Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The King's Speech


The is the real story of King George VI who overcame his stammer to deliver one of the famous speech by any english king .

Albert Frederick Arthur George was the second son of King George V and Mary of Teck,as the Duke of York, he never thought that he will become a King.The film opens with the speech by Albert, the Duke of York, at Wembley where the audience waits impatiently for the speech to finish as Albert stammers.His wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon,the Dutchess of York and himself tries many treatments by different doctors but nothing improved his speech.The Dutchess of York contact an Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue who is very radical in his treatments.He is bullied by his own family members including by his father.

Initially , Albert hates to go to Lionel's house for therapy but after hearing his own speech recorded by Lionel in which he never stammer he decided to continue the treatment.In the mean time , his father dies and his brother Edward(David) becomes King Edward VIII ,he was abdicted on 11 December 1936 after almost 12 months.Now the circumstances made Albert as the King George VI.As a king he has to make speeches on important occasion,here he needs the help of Lionel.They both started to work.The professional relationship turns into a personal one as King started to share his personal details.He invites Lionel for the coronation and ask the Archbishop to make Lionel to sit in the VIP box.As the country goes war with Germany the King needs to address his people ,for this he brings Lionel to the Buckingham palace .. the rest .. is history.

Coling Firth as King George VI is excellent , he brings lots of emotion whenever he struggles with words.He gets angry on Lionel when he told that he could make good king and after becoming king he go to Lionel house to apologise and the nervousness before the speech , scences like these brings lot of emotional expression on Colin's face, simply awesome.Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue who failed to get into acting/theatre potrays those failure wonderfully well and his conversion first with Albert then with King shows subtle difference.Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon has done her job very well.David Seidler's screenplay is awesome, specially the dialogues between the King and Lionel.Tom Hooper's direction is also good.

King George VI gave many speeches during his life time , in all these speeches Lionel was there with him.Logue was inducted into the Royal Victorian Order for his service to the King.Nice movie we can watch at any time.
Listen to King VI 's first speech
More info about King VI
More infor about Lionel Logue
More info about Edward who sacrificed his throne for his love
Shakespeare's Hamlet which Lionel asked Albert to read aloud to be recorded


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