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Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh at good times, bad times and Belfast

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Judi Dench spent a lot of time at TikTok during the UK’s first closing ceremony in early 2020, trained by her granddaughter and performing handmade dances. It would not be his last game that year. In the fall, he traveled to Northern Ireland to play in the coming years Belfast. At this time his director was Kenneth Branagh. His closure was used in the writing of the script, the story of a young Ulster man set up in 1969, the Troubles got into trouble for 30 years.

Last September, the film premiered at Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. The success of many festivals followed for 2021 all over Toronto, Rome, London and Rio. Now Belfast has been a favorite of writers to win the Best Photo at the Oscars in March and has seven Golden Globes titles this week.

However the length of the Covid limbo between the left has left both Dench and Branagh confused. Although these joint negotiations in central London are unusual, he admits. “My words are gone,” said Dench. “I thought to myself, ‘It’s because you are eighty years old, you stupid old man.’ [She is 87]. But in reality, most people are afraid. ”

Family in ‘Belfast’: Lewis McAskie as Will, Caitriona Balfe as Ma, Judi Dench as Grandmother, Jamie Dornan as Pa and Jude Hill as Buddy © Rob Youngson / Focus Features

Branagh, 61, shakes her head violently. “We’ve had a lot of doubts, our whole mind is on the spotlight. I feel so close to tears now. I have only spoken these things to Judah yesterday. ”

To each other, Branagh and Dench and Ken and Jude. Their change makes it easier to do twice for the players – as well as their long-time teammates. “Too long,” says Dench. Branagh held their first meeting in 1985 with a glum studio BBC rehearsal called North Acton Hilton. “I was 24 years old. I still remember Judas sweeping, wearing long suede shoes.” (Dench refutes the verb: “I have never been anywhere.”)

The production was a modified version of the TV Spirits and Ibsen (who, accidentally, Dench found recently, is related). He remembers another story from the set. The supervisor gathered his players to try to exercise regularly, in line with the evil drama of syphilitic madness. Minutes passed. Then another player, Michael Gambon, made a potato joke. “Ken and I split up. It’s just falling. None of us could stand it. There was strength. Until the word got to the microphone that ‘Miss Dench and Mr Branagh, you can leave.’ We were sent home literally. ”

Even so, there was still much to learn. As Branagh recalls, “Spirits it was the first time I saw Judas in the last minutes before the event. He is like an Olympic athlete. Just this full laser look. I thought ‘Jesus Christ, Ken, forget the Michael Gambon potatoes, you better stay here.’

Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench and Emma Thompson on the set 'Look Back in Anger', c1989

Branagh and Dench with Emma Thompson on the TV show ‘Look Back in Anger’ in 1989 © TV Times / Getty Images

That is their union. “We’ve worked together 12 times since then,” says Dench, their partnership since 2017 Killing on Orient Express, a few Shakespears and played Bard and his wife in the 2018 film It’s All True. Branagh was already a rising star when they made it Spirits. By 1988, at the age of 27, he was leading Dench in his film Henry V. It won her Oscars as Best Actor and Best Director.

Belfast Returns to the forefront, both the historical piece and the Branagh origin story. Not everything in it is a life story; the main components are. Like an unnamed family in the middle of it all, its Protestant counterparts in the Catholic realm within the mainstream of the Loyalist region when sectarian strife ravaged the city in August 1969. In the film, the parents of the young hero, Buddy, argued on their way out of England. In fact, Mr. Branagh left Northern Ireland after the unrest. Their middle child was nine years old when he settled in Reading, 20 miles west of London, too young to utter his words. Adults he knows have always wondered if he was a Belfast kid like George Best or Van Morrison (who wrote the film).

Branagh draws great performances from his players: new scampish Jude Hill is his transformation; Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe parents. Dench plays grandma, kitchen matriarch-apron. (“Like the Buddha,” says Branagh.) He has less specific lines than other guides. He also makes the whole film work. The final shot by Dench, a wordless approach, clearly. “I feel blue each which means I’m a big fan of the film, ”she says with a twinkle in her eye. But this moment reminds you of Britain’s most difficult “world economy” that is often transformed into: a villain who once conquered London in suede high heels (“I should have worn it today”); a Quaker; the right talent.

Of all the things that were said by British journalists, the role of the real Judi Dench is still his. “I do not want to run a Quaker business, but it gives you a private, quiet environment.” He speaks to himself and laughs. “Anything one can think of is this external thing.”

The director and actor of the film 'Belfast' on set

From left: Kenneth Branagh, Lewis McAskie, Jude Hill, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe on the ‘Belfast’ set © Rob Youngson / Focus Features

Kenneth Branagh sitting in a chair reading a script in the streets of his film Belfast

Branagh also made the streets of his childhood film © Rob Youngson / Focus Features

When the Belfast riots broke out in 1969, Dench was already a theater star. He also knew of impending doom. Like Branagh, he does not love English more than he sometimes thinks. His mother was from Dublin. “Mother was still alive in 1969 and we had relatives in Belfast, so we knew exactly what was going on. When the British troops came in, it was like the beginning of Covid – people saw it all come to an end in three weeks. But I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that way. ”

I ask them all if they have any hope of peace in Northern Ireland now. Branagh offers a long, heartfelt response, highlighting the importance of giving hope to new generations, appreciating the “miracle of imperfection” of the Friday Covenant, rejecting violence among ordinary people. Dench looks up. “I want to be,” she says.

He doesn’t speak, sometimes Dench looks down. He was diagnosed in 2012 with macular degeneration – a blindness that makes it impossible for, for example, facial recognition. For a while, he had to read the scriptures. So it was with Belfast. Branagh started the first record of the plague – he reminded, he said, of the end time and he knew “there is a story to tell”. Her grandmother was transformed from real life to a fictional family link, and she always wanted Dench to play her. “I believed that something here would frighten Judah. Because he loves to be afraid to play man. ”

Is this true? “Oh, I always get nervous,” says Dench. “I used to make jokes at Old Vic when I was in my twenties that this is where I should be heard.” After so many good theaters, what are they afraid of? “Do not do it justly.”

Judi Dench and Jude Hill, who is like Buddy

Judi Dench and Jude Hill, who is like Buddy © Rob Youngson / Focus Features

Beyond the jokes, you see what brings him and Branagh and just wanting to do things perfectly. For Dench, helping a colleague make his own film also provides an opportunity to work with a director who loves him, “Who tells you to do well – and Ken can tell you verbally.”

There was also an easy attraction for the job. In closing, Dench found that his work was bothering him, with no real work to do. “I kept thinking, ‘I have to learn music.’ Did I learn any sonnet? I didn’t. ” Belfast, he says, was a god. We were all in the mask, and because I can’t see now, I just start talking to the wrong person. But once again part – oh, rest. ”

While shooting in 2020 means more frequent testing and more colorful, contrasting methods. the joy of life he also inserted it. “Then because there was such care, it means Covid wasn’t the first thing you thought of.”

Often painting with a band of bones, Branagh says making Belfast it feels like friends are blowing the wind. “Instead, we spent a lot of money on Covid protocols to achieve this. But it sounded appropriate, because the film is about the weakness of the community and enjoying the good times. And we were a weak group, doing the same.”

Now a Branagh mini-movie, his film is a time for the ultimate reward. However, despite 40 years of popularity, his life away from the camera has not been revealed. You wonder if he is feeling revealed now, with something similar to his childhood in front of an audience with Oscar voters. “I am not a public figure. That is why it is so dangerous. But I always thought that this would be the best thing that could ever happen to me. ”

In UK and Ireland movies from January 21 and in US now

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