To look to this film to be simply entertaining underestimates the director, the film, and the viewer. The post-modern thrust of the film strikes at the very heart of the academic discussion surrounding maleness and femaleness. "Orlando" resides at the center of transgendered theory and delightfully explores the transcendence of even biology by the social construction of gender. Indeed, transgender theorists, such as Vivianne K. Namaste, address many of the issues presented to the viewer: Orlando's "ambiguous sexuality" (as observed by Archduke Harry), her "erasure" in class-conscious English society (being a woman is tantamount to being dead and without privilege), and the future that belongs to her as a consequence of being able to be "free of the past." The film is rich in gender-bending imagery, not the least of which being the powerful, re-occurring presence of the voice of Jimmy Somerville. To group this production with most other films is to ignore the theoretical brilliance with which Sally Potter adapted Virginia Woolf's novel.
Review of Orlando
