Why does actor Tilda Swinton play a man in the beginning of Orlando and switch to the role of a woman? Clearly, she is a woman playing a man's part and then a woman playing a woman's part. Why not have a male actor play the man's part and then switch actors to a woman actor playing a woman's part? I take this female (and obviously so) casting to symbolize how women in literature disguised themselves as men because of oppression and over time break away from the disguise ( a man's name), for the world eventually accepts female writers. However, I am simply guessing at the meaning here, for I do not know the history of women through literature. I am assuming that women wrote in the 1600's and wrote under the name of a man.
Even if this interpretation of literature is historically inaccurate, the movie Orlando is about female development over time. I feel that I would understand the movie better if I knew more about the feminist movement, but I will analyze the movie as I understand it.
Orlando is very funny with its fantastical irrationally. There are many gaps and illogical jumps in the movie. The movie does a good job creating its own internal logical that defies worldly logic. Why does Orlando live 400 years and never age? It is probably because s/he does not want to age, so why would s/he? The mysterious jumps are part of the magic of this movie.
The movie walks through every stage of life: death, love, poetry, politics, society, sex, and birth. All of these sections contain a date except for the last section "birth", which allows the movie to remain always in the present. What can I say except the chapters work well to cover the broad spectrum of life? Each has is poetical implications within the section of the film.
I cannot find the definitive message of this movie, but that does not bother me too much. The movie might be saying that women have developed over history, but maybe not as much as we think? This movie, for me, needs a second viewing to understand the implications. But, if the movie is not profound, at least it is fun.
~Kristen Gorlitz