I read that the production company trying to get it made breached etiquette and sent the script directly to Geoffrey Rush's house rather than through his agent. The agent apparently bollocked them for it then said Geoffrey Rush was interested and were invited to meet with him to discuss it!
@@MasterfulKane Geoffrey Rush should have won an Oscar for this he was fantastic in this film! He and Colin are a great match its like watching them build a friendship because they were working so closely together
@@mariak809 Whether it's a joke depends on how you see the situation. Since he has barely any control over his stuttering, he'd ruin all jokes that depend on timing. Can be seen as funny. I just see a totally desperate, tortured soul in that scene. Someone who's absolutely helpless, deeply suffering, alienated from almost everybody else, so I don't see it as a funny scene, actually. I feel for him because I can relate. Stuttering isn't the only thing that shuts you up.
Colin Firth really had to do his homework on how those with stutters act and sound along with the actual king. There are different stutters but making it seem real, like he's been battling it all his life and showing the toll it's brought on his emotions and confidence takes a skilled actor.
Absolutely! He didn’t seem like he was mimicking. It was almost as if the role DIDNT call for a stammer and he was naturally having difficulties. Christ he’s a great actor!
I read somewhere that Colin ended up getting migraines due the fact that preforming the stammer was tensing his body up. Not to mention the numbness he contacted in his left arm. Talk about suffering for the sake of art.
Rumor has it that the stammer stayed with him for a quite while after filming to the point he had to go to a speech therapist to cure it. Fortunately the stammering was pretty mild and easy to cure.
Daniel u and many other people stutter or stammer but u are very very normal you just. Have a slight issue with your brain and mouth or words don't match up or somewords don't form as they should
We all have our touches, ADD and Dyslexia didn’t make it easy for me either, but these aren’t what define us. It is our steel will to overcome WHATEVER stands in our path that makes us unique; singles us out.
My own sister and s friend stammer. Yet both learnt how to control it. U can surely master it too. However, stammering does not make anybody abnormal. It is cruel people who need to Mock others to feel better about their own shortage of human decency.
@@lufsolitaire5351its Aussie slang for brits yeah, I think it comes from one of the French nicknames for the British; Pomme de Terre (potato) from all the potatoes we eat
Very interesting quirks to his stammer: certain phrases that are commonly linked are said with ease, no matter their length. "No, thank you" "How are you?" "Until next time" He also doesn't stammer when he's angry and momentarily forgets his speech issues. These are indeed common features of stammers, and partly how you know its purely psychological.
Tourette’s is another example of a disorder where the state of mind affects the speech. You’ll notice if they talk about something they are absolutely passionate or focused on, then they won’t tic. It is as if the tics are coming from the spare capacity in the brain. Makes you realise how much of our ease of thinking is an illusion.
What's really interesting is when you rewatch it you can tell Lionel is purposefully trying to get certain reactions or say certain things so he can see what's easy and what's hard for Albert to say.
Poor Bertie, was left in the care of a sadistic nanny. He lost his younger brother who he adored, and his father was a bully to him (although at the same time always wanted him to be king rather than his older brother). His stammer was the manifestation of a nervous disposition (although he was far from being a coward, very accomplished military record). He wasn’t perfect but he cared deeply for his country and was a steadying influence on Winston Churchill who he considered as much a friend as a prime minister.
@@Jack_The_Ladd back then that wouldn’t have been considered abuse. My late mum born in 1950 who was naturally left handed was instructed at school to write with her right hand so as a result became ambidextrous
Even subtly in this scene, when the teacher was needling him, the stutter vanished. "How about Bertie?" And the king's face hardens a bit, and he replies, "Only my family call me that." Not a hint of a stutter.
He received the Academy Award for best actor for this movie in 2010. Look at how difficult his lines and facial expressions and body language were, to imitate a stutter, and to vacilate between inner turmoil and insecurity and lack of confidence, and putting a strong outward face on his royal and regal status. Even his angry outbursts were great to watch. And the personal touches such as toying with a model airplane. First-rate performance. (At the time of this writing RU-vid is streaming this film "free with ads"; you can watch it all you like.)
@@evm6177 No. In ALL cinematic history. As the poster above you pointed out it is very difficult to recreate that stutter and body language so realistically. in Very rarely have I come across such a performance in my life.
Even before modern science, it seemed like common sense, but doctors and medicine at the time were more “old school” and “dark” to put it mildly. It used to be acceptable to give lobotomies to shell shocked soldiers or fry their brains with electrodes. We didn’t start calling it ptsd until around the Vietnam war era, and even today, people still struggle to talk about it. And I’m a neurologist. You can suffer the horrors of war back then, be called a hero, and then for your troubles get your brain fried instead of being allowed to talk about it in safe manner.
