Sally Potter - Fowler, Catherine (University of Illinois Press, 2009)
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Includes filmography
Includes bibliographical references and index
London in the 1970s: performance on- and offscreen -- Power plays: Potter's search for a "frame of her own" -- Absent women and tales taken apart: Thriller and the Gold diggers -- Towards pleasure, developing style: Orlando and The tango lesson -- Finally tears: The man who cried and YES -- Endings -- An interview with Sally Potter
This survey of Sally Potters work documents and explores her cinematic development from the feminist reworking of Puccinis opera La Boheme in Thriller to the provocative contemplation of romantic relationships after 9/11 in Yes. Catherine Fowler traces a clear trajectory of developing themes and preoccupations and shows how Potter uses song, dance, performance, and poetry to expand our experience of cinema beyond the audiovisual._x000B__x000B_Potter has relentlessly struggled against predictability and safe options, and her work provides an example of the complexities of being a woman in charge. Instead of the quest to find a romantic partner that drives mainstream cinema, Potters films feature characters seeking answers to questions about their sexual, gendered, social, cultural, and ethnic identities. They find answers by retelling stories, investigating mysteries, traveling and interacting with people. At the heart of Potters work we find a concern with the ways in which narrative has circumscribed the actions of women and their ability to act, speak, look, desire, and think for themselves. Her first two films, Thriller and The Gold Diggers, largely deconstruct found stories, cliches, and images. By contrast her later films create new and original narratives that place female acts, voices, looks, desires and thoughts at their center._x000B__x000B_Fowlers analysis is supplemented by a detailed filmography, bibliography, and an extensive interview with the director