I get to see The Duchess in one week, a film I have added to “The Contenders” as an Oscar hopeful and apparently a film that is raising some eyebrows across the pond where it opened this past weekend prior to its September 19 release here in the States. The film has been receiving middle-of-the-road to negative reviews out of film festivals and the UK and earned this commentary from the Guardian in its weekend preview:
Another corseted Keira movie. This time she’s 18th-century style icon Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, whose progressive attitudes and overcrowded marriage to a stiff old aristo eagerly invite Diana parallels. Less flattering comparisons spring to mind, though: it’s all fatally uninspired and unconvincing.
Apparently the Diana comparison will earn you a slap on the wrist from star Keira Knightley and even co-star Ralph Fiennes is getting in on the action with reasons why his character is not based on Prince Charles.
In an editorial by the Guardian’s David Cox raises questions not as to why the filmmakers chose to make a film about Diana and disguise it as a movie about Georgiana. Instead he wonders why they made a film about Georgiana and aren’t willing to admit the parallels it has with Diana. At least that is how he makes it out to sound until his final ‘graph where he writes, “Come on, Ralph and Keira. No need to be ashamed. You’ve made quite a decent film. About Diana.”
A play on the words famously uttered by Diana – “There were three people in her marriage” – is also drawing comments. However, director Saul Dibb will have none of it, “I can guarantee that when we were making the movie, Diana’s name was never mentioned. It didn’t govern the shooting of the film or the performances. The story is about Georgiana, and no one else. It doesn’t need to be linked to anyone else because she was an exceptionally interesting person in her own right.”
Much of the ballyhoo has come about due to the film’s international trailer (watch at the bottom of this article) which uses an image of Diana in the early goings as phrases such as “Two Women Related By Ancestry” and “United By Destiny” plays over the fancy music and what not. This apparently bothers Knightley (though I am yet to find concrete proof of her getting upset) while Dibb just calls it “a marketing device.” However, it isn’t surprising Diana’s image would be used considering the stories do seem to parallel one another and on top of that Diana was descended from Georgiana’s brother, the 2nd Earl Spencer. It only makes sense they would use the more recent comparison to sell a story from over 200 years ago.
Is it a happy coincidence Diana once said she shared Prince Charles with Camilla Parker-Bowles throughout her 15-year marriage and Georgianna too had her own little threesome, or are the filmmakers just doing their best to avoid any kind of controversy that may arise should someone feel the film offends the late Princess of Wales?
I guess there is one other way to look at it; the UK papers are making a much bigger stink about it than Keira, Ralph or anyone else involved are made out to seem. One article says Keira “scolds” in an answer to a comparison question and another says Diana questions will “set those exquisite nostrils atrembling with disdain.” However, if you watch this video I don’t quite see where they get their adjectives from.
The comparisons will obviously have a larger effect in the UK than they will here in the States, but it’s interesting to see just how much Diana can still stir things up. Now for that trailer I promised for a film I am extremely anxious to see…
