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Clip description
Lou (Judy Davis) has kicked heroin and moved into the room that her friend Lisa rented before her death. She listens to a song that Lisa recorded as a demo. That night she goes to see Pete (Baz Luhrmann) who lives in a squat. She has always refused his advances; she tells him she will sleep with him this one night, but she won’t see him again. He tries to offer her heroin but she refuses. She’s getting away from everything, she says.
Note: The film print has a scratch on it which results in green lines down the screen. Scratches are also visible on clip two.
Curator’s notes
Pete was Baz Luhrmann’s first role on film, one of very few before he decided to concentrate on directing. This is the only scene in the movie where there is genuine intimacy between people – and it’s an ominous farewell. Lou appears to have decided on suicide, which will complete the circle. Lisa, her friend, had a failed love affair with Rob and was rejected; Lou has had the same experience but she never even had the affair. She has taken her friend’s room, her clothes, and her depression. Now she appears to be taking on her death as well.
The intimacy with Pete, the sense that they care for each other, is a surprise because their other scenes are antagonistic. He wants sex, she wants love, but she settled in the past for drugs. Now that she has no need for heroin, he sees that there is no place for him in her life. He doesn’t realise that she’s not planning to have a life much longer. When the film ends with her still alive, audiences felt a great relief. At the final moment, John Duigan gave us a chance of a hope that Lou might decide to survive, after all.
