Orlando (1992) Sally Potter   Virginia Woolf's abstract novel Orlando is impressively brought to life in director Sally Potter's film. Despite gaping episodes of vagueness, Orlando is one of the most exquisitely realized films ever made, with a visual richness and haunting atmosphere. The art direction, photography, and costumes are nothing short of luscious (which is all the more amazing, considering the film's modest budget). Tilda Swinton plays the title role of Orlando, a young 17th-century nobleman who is charged by Queen Elizabeth (played in a bizarrethough aptchoice of casting, by Quentin Crisp) to never grow old. Orlando goes on to live for centuries, never aging, and the story follows the protagonist's adventures through the Elizabethan, Jacobean, Georgian, and Victorian ages (its final scenes set just beyond the present). While the story is often silly and over-obvious in its examination of androgyny, it is more effective in its depiction of the treatment of women over the centuries. The icy Jacobean episode portrays Orlando's cruel spurning of his bride-to-be in favor of a Russian princess. However, it is during Orlando's18th-century assignment as ambassador to the East that he awakens one morning to find that he has become a woman. Upon her return to England, the full reality of the institutionalized misogyny in 18th-century society comes crashing down on Orlando. It is not until the Victorian age that the protagonist finds a suitable lover (who appears in the Bronte-esque form of Billy Zane astride a stallion). Whatever the social messages, they are, for better or worse, ultimately eclipsed by the film's more impressive visual and aural achievements. Orlandois ultimately a film of atmosphere. Its imagery is arresting and indelible, and director Potter (who also wrote the screenplay and co-wrote the score) proves herself a gifted and resourceful artist. The film's statements about gender, while not subtle, fortunately keep from slipping into heavy-handedness, thanks to the distraction of the production's beauty and style.   —Paul Andrew MacLean

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