Review #14 – The Duchess

An appreciative audience enjoyed the lovely end to the Cinema CNC season on Saturday, our screening of The Duchess. Having said this, I must admit to not being quite as prone to wonderment, as some folks are, at the general spectacle of period-pieces; however, this work won me over, primarily for two reasons: the quality of the acting and the complexity of the plot.

Most historical dramas are judged, primarily, on two elements: how they are filmed, and how they look. The cinematography is The Duchess is handled splendidly by Gyula Pados, a Hungarian whiz, whose name sounded familiar... with the help of IMDB, I found credits for the beautifully haunting Fateless, Lajos Koltai's coming-of-age in Buchenwald story, which I saw at the Toronto Film Festival a couple of years ago, and for Kontroll, a delightfully dark account of ticket inspectors on the Budapest subway [and particularly problematic cinematographically, as most of the action takes place under fluorescent lighting in the myriad tunnels and stations of the subway system].

As far as how this film looks, praise must be lavished on costumer Michael O'Connor, set decorator Rebecca Alleway, and art director Karen Wakefield... their attention to detail and enthusiasm expressed in getting all elements as close to correct as possible is testament to their professionalism.

The story in The Duchess is a simple one: a 16 year-old woman is married-off for position and to provide an heir to the Duke of Devonshire, one of the most powerful men in England. She has been naïve, he is a brute. She breaches her contract by not producing a male child, and he takes on a number of lovers, including her best friend who conveniently lives with them. The story becomes complicated because the Duchess, Georgiana, as played by Keira Knightley, has a brain and has opinions and has desires. That she is the great-great[add more greats as necessary] aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales, might have aided in the marketing of this film [the tagline, "there were three people in her marriage" is an anachronistic reference to a comment of Diana's], but one can't help draw some interesting parallels, in-as-much-as one wants to be sympathetic to those considered social betters living their lives as if in a fishbowl.

Georgiana appears to have a keen political sense; the Duke, played by Ralph Fiennes, is the principal benefactor of the Whig party, but he seems as oddly detached from the quotidian aspects of politics as he is from everything else in his life [including his wife and children], except his dogs. She, on the other hand, takes an interest to the point of being a great friend to Charles Fox, a thorn in the side of the monarchy, and lover of Charles Grey, the Earl Grey of tea fame and future Prime Minister [with whom she had a daughter, also making her a direct ancestor of Sarah, Duchess of York... this wasn't played up... I wonder why?].

That the Duke is a cad is a historical truth and a necessary plot device; however, his depiction by Ralph Fiennes is much more complex... Fiennes seems to be having a lot of fun playing this character, even while glowering darkly at the end of the table whose two other occupants are his wife and his in-house lover. Fiennes plays him not for sympathy but for understanding; that this depiction falls short in the attempt is in no way a failure of Fiennes' craft... the life of such a man is just too far off the radar of this middle-class North American [me] for him to be rendered understandable. The power of the performance is in the understatement, in the Duke's seeming lack of understanding of the simplest of human emotions [did he have some form of autism?], and Fiennes carries the movie, when it isn't being carried by Keira Knightley.

The Duchess was noted in her day for her flamboyance and for her style; she was the "It girl" of 18th century London society. Her hair was higher, her hats were bigger, and her dresses were more elaborate than anybody else's. As well, she had an infectiously charming personality, energetically portrayed by the lovely Keira Knightley... to paraphrase one wag in the movie, " the Duke is the only man in England who doesn't love his wife." Knightley probably deserves an Oscar nomination for her work in this film, and not only for risking snapping her lovely slender neck under the weight of the enormous wigs and un-aerodynamic millinery required for the role. She plays Georgiana with charm and intelligence; the Duchess is not just a poor-little-rich-girl, but a fully-formed – and thus effectively stiffled – woman of her epoch.

The plot of The Duchess mixes the personal with the public, the old ideas with the new [of the time] and the dream with the reality, all while giving the audience members credit for being able to come to their own conclusions. This film can be read as a slice-of-life depiction, as a deeply personal story of a difficult marriage, and/or as a deeply charged political statement. Any way you want to look at this film, read it you must... it doesn't do it for you, and this, finally, is the true strength of Saul Dibb's effort.

Review #5 – American Teen

Last night the second installment of Cinema CNC's Fall Season 2008 took place. On display was American Teen, Nanette Burstein's latest effort. It was well-received by our audience, which was decently-sized, considering that it is the Thanksgiving weekend.

The film is an entertaining depiction of life for a very specific set of teens: white, middle-class, middle-American youngsters with few enough external anxieties to stimulate them that they can concentrate on themselves [as opposed to kids with urban or geographic disadvantages... the inner-city or extreme remoteness, for instance]. You can probably hear some elements of my reluctance to fully endorse this effort; while an interesting film, these folks can hardly be held up as representative of all American teens... this is no Up Series [Michael Apted's brilliant growing-up-British document]. There is one black face in this film, and no Hispanic, Asian, or anybody "other" to give a nod to balance, other than the fact that some of the kids live in big houses [upper middle-class] and some kids live in small houses [lower middle-class], whooee.

Having voiced this concern, I will now reveal that I found the film oddly effective; I experienced being transported almost 30 years in time, remembering what is was like to be in high school: I felt the picked-on kids' pain; I felt indignant at the actions of some and gloried in the bravery of others; I developed a crush on Hannah; I looked around for someone smaller to stuff into a locker... all in all, I identified with this film because I lived it. Sneaky, eh?

The four main characters are an interesting mix: Megan, the popular-girl/ colossal bitch; Colin, the jock nice-guy; Jake, the acne-suffering geek; and Hannah, the outsider/ alt. girl. These depictions, of course, will strike a chord with any reader who reads this and attended high school in North America... we know these people... we are these people. And they are more complex than they appear... Megan keeps layering on the meanness, but an event from her past mitigates [but does not excuse] some of her actions... Colin, the thinnest-developed of the characters, has a dad who, when he isn't pressuring Colin to do well at basketball so that he can get a college scholarship, performs as an Elvis impersonator at the local Ramada... Jake might be geeky, but he isn't nerdy; he's oddly brave in his quest to meet girls, despite his heart-rending anxiety about his spotty complexion... and Hannah is a free-spirited, smart, and engaging young woman, who, despite her cranky mother's telling her "you're not special", is so obviously special, and so obviously constrained by living in Warsaw, Indiana, that one cannot help but cheer for her... did I tell you I had a crush? Of course, it is revealed [and glossed over] that she is under medical supervision for her dark thoughts, and it is alluded that her mom has a psychological inability to cope, but in this soup of homogenized middle-america, this character is refreshing.

Having expressed concern about the over-all representativeness of this movie, I must also express concern at the stageyness of it. The characters are so aware of the camera, indeed so obviously playing to it, that one is a bit uncomfortable at times. Some of the scenes appear to be "historical recreations", because the actions are too coordinated and the camera is in precisely the right spot too often for any other explaination [except, perhaps, clairvoyance]. This effort might make the film more genuinely entertaining, but it detracts from the notion that we are seeing the inside of a world that, even if we were once insiders, is unfamiliar to us. One gets the impression that we are seeing "teens for foreigners", much like one might go to a Flamenco show in Madrid... it is real, in-as-much-as they are really dancing and really wearing the outfits, and for 30 euros, including your first glass of wine, you can experience it, too.

There are real teen actions here, too: hanging out with friends, parties, school, good actions, bad actions, cruelty, triumph... and in many ways this is enough to redeem this film. The director spent a whole year in Warsaw, filming hundreds of hours of action, which gives us an insight into the thoughts and actions of a specific group of young people. The fact that I had a shudder [or two] of recognition tells me that, for all the artifice, this movie tells important truths.