W./E.

US, 2011, 119 minutes, Colour.
Abbie Cornish, Andrea Riseborough, James D’ Arcy, Oscar Isaac, Richard Coyle, David Harbour, James Fox, Judy Parfitt, Haluk Bilginer, Geoffrey Palmer, Natalie Dormer, Laurence Fox.
Directed by Madonna.

The fact that W./E. was given very little cinema release raises the question about hostility - to Madonna who co-wrote and directed the film and/or to Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. Never liked much in Britain, especially at the time of the abdication of Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson received short shrift in The King’s Speech. However, this is an attempt to look at her more favourably, which succeeds in part in giving a more human face to the Duchess and giving the audience something of a look behind the scenes at the Duke of Windsor.

However, it is not a biography. Rather, it is a portrait, as seen by the writers through a character they have created in a parallel story, set in New York City in 1998, at the time of Sotheby’s auction of the Duchess’ memorabilia. She died in 1986, the Duke in 1972 (and they are buried together in Windsor Castle, where she was not welcome during her life).

Abbie Cornish plays a wealthy socialite with a well-respected doctor husband who is, however, unfaithful to her and physically brutal. Her mother had called her Wallis after the Duchess and the 1990s Wallis becomes more obsessed with her namesake, spending much time at the Sotheby’s pre-auction exhibition and moping around the city. She is befriended by a Russian security guard (Oscar Isaac) and persuaded to buy a pair of the Duchess’ gloves - for $10,000. Her being presented as one of the spoilt and idle rich with this kind of glove money does not quite endear her to ordinary audiences for whom this extravagance would be a dream.

The more interesting part of the film is the portrait of Wallis Simpson which is intercut with the New York story (1990s Wallis dreaming or fantasizing about meeting the Duchess, who actually takes a dim view of Wallis, snapping at her to get a life).

There is a difficulty (unnecessary?) in the flashbacks insofar as they are not in chronological order and run the danger of confusion for those not familiar with the dates and places. However, it is Andrea Riseborough’s excellently nuanced performance that makes the film worth seeing. Andrea Riseborough in recent films has played the mousy Rose in Brighton Rock and an IRA killer in Shadow Dancer. She can immerse herself in a role, roles that are quite diverse. James McAvoy? is, as an American commentator refers to him after the abdication, Mr David Windsor. He is sympathetic but the film indicates that he was prone to some profligacy in his relationships and the high life. As in The King’s Speech, George V (James Fox) and Queen Mary (Judy Parfitt) comes across as cold and imperious. Laurence Fox (James Fox’s son) is the stammering Bertie. This time the Queen Mother to be comes across as moralistically hostile to Wallis.

Wallis’ first husband was a brute (we see scenes in the 1920s in Shanghai), whereas Ernest Simpson, her second husband, is a gentleman who loves his wife. It is she who turns to the Prince of Wales, basking in his friendship, and who gives up her husband. The political atmosphere of the abdication is portrayed well and the abdication speech itself (very well-written) is moving. Then it dawns on Wallis that she has lost her freedom and will forever be yoked to her husband and suffer hostility and humiliations. There is, in recompense, a scene in 1972 where the Duke is dying and asks his wife to dance for him. They had been together for almost forty years. Wallis, in 1998, has a sequence where she goes to Paris to ask Mohamad Al-Fayad?, who owns the Duchess’ private letter collection, if she can read them. What is Madonna suggesting about Diana and Dodi Al-ayad and the Windsors?

So, the film is not without interest, especially in the scenes of the past, and an opportunity to think again about the abdication and what brought it about and the consequences. The New York story has some poignant moments but is far less interesting than the past.

1. Interest in Wallis Simpson? The history of the abdication of Edward VIII? Public opinion at the time? Since? A look at British history? Audience opinions – and changing opinions through watching the film?

2. The work of Madonna, her interest, themes, United Kingdom and US? History? The marriage, fidelity and infidelity, abuse, the consequences?

3. The two stories and audience interest? The way they were intercut, Wallis Simpson’s story not in chronological order – and possible confusion? Wallis’s dreams and fantasies in the 1990s? The connection between the two women? The musical score, the moods, Madonna’s song at the end?

4. New York City, 1998, the affluent neighbourhoods? Wallis, her name from her mother and grandmother, her marriage to William Winthrop? The dinner honouring him? As a husband, his treatment of her, his lies, infidelity, physical abuse? Wallis lonely, her comfortable life, her wanting children, her examination at the doctor’s? Ultimately her husband’s impotence? Her interest in Wallis Simpson, the auction, visits to the exhibition, her memories and dreams? The fantasy Wallis Simpson telling her to get a life, being stern with her? Evgeni, talking with him, her contemplating the exhibition, his urging her to participate in the auction, her standing at the sides, her eventual bid, ten thousand dollars for the gloves? Sharing conversations with Evgeni, his rescuing her after the assault? Their sexual relationship? The future, changing? Her sitting in the park, Wallis Simpson joining her, the gift of the gloves? An interesting character – and what would happen to her?

5. The United States in the 1990s, Sotheby’s, Wallis’s friends working with the auctioneers, the auctioneer himself and his jovial conducting of the bidding, the moods, bids and applause?

6. Evgeni, his life, his dead wife, his working as a security guard, his intelligence? With the other guard? His special interest in Wallis? Helping her to see the exhibition? Finding her in the apartment? Helping her? As a contrast with the husband and his deceptions, his brutality, kicking his wife?

7. History, audience knowledge, the use of clips from newsreels? The effect?

8. Wallis Simpson in Shanghai, with her first husband, his brutality, her pregnancy, kicking her, the blood and her losing the child? The effect on her? No more children?

9. Ernest Simpson, a good man, in the United Kingdom, an American? The American couple? Happiness, life together, the social circle, the Prince of Wales? Thelma and her relationship with the Prince of Wales? Her going to America – her return, her being upset at Wallis calling him David? Ernest observing what was going on, having to give up his wife?

10. David in himself, in the royal family, the ethos of the royal family, his visit to the poor in Wales and their support of him, his presence in parliament, his living the high life, socialising? Relationships, women? The episode of putting the Benzedrine in the drinks? A touch of profligacy?

11. George V, lying in bed, his stern attitudes? Mary, her severity? Lack of rapport with her children? Disapproval of David, of Wallis Simpson? Bertie, his stammer, with Elizabeth, their family, Elizabeth preventing him from talking to David on the phone?

12. David’s life with Wallis, the social outings, the holidays together, the homes, travel, the media response, the screaming headlines?

13. Stanley Baldwin, the parliament, the political crisis?

14. The abdication, the desk and its being auctioned, Edward VIII’s speech, its style, dignity, ‘the woman I love’?

15. Wallis hearing it on the radio, her worry, Ernest? His agreeing to the divorce? Wallis’s future? Confined in her marriage to the Prince of Wales? Their becoming the Duke and Duchess of Windsor?

16. Wallis hated, humiliated? Her reaction to the rumours about their Nazi sympathising – and the explanation of their visits? Bertie and his obeying his wife, her repeating the Nazi slurs? Their being forced to live away from England? Bertie refusing the phone calls? Their life in France? The visuals of Wallis in France, her age, getting older?

17. Wallis and her being imprisoned by the choice, devoted to her husband, living in exile, the 1972 sequence – and his asking her to dance for him, the Twist? His funeral? Her death, the two buried at Windsor Castle?

18. The film and its effect of having another look at David, the abdication and its process, Wallis Simpson herself? How would the situation be handled in later decades?