THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL [2008]

Two Sisters Divided For The Love of a King

 Sir Thomas Boleyn: I received a request for marriage today, for Anne from the Carey family.

William, their eldest son.

Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: Oh, that's wonderful.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: I turned it down. Offered them Mary instead.

Everyone improves the standing of their family with their daughters.

I think Anne can do a lot better than a merchant's son.

Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: And Mary can't?

I think you underestimate her.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: No, no, that's not true.

I think she's the kinder of the two, quite possibly the fairer.

To get ahead in this world, you need more than fair looks and a kind heart.

William Carey: Are you happy?

Mary Boleyn: I am.

William Carey: You don't wish you'd married someone grander? With a title?

Mary Boleyn: I want a husband who loves me.

Who thinks it first thing every morning and last thing at night.

William Carey: Then you have found the right man.

The Duke of Norfolk: The king and queen, once happily married, now barely speak.

The failure to provide a male heir has consumed them.

The queen has lost yet another child, a boy.

I imagine it won't be long before he seeks solace with a mistress.

I've given it some thought and wondered which Howard girl I can place under his nose.

You imagine the riches and influence that would give us?

If we could help the king with this delicate matter?

Sir Thomas Boleyn: What about Anne?

I realize, as a Boleyn, she's not officially a Howard, but as your sister's daughter.

The Duke of Norfolk: But Thomas, she's your first born, and your favorite.

Wouldn't you prefer her to have a simple, uncomplicated marriage?

Like Mary?

Sir Thomas Boleyn: If Anne were a simple, uncomplicated girl like Mary, I'd say yes.

But she's not.

She's anything but.

The Duke of Norfolk: Before watching somebody else profit, we would sooner have...

Anne Boleyn: What? Have me bed him instead?

The Duke of Norfolk: Yes. Exactly.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: The favor he would bestow upon us, I mean upon you, if he liked you.

The Duke of Norfolk: To be mistress of the King of England is by no means to diminish yourself.

Anne Boleyn: And after he's finished with me?

My reputation and prospects will be ruined.

The Duke Of Norfolk: On the contrary.

Under such circumstances, when the time came to find you a husband, 
it would be a marquis or a duke at least.

Will you accept the challenge?

Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: Tell me, when was it that people stopped thinking of ambition as a sin

and started thinking of it as a virtue?

Sir Thomas Boleyn: That's easy for you to say.

You've had position and wealth all your life.

Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: Until I married you, Thomas.

And I was happy to give it up for love.

The Lord of Norfolk: Mary, you've obviously made a deep impression on the king.

He's requested that you come to court with immediate effect.

The king has secured for you, a position in the queen's household.

Mary Boleyn: But I don't want to go to court. Nor does my husband.

William Carey: The king has also offered me a position as a gentleman of the Privy Council.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Do you hear that, Mary? Privy Council.

Attending upon His Majesty himself.

The inner sanctum.

Mary Boleyn: What about our future in the country?

The Duke of Norfolk: Oh, you must put that out of your mind.

From now on, your future is at court.

Mary Boleyn: William, please, don't you understand what this means?

They'll seperate us.

Put me in different accommodation, where the king can always find me.

The Duke of Norfolk: Happily, your husband understands the value of such an opportunity.

For us all.

That can't have been easy for you.

But put yourself in the queen shoes.

She knows the only reason the kings has asked you here is because he desires you.

She's a good woman, trust me.

~Jane Parker

I'm not sure I'm one for court life.

In my view, it changes people.

And not necesarily for the better.

~William Stafford

Mary Boleyn: So this is it, where the King of England sleeps.

Henry Tudor: And reads and writes.

Finds a few moments each day for himself.

Mary Boleyn: And yet you invite me here?

Henry Tudor: Because I like you, and trust you.

Mary Boleyn: You hardly know me.

Henry Tudor: I'm lied to a hundred times a day. Petitioned, lobbied.

One learns how to decipher a face.

And yours is as the sun, one shouldn't gaze too long.

[Mary blushing]

My flattery, it makes you uncomfortable.

Because compliments in your family are usually for someone else.

The elder sister.

That's something I understand, what is it to be the second child.

Forever in the shadows.

I'm making you uncomfortable again.

You better get used to talking about it.

