BiographyYear1994Duration1h 55mIMDb6.2

Tom & Viv

BiographyDramaRomance

In 1915, Tom and Viv elope, but her gynecological and emotional problems disrupt their honeymoon. Her father is angry because Tom's poetry doesn't bring in enough to live, but her mother is happy Viv has found a tender and discreet husband.

Trailer

Cast

Brian Gilbert

Director

Willem Dafoe

Tom Eliot

Miranda Richardson

Vivienne Haigh-Wood

Rosemary Harris

Rose Haigh-Wood

Tim Dutton

Maurice Haigh-Wood

Nickolas Grace

Bertrand Russell

Geoffrey Bayldon

Harwent

Clare Holman

Louise Purdon

Philip Locke

Charles Haigh-Wood

Joanna McCallum

Virginia Woolf

Joseph O'Conor

Bishop of Oxford

John Savident

Sir Frederick Lamb

Michael Attwell

W.I. Janes

SB

Sharon Bower

Secretary

LS

Linda Spurrier

Edith Sitwell

Roberta Taylor

Ottoline Morrell

CB

Christopher Baines

Verger

Anna Chancellor

Woman

John Clegg

Second Man

MH

Michael Hastings

Writer

AH

Adrian Hodges

Writer

Comments

10 Comments

ArchaeologyNov 18, 2022

Shraddha DasNov 16, 2022

Tom & Viv

IMVU_jxt_•Nov 16, 2022

I was reminded of Ken Russell's Music Lovers, and was beginning to wonder "how many women marry men to associate themselves with success?"(Hillary Clinton). And how often does this choice lead to some form of dementia? Russell is one of my favorites and I LOVE some of his best (Music Lovers, Devils of Loudon, Tommy, Altered States & Gothic). But back to the subject- Do we know of other women who have attached themselves to (potentially) famous men who did so while being mentally unbalanced? I need to watch this film again and re-evaluate, but it seems that everyone may have neglected the real relationship issues in this. And like the afore-mentioned film, the relationship may have been totally one-sided.

Arf YldrımNov 16, 2022

i had to start this movie like four times before i could stand its horrifyingly realistic portrayal of spousal poetic betrayal enough to watch it to the end. miranda richardson is staggeringly effective in portraying a xianthippe-ish thorn in t. s. eliot's side.

its.Kyara.bxtchsNov 16, 2022

This artless art film perpetuates the romantic notion that as long as a clearly mentally ill person shows a tad of artistic inspiration every now and then, she should be given free reign to satisfy her every impulse, no matter how dangerous or self-destructive she may be. I'm getting a tad sick of the Manic as Martyr genre, but as cinema insists on looking back into history for more biopics, I shudder to think of what a future blockbuster like the Zelda Fitzgerald Story could do for the minds of talentless hangers-on everywhere.

flopipopNov 16, 2022

Was she mentally ill or was she suffering from hormonal imbalances not unlike post-menstrual syndrome? The fact that she was bleeding 3 times a month and had erratic behavior certainly alludes to something other that mental illness. When the American doctor came to the institution to see her, he said that her condition could have been controlled with medication. I realize that the times did not allow her illness to be analyzed or researched -- women were really of no interest other than being an extension of their husbands. However, I think that knowing what we do now -- and because as she got older her outbreaks lessened -- it seems that this was not a case of a "crazy" person's rantings. She was merely a woman who was indeed outspoken and had a mind of her own and also suffered from depression brought on by PMS.

Shikshya SangroulaNov 16, 2022

This film demonstrates how easily the state uses the psychiatric profession to unjustly incarcerate citizens, with full permission of family members, and eventually the victim themselves. The scene of the "mind police" taking Viv (Miranda Richardson) out of a restaurant in broad daylight, and her struggle that ends with pushing her purse into the hands of a friend as she is brought into submission, is heart-wrenching.

🧚🏻مولات ضحيكة🤤كزاوية❤️popiâNov 16, 2022

A reasonably well done and fairly well acted biopic of T. S. Eliot, the film is at times delightful to watch, but it is always lacking. The information it presents about Eliot feels insufficient, as his background feels uncomfortably unknown, and there is also no real indication of the setting and time of the film. It is a bit long too, not always be interesting, and really a bit ordinary at times. But it is still well acted and it does have something to say about the position of women in society. Harris and Richardson were both nominated for Oscars for their performance, but Dafoe is the one who really shines here.

MrOnomskiNov 16, 2022

The Tom and Viv of the title are T.S. Eliot and his wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, played by Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson in an Oscar-nominated performance. I always come away from bio pics about artists thinking that the people around the artist would make a much more interesting subject for a film, because the artists themselves are usually rather dull. It's refreshing, then, that this film focuses much more on Vivienne and her struggles with mental illness than it does on the life of Eliot. The film's not entirely successful, but Richardson earned her Best Actress nomination and she's given able support by Rosemary Harris, who plays her mother in couple of brief scenes. Grade: B

angelinaNov 16, 2022

Anyone who has been captivated by the poetry of this great poet, and wondered about the man and the context in which such memorable verse was written, will want to see this film. It shows T S Eliot as a tormented man who is forced to make decisions about how to deal with the mental instability/illness of his wife. The performances are uniformly faultless, and the awful tragedy of mental illness in a marriage is chillingly depicted with deep sensitivity. The film challenges the viewer to judge Eliot as a man - Dafoe's performance brilliantly portrays the anguish of Eliot the man living in what apparently was an impossible marriage, and Eliot the public figure . The film also throws light on Eliot's fascination with the Church and the role it played in providing a still place in a world of personal mental turmoil. Highly recommended.

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