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00:10You make a good king, you'll be ready. That's the way. Come on, my son!
00:19The Oscar-winning 1968 historical epic The Lion in Winter, starring Peter O'Toole and the sublime
00:26Catherine Hepburn, ranks as a psychological thriller, a dark love story and a crucible of
00:32devious plotting. There are few family Christmas gatherings to rival it. How would you describe
00:40the family gathering at the centre of The Lion in Winter? Well, Henry II, who is the king of England
00:47and vast parts of France, well he owns the territory in vast parts of France, has decided the time has
00:53come to appoint his successor. And this is accurately in the days before the assumption was the oldest
00:59son inherited. So he can choose who he wants to take his crown. So he has sort of the arrogance
01:06to
01:06bring these people together, bring his wife and his mistress together, bring the king of France
01:10together. It's a massive power play, really. A huge display of arrogance and power to say, right, come
01:16on, all of you who I know of various different times apart from my mistress have conspired against
01:22me. I'm going to get you in here and I am going to tell you what to do. So it,
01:27and that's really
01:28essentially what happened.
01:29Have you found religion, Henry? Will you look down from heaven and see who's sitting on your throne?
01:36I must know before I die. There's a legend of a king called Lear with whom I have a lot
01:42in common.
01:43Both of us have kingdoms and three children we adore and both of us are old, but there it ends.
01:49He cut his kingdom into bits. I can't do that. I've built an empire and I must know it's going
01:55to last.
01:56All of Britain, half of France. I'm the greatest power in a thousand years and after me comes John.
02:27The year is 1138 and O'Toole's Henry II
02:31cause his three disappointing sons to join him at Christmas. Anthony Hopkins' intemperate Richard is
02:38the eldest. John Castle's Cole Jeffrey is the forgotten middle child. And Nigel Terry's ignorant
02:47rube John, the youngest, has somehow become the favourite. Unexpectedly, Henry also decides to
02:55temporarily release his estranged wife from prison. Manipulative, aggrieved and very vocal,
03:03Hepburn's Eleanor of Aqua 10 is the star of the show.
03:17Your Majesty.
03:21There is to be a Christmas court. Yes, madam. Where? At Chino.
03:35The lion is Henry II. Surely he is in the winter of his life. He has reached 50, which is
03:43a ripe old age
03:44for a man in the 12th century. And he has three sons who are apparent heirs and successors to the
03:53throne,
03:54and he must decide whom he favours amongst them. He and his estranged wife, who he has locked away in
04:00a prison
04:01for a decade due to their political scheming and disagreements with one another, which have led to
04:07various revolts across the country.
04:09Henry is 50. He says, actually, I'm the oldest man I know, which for medieval times is pretty good age.
04:15So he knows that he's, you know, he's in his twilight years and that he has to do something fairly
04:20quickly.
04:21What he decides to do is to invite everyone to the castle in Chinon for Christmas Day and for a
04:29festivity,
04:30and also to decide who will succeed him on the throne.
04:34This will involve negotiations with the French king, Philip II, whose sister, Alice, is currently Henry's mistress,
04:44but is promised to the person who will become the king, i.e., in his eyes, John.
04:51This is the background to it. It's a kind of complicated family saga involving politics and succession.
04:58None of this is exactly festive. Henry has a scheme in mind, as do they all. Secrets will emerge, layers
05:06within layers,
05:08wounds that run as deep as history.
05:12There's already a lot of problems with this whole situation, and it does not get better from then on.
05:19Basically, all of the decisions and choices that everyone makes, whether we can trust them or not,
05:25whether their allegiances or decisions or alliances work, they all largely seem to be looking for the main opportunity
05:32to turn each other over and get what they can. So this is a very, very vicious bout of politicking.
05:38So is it fair to say the film is pretty historically accurate?
05:43Yes. I mean, it is because Henry II's reign was really largely dominated by the rebellions of his sons against
05:53him,
05:53who formed various allegiances with and without the King of France.
05:57Finally, after this film is over, Henry loses a rebellion between where Philip and Richard rise against him.
06:04He's already had a rebellion where Geoffrey and his previous son had risen against him.
06:09All the time, the son's ambitions are rising up and they're trying to take tracts of land or overall power.
06:17I mean, it's a constant, seething turmoil.
06:20This is not like succession where there's a father who has absolute control.
06:23Henry does have a lot of control, but he keeps being faced with these enormous allegiances against him.
06:30So he wants to try and sort this out because it's, you know, he's built this enormous empire.
06:36I mean, historically at that point, the amount of land he was in control of,
06:41thanks to the weddings, thanks to the wars, is vast.
06:45And he's, you know, so the Pope has to take him seriously.
06:49You know, he's a real player, but he wants to make sure that that survives after he's gone.
06:53Director Anthony Harvey stirs up a great thunderstorm of a film,
06:58a reminder of the forgotten art of theatricality, to send your story to the rafters.
07:04The fate of a nation is at stake as torrents of pent-up emotion crash upon the castle walls.
07:11Eleanor of Aquitaine was a very important and quite remarkable woman from medieval history,
07:17who, in spite of circumstances often being stacked against her, was courageous and a survivor,
07:23born into immense wealth with a great amount of land to her name,
07:27which sort of then came into Henry II's holdings after their marriage.
