Youth and Time, John William Godward, 1901
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Mythology[edit]
Eternal youth is a characteristic of the inhabitants of Paradise in Abrahamic religions.The Hindus believe that the Vedic and the post-Vedic rishis have attained immortality, which implies the ability to change one's body's age or even shape at will. These are some of the siddhas in Yoga. Markandeya is said to always stay at the age of 16.
The difference between eternal life and the more specific eternal youth is a recurrent theme in Greek and Roman mythology. The mytheme of requesting the boon of immortality from a god, but forgetting to ask for eternal youth appears in the story of Tithonus. A similar theme is found in Ovid regarding the Cumaean Sibyl.
In Norse mythology, Iðunn is described as providing the gods apples that grant them eternal youthfulness in the 13th century Prose Edda.
Telomeres[edit]
An individual's DNA plays a role in the aging process. Aging starts as soon as one is born. As soon as cells start to die and begin to need to be replaced. On the ends of each chromosome are repetitive sequences of DNA, telomeres, that protect the chromosome from joining with other chromosomes and have several key roles. One of these roles is to regulate cell division by allowing each cell division to take a small amount of genetic code off. The amount taken off varies by the type off cell being replicated. The slow wearing away of the telomeres restricts cell division to 40-60 times, also known as the Hayflick limit. Once this limit has been reached more cells die than can be replaced in the same amount of time. Thus soon after this limit is reached the organism dies. The importance of telomeres is now clearly evident: lengthen the telomeres, lengthen the life.[1]However a study of the comparative biology of mammalian telomeres indicated that telomere length correlates inversely, rather than directly, with lifespan, and concluded that the contribution of telomere length to lifespan remains controversial.[2] Also, telomere shortening does not occur with age in a some postmitotic tissues, such as in the rat brain.[3] In humans, skeletal muscle telomere lengths remain stable from ages 23–74.[4] In baboon skeletal muscle, that consists of fully differentiated post-mitotic cells, less than 3% of myonuclei contain damaged telomeres and this percentage does not increase with age. [5] Thus telomere shortening does not appear to be a major factor in the aging of the differentiated cells of brain or skeletal muscle.
Studies have shown that 90 percent of cancer cells contain large amounts of an enzyme called telomerase.[6] Telomerase is an enzyme that replenishes the worn away telomeres by adding bases to the ends and thus renewing the telomere. A cancer cell has in essence turned on the telomerase gene, and this allows them to have an unlimited amount of divisions without the telomeres wearing away. Other kinds of cells that can surpass the Hayflick limit are stem cells, hair follicles, and germ cells.[7] This is because they contain raised amounts of telomerase.
See also[edit]
- Ageless
- DNA damage theory of aging
- Dorian Gray
- Elixir of life
- Fountain of Youth
- Indefinite lifespan
- Immortality
- Maximum lifespan
- Peter Pan
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- Jump up ^ Lee J. Siegel. "ARE TELOMERES THE KEY TO AGING AND CANCER?".
- Jump up ^ Gomes NM, Ryder OA, Houck ML, Charter SJ, Walker W, Forsyth NR, Austad SN, Venditti C, Pagel M, Shay JW, Wright WE (2011). Comparative biology of mammalian telomeres: hypotheses on ancestral states and the roles of telomeres in longevity determination. Aging Cell 10(5):761-768. doi: 10.1111/j.1474-9726.2011.00718.x. PMID 21518243
- Jump up ^ Cherif H, Tarry JL, Ozanne SE, Hales CN (2003). Ageing and telomeres: a study into organ- and gender-specific telomere shortening. Nucleic Acids Res 31(5):1576-1583. PMID 12595567
- Jump up ^ Renault V, Thornell LE, Eriksson PO, Butler-Browne G, Mouly V (2003). Regenerative potential of human skeletal muscle during aging. Aging Cell 1(2):132-139. PMID 12882343
- Jump up ^ Jeyapalan JC, Ferreira M, Sedivy JM, Herbig U (2007) Accumulation of senescent cells in mitotic tissue of aging primates. Mech Ageing Dev 128(1):36-44. PMID 17116315
- Jump up ^ Klaus Damm (2001). "A highly selective telomerase inhibitor limiting human cancer cell proliferation". The EMBO Journal 20 (24). doi:10.1093/emboj/20.24.6958.
- Jump up ^ Peter J. Hornsby (2007). "Telomerase and the aging process". PubMed 42 (7): 575–81. doi:10.1016/j.exger.2007.03.007. PMC 1933587. PMID 17482404.
