Netflix has just released a seven-episode series, The Queen’s Gambit, written and directed by Scott Frank, who co-created the series with Allan Scott, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Marielle Heller, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Moses Ingram.
The Queen’s Gambit is based on Walter Tevis’ 1983 novel in the 1960s. Allan Scott acquired the right to the novel about thirty years ago, hoping to bring the story to the big screen as a feature film. The task remained inactive for years. It was Scott Frank, who saw the possibility of turning the novel into a limited series. “Right after I finished Godless, I had the revelation that there were so many things I had tried to do in the afterlife where I felt like a movie screen couldn’t involve the whole story. So I told Bill (Horberg, the producer), what about The Queen’s Gambit as a miniseries?
The result is a series of elegantly narrated maturity that catches the eye, captivated through this story of an orphaned prodigy.
The Queen’s Gambit tells the story of Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), a young woman who was orphaned at the age of nine. At the orphanage, he meets the janitor, Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp), who introduces him to the game. chess. Shaibel temporarily identifies Beth’s herbal skill for the game and teaches her the rules of the game. She is discovered captivated through the game, even dreaming at night, and eager to locate Mr. Shaibel during the day to play some other game. to a chess club at the local high school. She turns out to be a child prodigy there, competing with all club members simultaneously.
However, all this is momentarily put on suspense when Mr. and Miss Wheatley follow him. Alma Wheatley (Marielle Heller) will prove to be a formidable best friend to Beth, fostering her ability by allowing her to miss school to attend tournaments after discovering that winning comes with a giant money prize.
Beth is unbeatable, but he also stands out for his gender. Beth enters a world of man-ruled chess. The chess players he faces are all men, with the exception of the first adjustment he played in a tournament. that the first article written about her is only interested in pointing out the fact that she is a woman who plays chess.
The series questions the nature of what is called a genius. Talent is not enough. Obsession, hard paintings and opportunity are described here as the key to success and, therefore, to be identified as a genius. At one point in the series, Harry Beltik (Harry Melling), one of the most productive chess players in the state of Kentucky and the first opponent Beth is determined to beat, tells her that he will never be as smart as she is because he does. He doesn’t have the obsession with the game he’s got.
An obsession that is portrayed here close to an addiction. But Beth is also addicted to tranquilizers and alcohol. His addiction to tranquilizers comes from the orphanage to which the state provided the pills to calm the children. suggests but pills and alcohol temporarily above and leave it with the opposite effect.
Failures also turn out to be a coping mechanism for Beth in my opinion. After wasting her mother, and what the series only suggests is a traumatic occasion for young Beth, chess concentrates her. Instead of thinking about what happened to his mother, he dreams. to play chess, with the help of the tranquilizers that were administered to him. In the end, it’s a loss story,As Beth herself says in a moment, the chessboard is the only position she feels in control of, and if something goes wrong, she just has to blame herself. Life, on the other hand, is uncontrollable.
Anya Taylor-Joy is like Beth, as her character goes from being a clumsy young woman to a brilliant, confident woman.
The Queen’s Gambit has been on Netflix since October 23.
I am a film historian, interested in the history and theory of cinema, as well as in the film generation. I specialize in European cinema,
I am a film historian, interested in the history and theory of cinema, as well as in the film generation. I specialize in European cinema, especially in the history of French cinema.