07:31She bore him several heirs. For a while she only had girls, so that created some complication.
07:38But she was always kind of her own person who was very much responsible for her own political decisions,
07:48and sometimes acted completely independently of Henry II,
07:52which eventually led to her being locked away in increasingly small towers and prisons.
07:59And so she faced a great deal of hardship throughout her life.
08:03But ultimately, she survived, which was no small feat in those days.
08:08In marrying Eleanor, he claimed her land of Aquitaine, which is a huge section of France.
08:14And of course, he had other sections in northern France as well, which he had conquered, basically.
08:19So as a ruler, he ruled not only England, but also quite a large proportion of France, more so than
08:28the King of France, Philip.
08:30Given it was such a complicated piece of European history, why do you think they thought there was a film
08:36in it?
08:36Well, it started as a play, and the playwright James Goldman looked at this period, and he thought,
08:42well, what if this incredibly complex, violent, warring family was just like us?
08:50It was a 20th century family, in a sense.
08:52That they were sulky, and they were moody, and that they were in and out of love,
08:57and everything followed the dynamics of a very, very brittle, brutal family Christmas, in a sense.
09:03And that's the humour and the tragedy and the drama of it, is to...
09:07They don't really behave like medieval characters, they behave like 20th century characters,
09:11with enormously flowing medieval text and ambitions and arguments over land deals,
09:17but they are together as a family in the way that we would recognise them.
09:21The Lion in Winter is a testament to how the power of performance can fill a cinema screen like a
09:28landscape.
09:29Ah, Christmas! Warm and rosy time, the hot wine steams, the yule log roars,
09:35and we're the fat that's in the fire. She'll be here soon, you know.
09:38Who? Mother. Does she still want you to be king?
09:41Um, bena.
09:45Yeah.
09:46Good ну, bena.
09:50Yeah!
09:51You are聖ежд, emir samuel God.
09:57Oh, bena.
10:00celui Christ.
10:04Ah,��, mira.
10:06That what?
10:10It is鮮а violown象 as Helen seems to love to you before
10:11It he's like what like the soul of a sword is over there and you can take us this hand
10:11in a bit
10:26While fictional, the story offers an accurate portrayal
10:29of the Angevin dynasty in the 12th century.
10:32Essentially, Henry II is plagued by the question of succession.
10:36With his three surviving sons, Richard, Geoffrey and John,
10:42all manoeuvring to be named heir.
10:44The drama circles which parent is backing which son.
10:48Eleanor is pushing for Richard and Henry for John.
10:52But they are both hiding deeper motives.
10:55And so therefore it's incredibly easy to watch them
10:58going through their misbehaviors and understand them in a way that...
11:03I mean, actually when we look at even Shakespeare,
11:06sometimes we struggle to understand the motives of some of the characters.
11:09He is making them very much like us.
11:11Shakespeare is an interesting point, isn't it?
11:12Because in a sense, Goldman is playing to the Shakespearean tradition.
11:16He even references King Lear in the film.
11:19But also he's rising or doing something slightly different from it.
11:23Yes, he has at one point every second talks about this man he knew called Lear
11:27who had a similar problem but with daughters instead of sons
11:30and how he came to an unsatisfactory conclusion over that.
11:34Adapted by the Chicago-born James Goldman from his own Broadway play,
11:38the script is a thing of wonder.
11:41This mix of poetry and sarcasm, historical detail
11:46and the snappy frisson of Hepburn's Hollywood classics.
11:49Backed by independent producer Joseph E. Levine,
11:53director Anthony Harvey does a remarkably confident job
11:57in enlarging the scope of the play for the big screen.
12:02So The Line in Winter was a stage play in New York originally
12:05and it wasn't actually very successful when it first ran
12:08but it was seen by some influential people who saw the promise in it.
12:12And one of those people was Martin Paul, a film producer.
12:15And he, along with the influential producer Joseph E. Levine,
12:20decided that it would be a great project to be adapted into a screenplay.
12:24Paul was already working on another film
12:27written by Goldman's younger brother, William Goldman.
12:32And he'd taken that to Joseph Levine who was going to produce it.
12:37That fell apart.
12:38And Peter O'Toole, who was involved in the other project,
12:43said, well, perhaps we should look at The Line in Winter.
12:47They looked at the screenplay that James Goldman had produced
12:50and they said, right, OK, we'll do this one.
12:54Levine liked the idea of it and that's how the project started.
12:58They had Harvey involved because Peter O'Toole,
13:02who of course made a huge contribution to this
13:04because he was a big star and therefore he could call a few shots,
13:07said, I want Harvey, I think he could do this really well.
13:11Harvey came on board as director, which was a great thing
13:14because not only was Harvey a great editor
13:16and proved to be a great director,
13:20but he also got on very famously with everyone.
13:26It is a work of rare beauty,
13:29the foundation stone for a collection very much alive today.
13:33Shakespeare's first folio was published in 1623
13:36by two of his friends, fellow actors in his King's Men group.
13:40Half the plays had never been printed before,
13:43making Ben Johnson's prefatory poem all the more apt.
