Neil Armfield Movies
A free-spirited art student and a roguish poet find their addiction to each other taking a back seat to their taste for heroin in director Neil Armfield's intensely personal tale of recreational drug use gone bad. When Candy (Abbie Cornish) and Dan (Heath Ledger) first fell in love, they both thought they had found all they ever needed in life. Despite financial hardships, the pair sustained themselves on the vibrant life force that burned blindingly bright as it promised an invincible future. Their intoxicating romance a blissful altered state of which heroin played only a minor role in the beginning, Candy and Dan soon decide to strengthen their bond by marrying and starting a family. Their manufactured Eden gradually becomes an uncontrollable inferno, however, as Candy's parents slowly pull away due to the pain of witnessing their daughter's slow slide into oblivion, and even chemistry professor Casper (Geoffrey Rush), who was at first complicit in their experimentation, admits that Candy and Dan's blind devotion to the drug is now forever ingrained into their commitment to one and other. As the marriage deteriorates right along with Candy's increasingly fragile mental state, Dan must make the difficult decision to either rescue her or pull away in hopes that the clarity of separation will finally empower her to break free of the addiction that binds her. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, (more)
- 1991
English operettist Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw - loosely adapted from the Henry James 1898 novella of the same name - receives a stage interpretation by the Opera Australia in this 1991 production. Elijah Moshinsky designed the sets; David Stanhope conducts the West Australian Symphony Orchestra; and Neil Armfield directs. The production stars Margaret Haggart, Wendy Dixon and Anson Austin. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Fans of Dame Edna and her ilk may find the home-grown corny Australian humor of The Castanets right up their alley. This documentary is designed especially to please the fans of this extremely popular ten-member comedy group and contains portions of three performances in Bondi. The dramatic conceit framing these performances is that a club manager is looking desperately for some inexpensive bookings and reluctantly goes with the Castanets, who are decidedly on the cheesy (and cheap) side. Scenes from their standard nightclub act follow, including a raucous male "wet underwear" contest, and comedy music bits include a patter song I've Been Everywhere, composed almost entirely of tongue-twisting Australian place names. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1986
This production of the Bard of Avalon's famous stage comedy is based on a successful Australian stage production from the mid-1980s. It is a story of love, shipwreck, disguises and mistaken identities, and relies for much of its wit (and believability) on the willing suspension of disbelief. This is, by all accounts, much more easily achieved in the live theater than on film, which is such an intensely visual and "realistic" medium. Thus, the mistaken identify of the twins Viola and Sebastian, the crux of the plot, becomes somewhat difficult to credit when the role is played by the impeccably feminine Gillian Jones -- despite which, Ms. Jones won great praise from the critics for her acting. Aside from that small complaint, this is a spirited and lively production which is set in a present-day never-never land, performed by some of the keenest thespians on any side of the globe. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gillian Jones, Jacqy Phillips, (more)
