Orlando Reviews

• Beautiful. Strange, but beautiful

  
  By AUTBHG6070SL4 on 2004-12-12
  The movie starts with Tilda Swinton playing Orlando, a male role (so far), and Quentin Crisp playing Queen Elizabeth. Already, physical sex and social gender have been neatly divided. Later on, Orlando abruptly transforms from man to woman with no reason or mechanism given. S/he takes it in stride, but her place in her social world changes around her. Given the magical premise, it's an effective way to comment on the attitudes of men and women towards each other, based on complete and mutual ignorance.
  
  There was only one small problem with the casting. Swinton is just too lovely a woman to play even an androgynous male convincingly. It took some effort to go along with Tilda the man, but it was worth it for the sake of the plot.
  
  And, if nothing else, I could always watch the incredible costuming and scenery. Architecture and landscaping seemed to have quiet lives of their own, tolerating the people that moved among them. Many scenes were chosen for strong, almost confrontational symmetries, something that definitely attracted my attention. Another scene near the end actually costumed the landscape, Christo-like, for reasons I never worked out. There were a number of night scenes, too, and many seemed to be filmed using natural light. Those scenes often had a grainy look, but not enough to be distracting.
  
  This is an odd movie, but I like it. Swinton's little asides to the camera, sometimes just a glance, added a quirky note. It's a thoughtful movie, about tone and appearance rather than action, and delivers well in those areas. However much I like it, though, I come away a bit unsure what to make of it. Maybe that's why I keep coming back to it.
  
  //wiredweird
  
  

• Part man, part woman, all good

  
  By A2B8AARTSIQS85 on 2001-02-05
  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.
  
  

• Blurring the line

  
  By A5ZJFVV0564T6 on 2001-03-01
  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?
  
  

• Lingering Film -- Unusual Meditation on Sexuality

  
  By A25SFTM8HEBUZA on 1998-11-27
  I have watched this film three times - yet each time I have watched it I have been intrigued by it - one of the rare films to explore the COMMON rather than the differences between men and women. There is a lushness and "an eternity" to the film - Ms. Potter did an excellent job from the site locations to the music. The landscapes varied from the bitter cold, to desert heat, to World War I, to foggy English countryside to modern day London - these enhanced the feeling that the essence of men and women are the same - not only now but in the past. I have a feeling that people will either love or hate this film. If you are looking for direct action this is not the film for you. However, if you are looking for a more dreamy, meditative film that is memorable than you should definitely check this one.
  
  

• A charming farce of androgynous exploration....

  
  By A37R1TV112K8PB on 2000-12-18
  First let it be said that while I love the film Orlando it is simply impossible to get all the themes and events of the novel into one movie, so I strongly urge all viewers, whether they loved or hated this movie, to read the book, Virginia Woolf's unique love letter to Vita Sackville-West.

  The inevitable failings involved in translating a book into a film aside, 'Orlando' is visually exsquisite, the costumes and locations sumptuous and splendid, fully evoking the decadance and contrasting squalor of the centuries in which Orlando lives his/her life. The score perfectly compliments the surroundings, the atmosphere and the themes of each scene, and is beautifully composed and performed.

  Though some have expressed doubts over Tilda Swinton's ability to play Orlando, the aristocrat born as man who turns into a woman half way through his/her life, I thought she was the perfect choice. I believe knowing she is a woman initially taints people's ability to find her convincing as a man; to me she played the part with great charm, amiability and empathy, and became even more charming as a woman - the character of Orlando at this stage in 'her' life becoming more rounded, more sympathetic, more knowledgable and Swinton captures that well.

  This film does not follow the 'rules' of the 'real' world - besides changing genders, Orlando lives for 400 years and does not age a day. It is the story of a pursuit for life, for meaning, by one individual determined to discover what that means. Accept it, and enjoy.

  In its attempt to capture the most important of the book's events the film does have a slight recurring bump in continuity, it seems, and will no doubt be pretentious and boring to some, if not many. Nonetheless, Orlando is a sometimes humorous, sometimes haunting movie, thought provoking and richly realised.
  
