Monarch (film)
| Monarch | |
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Original British Cinema Poster
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| Directed by | John Walsh |
| Produced by | John Walsh |
| Written by | John Walsh |
| Starring |
T. P. McKenna Jean Marsh James Coombes Peter Miles |
| Cinematography | Ray Andrew |
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Production
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| Distributed by | FremantleMedia 3DD Productions |
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Release date
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Running time
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89 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Monarch is a British costume drama involving Henry VIII witten and directed by John Walsh. It was released in 2000 at the Mill Valley Film Festival. It was re-released in 2014 after the film negative was recovered after it was thought to have been lost.
Monarch unfolds around 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. The film is set in just one night. In an interview John 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.”
T. P. McKenna plays Henry VIII, while Jean Marsh plays an amalgamation of his ex-wives. Monarch unfolds one night in the year of Henry's death, 1547. Former Doctor Who actor Peter Miles played a key role in the drama as a courtier to King Henry.
In 2014 a remastered version of Monarch was released. The original negative for the film had been lost and was the subject of various newspaper reports. This subsequently led to cinema showings starting at the Tricycle Theatre in London. He discussed the issues around finding the lost negatives for Monarch and other lost projects with BBC Radio 2 Janice Long.
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 recently discovered in a vault almost 20 years after it was originally filmed. In an interview about the project for the BBC, John Walsh explained: "When we located the project we found more than we bargained for with over 52 cans of various footage from film trims, cutting copies and work prints. We didn't know if the original camera negative would be amongst all of this haul. After a close examination we were delighted to find all of the original camera negative was there and in good shape for its age." 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.
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