Sally Potter (Contemporary Film Directors)

This survey of Sally Potter’s work documents and explores her cinematic development from the feminist reworking of Puccini’s opera La Bohème 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. At the heart of Potter’s 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, clichés, and images, while her later films create new and original narratives that place female acts, voices, looks, desires and thoughts at their center. Fowler’s analysis is supplemented by a detailed filmography, bibliography, and an interview with the director.