  

• Even better than the real thing...
  By AGRR05FH945HR on 2002-08-14
  Sally Potter is one of the few directors to achieve the near impossible - to create a movie that actually surpasses the original novel.

  Not wishing to take anything away from Virginia Woolf, whose The Waves is one of the most brilliant and defining novels of all time, Potter's film version is nothing less than a work of art.

  As other reviewers have indicated, when the Orlando character, who was based on Woolf's friend and lover, Victoria (Vita) Sackville-West, crosses gender to become a woman, she automatically loses the right to own the very same property that, as a man, she/he had owned for eons. Even as a socio-political commentary, (see also Woolf's A Room Of One's Own) this speaks volumes about a patriarchal society in which the lowliest, most moronic male had infinitely more rights than the most brilliant and gifted female.

  Our society is still dealing with the legacy of the tyranny of gender and the legacy of the Inquisition, in which nine million women were murdered for being women.

  Yet despite the dark insanities that underly the film's pivotal transition, Potter's modern classic is a rich and joyful romp, filled with love, hope and transcendence, with a simply breathtakingly beautiful closing section.

  A rare and inspired work of genius, in which the production direction and casting cannot be faulted.
  
  

• Not your ordinary film
  By A3F5QY6SAE6R5M on 2004-12-19
  If you like the extraordinary, the thought-provoking, the tantalizing and artsy, then you may find this an enjoyable film. You won't feel like you've seen it before, or think it resembles any other film you've ever watched - definitely one of a kind. It's a very imaginative story. It took a minute to get "into" but once I did, I really enjoyed it.
  
  
• "Never grow old. Never die."
  By A22VEUXIEVKMJA on 2006-07-09
  Original, gorgeous, eternal. A sumptuous feast! Orlando proves that cinema can rise above mediocrity and become art. Tilda Swinton is amazing. Probably the most versatile actress on the planet.
  
  
• A landmark of the 90s
  By A2VG8F8TL6AYDR on 2000-12-26
  First off, I've never been able to finish Virginia Woolf's high-camp novel, with its uneasy attempt to blend love letter and politicosexual analysis, but that doesn't matter. I saw "Orlando" in the cinema when it first came out and it was one of the few films around that made me feel glad to be alive.

  Negative criticism of Tilda Swinton's cool performance is beside the point. Her calm and control is perfect; Orlando has to go from being a naive boy to a mature woman, and by the end of the film, even though Swinton has hardly broken a sweat, her long stare into the camera makes her seem truly iconic. It's one of the best film performances of the 90s. But Swinton has been too striking and unnerving an actor to ever be a big star, even if she wants to be, which seems unlikely.

  Woolf's "Orlando" strikes me as overwritten and silly. Potter's "Orlando" is glorious, with some hilariously exaggerated costume design (from Sandy Powell, who cut her teeth with the even more left-field Derek Jarman), gorgeous music and striking performances from, amongst others, Billy Zane as Orlando's dashing lover and Heathcote Williams as a snide, money-hungry poet. It's an essay in contemporary sexuality, which almost makes me appreciate the music of Jimmy Somerville.

  I can't think of many more haunting moments than the last five minutes; essays could be written on Orlando's Gaze. Swinton spends much of the film looking at people, searching for clues, trying to take it all in; by the end she seems to found it, and made it her own, and this is why her impassive stare and slight smile are so moving. I'm biased cause I'm a fan.
  
  

• A Fascinating Work of Beauty
  By A11R1P63WJ4GTZ on 2002-09-05
  Whether it was a mystical experience to watch because it pulled me out of the boredom of a dreary Sunday morning when it appeared on IFC, or whether it really is one of the most fascinating and hauntingly photographed films ever made...well, the jury is still out, and in fact it's probably both reasons. But I quickly obtained my own copy and have waited to watch it again because I so badly want to share this movie with someone. But it's a rare breed that will appreciate the story of a man who over time turns into a woman---a human being who tells a story of pain and obsession, heartache, war, and finally fulfillment in the truest love possible, across five centuries of different lives/same soul. A beautiful and artful rendition of the novel. I can't wait to unwrap mine one day and share it with the right friend... Could become an underground intellegentsia cult classic. (If it hasn't already and I'm really out of the loop.)
  
