Orlando:- A biography Movie Review

 Hello everyone in this blog i will discuss about Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando movie review.

Question 1:- write your view on movie Orlando.What difference and similarity have you noticed in movie Vita and Virginia and Orlando?

Introduction of novel

           Orlando: A Biography is a novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. Inspired by the tumultuous family history of the aristocratic poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, Woolf's lover and close friend, it is arguably one of her most popular novels; Orlando is a history of English literature in satiric form. The book describes the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history. Considered a feminist classic, the book has been written about extensively by scholars of women's writing and gender and transgender studies.

Analysis of movie

       In England during 1600, Orlando is a young aristocrat who wins the admiration and affection of Queen Elizabeth I. She gives him the deed to his ancestral home and warns him, "Do not fade. Do not wither. Do not grow old." Her words have a prophetic ring of truth as far as Orlando's destiny is concerned.

During the Great Frost of 1603, Orlando falls madly in love with Sasha, a Russian princess. Although he is willing to give up everything for her, she abandons him. He falls into a deep sleep and awakens in 1650.

Now a patron of the arts, Orlando invites the poet Nick Greene to his home. The artist's sole interest is to get a pension from him. Orlando shares his own poetic efforts and is stunned when Greene savages them.

By 1700, Orlando is ready for a change. He becomes ambassador to a central Asian country. At first the Khan is wary of this visitor noting that, "The English make a habit of collecting countries." But Orlando has no imperialistic intentions. In fact, he adapts easily to the Eastern way of life.

When the Khan's palace is attacked, however, Orlando finds himself incapable of joining in the battle. He falls into another swoon and this time wakes up as a woman. Looking into the camera, she notes, "Same person, no difference at all. Just a different sex."

Lady Orlando returns to England and is immediately attracted to the literary salons of the 1750s. However, seated beside Alexander Pope and other intellectuals of the day, she is taken aback by the vehemence of their male chauvinism.

She feels the sting of inequality again when she is informed that as a woman she has no rights to her ancestral home. Archduke Harry offers to marry her but Lady Orlando turns him down. The treachery of women has now been presented from both sides of the gender chasm.

A hundred years later, Lady Orlando finds love in the arms of Shelmerdine, an American adventurer. Shortly after he hits the open road, the pregnant Lady Orlando stumbles into the war-torn 20th century. She has a daughter and hands in a book about her exploits over the years. The editor at the publishing house tells her, "Increase the love interest and give it a happy ending." As for the finale of this film, we'll keep it secret so you can savor its mysteries.

There are many delights in Orlando including the sense luscious cinematography of Alexei Rodionov. The gender bending performance by Tilda Swinton is a marvel of sure-footedness and sensitivity. Her witty asides to the camera over the course of the 400-year journey are in keeping with the dreamlike quality of the story.

Quentin Crisp is quite a surprise as Queen Elizabeth I, while Heathcote Williams comes across effectively as the greedy poet Nick Greene. Lothaire Bluteau is enigmatic as the Khan. Charlotte Valandrey and Billy Zane fill the bill as Sasha and Shelmerdine, objects of Orlando's love.

As cultural commentator Judith Levine has reminded us, gender allows a person citizenship in only one country. Orlando gives us a passport to travel freely between masculinity and femininity. While it offers no blueprint for changes in sexual stereotypes, it does identify some of the limitations inherent in each role. Best of all, Orlando challenges us to honor the impulse of being "one with the human race." That's the essential spiritual message of this ageless magical mystery tour of gender.

Question 2:- Orlando.What difference and similarity have you noticed in movie Vita and Virginia and Orlando?

Orlando was written at the height of Woolf's career. It was an extremely popular book when it was published. In the first six months after publication it sold over eight thousand copies, whereas To the Lighthouse sold less than half that amount. Woolf's income from book sales nearly tripled with the publication of Orlando.

After finishing To the Lighthouse in 1927, Woolf was prompted by an attachment to her lover, Vita Sackville-West, and by a strong interest in biographical literature to begin Orlando. She wrote in her diary that Orlando was to be "Vita, only with a change from one sex to another." Sackville-West, like the novel's protagonist, was a wealthy woman from a historic and noble family. In the novel, Woolf mocks her friend's brooding, poetic nature, and her family's history, which is detailed in Vita's book Knole and the Sackvilles (1922). Vita and her husband, Harold Nicholson, both openly bisexual, proved great models for Orlando. The novel, replete with lesbian and bisexual undertones, explores the nature of gender difference and sexual identity. It was not entirely unique for its time; Orlando was published near the time of Radclyffe Hall's trial for obscenity for her portrayal of lesbian love in her autobiographical novel The Well of Loneliness. While Woolf's novel skirts explicit description of homosexuality, her sex changes imply a love that reaches across gender. Vita's son, Nigel Nicholson, wrote that Orlando was Woolf's "love letter" to his mother.

While Woolf endeavored to explore Vita through the novel, Orlando also gave her the opportunity to try her hand at the genre of biography. Woolf's father, Leslie Stephen, had spent enormous amounts of time working on the Dictionary of National Biography, an "official" work which gives the facts about the lives of many important English people. In Orlando, Woolf mocks such an attempt to present the facts. By only presenting the external life, Woolf felt that an "official" biography fails to capture the essence of its subject. Although the 'biographer' in Woolf's novel claims to be limited by documents and records, she fully explains Orlando's internal thoughts, feelings, and reflections. In this way, Orlando challenges the traditional notion of truth in description.