщение: 3518
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 17.05.10 20:05. Заголовок: Jonathan Rhys Meyers..
Jonathan Rhys Meyers on shooting TV-film sex scenes
By Ruben V. Nepales Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 23:45:00 05/14/2010
Filed Under: Entertainment (general), Television, Cinema
LOS ANGELES—JONATHAN Rhys Meyers memorably told Ellen Degeneres On her TV show that filming the many sex scenes in his hit series, “The Tudors,” was like doing it in Wal-Mart. In our recent interview with the star of the powerful historical drama about King Henry VIII, which is now on its fourth and final season, he was happy to oblige when we asked him to elaborate on his remark.
“We make the sex scenes as sexual as possible,” began Jonathan. “However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s very sexy in the room. I learned from working on Woody Allen’s ‘Match Point’ that his set is not the sexiest one in the world. He doesn’t like shooting sex scenes. So, for that type of set to create the sex scenes that Scarlett (Johansson) and I did in ‘Match Point,’ it took a lot of technicality. It’s the same for ‘The Tudors.’
“Yes, you do feel like you’re having sex at Wal-Mart because there are 200 people walking around. They don’t care that you’re having sex. They only care that the actress’ heel is not in the light too much. Everybody’s got an individual job. Yet, you feel that everybody is concentrating on what you’re doing and judging you on your performance (laughter). ”
Last day
Since this was the final season, we presumed the series would show the monarch on the last day of his life. But, Jonathan said, “Henry doesn’t die. It was impossible for us to bring him to death. But, it’s quite similar. I won’t spoil it because it’s quite a surprise.”
Jonathan quipped that maybe it was good to stop playing the king because the royal hauteur was beginning to suit him fine. “Certainly, there’s a certain amount of curtness that comes into your personality once you’ve played a king for a while,” he said to laughter. “I notice that after a 12-hour day on the set, when I go into a store and ask for bread, I command that somebody give me that loaf of bread, please.”
Jonathan revealed, “Certainly, on the last season, the extras would be slightly frightened of me because I would have to do extraordinary things, I would have to fly into extraordinary rages in the middle of the shoot. I didn’t mind scaring them. I would put in a little bit more just to see what type of reaction I got. It was interesting to walk around the set with an aura about you and that people are slightly afraid of you. There’s something funny in that. There’s a kind of electricity that comes through you. It only propelled me on to be more obnoxious as Henry. I’m quite happy to be done. I think another four or five seasons in that show might have done me a world of damage.”
Workaholic
He added, “But apart from that, I will miss the show. I will miss the structure of getting up and working 12 hours a day and coming home in the evening. I’m an absolute workaholic. There’s no other word for it. I do love being on the set. It’s where I’m at peace most. When I’m on the set and playing somebody else, that’s when I feel most myself.”
We asked for his final thoughts on the man he has been portraying since 2007. “Henry was a very exciting person,” he said. “He did terrible things. I think he wanted to make his mark on history in such a way that nobody would forget it. He had many attributes to begin with. He was much taller than anybody else at the time. So it gave him enormous physical presence. Immediately, that gave him psychological advantage over most of the people he met. It gave him a shield that allowed him to protect himself from people.”
“Henry was very good at bamboozling people,” Jonathan declared. “But, I think all of that outward confidence, exuberance and machismo took an awful lot from what he was spiritually. He believed he was like his father. He believed that he was decrepit inside because he couldn’t find this love; he did not have these sons; and things didn’t work out the way he wanted them to. But, I think most of Henry’s psychological problems occurred when he was a teenage boy. When (his brother) Arthur died, Henry had to become king. I don’t think he ever planned to become king. Once he became a king, it was too much for him to control. As it says in the first episode of the first season, ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ He is the perfect example of corruption.”
Relationship
In real life, Jonathan has been linked to the same woman, Reena Hammer, for several years, unlike his royal character who had six wives. Of Reena, the creative director of Urban Retreat, a beauty company, he said, “The longer you are with somebody, you become very good friends with her. Reena and I have been on and off for about five or six years. Your relationship becomes more respectful as it goes on. That’s the real relationship. Through your 20s, you’re working on films and stuff, so you’re constantly flitting from one place to another. Now that I’m 32, I like peace and quiet more.”
“I have a wonderful girlfriend,” he enthused. “She’s very strong and independent. I like strong, independent women. The only problem is, they’re strong and independent (laughter). You like it, but you’ve got to kowtow all the time. But she’s an amazing woman. Having loved her for so long has changed my idea of relationships with women.
Сообщение: 3526
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 26.05.10 21:52. Заголовок: On Showtime's ..
On Showtime's "The Tudors," King Henry VIII is about to find his sixth wife -- but time isn't on his side.
The fourth and final season of the hit historical drama hasn't lacked for passion or drama, but its mood is definitely on the autumnal side, as the once-vital Henry ( Jonathan Rhys Meyers) goes through his last years racked with pain, illness and bitterness. In the episode airing Sunday, May 16, he sets his cap for Catherine Parr (Joely Richardson, "Nip/Tuck"), who will become his sixth and final queen in one of Henry's few successful marriages.
As the clock ticks down to Henry's death at age 55 (four episodes remain after this Sunday's), his real-life alter ego took some time for reflection himself, after having spent more time living with this complicated monarch than any other actor in TV or film history.
Rhys Meyers isn't an actor who frightens easily -- he mutated his Irish brogue into a Southern drawl for a startlingly convincing turn as Elvis Presley in a 2005 CBS movie that earned him a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination -- but he concedes that he knew he had his work cut out for him almost as soon as he signed on for "The Tudors."
"I started by researching but then realized that would be just a huge amount of frustration, since I didn't remotely look like Henry," says the actor, adding that paintings of Henry often were manipulated for political propaganda purposes. "I would start thinking of Henry as he was in history, not Henry as I was forced to make him. I had to play a very well-known historical figure without physically resembling him. Elvis actually was much easier, because I sort of looked like Elvis.
"I had to get the audience to 'buy' Henry without the physicality. That was much more complicated, so it became more of a boon to just concentrate on (series creator and writer) Michael Hirst's idea of Henry and only see him as I saw myself. I had to get into that mental space where I was playing Michael Hirst's idea of Henry, how he imagined him to be."
For each of the four seasons, the role of Henry took six months a year out of Rhys Meyers' schedule, presenting a series of technical challenges that shifted with the king's age and historical surroundings. Season four has presented unique rewards and pitfalls, the actor explains.
"Its advantages were that it allowed me to be very free in my performance, because I found it very freeing to have that mask of age," he says. "(Henry) was able to hide a lot more behind it than you might think. I found myself using it as part of my armor. Then again, it's very difficult to work with beards and prosthetics as I had to do as Henry got much older. That meant complicated, 14-hour days, so it was hard work.
"As Henry got older, I had to change my voice, too, which was a challenge. I haven't yet seen the end product, so I don't know how well it turned out. It was complicated and tiring." http://www.zap2it.com/news/zap-tudors-story,0,7833183.story?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Сообщение: 3541
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 02.06.10 07:29. Заголовок: In case you haven..
In case you haven't been watching Showtime's royal execution fest/sexy soap opera "The Tudors," now would be a good time to jump in. (By the way, where have you been?)
It's the raucous fourth and final season, with only three more episodes to go, and it's going to be a sprint to the finish. But it's not too late to catch up and watch what's sure to be an awards-worthy end-of-series performance from Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the megalomaniacal King Henry VIII.
If you want a quick catch-up, here's where we are now: Henry's just gone through his midlife crisis wife -- the adulterous teenager Katherine Howard didn't survive the experience -- and now he's onto another 16th-century version of buying a red Ferrari: he's started a war.
"The Tudors," heavy on brutality and sexcapades, has shifted its focus from intrigue at court to bravado on the battlefield. Not that the former is absent, because it never is in this body-heated, politically-charged series.
But it's the epic Battle of Boulogne that's occupying a good deal of screen time now as Henry shows the French just what he thinks of them by making a secret pact with Spain and invading their country.
For those who skipped European history, spoiler alert! It will turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory for Henry, with tens of thousands of his soldiers dying of dysentery during the protracted siege (in Episode 7) and the embattled forces eventually tromping home with little more than a bombed-out castle and the threat of retaliation to show for it.
That doesn't seem to matter much to Henry, whose grip on reality is often tenuous as he hits his 40s. (There's a good reason he was dubbed "the English Nero," the series shows us.) It's all about his ego, after all, and he "won" Boulogne. He only cares about the bragging rights and not the bigger picture (France got its town back a short time later).
And speaking of Henry's overblown sense of self, he's married his sixth wife (lucky woman!) -- the twice-widowed Catherine Parr (Joely Richardson) -- because he wants to feel virile again. The flighty, young Katherine Howard gave in to her baser instincts and had a torrid affair with the king's groom. (It got them both killed.) Henry's manly pride has been smarting ever since.
Parr, rightly, worries that she'll be the next wife with her head on a chopping block. Turns out she's a sharp cookie and a religious reformer (translation: heretic!), but the rock-solid partnership she ends up forging with Henry will be a lifesaver, literally.
Michael Hirst, creator and writer of all the series' 38 episodes, wasn't kidding when he promised to pull out all the stops for the final season. "So many lives hang in the balance," Hirst told The Times a few months ago, "just as Henry is increasingly tyrannical and monstrous."
From now until the finale, fans can watch Henry's downward spiral, where he ends up closer to Stalin than to the "new King Arthur" he'd envisioned himself to be early in his reign, Hirst said. He'll get waking nightmare-style visits from his former wives, including the two he beheaded, and he'll have second thoughts about all the innocents he slaughtered (including beloved religious leader Sir Thomas More and 70,000 rebellious countrymen).
Stick around and see if you feel sorry for the once puffed-up king, who's regretful and guilt-ridden by the end. (Hirst admits he's taken some liberties with interpretation there, and fans will have to decide whether to empathize with the dying Henry.)
Fun fact of the most recent episode: the young Elizabeth, later to be known as "the Virgin Queen" who became one of the country's greatest leaders, vows to never marry after seeing Katherine Howard lose her head. Again, history or melodrama? Either way, it makes for great TV.
Сообщение: 3557
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 16.06.10 21:04. Заголовок: Jonathan Rhys Meyers..
Jonathan Rhys Meyers reign as Henry VIII is coming to an end with the fourth and final series of The Tudors.
The Tudors falls into an interesting category of television series. Beyond screening movies, Showtime has moved into creating and producing their own brand of ‘original series’. And thank god they did. True Blood, Dexter, The L Word, and Californication are among the most popular of Showtime’s creations. To date, Showtime has their stamp on 13 original series.
Series one of The Tudors began with Jonathan Rhys Meyers playing King Henry VIII as a wildly sexy, unpredictable ruler. With lots of sex. Meyers plays the older king in the final years of his reign. And there’s still lots of sex.
“Tudor history is irresistible,” wrote People Weekly’s Tom Gliatto. “Even if the bedroom gymnastics here seem more in keeping with the Playboy Mansion than a royal palace”.
Henry was overweight, suffering a severe leg ulcer that contributed to his death. So it is a little hard to take Meyers as that king from the history books this season. Talking with a husky voice doesn’t contribute much to ageing the character. And while from the waist down Meyers could be wearing his Depends adult diapers to pad out his pants, from the chest up he’s every bit the sexy Hollywood star.
Of course, it is the queens that form the centre of King Henry VIII’s story.
The final season relives Henry’s life as he takes on his final two wives, Catherine Howard (Tamzin Merchant) and Catherine Parr (Joely Richardson). One loses her head and the other outlives the king.
Series four misses out on the big political conflicts that dominated the first three seasons. Take Henry's war with the Vatican for one – it saw the Church split in two so he could divorce a wife and marry another.
Those historical facts played out on screen truly imbue the Tudor royals with a power beyond the common man. Instead, this season relies on the personal interactions with the king to do the same. It works, but in a different way.
Seventeen-year old teen Queen Catherine Howard, the second-to-last wife of the now forty-something Henry, demonstrates the intricacies of a head job using puppets.
Behind the childish play lies the horrible realisation Catherine doesn’t understand the implications of being Henry’s queen. And as history has taught us, she has a terrible future in front of her.
Of the five episodes of The Tudors I’ve seen so far, the absolute highlight is singer Joss Stone as Anne of Cleves.
As one of Henry’s queens to make it through without a beheading, her character returns as possibly the love of his life in season four. Stone’s portrayal has been compared to a young Claire Danes, and proves she could have a life outside music if she so wanted. http://www.celebritysentry.com/post/king-of-queens/<\/u><\/a>
Сообщение: 3558
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 16.06.10 21:04. Заголовок: Yes, True Blood has ..
Yes, True Blood has resumed, and Futurama and Weeds wait in the wings. But let's take a moment to hail The Tudors, which bows out this Sunday night at 9 after four seasons on Showtime. This opulent historical potboiler — running on a relentless energy of sex, death, and Renaissance-era politics — has balanced trashy soap opera with sharp writing and acting, memorable characters, a patina of literary sophistication, and enough T&A and bloody executions to keep any unreconstructed fan of old-school Masterpiece Theatre or The Sopranos on the edge of his or her seat.
The final season has not disappointed. Granted, for historical-thematic complexity combined with sexual intrigue, nothing beats those first couple of seasons. What could exceed the dramatic potential of Henry's shifting alliances with various courtiers including Cardinal Woolsey (Sam Neill) and Thomas More (Jeremy Northam), his battle with the pope, and the double foreplay that leads to the consummation of his relationship with and marriage to Wife No. 2, Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer), and her execution?
And there were plenty of burnings, hangings, and racking of other traitors along the way — not to mention Henry's voracious sexual appetite even when he was "happily" married. It's a tribute to series creator and writer Michael Hirst, that he's been able to whet anticipation and maintain suspense along the way, even as we realize at every turn what's coming, ticking off the helpful mnemonic for those six wives (divorced/beheaded/died//divorced/beheaded/survived), and knowing full well that little Edward must survive that fever to rule one day, and that Mary and Elizabeth too will ascend to the Throne.
So we're aware what's in store for Wife No. 5, poor Katherine Howard (Tamzin Merchant), when the aging Henry takes the teenager as his wife. But what sweet torture to watch it unfold. Merchant is an affectingly clueless queen. And as ill-fated adulterer Thomas Culpepper, Torrance Coombs is an effectively young and handsome foil to the king.
And what barbarity inside and outside of court! Sexually frustrated, Culpepper takes to the countryside with his pals, rapes a peasant woman, and then murders her husband. Equally brutal is the enigmatic Lord Surrey (Henry Howard, Katherine's cousin), a kind of crazed proto-fascist incensed that noble blood has been supplanted at court by so many common "new men." When he isn't off on a bat smashing windows and punching harlots in the face, he's delivering encomiums on his ancestry and translating Martial. Surrey is beautifully played by David O'Hara with an unplaceable accent (Scots German?). It's easy to cheer him when, justifiably accused of treason, he tells off the king's corrupt tribunal — and easy to sympathize when he's led off to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.
The producers seem to have given up on the idea of making Jonathan Rhys Meyers a truly fat Henry. But his decline is apparent in his limping gait, pasty complexion, and hoarse, staccato braying of contradicting royal pronouncements. By the final episode, he even believes in his own divine power to heal the sick. Alas, despite quick make-up sex with Wife No. 4, Anne of Cleves (a surprisingly effective Joss Stone, with her own odd Low Country accent), and a wise choice in an unwilling but pragmatic and truly regal (though heretical) Wife No. 6, Catherine Parr (the exquisite Joely Richardson, channeling her mother, Vanessa Redgrave), Henry's reign is a bust. The final episode is a kind of Ghosts of Christmas Past cavalcade — the formerly brilliant young humanist now a self-deluded tyrant. It's hard not to feel sorry for the guy.
Сообщение: 3564
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 20.06.10 22:13. Заголовок: Jonathan Rhys Meyers..
Jonathan Rhys Meyers hasn’t yet starred in a revival of The King and I, which also would be an apt title for his autobiography.
His final bow as star of Showtime’s The Tudors comes on Sunday, June 20th, when a near-death King Henry VIII has visions of several former wives.
Before taking on the role in April 2007, Rhys Meyers played the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley, in a 2005 CBS miniseries that chronicled his life from age 18 to 33. He won a Golden Globe as Elvis and has been nominated twice so far for Henry VIII. But the troubled Irish actor hasn’t worn his success all that well, battling a recurring drinking problem and public fits of temper that again landed him in a rehab center last month, according to his representatives.
I first met Rhys Meyers on the New Orleans set of Elvis, where he had earlier slammed into a performance of Heartbreak Hotel in a replication of Presley’s first national television performance on a Jan. 28, 1956 edition of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey’s Stage Show.
He was 27 at the time, and a notably heavy smoker during our interview on a balcony outside the Scottish Rite Temple, where that day’s scenes were being shot. But he certainly wasn’t “difficult,” talking candidly and colorfully about his initial reluctance to play Presley and his doubts that a sequel would be made.
“I thought, ‘Hold on a minute. I’ve gotta be brave. I’ve gotta be brave as I can be,’ ” he said of taking on The King. “It’s like that for any actor. I’m sure it was daunting for Jamie Foxx when they said, ‘We want you to play Ray Charles.’ But I have the guts to do it, the guts to fall flat on my face if people don’t like it.”
As a kid from a broken home in Dublin, Rhys Meyers was “aware of Elvis Presley’s music, but it wasn’t something I was particularly into until I got this role. A lot of people my age, they get duped into thinking Elvis Presley was this guy in a jumpsuit on a Vegas stage who was very overweight and sweating profusely and then died in the bathroom. This is what you hear when you’re a kid. But I now know he once was a young artist whose medium hadn’t really been invented yet.”
Audience levels for the Elvis miniseries were decent but not strong enough to persuade CBS to invest in a sequel. Rhys Meyers at first exclaimed, “They’d have to pay me a helluva lot of money, baby!” Then he downshifted a bit: “I don’t think it’s an option right now. I’d have difficult putting on that weight, first of all. I’d have difficulty taking it off, too.”
Instead he quickly segued to his second king — and without having to gain an ounce.
“I was fed up with the fat, bearded monster, Tudors creator-writer Michael Hirst said of his determination to portray Henry VIII as young, lithe and very virile. “My Henry is new. He’s never been portrayed this way.”
In my review of the opening season of The Tudors, I said of Rhys Meyers’ Henry VIII: “His hair is shorn short and his athleticism knows few bounds, whether he’s jousting, wrestling, playing an early form of tennis or bedding someone other than his wife. It’s a very nice display all around from a still rising actor with one of filmdom’s presumably brightest futures.”
Now, as the climactic Season 4 draws to a close, Henry is grayer, heavier and notably slow of foot as he more or less savors his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr (Joely Richardson). Rhys Meyers clearly has grown into the role, even if his halting vocal mannerisms can be too much to bear at times.
Still, this has been an altogether intoxicating costumed drama, with many layers of palace intrigue, a pair of beheaded wives and a king who in the end is most concerned with the look and thrust of his official portrait.
Сообщение: 3565
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 20.06.10 22:14. Заголовок: First Tony, now Hen..
First Tony, now Henry. Who next? Donald? (Draper not Trump, who will be around forever, I fear.)
I was just getting past Tony Soprano's passing, and now this Sunday night, gorgeous Henry VIII, who -- at least in "The Tudors" -- never got fat like Tony Soprano, dies in the last scene of the finale.
And I will miss him desperately.
The series, which will stand as one of the most beautiful, smart and certainly ambitiously-expensive series ever on TV, was, for me at least, consistently compelling.
The sets, the costumes, the intrigue, all were as authentic to the 16th century as was humanly possible in the 21st century. And it was all a joy to behold. END IS NEAR: Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) imagines his first wife and daughter in finale. END IS NEAR: Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) imagines his first wife and daughter in finale.
OK -- not as much of a joy as beholding Jonathan Rhys Meyers fully dressed and butt naked, but still a thrill.
The series, which began with young Henry VIII married to the older, much-beloved Queen Katherine (Maria Doyle Kennedy), ran through his six marriages in four seasons, showing a life that was brilliant and bawdy, brutal and beneficent.
The writing by Michael Hirst was spot-on and, if truly the man worked alone (as is usually indicated in the credits), he's more proficient than Stephen (the other) King.
And never, ever has there been a cast as gorgeous as the one assembled for this series. I mean, are you kidding? Henry Cavill, James Frain, Gabrielle Anwar, Natalie Dormer, Sarah Bolger and thousands more. That alone made it worth watching.
On Sunday's finale (since it's all history -- or most of it anyway -- I'm not giving anything away), as Henry faces the death of his best friend Charles, he is becoming weak, infirm, crazy and capricious himself.
When Bishop Gardiner goes to Henry with proof that Queen Catherine Parr (Joely Richardson) may be reading the Gospels (forbidden under Henry's rule), he signs a petition for her arrest. Good, because she truly loved the guy -- oozing puss legs and all.
Henry also has a "Christmas Carole" night and is visited by the Ghosts of Beheaded Wives Past. OK, it's hokey, but it's so beautifully art directed that it took my breath away.
If I have one big, fat complaint about the series its that Henry never grew to Marlon Brando proportions in the series like he did in real life.
Now, I'll have to wait until July for the last surviving Sunday night bad boy to show up.
Сообщение: 3566
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 20.06.10 22:14. Заголовок: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers..
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers was recently on Bonnie Hunt’s daytime talk show and discussed the fact that this Season is the last of the award winning Tudors series on Showtime.
Bonnie asked Jonathan if it was going to be hard for him to move on from such a fabulous role which was so dramatic and compelling. And such a big role for Jonathan.
Jonathan said “yeah, I think. First of all, when I first did the Tudors I didn’t think it was going to go beyond the first season. It’s a hard sell.”
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
Bonnie agreed “yeah when I saw the ads for it, it looks amazing, it looked epic. I thought this will be great. But will they get an audience?” Jonathan said “it did (get an audience).” So how did it get an audience?
Jonathan explained there were many clever people connected to the show and that Showtime, the producer, the director, the costume designer are all very smart people. Bob Greenblatt.”
“Really smart. And what they did is that they took this show and they just molded certain parts of the show. Certain aspects of the show.” To make it pacier.”
Bonnie “I feel like I’m watching scenes from Camelot.” Jonathan “When?” Bonnie “Richard Harris. Right now when you were speaking.”
Jonathan “really?” He teased “I’m not going to break into song.” Bonnie started to sing. He said “what is the King doing tonight? I wonder. I wonder”.
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
The Last Scene On The Tudors
Jonathan continued “but then, so then the show goes four seasons. And at the end of the fourth season, and it’s so strange. And the last day of shooting we shot the scene. It’s in the last episode. With a beautiful white horse. Right. And we’re shooting the scene and then it came to the end of the day. And it was like nothing. It was like this great emptiness for about an hour where you felt ‘it’s really over. And you really have to put this away now.’”
Playing The Same Character For Six Months Of Four Years
He continued “somebody you’ve been playing for six months of the year for four years. Someone who’s become an integral part of you. To a certain extent and you’ve become a part of whatever you were doing. I miss the people. I miss the crew. I miss the camera guys. I miss your friends. You’re going to work with your friends. And a wonderful cast. We had a menagerie of fantastic actors.”
Award Winning Make-up Artist
Bonnie asked “and how about the guy doing your make-up? Wasn’t he up for an Academy Award?” Jonathan said “Christien Tinsley.”
Bonnie showed a photo of the real King Henry VIII which is not a very attractive photo and doesn’t look anything like Jonathan’s actual character on Showtime.
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
She teased “you look exactly like him.” The photo was not flattering at all and Jonathan looked at it and said “thanks very much.”
Bonnie teased “it’s uncanny.” Jonathan laughed and responded to Bonnie when she showed a photo of him aged in the role.
He said “yes, I’m an old man. That’s the work of Christian Tinsley and Annie Buchanan who’s another great make-up artist. And so they gave me the look and then it was difficult because I had to have a voice that was older.
So I had to break it down. So funny enough. You said Richard Harris. Because I started looking at Richard Harris’ performance in Cromwell and Richard Burton’s performance in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. And then I took little aspects of their voice. Cause they had the most beautiful voices to suit what I looked like.”
He paused “we’ll see how it looks”. Bonnie said “no, you do, it is melodic in a sense when you’re playing him.”
Jonathan said “well beautiful writing as well. Michael Harris is an incredible writer.”
Jonathan then demonstrated his aged voice and said “when I’m playing Henry as an old man your register is very deep. Just like that.”
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors with his sixth wife - Joely Richardson as Catherine Parr - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
The audience applauded his demonstration of an aged voice as King Henry VIII.
Bonnie asked Jonathan about getting vocal chord nodes.
Laryngitis During Performance
He said “I got laryngitis for one scene. And it was a very important scene. I’m in Parliament and it’s the last speech Henry every made. He was never seen in public again. And he made this incredible speech. With 55 lines of dialogue. And I just forced my voice through it. And so we’re doing it and sometimes the voice breaks but we left it like that. Because it was the emotion broke (breaking). And it was almost towards the end of the shoot and it got very emotional in certain ways. I was saying goodbye to people like that.”
Bonnie said “wow, you’re really close to the character (King Henry) did you ever drive home in the car pool lane?”
Jonathan laughed and then got serious and said “no.”
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors with his sixth wife - Joely Richardson as Catherine Parr - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
Jonathan Is Animal Lover
Bonnie told the audience Jonathan was an animal lover like she is. She showed a photo of Jonathan’s dog. Bonnie said Jonathan takes his dog (Boo Boo) everywhere with him. Bonnie said “Jonathan, he’s so cute.”
Jonathan said he actually thought about bringing his dog on the show and that he could have walked out on stage with him and sat with him during the show. Bonnie told him he should have brought his dog. Jonathan said “I know, I’m so disappointed I didn’t. But next time I will certainly bring my dog.”
Bonnie said “you know how you were giving that speech saying good-bye to the crew? I’m doing that here (Bonnie Hunt’s show was canceled as of May 2010).
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
Сообщение: 3567
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 20.06.10 22:58. Заголовок: Сегодня последняя се..
Сегодня последняя серия Тюдоров After four seasons and 38 episodes, Showtime’s “The Tudors” will have its series finale on June 20. And I, for one, will be sad to see it go.
I say that even though I was a history major in college and now spend the aftermath of every episode answering questions from my wife about whether a particular event really happened, or what the eventual fate of a beloved or hated character is. I never expected to like the series because I assumed it would be entirely focused on the king and his women, and would resemble a cable TV version of “General Hospital.”
Though “The Tudors” isn’t going to be shown as a documentary in history classes anytime soon, and though I spent the past two seasons complaining that star Jonathan Rhys Meyers was at least 150 pounds lighter than the monarch he was playing (once the king injured his leg jousting in 1536, his workout regime went downhill in a hurry), I’ll miss the cable network’s treatment of one of the most fascinating periods in English history. I’m a sucker for period pieces, and this is one of the few to take on a complex historical era and pull it off.
1. Television 1. Image: Showtime Who could succeed Henry’s TV reign?
For fans of the historical reboot, the end of the show means no more trashy retellings Henry’s highs and lows. But history is jam-packed with potential replacements that the networks should get to work on. Full story
With Henry VIII as the focus, there is the inevitable soap opera feel to all the hookups and breakups in the royal court. However, the king’s personality and libido often obscure the fact that he ruled during one of the most volatile periods of English history. He was the king at the time of the Protestant Reformation in Europe, and during his nearly 38-year reign, England broke from Rome, placed the English monarch and the head of the English church, and flirted with more Protestant ideas before tacking back toward orthodoxy.
All that made it a confusing — and a dangerous — time to be an Englishman. Trying to follow the king’s theology was a losing proposition for many who held too tightly to their Catholic faith and were persecuted or died for it, or who went too far in the other direction and were executed as heretics.
We see all that in “The Tudors,” both in terms of royalty and clergy caught on the wrong side of the faith divide, and local rebellions that sought to restore the old faith. The show made much of this conflict, perhaps because it combined with the usual court intrigue to produce the violence that made the perfect counterpart to all the sex in the court.
King Henry VIII had a legendary temper, particularly as he aged and his health worsened. We saw his explosions often in the third season, as he raged to Thomas Cromwell before sending him to the execution grounds, and we continue to see the violence grow more capricious as the series winds to a close. The king went from being loved to being feared during his reign, and “The Tudors” did a nice job of tracking that process.
Of course, take all of the historical information with a healthy degree of skepticism: The show freely admits to taking historical liberties in order to be more entertaining — and befitting a TV show. Everyone is good looking, even Anne of Cleves, King Henry’s fourth wife, who was dismissed because he wasn’t attracted to her. (Helpful tip: If you’re looking for someone viewers would expect a king to find ugly, perhaps Joss Stone isn’t the right person to cast.)
It was no accident that “The Tudors” focused much of its time on Henry VIII’s younger days. Though we think of him as he was in his later portraits when he was grossly overweight, he was a tall, athletic young man who was well educated and able to impress a Europe skeptical of the Tudors and of England in general. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37734236/ns/today-entertainment/<\/u><\/a>
Сообщение: 3568
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 20.06.10 22:59. Заголовок: If you’re a dying ki..
If you’re a dying king, how do you ensure that you’ll be remembered by your subjects?
Do you mend a rift with the church? Make peace with squabbling rivals?
If you’re Henry VIII, you commission a portrait of yourself.
After four marvelous seasons chock-full of royal intrigue, romance and decadence, Showtime’s majestic soap “The Tudors” ends on an appropriately melancholy note.
Spoiler alert!
An aging King Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), hobbled by disease and mental infirmity, contemplates his legacy.
“What loss, your grace, is to man most irrevocable?” he asks his one true companion in life, the duke of Suffolk, Charles Brandon (Henry Cavill).
Honor? Reputation?
Henry tells him, “Time, your grace. Of all losses, time is the most irrevocable.”
Series creator, executive producer and writer Michael Hirst has chosen to end his show with an introspective episode, a remarkable change of pace, and Rhys Meyers almost pulls it off. Hirst adeptly captures the emotional angst that buffets men of a certain age.
Charles also feels the tug of better times. “I can only say England was merry before, and all things considered, I’d put all things where as they used to be in times past,” he says.
Flashbacks capture happier days, before Henry’s voracious appetites for women and power (not always in that order) mucked up his kingdom and Charles went along for the ride to hell.
Even on his death bed, Charles cannot escape the commands of his ruler.
As a way of manifesting Henry’s regrets - and this viewer likes to think as a reward to longtime fans - Hirst has Henry visited by the mothers of his three legitimate children.
Сообщение: 3569
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 21.06.10 07:17. Заголовок: ПРо последнюю серию ..
ПРо последнюю серию Тюдоров со спойлером! For the past four seasons, The Tudors has brought in viewers every week, eager to see King Henry VIII, impressively portrayed by Jonathan Rhys Meyers (pictured right), kill his newest wife. No, I'm just kidding. Partly. Audiences were drawn in by the plots, characters, costumes, sets, secrets, and betrayals (and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, though he was not looking his best as his character aged and grew ill and sounded like someone who had smoked 2 packs a day for 40 years).
Although I did not get a chance to see every episode of the show, I did catch most as my mother is an avid fan, and I have read King Henry VIII's history. I have been guilty of uttering, "Why do they all marry him when they know they're going to wind up dead?" even though I know the women had no choice--once he wanted you, your fate was sealed.
Warning, SPOILERS ahead for those who have not seen the series finale yet but are planning to:
Even as King Henry VIII seemed to be forgiving Catherine Parr (played by Joely Richardson), I had a feeling it was not true, and when she was still arrested the following day, I was not surprised. I was surprised by the King's violent reaction, however. I thought the best scenes were Henry VIII's visions of his former wives and his conversation with his close friend Charles Brandon (played by Henry Cavill) just before Charles' death. As I watched the episode, I expected the last shot to be of the King's death. My suspicions were furthered when he sent Mary, Elizabeth, and Catherine away with a final farewell, as he saw his former wives' ghosts, and when he put together his will. I thought the montage before the unveiling of the portrait was "well done," which was just how King Henry VIII described his portrait. Unfortunately, my prediction of the last shot was wrong, but I thought ending on the portrait was much more fitting.
I am anxious to hear what all of you thought about this final episode of The Tudors. I have to say I enjoyed it despite my deep and profound disappointment over not seeing Surrey get hanged, drawn, and quartered. What a letdown! People who watch this show have become accustomed to seeing some serious violence and I don’t think the last episode was any exception.
Couldn’t they have left us with one little gory execution to cling to?
This was the episode of the Dead and Angry Baby Mamas. The wives who had given children to King Henry showed up throughout this episode as visions, sort of like a combination between “Six Feet Under” and “Scrooged.” They all came to berate Henry for being such a sucky father to their various spawn. Here are their beefs in a nutshell:
* Katherine of Aragon: Our daughter should be married off by now with her own kids and I’m still your real wife, so says Jesus! * Anne Boleyn: My daughter is ten times smarter than you and, by the way, I am still innocent. Oh, and so is Catherine Howard. * Jane Seymour: Sorry, darling, but our kid is going to die young and it’s probably for the best because you’ve made his life totally suck from the moment he was born.
King Henry XIII
I got so excited to see all these dead ladies as soon as I saw them in the opening credits. I was like, “Yay! The dead queens are back!” But I was sad not to see Catherine Howard in all her bare-boobed glory and Joss Stone (whatever her Queen name was, who cares) with her fakey German accent in tow.
I know she’s not dead but it doesn’t mean I was any less pumped to see her. I also loved that the Queens were upset with Henry rather than being all fawny and lovey as they were when they were regulars on the show. They’re already dead so why not talk a little trash?
Now that we are talking about the Royal wifies and chilluns, let me just make a side note here: I HATE, HATE, HATE when they substitute one kid for another playing the same person to show us that the kid is getting older. This is the old Chrissy Seever trick from “Growing Pains.”
Remember when that kid went from being a newborn one season to being a second grader the next? Talk about discombobulating. Tonight we saw Prince Edward get about three years older than he was in the last episode. I can’t stand that! I know they are trying to help give us a sense of his approximate age when his pop croaked but it still bothers me. I get rather attached to TV children, I’ll admit it. I don’t like seeing them go away and transform into a totally different human being without any warning.
I always have to pause The Lion King right before baby Simba turns into teenager Simba just to savor that last, precious moment. Not that I watch The Lion King regularly or anything. Don’t judge.
I feel like I learned a very useful line from tonight’s episode. Remember when Queen Catherine (the current one) is trying to save her ass from the chopping block and she says to the King, “I am but a woman with all the imperfections natural to the weakness of my sex”? This is a good one! I am going to whip this line out next time I get pulled over or get called out for doing anything bad.
I’ll say it when I’m late for work, when I don’t have enough money to tip the valet parking guy, when I accidentally rear-end someone in traffic, whenever! I think it will help me out of some sticky situations. It sure helped Catherine!
Henry and Catherine
I am a sucker for montages set to music and tonight’s episode had a good one. I have to admit that I get chills whenever old scenes from shows are matched with sad music. I get all misty and it makes me want to go back and watch the show from the beginning all over again. I really loved seeing all his kids when they were little but, even more than that I loved seeing sexy Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the young King. And also, Hottie McHotterson Charles Brandon with him!
We got to see both these guys die as yucky old codgers tonight and it was really nice to see them as hot youngsters for a brief instant. It took us back to the good ole days when the show was new.
Overall, I liked this last episode. It wrapped up most of the plotlines neatly yet made me feel a strong desire to go buy a big, heavy book about England post-Henry VIII so I can find out more. What are your thoughts about the conclusion of this show? Any comments or feelings to share? http://www.tvfanatic.com/2010/06/the-tudors-review-series-finale/<\/u><\/a>
Сообщение: 3583
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 29.06.10 21:46. Заголовок: AS TO the evening’s ..
AS TO the evening’s adult entertainment, I was totally satisfied with the end of "The Tudors." What a bloody romp this has been. And to think, Showtime initially didn’t see it going more than a couple of seasons.
I won’t give too much away for those who haven’t seen the finale yet – there are surprises! – but King Henry, in the finally grayed, aged and infirm form of Jonathan Rhys Meyers, gets his just desserts. Well, of course he dies – we all get that dessert – but he suffers a lot. Just as he made so many others suffer. He does not go peacefully into that good night. He passes as befits an ogre.
I’ll say again as I have for the past five years that Emmy should be ashamed not to have honored this show – it was a superior ongoing piece of work, and every actor, craftsman, designer, cameraman involved can take well-deserved bows.
As for the tempestuous and sometimes troubled supernova of "The Tudors," Mr. Rhys Meyers, I wish him well wherever he is, and hope he’s back working soon. Talk about a face the camera loves! He is a hypnotic presence onscreen.
It's agony, it's on the increase - and you don't have to gorge and drink like Henry VIII to get it, writes sufferer Patrick Weir
The attack came out of the blue and the pain was excruciating. Getting out of bed one morning, I placed my feet on the floor - and lurched headlong into the blanket box. My right big toe felt like it was being skewered by a pitchfork. Struggling back on to the bed, I saw that the toe and joint was swollen with a bright red sheen, and agonising to touch. Limping heavily (my wife had to steady me as I got dressed), I managed, with some effort, to manipulate my foot into a slipper.
My doctor diagnosed gout. Like many people, I associated it with Henry VIII and rich living. Not quite. Gout - which comes on suddenly, over a few hours and often during the night - is determined by how well the body manages the breakdown and excretion through the kidneys of DNA protein, otherwise known as purines. If it can't control this, the purines break down to produce higher than normal levels of uric acid. These then build up and form crystals, which gather in a joint, causing inflammation and acute pain.
As many as one in 100 people will experience this at some point, rising to five in 100 for men aged 65 and over. And with people now living longer, these figures are likely to increase. It's an illness more common in men than in women, who tend to have lower levels of uric acid in their blood. It's also a condition that recurs. According to the British Medical Association, around 60 per cent of sufferers will have a second attack within a year, more than 75 per cent within two years, and over 80 per cent within three years. "Incidents of gout are increasing and constitute the most acute inflammation for between 1-2 per cent of men in the western world," says Dr Ian Rowe, a consultant rheumatologist. Advertisement: Story continues below
Yet one of the difficult aspects of the illness for me is the assumption that it is brought on by rich living. Mention gout and people automatically assume that you gorge on rich food and down the booze in equal measure. Having limped in agony to the local shop, I mention the g-word and I am greeted by a smile and words along the lines of, "Too much of the good life, eh? You like your food and drink, eh?" And I have to put up with this whenever I explain my laboured gait.
It's true that GP's guidelines advise you to consider diet and lifestyle: moderate, or almost zero, consumption of purine-rich foods - red meat, liver, kidneys, shellfish - is recommended; and instead of red wine, stouts and spirits, I was told I should stick to a sensible intake of white wine and lager. Rowe says: "A healthy lifestyle is important. That means reducing consumption of alcohol and purine-rich foods and not going on a high-protein or crash diet."
So I couldn't help wondering if the occasional burger and bottle of red had actually been my undoing. But Richard Hull, consultant rheumatologist at Queen Alexandria hospital in Portsmouth, on the south coast of England, says not. "If my patients take their medication properly, I don't put too much emphasis on their eating habits," he says.
"Diet only affects up to 10 per cent of purines, but of course, moderation is sensible. As for the benefits of drinking white wine, this is an old wives' tale. Consuming more than the recommended levels of alcohol does cause dehydration, which increases the likelihood of a gout attack." But the condition is also related to diabetes, kidney complaints, obesity and medications such as diuretics, or water tablets, for high blood pressure.
Even when you get treatment - usually anti-inflammatory drugs - it takes around a week to 10 days to work, and during this time the pain can be extremely disabling: lifting your foot to rest it on the sofa can cause agonising stabs. The preventative drug, allopurinol, can only be administered when the condition has calmed down, and has to be taken for the rest of your life as does the newly approved medication, febuxostat.
Сообщение: 3621
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 02.08.10 23:23. Заголовок: Toward the final mom..
Toward the final moments of the series finale of The Tudors (Showtime’s original series on the reign of Henry VIII of England), Henry is appraising the final portrait of himself in his chapel when a sparrow enters through a window in the background, flies unnoticed across the room to the window opposite, and exits. This detail might seem unimportant – or even accidental – were it not for the opening scene of the episode, in which a single white horse gallops through a grove of trees to the sound of Henry’s voice paraphrasing the English historian Bede:
When we compare the present life of man on earth to that time of which we have no knowledge, it seems to me like the swift flight of a single sparrow through the banqueting hall…on a winter’s day. After a few moments of comfort, he vanishes from sight into the wintry world from which he came. Even so, man appears on earth for a little while; but of what went before this life or of what follows, we know nothing.
The quote comes from Bede’s religious history of the English people written in the eighth century, and it is especially revealing of Henry’s main preoccupation throughout the four seasons of the show: his own mortality. Indeed, it was Henry’s reverence and even fear of the brevity of life, and the utter mystery of what will follow (and not lust for Anne Boleyn, as is often supposed), that primarily motivated his initiation of the “great matter,” a break with the Roman Catholic Church and the beginnings of the English Reformation.
History does not exist in a vacuum. One of the limitations of historical dramas is that they must find a place to begin their action, a place which is never the beginning of the story. The Tudors is no different. The series opens with Henry as a young man, handsome and fit (and played with intensity by Jonathan Rhys Myers). He excels in athletics, drinking, war, and politics, and is popular with women – whom he frequently seduces despite his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He opens the series as an arrogant, selfish, ambitious, and yet extremely pious young man, who suddenly, due to a near-death experience near the middle of the first season, begins to fear his own mortality and obsess over the matter of producing a male heir.
What the series fails to explain is that Henry’s fear was rooted in his past. As a boy, he had watched his father’s violent rise to the throne through a war of succession known as the “War of the Roses.” He knew full well the price that could be paid was not a full and legitimate succession secured by the bearing of male children. It is this fear, and not his lust (which, make no mistake, was still considerable) that caused him to initiate his divorce from Catherine and consider a break from Rome on the issue of the marriage.
There are also a number of things that are left out in the treatment, such as Pope Clement VII’s fear of the Holy Roman Emperor (who had recently sacked Rome and had imprisoned the Pope) which largely influenced his decision to deny Henry an annulment to Catherine – the Emperor’s aunt. Catherine had been previously married to Henry’s older brother Arthur, who had died young. Citing Leviticus 20:21, Henry believed that his marriage to Catherine was cursed and unlawful because she had been his brother’s wife. This conflict, the authority of the Pope versus the authority of the Bible, was one of the main tenents of the Reformation. A storm begins to brew.
But television shows are not primarily about historical instruction. They are about entertainment and, every now and then, artistic expression. The Tudors succeeds at both. The first thing one notices when watching the series is the lush cinematography. London in the 16th century has never looked better, with deep colors that do not reflect the melancholy of the weather or the rather bleak living conditions of the time. It is a medieval London reimagined, and that is fine with me. The cinematography (along with the haunting score by Trevor Morris) bring an immediacy to the action and a deep resonance to many of the period sets and costumes. Besides, the characters have no time for stepping over the various diseases and filth of a bleak 16th century London; they are too occupied with sex, power, and especially political intrigue.
There is a temptation in contemporary society to assume that things were simpler “back in the day” than they are now. People were more moral, politics less corrupt, and moral dilemmas less complex. The Tudors illustrates just how untrue this is. Much of it plays like a soap opera– kings making treaties with other kings and breaking them for paltry reasons of ego, queens executed because of alleged affairs with their own brothers, Popes sending secret assassins, and men burned alive for subtleties of Christian theology that most in contemporary society have no knowledge (or care) about.
What is shocking about The Tudors is that some of these things are true. Indeed, after a number of episodes, I found myself going to Wikipedia to find evidence that the bizarre action I had just seen was not made up by the show’s writers. As it happened, the more outlandish the occurrence, the more likely that it actually took place. So much for the good ol’ days.
And yet another strength of the show is that while it is able to show us people and situations that we find bizarre, we are also able to connect with the characters and the action in a profound way. It is absolutely foreign to watch men revere Henry in the way that they do, to give him the benefit of the doubt, and for there to be so few checks on his power. Don’t these people know that absolute power corrupts absolutely? Haven’t they heard of checks and balances? Of separation of church and state?
Apparently not. But for every bit of the show that is foreign and strange, we are able to see ourselves in the plight of the English 16th century. People were living in a time of immense uncertainty– politically and religiously. The characters watch the seismic changes occurring on the continent; they try to control them, and are ultimately swept away by the force of change. The United States may not have witnessed revolution on the scale of the Reformation in the past generation, but we are no strangers to forces for change over which we have little control. Henry tries to navigate his country through wars and revolutions. In the end, he brings about changes he did not anticipate and that he cannot control. And always lurking behind him is the shadow of his past, the mystery of death, and the fear of being forgotten in this world.
Perhaps this is the reason that The Tudors is so significant. It illustrates several very important points to contemporary America.
First: Henry is us and we are Henry. America today enjoys a level of privilege and power in the world that has never before been seen. America is intensely religious, and yet has a hard time balancing the very role religion should play in politics; should belief control our laws or should our laws control belief? America is also haunted by our past, and insecure about our place in the world presently and in the future.
The irony is that the United States owes much of its history, traditions, and thought to none other than Henry VIII himself. Max Weber reminds us that it was the rise of Protestantism that largely brought about both democracy and capitalism in the first place – democracy as a result of the Protestant focus on the responsibility of the individual, and capitalism on the resulting ethos of hard work and thrift on which capitalism relies. Also, we must not forget, the original American colonies were founded by English Protestant explorers – Puritans in New England and Anglicans in the South. Indeed, Virginia, the first colony in the nation, is named for “The Virgin Queen” Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Both camps were devoutly Protestant, and the societies they formed, and the eventual formation of the larger United States, were based largely on philosophy and religious reform of Henry’s era.
But it was not revolution or creating nations that motivated Henry. It was honor, love, self, and fear. He had neither the foresight to understand what he was creating nor the power to control it. In the end, Henry VIII will be remembered by history for his numerous wives, for the way in which they died, for the revolution he accidentally began, and for the ego which led him to think he had much control over any of it.
And yet providence is gentle, and even this man’s sins helped create the wonderful American experiment, and the freedom of worship that has been so important to so many in the generations that followed him. If for no other reason than these, we owe him our thanks. And we owe it to The Tudors as well, for acting as a reminder. http://www.curatormagazine.com/caseydowning/the-great-matter-that-still-matters/<\/u><\/a>
Сообщение: 3622
Настроение: МУРЬ
Откуда: Москва
Репутация:
1
Отправлено: 02.08.10 23:24. Заголовок: The Tudors - one of ..
The Tudors - one of the brightest stars in the new golden age of television - concluded on Showtime this June. Along with Rome, The Tudors showed how deeply and satisfyingly television could show ancient and early modern history. The Borgias will pick up this fine gauntlet on Showtime in 2011.
The final season of The Tudors was excellent, if not as commanding as the early seasons. This is the fault of no one other than Henry VIII, whose real life as an older man was not as riveting as when he was younger. There were fewer trysts, affairs, and conflicts with enemies in England and abroad. No contentious titans in the court the likes of Wolsey, Thomas More, and Thomas Cromwell. But the final season of The Tudors had some fire nonetheless, with excellent segments in France, where Henry's engineer takes a crucial step into the modern age by using the best engineering techniques of the time to build a tunnel into the city under siege by Henry's army.
There were memorable farewells, not just by Henry, but by Charles Brandon (Henry Cavill), the only close friend of Henry's to play a central role in all the seasons of the series, and maintain his admirable independence of mind and spirit. The three women in Henry's last days - daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and last (6th) wife Catherine Parr - were also effectively presented and acted. And I've always liked Chapuis - even though disagreeing with much of his politics - and thought his final leave taking was especially good. Kudos to Anthony Brophy, in his own quiet way as effective as Sam Neill (Wolsey), Jeremy Northam (More), and Thomas Cromwell (James Frain).