Having the Crown thrust upon him in the midst of England once again entering war with Germany certainly didn't help much, but there's no question the 30-40 cigarettes a day he smoked killed him. People try to say that unexpectedly being King as good as killed him, but that's a load of bull if you ask me.
@@Shadowdoc26 Many things which seem like they ought to be common sense are intellectualized all out of true until up is down, left is right, and toxic & carcinogenic is relaxing to the throat & beneficial to the spleen or whatever doctors used to say cigarettes helped with. It always fascinates me how certain mistakes originate with the educated and intelligent as they are the ones best capable of rationalizing the obvious into its opposite...and of course the rest of us follow their lead because of the faith we put in their capabilities and credentials.
I remember in a film class I took the teacher was discussing emotional cues, and they specifically said “whenever you see a character put on a kettle, you’re almost certain to see something intense in a few seconds.” He wasn’t lying lol
What’s so brilliant about Firth’s performance (and the script of course) is that while he hesitates to speak and holds back all he time, you can hear his thinking all the same. All the time.
Considering that Bertie died in 1952 at the ripe old age of 56 from too much smoking (which his doctors encouraged because, as shown in the film, they thought it would help his speech), Logue had a point.
I think of this scene every time I watch the episode where Lord Grantham choses Sir Phillip over Dr. Clarkson as Sybill's doctor and then she dies. Such a sad episode.
The subtext is so good. He didn't say perfect to him explaining that his family only calls him Berty, but that someone calling him Berty that is not his family enrages him to the point of perfect speech. Perfect.
@@pteppig I've always wondered why British rooms look like that, well in films at least. In the film, Darkest Hour, the room where the King and Churchill met also looked moldy. I wonder if that's a British thing.
3 года назад
@@ArchTazer I think it's just realistic. American films show the past as very clean and glamourous but the past was dirty has hell.
Physicians have always been crazy! Now, like then, they were all about what makes money. Only thing more certain to pay well other than human suffering is burying them afterwards.
As a stutterer, the ending is the most important. The battle is never over, but only about accepting it as a part of who you are, and using that frustration and perseverance as your fire to live extraordinarily. The scars and shame never really go away, there’s no moment where everything becomes alright. It’s simply about finding your voice in a world that hasn’t cared to hear it, nor would understand the pain.
Royalty were probably done a tremendous disservice by those who served them for fear of angering the powerful...and Royalty did themselves a tremendous disservice by only putting up with what they wanted to hear. Whether exactly true or not, Lionel didn't buckle to the pressure. "It's my field...", "In here it's better if we're equals..." and "My castle my rules..." One of Rush's best performances!
Joe K I think it’s because Lionel had nothing to lose and he could see past that. He’s still a human being like the rest of us, and still can suffer problems like the rest of us, such as stammering. Best case, Lionel does his job and helps another person overcome their impediment and makes a friend for life which he did. Worst case, he just loses a patient. Plenty more where that came from. It’s not like the king would have his head cut off in the 20th century for something that small.
I once knew a woman who had a long time stammer. And you could tell she hated it and the frustration and anger that would build up when speaking the most simple of sentences. I don't stammer myself but I do have many a times where my mind just can't focus on a simple thought so I stay silent or take a while to answer. Patience is such a virtue given to so few.
3:50 "One of my many faults." Bertie is a gentle soul for a royalty. Once his fault was pointed out, he immediately admits it. Not many of them can do that.
“I’ve always been this way. Don’t tell me it’s my stammer” No matter how times I watch this scene I just want to hug Colin. He hit it out of the park with this role. As someone who’s stammered for as long as I can remember I can relate to this so much.
This scene is awesome in so many ways. Even beyond the issue of stammering look how the doctor relates to the king. He sets the tone for the meeting. The Doctor sets the boundary and is firm yet humble and empathetic to the situation. My house my rules he says. If only I could set this tone in my own life.
As someone who is studying to become a therapist, Logue is who I want to be like with my patients. Kind, warm, encouraging, and firm in my belief in their potential.
An Herculean effort. Two amazing actors at odds for a common goal, giving studied, metered performances. The entire film is exemplary. A good story, written well and presented with great care. True Cinema...
I stutter since my childhood, some days are better than others. I think self confidence is the most important thing, if I where insecure I am sure my stuttering would devour me, and make me limit how I live my life. It is a hard situation, my heart goes out to my fellow stutterers. This is the first media I’ve seen presenting a person who stutters without mocking them, I appreciate it. And to all that stutter like me; I will say what my mother tells me “Speak when you want to speak, if someone does not want to hear you, that is their lost!”
