Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

The Quiet Room (1996)

play
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip Adults behaving like children education content clip 3

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

Clip description

The mother (Celine O’Leary) loses patience with her daughter’s silence, declaring that she won’t live in a pigsty any longer. The father (Paul Blackwell) tries to cheer her up with an offer to cook – but the mother has the dinner already planned. The girl (Chloe Ferguson) renews her stubborn determination to bring her parents back together by her silence.

Curator’s notes

Much of the film is shot from low angles to approximate the child’s height. The deep shadows across the mother’s face suggest a dark anger, and de Heer uses shadows on walls to suggest scary monsters. We often see these shadows before one of the adults enters the room. The contest of wills intensifies in this scene and it’s a three-way struggle in which the child is at least as determined – and probably more cunning – than the adults.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Adults behaving like children from the feature film The Quiet Room 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
quietroo2_pr.mp4 Large: 22.8MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
quietroo2_bb.mp4 Medium: 10.7MB 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: