The Duchess

Based on the 1997 biography of Georgiana by Amanda Foreman, this is the story of the beautiful and glamorous woman who, in the late 18th century, became the Duchess of Devonshire.

Shot over nine weeks in the autumn of 2007, The Duchess was filmed in some of England’s most spectacular country houses, including Chatsworth, the ancestral home of the Devonshires. The locations are magnificent, the costumes lavish and the wigs, well, enormous. But this is not quite the costume drama some may have expected. Director Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy) says that he wanted to make a non-period period film that would feel modern and resonate now. It is a complex and dark story about a woman trapped in an arranged marriage.

When Georgiana’s mother negotiates a marriage settlement between the 17-year-old and the much older Duke of Devonshire, the contract entitles Georgiana to a handsome financial reward once she has produced a son and heir to the Duke’s estate. Georgiana (Keira Knightley) is excited at the prospect, believing the Duke to be in love with her. But married life quickly becomes a disappointment when she realises her husband has no intention of conversing with her and is more interested in bedding the servants. He also expects her to mother his illegitimate daughter, who comes to live with them.

Georgiana responds by throwing herself into the role of society hostess, entertaining the Whigs, the party supported by her husband, including party leader Charles Fox and his protegee Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper). She does bear her husband two children but, to his disappointment, they are daughters.

On a visit to Bath Georgiana becomes friends with Bess Foster (Hayley Atwell), who reveals her husband has taken her children and won’t allow her to see them. Georgiana takes pity on her and invites her to stay, with the unfortunate result that Bess becomes the Duke’s mistress. Georgiana begins an affair with Grey, which is to have tragic consequences.

The story is told from Georgiana’s point of view and Keira Knightley manages to convey her increasing disillusionment and later desperation as a victim in a world where men hold all the power. As the Duke, Ralph Fiennes delivers a typically subtle performance suggesting that he is also trapped in a role not of his choosing, bound by the codes and behaviour of his time.

There are obvious parallels to be drawn between Georgiana and her descendant, Diana Spencer, and there is controversy over the inclusion of pictures of Princess Diana in a trailer for the film. While this link clearly kept Amanda Foreman’s book in the bestsellers list, both Knightley and Dibb have been adamant that this is not a film about Diana.

It is, however, a film about celebrity. Georgiana was the “it” girl of her time, pursued by reporters and cartoonists as eager as today’s paparazzi. She involved herself in politics, she had a huge passion for gambling and, if we can believe one somewhat incendiary scene, she appears to have been an 18th century binge drinker. As with her counterparts today, her relationship with the press was ambiguous. She courted fame as well as being its victim.

Dibb was keen to secure Keira Knightley for this part. She is rarely off the screen and the success of the project hangs on her performance. On the whole she carries it well. But perhaps we are all too caught up in the celebrity culture. There is currently an exhibition at Chatsworth on the making of the film. Apparently visitors are rushing past the treasures of the house to see a photograph of Keira Knightley. She herself finds it strange, “But I’m just an actor!”. You may feel that you are watching a film about Keira, not Georgiana.