Vivean Gray Movies
Peter Weir follows up on his critically acclaimed masterpiece Picnic at Hanging Rock with this surrealist psychological drama. The film opens with a freak hailstorm in Australia's outback. Cut to David Burton (Richard Chamberlain), a well-to-do Sydney corporate lawyer plagued by visions of impending doom who is assigned to defend five accused of murdering a fellow Aborigine. The case itself proves to be mysterious -- no exact cause of death can be determined by the pathologist, and the accused remain strangely tight-lipped about the whole affair. As his visions grow increasingly weird and intense, Burton sees in his dream one of the five Aborigines, Chris (David Gulpili of Walkabout fame), who is drenched and clutching a sacred rock. Burton's interest in the case slides into complete obsession, and he comes to believe that not only was the murder related to an underground urban tribe of Aborigines but that Australia is about to be decimated by a massive, apocalyptic tidal wave. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, (more)
Peter Weir's haunting and evocative mystery is set in the Australia of 1900, a mystical place where the British have attempted to impose their Christian culture with such tweedy refinements as a girls' boarding school. After gauzily-photographed, nicely underplayed scenes of the girls' budding sexuality being restrained in Victorian corsets, the uptight headmistress (Rachel Roberts) takes them on a Valentine's Day picnic into the countryside, and several of the girls, led by the lovely Miranda (Anne Lambert) decide to explore a nearby volcanic rock formation. It's a desolate, primitive, vaguely menacing place, where one can almost feel the presence of ancient pagan spirits. Something -- and there is an unspoken but palpable emphasis on the inherent carnality of the place -- draws four of the girls to explore the rock. Three never return. No one ever finds out why. The repercussions for the school are tragic, and of course Roberts reacts with near-crazed anger, but what really happened? Weir gives enough clues to suggest any number of explanations, both physical and supernatural. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, (more)
- 1973
Four Australian directors explore different angles of the title topic in this generally downbeat anthology. In "The Husband" a husband increases his arousal during lovemaking by imagining his wife in different sexual liaisons without realizing that his fantasy may based on fact. The second vignette "The Child" centers on the resentful son of a widow who is having an affair with another. While his mother is off galavanting with her new love, the boy is left in the care of a governess whom he grows to love. The poor boy begins to fear that his new friend will be fired as soon as his mother returns and so goes off on a walk to sort out his feelings. He wanders into a field and it is there he sees his governess making love to his mother's boyfriend. This causes the emotionally fragile lad to shatter and blindly run towards the river where he crazily hops into a boat and begins rowing into the current. The lover, wanting to save the child from harm dives in and tragedy ensues. In "The Priest," a priest wrestles with his love for a nun. Though they want to marry, the nun forces them to leave their orders in the correct way. It is a way filled with red-tape and takes so long that the relationship withers and they remain in their vocations. The final segment "The Family Man" deals with a slob of a husband who decides to celebrate the birth of his third child by having a little fling while his wife recuperates in hospital. He enlists the aid of a buddy and together they get drunk, pick up two floozies and head to his beachhouse. When the gals learn about his wife, they stomp out of the house. Time passes and the husband brings his family to the house for vacation. Much to his horror he finds that the two women have placed a large incriminating sign upon it leaving him to try to explain it all to his wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1971
This film is a moody, even tragic drama about a neglected spinster whose saving fantasy life is savaged by her deeply unsatisfactory encounters with "real life." Having devoted her youth to caring for her unloved and unloving mother in her final years, when her mother dies, she has no life of her own. She knows no one. On a shopping expedition, she succumbs to a saleswoman's hard sell and buys a doll. The doll soon becomes an important focus in her life, especially in helping her daydream about sleeping with a young man she has seen. To the puzzlement of her neighbors, baby clothing begins to appear on her clothesline, though they know full well she has neither husband nor baby. She does, finally, meet and get to know the young man, and even goes to bed with him. However, the reproaches she thinks she hears from her dolls send her into a frenzy, as they have told her the man will leave her because she's too old. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
