Monarch is a British costume drama involving Henry VIII. It was written and directed by John Walsh and released in 2000 at the Mill Valley Film Festival. It was re-released in 2014 after the film negative, thought lost, was rediscovered.
Plot
Monarch is part fact, part fiction and unfolds around one night in the life of a hated king susceptible to assassination, and paranoid with the thought of his own mortality. The film is set in just one night when the injured Henry VIII arrives at a manor house closed for the season. Henry is without the power of his throne. He is vulnerable to those around him and to his own mental issues. He had left England financially and morally bankrupt; his collection of enemies became his only constant. In an Irish Post interview, Walsh said “Often you can find out more about someone in a small time frame rather than you can if the two-hour film spans their whole life. Most bio-pics become little more than a montage of facts. If you confine a character to that time frame you can find out more about them.”
It was shot on 35mmKodak 5287 stock using Arriflex cameras. Principal photography commenced in October 1996 at Charlton House in south London, making it the only film about Henry VIII entirely shot in the borough where he was born: Greenwich. This Jacobean building served as the main location, with filming taking place inside and outside the house. The gardens were the backdrop for the opening title sequence. The Grand Salon and the Long Gallery featured heavily for the film’s dramatic scenes with Henry VIII. The house's clock tower was also utilised as the hiding place for Will, the ground-keeper's son, who hid from men who break into the house. Although set at night much of the filming took place during the day; black drapes were hung outside of the building to create a night effect. In an interview with newspaper The Greenwich Visitor, Walsh discussed how he wanted his depiction of Henry VIII to be more grounded and less like those portrayals from Hollywood. He also discussed the difficulty of filming on a location and how the film benefited from using 35mm Kodak film stock.
Re-release
In 2014 a remastered version of Monarch was released following discovery of the original film negative, previously thought lost. The remastered version premiered on 14 September 2014 at London's Tricycle Theatre. Walsh discussed the issues around finding the lost negatives for Monarch and other lost projects with BBC Radio 2's Janice Long.
Restoration
Restoration was completed at Premier. The film scanning and restoration team worked closely with director John Walsh, re-mastering from the original 35mm colour camera negative after it was discovered in a vault almost 20 years after it was originally filmed. In an interview about the project for the BBC, John Walsh explained: Every frame of film was scanned in high definition at Premier and had more than 10,000 particles removed by hand by the restoration team. A new sound mix was also created from the original elements in Premier’s in-house audio department. In an article with The Weekender in November 2017 John discussed the importance restoration and preservation of older films to future-protect film such as Monarch:
Reception
The film received strong reviews on its re-release in 2014 which were in contrast with the poor reviews in 2000. In 2000 Dennis Harvey wrote in Variety that "Monarch plays out an OK premise to results at once turgid and ridiculous." and describes McKenna's performance as "hammy". In 2014 the Radio Timesfilm critic Jeremy Aspinall called it "a fascinating, haunting little gem, with a richly nuanced performance from McKenna". The film's realistic approach was noted by the BBFC who certified it a 15 on the basis that it "contains strong bloody violence".
Home media
Monarch was released for the first time on DVD on 7 April 2014 by FremantleMedia. It included extras on the making of the film and the restoration process. A high definition version is also available to view on iTunes. DVD Compare said "The film features an extraordinary British cast, is well written, and is perfectly paced." The Movie Waffler gave the film four stars for the main feature and four stars for the DVD extras, saying “McKenna is the beating heart of Monarch, part wounded bear, part Augustus Gloop petulance.” It adds “This menacingly pessimistic view of British history and government is an immensely entertaining gothic melodrama, the creepy details that Walsh weaves into the film.”
