Carrington [DVD]

Not sure that this 1995 film is correctly titled, as it is as much about Lytton Strachey as it is about Dora Carrington. Indeed, Christopher Hampton's screenplay recognises this by stating it is based on Michael Holroyd's biography of Strachey. As expected, both Emma Thompson as Carrington and Jonathan Pryce as Strachey manage to infuse their roles with pathos and credibility. Carrington is played as the naïve but also playful artist; Strachey as the self-centred gay man of letters.The film is split into six parts with the first seeing them meet for the first time in the Sussex of 1915, when Strachey mistakes Carrington for a boy. The second part, whilst focusing on Carrington's relationship with the anxious and virile artist Gertler (played by a young Rufus Sewell), also sees the growth of the relationship between the two main players, Carrington telling Strachey that she loves being with him as he is "so cold and wise".Life after the Great War is portrayed in part three with the arrival on their scene of the less anxious but equally virile Rex Partridge (Steven Waddington), fresh from the military life. He proves a muse to both man and woman. The arrival of another man into their lives, the studious and quiet Gerald Brenan (Samuel West), is the main focal point of part four, but throughout Carrington remains loyal emotionally to Strachey, a loyalty possessed even to death.The large detached property known as Ham Spray House provides the centre of part five, where Carrington, Strachey, and Partridge attach themselves to new loves; Beacus (Jeremy Northam), Roger Senhouse, and Frances Marshall respectively. The final part witnesses ... Well, for those who know, they know, but for those who do not, it would be unfair to give the game away.Pryce at least gets to say some of Strachey's more famous bon mots. For example, on holidaying in Wales, he declares that, "I've come to the sad conclusion that there's no such thing as a beautiful Welsh boy"; of Lady Otteline Morrell (Penelope Wilton), "She's like the Eiffel Tower: she's very silly but she affords excellent views"; and on his deathbed, "If this is dying, I don't think much of it".As with most biopics, the film is engrossing on first play, but can suffer from superficiality on later views, as you realise the impossibility of contracting a whole lifetime to a couple of hours. (Can it ever be any other way?) Having said that, I have watched this film more than once and the DVD will remain in my collection for future screenings.I was a little disappointed to see little mention of their links with the Bloomsbury set. And my copy is not a perfect transfer to DVD with some specks on the screen and the music occasionally wavering. The music itself is excellent, with an original score from Michael Nyman and much (too much?) reliance on the slow movement from Schubert's string quintet.Alas, there are no extras worthy of the name, although the closing credits end with a selection of Carrington's paintings, which show how original an artist she was, but also one that accorded with the style of her times.

Cruelly ignored on release, this bittersweet film is well worth two hours of anyone's time.Directed with a good eye by its writer Christopher Hampton {and taking its cue from Michael Holroyd's biography of Lytton Strachey} it tells the story of the companionship Strachey adopted with tomboyish painter Dora Carrington, which nourished them both, but which ultimately caused pain and unhappiness, despite the best efforts of both.Neither Jonathan Pryce nor Emma Thompson have ever been more effective on screen. Pryce has always seemed to be out on a limb among British actors, a dynamic one-off with a quiet presence {he was strangely ineffectual as a Bond villain, though a searingly visceral Hamlet on stage} while Thompson has the uncanny knack of finding just the right 'level' for any part in which she appears. Here, she is adorable in her bob and boyish clothes, giving a performance to treasure.Carrington was on the periphery of the cattily bohemian Bloomsbury Group, a painter of talent and individuality who rarely exhibited, and a free spirit who, on this showing, was a victim of her own insistence on being just that. Emma T makes us love her even as we are often exasperated by her. This is an actress who doesn't that often 'do sad' but when she does (Sense and Sensibility, her neglected wife in Love, Actually...) she can wring your heart. We take Emma T for granted at our peril. She's the bright and breezy, thoroughly sensible girl next door who also happens to be a superb, resourceful actress.Pryce is wonderful. His bounteousy bearded Lytton Strachey, resembling a sharper-featured Edward Lear, is an endlessly fascinating blend of hilarity, poignancy, poetry, feyness, bravery, compassion, selfishness and, in the end, solitariness. His relationship with Carrington is so well played by that you forget half the time that you're watching actors, no doubt doing take after take. I imagine Thompson must be a delight to work with, and they both give each other so much her that their scenes together are like prize disclosures.Other roles are beautifully played, with Penelope Wilton literally having a ball as Lady Ottoline Morrell, while Steven Waddington, Samuel West and Rufus Sewell are excellent as the three men who enter Dora And Lytton's chaste love-nest along the way, and all of whom become Dora's lovers.I didn't know much about either of these people when I saw the film, but Hampton has told their story without either patronising or idolising them, which I am sure would have pleased them both ~ even the rather narcissistic Strachey.On its own terms, this is a film well worth seeing more than once, but it's the two leads who elevate it to something rare and, by the end, extremely moving.Don't miss this. It's a very good British period film that doesn't, thank heaven, overdo its period trappings.There are no extra features, which is a baffling shame. Why not at least a gallery of Carrington's paintings, with or without commentary?

Dora Carrington is an elusive character, and portraying her and her complex life is quite a challenge. I consider that Emma Thompson did a pretty good job but that perhaps she failed to capture her elusiveness and that her Carrington was too one-dimensional. It was never quite clear why she went to bed with people other than Ralph Partridge - and unless you had read biographies, you would not have known how and why men such as Mark Gertler and Gerald Brennan featured importantly in her life. And women featured also, which was not touched upon.I think that Frances Marshall might have been more strongly drawn; but only on reading her Biography, published after the film was made, is one made aware of the quiet persistence she exercised in maintaining her attraction Ralph Partridge and her refusal to sleep with him while he was married to Carrington.Christopher Hampton's script was in the main perceptive and aware that in the time available not all characters could be developed satisfactorily; and it did manage to capture Lytton Stratchey brilliantly - and Jonathan Pryce's performance was stunningly good as he not only looked eerily like Stratchey but brought him to life.I was somewhat unconvinced by the house used for Ham Spray - externally too gloomy. But all in all, the film succeeds in providing a glimpse into the troubled life of Dora Carrington, and an encouragement to the viewer to find out more about herHelia