Orlando

Wildly inventive and very playful. I love how it toys with gender roles, time, and the fourth wall. And all with sparkling wit and whimsy and insight. Tilda Swinton is absolutely terrific in it. It greatly resembles a Peter Greenaway work, not only in its conception but also in the music and the production design. The film is quite beautiful. However, the very end was a letdown. Not enough to ruin the whole experience, but that final moment really just didn't work at all for me.

A brilliant film about finding out who you are, despite the labels that people tend to give you. Tilda Swinton is amazing.

(To Sally): Fact is, no one interested in your "radical" propaganda, so please stop hiding behind the magnificent aestheticism of true artists like Virginia, and go write a paper for the academia.

Amazing book, horrible movie.

A film about the unstoppable tide of progress over four centuries, with Tilda Swinton as the gender-bent lead whose navigation of British high society leaves them torn between love and privilege, freedom and equality. The painstaking production design lampoons the pomp theatricality of aristocracy without making too fine a point of it, and its attitudes towards gender are still ahead of their time over two decades later. A delightful combination of radical content and formalist design.

just unbelievable, charming, magical, epic, majestic, heart-breaking, everything i yearn for in cinema, really

Minus a point for Jimmy Somerville singing in the sky at the end, otherwise completely amazing. Almost like watching The New World and a Hal Hartley movie at the same time (no i'm not even kidding), or like a feminized Greenaway (i.e. more humane and lyrical, but still very formalized and conceptual), which actually makes a lot of sense since Potter used a bunch of his collaborators on this film. Basically this is the movie Sophia Coppola wishes she had made with Marie Antoinette.

Creative exploration of gender politics. Whatever failings it may have, it's at least always interesting and unique and a pleasure to watch. How much exactly I take from it remains to be seen.

"Orlando" is a quirky but well-directed film. The costumes and set decoration are excellent, the soundtrack is nice and the fact that the script doesn't bother to explain the protagonist's eternal youth or the sex change that miraculously occurs halfway through is of interest. If you can accept the fact that this is an allegorical if rather simplistic fantasy film you will get carried away by the visual flair and the clear-cut century-spanning structure even if the story is far from fascinating.

# 704

"Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy."

Oh, Orlando. I had high hopes for this film as a friend strongly recommended this to me. Sadly, the movie was as dry as a powdered wig that's been sitting on a shelf too long. Swinton did a fine job as both a man and a woman as this Virginia Woolf movie explores gender, but the story itself is a bit far-fetched and they really don't explain well why she lives forever...

Has periods and moments of greatness, but is consistently let down by several weak elements, like the asinine breaking of the fourth wall and Billy Zane, who I'm not violently opposed to, but whose presence here seems completely out of place and actively lowers the tone and one's estimation of Orlando the character. The first two acts are really good, especially Swinton's performance (when she's not looking at the camera) but it doesn't manage to pull off the ending. Really bad DVD transfer too.

It was kinda pointless but I enjoyed the visual experience.

First off, I'll say that my hatred for early 19th century British literary drama knows no bounds, and despite Swinton and Zane, both of whom I normally like, that hatred spills into this movie. The story throws an idea at us that I thought a bit far fetched, a man ordered by the queen to live forever. Ok, fine, even though it's explained in no manner I'll bite, but then one day that man miraculously becomes a woman for no reason. Yeah, you lost me now.

A point for every time Tilda Swinton stares meaningfully at the camera.

Beautifully-shot, fun and playful, and with so many ahead of their time ideas on gender that it feels like society is only just beginning to catch up to. It did spend a little too much time being a typical period drama in the early sections, though.

690

Fisher Price Greenaway, most noticeably lacking in the script. Not Swinton's best work, either.

Despite obvious attention paid to the images and camerawork, the procession of episodes comes across as slapdash, with weak attempts at humour in the form of irritating asides to camera. Woolf’s concerns with aristocratic women's inability to inherit property are mixed with the filmmaker’s wish to comment on the contemporary division of the sexes, specifically, an apparent yearning for women to have greater freedom to pursue a leisurely life of travel without the burden of raising children.

Huh?

I found Orlando to be a touch obnoxious. The film's commentary of gender seems unavoidably linked to wealth, whereby the former is necessarily mutable while the latter is not. The result is a character that demands sympathy but doesn't deserve it. Swinton's performance is fine, but the stylistic flair that drives the plot into modernity can't escape its drab origins as just another insipid period drama.

An odd gender-bending tale based on "why can't a woman inherit property" (I think). I tried to stick with it, but it's a peculiar fantasy that doesn't seem to have much internal coherence (perhaps that's why Orlando keeps a running commentary with us, although it really annoyed me). Beautiful costumes though.

Stupid and boring.

11 Agustos 08, 17:00, istanbul modern, "tilda" film gosterim programi, mert ve muge ile birlikte & sonlara dogru agir feminizm tadi veren, programdaki 5 film icinden en iyisi.

"Rarely have source material, director, and leading actress been more in alignment than in Orlando, the 1992 adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel, directed by Sally Potter and starring Tilda Swinton." - Matthew Connolly

Magical.

yani iyi film hos film. misal ben bircok yanlisimi fark ettim intersexler hakkinda. bu bile olumlu. gerci bu anlati tam olarak intersexlerden bahsediyor diyemeyiz (veyahut ben diyemem diyim) ama

Has a nice mood going, and then shatters it by breaking the fourth wall. I respect the risks being taken, but not you try everything works, and you can't be afraid to cut the things that don't.

672

Decidedly odd but fairly compelling film that is fairly difficult to classify genre-wise, with elements of biopic, drama, and fantasy. The first half kept me interested more than the second--not sure if that's because I thought it was necessarily better or if the film just wore on me a bit as it moved along. Very artistically intriguing with a lot of interesting choices, from fourth wall breaking to music.

Like explaining Cards Against Humanity to your parents.

#737

Comparisons to The Favourite are adapt due to the location, costuming, and the humor. Orlando is much more poetic and ethereal as it serves to bend gender stereotypes in a fascinating way. This ages tremendously well and I can't think of a better actress to tackle this role than Swinton.