Fire Over England

A Mighty Hearth

A Mighty Heart is a 2007 drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom; It is an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart. Although initially a financial failure, A Mighty Heart was met with relatively positive reviews from both critics and viewers alike. The film was screened out of competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, before being released in North America on June 22, 2007.

Plot

A Mighty Heart is a detailed account of the search for kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter^[5] Daniel Pearl in 2002.

Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi by supporters of Omar Sheikh, who claimed responsibility (and was later captured and convicted but is appealing the ruling) for kidnapping and beheading Pearl in 2002. The movie also covers efforts by Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) to track the kidnappers and bring them to justice.

Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette (IPA: [maʁi ɑ̃twanɛt]; Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and theQueen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Emperor Francis I.

At the age of fourteen, on the day of her marriage to Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, she became Dauphine de France. At the death of King Louis XV, in May 1774, her husband ascended the throne of France as King Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette assumed the title of Queen of France and of Navarre. After seven years of marriage she gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, the first of their four children.

Initially charmed by her personality and beauty, the French people generally came to dislike her, accusing "the Austrian" of being profligate and promiscuous, and of harboring sympathies for France's enemies.

At the height of the French Revolution, Louis XVI was deposed and the royal family was imprisoned. Nine months after her husband's execution, she was tried, convicted of treason, and executed by guillotine on 16 October 1793.

The Dutchess

The Duchess is a 2008 British drama film based on Amanda Foreman's best-selling biography of the 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. It was released in September 2008 in the UK. Originally to be directed by Susanne Bier, The Duchess was directed by Saul Dibb. 
Plot Summary
Set in the late eighteenth century, The Duchess is based on the life of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. While her beauty and fashion made her famous, extravagance and gambling made her infamous. She is married to the cold and much older William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire. Despite the Duke's blatant infidelities, Georgiana becomes a fashion icon, a doting mother, a shrewd political operator, and darling of the common people. Reeling from her husband's affair with her best friend, Lady Bess Foster, Georgiana takes on her own lover, the future prime minister Earl Grey.
Production
The Duchess is financed by BBC Films and Pathé. The Duchess was filmed at Twickenham Film Studios and on-location at Chatsworth, Bath, Holkham Hall, Clandon Park, Kedleston Hall, Somerset House and the Old Royal Naval College.  Regarding lead actress Keira Knightley, director Saul Dibb said The Duchess was "a chance to take a character from late childhood — she's married at 17—into full adulthood, 10 years later." It was also a chance to work with Ralph Fiennes, whom she regarded as one of her most accomplished co-stars to date; Dibb said, "When I said, 'We've got Ralph interested in playing the Duke,' we both took a gulp and went, 'F---.' [sic] ... But I didn't for one second feel that she wasn't up to the task.
Cast

• Keira Knightley as Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
• Ralph Fiennes as William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire
• Hayley Atwell as Lady Elizabeth 'Bess' Foster
• Charlotte Rampling as Countess Spencer, wife to Earl Spencer
• Dominic Cooper as Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
• Aidan McArdle as Richard Brinsley Sheridan
• Simon McBurney as Charles James Fox
• Sebastian Applewhite as Agustas And

• Calvin Dean as Devonshire House Servant;
• Emily Jewell as Nanny;
• Hannah Stokely as Maid;
• Richard Syms as Dr Neville;
• Richard McCabe as Sir James Hare;
• Andy Armour as Burleigh the Butler;
• Emily Cohen as Harryo;
• Poppy Wigglesworth as Charlotte (aged 10);
• Mercy Fiennes Tiffin as Little Georgiana;
• Sebastian Applewhite as Augustus;
• Eva Hrela as Charlotte (aged 3);
• Bruce Mackinnon as Sir Peter Teazle actor;
• Alistair Petrie as Heaton;
• Georgia King as Lady Teazle actress;
• Kate Burdette as Lady Harriet;
• Paul Daley as George Augustus Henry Cavendish, created 1st Earl of Burlington of the 2nd order or creation (a.k.a. Duke's brother);
• Hannah Stretton as Lady Mary;
• Hollie Standish-Leigh as Lady Patricia;
• and Anon. plays Georgiana's daughter by Lord Grey, Eliza Courtney.

