Orlando
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Movie Reviews of Orlando
Movie Review: A Thinking Person's Fantasy
Summary: 4 Stars
Director Sally Potter's fondly embraceable, slightly over-elaborate big screen version of Virginia Woolf's famously psychedelic tale is a moving study in the power of understatement, and a testimony to how even the most justified taking of print-to-screen liberties may sometimes come back to nip its creator. In giving the androgynous-looking Tilda Swinton (probably best known to US audiences as the White Witch in the recent Narnia adaptation) the starring role as a striking young Elizabethan lad who literally carries out his venerable Queen's command that he not age or wither, and thusly lives through the next four centuries first as a man, later after a metamorphosis as a woman, the makers of this motion picture chose well. As Orlando travels through the decades and centuries, he experiences many things. He falls in love with a fickle Russian noblewoman who is visiting the court of King James I during a winter of deadly cold; he tries his hand at poetry-writing under the guidance of a seventeenth-century con-man; the one-time male makes his entrance in the decadent eighteenth-century as a female, and reaps the consequences of this bodily change. She, Orlando, goes on to spill unexpectedly in love again in Victorian times, endures pregnant during the chaos of World War One, and finally faces a tragically unfair legal confrontation in modern times that undermines even the era-spanning authority of England's greatest queen. The film Orlando is as I said fantasy for thinkers. It sketches its story on the canvas of British history, distant and modern, and if to be dubbed unique is the high praise, then it warrants the highest praise that can be given.Movie Review: Beautiful to Look at but Confusing to the Mind
Summary: 4 Stars
The mind wants what the mind wants and when you're watching a movie it is usually to know what is going on. Orlando defies all logic spanning a couple centuries without really explaining why or how but it is beautiful to watch; the costumes, the scenery and of course Tilda Swinton. At points it does seem a bit long with no end in site but if you can lift yourself above storyline, lack of plot and the usual things that carry a movie you may find enjoyment in getting to know the struggle of one man who becomes a woman and the times they live in as they learn about love, deception, jealousy, devotion, admiration, honor and the rights of the sexes. This movie is not completely true to the book as the director added on a world war in an attempt to update the movie had Woolf written the story later. I have seen this movie a few times and still enjoy it. It is worth watching at least twice to wrap your mind around it. Orlando made me fall in love with Tilda. If you're a fan of Billy Zane you get to see him ride in on a horse, sweep Orlando off her feet and depart as quickly as he came. The movie isn't about him or their relationship, as the title stipulates, it's about Orlando.Movie Review: Kya
Summary: 4 Stars
A very moving and tastefully filmed production. Glorious,rich color film. For some reason I only watch this movie when I am alone. To glean some understanding about what this film unfolds, the novel "Orlando", by Viginia Woolf, will not sufice. Read "Vita" by Victoria Glendinning (1983)to understand the film better. Of course, Vita Sakcville-West was enormously pleased with the novel "Orlando", but really didn"t understand it!! As a writer she was very popular, as compared to Viginia and her Bloomsbury set (at that time). "Orlando" is Virginia Woolf's ode to Vita (the child of aristocrats, who could not inherit her family's estate, since she was female, but who so adored the family homestead). Vita and Virginia were intimate friends, but Virgina's acute whimsy, or malice does poke fun at Orlando (the aristocracy). A light frolic from Virginia Woolf in love.Movie Review: Great Movie - Read the Book!
Summary: 4 Stars
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, particularly the acting, scenery, and sublime imagery. For example the desert location for the "ambassador period" was bleak and barren, matching Orlando's mood and temperament at the time. As has been mentioned by others, Tilda Swinton played the role magnificently; much better than my expectations, and I admire Sally Potter's vision and respectful interpretation of Woolf's story, extending the original 1928 ending into a current, modern setting.
This film is a great companion to the book, or vice-versa. If you haven't read the book, do so first. If it's been a few years, re-read Woolf after viewing the movie.
Movie Review: Quirky and fun
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is certainly worth watching. You are taken on a trot through about 400 years of British history from the perspective of the title character who is commanded not to age by Elizabeth I so doesn't. Orlando suffers somewhat as a man and inexplicably changes sex part way through film and has to deal with the unfairness of a patriarchally based system, and always has to deal with the issue of his/her longevity.
Quirky and fun, I thought the acting was good, and the cinematography very good. A movie you will talk about after you watch it.