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Storyline
The story of the relationship between painter Dora Carrington and author Lytton Strachey in a World War One England of cottages and countryside. Although platonic due to Strachey's homosexuality, the relationship was nevertheless a deep and complicated one. When Carrington did develop a more physical relationship with soldier Ralph Partridge, Strachey was able to welcome him as a friend, although Partridge remained somewhat uneasy, not so much with Strachey's lifestyle and sexual orientation as with the fact that he was a conscientious objector. Written by
Jeremy Perkins <jwp@aber.ac.uk>
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She had many lovers but only one love.
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Did You Know?
Trivia
'Christopher Hampton' finally got to direct the script he'd been sitting on since 1976, but only because original helmer
Mike Newell opted to direct
Donnie Brasco instead.
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Quotes
Lytton Strachey:
I don't know what the world has come into: women in love with buggers and buggers in love with womanizers...
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Soundtracks
"When this lousy war is over"
Trad. Arranged and Performed by Laurence Payne
© DORA Productions LTD
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I missed this film in the theater since I assumed from its ads it was merely a Merchant/Ivory rip-off. Big mistake! Seeing it on cable was a life-altering experience for me, making me aware for the first time of its brilliant scorer Michael Nyman, who has since become very nearly my favorite composer in all the world.
But there is so much more to be relished here. Telling the true story of one of the most improbable loves imaginable, "Carrington" evokes with impeccable precision the bohemian world of Kensington art society around the time of the First World War. Written and directed by Christopher Hampton, best known for "Dangerous Liaisons", it is literate without being pompous, outrageous yet not repugnant. Unless you're an incredible prude, in which case steer clear! For its picture of the true-life polymorphous sexuality of its characters is full and unapologetic.
For me, one of the film's most remarkable aspect (thanks to Hampton, of course) is its narrative style. In essence, it is told in a series of self-contained vignettes, each a sort of mini-play with a beginning, middle, and end. Perhaps Hampton wanted to create a dramatic equivalent to Carrington's art, all of which is either intimate portraiture or quirky landscapes. Whatever his intention, it gives the movie a wonderfully eccentric pace and feel that beautifully matches its one-of-a-kind characters.
Finally, for those who don't know his work outside film, Nyman lifted the wondrous "Carrington/Lytton" musical theme from his single-movement string quartet, in essence making it a sort of "historical vignette" to mesh with that same quality in the movie.