The Madness of King George

I know this isn't a Jane Austen story but it takes place during her time period. Has anyone seen this? We just watched it over the weekend and I loved it. I felt the acting was superior. I really felt for King George (yes, I admit, I shed a tear or two *sniff*). :p

I saw it, but many years ago (could I have been in <gasp> middle school?), so I can't really say anything about it.

jannief, I saw it when it was in the theaters years ago and remember enjoying it immensely. I seem to recall the acting was excellent and the royal marriage seemed quite happy prior to his madness.

It was, I think. Or so I gathered from reading Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III.

It's very good - based on an award-winning play by Alan Bennett. Some morons gave the Best Actor Oscar to Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump instead of the much more deserving Nigel Hawthorne.

The standing joke about the film is that it was actually called The Madness of King George III but American distributors dropped the III because they said people would think it was a sequel.

Supposedly they used the English title for a film a decade or so ago, instead of the French title. Apparently, we Yanks would pronounce the last word of "Pret à Porter" so as to rhyme with "quarter."

The story told in this film is much much more relevant to an understanding of Jane Austen's novels than most Janeites realize.

Read the following articles for a start to understanding why:

http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol27no1/sheehan.htm

And then for more detail, read Parts II and III of this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Jane-Austen-Representations-Regency-England/dp/0415109213/...

Jane Austen was extremely well aware of the goings on in the Royal Family during her lifetime.