My favourite film aged 12: Anne of the Thousand Days

In the start of a new series in which writers revisit their childhood movie passion – in this case a creaky costume drama about Henry VIII starring a hungover Richard BurtonAs a rather prim and unusual child, one of my favourite films when I was 12 or so was Anne of the Thousand Days, a long-forgotten and slightly dreary costume drama about Henry VIII’s relationship with Anne Boleyn. It was one of about nine videos that my parents owned: my sister was obsessed with it, and would mimic the film’s strident, declarative dialogue around the house. (“My. Elizabeth. Shall. Be. Queen!”)Twenty-seven years have elapsed between my 12th birthday and the start of this year. How would the film bear up? Going in, I already cannot think what appeal it could have had back then. Most of the movie centres on Anne Boleyn’s famous blueballing of the monarch over a number of years – all of this is a bit silly, but kind of fun – and then it flounders terribly when it has to do the Reformation, with Cromwell and Wolsey reduced to oily figures gliding in and out of shadows in any number of tapestry-bedecked antechambers. Continue reading…
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