Orlando
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Movie Reviews of Orlando
Movie Review: Sign of the Times
Summary: 5 Stars
While Virginia Woolf's 'Orlando' was found, by some readers, to be both long-winded and unbelievable, the movie version is, as a whole, a satire of the novel. The director has taken liberties galore with the original tale (Jimmy Sommerville as a disco queen obviously never figured in the original draft) but despite that, 'Orlando' turns out to be one of the better book-to-film adaptations I have seen, and as much as I hate to say it, I found it to be even better than the book. The novel lacked a certain life, and though Woolf did her best to enliven things up (the latter half of the work was dreary and pointless), Sally Potter, the director, strings things in such a fashion, that the end of the film is a) nothing like the book and b) lifts the movie to higher heights. We owe the way this film works to Tilda Swinton of course, the English actress who made a stunning impression with this film and then left us high and dry by shunning mainstream production altogether.Other reviews will tell you what 'Orlando' is all about. What I wanted to dwell on are the qualities of the film that make it outstanding. There are noticeable flaws, of course, because the movie doesnt flow together as a consolidated piece. It is broken and jarring in places - a collection of amusing vignettes strung together - but at the end of two hours, 'Orlando' comes together unlike many a film of its genre. For a film of this sort to make an impact on the audience, it must first goad the audience into leaving their sense of probability behind. Orlando's most defining moment comes when he lies himself down and arises a woman - breasts and all. I know not of any person in modern history who has altered their sex simply by will, and hence could not accept this shift in gender totally, yet this is one of the most gripping sequences in the film. Its also relieving because Tilda Swinton can finally play herself and get rid of that phony masculine accent.
Orlando still lives, according to the movie, so that would make him/her about 420 years old at the moment. The focus of the film is not so much the years that Orlando lives through, but rather the lessons she learns along the way. Why, for instance, did the Lord Orlando decide to 'become' a woman? Was this of his own choosing? Orlando's bitter experiences with war and death make him question his own masculinity, or one would suppose, as it is just after this that he changes his sex. But both as a man and as a woman, Orlando faces rejection. As a man, he is spurned by a Russian ambassodress, and as a woman, she involves herself in a torrid affair (with some of the most thoughtful dialogue) with Billy Zane, and he leaves her for America almost immediately. Pregnant, and doomed to be a 'spinster', Orlando survives World War I and II and is left with child when the film ends. This is all grossly improbable, but it works.
Tilda Swinton's direct camera glances are at first amusing, but I suppose they do add a sort of artistic touch to the proceedings. The final moments of the film benefit hugely from Tilda's beatific gaze, assuring the film of instant classic status, and making 'Orlando' one of the most thoughtful transgender films ever made. This is art.
Movie Review: Part man, part woman, all good
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing, ironic film, based upon Virginia Woolf's whimsically mock-serious epic about an immortal English lord, who experiences 400 years of history, changes his sex to that of a woman after refusing to participate in warfare (a feminist point that is subtly made), and never bores or condescends to us. What surprised me when I first saw it is how dry, boring and pompous it isn't; the film has a nice lightness and dry humor that make it digestible. The photography is beautiful and the film never drags, and the performances, which a lot of critics have suggested are somewhat two-dimensional, are that way for a reason: Orlando's adventure is too awesome to be rendered realistically; the people and adventures she experiences are meant, I think, to be represented symbolically---each character is actually a rough composite of perhaps hundreds of such types she meets in her journey from 1600 to 2000. Billy Zane, who is seen in the movie's poster, plays an American adventurer who romances the female Orlando, but to all of his "Titanic" fans, a word of caution: he's in the film for roughly twenty-five minutes, if that much. The real star of the show is the ethereally lovely, brilliant, and mysterious Tilda Swinton, whose male Orlando is unnervingly convincing; so much so that "he" almost seems to be doing a drag bit once the sex change happens---and because Swinton is so eye-pleasing and delightful, this is not a bad thing. Her intelligence and talent radiate from her face, which is so expressive that many shots consist simply of gigantic closeups of it---she can say more with a gaze than many lesser performers do with a page of dialogue. I first saw this film in 1993, as an exchange student living in London, and it gave me an appreciation for British history and for Woolf's books that I had never had before. It's really quite a smart, funny, cool, hip movie, but with no explosions, car chases, or hot-button themes, it's by no means a populist-type entertainment. If you like period films, or anything English, you'll dig this a lot: Orlando isn't just English, he/she *is* England, and the country should be so lucky as to be compared with Tilda Swinton's long-suffering (centuries of it, in fact, what a burden) poetry-spouting nobleman/woman. Very cool.Movie Review: Under rated masterpeice
Summary: 5 Stars
I find this movie exhilirating. I haven't read the book, but I understand that some major changes in plot, theme and tone have been made by the director of Orlando. So if you want the movie to be just like the book, just give up. It ain't gonna happen.But if you are willing to take the movie on its own terms - directed by Sally Potter, not by Virginia Woolf - then you might enjoy this film.
