ORLANDO Movie Review

Sally Potter's stylistically inventive, witty adaptation of Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel—covering 400 years in the life of an English nobleman whose defiance of death is small potatoes next to his evolution from a man into a woman—is as elegant visually as it is conceptually. Orlando (played charmingly throughout by the coolly androgynous Tilda Swinton) is first glimpsed as a young man in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, whose deadpan portrayal by Quentin Crisp sets both the movie's playful tone as well as its sexual agenda. In bed, the grateful queen beseeches Orlando to “not fade, wither or grow old,” and he complies, becoming a she after a fade out/fade in that slips us quickly past the next 40 years. By the end of the movie's swift 92 minutes, Orlando (now a single mother) has arrived in the 20th century with all of its accompanying modern problems, yet her resourcefulness, intelligence and adaptability reassure us that despite appearances, there's nothing new—at least not alarmingly so—under the sun. Highly theatrical and proudly stylized, Orlando became a surprise hit at film festivals worldwide, and continues to enjoy a sizable cult following. Orlando looks and feels like a major statement on sexuality and the role of gender in society, yet—happily—it's more of a joyous lark than a serious position paper, which may well be the reason for its heartening commercial success. With Billy Zane and John Wood.

NEXT STOP … The Tango Lesson, Female Perversions, Career Girls

1992 (PG-13) 93m/C GB Tilda Swinton, Charlotte Valandrey, Billy Zane, Lothaire Bluteau, John Wood, Quentin Crisp, Heathcote Williams, Dudley Sutton, Thorn Hoffman, Peter Eyre, Jimmy Somerville; D: Sally Potter; W: Sally Potter; C: Alexei Rodionov; M: Bob Last. Nominations: Academy Awards ‘93: Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Costume Design; Independent Spirit Awards ‘94: Best Foreign Film. VHS, LV, Letterbox, Closed Caption COL