As well as lots of new and upcoming films, the Arras Film Festival (4-13 November) is organising a retrospective of films around Queen Victoria, the Victorian age and the British Empire. It includes literary classics like Oliver Twist and Sherlock Holmes, films about the Empire such as Zulu and The Man Who Would Be King, and more recent portrayals of Queen Victoria herself such as Mrs Brown and Victoria and Abdul.
You can find the full selection here.
Also at the festival, a couple of those quirky English-language films that are difficult to classify. The Banshees of Inisherin is the latest film from Irish director Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards) and reunites the stars of his delightfully noir In Bruges, Brendan Gleason and Colin O'Farrell in an equally macabre tale of male friendship set on a remote island during the Irish Civil War. It's set for release on 28 December.
The Lost King, directed by Stephen Frears, is the based on the true story of an archaeologist who discovered the body of King Richard III under a car park in Leicester in 2012. But that doesn't cover the strangeness of a script where Sally Hawkins as the archaeologist has long conversations with King Richard. It's set for release on 29 March.
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Universal Pictures
Tag(s) : "Arras" "British history" "festival" "film" "film festival" "India" "Irish Civil War" "Judi Dench" "King Richard III" "Martin McDonagh" "Queen Victoria" "Royal Family" "Stephen Frears"