Keira Knightley is The Duchess: Have You Seen It Yet?

Top on my list of must see movies this fall is The Duchess staring Keira Knightley (Pride and Prejudice 2005) as Georgiana Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806). The movie is based on Amanda Foreman’s best selling and highly acclaimed biography of the scandalous life of the 18th-century English aristocrat, socialite, political activist, and fashion icon for her generation. The screenplay is by Jeffery Hatcher (Casanova 2005), Anders Thomas Jensen and Saul Dibb, and directed by Saul Dibb.


From the movie trailer, the costumes look sumptuous and the on-location shoots at Chatsworth, Bath, Somerset House and others look very impressive.


The cast is quite impressive and includes many actors with Jane Austen connections.

Keira Knightley as Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice 2005)

Ralph Fiennes as William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2007)

Hayley Atwell as Bess Foster (Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park 2007)

Charlotte Rampling as Lady Spencer

Dominic Cooper as Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (John Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility (2007)

Aidan McArdle as Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Simon McBurney as Charles James Fox

Alistair Petrie as Heaton (Robert Martin in Emma 1996)

Michael O’Conner - Costume Designer

Rachel Portman – Original Music (Emma 1996)

So, gentle readers – have you seen it? I am anxious for opinions on the performances, locations, costumes and story, so do tell!

Watch the movie trailer

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose

JJ Feild Charms in The Shadow in the North on PBS

Did anyone catch the Masterpiece Mystery presentation of The Shadow in the North last week on PBS? If so, you might have recognized a few Austen actors from The Complete Jane Austen which aired on Masterpiece Classic from January – April this year. Reprising their roles in the previous Philip Pullman adaptation of The Ruby in the Smoke (2006) were Billie Piper (Fanny Price in Mansfield Park) as Sally Lockhart, JJ Field (Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey) as Frederick Garland, and Hayley Atwell (Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park) as Rose Garland. This new adaptation of the Philip Pullman novel from the Sally Lockhart series was directed John Alexander (Sense and Sensibility 2008).

If you missed it, here is a plot summary from the PBS (WGBH) web site.

The year is 1878, and Sally Lockhart (Billie Piper, Mansfield Park) has started her own financial consulting business. When her client, Miss Walsh, loses a fortune from the unexpected collapse of the Anglo-Baltic shipping line, Sally is determined to find out why so many of their ships have mysteriously vanished without trace. Hoping to recover her client’s money, she turns for help to her friends, Frederick (JJ Feild, Northanger Abbey) and Jim, who have started up their own detective agency.

While pursuing their enquiries into the disappearance of the steamship Ingrid Linde, the three sleuths find themselves investigating stage magician Alistair MacKinnon who is being threatened by mysterious thugs, and a psychic medium who seems to be tapping into shady business secrets – all of which draws them unwittingly into a dark and sinister plot fuelled by the dealings of the cruel and heartless industrialist Axel Bellmann, whose business is built on a horrifying secret.

The DVD's of both The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North are available for purchase, and well worth it just to for the pleasure of actor JJ Feild, who continues to choose roles that show off this debonair charm and good looks! This young actor might just be our next Cary Grant.

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Austen Actors Featured in New Brideshead Revisted Movie

Brideshead Revisted the Movie: Cast Preview

Janeites will be happy to hear of several actors who have been previously featured in Jane Austen movie adaptations will be staring in the new movie based on Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisted (limited release on 25 July 2008). Further connections include the director Julian Jerrold whose interpretation of Jane Austen’s young adult life was beautifully, though creatively visualized in Becoming Jane(2007), and the writer Andrew Davies whose Austen association can be matched by no other screenwriter with his novel adaptations of Pride and Prejudice (1995), Emma (1996), Northanger Abbey (2007), Sense and Sensibility (2008) and spinoffs Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004).

The Evelyn Waugh novel, Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder was published in 1945, and is the fascinating story of the reminiscences of Captain Charles Ryder while he is stationed at Brideshead Castle during WWII. His reflections on his involvement with the owners, the eccentric and aristocratic Flyte Family, is told through his friendship with their son Sebastian, daughter Julia, and their devotedly Catholic mother Lady Marchmain, whose manipulations by guilt and guile chisel away at the foundation of her family and at an English way of life that is quickly fading.


Enthusiasts of English period dramas will remember that this novel was brought to the screen in 1981 in an eleven part mini-series produced by Granada Television staring Anthony Andrews as Sebastian Flyte, Laurence Olivier as Lord Marchmain, and Jeremy Irons as Charles Ryder. When it aired in the US on PBS' Great Performances in 1982, it created such a brouhaha because of its mild nudity and profanity, that the series had to be re-edited for futures airings. The story line in the new movie has been pared down to 135 minuets, and will focus on the relationship of Charles Ryder and Julia Flyte. Here are the Austen actors that will be featured, and their connections.

Emma Thompson – Lady Marchmain & as

Elinor Dashwood - Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Hayley Atwell – Julia Flyte & as

Mary Crawford - Mansfield Park (2007)

Felicity Jones – Cordelia Flyte & as

Catherine Morland - Northanger Abbey (2007)

Anna Madeley – Celia Ryder & as

Lucy Steele - Sense and Sensibility (2008)

Joseph Beattie – Anthony Blanche & as

Henry Crawford - Mansfield Park(2007)

Greta Scacchi – Cara & as Mrs. Weston - Emma (1996)

& Cassandra Austen - Miss Austen Regrets(2008)

There is a fabulous official web site for Brideshead Revisited the movie which is well worth a visit, and here is a the movie trailer for your enjoyment.

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose