Costumes and cruel affairs.THE DUCHESS (Cert 12, 105 mins, Pathe Distribution Ltd, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. pounds 19.99/Blu-ray pounds 24.99) Starring: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell, Charlotte Rampling, Simon McBurney. ***** SEVENTEEN-year-old social butterfly Georgiana Spencer (Knightley) must marry into money to ensure the social standing of her family in mid-18th century high society. The imperious im·pe·ri·ous adj. 1. Arrogantly domineering or overbearing. See Synonyms at dictatorial. 2. Urgent; pressing. 3. Obsolete Regal; imperial. Lady Spencer (Rampling) encourages her daughter to accept a proposal from the brutish brut·ish adj. 1. Of or characteristic of a brute. 2. Crude in feeling or manner. 3. Sensual; carnal. 4. and considerably older Duke of Devonshire (Fiennes). The nobleman urgently needs a male heir and Georgiana will be paid handsomely to carry out her duties as a fertile, childbearing woman. When she gives birth to not one, but two daughters, his eye wanders and he takes Georgiana's friend Bess Foster (Atwell) as his mistress. The infidelity drives the young wife ever closer to her one true love, Charles Grey (Cooper), ambitious protege of Whig Party Whig party, one of the two major political parties of the United States in the second quarter of the 19th cent. Origins As a party it did not exist before 1834, but its nucleus was formed in 1824 when the adherents of John Quincy Adams and Henry leader Charles Fox (McBurney). Director Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy) ventures confidently into the realms of lavish costume drama with this well-upholstered adaptation of Amanda Foreman's best-selling biography Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. The Duchess waltzes through the period with elan, recreating the giddy social whirl, courtesy of Michael Carlin's meticulous production design, Michael O'Connor's resplendent re·splen·dent adj. Splendid or dazzling in appearance; brilliant. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin resplend costumes and Jan Archibald's voluminous, cascading wigs. It's truly a feast for the senses but Jeffery Hatcher's screenplay leaves us feeling emotionally undernourished. As history lessons go, this is a tad dry. Knightley conceals her heroine's emotions a little too well behind the powder and rouge, and Cooper doesn't have sufficient screen time to convincingly establish Grey as the love of Georgiana's life. However, Fiennes is impressive as a cold, repressed man, constrained by the traditions of his age, revealing the chinks of vulnerability and sadness behind the character's cruel facade. CAPTION(S): RECREATING THE PERIOD - Keira Knightley plays the Duchess of Devonshire in lavish costume drama The Duchess |
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