Norman Kaye Movies

Lovers in Belgium during WWII, Claire (Julia Blake) and Andreas (Charles Tingwell) are shocked to discover that, after a 45-year separation, they are neighbors in the same Melbourne neighborhood. Andreas has been a widower for 30 years, while Claire is happily though not passionately married to John (Terry Norris), whom she hasn't slept with for two decades. Andreas and Claire resume their heady sexual relationship, much to the disapproval of their loved ones. Director Paul Cox cuts between footage of the couple in the present and the past, examining how they have and haven't changed over the years, and the bond that continues to keep them together. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

This caustic Australian comedy is meant to burn those commercial interests who sponsor artists for tax breaks. It also a sexually unresponsive wife's revenge against her cheating husband. Heiress Georgina Oliphant, the daughter of pharmaceutical magnate George Oliphant is on a mission to find a sculptor suitable of her father's sponsorship. Normally, George doesn't give a hoot about art, but tax time approaches and he needs a big deduction. Since large bronze statues are 100% deductible, that's what he wants. Georgina comes through with the lesbian sculptor Lily Carmichael who suggests a detailed male nude, sans fig leaf. For her model, lily chooses unemployed hunk Karl-Heinz Applebaum who at first doesn't realize he is to model totally nude. Fortunately, coquettish Georgina is around to convince him to shed those clothes. He soon begins looking forward to the sessions much to the dismay of his frowsy, sexually frosty wife Cecilia, a devout member of the "Center for Synchronic Awareness," an esoteric religious cult which is headed by the oily, avaricious Baba Charles whose picture Cecilia has placed throughout her home (Aussie film buffs may recognize the photo as that of director Rolf de Heer, a rival of this film's director Paul Cox). Soon enough, her husband and Georgina become lovers causing Cecilia to hatch an elaborate plot for revenge, a plot in which the financially beleaguered George Oliphant unwittingly assists by having her pose with her husband for an even larger, more tax deductible sculpture. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This Australian drama, based on the novel Priest Island by E.L. Grant, tells the tale of a man exiled to a lonely island after he is caught stealing sheep. The story is set in an unnamed time in an unknown time. Peter had been stealing the sheep to pay the dowry for his beloved, Jean. He is sentenced to spend his life on an uninhabited island with only a few simple tools. If he leaves the island, he will be killed. While he learns to survive, Jean is forced to marry another. She gets pregnant but loses the baby during childbirth. Mary is a servant at the local inn. She is curious about the rumors of a good looking man exiled on a nearby island. She goes to the island with some chickens and a goat. Though Peter still mourns the loss of Jean, he and Mary soon become lovers. Mary bears him a son. Later a priest comes to baptize the child and marry the couple. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this moody black and white drama, very much in the mode of the American "western," but with its own film noir characteristics, a whole town is heaved out of its doldrums when a pair of mysterious strangers come visiting. In the beginning of the film, Angel (Aden Young) is traveling with his friend Max (Dennis Miller) on a ship to Honeyfield, a town on the coast of Australia. He is coming home to die. Instead, he dies on board the ship, willing his boots to Angel, and an unopened package to someone called "The Dead Man," in Honeyfield. Also on the ship is a man named Tatts (David Field), a far less pleasant personality. When Angel gets off to head into Honeyfield, Tatts decides to follow along unseen. The package, Angel was told, contains something its intended recipient has been looking for without knowing it. On finding the recipient, a mean-spirited old man (Norman Kaye) who is more or less the boss and owner of the town, he learns that the package contains opium. Angel gets involved with other citizens of the town, and gets to know what became of the woman Max was coming back to. Just being a fresh face is enough to stir things up, but Angel brings things to a boil by bringing up memories of the past. The pot boils over, though, when Tatt comes into town and begins playing his games. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This genial Australian coming-of-age film is based on the experiences of its narrator, writer and director Bob Ellis. The first part of the film covers the difficulties teenaged Ken (Noah Thomas) has at a church summer camp run the the Seventh Day Adventists; he is not "with the program," and consistently asks heretical questions during prayer meetings. Also, he can't help keeping a watchful, admiring eye on a visiting preacher's pretty daughter. He gets to ditch his ultra-religious background when he goes to work at a university newspaper some six years later and, despite (or perhaps because of) his scruffy appearance, he finds himself attractive to girls. One legacy of his years at church is a pervading sense that the world may end soon, and when he insists that his new girlfriend drive him away from Sydney in her father's car because he anticipates nuclear war as a result of the Cuban Missle Crisis, it is the last straw in their relationship. Years later, now a successful film director, he runs into some of his friends from earlier days. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this grim docu-drama an Australian photojournalist leaves her children to cover the story of Vietnamese boat people in a Malaysian refugee camp. There she becomes friends with a Vietnamese streetwalker who has married a diplomat and together they try to do something about shocking conditions suffered by the people there. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Australian director Paul Cox, skilled at intense psychological stories about lone souls looking for comfort in a cold world, was at his best with this original script co-written by the director and Barry Dickins. Martha is a 78-year-old woman living out her final days. Not a maudlin tale of a lonely woman wasting away, A Woman's Tale focuses on a human who manages to maintain an amazing vitality in the face of death. She encourages her young nurse, Anna (Gosia Doborowolska), to use her flat for romantic trysts; she looks in on Billy (Norman Kayes), an elderly neighbor, and she resists attempts by her son Johanathan (hris Haywood) to place her in a nursing home. Sheila Florance's performance as Martha is a marvel, especially given the art-imitates-life aspect of production: Florance was terminally ill, and she died soon after she was nominated for the Best Actress Award for Australia's Academy Awards. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

