CINEMA: TEACUP TRYST

AH, WHEN THE BRITERATI FALL IN LOVE, THEY BEHAVE SO VERY WELL

IS IT THE GOOD TURTLE SOUP OR ONLY the mock? Or to put the question more directly, is the lengthy, unconsummated love affair between Dora Carrington (Emma Thompson) and Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce) one of the great tragic romances of our century or just another of those neurotic dithers the Bloomsbury crowd was always working themselves into?

Christopher Hampton, the playwright who wrote and directed Carrington, obviously believes it was the former. Yet his account of the relationship between the half-forgotten painter and the homosexual who turned biography into a modernist art form is distant and gingerly, respectful and respectable. Reason...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!