After getting her start in collaborations with Derek Jarman, Sally Potter, and Joanna Hogg––and before she would breakthrough in films by Danny Boyle, Cameron Crowe, Spike Jonze, Jim Jarmusch, and more––Tilda Swinton made her U.S. debut with an erotic drama that unfortunately has gone little-seen. The distributor Hope Runs High is here to change that as Susan Streitfeld’s 1996 feature Female Perversions, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, has been restored and is returning to theaters.
The film follows Swinton as a bi-sexual lawyer on the edge of professional breakthrough, personal breakdown, and sexual awakening, with a cast also including Amy Madigan, Karen Sillas, Frances Fisher, Laila Robins, Paulina Porizkova, Clancy Brown.
The restoration, backed by Vinegar Syndrome/Cinématographe in 2024, was completed from a 4K, 16-bit scan of the 35mm original camera negative by Vinegar Syndrome in Bridgeport, Connecticut, via an ARRISCAN XT. Frame-by-frame manual digital restoration, color grading, and transferring of the original stereo optical track sound was also completed by Vinegar Syndrome.
Watch the trailer below via IndieWire ahead of the restoration’s premiere this Saturday in LA at American Cinematheque and it’ll then stop by NYC’s Nitehawk on March 6, with more cities to come.