Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Holy Smoke (1999)

play
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip ‘This is a complete waste of time’

Original classification rating: MA. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Ruth Barron (Kate Winslet) tells PJ Waters (Harvey Keitel) that his attempt to deprogram her will not succeed.

Curator’s notes

The battle of wills commences. On the first day of their three-day encounter Ruth tells Waters that he stands no chance of changing her mind about her newfound beliefs and dedication to her Indian guru, Baba. Supremely confident of success, Waters acknowledges Ruth’s intelligence and determination while attempting to sow the seeds of doubt in her mind.

Ruth’s dismissive comment about Waters dyeing his hair shows that she is seeking out his weak spots and will not be an easy subject to break. The close-up of the match flame as it covers Ruth’s face symbolises the intensity and incendiary nature of what Waters is attempting to achieve.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer ‘This is a complete waste of time’ from the feature film Holy Smoke as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
holysmok3_pr.mp4 Large: 21.0MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
holysmok3_bb.mp4 Medium: 9.9MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: