#william cavendish

OVERVIEW:

• Based on the 1998 biography “Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire” by Amanda Foreman.

• Directed by Saul Dibb.

• Won for Best Costume Design at the 81st Academy Awards and at the 62nd British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).

MAIN CAST:

• Keira Knightley as Georgiana Spencer-Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire

• Ralph Fiennes as William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire

• Dominic Cooper as Charles Grey, 2nd Earl of Grey

• Hayley Atwell as Lady Elizabeth Foster (“Bess”)

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first movie that Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes star in together. They also appear in the film “Official Secrets” in 2019.

• Georgiana is a distant relative of the late Princess Diana. Her visage, along with the quote from the infamous 1995 “BBC Panorama” interview, “There were three people in this/her marriage”, were used in several advertisements for the film. This marketing strategy was heavily criticized by both Knightley and Foreman.

• “Little G”, the eldest daughter of Georgiana and William, is portrayed by Ralph’s niece, Mercy Fiennes-Tiffin.

• The film was shot over a period of nine weeks.

• Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, the historical home to the Dukes of Devonshire and one of the filming locations, is used as the Pemberley House in “Pride and Prejudice” (2005), which also stars Knightley.

“take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you those windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry I'm setting off, but not without my muse” - the lakes by taylor swift

The Duchess (2008)

✵ May 6, 1944✵