Share
Clip description
Gordon (Peter Fenton) and Cynthia (Sacha Horler) wake after a rough night. He has told her he doesn’t love her anymore; she refuses to accept it. Drunk and miserable the night before, she broke a plate on his head. In the morning, he reminds her of what she did, then rests his head in her lap. Cynthia gives in and says she will go. Gordon tells himself he has won the fight to extract himself from the relationship.
Curator’s notes
Even though the film was shot in Sydney, Curran and production designer Michael Phillips give a sense of Brisbane with small details like the weatherboards behind the bed, and the sense of heat. This sequence starts with the camera locked off, very static, but becomes more intimate as Cynthia makes up her mind. We then get a series of close-ups, of which there are not many in the film, but with an upside down opposition of the faces. It’s logical, because she is looking down on his face and he up at hers, but it’s also about the symbolic distance in their outlooks, now that the storm of love has passed. The slow pull back at the end of the scene completes this sense of ebbing drama. The best, and the worst, is over for these two. The film was shot by Dion Beebe, who also shot Floating Life. He moved to Brisbane as a child (from South Africa), and now works mostly in the US, where his recent credits include the cinematography on Chicago, and Memoirs of a Geisha (for which he won an Oscar).
