The Duke · Serial · Anna Sorokin
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The Crime
In 1961, The National Gallery of London put on display their expensive new acquisition, Francisco Goya’s 1814 oil painting of the Duke of Wellington. The Duke looks a little startled, perhaps anticipating that, just nineteen days after his portrait was presented to the public, it would be stolen. Even more surprising than the theft of the most high-profile artwork in the country was the perpetrator: a retired bus driver called Kempton Bunton. Bunton kept the painting in the back of a closet for four years as he tried to negotiate its return via the press. When he did return it he claimed innocence, saying the painting had only been borrowed as part of his campaign to get older people free BBC TV licenses.
The Story
Originally meant for release in 2020, The Duke doesn’t put you under any illusions as to what you’re getting. Director Roger Michell was best known for Notting Hill and 1995’s excellent Austen adaptation Persuasion, and under his guidance The Duke is more about relationships than anything procedural. Not that there’s much process on the crime side, as the technology involved in the heist was a ladder and a wobbly bathroom window.
While Scotland Yard focused their investigation on international crime syndicates, the painting was in the closet of an amateur playwright living in a working class section of Newcastle.
Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent) is a man of firmly held opinions. Leaping on top of soapboxes is the only activity he partakes in with any gusto. While his wife Dorothy (Helen Mirren, scrubbing the bejesus out of the scenery as she comes just shy of chewing it) labors as a cleaning woman, Kempton can’t keep a job for running his mouth.
To Dorothy’s further dismay he ropes their younger son Jackie (Fionn Whitehead) along for some of his protests and schemes. There’s an elder son, up to some low-level criminal pursuits in Leeds, and a daughter, Marion, who passed away, thus serving as a handy device for character development.
Sure, Kempton may seem borderline unbearable, but the movie keeps gesturing to a dead daughter as if to say, “you can’t hold it against him.” If there’s a reason to warm to Kempton, a man who distills the essence of every family’s least-appealing uncle, it’s in Broadbent’s generous performance.
Bunton’s pet issue is around another uniquely British subject, the license fee that all households with a working TV set are required to pay in order to fund the BBC. He rages against the establishment’s hold over culture, such as the National Gallery spending taxpayer money on a “half rate” Spanish painting.
In a time of increasing state interventions on protests and underfunding of art projects, there’s still something vital at the core of his argument. But rest assured that this movie doesn’t linger on any of that. It even throws in a couple of likable toffs, like Anna Maxwell Martin as Dorothy’s employer, to show that they’re not all so bad.
Bunton’s scheme to ransom the painting off for license fees goes south as Dorothy grows increasingly suspicious of just what’s going on at the back of the wardrobe. While it smoothly integrates period news footage of the actual crime into the film, the story sort of meanders its way until the inevitable criminal trial, not letting on that there were four years between the theft and Bunton’s arrest.
Once he’s in the dock Bunton is assisted by real-life celebrity barrister Jeremy Hutchinson, QC, played by Matthew Goode as mildly amused and slightly hungover. You can guess where this is all going, but it’s worth giving the Wikipedia entry a swerve because there’s a gem of a final twist just before the credits roll.
As renewable sources go, the figure of the British eccentric has proved to be inexhaustible. Since the confidential files about the crime were made public in 2012, there’s a lot of material out there for a whole Kempton Bunton cottage industry. After the Hatton Garden heists led to three movies and a TV series I suspect the ‘unsuspecting duffer does unlikely crime’ genre will expand with more about this particular story, but they’d be hard pressed to improve on the easy charms of this telling.
The Duke is less about the theft of a painting than it is about watching Broadbent and Mirren bicker, laugh, and dance together, in between drinking industrial quantities of tea. It’s a souffle, but souffles are hard work to make, and there’s admirable skill in the construction of this one.
The Duke is set to be released in U.S. cinemas on March 25, options for streaming have yet to be announced. — Margaret Howie
As previously noted, Sarah is off this week for her birthday, so I (Eve) am on deck every day this week. Today I wanted to round up some bits of true crime podcast news that have been hanging out on the budget. So, prick up your ears!
Call Her Daddy: Anna Delvey
I did not expect to ever have to cover the Call Her Daddy podcast on Best Evidence, that I am suggests that true crime as a genre is even more pervasive than we all thought. In a “video episode” of the Spotify show, Sorokin speaks via video chat from custody (it’s an app sanctioned for inmates), in an interview that starts over four minutes in. Not a lot of shocking revelations in the conversation, but it’s interesting to compare her accent with Julia Garner’s I guess?
The Podcast Academy to honor global phenomenon series Serial with Governors Award [Ambies press release]
”The Podcast Academy, the preeminent professional podcast organization, announced today that its Board of Governors will bestow Serial with the Governors Award, recognizing the impact a podcast or individual has had on the industry. Serial co-creators Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder will accept the top honor at the second annual Awards for Excellence in Audio (The Ambies®) on March 22.”
Hard not to see this as a move by the award-givers to force big names Koenig and Snyder to appear at their show, the way the Golden Globes gave The Tourist all those nominations so Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie would show up. The big difference is, of course, that The Tourist (which was crap) was released around the same time as the awards event, while Serial (not crap!) came out in 2014. So, a stretch either way.
Crime Seen | Episode 2: Unsolved Mysteries
Oh, look at that! Birthday girl Sarah D. Bunting guests on this week’s episode of true crime review podcast Crime Seen, where she’ll talk about Unsolved Mysteries Season 2 Episode 16, which covers “Georgia Rudolph, Steve Sandlin & John “Thumper” Brown.” Why that episode, you might ask? Well, Sarah’s husband Dan is IN IT! As you can imagine, she has thoughts.
Tenfold More Wicked: Blood Feud
The fifth season of Kate Winkler Dawson’s (American Sherlock) long-running true crime podcast kicked off earlier this month, “a historical true crime story about a deadly feud between two very angry families in 1860s Virginia. The Clements were wealthy, but the Witchers were powerful. And when a Clement fell in love with a Witcher, it was trouble. A poisoned marriage sparked a violent custody battle. And soon, three members of one family would end up dead.” It’s three episodes in, so an easy catch-up.
Friday on Best Evidence: A very timely book review about Russian spycraft
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