The Duchess (2008)

Okay, so let's put this in context, if you don't like period dramas, don't go and see this movie, you probably won't like it, and it is NOT Diana's story, nothing like although some in the marketing department thought so ...

But i love this film, having being dying to see it since the first teaser trailer. I love everything about it the costumes, the characters, the acting, the whole package.

Keira Knightley in a corset again, but then i think these are roles she is good at, this role required her to have this real sense of melancholy to her and she did it beautifully.

Ralph Fiennes is funny, repulsive and endearing in his role as the duke you feel one thing for him and then another, you can't write this guy off as anything in particular. All i know is that i wouldn't want to be married to him.

I hope that both Knightley and Fiennes get their second and third Oscar nominations for this respectively, as they are well made parts.

As for the others:

Dominic Cooper, is lovely as Grey if perhaps a little underused, Hayley Atwell's character is again one you want to hate but really can't, and Rampling is great as the mother.

All in all a great period flick, i say 10/10, but if i wasn't so into this kind of thing i'd probably still rate it quite highly, it is a fine piece of film-making.

Fmovies: This film really, really surprised me.

Yes, it's from the director of Bullet Boy - but I'd only ever seen Saul Dibb's Line Of Beauty so I was expecting a pretty standard period piece with Keira Knightely - who I have never rated much as a credible acting talent.

Boy does she impress here - she is fantastic. The Duchess of Devonshire is the perfect character for her to play, and it's obvious Keira immersed herself in the role, and completely understood every single motivation of her character.

I recommend everyone to go and see this film!

I couldn't wait for The Duchess, I am just a huge fan of period pieces and Kiera Knightly is becoming a fantastic actress in this genre. I was looking forward to this film mainly because I studied Georgina a little bit in college for my history class and I always thought she was such an elegant and strong woman that stood out from the others. She was like the Madonna of her day, she had a great sense of style, self, and strength. While the movie is not completely accurate, it still was a fine movie to watch. Kiera truly held her own as Georgina and was absolutely stunning. One of the underlining stories that I appreciate in this film is the battle of the sexes. Ralph Fiennes who plays the Duke of Devonshire does a fantastic job as well and he plays this anti-villain, shows the true side of the pain and pressure men felt but how they looked at women as nothing but property. This story truly touches you and makes you grateful for our present day.

Georgina is born into a high class family of royalty who is about to be married off to the Duke of Devonshire and everything seems great, G is going to live the high life of class, culture, and being a lady of the people. She comes across the price though: her husband's affairs that are practically rubbed in her face, her life is constantly watched and judged by people, she must be perfect at all times to keep up her reputation as a joyful lady, she is forced to be the mother of the duke's child from an affair he had, as well as she cannot birth a son for the Duke and he will find every opportunity to rub it in her face. All this and Georgina has found another love who she cannot give her heart to fully for the love of her children and people.

The Duchess is a fine film that I truly enjoyed. I wouldn't be surprised if Kiera was nominated for best actress during the academy season. I would highly recommend this movie, especially for the period piece lovers. Like I said, this film makes you appreciate what we have today in our modern society and truly makes you feel for the pressures both men and women had to face in that day. Georgina is a figure that I think is very looked over in history when she is one of the strongest presences in England's history. The Duchess, even though not entirely accurate, does a very good job of telling her story and was a pleasure to watch.

8/10

The Duchess fmovies. The latest slice of period drama to grace our screens is this biopic on Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who during the 1770s was patroness of the Whig party and prisoner of a marriage which made her, among other things, suffer the indignity of having her husband's mistress living under the same roof. These heritage dramas are an industry all by themselves; the armies of prop hirers, wig and costume makers, researchers, production designers, location scouts and (mostly) British actors who go to make them must find themselves in almost permanent employ. The BBC does them, the Americans have a go at them, and the public can't seem to get enough of them. The Duchess is a superior example of the genre, though nowhere in the league of Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, and combines the spectacle of Keira Knightley looking glamorous in a range of frocks and wigs, while at the same time honing her acting talents (no more those rictus grins), with the guilty pleasure of following the uncomfortable parallels between the fortunes and indiscretions of the ancestress of Lady Diana Spencer with those of the Princess of Wales herself. Lowering over the whole proceedings is the truly superb presence of Ralph Fiennes's Duke of Devonshire, Fiennes an actor who can convey polite discomfiture or threatening ire with slightest twitch of the mouth. In his hands the Duke becomes far less a melodramatic villain than a product of his time, and you almost feel sorry for him. Go and see The Duchess; only those who have had children will balk at the liberties taken with childbirth and breastfeeding. But not even that will spoil the fun.

I came away from the cinema after seeing The Duchess feeling I had had my consciousness of what life must have been like for the aristocracy of 18th century England dramatically raised (both literally and metaphorically). The story of Georgiana's marriage unfolds by subtle degrees amidst the most sumptuous of interiors and landscaped gardens - all beautifully filmed and realistically recreated. Apart from the main characters, there appear a rich selection of characters from neighbouring strata of society - aristocrats, political activists, servants and children (as babies and older) both legitimate and illegitimate - all of whom contribute to weaving the screenplay into an immensely fascinating narrative. I was already a fan of both Keira Knightly and Ralph Fiennes before seeing The Duchess, so I was pleased to find that their performances were well up to - and in the case of Ms Knightly even surpassing - my expectations. Even those who aren't normally 'into' period dramas (like me) should, I feel sure, find much to appreciate in this excellent film.

What rather wonderful about this story is that Georgiana Spencer (Keira Knightley) discovers a way to exult in victory over things and to get back some kind of power in a time where, really, women had very littleÂ… Being someone of great vitality and liveliness, she was very much a dreamer and an idealist, a woman who loved being the center of attention, who loved the fact at some point that her picture was in the paper, that the clothes were always talked of, that her every move was commented onÂ…

We are immediately impressed by her presence, by her personalityÂ… She wasn't behaving quite in accordance with the way in which other 18th century women were expected to behaveÂ…

But there was something incredibly sad about this self-conscious ladyÂ… She was a victim of herselfÂ… A victim of her own innocenceÂ… A victim of people using her for their own profitÂ… Even though she seemed to have everything, we realize that it was not that simpleÂ… And with all of her privilege came a lot of moral obligation and things were never what they really appeared to beÂ…

The Duke (Ralph Fiennes) was a misanthropic man, rather cold, unemotional and quite cruelÂ… He seems to like better his hunting dogs to his young wifeÂ… Of course with certain values, that he believes were absolutely right and that he strictly held toÂ…

This sumptuous period piece also presents the Duchess of Devonshire as a political hostessÂ… Saul Dibb's film shows us her dinner parties, her evening events, her fame and its extraordinary effect on herÂ… It made her both desperate to please, terrified of doing anything wrong and shocked at her own celebrity and unable to figure out in her own mind why she was quite so famousÂ… And we see the crippling effect it has on her sense of selfÂ…