Well there was a screening of a new british flick last night, and I did receive two little bitty positive pieces on the same screening, but this fellow thought and wrote a bit about it. So take a gander, you might very well like what you see. He mentions Madness of King George and Room With A View in reference to The Titchborne Claimant. So take a looksee...
Managed to blag my way into the first ever showing of new feature film 'The Titchborne Claimant' ... for cast and crew only at Warner West End, Leicester Square at 10 am this damp Sunday morning. Full release date still not fixed, so can't say when you might hear about it next ......
This is not your favourite all action Tarantino type film, being a late nineteenth century costume drama. More of a cross between 'The Madness of King George' and 'Room with a View', with more than a touch of 'The Trials of Oscar Wilde' about the court room scenes. But it made laugh, and it made me cry, and grabbed me from start to each of the finishes (couple of nice twists at the end)...
Film is based on amazing true story of the missing Lord Titchborne, drunken and dissolute eldest son of 9th richest family in England, who went missing in a shipwreck after leaving South America for Australia. Many years later ageing black family retainer finds a man he brings back to England as the missing Sir Roger to reclaim the title and estates. Not an is-he isn't-he, as you are let in the deal by the retainer (superb playing by a wonderfully dignified John Kani) right from the start. Various showdowns with the Titchborne family (most of whom reject the claimant as an imposter) lead to trial scenes as movie draws to a close. As it is based on true story... we know he is turned down by court (though if you don't know the case .... famous in its day but largely forgotten now, the movie also works as a courtroom cliffhanger). But the film shows wonderfully the deviousness of British establishment when they close ranks.
The script is outstanding, the direction and cast excellent. Stack full of actors well known to the British TV screen and theatre, with superb cameos from Sir John Gielgud as the Judge, and Stephen Fry as the lawyer for the defence. Whether the film can do a 'Full Monty' or 'Madness of KG' and be big in the US will depend probably on the distributors ... but it sure as hell deserves to as it is one of the best examples of the traditional Brit film that I have seen in many a year, and the story and script beat anything you could find.
Watch out for it ... if it does cross the Atlantic it will probably be an art-house sleeper ... but the story and script are good enough to make it a surprise hit ... and you are the first over there to hear about it.
Keep up the great work ... many of us over here love your view on things ... so far we haven't managed to create a Brit equivalent .... nobody even near it!!
