The Party

Directed By SALLY POTTER

“Sally Potter’s dark drawing-room comedy is her zestiest work in ages.”
– Variety

Sally Potter’s drawing-room comedy-drama breathes fresh life into this famous but rarely seen film genre in clever, sly and enormously enjoyable ways. A group of friends come together to celebrate the promotion of Janet (the always delightful Kristin Scott Thomas) into the British parliamentary ministry. Each member of the small group has their own idiosyncrasies – there’s a lesbian couple expecting twins, a cynical older woman and her philosophical husband, a cocaine-addled businessman, and April (Patricia Clarkson) and her husband Bill (Timothy Spall). But, from the outset, things don’t feel right as Bill cuts a solitary and distant figure sitting in the middle of the lounge room, seemingly preoccupied. As the evening wears on, each of the guests have their own news to reveal and as they do another layer gets peeled off their relationship onion. The evening starts out in a rather dignified fashion, but things disintegrate rather quickly as more and more interconnected secrets are revealed, climaxing in a crescendo that takes everybody by surprise. The Party is a really fun film with sassy performances from an experienced cast (including Bruno Ganz, Emily Mortimer and Cillian Murphy) and razor-sharp dialogue, it cracks along true to the genre and delivers at every turn. Screens with the short film Woman with an Editing Bench.