Pathway: My Default Pathway by Celso Castro

Black and white A4 computer printed with handwritten annotations, bound into book, Paper, Orlando Sally Potter’s Shooting Script page 69 front

Orlando, now a woman, is confronted with the poets she admires. They describe women as "beautiful and romantic animals" that should be decorated with furs, and jewels, as well as contradictory and lacking character. This description of women is as familiar to Woolf, as it was to Potter (still nowadays). Orlando reacts to their opinion of what women are, but,warns us that she has to intervene. Breaking the 4th wall might be Potter's way of telling us to speak up again any kind of discrimination.

Page 6 of revised draft script for Orlando. Black printed text on A4 paper bound with a plastic comb spine

Potter's use of a castrato, followed by Crisp as a woman, accentuates the fragility of identity and gender, which the book addresses. Gender and identity are portrayed in both texts as fluid and varied. It is not just a matter of two strict genders, but everything else that naturally enriches the complexity of human beings.

1 x A4 black photograph album; 34 vellum pages; 24 x colour prints, Mixed, Presentation book containing Sally Potter's notes on the film and colour photographs of Tilda Swinton at Hatfield House

Genre defined by clothes. Do clothes make the person? What will someone who did not know Tilda Swinton think? What questions on gender does this still arise? I think it was a good choice of actress by Potter due to Swinton's androgynous look. The book does not have to rely on a visual cue to convey gender.

Page 5 of general notes on Orlando, black printed text on A4 paper

The preparatory notes by Potter, express the concerns that she had on giving a gender to Orlando's dialogue. In the book, the internal dialogue of Orlando seems to possess no specific gender. Potter decides to give Orlando a conscious female voice all the way throughout, when adapting, and portrays Orlando as introspective, as a man, even though he is allowed to express himself freely. On the other hand, Orlando as a woman, seems to want to express herself at all times but she is socio-culturally repressed.

A4 pages, handwritten, Paper, Pre-draft handwritten notes on key scenes

Potter's notes on the need of strengthen the image of Orlando as a woman. She claims that Woolfs' descriptions of Orlando as a female and as a male are stereotypical. They are probably consistent with those views as they were during the 1920s. It is only natural that Potter will find it necessary to update those views by strengthening Orlando when a female. Even though, she has claimed that Orlando is not about feminism stating "I have come to the conclusion that I can't use that term in my work. Not because of a disavowal of the underlying principles that gave birth to that word – the commitment to liberation, dignity, equality. But it has become a trigger word that stops people's thinking. You literally see people's eyes glaze over with exhaustion when the word flashes into the conversation.” By balancing both sides, the story shows that life is hard for both men and woman.

1 x colour slide in transparent plastic hanging sheet, Digital, Film Stills - Scene 48 - (Tilda Swinton) in the film

genre defined by clothes. Women's identity as constricted. This picture shows Orlando's amazement at what 'becoming' a woman might be. Orlando's transition seems to be very natural yet society imposes very strict, and stiff rules on what a woman is.

1 x colour slide in transparent plastic hanging sheet, Digital, Behind the Scenes Images - Quentin Crisp in makeup

The casting of Quentin Crisp as a 'queen' in this case, Queen Elizabeth I is humorous as well as challenging the spectator's perceptions of gender, identity, and sexuality. The iconic feminised appearance of Crisp and his flamboyance shares similarities with that of Elizabeth I.

Page 3 of general notes on Orlando, black printed text on A4 paper

Book is written with a female consciousness, of a 20th century woman, all throughout when Orlando is both male and female. Potter's notes expose her doubts in the process of adapting from the book.

Close-up of Queen Elizabeth's face looking at Orlando.

The opening of this scene Elizabeth I (Crisp), washing her hands to the upwards camera tilt, which finishes with a close up of her face, gives no indication that a man is portraying a queen. There is something humourous about a iconic "queen" playing another iconic queen. Since, it is not obvious that a man is playing a woman's role, we might rely on external cues, clothes, hair, make up, mannerisms, to attribute gender, thus it can be seen as a social construction.

Video file, Digital, Screen Test - Quentin Crisp reading Elizabeth I

Crisp's presence in the film highlights the complexity of gender and identity. Potter's choice of the iconic Crisp to play a powerful woman in history, whose gender has also been question at times, accentuates the fluidity of identity and gender. Crisp's intertextuality and his iconic status brings a vast amount of information on the challenging of identity and gender perceptions to the film.