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Orlando (1992 Potter)

2/10/22

The 1992 British drama Orlando is a film adaptation of Virginia Woolfe’s novel. The film stars Tilda Swinton as the androgynis protagonist Orlando, with Charlotte Valandray and Billy Zane as her love interests. Theres are also musical performances from Jimmy Somerville. The film was the groundbreaking work from Sally Potter that thrust the new director into the limelight, although a huge success, Orlando had made just under one million in profit.

Starting off as a young page to the queen, Orlando quickly becomes a favorite of hers and is told to never change. He does exactly this and does not age throughout the film. After inheriting land and a mansion from the queen, he falls for a Russian princess Sasha, who ultimately breaks his heart. Orlando goes on to travel and somehow transforms into a woman.

The turning point of the movie follows the now Lady Orlando and her struggle in navigating her old life as a lord. The social response to a woman with the power of a man challenges Orlandos life, she loses the right to her land, her home, her social status all because she has changed into a woman.

This radical change in orlandos life allows him to reflect on who she was as a man. The film mirrors scenes where orlando had treated Sasha as property while a man, to Orlando being property while a woman. He essentially losses his rights and his freedom when the transformation happened.

The films cinematographer was Aleksei Rodionov, Orlando was the 4th film he worked on. There is very little on the internet about Rodionov, which is sad because i find his style extremely unique and hard to describe. His work has a whimsical and romantic quality, which fits Orlando perfectly. An interesting way to show the passes of time was through many match cuts, which can be dizzying at times because theyre very hard to notice.

Orlando was Sally Potter’s second film, that she was encouraged not to make. Potter said in an interview that upon pitching the idea for Orlando she was told its “too hard, too confusing, and generlally uninteresting”. She went to raise the production budget on her own and made the film anyway. Potter had been making films since 14, she dropped out of school at 16, and was a legitamate filmmaker by 17. She comes from a strong femminist and in her own words, anarchist background where everything was questioned, so Orlando was an important film to make.

A fascinating aspect of Orlando is that its partially animated. A smear artist was hired to create inbetween frams so transitions could be more fluid and seamless. Orlando aslo feature pyrotechnics in the festival scenes and green screen work to create the fyling angel at the end of the film.

I already gave some of my opinion in class, but now i think i fully hate that angel. Maybe not hate, his singing was nice, and i think hed wor in a different movie. He lacks purpose and it really annoys me, its like shoving a corner piece into the center of a puzzle just because you want it to be done. What was his purpose? What was the symbolism? It just doesnt fit.

The rest of the film was lovely, but I wish it was longer. It felt very fast and i know now that maybe Sally Potter felt pressured to keep it short to keep the audiences attention, but theres so much story the film could have broke 2 hours, hell if done right it couldve hit 3. People flocked to theaters to see a 3 hr film about Jimmy Hoffa, a queer, genderbent, immortal/un-aging brithish nobel trying to find love is JUST as interesting, if not more. Its a good film, I just wish there was more of it.

#traditional gender roles #generbent #tilda swinton #virginia woolfe #period movies #symbolism #film #film review