The lives of writers Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West are made for the screen. Sackville-West was known as an aristocratic poet and author whose work focused primarily on the countryside of Kent, while her personal life included affairs and dalliances free of gendered norms. Virginia Woolf was, and still is, considered one of the foremost voices of the modernist movement whose brilliance too often lives in the shadow of her mental health struggles. Bringing such dynamic personalities to the screen seems quite a feat. But it’s the story of their affair that has captured the artistic eye of director Chayna Button.
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Button brings these two women together in “Vita & Virginia.” The seductive, intimate film veers from recanting the story to an audience in typical historical drama fashion to the women themselves sharing their own perspectives. Elizabeth Debicki plays Woolf while Gemma Arterton takes on the role of Sackville-West. The film was part of the official selection for the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018 and will likely reach broader release in the coming months. Until then, the trailer, complete with stunning costumes and period pieces, will tide eagerly awaiting audiences through.
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Here is the full synopsis and trailer:
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The year is 1922. Though happily married, Vita (Gemma Arterton) is as notorious for her dalliances with women and iconoclastic attitudes toward gender as she is famous for her aristocratic ancestry and writerly success. Virginia (Elizabeth Debicki), meanwhile, is a celebrated writer, publisher, and member of the Bloomsbury Group, those innovative moderns already revolutionizing literature. When Vita receives an invitation to Bloomsbury, she is elated at the thought of meeting the enigmatic Woolf and, not surprisingly perhaps, becomes obsessed with the notion of seducing her.
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Between Virginia’s mental health struggles and Vita’s impulsiveness — not to mention the concern of their husbands, families, and mutual friends – their romance is bound to be tumultuous. Yet tumult can fuel creativity — Vita’s singular persona will eventually be channeled into one of Virginia’s greatest works.
“Vita & Virginia” opens in select theaters August 23 and available on VOD August 30 via IFC Films.
