Portrait Of A Marriage (Acorn)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B
Though The Hours was a smash success as a film
about the private life of Virginia Woolf, there is so much more to the writer
and her life intersected with other writers.
This included Vita Sackville-West and the fine British TV mini-series Portrait
Of A Marriage (1990) covers her life and affairs, including a very intimate
one with Woolf.
The terrific Janet McTeer is Vita, having an open marriage
for half a century with big time diplomat Harold Nicolson, staring in
1913. Though initially happy with this
freedom, she still starts to question (as all artists do) life itself and where
she needs to be going. After all that
time, maybe she has found happiness, but Vita has a lover from the past
(Cathryn Harrison as Violet) who will complicate the situation, especially when
she gets deeply involved and is knowingly committed to getting married.
This runs for four hour-long installments and though a bit
melodramatic, is effective and takes us into a part of upper British society’s
less discussed reaches, which in itself is rare and revealing. Cheers to Penelope Mortimer and the novel by
Nigel Nicolson that tells the story with much heart and soul. Stephen Whittaker directs the series with
smart choices about the intimacy, not too close or too far. Portrait Of A Marriage is ironically
titled and when it is all over, the doors close again and there is silence.
The 1.33 X 1 image is problematic with a lack of detail
and color throughout since the PAL analog videotaping has been reprocessed to
look film-like. That is distracting
throughout, but the way it was shot.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 has the monophonic sound boosted to stereo. The extras are both text, one on author Sackville-West
and the other with brief cast filmographies.
- Nicholas Sheffo
