A Fan Fit for a Duchess

For any big fans of The Duchess, the savvy Lauren located an article of interest.  This is a fan from the movie, with a print of Knightly in the form of Gainsborough's famous image of Georgiana.  Of course she has to have her mouth gaping open (in a sexy manner?) which is really ludicrous; but I digress.  What is pretty cool about this fan is that it shows the attention of detail that went into the movie.  I never even noticed the people in the crowd holding them!  When Georgiana canvassed in the 1784 Westminster Election fans were made with her and Charles James Fox's images on them.  Although I have yet to see if any of them remain today, this prop has got to be pretty close to what they would have looked like.  Check it out Although I have yet to see if any of them remain today, this prop has got to be pretty close to what they would have looked like.  Check it out here.

Georgiana Approved?

J Crew Duchess Collection by GeorgianaGossip featuring J Crew bracelets

Fashion forward reader, Kim, just sent me an email alerting me to some necklaces and bracelets from J Crew, dubbed 'Duchess," no doubt inspired by the film. Take a look!

Now, I suspect you know what comes next; do you think Georgiana would approve of this finery? Would it grace her ivory wrists and neck? Discuss.

I won't put my two cents in just yet, but this set looks to be more her style in my opinion!

Hats An Anthology at the V&A

When Hats An Anthology first came to my attention I was very excited. The fabulous milliner (and James St James lookalike) Stephen Jones had access to all the hats in Victoria and Albert Museum's endless costumes collection and he must choose a selection to represent all the glorious centuries of hat-making. In my mind I pictured him flitting through the vaults grabbing a Picture Hat here, a massive Victorian Gainsborough hat there, Chanel and Dior galore, and bonnet bonnets bonnets. What a lucky guy. He modeled his exhibition after the museum's 1971 exhibition, Fashion an Anthology by Cecil Beaton which put historical fashion on the map. His hopes are that this exhibition will do the same for headgear.

The overall design of the exhibit was FABULOUS. It was like walking into a gothic picnic. The entrance is framed by classical pillars with drapery hanging off it like Spanish Moss. Even the pamphlet in peaches and creme colours matches the Exhibition book, very graphically thoughtful. The room itself is dark with more gothic tones of black and purple so that the hats in the lit-up display cases are just glowing. In the centre Jones has arranged a millinery workshop complete with scraps on the ground, feathers, and other hats from the collection. When you walk in you are greeted by a selection of hats, dominated by Queen Victoria's bonnet and Prince Albert's top hat, both in pristine condition, how appropriate! The hats are divided in different categories: Inspiration, Creation, The Client, and The Salon. The hats in these sections are further divided into subcategories like straw, plastic, paper, etc. I like how Jones included hats such as the plastic souvenir policemen hats that are available all over London or the $1 rain bonnet. These were interesting to view next to, say a Dior or Darth Vader's helmet.

What bothered me a lot, though, was that about 65-75% of the hats exhibited were Stephen Jones hats. Don't get me wrong, Jones is an excellent milliner and I found his couture hats very exciting, but why couldn't they be displayed in his own show? If a case had ten hats in it, about five would be Jones'. It left me wanting more historical hats, after all, he had access to all of the V&A's collection! Historical hats are just used to pepper the main dish of contemporary ones. Another major faux pas was that in one case the hats were mislabeled; Lauren and I were very surprised to see something like this as such a prestigious museum and such a publicized exhibition. A section I did find interesting displayed various celebrities' hats. Included in the display was Camilla's wedding feathery headband and the fox tail hat from The Duchess, which apparently, Kiera got to keep.

Overall, the exhibition was a feast for the eyes but disappointing in lack of historical hats and in the self-promoting of Jones' work. This caused me to be more impressed with the overall display than the actual content. It is still worth checking out, but not if you are expecting to see a display of hats through the ages.

Oscar Update

I just managed to catch the end of Michael O'Connor's teary Oscar speech (sorry, was watching Oliver Twist!). The Duchess just won for the best costumes. A deserved honour but I can't help but notice The Duchess seems to only be recognized for costumes and no other honours in terms of awards.

