I'm shocked that only 998 people have rated this film so far on this site and that it's averaging around 6 or so.
This is such a great, quirky, dark film with some of the best cinematography you'll see. I wish more people would give it a chance!
I'll tell you in another life, when we are both cats.
I couldn't agree more.
Images from this movie still stay with me and I would have seen it in 1989.
It's very quirky Arthouse Australian. I wonder if some don't appreciate Australian humor.
I've always loved the Aussie sense of humour. I have a friend from there and she introduced me to a lot of Aussie films and a good deal of them were quirky and different from anything I had ever seen in America. I'm glad someone other than me appreciates this film. I wish Campion would make more films like this one!
RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman 1967-2014... a tremendously great and talented actor.
I think it's strange too. A masterpiece in my opinion.
But maybe it's not all that strange: the abundance of non-eroticized nudity alongside the touchy subject matter (sexual abuse) is bound to turnoff a lot of people. And then there's that emphasis on awkwardness that so many have a knee-jerk reaction to.
Or wait... here's the biggest issue:
The dad sexually abuses Sweetie, right? But who is the character that's hardest to like:
Sweetie
In other words, the victim is the film's antagonist, not the pedophile. A whole lot of people are going to be outraged by that scenario. Because I believe that family issues are never black and white, but complex kaleidoscopes created by each member's separate perspective, it's easy for me to understand that Campion is simply telling the story from an honest place. I don't think Campion is condoning the father's bad decisions, I just think she's expressing how children often condone their parents' bad decisions. The film captures this truth brilliantly.
I'll never forget the movie's last shot. Haunting.
My rating: 10
Nice insight! Yes there is a lot of uncomfortable places this film goes. Campion was a young woman when she did this film and she and her co-writer were certainly going places others did not seem to venture into very often...thus the reason she wasn't exactly popular with her teachers in film school! Good for her! Being popular obviously meant adhering to certain standards to which she did not want to comply with. The camera angles and close shots also makes the viewer just as disoriented as the subject matter. As I stated in an earlier post, would love to see Jane do something this quirky again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-09OhQPiIg#t=85
As I stated in an earlier post, would love to see Jane do something this quirky again!
Campion was a young woman when she did this film and she and her co-writer were certainly going places others did not seem to venture into very often...thus the reason she wasn't exactly popular with her teachers in film school!
Ha, no not really. Holy Smoke starts out very promisingly quirky but ends up being a bit uneven by the end. Her film shorts I would say is where you can look for more quirky but her films, no more overly quirky in there!
The Piano to me is her best, followed in my head very closely by An Angel at My Table and then Bright Star. One of the best Making of films I've ever seen is the Making of Portrait of a Lady. Everyone was so straightforward and honest in that film. Very nice if you can find it. It may be on the dvd of that film now. I wasn't overly impressed with that particular film but it's definitely worth watching!
Oh I loved the interviews on Sweetie as well as the audio commentary.
You might enjoy Top of the Lake as well. It was on streaming on Netflix if you get that.
The only film of hers I really did not enjoy was In the Cut. I wish she'd never made it. The film itself was technically good but I did not enjoy watching it though some seem to fancy it...sort of cool how she did a cameo in that.
Hope you get to see more of her work soon!
Top of the Lake is getting a second series. I believe it's supposed to be out by next year.
Cheers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-09OhQPiIg#t=85