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PROJECT SUMMARY

TITLE: HELENE

GENRE: British Period Drama/ Romance

LOGLINE: Falling in love with Queen Victoria’s dashing grandson Eddy opens new worlds for the cosseted Princess Hélène of France, but the possibility of their marriage unleashes a political and emotional storm which forces her to choose between her free spirited heart or her duty. Inspired by true events.

WRITER: Margherita Arco

PRODUCER: Victoria Films

LOCATION: UK

MARKETS & LABS: — selected for MFI Scripts 2 Film workshop — selected for BFI Production Finance Market London

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SYNOPSIS

‘Helene’ is a coming of age story about a young woman who learns the difference between selfish and generous love. Inspired by true events, it’s the love story of the screenwriter’s great-grandmother Helene of Orleans, the founder of the Italian Red Cross, and Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria’s grandson.

1892, HELENE is a feisty 19-year-old princess, who rebels against the rigid norms of the Victorians. She dreams of escaping into the “real world” and becoming a nurse, inspired by her idol Florence Nightingale. Her father is the exiled pretender of the French throne and forced to live in England. He is a king without a crown trying to re-establish his kingdom from abroad. He is seeking status and affirmation through the prestigious marriages of his daughters.

To Helene, the desire to break free from Victorian propriety is the only reason to consider the advances by QUEEN VICTORIA’s rebellious grandson EDDY, who has returned from India after yet another scandal. Helene wants to join Florence Nightingale’s endeavours and by accepting Eddy’s advances she might be able to do so. After a rocky start, where Helene sees Eddy as a self-indulged man, she gets to know his more fragile sides and falls in love with him. When Eddy proposes, Helene accepts. The engagement is hailed as perfect by the immediate families, but soon unleashes a political storm.

Marrying a Catholic would disqualify Eddy from succeeding the crown. And Queen Victoria is firm, under no circumstance can there be further unrest in the kingdom. The future king of Great Britain has no choice but to marry an Anglican. Helene decides she will convert but this would be a direct affront to the Catholics.

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SYNOPSIS (continued)

Helene’s father is furious. The Catholics of France are his greatest supporters as they are mostly monarchists and want to re-instate the crown. He forbids the match and she is under his jurisdiction until she’s 25.

But they do not obey, in secret Helene and Eddie meet to attend a Florence Nightingale lecture. Their attendance did not stay unnoticed, however, and Helene is put under house arrest. When her best friend manages to orchestrate a meeting with Eddy, he presents a solution: If they raise the children in the Anglican faith, Helene does not need to convert but she must ask the Pope for. Travelling to Rome, Helene is devastated when the Pope denies her request.

Her first response is to throw everything overboard for love and run away. But all the things she loves about Eddy are the qualities that will make him a good king. Out of love for him she breaks off the engagement. Weeks later, Eddy is engaged to a German princess. Helene is heart-broken but decides to continue her life without Eddy. Soon she learns that Eddy has fallen seriously ill and is asking for her. At first hesitant, Helene decides she must see him. Eddy sees the locket he gave Helene around her neck and knows that she loves him. He dies in peace.

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WRITER’S NOTE

As one of six sisters, I have always sought out stories about courageous women, who stood strong to their voices, when odds were against them. One day, my grandmother told me the story of her grandmother, Hélène. An hour later, in the dusty attic, I was holding Eddy’s letters and was gripped by their compassion, pain, love and hope. But who was Hélène? Who was Eddy? And, why did their love not conquer against the odds? Instantly, I knew I had to tell the story of my great-great grandmother.

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Margherita Arco graduated from Tisch School of the Arts in 2016 with an M.F.A in film, where she focused on screenwriting and directing. Currently, Margherita’s feature script, Hélène, a Victorian love story, is in development with Victoria Films. The script was selected for the Mediterranean Film Institute Script2Screen Work-shop in 2018 and will be presented at the Production Finance Market in London in 2018. Another feature script, The Salt of the Earth, was selected for NYU’s Purple List and the Hollywood Black List. Subsequently, the script was part of the Independent Film-maker Project (IFP) Emerging Storyteller Lab in NY in 2015.

In 2015/2016, Margherita partook in the prestigious German writ-er’s lab, the “Drehbuchwerkstatt” in Munich. Other writing work includes a dramatic period TV series, finalist at NYU’s Fusion Film Festival, an episodic comedy, quarter finalist at the NexTV writing competition and a novel, which was selected for the Tin House Summer Workshop as well as the Mentorship Program in 2018. Margherita directed various short films. Her last short “Mami” sagte won an achievement documentary award at the First Run Film Festival in 2017. In addition, Margherita produced an independent feature film, Fits and Starts, which premiered at SXSW in 2017.

WRITER Margherita Arco

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Victoria Films is a production company that was founded by Anna von Dziembowska and Maxim Dashkin, former classmates at NYU Tisch School. At Victoria Films, we aspire to find outstanding new voices in screenwriting and directing and are proud to work with Margherita Arco on the captivating biopic Helene.

We have developed a diverse slate of character-driven stories: The Pencil, a feature film by Natalya Nazarova, is currently in post-production and

has been selected for Work-in-Progress sections at Hong Kong, Cannes and Seattle Film Festival. Far Frontiers, a family drama written by award winning screenwriter Boris Frumin (Oh Lucy! Cannes 2017), will start production in October 2018. The Longest Birthday, a dramedy by Israeli screenwriter Savion Einstein and funded by the German Federal Film Fund, will go into production in 2019. The more recent addition Flight of the Wasp tells the story of the inventor of the Vespa and is developed as a UK / Italy co-production within EAVE producer’s workshop.

PRODUCER Victoria Films

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HÉLÈNE (19)

Courageous and free-spirited Hélène falls in love with Eddy. Protected by the vitality and innocence of her youth, she is willing to give up everything for Eddy. But soon, she is confronted with the reality of what that means: either she must convert her faith or elope with her love, both options unacceptable in her world. Hélène must make a difficult choice between pursuing her love and respecting the rules of her world.

CHARACTERS

James Norton Kit Harington

EDDY (26)

A dreamer and a hopeless romantic Eddy believes that love will conquer all. He falls in love with Hélène because they share curiosity about life. But even Eddy, future King of Great Britain, Emperor of India, learns that his duty can be at odds with his desires. For Hélène, he is even willing to give up his claim to the throne.

Astrid Berges-Frisbey Sophie Cookson

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QUEEN VICTORIA (71)

Eddy’s beloved grandmother, gives her consent after Hélène promises to convert for Eddy. Queen Victoria staunchly defends the couple in face of political censure. But when Hélène falters and cannot convert, Queen Victoria abides the law: a Catholic cannot ascend onto the throne. She tells the couple to break-off of the engagement albeit staying fond of Hélène.

CHARACTERS

Jeremy Irons Toni Servillo

COUNT OF PARIS (52)

Hélène’s father, sees the match favorably at first. He thinks it will restore legitimacy to his deposed royal status. But once he sees Hélène wants to convert, he forbids the couple from seeing each other. He will not let his daughter dishonor and betray herself by converting.

Maggie Smith Vanessa Redgrave

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Anna von Dziembowskaanna@victoria-films.com

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