Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29785 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-05-26
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Breathtaking and practically non-discursive, Sally Potter's audacious Orlando overcomes some dodgy performances and a narrative structure that could most generously be described as "loose" to emerge as a haunting, discussion-provoking, trans-historical and transsexual drama. Commanded never to age by Queen Elizabeth (played with surprisingly little campness by legendary cross-dresser Quentin Crisp), the title character becomes immortal; we then follow Orlando through 400 years of dream-like British history. Midway through the film, Orlando changes genders--to Potter's immense credit, the transformation is handled with little fanfare and no explanation. Tilda Swinton, in the lead role, is far more convincing as a woman than as a man and, even during the film's latter half, her impassivity and lack of expression can be annoying. Potter encourages Swinton to play to the camera and the resulting asides and glances askance can be amusing but often seem purposeless, or even arch. Nevertheless, the wilful idiosyncrasy and understatement of the film never quite capsize the project and, once you give yourself over to the filmmaker's logic, the panoramic sweep of the cinematography (remarkable sets include an aristocratic skating party on the frozen Thames during the Great London Frost of 1603, a stunning tent-caravan in Central Asia, and countless fastidious boudoirs and interiors) will surely keep you enraptured. Orlando is no Merchant-Ivory production, no prissy, forgettable period piece; this film has teeth and it may bite ferociously when you least expect it to. Although based on the Virginia Woolf modernist classic of the same name, it scarcely resembles the original. --Miles Bethany

Special Features
Wide Screen
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 2.0 English
Dolby Digital 2.0
Documentary Orlando Goes To Russia
Documentary Orlando In Uzbekistan
Documentary Jimmy Was An Angel
Selected Scene Commentary By Sally Potter
Interview With Sally Potter
Venice Film Festival Press Conference
Theatrical Trailer
Stills Gallery
Filmographies

Synopsis
Based on the novel by Virginia Woolf, ORLANDO follows the witty, engaging story of the incredibly long-lived aristocratic poet, Orlando (Tilda Swinton), whose gender changes in the 18th Century as he/she lives through the Elizabethan era and into the Twentieth Century. Praised for his, and later her, beauty, and tortured by love and an obsession with epic poetry that began as a teenager, Orlando learns about politics, war, sex, society, and birth as a man and again as a woman. Director Sally Potter creates a stunning, clever commentary on gender and society.

Customer Reviews

Not what I'd expect from a DVD
If ever a film deserved the heightened quality DVD could bring to it, it's Orlando. Every shot in the film is worth printing and framing. So it's extremely disappointing to find that there's none of the sharpness in the image you'd expect from a DVD, and certainly not from a 16x9 disc. The colours are soft; the outines ever so vaguely hazy.There are minor scratches on the print and the circular reel change spots are still visible in the top right corner, which suggests that the film hasn't been remastered for the DVD. The film looks okay and its definitely better than a video, but it's not as good as it could be. Not at all

Triumphant film of Virginia Woolf's historical fantasy.
The Director Sally Potter creates a wondrous, illusive, highly textured world through which the androgynous Orlando moves for three hundred years as he/she writes a poem.

Orlando is a role made for Tilda Swinton and arrived with perfect timing to move her career into a different league. By some alchemy she makes the fantastical plot seem quite natural, whilst delighting us with masterly acting moving fluently from one emotion and period to another.

Nobody but Swinton with her love of the unique and the bizarre could have pulled this off, her triumph is fortunately enshrined in a truly wonderful production and cast.

The historically fantastic does not get any better than this.

An Intriging Exploration of Gender
I would highly recommend this cinematic marvel, based on the Virginia Wolfe novel rumoured to be based on a lesbian crush Virginia had on the character behind Orlando. Orlandos' adventures run from the reign of Queen Elizabeth (superbly played by Quentin Crisp) to the present day. During this time he explores love, hate, gender, war, death, life, and in the most beautiful scene a complete transformation from male to female. The film develops the book into a witty, intriging, entertaining and immensly beautiful tapestry of great film making.