The Duchess (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of Featurette-2
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	106:05
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (45:22)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Saul Dibb
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Keira Knightley Ralph Fiennes Charlotte Rampling Dominic Cooper Hayley Atwell Simon McBurney Aidan McArdle John Shrapnel
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	?	Music	Rachel Portman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The plot is based on a true story of the Duchess of Devonshire from the late 1700s. Before she turns 18 she is married to the cold and philandering Duke, William, whose main expectation of the marriage is that she bear him a son. Whilst bearing him two healthy daughters, Georgiana becomes a darling of the society set due to her impeccable fashions, scandalous behaviour (drinking and gambling). Her marriage, unfortunately, is not a happy one and the Duke soon moves a friend of hers, Lady Elizabeth Foster (Hayley Atwell) into their house as his full-time mistress. He also suddenly announces that a little girl, Charlotte is moving into their house during Georgiana's first pregnancy. She is the result of a previous dalliance of the Duke whose mother has died. The story follows her life as she works out how to survive in such an arrangement and starts an unwise affair of her own.

    As I mentioned before the acting and costumes are certainly the highlights here and all the major cast members portray their characters well. Keira does a fine job in the lead role showing herself to be more than a clothes horse. Other worthwhile contributions besides those mentioned come from Charlotte Rampling as Georgiana's mother and Dominic Cooper as Georgiana's lover, Charles Gray. Ralph, though, is the performer who stands out from the crowd and was certainly nominated for some awards for his performance (although not the big ones). The story itself is fairly simple and the movie does not really explain well why Georgiana becomes the darling of society. The direction is by first time major feature director, Saul Dibb who does quite a good job.

   This DVD in Region 4 is officially the 'Uncut Version', however is only M rated so don't expect anything too racy. There is one scene, involving a lesbian moment between Georgiana and Lady Elizabeth, which may be one of the pieces added to this version. I can't find any actual information about the differences but I would guess this scene would be one that may not have been included in the US theatrical version. The US DVD seems to be shorter (taking into account PAL speedup).

    This movie can certainly be recommended for costume drama fans and those who enjoy quality acting.

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced widescreen.

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp throughout but backgrounds are a bit soft as are some scenes where the characters are not in full close up. Shadow detail is fine. There are some minor MPEG artefacts such as at 16:21 around Georgiana's head.

    The colour was very good with no colour artefacts. The sepia tone of the film was seemingly by director choice rather than a problem with colour on the transfer.

    There were no other noticeable artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English which were clear and easy to read.

    There is a layer change at 45:22 which was not noticeable during playback.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good but will hardly stretch your home theatre.

    This DVDs contain one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s.Most sound comes from the front three speakers.

    Dialogue was mostly clear and easy to understand however the subtitles did prove useful from time to time.

    The surround speakers were only used or some mild atmospherics, mostly involving music.

    The subwoofer was used occasionally for things such as the sound of horses.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu was still and includes music.

How Far She Went...Making The Duchess (22:49) 

    A worthwhile making of featurette including some information about the historical character, the author of the biography used as source material, the locations used, the lighting schemes, production design, casting and more. Of special interest was he discussion with Ralph Fiennes about his approach to the character.

Georgiana in her Own Words (7:12) 

    Featurette about the letters written by Georgiana to her mother and other people which show her state ofmind during the various stages of her marriage. Always good to get more information about the characters in a story rather than just the movie itself.

Costume Diary (5:38) 

    A fairly tedious featurette about the costumes (which are admittedly impressive).

    The only real difference between the local disc and the Region 1 version is that the local disc seems to include the longer Uncut version. This makes Region 4 the best choice.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is good.

    The set has a decent collection of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall