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The Black Balloon (2007)

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clip ‘Dirty little bugger’

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be M

Clip description

Charlie (Luke Ford) draws rude self-portraits as he and his brother Thomas (Rhys Wakefield) sit at home. Their parents return from a sex and pregnancy class, where Maggie (Toni Collette) has had one of her ‘attacks’, due to high blood pressure. Simon (Erik Thomson) tries to convince her to go to bed but she refuses. She bathes Charlie, playing with his hair, as Thomas watches. Charlie burbles with pleasure at having his bath. Later, Thomas watches Jackie (Gemma Ward) as she plays around with her friends at the pool.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

This is a good example of the subtle constructions within the script. Charlie is aware of his growing sexuality, as is Thomas. This scene connects them up using the symbolism of water. There are three shots with water – the bath sequence, the surfer on television, and the pool sequence. In each case, there’s a clear sense of pleasure involved – and it’s largely masculine pleasure. Charlie’s drawing and the way Thomas looks at Jackie are about the same thing – sexual arousal and longing. At the same time the sequence gives us three depictions of women – the stick figure that Charlie draws, the fertile belly of Maggie sitting on the bath, and the young body of Jackie in a swimsuit. Without making anything too explicit, this raises the question of genetic inheritance. Is Maggie worrying about having another baby who might be autistic? Is Thomas worried about his own children in the future?

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