The King and I

Annotation for KRRR! 2019

The story of Anna, a kind and principled teacher from Victorian England, who comes to exotic Siam to teach the children of King Mongkut and modernize the society there, has captured the imagination of readers and viewers for over seventy years. Viewers almost as long as readers, because Margaret Landon's book Anna and the King of Siam was published in 1944 and its first film adaptation was made more or less soon, namely in 1946. However, the most significant turning point came in March 1951 with the premiere of the Broadway musical The King and I. The response was extremely positive and the musical saw many reruns and tours throughout America and Great Britain. In London's West End alone, The King and I has been repeated four times since its premiere, the last time even last year. There were eventually three film adaptations of the theme (plus one TV series), with the 1956 version being the most prominent of them – and the one most significantly associated with the Broadway musical. It was filmed on Cinemascope 55 and since 1961 it has been shown as a 70mm roadshow screening.

The film was directed by Walter Lang, an experienced filmmaker and specialist in sweeping technicolor biopics and Fox studio musicals. And although his experience certainly paid off for producers Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck, it was the personnel continuity with the Broadway show that proved to be essential for the final form of the film. And not just acting (Yul Brynner appeared again in the role of the king, a total of five actors reprized supporting roles), but especially costume design and choreography. Irene Sharaff designed sumptuous, richly embellished, brightly colored gowns and jackets made of Thai silk, which can stand out perfectly thanks to strikingly theatrical backdrops, long shots and a relatively shallow depth of field. The life in them will subsequently be awakened by the elegant, and at the same time, by no means opulent dance numbers by choreographer Jerome Robbinson. In this regard, the highlight of the film is the more than ten­‑minute sequence in which the dancers transform the classic novel Uncle Tom's Cabin into the form of a traditional Siamese ballet.

In addition, the Broadway musical The King and I is another joint work of the author duo of composer Richard Rodgers and playwright Oscar Hammerstein. She was also behind the musical South Pacific from 1949, whose 70mm film adaptation from 1958 we saw in Krnov last year. Both musicals, in addition to a purely American romanticized view of exotic culture, also share a significant amount of sentiment and, at times, even laughable naivety. However, we would hardly consider it a flaw in the beauty, after all, we all meet in Krnov every year because of such films.

Jaroslav Cibulka