TOM AND VIV
UK, 1994, 125 minutes, Colour.
Willem Dafoe, Miranda Richardson, Rosemary Harris.
Directed by Brian Gilbert.
Michael Hastings' play on poet T.S. Eliot and his first wife, Vivienne Haigh- Wood, has been opened up for the screen, taking audiences back into an England somewhat reminiscent of C.S. Lewis and Shadowlands. However, there is more bitterness here and Eliot does not emerge as a man one admires. Willem Dafoe portrays him as an eccentric American expatriate who wants to be more British than British (and his strange accent actually mimics Eliot's accent), a rather 'ingrown' character, prim though creative.
Miranda Richardson gives a complex performance that brings out the vivacity, the physical and mental torment that she experienced in her mad love for Eliot. The film is really her film and audience sympathy is hers.
The background of the period (from World War One to World War Two) is an asset. One won't discover a great deal about Eliot the poet, dramatist or academic, but audiences will be fascinated by this unlikely marriage, a famed poet and some wastelands of his marriage.
1.Interesting British drama? Re-creation of period, literary background, British history?
2.Panavision photography, London, the English countryside? The period from 1918 to the mid-'40s? The musical score?
3.The title and its focus, its tone? Adaptation from stage play?
4.The perspective of the screenplay, for Tom, for Viv? The critique of each? Where did audience sympathies lie by the end of the film?
5.The personal portrait of T.S. Eliot and Vivien? The allusions to the poetry and the quotations, to Eliot's academic life, to his editing work at Faber and Faber, to his religious conversion and its meaning, to his role as a significant British poet, the work in the media, especially during World War Two?
6.Willem Dafoe's screen presence and style as Eliot? Appearance, mannerisms, accent? Eliot and his British respectability, his American background and relations, in England and wanting to be very British? The initial lecture, his friendship with Bertrand Russell, the attraction towards Vivien, rowing and the picnic, her sexual reticence? The elopement? The friendship with Maurice and Maurice's questions? The wedding night, his disgust, leaving the room, standing looking out on the water? His return and the chaos and his handling of the situation? A gentleman? His vow of love to Vivien, his love for her? The interrogation by her parents, the critique of the father, the support of the mother? The help from Bertrand Russell, the flat, his publication of his poetry, the prospect of lectures?
7.Miranda Richardson's screen presence and style as Vivien, her verve, the initial performance outside the lecture window, her love for Tom Eliot, her relationship with her mother, the elopement, the experience of the first night, her depression, her illness and the frequent menstruation, the physical and psychological effect? Her reaction at dinner and the talk of passivism? The explanations of her illness, the doctor and the information, her being shielded? Her love for Eliot, sharing in his work, in his poetry, her contribution to the poetry and the naming of the wasteland?
8.Maurice as a genial British young man, sense of family, decorum? Love for his sister, caution about her wedding? His own sexual experiences and lack of them? Going to the war, his survival? No work, the decision to go to Africa? His return, Vivien crashing the car? His participation in her committal? After the war, the only visitor she had, his appreciation of her, his grief, taking the chocolate cake for Eliot?
9.Vivien's mother, her knowledge of her daughter, control, love, not telling her the full truth? The reaction to the wedding, welcoming Eliot? Her attitude towards British society, British breeding, towards poetry? Her despising of the Bloomsbury Group? Her husband, the job for Eliot, his death? The discussion about the will, Maurice and Eliot becoming trustees, their power over Vivien? Her decisions about her daughter, her being present at the interrogation and agreeing to the committal? Packing her daughter's clothes - and her rebuke for Eliot?
10.The brief portrait of Bertrand Russell, friendship, giving the flat, taking Vivien to the sea, her collapse, the telegram, the background of the affair, meeting Eliot during the war and Eliot rebuking him?
11.Eliot and his work, the need for money, his going to the bank - and being absorbed into the bank culture? His appearance, his desk, glasses, manner of speaking? Vivien's reaction and her throwing his clothes out the window? The visit to the Bloomsbury Society, the playing of games, Eliot and his wanting to win, make a good appearance, not wanting to win by cheating - but getting the answer from Vivien? His interest in the church, the visit of the bishop and his ousting Vivien?
12.Vivien and her ups and downs, her friendship with Louise - visiting her and getting great support? Her personal behaviour and tantrums? Her admiration for Eliot and his poetry? Her reaction to her father's will, wanting the house, the car, putting on a turn? Faber and Faber, ringing the secretary, pouring the chocolate through the door? Her collapse and the bishop's arrival? Crashing the car with Maurice and Eliot? Her family having more information (and the audience knowing this) and relationship between her physical and mental illness?
13.Eliot and the Anglo-Catholic? church, instruction, the solemnity of the baptism, the cross-cutting with her banging on the door? His becoming a British citizen, the possibility of lectureship at Harvard?
14.The glimpse of the Bloomsbury set, Virginia Woolf and the others? Their literary background, society, attraction towards Eliot, lionising him?
15.The doctors and the discussion of Vivien's illness, her mother's reaction, the final situation and her locking herself in, the test and her failure (deliberate or not?), her being taken in the teashop with Louise, the sadness and the melodrama, her choosing to create a scene?
16.The many years in the institution, the quiet tranquillity, her health after menopause? The visit of the American and his wanting to help her, his ignorance of Eliot and her reaction? Her paying for her own welfare, Maurice's visit and the pathos of nobody going to see her, her polite asking after everyone, her love for him? Eliot not having visited her for 10 years? Listening to him on the BBC? The pathos of her death?
17.Eliot and his continuing to work and write, the range of poetry, his comments on poetry not expressing emotion but as an escape from emotion, broadcast during the war, the symbolism of the lift and his continually going down, his being enclosed?
18.A portrait of Britain in the first part of the 20th century, society, ambition and success, art and the reality of life?
