Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows an exchange between John Knox (Geoffrey Rush) and Detective Leon Zat (Anthony LaPaglia), who is investigating the disappearance of John’s wife, Valerie Somers. When Leon questions John about his whereabouts on the night of Valerie’s disappearance, John responds by asking Leon if he has ever cheated on his wife and what holds his marriage together, unwittingly confronting Leon with his own infidelity and troubled relationship. The conversation takes place on the treetop balcony of John’s house, in a bush setting.

Educational value points

• This clip from Lantana provides an example of the way director Ray Lawrence constructs 'scenes that appear to suggest one perspective or one primary goal, only to spin that expectation around’ (Freeman, http://www.sensesofcinema.com). What begins as an interrogation of John turns into a cross-examination of Leon and his marriage, as John, through his responses, unwittingly probes Leon’s fragile relationship and his precarious sense of self.

• In this scene, Leon lies rather than admit his infidelity, in order to project an image of the sort of man and husband he would like to be. However, this projection is undermined by the incongruity between what he says and how he acts. For example, there is a long pause as he struggles to respond to John’s question about what holds his marriage together, and he hesitates and looks down as he denies cheating on his wife.

• John and Leon, as the clip shows, are linked by marriages in which betrayal has led to a loss of trust – a central theme of the film. They are also linked by grief, which for John is brought about by the loss of his daughter and his marriage, and which for Leon is a result of placing his own marriage in jeopardy. While John cannot resurrect his damaged relationship, the exchange between the two men serves as a warning to Leon, causing him to reflect on what he has lost in his marriage.

• By cutting between individual close-ups of Leon and John so that they are visually separate, the clip underlines their sense of isolation. This is reinforced by their physical disengagement, so that even when Leon and John are shown together in the same shot, John turns his back or one of them looks away. Lawrence uses this technique throughout Lantana to suggest that, in spite of their intertwining lives, the characters do not connect.

• Reaction shots are close-ups that are used in film to reveal a character’s thoughts or emotions or to indicate the importance of a certain response. An example from the clip is the quick close-up of Leon as he struggles to respond to John’s question about cheating on his wife. This, and his downcast gaze as he denies being unfaithful, reveal that both the question and the lie make him uncomfortable.

• Andrew Bovell, an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, adapted the script for Lantana from his play Speaking in Tongues. It received an Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award for Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Source. Bovell says that adapting the play meant 're-inventing’ the story: he introduced new characters, cut the more bizarre coincidences that connected the two couples in the play, and removed the stylised dialogue that had different characters repeating the same lines.

• Geoffrey Rush, who plays John Knox in the film, is one of Australia’s most respected actors. He established himself as a theatre actor before his performance in the role of pianist–composer David Helfgott in Shine (1996) won him an Academy Award for Best Actor. Since then he has worked extensively both in Australia and overseas, appearing in films such as Elizabeth (1998), Ned Kelly (2003), Munich (2005) Candy (2006) and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.

• Anthony LaPaglia received an AFI Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the role of Leon Zat in Lantana, which many critics regard as one of his best performances. LaPaglia moved to the USA in the 1980s where he established himself as a character actor, often playing the 'tough guy’ or cop. He has appeared in a number of Australian films, including Looking for Alibrandi (2000) and The Bank (2001), and is well known to audiences as the lead in the popular US television crime drama Without a Trace (2002–).

• Director Ray Lawrence is not a prolific filmmaker, gives actors a lot of artistic freedom and often relies on one 'take’. His films explore universal themes with a distinctly Australian language, idiom and setting. Lantana won seven AFI awards, including Best Film and Best Direction and was the long anticipated follow-up to Lawrence’s first film Bliss (1985), based on Peter Carey’s novel of the same name. Lawrence released his third feature, Jindabyne, in 2006. He also works as a director of television commercials.

This clip starts approximately 1 hour 25 minutes into the feature.

John and Detective Zat are at a table on a balcony overlooking bushland. Birdsong and bush sounds in the background.
John Have you ever cheated on your wife?
Detective Zat No.
John Never desired another woman?
Zat Yes, of course I have.
John But you’ve never acted on that?
Zat No.
John Well, you’re a better man than I am.
Zat So there is someone else?
John No. There was someone once. A woman. Once that’s happened you are never entirely believed again. Something gets broken, permanently. Trust, I suppose. When that happens anything is possible, it would seem. You don’t lose a daughter like we lost Eleanor without some damage.
Zat So, where were you?
John I left work late. I stopped at the place where my daughter was killed. I go there. A lot. Valerie didn’t know that.
Zat And you didn’t tell her?
John shakes his head.
Zat Why not, John?
John turns away for a moment.
John What holds your marriage together, Leon?
Zat Ah … Loyalty. Love. Maybe habit, sometimes passion, our kids.
John Ours is held together by grief. There wasn’t much else left.
Zat So are you saying you didn’t love her anymore?
John I’m saying that sometimes love isn’t enough.