Gold diggers

English. Feminist. Renaissance woman of arts, from dance and choreography to composing, playing and singing to theatre, TV, movie and opera direction to screenplay writer. In the movie history books for writing and directing the first feature-length movie premiered on cell-phones (Rage, 2009). Who else but Sally Potter.

Like many avant-garde directors, Potter has attracted some top acting talents for her movies, starting with Julie Christie in her first feature, The Gold Diggers (1983). Tilda Swinton was the centrifugal force for Potter's main award-winning eccentricity, her adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando (1992). For The Man Who Cried (2000), she was joined by Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett and John Turturro, who all couldn't save it from critical maulings. Undeterred by Potter's below-par ratings in conventional features, Joan Allen signed up for Yes (2004). In 1996, Potter starred her dancing self in The Tango Lesson, alongside tango master Pablo Veron. Rage had Judi Dench and Jude Law among its interview heads.

The British and international film industries seem to admire Potter. I find it tempting to dismiss her as a Jill of all creative trades and mistress of none, so I will. That subjective judgment is also buttressed by her five shorts included on the British Film Institute's Gold Diggers DVD. Three of them are experimental scraps from her London Film-makers Coop period. Jerk (1969) is a few meaningless moments of high-speed B&W head shots; Play (1970) comprises split-screen colour/B&W overhead shots of children playing on a pavement, also purposelessly; Hors D'Oeuvres (1971) is totally ignored by her Wikipedia page, which may explain why I cannot recall seeing it, or have quickly repressed any memory of it. More professional, with a semi-narrative, The London Story (1986) had odd characters (a doorman, a cabinet minister, ice skater), an uncredited Potter and a dance routine for her in a red dress designed by Sandy Powell (an Oscar and BAFTA nominee for Orlando).

After dabbling successfully (getting a name for herself) in dance and theatre, Potter returned to film with Thriller (1979), a 30-minute scrapbook of dusty images of an attic stage set for La Boheme and oracular utterings of a black actress (Collette Laffont) who was one of two Mimis. It is reportedly a Marxist and anti-Freudian fable in addition to being feminist and indie, a winning blend in some cineaste circles.

Laffont's only other film role was in The Gold Diggers, in which she utters a lot more stilted and repetitive dialogue while helping Christie's persona (as a top model) find herself. Rose English also worked on both films (writing and acting), appeared on TV a few times in the 90s, and then vanished from IMDb listings. The movie's third co-writer was Lindsay Cooper, an occasional composer.

Potter employed a female cinematographer too for the B&W debut feature: Babette Mangolte, a Frenchwoman. Her long shots of Iceland scenery (standing in for the Yukon that's part of Christie's character's heritage) are beautiful, and one small pleasure to be gained from watching an otherwise pretentious non-narrative.