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Portrait of a Marriage | 
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Director: Stephen Whittaker
Actors: Janet Mcteer, David Haig, Cathryn Harrison, Diana Fairfax, Peter Birch
Studio: Acorn Media
Category: DVD
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $21.38
You Save: $18.61 (47%)
New (18) Used (8) from $21.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 28668
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 219
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.5 x 1.1
MPN: 8253
UPC: 054961825394
EAN: 0054961825394
ASIN: B000F4RHBQ
Theatrical Release Date: July 19, 1992
Release Date: May 30, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Portrait of a Marriage opens with deceptive calm-- a husband and wife working in a garden look up at planes flying overhead. But the planes are off to bomb Germany and moments later a phone call thrusts the wife--poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West (Janet McTeer, Tumbleweeds)--into a bittersweet reverie from the previous war. Five years into her marriage with Harold Nicolson (David Haig, Two Weeks Notice), Harold confesses his affairs with men--but swears his only true passion is Vita. She accepts this, but when her childhood friend Violet Keppel (Cathryn Harrison, Clarissa) arrives, the two women begin an affair. Soon Vita and Violet find themselves deeply enmeshed, traveling through the gay demimonde of Paris with Vita in men's clothes. The affair becomes all-consuming and starts tearing at Vita and Harold's marriage and the lives of their two children. Portrait of a Marriage practically bursts with revealing psychological details and startlingly steamy sex scenes--as Vita and Violet's relationship grows more carnal, so does the miniseries. But there's nothing casual or exploitive about it; the sex deepens the hold the women have on each other's hearts and leads to emotional pyrotechnics. The tension constantly thickens, made all the more complex because Vita and Harold genuinely love each other, regardless of their sexual longings. The vivid and meticulous recreation of the period frames the superb performances by McTeer, Harrison, and Haig. This four-episode miniseries from 1990, based on the biography by Vita and Harold's son Nigel, is yet another example of the BBC's mastery of literary adaptations. --Bret Fetzer
Description
From the BBC, Janet McTeer stars as Vita Sackville-West in the classic Masterpiece Theatre drama British aristocrat and writer Vita Sackville-West and diplomat Harold Nicolson married in 1913, and their love endured and deepened over the course of their 50 years together. Each, however, was knowingly and repeatedly unfaithful to the other, Vita most famously with fellow writer Virginia Woolf. But only one affair threatened their union: Vita's tempestuous liaison with her childhood friend Violet Keppel. This BBC drama is the story of that affair based on the extraordinary literary biography by Nigel Nicolson, Vita and Harold's son. Award-winning actress Janet McTeer (Tumbleweeds, Carrington) stars as Vita with David Haig (Two Weeks Notice) as Harold, and Cathryn Harrison (Clarissa) as Violet.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Powerful Passions April 26, 2008
I remember seeing this series when it first came out in England many years ago. I recently bought the DVD's issued here in the US. Seeing it again, so many years later, did not diminish the effect it had on me. I was quite surprised by this and I think that fact alone says something about the quality of this production. It is really an examination of the conflict between stable family life and the wild passions of youth. Many people might contemplate the kind of marriage/relationship that Vita had, but very few would actually go through with it. There are some very violent scenes so this is not for the faint of heart, and some heartbreaking ones when you see the effect the turmoil is having on her children. It superbly acted by all parties especially the husbands- they are very hard parts to play. Janet McTeer is absolutely perfect as Vita. Many people know of Vita Sackville-West because of her later relationship with Virginia Woolf. But it is vital to understand her first major extramarital affair with Violet to understand the context of her later relationships with other women.
For gardeners out there thinking that this might show Sissinghurst, a word of caution, most of the action takes place while Vita and Harold were creating their Long Barn garden, not Sissinghurst. But there are some divine shots of Sissinghurst (especially the White garden) at the very end.
frankly speaking October 10, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoy this movie. In the same genre as "Maurice", "Wilde", and "Tipping the Velvet", this timeless classic is truly rivoting and heartwretching to watch. The age of innocence was a period many seek to keep prime and proper, full of myths on social morality, when in fact, most educated, well travelled and sophisticated people (especially in the Arts)knew that this so-called benign period was the beginning of greater freedom of expression if one only dared challenged societal myths. This film is definitely one fit for the classical library collections, gay or straight. I am sure others customers will be as delighted with this film as I was. Bravo to you Amazon, for your brilliant selection of film!
