November 10, 1995
Web posted at: 7:50 a.m. EST
From Entertainment Correspondent Cynthia Tornquist
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce star in "Carrington," the true story about the talented English painter Dora Carrington and her relationship with the eminent writer Lytton Strachey.
Set between the first World War and the 1930s, theirs was an unconventional romance -- Strachey was gay.
"She had lots of other relationships with men which she did have sex with, and they provided a comfort and a need that they both had," Pryce says. (145K AIFF sound or 145K WAV sound)
The film marks the directorial debut of scriptwriter Christopher Hampton, who won an Oscar for his 1988 screenplay "Dangerous Liaisons." Hampton ranks Carrington's painting among the finest -- even though her work was overshadowed by her relationship to Strachey.
"She never exhibited, she never sold and consequently was not known at all," he says.
Strachey died in 1932, and a distraught Carrington committed suicide.
The film captured a special Cannes Jury Prize and a best actor trophy for Pryce.
Hampton wrote "Carrington" in 1977 -- but when he delivered his script to Warner Brothers, the idea had lost its appeal. Over the next 10 years, the script was developed by a number of parties with no success.
"And the film passed from one company to another and eventually the producers and I bought the rights back and made it ourselves," he says. (110K AIFF sound or 110K WAV sound)
The film lost its director in the process -- but Hampton was persuaded to take over.
"I didn't know what to do," he says. "I was in Los Angeles and bought a book of first steps in directing. I tried to talk to all of my director friends, who were all very helpful, although you always get the sense they don't quite approve of somebody crossing the line."
One final note: A film about a painter without examples would not be complete. It wasn't possible to use Carrington's original paintings, so the filmmakers commissioned pastiche artist Jane Gifford to re-create Carrington's works, including one of Pryce as Strachey.
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