The Film Orlando is essentially about the concept of Eternal Youth. It also has some magnificent music...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbDFcoXkj7U
Orlando (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Orlando | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster
| |
| Directed by | Sally Potter |
| Produced by | Christopher Sheppard |
| Written by | Sally Potter |
| Based on | Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf |
| Starring | Tilda Swinton Billy Zane Lothaire Bluteau John Wood Charlotte Valandrey |
| Music by | David Motion Sally Potter |
| Cinematography | Aleksei Rodionov |
| Edited by | Hervé Schneid |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
| Release dates |
|
| Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4 million[1] or $5 million |
| Box office | £1,519,690 (UK)[2] $5,319,445[2] |
It was particularly acclaimed for its visual treatment of the settings of Woolf's 1928 novel. Potter chose to film much of the Constantinople portion of the book in the isolated city of Khiva in Uzbekistan, and made use of the forest of carved columns in the city's 18th century Djuma Mosque.
The film premiered at the 49th Venice International Film Festival, in which it entered the main competition.[5] Orlando was rereleased by Sony Pictures Classics in select theatres starting 6 August 2010.[6]
Contents
[hide]Plot[edit]
The film begins in the Elizabethan Age shortly before the death of Queen Elizabeth I. On her deathbed, Elizabeth promises an androgynous young nobleman named Orlando a large tract of land and a castle built on it along with a generous monetary gift which she will only bequeath to him if he consents to her command, "Do not fade. Do not wither. Do not grow old." Both he and his heirs will keep the land and inheritance forever. Orlando acquiesces and resides in splendid isolation in the castle for a couple of centuries, during which time he dabbles in poetry and art. His attempts to befriend a celebrated poet, however, backfire when the poet ridicules his verse. Orlando then travels to Constantinople as British ambassador to the Turks, but he is almost killed in a diplomatic fracas there. Waking up the next morning, he learns something even more startling: he has physically transformed into a woman overnight.The now Lady Orlando comes home to her estate in Middle Eastern garb, only to learn that she faces several impending lawsuits arguing that Orlando was a woman to begin with and therefore has no right to the land or any of her/his royal inheritance.
The succeeding two centuries tire her out; the court case, bad luck in love and the wars of British history eventually bring her up to the 1990s, with a young daughter in tow and a book in search of a publisher. The editor who judges the work as "quite good" is, ironically, portrayed by Heathcote Williams – the same actor who denigrated her poetry as a different character 200 years earlier. Having lived a most bizarre existence, Orlando finally finds a tranquil niche within it.
Differences from novel[edit]
| “ | My task with the adaptation of Virginia Woolf's book for the screen was to find a way of remaining true to the spirit of the book and to Virginia Woolf's intentions, whilst being ruthless with changing the book in any way necessary to make it work cinematically. [...] The most immediate changes were structural. The storyline was simplified – any events which did not significantly further Orlando's story were dropped. | ” |
—director Sally Potter about the changes from the book, press kit[1]
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| “ | Orlando's words and looks to the camera [were] intended as an equivalent both of Virginia Woolf's direct addresses to her readers and to try to convert Virginia Woolf's literary wit into cinematic humor | ” |
Selected cast[edit]
- Tilda Swinton as Orlando
- Quentin Crisp as Elizabeth I
- Jimmy Somerville as Falsetto/Angel
- John Wood as Archduke Harry
- John Bott as Orlando's father
- Elaine Banham as Orlando's mother
- Anna Farnworth as Clorinda
- Sara Mair-Thomas as Favilla
- Anna Healy as Euphrosyne
- Dudley Sutton as James I
- Simon Russell Beale as Earl of Moray
- Matthew Sim as Lord Francis Vere
- Charlotte Valandrey as Princess Sasha
- Toby Stephens as Othello
- Oleg Pogodin as Desdemona
- Heathcote Williams as Nick Greene
- Thom Hoffman as William III
- Sarah Crowden as Mary II
- Billy Zane as Shelmerdine
Soundtrack[edit]
- Jimmy Somerville – "Eliza Is the Fairest Queen" (Composed by Edward Johnson)
- Andrew Watts with Peter Hayward on harpsichord – "Where'er You Walk" (from Semele) (Composed by George Frideric Handel)
- Jimmy Somerville – "Coming" (Composed by Sally Potter, Jimmy Somerville, David Motion)
Poetry[edit]
Portions of poetry occur in the film:[7]- The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
- Othello by William Shakespeare
- "Sonnet 29" by William Shakespeare
- "Women" ("Surat al-Nisa") from the Quran
- "The Indian Serenade" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- "The Revolt of Islam" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Production[edit]
When first pitching her treatment in 1984, Potter was told the film was "unmakable, impossible, far too expensive and anyway not interesting." Nevertheless, in 1988 she began writing the script and raising money.[1]Casting[edit]
