Introduction
In Tudor England, Katherine Parr reluctantly agrees to become the sixth wife of the tyrannical King Henry VIII. Her consent to marry him carries great personal risk, given her predecessors are either vanquished, beheaded, or dead. Perceived as a threat by Henry’s courtiers, they start to cast doubts about her fidelity and turn the increasingly paranoid king against her.
Synopsis
In blood-soaked Tudor England, twice married, accomplished, and educated Katherine Parr (Vikander), reluctantly agrees to become the sixth wife of the tyrannical King Henry VIII (Law). Her consent to marry him carries great personal risk, given that her predecessors are either vanquished, beheaded, or dead. When Henry appoints her as Regent, the nation’s ruler during his absence when he departs to fight overseas, he lays a dangerous path for her.
Henry’s courtiers, suspecting she’s sympathetic to radical Protestant beliefs that have taken root in the kingdom and are a threat to their power, scheme against her and cast doubts upon her fidelity to the increasingly ailing and paranoid King.
Once Henry returns to England, his courtiers convince him to turn his fury on the nation’s radicals, including Katherine’s childhood friend Anne Askew, who becomes one of the scores of people convicted of treason and burned at the stake. Horrified and privately grieving, Katherine finds herself under ever-increasing scrutiny and suspicion. Knowing that even a whisper of scandal might lead to her downfall, Katherine must unleash her scheme to fight for survival.
A Word from the Director
I couldn’t be more excited to bring Firebrand to the screen and tell the story of Katherine Parr—a ferociously brilliant, enlightened, and emancipated woman whom I am inspired by deeply. A woman who has been largely disregarded, or certainly under-represented in English Tudor history.
Much is known about Henry VIII’s tyrannical reign, much is known about the King himself, and about those who perished at his hands, but my focus here was on a woman who not only managed to survive but also to thrive and conquer. Firebrand is an opportunity to present to larger audiences, the moving portrait of a unique character in history, surprisingly untouched on the big screen until now.
The story follows the last months of Katherine Parr’s survival as Queen of England and, consequently the last months of Henry VIII’s life as King. Katherine Parr was a woman who dared to dream amidst the nightmare of an abusive relationship in decay, a person who audaciously willed a new future for her own country in a world where being a woman was just an accessory reality to masculine domination. A queen who disregarded what her role prescribed her to be: either submissive or brutally murdered.
To me, this is a reimagining of a ‘period’ film, closer to a psychological horror film, or a political thriller—a potboiler set in superstitious, blood-soaked Tudor England, steeped in the everyday horrors of the court and the reality of surviving a tyrant. As Katherine dared to imagine her idea of a nation, I dared to imagine the reliefs and flavors of this medieval, pre-imperial England.
In Firebrand, I imagined an invasive and brutal nature, as menacingly mysterious as the power games and conspiracies that inhabit the icy palatial corridors. The whisper of the wind blends with the characters’ cries of pain, despair, and hope. The burden of the unspoken, the overwhelming force of survival, the discomfort of bodies trapped in the weight of royal garments. The staggering of power mixed with the unavoidable cold of England. Something dense, and intense. Much like the weight of matter.
With Firebrand, I wanted to bring to the screen the heat of threatened bodies, the pounding pulse of their hearts, the steam of their breaths, and the apparent control of lives that are in constant threat. I saw gold, posturing, and violence. I imagined an opera fatale, a game of life or death, a movie with saturated colors, deep crimson and blue – a story of characters inhabiting the brutal wind of winter and the silver skies of the North.
The Production of Firebrand
The genesis of Firebrand began even before Elizabeth Fremantle’s novel Queen’s Gambit, published in 2012, had hit the shelves. Award-winning producer, Gaby Tana, was sent the early proof which she immediately optioned. Gaby had studied Tudor history in school but didn’t have much recollection of Katherine Parr, Henry VIII’s last surviving wife. Gaby explained:
“Katherine Parr is one of those extremely powerful and impressive women in our history whose story has not been told before…I was fascinated by the modernity of her. She was an enlightened, educated, forward-thinking person who was trying to enact change and take the world from dark to light”
A meeting was set up between Gaby and Brazilian-Algerian director Karim Aïnouz in February 2020. His previous films include Invisible Life, which won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes in 2019, and the documentary Central Airport THF, about Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, which won the Amnesty International award at the Berlinale in 2018. His most recent film, Mariner of The Mountains, premiered at Cannes 2021.
