Among the many collaborators who stand out for director Stephen Frears on the recently released Victoria & Abdul (Focus Features) are two he’s had a long, rewarding track record with; however while both have brought him joy, one of them now evokes sadness.
The latter is production designer Alan MacDonald who passed away on Aug. 30 at the age of 61. Victoria & Abdul thus marks the final collaboration between Frears and MacDonald. It’s a working relationship that began on the Best Picture Oscar-nominated The Queen for which Frears received his second career Academy Award nomination for Best Director (the first coming for The Grifters). The Queen earned British Independent Film and Art Directors Guild Award nominations for MacDonald. Frears and MacDonald later teamed on Cheri starring Michelle Pfeiffer; Tamara Drewe starring Gemma Arterton; Philomena, also a Best Picture Oscar nominee and for which Judi Dench garnered an Academy Award nod for Best Leading Actress; The Program starring Ben Foster; Florence Foster Jenkins which landed a Best Lead Actress Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep; and now Victoria & Abdul starring Dench as long-reigning, aging not so gracefully Queen Victoria. The film tells the story of the relationship between the monarch and Abdul Karim (portrayed by Ali Fazal), a young man from India who becomes her servant and teacher. The movie is based on journalist Shrabani Basu’s book “Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant.”
Speaking of MacDonald who was his production design confidant, Frears shared, “I tend to make films on subjects I know nothing about going in. He (MacDonald) would guide me through them. He was very good at that, a very hard working artist with a delicate touch. He had a keen sense of architecture. For Victoria & Abdul he created places that had a strong Gothic feel. He brought so much to each project. I will miss him.”
Among MacDonald’s credits is another feature starring Dench, director John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel—for which the production designer was again an Art Directors Guild Award nominee.
Judi Dench
Speaking of Dench, she is Frears’ other alluded to prime collaborator. Victoria & Abdul is the fifth project pairing Frears and Dench, two of which scored Best Leading Actress Oscar nominations—Philomena in 2014 and Mrs. Henderson Presents in 2006. Dench has a total of seven career Oscar nominations, winning for her supporting role in Shakespeare in Love (directed by Madden). Frears first worked with Dench on Going Gentry, a BBC teleplay, in 1981. Two years later they teamed on the telefilm Saigon: Year of the Cat.
While Frears was drawn to the story of Victoria & Abdul, that in and of itself wasn’t enough for him to take on the project. “I’d only do the film with Judi,” he affirmed.
Happily she consented to again take on the role of Queen Victoria. Twenty years ago Dench made her big-screen breakthrough with Madden’s Mrs. Brown, which chronicled Queen Victoria’s friendship with Scottish servant John Brown (Billy Connolly) after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861. Victoria & Abdul takes place about 15 years later and centers on another unorthodox, until now historically obscure relationship which the monarch enjoyed with Indian Muslim Karim. Dench landed her very first Oscar nomination for Mrs. Brown.
As for the biggest creative challenges posed by Victoria & Abdul, Frears related, “It’s always key to be true to the story, in this case true to the book and history. There are some inventions in there but nothing offensive or shocking. What I liked about the script was that it also had elements of humor—and that the story itself was largely unknown.
“The biggest challenge, though, was probably the scale and scope of the story. It’s a scale I’m not used to working on with bigger scenes, the majesty of the Queen’s surroundings.”
Helping to capture that scale was cinematographer Danny Cohen, BSC who has lensed Frears’ last three features: The Program, which delves into the doping/cheating scandal investigation centered on champion cyclist Lance Armstrong; Florence Foster Jenkins; and now Victoria & Abdul.
Frears cited Cohen’s dependability and artistry, noting that he’s become a fan of the DP’s work which includes the Best Cinematography Oscar-nominated The King’s Speech, as well as BAFTA, ASC and BSC Award nominations for Les Miserables. Both those films were directed by Tom Hooper, for whom Cohen also shot The Danish Girl as well as the HBO miniseries John Adams and the British telefilm Longford. Cohen’s other notable credits include director Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, for which Brie Larson won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Frears said that reuniting with Cohen on Victoria & Abdul was a pleasure. The director noted, however, that collaborative pleasures aren’t confined to those he’s worked with in the past. Frears pointed to editor Melanie Ann Oliver whom he worked with for the first time on Victoria & Abdul. He described the experience as “an absolute joy.” Like Cohen, Oliver has a track record with filmmaker Hooper spanning such work as the features Les Miserables, The Danish Girl and The Damned United, and TV’s Longford and John Adams.
Frears too has a television pedigree. He made his initial mark in U.K. TV drama, working almost exclusively in that medium during the first 15 years of his career. Frears diversified into features with The Hit starring Terence Stamp, John Hurt and Tim Roth. Frears’ next feature, My Beautiful Launderette starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke, brought the director attention from the global film community. Beginning to work with major studios and abroad, Frears directed Dangerous Liaisons starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer; the film won three Academy Awards and was nominated for four more including Best Picture.
His Best Director Oscar nods came for The Grifters which received three additional Academy Award nominations (including Best Actress for Anjelica Huston); and The Queen which garnered a total of six Oscar noms, including Best Picture and winning the Best Actress honor for Helen Mirren.
Frears is a three-time DGA Award nominee, starting with the telefilm Fail Safe in 2001, then for The Queen in 2007, and then back in the TV arena for Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight in 2014.
As for what’s next, Frears has another TV turn in the offing—A Very English Scandal, a BBC telefilm which centers on British politician Jeremy Thorpe who’s accused of murdering his ex-lover and was forced to stand trial in 1979.
