I have just started watching and am only part way into season one. Every time Ann Boleyn gives that smirky little smile when she curtsies, I just want to smack her smug face. She is so haughty with the Queen, while trying to steel her husband and her crown. Ug!
I guess karma IS a bitch, because in the end Ann not only loses her crown, but her head.
You have to remember how supremely confident Anne Boleyn would've been. She would've felt ten times more worthy of every respect given because she was the "future queen of England"
The smirk DID annoy me too but she thought she was all that and the actress grows on you, definitely.
I agree about the actress. . Of what I have watched so far she is doing a wonderful job. She brings out many layers in Ann- the smug one, the one who is manipulated by her uncle to the point I almost feel sorry for her, the one that appears to actually be falling for Henry, the passionate one, and the ambitious side, too.
shareAgree.
I just watched Anne of the Thousand Days again and it only confirms what I've said before. Natalie Dormer is the definitive Anne Boleyn. Geneviève Bujold was good, but doesn't hold a candle to Natalie's. Her performance in season 2 is especially fantastic. Seasons 3 and 4 won't be the same without her...
I don't think Dormer's Anne would have been as good a match for Burton's Henry as Bujold was.
shareBujold's performance seemed wooden at times. She deserves a lot of credit though. It must have been a difficult job to perform with Liz Taylor staring daggers at her most of the shoot.
And Bujold can certainly take a smack. I'll give her that. Especially that last one at the end. She didn't even budge. If Hirst had chosen to pay homage to that scene, I'm sure Dormer would have done just as well if not better.
I still think Dormer wins. The death scene may have a lot to do with it. It was very abrupt in the film. It seemed rushed. And very much changed from the historical record, which usually wouldn't bother me if the changes created more of an emotional impact. The abruptness of it seemed anticlimactic to me.
Dormer had her speech along with her childhood memories to hit us with at the end. Much more powerful.
I agree. I actually just finished the second season and I felt really bad for Anne at the end. Even all the other characters seemed to feel the same way. As much as many may have hated her, I believe they didn't feel she deserved it. It was a very sad scene.
shareNatalie's performance was so good that I was hoping showtime would change history and let her live.
Natalie will always be the definitive Anne Boleyn for me...she is a hugely talented actress who no doubt has many great roles ahead of her, but to me she will always be Anne.
Love is the law...
Natalie Dormer is the definitive Anne BoleynI would give the nod to Dorothy Tutin.
Queen Katherine was older and too pious for Henry's liking. She lacked the humility and submissiveness he required from a spouse. Anne was everything he hoped for before and after marriage, though her temperament and influence are more known than her other positive qualities. She was pious and intelligent, possessing religious zeal and individual thought rivaling her predecessors. What set her apart from Katherine is that she was an advocate for reform in the Church of England. Religion was essential to one's identity but could not be a means to an end if the clergy corrupt.
sharethere was no
Church of England- there was only THE Church. share
In the context of Medieval Europe, every kingdom in a relationship with the Holy See possessed a religious institution. The Church didn't take on an identity of its own back until the Elizabethan Era, of course. When someone refers to a kingdom's religious institution, they say "the Church of ____" There was no Church of Ireland either though the term was used to refer to the island's religious institution (Catholicism).
shareI agree. She got back everything she put out. She thought it was Katherine fault because she couldn't give the king a son, yet she herself couldn't give him one.
[love]
Kades! [/love]
Yeah.
I normally like Anne, but not in The Tudors.
The writer did her no favors.
Natalie is wonderful in everything, though. I came out of the series loving her as an actress even if I hated the character.