Orlando (film)
Encyclopedia
Orlando is a 1992 film based on Virginia Woolf
's novel Orlando: A Biography
, starring Tilda Swinton
as Orlando, Billy Zane
as Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, and Quentin Crisp
as Queen Elizabeth
. It was directed by Sally Potter
.
It was particularly acclaimed for its visual treatment of the settings of Woolf's
1928 novel
. Potter chose to film much of the Constantinople
portion of the book in the isolated city of Khiva
in Uzbekistan
, and made use of the forest of carved columns in the city's 18th century Djuma Mosque.
Orlando was nominated for Academy Awards
for art direction
(Ben Van Os
, Jan Roelfs) and costume design
. The film was also nominated for the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards
' Best Foreign Film
award.
Orlando was rereleased by Sony Pictures Classics
in select theaters starting August 6, 2010.
built on it along with a generous monetary gift which she will only give to him if he agrees to her command, "Do not fade. Do not wither. Do not grow old." Both he and his heirs will keep the land and inheritance forever. Orlando makes the promise and after her death lives in the castle for many centuries during which he pursues interests in poetry
and art, although his attempts to befriend a celebrated poet backfire when the poet writes a devastating takedown of his poetry. Orlando then travels to Constantinople
as British ambassador to the Turks, but is almost killed in a diplomatic fracas. Waking up the next morning, however, he learns something even more startling: he has turned into a woman overnight.
The now 'Lady' Orlando comes home to her estate in Middle Eastern garb, only to learn that she faces several impending lawsuits arguing that Orlando was a woman to begin with and therefore has no right to the land or any of her/his royal inheritance.
The succeeding centuries tire her; the court case, bad luck in love and the wars of British history eventually bring her up to the 1990s with a child and having written a book. Having lived a most bizarre existence, Orlando finds a tranquil niche within it.
Also the film ends in its "present day" in order to remain true to Virginia Woolf's use of real-time at the end of the novel.
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
's novel Orlando: A Biography
Orlando: A Biography
Orlando: A Biography is an influential novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. A semi-biographical novel based in part on the life of Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West, it is generally considered one of Woolf's most accessible novels...
, starring Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton
Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
as Orlando, Billy Zane
Billy Zane
William George "Billy" Zane, Jr. is an American actor, producer and director. He is probably best known for his roles as Caledon Hockley in Titanic, The Phantom from The Phantom, John Wheeler in Twin Peaks and Mr...
as Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, and Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp , was an English writer and raconteur. He became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant.- Early life :...
as Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
. It was directed by Sally Potter
Sally Potter
Charlotte Sally Potter is an English film director and screenwriter.-Career:Having left school at sixteen to become a filmmaker, Potter joined the London Film-Makers' Co-op and started making experimental short films, including Jerk and Play...
.
It was particularly acclaimed for its visual treatment of the settings of Woolf's
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
1928 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
. Potter chose to film much of the Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
portion of the book in the isolated city of Khiva
Khiva
Khiva is a city of approximately 50,000 people located in Xorazm Province, Uzbekistan. It is the former capital of Khwarezmia and the Khanate of Khiva...
in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, and made use of the forest of carved columns in the city's 18th century Djuma Mosque.
Orlando was nominated for Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for art direction
Academy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
(Ben Van Os
Ben Van Os
Ben Van Os is a Dutch production designer and art director. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:* Orlando * Girl with a Pearl Earring -External links:...
, Jan Roelfs) and costume design
Academy Award for Costume Design
The Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in film costume design....
. The film was also nominated for the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards
Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...
' Best Foreign Film
Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film
The Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:* 1985: Kiss of the Spider Woman - Hector Babenco • Brazil/USA** Dreamchild • France/UK** The Hit • UK...
award.
Orlando was rereleased by Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...
in select theaters starting August 6, 2010.
Plot summary
The film begins in the Elizabethan Age shortly before the death of Queen Elizabeth I. On her deathbed, Elizabeth gives an androgynous young nobleman named Orlando a large tract of land and a castleCastle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
built on it along with a generous monetary gift which she will only give to him if he agrees to her command, "Do not fade. Do not wither. Do not grow old." Both he and his heirs will keep the land and inheritance forever. Orlando makes the promise and after her death lives in the castle for many centuries during which he pursues interests in poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and art, although his attempts to befriend a celebrated poet backfire when the poet writes a devastating takedown of his poetry. Orlando then travels to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
as British ambassador to the Turks, but is almost killed in a diplomatic fracas. Waking up the next morning, however, he learns something even more startling: he has turned into a woman overnight.
The now 'Lady' Orlando comes home to her estate in Middle Eastern garb, only to learn that she faces several impending lawsuits arguing that Orlando was a woman to begin with and therefore has no right to the land or any of her/his royal inheritance.
The succeeding centuries tire her; the court case, bad luck in love and the wars of British history eventually bring her up to the 1990s with a child and having written a book. Having lived a most bizarre existence, Orlando finds a tranquil niche within it.
Differences from novel
Potter argued that the more pragmatic medium of cinema called for reasons - however flimsy - to drive the narrative, over the novel's abstraction and arbitrariness, especially as the story itself is based on a kind of suspension of disbelief. Thus it is Queen Elizabeth who bestows the long life upon Orlando. The change of sex is a result of Orlando reaching a crisis of masculine identity when he is unwilling to conform to what is expected of him as a man. Nor as a woman can Orlando conform. Unlike the novel, it leaves her without marriage or property, and with a daughter, not a son.Also the film ends in its "present day" in order to remain true to Virginia Woolf's use of real-time at the end of the novel.
