In his youth, Orlando is told never to grow old, miraculously , he never does.  The film is about a person who achieves in one lifetime what most of us can only dream of doing : seeing four centuries of experiences thru the eyes of both sexes. It’s not so much about a story or a plot as it is about a vision of human existence. What does it mean to be born as a woman or a man, to be born into wealth or poverty, or into the traditions of a particular nation?

Symbols and Themes

Fact and Imagination

Gender Differences

Conforming to Society

Clouds over London…….Orlando’s Manor House…….Manuscript of Poetry

Note about Tilda Swinton :

A visually striking Scottish actress born in 1960, who over the years has preferred art to celebrity, and is a mother to twins. She was nominated for many awards for her role in Orlando and the film received Oscars both for costume design and art direction. Notice that as Orlando progresses throughout the years, during each new incarnation, Tilda’s eye color changes.

Personal note :

Being far from my birth home in America, now in a pastoral culture of what seems from a century past, I found this film thought provoking. I have been in Bulgaria now, six weeks.  They are enchanted, glorious, astoundingly beautiful days in an ancient and poetic country that feels familiar to me like a lucid dream……Orlando feels familiar to me too.