Lantana

Lantana Directed by Ray Lawrence

 

Albert Moran, notes that Australian film makers have an obsession with the small domestic stories, which flood the base of our films, moist probably because of our small population, geographical distance form the rest of the world and short history. Usually they are dry and long with no real ending left for the Audience to decide.

 

Lantana, is the Australian “domestic” film which worked. As a lot of Australian films, the film is stemmed from a stage play, Speaking In Tongs, and while it is essentially an ensemble piece it works beautifully on screen. The film cleverly unwinds to find that all the couples and individuals are connected in some way.

 

Leon begins sleeping with Jane after boredom in his marriage. Jane is in the process of separation of her own unsuccessful marriage. Sonja, Leon’s wife goes to counselling because she suspects Leon is up to something where she is counselled by Dr Valerie Somers who has had marital problems since she and her Husband, John lost their daughter to murder. This then starts the unravelling of the story when Valerie goes missing and Leon is assigned to look after the case. Leon’s personal experience with the case opens the film to expose the themes, which are similar in the realities of these lives, that they are more complicated than a fairy story and that what we think should go right can sometimes go very wrong.

 

The tone of the film, which Laurence embraced, was a cold creepy, visually desaturated tone throughout to casts a shadow over the piece, continuously making the audience suspicious and uncomfortable.

 

One of the jewels of the film is its ability to expose a more truthful study of modern day suburban lives compared previous simple films such as The Sentimental Bloke . This style of modern day life is also seen in the recent television series of Love My Way, which, like Lantana was extremely popular for Australian audiences. I think they are so good because they show the people and issues we as Australians see every day. Audiences can relate to the

 

The first shot shows us the mangled body of Valerie suspended in the twisted bush of lantana. This shot, while chilling draws an audience in to follow the untangling of the story over the films duration. The story mimics the tangled web of lantana we see at the beginning. I think the imagery used supported by natural sounds rather than an organised score adds to the creepy nature of the story. It helps to tell the delicacies of the story’s web and assist the complications and themes of deceit, trust and boredom within relationships is done so well in this story that it makes an audience think and ultimately isn’t that what any film maker wants from their film.

 

It is just clever film, which takes advantage of the visual medium. It did make me uncomfortable because it was so close to home. Usually when we see thrillers of this kind they are set internationally and thus are separated from our context but when they are set around where you live it give you a sense of reality for the story to be told in. I believe this is why it worked well here. 

Barry Mckenzie

Barry Mckenzie

This film is crude rude and terribly Australian.“Bazza” after inheriting a small fortune decides to go to England to further his cultural education past the “shela” and the “VB”. Accompanied by his Aunt, Aunty Edna, his innocence and roteske nature is extremely funny as he goes around commenting on the Eifle tower and Earl’s Court.

It is not surprising this film was popular in Australia. (I know audeinecs even today who would think this the funniest film they have seen.)  At the time of it making the new tax cuts of the 70’s were in place, allowing ridiculous slasher and stripper films to be pumped out exposing audiences to grotesque and ridiculous images that had not been seen in Australia. Although Mckenzie did include breasts at any time possible it was a film about the little guy. The everyday herom, who we hold so dear in Australia. it is one of the first films which separates Australians from the English in a way which promotes the country. Barry is still a hero in Australian cinema for his loud, sex crazed and innocent character.

The thing that stood out for me in this film is the ablility of Australian humour to be so grotesque but cheaky enough that it can been taken lightly and accepted, it wasn’t really my style of film but I still managed to giggle a lot. 

It is also worthy to note that this was the first appearance of Aunty Edna, later to become Dame Edna. An Australian icon and an international treasure. I would say this film helped us establish what people were wanting in their enternatinment at the time, a continuation of the little guy winning. Simmilarly to The Sentimental Bloke just more bold and discusting.

 

Jedda

Jedda

Charles Chauvel

 

Jedda is a monumental film in Australian film history. It was the first Australian film in colour and the first time an aboriginal woman was displayed as the main character on screen. Thus even before my screening I knew of the film and its prowess.

 

These days it is a bit slow to watch, but it is interesting to see how the Aboriginal population is displayed in film, as opposed to recent films such as Rabbit Proof Fence and Ten Canoes.

 

Jedda follows a young girls who’s mother dies on an Australian station and is raised my the station owners wife Sarah. Jedda is in a way an outcast unable to access her natural culture yet excluded from the one she is trying to be accepted into.

 

I liked Jedda because for its time it was exploring Australia’s culture further than any Australian filmmaker had so far, into our Aboriginal culture.

 

It is interesting to see how influential her character is in the film. I was also interested that the film had to be a tragedy, it seemed that both Jedda while she was displayed her position was spoken about in the community. He mother says, “You’re no more one of them than night is day” but Jedda’s opinion and point of view is never investigated.

 

I also wondered in the context of the films release, why the film had to be a tragedy where Marbuk ends up pulling Jedda over the cliff. Was it needed in that time for the unnatural to be destroyed for people to be able to handle the film or was it simply part of the plot. Would it have the same ending if Jedda was white? Who knows but it is interesting to think about. 

Bliss

Bliss  

Ray Lawrence

 

I am still fighting with this film even now which makes it difficult to write about.

