"The Other Boleyn Girl" dramatized?

[Mari]

What was the promise to Anne by Mary Boleyn her Sister?   

[helenazar]

I think it was to raise her daughter (Elizabeth) or something like that...

[Eric_Lowe]

False. Since Mary Boleyn never returned to court, so cannot serve Elisabeth. However her daughter Catherine and Son Henry were Elisabeth I staunch supporters. Read the recent book on Lady Penelope Rich. It covers her grandmother Kat Carey, her mother Lettice Dudley as well as evidence for her children as bastards of Henry VIII.

[helenazar]

False. Since Mary Boleyn never returned to court, so cannot serve Elisabeth.

I meant according to this movie. In real life of course that never happened. But a lot of the stuff in the movie was nonsense including this "promise"...

[Eric_Lowe]

That is why I said :False ! It simply did not happen. 

[helenazar]

That is why I said :False ! It simply did not happen. 

Of course not. But we are discussing the movie here, not what really happened ;-)

[Eric_Lowe]

However it should be made clear nonetheless. I heard people discover history only by watching movies and tv...shocking...However "The Tudors" was more problemetic than "The Other Boleyn Girl". 

[Kimberly]

But WE know that Eric. A friend of mine, who has no interest in history whatsoever,went to see this movie. She was so entranced by the character of Anne Boleyn (gawd knows how from La Portman's portrayal), she is now reading a couple of my bios of the Tudors and is fascinated by them....so I suppose the film has done some good!!

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...I think the Portman portrayal was quite close to the real Anne Boleyn (in terms of character...). Mary Boleyn was more of a mystery.

[historylover]

I don't think that the Portman portrayal was close to her!  I think that the book and the movie ruin Anne's reputation to a big extent.
Most historians agree that she was innocent of adultery and I'm sure that she would never have considered sleeping with her own brother, no matter what the gossip was.
Anne was very religious.

Mary is portrayed in the film as very sweet and innocent.  This is also untrue.

Regards,
Lisa
www.bookaddiction.blogspot.com

[Eric_Lowe]

You mean the real Mary Boleyn was bitter and nasty while Anne was sweet and innocent ?  No...According to the research, Mary was the one geared on love. It was true that after she left court, she never looked back and had a good marriage with Strafford. Her letter pleading for help proved that "she would beg bread with her beloved than to do otherwise". I also belived her to be the least power hungry (in which Anne was) in her family.  Anne Boleyn was a power hungry woman, devoid of marriage with Percy, she went for Queenship. Her treatment of Catherine of Aragon and her daughter spoke volumes about her character. She stormed and screamed and gave Henry VIII no peace before and during her marriage. That was the reason why Jane Seymour was so attractive to the king.

[FaithWhiteRose]

I personally thought that Natalie Portman was fabulous as Anne Boleyn. Anne WAS power-hungry and the such, but I agree, she would never have done adultery or incest. But you must remember that this was based on Philippa Gregory's book, and by the looks of it, Ms. Gregory seems to really hate Anne.
And I wouldn't say that Mary was completely innocent, but in personality and character she was. I doubt she really fell in love with the king, though.
I loved the ending. It was powerful and bittersweet. The little girl for Elizabeth was so cute!

[Eric_Lowe]

Indeed. Anne was power hungry and greedy...yet she was just trying to get her fair share. I like the fact that before shewas executed, Anne send a messager to address Princess Mary asking her for her forgiveness (she did). Had she been allowed to marry Percy, she might be quite happy. Mary was used by her family, but at the end she struck out on her own. That part was historically true. Her granddaughter Lettice, countress of Leister and great granddaughter Lady Penelope Rich both had turbulent lives...

[helenazar]

I finally saw the BBC version of The Other Boleyn Girl. I noticed that they eliminated a lot of the nonsense from Gregory's book, but kept the more reasonable ones - good move! The only exception to that was that they kept the incest, but I thought they handled it ok.

In any case, this film can be taken a lot more seriously than the Hollywood version. I liked the format of the characters talking to the camera. The actresses who played the sisters both did a great job. I didn't like the actor who played Henry VIII though, complete miscasting there (of course still not as bad as Jonathan Rhys Myers in THE TUDORS  )...  On the whole, I liked this version a lot more.

P.S. I also noticed that they changed Mary from being the youngest sister to being the oldest sister, and Anne was the youngest... I wonder why.

[jehan]

P.S. I also noticed that they changed Mary from being the youngest sister to being the oldest sister, and Anne was the youngest... I wonder why.

Perhaps to keep it more historically accurate?  Most historians believe Mary to have been the elder sister.