The Other Boleyn Girl
For some reason, I have found Catherine of Aragón to look completely different than I expected. I expected her to look very kind and weak, perhaps with a rounder face (as she is portrayed on this picture). But what a queen she is! She has this slightly weird thing on the edge of her mouth, but apart from that, she looks quite hot-blooded and Spanish (as the historical Catherine supposedly is) and especially she has this stern and grand look digne d’une reine. Then, I looked up who she is and was like “Hmm, don’t tell me she is that Ana?”
I am completely in awe of Ana Torrent, and was extremely surprised to see this contrast. Needless to say that I have never ever seen her at the usual age you would see actresses – and I find her stunningly beautiful. Independently from that, her acting skills are just as stunning, especially as 6 year old girl.
The other surprise was Kristin Scott Thomas, of course. Ever since I have seen her in the “English Patient” and “Gosford Park”, I am inexplicably drawn to her. Very objectively, she is far from what you would expect a Hollywood diva would be because of these somewhat weird eyes she has, but I find her gorgeous!
Compared to these surprises, Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman just did what they usually do: Look nice. Despite the melodrama of the film (which was not a problem for me, by the way, I loved that), they acted out their roles brilliantly. In real life, I think that Scarlett Johansson likes to give the impression of being a vamp and Natalie Portman the impression of being sweet and innocent though, so the roles are actually a little reversed. And it came off quite naturally, if you ask me.
Incidentally, the only slightly unnatural scene was when Anne Boleyn was raped. La Portman looked so… unintentionally comical? Surely the whole audience thought she must have deserved it, harr harr. Well, I was actually rooting for Anne.
I find it interesting that the German title was “Die Schwester der Königin”. It works well, because people here don’t know the name Boleyn anyways and the German title references the story even better than the original title in my opinion. It just sounds a little stupid, maybe.
Apart from this, who cares about the story. I knew what would happen pretty much from the beginning, because I have always been interested in the wives of Henry VIII, especially Anne Boleyn. I have read their Wikipedia articles about 10 times by now, and so, the film was just a must see for me for its actors and for its background, but I didn’t care much about how the story was carried out specifically. In my opinion, the film is much better than the critics say, but it’s also nothing outstanding in my opinion.