This is a movie that outrageous feminists would throw stones at the screen; or, another possibility could be - they would teach their students and daughters that this is such a representative example of how British women in 1800's were victims of a patriarchal society. Unfortunately, I am not, but one of them.
This is a story about a woman who was defeated by everything. The moment she agreed her mother's choice of an arranged marriage to the Duke without trying to explore and understand the meaning of love, she has already succumbed to her mother's and the society's imposed authority. Of course, you may also interpret this as her innocence at the time. She was then, sooner than expected, insulted by her husband's treat of her, which was entirely valued by her ability to give birth to a male heir. Sex is a battlefield, while every sex is a rape with humiliation. When the Duke took off her clothes, looking at her nude standing body with extreme coldness and apathy on the wedding night, she was full of fear and shame. So what? Instead of trying to conquer the fear and shame, she chose to conform to and live by it, considering them as necessary feelings accompanied every marriage and relationship.
Whereas she has been considered as a possession for her husband, the Duke never truly belongs to her. Still, she has to learn to not care, to be apathetic, and numb with the Duke's presence with other women. When the life found out that there was still a chance to pursue love, she then found that her life was already in the Duke's hand. In the end, it seemed that her children was the bottomline that she couldn't afford to lose. I have no problem till this part. What can I say about a woman's motherly nature.
But then, the really ridiculous thing happened - after all the torture that she has suffered from, she found eventual satisfaction in her life through her children and the friendship with her husband's lover! The ending seems to indicate that there is a genuine chance she and the Duke can forgive each other. How could that be possible? How could she forget and forgive, pretending nothing has happened? And how could she rediscover loyalty and trust in the Duke again? She and Charles Grey, her lover and the later British Prime Minister, smiled at each other with guilty at a party when everything was over, as if they shouldn't have fallen in love with each other, and it was no more than a wild crazy dream that everybody would have had when they were young, which was so disturbing to the real life. What has exactly made her feel so? This is just totally unimaginable to me.
Ebert commented that this was not a typical Jane Austen's light-hearted love movie, but a movie of realists. Realists in what sense? People dare not face their honest feelings and can magically start to forgive and appreciate the ones that once destroyed their life? In addition, Kiera Knightley is a little bit overtly done, too flirtatious. The movie totally doesn't reveal how a woman gets changed and aged from an innocent teenager girl to a mid-age woman that has to endure emotional traumas.
I watched this movie on my 26th birthday night, with the purpose that by loving or hating the movie I may get distracted from thinking about my own life. I guess the movie was pretty successful in that, coz I spent the rest of my night indigenous with the storyline.
4 comments:
People tend to adapt, especially if they feel there is no hope otherwise. I think there's even a syndrome where kidnap victims start identifying w/ their kidnappers. It also might be easier to do so if you're not aware of any alternative.
Ah, the Stockholm syndrome. I've never though about it in this way...Indeed, it is an interesting perspective. The Duchess even talks about how she was a prisoner in her own house.
All that said, I'm not sure that she was able to identify with her husband in the end. I feel that she became more complacent for the sake of her children. I think she was somewhat touched at the tiny bit of sentiment that he gave her. Still, I just think that it was a shoddy ending, trying to wrap everything up, make everyone nice and more likable.
I think the one part that Grace didn't mention was the somewhat homo-erotic scene (between the Duchess and her friend). It seemed a perfectly viable scene in the movie, yet some lady got angry stomped her foot and stormed out of the theater. Ah, good old Midwestern values.
So was this Hollywood-ized for a happy ending?
It's a BBC film, but with a typical Hollywood ending.
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