The King's Speech
Vocabulary corner
The verb abdicate (noun: abdication) is when a king or queen gives up their title and their throne voluntarily. The most famous example of this from British history happened in 1936, as described in this film.
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Two years ago, director Tom Hooper made maybe one of the best films based on true events ever.
Bertie, a son of a King of England, had had problems with speaking since he had been a child and couldn’t speak to other people, which was, in his position, such a big problem. His wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), with a lot of doctors, tried to treat him in strange ways but nothing was successful. One day Elizabeth found a doctor Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) who had treated a lot of men who had lost their voices in the First World War. After some disagreements between Lionel and Bertie they started to be good friends and the treatment was more and more successful. After Bertie’s father’s death Bertie’s brother Edward (Guy Pearce) was supposed to become the King but he made one big mistake – he loved a divorced woman and wanted to marry her, which was absolutely unacceptable. After some time he realised, that there is only one way how to solve the problem – abdicate. After this scandal event, Bernie had to become a King and his cooperation with Lionel was closer than before. What was the biggest problem for the new King was that he came to the Throne before the Second World War and had to face up to all upcoming events. One of them was the moment when Bertie had to make a speech about the beginning of the Second World War to all the British people and finally, with Lionel’s help, he managed it. In my opinion this film is absolutely fantastic in all views. Brilliant performance headed by Colin Firth who makes you very sad about his destiny and the scene when he starts crying, and Helena Bonham Carter plays a role of loving wife, grabs your heart. We can’t forget to exalt the perfect camera work, for example, the scene with high trees and fog is utterly breathtaking. These moments and details enhance your feelings about this historical drama. By Lucie Drozdova |