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A chronicle of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was reviled for her extravagant political and personal life.
Keira Knightley: Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire
Ralph Fiennes: Duke of Devonshire
The Duchess(2008) is based on Amanda Foreman's biographic book and is brought to life on screen by Director Saul Dibb.
The story revolves around Georgina, who becomes the Duchess of Devonshire, married into a marriage of convenience and stature, laboured with the task of giving her husband the Duke a male heir.
Keira Knightley is in her element as Georgiana and you can see she revels in it. Keira is at home in her depiction of the intelligent, beautiful Georgiana. Every scene she is in has life, depth and prosperity. Emotion and struggle effortlessly conveyed in her eyes alone at times.
What struck me were her loveless marriage to Ralph Fiennes Duke and the many problems she faces.
Ralph Fiennes plays a villain character very well in films in the past but in The Duchess I wouldn't class him as good or bad in conclusion. His Duke character in here simply has problem expressing his emotions and at times he beautifully acts out how insensitive he can be to Georgiana. His many faults and later affair with Bess, a friend of Georgiana, causes problems and even shows us of the mistreatment of women in this period. To me it's a fascination in a few hundred years; females have been given the freedom and right to do the same as men, and rightly so.
Georgiana is a woman ahead of her time, comparable to great ladies like Elizabeth or Catherine The great in the form and way of strength, resolve and striking intelligence; showing she's not just a beautiful lady of Aristocracy but one who is mentally and physically perfect.
I must admit her romance and deep love for Dominic Cooper's Charles Grey struck me to how tragic and moving the whole story is. The boundaries of protocol and what society expects of you is amazingly captured, showing real life to be a hugely fascinating and inspiration, as well as rival to anything fictional or fantasy based can offer us.
Charles Grey and Georgiana by the River sharing a moment of intimacy struck volumes with me. A long lost feeling of a love not yet felt with her emotionless seeming husband. as Charles and Georgiana look into each others eyes you can see the love there.
As they kiss and give into loves embrace, it's mind-blowing and even my eyes were unable to control the prospect of crying slightly.
The love scenes were surprisingly really well executed in amazing subtle yet effective ways. Some scenes with Keira and Ralph were obviously awkward but they were intended to be. Keira's love scenes with Cooper are an effective contrast to the ones with Ralph, which are void of love, this importantly helps us to notice the huge difference there.
The Duchess is simply a period masterpiece that may be predicted as being sad but it's not. It's positively radiant in all aspects. Costumes, locations, acting and the music and Score is in a class of its own. The Duchess is beautiful storytelling and a period film dream to put it effectively, a vision of a woman's life miraculously portrayed on the dazzling big screen.
Ralph Fiennes provides a character who you love to hate, but redeems himself somewhat, Keira Knightley is the shining Goddess we all thought she would be.
Dominic Cooper gets another amazing film besides History Boys and Mamma Mia under his belt and has convinced me he's a rising star.
Ralph Fiennes making everyone laugh on various parts from the way he says things so unemotionally is perfect. I've never seen a Lady with her head on fire before in a Period film, but what made it even more memorable was the fact Ralph has to say ''Put out The Duchess's hair please!'', or something to that effect.
My favourite part near the end; where we actually see a glimpse of Ralph's Duke's emotion was so moving for me. Where he looks out the window and says something like, ''How wonderful to be that free.'' For the first time he actually connects to Keira, and we see he is as mush a prisoner as she is in this world of Aristocracy.
In conclusion The Duchess has humour, struggle, a moving score, beautiful cinematography, and an ending that concludes things in such a way; you will be moved, you will be happy and most importantly you will be satisfied and be left glowing from the experience.
10/10
