Musings about Meryl

Your character summaries are due. So in the tradition of, I'd never ask you to do anything I wouldn't do myself, I've strung together some thoughts about Meryl.

Meryl’s visions of violent death, shown via animation, raise many questions about her character. Why is she so preoccupied with death? For Meryl, danger is lurking everywhere. If the animations were the only device used we might have been able to dismiss them as purely evidence of an eccentric character. However, Meryl feels the needs to express these morbid thoughts of people drowning and hungry sharks in her illustrations as a form of “therapy”. Does Meryl feel she is drowning in her fears or her loneliness? What is threatening to eat her alive? Is she scared of dying or is she scared of living?

Meryl is scared of death yet sees her father’s death as the “natural order” of things. She is blasé when she discusses Rob’s death with Nick “Maybe it was meant to be” and is equally dismissive when Linda touches on the enormity of what she has witnessed. Is this the way she copes? By minimising the importance of death? Or is she a pragmatic character who can cope with real events but not with the sea of catastrophes that are occurring in her head?

On one level I feel like Watt thinks Meryl should suck it up, dismiss her fears and get on with the art of living. Yet it is through these fears that she connects with Nick. They realise they have both been seeing death everywhere. It is ironic that she begins a relationship with someone who has been diagnosed with cancer – a word synonymous with death in our culture. Yet together, they are able to move forward. Perhaps more evidence that she can cope with real life situations.

Stylistically, there are more questions we need to consider. How would Watt have conveyed information about Meryl’s fear and anxieties if she hadn’t used animation? Voiceover? More dialogue with minor characters such as Linda? Think of the sex scene. How else could Watt have conveyed to us the extent of Meryl’s fears (AIDS, diseased and vomiting babies etc) which almost overshadowed this intimate moment?

Relationships running parallel

This week we have watched the film again while working on our character questions. This time you've had my running commentary - I could do DVD commentary.

This film is a "romantic comedy". I was worried last Thursday when I didn't hear enough laughing. More of you seem to be getting it now. I find the way Nick and Meryl interact amusing. They are so awkward with each other. The way Meryl always says silly things makes her such an endearing character eg. when they are listing ways they used to flirt with death - unprotected sex, skiing. The sex scene is hysterical. I particularly like Meryl's image of the vomiting triplets. It amuses me how Nick flaunts sexual etiquette and does a runner and then returns and asks her to go to his mothers with him - hot first date! As both characters are in a vulnerable state, Watt has carefully selected her camera shots to ensure they are appear as isolated and alone, particularly Nick, we find ourselves willing their relationship to work. Well, this old romantic does anyway.

Running parallel to this is the relationship between Andy and ex-wife Cathy. She harps at him to look after the children properly even though Maddie breaks her arm and watches inappropriate TV while in her care - not his. The depth of Andy's anger and self-obsession is revealed but Watt carefully tempers these revelations with humour.

Running parallel to this is the train driver and his son. See how the son's dress has began to change as he identifies with his father's distress.(I am going to try and stop making derogatory comments about those revolting striped shirts). We see Julia framed by doorways and windows to show us how alone she is in her grief and Anna bombarded with patronising comments about her not having children. Phil buys a birthday present for Jasmine prompting Miriam to ask him if he having an affair. He even looks wistfully at his children's clothes on the clothesline.

And what is this all tied together with - Nick's photograph of Julia on the front of The Southern Mail. We see all the characters I've mentioned, and their friends, react to this photograph. The other thing that ties it all together is a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack.

The last two segments of the film. Lunch at Joan's and my favourite quote of the film:'It doesn't matter how life ends, it matters how it was...Everybody has to find a way to face their own death, and life.' We see Julia moving through her grief, making her own memorial and the train driver and his son moving closer together. Both Andy & Nick have confrontations with the women in their lives. Anna tells Andy "things just happen" and Meryl is understandably upset at Nick's assertion that he doesn't want to start anything. Both men are at crisis point and meet up at the train tracks. Did you pick up that Andy was following the path Rob took the day he died, just as several other characters have before him. Was he investigating Anna's theory that "things just happen" or was he contemplating suicide himself? We then have the rain, the "deluge", which works to resolve the dilemmas of our characters as they let go of their fears and anxieties. As 'Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone' draws to an end we are left with a final photomontage which is happy and life-affirming. Are you satisfied with the ending?

