Geneviève Picot: Looking Back on Proof

By Travis Johnson

A blind photographer’s (Hugo Weaving) antagonistic relationship with his housekeeper (Geneviève Picot) when a young man (Russell Crowe) comes into their orbit and the new dynamic forces all concerned to reassess what they know about trust, truth, and friendship. That’s the nutshell precis of Proof, the 1991 film by Jocelyn Moorhouse that is now an acknowledged classic of Australian cinema. But 25 years ago it was an unusual script being realised on a miniscule budget by a first-time feature director, and the road to greatness proved to be a bumpy one.

“When I first read the script I was, ‘Oh my god, what is this about? A blind man taking photographs – how bizarre.’” Picot recalls. “But when I met Jocelyn and we started to do some work on it, it was very clear that she was a very interesting woman who had a very deep understanding of human nature. That to me is what it’s all about – exploring human nature and exploring the human condition.”

Proof was produced at a time when the tax-rebate Australian film boom was winding down, and the industry was in something of a slump. “Proof was in fact one of the few films being made at that time; there wasn’t a lot of stuff being made, and certainly not with an all-Australian cast. It was a very, very low budget film at the time – I think it was something like a little over a million dollars it was made for – and it was an independent, alternative, fringe element film. In a sense it didn’t fit, it wasn’t like any of the other films being made at the time because of its subject matter.”

At the time Picot was an established name. She’d made her screen debut in 1976 on the long-running soap, The Sullivans, and had a fair few credits under her belt by the time the script for Proof caught her attention. “On a basic level, when you’re an actor any job you can get is kind of glorifying and gratifying and wonderful, and to audition for such an interesting film and then be offered the role was pretty enticing at the time.” However, funding was not easy to come by, and the film spent a long time in development while the budget was accrued.

Picot came on board early on in the process and recalls doing what she refers to as “workshoppy stuff” with Moorhouse while development stretched on. Picot was familiar with one of her co-stars, but the other was a relatively fresh face, although one who had already developed the professional attitude which would serve him well over the course of his career.

“Hugo I knew through NIDA,” she says. “Because he was going through NIDA when I was, I think a year or so behind me. I hadn’t come across Russell but I was aware. He in fact had been taking advantage of a lot of work that had been done and he’d done actually two or three films before he did Proof. His work ethic was phenomenal. He’s a man of great drive, as well as we now know. He came to the film having done an enormous amount of homework on his character and what he wanted to do. He’d worked it all out by himself, which sometimes didn’t jibe with what Jocelyn wanted. So there was a lot of argy bargy going on between Jocelyn and Russell while they were working through what to do and what she needed from him in that role.”

Picot takes pains to point out that any difference of opinion between director and actor was not antagonistic, though. “There’s no question that he was very dedicated and very driven, and Hugo and I were probably a little more flexible in that sense – we probably found the process a little easier than he did. It’s not like it was an ego thing and he had to have his way, it was that he had done a lot of thinking about it.”

The low budget meant that there were few frills or home comforts during the shoot. “We didn’t have caravans to go to or any of that sort of stuff. When we were filming on set we were using somebody’s house. In those days I smoked and often Hugo and I would duck out the back for a cigarette down the laneway. It wasn’t the comfortable sort of shoot that you might get now. Given that we were all young and it was all pretty exciting, I didn’t pay much attention to any of that stuff anyhow. I look back at it now and I think, yeah, they spent the money on the screen.”

And it was clearly money well spent, with Proof‘s place in the histroy of Australian cinema now assured. “Only as I got older did I really appreciate the perception and depth and cleverness with which Jocelyn wrote and told that story about trust. It’s about a relationship that kind of goes sour and how those things play out. She was kind of telling that story as a metaphor, I think, and telling a story about the nature of trust and particularly across gender and what that means. And I thought this wouldn’t be everybody’s cup of tea, it’s not your average Australian film.”

The Nova Iconic season of Proof at Melbourne’s Cinema Nova runs from September 1 – 7, with a special Q&A screening on Sunday, September 4, featuring  director Jocelyn Moorhouse, producer Lynda House, lead actress Genevieve Picot, cinematographer Martin McGrath, sound designer Glenn Newnham and mentor Natalie Miller. To book tickets, go to the Cinema Nova website, or click through here for your chance to win a double pass.