13:46Thou art a monument without a tomb
13:49and art alive still while thy book doth live.
13:53Goldman was knowingly playing on Shakespearean tradition.
13:56Henry even has the line,
13:57there is a legend of a king called Lear
14:00with whom I have a lot in common,
14:02though he is frustrated by sons rather than daughters.
14:06There are even touches of Hamlet in his circling doubts.
14:10But Goldman injects a modern sensibility
14:13between the fluent lines,
14:15the story of a broken marriage anyone can relate to.
14:20Goldman uses Shakespeare in a very interesting way.
14:22The language, although it is not actually Shakespearean,
14:27uses Shakespearean rhythms.
14:29There are even, if you listen really carefully,
14:32there are some couplets in there
14:35which usually come out of the mouth of Catherine Hepburn.
14:40And so he somehow manages to make it sound Shakespearean,
14:46but also with a contemporary edge.
14:48And it's that balance of language
14:52and that balance of something that is archaic and contemporary
14:57that he manages to pull off extraordinarily well.
15:01You don't feel that there's any anomaly there at all.
15:04Goldman will pull together phrases
15:06which sound almost Shakespearean,
15:08and then he'll undercut them
15:09with sort of 20th century sarcasm
15:13or, you know, screwball comedy lines.
15:15At one point, Catherine Hepburn says,
15:18Hush, boy, mummy's fighting,
15:20which is the kind of thing that clearly is very much of our time.
15:23So the game is to take a potentially Shakespearean concept,
15:28mention Shakespeare, pay tribute,
15:31play with his language,
15:32but also kind of not rip it apart.
15:34It's not a satire.
15:35It's just playing with it.
15:36It's a playful piece.
15:37It always strikes me as a very unusual variety of historical epic
15:42because it's claustrophobic.
15:44It's incredibly talky.
15:46It's about family dynamics.
15:48They get the kind of the big battle scene over and done with
15:51in the first sequence.
15:52Yes.
15:52I mean, it's an epic in reverse, in a sense.
15:54A lot of epics will build up to the climactic,
15:57violent confrontation.
15:59This film starts with a joust and a battle on a beach,
16:03and then actually the scenery gets closer and closer and closer
16:07until the final scene, really,
16:08is the entire cast in a single cellar
16:11having the sort of the final confrontation.
16:14So the space just diminishes
16:16and the conversations become ever more important,
16:18and that's all they have left,
16:19is the rows that they have with each other.
16:22Secretly, Henry has a plan to disinherit his offspring
16:26and annul his frozen marriage,
16:28but Eleanor is more than a match for his plotting.
16:31The question is, what do they really want?
16:34They may not even know.
16:37Meanwhile, Timothy Dalton plays Philip II,
16:40King of France,
16:41who has arrived to discuss peace,
16:43only to be swept up in the family squabble.
16:52My Lord!
16:54Your Grace!
16:56Welcome to Sheenon!
17:10There is the historical perspective
17:14on the complexity of kings choosing their children,
17:18between their children,
17:19for who should inherit the throne.
17:21And we all know now of the sort of palace intrigue story,
17:25whether that's in film or on television,
17:28of children and nieces and nephews
17:30backstabbing one another
17:31in order to get access to power.
17:33And this is a film which very much trades
17:35in this family kind of constantly
17:40selling each other out,
17:42for lack of a better way of putting it,
17:43constantly tricking each other,
17:45constantly using emotion as a weapon,
17:48and using emotional blackmail as a weapon,
17:51but then also sometimes
17:53there being real genuine feeling
17:55and what that, you know, behind that emotion.
17:57And so it becomes a very complex game
18:00that's being played between all of these characters
18:02for succession to the throne.
18:04It also puts the O'Toole character,
18:07Henry II,
18:08in the position of having to
18:10give away some of his power
18:12to accept that he is aging,
18:14to accept obsolescence.
18:16And that is a real problem for him
18:18because he's such a proud, arrogant man.
18:21And he does not want to give up his power, really.
18:24And he does not want to accept his mortality.
18:27Well, what shall we hand?
18:28The holly or each other?
18:30Would you say, Father,
18:31that I have the makings of a king?
18:33Splendid king.
18:34Would you expect me, Father,
18:36to give up without a fight?
18:37Of course you'll fight.
18:38I raised you to.
18:39The film is an unusual epic
18:41in the sense that it is set in medieval times.
18:44It has an unbelievable authenticity to it,
18:48which means that you don't have
18:49a lot of sort of great shining armor
18:52and knights and God knows what.
18:54It's very, very intimate.
18:56And you get a real sense
18:59of what it must have been like
19:01to actually live in those times.
19:03It's fairly sort of grubby,
19:06but, and it's obviously incredibly cold,
19:09which is something that comes across very well.
19:12So you've got a sense of discomfort,
19:14just personal discomfort,
19:16of all these people.
19:18The great thing about it is
19:19that it also shows these people
19:22to be very articulate and witty and educated,
19:25as indeed they would have been.
19:27Most previous historical epics
19:30are, of course, full of cod
19:31sort of Shakespearean,
19:33semi-Shakespearean language
19:34that doesn't ring true.
19:36Goldman really nails this.