Amazing movie. Yoga and breathing with my stomach has helped my stuttering soooooooo much. I can't believe speech therapist never mentioned anything about it. Im 36 years old.
* Its mouth. ("It's" is a contraction of "it is," and "what it is mouth is doing" makes no sense.) * Princes. ("Prince's" means something belonging to one prince, as in "That is the prince's car.")
One of the benefits of the modern peerage system, often overlooked by self-righteous egalitarians, is that it ejects from public life many who have outlived their usefulness or never been useful, without expressly disgracing them. The English use the expression "getting kicked upstairs." Honors remain just that, honors, to those who have never held power - but to those who have held power, honors are a frilly pink slip. Like so much else in the British system, it's absurdly idiosyncratic yet oddly effective.
If you read up on The Kings Speech about why they did the wall that way, you know it was on purpose. Its in one of the RU-vid videos about it. I just cant remember why it was like that. I think to show how poor Logue was and he couldnt afford to repair the walls from old Wallpaper and paint etc. Sorry I just cant remember why they did it.
found this on wikipedia The crew investigated Logue's former consultation rooms, but they were too small to film in. Instead, they found a high, vaulted room not far away in 33 Portland Place. Eve Stewart, the production designer, liked the mottled, peeling wallpaper there so much that she recreated the effect throughout the entire room. In his DVD commentary, Hooper said he liked Portland Place as a set because it felt "lived-in", unlike other period houses in London. The scenes of the Duke of York at home with his family were also filmed here; showing the Prince living in a townhouse "subverted" expectations of a royal drama.[13]
I have stuttered pretty bad my whole life so I showed my partner this movie so they could understand how unbelievably frustrating it is to not be able to speak sometimes and how humiliating it can be. And I'm not sure some people understand how demoralizing it really is. Imagine trying to say a sentence but half way through the sentence stop for 3-10 seconds and don't say anything. That's how frustrating it is. Depending on many factors it can get even worse. King George VI was a very brave man.
Interesting choice in the way these shots are framed. I heard Tom Hooper purposefully had it filmed this way to create some sense of confusion and distance based on the emotional and psychological feelings that Albert was going through due to his stutter.
His face when hes proposing to call him Bertie made me weak, the balls on the doctor and how Bertie knew he cant fight him with stuttered is hilarious.
Absolutely!!! That wall is exquisite. So much so, in fact, that in one shot they show Bertie sitting on the sofa to the left, and the right-hand side of the frame is devoted to the wall. It's supposed to look like ten layers of cracked and chipped off paint, but it's a beautifully striking montage of colors.
Not odd at all. One thing I liked about this scene was the room itself, very spartan yet beautiful, especially the wonderful medley of colors in the wall behind the sofa.
I've often wondered about the set design here. the walls of Lionel's treatment room are shown being so utterly shabby. It's hard to believe that in real life he could not have put a coat of paint on them.
@@odysseusrex5908 It wasn't a 'set' in a studio .... it was 'on location'. Quote from Wikipedia. 'The crew investigated Logue's former consultation rooms, but they were too small to film in. Instead, they found a high, vaulted room not far away in 33 Portland Place. Eve Stewart, the production designer, liked the mottled, peeling wallpaper there so much that she recreated the effect throughout the entire room'.
1:44 Here we see Bertie rejecting a cup of tea, this is a metaphor to point out that he’s not yet suited to be the king of England because of his stammer.
That’s one of those movies that you know are very good, but never got the chance to see it completely - yet at times you get the chance to see at least some scenes of it
Poor bloke, George the fifth was a bully to him and his siblings his brother died which didn't help and his mum couldn't even look after him and what's more Edward the 8th abdicated which made him king making everything even worse for him.
Lionel’s office is a perfect representation of his character. It’s beautiful, open, well lit and clear. There is something very honorable about a man who’s like a wide and open room. He presents an openness to those he encounters, to bring themselves to him warts and all.
The best part comes up when shortly after he looks at the record, then plays it. Shakespeare read perfectly. Soon, he's back at the speech therapist's office.
The subtlety of that first entry- Lionel's instinct to bow, before remembering that he has to keep a casual atmosphere with Bertie, so he hides it has a nod of greeting. Superbly done by Rush.
The framing of this scene is underrated.... They are mirrored between cuts despite Colin's character sitting on the left side of the couch. This lends discomfort to Colin's role while also establishing the report they'll have with each other throughout the movie.
