(1995) Beginning in 1915, this literary and painterly biopic of artist Dora Carrington and writer Lytton Strachey, starring Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce, directed by Christopher Hampton, based on Michael Holroyd's book Lytton Strachey, with score by Michael Nyman, ends in 1932.

Dependent on the kindnesses of his friends Clive and Vanessa Bell, among the bohemian milieu of the Bloomsbury group, Lytton Strachey arrives in his bushy beard and spectacles, abhorring the war with Germany (he's studying the disagreeable Teutonic language, because he says, "Suppose they win"), where he makes acquaintance with young Dora Carrington, who says she wishes she'd been born a boy (having three brothers fighting in France) and prefers to be called Carrington; after he kisses her, as punishment she nearly snips off his whiskers.

Attempting to assure her of his interest in her in all respects, especially sexually ("You can't stay a virgin all your life"), Mark Gertler (Rufus Sewell), a Jew, frustrated with her "fear and ignorance," turns to Lytton, a homosexual, for advice; he recommends Keats's letters.

Objecting to the ridiculous obscenity of this particular war on moral grounds (though to Carrington he confesses to the thrill of encounters during blackouts), Strachey, "a martyr to the piles," in his mid-30s is pronounced "medically unfit" for any service. He further describes himself, with some exaggeration, to Carrington as "obscure, decrepit, terrified, ill-favored, penniless, and fond of adjectives."

At Garsington, Lady Ottoline Morrell (Penelope Wilton), whose husband Phillip, a Member of Parliament, defended Lytton's claim of being a conscientious objector, inquires as to how his campaign of bringing together Carrington and Mark is coming along. Along with the French poets, Lytton takes Carrington (having told Mark to have patience because she needs her freedom) with him to Wales, where against all expectations Strachey (who once proposed to Virginia Woolf with the ghastly result of her acceptance) asks her to live with him in the country.

Having an "all absorbing passion for" Lytton, she accepts; Mark leaves her in anger, referring to Strachey as a "half-dead eunuch … disgusting pervert." At Tidmarsh with its orchard and millrace, the pair settle in; Rex Partridge (Steven Waddington), following the "convenience" of victory, returns from war with the view that skulkers should be lined up and shot, yet eventually moves in with Carrington and Strachey, accepting Lytton's preference for calling him Ralph and sleeping with Carrington. Lytton admits to Ralph (whom Carrington considers "dull as a Norwegian dentist") that he finds "women's bodies subtly offensive."

With critical praise and popular success of his book Eminent Victorians, Strachey finally has the means to live independently. Ralph's friend Gerald Brenan (Samuel West), seeking to "repair ignorance" of his education, visits Tidmarsh, telling his hosts that Partridge invents personalities and opinions for his friends.

Carrington initially responds to Ralph's marriage proposal, accompanied by his threat to depart for Bolivia if refused, by complaining that she is a "plural" when others want her "conclusively." They wed and go to Italy, joining Lytton in Venice for their honeymoon; six weeks later, suspecting Ralph of having mistresses in London, she's with Gerald. Disapproving of jealousy, Lytton observes: "People in love should never live together."

During the period of 1924-31 reasonable arrangements evolve when Roger Senhouse (Sebastian Harcombe) comes to stay at Ham Spray with Lytton (appreciative of the young who have no morals and never speak) while Ralph's mistress Frances shares his bedroom, allowing Carrington to go sailing with Beacus Penrose (Jeremy Northam), the most exciting man she's ever slept with.

Not interested in exhibiting or selling her canvas conceptions in London, Carrington has an abortion; averring that he's better at living than writing, Lytton's health begins to fail. When her "big and devastating love" disappears, after destroying her paints and brushes, she has no other means of facing the emptiness.

Like paintings once painted, over 17 years, none of the characters appears to age or even changes hair styles.

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