Sally Potter's high camp take on the Virginia Woolf novel is a tale of a gender-bending androgyne who lives for centuries; underneath the film's glossy artifice, though, there's a tragic core. It's like a slightly less gay Highlander, basically.
Tilda Swinton is superb, and whose incredible face looks like something you would normally find gazing out from an Elizabethan portrait. S/he carries the film, but it is also about the sumptuous costumes and art design, with any sense of precious artiness undercut by a Gilliamesque sense of irreverence and humour. Wonderful.

I love a film when you wonder what the hell is going on but become so wrapped up in the thing that you don't care because it feels that unique,especially when it excels visually and in its performances.

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Lovely film, although I wish it were longer. 94 minutes is scarcely enough time to cover four centuries, and most of the themes it deals with get short shrift. It feels like it has something desperately important to say about gender roles but is uncertain of its own position on the subject. Tilda Swinton is beguiling (her glances at the camera are never not gratifying), although the character of Orlando him/herself remains a perplexing cipher, a vehicle for delivering Woolf/Potter's ideas rather than a substantial human being in his/her own right. The ending is a bit of a misstep, as well.

THAT GODDAMN DUDE FROM TITANIC RUINS THIS FOR ME A BIT.

Pretty cool, though, that being said.

Sally Potter's high camp take on the Virginia Woolf novel is a tale of a gender-bending androgyne who lives for centuries; underneath the film's glossy artifice, though, there's a tragic core. It's like a slightly less gay Highlander, basically.
Tilda Swinton is superb, and whose incredible face looks like something you would normally find gazing out from an Elizabethan portrait. S/he carries the film, but it is also about the sumptuous costumes and art design, with any sense of precious artiness undercut by a Gilliamesque sense of irreverence and humour. Wonderful.

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

it looks good

fun to see a young billy zane

dunno what was going on though

Fascinating story. Excellent acting by Tilda Swinton. Good music, too.

Hadn't seen this film in years, forgotten how much I love it. The dialogue is a little clunky but it's gorgeous to look at and Tilda Swinton is amazing as both the male and female Orlando. Quentin Crisp playing an old queen was inspired casting, too.

"The film was beautifully shot, but I had no idea what it was trying to do, where it was going. Tilda Swinton plays Orlando, who is given property by Queen Elizabeth I (played by Quentin Crisp) on condition that he doesn't fade and wither. Immortality is his (and later hers), but you have to be cleverer than me to understand this."

I love a film when you wonder what the hell is going on but become so wrapped up in the thing that you don't care because it feels that unique,especially when it excels visually and in its performances.