Potter saw Tilda Swinton in the Manfred Karge play Man to Man and said that there was a "profound subtlety about the way she took on male body language and handled maleness and femaleness." In Potter's words, Quentin Crisp was the "Queen of Queens . . . particularly in the context of Virginia Woolf's gender-bending politics" and thus fit to play the aged Queen Elizabeth.Reception[edit]
Prior to Orlando's release in the United States in June 1993, Vincent Canby wrote an effusively positive review: "This ravishing and witty spectacle invades the mind through eyes that are dazzled without ever being anesthetized. Throughout Ms. Potter's Orlando, as in Woolf's, there [is] a piercing kind of common sense and a joy that, because they are so rare these days in any medium, create their own kind of cinematic suspense and delightedly surprised laughter. Orlando could well become a classic of a very special kind—not mainstream perhaps—but a model for independent film makers who follow their own irrational muses, sometimes to unmourned obscurity, occasionally to glory."Canby does caution that while the novel stands on its own, he is not yet sure if the film does. Nevertheless, he goes on to comment that "Potter's achievement is in translating to film something of the breadth of Woolf's remarkable range of interests, not only in language and literature, but also in history, nature, weather, animals, the relation of the sexes and the very nature of the sexes." [8]
In contrast, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times described Orlando as “hollow . . . smug . . . and self-satisfied” and complains that “any kind of emotional connection to match [Orlando's] carefully constructed look . . . is simply not to be had.”[9]
By 2010, Orlando was received as part of Potter's successful oeuvre with Matthew Connelly and had one critic affirming in the very first line of his review that "[r]arely have source material, director, and leading actress been more in alignment than in Orlando, the 1992 adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel, directed by Sally Potter and starring Tilda Swinton [. . .]. Watching Orlando some 17 years after its U. S. theatrical run, however, proves a welcome reminder of just how skillfully they [Potter and Swinton] marshaled their respective gifts here, how openly they entered into a dialogue with Woolf's playful, slippery text."[10]
At the beginning of 2014[update], IMDB listed the film's score as 7.1/10 from over 7,746 users[11] and Rotten Tomatoes scored the film positively at 78%.[12]
Awards[edit]
Orlando was nominated for Academy Awards for art direction (Ben Van Os, Jan Roelfs) and costume design.[13] The film was also nominated for the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards' Best Foreign Film award.[14] At the 29th Guldbagge Awards the film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film award.[15]References[edit]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Press kit", sonyclassics.com. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Olins, Rufus. "Mr Fixit of the British Screen." Sunday Times [London, England] 24 Sept. 1995: 9[S]. The Sunday Times Digital Archive. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
- Jump up ^ Young, R. G., ed. (2000). The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies. New York: Applause. p. 468. ISBN 1-55783-269-2.
- Jump up ^ Glaessner, Verina (1998). "Potter, Sally". In Unterburger, Amy L. Women Filmmakers & Their Films. Detroit, MI: St. James Press. pp. 336–337. ISBN 1-55862-357-4.
- Jump up ^ "Venezia, Libertà Per Gli Autori". La Repubblica. July 31, 1992. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
- Jump up ^ Sony Pictures Classics
- Jump up ^ "Sally Potter encorporated some choice excerpts of English poetry into her screenplay.", retrieved 12 September 2011.
- Jump up ^ Vincent Canby, Movie Review, The New York Times, 19 March 1993, online at http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F0CE4D91038F93AA25750C0A965958260
- Jump up ^ Kenneth Turan, “Lush 'Orlando' Makes Its Point Once Too Often”, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 1993, p. F8.
- Jump up ^ http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/orlando/4904
- Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107756/
- Jump up ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/orlando/
- Jump up ^ "The 66th Academy Awards (1994) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
- Jump up ^ Connors, Martin; Craddock, Jim, eds. (1999). "Orlando". VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever 1999. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. p. 669. ISBN 1-57859-041-8. ISSN 1095-371X.
- Jump up ^ "Orlando (1992)". Swedish Film Institute. 23 March 2014.
External links[edit]
- Official Website
- Orlando at the Internet Movie Database
- Orlando at AllMovie
- Orlando at Box Office Mojo
- Orlando at Rotten Tomatoes
- Orlando at the TCM Movie Database
- Yahoo! Movies
- IMP Awards
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Categories:
- 1992 films
- English-language films
- 1990s drama films
- British films
- British fantasy films
- Feminist films
- Films set in Tudor England
- Films set in the 17th century
- Films set in the 18th century
- Films set in the 19th century
- Films set in the 20th century
- Films based on novels
- Films directed by Sally Potter
- Films set in England
- Films set in Istanbul
- Films set in the Ottoman Empire
- Films about Elizabeth I of England
- British LGBT-related films
- Films shot in Russia
- Films shot in Uzbekistan
- Virginia Woolf in performing arts
- British drama films
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