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From Amazon.co.uk
Breathtaking and practically non-discursive, Sally Potter's audacious Orlando overcomes some dodgy performances and a narrative structure that could most generously be described as "loose" to emerge as a haunting, discussion-provoking, trans-historical and transsexual drama. Commanded never to age by Queen Elizabeth (played with surprisingly little campness by legendary cross-dresser Quentin Crisp), the title character becomes immortal; we then follow Orlando through 400 years of dream-like British history. Midway through the film, Orlando changes genders--to Potter's immense credit, the transformation is handled with little fanfare and no explanation. Tilda Swinton, in the lead role, is far more convincing as a woman than as a man and, even during the film's latter half, her impassivity and lack of expression can be annoying. Potter encourages Swinton to play to the camera and the resulting asides and glances askance can be amusing but often seem purposeless, or even arch. Nevertheless, the wilful idiosyncrasy and understatement of the film never quite capsize the project and, once you give yourself over to the filmmaker's logic, the panoramic sweep of the cinematography (remarkable sets include an aristocratic skating party on the frozen Thames during the Great London Frost of 1603, a stunning tent-caravan in Central Asia, and countless fastidious boudoirs and interiors) will surely keep you enraptured. Orlando is no Merchant-Ivory production, no prissy, forgettable period piece; this film has teeth and it may bite ferociously when you least expect it to. Although based on the Virginia Woolf modernist classic of the same name, it scarcely resembles the original. --Miles Bethany
Product Description
Australia released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), WIDESCREEN, SPECIAL FEATURES: Cast/Crew Interview(s), Documentary, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Independent filmmaker Sally Potter's gender-bending epic, which views four centuries of sexual politics through the eyes of a sex-switching main character, is based on the 1928 novel by Virginia Woolf. The androgynous title character is played with delicate quietude by Tilda Swinton. The story begins during the reign of the aging Queen Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp, in a droll turn recalling his The Naked Civil Servant). Queen Elizabeth takes a shine to the attractive young Orlando and seeks out his sexual favors. In return, Elizabeth grants him a large estate, commanding him, 'Do not fade, do not wither, do not grow old.' Orlando takes the queen at her word and doesn't. When Elizabeth dies, Orlando becomes attracted to Sasha (Charlotte Valandrey), the daughter of a Russian diplomat, but she rebuffs his advances. Crushed, Orlando accepts an ambassadorship to Constantinople. After witnessing the killing of a man in battle, Orlando undergoes a change of sex, becoming a woman and returning to England, where she hobnobs with 18th-century geniuses like Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and John Addison. Walking through a garden labyrinth, the time frame shifts to the 19th century, and Orlando falls in love with a handsome American (Billy Zane). Now in the 20th century, Orlando gives birth to his child and continues on.
SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, Catalonian International Film Festival, European Film Awards, Oscar Academy Awards, Thessaloniki Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, ...Orlando
SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, Catalonian International Film Festival, European Film Awards, Oscar Academy Awards, Thessaloniki Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, ...Orlando
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By pointone
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
The Director Sally Potter creates a wondrous, illusive, highly textured world through which the androgynous Orlando moves for three hundred years as he/she writes a poem.
Orlando is a role made for Tilda Swinton and arrived with perfect timing to move her career into a different league. By some alchemy she makes the fantastical plot seem quite natural, whilst delighting us with masterly acting moving fluently from one emotion and period to another.
Nobody but Swinton with her love of the unique and the bizarre could have pulled this off, her triumph is fortunately enshrined in a truly wonderful production and cast.
The historically fantastic does not get any better than this.
Orlando is a role made for Tilda Swinton and arrived with perfect timing to move her career into a different league. By some alchemy she makes the fantastical plot seem quite natural, whilst delighting us with masterly acting moving fluently from one emotion and period to another.
Nobody but Swinton with her love of the unique and the bizarre could have pulled this off, her triumph is fortunately enshrined in a truly wonderful production and cast.
The historically fantastic does not get any better than this.
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:DVD
This is a beautiful film, well directed and acted. If I hadn't read the book I would probably have given it 4 stars. It was filmed in Russia, what a pity! Throughout the pages of Virginia Woolf you fill such a vibrant London, expecially in the last part of the novel. The cold Russian winter has such a stong white light and it helps you imagine the Great Frost, during the reign of King James I.
Orlando writes a poem which takes him 300 years to finish, but we never see him/her during its writing. When James II sends him to Costantinople, there he marries a Spanish dancer, and after his awakening as a woman, she runs away with the gypsies, with whom she can leave without trying to comform to society and experience wild nature. While returning home she has a love affair with the ship's Captain, and she feels what it is like to be a woman. Back she spends time with famous poets. She later marries Shel who leaves when the wind changes, but comes back as a captain at the end of the book! Where is this part of Orlando's story?!
I believe that if the director had had much money this film would have been much much better.
Buy it, but after watching it read the book! If you love the film you will adore the book!
Orlando writes a poem which takes him 300 years to finish, but we never see him/her during its writing. When James II sends him to Costantinople, there he marries a Spanish dancer, and after his awakening as a woman, she runs away with the gypsies, with whom she can leave without trying to comform to society and experience wild nature. While returning home she has a love affair with the ship's Captain, and she feels what it is like to be a woman. Back she spends time with famous poets. She later marries Shel who leaves when the wind changes, but comes back as a captain at the end of the book! Where is this part of Orlando's story?!
I believe that if the director had had much money this film would have been much much better.
Buy it, but after watching it read the book! If you love the film you will adore the book!
40 of 47 people found the following review helpful
By NGH Garlick
Format:DVD
If ever a film deserved the heightened quality DVD could bring to it, it's Orlando. Every shot in the film is worth printing and framing. So it's extremely disappointing to find that there's none of the sharpness in the image you'd expect from a DVD, and certainly not from a 16x9 disc. The colours are soft; the outines ever so vaguely hazy.There are minor scratches on the print and the circular reel change spots are still visible in the top right corner, which suggests that the film hasn't been remastered for the DVD. The film looks okay and its definitely better than a video, but it's not as good as it could be. Not at all
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
sumptuous trans-period story
Orlando is a character of an androgynous vein, staring off as a man in 1600, as royalty and continues a journey through the ages to the present never gaining age. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. Robert Marsland
5.0 out of 5 stars
... because this is England, everyone pretends not to notice
No lover in the world ever wrote a valentine more exquisite than Virginia Woolf's tribute to her lover Vita Sackville-West, "Orlando. Read more
Published 21 months ago by E. A Solinas
1.0 out of 5 stars
Avoid like something really nasty
I had the misfortune of being forced to watch this drivel TWICE in college. It is perhaps one of the most awful, dull and annoying films ever; a man played by a woman who becomes... Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2006 by G. Mayers
3.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant film, poor DVD
Orlando is a very beautiful film. This is the second Orlando DVD I bought. The two disk edition of Artifical Eye has a disapointing video quality. Read more
Published on 31 Jan 2006 by artimorty
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Intriging Exploration of Gender
I would highly recommend this cinematic marvel, based on the Virginia Wolfe novel rumoured to be based on a lesbian crush Virginia had on the character behind Orlando. Read more
Published on 23 April 2003 by Ed
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