Downton Abbey: A New Era
Short description
Downton Abbey: A New Era continues the story of the Crawley family and their servants. The household is thrown into activity when a film production arrives to shoot at the estate, an idea that divides the family and delights much of the staff. At the same time, Violet, the dowager countess, reveals that an old acquaintance has left her a villa in the south of France, prompting some of the Crawleys to travel there and investigate why the property was given to her. The two threads place the family between a changing world at home and an unexpected inheritance abroad.
Simon Curtis directed the film from a screenplay by Julian Fellowes, who also produced alongside Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge. It is the fifth feature Curtis directed, arriving after My Week with Marilyn, Woman in Gold, Goodbye Christopher Robin and The Art of Racing in the Rain, and before Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern and Imelda Staunton lead a credited cast of forty.
Released in April 2022, the film had a budget of 40 million USD and took 93 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.4/10 from 38,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2/10 from 637 votes. A critics' rating of 6.9/10 from 200 reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The role of Tom and Lucy's baby, whom they show to their family at the end of the film, was played by Luca, the son of Laura Carmichael and Michael Fox (who played Lady Edith and Andy Parker, respectively).
- When filming a sound film, the operator is shown turning the camera crank. In reality, all film cameras of the corresponding historical period had an electric motor inside, which was necessary to synchronize the image and sound, so there was no need to turn the crank.
- Michelle Dockery (who played Lady Mary) was asked to record her “aristocratic pronunciation” over Mirna’s London slang. According to the actress, in her youth she missed out on many roles due to her Wessex accent.
- The fact that Lady Mary’s pronunciation was overlaid on Mirna’s voice due to the latter’s overly noticeable accent is borrowed from the plot of Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s 1951 musical “Singin’ in the Rain”.
- The wedding of Tom and Lucy (Allen Leech and Tuppence Middleton, respectively) was organized at Belchamp Hall in the county of Wessex, and the official ceremony took place in the church near Belchamp Walter (a country house in the Queen Anne style). Eight bells of the chapel (cast and installed between the early 18th and late 19th centuries) are not used, as it is now unsafe, so the chime of the bells had to be recorded elsewhere and overlaid on the image.
- Robert and Carson (played by Hugh Bonneville and Jim Carter, respectively) appear tanned even before leaving for the south of France. This is because the scenes in France were filmed before they began filming at Downton Abbey. The filmmakers shooting in France had to spend two weeks in quarantine before the start of filming due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and Hugh Bonneville, Allen Leech (who played Tom), and Jim Carter often sunbathed.
- The fact that filming at Downton Abbey provided its residents with the funds to renovate the roof has a basis in reality. Highclere Castle was in a dilapidated state, but thanks to the filming of the first season of the series (2010-2015), its owners were able to replace the roof.
- In the image of Guy, played by Dominic West, one can notice features of the popular silent film actor Douglas Fairbanks, while in the image of Myrna, played by Laura Haddock, the features of Betty Balfour, a British film star of the early 20th century, are clearly visible.
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