19:38And so the banter between them all
19:41and the intellectual sort of manipulation
19:45is not only incredibly interesting
19:48to listen to and very funny,
19:50a great deal of it,
19:52but it's also quite authentic
19:54because these people at this level
19:57would have had very, very good education.
19:59By 1968, Peter O'Toole was 35
20:02and a complicated star.
20:04He was celebrated for the edginess
20:06he found in characters,
20:08a physical actor with a penetrating voice.
20:11He had done Hamlet with Olivier,
20:14won hearts as Lawrence of Arabia
20:15and was born to play soured kings.
20:19His Henry II is a man trapped by duty,
20:23titanic ego,
20:24and the buried emotions
20:26he might yet have for his wife and sons.
20:30Peter O'Toole,
20:31who is this incredibly talented
20:32and famous actor at this point,
20:34was known for having been in Lawrence of Arabia,
20:36but also for being in Beckett in 1964,
20:39where he also plays Henry II.
20:41So it's funny that O'Toole
20:43should want to play the same role again,
20:44but he was personally very drawn
20:46towards the historical figure.
20:48He felt that he was witty and literate,
20:51who was capable of many warlike acts
20:54and decisiveness,
20:57but also was somebody who preferred diplomacy,
20:59if possible,
21:00and was very clever.
21:01So O'Toole appreciated the contradictions
21:04of this character
21:05and wanted to return to it.
21:06And he also proved instrumental
21:08in choosing a director,
21:10the director Anthony Harvey,
21:12for eventually embarking on this project.
21:15Peter O'Toole is perfect
21:17for the role of Henry II,
21:18yet he was quite a lot younger
21:20than the character.
21:21He's 35, playing 50.
21:23But what is it?
21:23What is the meeting of minds here?
21:25What is it about O'Toole
21:26that makes him fit,
21:27this spoiled king?
21:29I mean, he rises, I think,
21:32to this in a way...
21:33If you look at his film career,
21:35he has spent a lot of time
21:36playing very beautiful men.
21:40Very few beards, for a start.
21:41And he's got these cheekbones.
21:43I mean, if you think of Lawrence of Arabia,
21:44which is a good few years ago,
21:45a bit earlier,
21:46he's got these piercing blue eyes
21:48in that film.
21:48David Lean shoots him
21:49as a very beautiful man.
21:51What's New Pussycat?
21:52He'd just been in,
21:52and that was a very...
21:53Again, he played a sort of a 60s fop.
21:55So he's quite often played
21:57these elegant, beautiful people.
21:59So to see him adon the beard
22:02and the animal skins
22:03and to roar and stomp around the place,
22:06it's a big jump.
22:07But it's not a big jump
22:09because he's so skillful at it.
22:11He inhabits that role wholeheartedly.
22:14How was your crossing?
22:16Did the channel part for you?
22:19It went flat when I told it to.
22:22I didn't think to ask for more.
22:38How dear of you
22:39to let me out of jail.
22:41Arriving by barge
22:43on the River Rhone,
22:44there is no doubt
22:44that Catherine Hepburn
22:45is a Hollywood superstar.
22:47After Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,
22:49she was flourishing
22:50in later career,
22:51finding emotionally fraught roles
22:54that played on her legacy.
22:56Eleanor is a wronged woman
22:58set aside by Henry
22:59for a succession of lovers.
23:02Hepburn's clipped mid-Atlantic accent
23:05as a delicious self-awareness
23:07to the Queen.
23:07I am not one of the ones
23:09who gives a damn,
23:11she sneers,
23:12a line straight out
23:13of her 40s heyday.
23:15Catherine Hepburn
23:16by the late 1960s
23:18had this already remarkable legacy
23:20from her screwball days
23:22in the great comedies
23:23opposite Cary Grant,
23:25Bringing Up Baby, etc.
23:26in the 1930s,
23:27and was hugely respected
23:29as a political,
23:31intelligent,
23:32sort of self-contained
23:35and independent woman
23:37of that era
23:38when many of those women
23:40from her kind of
23:41contemporary star stable
23:43were a little bit more
23:44made out to be glamour girls.
23:46And she,
23:47whilst very glamorous
23:48in her youth,
23:49had a certain kind of
23:50strength of character
23:51that really shone through
23:52and I think she had
23:53great respect
23:54from all different walks of life.
23:56Certainly, Peter O'Toole
23:58and all the rest
23:59of the casting crew
24:00on the set of The Lion in Winter
24:01to hear tell of it
24:02were pretty much
24:03in awe of her.
24:04There's no doubt
24:05that casting of Catherine Hepburn
24:07is absolutely crucial
24:08as Eleanor of Aquitaine.
24:11She brings with her
24:13her own sense
24:14of being Hollywood royalty.
24:16She is a veteran now.
24:20She is a survivor.
24:21She has survived.
24:23Hepburn herself,
24:24of course,
24:24survived the,
24:25you know,
24:25the rises and falls
24:26and rise again
24:28of a career in Hollywood.
24:30Much like Eleanor herself
24:32who sort of,
24:33you know,
24:34rose again,
24:35finally.
24:36So they're both survivors.
24:38But what I think
24:39is really important
24:40is that she can,
24:41she's got
24:42the right kind of spirit.
