The Grand Illusion

April 1st marks our 21st anniversary as a volunteer-operated non-profit! Come celebrate with us at Northwest Film Forum as we screen a brand new restoration of an underseen gem from the ‘90s. A contender for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, FEMALE PERVERSIONS marks the feature film debut of director and co-writer Susan Streitfeld as well as the American film debut of Tilda Swinton.

Eve Stephens (Swinton), an ambitious and successful trial lawyer in Los Angeles, is up for appointment as a judge while juggling her proclivity for meaningless sex and her relationship with her kleptomaniac sister Madelyn (Amy Madigan). As she navigates intimate relationships with both male and female partners, including geologist John (Clancy Brown) and psychiatrist Renee (Karen Sillas), Eve finds fantasy and reality converging, leading to a tense climax that will decide her personal and professional fate.

Streitfeld’s film is an inspired amalgamation of erotic drama and psychological thriller set within the cutthroat environs of the Los Angeles justice system and created by a majority-female crew. Newly restored from its original 35mm camera negative!

“Darkly funny… a heady, uncompromising film.” Michele Kort, The Advocate

“One of the most provocative films I’ve seen about the complications of being female in the modern world… This is the kind of movie you can’t stop thinking about.” Roger Ebert

“Female Perversions is the most intelligent, entertaining, provocative, absorbing, and, yes, feminist movie to grace our theatres in quite some time.” Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle