tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627032459273165000.post1804759216765761062..comments2024-03-29T01:11:38.129-07:00Comments on DREAMS ARE WHAT LE CINEMA IS FOR...: MRS. DALLOWAY 1997Ken Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04940648971296673233noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627032459273165000.post-36003736599322983902019-08-04T07:02:14.721-07:002019-08-04T07:02:14.721-07:00Hi Ron
You’ve expressed such a marvelous take-away...Hi Ron<br />You’ve expressed such a marvelous take-away from seeing the film. I’m always thinking how, when I was young, I always just assumed my parents and their friends were “done” –“fully cooked” – that I alone as a teenager had cornered the market on angst, passion, depression, and pain. Adulthood was a point of arrival that saw all youthful maladies calmed and solved.<br />In my opinion, Woolf’s novel is overall too psychologically/sociologically complex and layered for a film to fully do it justice. But this elegant adaptation succeeds in striking many grace notes that resonate through the performances. Chiefly that quality you cite in Redgrave’s performance that suggests a great deal of life still yet to be lived behind the calm facades of people we as a culture then to not really see.<br /><br />Nothing has surprised me more about getting older than my remaining so much ME throughout the whole journey! I always thought I would morph into some sort of middle-age respectability or sedateness as I aged. Nope. Still feel pretty much like the same guy who lost his shit when Jane Fonda did her anti-gravity striptease at the beginning of “Barbarella.”<br />I haven’t seen the film version of “The Dead” but I will seek it out. Thanks for the complimentary words, and for reading this and taking the time to comment.Ken Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04940648971296673233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627032459273165000.post-87597436755541616602019-08-04T05:50:45.203-07:002019-08-04T05:50:45.203-07:00Hi Robb
I’m glad to know “Mrs. Dalloway” is availa...Hi Robb<br />I’m glad to know “Mrs. Dalloway” is available on Amazon Prime! I agree with you that so much of the film comes together so well. Not only in the handsome production values which manage to capture something of the novel’s contrasting themes of nature (the orderly, manicured nature of English parks and gardens) and confinement (the small, overly decorated rooms and all those tall spiky fences surrounding the posh residences of Westminster), but in the crafting of a very sensitive film out of a novel most still likely consider to be unfilmable. (The book is so beloved, I can’t imagine any film wouldn’t disappoint, hence my gratitude that I saw the movie first.)<br />And I like the observation you make about the less concerned with convention characters in Evelyn Waugh novels. Sadly, it seems Mrs. Dalloway’s upbringing is firmly rooted in the world of, say, Edith Wharton. But I’d like to think her daughter Elizabeth, or maybe all those sons of Sally Seton, grow up to be more in line with the bright young things of Evelyn Waugh. <br />I thank you for reading this post and commenting, and indeed, reading this blog (for years, yet!) <br />I’m humbled by your kind words. Much appreciated.Ken Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04940648971296673233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627032459273165000.post-311335158222731922019-08-02T15:55:24.547-07:002019-08-02T15:55:24.547-07:00Another great review/analysis! I wasn't sure ...Another great review/analysis! I wasn't sure I would like this film when I sat down to watch it some years ago but I'm grateful I did. It's not perfect (I think something is inevitably lost in translation) but I really enjoyed Vanessa Redgrave's performance. She created a character that reminded me of the nice middle-aged women I grew up around. The notion that any of these pleasant, sedate women had an inner life of passion and pain is almost shocking. Yet I'm a man in his fifties who younger people probably (and mistakenly) write off as having few passions and little pain. I guess at some point in our lives, we all turn into "Mrs. Dalloway" to some degree. If you haven't seen it, the filmed version of James Joyce's "The Dead" is a great companion piece to "Mrs. Dalloway." Ronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02624356466416350251noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627032459273165000.post-6938328198591372152019-08-02T12:29:03.766-07:002019-08-02T12:29:03.766-07:00Your opening paragraph was worth the price of admi...Your opening paragraph was worth the price of admission! I've enjoyed your writing over the years and you just keep getting better and better. I just watched this film (currently on Amazon Prime) and noticed the contrast between the calm, well-ordered life of the upper-middle class protagonist and her buried, repressed emotional life. If only Mrs. Dalloway had been a member of the aristocracy, she would have been less bound by societal conventions and more like the devil-may-care characters in Evelyn Waugh's novels of the same time period. Everything about this film comes together so well: the casting, the direction, the sets, the costumes, and the dialogue. Thank you for all the work you put into writing these reviews for all of us to enjoy!Robbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17279476905603378115noreply@blogger.com