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Orlando [1993] | ![Orlando [1993]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Y9D5R77ML._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Actor: Sally Potter|tilda Swinton|quentin Crisp|jimmy Somerville
Studio: Artificial Eye
Category: Video
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £9.99
You Save: £6.00 (38%)
New (4) Used (4) Collectible (2) from £3.99
Rating:  6 reviews
Format: Pal, Full Screen
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Rating: Parental Guidance
Media: VHS Tape
Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 89 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
EAN: 5024238004529
ASIN: B00004CNY9
Theatrical Release Date: June 9, 1993
Release Date: May 26, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new shrinkwrapped video.Sent by 1st class post.
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| Editorial Reviews:
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
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not what I'd expect from a DVD January 5, 2004
NGH Garlick (Utrecht, -- Netherlands)
36 out of 40 found this review helpful
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
 An Intriging Exploration of Gender April 23, 2003
29 out of 35 found this review helpful
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.
well made, but the book is much better. buy both. February 6, 2006
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is a beautiful film, well directed and acted. If I hadn't read the book I would probably have given it 4 stars. It was filmed in Russia, what a pity! Throughout the pages of Virginia Woolf you fill such a vibrant London, expecially in the last part of the novel. The cold Russian winter has such a stong white light and it helps you imagine the Great Frost, during the reign of King James I.
Orlando writes a poem which takes him 300 years to finish, but we never see him/her during its writing. When James II sends him to Costantinople, there he marries a Spanish dancer, and after his awakening as a woman, she runs away with the gypsies, with whom she can leave without trying to comform to society and experience wild nature. While returning home she has a love affair with the ship's Captain, and she feels what it is like to be a woman. Back she spends time with famous poets. She later marries Shel who leaves when the wind changes, but comes back as a captain at the end of the book! Where is this part of Orlando's story?!
I believe that if the director had had much money this film would have been much much better.
Buy it, but after watching it read the book! If you love the film you will adore the book!
Brilliant film, poor DVD January 31, 2006
artimorty (Stuttgart, Germany)
8 out of 14 found this review helpful
Orlando is a very beautiful film. This is the second Orlando DVD I bought. The two disk edition of Artifical Eye has a disapointing video quality. The video quality of the German edition (ArtHaus) is visibly better. Also the aspect ratio is slightly different. What I didn't like about the German version are the imprinted subtitles. So I bought the second DVD. :-(
Triumphant film of Virginia Woolf's historical fantasy. November 14, 2006
pointone (Bournemouth UK)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
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.
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