Back in 1992, Sally Potter was a pretty big deal. She had just released “Orlando” to universal acclaim, which featured an exquisite performance from Tilda Swinton as the titular nobleman who moved through centuries of British history without aging. It was an ambitious film that put Potter on the map and gave us hope that she might be the next important voice in indie cinema. However, with every ensuing movie she made (“The Tango Lesson,” “The Man Who Cried,” “Yes,” “Rage,” “Ginger & Rosa“) it felt like she had hit her peek too early. Which is not to say that the movies were bad— I am a fan of her last film “Ginger & Rosa” — but the audience didn’t seem to be there.
Reviews for Potter’s latest film, “The Party,” have been quite stellar. It premiered earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival where our very own Jessica Kiang said it has “a kind of rejuvenating bouncy glee that we haven’t seen from Potter in a long time. And after ‘Ginger and Rosa,’ a film that felt better directed than it was written, being undermined by some very stilted dialogue, the fact the Potter also wrote the screenplay here comes as another pleasant surprise.”
A trailer has been released and what we seem to have here is a dark comedy, very dark, that deals with angst-filled, absurdist themes. The film also has a tremendous cast Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Timothy Spall. Here’s the synopsis:
“THE PARTY – a comedy wrapped around a tragedy – unfolds in real time in a house in London in the present day. Janet is hosting an intimate gathering of friends to celebrate her promotion to Shadow Minister of Health in the party of opposition. Her husband, Bill, seems preoccupied. As their friends arrive, some of whom have their own dramatic news to share, the soirée gradually unravels. An announcement by Bill provokes a series of revelations that rapidly escalate into all-out confrontation. As people’s illusions about themselves and each other go up in smoke, along with the canapes, THE PARTY becomes a night that began with champagne but ends with blood on the floor.”
It doesn’t look like the movie will be making the festival rounds this year, not even Toronto’s lineup of 200+ films included “The Party.” So, what we are left with is no American release date as of now, but that will surely change as Potter is well-known on the art-house circuit. “The Party” opens in the U.K. on September 29th.