Sally Potter is a British film Director, Writer, Composer, Actress, and much more. She has written and directed the following films; Rage (2009), Yes (2004), The Man Who Cried (2000), The Tango Lesson (1997), Orlando (1992), I Am an Ox, I Am a Horse, I Am a Man, I Am a Woman (1988), Tears, Laughter, Fear and Rage: Rage (1987), Tears, Laughter, Fear and Rage: Tears (1987), The London Story (1986), The Gold Diggers (1983), and Thriller (1979).
Sally left school at 16 to study filmaking, and also became a dancer/choreographer. In the Tango Lesson, which is the film I am most familiar with, she also took on the role of performer as she starred alongside tango star Pablo Veron.
This movie was a tour de force, as Potter not only wrote the script, directed and acted. But, she also wrote the score for the movie. In an interview with Jan Lisa Huttner on the Tango Lesson, Potter describes the process she went through of control and submission in terms of her counterpart Veron and the script:
"We’re discussing very subtle areas in which one can easily, even in one’s own life, leap into cliché and misunderstand what the dynamic is. And historically, because women have been silenced, been the hidden ones, the followers, or whatever, it’s dangerous to feel like you’re going back there."
The critics had mixed reviews regarding Potter's Tango Lesson:
Jonathan Williams wrote about Potter's role in front of the camera by stating, "Call me conventional, but I have to see some obvious physical beauty and energy in a woman onscreen for me to think that another man could fall in love with her."
James Berardinelli also commented on her changing role of Director to Actor, "Behind the camera...the British film maker is a creative force; in front of it, she leaves little impression."
However, Steve Rhodes disagreed, "You have to respect a director, writer and actor so in control of her life. 'It doesn't suit me to follow,' she tells Pablo. 'It suits me to lead, and you can't deal with that.'"
Looking at the Tango Lesson from the framework of the Author/Auteur, we see that the perception of the film truly depend on the lens through which the viewers use.
If viewed through the male gaze, as Jonathan Williams has above, we see that it is her beauty that he cites as her failing. She does not meet his 'male' expectation as a love interest or leading female actor.
However, if we view her film through gynocriticism, as Steve Rhodes has, we see that her message as an author translates through her film. She is not trying to be a woman of interest in terms of the male gaze, but merely portraying herself (as her character is named Sally) in a strikingly honest and intimate portrait.
As Josephine Donovan is quoted in the Author/Auteur reading,
"this kind of gynocriticism can provide a validating social witness that will enable women today and in the future to see, to express, to name their own truths'."
Sources:
J. Donovan in Humm, Author/Auteur. (nd) Chapter 4.
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