KENNETH BRANAGH

CHILD FLED STRIFE IN BELFAST FOR LONDON STAGE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The hard way to live and survive on the streets of Belfast transferred well into the characters of stage and screen chosen by the aspiring thespian.

Kenneth Branagh left Northern Ireland for England only to take on ever bigger battles on stage and screen than a child surviving the chaos of the streets of Belfast.

Branagh eventually found escape in the picture shows.

The indelible need to take charge of that ever present madness led to directing roles behind the camera while portraying authoritarian figures confronted with extreme adversity in front of the camera.

Branagh proved that survival in and away from Belfast meant simultaneously mustering the internal and external struggles consuming the past and present.

The portrayal of Henry V in the English victory over the French at Agincourt, and other of his contemporary musing about William Shakespeare plays, meant that Branagh could enjoy one heroic victory after another, once he recovered from the exhaustion of simultaneously acting and directing reimagined classics.

Branagh was obsessed with making Shakespeare accessible to a contemporary audience.

The working class neighbourhoods of Northern Ireland, with the docks and hard drinking fathers coming home late for dinner, can be imagined in the backstories of a diverse range of characters whether playing a king or a scientist or a senior police investigator.

After a long cultural journey, the train whistle finally stopped at home again with the production of Belfast (2021).

The film depicts the chaos of the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland during 1969, when Branagh was just a wee lad.

Branagh begins the narrative in a brighter future filmed in color that eventually gives way to the black and white didactic existence of his own childhood.

The Belfast family is slow to learn the hard reality of living when not knowing whether they would meet in the streets that day the angry mob full of hatred or the singing pub drunk father figure of Irish lore.

Branagh would eventually move to London as a young lad to become a world famous actor.

Before Belfast, the most self reflective role for Branagh was the part of Laurence Olivier in My Week With Marilyn (2011). Michelle Williams has the lead as Marilyn Munroe during the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl (1957).

During his meteoric rise to fame, Branagh had precariously been compared to Olivier, considered by many to be perhaps the greatest stage and screen actor. Olivier directed and starred in the Munroe film.

Olivier had also starred in and directed a movie version of Henry V (1944). When Branagh reimagined Henry V for film in 1989, the two stars became closely aligned with Branagh needing to distinguish his performance from Olivier’s while also making the story relevant to contemporary audiences.

The success of Henry V led Branagh to Hollywood for the production of Dead Again (1991). Branagh’s character is a Los Angeles private detective who investigates the haunting of a woman, played by Emma Thompson.

The film continually oscillates from the present life to the past life until the issue is resolved. Robin Williams plays a marginalized psychiatrist, while Derek Jacobi plays an unscrupulous antique dealer who uses hypnosis to find his treasures.

The film narrative takes the audience through the overlapping moments of time to show how distinct personalities are developed.

Branagh created a film persona that he continually tinkered with for each knew film project, generally using a naturally powerful screen presence and a genuine acting sense in front of the camera to compel several films.

The same character cast in lead roles has often been used in supporting parts.

In Conspiracy (2001), Branagh plays the lead Nazi organizer of the Holocaust, Reinhard Heydrich. The story takes place during an exclusive meeting in which Heydrich directs all the necessary players toward codifying the Final Solution.

But then in Valkyrie (2008), Brannagh plays Major-General Henning von Tresckow in a supporting role within a disenchanted group of generals conspiring to assassinate Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

The big screen presence established by Branagh is enough to carry the chosen scenes given to him for supporting characters.

In Oppenheimer (2023), Branagh provides an important supporting role as physicist Niels Bohr who influenced the development of Oppenheimer’s theories. Branagh appears in just a few scenes, but he nevertheless makes his presence felt in the film without distracting the camera’s focus from the leading actor.

Branagh momentarily draws the attention of the audience, but lead actor Cillian Murphy eventually continues on as the scene he shares with Branagh becomes just one step along the journey.

Branagh moved almost effortlessly from the Renaissance Theatre Company stage to the feature length film productions of William Shakespeare’s plays and then to a Hollywood career and back again.

In Warm Springs (2005) the screen persona is modified just enough to make Franklin D. Roosevelt appear before the camera battling the effects of polio in 1921, before becoming President of the United States.

Branagh shows how Roosevelt’s unique presidential style was developed through his battle with polio. The narrative follows the future president’s inner journey from self pity in isolation to embracing other polio sufferers.

Cynthia Nixon costars as Eleanor Roosevelt, showing how Eleanor found a similar path through self discovery toward greater independence.

In Shackleton (2002) little subtleties of a different sort turn Branagh’s screen character into the world famous explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton during the icy expedition to the South Pole in 1914. Shackleton produces and directs the entire crew as the expedition falls apart in the ice flow before reaching the Pole.

The expressive power of Branagh in front of and behind the camera was necessary to overcome the greatest of life’s struggles.

Kenneth Branagh, by Mark White, London: Faber and Faber, 2005