24:44She has that
24:45indomitable female spirit
24:46that is half masculine
24:49but still,
24:50she's still a woman.
24:51So she can,
24:52you know,
24:53she can argue
24:54against Henry
24:54with the best.
24:55She's Henry's equal
24:56in terms of
24:58just intelligence
25:00and wit.
25:02And that's what makes
25:03the battle between them
25:04so interesting.
25:06It also allows her
25:07to show
25:09at some stage
25:10her own vulnerability.
25:13and Hepburn
25:15was vulnerable
25:15at the time
25:16of the casting
25:17because she hadn't long
25:18lost love of her life,
25:19Spencer Tracy,
25:20and it was
25:21Peter O'Toole
25:22who had to persuade her
25:23to take this role.
25:25Where's Henry?
25:26Upstairs
25:27at the family hall.
25:28That's a mean
25:29and tawdry way
25:30to talk about
25:30your fiancée.
25:31My fiancée?
25:32Who's ever fiancée?
25:33I brought her up
25:34and she is dear
25:35to me and gentle.
25:36He still plans
25:36to make John king.
25:37Of course he does.
25:39Why, what a greedy
25:40little trinity you are.
25:41King, king, king.
25:43Two of you must learn
25:44to live with disappointment.
25:45Ah, but which two?
25:46Let's deny them all
25:48and live forever.
25:49Tusk to tusk
25:50through all eternity.
25:52In only his second film,
25:54Anthony Hopkins
25:55demonstrates the intensity
25:56that has marked out
25:57his career.
25:58As the story has it,
26:00constant soldier Richard
26:01is a guarded homosexual,
26:03desperate
26:04for his father's attention.
26:06John Castle
26:07gives the most
26:08intriguing performance
26:09as discounted Jeffrey,
26:11a young man
26:12made of wheels
26:12and gears
26:13as his father puts it.
26:15Nigel Terry's
26:16guileless John
26:17is clearly
26:18the wrong choice,
26:19a whinging brat
26:21desperate
26:21for his inheritance.
26:23Richard,
26:24played by Anthony Hopkins,
26:26is obviously
26:27the warrior.
26:27He's obviously
26:28the man who loves
26:29going to war
26:30and fighting in battles.
26:32You see him
26:33at the beginning
26:34having a duel
26:35with somebody
26:35and he's about
26:37to sort of kill him
26:37and it's not actually
26:39supposed to be
26:40a lethal battle,
26:40but you see his face
26:41and you realise
26:42that he could be psychotic.
26:44I mean,
26:44his face is sort of
26:46like frenzied
26:47with bloodlust.
26:48You think,
26:49whoops,
26:49here's a guy
26:49you want to keep
26:50an eye on.
26:51Jeffrey,
26:51the second one,
26:52John Castle,
26:53is the most mysterious
26:55because he's the one
26:56that you can't read.
26:58He's obviously clever.
26:59He's obviously
27:00sort of slightly
27:01sidelined
27:02by the other two
27:04being the middle brother,
27:05but he can tell
27:07just through his eyes
27:08that he's constantly scheming,
27:10that he will scheme
27:13and plot
27:14and it doesn't matter
27:15who with
27:16as long as it will be
27:17to his advantage.
27:18He's a total strategist.
27:20John,
27:21played by Nigel Terry,
27:23is a bit oafish,
27:25probably a little
27:26too oafish,
27:27but the three of them
27:29naturally form
27:31this kind of
27:32little cabal.
27:34Weirdly enough,
27:35that sets up
27:36a tension
27:36not just between
27:37the three of them,
27:38but also between them
27:40and their parents
27:41and I think
27:42that's real smart work.
27:43I think that's
27:44very, very clever.
27:45A nation is a human thing.
27:47It does what we do
27:48for our reasons.
27:49Surely if we're civilized,
27:50we can put away the knives.
27:51We can make peace.
27:53We have it
27:54in our hands.
27:55I have tutors
27:56of my own.
27:57Will that be all?
27:58Oh, think.
27:59You came here
27:59for a reason.
28:00Don't you want to ask me
28:01if I've got an offer?
28:02Have you got an offer?
28:03Not yet,
28:03but I'll think of one.
28:05Oh, by the way,
28:08you're better at this
28:09than I thought you'd be.
28:11I wasn't sure
28:12you'd noticed.
28:15Timothy Dalton
28:16is such a revelation
28:18and a surprise
28:18in this film
28:19when he turns up.
28:20He's the new king of France.
28:21His father is passed.
28:23He's young.
28:24He looks young.
28:25He's this very pretty,
28:26almost teenage-looking
28:27young man,
28:29and he keeps being called
28:30boy and lad
28:32and given advice
28:33by the much older
28:34King Henry,
28:35and this infuriates him
28:37to no end.
28:38So it's, you know,
28:40there's no love lost here
28:41between these two rulers
28:43and Henry,
28:45because he has
28:46such large holdings of land
28:47across all of France,
28:48has far more power
28:50than young King Philip.
28:52So Philip is keen
28:53to get the upper hand
28:54wherever he can.
