Firebrand

Harry J’s studio, Kingston, Jamaica, winter 1976. Wearing a Spartan Health Club T-shirt and busted sandals, Bob Marley finishes singing a take of a weirdly cheery song called Smile Jamaica. I had been reporting from the island for the British rock press and was popping by to give my farewells – only to be surprised by this ditty that sounded like a tourism commercial. Why so upbeat? Marley took a swig of green juice and, frowning, crisply replied: “People in Jamaica too vex.”Vex means angry, and the truth of his analysis…

As much as cinema enjoys the privilege of artistic licence, Indian movies often take this too seriously and go overboard, dishing out the most outrageously unbelievable stuff. On the other hand, Western works usually have the tendency to stay within the confines of realism. A classic example of this we saw at the ongoing 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. British actor Jude Law, who plays King Henry VIII, in Karim Ainouz's Firebrand wore a special 'perfume' made of “puss, blood, faecal matter and sweat”. Wow!…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeJude Law’s posterior has become the subject of speculation after the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Firebrand.In the historical film, directed by Karim Aïnouz, Law portrays English monarch Henry VIII in the last stages of his life. Alicia Vikander plays his sixth and final wife and queen, Catherine Parr.Since its first screening on Sunday (21 May), Firebrand has received widespread…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeJude Law’s posterior has become the subject of speculation after the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Firebrand.In the historical film, directed by Karim Aïnouz, Law portrays English monarch Henry VIII in the last stages of his life. Alicia Vikander plays his sixth and final wife and queen, Catherine Parr.Since its first screening on Sunday (21 May), Firebrand has received widespread…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeAlicia Vikander and Jude Law were greeted with a standing ovation fit for royalty at the Cannes premiere of the brutal historical drama Firebrand on Sunday (21 May).The movie, from director Karim Aïnouz and set in a blood-splattered Tudor England, stars Vikander as Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of the tyrannical King Henry VIII (Jude Law).According to US insider site…

Jude Law outrageously steals every scene as a horrendously unwell and cross Henry VIII in this Tudor court intrigue drama that also serves as an amusing noir counterfactual, adapted by the screenwriters Jessica and Henrietta Ashworth from the novel by Elizabeth Fremantle and directed by the Brazilian film-maker Karim Aïnouz, making his English-language feature debut.It’s all about the king’s tense relationship with his sixth and final queen, Catherine Parr, played with creamy, inscrutable placidity by Alicia Vikander.The…