KEIRA Knightley dons a corset yet again for The Duchess, a new movie based on the best-selling biography Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman.

But before you raise any eyebrows in despair, there are a couple of big reasons for seeing the film when it opens in September.

For starters, the film carries plenty of contemporary resonance, given that Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was a direct descendent of the late Diana, Princess of Wales (she was her great-great-great-great aunt) and shared many of the same hardships.

And secondly, it marks the latest film from director Saul Dibb, who cut his teeth on the critically-acclaimed Bullet Boy and TV mini-series The Line of Beauty.

Like Diana, Georgiana was beautiful, glamorous and adored by the public. But while her beauty and charisma made her a household name, one thing always seemed to escape her: love. Beneath Georgiana’s glamorous façade lay an intelligent, vulnerable woman stranded in a loveless marriage to the Duke (Ralph Fiennes), one of the richest men in England.

Frustrated by the limitations imposed on her by virtue of her sex and her class, she rebelled, entering into an intense relationship with the beautiful Bess Foster (Hayley Atwell), thereby upsetting the cool balance of her marriage to the Duke and leading to a complex ménage a trois.

Georgiana’s rebellion extended to the public sphere where she tore down the conventions, becoming a political campaigner for the liberal party and galvanising the nation. In so doing she fell in love with Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper), the future Prime Minister, finally discovering the meaning of true love.

But could true love survive the strictures of the Duke, of Bess and of Society – the pressures of marriage and motherhood, of friendship and loyalty, of class and celebrity? What followed was tragic, but Georgiana’s unquenchable spirit sustained her and, unlike Diana, she ultimately found peace…

Commenting on the contemporary resonances, the film’s producer Gabrielle Tana, said: “The parellels are there and they are real, especially in the way they both manipulated the press.”

But director Dibb – who may not seem like an obvious choice to direct a period costume drama – added: “We are trying not to tell the story of Diana through Georgiana, but everyone’s aware and it would be a bit naive if they didn’t know that Diana is a direct descendent of Georgiana.

“Georgiana was born a Spencer, born in Althorp and there are parallels – she became a celebrity of her day, she married a man who was complicated and distant and she married him very young…

“If people want to make comparisons, that’s fine but there’s no way that we were trying to tell the story or manipulate the story to chime in with what people knew of Diana’s life.”

The Duchess opens in UK cinemas on September 5, 2008. Watch the trailer or check out our photo gallery

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