Karim had no prior knowledge about Henry VIII, so it was up to Gaby to give him a brief overview of England’s notorious king and his wives. This only excited Gaby more in her conviction that he would be the perfect director for the film. Gaby stated:
“This wasn’t going to be another English period drama, it was going be about humanity and relationships in a very visceral way…Karim went into a world with no preconceived notions and was able to inhabit the story with a very fresh approach. He has drawn conclusions that maybe nobody would have done before”
Karim’s initial reaction was that he wasn’t the right person to do it because of his lack of knowledge of Tudor history, but soon he realized that it was an interesting opportunity to reinterpret English history from an outsider’s perspective. Karim elaborated:
“I was really interested in this singular character and why her story hadn’t been told before. Henry VIII is known for the abuse and deaths of his wives; I was excited to be able to make a film about the wife that survived him. She was such an interesting, powerful character”
Karim used the years of COVID-19 to delve deep into researching more about the Tudors, re-reading Fremantle’s book, and collaborating with the Ashworth sisters on their adaptation. In his research, Karim watched as many BBC documentaries as possible about Henry VIII and his wives. However, he soon discovered that the majority of these were made by male scholars of a certain generation, that had a more clinical way of looking at history.
A particular moment of his research that stood out for him was when he visited a museum and came across the children’s book Horrible Histories, which included the popular song about Henry VIII and his wives – Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Karim later stated:
“I was shocked, this is the story of a serial killer being sung through a children’s song”
Initially, the script started as a much more literal adaptation of Fremantle’s novel which covered a longer span of history than that depicted in Firebrand. Through the evolving process of development, Karim and the writers, Henrietta and Jessica Ashworth, honed in on the heart of the story which became the essence of the film; four years into Henry’s final marriage and the last months of his life. ‘It’s not a new marriage. It’s the end of a marriage,’ Gaby adds. Despite this story being about real people, Karim is not a fan of the term “biopic.” He states:
“How can you condense someone’s life down to two hours? That is only a trailer of someone’s life. I don’t come to a project with the ambition to tell someone’s life story. Instead, I want to present the essence of that person”
For Elizabeth Fremantle, seeing her novel translated into this reflection of a character has been thrilling. She reflected:
“Karim really is an artist. He views this story as more of a myth or dark fairy-tale and has encapsulated both the fear and how she negotiates her way through that”
Interview
(Edited for content and clarity)
Glen Dower:
Hi Mr. Aïnouz, how are you, Sir?
Karim Aïnouz:
I’m good, thank you, Glen.
Glen Dower:
Karim Aïnouz:
Glen Dower:
Karim Aïnouz:
Glen Dower:
Karim Aïnouz:
It’s really interesting, right? Catherine Parr is always described as this sort of nurse, wife, and nothing else than that. And then when you start sort of digging deeper into history, she was the first published author in English history. She was a stateswoman. She replaced Henry a few times when he was not in England. But beyond all of this, I think what was fascinating to me was how audiences are fascinated with dead women.
There are so many portraits of the other wives that have been decapitated! I mean, it’s very dramatic and it’s very enticing. But I thought it was really surprising that there was nothing done about Catherine Parr. I think she had an immense role in English history. Not only because of what she was as a woman, but also by the way that she educated Henry’s children. There was something very modern about this character. That was also something that enticed me to tell that story, which is, even though it’s a story that takes place in the 1500s, it’s a story that could be of a woman today.
The fact that she was this loving mother who was not a biological mother to these children who were not her biological children, I thought was very, very touching. The way that she ultimately educated Elizabeth. I didn’t see much about this in other films, history books, and the book that we adapted. I think that for me was very, very important in the decision to do her portrait.
Glen Dower:
I loved how it fed into Elizabeth’s story as well. How she broke the fourth wall on that occasion, I thought that was perfectly done. Great. Well, my time is up, sir. Thank you very much and good luck with the release.
Karim Aïnouz:
Thank you, Glen, and thank you for the questions.
Directed by Karim Aïnouz and starring Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Eddie Marsan, Simon Russell Beale, Sam Riley, and Erin Doherty; Firebrand, from Roadside Attractions/Vertical, and Brouhaha Entertainment comes to theatres on June 14th.
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