"you both dream of a world that does not exist--and never will"

I've been writing a lot about movies... Hmm well here's another one. I've been in workout mode, so fashion is not exactly there, persay, and I did sit on a plane for twelve hours; movies were apart of the trip.
The Duchess was a really tragic movie. And not in the dying lovers brought together in another world way either. But, as my friend Ryan puts it, in the "unfortunate" way. As in, yes this really did happen, and yes there was nothing, for her time, that she could possibly do about it. Keira Knightly played the part perfectly, portraying the coy charisma, heartbreaking confinement, and liberal "Tory" many historians know as Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire.The beginning played out quite nicely, with her still a child basically, having a good time with her friends. Meanwhile the Duke of Devonshire is talking with her mother and arranging their marriage. His requirements? A male heir.


I love her speaking for Charles Grey, a nobody politician who will become on of Britain's prime ministers. Here she portrays the coy charisma that made the inner circles fall in love with her.


Ah, and the Duke, played by none other than Ralph Fiennes. He plays the icy, too practical husband well. I really wanted him to fall down a well by the end of the movie. He isn't even the aloof, but lovably kind either (like in The Painted Veil)
1) He forces her to take in his illegitimate daughter, Charlotte, and care for her. Luckily for him, G does come to love Charlotte.2) He steals her best friend, Bess Foster. Out of all the women in the world, he decides to have an affair with her only friend. Why does Bess comply? Because her abusive husband beat her and kept her from her children. The Duke brought those boys back to her.And 3) When G wanted to have her own lover, Charles Grey, he adamantly refused. He did not mind living in a menage a trois with Bess and G, but for G to love Charles Grey? Absolutely not.

And whats the end? Spoilers if you don't want to know, but it's kind of obvious. As it is history: the Duke threatens G, and tells her she will never see her children again if she continues with Charles Grey. So G stays with her family, living in a sort of captivity the rest of her life with her children. When she dies, the Duke marries Bess. Oh, and Charles Grey becomes prime minister. And that, my friends, is why history is a fascinating subject.