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Clip description
Dan (Heath Ledger) and Candy (Abbie Cornish) visit Casper (Geoffrey Rush), an old friend of Dan’s who’s an associate professor of organic chemistry. He often makes his own heroin. Dan borrows $100 for a hit. He and Candy time their rush for when they’re in an automated car wash. By the time the car is clean, they’re both semi-conscious.
Curator’s notes
The film is divided into three chapters, preceded by titles: heaven, earth, hell. This is heaven, where the cocktail of new love and new habit is still fresh for the young lovers. Casper provides a contradiction to the usual clichés about drug addicts – he’s successful, seemingly healthy and able to handle his usage. He looks at Candy with a romantic sense of regret – ‘one so new to the path of wild abandon’ – but no condemnation. No-one’s forcing them to choose this life, after all. In his case it’s one of the pleasures of being grown-up – Casper is like an 18th century libertine, the star of his own romantic lifestyle. Neil Armfield gives these early scenes a great sensuality, in which love, lust and heroin become entwined. It helps us to feel the attraction, if not to understand it.