BAFTA update

The Duchess just won a BAFTA for costumes. Yay Michael O'Connor you deserve it!

For Sale: The Duchess (Region 1)

As I brought up earlier, even though The Duchess took forever to get to US theaters (with little fanfare) it is already out on DVD and Blue-ray today. European audiences will have to wait a little longer for the movie. Richard Schickel of TIME magazine describes the movie as "feisty, cool, and scandalous," which makes me think he hasn't actually seen the movie. Perhaps he read the book the film was based on? Either way, I'm off to buy the flick and micro-analyze it even more...and drool over the fabulous costumes and jewelery, of course.

The Duchess Comes to DVD

You thought I was done complaining about The Duchess, didn't you? Well another enigma has sprung up which I need to share. As I was musing through Factual Imagining today I discovered that The Duchess is to be released on DVD on 27 December- two days after Christmas. I was shocked that it was coming out so soon, and what an awful time to be released: after the Christmas rush. So as I was musing through pre-order goodness to find the best deals for those who are interested (see below) and I find that it won't be available on DVD in the UK until March!! I'm assuming this is because it's still being released in theaters in Europe at the same time, but yikes! That's a big gap! Either way, here are the best deals I found:

Amazon $17, save 43%
Amazon UK £13, save 35%
Best Buy $20

Oh and on a(nother) sardonic note, I did not find the movie to be nearly "fiesty, cool, and scandalous" as the real duchess. How did someone even get that impression? Okay, I've said my piece.

The Duchess Poll Results

The results are in, as chosen by you! Before the release date of The Duchess I asked you if you were going to see it. 32 People submitted their opinions and this is what they said:

16 (50%) said I already have my feathers set aside for my grand entrance at the premiere!

9 (28%) said Yeah, I'll see it eventually

2 (6%) said Psh, yeah right, I don't want to witness the murder of a good name

5 (15%)said I'm not stuck in America so I saw it weeks ago!

Last month I asked those who had seen the film to give it their rating on a scale of 5 stars. 113 more people participated in this poll, which resulting in you giving The Duchess an average rating of:

Thanks to everyone for participating!

Where is Harriet?

As I discussed in one of my reviews for The Duchess, there is a noticeable absence of a very important figure in Georgiana's life: Harriet. It seems that other people have been bothered by this as well (as they should be!). Then I remembered that IMDB had listed her in the cast. Low and behold, her name is still there, as played by Emily Cohen. So what happened to Harriet?

Movie Review: The Duchess (Part 2)

WARNING: After you pass this line you run the risk of reading about aspects of The Duchess you may not want to know until you see it for yourself. If you have seen the film, by all means please continue and be sure to leave your opinion as well. If not, please move on to other conversations of gossip unless you don’t mind spoilers!

If you have rejoined me here after my long review of The Duchess, I am impressed! I am glad you haven’t been scared off just yet. This part of my review is separate because it is a review based on The Duchess’ adaption to Amanda Foreman’s book, or the movie’s accuracy to the portrayal of Georgiana Cavendish. And for that I will give it:

The Film as a BioPic
Rating: 1 Star

Yup, it was not that accurate at all. In fact, while I was watching it I think I was able to enjoy it because I couldn’t connect Gee with Georgiana, the 5th Duchess of Devonshire. They are two different people. I won’t go through every minute little inaccuracy in this post, I will just touch about the main ones that really bother me. Now that leaves me with the dilemma of where to begin this review. I suppose I should begin at the beginning.

The movie opens with 16 year old Georgiana playing at Althorpe with her friends. One of these friends includes age-mate Charles Grey. If Grey had known Georgiana at this point in her life he would have been about 9 years old. She did not meet him until he became involved in politics in his 20’s. I didn’t see the point in them writing him into her early life.

This brings me to my next big qualm. The time frame was all over the place in this film! First of all, it appeared that Georgiana got pregnant right away, no problemo. Part of her struggle in bearing an heir was the fact that it took her about 9 years in order to have a child. The film then has a “6 years later” caption and shows Gee introducing her huge hair tower and feathers. No, no, NO! Fashion faux-pas to the max! She did that at the beginning of her marriage and by 1789 (when the movie shows her introducing the fads) that was extremely out of fashion. In fact, regency fashion was blooming at that point. Did anyone else notice how the children never really aged either? Wasn’t it strange?

Yes, the family dynamics were all off. Lady Spencer went past assertive, caring, mother to just plain mean. In reality she was very protective of Georgiana and was known to occasionally boss the Duke around too. She was one of the people to go to France with Georgiana when she gave birth to Eliza Courtney.
I was very much bothered by the lack of Harriet. Harriet was such an important part of Georgiana’s life and always portrayed next to her in prints. She was also an amazing woman who was overshadowed by her celebrity sister. Did they exclude her in order to emphasize the isolation of Gee?

This brings me to a huge flaw in the film. The writers were so obsessed with creating this victimized heroine who lives in a prison of isolation that they created a major contradiction. I was commenting to Lauren in our post-viewing meeting about how I was alarmed that Gee was alone most of the time. There are letters from the time discussing Georgiana’s day hour by hour (she was a celebrity remember, and people were obsessed with her) and she was rarely alone. In fact, she usually was surrounded by a group of women (the ton) who were noticeably absent. I think they could have been more convincing of her celebrity and fashion-icon status, and instead they were just mentioned. For example, at one point Bess says “Everyone is staring at you,” and the women in the background didn’t actually appear to be looking at Gee. Georgiana was bombarded by crowds while walking in the park. Lauren and I were remarking that just mentioning her friendship with Marie Antoinette was an obvious and easy way of showing her celebrity and status to the audience. Then Lauren brought up how it is probably confusing to the audience when Gee’s celebrity is mentioned, but it is not actually proven. Basically you are supposed to believe it because you are told, but given no examples.

Two huge aspects that are very prominent, and therefore important, in Georgiana’s life are her role in politics and her addiction to gambling and battle with debts. She was shown giving speeches on the platform and gambling (with a sourpuss on her face) but that is about it. I thought it must have been confusing to viewers that she was promoting Grey with Charles Fox (where were his eyebrows??) paraphernalia: fox tails and FOX clearly written on a ribbon on her hat.

That brings me to my last major gripe, our favourite tart, Bess. I wish they portrayed her as more of a sweet little manipulator. I DID NOT like how they implied that her husband beat her. Give me a break…OH that was one of the cheesy lines that bothered me, “it is legal for a man to beat his wife as long as the stick is smaller than their thumb,” yes thank you Bess, we learned that in Boondock Saints. But seriously, that line was out of place, and it was unnecessary for Bess to be a battered wife. But what bothered me was Gee screaming at William that she wanted Bess out. The importance of portraying Bess as a manipulator was that when Georgiana discovered the affair, she was so dependant on Bess that she swallowed her pain rather than loose her beloved Bess. Maybe that is hard to conceive for our modern audience, but it is what made the situation so unique.

There were a few things I did appreciate the film including. One was the sudo-lesbianic scene between Bess and Gee. Although this may have been for titillation or making sure male companions are still paying attention, it alluded to her bisexuality. I also did like how they showed the scum-baggery of Grey getting engaged fast after the affair. So the writers did pick up on some details but for the most part, just used Georgiana as a gateway to tell a love story.

Movie Review: The Duchess (Part 1)

WARNING: After you pass this line you run the risk of reading about aspects of The Duchess you may not want to know until you see it for yourself. If you have seen the film, by all means please continue and be sure to leave your opinion as well. If not, please move on to other gossip unless you don’t mind spoilers!

