Georgiana Spencer became Duchess of Devonshire on her marriage to the Duke in 1774, at the height of the Georgian period, a period of fashion, decadence, and political change. Spirited and adored by the public at large she quickly found her marriage to be a disappointment, defined by her duty to produce a male heir and the Duke's philandering and callous indifference to her. She befriends Lady Bess but finds she is once again betrayed by her husband who wields his power with the three eventually living uncomfortably together. Against this background, and with the pressures of an unfaithful husband,strict social pressures and constant public scrutiny, Georgiana falls passionately in love with Charles Grey, a rising young Whig politician. However, despite his ongoing liaison with Lady Bess, the Duke refuses to allow her to continue the affair and threatens to take her children from her.
Genre(s): Biography, Drama, History
Runtime: 110 minutes
Rating: 7.0/10 (12,460 votes)
Release Date: 3 September 2008
Country: UK, Italy, France
Languages: English
Company: Paramount Vantage
Sound: Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sexual content, brief nudity and thematic material.
Director(s): Saul Dibb
Producer(s):
Alexandra Arlango – co-producer
Carolyn Marks Blackwood – executive producer (as Carolyn Marks-Blackwood)
Amanda Foreman – executive producer
François Ivernel – executive producer
Michael Kuhn – producer
Christine Langan – executive producer
Cameron McCracken – executive producer
Malcolm Ritchie – associate producer: QwertyFilms
Andrew Semans – associate producer: Magnolia Mae Films
Gabrielle Tana – producer
Jill Tandy – associate producer: QwertyFilms
David M. Thompson – executive producer
Andrew Warren – line producer
Colleen Woodcock – co-producer
Mark Woolley – associate producer: QwertyFilms
Writer(s):
Jeffrey Hatcher – (screenplay) and
Anders Thomas Jensen – (screenplay) and
Saul Dibb – (screenplay)
Amanda Foreman – (book "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire")
Cast:
Keira Knightley – Georgiana
Ralph Fiennes – The Duke
Charlotte Rampling – Lady Spencer
Dominic Cooper – Charles Grey
Hayley Atwell – Bess Foster
Simon McBurney – Charles Fox
Aidan McArdle – Richard Sheridan
John Shrapnel – General Grey
Alistair Petrie – Heaton
Patrick Godfrey – Dr. Neville
Music: Rachel Portman
Tagline: There were three people in her marriage
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Kind of an overdrawn costume drama.
The problem with most historical films or books is that they impose amodern sensibility to the character's plight. In our modern,post-feminist world, the plight of Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire,seems quite absurd. Her husband can have a mistress, openly display herin front of all to see, but if she takes a lover in secret, it is agreat scandal for which she is severely penalized. To us, this seemsquite unreasonable, but at the time, people dealt with it.
This takes place in the period of revolution in America and France, butit seems (much like Sophia Coppola's "Marie Antonnete", history issomething that happens to other people. These folks are too busy withtheir own soap operas.
The costumes and sets are very nice, and BBC productions have come along way in production values since the 1970's, where shows like "IClaudius" or "The Wives of Henry the Eigth" were clearly shot on soundstages on the cheap. It's not the "British Broadcasting Charity"anymore.
Every girl wants to be a princess. They think princesses have manybeautiful dresses, a charming prince to dance with and a huge castle tolive in. And they do not need to do anything…
The Duchess is a interesting costume drama that shows the real life ofDuchess of Devonshire (Keira Knightley). When she was 18, she decidedto marry much older prince (Ralph Fiennes) whom she has seen only twotimes before the marriage. She knew that she has only one task: to givehim a masculine child, but she hoped that the love come with time. Shewas wrong…
The movie is rather slow-paced, very sad, but interesting. It proofsthat the reality behind the palace's walls is not as beautiful as itseems and the real prince not always is a prince from the tales. Sad isthat the movie portraits the duchess only as a unhappy wife. She wasalso a trend- setter and a politician figure. We see some scenes aboutit but they are too rare…
What rather wonderful about this story is that Georgiana Spencer (KeiraKnightley) discovers a way to exult in victory over things and to getback some kind of power in a time where, really, women had very little…Being someone of great vitality and liveliness, she was very much adreamer and an idealist, a woman who loved being the center ofattention, who loved the fact at some point that her picture was in thepaper, that the clothes were always talked of, that her every move wascommented on…
We are immediately impressed by her presence, by her personality… Shewasn't behaving quite in accordance with the way in which other 18thcentury women were expected to behave…
But there was something incredibly sad about this self-conscious lady…She was a victim of herself… A victim of her own innocence… A victim ofpeople using her for their own profit… Even though she seemed to haveeverything, we realize that it was not that simple… And with all of herprivilege came a lot of moral obligation and things were never whatthey really appeared to be…
The Duke (Ralph Fiennes) was a misanthropic man, rather cold,unemotional and quite cruel… He seems to like better his hunting dogsto his young wife… Of course with certain values, that he believes wereabsolutely right and that he strictly held to…
This sumptuous period piece also presents the Duchess of Devonshire asa political hostess… Saul Dibb's film shows us her dinner parties, herevening events, her fame and its extraordinary effect on her… It madeher both desperate to please, terrified of doing anything wrong andshocked at her own celebrity and unable to figure out in her own mindwhy she was quite so famous… And we see the crippling effect it has onher sense of self…
Not sure why more people didn't like it. Really. It certainly is ahandy piece of work featuring both interesting characters andhighlighting an interesting life. Maybe people are a bit sick of periodpieces from England, especially if they featuring Kiera Knightley andconcerns love triangles and such. Lets face it, we have seen most ofwhat is presented here in one form or the another.
Still, i found myself very much caught up in this drama. Its hard notto. The costumes (most deservingly awarded) and settings are reallybeautiful and there are some interesting characters that move in andout in the background, i especially liked (or loathed?) the parts withBess. Films that are based on true evens inherently tend to be a bitless clichéd and harder to foresee, as i think was the case here,although this certainly cant be said for everything here.
I mean, take the part where Georginia wants to feed her babies her ownmilk. WHY?? Why does films like this force modern views on theirprotagonists. Because we couldn't sympathize with them otherwise?Please. Stop. Its just annoying.
On the whole though its a fine drama with good performances. Knightleyproves herself more then worthy, don't believe the haters. Dominic isOK but needs more scenes to flesh out his character. Ralp Fiennes onthe other hand manages to make The Duke if not charismatic, at leastinteresting, even though his character isn't explored as much as itshould have been. (seriously WTF is his problem). This drama is ratherone dimensional in this respect and though its sibling, Sofia CoppulasMaria Antionette did a better work capturing much of its thematicalmeat without resorting to pinpointing. That said, its still a very nicefilm, and if you are into period pieces you owe to yourself to check itout.
want to watch this movie…