Australian
Screen

Clip description

Sophie (Zoe Carides), the barmaid at the club, has invited Carl (Sam Neill) to join her at the pictures, where she’s taking her cousin Con (Daniel Kadamani). Carl worries that he’s at least 15 years older than Sophie, so he uses some of his mother’s make-up to hide his facial lines. Cousin Con notices the make-up immediately. In their seats, Carl and Sophie make eyes at each other but their kisses attract a certain degree of attention.

Curator’s notes

The Progress Theatre in Coburg West (a shade north of Brunswick) opened in 1927, and operated for much of its time as a cinema, so it was a perfect choice for this scene, which is basically a re-creation of the anarchic spirit of the Saturday matinee for kids. This is a tradition that has died out in most places, but John Ruane recaptures the flavour – a boisterous young crowd making rude comments about everyone and especially the movie, Philippe Mora’s Howling III: The Marsupials (1987). The scene makes rich comedy out of the way that Sophie and Carl are dying to be alone together. This is as close as she can get, at least for the moment.

Zoe Carides is superb in this role – joyfully sexy, high spirited, not quite innocent but still very sweet, and completely gorgeous. She turned 28 during the filming, although she’s convincing here as a 19-year-old. Sam Neill was 42 when the film was shot, and already an established international star. He was not well known as a comic actor before Death in Brunswick, but the film certainly showed that he could do comedy.