A small desert town in western Australia is the scene of several love affairs in this romantic drama. Forty-year-old Stella (Wendy Hughes) works at her father's hotel and bar. She receives annual New Year's marriage proposals from rodeo rider Andy Ford (John Hargreaves), who talks himself into asking her one more time. Stella's father Billy (Norman Kaye) is a former cricket star whose career ended early when he was involved in a sex scandal. She spends the night with vacationing Arthur (Michael Siberry) when his car breaks down. Andy elects not to pop the question to Stella in lieu of her one-night stand with the stranger. When Billy elects to marry June Thompson (Julie Nihill), the local gossipmongers have a field day recalling the woman's promiscuous past. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Greek Irene Papas, Australian Eva Sitta and Sri Lankan Anoja Weerasinghe all meet while vacationing on a tiny Greek island. The threesome discovers that each is a fugitive from an oppressive, unhappy private life. The protective nature of the Island is personified by deafmute native Chris Haywood, who accidentally kills a man who has been annoying Sitta. Having been sheltered from their pasts by the Island, the three ladies conspire to return the favor by hiding Haywood from prosecution. Produced by an Australian firm, The Island was lensed on location on the Aegean isle of Astypalea. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As can easily be ascertained by the title, this Australian documentary focuses upon that most tortured of artistic geniuses, Vincent Van Gogh. Filmmaker Paul Cox utilizes Vincent's "Dear Theo" letters to his brother as the dramatic spine of this visual feast. Van Gogh's fiercely impressionistic paintings alternate with "real life" images of the places and faces that the artist wished to convey. John Hurt reads Van Gogh's words in a manner than can be characterized as controlled turbulence. Vincent: The Life & Death of Vincent Van Gogh would make an excellent companion piece to Robert Altman's like-vintage Vincent and Theo -- or, for that matter, the 1955 Hollywood romanticization Lust for Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This off-beat children's story is about Andy (Gully Coote), a trusting youngster who is duped into believing the $20 he just gave a disreputable derelict is really the purchase price on a race track. The caretaker at the track goes along with the charade as a lark and Andy has an interesting time exploring his "property." Things get a little complicated when two petty criminals arrive on the scene who fix races by using chemicals on the horses. The drama becomes more complicated when the police show up in pursuit of some vandals. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide