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Posted by admin on May 24, 2023

‘Firebrand’ Gets 8 Minute-Plus Standing Ovation At Cannes World Premiere

Sunday night at the 76th Cannes Film Festival was all about the world premiere of the Jude Law and Alicia Vikander Henry VIII period pic Firebrand, which received a royal response from the crowd in the Grand Theatre Lumiere with an eight and a half minute standing ovation.

Brazilian-Algerian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz directed the movie off a script by Henrietta Ashworth and Jessica Ashworth. The pic reps Aïnouz’s English language debut and it’s playing in competition.

Firebrand stars Oscar winner Vikander as Catherine Parr, the final wife of Henry VIII, a feminist force to be reckoned with who outlived the notorious king; the fate of his wives being either divorced, dead or beheaded. She is named Regent with the king warring abroad, and she’s done everything she can to push for a new future based on her radical Protestant beliefs. Law plays a royal on his way out, having returned from fighting with a dire condition on his right leg. Palace intrigue abounds entailing Henry squaring off with the Seymours brothers, one of them having their eye on Catherine, and the king ultimately fading.

Aïnouz’s track record at Cannes includes Invisible Life, which won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes in 2019, as well as, Mariner Of The Mountains which premiered in Cannes 2021.

FilmNation Entertainment handled international sales. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions will distribute in Germany, Greece, Iceland, Middle East, Scandinavia, Turkey, all of Asia (excluding Japan), Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Other territories sold include Switzerland (Elite Film AG), Israel (Lev Cinemas), Spain, Italy and LATAM (Vertice Cine), and UK and Benelux (Black Bear Pictures). [Source]

Firebrand, News

Posted by admin on May 24, 2023

Alicia Vikander on ‘Firebrand’s’ Rarely Told Henry VIII Story: ‘What’s Mostly Dramatized Are the Wives That Didn’t Make It’

In Britain, schoolchildren learning about Tudor history are taught a handy rhyme to remember the order of King Henry VIII’s six wives: “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.”

Hollywood has for decades been transfixed by the “beheaded” and “died” bits — essentially, the stories about women suffering — but what moviegoers are rarely reminded of is the wife who outlived Henry. In Karim Aïnouz’s hotly anticipated “Firebrand,” it’s the notorious Tudor king’s final companion, Katherine Parr, who finally takes center stage.

“What’s mostly been dramatized are the wives who didn’t make it,” says Swedish star Alicia Vikander, who plays the surviving queen opposite Jude Law’s ailing monarch. “[When I read the script] I immediately thought, ‘Huh, isn’t it interesting that most people know more about the other wives.’ It’s almost like people are drawn to quite grim stories.”

The more Vikander, an Oscar-winner for “The Danish Girl,” read up on Parr and her experience, the more bewildered she became about the grisly narrative surrounding Henry VIII’s wives. “I was like, ‘How could [Parr] not be more known?’ Especially considering that, yes, she survived more years than the other ones, but she was also the first woman under her own name in British history to get published,” says Vikander.

The learned and curious Parr published a number of religious texts beginning in 1545. But as detailed in “Firebrand,” her quest for knowledge and passion for debate almost cost her her life when she was accused of heresy. Scholars beware: Aïnouz’s particular rendition of history has a revisionist edge that bestows the tired annals of history with a modern angle. (“It was about having artistic freedom to make a strong story and to surprise people,” explains Vikander.)

Ultimately, it was Aïnouz’s depth and vision that “drew [her] attention.” “I was in Cannes and I saw ‘The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao’ and I was so curious [about him],” says the actor.

“We didn’t grow up with British history in the same sense,” she says, reflecting on both their backgrounds — Vikander from Sweden, and Aïnouz from Brazil. This “outsider” status allowed for a new way of approaching the subject matter.
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Firebrand, Interviews

Posted by admin on Mar 11, 2022

Alicia Vikander Replaces Michelle Williams As Queen Catherine Parr In Karim Ainouz’s ‘Firebrand’

Alicia Vikander (Blue Bayou) is replacing Michelle Williams as Queen Catherine Parr in the royal thriller Firebrand from Brazilian helmer Karim Ainouz (The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão), Deadline has confirmed. She’ll star alongside Jude Law, who is set to portray King Henry VIII.

Ainousz’s first English-language feature, based on Elizabeth Fremantle’s bestselling historical novel Queen’s Gambit, centers on Parr—Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife, who was the only one to avoid banishment or death.

By the time young Catherine Parr (Vikander) married the deteriorating, increasingly despotic King Henry VIII (Law), she had no assurances of a happy marriage; in fact, she had no assurances of surviving this marriage at all. Of her predecessors, two were thrown out, one died in childbirth and two were beheaded. While Catherine tried to keep her head about her to navigate the politics of her position, she brought a secret agenda. She was Protestant, believed it her duty to marry Henry, for it would be the only position in which she could convert him – and the kingdom – from his pro-Catholic position. That faith was tested when the church resisted granting his divorce from his first wife so he could marry Anne Boleyn, who would later be beheaded. With arrests, torture, and executions of Protestants on the rise, Catherine invited a dangerous game that would leave one of them dead before long. The thriller is told through Catherine’s singular point-of-view of the psychological horror of living with a monster—and the remarkable will to not only survive, but thrive.

Killing Eve‘s Jessica Ashworth and Henrietta Ashworth adapted the script, with Brouhaha Entertainment producing.

Vikander is perhaps best known for her Oscar-winning turn in Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl, and for her portrayal of the humanoid A.I. Ava in Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, which had her starring opposite Oscar Isaac. The actress recently wrapped production on Olivier Assayas’ limited series Irma Vep for A24 and HBO which is set to debut this fall, and most recently appeared in Justin Chon’s Blue Bayou for Focus Features, and David Lowery’s The Green Knight for A24. She has also appeared in films including The Glorias, Tomb Raider, Submergence, Tulip Fever, The Light Between Oceans, Jason Bourne, Burnt, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Testament of Youth, The Fifth Estate and Anna Karenina, among others. [Source]

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