Film Night: The Duchess

[erastes]

Well, I liked it - but there were reasons why I didn't too.  All in all I'd recommend it for the reasons I did like it, but I felt a little let down in many ways - on reflection, that is. As the credits came up I had a feeling of "i enjoyed that."  Confused?  Yes. Me too.

Pros: 

* Lovely lovely lovely costumes and coaches and the real settings
* Beautiful photography which either used natural and candlelight or mimicked it completely
* Ralph Fiennes
* Horsies!
* Fabulous room dressing.
* Charlotte Rampling

Cons:
* Far Far Far Far Far Far Far Far Far Far Far Far Far too many close-ups on Ms Knightley.
* The 18th century shown as wonderfully clean-even the peasants!
* Ms Knightley's acting, basically it looks like someone once told her that she can act with her eyes, and really - she ought to try and start doing it with her whole body.  There was only part of the film where she actually made me feel for her.
* The obvious heavy handed attempt (with the poster, primarily "there are three of us in the marriage") to echo the Charles and Di thing.  They were even going to have them marry in St Pauls, but Fiennes (who had read the book, and others of course, being him) said that wasn't a good idea and they listened to him.  It's nothing like Charles and Di. Many people don't even know that it was a true story.
* I really couldn't get involved with her affair with Charles Grey because he looked too much like Regency Blackadder right down to the eyebrows. I kept expecting him to produce Baldrick at any moment.

I think I would have liked it to focus more on what she did politically and socially rather than it all being about the ménage-a-trois and the love affair, she was really a fascinating woman and this film portrays her as little more than a pretty dress-up doll.  It started well, when she began to have a conversation with Mr Charles Fox, at dinner and I thought we'd see more of that, but sadly not. 

It's a BBC film, so it'll probably be on the box pretty soon, save your pennies and get the DVD or wait till the TV shows it.

Does anyone else thing that Ellora's Cave website is very difficult to navigate? You search for "historical", you get a load of covers with naked men.  You search for "gay" you get a load of covers with naked men.  It's impossible to see which ones are gay and or historical and there aren't enough hours in the day for me to click on every cover to find it's either a contemporary or heterosexual because it's just impossible to tell!!

Oh - and Torchwood fans?  Don't miss the special radio episode to be aired on the day that the Large Hadron Collider fires up.

Comments

[kalitakasar.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen Johnny Depp, in The Libertine? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Also Charles II The Power and the Passion (aka: The Last King). The latter starred Rufus Sewell as Charles II and sparked my obsession with all things 18th Century. Would like to know what you think of both these films, should you get the chance to see them.

I will wait for The Duchess on DVD.

Don't get me started on historical book covers.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd like to see a film that focussed on Georgiana's political career, because that's pretty amazing for a woman of her time. It's so frustrating to make a film about such an interesting woman and have it yet again be all about who she slept with.

I noticed that elisa_rolle had a link to what sounded like an interesting m/m Regency on Ellora's Cave, though yes, you couldn't have told it was historical from the cover.

[cleo]

For all of it's strangeness and problems, at least Perfume: The Story of a Murderer let you see the filth of 18th century France.

The Duchess hasn't come out here yet, but my grilfriend and I were planning on seeing it. I am not a huge Knightly fan. I agree with you comment on her acting 100%.

[marquesate.livejournal.com]

But Charles II is 17th century. O_O

[shiawmeimei.livejournal.com]

EC is working on a new website that is supposed to be more user friendly. But yes, it's sometimes hard to find the right combination.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, I loved the Libertine. It was on again here a couple of weeks ago and I missed it. Why did they call it the Charles II thing "The Last King" do you know?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

All about the sex. Annoying - there was so much more to her than that.

Yes, that's why I ended up on the Ellora's Cave pages as the book wasn't on Fictionwise, very frustrating - there was no way I was going to open every single page just on the offchance that some of them were historical.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

If they had a search option like Fictionwise, it would be helpful.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I missed that - I love the book; wanted to see the film but I don't think it even made it to Norwich, annoyingly.

[cerisaye.livejournal.com]

As soon as I heard who was playing Georgiana I knew I wouldn't be watching the film, though I loved the book. I just cannot abide Knightley. Sigh. Eyes, and the MOUTH. Bah

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I'm sure the BBC has made that film before - before Diana died. I know I've seen the story on TV.

Kiera Knightley - I don't know a woman who rates her as an actress. Men like her because she's very pretty and fond of taking her clothes off, but as one of my (male) friends said, they 'don't go to see her for the acting.' I thought she was Ok in 'Bend It Like Beckham' and 'Love Actually', but I think she's too modern for historicals.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

I think the Ellora's Cave website is attrociously fugtastic, hard to navigate and state of the nineties in terms of design. It blows my mind that they've become the top dog with such craptastic web design and development - not to mention half the time I try to buy something there something fucks up and I get an error message.

Loose Id is my favorite in terms of clean design and interface as well as ease of transaction.

[kalitakasar.livejournal.com]

I think it may have been because he was the last king to rule without a parliament. He dissolved parliament in 1678 and resolved to rule without them, and did so for a time.

[kalitakasar.livejournal.com]

Yes, and I knew that. My bad *smacks self*

[cleo]

I, on the other hand, have not read the book. The film is...alright. It's was something I only needed to see once.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes and oh she gets her kit off a lot in this, and has some f/f action... *rolls eyes* There's a very coy "oops I exposed my nipple" shot in the first sex scene which nearly had me throw my Tango at the screen.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's not just me! :D

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, eyes and mouth. Well, as she hasn't got any tits or arse, I suppose....

/evil.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I can imagine that, the book was pretty hard to take, but of course it's not as bad as seeing it on screen.

[feed-your-muse.livejournal.com]

Not only is the Ellora's Cave website hard to navigate, even on broadband it takes forever to completely load. I know, being an online bookshop/publisher, it has a lot of pictures but surely there's a way to make them load faster? I don't try and browse there now - I'll go knowing what I want or not at all.

=^..^=

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's very frustrating - and impossible for me, as a reviewer, to find the books I want to review!

In complete contrast Amber Allure's site is wonderfully clear, and is so easy to navigate, browse and to immediately track down "gay historical fiction" with just a few clicks.

[dubaiyan.livejournal.com]

How was Hayley Atwell?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

She was Ok - much more impressive performance than Knightley, but I'm sad to say that the director simply didn't want to give any screen time to anyone else by KK and even in the scenes where HA was present it cut quickly to KK.