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Clip description
In Kings Cross, Sydney, Rob (Bryan Brown) asks Lou (Judy Davis) if he can talk to her about Lisa. She leads him to the hotel room where she takes her clients, requesting $30 for 15 minutes. Remembering her friend makes her upset. She gives back the money, saying she doesn’t want to talk anymore, and leaves.
Curator’s notes
The colours are sickly and slightly lurid – like Lou’s outfit. The hotel room underlines the sense of dismal desperation in the work of prostitution, as does the muzak-like soundtrack seeping in from the street outside. Lou’s vulnerability and sadness are immediately apparent, but there’s no such emotion on Rob’s face – more like a faint amusement at being in this room with a prostitute, and not for sex. Judy Davis plays the scene as if Lou is barely even there, drifting away into her thoughts. Bryan Brown is much more in the room, a physical presence. In a subtle way, Duigan is tying his masculinity to that of all the men she brings to this room. When she gives him his money back, it changes things. She has asserted a degree of control and shown that there are things she won’t sell – such as memories of a friend.