PBS Series, Great Drama August 17, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you enjoy period dramas or bios, check this one out..also a true story written by the couple's son, Nigel
VIOLET AND VITA AND HAROLD AND DENYS July 25, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a superb BBC production. High production values. It's a TV luxury. Based on Vita's memoire of her love affair with Violet Keppel Trefusis which can be found in Nigel Nicolson's 'Portrait of a Marriage' as well as Violet's letters and Vita's biography, it is intelligently scripted by Penelope Mortimer and acted excellently by a high calibre cast. The drama is gut wrenchingly effective in parts. There is a violent scene between Vita and Violet that made me want to jump into the TV and put an end to it. Of note for me is the acting of Cathryn Harrison especially in the first 2 episodes; she is a perfect Violet awesomely in love with Vita. The blood from Violet's face would drain when she caught sight of Vita; she wanted to give all of herself to Vita. Cathryn transmits this intensity of feeling with great skill - this is marvelous acting (watch for her reactions especially in the love scenes). Peter Birch/Denys Trefusis also has a similar quality. Only David Haig as Harold grates because the direction has him play the part too passively as a kind of neutered man- still we get the point of the dynamics. Janet McTeer is excellent and conveys the idea of Vita's so called dual nature well.
In the final 2 episodes disenchantment sets in as it did in real life and the story ends in Amiens, France (early 1920) in a fevered destructive climax. At the end the sheen has come off all the characters. I no longer cared much about Vita and Harold but was concerned about Violet especially and Denys who are left with a ruined future - we are not told what happened to them and they are not contextualised in the drama. The absence of Violet's powerful and famous mother Alice Keppel is a flaw as she was instrumental in the ending of the affair. The DVD includes a very short note about Vita but nothing about the others.
The post script is that Vita and Violet continued their relationship as far as they could until Spring 1921. Denys Trefusis sought a formal separation which would have brought the whole affair into the public domain (he was penniless and would need alimony I suppose but he was also seething from humiliation). Lawyers and matriarchs came onto the scene and Vita agreed, through lawyers, to give Violet up. Violet became bereft, lost and declassee or ostracised from high society - a great humiliation for her mother (Edward VII's discreet, clever mistress). She was confined and banned from contacting Vita. Violet and Denys eventually reached an agreement and went to live in Paris - the spoiled marriage turned into a fragile companionship funded by Mrs Keppel. Denys introduced the lonely Violet to the high priestess of arts and music, Princess Polignac and that love affair was tolerated because of its discretion. This enabled the brilliantly intelligent Violet (we don't see much of this in the TV series) to become classee in Paris's high society and in Florence where she inherited her parents' villa. She never married again but, after poor Denys died of consumption, she went back to her flirting girlish ways -even as a grande dame in Paris and Florence -and had many a male suitor as she did before she met Vita. Not many in France and Italy knew about her true past. There must have been a buried sadness - she knew that her ideal of love had failed; she lived the artificial facile life, albeit with an ironic eye, she had once so hated and became quite eccentric. But she lived in her beloved France. Her heart was French, she said. She once prophesied that her life would be one of waste. Maybe it was but she gave a lot of pleasure to her many friends. She wrote published books. And I take my hat off to her for getting through it all.
Vita and Harold lived in companionship and never had intimate relations again. Vita continued to have affairs and wrecked a couple of marriages on the way but managed to have an enduring mostly platonic, passionate friendship with Virginia Woolf. There is evidence that Violet and Vita felt the flame again in their middle age but desisted. The friendship was worn down by disappointment - both represented fallen ideals and wasted potential. Harold had his liaisons but they were never grand affairs. Vita became quite reclusive at Sissinghurst and her biography politely implies she may have liked the alcohol a bit too much in older age. She was ambivalent towards her children. She and Harold lived apart most of the time but their affectionate companionship endured to the end and Harold - a man of real substance with a raft of books to his name as does Vita - was left desolate when Vita died in 1962. The beautiful garden at Sissinghurst is the best portrait of their marriage. Violet was the last to leave this earth in 1972 -
"My heart was more disgraceful, more alone
And more courageous than the world has known,
O passer by my heart was like your own."
Shortly after Nigel Nicolson's book was published. London (and Paris and Florence for the 1st time) was aghast all over again. And now, here we are. Buy this DVD. It's honestly one of the best BBC dramas ever. Then, if still interested, buy the biographies by Glendinning and Souhami.
Portrait of a Marriage July 5, 2007
First saw this on Masterpiece Theater with Alistair Cooke. Excellent autobiography and story of a gay woman poet/writer, Vita Sackville-West, living in the WWI era 1920's and 30's, gay life in Paris! What you did in those days was marry and hide your homosexuality and lesbianism. Sackville-West and her diplomat homosexual husband do just that. But, as women, sex does not come without love as emotions, passions, and trust broil to a fantastic climax. Most intriguing!! Personnel favorite of all time.
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