{ "id": "epgfx3ax1f", "slug": "carrington", "title": "Carrington", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "label": "Drama films 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-early-1990s", "label": "Drama films early 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-early-1990s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Drama films 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "label": "Drama films 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Carrington (1995) is Christopher Hampton's debut biographical drama about painter Dora Carrington and writer Lytton Strachey, starring Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce; it won Best Actor and the Special Jury Prize at Cannes 1995.", "snippet": "Carrington (1995) is Christopher Hampton's debut biographical drama about painter Dora Carrington and writer Lytton Strachey, starring Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce; it won Best Actor and the Special Jury Prize at Cannes 1995.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-early-1990s", "markdown": "# Carrington\n\n*Carrington* is a 1995 British-French biographical drama film directed and written by Christopher Hampton, portraying the relationship between the English painter [Dora Carrington](https://www.edgepedia.org/dora-carrington) and the writer [Lytton Strachey](https://www.edgepedia.org/lytton-strachey) against the backdrop of London's Bloomsbury Group from the First World War to the early 1930s.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/87da2464-106e-5b39-93be-4cef56021303/carrington) • [2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/carrington/umc.cmc.r3e9jsekaeuxjdo6cyveb3sj) [Emma Thompson](https://www.edgepedia.org/emma-thompson) plays Carrington and Jonathan Pryce plays Strachey; the film won two prizes at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the Award for Best Actor for Pryce and the Special Jury Prize (Unanimité).[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/carrington/) It was Hampton's first film as a director.[4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-26-ca-6382-story.html)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writer | Christopher Hampton, his debut as a director[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/87da2464-106e-5b39-93be-4cef56021303/carrington) • [4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-26-ca-6382-story.html) |\n| Production | United Kingdom and France, 1995; produced by Ronald Shedlo and John McGrath for Dora Productions[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/87da2464-106e-5b39-93be-4cef56021303/carrington) • [5](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/86252--carrington/) |\n| Runtime | About 121 to 122 minutes (Cannes lists 123)[6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/carrington) • [3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/carrington/) |\n| Lead cast | Emma Thompson (Dora Carrington), Jonathan Pryce (Lytton Strachey), Steven Waddington (Ralph Partridge)[2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/carrington/umc.cmc.r3e9jsekaeuxjdo6cyveb3sj) |\n| Cannes 1995 | Award for Best Actor and Special Jury Prize (Unanimité); also in Competition for the Palme d'Or[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/carrington/) • [7](https://cinemarx.ro/film/47018-carrington) |\n| Source | Adaptation of Michael Holroyd's biography of Lytton Strachey[4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-26-ca-6382-story.html) • [8](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/the-man-who-wasn-t-there-1.1019759) |\n| Critical score | 58% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 31 reviews[2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/carrington/umc.cmc.r3e9jsekaeuxjdo6cyveb3sj) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nThe film opens in 1915, with the war raging in Europe while the artists and writers of bohemian London continue to live and feast, defying Victorian morals and the conformity of bourgeois painters and sculptors. The writer Lytton Strachey, a bachelor, travels to the South of England to visit [Vanessa Bell](https://www.edgepedia.org/vanessa-bell), sister of [Virginia Woolf](https://www.edgepedia.org/virginia-woolf), and her husband Clive, where he encounters the young painter Dora Carrington.[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/carrington/) • [9](https://www.flicks.com.au/movie/carrington/)\n\nStrachey is gay, yet he and Carrington form a bond of deep affection that lasts the next seventeen years of their lives.[9](https://www.flicks.com.au/movie/carrington/) • [10](https://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/cinema/2010/a-cinema-of-their-own-bloomsbury-on-film.html) The story follows their unconventional household: Carrington has other lovers, including the writer Gerald Brenan, the painter [Mark Gertler](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-gertler), and the military man Ralph Partridge, whom she marries, while Strachey treats her as a life partner but prefers men in bed.[2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/carrington/umc.cmc.r3e9jsekaeuxjdo6cyveb3sj) • [11](https://news.artnet.com/art-world/from-anthony-hopkinss-genteel-picasso-to-how-three-british-dramas-1561735) Eventually the two decide to live together, and at Tidmarsh Mill and then Ham Spray House in [Wiltshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/wiltshire), Carrington keeps house for Strachey with a creativity extending beyond her painting into their daily lives.[6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/carrington) • [12](https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/passionate-past)\n\nThe film ends with Strachey bedridden with undiagnosed stomach cancer; his last words, \"If this is dying, I don't think much of it,\" are an accurate quote from the man himself. Carrington then attempts suicide by shooting herself in the heart with a shotgun. The film rolls the credits straight after the gunshot, implying it worked; in reality she missed her heart, sustained a severe wound, and lived for about half a day, apologizing to her friends through a haze of morphia.[13](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/02/reel-history-carrington)\n\n## Production\n\n**A long-gestating script.** Hampton read Michael Holroyd's biography of Strachey and found the story of Carrington and Strachey unlike any he had come across, questioning basic assumptions about finding one person to provide one's sexual and emotional life. Warner Bros. commissioned a script about the couple and the [Bloomsbury](https://www.edgepedia.org/bloomsbury) group, and in 1977 Hampton read through Strachey and Carrington's correspondence and wrote it, calling that the most enjoyable year of his career. After Warner Bros. passed, the project repeatedly fell through; Mike Newell was attached to direct for several years but withdrew shortly before shooting, saying he had just made a small British film, *Four Weddings and a Funeral*, and needed to go to America to do a proper movie.