PARTY

A masterful, taut, tension-filled satire set entirely in one house over a single disastrous evening. The titular gathering, hosted by Janet (Kristen Scott Thomas), a newly promoted progressive politician, and her husband Bill (Timothy Spall). Among the upper-class guests are the life coach and healer Gottfried (Bruno Ganz), Professor Martha (Cherry Jones) and her partner Jinny, a famous chef who announces her pregnancy at the outset. And this is only the beginning: the evening escalates into chaos.

In THE PARTY, Sally Potter crafts a razor-sharp, intelligent satire of the upper classes and their aspirants; of our own naivety and its corrosive counterpart, chronic cynicism; of labels, rigid identities, conventions, and ever-shifting yet perpetually limiting social expectations. Potter’s casting is impeccable: the set brings together luminaries of American, British, German and Irish acting.

The strength of the film, however, lies in how distinct personalities, such as Cillian Murphy, Patricia Clarkson and the rest of the cast, create a convincing and slightly jaded menagerie under Potter's guidance. Shot in widescreen black-and-white by her regular collaborator Aleksei Rodionov (COME AND SEE), THE PARTY dislodges the audience from their safe sense of superiority: you never know at what point in the evening the laughter will stick in your throat.

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Text: Sebastian Smoliński