Australian
Screen

Clip description

Girls from the neighbouring ladies’ college arrive at the boys’ school for a dance, watched by some of the boys who won’t be attending, including Danny (Noah Taylor), who has been grounded for insubordination. In the dance hall Thandiwe (Thandiwe Newton) searches for Danny. Realising he’s not there, she quietly leaves to find him.

Curator’s notes

A beautifully atmospheric sequence, filmed with wit and style. Using very little dialogue, director John Duigan constructs this sequence relying on music, costumes, elegant tracking shots (where the camera is moved on wheels) and the girls’ physical gestures and knowing looks. The girls are filmed alighting from the bus in slow motion accompanied by romantic jazz on the soundtrack – showing that in the eyes of the watching boys they are exotic, sensual creatures. But Duigan also wants viewers to know that some of the girls know this is how they’re being viewed. Notice the arrogant and delightfully timed flick of the hair given by snooty head girl Nicola (Nicole Kidman) as she enters the dancehall.

The juxtaposition of old jazz at the start and then contemporary (mid-'60s), sexualised beat music as the girls enter the dancehall, makes for a deliciously witty contrast. The swagger of The Troggs’s song, 'With A Girl Like You’ (recorded in 1966, a year later than the events depicted), underscores Nicola’s cocky attitude. By placing Thandiwe at the end of the line of girls, the film makes a rhetorical point about her being at the edge of this crowd of white schoolgirls – both literally and figuratively.