28:55This is a study
28:56of the mind games
28:57played between
28:58all the characters,
28:59and the acting
29:00is boldly dramatic
29:01to match the occasion,
29:03often to the point
29:04of hysteria.
29:05The voluble chemistry
29:07between the leads
29:08was helped by the fact
29:09that O'Toole and Hepburn
29:11were close friends.
29:12They are clearly
29:13thrilling to the dance
29:15of this love-hate relationship.
29:17Now we should,
29:18before we get into
29:18the actors themselves,
29:19we should talk about acting,
29:22because I imagine
29:23modern audiences
29:23might look at it
29:24and think,
29:24this is over the top,
29:25this is too much,
29:26everybody's shouting,
29:28everyone's collapsing
29:29in the heat,
29:29there's a lot of hysteria.
29:31But to my mind,
29:32it's a particular skill,
29:33this kind of theatricality,
29:35this kind of power
29:37that it has,
29:37and the actors
29:38really go for it.
29:40Yes, and I think
29:41partly perhaps
29:43because of the scenery.
29:45It's shot on location
29:45in a castle-style
29:48abbey in France,
29:49and then they reconstruct
29:51that into the studio
29:52as well.
29:53The backdrop
29:54is vast and stone,
29:57so in a way
29:58the backdrop absorbs
30:00some of the excessive drama
30:01of the actors
30:02and you don't feel
30:05quite as much
30:06as if you're watching
30:07an over-the-top episode
30:08of a TV program
30:09where people are
30:09blasting away over-loudly.
30:11They are bearded
30:13and they are shouting,
30:14boy,
30:14but it doesn't,
30:15it just manages to stay
30:17within what I think
30:18is a fully acceptable
30:19modern film.
30:20They,
30:21partly because they,
30:22they slide very quickly
30:25into very close,
30:27very small,
30:28very despairing emotions,
30:30loving emotions,
30:31moments of silence,
30:32so it's not as if
30:33the whole thing's performed
30:35at the bluster
30:36and, you know,
30:38corny sort of take
30:39on what a medieval epic
30:40would be.
30:41They are able to move
30:42into these very tight,
30:43very intimate performances
30:44almost on the turn
30:45of a heel.
30:46Filmed in Ireland,
30:48Wales,
30:48and at the Abbey
30:49du Mont-Majeur
30:50in France,
30:51the look is
30:52wonderfully evocative.
30:54The use of natural light
30:56and shadows,
30:57the flickering candles,
30:59and how the walls
30:59bear down upon the characters.
31:02It may be
31:03the most claustrophobic epic
31:04ever made.
31:06The director escapes
31:07the script's theatrical roots,
31:09their astonishing close-ups.
31:11Eyes are a central motif,
31:14gateways to troubled souls.
31:17The studios were in Ardmore
31:19in Ireland,
31:20but the film locations
31:21were in Wales
31:23and France,
31:26especially Carcassonne,
31:27so anywhere that there
31:28was sort of medieval,
31:29still had sort of medieval
31:30looking places that walls.
31:32So it went around a bit.
31:34Now, I think that's probably
31:35what gives it its great,
31:37its great sense of atmosphere
31:40and history
31:40without sort of overdoing it.
31:42They don't have to build
31:43too many sets.
31:44All the interiors are done,
31:46but that's fine.
31:47They're on sort of
31:47stone corridors
31:49and walls
31:49and steps
31:50and things like that.
31:51But the exteriors
31:52are the real thing.
31:53So I think
31:55the whole design
31:56of the film
31:56and the way
31:57that it was sort of,
31:59the actors
32:00used those sets
32:01is very important.
32:03It all adds
32:03to the idea
32:04that you are
32:05in a different world.
32:07You're in
32:07a different era.
32:08There is nothing
32:10fake about it.
32:11I mean,
32:12the fact that you've got
32:13live animals
32:15running around
32:15all over the place.
32:16When King Henry
32:17sort of walks
32:17into the marketplace,
32:18he kicks a couple
32:19of chickens
32:19out of the way.
32:20There's even,
32:21in the corner,
32:21there's a bear,
32:22a real bear
32:23who's being fed.
32:24It's obviously
32:24one of the bear-baiting
32:27bears,
32:27but he seems
32:28to be perfectly happy.
32:29And you say,
32:29God,
32:29this is a tiny little detail.
32:31I mean,
32:31you can hardly see it,
32:32but it's there.
32:33And I think
32:34that that's what's important.
32:35It gives the idea
32:36that this is life
32:38as it really was.
32:39Costumes by Margaret First
32:41deserve special mention.
32:43The characters
32:44are robed
32:45in their personalities.
32:46Eleanor
32:47in regal colours,
32:48but confining her
32:49like a nun's habit.
32:51Henry
32:52in a drab
32:53peasant tunic
32:54as if rejecting
32:55his very station
32:56as king.
32:58Richard
32:58with hints of armour.
33:00Geoffrey
33:01in featureless robes.
33:03John
33:03an unkempt
33:04street urchin.
33:05And Philip
33:06is dapper
33:07as a peacock.
33:09Meanwhile,
33:10John Barry's
33:10glorious fanfares
33:12remind us
33:13that this is royalty
33:14at war.
33:15The costuming
33:16of Lion in Winter
33:17is really important
33:18not only in the fact
33:19of Peter O'Toole's
33:20costuming being
33:21rather understated
33:22or the John character,
33:24the youngest son,
33:25looking, you know,
33:25kind of scruffy
33:26and like a peasant
33:27and Anthony Hopkins
33:29with the typical wit
33:31of the screenplay
33:32calling him
33:32a walking puttseel.
33:34There's a real
33:35kind of earthiness
33:36to a lot of it.
33:37But then on the flip side
33:39you get the way
33:40that first dresses
33:41Catherine Hepburn
33:42and Eleanor of Aquitaine
33:44in spite of her
33:45kind of imprisonment
33:48is somebody
33:49who commands
33:50great dignity
33:51and you see that
33:52in her sweeping clothes.
33:54There's a beautiful
33:54red dress
33:55that she wears
33:56and all this jewellery
33:58that she kind of
33:59almost plays dress up
34:01with because she's
34:02confined
34:03and bored
34:04and left to her
34:05own devices
34:05and lonely
34:06and sort of
34:06thinking about the past
34:08and what she's achieved
34:09within it
34:10and she's looking
34:11at her crown.
34:11She's looking at
34:12all of her grand jewels
34:13and so the role
34:16of costuming
34:16and jewellery
34:17to the Eleanor of Aquitaine
34:19character I think
34:20is particularly important
34:21because she's still
34:21so queenly
34:22in spite of her
34:23being in this
34:24marginalized position.
34:26Ah, there you are
34:29my comfort
34:32and my company
34:37we're locked in
34:39for another year
34:42four seasons more
34:48what a desolation
34:53what a life's work
34:58is
35:00I
35:01I
35:03I
35:05I
35:07I
35:21I
35:23I
35:23I
35:23I
35:24I
35:34There is something of Edgar Allan Poe's House of Usher
35:37in The Lion in Winter's warped family dynamics.
35:40It is the story of the ruin parents can bring upon their children.
35:44It is about language, power and manipulation.
35:48And finally, about the turmoil of love.
35:51The film is seeking to grasp what this raging couple
35:55actually mean to one another,
35:57ending on the delightfully light-hearted note.
36:01You will let me out for Easter, urges Eleanor,
36:04as if all this was simply a family tradition.
36:09Now, one thing theatre can't do, that movies can, is the close-up.
36:14You'd mentioned how good the close-ups were,
36:15but what do they give this film, the idea of studying faces?
36:20Well, there's a lot of silence in this film,
36:22even though people speak loudly and powerfully,
36:27there's an awful lot of silence.
36:28And this is one of the things I'm sure will come on to the score.
36:31One of the things about the score is it's absent,
36:32critically, from very, very long periods of time.
36:35There will be periods of time where all you have
36:37is a close-up on a face reacting to what they're observing
36:41or to what they're understanding to be true.
36:44There's quite a lot of people understanding something and weeping,
36:48but not because they're obviously royal family,
36:51not bursting into tears.
36:52There's just the tears pouring from their eyes
36:54as yet another of their great dreams and hopes has been dashed.
36:57And these are moments where the camera just stays painfully long on faces.
37:03They rehearsed a long time.
37:05So he would get the cast to go through the scene,
37:10go through the scene, go through the scene,
37:11and then he would plot out where the camera would be
37:12to make sure that he would get the faces
37:15and hold them for as long as possible.
37:16There's one 11-minute sequence where the camera only cuts twice
37:20and the final cut is at the end when the camera leads them downstairs.
37:25But most of the time they can be long single shots
37:29and you don't even notice that they're long single shots
37:31because the passion and the drama on screen,
37:33you don't need to cut away from it.
37:37Following the events of the film,
37:39Henry had to deal with another revolt, which he lost.
37:42And so he basically retired to a castle and spent his last days there.
37:47He died about two years later.
37:49Eleanor actually was freed from her incarceration.
37:54Eleanor of Aquitaine got her wish.
37:55Her son, Richard, ascended to the throne
37:58and became known as Richard the Lionheart.
38:00However, he left on the Crusades and did not return.
38:04So his youngest brother, John,
38:08who in the film is very much the idiot son,
38:11then becomes King John.
38:13And he's actually the famous King John of Robin Hood.
38:17So we see the line go forward.
38:21And it's very interesting to me that Eleanor of Aquitaine
38:23not only outlives her husband,
38:29but then outlives her imprisonment.
38:30She's freed upon his death
38:32and gets to return to the corridors of power in many ways.
38:35So it does feel as great as Peter O'Toole is in the film
38:39that history shows that he was bested in some ways by Eleanor.
38:43The Lion in Winter would be a great success
38:45both critically and at the box office.
38:47It would be nominated for seven Oscars,
38:50including Best Film and Best Director.
38:52Goldman would rightly win for Best Adapted Screenplay
38:56and Hepburn would receive her third Oscar for Best Actress.
39:02Eleanor is one of the great achievements
39:03of an extraordinary career,
39:06standing out in a film that is all performance.
39:09How do we now look back on the line, Winter?
39:12Why has it lasted so long?
39:14I think it's lasted so long,
39:16partly because its quality was so impressive
39:19that Hollywood has never forgotten it.
