Victoria & Albert (2001) (TV)

Note Générale:

7,3/10   

Réalisateur:

John Erman

Scénariste:

John Goldsmith (writer)

Date de sortie:

20 octobre 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Biographie | Drame | Romance

Accroche:

An epic love story as proud and powerful as the British Empire.

Intrigue:

Lavish two-part dramatisation of the passionate love story that was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's lengthy marriage...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Marriage | Queen | Queen Victoria | 19th Century

Récompenses:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 2 nominations

Avis des utilisateurs:

Great Supporting Cast Saves this miniseries.

Ensemble

Victoria Hamilton	...	Victoria
Jonathan Firth	...	Prince Albert
James Callis	...	Ernest
Diana Rigg	...	Baroness Lehzen
Patrick Malahide	...	Sir John Conroy
Roger Hammond	...	Duke of Coburg
Penelope Wilton	...	Princess Mary Louise Victoria, Duchess of Kent
Peter Ustinov	...	King William IV
Delena Kidd	...	Queen Adelaide
Timothy Carlton	...	Dr. Halford
John Wood	...	Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Malcolm Sinclair	...	Conyngham
Gary Raymond	...	Archbishop
Nigel Hawthorne	...	Lord William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
Crispin Redman	...	Mr. Anson

Durée:

USA:200 min

Pays:

UK | USA

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Couleur

Son:

Dolby Digital

Classification:

Singapore:PG

Lieux de tournage:

Arundel Castle, Arundel, West Sussex, England, UK

Société:

A&E Television Networks

Goofs:

Erreurs factuelles: In the part 2 opening credits, Michael Siberry is misspelled "Michael Sibbery". (He is named correctly in the closing credits.)

Connexions:

version de Sixty Glorious Years (1938)

Bande son:

Zadok the Priest

Great Supporting Cast Saves this miniseries.

I'm a BBCminiseries-aholic. I can watch even the most tedious efforts from the 70s and find them entertaining enough to watch several times. So it is no surprise that I like this. For my enjoyment, the biggest stumbling block of this miniseries is the casting of Victoria. To be fair, Victoria Hamilton (Victoria) is an actress I just don't care for. I've seen her in several things, and I just don't connect with her screen presence. She is a fine actress, always emotionally "present," but I do feel that I see the same 3 emotions over and over – happy, sad, fussy. She is omnipresent through this piece, so… there you have it. She is lovely as the coming-of-age Victoria, but the biggest problem here is that she is not believable playing much over the age of 25.

This is a film that would have benefited immensely by double casting the leads/ breaking half way through to change them to older actors. (And one horrible mistake is opening and closing the film with an elderly wheelchair-bound Victoria – played by another actress – whose eyes are bright blue, and Hamilton's are brown.) Hamilton simply does not grow up enough, despite costumes and makeup.

Jonathan Firth (Albert) also suffers from the various age make-ups, fares much better, and brings more complexity to his role. He is always exceptional, and his role here is sympathetic, even when behaving badly, but he does look as if he had just finished crying during a lot of this film… a bad allergy season, perhaps? He also does not make the transition to age believably.

Because of this, what makes this piece tick, run, and flow is the exquisite supporting cast. This is always the case with these BBC/A&E productions, and it may be what is really their core secret. People a town with geniuses, and any idiot can run the place…. Well, that is what they do with their actors. Penelope Wilton has the standout performance as a desperate, emotional, miscalculating Queen Mum. David Suchet is simply perfect, and so far from Poirot you need to remind yourself that this is the same actor. Diana Rigg and Nigel Hawthorne also lend gravitas to production.

This production also features some really beautiful castle/historic locations, but this one is probably only for those who are addicted to the anglo-miniseries. (Almost exclusively indoor and talky, so boys will probably feel as pent up and useless as Albert did.)