Talk about someone to look up to!

This month has been the month of complete surprises movie wise. I absolutely love movies about Renaissance and Victorian women but The Duchess took me for a ride. Brilliant, beautiful, heartbreaking, inspiring, are all words I'd use to describe Keira Knightley as the Duchess of Devenshire. Married to a man she barely knows with the intention that she will fulfill her duties to give the Duke a male child. At the time I guess it would have thrown the whole dynamics for a loop if they told people back then that the man actually determines the sex of the child not the woman.

Based on the real life story of the real Duchess of Devenshire, a great great great ancestor of Princess Diana, her life really brings to the surface what it means to be a strong woman. Her husband "loves" every woman in town other than her, she is forced to endure pregnancy after pregnancy with tons of miscarriages and still borns in hopes to give birth to a son, she is forced to raise a daughter that came from an affair her husband had, and her marriage is completely loveless. Though divorce was a possibility back then with a powerful husband that becomes a pretty tough reality. She does find solace in one woman friend she has who in the end betrays her in the worst way.

I really don't want to give the whole story away for those of you who are not history buffs that do not know how it goes. But there is a pretty sexy affair with the future Earl Grey. I found myself admiring The Duchess and crying uncontrollably for her losses. Thank goodness everyone in the house was asleep when I watched it as I spent a good twenty minutes sobbing on the couch during one part of the movie.

I first watched The Duchess on my standard tv in the bedroom and then later watched it on bluray on my big screen. The Duchess is not necessarily the sort of movie I would have thought about the benefits of bluray but the gorgeous dresses, castles, and scenery of England lends itself perfectly to The Duchess in bluray. There are not a ton of extras in the bluray edition which is very unusual but there is a feature that looks at the life of the real Duchess of Devenshire which is well worth the watch.

Do be warned though The Duchess is for adult viewers only. There are some mild nuity, sexual conduct and adult issues.

The Duchess is available right now on DVD and you can pick up your copy at Amazon.

I have three copies of The Duchess to give away to my readers!
To enter :

• Leave a comment on this post. Check out The Duchess and tell me who is your renissance or victorian hero!
• Make sure there is a way for me to contact you - if your email address is not on your profile or you are not a blogger you may leave it in your comment or email it to me directly (angelaandconnor at gmail dot com) We have had to disqualify a lot of potential winners as of late as many people do not have emails available in their profiles or leave anonymous posts without any way to contact you.
• Please US entries only.
• To get extra credit :
  • For an extra entry :
  • Bloggers - Blog about this contest and leave me the link on your comment, or add me to your sidebar and let me know its there.
  • Non Bloggers (or bloggers) subscribe to my mailing list/RSS feed and earn another entry!
  • One extra credit per person. Please post your extra credit in a separate post.
  • This contest will end Jan 15th at midnight!