ORLANDO
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 1993 David N. Butterworth/The Summer Pennsylvanian
In ORLANDO, a 17th Century nobleman journeys four hundred years, from the courts of Elizabethan England through the battlefields of World War I, and along the way perceptions of gender, status and longevity are turned on their head.
As conceived and presented by British director Sally Potter, ORLANDO is a charmingly outrageous yarn. Based on Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel, it's a lavish period piece that questions the differences between men and women in a context that is absolutely disarming. Potter's handling of this material is remarkably assured, rivaling that of established countrymen Peter Greenaway and Derek Jarman, directors recognized for their sumptuous and unconventional costume dramas.
Orlando, played by actress Tilda Swinton, is bequeathed a country estate by the elderly Queen Elizabeth I on the condition that he (yes, he) never grow old. Quentin Crisp, the "uncrowned queen of England" according to Potter, plays Elizabeth in a stroke of casting genius. A deliciously kinky ambiance suffuses a scene in which Swinton, portraying a handsome youth, is coddled by Crisp, playing an aging matriarch.
After the queen dies, Orlando romances a pouty young Cossack named Sasha, played by Charlotte Valandrey, for whom he claims he'd "hunt wolves instead of rabbits, drink vodka instead of whisky." The skating sequence on a frozen, misty river Thames is astonishing; these Muscovites "smear themselves with candle wax to keep warm," and wear tall, tall hats.
Next the Lord Orlando has a disastrous brush with poetry, entering into philosophical debates with the Michael Palin-esque Mr. Greene (playwright Heathcote Williams in an amusing self-parody). "Society is full of dangerous individuals--wits and poets," Orlando is warned, but he fancies himself a writer nonetheless.
And then this worldly young man is given an ambassadorial appointment in a far-off Eastern land where, repelled by the inhumanity of war, he conveniently switches gender. Standing naked in front of a full-length mirror Orlando observes, "Same person, just a different sex." Upon her return to England, she finds her former friend, the fatherly Archduke Harry (John Wood), exhibiting designs on her new-found femininity. Unfazed by her dramatic transformation, Harry refers to her as "the pink, the pearl and the perfection of her sex."
It is true that Swinton is stunning as Orlando, even as a boy. She dominates every scene she's in (and she's in virtually every frame). Potter takes every opportunity to photograph Swinton's porcelain features against exquisite backdrops of silk and lace and finery, her striking red hair set against a reddening fire, deep rich tapestries and fields of golden corn.
ORLANDO is a very sensuous film, a feast for eyes and ears. Alexei Rodionov's gorgeous cinematography is the stuff of epic fantasy, as is Ben Van Os' staggering production design. And the haunting modern score, co-written by Potter and David Motion, contributes a vibrant inner energy. In addition, Potter employs some creative visual techniques, especially during some of ORLANDO's more literary passages, slowly panning from side to side with a languorous, fluid motion that enhances the narrative. She also has Swinton make occasional wry asides to the camera--"the treachery of women," Orlando comments when betrayed by one and later, for comic effect, "the treachery of men."
Billy Zane, who's given top billing with Swinton, makes little more than a cameo appearance towards the end of the film as Shelmerdine, a dashing, long-haired Daniel Day-Lewis type whose smoldering passion sweeps Orlando off her feet. Their brief affaire de coeur is fresh and invigorating in contrast to Orlando's recent dolor, confirming her contention that "Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates melancholy from happiness."
Potter has said she was drawn to the story because it paralleled her belief that, deep down, it's only conditioning that separates the sexes. Whether or not that's an opinion you favor, there's much more to this film than polemics. ORLANDO cleverly juggles issues of identity and sexual ambiguity in an enchanting story that is totally preposterous yet, "because this is England, no-one tends to notice."
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