When you sleep with the king, it ceases to be a private matter.

~The Duke of Norfolk

The Duke of Norfolk: Now our work begin.

It's one thing to catch a king, quite another to keep him.

She must be well-read, know her music, excellent in company, and she must be clean.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Anne will see to it.

Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: See to what?

Mary is already all of these things, thanks to the education I have given her.

And for what?

That she may be traded like cattle for the advancement and amusement of men?

You would be wise to regard this as an opportunity.

You are educated.

It's a chance I never had.

Now go to France.

The Queen of France is sophisticated.

Be useful to her, amuse her.

She'll admire your spirit.

Learn from her.

Observe the ladies of the court.

See how they achieve, what they want from their men, not by stamping their little feet,

but by allowing the men to believe that they, indeed, are in charge.

That is the art of being a woman.

~Lady Elizabeth Boleyn

Sir Thomas Boleyn: It'll be a wedding attended by the King of England,

with all the greatest lords of the land.

Would a smile be too much to ask?

Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: What's there to smile about?

I'm a mother with one child ordered to marry a girl he hates,

another banished abroad in disgrace,

and a third, whoring in public with an adulterer.

You say you're concerned for her happiness.

Will Mary be happy when he leaves her?

Because you know that will happen in the end.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Only God knows how anything will end.

Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: God? He turned his back on all this a long time ago.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: And these rooms, our new position?

Does none of my work please you?

Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: These gifts, this favor will go as swiftly as it came.

These rooms once belonged to the Duke of Buckingham, the king's closest friend.

His head now rots on a spike.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: He committed treason.

Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: Treason? What is treason?

Anything the king or his lawyers decide it to be. On a whim.

Henry Tudor: What's so amusing?

Anne Boleyn: I was merely offering my thoughts on the new French king.

Who has such great power, yet such meager authority as a man.

His pettiness is astounding.

He will bear a mortal grudge over the mildest of slights.

Spoiled cub with a spike in its paw.

Riven with resentment.

Unable to forgive or forget.

A great king, a great man, rises above such things.

Henry Tudor: And what would you know of great man?

Anne Boleyn: I've read enough books and heard enough talk,

to believe I'd know one if he were before me.

Henry Tudor: Then look about you.

I'm curious.

Do you see one here?

Anne, walks toward king: Looking, My Lord.

Still looking, My Lord.

Ahh, there... found one.

Henry Tudor: So forgiveness, you say, makes a man great.

What else?

Anne Boleyn: Generosity.

Humility.

The ability to recognize his match in others, and not be threatened by it.

Henry Tudor: His match in other men?

Anne Boleyn: Women, too. 

Henry Tudor: You believe that women can be the match of men?

Anne Boleyn: It's a question women have asked themselves for some time.

But we concede men do have some value.

So we accept them as equal.

Henry Tudor: I find you much changed, Mistress Anne.

Anne Boleyn: Then my prayers have been answered.

Henry Tudor: Welcome back at court.

Anne Boleyn: Do you feel as awful as you look?

You know, in France no woman would allow herself to get in such a state.

Mary Boleyn: Why did you come. Anne, if all you desire is to torment me?

Anne Boleyn: Perhaps now you know how it feels to be deceived by your sister.

Mary Boleyn: I did nothing.

Anne Boleyn: You stole the king away.

And then you betrayed me over Henry Percy.

Mary Boleyn: If that's what you think, fine, tell that to yourself.

Anne Boleyn: I did, sister, every day and every night I was in exile.

Mary Boleyn: You know I love him.
Anne Boleyn: Perhaps you should stop.

 Anne Boleyn: I beg you, My Lord, do not do this.
What has changed so?
 Henry Tudor: You. You have changed.
Anne Boleyn: How could I forget?
You chose Mary above me when we first met. 
Henry Tudor: No, Anne, yours was the only face I saw in the crowd that day.
 Anne Boleyn: And what I wouldn't give to go back to that day, My Lord.
Have my chance again? But it's too late. 
And I would never betray my sister.
Now I beg you, leave me. 
This is too difficult to bear.
Henry Tudor: You see? The same pain as mine.
Proof you feel the same way. 
Anne Boleyn: Perhaps.
But since it can never come to...
Henry Tudor: No, let me decide that.
Allow me hope. 