[4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-26-ca-6382-story.html)\n\n**Hampton takes over.** With Newell gone and no name director free at short notice, Hampton's French producer Philippe Carcassonne, who had secured just under $6 million from PolyGram, suggested that in France it was not unknown for writers to direct. The next day Emma Thompson called to express the same view, and Hampton agreed. He kept the camera as mobile as possible and focused on characters rather than background, a style at a polar extreme from the output of Merchant Ivory.[14](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-05-ca-64918-story.html)\n\n**Design.** The costume designer was Penny Rose, who drew on [Jane Hill](https://www.edgepedia.org/jane-hill)'s biography *The Art of Dora Carrington* and period photos. Where stiff mid-calf Edwardian frocks were the norm, Carrington spends her days in jodhpurs and [Wellington](https://www.edgepedia.org/wellington) boots, and some of her dresses were made at London's Cosprop purposefully badly to look homemade.[15](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-10-ls-1431-story.html)\n\n## Reception\n\nAt Cannes in 1995 the film competed for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) and won the Best Actor award for Pryce and the Special Jury Prize (Unanimité).[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/carrington/) • [7](https://cinemarx.ro/film/47018-carrington) The Cannes success propelled Hampton into a new career as a director.[14](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-05-ca-64918-story.html)\n\nCritics praised the performances but were divided on the film's focus. The Guardian's retrospective review called it an accurate historical movie, drawing extensively on its subjects' diaries and letters, but not a particularly revealing one, finding its obsession with the sexual neuroses of Strachey and Carrington tiresome despite powerful performances by Pryce and Thompson.[13](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/02/reel-history-carrington) An Artnet survey of artist biopics judged Thompson great at capturing Carrington's neuroses though less her brazen side, and noted that the film is not interested in reconsidering the balance between Carrington's life and her art, focusing squarely on the artist as a colorful character.[11](https://news.artnet.com/art-world/from-anthony-hopkinss-genteel-picasso-to-how-three-british-dramas-1561735) On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 58% Tomatometer score from 31 reviews.[2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/carrington/umc.cmc.r3e9jsekaeuxjdo6cyveb3sj)\n\n## Historical background\n\nThe real Dora Carrington, who preferred to go by just the one name, was a British painter in the [Bloomsbury Group](https://www.edgepedia.org/bloomsbury-group) orbit whose work was not particularly known in her lifetime; she was known instead for her bohemian lifestyle and her relationship with Strachey, author of the ironically titled *Eminent Victorians*.[11](https://news.artnet.com/art-world/from-anthony-hopkinss-genteel-picasso-to-how-three-british-dramas-1561735) • [12](https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/passionate-past) Frances Partridge, a member of the Bloomsbury circle portrayed in the film by [Alex Kingston](https://www.edgepedia.org/alex-kingston), lived to see her earlier self on screen in the 1990s.[2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/carrington/umc.cmc.r3e9jsekaeuxjdo6cyveb3sj) • [12](https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/passionate-past)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Carrington (1995), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/87da2464-106e-5b39-93be-4cef56021303/carrington)\n2. [Carrington, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/carrington/umc.cmc.r3e9jsekaeuxjdo6cyveb3sj)\n3. [Carrington, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/carrington/)\n4. [British Writer Enjoying Different Spotlight, Los Angeles Times (26 May 1995)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-26-ca-6382-story.html)\n5. [Carrington, ACMI collection](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/86252--carrington/)\n6. [Carrington streaming: where to watch movie online?, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/carrington)\n7. [Carrington (1995), CinemaRX](https://cinemarx.ro/film/47018-carrington)\n8. [The man who wasn't there, The Irish Times](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/the-man-who-wasn-t-there-1.1019759)\n9. [Carrington: where to watch streaming and online in Australia, Flicks](https://www.flicks.com.au/movie/carrington/)\n10. [A Cinema of Their Own: Bloomsbury on Film, Block Museum, Northwestern University](https://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/cinema/2010/a-cinema-of-their-own-bloomsbury-on-film.html)\n11. [How 3 British Biopics Explored Artistic Eccentricity, Artnet](https://news.artnet.com/art-world/from-anthony-hopkinss-genteel-picasso-to-how-three-british-dramas-1561735)\n12. [Passionate past, Tes Magazine (13 October 1995)](https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/passionate-past)\n13. [Carrington: what a carry-on, The Guardian (2 September 2010)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/02/reel-history-carrington)\n14. [Off the Beaten Path, Los Angeles Times (5 November 1995)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-05-ca-64918-story.html)\n15. [Just One of the Guys, Los Angeles Times (10 November 1995)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-10-ls-1431-story.html)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1990s › Drama films early 1990s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/carrington", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/carrington.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Carrington\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/carrington. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Carrington](https://www.edgepedia.org/carrington)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/carrington](https://www.edgepedia.org/carrington). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Carrington\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/carrington. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Carrington is Christopher Hampton's debut biographical drama about painter Dora Carrington and writer Lytton Strachey, starring Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce; it won Best Actor and the Special Jury Prize at Cannes 1995." }