Just when you thought historic films were hard enough to review, The Other Boleyn Girl, based on the historical fiction book by Philippa Gregory comes to theaters. The book itself has had many criticisms in how it presents history, but by bringing this story to the big screen, a number of other problems are magnified from under the bright lights. These mainly involve costume and the value of aesthetic.Historically speaking, costume in The Other Boleyn Girl, is the films strength. Hot or not, the designers captured some of the key fashion trends of the Tudor reign. If you look at contemporary paintings, one can see that primary sources were the basis for these designs. Although challenging to design and construct, generally speaking, the sources for costume designing are reliable.
Visual components like costume and set are typically used as a tool by filmmakers to create a more immediate sense of time and place. In this film, I worry that the power of costume and aesthetic has resulted in the slacking off in other areas that are equally important to the success of this film both as a presentation of history and a narrative.
My first problem was with time. There were way too many events and characters crammed into this short film. This illustrates one of the challenges of this medium. More time was necessary to get to know the characters and their motives to better construct the storyline. In my opinion, actors/writers, just like historians have the right to interpret history, but just like a historian, their authority (should) involve reading and researching a character to essentially make an argument about what this person was like.
Phillipa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl who was hired as the historical consultant for the film, was thrilled that Scarlett Johanson was so dedicated to the history of the character and read all of the Tudor novels Gregory had written. Having something to contextualize these novels such as an academic work would have been of great value. Lacking a good understanding of the historical interpretation resulted in characters which were dull and uninteresting. On a side note, I can't believe Cardinal Wolsey was hardly mentioned, meanwhile he was the one who had control over the state!
Continuity was another issue with the film. Mary was married before getting involved with King Henry. Whatever happened to her husband? In the end we don't know, he seems to have magically disappeared. After one night with Henry she was smitten and her husband quickly forgotten. Understanding the history would help filmmakers identify errors in continuity more effectively. Historical research could also be used as a tool to help them come up with creative ways to solve problems with the storyline that doesn't involved just a simple "cut."
So, I guess the lesson I would pass along to the filmmakers and actors would be, if they had dusted off their history textbooks and took some time to brush up on this period, several issues could have been avoided. I think there is too much worry that trying to be historically accurate can be a limitation for filmmakers. In the case of The Other Boleyn Girl, history could have improved the film's representation of the large number of complex characters and events that were important for telling this story.
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If your interested in experiencing Tudor and Victorian costume designing through a fun game check this out.
For a comparison I suggest watching the first season of The Tudors which is available online. It takes a different approach to the same history. Costumes in this show fall under the "hot" category and are less historical than The Other Boleyn Girl, but the characters are stronger. The season 2 premier is coming up on Mar. 30, 2008.
The pics in this blog are found on Tudor Dress: a portfolio of images.
