Director: Sally Potter, France/ Italy/ Great Britain 1992, 90 minutes, 35mm, original English version with German subtitles, film print from the HfG collection

Sunday, May 25, 2025, 9:15 p.m.

Lawn in front of the HfG, Platz der Menschenrechte

Free admission, donation requested

“Orlando, the hero, will live from the days of Elizabeth in the 16th century to the present and become a woman halfway through.” This is how Virginia Woolf summarized the content of her masterpiece. When the British author published “Orlando” in 1928, she was passionately in love with Vita Sackville West. Woolf dedicated “Orlando” to the garden designer and writer from an old aristocratic family and wrote: “I have lived in you all these months - when I come out, what are you really like? Have I invented you?”

In 1992, Sally Potter adapted the book into a lavish costume drama with a star-studded cast. Tilda Swinton shines in it as the androgynous Orlando, Quentin Crisp, the British icon of early gay emancipation, plays Elizabeth I in a parade role, and Jimmy Somerville (“Don't Leave Me This Way”) makes a literally angelic appearance with his falsetto voice. Hardly any other film has brought the gender discourse to the screen with so much light-footed irony and so much poetic charm.

In the supporting program: Hula Director: Amy Halpern, USA 2022, 6 minutes, 16mm, without dialog

An event in cooperation with the Science Office of the City of Karlsruhe as part of the as part of the Effects Festival 2025.

The Kino im Blauen Salon, the student cinema of the Hochschule für Gestaltung, has been run by students since 2017 and has been a registered association since the beginning of 2024: https://kinoimblauensalon.de/de/news.

More about the film series in summer semester 2025:

Kino im Blauen Salon, the student cinema of the Hochschule für Gestaltung, invites you to the new program for the summer semester! Our film program, which was awarded 1st prize by the Deutsche Kinemathek, is now in its 18th semester! Time to take a brief look back... In our early days, cineastes were few and far between in the Blauer Salon, whereas today the room seems almost too small. But we have always remained true to our ideals: Analog film screenings in 35mm & 16mm, joint voluntary work with free admission and a relaxed HfG atmosphere. And the summer open-air cinema on the lawn in front of the HfG is already in its 6th round, this time at the end of May! So it's time not to look back, but to look forward: To another summer semester full of cinematic-poetic cinema highlights:
Our main interest this summer is poetry, because the nights are getting longer, the horizon endless and there's something in the air. But what does cinema have to do with poetry? Find out in our “Cinema Poetico” series, in which we set off on multiple narrative strands, meandering perspectives, visual detours and everything that lies between the lines. The series presents a hand-picked selection of classics and hidden gems that form the silent branches of cinema.
There are also nightly excursions with our “Midnight Movies”, the legendary Kult Sneak, experimental short film programs, workshops, specials, guests and, of course, the highlight of the cinema year, the open-air cinema in front of the HfG, under the motto “Freedom in Change”. See you soon at the movies!