BEFORE: I'm skipping over "The Wings of the Dove" with Charlotte Rampling and moving on to the next film, so Ms. Rampling carries over to today's film from "45 Years". This has the added benefit of keeping the streak going with "Star Wars" actors showing up this week, today it's both Keira Knightley (from "The Phantom Menace") and Alistair Petrie (from "Rogue One"). I don't see any "Star Wars" actors in tomorrow's film, but I'll double-check.
THE PLOT: A chronicle of the life of 18th-century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was reviled for her extravagant political and personal life.
AFTER: Obviously, this is set in another time - and the first impulse here was to assume that once again, there was some revisionist history going on here, as seen in "The Aeronauts" with a female balloon pilot operating during an age where most people didn't believe women capable of such things. It sure felt like they were applying modernist attitudes to the relationships seen here, like when Georgiana becomes a duchess and has this weird notion that maybe her husband should speak to her as if she's capable of rational thought, or maybe say a few kind words before expecting her to undress in front of him, like "Hey, how was your day?" or "What do you want to do tonight?" I can believe that such things didn't occur back then, because it was clearly delineated that the man was in control of things, like legally stated in the Magna Carta or something, and that all women were expected to do whatever their husband wanted them to, bear children, preferably sons, and otherwise only speak when spoken to.
Also, people married for social reasons, not for love or pleasure - though sometimes the two motivations may have overlapped, that was clearly accidental in those cases. And if a woman couldn't bear male children, clearly that was her fault and she had to go to a spa and drink nasty things and do whatever it took to rectify the situation and have a male child. I wonder how the aristocracy back then would react if they were to learn anything about the future of genetics, like how we know now that males have both X and Y sex chromosomes, while women have only X ones, so if the conceived child is XX instead of XY, that means she got one female X chromosome from her father, and so therefore even though it's random, one could say it was the failure of the man to provide the necessary Y chromosome to produce a son. It's really nobody's fault, but if it's anyone's, it's the father's fault, not the mother's. Yet for hundreds of years, who got blamed for not having sons?
The other double standard seen here is that the duke (or any male royal) was allowed to have many affairs, but when a duchess did the same, that would be considered scandalous and slutty, even if, as in this case, she had romantic feelings for that man. I looked this up on Wikipedia, this story is based on the real Duke and Duchess of Devonshire at the time, and they each had romantic partners outside their marriage - but the Duke could sleep with the Duchess's best friend, even move her into the house as a live-in mistress, but for the Duchess to sleep with her old pre-marital love interest, that would be improper. Hey, at least she asked permission first, before doing it. Georgina offers up a deal to her husband, if she should manage to produce a male heir, then as a reward she gets to go be in love with Charles Grey. Sounds fair, only the Duke doesn't need to make a deal, he's apparently well within his rights to expect faithfulness from his wife while providing none in return.
After birthing a son, the Duchess then runs off to be with her lover - only the Duke then cuts her off from seeing her children, forcing her to choose either motherhood or her own happiness. So she leaves her lover and comes back to take care of her children, only now to continue to see them, she has to live in the mansion with her husband and his lover, her former best friend. Awkward. But apparently they worked something out, and lived in this love-triangle set-up for many years. It's a bit like what was seen in "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women", only not quite as racy.
I'm going to consider this as an early (accidental) film for Mother's Day - I didn't know that this character would be forced to give up her side relationship for the sake of her children, but hey, that's what mothers do, they sacrifice for their kids, right? Georgiana Cavendish was also the great-great-great-great aunt of Princess Diana, and you may remember that she was in something of a similar situation, her husband's affair with Camilla Parker Bowles affected Diana greatly, and she ended up seeking solace in other relationships outside her marriage, while also maintaining a brave face in public and raising her children.
So this is thought-provoking at the very least, and right on theme, in case my other Mother's Day films don't really deliver. If I've got any issues, they may be with Ralph Fiennes' rather flat portrayal of William Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire. I guess he shouldn't really be played as an outright villain, because he wasn't really evil, just a product of a less enlightened time. And he couldn't really be played as sympathetic either, because he did act like an insensitive tool. So really, that's the only way you can go with character, right down the middle, neither hero nor villain, but then, what was he?
I guess I don't really understand the ins and outs of British politics, either - like why are there political speeches and elections if it's a monarchy? What were they electing, members of Parliament? Wait, what does Parliament do, anyway? Looks like I have a little more research to do.
Also starring Keira Knightley (last seen in "Laggies"), Ralph Fiennes (last seen in "The Reader"), Hayley Atwell (last seen in "Avengers: Endgame"), Dominic Cooper (last seen in "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again"), Aidan McArdle (last seen in "The Professor and the Madman"), Simon McBurney (last seen in "Allied"), Sebastian Applewhite, Calvin Dean, Emily Jewell, Richard McCabe (last seen in "Eye in the Sky"), Justin Edwards (last seen in "1917"), Bruce Mackinnon, Alistair Petrie (last seen in "Rush"), Georgia King (last seen in "Cockneys vs. Zombies"), Camilla Arfwedson, John Shrapnel (last seen in "101 Dalmatians"), Patrick Godfrey (last heard in "Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle"), Michael Edwin, Max Bennett, Laura Stevely (last seen in "Holmes & Watson"), Kate Burdette, Benjamin Noble, Angus McEwan, Thomas Arnold (last seen in "The Aeronauts").
RATING: 5 out of 10 carriage rides to Bath
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