“It’s a critical work - in the sense that it comments wryly on such things as representations of English history, sexuality/androgyny and class - but made in the spirit of a love poem to both Woolf and the England that made us.”
This year, as part of the annual Scalarama festival, we are contributing two screenings to the global Directed By Women initiative - this, Sally Potter’s bold take on Virginia Woolf’s novel and Sofia Coppola’s mesmerising debut The Virgin Suicides.
Tilda Swinton is characteristically brilliant as the young 16th-century nobleman who Queen Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp - unforgettable) commands should stay forever young - and does just that.
The film tracks Orlando’s life over the next 200 years of British history, experiencing a variety of lives and relationships along the way, and even changing sex.
A sumptuous-looking film with a familiar cast that includes Simon Russell Beale, Billy Zane, Toby Stephens and, er, Jimmy Somerville.
