FI: Orlando

Orlando
UK, 1992
Written and Directed by Sally Potter

Though today Tilda Swinton is something of a cultural institution, an Oscar winner and franchise cornerstone whose enigmatic persona is well-known enough to be fodder for a famous Twitter parody account, she did not have the same international profile when she took on the title role in Sally Potter's Orlando. After watching it, I'm amazed her star took as long to rise as it did. The film, an adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel, is a story about the fluidity of gender and sexuality, and the ways the perceptions of each change a person's social status and potential roles. Orlando begins as an androgynous nobleman (as was the style at the time), a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp) who somehow becomes immortal and unaging. Through the centuries he lives, loves, and indulges in art, literature, and travel. One day, Orlando awakes to find he has become a woman, and lives until the present day while exploring the options and expectations society offers to—or withholds from—her in her new gender.

Swinton's performance is the standout, here. She uses her lithe frame and malleable features to do the heavy lifting in conveying Orlando's fluid gender, not relying on some false deep voice or exaggerated feminine traits to beat the conceit into the ground. Potter leaves much unanswered, but the material's magical tone and the film's loose, dreamy style don't create a demand for answers. Orlando's unique nature is never questioned, played for laughs, or made into An Issue, even when her femininity causes her problems within England's patriarchal peerage system. Yes, Orlando would be a progressive film even today, to say nothing of the climate in which it premiered, but Potter lets her themes spring up organically and without force. We come away realizing that people can express a range of genders and sexual proclivities without it changing their essential humanity or worth. There is no need to spell it out in neon lights.

If I have a complaint, and it is a rare one for me to make, it's that the film could have been longer and still not overstayed its welcome. I wouldn't have minded delving deeper into Orlando's life at any point in her extended timeline, especially some of the eras that Potter's script necessarily elides to meet Orlando's brisk, ninety-minute running time. As it stands, story becomes a secondary concern, which would prove problematic were the lush visuals and thematic structure not as well handled as they are. Still, although Orlando may feel too slight and insubstantial for some audiences, its spell largely worked on me