The ground-breaking first feature from Sally Potter, the director of ORLANDO and THE TANGO LESSON, THE GOLD DIGGERS is a key film of early '80s feminist cinema. Made with an all-woman crew, featuring stunning photography by Babette Magolte and a score by Lindsay Cooper, it embraces a radical and experimental narrative structure. Celeste (Colette Laffont) is a computer clerk in a bank who becomes fascinated by the relationship between gold and power. Ruby (Julie Christie) is an enigmatic film star in quest of her childhood, her memories and the truth about her own identity. As their paths cross they come to sense that there could be a link between the male struggle for economic supremacy and the female ideal of mysterious but impotent beauty.
"Drawing from the same well of avant-garde anti-structure as enfant terrible Jean-Luc Godard and playwright Bertolt Brecht, Sally Potter's whip-smart THE GOLD DIGGERS is brimming with cultural and political signifiers that combine to form a singular work in the feminist counter cinema space. Employing an all-female crew to shoot, compose, and design this proto-Lynchian world of romantic surrealism, the British filmmaker establishes herself as a trailblazer in this 'search for the secret of [her] own transformation.' Babette Mangolte's career-best cinematography elucidates a visual and thematic sendup of silent comedies, Depression-era musicals, and European arthouse cinema in an elegant, non-narrative ode to — and critique of — traditional Hollywood moviemaking."- UCLA Film & Television Archive
"A feminist sci-fi musical extravaganza... Remains consistently fresh and unpredictable" - Sight and Sound
"An amazing watch."- Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
"Both witty and charming"- Saskia Baron, City Limits
"The Gold Diggers is a valuable addition to an increasing number of films by female directors, whose works are thematically united by a desire to sift through personal and cultural history as a key step towards self-awareness and liberation...The Gold Diggers is visually entrancing, and the world she has created an absorbing pleasure"- The Screens
