The Hours

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 2002, 114 min
Section: Horizons - Awarded films

Synopsis

In 1923, in the sanctuary of her suburban house in Richmond, Virginia Woolf begins writing one of her most intimate works – Mrs Dalloway. Many years later, in Los Angeles in 1951, the book serves to illuminate the depression of stereotypical life for pregnant housewife Laura Brown, who is planning a celebration for her husband. Another modern-day Mrs Dalloway – Clarissa Vaughn, an emancipated publisher from New York in 2001 – is also planning a party for the man she loves: the poet Richard who is dying of AIDS. This adaptation of the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Michael Cunningham diversifies, fuses and confronts the motifs treated in Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway. The film describes one day in the life of three women existing in three time dimensions and, through them, reflects upon the problems of modern feminine sensibilities.
Nicole Kidman won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and BAFTA award for her performance. Together with Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep, she also won a Silver Bear at the Berlin IFF.

About the director

Stephen Daldry (b. 1960, Dorset, United Kingdom) studied English literature at Sheffield University. He moved to the London Gate Theatre in 1990 and then to the National Theatre, where he won a Tony Award for co-directing the drama An Inspector Calls, which successfully transferred to Broadway. He has been artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre since 1992. He caught the eye of the film-going public with his short film Eight (1998 – BAFTA nomination). In 2000 he made the psychological film about a boy yearning to study ballet Billy Elliot, which won a number of awards, including various British Independent Film awards for Best Film, Direction, Screenplay and Acting Debut (Jamie Bell), plus a prize at the Alexander Korda Awards for Best British Film. He is co-producer of the television series The Billy Elliot Boy (2001). His film The Hours was followed by Hiding Room (2002).