Richard III has been a sinister character who has fascinated the world of literature and cinema, especially after being analyzed under the pen of William Shakespeare in his play, where he makes him say in a dramatic monologue: “[I] misshapen unfinished, sent before its time to this smoldering world; scarcely half done, and yet so crippled and disfigured that dogs bark at me when I stand before them.”
King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1483 until his death at age 32 at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, he was the last king of the House of York and also of the Plantagenet dynasty. The representation of his image has been quite negative: described as a tyrant, a murderer, a usurper who seized the English throne after the death of his brother Edward IV and had his two nephews assassinated in the tower of London. On top of all that, he was ugly and hunchbacked.
Until one woman took it upon herself to turn such a gruesome legacy on its head in 2012. Philippa Langley, 45, a television writer, was going through a rough patch at work and during a theatrical performance of Richard III to which she attended with her son in Edinburgh, she was fascinated by the character. Soaking up as much historical reading as possible, she concluded that he wasn’t hunchbacked or misshapen. And that the great Shakespeare was lying.
He joined a circle of fans of Ricardo III and hidden from his family – he was separated and with two children – he carried out an in-depth investigation. She became obsessed with finding her remains, which remained unaccounted for for five centuries and had supposedly been scattered in the River Soar. She saw a Victorian wall in a Leicester city car park and had a hunch, as she realized she was walking on his grave.
Following his intuition and, after trying to convince experts and councilors and starting a crowdfunding project to be able to pay for the excavation in the parking lot, the effort paid off. The remains of Richard III were there, in trench number one, which archaeologists from the University of Leicester believed to be the bones of some Franciscan. And, after genetic analysis, it was found that he was not hunchbacked and suffered from scoliosis.
Scientists from the University of Leicester did not take long to hold a press conference to announce the finding and dismiss Philippa’s work. The fascinating story could not go unnoticed and Stephen Frears has transferred it to the big screen in The lost king, with a script by Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan, who plays Philippa’s ex-husband, based on the book The lost king: The search for Ricard III by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones.
The film participates in the official section of the BCN Film Fest and features Sally Hawkins as the protagonist, a woman who suffers from chronic fatigue and ends up embarking on the adventure of her life. Her Philippa is non-conformist, brave and she is accompanied in several scenes by the presence of Richard III himself.
The story itself can be the most eccentric and incredible. Under Frears’ baton, Hawkins’ interpretation and Alexandre Desplat’s music become a pleasant and curious entertainment. Among these curiosities, it should be noted that the final obsequies of the king of England 500 years ago were held with almost state honors on March 26, 2015 in Leicester Cathedral. The actor Benedict Cumberbatch, related to Richard III, read a poem written in his honor.