Synopsis
The Duchess begins with a young Georgiana or Gee, as she is known throughout the film, when she finds she is about to leave her childhood home and marry the “most powerful peer,” the Duke of Devonshire, hereafter known as William. After an awkward wedding night, Gee quickly discovers that married life is disenchanting with her socially-awkward and cold husband who only sees her as a vessel for heirs. He immediately forces her to accept his bastard daughter Charlotte whom she eventually loves as her own. Two daughters quickly follow, much to William’s chagrin. We are then introduced to Bess Foster, the sassy dark enchantress who Gee instantly feels a connection to after seeing her interact with William at a ball. The two instantly become friends and Bess moves in with the Devonshires but Gee’s world crumbles when she discovers that William and Bess are having an affair behind her back. This leads to Gee having her own affair with Charles Grey, a childhood friend. When their affair is discovered, William gives her the option of choosing between Grey and her own children and she picks her children. Unfortunately at this time she finds she is pregnant with Grey’s child, whom she has to give up in a heart-wrenching scene of motherly pain. Then she comes back home and goes to a party. The end.


The Film as a Film
Rating: 4 Stars

I did like this movie. However, when I was watching it I didn’t see my Georgiana or Amanda Foreman’s Georgiana, or maybe even the real Georgiana. But I will get to that later. The movie as a movie was pretty good.

Saul Dibb proved he could play with the big boys of costume dramas. I found his art direction to be well done especially in giving the viewers a window in the emotions of the characters. This comes with the exception of the wedding scene in which we have a close up of Gee's head as she takes a five minute walk up the hour. At this point my companion, Cac went "I'm getting kinda uncomfortable being this close to her for this long." The relatively unknown Rachel Portman composed the score and did a phenomenal job with the music. If only the soundtrack was longer!

The writing did not impress me but still managed to be entertaining. There were at least two lines that had me burst out laughing due to cheese-factor. They escape me now, but I recall the Duke saying one of them. It made me wonder if there were more silly lines that just escaped me because of the actors’ performances. Why does every English 18th century flick lack what the French ones include: frivolousness. It was a time of gaiety, parties and gambling, people weren’t so stuffy. There should have been many scenes of gambling and parties and fun-drunken Georgianas. As for the choice of scripts, Amanda Foreman has discussed how she was presented a variety of scripts based on her biography and how she hated them all, but liked this one. I feel like, the writers, Jeffry Hatcher (Casanova) and Anders Thomas Jensen (many German movies) chose a small portion of Georgiana’s amazing life that portrayed her as Marie Antoinette or any other aristocratic woman from the period (married young-bad marriage-no kids-angry mother-rise to fabulous-affair-downfall), with no unique aspects to make her stand out. But that is what drew us to Georgiana initially! As Jezebel, likes to point out, many Oscar-worthy films, or films in general, seem to portray female leads in three categories: Hookers, Victims, and Doormats. Gee is definitely a victim; there is no victory for her. And yes, this chapter of Georgiana’s life did leave her the victim, but she is a phoenix and there was a rebirth. But in every minute of this film Gee is portrayed as this isolated prisoner. What about her true-life victories? She was a female-pioneer in politics, a loved celebrity, a fashion guru, and a wife who did eventually overcome past marital problems and teach her husband to love her. Indeed, the Duke was inconsolable when she passed away.

Ralph Fiennes STOLE THE SHOW. Seriously, how amazing was he? He was spot on in his portrayal of a very difficult character to interpret. Due to the lack of personal letters from the very introverted Duke, it is hard to give voice to this character. But Fiennes took what little he had and turned out a great performance. Hayley Atwell did well in her portrayal of Bess but it was not the Bess described by Foreman. Atwell was a strong seductress, whereas Bess played the part of a meek woman in order to manipulate.
I will never call Miss Knightly a bad actress, because she is not. But I knew that the part of Georgiana would be too complex for a 23 year old, and I still stand by this. I saw a lot of Elizabeth Swan and Bennett, etc in her Gee. One of the aspects of Georgiana's personality that Foreman emphasized was her naivety through most of her life, and her many attempts to please the Duke. I felt that this lasted for about five minutes in the movie. Also, she played an unconvincing mother, Georgiana was very devoted and in love with her children. Knightly’s hugs and coos seemed superficial. However, she put on a convincing performance in the scene where she had to give up Eliza Courntey.
Cooper's Grey was forgettable, but what he excelled at was chemistry with Knightly. The duo did extremely well in their convincing portrayals of affection. Plus the love scenes were pretty hot.

I will end this review on a high note. FASHION! The costumes surpassed my expectations. Well done Michael O’Conner! I was pleased to see many that I hadn’t seen in stills. As Lauren has pointed out already, there seemed to be strength in the jewellery as well, especially the earrings. The hair was particularly well done, although I missed the lack of powder. I loved every coiffure, and yearned to see them from every angle because the backs of the doos were particularly well done in curls. Like a nice, neat bow on a fabulous present.

I intended to write on the accuracy of the movie to Georgiana’s life, but I will leave that for the next post since I, obviously, have a lot to say and you may need a breather after that rant. Stay tuned!


What the Ton Says:

Marie Antoinette's Gossip Guide
Scandalous Women
Mythosidhe

Let's Get the Real Ratings!

If I may draw your attention to the right side of the blog. I just added a new widget where you can voice your opinion (in the form of stars) on what you thought of The Duchess. I have not been able to cast my vote seeing as the people at Paramount Vantage want to torture me by prolonging the release date more and more each week. Hopefully, by October 10th I will have a detailed review of the film and I hope everyone else who has seen it will voice their opinions in detail there as well. But for now, please give it your star rating!

Think " Sex and the City," three centuries ago

Finally! It's about time someone wrote about the fashion in The Duchess. Although this article is mostly about Kiera Knightly I found it to be a good read. It also implies that every one of her movie characters starts a fashion trend. So does this mean we'll be seeing some Georgie false maternity stomachs soon?

LA Times

"I Don't Think He's a Villain"

Have I mentioned yet how I love Ralph Fiennes? That was his response when the dumbass interviewer asked him about playing "the villain" in The Duchess. Pleb. Check out the interview here.

In related news, the Toronto premiere of the film was last night and although Knightly was wearing a very pretty Alexander McQueen gown she's been getting some criticism about her weight. Yikes!! I can see why. Someone feed that girl a croquembouche! It puts me to mind about Georgiana's battle with bulimia. However, I can safely assume she wasn't this thin at her unhealthiest.

The First Reviews Are In

There are a lot of articles about The Duchess right now; Google News is just full of them! But what kind of ratings is the press giving the flick? Here's some of the reviews I've found.


"In its own way, however, this is a warm-hearted film that bends over backwards to be sympathetic to its Duchess, to the point that it can barely acknowledge her flaws."
3 Stars, Scotland on Sunday

"A good costume drama with the guts to go a little bit further than your average BBC production."
3/5 Stars, EntertainmentWise

"Thankfully, the tagline – ‘There were three people in her marriage’ – is as far as the filmmakers are willing to push the [Diana] analogy..."
5/6 Stars, Time Out London

"The real pity is that, given her political credentials, Georgiana was more a 'people's princess' than Diana ever was and yet this fascination with the juicy details of her love life reduces her to a conventional romantic heroine."
3/5 Stars, Channel 4

"The Duchess is a surprise on many levels, apart from Keira’s acting."
8/10 Stars, Future Movies

The Duchess Premiere, Leicester Square

The time is almost here and the stars are out. The premiere of The Duchess was tonight in London. And since I am prematurely writing about it I can't tell you who everyone was wearing or even give you all the photos without getting sued. So yes, I am wasting your time. But here is what I could scrounge up.














Kiera wore this blue little number. Georgiana-approved? Well she is making a statement of sorts which hasn't been seen before so her Grace would like that. However it's been established that that bold blue and lace are in this season so it's not totally risky. The bows confuse me but that is more of Lauren's expertise anyway. Final diagnosis: meh














Hello boys, looking good. Don't forget to tie your shoe Cooper. [Update!] I just found out Cooper is wearing Versace, no word on Fiennes though. Final diagnosis: Cooper should stick with the Willoughby hair for his elfish face and would have looked awesome in a more tailored suit but the boys look good.













