"Postmodernism and Sally Potter
Sally Potter's costume drama Orlando is described in a review by James Berardinelli as a "lavish tour through 400 years of history" Berardinelli believed Orlando to be "thin on story", this comment unintentionally concurs with the essay question; the visual nature of the film disrupts the story and draws the viewer away from the meaning created by Virginia Woolf in her book by the same name published in 1928. Woolf wrote Orlando for her close friend Vita Sackville-West. The text's purpose was to satirize the dispossession of Vita, who being a women was unable to inherit her family seat of Knole. Much of Woolf's meaning is present in Potter's film however Potter has added a large amount of her own meaning intentionally or unintentionally, a common feature of postmodern texts, in doing so Potter has revealed much of herself in Orlando. This aspect of the film draws much attention, again, disrupting the viewing process. Orlando is a more modern text then postmodern, both the film and novel although criticizing the human condition appear to have faith in eventual redemption. Despite this, the film uses several postmodern techniques. Techniques present in Orlando like appropriation, gender confusion, fluid time barriers, looking at
the past with irony and the fusing together of the 'real', the fictitious and composer interpretation, are some of the aspects of postmodernism that "disrupt the reading process". While Jimmy Somerville sings, resembling an Italian Castrati, popular in the Elizabethan age, electric guitars play the background music. Time is also fused in the section of the film Society, set in 1750. While Somerville sings Edward Johnson's Eliza is the Fairest Queen the Queen appears in the form of yet another famous gay icon: drag queen Quentin Crisp. Another common postmodern feature is Orlando speaking directly to the camera. The first instance of this is in the very first scene and is quiet disconcerting, disrupting the viewing process. The order of the sections in the film, Death, Love, Poetry, Politics, at which point Orlando changes sex, Society, Sex and finally Birth, is another clear criticism of assumed gender roles. The film also criticizes the English aristocracy in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Potter may have been referring to Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussere's linguistic theory of the signifier and the signified. Orlando's changing sex and the blurring of gender status in the initial scenes of the film leave the viewer needing to readjust: interfering with the reading process. In this scene Orlando is visited by two of the Queen's officials informing her of a lawsuit against her concerning the ownership of her property. You are now female- which amounts to much the same thing. The ironic reversal of roles is also a constant reoccurrence in Orlando.
Common topics in this essay:
According Saussere,
Virginia Woolf,
Knole Woolf's,
Death Birth,
Crisp Potter's,
Sex Society,
Italian Castrati,
Shakespeare Qu'ran,
Tilda Swinton,
James Berardinelli,
lady orlando,
viewing process,
virginia woolf,
section film,
film obvious example,
jimmy somerville,
gay icon,
disrupting viewing,
woolf wrote,
postmodern texts,
laments treachery,
obvious example orlando's,
disrupting viewing process,
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Acceptance Essays