Release - Marketing

The film advertisements which featured Diana, Princess of Wales caused the film to be branded "crudely promoted"

Studio executives wanted to use digitally altered images of Keira Knightley in promotional materials. The alterations were specifically aimed at enlarging her breasts. However, Knightley objected to the alterations and they were not used. The marketing campaign also drew criticism for its use of Diana, Princess of Wales, who was a descendent of Georgiana's. The ad used slogans such as "two women related by ancestry and united by destiny" and even used "There were three people in her marriage", the latter being an almost identical copy of a famous quote that Diana, Princess of Wales uttered during her infamousPanorama interview. Michael Hellicar of the Daily Mail stated that "the Diana link is being so heavily, and it has to be said, so cynically and crudely promoted."  Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, criticised the marketing strategy too, saying "They probably thought the only way to get the young popcorn-eating brigade to see the film was if they thought it was about Diana, but it wasn't necessary and they should never have done that. And the line 'united by destiny' is wrong. I don't think Georgiana actually died in a carriage crash."

Theatrical release

The BBFC has classified the film as a 12A, citing the scene of implied marital rape, which is "delivered through Georgiana's screams of protest, heard from outside the bedroom door." The BBFC's PG rating allows implied sex as long as it is discreet and infrequent; the board decided that the scene in The Duchess is more than "discreet" or "implied". The film had its world premiere on September 3, 2008, inLeicester Square and was released nationwide in the United Kingdom on September 5.

Critical reception

The film received mixed, though mostly positive, reviews gaining 61% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 142 reviews, with the consensus that "Keira Knightley squeezes into a corset again, and pulls off another worthy performance in this sumptuous and emotional period drama, that serves parallels to the Duchess's descendent Princess Diana." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that "Dibb's movie looks good" [however] "exasperatingly bland and slow-moving at all times" handing out a 2 of 5 star rating. However, Paul Hurley gave the film 8/10 and called The Duchess "an excellent new film" and states that "The Duchess stands a good chance of taking home some very big prizes at the end of the year".

Most reviewers have highly praised Knightley and Fiennes' performances. Timeout London wrote: "[Saul Dibb] is also helped enormously by a mature, restrained portrayal from Knightley, a masterclass in passive aggression from Fiennes and a performance of tender seduction from Atwell." The Epoch Times writes, "Ralph Fiennes brings a human quality to [the Duke] by avoiding any intent, exaggeration or ill will" and "Keira Knightley’s performance gains new depth — she not only perfectly portrays a witty and feminine Georgiana early in the film, but also a caring mother, and an abandoned woman later on. Also remarkable in this role is Knightley’s ability to portray the strengths, weaknesses, and the internal hurdles of Georgiana, as well as her internal contemplation." Film Ireland writes "It is a slow movie but it is well acted with Knightley and Fiennes suited to their roles, especially Fiennes who gives a formidable and powerful performance." 

Cameron Baily, the co-chair of The Toronto International Festival comments; “The Duchess Of Devonshire, with Keira Knightley, which is a beautiful film and she gives a really mature performance. You’re seeing her really turn into something beyond the kind of pretty face that we’ve seen her do already so well. But she’s actually a very serious actress and she’s turning into a great, great performer. The film's costume designer Michael O'Connor was nominated for, and won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design and the Satellite Award for Best Costume Design.

Awards

Awards ceremony	Award Category	Subject	Result
Academy Awards[16]	Best Costume Design	Michael O'Connor	Won
	Best Art Direction	Michael Carlin	Nominated
BAFTA Awards[17]	Best Costume Design	Michael O'Connor	Won
BIFA[18]	Best Actress	Keira Knightley	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor	Ralph Fiennes	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Hayley Atwell	Nominated
	Best Technical Achievement	Michael O'Connor (Costume)	Nominated
Golden Globes Awards[19][20]	Best Supporting Actor	Ralph Fiennes	Nominated
People's Choice Awards[21]	Favourite Actress	Keira Knightley	Nominated
	Favourite Independent Movie	The Duchess	Nominated
Satellite Awards[22]	Best Art Direction and Production Design	Karen Wakefield, Michael Carlin	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Gyula Pados	Nominated
	Best Costume Design	Michael O'Connor	Won
London Circle Critics' Film Awards	British Actor of the Year	Ralph Fiennes	Nominated
	British Actress in a Supporting Role	Hayley Atwell	Nominated