I so wish I could get away with posting the gorgeousness that is Amanda Foreman. [Update!] The gorgeousness is up (obviously). She showed up in a navy empire-waist gown and couldn't have looked more stunning. Final diagnosis: Brava!














I also don't know who Tara Palmer-Tomkinson is but she needs to stop spinning around in that awful dress. Ugh!! Final diagnosis: Fire your stylist.













Camilla Rutherford may have been awesome in her small part in Rome but she needs to stay away from those textiles. Final diagnosis: Dress would be awesome if it wasn't made out of Grandma's curtains.













Anna Popplewell is looking good in black. Final Diagnosis: At least someone got the memo to look fresh.


The pictures can be viewed here. If I have access to more I will update and hopefully you will know what I'm actually talking about.


[Celebrity Gossip]

The Duchess Roundup

Apparently both Amanda Foreman and Kiera Knightly are just as upset at the confusing Diana references in the trailer as we were! The author says it's a "bad joke" The Telegraph, The Times

The lucky author of this article already saw the flick and promises both a hot-mess drunken scene from our duchess of partying (yay!) and...a spoiler I just deleted so you can read it for yourself. Not historically accurate per se, but enticing?. The Scotsman

Amanda Foreman found Georgiana to be a great mascot of twenty-something ladies when she was a twenty-something writing the book; but if she was writing the book now she says she would go the direction the film takes. Aww, but I love that version of her Grace! The Times

Georgiana and Bess burping at the dinner table? MTV UK

Let's hear from the director. The Independent

*UPDATE*

The Duchess.co.uk added new videos on the story, locations and costumes. Complete with lots of movie clips and interviews.

Gossip: Lack of Photo Shoots

We are at a loss:

Lauren: I think the Duchess promo ppl are fools for not organizing a MA-esque photo shoot with Vogue

fools.

Me: I know!!!

or at least Vanity Fair

Lauren: Hell even Elle. Just put something out there

Me: Thats what they did with Star Wars ep 1, both Van Fair and vogue! they were awesome

and that was Star Wars!

Close but No Cigar

The new cover for Telegraph Magazine as alerted to by Mythosidhe and the Costumer's Guide

Life's a Ball So Get up on the Dance Floor

I have been scouring for the September issue of Vogue ever since Lady Georgianna posted about there being an article about The Duchess in it. Although I'm going to have to wait a little longer for British Vogue I was able to get my paws on the insanely thick American version today.

Despite Knightly being on the cover, there is no interview with the star of the movie, just a fashion shoot of her in Berlin. However, there is a great article Amanda Foreman wrote to publicize the film. In it, Foreman gives a summary of her Grace, strangely not highlighting her fashion-history as much as I would have thought. She also discusses some of her personal life, the creation of the biography, and the process of selecting a script for the movie. In true Foreman style, she melds these all perfectly, for a great article. I'd be curious to get some insight about the article from a regular Vogue reader unfamiliar with the fabulous duchess. It was great to read about the many scripts Foreman rejected before arriving with the for the film. The screenwriters seemed to have made the contemporary celebrity connection but taken it too far:

"What did incense me, however, was the script's seeming obsession with making Georgiana appear like Paris Hilton: spoiled, self-promoting, and cretinously stupid...A few months later another version arrived. This time, Georgiana had graduated from Paris, the showoff Party Girl, to Britney, the Bodice-Ripping Boozer whose downward spiral had the whiff of tragicomedy."

Yay for not letting writers murder Georgiana! But on a different note. Lauren and I have made contemporary comparisons of certain celebrities with certain 18th century celebrities many times. Lauren found that this quote about Georgiana could have applied to the crazy Miss Spears, otherwise I wouldn't allow any Britney/Paris/Georgiana comparisons. But what do you think? If you had to choose a modern equivalent of her Grace, who would that be?