| Reference Type |
web
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| Title |
lavish praise for Jindabyne at Cannes |
| State |
Unknown |
| Country |
Australia |
| Publication Date |
26-05-2006 |
| Citation Date |
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| Site URL |
http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/lavish-praise-for-jindabyne-at-cannes/2006/05/25/1148524815179.html http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382765/ |
| Comments |
21 years after his shocking review of his first film Bliss, Ray Lawrence is relieved when Jindabyne, which plays a similar role in the genre and quirky nature as his other films, receives praise at Cannes. Lawrence had once said he never wanted to go back, however after Lantana, his second film, received great reviews and made millions, he tried once again five years later. Many reviewers, aware of his previous film blunder labelled it one of the greatest adaptations of a short story. "a mature, poised Raymond Carver adaptation that could easily have featured in the main competition" As one of Australia's most anticipated films to date, the result of the success in Cannes meant it would later be distributed overseas in Britain and the U.S. Jindabyne was released in Australia on the 20th of July 2006 and earned almost half a million dollars in the box office in the opening week. Many of the reviews from Cannes described Lawrences incredible use of the landscape and ability to evoke anticipation throughout the entire film. It also received some criticism mainly on the basis that the ending was too open.
IMDB REVIEW
A sublime film
24 July 2006 | by Eric Rose (Sydney, Australia)
Ray Lawrence has done it again. This film has made me see the Australian landscape in a way that I haven't really since seeing Picnic at Hanging Rock. The feeling as the lads start on the fishing trip is somewhat Hitchcockian, since we know that we're going to see the body sometime soon - we just don't know when. There's a sense of oppression and expectation overlaid on the natural beauty, that holds you transfixed.
The film may be criticised since it doesn't try and resolve anything on a a material level. However, Lawrence is more interested in the internal lives of his characters - all of them. He also doesn't want to hand us the exposition on a platter. There's back-stories that are unfolded gradually, making us think about the characters as we are pointed to knowledge of what lead them to their current lives. I'm glad to see a film made for people to think about, rather than spoon-feeding us some clichés about how hard life can be for the protagonists.
Water plays a significant role throughout the movie, from the river where the fishermen find the body, to Lake Jindabyne, and the ghost stories about the drowned town. We're made to dive into the lives of the characters, finding deeper and deeper layers of motivation as we move from the warm surface of their lives to the colder and more fragile hidden depths. We see that the body in the river acts as a sort of stand-in for each character's transformation in a death and rebirth of the spirit.
This is another masterpiece work from a master film maker.
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| Synopsis |
Ray Lawrence must be a relieved man following the enthusiastic response for his film Jindabyne at its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The director's last visit to Cannes in 1985 with Bliss was traumatic - international critics walked out of the film en masse. "It was difficult, to say the least," Lawrence told the Herald before leaving for Cannes. Jindabyne is screening as part of Directors' Fortnight but many critics leaving Tuesday night's screening believed it should have been in competition. Based on the Raymond Carver short story So Much Water So Close to Home, it stars Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney as a couple with a troubled marriage. When Byrne and his fishing buddies discover the body of a murdered Aboriginal woman in the river, they decide not to let their discovery interfere with their weekend, and only report it on the Sunday night. The police are appalled at their irresponsibility and Linney is horrified at the dark side of her husband. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw described the psychological drama as "a stunning Australian film" in which Linney and Byrne give "superb performances". "The movie is impeccably acted and its narrative progression superbly managed by Lawrence: for over two hours, I was on the edge of my seat," Bradshaw wrote. Allan Hunter, writing for the website ScreenTime.com, called it "a mature, poised Raymond Carver adaptation that could easily have featured in the main competition."
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