 

If it had to be summarised the story is about Harry Joy (Barry Otto) who dies for four minutes after a heart attack. When he is revived his thoughts about life and his business in advertising change when he realizes his wife is having an affair with his business partner Joel. It is this realization that his family is falling to pieces and his world is coming apart when his son is selling cocaine and handing it to his little sister for sexual rewards and that Harry’s advertising company is promoting products that cause cancer. It isn’t until he meets Honey, a hippie free thinker who deals in prostitution that his eyes are re-opened. Eventually they move to the forest and build a life for themselves.

 

The thing I liked about this film most was its complicated nature was mirrored in the stylistic approach to the film. Still, I found it frustrating that I was fighting to find the story within it, anything to grasp hold of. I seemed to be asking, is this real? Is this a story within a story? What is going on? It seemed that within the first twenty minutes I had floated into someone’s daydream, which slipped between a warped world of reality and the surreal. This frustrated me because I believe it made me miss the point of some of the highly creative sections such as when Harry dies which I think I could have got a lot more out of than I did.

 

It was the scene where Bettinna, Harry’s wife and his business partner, Joel, are having sex on the country club restraint table when the film takes a look around to see the reaction of the other patrons, there is no reaction it allowed me to connect the strory with the abstract nature of the film to make a point related to the plot. It allowed me to relax into the surreal/ real frame of mind and was able to accept the warped nature of the film. From then on I enjoyed the play between the real and surreal. Still I think that there wasn’t enough connection between them for me to allow the real and surreal to really work which was a shame.

 

However, I still felt that the experimental visual approach to these issues were fantastic. I loved Harry’s death shot from “dead man’s bird’s eye” view. There were also scatterings of abstract sequences which I though were amazing such as the dead body floating in water that we are drawn to through layers of sewed which is amazing. However, they usually distracted me as a viewer than added to the strength of the film.

 

Still it was an interesting and very experimental piece of cinema and I like that this kind of work is coming out of Australia even with such a small market, Ray Laurence wasn’t scared to take risks, it’s a great attitude to have. 

Picnic At Hanging Rock

Picnic at Hanging Rock. (1975)

 Pete Weir

The story explores the disappearance of three girls who after climbing a rock in the Australian bush vanish mysteriously. The film then goes into searching for the answers but leaves the explanation up in the air.

 

I have seen this film twice now. The first time it scared me I was young and my imagination played with the idea of where the girls went to. The bush is a huge part of our country, it can be beautiful but also very dangerous. On my second viewing recently, I picked up on the subtle statements Weir was making throughout the film after passing the fright of the first viewing. I like the commentary Weir presents on the Australian culture in this film. I believe the mystery comes from the original bok written by Joan Lindsay

 

Visually the story speaks for itself. It heavily juxtaposes the restricted English colonial way of life through the way the girls live, dress and behave with the wild ruggedness of the Australian landscape. The film opens on tight framed shots of the girls getting ready for the day brushing their hair and putting on layers of their dresses. Most shots are reflected in mirrors or hidden behind foreground and distanced from the audience. With this he creates the view of just how out of place the restricted culture of the “British boarding school” way of life juxtaposed the ideals and nature of the country.

 

I believe the girls disappearance is a statement about the nature of Australian’s and their adaptation to their country. These girls see the restricted way of life does not adapt to their habitat. When they embrace the possibility of its freedom they are taken away to show the audience how much the others do not fit and how they would need to change to understand. Hence we are not left with an answer because their reactions to the girl’s disappearance is our answer.

 

All in all on the second viewing and closer look I could appreciate the cleverness of the film that Weir has used the screen to illuminate in abstract ways.

 

 

Radiance

Radiance

Rachel Perkins

 Of all the films we have watched so far, this is the one which has effected me as an audience member the most. I wouldn't say that it has been the most cinematically interesting but it has the magical element of a clever screenplay which tells a good story. I beleieve that without a good screenplay there is no good film. 

The story of three sisters returning to their home because of their single mothers death brings the three sisters who never see each-other back together. The story takes us through their stories and share how they were effected by their mother who split them apart allowing the two oldest to be taken by white families. 

It may also be the fact that I am female and Australian that there were themes which I could understand, however to have issues such as the "stolen generation" bubbling beneath the surface coupled with the way that the Aboriginal population has been treated in our history simply made it stronger. Within the story it explains without spelling it out that the stolen generations influence are still effecting families in modern times. 

Although it was an adaptation from a screenplay which tends to show through at times when the film slows visually it allows us to foucs on the issues of the girls relationships.

It is the ensembe and emotion which comes through the film that I love. 

With every good

The Sentimental Bloke

The Sentimental Bloke  (1919) Raymond Longford

 

Raymond Longford brought attention to the Australian character the “Aussie larrikin” through the success of  The Sentimental Bloke. It seemed to be the character, which really stuck a chord with its audiences and its influence within the Australian industry can still be seen today in shows such as Kath and Kim

 

From a modern viewing, I thought it had elements similar to that of Chaplin. The simple story of a man who abandons gambling and alcohol to chace a woman for love and the visual comic elements were similar. There are small visually clear complications but its simple nature allows it to be easy to watch.

 

Probably the thing that stood out to me was the display of the “working man” who lived in the city’s suburbs, which was a major part of Australian life at the time. For a time that people were looking for an escape, usually to a “Hollywood fantasy” when they went to the cinema it must have struck a chord because it was so close to home that all the jokes portrayed would have been very familiar.

 

The film itself is still funny for a modern audience, which comes with the lead characters, Bill and Doreene and their relationship which grows over the film and the situations they get themselves into.

 

These days it is a bit slow to watch, however it is credited for its establishment and success it brought for Australian film in its 1919 context.