Let me note some of the major attractions of Orlando:
1. It is a beautiful film to look at. Orlando is about a person who lives over four hundred years - from the reign of Elizabeth I to 1990. Each period gets full and proper attention. the 19th century is dark and foggy, the 20th sharp and bright and 17th rich and royal reds. The visuals enhance the theme rather than drown the characters.
2. Tild Swinton. A lot of people criticized her acting as being dull or understated. I tended to think she hit things on the mark. In order to get the feeling that the movie is about Orlando - and not about scenery - she wisely chooses to be detached. I got the feeling that Orlando was observing things, which heightens the feeling of not quite fitting in, even as Orlando tries to grapple with the world he/she inhabits. This is important to capture if the character lives through different time periods.
3. Lot of neat details and in-jokes. Potter does not try to say too much about the nature of gender or other heavy duty topics. She let's the viewer think for himself. This means that there is lots of room for clever in jokes. Example: the same actor plays an impoverished poet in 1700 and a greedy publisher in 1990.
Taken together, you get a great movie. One person compared it to 2001: A Space Oddysey. I think it is a good comparison. Lush visuals, loose plot that still sticks to some simple good ideas, leisurely understated acting, etc. Overall, just great. It all comes together in what I think is a unique movie.
Movie Review: Blurring the line
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I have to say that I have not read Virginia Woolf's book on which this film is based. Ms. Woolf is not an "easy read", as her style tends to ramble a bit, and from what I understand, one could not literally translate "Orlando" to the screen. I commend Sally Potter for her adaptation of Woolf's novel. "Orlando", to me, is about a person's journey of self-discovery. As the lead character says, "The same person-just a different sex." There is a wonderfully sly mixing-up and playing with gender here. Orlando, an effeminate male poet who later becomes a woman, is beautifully underplayed by Tilda Swinton. I admire her performance, as it is played with a very subtle wit. Queen Elizabeth I is portrayed by that grand unwilling champion of gay rights Quentin Crisp, and the beautiful Billy Zane is treated as the "love object" in two scenes of lush sensuality. "Bronsky Beat"'s Jimmy Somerville, with his famous falsetto voice is here too, as a singing angel at the film's finale. His song, "Coming", is wonderful, stating that gender doesn't really matter here-"I am coming, I am coming, here I am, neither a woman nor a man." The art direction is breathtakingly beautiful, and Sandy Powell's costumes are remarkably accurate, spanning the centuries from Elizabethan thru Jacobean thru Rococo thru Victorian to present-day. Some may find the pace of this gorgeous film a little ponderous, but I found it to be an intriguing 90 minutes. We are all humans, individuals-why all this fuss about what a "woman's" role in society is, or what a "man's" role in society is? Virginia Woolf, I understand, based "Orlando" on a meeting she had with an Italian noblewoman who bemoaned the fact that she was denied her inheritance due to the fact that she was born a woman. Almost unbelievable, isn't it?Movie Review: Comedy and Virginia W.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great adaptation of V.W.'s book in that the spirit of the book was very alive and a comedy of manners of sorts concerning, of course, sex and the eternal question: what is it like for a female? what is it like for a male?
Tilda Swinton and many marvelous actors pull it off wonderfully and I was despairing I'd never see it again after I loaned it on VHS to a non-returner sort of idiot. Very happy it's on DVD now and it certainly stands the test of time. If you purchase this item, the first viewing might be a bit of a shock......it is not traditional cinematic fare. I promise that upon the second viewing various small sly smiles will begin to slip in here and there as you catch the many layers of quiet comedy. EVERY HOME SHOULD HAVE ONE. Cheers.