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La Mirada Announces Special Guests
La Mirada Film Festival 2010 is delighted to announce multi award winning actor ANTONIO DE LA TORRE and acclaimed director JOSE ANTONIO SALGOT as special guests of the 2010 festival. Antonio de la Torre will present the films, Fat People (Gordos)...
New Direction For ABC TV's Indigenous Content
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Jocelyne Saabs 'What's Going On?' World Avant Premire
(QSL)
Screen Australia Releases Revised Program Guidelines
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Beautiful Yet Flawed. Day 11 of the Sydney Film Festival. A Daily Blog.
A film sure to generate much debate is Rachel Ward’s Beautiful Kate which is in competition this year and had its world premiere on Saturday night.
It's controversial not only in that it deals with such a taboo issue as incest but in the way it handles it.
Early this millennium, a middle aged writer Ned (Ben Mendelsohn, who also popped in another local feature Prime Mover which also premiered at the festival) makes a long delayed journey home to a country property in the Flinders Ranges where his father (Bryan Brown, who also co-produces) lies on his death bed, cared for by Ned's younger sister Sally (Rachael Griffiths). Twenty years earlier, tragedy struck the family with Ned's twin Kate killed in a car accident and the guilt still claws at Ned as he recalls memories and events leading up to it.
Beautiful Kate is, like its titular character, beautifully crafted, shot and acted which makes the film's depiction of its taboo subject all the more disappointing. It's a film that poses more questions than it answers - although we get clues, the audience is never really properly informed of the wider circumstances and emotions that have led to this act of incest, surely something that is truly necessary when trying to understand such a contentious issue. While the film leaves in no doubt the tragic consequences of this incestuous relationship, its lyrical imagery depicting teenage sexuality, apparently some kind of tribute to the work of controversial artist Bill Henson - comes across as beautifying what is a very ugly issue.
Add to this the fact that Beautiful Kate's plotline has so many gaping holes that you could literally drive a tractor through it, not at all aided by a particularly manipulative bombshell close to the film's denouement which seems simply unbelievable given the character it relates to has barely a presence in the film. By the end of its slight 90 minute running time, severe relationship issues are neatly wrapped up and Ned's guilt is irresponsibly absolved.
Beautiful Kate is based on the novel of the same name by Newton Thornburg, originally set in the U.S and transplanted to the Flinders Ranges by Ward who adapted the novel for the screen.
At the Q and A following the premiere, Ward admitted much had been altered and culled from the original source material. That's nothing new but you can't help wondering if some greater exposition and a longer running time would have helped to greater explain the circumstances of what is ultimately a very dark and disturbing story, very prettily realised. While Brown's performance is fantastic, the film never really gets to the root of his character's hardness or properly explores why he and Ned have such a caustic hatred of each other. The impressive Griffiths almost feels sidelined with her character's seeming lack of feeling towards Ned's role in Kate's demise as well as his 20 year absence which has left her to be the sole carer of their father. In fact the only really well rounded character seems to be that of Maeve Dermody's caustic aspiring actress and fiancé to Ned which provides greatly needed comic relief.
In the end, Beautiful Kate leaves you feeling rather cheated, most of all because, despite the film's stunning craftsmanship, the controversial issue of incest has been depicted by its makers so irresponsibly. Ward, in the aforementioned Q and A, stated she was drawn to stories that are "dark and compelling" and made reference to Beautiful Kate as a "love story with obstacles". To use the term "love story" when discussing the incestuous relationship between two major characters in the film seems grossly inappropriate - not to mention grossly inaccurate given the film's portrayal of said relationship - and raises serious questions about the handling of dark, contentious issues by filmmakers in this country not to mention the decision makers who green light them.
Red Carpet Watch - Rachel Ward and cast members Bryan Brown, Ben Mendelsohn, Sophie Lowe and Maeve Dermody.