Vita & Virginia

2018 saw several historical dramas about lesbianism, including the fictitious "Tell It to the Bees" and three about real historical figures, even if doubts have sometimes been expressed about their historical accuracy. "The Favourite" dealt with the triangular relationship between Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Masham, and "Colette" told the story of the bisexual French novelist of that name. "Vita & Virginia" is about two more bisexual literary figures, Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf.

As the story opens, in the England of the 1920s, Vita and Virginia are both well-known writers, but do not know each other personally because they move in different social circles. Vita is a politically and socially conservative aristocrat, whereas Virginia is part of the liberal, progressive Bloomsbury Group. Now that Virginia Woolf has become such a well-established part of the canon of English Literature ("From Beowulf to Virginia Woolf"), it seems strange to think that during their lifetimes it was Vita Sackville-West who was regarded as the more significant writer, both in terms of book sales and in terms of critical acclaim.

Vita, however, is fascinated by the other woman's work, and is determined to make her acquaintance. The two women, as portrayed here by Gemma Arterton and Elizabeth Debicki, are very different in personality. Debicki's Virginia is shy and retiring, and physically and mentally frail, whereas Arterton's Vita is outgoing, lively and magnetic. (Was Vita's vitality, I wonder, the reason for her nickname? She was officially baptised Victoria Mary, but was always known as Vita, Latin for "life"). When the two meet, however, they quickly become friends, despite their differences, and eventually lovers. Her relationship with Vita inspires Virginia's "Orlando", one of her best-known novels and her first major popular success.

One criticism that has been made is that Debicki is too young for the role of Virginia, and there is some justice in this. Virginia she was the older of the women by eight years, but Debicki is four years younger than Arterton. At least, however, she doesn't rely upon a false nose like Nicole Kidman did when playing Virginia in "The Hours".

Both women were married, and their husbands play important, if subsidiary, roles in this drama. Vita had a famously open marriage to the diplomat Harold Nicolson, who was himself bisexual and had relationships with other men. In the film he is depicted as having no objection to his wife's lesbian friendships, although he does wish she could be more discreet about them. (Her previous affair with Violet Trefusis caused a scandal which damaged his career). Virginia's publisher husband Leonard is not enthusiastic about her relationship but feels it is for the best if he tolerates it, given her fragile mental state.

Some may think that the film is too passionless, a presentation of a well-mannered, drawing-room form of lesbianism. Again, there might be some justice in this, although I suspect that such criticisms are most likely to come from those who expected, and hoped, that the film would be more sensual and erotic than it actually is. The film was never intended to be a piece of erotica, and I think that there are reasons why it is less passionate than one might expect. In the first place, it deals with events which took place nearly a hundred years ago, a period when the British still believed in the idea of the "stiff upper lip", far more than they do today. As a result people tended to behave in a more restrained manner, at least in public; open displays of strong feelings were discouraged. This was especially true when those feelings existed between two women; although lesbianism, unlike male homosexuality, was never illegal in Britain, it was still the subject of great social disapproval.

Secondly, in the version of events put forward here, Vita has had several earlier affairs with other women, whereas this is Virginia's first lesbian relationship. Debicki plays her not as a woman in the throes of a grand passion but as someone rather uncertainly exploring and discovering new aspects of her sexuality. The result is a film which is certainly restrained, but this seems appropriate to its period and to its subject-matter. It is, in fact, the restraint with which writer-director Chanya Button and her co-writer Eileen Atkins bring to their story which enables them to explore the psychology of their two main characters in such depth. 7/10