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Clip description
This opening sequence outlines the family relationships of Tim Pye (Tim Pye), Katie Pye (Katie Pye) and Ben Martin (Ben Martin). As the trio head along a country road, Ben gets in trouble for throwing orange peel out the car window.
Curator’s notes
These opening credits define the parameters of Peel: its tongue-in-cheek play with documentary, ethnography and fiction; its interest in a family dynamic and the shared qualities of red hair and stubbornness; and its striking visual and rhythmic qualities.
The matching of orange text and oranges, the fruit, with the family’s red hair make the observation of a natural quality into such a deliberate motif that it becomes funny. Campion underlines the unreal quality of this ‘real story’ by adding the sound effect of a bouncing ball as Ben bounces an orange on the dashboard. The beat this creates and the rhythmic quality of the editing define the opening moments of the film.
The orange graph outlining the family relationships mimics a Levi-Strauss ethnographic chart.