Selected cast
- Tilda SwintonTilda SwintonKatherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
as Orlando - Quentin CrispQuentin CrispQuentin Crisp , was an English writer and raconteur. He became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant.- Early life :...
as Elizabeth I - Jimmy SomervilleJimmy SomervilleJames William Somerville is a Scottish pop singer and songwriter. He had considerable success in the 1980s with the pop groups Bronski Beat and The Communards, and has also had a successful solo career. He is known in particular for his falsetto singing voice...
as Falsetto/Angel - John WoodJohn Wood (English actor)John Wood, CBE was an English actor.-Biography:Wood was born in Derbyshire and studied law at Jesus College, Oxford where he was president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. Changing to drama, Wood became known as a stage actor, appearing in numerous West End productions as well as on...
as Archduke Harry - John Bott as Orlando's father
- Elaine Banham as Orlando's mother
- Anna Farnworth as Clorinda
- Sara Mair-Thomas as Favilla
- Anna Healy as Euphrosyne
- Dudley SuttonDudley Sutton-Life:He served in the RAF as a mechanic before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from which he was later expelled.Known for his eccentricity, he became a cult figure after playing a gay biker in The Leather Boys . He married American actress Marjorie Steele in 1961; she had previously...
as James IJames I of EnglandJames VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603... - Simon Russell BealeSimon Russell BealeSimon Russell Beale, CBE is an English actor. He has been described by The Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation."-Early years:...
as Earl of MorayEarl of MorayThe title Earl of Moray has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland.Prior to the formal establishment of the peerage, Earl of Moray, numerous individuals ruled the kingdom of Moray or Mormaer of Moray until 1130 when the kingdom was destroyed by David I of Scotland.-History of the... - Matthew Sim as Lord Francis VereFrancis VereSir Francis Vere was an English soldier, famous for his career in Dutch service.He was the son of Geoffrey Vere of Crepping Hall, Essex, and nephew of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford.-Military career:...
- Charlotte ValandreyCharlotte ValandreyCharlotte Valandrey is a French actress. After early success she was widely tipped for stardom, but her career took a more modest course until the release of her autobiography in 2005....
as Princess Sasha - Toby StephensToby StephensToby Stephens is an English stage, television and film actor who has appeared in films in both Hollywood and Bollywood. He is best known for playing megavillain Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day , Edward Fairfax Rochester in the BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre and Philip...
as OthelloOthelloThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565... - Oleg Pogodin as DesdemonaDesdemonaDesdemona is a character in William Shakespeare's play Othello.Desdemona may also refer to:People* Desdemona , a soprano role in the 1816 opera Otello by Gioachino Rossini...
- Heathcote WilliamsHeathcote WilliamsHeathcote Williams is an English poet, actor and award-winning playwright. He is also an intermittent painter, sculptor and long-time conjuror...
as Nick Greene - Thom HoffmanThom HoffmanThomas Antonius Cornelis Ancion, known by the pseudonym Thom Hoffman, is a Dutch actor and photographer.- Biography :...
as William IIIWilliam III of EnglandWilliam III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland... - Sarah Crowden as Mary IIMary II of EnglandMary II was joint Sovereign of England, Scotland, and Ireland with her husband and first cousin, William III and II, from 1689 until her death. William and Mary, both Protestants, became king and queen regnant, respectively, following the Glorious Revolution, which resulted in the deposition of...
- Billy ZaneBilly ZaneWilliam George "Billy" Zane, Jr. is an American actor, producer and director. He is probably best known for his roles as Caledon Hockley in Titanic, The Phantom from The Phantom, John Wheeler in Twin Peaks and Mr...
as Shelmerdine - Lol CoxhillLol CoxhillLowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill is a free improvising saxophonist and raconteur...
as the butler
Soundtrack
- Jimmy SomervilleJimmy SomervilleJames William Somerville is a Scottish pop singer and songwriter. He had considerable success in the 1980s with the pop groups Bronski Beat and The Communards, and has also had a successful solo career. He is known in particular for his falsetto singing voice...
- "Eliza Is the Fairest Queen" (Composed by Edward JohnsonEdward Johnson (composer)Edward Johnson was an English composer and lyricist. His perhaps best known work was "Jhonsons Medley"....
) - Andrew Watts with Peter Hayward on harpsichordHarpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
- "Where'er You Walk" (from Semele) (Composed by George Frideric HandelGeorge Frideric HandelGeorge Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
) - Jimmy Somerville - "Coming" (Composed by Sally PotterSally PotterCharlotte Sally Potter is an English film director and screenwriter.-Career:Having left school at sixteen to become a filmmaker, Potter joined the London Film-Makers' Co-op and started making experimental short films, including Jerk and Play...
, Jimmy Somerville, David Motion)
Poetry
Portions of poetry occur in the film:- The Faerie QueeneThe Faerie QueeneThe Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English...
by Edmund SpenserEdmund SpenserEdmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English... - OthelloOthelloThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
by William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"... - "Sonnet 29Sonnet 29Sonnet 29 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. This is one of his more ambiguous sonnets: one does not know who the speaker is referring to or if the word "love" in this sonnet refers to a romantic love or a platonic love.- Structure of Sonnet 29...
" by William Shakespeare - "Women" ("Surat al-Nisa") from the Quran
- "The Indian Serenade" by Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...