O-Biopic: ORLANDO (1992)
This is all I needed in order to wash away the taste of Maurice Pialat’s movie. The biopic that starts with an O was ORLANDO (1992) by Sally Potter, and it had enough poetry, beauty, fantasy, femininity, softness, elegance, taste and snow to appease the burn left on my gender by NOUS NE VIEILLIRONS PAS ENSEMBLE.
ORLANDO is the film adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel of the same name. It felt like I was cheating when I decided that this film would be my biopic that starts with an O, because:
The novel has been sitting on my shelf for so many years and I still haven’t read it. (In my defence, it's not about how long it's gone unread; it's about reading it before I die.) But it's OK. I should learn to see the book and the film as two separate, independent works of art that should each be appreciated on their own terms, regardless of which one comes first. I learned that from reading RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE (by Casey McQuiston) after watching the film (by Matthew López). Same universe, two different creations. I don’t think you should compare a book to a movie: you should compare a book to another book.
I thought a biopic could only be about someone who had actually existed. But apparently, IMDb classifies it as a biopic, and Woolf's novel seems to be heavily inspired by one of her real-life lovers. I also discovered the concept of a fictional biography (I didn't say autofiction—that's different) during QBC #4 when Chris brought BIOGRAPHY OF X by Catherine Lacey!
The(y) story
I will use the pronouns they/them to refer to Orlando, who happens to change sex and gender during the movie. Orlando (played by a woman, Tilda Swinton) is an androgynous young noble with no siblings and a household full of servants.
“Dogs, dogs, dogs, far too many rooms” Nonsense. I only saw one dog.
From birth, they are treated like a man with all the privileges that come with the sex. They already possess a lot from their wealthy family, but Queen Elizabeth herself (played by a man, Quentin Crisp) is willing to give them even more, she will give them the world under one condition:
“Do not fade. Do not wither. Do not grow old.”
Orlando obeys, and we follow them through 400 years of history. They fall in love with a Russian woman, Princess Sasha (played by French actress Charlotte Valandrey), while they are already betrothed to an English woman. They have no shame courting that other woman right in front of their fiancé’s salad. That fling is frowned upon:
MORAY: My Lord Orlando, you're in danger of becoming a fool. You're ruining what could be the finest career in the land and for what?
ORLANDO, staring at that Russian woman: I no longer care for a career, Moray. I'm only interested in love.
MORAY: Don't you see in courting a Cossack, you're humiliating not only your fiance, but the entire female population of this country?
I’m glad their fiancé refuses to let herself be dishonoured, unlike Jean’s wife and mistress in NOUS NE VIEILLIRONS PAS ENSEMBLE. Unlike Pialat, Virginia Woolf has every woman’s back. (Yes, I’m still mad about it.)
Orlando and Princess Sasha
Orlando won’t accept the fact that Princess Sasha will return to her country. They tell her:
ORLANDO: Stay with me. Don't ever go.
PRINCESS SASHA: But it's impossible.
ORLANDO: But why?
PRINCESS SASHA: Because when ice breaks we must go.
ORLANDO: But we're linked. Our destinies are linked. You're mine!
PRINCESS SASHA: Why?
ORLANDO: Because I adore you.
When Princess Sasha ends up leaving without saying goodbye (Orlando would’ve never let her go if she had tried to say goodbye), Orlando just starts hating all women at once:
“The treachery of women”
Fast-forward a couple of centuries and Orlando wakes up with a vagina and boobs. They accept this reality:
“Same person. No difference at all. Just a different sex.”, Orlando tells us, breaking the fourth wall for the umpteenth time.
The rest of the world is surprised but not shocked, but there’s no way they will keep treating Orlando with the privileges of a man. Hell fucking no, Orlando has to get married if they want to keep any of that money, and to give birth to a son. A much older man immediately proposes to them:
ARCHDUKE: Orlando, to me you were and always will be, whether male or female... The pink, the pearl and the perfection of your sex. I'm offering you my hand.
ORLANDO: Oh! Archduke. That is very kind of you, yes. I can't accept.
ARCHDUKE: But I... I, am England. And you are mine.
ORLANDO: I see. On what grounds?
ARCHDUKE: That I adore you.
Oh how the turntables, comme dirait l’autre ! Another conversation where Orlando realizes that having a new sex changes everything:
ORLANDO: You are poets, each one of you and speak of your muse in the feminine. And yet you appear to feel neither tenderness... nor respect towards your wives nor towards females in general.
SOME OLD DUDE WITH A WIG: Madam! I have only the highest regard and purest respect for females.
ORLANDO: I find no evidence of that sentiment in your conversation.
SOME OLD DUDE: Conversation is a place where one plays with ideas, my dear lady. Though one forges them quite alone.
OTHER DUDE: Quite so.
THIRD DUDE: Quite. Quite.
FIRST DUDE: The intellect is a solitary place. And therefore quite unsuitable a terrain for females who must discover their natures through the guidance of a father or husband.
ORLANDO: And if she has neither?
DUDE: Then... However charming she may be, dear lady... She is lost.
That’s when the most beautiful and powerful music I’ve heard all month started (I know, it’s only the 5th of July). I’ve been listening to it on repeat ever since the film ended, and the first couple of times, I cried.
See for yourself. Shoutout to David Motion, the composer of the soundtrack.
Bloody blood orange
No later than yesterday, I was already complaining about the omnipresence of blood orange in NOUS NE VIEILLIRONS PAS ENSEMBLE. Both ORLANDO and NOUS NE VIEILLIRONS PAS ENSEMBLE feature a red-haired lead actress. I wonder whether film directors believe that because their lead has red hair, shades of red and blood orange should inundate the screen.
Lucky for me, Sally Potter made sure that every shot—however red—would be a photographic masterpiece. In ORLANDO, Orlando lives for over 400 years without ever aging. I noticed that when Orlando has a "male body," the dominant colours are red, black, and white. And when they have a "female body," the palette shifts to pastels: pale green, pale blue, beige, pale pink...
Second encounter with the queen
Funeral procession in black and white, so silent and emotionless there’s nothing Black about it
just enjoying the view
someone please explain
If that’s how your ancestors were enjoying a book, no wonder you people don’t dance
Orlando finally meets someone who understands the toll of gender norms
SPOILER: The last words
NARRATOR: She, for there can be no doubt about her sex, is visiting the house she finally lost for the first time in over a hundred years.
She does still have certain natural advantages of course: she is tall and slim, with a slightly androgynous appearance that many females at the time aspire to. Then her upbringing, she's lived for four hundred years and hardly aged a day. And because this is England, everyone pretends not to notice.
But she has changed. She is no longer trapped by destiny. And... ever since she let go of the past... She found her life was beginning.
Up next on my watchlist: a comedy that starts with P, a drama that starts with Q, and a queer romance that starts with R