39:22So you will find, for instance, in the West Wing,
39:24they are constantly referencing that Bartlett.
39:30That's his favourite film.
39:31And these teaser lines about Lion in Winter
39:35as being the best way to understand the presidency.
39:37Succession, really, is of course essentially the Lion in Winter,
39:40but without the level of cunning and manipulation.
39:43The kids are not as clever.
39:44They're wimpy compared to Lion in Winter.
39:46But there's so many of those films.
39:47I mean, Game of Thrones is essentially this film
39:50just played out over a long period of time.
39:51They have been constantly going back to and referring to this idea.
39:54What happens if you take this struggle for power
39:57and you play it out in a contemporary era?
39:59So it changes our understanding of what it is to be powerful.
40:06It takes the medieval concept of power
40:08and it makes it completely accessible,
40:10but it still holds back
40:11because we are talking about absolute power of life and death.
40:15And so every time someone sets out another project
40:17to discuss the power of life and death,
40:20they will back-reference Lion in Winter.
40:22And you'll see it in almost any film
40:23in which there is someone who is,
40:26unless it's a pastiche or it's poorly written,
40:28someone desperately trying to engage
40:30with the concept of how you would struggle for power,
40:33there's the Lion in Winter in there somewhere.
40:35It's an eternal film.
40:37It's a gangster movie.
40:39It's a space epic.
40:41It's the story that Hollywood constantly back-references.
40:45But also I think you could almost say
40:49that it's the first film that makes us as a viewing public
40:52think our royal family, they are like us.
40:57They are human beings too.
40:59It comes at that point in the 60s
41:00where there's a beginning of a breakdown
41:03of a certain kind of deference.
41:04And that's when we start to think about our rulers
41:07as the British and the Americans
41:09start to think about our rulers and say,
41:11well, maybe they're not born to rule.
41:13Maybe they're not destined to be elected.
41:15Maybe all these people are just like us.
41:17So it's part of a social change as well as a filmic change.
41:20And so therefore it echoes on and on and on and on.
41:23And just that one movie, the thing,
41:26the ripples it sets up are still going.
41:28The legacy of The Lion in Winter
41:31is that all subsequent historical films
41:35could not get away with sloppy historical detail.
41:39They needed to be slightly more forensic.
41:42They needed to be slightly more authoritative.
41:46Also, it showed that you could put two older stars together
41:51and make it box office.
41:54In fact, this went on to say Richard Lester's
41:57Robin and Marion,
41:59and when you had an aging Sean Connery
42:00and Audrey Hepburn,
42:02and they were wonderful.
42:03Also written, as it happens, by James Goldman.
42:05So this gave, it sort of opened up the idea
42:09of films, historical films,
42:13that were A, not boring,
42:14B, very witty and incisive,
42:17C, funny and yet still authentic.
42:22So the legacy of The Lion in Winter
42:24was kind of huge immediately.
42:27It was a great success internationally.
42:29It was nominated for all of these Oscars
42:31and rightly celebrated for its performances.
42:34It is a film that I think maybe younger viewers
42:38might hesitate to come to
42:40because if you look it up
42:41and you see that it's about
42:42the political complications
42:44of choosing a king
42:46in 12th century England and France,
42:49that seems intimidating
42:51or maybe a bit stodgy.
42:52But if you watch
42:54Jesse Armstrong's TV show Succession
42:57and you like the talky, complicated,
43:00nasty, funny characters of that show,
43:03then you should look no further
43:05than The Lion in Winter
43:06as one of its huge influences.
43:08There's a beauty, isn't there?
43:10Because finally it's about a man
43:12who realises he can't,
43:14whatever the power play may be,
43:15he can't kill his son.
43:17He can't destroy.
43:18He loves his family.
43:19Although it's driving him mad,
43:21he loves them.
43:22And also he realises it's his fault.
43:25That's the thing,
43:26is that he,
43:28at the end,
43:29he realises what he's done.
43:30It's not quite that he ever says
43:32anything as obvious as,
43:33oh my God, what have I done?
43:34What has my life become?
43:35What have I done with my life?
43:36But we have this story
43:39constantly told.
43:41The person in a position
43:43who looks back on what they've done
43:45with their life
43:45and they realise
43:46that they've just done
43:47everything wrong.
43:49It's Arthur Miller,
43:51it's so many writers
43:52trying to explore the idea
43:54of that moment in your life
43:55where you look back
43:56and you realise
43:57you have broken everything good.
44:00And that's a story
44:01that we never tire of.
44:02Television drama succession
44:04has nothing on The Lion in Winter.
44:06What is so powerful
44:08is the unshakable humanity
44:10that runs through it
44:11and how wholly entertaining it remains.
44:15This glorious film
44:16invites us
44:18into a visceral
44:19and witty
44:20psychological battleground
44:22that few other films
44:23have even dared.
44:29You'll let me out for Easter?
44:32Come the resurrection,
44:33you can strike me down again.
44:36Perhaps next time I'll do it.
44:38And perhaps you won't.
44:44Amen.
44:45Amen.
44:48Amen.
44:52Amen.
44:54Amen.
44:55Amen.
44:55Amen.
44:55Amen.
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