The Duchess
by Saul Dibb
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Actor: Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooper, John Shrapnel, Ralph Fiennes, Simon McBurneyDirector: Saul Dibb
Brand: Paramount
Cinematographer: Gyula Pados
Composer: Rachel Portman
Editor: Masahiro Hirakubo
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
Published: 2008-12-01
DVD Release Date: 2008-12-27
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of The Duchess
DVD Review: Unhappiness Reigns Supreme in any Age
Summary: 4 Stars
Earlier this year we were treated to a look at Tudor England in the film "The Other Boleyn Girl" that opened with magnificent diffused shots of lovely fair-haired children scampering carefree through a bucolic sun-infused backdrop. All those fat-cheeked cherubs with their hair flapping in the wind definitely testified to innocent times for even before these babes hit puberty they were immersed in political intrigue to promote their families and their legacy. Did it faze them? No. We, the collective modern audience, must not let our studied egalitarianism confuse what may seem as a limited and unfair way of life. Obsessed with the acquisition of a male heir, the men and women in this film and now in director Saul Dibb's "The Duchess" understand and accept their roles and move accordingly like partners in a precise cotillion to ascertain success. Both sexes were expected to perform their duties to maintain succession with nary a powdered wig becoming skewed or a piece of big two-foot-tall hair coming out of place. And after the blessed event transpired, the semblance of propriety remained with the ubiquitous stiff upper lip reining in secrets that were wild and woolly enough to curl the real hair underneath all that sculpted artifice.
In "The Duchess" Keira Knightly plays the witty beautiful 18th century fashionista and politically correct Georgina Spenser Cavendish, duchess of Devonshire with a portrait-perfect insouciance that quickly sours once she realizes that her feather-in-her-cap marriage is nothing more than a sham that will provide the ennui-prone and rather dim-witted duke (the incomparable Ralph Fiennes) with the boy child he desires to carry on his name. Like one of her present-day descendents, (Georgina is the 4X great-aunt to the tragic Diana, Princess of Wales) the Spenser depicted in this based-on-a-true-story biopic wants and needs only affection from older hubby William and gets nothing but lackluster loving, a first-hand look at frequent dalliances with the servants, and the maternal responsibility of rearing one of his by-blows. After the birth of two girl children and multiple miscarriages, Georgina is faced with the ultimate humiliation: the object of William's infidelities has narrowed to Bess, Georgina's best friend, who fleeing her abusive husband has sought refuge in the Cavendish home.
Not that the Duchess is any angel. From the opening idyllic scene (more beautiful young people running through green meadows) the audience knows that she is smitten with Charles Grey from the get-go. That she shares his politics--the Cavendishs were supporters of the infant Whig party--and his dream for a better world becomes more and more evident as her life with the duke wanes on an emotional level. G, as she is known to her friends, unwisely figures that if the Duke can have his cake and eat it too, why not she, the modern-thinking Duchess? Nevertheless, while attempting to persuade her husband to accept her indiscretion if she accepts his, G finds herself sadly outmaneuvered. Why would someone with so much power and backed by the buttress of convention agree to give a mere possession so much leeway? Poor G, as clever a gambler as she is, cannot beat odds that are stacked so unfavorably against her.
Knightly shows her desperation with pink pre-Sephora-ed cheeks and pretty lip-glossed moues; slightly tipsy from the huge offsetting wigs, she seems off balance, her tightly corseted stick figure somehow not altogether in conjunction with the glamour of her spectacular face. Showing her strength in her somewhat rigid jaw line, she pouts rather than sneers like she did in the `Pirates of the Caribbean' trilogy and still uses those expressive eyes and strong eyebrows to convey her desperation as she did in "Atonement." However lovely, she tends to jerk about in a flurry of motion rather than suggest the quiet stillness of a lady of that century.
Fiennes, on the other hand, plays the historically one-note duke with a nuanced compassion. Undoubtedly the villain of this piece, Fiennes searches deeply for the soul of this character and somehow relays to the audience that it is not the duke that is solely to blame for all this wasted protocol but society itself. While G shines in the opulence provided by the Cavendish money, William willingly takes a backseat to her popularity always appearing faintly bewildered and aghast at being in the center of attention during any of the many public shows of affection directed towards his wife. However, when his omnipotence is challenged, Fiennes' reacts with the certainty that one would expect from a duke. The modern ideas of individualism did not exist at this time; the duke approached whatever fell under his domain as his possession and treated all as such. Softness is shown only to his much loved dogs, all else with the sternness befitting one accustomed to getting his way. G's airy desire for Utopia crumbles in the shadow of William's steely realism.
From a purely technical standpoint, this film wastes little time on unnecessary scenes romantic or otherwise. Dibb tells his story with a precise almost terse rhythm punctuating it with the aristocratic Rachel Portman score that plays in the back of the audience's mind like Handel's `Sarabande with Variations.' Visually pleasing-- Knightly shines in over 25 elaborate costumes that make you wonder what couture houses were thinking back then for both men and women patrons--"the Duchess" transports one back to an earlier time when life was as complicated as the clothing.
Bottom line? "The Duchess" tells the story of an enchanting 18th century Spenser that like her modern day descendant must kowtow to a duty that robbed her of the romantic love she desired. Despite her obvious advantages--her life's similarities to that of Diana's seem uncanny as both shared a popularity with the public, were beleaguered by the paparazzi, established fashion trends and were extolled for their obvious love for their children--Georgina Spenser's relatively short life was dappled with the same marked sorrow that plagued Diana. Spectacularly beautiful, this film must be viewed from the vantage point of a society that expected much from their aristocrats and apparently still does. Like "The Other Boleyn Girl," "The Duchess" ends with the visual wish to return to an innocence epitomized by children running freely in a verdant field. Aristocratic money cannot buy happiness but it can at least purchase a backdrop and costumes that provide a semblance of what other people want. Recommended, although those viewing with adolescents or children be aware that the film contains a rape, a lesbian love scene and rather chilling scenes of loveless child begetting.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"
Description of The Duchess
A film that chronicles the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, an ancestor of Princess Di.Swaddled in whalebone and wigs, Keira Knightley steps into the restricted world of the Duchess of Devonshire, a royal lady popular with her subjects but stuck in an unhappy marriage. If this situation recalls Princess Diana (a descendent of the Duchess's family), so much the better for the purposes of director Saul Dibb and company; this film is eager to draw parallels with the unfortunate Lady Di, even if she is never directly mentioned. Knightley's unsuspecting girl is married off to the Duke (Ralph Fiennes), a distracted jerk who craves sons, and obviously has never thought of women as anything other than a means to achieve an heir. When the Duchess launches her procreative career with a couple of daughters, well, the Duke begins to get nervous--and partners outside the marriage become increasingly appealing. The Duchess serves up lavish portions of Brit-movie staples: costumes (which, in Knightley's case, are nothing short of spectacular), landscapes, and gorgeous music (by Rachel Portman). If it falls short in some vague way, perhaps it's because the film is a mostly one-note affair, meaning exactly what it seems to mean at every moment. Charlotte Rampling appears too briefly as Knightley's mother, and Dominic Cooper and Hayley Atwell (from Brideshead Revisited), rising stars both, contribute attractive lures for the principals. They prove the old movie adage: there's a lot to be said for eye candy. --Robert Horton
Stills from The Duchess (Click for larger image)
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