Lady Jane

From Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Henry VIII in 1933 to Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth in 1998, Tudor history has provided rich material for filmmakers. This 1986 telling of the story of Jane Grey, the cousin of King Edward VI who was used as a pawn by the powerful (and Protestant) Duke of Nothumberland to obstruct the succession of Henry VIII's Catholic daughter Mary to the English throne upon Edward's death, falls somewhere in the middle of the pack. Lady Jane was the debut film of Trevor Nunn, better known for his work in the theatre, and while lovingly cast and photographed, it nevertheless turns fascinating political history into a tale of adolescent romance reminiscent of Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. Helena Bonham Carter makes a quite stiff debut in the title role, while Cary Elwes plays the dissolute son of Nothumberland whom Jane was compelled to wed, and with whom--in the imagination of screenwriter David Edgar--she later fell passionately in love and contrived a preposterously progressive reform program for the realm. Patrick Stewart huffs and puffs as the Duke of Suffolk, Jane's father. Incidentally, Lady Jane's unhappy story was previously told, in little more than half this epic's 141-minute running time, in Robert Stevenson's Tudor Rose in 1936. Boasting a superb widescreen transfer, the only real extra on this disc is a photo gallery. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)