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Netflix's 'The King' is anti-French says director of the Agincourt Museum

Timothée Chalamet in The King (Credit: Netflix)
Timothée Chalamet in The King (Credit: Netflix)

Star-studded historical Netflix drama The King has been slammed by the director of the Agincourt Museum in France.

Christophe Gilliot has told the Daily Telegraph that the film is riddled with historical inaccuracies and 'outrageously demonises' the French while letting the British off the hook for what would now be considered war crimes.

The film, produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, is based on Shakespeare's Henriad plays and finds Call Me By Your Name star Timothée Chalamet as the young King Henry V.

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Joel Edgerton plays Falstaff, with Robert Pattinson as Louis, Duke of Guyenne, and Lily-Rose Depp as Catherine of Valois.

“We are disgusted because in two hours, this type of film demolishes all the mediation work we have been doing here (at the museum) over the past eight years and the research of historians,” Gilliot told the paper.

“It’s really worrying that one can re-write history to this extent and it is hard for us to fight against this. The public will always prefer a film to a history book. But here there are people under this earth, people who really died in this battle, that’s what disturbs me the most.”

Robert Pattinson in Th King (Credit: Netflix)
Robert Pattinson in Th King (Credit: Netflix)

Gilliot claims that the historians, some of them British, have worked to redress the notion that Henry was a sensitive leader and reluctant to go into war, which in reality involved rape and pillaging and the brutal execution of French prisoners by the British.

“I'm outraged. The image of the French is really sullied. The film has Francophobe tendencies,” he added.

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“The British far-Right are going to lap this up, it will flatter nationalist egos over there.”

Reviews of the movie, made by Australian director David Michôd, have been a mixed bag.

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw called it a 'decaffeinated version of the story', while the Washington Post wrote that 'what should be soaring is instead lugubrious; what should be a ripping good yarn is instead dutiful and a little bit dull'.

The Sunday Times described 'a slick, solemn movie that tries to be a medieval version of The Godfather - it's not bad'.

It's streaming now on Netflix.