2023-09-29 12:13:00
England’s King Richard III died in battle, his body was lost. Centuries later, Philippa Langley set out on a search – she created a sensation. Now a film regarding her is coming to cinemas.
This Richard III is said to be a kind of monster in human form. to have been a monster, a villain beyond compare. “Disfigured, neglected” is how William Shakespeare called the English king in his late 16th century play of the same name. “So lame and unbecoming that dogs bark, I limp along somewhere,” is how the poet Richard III put it. as a self-description in the mouth.
Richard III has his nephews. He was summarily assassinated in order to pave his way to England’s throne; he was not too good for any outrage or crime. The accused might hardly defend himself; on August 22, 1485 he was killed in the Battle of Bosworth during the so-called Wars of the Roses. Richard III was granted the dubious honor of being the last king of England to lose his life on the battlefield.
History is written by the winners
The victor of Bosworth, Henry Tudor and founder of the eponymous dynasty, naturally had little interest in attesting to his dead rival’s good reputation. In addition to a very bad reputation, Richard III had. Leaving little behind for posterity, apparently not even mortal remains. Legend has it that following extensive desecration, his bones were once thrown into the River Soar.
A legend that a woman named Philippa Langley harbored doubts regarding in modern Britain. Richard III became her obsession; she turned the search for him into a year-long mission. On October 5, 2023, “The Lost King,” a film regarding Langley’s odyssey, will be released in German cinemas. A success that was made possible primarily because the amateur historian actually found what she was looking for in 2012. And therefore famous.
“The Lost King” starts on 5. October 2023 distributed by X Verleih in cinemas nationwide. The lead role of Philippa Langley is played by two-time Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins.
In the city of Leicester in England’s East Midlands, Langley’s team found the remains of the dead king – under, of all things, a parking lot. There had once been a church there containing the remains of Richard III. had been buried, without pomp and decoration, as would actually have been worthy of a monarch. News of the sensation went around the world, especially since a later DNA comparison with the king’s descendants removed any doubt.
But how did Philippa Langley, a working mother of two, become an amateur in the male-dominated world of historians and archaeologists in search of a king who was slain centuries ago? Ultimately, defiance was probably part of her motivation. “Are you serious?” was the question that rang out at Langley as she returned from her search for Richard III. told. Followed by the common belief: “You’ll never find him.” She reports this in the accompanying material for the film.
“A person who has been unjustly treated badly”
But it wasn’t just defiance, but also Langley’s sense of justice. In 1998 she was on Richard III for the first time. became aware when she read a biography regarding the dead man. The more she looked into the person, the more convinced she was that the king had been wronged.
Shakespeare portrays the body of Richard III. as deformed, “disfigured”, “neglected”, “lame” and “limping”, and he also had a hunchback. In his depiction, physical defects are equated with a tendency towards evil and cruelty. Philippa Langley didn’t want to leave it like that. “I’m here today to tell you a story regarding a person who was unfairly treated poorly,” says Sally Hawkins, who plays Philippa Langley, to a school class in a scene from “The Lost King.”
Langley, who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome, has experienced being treated unfairly because of it in her life. In a sense, Langley and Richard III come full circle. Which in turn was a welcome connection for the filmmakers around director Stephen Frears.
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