Watched "The Hours" last night.
I've been a sort of latent Virginia Woolf fan for a long time and read her classic Mrs. Dalloway some years ago .,., a difficult read but well worth the effort.
Mrs Dalloway was the key element of the plot of both the Michael Cunningham novel The Hours and its subsequent screen adaptation. Cunningham's title was derived from Woolf's original title for Mrs Dalloway of course.
His novel won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the 1999 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and was later made into this Oscar-winning 2002 movie.
Oh to write such a book !!
The way the movie plot is intertwined with the original novel and Virginia Woolf's own life is both masterful & wonderful. The intricate detail is in every frame if you know where to look.
The movie starred Nicole Kidman as VW, the amazing Meryl Streep as Clarissa ( Dalloway/ Vaughan ) & Julianne Moore as Laura Brown.
VW's war casualty, Septimus Smith, is replaced by the modern day Aids victim, poet Richard but the suicide outcome remains the same.
The movie left me completey drained emotionally and close to tears but what a joy .,., I must watch this movie again ( and maybe again ! )
I recommend it unreservedly, but would urge you, if you haven't already read it, to first read VW's Mrs. Dalloway.
1 comment:
Hullo Scudder,
We have this one in our DVD collection too. It's a cracker. Great performances by the three ladies but as usual Meryl Streep is faultless.
Not seen it for quite a while. That may change now though....
cheers.....Al.
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