New to DVD : Sally Potter’s 1993 metamovie Orlando , from which sprang (for most of us, anyway) the unearthly miracle of Tilda Swinton. Adapting an unadaptable Virginia Woolf novel — a “biography” of a young nobleman who lives for hundreds of years and switches his sex somewhere in the middle — Potter exploits Swinton’s uniquely beautiful oddness. At first in drag, Swinton is less a convincing boy than an undeniably charming androgyne, all moonish eyes and alabaster skin, but after the hero changes to heroine (“Same person, no difference at all — just a different sex,” she says, turning naked toward a full-length mirror), we still haven’t seen anything quite like her before. Orlando is a wry, feminist anthem-movie, but it’s far from the only DVD -rentable freak on Swinton’s pre-Oscar resume…
Link:
On DVD: Catching Up With Tilda Swinton, the Queen of Weird
