Portrait of a Marriage (1990) / Ep.I p3/6

Portrait of a marriage (BBC, 1990,Drama, 4 Episodes, 219 Minutes).
Directed by Stephen Whittaker.

Melodrama detailing the real-life love affair between feminist writer Vita Sackville-West (Janet McTeer) and novelist Violet Keppel (Cathryn Harrison) against the backdrop of post-World War I England and opposition by Vita's politican husband Harold Nicolson (David Haig). Vita and Violet's romantic relationship becomes increasingly obsessive which spawns destructive feelings of possessiveness and jealouy between them.
Cast:
Janet McTeer as Vita Sackville-West,
Cathryn Harrison as Violet Keppel Trefusis,
David Haig as Harold Nicolson,
Peter Birch as Denys Trefusis

Originally broadcast in four episodes on BBC in September and October 1990.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098897/

ABOUT Vita Sackville-West: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vita_Sackville-West
Victoria Mary Sackville-West, The Hon Lady Nicolson, CH (9 March 1892 2 June 1962), best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and poet. Her long narrative poem, The Land, won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927. She won it again, becoming the only writer to do so, in 1933 with her Collected Poems. She helped create her own gardens in Sissinghurst, Kent, which provide the backdrop to Sissinghurst Castle. She was famous for her exuberant aristocratic life, her strong marriage, and her passionate affair with novelist Virginia Woolf.

ABOUT Violet Trefusis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Trefusis
Violet Trefusis née Keppel (6 June 1894 29 February 1972) was an English writer and socialite. She is most notable for her lesbian affair with Vita Sackville-West, which was featured under disguise in Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography.
Born Violet Keppel, she was the daughter of Alice Keppel, a mistress of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and her husband, the Hon. George Keppel, a son of an Earl of Albemarle. Her biological father, however, was considered by members of the Keppel family to be William Beckett, subsequently 2nd Baron Grimthorpe, a banker and MP for Whitby.
Trefusis lived her early youth in London, where the Keppel family had a house in Portman Square. When Trefusis was four years old, Alice Keppel became the favorite mistress of Albert Edward (Bertie), the Prince of Wales, who became King Edward VII on 22 January 1901. He paid visits to the Keppel household in the afternoon around tea-time (while her husband, who was aware of the affair, was conveniently absent), on a regular basis till the end of his life in 1910.
Trefusis is best remembered today for her love affair with the wealthy Vita Sackville-West, having figured in Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando. In this romanticized biography of Vita, Trefusis appears in it as the Russian princess Sasha.

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Tags:

• Vita
• Sackville-West
• Violet
• Keppel
• Trefusis
• Janet
• McTeer
• Cathryn
• Harrison
• feminist
• writer
• novelist
• melodrama
• period
• drama
• biography
• film
• miniseries

[helenkrump]

@EffLabels Most important about the Nicholsons is that, whatever their orientations were, they loved each other, and made a family together. One of the most moving scenes in the book Portrait of a Marriage written by son Nigel, is when he came upon Harold weeping uncontrollably in the garden after Vita died. I sometimes think that as a culture we get way too hung up on what constitutes fulfillment in a relationship, reducing it to sexual fulfillment without considering emotional fulfillment.

[helenkrump]

@hotjames808 from what we know, his extracurricular activities where exclusively homosexual--which is not strictly true of Vita BTW, although most of her affairs were with women, she had at least one serious affair with another man.

[EffLabels]

@helenkrump That is true

[EffLabels]

@helenkrump But in those days it was difficult to decifer what someone *really* was. We will never know how many affairs occured due to the fear of being 'found-out'

[GypsyFairy85]

@hotjames808

He was left with the gift of a STD from whomever (He says he was with no other woman) he had a passing encounter with.

[hotjames808]

what the fuck!?!? so he got burned by a hooker or something? O___o

[MrJonnyjoe]

thanks for sharing

[tntftbrain]

i watched this a long time ago,i liked it so much that i'm watching it again.thanks for posting