BalekFekete
Shared on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 09:23Type casting can be a good thing, or a bad thing, for an actor or actress. On one hand, it acknowledges a person's strength in a particular role, and makes it more likely that they have work anytime a movie comes out in that genre or setting. However, on the flip side, it can also make it so that is the ONLY type of role that person gets in a movie. In my opinion, that negative far outweighs the positive. Imagine if Clint Eastwood only was cast as Dirty Harry - we'd have missed out on his stellar performances in movies like Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. Having just watched The Duchess, staring Kiera Knightly, it's readily apparent that she's in danger of being type cast into the Elizabethan period films. The plus side - she does them very well. And...well she looks damn good in a corset. 
The Duchess is based on the true story of the 18th century Duchess of Devonshire Georgiana. The history behind the woman is one of an arranged marriage to an older, colder aristocrat, and the life lived by the wife of such a person in that era. As you would suspect, the values and norms of society in that time differ from what we know today in many ways, and some very significant. The woman in that time was regulated to two primary duties - obedience to their husband and the generation of a family tree and heir. Add to that the social acceptance of a husband's "indulgences" in other women, and you have a pretty tough life for a woman of those times. Of course, when a woman wants to turn the tables and take on a lover of her own...well, that's not quite so well received. The fact that this really happened, at least to some extant, just makes it that much more powerful.
The movie depicts these trials and how the Duchess lived through them accurately (in as much as I can tell) and vividly. I found myself shaking my head and feeling downright sorry for her at times, which means the movie did what it set out to do. Her pain is palatable, and Knightly pulls off the role very well. Ralph Fiennes, most well known as Voldemort and his role in Red Dragon, plays the part of the Duke well - almost too well. Thinking back on the movie, Fiennes portrayed the Duke as someone caught up in his rank as much of a prisoner as the Duchess was. However, I suspect that wasn't necessary the case in history. An aristocrat of that stature would have been so well trained into that lifestyle that he would not have cared for the pains of his wife, at least not so much as was conveyed in the movie at points. Regardless, both cast members did a solid job, as did the secondary actors and actresses. Match that with settings and costume work that was spot on, and it was a believable representation of 18th century England.
Ultimately, The Duchess provided a fresh glimpse into life abroad back in that time, and proved a powerful example of how far our society has come in the past hundred-plus years. While I would have been a bit annoyed had I purchased this title, it was worthy of the spot in the Netflix queue.
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Submitted by Caesar on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 11:38
Submitted by TANK on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 10:06
Submitted by ATC_1982 on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 10:12
Submitted by BalekFekete on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 10:28
Submitted by BalekFekete on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 10:31