Source: wikipedia

Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971 was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. Her extraordinary influence on haute couture was such that she was the only person in the field to be named on TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century. 
Early Life

Chanel was born in Saumur, France. She was the second daughter of Albert Chanel and Jeanne Devolle, a market stallholder and laundrywoman respectively at the time of her birth. Her birth was declared by employees of the hospital in which she was born. They, being illiterate, could not provide or confirm the correct spelling of the surname and it was recorded by the mayor François Poitou as "Chasnel". This misspelling made the tracing of her roots almost impossible for biographers when Chanel later rose to prominence. 

Her parents married in 1883. She had five siblings: two sisters, Julie (1882–1913) and Antoinette (born 1887) and three brothers, Alphonse (born 1885), Lucien (born 1889) and Augustin (born and died 1891). In 1895, when she was 12 years old, Chanel's mother died of tuberculosis and her father left the family. Because of this, the young Chanel spent six years in the orphanage of the Roman Catholic monastery of Aubazine, where she learned the trade of a seamstress. School vacations were spent with relatives in the provincial capital, where female relatives taught Coco to sew with more flourish than the nuns at the monastery were able to demonstrate. When Coco turned eighteen, she was obliged to leave the orphanage, and affiliated with the circus of Moulins as a cabaret singer. During this time, Chanel performed in bars in Vichy and Moulins where she was called "Coco." Some say that the name comes from one of the songs she used to sing, and Chanel herself said that it was a "shortened version of coquette, the French word for 'kept women," according to an article in The Atlantic.

Personal Life and Entry into Fashion

While she failed to get steady work as a singer, it was at Moulins that she met rich, young French textile heir Étienne Balsan, to whom she soon became an acknowledged mistress, keeping her day job in a tailoring shop. Balsan lavished on her the beauties of "the rich life": diamonds, dresses, and pearls. While living with Balsan, Chanel began designing hats as a hobby, which soon became a deeper interest of hers. "After opening her eyes," as she would say, Coco left Balsan and took over his apartment in Paris. Biographer Justine Picardie, in her 2010 study Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life (Harper Collins), suggests that the fashion designer's nephew André Palasse—supposedly the only child of her sister Julie—may actually have been Chanel's child by Balsan.
In 1909 Chanel met and began an affair with one of Balsan's friends, Captain Arthur Edward 'Boy' Capel. Capel financed Chanel's first shops and his own clothing style, notably his jersey blazers, inspired her creation of the Chanel look. The couple spent time together at fashionable resorts such as Deauville, but he was never faithful to Chanel. The affair lasted nine years, but even after Capel married an aristocratic English beauty in 1918, he did not completely break off with Chanel. His death in a car accident, in late 1919, was the single most devastating event in Chanel's life. A roadside memorial at the site of the accident was placed there by Chanel, who visited it in later years to place flowers there.

Chanel became a licensed modiste (hat maker) in 1910 and opened a boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris named Chanel Modes. Chanel's modiste career bloomed once theatre actress Gabrielle Dorziat modelled her hats in the F Noziere's play Bel Ami in 1912 (Subsequently, Dorizat modelled her hats again in Les Modes). In 1913, she established a boutique in Deauville, where she introduced luxe casual clothes that were suitable for leisure and sport. Chanel launched her career as fashion designer when she opened her next boutique, titled Chanel-Biarritz, in 1915, catering to the wealthy Spanish clientele who holidayed in Biarritz and were less affected by the war. Fashionable like Deauville, Chanel created loose casual clothes made out of jersey, a material typically used for men's underwear. By 1919, Chanel was registered as a couturiere and established her maison de couture at 31 rue Cambon. Later in life, she concocted an elaborate false history for her humble beginnings. Chanel would steadfastly claim that when her mother died, her father sailed for America to get rich and she was sent to live with two cold-hearted spinster aunts. She even claimed to have been born in 1893 as opposed to 1883, and that her mother had died when Coco was two instead of twelve. 

