The Duchess (The Duchess (DVD))

Member Name: jensattaur

Product:	The Duchess (DVD)
Date:	07/08/09 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very nicely presented

Disadvantages: Very disappointing adaptation of a very good true-life story

This film is an adaption of the autobiography of the infamous Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Spencer. Known for her gambling, her outragous sense of fashion, her forward thinking politics, and her affair with Earl Grey, the Duchess of Devonshire was one of the strongest female figures of the early eighteenth century. The film follows her early life, from her illustrious marriage to the wealthy and powerful, but apathetic and unloving, Duke of Devonshire; her friendship with her husband's mistress, adventuress Bess Foster; her growing interest in the politics of Charles Fox, and her affair with Fox's protege, Charles Earl Grey.

I read the book first, and it has to be said the the film was a very disappointing follow up. In the first place, Keira Knightly's portrayal of Georgiana, to me, was insipid and whiney, sapping the character of the innate strength and sweetness that come across in the biography, and reducing her to a nymphomaniac and over-emphasising the 'opressed woman' angle. Likewise, the complexities of the Duke's character were downplayed, and the focus was more on the social position of women than on the fascinating tangle of relationships between the people in Georgiana's life.

The film seemed to me to be two-dimensional, and while the setting, scenery, make-up, costume and so forth were very well done, the film suffered from the dumbing-down of the many intriguing facets of this captivating woman's life. This film could have been an inspiring story of a woman who overcame social restrictions through the strength of her personality; instead it was a bland re-play of the hundreds of semi-social-commentary period dramas which portray the same old message of oppression.

One problem which bothered me in particular was that many of the most interesting elements of the book - Georgiana's incessent gambling, for example, or her fanatical interest in high fashion- were given very little attention; to make the film slightly racy the director employed mild pornography instead. I would have preferred to see a film which concentrated on those aspects which were genuinely interesting historically, rather than shocking only from a twenty-first century perspective.

Summary: If you liked the book, give this one a miss