The Duchess is a forthcoming film based on Amanda Foreman's biography of the scandalous, 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. It is scheduled for release in September 2008. Originally, to be directed by Susanne Bier, The Duchess was directed by Saul Dibb.Lead Story
Set at the end of the eighteenth century, The Duchess is the story of the beautiful and, glamorous Georgiana Spencer, the most fascinating woman of the age. While her beauty and charisma made her name, her extravagant tastes and appetite for gambling and love made her infamous. Married young to the older, distant Duke of Devonshire, that intimate of ministers and princes, Georgiana became a fashion icon, a doting mother, a shrewd political operator and darling of the common people. However, at the core of her story is a desperate search for love. From Georgiana’s passionate and doomed affair with Earl Grey to the complex ménage à trios with her husband and her best friend, Lady Bess Foster, The Duchess is a very contemporary tale of fame, notoriety and the search for love. (Her love child with Lord Grey was Eliza Courtney).
Production
BBC Films and Pathé finance The Duchess. Make-up and hair design, both significant in a Georgian-set period piece, are by Daniel Phillips. The Duchess was filmed at Twickenham Film Studios and on-location at Chatsworth, Bath, Holkham Hall, Norfolk, Clandon Park, Kedleston Hall and The University of Greenwich: London.
Regarding lead actress Keira Knightley, director Saul Dibb said The Duchess was "a chance to take a character from late childhood - she's married at 17 - into full adulthood, 10 years later." It was also a chance to work with Ralph Fiennes, who she regarded as one of her most accomplished costars to date; Dibb said, "When I said, 'We've got Ralph interested in playing the Duke,' we both took a gulp and went, 'Fuck.' ... But I didn't for one second feel that she wasn't up to the task."
Lead Cast
Keira Knightley as Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
Ralph Fiennes as William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire
Hayley Atwell as Elizabeth Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
Charlotte Rampling as Lady Spencer
Dominic Cooper as Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Aidan McArdle as Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Emily Jewell as Nanny
Calvin Dean as Devonshire House Servant
Simon McBurney as Charles James Fox
Hannah Stokely as Maid
Richard Syms as Dr Neville
Richard McCabe as Sir James Hare
Andy Armour as Burleigh the Butler
Emily Cohen as Harryo
Poppy Wigglesworth as Charlotte (aged 10)
Mercy Fiennes Tiffin as Little Georgiana
Sebastian Applewhite as Augustus
Eva Hrela as Charlotte (aged 3)
Bruce Mackinnon as Sir Peter Teazle actor
Georgia King as Lady Teazle actress
Kate Burdette as Lady Harriet
Paul Daley as George Augustus Henry Cavendish, created 1st Earl of Burlington of the 2nd order (AKA Duke's Brother)
??? as Eliza Courtney
Marketing
Studio executives wanted to use digitally altered images of Keira Knightley in promotional materials. The alterations were specifically aimed at enlarging her breasts. However, Knightley objected to the alterations and they were not used.
Theatrical release
The BBFC has classified the film as a 12A, citing the scene of implied marital rape, which is "delivered through Georgiana's screams of protest, heard from outside the bedroom door." The BBFC's PG rating allows implied sex as long as it is discreet and infrequent; the board decided that the scene in The Duchess is more than "discreet" or "implied". The film will be released in the United Kingdom on 12 September 2008.
BBC Films and Pathé finance The Duchess. Make-up and hair design, both significant in a Georgian-set period piece, are by Daniel Phillips. The Duchess was filmed at Twickenham Film Studios and on-location at Chatsworth, Bath, Holkham Hall, Norfolk, Clandon Park, Kedleston Hall and The University of Greenwich: London.
Regarding lead actress Keira Knightley, director Saul Dibb said The Duchess was "a chance to take a character from late childhood - she's married at 17 - into full adulthood, 10 years later." It was also a chance to work with Ralph Fiennes, who she regarded as one of her most accomplished costars to date; Dibb said, "When I said, 'We've got Ralph interested in playing the Duke,' we both took a gulp and went, 'Fuck.' ... But I didn't for one second feel that she wasn't up to the task."
Lead Cast
Keira Knightley as Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
Ralph Fiennes as William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire
Hayley Atwell as Elizabeth Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
Charlotte Rampling as Lady Spencer
Dominic Cooper as Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Aidan McArdle as Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Emily Jewell as Nanny
Calvin Dean as Devonshire House Servant
Simon McBurney as Charles James Fox
Hannah Stokely as Maid
Richard Syms as Dr Neville
Richard McCabe as Sir James Hare
Andy Armour as Burleigh the Butler
Emily Cohen as Harryo
Poppy Wigglesworth as Charlotte (aged 10)
Mercy Fiennes Tiffin as Little Georgiana
Sebastian Applewhite as Augustus
Eva Hrela as Charlotte (aged 3)
Bruce Mackinnon as Sir Peter Teazle actor
Georgia King as Lady Teazle actress
Kate Burdette as Lady Harriet
Paul Daley as George Augustus Henry Cavendish, created 1st Earl of Burlington of the 2nd order (AKA Duke's Brother)
??? as Eliza Courtney
Marketing
Studio executives wanted to use digitally altered images of Keira Knightley in promotional materials. The alterations were specifically aimed at enlarging her breasts. However, Knightley objected to the alterations and they were not used.
Theatrical release
The BBFC has classified the film as a 12A, citing the scene of implied marital rape, which is "delivered through Georgiana's screams of protest, heard from outside the bedroom door." The BBFC's PG rating allows implied sex as long as it is discreet and infrequent; the board decided that the scene in The Duchess is more than "discreet" or "implied". The film will be released in the United Kingdom on 12 September 2008.
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