The women throughout the series - Henry's wives and bed mates, and those other men in the court - were beautifully rendered, almost literally like a Holbein painting come to life in several cases. Natalie Dormer was up to the complex, tempestuous part of Anne Boleyn, and I thought Joely Richardson as Catherine Parr was especially powerful.
And Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII was a tour-de-force.
And then there's the history. Shows that show us the past - from Rome to Mad Men - are ever vulnerable to critiques by historians, professional and amateur. This is as it should be, and The Tudors was no exception. But I can say that in the history I know the most about it - the history of media, and, in the case of The Tudors, the advent of the printing press as a powerful social and propagandistic force, The Tudors was spot on. The scene with Thomas Cromwell showing the printing press to Henry, and explaining to Henry what it could do, is entirely consistent - whether it actually occurred or not - with what I've studied and written about in The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution.
The Tudors is screenwriter Michael Hirst's creation - he was head writer and executive producer. What he has left us is a history as fine and vivid any ever seen in a movie or read in a book. http://www.tv.com/goodbye-tudors/webnews/123817.html<\/u><\/a>
Tudors Boosts Ireland's Movie Fame There was a lot of Los Angeles glitz at the weekend as the critically acclaimed US television series The Tudors picked up two prestigious Emmy awards for Outstanding Costumes For A Series (for Joan Bergin) and Outstanding Art Direction For A Single-Camera Series (for Tom Conroy), at the 62nd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards which took place in LA over the weekend.
The Tudors, starring Irish Golden Globe winner Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII, focuses on the turbulent years of his near 40-year reign as the King of England and has been shot entirely on location in Ireland over the last three years.
This is the third Emmy Award for Costume Designer Joan Bergin and her team, having been nominated in the same category for the last four consecutive years.
Joan and Wardrobe Supervisor Susan Cave, beat off stiff competition from U.S TV hit shows Glee, The Good Wife, Mad Men and 30 Rock at the ceremony.
Joan has previously worked on feature films including Veronica Guerin and In The Name Of The Father, and has been awarded two IFTAs and received three nominations at the Costume Designer Guild Awards in the U.S for her work on the show.
This is the first Emmy Award for Production Designer Tom Conroy, who has been nominated twice before in the category of Outstanding Art Direction and this time was up against True Blood, Heroes, Lost, Glee and Modern Family.
Tom has previously worked on successful Irish films Intermission and Breakfast on Pluto among many others and has scooped an IFTA in 2007 for The Tudors as well as a nomination for Excellence in Production Design at the Art Directors Guild.
A number of Irish directors have worked on the show including Emmy award-winner Dearbhla Walsh (Little Dorritt), IFTA winner Ciaran Donnelly (George Gently).
Broadcast on the Showtime channel in the US, the first series of The Tudors opened to the largest audience ever received by a Showtime series in the history of the channel, highlighting some of the Ireland's most beautiful and historical tourist locations to millions of viewers worldwide, providing promotional opportunities for Tourism Ireland to exploit Ireland as a tourist destination. The fourth and final series of the show was broadcast earlier this year.
The Tudors is produced by the Showtime Network in the US, and is co-produced by Morgan O'Sullivan and James Flynn of World 2000 Entertainment.
It is an official Irish/Canadian co-production and is co-financed by the IFB, Showtime and Peace Arch Entertainment.
The Emmy Awards are considered one of the most prestigious international awards for television entertainment and are regarded as the television equivalent to the Academy Awards for film. http://www.4rfv.co.uk/industrynews.asp?id=115694<\/u><\/a>
The six wives of Henry VIII have gone down in the annals of history, though people don’t often stop to think about them. Who were they? What led them to their eventual fates? For the past three years, The Tudors has been answering those questions.
As the name suggests, the show is about the Tudors, specifically about Henry VIII. It chronicles his tumultuous reign, from the decade spent trying to secure a divorce, from his first wife to the formation of the Church of England to a twisting plot of uprisings, intrigue and executions. Oh, so many executions. But the heart of the story is Henry’s wives, falling like dominos, getting pulled into his bed and snatched out just as quickly.
The fourth and final season, which begins on CBC this week, picks up after Henry’s divorce from the unattractive Anne of Cleves and the downfall of his first minister, Thomas Cromwell. From here, it embarks on his ill-fated marriage to Katherine Howard, his final marriage to Katherine Parr, an attempted invasion of France and his eventual death.
History majors may roll their eyes. The show does not follow fact to the letter: events are telescoped and characters may be altered, omitted or combined. Changes are forgivable, though, because The Tudors never deviates from its central purpose, which is to showcase the drama of the intense personal conflicts that characterized the period. It is not meant to be taken as a road map to the history of 16th century England. It is a drama about the mercurial relationships among the nobility and British Parliament, the vanity of European monarchs and the struggles for personal power that precipitate major changes in society.
The main focus of the narrative is King Henry and his wives. It has followed his mission to divorce from his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, his prolonged courtship of Anne Boleyn through their unpopular marriage, the birth of Elizabeth and Anne’s messy end. Then his brief but pleasant marriage to Jane Seymour and his briefer and less pleasant marriage to Anne of Cleves. Amidst this, the show follows the anger provoked by Henry’s decision to break from the Catholic Church and the unsuccessful uprising in Northern England. As well, it examines love and war with other kings of Europe, not drawing a perfect historical framework, but illustrating the way alliances could shift in the blink of an eye.
The Tudors draws upon many historical figures and plays out their (often tragic) stories. One ongoing story is Henry’s relationship with his best friend, Charles Brandon, a carefree lothario turned weary elder-statesmen, finding his relationship with the king strained as he is increasingly forced to do things against his conscience. It deals with the downfall of Sir Thomas More, who refuses to relinquish his Catholic faith, and the rise of Thomas Cromwell, the protestant reformer who manipulates himself into Henry’s good graces. Perhaps most poignant of all is the emotional turmoil suffered by Princess Mary, in the years leading up to her reign as one of the most brutal dictators in English history.
King Henry VIII is a complicated character. In many ways, he just never grew up. He’s impetuous, hot-tempered, obsessive, self-serving and never short of someone to blame for all his problems. But he is also shown as a vulnerable character, insecure and uncertain of his actions. He allows himself to be swayed by the counsel of others but then lashes out when things start to turn. He earns the audience’s hatred but he is still very compelling.
Out of all creative license taken in this show, the most obvious is that the traditional image of the grey and obese Henry VIII that is so well-known today has been replaced by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers with a moustache. Meyers began the show as a young and athletic Henry, but with only three years passing for the 22 that have passed in the show, there is a resulting disparity. But frankly, dressing him up in a manner more historically befitting would only serve as a distraction. The character is located in his fiery emotion and that’s all we need.
Все даты в формате GMT
3 час. Хитов сегодня: 0
Права: смайлы да, картинки да, шрифты нет, голосования нет
аватары да, автозамена ссылок вкл, премодерация вкл, правка нет