12 thoughts on “Stunning Costumes, So-So Story in Vita & Virginia (2019)

  1. Excited about the film for both costumes and story. Vita, Virginia, and the Bloomsbury group have fascinated me for decades. I actually had lunch at Sissinghurst in the 80’s when my classmate at university found out I had read Portrait of a Marriage. Her father in law was Nigel Nicolson who was distinctly uninterested in MY interest in his book. I have to admit I felt very out of place with all the swells, but it was thrilling to see Vita’s office and to just be there. My concern about the movie is its ‘artiness’. I prefer historical accuracy, Also, the 2 principals are too pretty.

  2. I don’t know if I’ll watch it, but glad to see the glam costumes here. I haven’t read authors in that literary circle, and I sometimes struggle with Rich people Stories so… not super up my alley.

    I agree with you on the difficulty of conveying the spark of words/creativity/etc. We’ve had a few attempts in recent years, all Frock Flicks that I can think of, and I’m not sure that any of them really hit it out of the park. Guernsey Literary &PPPS captured some of what story can mean to people in dark times. The Man Who Invented Christmas captured some of the struggle of creating (but also had a bit of an identity crisis on how serious it wanted to be). Tolkien tried to cover love of language, creativity, and inspiration through his mother, his friends, and the war, respectively, but it was a bit too on the nose in the war inspiration stuff. Each was enjoyable to watch, but I’m not sure they managed to achieve what is, admittedly, a really difficult feat.

  3. Yes I’ll see it. The costumes are so gorgeous, but I also read lots of books on the Bloomsbury set and I loved my tour of Sissinghurst.
    When is it due out?

  4. Good grief, why didn’t they just cast Keira Knightley as Vita and be done with it? I always imagine her close to 6 feet tall and tramping around her garden in trousers and wellies, looking handsome and intimidating. (Janet McTeer was a marvelous Vita in a television production some years ago.) And I’m still rather upset that Tilda Swinton has never gotten to play Virginia. But enough bitching and moaning; I’ll go, if only to drown in those beautiful frocks and to admire Rossellini.

  5. Were painter Duncan Grant and writer Duncan Grant the same person, or was a man having an affair with another fellow of the same name?

  6. Just saw “V&V” yesterday, and it was better than I expected, perhaps because Eileen Atkins co-wrote the script. Costumes are indeed wonderful, as are the settings, and the acting pretty good throughout, especially Debicki as Woolf and Peter Ferdinando as Leonard Woolf. (And Isabella!) But Arterton does look out of place. She co-produced, so might have had her heart set on the role, but she is too physically ingenue-ish to convince as Sackville-West, who was about 6 feet tall–Debicki towers over her–and described by Woolf as “hard, handsome, manly; inclined to double chin.”

  7. Just watched it on DVD. FABULOUS to look at, but definitely rather drawn out and wishy washy. I don’t like Arterton anyway, and she s definitely not good in this, the contrast with Janet McTeer too much for me!

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