February 6, 2009: The Duchess
At this point, I’m in the heart of my push to view all of the Oscar nominees. The Duchess was nominated for Costumes and Art Direction, which is entirely to be expected for such a period drama. In the late 1700s, an aging British Duke (Ralph Fiennes) needing a male heir marries a teenager (Keira Knightley). Daughters and miscarriages occur over the span of several years, raising the tension level, and then things get very strange. In the end, there is a male heir, but at what price to the long-term sanity and/or happiness of all involved?
I knew nothing about this, although it was apparently based on a true story. There’s a sometimes subtle, and sometimes overt power struggle constantly going on among the main characters, primarily the Duke, his wife, and her friend who is also his mistress. The film was overlong, and dragged a little, so what was an engaging story for its genre ended up kind of shooting itself in the foot.
The costumes were impressive, of course, but I’m no expert judge of that. As usual, I found myself wondering about the production design with the lavishly decorated estate houses, and in particular, I wondered how much of the costume work in such a film is new production, vesus reuse or modification of existing wardrobes. There have been lots of period dramas made for the big and small screen, so there must be lots of pre-made clothing available. However, shifting to a different area of a country or changing the time of the setting by 10 years probably creates a vast difference in costume details. 200 years from now, when someone is making a period film about the 1990s, would viewers notice if instead the characters are all wearing 1980s clothes? It sometimes strikes me as taking a lot of time and effort and expense just to make the period details right for a movie, but then I think about all of the time and effort and expense put into explosions and car chases in movies (which undoubtedly cost even more!), and I remember that these things are all a matter of preference.
The Duchess was better than I expected, but it’s fair to say that I wasn’t expecting much. Solid performances are seen from Fiennes and Knightley, and there are some suitably chipper or creepy supporting characters, but overall, this doesn’t set itself apart from typical period costume dramas with either its story or its setting.
OK, but it drags a bit.
Post a Comment