She's the type of woman who now measures out her life "with serving spoons." That's the sterling but dull existence that has come to characterize the days of Clarissa Dalloway, an elegant woman whose high-Tory life has become barren and lifeless.
With a wonderfully spare and radiant lead performance from Vanessa Redgrave, this film was a crowd-pleaser at the recent Toronto International Film Festival and should do splendidly on the art house circuit.
The well-tended wife of a Parliament member, Clarissa (Redgrave) has reached a peak in life where she has weathered all challenges and risen to the role for which she has scrupulously positioned herself for all her life. She is respectable and revered, but this station leaves her empty and unfulfilled.
With a stiff upper lip, holding high an antiseptic smile, she goes about her life, which is unfortunately reduced to organizing parties and get-togethers for, well, the same old crowd. Not surprisingly, the English upper crust during the 1920s is not that different from the current crop of top hats -- dowdy, conflicted, chatty and, of course, out-and-out batty.
An intelligent and insightful distillation of a Virginia Woolf novel, "Mrs. Dalloway" is a precise, pointillistic portrait of not only an age but of one individual's struggle with the limitations that social mores have placed upon her individuality. In screenwriter Eileen Atkins' illuminating adaptation, we see Clarissa's inner securities and social ennui.
Fleshed out with some insightful flashbacks in which we are clued to Clarissa's regrets, "Mrs. Dalloway" is a rich personal, as well as social, tapestry. Highest praise to Redgrave for her subtle performance; she economically conveys the inner torments of a woman who has always done "the right thing," often to her personal detriment.
Other performances are similarly precise, evoking the conflicts that arise from the role-playing that society invariably imposes on individuals. Compliments to Rupert Graves for his touching performance as a man whose life has been torn asunder by his World War I experiences.
Technical contributions are top drawer, especially David Richens' well-polished production design.
MRS. DALLOWAY
First Look Pictures
Producer Lisa Katselas Pare
Director Marleen Gorris
Screenwriter Eileen Atkins
Based on the novel by Virginia Woolf
Executive producers Chris Ball, William Tyrer, Simon Curtis, Bill Shepherd
Director of photography Sue Gibson
Production designer David Richens
Editor Michiel Richwein
Music Ilona Sekacz
Color/stereo
Cast:
Clarissa Dalloway Vanessa Redgrave
Septimus Warren-Smith Rupert Graves
Peter Walsh Alan Cox
Richard Dalloway John Standing
Running time -- 97 minutes...
With a wonderfully spare and radiant lead performance from Vanessa Redgrave, this film was a crowd-pleaser at the recent Toronto International Film Festival and should do splendidly on the art house circuit.
The well-tended wife of a Parliament member, Clarissa (Redgrave) has reached a peak in life where she has weathered all challenges and risen to the role for which she has scrupulously positioned herself for all her life. She is respectable and revered, but this station leaves her empty and unfulfilled.
With a stiff upper lip, holding high an antiseptic smile, she goes about her life, which is unfortunately reduced to organizing parties and get-togethers for, well, the same old crowd. Not surprisingly, the English upper crust during the 1920s is not that different from the current crop of top hats -- dowdy, conflicted, chatty and, of course, out-and-out batty.
An intelligent and insightful distillation of a Virginia Woolf novel, "Mrs. Dalloway" is a precise, pointillistic portrait of not only an age but of one individual's struggle with the limitations that social mores have placed upon her individuality. In screenwriter Eileen Atkins' illuminating adaptation, we see Clarissa's inner securities and social ennui.
Fleshed out with some insightful flashbacks in which we are clued to Clarissa's regrets, "Mrs. Dalloway" is a rich personal, as well as social, tapestry. Highest praise to Redgrave for her subtle performance; she economically conveys the inner torments of a woman who has always done "the right thing," often to her personal detriment.
Other performances are similarly precise, evoking the conflicts that arise from the role-playing that society invariably imposes on individuals. Compliments to Rupert Graves for his touching performance as a man whose life has been torn asunder by his World War I experiences.
Technical contributions are top drawer, especially David Richens' well-polished production design.
MRS. DALLOWAY
First Look Pictures
Producer Lisa Katselas Pare
Director Marleen Gorris
Screenwriter Eileen Atkins
Based on the novel by Virginia Woolf
Executive producers Chris Ball, William Tyrer, Simon Curtis, Bill Shepherd
Director of photography Sue Gibson
Production designer David Richens
Editor Michiel Richwein
Music Ilona Sekacz
Color/stereo
Cast:
Clarissa Dalloway Vanessa Redgrave
Septimus Warren-Smith Rupert Graves
Peter Walsh Alan Cox
Richard Dalloway John Standing
Running time -- 97 minutes...
- 9/23/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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