In 1920, she was introduced by ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev to world-famous composer Igor Stravinsky (who composed 'The Rite of Spring'), to whom she extended an offer for him and his family to reside with her. During this temporary sojourn it was rumoured that they had an affair. In 1924, Chanel made an agreement with the Wertheimer brothers, Pierre and Paul, directors of the eminent perfume house Bourgeois since 1917, creating a corporate entity, "Parfums Chanel." The Wertheimers agreed to provide full financing for production, marketing and distribution of Chanel No. 5. For ten percent of the stock, Chanel licensed her name to "Parfums Chanel" and removed herself from involvement in all business operations. Displeased with the arrangement, Chanel worked for more than twenty years to gain full control of "Parfums Chanel. She proclaimed that Pierre Wertheimer was “the bandit who screwed me. 
Coco dated some of the most influential men of her time, but she never married. The reason may be found in her answer, when asked why she did not marry the Duke of Westminster: "There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel. In 1925, Vera Bate Lombardi, née Sarah Gertrude Arkwright, reputedly the illegitimate daughter of the Marquess of Cambridge, became Chanel's muse, and also her liaison to a number of European royal families. Chanel established the English look based upon Lombardi's personal style. Lombardi also had the highest possible social connections. She introduced Chanel to her uncle, the Duke of Westminster, her cousin, the Duke of Windsor, and many other aristocratic families. In 1927 she built Villa La Pausa in Roquebrune on the French Riviera hiring the architect Robert Streitz. The villa has a staircase and a patio inspired by her orphanage, Aubazine. La Pausa has been partially replicated at the Dallas Museum of Art to welcome the Reves collection and part of Chanel's original furniture for the house. 

It was in 1931 while in Monte Carlo that Chanel made the acquaintance of Samuel Goldwyn. The introduction was made through a mutual friend, The Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, cousin to the last czar of Russia, Nicolas II. Goldwyn offered Chanel a tantalizing proposition. For the sum of a million dollars (approximately seventy-five million today), he would bring her to Hollywood twice a year to design costumes for MGM stars. Chanel accepted the offer. En route to California from New York traveling in a white train car, which had been luxuriously outfitted specifically for her use, she was interviewed by Colliers magazine in 1932. Chanel said she had agreed to the arrangement to "see what the pictures have to offer me and what I have to offer the pictures.

See also:  World War II , Later years and death
Film Depictions

The first film about Chanel was Chanel Solitaire (1981), directed by George Kaczender and starring Marie-France Pisier, Timothy Dalton, and Rutger Hauer. The American television movie Coco Chanel debuted on 13 September 2008 on Lifetime Television, starring Shirley MacLaine as a 70-year-old Chanel. Directed by Christian Duguay, the film also starredBarbora Bobulova as the young Chanel, Olivier Sitruk as Boy Capel, and Malcolm McDowell. The movie substantially rewrote Chanel's personal history, such as its portrayal of her status as a professional mistress as instead a series of "love stories," and glossing over both her Nazi collaboration and her use of British Royal connections to avoid post-war trial as a collaborator. A film starring Audrey Tautou as the young Coco, titled Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel), was released on 22 April 2009. Audrey Tautou is the new spokeswoman of Chanel S.A. The film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, directed by Jan Kounen and starring Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen, concerns the purported affair between Chanel and Igor Stravinsky. The film is based on the 2002 novel Coco & Igor by Chris Greenhalgh, and was chosen to close the Cannes Film Festival of 2009. Two more projects are said to be in the works, including one directed by Daniele Thompson.

Literary Depictions

Coco & Igor is a novel, written by Chris Greenhalgh, which depicts the affair between Chanel and Igor Stravinsky and the creative achievements that this affair inspired. The novel was first published in 2003. In 2008 a children's book entitled Different like Coco was published. It depicted the humble childhood of Coco Chanel and chronicled how she made drastic changes to the fashion industry. The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman is a novel written by Karen Karbo. Published in 2009, it chronicles the humble beginnings and legendary achievements of Coco Chanel while providing insight and advice on everything from embracing the moment to living life on your own terms.

Stage Depictions

The Broadway musical Coco, music by Andre Previn, book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, opened 18 December 1969 and closed 3 October 1970. It is set in 1953–1954 at the time that Chanel was reestablishing her couture house.

Source: wikipedia