A matter of perception

Here they are - the lecture notes. Last week of term. I have a cold and a sudafed induced headache. My apologies for any mistakes.

Look Both Ways is about fear, the inevitability of death and the unpredictability of life. Sarah Watt’s first feature film is a universal story about ordinary people. (Make sure you watch her early animated film “Small Treasures”. Her new film, “My Year Without Sex” is due for release.)

Watts set out to write a romantic comedy. The film contains elements of universal existence, universal truths. We bring our own experiences to it. It is all about perception. There is a tension between universalism and differences. We see the world through many complex characters preoccupied with both past and future while trying to cope with the present.

Look Both Ways is a multi-strand narrative. The action takes place during one hot long weekend -72 hours – in suburban Adelaide. Time is compressed. Animated inserts, photomontage and flashbacks intersect. Musical interludes brings characters together

In the opening scene we see flowers and cards - establishes death as a main theme.
SBS News Presenter, Mary Kostakidis, announcing the Arnow Hill tragedy provides the audience with familiarity. The characters’ personal tragedies hang off this large scale catastrophe. Both traintracks and trains are ubiquitous images. Conversations about Arnow Hill around Meryl on the train when she is returning from her father’s funeral fuel Meryl’s imagination. This is not simply a neurotic fantasy. She sees disaster all around. Note the stillness of the cinematography in the train carriage.

Birds are a recurring motif. They represent nature as being irrepressible. When there is death life goes on. The transitory nature of birds points to life as fleeting.

Nick is diagnosed with testicular cancer. He receives the news stoically - a combination of shock and Australian masculinity. The discovery he has cancer triggers the photomontage where his life literally flashes before his eyes. The doctor’s response is inadequate – note the aquatic screensaver - (see how his back is turned establishing Nick as an isolated individual. He then goes and tells his boss – who also has his back turned. I feel sorry for Nick. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against my principal but if I ever get diagnosed with cancer he will not be the first one I tell. See Phil has cricket pictures in his office. This cricket thing – we need to talk! But I digress… back to the lecture) The opening scenes establish a lot economically. A dark world view of two main characters who have both experienced life crises. Meryl is frightened by everything. She sees death everywhere and she hasn’t received a cancer diagnosis. Meryl is experiencing anxiety and shock after the death of her father. She then witnesses Rob’s death – “It just kept coming like a freight-train.”
There are a variety of responses to the accident. We need to examine the different responses to both Julia’s picture in The Southern Mail and Andy’s suicide article.

We see Andy and Anna as their relationship has fizzled. Andy is not over the end of his marriage and his custodial arrangements. He is angry and frustrated with his job. He thinks everyone has an agenda and can’t accept that accidents happen. He, therefore, sees Anna’s pregnancy announcement as a trap. (Even though I don’t like Andy I find he provides a lot of comic relief – his line connecting men committing suicide to Arts Diary; the 5c short for the newspaper meltdown where he bursts a packet of chips then walks out and yells at the church choir to shut up; when he takes the children to the art gallery/museum and tells them they’ll stay until they get a glimmer of knowledge; tripping over the pram at the cricket after Anna’s pregnancy announcement; the bursting brain aneurysm after his tirade about God “How can anyone believe in something so ridiculous?”; his champagne guzzling at Macbeth. Even his response to Nick when he finally tells him about his cancer cracks me up – “What did you go and get cancer for?” Leads me to ask, Yes, what was your agenda there, Nick? What were you thinking?)

This film is about perception. How do we live with the knowledge that bad things happen to good people. Different characters see the world in different ways. Shift your perception and you shift your view of the world. Our perception of life and the world around us is subjective. Their perceptions of themselves are also important. Self-knowledge can be a liberating force.

Nick and Meryl are both numb and immobilised but are shaken from their paralysis by the end of the weekend. Watt’s animations of anxiety, grief and loss provide a direct insight into Meryl’s point of view. We need to track her animations which show her innermost thoughts and comment on her career as an artist. Her name – Meryl Lee – is ironic. Her life is not a dream. Life is the opposite. David Stratton was critical of the animations, branding them as unnecessary – what do you think about this?

Musical interludes, the film can be seen as a series of musical interludes, brings the characters together. The value of these sequences shouldn’t be dismissed. They set mood and compare the way different characters are coping with the events occurring in their lives. Need to study Crashing, Lonely and the Lighthouse Song. (We will be doing this in mindblowing detail!)

This theme of perception is explored with the interpretation of Nick’s photo of Julia. Andy is angry because Nick didn’t get his “slant”. Linda thinks Julia has “nice hair”. Anna’s friends discuss the ethics of photojournalism. Both Julia and the Train Driver throw the paper away. The Train Driver’s son begins to change (Don’t get me started…)

Andy is blinkered, bitter, paranoid and filters everything through a lens of disappointment. His apartment is full of accident photos (evidence of his theory that many accidents involving males are in fact suicides) and also pictures of the World Trade Centre. He likes a conspiracy. He assumes Rob’s death is a suicide. It is only when Andy attempts to see things through Rob’s eyes – retracing Rob’s path to the scene of the accident and stepping in front of the train – that he changes his perception.

Film suggests that we cannot always see what is coming. Anna’s assertion that “Things just happen” is a terrifying concept. The narrative also undermines Andy’s world view. Rob and Julia at the beginning of the film appear happy and intimate. Their house renovations indicate plans for the future. The aftermath of the accident also indicates that suicide is unlikely.

Meryl’s first thoughts about the indigenous boys “maybe it was meant to be” – she know what she is saying is rubbish but type of trite response is typical. We do not deal with death well in our culture. However, we also see through Meryl’s trite sympathy card – given by the Train Driver to Julia - that such words can make people feel better – that we cling to these things for comfort.

Fear is a major theme that needs to be explored. We live in a world where fear reigns. The papers are full of bad news. This culture of fear is in the language of our politics – economic crisis, terrorism. (Though after the news the last couple of days perhaps this is changing – Utegate! – lol – only in Australia.)

The cinematography of this film needs to be analysed in depth. Everything in the frame is significant. No signifier is floating or obtuse. (How disappointed was I that the term mise en scene wasn’t used after we had practiced saying it and everything)
The camera shows us what the characters are looking at. What they see is dependent on what is happening in their own lives eg. Nick-meat, Meryl – child(Maddie) at pool; Andy-accidents.

Montage is a series of images edited together. Nick sees things as photographic images. For example, the medical imagery of his cancer multiplying showing his fear and anxiety.

The rain at the end is very significant. It is a downpour, a release after the scorching build-up of heat and has redemptive overtones. There are changes of heart and the development of self-knowledge.

Locations matter. Why did she choose the settings she did? What do they tell us about the characters and themes? Urban Adelaide – trainlines and inner city decay. The rain is cleansing both literally and metaphorically.

Need to study use of framing. Anna and Julia are framed by windows & doors showing they are trapped by their situations. (Same can be said of the Train Driver)

The ending – coda. Nick has chemo; images of Andy and child; Nick and Meryl. It seems self-knowledge has been reached. Not all problems have been solved pointing to the complexity of relationships. We don’t know if Nick survives. It is the viewers decision if the ending is happy or sad. After all, it is all a matter of perception.

The Big Screen

I've seen this film so many times and I still picked up things I wasn't aware of. Clotheslines. Men and clotheslines! Phil's clothesline full of clothes and the Train Driver's empty. The photomontage sequence when Nick is thinking about all the possible causes of his cancer eg. mobile phones, burnt toast etc. Where did that Karma sign come from? This adds a whole new level of meaning to this sequence. Cricket pictures in Phil's office. And the sound! The difference between watching something on a big screen and or on our woefully inadequate facilities is unreal. When Anna visits Andy to tell him about her pregnancy - the humming of the fridge in the background. The conversations on the train - I could actually hear them. Sarah Watt is a terrific film-maker. The fact small details can still resonate after so many viewings is testament to her talent. That doesn't mean I think the film is perfect. The Train driver's son still annoys me. One of the most unconvincing transformations in film history!

I took seven pages of notes yesterday. Can hardly wait until this afternoon to discuss it all. Hope you have lots of questions. Any volunteers to help me with typing up our notes to put on the blog? Probably more chance of Andy becoming likeable!

Preparing for ACMI

We began on Monday by reviewing the three areas of Reading & Responding.
1. How the director/author constructs meaning
2. Characterisation
3. Themes/ideas/values

Due to our upcoming visit to ACMI we started by discussing how a director constructs meaning. How is it different to how an author constructs meaning? We decided that in some ways how a director constructs meaning is quite similar to an author eg via plot, structure, setting, context, narrative viewpoint, imagery, symbolism, characterisation etc.

Film-makers/directors also construct meaning in ways unique to their medium. Sarah Watt is the director of Look Both Ways. She has constructed this visual text. Your brief before we went to ACMI was to familiarise yourself with the four main elements of film style:

1. Mise en scene – ‘staging in action’. Refers to all visual elements within a frame.
Four elements of mise en scene – setting, lighting, costumes & acting style. (This is when I used Matt, Jesse & Tim as an example and framed them for analysis)
2. Cinematography (camera distance, camera angle, camera movement)
3. Editing (crosscutting, montage)
4. Sound (dialogue, sounds of actions, music soundtrack)

Other key terms we focused on were:
Animations - associated with Meryl the illustrator
Photomontage - associated with Nick the photojournalist

On Wednesday we watched the first thirty minutes of the film. I put a character map on the board to show how all the characters are connected. The film contains parallel narratives that are tied together by common ideas and themes. So after outlining who the different characters were we looked at how Watt was linking their stories together - Rob's accident, the Southern Mail photo, Andy's article, the birds, the soundtrack.

I asked based on the little you had watched what you thought the main themes were going to be. Your responses were: death, fear, grief. The opposite of death - life! Look Both Ways! It's all about perception!

Not a bad two lessons work!

What's it about, Miss?

Look Both Ways is an Australian film directed by Sarah Watt. It is a good Australian film. It is beautifully crafted. We are going to learn a lot about film technique, particularly the use of animation and photomontage. As for the characters - they're just the way I like them - quirky, interesting and vulnerable.

The film is set in suburban Adelaide. The action takes place over a weekend. All the characters are joined together by an accident in which a young man, Rob, has been fatally hit by a train. First, we meet Meryl, a single illustrator who has just been to her father's funeral. Her fears are shown through animation. Julia (pictured) is Rob's partner. Nick is a photojournalist who has just been diagnosed with cancer. Andy is a journalist. He works with Nick at the Southern Mail. He is a single father with weekend access and is doing a story on suicide. Anna is a paediatric nurse who is pregnant to Andy. Phil is Nick and Andy's editor who is immersed in his job to the detriment of his family. The other characters are the train driver involved in Rob's accident and his son as well as Nick's parents, Joan and Jim.

This film looks at death - accidental, natural, suicidal and as the result of illness. Yet as the title suggests we are encouraged to "look both ways". This film is also about life, love, fear and the role of the media in perpetuating those fears, honesty and my favourite idea in the film - the idea of people's lives all being interconnected.

So we begin. Let me know your first reactions to this film.

P.S. Remember, we are going to ACMI on Thursday. I can't wait!