Like Laurence Olivier, whose 1944 film version of Henry V inspired a wave of Shakespearean films by the likes of Orson Welles and Akira Kurosawa, Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V, his first film (his latest, the autobiographical Belfast, comes out Nov. 12), ignited its own era of Bard-mania in Hollywood in 1989.
Unlike Olivier, however, Branagh grew up loving American movies, and he’s credited with infusing the language of mainstream cinema into Shakespeare’s text. When he was 9, Branagh and his working-class family left Belfast, Northern Ireland, amid the violence of the Troubles and settled in Reading, England. After studying acting at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where in 1984 at age 23 he became its youngest player to take on the title role in Henry V. That wildly successful production spurred Branagh to adapt the play for the big screen (he also quit the Royal Shakespeare Company after one season to launch his own theater company).
It was a tall order at the time: Shakespeare as a film genre was all but extinct since Roman Polanski’s Macbeth bombed in 1971. On top of that, everyone was already happy with Olivier’s Henry V. Undaunted, Branagh set about assembling his dream cast — including Ian Holm, Judi Dench and an up-and-coming actress named Emma Thompson, whom Branagh had starred opposite in Fortunes of War, a 1987 BBC miniseries set during World War II. (Branagh and Thompson would marry in 1989 and become the poster couple for the British invasion that swept Hollywood during the early ’90s; they divorced in 1995.)
Henry V, which climaxes in 1415’s Battle of Agincourt, in which England triumphs in a David vs. Goliath face-off with French forces, was filmed on soundstages (and on adjacent fields) at Shepperton Studios in Surrey. Branagh’s vision was much grittier and more solemn than Olivier’s. Made on a budget of $6 million, it grossed $10 million worldwide and earned Oscar nominations for Branagh as best actor and best director. It won for best costume design.
This story first appeared in the Nov. 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Source: HollyWood
