Starring Tilda Swinton and Billy Zane, this elegant and stylized satire presents a fanciful critique of gender politics as it presents 400 years in the life of a man who becomes a woman to escape the constraints of England's assigned sex roles. Film critic Amy Taubin, writing in the Village Voice observed that that though the film is "internationally financed, with a Russian cinematographer and a French editor, it remains unmistakably a work of English culture."
Potter's films tend to reflect feminist concerns in a somewhat academic manner but her roots, she claims, "are show business roots, albeit avant-garde ones." She trained as a dancer, went on to become a choreographer, and in 1974 co-founded the experimental Limited Dance Company. Potter choreographed and directed avant-garde dance, theater and film throughout the 70s; a memorable instance of the latter is her deconstructionist reworking of film musical conventions in the short "Thriller" (1979). She also worked as a musician/lyricist at various European jazz and new music festivals before writing and directing her feature debut, "The Gold Diggers" (1983). Shot by an all-female crew and starring Julie Christie, the film depicted the circulation of gold, women and money.