The Duchess

DVDfever.co.uk – The Duchess DVD reviewDom Robinson reviews

The DuchessDistributed by
DVD:
Blu-ray:

• Cert:
• Running time: 105 minutes
• Year: 2008
• Released: March 2009
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 16 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired
• Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £22.99 (DVD), £30.99 (Blu-ray)
• Extras:
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  Director:

  Saul Dibb

  (Bullet Boy, The Duchess, Easy Money, TV: The Line of Beauty)

Producers:

Michael Kuhn and Gabrielle Tana

Screenplay:

Jeffrey Hatcher, Anders Thomas Jensen and Saul Dibb (from the book “Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire” by Amanda Foreman)

Music:

Rachel Portman

Cast :

Georgiana: Keira Knightley
The Duke: Ralph Fiennes
Lady Spencer: Charlotte Rampling
Charles Grey: Dominic Cooper
Bess Foster: Hayley Atwell
Charles Fox: Simon McBurney
Richard Sheridan: Aidan McArdle
General Grey: John Shrapnel
Heaton: Alistair Petrie

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The Duchesstells the real-life story of Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, based on the letters and diaries she wrote duringher lifetime and which were adapted by Amanda Foreman who wrote the biography on which the film was based

In short, Georgeina (Keira Knightley) marries The Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes, who is twice Keira’sage, so you can get an idea of how the relationship is going to go for the characters), and becomes his Duchess, but shereally fancies future Prime Minister Charles Grey (Mamma Mia‘s Dominic Cooper). However, as it’s the 18thCentury and she’s only a woman (such is the times in which they live), as David Essex song, A Winter’s Tale,goes, “It’s a love that can never be…”, even though it means a lot to the two of them.

The Duke and Duchess have very different ideas about marriage. He is only concerned about her ability to bear him a maleheir, so the fact that she begins with giving birth to two girls won’t sit well with him. She, on the other hand, is overthe moon about being married to someone so high up in society. Her mother, Lady Spencer (Charlotte Rampling),explains that she has to have sex with him, but only has a ‘duty’ to him to bear him a son. After that time, her motherconfirms these occasions will become “fewer and less… determined”.

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Over time, she learns what a nasty piece of work he really is, in terms of his attitude. The Duke doesn’t care abouthis wife or daughters and instead pays more attention to his two dogs, leaving her with a lifetime to come of regretand it proves that no matter how much wealth you have, you can still be as lonely as a pauper. Little wonder, thenthat as well as practically having to put up with all of his affairs, including one with her new best friend, Bess Foster(Hayley Atwell), Georgeina goes her own way by being a fashion icon with her own range, and also a heavy gambler.She has great interests in politics, too, and wants to help Charles Grey as much as she can, and given her celebrityit’ll be the best publicity he can get.

The Duchess features great acting from the two leads, bouncing off each other well as they struggle in theirmarriage, albeit for different reasons, while Dominic Cooper always seems fairly leaden in his performance. However,Hayley Atwell equips herself well as Bess.

There’s also some clever writing as early on, the Ralph walks out of a long and boring speech by Leader of the OppositionCharles Fox (Simon McBurney) at a Whig Party dinner, even though he’s their main supporter, because it’s longand boring. Keira goes after him, but he insists there’s no need for her to be with him, even though they’re meant tobe a married couple. She goes back to the room feeling rather dejected and tells Fox that the Duke did indeed enjoyhis speech and that he expresses a hope that next time it’s even longer(!)

Overall, while I don’t normally go in for period dramas I wanted to take a look at this one as I was a massive fan ofSaul Dibb’s feature-length directorial debut Bullet Boy, and his vision and full use of the whole camera framereally helped make it a more engaging film than it would’ve been under most other directors.

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Presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic ratio, the full 2.35:1 frame is used to superb effect in exuding the perioddetail of the 18th Century with its sumptuous design, and any TV channel cropping it to 16:9, or even 4:3, deserves tobe publicly named and shamed. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is mostly used for ambience, but that’s done well and the music score is excellent.

The extras are as follows:

• Making Of (40:18): A detailed look at the film in five parts, starting with “The Real Duchess”, as we learn how the real Georgeina lived alife where she was aware of her own celebrity and had the tabloids been around in her day, she would’ve been photographedfalling down in society occasions, rather than nightclubs, as you’d expect today from Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse (well,Georgeina would take drugs, but wouldn’t go around punching people without provocation). “Casting a Marriage” doesn’tjust concentrate on Kate and Ralph, but the rest of them too.

  “Locations” begins on filming in Chatsworth House for the couple’s main residence; while “A Political Woman” and “TheEmpress of Fashion” expand on her interests which I mentioned earlier.

• Deleted Scenes (7:02): There are three here, all with optional director’s commentary. All are presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen butare not as sharp as the main film itself. They’re interesting enough, but were clearly cut as they don’t advance thestory enough to warrant inclusion.
• Trailer (2:13):Presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen. At the start it compares Georgiana to the late Princess Diana. Well, theyboth suffered from bullimia, but I don’t recall any scenes where Georgiana threw herself down the stairs. If I’d seenthat in a trailer prior to watching the film it would’ve put me off.
• Photo Gallery (2:23):Pictures from the film set to the score.
• Other releases: Trailers for Easy Virtue, Slumdog Millionaire and Australia.

  The main menu features a short piece of the film’s score against various clips from the film, there are subtitles in Englishonly and the disc contains 16 chapters which isn’t really enough for a film that runs to 105 minutes. Personally, I wouldalways go for one every five minutes, with another apiece for the opening and closing credits.There were some trailers for other films shown prior to the main menu but these should really be in with the extras and,as such, I’m not going to list them here as this kind of ‘rental video’ philosophy annoys me.

  FILM CONTENT
  PICTURE QUALITY
  SOUND QUALITY
  EXTRAS
  
  
  OVERALLReview copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2009.View the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
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