{"id":181918,"date":"2025-09-26T00:54:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T00:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/181918\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T00:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T00:54:17","slug":"mrs-dalloway-1997-frock-flicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/181918\/","title":{"rendered":"Mrs. Dalloway (1997) \u2013 Frock Flicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not sure why I sat down to watch Mrs. Dalloway (1997), I must have been in the mood for something arty and literary, which this fits well. The movie does a decent job of adapting Virginia Woolf<\/a>\u2018s novel, particularly because it uses voiceover and flashbacks to try and tease out the inner monologue that\u2019s crucial to the story.<\/p>\n

But I was also left thinking that this would be a good candidate for a remake because some of the themes written in 1925 were glossed over or hinted at in 1997, but today in 2025 could be made more explicit. On the surface, the novel is about upper-middle-class Clarissa Dalloway throwing a party and looking back on her youth when she decided to marry stable, boring Richard instead of exciting, somewhat suffocating Peter or the temptation of freedom with Sally. A side-plot involves a World War I veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder. Even that summary shows how much is potentially going on, and yet this 1990s movie narrows it down to \u201cClarissa married Richard, is wistful about Peter, and has a faint memory of Sally, oh and here\u2019s a crazy veteran.\u201d This isn\u2019t bad but it could be richer with more depth if done today, like playing up the queer and Marxist sides, IMO.<\/p>\n

That said, there\u2019s some moody meditations going on, along with excellent costumes done in two different periods, so I enjoyed watching what was there. Judy Pepperdine designed the costumes for this film and was perhaps best known before for working on Miss Marple<\/a> TV adaptions. Even though the movie starts in 1923 and flashes backward, I\u2019m going to look at the costumes chronologically because it\u2019s easier to group the images that way in this post.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re going by the book, the flashbacks are set in 1889 when Clarissa was 17 (this is supposed to be 34 years earlier than the \u201cmodern day\u201d of her party). We see a classic late Victorian house party, where the young Clarissa is staying with her Aunt Helena in Bourton and Sally, Peter, and eventually Richard join.<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a>Everyone in summer whites & linens.
\n\"Mrs.<\/a>Sally (Lena Headey<\/a>) chats with Peter (Alan Cox) & share insights on Clarissa.
\n\"Mrs.<\/a>Clarissa (Natascha McElhone<\/a>) accepts flowers & then a proposal from Richard (Robert Portal).
\n\"Mrs.<\/a>Young, fresh romantic Clarissa.
\n\"Mrs.<\/a>Sassy, wild, free Sally.<\/p>\n

While this movie version doesn\u2019t play up the queer relationship, it does show Clarissa and Sally constantly touching and being physically close. Look, I was there, so I remember, the 1990s weren\u2019t exactly known for being open and frank about LGBTQ+ relationships onscreen \u2014 after all, Ellen DeGeneres\u2019 \u201ccoming out\u201d TV episode was in April 1997, and that was hugely controversial. The idea of same-sex love in the 1880s was just barely a concept to be explored in film.<\/p>\n

\"1997<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a>They share late-night girl talk & shenanigans.
\n\"Mrs.<\/a>Sneaking out from the formal dinner for a moment together.<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a><\/p>\n

Woolf\u2019s prose does show how important the relationship was to Clarissa, calling the kiss between her and Sally \u201cthe most exquisite moment of her whole life.\u201d Clarissa thinks back on that as love, however fleeting.<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u201cpresent\u201d story is on one day June 1923, when Clarissa (Vanessa Redgrave<\/a>), now age 51, is throwing a party. She starts by walking around London to order the flowers for the evening.<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a><\/p>\n

Her old beau Peter (Michael Kitchen<\/a>) shows up to chat about his messed-up life and angle a party invite.<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a><\/p>\n

Then everyone gets glam for the party itself.<\/p>\n

\"Vanessa<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a><\/p>\n

Clarissa\u2019s beaded gown looks black in some lights, but some closeups and this auction listing shows that the lining is green:<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a>Costume at Invaluable.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The listing says the gown is made of \u201ceau de nil silk overlaid with intricately beaded and embroidered dark brown tulle, the layers combined creating a dark green.\u201d<\/p>\n

The men all wear white tie, of course, and doesn\u2019t Michael Kitchen look cute!<\/p>\n

\"1997<\/a><\/p>\n

Sally also shows up a the party. She too is an old married lady, seeming much more conventional than her wild youth, she\u2019s now wealthy Lady Rosseter (Sarah Badel) and proclaims she has five sons.<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a>IDK but they could have cast someone who better resembles an older Lena Headey. The book calls Lady Rosseter \u201colder, happier, less lovely\u201d but c\u2019mon, she\u2019s not even the right height!<\/p>\n

A few other characters are Clarissa\u2019s daughter Elizabeth (Katie Carr), who doesn\u2019t care about mom\u2019s party and is falling under the spell of evangelical Miss Kilman (Selina Cadell).<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a>Great embroidery on Elizabeth\u2019s coat.<\/p>\n

Just mentioning Lady Bruton because I did a WCW on Margaret Tyzack<\/a>, which might have reminded me to watch this flick.<\/p>\n

\"Margaret<\/a><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the doctor who connects the WWI veteran\u2019s story to Clarissa\u2019s party. Sir William Bradshaw (Robert Hardy<\/a>) advises the veteran and his wife and has to attend to his patient, making him late to the party.<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a><\/p>\n

The veteran, Septimus Smith (Rupert Graves<\/a>)\u00a0 and his wife Rezia (Amelia Bullmore) show up off and on from the start when Clarissa is shopping for flowers.<\/p>\n

\"Mrs.<\/a><\/p>\n

But their story is only tenuously connected in the film. Not sure if it works better in the book.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Have you read or watched Mrs. Dalloway?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Find this frock flick at:<\/p>\n


\"JustWatch\"
<\/a><\/p>\n

Like this:<\/p>\n

Like Loading…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\tMore Frock Flicks\n<\/p>\n

\t\tContinue Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not sure why I sat down to watch Mrs. Dalloway (1997), I must have been in the mood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-181918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}