There is a deep complicity between Orlando and the spectator as she often gives a personal feeling on Othello for instance but also by twinking the camera when she is asked about the years she needed to write her book.
Sally Potter uses logically the same story, but with different intents :
Virginia Woolf was thinking about the changes of English Literature whereas Sally Potter uses the novel as platform in order to satirize some facts of society.
Shelmerdine and Orlando, as a deep love story.
In the book, she decides to marry him and has a son. The movie is much more tragic as she does not marry him because of Shelmerdine's will to go to America. Instead of having a son, she has a daughter in the movie.
The ephemeral relationship between Orlando and Sasha.
Relevant scene of the sexual ambiguity of the character of Orlando.
"No difference at all, just a different sex"