The Other Boleyn Girl

Justin Chadwick’s film comes from Philippa Gregory’s 2001 novel, adapted by Peter Morgan. The novel had been filmed five years earlier for the BBC: Philippa Lowthorpe’s 2003 version had Jodhi May as Anne and Natascha McElhone as Mary. Locations came largely from Kent, yet Hever Castle, the Boleyn home from 1505 to 1539, was not used. Great Chalfield Manor in Wiltshire became the family house, Dover Castle stood in for the Tower of London in the execution scenes, and the Baron’s Hall at Penshurst Place was dressed as Whitehall Palace. One contested choice is the order of birth: novel and film both make Anne the elder. Gregory has since said a family will named Anne as the senior girl, and that some historians who have worked on Mary since place her as the elder. Andrew Garfield shot scenes as Francis Weston and was cut, though his name stayed in the credits. It screened at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival and returned $78.2 million worldwide against a $35 million budget. A good fit if you want the politics reduced to what the Boleyn family can bargain for, in real castles. Not for anyone who takes the historical record as the point; the film also stages a scene in which the king rapes Anne.