Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Duchess

is dumb. Don't see it. I think the reason it was made was so that the costume designer and the set decorator could get an Oscar nomination. And that is no good reason to make a movie.
Costume Designer-"I'm so tired of just going to the Gap to find clothes for actors. Lets make a Victorian era movie, their clothes are so pretty and fun to make."
Producer1- Well, we can't make a jane Austen, those have been done, and those characters aren't wealthy enough. Shakespeare has been done as well as queen Elizabeth."
Producer2-" There is this story about a duchess who has a hard life, and designs her own dresses."
Producer1 "Yeah, that sounds pretty boring, I don't think it would sell."
2- "Maybe we could get Keira Knightley to do it! The kids really like her from those pirate movies."
1- "I don't know"
2- "We could throw in a lot of sex!"
1- "Hmm, yeah that might work. Lets do it."

So a couple of lessons from that movie are;
1. Everything was backward and goofy back then! Look at how Keira knightley is disrespected and underappreciated. Look at it! Look at it!
2. Keira was a smart, modern woman who believed in freedom. How dare she try to be happy with her life! She should just give up and let everybody else push her around. In the end, she stops trying to be happy, and the movie ends.
3. Its ok for her husband to rape her, because it accomplishes his purpose of getting a male heir.

The movie was so over-the-top outrageous that we expected some kind of miracle ending. But she just ends up going along with everything, including letting her husband marry his mistress that lived in the house and sat at the dinner table for a long time. She didn't change anything. For her, life was sucky and it sucked then she died. Too bad they couldn't have molded it with Kill Bill, where she takes a trip to Japan, gets a sword and learns to fight, then comes back on a blood soaked journey for revenge. That would have been a much better movie.

Like I said, it's just an excuse to make some pretty gowns, and maybe win an award for those gowns.

Please don't go see it.

-Update-

It did win an Oscar for costume design.

2 comments:

Sue said...

Too late. Not only did we go see it, I bought the DVD and Tori bought the soundtrack from iTunes. It wasn't a bad movie! Yes, it was a period movie, but Georgiana was a contemporary of Marie Antoinette and I thought it was interesting to see how her life was similar to M.A.'s. Plus the clothing styles were consistent with both women. Georgiana is an ancestor of Diana Spencer and I thought that their lives were similar and that means that we haven't changed all that much in the past 250 yrs. As for the Duke, I really didn't like him, but could see that he also was trapped in the roles and expectations of his time. But, he was cruel and selfish and took advantage of the situation. It makes books and love stories like "Pride and Prejudice" all the more remarkable, because they came from nearly the same time period, actually a few years later, but I think stories like "P and P", "Jane Eyre" and others like those were a reaction to the expectations that the only way to be successful was to marry well and produce heirs. And we can learn from Georgiana's mistakes. First, never marry Ralph Fiennes. LOL

Kris and KC said...

I agree with dave that The duchess is not at all appealing. You bet we've changed from Georgiana to Princess Di, the latter stepped out on her own and was not a slave to patriarchy. The times have definitely changed all that much in the last 250 years, and thank goodness we don't have to re learn from Georgiana's mistakes. Our predecessors already figured that one out, including Princess Di. As for the Duke, what he did in his private life had nothing to do with the roles and expectations of his time. Mr. Darcy had the same expectations, but he didn't sleep around and disrespect women. Yes, he did think himself above them at first, but he didn't abuse them. Who in hell raised the duke, but a nit wit...I'm glad to see that society has changed at least in the way of equal rights in the first world countries and I hope that spreads.