MovieChat Forums > Lantana (2002) Discussion > TAWDRY TELEVISION

TAWDRY TELEVISION

posted 19 years ago by nakedhandfilms
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If I was writing a review for Television...I would say...this is the best cop mystery of the year. But....it's aiming to be cinematic and dramatic in the worst most pretensious kind of way. The writer director never leaves something to the audience's imagination -- the dialogue is expositional, the characters tensions and secrets are bourgeoisie..uninventive, uninspired, untouched. The music SUX! It's a pop music soundtrack -- and the shot design leaves much to be inspired (Wide shot through obscured hallway cut into mid shot cut to closeup...This is TV coverage....what happened to Mise-en scene)

To see good ensemble tension watch ALTMANS: "Short Cuts" "Three Women" "Images" "Mash" "Nashville" See DAVID LYNCH'S "Blue Velvet" "Wild at Heart" "Mulholland Drive" " The Straight Story" See PAKULA'S "Klute" see COPPOLAs "THE CONVERSATION" see Schlesingers "DARLING" "DAY OF THE LOCUST"

I'm sure this director has watched some of these films...and copied from some of these films...but is still unable to string a half interesting cinematic conversation between a sequence, an image or a simple character gesture or dialogue.

However -- credit to the actors. Especially DANIELA FARINACCI, RACHAEL BLAKE -- who invest life and truth into their characterisations.

PETER PHELPS is miscast. GEOFFREY RUSH is hammy and predictable (for better performances check out his performances in the appropriately hammy QUILLS, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS)
KERRY ARMSTRONG is oh so earnest and terribly uninspired in her dramatic choices.

BARBARA HERSHEY is politically interesting...but the characterisation goes nowhere ...she feels like a cipher (primarily because her character has no dimension or paradox other than..shrink with emotional issues) -- a symbol of American self-help analysis that has pervaded Australian cultural identity. Yet the symbolic character is found so neatly in our Australian landscape. She does not infect us. We get on with our lives ... in the most earnest and tawdry way. THIS IS A *beep* LIE!

We are affected. Paul Kelly does not help us wrap up the film. We are angry, apathetic, uncertain, disassociated, and restless...but this director chooses to portray his ending as though we are laconic, a little sad, getting on with it, putting that last deposit on our mortgage belt low interest Howard invested bank loan.

This could be propaganda for HOWARDS CAMPAIGN. But its not surprising given that this director (once the fertile mind that came up with the ingenious "BLISS") has been making a very comfortable living directing ads for the last twenty or so years. Makes everything feel pretty cosy doesnt it?

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] bnotty 19 years ago

Sorry, but you sound like a total wanker - and I agree with darren_h_k, I can't take you seriously. Please "...it was so bourgeoisie..."? Are you serious?

[–] savieri 19 years ago

Hmm. I think it is bourgeoisie as well. The filmmaker's political agenda is murky but I think technically the film is great. And the drama is certainly engaging. I think for people who work in the mortgage belt (who don't have to really think) this film would be fantastic. Advertising execs, marketting, lawyers -- it works because it's about them and it has been executed with a similar sensibility.

There is certainly something that is happening in Australian cinema whereby career is more important than making cinema that is pure. But it really doesn't matter -- we need films for the masses and cinema as art -- so everyone has it's place.

Lantana falls somewhere in between these two things and probably suceeds more at the former. It's a shame because it had enormous potential to be both. All the great films (even American) have very rigorous understanding of politics and work as sophisticated sociological commentary. "Band wagon", "Cabaret", "Accident", "The Last Picture Show" (which no doubt influenced the director of "Lantana") "The Ice Storm" and ...well the list is virtually huge.

This film feels more kin to recent german dramas -- or perhaps like *beep* Amyl" the Swedish film. There is an earnest tension at work and the craft is very compelling -- but ultimately it falls flat. There is nothing inexplicable about the film because the script has been overworked (my opinion)in the wrong way.

Could be to do with the producers culture that has emerged in the Australian industry, I'm not sure. But "Bliss" was certainly more original.