Mrs. Dalloway

Director: Marleen Gorris
(1997)

While planning an elegant party, a wealthy British woman finds herself nostalgically looking back on her life as a young woman in this cinematic adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s contemplative novel. Exquisitely photographed by Sue Gibson, Vanessa Redgrave and Natascha McElhone are superb as old and young Clarissa Dalloway who considers the choices made in life on a fine summer day when a young war veteran’s fate becomes intertwined with Dalloway’s own. The film is questioning and visually arresting— you think about the themes long after it’s over and it is another fine glimpse into the female psyche by director Marleen Gorris that I daresay Ms. Woolf would’ve approved of herself. Note: the film provides a good companion piece to The Hours, which has many similarities in structure and theme and of course, features Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf.