An average movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, I was really impressed by the production value displayed in this movie. Seriously, visually speaking, it was easily one of the most lavish movies I have seen from this time period and it seemed be so far ahead of anything else released back then, at least, in this area. The other thing I enjoyed in this movie was to see Emil Jannings giving another stellar performance. Sure, the guy became later on a real Nazi f*ck but, even if he must have been awful in his private life, he was probably the best silent actor, no less than that, and he was once again quite spellbinding here. To be honest, he was lucky to play seemingly the only interesting character here as his Henry VIII was basically some kind of oversexed womanizer. The fact that they really made an effort to make him actually look like the English monarch was also appreciated (which was something rather frustrating when you watched Jonathan Rhys Meyers playing the same character in ‘The Tudors’). Unfortunately, pretty much else felt pretty flat though. Sure, there was the issue that I have seen by now so many versions of Henry VIII’s convoluted love life (I already mentioned ‘The Tudors’ before which is, in my opinion, the most definite version of this story) and their approach was not really interesting, I’m afraid. For example, they decided to reduce Anna Boleyn to an innocent victim but I think it terribly weakened her character. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

6/10