Based on Virginia Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness novel Orlando, the film is a semi-autobiographical story of Orlando, who in the four hundred years since 1600 has not only undergone a marvelous change of gender from male to female, but has also experienced a variety of life’s strange encounters.
1992 / UK Russia France Italy Netherlands / Drama Romance Fantasy / Sally Potter / Tilda Swinton Billy Zane
Plot Synopsis:
The movie is based on the novel of the same name by British writer Virginia Woolf.
In England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, handsome aristocratic teenager Orlando (Tilda Swinton TildaSwinton) is favored by the Queen and given a mansion and immortal youth.
Over the next four hundred years, Orlando first falls in love with the Russian Princess Sasha (Charlotte Valandrey), then pines for poetry, sponsoring the downtrodden poet Nick Greene (Heathcote Williams), before traveling to Constantinople, Turkey, on behalf of King Charles II, where he is killed on the night of a fierce battle by Henry Archduke (JohnWood) awarded the Royal Order of Merit on the night of the battle.
After a seven-day sleep, Orlando awakens as a woman and returns to England.
The female Orlando rejects Archduke Henry’s proposal of marriage and falls in love at first sight with adventurer Selmertine (Billy Zane).
Amidst the smoke of the Industrial Revolution and the fires of the World War, Orlando, as a mother, rides a motorcycle into the twentieth century.
The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Artistic Direction…
