Orlando

Rating:
Summary: The celluloid closet
Review: Hi! Sorry for this weird title, just wanted to draw your attention: I'm working on my dissertation paper on "the representation of lesbians in US movies"... can you help me one way or another?

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than you

Rating:
Summary: Read the book if you like, but film is a different medium.
Review: I find it continually annoying that people, and especially reviewers, make the cardinal error of comparing films with the books they are made from. Doing this is rather like comparing a poem about a tree to the tree itself. The tree is simply the inspiration. A poem is not meant to be a literal representation of it's inspiration.

Orlando The film is a seperate entity from Orlando the book, and should be viewed as such. In my humble opinion, If one sees this film with out bias or a prior notion of what it should be, one invariably sees it for the lovely jewel that it is; not without flaw, but beautiful and engaging just the same.

Rating:
Summary: Under rated masterpeice
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A feast for both the mind and the eyes.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely fabulous
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Lingering Film -- Unusual Meditation on Sexuality
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: read the book after this
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: What a piece of junk
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: read the book after this
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Not your ordinary film
Review: 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.