British Council UK Films Database: The English

The English

Synopsis

Complex drama and knotty themes have long been hallmarks of Blick’s work. Through the lens of the Western, he now turns his attention to the founding of contemporary USA. Blunt plays wealthy English woman Cornelia Locke, who arrives in the United States in 1890 with a bag of cash, hell-bent on killing the man responsible for the death of her child. She’s thrown together in unlikely circumstances with Pawnee scout Eli Whipp (a career making turn by Chaske Spencer), recently discharged from the army and trying to make his way home. Demonstrating a deep literacy with the genre, The English is stylised and angular filmmaking that both critiques and pays homage to the traditional Western while imbuing it with a contemporary sensibility. It’s also a work that speaks acutely to post-Brexit Britain – the imperial confidence of ‘the English’ playing cricket on the prairie is in striking contrast with a 21st-century nation coming to terms with its waning global power.
(London Film Festival)

Details

Year

2022

Type of project

Features

Running time

Ep 1 and 2; 97 min

Format

Series

Director

Hugo Blick

Producer

Colin Wratten

Executive Producer

Greg Brenman, Hugo Blick, Emily Blunt

Principal cast

Emily Blunt, Chaske Spencer, Stephen Rea, Rafe Spall, Tom Hughes

Production Status

Complete

The English

Synopsis

Details

Genre

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

BBC

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