Carrington

On my top three list. Have watched many, many times over the last 25 years. If you want a deep experience of human love on film watch this movie. It may be too slow and high brow for many people. It’s also about people who are unconventional which some people may not like.

There never has been another literary group as romantically dramatic as the Bloomsbury gods and goddesses of literature and art. Frankly, I found myself wanting to shout "Get on with it! Please!" and I found it a bit more prosaic than poetic. For these heavenly creatures nothing was out-of-bounds. And they were right, of course, way ahead of their time. They would have fit it nicely with our current, rebellious streak. Because sexuality is not a straight line. Straight women love gay men and may even be gay themselves. Gay men have erotic dreams about women friends and straight men may find themselves meandering across the line in the locker room. Of course, Emma Thompson is possibly the most "perfect" actress on Earth, as far as I'm concerned. I love her somewhat aristocratic jawline. Jonath Price as Lytton Strachey...wow. I just wish Virginia Woolf could have made even a cameo appearance. I guess they wanted Carrington to only be surrounded and tormented deliciously by men. Hey, it can happen.

The relationship between Carrington and Strachey was an interesting study in a different type of love between two adults, in a period when culturally things were in flux. The focus on Carrington or Lytton's subsequent sexual/romantic relationships was WAY overdone. At the very end we see this gallery of her paintings. In a movie that is supposed to finally give us more insight into to this gifted woman artist, why did the focus need to be on sexuality. Why not a good piece of how she and Lytton's discussions worked both to help him develop his books and her the paintings.

Bad reviews of this film seem to be by people who don't like the life choices Carrington made, or who simply can't understand her way of loving. I think it's a fascinating look at a moment when the rules did not apply--when everything was in upheaval, as modernism thrived, and as the war made people question everything. And they made amazing art. This film is a visual feast. Carrington made everything around her into art, and she herself, portrayed by Emma Thompson, is an artwork as well. Extremely well done, beautifully executed story which is challenging to tell.

I have to quote a review from 2014 because my own opinion is pretty much the same, "1.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2014 "The story has absolutely nothing to do with anyone's work, and nothing, whatsoever, to do with life, unless one considers the sum total of life to be polyamory and absence of sense of self. That's it. No lust for food, nor drink, nor even nature. No having a laugh. Any depth attributed to this movie is the invention of the viewer."I gave this film 2 stars because it's visually beautiful but you would really think that all there is to these people's lives is sex partners. Absolutely nothing about Lytton (as portrayed in this film) justifies Carrington's (as portrayed in this film) dedication and adoration. All anyone is left with is the idea that "Wow. He's homosexual therefore she adores him." I'm sure that's not how it was. As for the numerous men who were driven to distraction by Carrington? Why? As portrayed in this film, she didn't even have a personality.I'm disappointed, honestly. But people seem to prefer movies about sex partners to movies about an artist involved in his/her work. All we hear or see about their work is that Lytton wrote and said he hated it. Carrington painted and said she painting when she was happy. I am 100% sure there are real stories in this relationship but they don't emerge in this film.

At first I was somewhat skeptical. Thompson was born in 1959 and Carrington was 21 when she fell for Lytton Strachy - but a kid. One can read about it in Virginia Woolf's diary. But again ... Emma Thompson proves herself up to challenge - delivering an indubitably authentic performance as the enigmatic Carrington, more than twenty years her junior. Considering the graphic sophistication of today's media audience, regularly bathed in representative imagery - no mean achievement. Both of the characters develop as they age and the story progresses, and the noted nuanced emotional complexity of the relationships seamlessly plays right into the players' wheelhouses.The film is really first rate - but not mass audience fare - and one get's far more out of the viewing having previous knowledge of the peripheral characters and relationships (for instance, it has been verified that Lady Ottoline and Carrington at least slept together on a number of occassions)which the contraints of film do not allow to be developed. In fact the whole of Carrington's "strong Sapphic" predlictions are merely implied, not explored in the film.The showing of her art during the closing titles - which is reminiscent of the end of original Modigliani ("Montpanarsse - whatever the adress was)- was terrific - but feature film is all too constraining I think to explain such quintessential art and the drama which surrounds its production, no matter how great the efforts made, great as many of them are here...

Anyone interested in the Bloomsbury group will find this movie's unearthing of some of its primary participants informative and enjoyable, especially for examples of how to pronounce Lytton's name. Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington are nearly forgotten these days while nearly every student has heard of Virginia Woolf. I should say that the visuals are ravishing too. The colors and composition of the shots recall some of the stills taken at the time but some may find the romantic glow if the colors a bit cloying but this is after all a tragic romance film of a high order, a story on the level of Romeo and Juliet if not Shakespearean in language at least less silly than the film versions of the classic play.

An enjoyable if wildly inaccurate account of Dora Carrington's life. Great performances but a laughable revisionist take on her relationships.

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?

A British biopic of the painter Dora Carrington (Emma Thompson) and centring on her relationships – most especially with Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce); early on in the film it's made fairly clear that she and Strachey are (rightly) a little contemptuous of the Bloomsbury crowd and they set themselves apart – but are just as (more genuinely) Bohemian in lifestyle and outlook.It's beautifully shot, well-cast and quite well-researched, but at the expense of any real engagement – there's little sense that either artist or writer do a lot of work – aside from Thompson holding a sketchbook or standing in front of an easel now and then; it does capture the tangled web of relationships both protagonists wove, but it's really a bit over-long.If one knows who the real people were it's not too bad, but I should think most viewers will take a harsher view of it.The standard UK DVD release has no extras; English subtitles are available if required.

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