English actress Emily Blunt, who plays the title character in The Young Victoria, went absolutely C.R.A.Z.Y. for Montreal filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee.
“I saw C.R.A.Z.Y.,” Blunt says of Vallee’s brilliant Quebec classic about a gay boy’s coming-of-age, “and it was like: ‘Good night! I’m fine!’ It’s one of the great movies.” She instantly trusted her new director, even though Vallee was making his English-language debut, and it paid off with a Golden Globe nomination as best actress in a drama.
The Young Victoria is a period piece about the youthful years of the British monarch, Queen Victoria, who ascended to the throne on June 20, 1837. By the time she died on Jan. 22, 1901, she had served 63 years and seven months, longest in British history.
The project was initiated by producer Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, who struggled for 15 years to get the project in front of the cameras with a director she could trust. She said in September that she felt a strong parallel between her life and that of Victoria, whose childhood was troubled enough that “she closed her heart” and only opened up to love because of her infatuation with her future husband, Prince Albert.
In her own case, Ferguson said, “I closed my heart when I was 12 and mom left to live in Argentina. I shut down and put myself in my ‘house’ — in my own world — and I wasn’t going to let anyone in.” But her love affair and marriage to Prince Andrew allowed her to open up again — so the film feels very personal and contemporary because history repeats itself, Ferguson said.
But all this is light years away from Vallee’s C.R.A.Z.Y. and his career in Quebec. Yet both Ferguson and Blunt say that Vallee was the perfect choice to helm the British production and give it the contemporary energy it deserved.
“I think he is just an extraordinary being, really,” says Ferguson.
“He is a massive music fan,” Blunt tells Sun Media about Vallee’s wide-ranging interests (Blunt is also into music, having dated Canadian singer Michael Buble for three years, although she is now engaged to American actor John Krasinski).
“He would create a very atmospheric set for us,” Blunt says of Vallee. “Not by playing classical lutes or harpsichords for us. It would be (bands like) The Rolling Stones. It could be that extreme. And I found that really moving and it really helped us capture the youth of the piece rather than making it too stuffy or reverent.”
For decades in American and British cinema, period pieces about European monarchs have tended to be big bores if the filmmaker failed to bring the characters to life. One example is John Ford’s famously inept Mary Queen of Scots, with Katharine Hepburn inappropriately cast.
The Young Victoria, according to Blunt, avoids the pitfalls. The film is, she says, “contemporary and relatable. And that’s very important because I think period films can distance people when they become too arch. And I think people feel alone watching them, whereas we want people to feel that they were watching themselves — watching themselves in a relationship or watching themselves in a fight with their mother.”
The Young Victoria focuses on the struggles of the British royals before and immediately after Victoria is crowned. It is also a grand love story between Victoria and Albert, even though it was an arranged marriage. Some historical facts are changed, controversially, including the personal fate of Albert during an assassination attempt on Victoria.
Blunt says Vallee knew how to tell the story as a personal drama, not just an historical one. “He understood this young girl and he did from the word go. And that’s why he had such a visceral reaction to the script (by Julian Fellowes) when he read it.
“I think why he was so impassioned in his plea to direct it is because he really saw it for what it was — and what she really was and what the family really was. Because the film is really about family. It’s a love story, but it’s about family — a family under stress, a family in turmoil.”
Referring to the personal problems the British royals faced in that era, Blunt says, “they’re very real and they’re relevant for everyone. So I think Jean-Marc really captured the universal essence of the story.”
Quebec director a fan of Victorian fashion
Montreal filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee is not abandoning Quebec cinema, but he did thoroughly enjoy plunging into British history for his elegant costume drama, The Young Victoria.
“It was cool to be able to do it. I felt fortunate. I felt privileged and the film has a very British feel,” Vallee said when the primarily English-language film made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September. British co-stars Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend, plus producer Sarah Ferguson, were at Vallee’s side on the red carpet.
Blunt and Friend play Victoria and Albert in the era immediately before and after Victoria became Queen of Great Britain in 1837. The Young Victoria covers much of the same territory as the 2001 mini-series, Victoria & Albert. “Why tell it again?” Vallee asked rhetorically. “Because love rules all ... To me, there was the challenge: Take this opportunity to try to make a film about a love story and make it romantic and a totally new experience.
“And I guess I was at a point in my life when I wanted to believe in soulmates. When I read books about her and Albert — and the letters that they were writing to each other — (I realized that) at a very early age they believed they were true soulmates, even though it was a fixed marriage, an organized, arranged marriage. This idea is so romantic and so beautiful.”
The British history is also interesting to him now, as is the current royal family. Especially because he grew up in Quebec culture, where British royals are suspect or irrelevant.
“I like the fact that I was curious to know more about this country — more than I knew — and become respectful of this world that I didn’t care about at the beginning. I think they are doing good there, the royal family. Before I made the film, I was like, ‘Whatever!’ They’re all impressive. It’s a full-time job, being a member of the royal family.”
bruce.kirkland@sunmedia.ca
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