  
• Fantastic
  By AKPDM6LMS3UEN on 2005-06-23
  One of my all-time favorite movies. The music, cinematography, and acting is all very delightful. Orlando is one of those movies that will stay in your DVD player for weeks. The novel is fun, but the movie is spectacular.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Different, Dull and Spectacular
  By AZ5JGGV2SAP1R on 2000-01-29
  ORLANDO is not the best movie I have seen, but it does have a small spice to it. Spectacular backgrounds, and sets lighten this semi-period piece up. This movie has some dull moments, and also goofy moments with Tilda Swinton looking at the camera, talking to the audience. The transformation from a man to a woman is un-discussed, making it alittle hard for the viewer to know why he or she did it. This movie was different, I will tell you that. Billy Zane's character (even though getting second most attention in advertising, and in the credits) is only on the screen for about ten minutes, has probably about 8 lines. I do not recomend this movie to be purchased, though if your a fan of such film noir -- DIG IN.
  
  
• A work of art.
  By on 1999-09-05
  Most every frame of this film could be taken out, enlarged, and hung as a piece of art. The cinematorgraphy is truly amazing. The dialog, minimal as it is, is also very strong and the acting is great. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 is that it really seems to fall apart at the very end. I really wish the war scene and the flying angel had been left of the cutting room floor. That aside, it is a must-have for anyone who truly enjoys film.
  
  
• Orlando
  By A37EKUZVMF6U8B on 1999-11-24
  The most aesthetically beautiful film, frame-to-frame, in memory. The color palette is scrumptuous, and the ultimate dessert of the senses. The story is corelatively mind-taking, and a delight for all those who place no limits on human experience and imagined possibilities.
  
  
• Sign of the Times
  By A2ULSA0IRUE09E on 2001-01-29
  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.
  
  

• What independant film is all about
  By A2GHBECH0SIPZU on 2001-09-12
  Orlando is one of the best indies I've seen in years. It differs from the book but its a good differance. Tilda Swenson is fantastic in the lead role and Quinten Qrisp has a fine turn as Queen Victoria. It is beautifly photographed and has great costumes and set design. It has a very easy flow to it that allows the viewer to progress with the character as she lives through differant eras of English society and has a slight and attractive sexual undertone that is not expolitive and is very nessessary to the story. IT WILL CAST A SPELL OVER THE VIEWER
  
  
• This is one REALLY odd movie
  By A3DGB4HN3QCGAL on 2001-11-23
  This is one really odd movie, I've never seen anything quite like it. I found the story interesting but strange at the same time. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is but the movie seems very well researched and loaded with tiny details that could so easily have been over looked or even left out, much better done than so many modern day setting movies. The plot mostly made sense to me although the passage of time seems dreamlike in later stages. I really liked the locations and costumes, weird as they were I think the clothing was probably exactly right for the times, remarkable achievement for what I think was actually a low budget movie.
  
  
• An epic of astounding grace
  By A3JAFLALR0S8CR on 2003-02-28
  This telling of Virginia Woolf's tale is a sweeping epic of grace and beauty.
  There could not have been a better choice to portray the gender swapping Orlando than Tilda Swinton. She lights up the screen with her beauty, grace and subtle wit. As a young man nervously reciting poetry to Queen Elizabeth, or a modern woman raising a young daughter, she embraces the audience and pulls us fully into her world. The settings, costumes and music serve to construct a world of changing ages spinning around a single soul in flux.
  Orlando is an astounding piece of cinema history and deserves a place of honor in any DVD library.
  
  
• Beautiful to Look at but Confusing to the Mind
  By A1C2P5HX5RLPAX on 2005-12-31
  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.
  
  
• Kya
  By A3QLI6GG2R782L on 2006-04-19
  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.
  
  
• A feast for both the mind and the eyes.
  By on 1999-06-29
  I have seen this film at least 5 times and although I agree it does not rival the book, I find Orlando takes my breath away every time I see it.

  Sally Potter has created a masterpiece of perfectly blended interpretation, music and cinematography. She has also managed to make a wonderful story all the more accessible.

