Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Somersault
[Film] Meet Heidi. She's 16, she's attractive & she knows how to use sex to get what she wants. When things turn sour at home, she runs away to a nearby town. She gets a job at the local petrol station and a place behind a local motel. She confuses sex and intimacy, which is what she wants. She meets Joe, a farmer, who doesn't really know what he wants.
Somersault is getting quite a bit of media attention here because it was written and directed by a local (Cate Shortland) and was shot locally (Canberran locations include Kambah shops, flashes of Civic and the Belconnen bus interchange). It was also screened at the Cannes Film Festival & sold to 13 countries.
I liked how it was shot & scored. The cold, bleak locations of Canberra and Jindabyne echo the loveless situation Heidi finds herself in. What little warmth she gets she gets from Joe and Irene the motel owner.
Don't go into Somersault if you're looking to switch your brain off for an hour and a half. Don't go if you're looking for all of the loose strings to be neatly tied up. See it if you're willing to be moved, and most likely not in a nice way.
What Margaret, David (& others) thought of Somersault.
(For Canberrans) Electric Shadows screening times for Somersault.
Read or Post a Comment
Not yet. Would you recommend it?
[jemist]
Hey ya.
I saw Somersault last weekend. Short of writing a mega, perhaps unwarranted, huge comment on every itsy bitsy little bit, I'll just mention with the main thought plaguing my mind as I walked out of Electric Shadows on that Saturday evening:
I think this indulgent shots ruined the flow of the movie for me. ie; the leaves in the skip, Joe looking through the red tinted glass, etc.,
Otherwise, yes, I did dig it.
I'd try to be more coherent, but I'm still post-election angry :)