alonewiththemoon: Drumlin Farm Banding Station 2016 (Default)
alonewiththemoon ([personal profile] alonewiththemoon) wrote2010-01-16 08:33 pm
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same person. no difference at all.

I just re-watched Orlando for the first time in many years and am so glad I did.  When I watched it years ago, it was with someone who I think was categorically incapable of putting himself in another's place, and thus the whole conceit of the story didn't work for him, plus OMG naked lady and that lady used to be a dude and OMG.  ANYWAY stupid memories aside, I have reclaimed the viewing experience for my own and felt every nuanced minute of it.  Tilda Swinton is just magnificent as Orlando, both male and female.  Lines that easily could have been ridiculous she rendered so convincingly you accepted them, or understood why they were ridiculous.  She's just luminous on the screen (in fact, she and Billy Zane together in 1850s period clothing were just about too beautiful to look at).  And so many little details added so much, like Orlando being a better horsewoman than Billy Zane's adventurer.  I felt like I was catching my breath the entire movie.

Also, Quentin Crisp was clearly born to be Queen Elizabeth I.  Insert old queen joke here, but still, seriously.  And Jimmy Somerville (of Bronski Beat fame) was excellent as an Elizabethan singer and an angel.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never read any Virginia Woolf.  I have to rectify that.
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