Mrs. Dalloway 1997

     This film is based on a novel by Virginia Woolf.  The setting is London in the summer of 1923.  Clarissa is married to MP Richard Dalloway.  Peter, Clarissa’s former suitor, stops by to let her know that he has returned from India.  Peter wanted to marry Clarissa but she felt he was too demanding?  She invites him to her party in the evening but she doesn’t know if he will come?  She sets out on a beautiful morning to shop for flowers for her special party.  She passes by Septimus Warren Smith and his wife Rezia.  Septimus is suffering from delayed onset shell shock from WWI.  As Clarissa is preparing for her party, she remembers her friendship with Sally and the days of her youth before her marriage.  Later, she thinks about Septimus. 

     This film is beautifully made and there is a lot of attention to period details.  Many people have a moment in their lives where they make a choice between one path or another.  In this case, Clarissa had to choose to marry Peter or Richard?  She has known Peter for a long time but he seems a risk and dangerous but alive.  Instead, she decides to marry the safe and sound Richard.  She feels known as Mrs. Dalloway by almost everybody, what happened to Clarissa?  Did she fade away or did she blend into her marriage?  She is also not a young woman anymore, she is now in her 60’s and growing old is another of life’s challenges.  4* (I really liked this movie)     

      

97 min, Drama directed by Marleen Gorris with Vanessa Redgrave, Natascha McElhone, Michael Kitchen, Alan Cox, Sarah Badel, Lena Headey, John Standing, Robert Portal, Oliver Ford Davies, Hal Cruttenden, Rupert Graves, Amelia Bullmore, Margaret Tyzack.

Note:  Imdb 6.8 out of 10, Roger Ebert 3 ½*, Rotten Tomatoes 71% critic 57% audience, EmpireOnline 3* out of 5* Angie Errigo, Amazon 3.6* out of 5* with 86 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Duke of York Column and St. James’s Park, St. James’s, London, England, UK. The date of the party is June 13, 1923.  The dress Clarissa wears in her youth during a boat outing is a replica of the dress in the John Singer Sargent Painting “Lady Agnew of Lochnaw."  Executive producer (the late) Bill Shepherd and his wife the actress Eileen Atkins (the writer of the screenplay) invested their own money in this film.  They only narrowly avoided personal bankruptcy when it flopped at the box office!!  Eileen Atkins will be 85 in June and Vanessa Redgrave is 82 years old.  Virginia Woolf was born in 1882 and she died in 1941 at the age of 59 from suicide by drowning.