  Orlando is what dramatic film making is all about - to be able to feel the period as well as simply view it.
  
  

• Quirky and fun
  By A2N786KHIFCKJ8 on 2004-08-17
  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.
  
  
• Great Movie - Read the Book!
  By A1DSL771CZ7QV3 on 2005-11-03
  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.
  
  
  
• What IS this film about? A typical adaptation...
  By A1FR6WP3PWK5K0 on 2006-04-07
  This film was kind of disappointing, especially since my expectations were high: an adaptation of a Woolf novel, a costume movie, gender issues...
  Not everything about this film was bad. Tilda Swinton was quite good, the images were often beautiful, and the narrative was (on the surface) not too difficult to follow.
  But my problem is that the film leaves so much unsaid you very quickly have no idea any more what it is about, and worse: it loses its dramatic tension. This probably has everything to do with it being an adaptation of a novel. I have not read Orlando but I know Virginia Woolf's style of writing with the long introspective passages. Maybe if you have read the novel the film makes much more sense, but now I felt like the 'knowing' glances Swinton every so often throws at the camera served to replace pages of inner monologue.
  I can give much more examples of scenes so minimalistic that it becomes ridiculous (the moment Orlando finds out he has become a woman; the moment when Orlando is pregnant and walking on the battle fields of WW1), but I think my main point is clear: please directors, when you really want to adapt a difficult and literary novel to the screen, remember the people in the audience that don't know the book. There are already too many films that are barely more than a meagre summary of an incredibly good novel.
  
  
• It lingers...
  By A157KWHXF4FBPQ on 2000-05-10
  This seems like a movie you'd either love or hate. I'd never watch it with my boyfriend because he'd either say, "Nothing is happening..." or "Wait- Why's he a *girl* now...?" I found this movie incredibly thought provoking and haunting really- to think of all of the life lessons and challenges you could learn if you had 400 years to experience- To be a man and then suddenly be a woman and realize all of the rights that you had as a man that you took for granted. "Orlando" and "Like Water for Chocolate" are still the only two movies I've rewound immediately after watching them so I could watch it again and see what else I could "get" a second time around. If you liked "Elizabeth" and loved the costumes and the progress of gender issues throughout history, give it a shot.
  
  
• Under rated masterpeice
  By ARTR54UVZL07U on 2000-07-03
  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.
  
  

• Absolutely fabulous
  By on 1999-07-06
  I have watched this film ten times and I never seem to get tired of it. The film may sometimes seem obscure however if the viewer has any common sense there should not be a problem understanding it. Cinematography, costume, settings and cast fit together perfectly. It's a movie of few words but gives a strong impact. The movie plays like a dream.
  
  
• What a piece of junk
  By on 1999-08-01
  I saw this film (sadly) in a theater and only the fact that I was with friends kept me in the theater past the first 10 minutes. Pretentious crap. Lovely cinematography and a fair music score couldn't save pitiful performances, confused, pretentious (there's that word again) directing and silly script writing. Moronic.
  
  
• read the book after this
  By on 1999-12-03
  I read the book first as part of a literature class. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The movie (maybe as always) leaves you wanting more. Cinematography, music were very good. Why can't the director include someone reading the excellent Woolfian interior narrative during the scenes where the protagonist is just staring at the camera? Is it money? Is this a new idea? Has the director read the book? So, it is OK, but the stares at the camera seemed like dead space.
  
  
• read the book after this
  By on 1999-12-04
  I watched the DVD of Orlando recently. I must say I was somewhat disappointed. The acting and the cinematography was breathtaking and excellent. But, with all of the unnarrated gazes directly into the camera, I thought that the film could have been enhanced greatly if some of the very rich interior narrative in the book could have been heard there (in those spots). Even if they needed to get a different voice to read it (Lynn Redgrave comes to mind), there were some paragraphs and sentences that we all noted (in my recent class on this) that could have gone well during these silences!
  
  

• Orlando: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
• Orlando (Wordsworth Classics)
• Elizabeth (Spotlight Series)
• Elizabeth - The Golden Age (Widescreen Edition)
• Mrs. Dalloway