Carrington

The painter Dora Carrington and the writer Lytton Strachey meet in 1915. Strachey is homosexual and Carrington attaches herself to him; between them an unnamed relationship forms that will last their lives. They start living together. Carrington falls in love with Ralph Partridge, a former soldier, and marries him; the household turns into a steadily more complicated arrangement, with Lytton always at the centre. This was Christopher Hampton's first film as director, written from Michael Holroyd's biography of Lytton Strachey. The narrative does not try to make the relationships of the Bloomsbury circle extraordinary; it presents them as a daily arrangement. That is the film's strength: the long duration of a bond that does not fit the familiar definitions of love. Emma Thompson plays Carrington and Jonathan Pryce plays Strachey. The film won the jury special prize at Cannes in 1995 and the best actor award for Pryce. Who it's for: Viewers who like British period drama, artist biographies, and narratives of unconventional relationships. Who it's not for: The pace is slow and the sections jump many years. Where the ending is going is also clear from the start.