Virginia Woolfโs Night and Day review โ dreamy adaptation reaches for the stars
SXSW London Wolfโs novel about a headstrong young Edwardian woman takes flight under Tina Gharaviโs direction, with Timothy Spall and Jennifer Saunders among the ensemble cast Here is an adaptation, written by Justine Waddell, of Virginia Woolfโs peculiar and tonally elusive work that is all about the quarterlife crisis of a headstrong, well-born young woman in Edwardian London faced with the necessity of getting married. What emerges is a wayward, unworldly fantasia, a four-leaf clover of a film โ or even five-leaf; rather beautifully designed and photographed, flavoured with a wistful, unexpectedly Germanic kind of romanticism. Waddell and Iranian-born director and Bafta nominee Tina Gharavi have creatively gone against the grain of the novel, amplifying Woolfโs single glancing reference to astronomy and making that the centre of the heroineโs yearning, perhaps playfully implanting a subconscious memory of Cole Porterโs lyrics to the song of the same title: โYou are the one, only you beneath the moon, under the sun โฆ.โ And โ thankfully, in my view โ the film removes Woolfโs supercilious condescension towards the self-betterment of newly educated lower and middle classes, and instead focuses on a sweet-natured story, performed with conviction by its all-star ensemble cast, interspersed with dreamlike set pieces. The result is not precisely Virginia Woolfโs Night and Day; maybe more EM Forsterโs Night and Day or even Ronald Firbankโs Night and Day. Continue reading...