Orlando

Director: Sally Potter
(1992)

Virginia Woolf’s classic tale of gender bending, inspired by one of her female lovers, is brought to life in Sally Potter’s crisp, gorgeously photographed film starring Tilda Swinton as English nobleman Lord Orlando who over the course of hundreds of years, finds he has become a woman, causing both Orlando and the viewer to look at the world through the eyes of both sexes. The result is strange, fascinating, rich, beautiful and ultimately satisfying. Potter, like Woolf, has much to say in this succinct cinematic adaptation clocking in at a mere ninety-three minutes and viewers find with a second or third viewing that there’s more to the film than what immediately meets the eye. Swinton is marvelous throughout and handles the extraordinary events of her character’s life without a blink of confusion— she always knows her character’s motivation and that is simply to live… of course, although when he becomes a woman, “she” learns that there are rules that must be followed to avoid taboo. Speaking of taboos—don’t miss a wickedly clever cameo by Quentin Crisp in complete drag as Queen Elizabeth I.