Downton Abbey: Pomp with less circumstance | Culture
Paraphrasing the title of the famous orchestral march created by British composer Edward Elgar in 1901, the film version of Downton Abbey he has preferred the royal pomp to the historical circumstance of the best moments of the series. In it are almost all its virtues, especially the most apparent and luxurious, but it gives the impression that the opportunity to perform a truly filmic jump has been lost instead of betting on a kind of special Christmas of extended duration with which to celebrate , years later, the exciting moments next to a long series of exciting characters and enormous sentimental draft.
DOWNTON ABBEY
Direction: Michael Engler
Interpreters: Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Robert James-Collier.
Gender: drama. United Kingdom, 2019.
Duration: 122 minutes
Released on British television on September 26, 2010, and culminated five years and 52 episodes later, Downton Abbey He highlighted, in addition to his impressive artistic work in sets and costumes, for the rare ease of its creator, Julian Fellowes, to relate the radically opposite existences of a long score of characters through small and moving encounters and disagreements in the halls and halls of an aristocratic mansion. Complex roles that fled from the archetype, whether those above or below the social ladder, to which Fellowes added the other great virtue of the series: the brilliant inclusion of historical events in the future of human beings belonging to a place and at a certain time, related with rigor and passion. Thus, the drama of the First World War, Irish nationalism, social struggles and the beginnings of the suffrage movement, to name just a few, coexisted with the quieter passions that runaway and, best, the commitment or rebellion to continue occupying the place in the world that was given by social imposition.
However, in this film version, which, even if it is a continuation of the last chapter of the series, will not be difficult to follow by the neophytes, hardly any issues of historical relevance are included and only one compilation of Irish republicanism is added to assassinate King George V, poorly developed and filmed by Michael Engler, and that is sold out in the middle of footage. A limp to which you have to add some slip in the configuration of the characters, mainly to turn into a jester who was only shy Molesley lackey, and the incorporation of a stereotyped French chef freshly escaped from Ratatouille
Instead, in addition to the usual entertainment, there are three small great stories: that of the Irish chauffeur turned into a family member, next to a beautiful new female character; Lady Mary's doubts about the future of the house and her own; and that of the homosexuality of the great character that was always the butler Thomas, with the inclusion of the first places of gay atmosphere.
And, for the fans of the series, a final effect hit in relation to one of the most beloved roles, which only would have lacked that Engler, who had already directed the special Christmas chapter of 2015, had applied a setting in scene that magnifies the moment instead of attenuating it.
