The Duke

Product Information

Grater, Tom (4 November 2019). "Fionn Whitehead Joins Jim Broadbent & Helen Mirren In Roger Michell's 'The Duke' For Pathé – AFM". Deadline . Retrieved 12 January 2020.

The Duke DVD. This is about a 60-year-old taxi driver who steals Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery and sends random notes of returning the painting on the condition that the government invests more in care for the elderly.Grater, Tom (29 October 2019). "Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren Art Heist Story 'The Duke' Greenlit At Pathé – AFM". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 12 January 2020. When the Goya goes awol, the authorities suspect highly organised international criminals, probably including “a trained commando” (the 1962 Bond film Dr No fancifully placed the painting in its villain’s lair). But when Kempton’s long-suffering wife, Dorothy (Helen Mirren), finds “a stolen masterpiece in me wardrobe!”, it appears that her husband has outdone himself in his quest to battle social injustice at large while driving his nearest and dearest to distraction at home.

In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery's history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly -- he had long campaigned for pensioners to receive free television. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge -- Kempton had spun a web of lies. The only truth was that he was a good man, determined to change the world and save his marriage -- how and why he used the Duke to achieve that is a wonderfully uplifting tale. Sixty-year-old self-educated working-class Kempton Bunton appears in Court Number 1 at the Old Bailey, pleading not guilty to charges of stealing Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington and its frame from the National Gallery in London. Six months earlier, in spring 1961, he had sent a script to the BBC from his native Newcastle upon Tyne. Soon afterwards he is jailed at Durham for 13 days for watching TV without a licence. Although he can afford one, he refuses to do so as he is campaigning against pensioners having to pay it, part of his wider strong beliefs about supporting the common man. The story of Bunton and the Duke’s portrait is very unusual for a high-concept Britpic in that the true story has a ready-made two-part plot, revealing a mystery you didn’t know was there. There is a second act still to come just before the end, a narrative sting in the tail that is adroitly concealed in the structuring and editing. Broadbent’s performance satisfyingly shows both the public and the private man to be the same: the stubborn eccentric and the individualist who drives Dorothy up the wall, and the born standup comic who in court gets laughs from the jury and the press gallery. There is a fair bit of sentimentality here, but an awful lot of affection and energy as well. British Comedy-Drama the Duke" to Premiere at Venice Film Festival:: The Pavlovic Today". 29 July 2020. The Duke DVD is about Kempton Bunton, a 60 year old taxi driver, who steals Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London in 1961.The film was originally scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom by 20th Century Studios via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on 6 November 2020, [18] but Pathé later delayed it to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [19] On 7 June 2021, it was announced that Pathé would release the film on 3 September 2021, after announcing a new distribution deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. [20] On 23 July, Pathé announced that the film release would be again delayed, this time to 25 February 2022. [21] For what has become his final feature film, director Roger Michell made this sweet-natured and genial comedy in the spirit of Ealing, which bobs up like a ping pong ball on a water-fountain. It is based on the true story of Kempton Bunton, the Newcastle cab driver who in 1965 appeared at the Old Bailey for stealing Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from London’s National Gallery. The mystery of its disappearance had so electrified the media that there was even a gag about it in the James Bond film Dr No, using a copy personally painted by the legendary production designer Ken Adam, which was itself stolen. Maybe there should be a film about that as well.