Post by klep on Jun 7, 2021 13:29:49 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/7: Orlando
IT'S LADIES' WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
"Do not fade. Do not wither. Do not grow old."
Orlando the novel was written by Virginia Woolf about fellow Bloomsbury Group member and her lover Vita Sackville-West. Playing with her gender, of course, but preserving Sackville-West's bisexuality. For five years before it was made, director Sally Potter and star Tilda Swinton considered costuming, staging, and everything else to be sure that the film would be the best they could possibly make it. And it is absolutely worth the work.
Orlando is a young nobleman in the court of Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp). The dying queen offers him and his heirs an estate if only he will fulfill one little request—to stay forever young. So he does. He spends a long time in his castle. Eventually, he is sent as an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire; while there, he is physically transformed into a woman. When she returns to England, she faces a lawsuit claiming that she was a woman all along and cannot inherit. Centuries pass, and Orlando stays young and beautiful.
Yes, this movie relies on the androgyny of Tilda Swinton—young Tilda Swinton—to work. She's utterly believable as a young Elizabethan nobleman and utterly believable in female attire of centuries later and would be utterly believable, in my opinion at least, as simply anything. Tilda Swinton has always seemed to me—and this is the first thing I saw her in, I believe—strange and otherworldly, more a creature of Fae than anything else. And while Orlando is routinely involved in the world, you can also believe that those decades spent set apart would not wear on them.
In point of fact, I got away with watching this movie in college for an independent learning contract on Modern Interpretations of the Elizabethan Era. Which was kind of nonsense, given the Elizabethan part of the movie is over in, what, ten minutes or so? Tops? Still, it's one of the few times that the screen has given us truly old Elizabeth I. The casting of Quentin Crisp was of course deliberate and a nod to the LGBT history of which Virginia Woolf herself was part, and Gods love him for dressing in the stiff, heavy, elaborate gowns by which Elizabeth was trying to awe everyone when her physical appearance—she herself, based on her portraits, resembled Cate Blanchett in her youth—was no longer doing it. Those costumes are no joke.
IT'S LADIES' WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
"Do not fade. Do not wither. Do not grow old."
Orlando the novel was written by Virginia Woolf about fellow Bloomsbury Group member and her lover Vita Sackville-West. Playing with her gender, of course, but preserving Sackville-West's bisexuality. For five years before it was made, director Sally Potter and star Tilda Swinton considered costuming, staging, and everything else to be sure that the film would be the best they could possibly make it. And it is absolutely worth the work.
Orlando is a young nobleman in the court of Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp). The dying queen offers him and his heirs an estate if only he will fulfill one little request—to stay forever young. So he does. He spends a long time in his castle. Eventually, he is sent as an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire; while there, he is physically transformed into a woman. When she returns to England, she faces a lawsuit claiming that she was a woman all along and cannot inherit. Centuries pass, and Orlando stays young and beautiful.
Yes, this movie relies on the androgyny of Tilda Swinton—young Tilda Swinton—to work. She's utterly believable as a young Elizabethan nobleman and utterly believable in female attire of centuries later and would be utterly believable, in my opinion at least, as simply anything. Tilda Swinton has always seemed to me—and this is the first thing I saw her in, I believe—strange and otherworldly, more a creature of Fae than anything else. And while Orlando is routinely involved in the world, you can also believe that those decades spent set apart would not wear on them.
In point of fact, I got away with watching this movie in college for an independent learning contract on Modern Interpretations of the Elizabethan Era. Which was kind of nonsense, given the Elizabethan part of the movie is over in, what, ten minutes or so? Tops? Still, it's one of the few times that the screen has given us truly old Elizabeth I. The casting of Quentin Crisp was of course deliberate and a nod to the LGBT history of which Virginia Woolf herself was part, and Gods love him for dressing in the stiff, heavy, elaborate gowns by which Elizabeth was trying to awe everyone when her physical appearance—she herself, based on her portraits, resembled Cate Blanchett in her youth—was no longer doing it. Those costumes are no joke.
Both Woolf and Potter are more interested in Orlando as a character than in the history they live through. Apparently the Woolf novel—I've not read it—is full of anachronisms. Potter removed several of them and actually gave Orlando a reason to continue to live, albeit one that doesn't make all that much sense out of context. Orlando, really, just is. Why does Orlando live forever? Because. Why does Orlando become a woman? Because. Orlando is. As Tilda Swinton, it's completely believable.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/14: Gold Diggers of 1933
MUSICALS WEEK!
For Musicals Week we'll be watching this pre-code film about a group of people attempting to put on a play with the financial backing of a friendly composer. Come join us next week for our discussion of The Gold Diggers of 1933, available on HBO Max and for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/8: Picnic at Hanging Rock
For its next pairing the podcast heads down under, starting with Peter Weir's alluring Picnic at Hanging Rock. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of this mysterious film, available on Criterion Channel and HBO Max and for rent at the usual places (except Amazon).
MUSICALS WEEK!
For Musicals Week we'll be watching this pre-code film about a group of people attempting to put on a play with the financial backing of a friendly composer. Come join us next week for our discussion of The Gold Diggers of 1933, available on HBO Max and for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/8: Picnic at Hanging Rock
For its next pairing the podcast heads down under, starting with Peter Weir's alluring Picnic at Hanging Rock. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of this mysterious film, available on Criterion Channel and HBO Max and for rent at the usual places (except Amazon).