 The Duke of Norfolk: DAMN YOU! Not a single detail was left to chance.
In the moment of our greatest glory...
Anne Boleyn: Glory? What glory? 
A mistress gave a man a bastard. No more. 
The Duke of Norfolk: A male bastard. A son. 
Anne Boleyn: The queen may yet give birth to a son.
The Duke of Norfolk: The queen no longer bleeds.
Anne Boleyn: Can you be sure?
The Duke of Norfolk: One of her physicians.
 The moment this family provides a son, he turns his back on it on your account.
 You better have a plan, girl, and that plan had better work.

Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: And what about Mary? And her child?
Or have we forgotten about them already? 
Anne Boleyn: Mary and her bastard child will go back to the country. 
It is the king's wish, and mine. 
Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: Very well.
And you can be the one to tell her. 
I think you've earned that privilege. 

 Mary Boleyn: Take care.
Because he'll only do to you what he's done to me.
 Anne Boleyn: You should not have given yourself so lightly.
These are the consequences. 
Mary Boleyn: I gave myself to a man I loved.
And he loved me.
Anne Boleyn: A man's love is worthless. 
Our mother succumbed to love, look what it got her, a feeble husband.
 Love is of no value without power and position.
If I give the king a son, he will not bear the name 'bastard'.
 Mary Boleyn: What you suggest is treason.
He cannot marry you, he has his queen.
Anne Boleyn: Who cannot produce a male heir.
Mary Boleyn: You've reached too high, as always.
Anne Boleyn: The King will deal with Katherine. 
You'll hear about it from where I'm sending you. 
You are to go back to Rochford.
Isn't that what you always wanted?
A life in the country, alone with your child. 

 Henry Tudor: Your sister is gone, as you wished.
Will you give yourself to me now? 
Anne Boleyn: No. When you are loyal to me above all others. 
Henry Tudor: But I am.
Anne Boleyn: No, you are loyal to the queen above all others.
Henry Tudor: I barely see Katherine.
Anne Boleyn: But she sits on a throne beside you, your right hand in matters of state.
Henry Tudor: For appearances' sake only. 
Anne Boleyn: Still, she is your queen. And ever present. 
I feel her eyes on me. And those of her spies.
Look at us.
Forever reduced to meeting in secret like this, speaking in whispers.
Hardly conducive to passion. 
Henry Tudor: Well, what would you have me do?

 Anne Boleyn: My Lord, I desire nothing more.
But as long as we unmarried, any child I gave you would be dubbed 'bastard', and I a whore.
Do you really wish that for me? 
Henry Tudor: What alternative is there? Katherine is my wife. 
Anne Boleyn: I really do not know why we waste our time talking of convents
when you could simply annul the marriage. 
Then you, my sweet lord, will be free to remarry.
And I could give myself to you fully, give you everything you desire.

Henry Tudor: Can I trust her?
Mary Boleyn: Why would you not?
Henry Tudor: Usually, my instincts are sharp.
But with your sister, she has a power over me.

Queen Katherine of Aragon: So, the Boleyn whores. Two former ladies of mine.
What did I do to upset you, that you should turn against me like this?
Anne Boleyn: You failed to give England an heir.
Queen Katherine of Aragon: And that upsets you so? 
Anne Boleyn: What upsets the king upsets me.
Queen Katherine of Aragon: How dare you! 
You want me to creep away and become a nun? Well, I shall not.
You want me to lie before God and admit my first marriage was consummated? 
Well, it was not.
 You want me to retire and give up my daughter's claim as sole rightful heir to the throne? Well, I shall not.
Not in a thousand years.
Not if you rack me to within an inch of my life.
I am Katherine, Queen of England, the king's one true wife and mother of the heir to the throne.
 Beloved of the people, and beloved of a king you have bewitched.

 My Lord, how have I offended you?
 I have been a true, obedient wife.
I have loved all those whom you loved and given you children, 
though it has pleased God to take them away.
 If there is any just cause against me, I will happily depart to my shame and dishonor.
But I tell you, as God is my witness, there is none. 
So I beg you, dear husband, to spare me this humiliation.
 But if you will not and you wish to challenge the validity of our marriage, 
then let it be in a proper court and by the only authority I recognize. 
His Holiness himself, the Pope. 
~Queen Katherine of Aragon

 Anne Boleyn: Why does the king give Rome such power?
He should simply take matters into his own hands and annul the marriage.
 Lady Elizabeth Boleyn: No, that would mean breaking with the Catholic Church.
His faith would never allow that.
 The Lord of Norfolk: Nor his good sense.
 Breaking with Rome would isolate England politically, and leave us at the mercy of the Protestans.
Anne Boleyn: But the alternative is leaving England without a male heir and risking civil war.
The very thing Henry fears most.

I know you.
You have decided but it grieves you.
Will you destroy your marriage, your country, your soul before God 
on the whim of one girl because she denies you?
 Because she tortures you with her refusal?
You think she doesn't know exactly what she's doing? 
She wants me to step aside. 
Where is my wise husband? 
Where is he? 
You are a king, so be one.
~Queen Katherine of Aragon 

Henry Tudor: Now you will give yourself to me.
 Anne Boleyn: I thought I had made myself clear.
Until we're married, there's no ques...
 Henry Tudor: DAMN YOU!
I have torn this country apart for you! 
Anne Boleyn: For which you should thank me, not be angry. 
Henry Tudor: Broken with Rome. 
Anne Boleyn: Freed yourself from the decadence of a corrupt church. 
Henry Tudor: I've got rid of a good woman in the queen. 
Anne Boleyn: A husk who failed you, whose Spanish blood shackles you to Rome.
 Henry Tudor: For which I will be excommunicated.
Anne Boleyn: And instead, become head of a new church, the Church of England, closer to God.

William Stafford: I'm leaving court and your father's employment.
I've seen enough.
Mary Boleyn: You and I both.
William Stafford: I've saved some money.
It's not much, but it's enough to keep you. To keep you safe.
I have my eye on a place in Tatton, near where I grew up, in the west.
If you came with me, I would never betray you or take you for granted.
Mary Boleyn: It's impossible, you know that.
My family would never allow it.
William Stafford: And you would care what they think, after everything they've done to you?

It's geting more and more difficult to arouse him.
Some nights, he cannot do it.
 I have to resort to evermore degrading.
He hates himself in the morning. 
He hates me for what I made him do. 
It's slipping away and it's my fault. 
It's my fault.
~Anne Boleyn

 Anne Boleyn: I feel his eyes on me.
Staring at me, wondering why I do not show. 
Mary Boleyn: You haven't told him? 
Anne Boleyn: Well, the truth will be out, that I cannot bear children.
 He will have me burned as a witch.
Mary Boleyn: But there's still time.
You could yet fall pregnant. 
Anne Boleyn: He won't lie with me now.
And risk damaging the child he believes I'm carrying? No.
 Must I spell it out?
 Mary Boleyn: But lying with another man would be treason.
[look at George hopelessly]
Mary Boleyn: Stop it, Anne, it's madness.  
Anne, to George: No, don't you see? You're my only hope. 
Mary Boleyn: I can't listen anymore. It's monstrous!
Anne Boleyn: Mary! 
Mary Boleyn: No, come George.
Anne Boleyn: George, please... 
My life depends on it. 
Mary Boleyn: May God have mercy on you both.

 Anne Boleyn: It's a sad day for England when nobles do not rise for their queen.
 The Duke of Norfolk: And even sadder when that same queen is charged with adultery and incest.

Judge me, my lords, but never forget, 
your verdicts will be judged by God in the greatest court of all.
~Anne Boleyn

 Mary Boleyn: I beg you, spare my sister.
 I understand she has offended you.
You wish to replace her as queen.
 But must she die?
 Henry Tudor: She has been tried and found guilty.
Mary Boleyn: You could send her away, no one would know. 
Henry Tudor: Why are you here for her?
 You have put yourself at great risk.
 Mary Boleyn: Because she's my sister, and therefore one half of me.
 Henry Tudor: And I would do nothing to hurt any part of you.

 Mary, you risked your life coming to court and were only spared because of my respect and affection for you.
 You are advised not to do so again.
 You will not be shown the same clemency a second time.
 May God bless you, and my son.
 And may God have mercy on Anne's soul.
~Henry Tudor's letter



*****