Love stories, Princess dresses, poorly kept secrets and romantic English gardens… Focus on “The Bridgerton Chronicle”
,the new series signed by the most prolific producer of the small screen. When it was released at the end of last year on Netflix, the whole web was already getting excited about this new series (the trailer was viewed more than 580,000 times on Youtube and just as many times on Twitter).
The American production company Shondaland is headed by the eminent Shonda Rhimes, the woman behind such colossal successes as Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to get away with murder. For her first collaboration with Netflix, the producer moves on to a historical series while keeping her signature: romance, female characters brought to the forefront and mystery.
“The Bridgerton Chronicle”, was shot in the city of Bath, birthplace of Jane Austen’s novels, and is one of eight projects Shonda Rhimes is currently working on. Taken from the saga of Julia Quinn, this Chronicle on the “wedding market” boldly modernizes this period dear to the many fans of Jane Austen.
She turned this romance into a plea for equality. Her heroine, Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), is certainly not a feminist – she accepts her destiny as a wife and mother without too much hesitation, but she does n ot hesitate to influence the events to her advantage. And several female characters around her explicitly take their destiny into their own hands.
It is also a manifesto in favour of diversity. After having long favored white actors, casting directors are now looking at profiles from all backgrounds, no longer fearing anachronism if it does not change the background of the story.
Even if the role of Daphne Bridgerton has been given to a white actress, other characters are played by people of color. Not only is Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) of mixed race – according to some theories, she was descended from an African branch of the Portuguese royal family – but many other leading roles are also held by actors of all origins. This is notably the case of the Duke of Hastings, interpreted by Regé-Jean Page, originally from Zimbabwe.
“The Bridgerton Chronicle”is a production that is part of the wave of so-called “color-blind” films and series, where skin color is no longer taken into account in the choice of performers.
Published between 2000 and 2016, the Bridgerton book series was written by American author Julia Quinn and already includes eight novels. The story takes place between 1813 and 1827 and tells the stories of Viscount Bridgerton’s eight children: Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory and Hyacinth.
The historical series tells the story of a season in London’s high society at the beginning of the 19th century, which is narrated by the voice of a certain Lady Whistledown (Julie Andrews), an omniscient narrator with subtly perfidious judgments, author of a cabbage leaf that everyone in the city secretly reads. King George has become mad. His wife is vaguely in charge of the interim but is mainly interested in the various pleasures that a court can offer. Among them, the one to dub or not the beginners who are presented to her at the beginning of each “season”. High society is therefore shivering with excitement as the new “season” begins.
As every year, the presentation to the queen launches new girls in search of a husband… They will run the balls in Park Lane and the garden parties in Vauxhall, fan out in the alleys of Hyde Park and wait in their MayFair mansions for their suitors to visit them in the hope of finding the best party. A race of stages, punctuated by rituals, intrigue and scandals continue throughout the 8 episodes.
In this first season, we follow Daphne Bridgerton, played by Phoebe Dynevor, the eldest daughter in search of a good match who makes a more than noticed entrance into the world since the queen has designated her as the most beautiful girl to marry… Her mother being a widow, it is her elder brother who serves as her chaperone, but his brother rejects each suitor one after the other, coming to the point of placing his sister in an awkward situation. The scandalous newspaper of London’s high society, directed by the mysterious Lady Whistledown, spreads slander against the young woman. Daphne must then juggle between her public image and her attraction for the seductive Duke of Hastings.
The atmosphere of English castles, the rustle of petticoats and the whispering of secrets… “The Bridgerton Chronicle” takes the viewer into the world of Gossip Girl, minus the cell phones. The protagonists are wealthy, seductive and their love stories get tangled up and create trouble at court. The mysterious Lady Whistledown – whose identity is unknown – feeds her chronicle with these secrets, upsetting this closed microcosm. This time, we leave the early 20th century of Downton Abbey to land in the London of the Regency, an era that stretches from 1795 to 1837. A period of excess for the British aristocracy, we are already expecting a parade of sublime outfits and majestic balls.
Later in the first season the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Hastings takes place. For the occasion everything is staged to make us dream. Phoebe Dynevor wears a personalized wedding dress – a creation signed by costume designer Ellen Mirojnick in a single piece of fabric heathered in Madrid – while her tiara, a Swarovski archive, is fitted.
There is also a cake almost 1.5 meters high decorated with the coats of arms of the Bridgertons and Hastings, all during a wedding party with rare elements for the time such as pineapple or langoustines. As for the wedding flowers, production designer Will Hughes-Jones revealed that the series used silk flowers, each hand painted to ensure that the color was true to life. Their wedding had everything of a princess wedding. The scene of the wedding destination was filmed at St Mary’s Church in Twickenham.
Beyond the romanticism and the ardor of the episodes, the London atmosphere of the nineteenth, had a lot of success and especially the costumes of Victorian style, the long dresses with the colors sometimes powdered and sometimes intense, richly embroidered, decorated with feathers, stones and other gildings. This retro chic style is difficult to wear in our everyday life, but you can dare to wear it on the occasion of your wedding celebration!
And if you are part of the Bridgerton fan community, maybe you would like to be inspired by this favorite series for your wedding day. The soundtrack of “The Bridgerton Chronicle” is a great way to bring some of the atmosphere of this fiction to your wedding celebration.
Below are some of the pieces that accompany the Bridgertons‘ story, classified according to the moments of the wedding day when they will be most appropriate.
Like Daphne Bridgerton, make the bride’s arrival at the place of your wedding celebration stand out by accompanying you with one of this retro chic music!
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