--- title: "Anne of the Thousand Days" year: 1969 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/anne-of-the-thousand-days" fi1m_score: 60 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-09-20T05:19:29.162230+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T05:19:29.621236+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) Directed by Charles Jarrott · 2h 25m · MPA PG · Drama, History, Romance **Fi1m score: 60** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Henry breaks with Rome and the camera never once leaves its seat > Geneviève Bujold gives Anne Boleyn a temper and a brain, and every scene she is in has a pulse. The rest is handsome, well-spoken and slow, a pageant that moves at the pace of a procession. Worth an evening for her. ## Synopsis England, the 1520s. King Henry VIII (Richard Burton) has a wife, Queen Catherine (Irene Papas), who has given him a daughter and no living son, and a mistress, Mary Boleyn (Valerie Gearon), of whom he has tired. At a court dance he notices Mary’s younger sister Anne (Geneviève Bujold), who is engaged to a young nobleman she means to marry. Henry has the engagement broken. Anne, furious, refuses to become what her sister was, and her father Thomas Boleyn (Michael Hordern) counsels obedience. Henry sets Wolsey (Anthony Quayle) to get him an annulment from Rome, while Cromwell (John Colicos) waits nearby for the cardinal to fail. The film opens with Henry being asked to sign a warrant, and goes back to the day he first saw her. ## Review Charles Jarrott’s film, produced by Hal B. Wallis and written by John Hale and Bridget Boland from Maxwell Anderson’s play, covers the years in which King Henry VIII (Richard Burton) wanted Anne Boleyn (Geneviève Bujold), got her, and turned his kingdom upside down to do it. It runs 145 minutes and takes its time over all of them. It is a handsome, well-spoken, slow film with one performance that is a great deal better than that, and the performance is the reason to watch. Bujold plays Anne as a clever, quick-tempered young woman who does not want the king and says so. Early on, Henry corners her and tells her what he feels, and she tells him to his face that she does not love him, does not want him, and would rather he went back to her sister. We sat up. In a film that mostly asks to be admired, here at last was someone who wanted something and was prepared to be rude about it. Bujold keeps that temper going even when Anne’s wants change, when refusing the king turns into the ambition to be his queen, and she never plays it as a love story unless the script forces her. Burton plays Henry as a large, bored, dangerous man who is used to being agreed with. He roars well, and Hale and Boland give him plenty to roar, but he is better in the quiet moments, asking Anne a plain question and waiting, badly, for the answer. Irene Papas has a handful of scenes as Queen Catherine and gives each of them a stubborn dignity that makes Henry’s case look as thin as it was. Anthony Quayle’s Wolsey is a tired man sweating through his robes, and John Colicos as Cromwell stands at the edge of every room, saying little and missing nothing. Michael Hordern plays Thomas Boleyn as a father who has done the sums and does not like his daughter’s answer. Maurice Carter’s production design gives them long stone halls, tapestries, fires, tables laid for forty. Margaret Furse dresses Henry in furs and gold and Anne in dark velvet and pearls, and the clothes are so heavy that everyone moves like a piece of furniture being shifted, which may be accurate. Arthur Ibbetson lights it all warm, candles and firelight on stone, and keeps the camera at a respectful middle distance, as if it had been let in on sufferance. Georges Delerue’s score, strings and recorders under the love scenes, does the emotional work that the staging leaves undone, and it is the second-best thing in the film. The trouble is the staging. Jarrott sets two people in a room and lets them talk, and then does it again, and Richard Marden cuts each scene to a close as if turning a page. The dialogue is good and the actors can speak it, but a film in which every scene is a conversation flattens out. The break with Rome, the fall of a chancellor, the oath put to Fisher (Joseph O’Conor) and Thomas More (William Squire): all of it arrives in the form of somebody walking in and telling us. By the middle hour we were checking how long was left, and we felt mean about it, because everyone on screen is plainly trying. It is worth remembering what else was about. [*A Man for All Seasons*](https://film.one/film/a-man-for-all-seasons) (1966) and [*The Lion in Winter*](https://film.one/film/the-lion-in-winter) (1968) came from the stage too, covered nearby ground, and moved. This one stays closer to the play, to its credit as writing and its cost as cinema. The reviews so far have been colder than we are, and we understand why, but they undersell Bujold. See it for her, and for Papas, and for Delerue. Sit somewhere comfortable; the chairs on screen look no softer than yours. *Fi1m score 60, published 20 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (3) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (65/100, inferred): The film is a conventionally reverential costume drama that elevates the reputations of its makers without advancing the art of cinema. It centers on the epic battle of the sexes between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, with strong performances from Richard Burton and Geneviève Bujold. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/21/archives/screen-a-royal-battle-of-the-sexesanne-of-1000-days-bows-at-plaza.html) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (40/100, inferred): The film pales next to other Tudor dramas of the era and suffers from static direction that captures pageantry but not passion or intrigue. Geneviève Bujold's performance as Anne stands out as impressive and sympathetic amid otherwise lethargic acting and a lack of dramatic momentum. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/anne-thousand-days-review/) - **The Guardian** (C / C+): The critic finds the film visually attractive but ultimately cold and unengaging, with strong performances from Geneviève Bujold and Richard Burton undermined by plodding pacing and superficial treatment of historical figures. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/mar/27/reel-history-anne-thousand-days) ## Details - **Director:** Charles Jarrott - **Director:** Charles Jarrott - **Screenplay:** Bridget Boland, John Hale - **Cinematography:** Arthur Ibbetson - **Editor:** Richard Marden - **Music:** Georges Delerue - **Production design:** Maurice Carter - **Costume design:** Margaret Furse - **Producer:** Hal B. Wallis - **Cast:** Richard Burton as King Henry VIII; Geneviève Bujold as Anne Boleyn; Irene Papas as Queen Catherine; Anthony Quayle as Wolsey; John Colicos as Cromwell; Michael Hordern as Thomas Boleyn; Katharine Blake as Elizabeth Boleyn; Peter Jeffrey as Norfolk - **Runtime:** 2h 25m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 18 December 1969 - **Genres:** Drama, History, Romance ## Where to watch in the US - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AT, AU, CA, DE, GB, IE, IL, NZ, SG, TH, US, VN. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1970: Best Actor (nominated); Best Actress (nominated); Best Cinematography (nominated); Best Original Score, no Musical (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Production Design (nominated); Best Sound (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Costume Design (won) ## If you liked this - *A Man for All Seasons* (1966), Fi1m 81: The same court and the same stage origins, with a film’s pace and a spine. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-man-for-all-seasons.md) - *The Lion in Winter* (1968), Fi1m 81: Another royal marriage conducted as warfare, faster, funnier and a good deal crueller. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lion-in-winter.md) - *Wolf Hall* (2015): The Boleyn years from Cromwell’s desk: candlelit, slow on purpose and never dull. - *The Private Life of Henry VIII* (1933): Laughton’s Henry, all appetite and grief, in ninety minutes that never sit down. - *La Reine Margot* (1994): French court, French blood, and a wedding that starts a massacre; pageantry with a pulse. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/anne-of-the-thousand-days