H231 AUSTRALIAN CINEMA
Assignment Two: Critical Review and Bibliography
Alice Kim
Full On
All Night
Come On
HEAD ON
an ANA KOKKINOS film
a GREAT SCOTT Production
104 minutes 28 seconds
Cast and Crew
Director
Ana Kokkinos
Producer
Jane Scott
Screenplay
Andrew Bovell
Ana Kokkinos
Mira Robertson
Based on the novel Loaded, by Christos Tsiolkas
Director of Photography
Jaems Grant
Editor
Jill Bilcock
Music
Ollie Olsen
Production Designer
Nikki Di Falco
Art Direction
Paul Heath
Costume Design
Anna Borghesi
Production Management
Catherine Bishop
Casting
Dina Mann
Cast
Alex Dimitriades Ari
Paul Capsis Johnny, 'Toula'
Julian Garner Sean
Elena Mandalis Betty
Tony Nikolakopoulos Dimitri
Damien Fotiou Joe
Eugenia Fragos Sophia
Dora Kaskanis Dina
Maria Mercedes Tasia
Alex Papps Peter
Vassili Zappa Vasilli
Andrea Mandalis Alex
Maya Stange Janet
Costas Kilias Taxi Driver
Neil Pigot Senior Constable
Fonda Goniadis Wog Cop
Nick Polites Costas
Film Information
Head On is a Great Scott production presented by the Australian Film Finance Corporation, with assistance in its development and production from Film Victoria. The films duration is 104 minutes 28 seconds, and is presented in colour, with some subtitles.
The film is classified Certificate 18+, with high level sex scenes, drug use and adult themes. It is distributed by Palace films, and on video distributed by Roadshow Entertainment.
Released in 1998, Head On grossed $1, 788, 613 in the Australian box office. For its year, Head On was the third top Australian film of 1998, and currently ranks at number 66 in the top 100 Australian films at the Australian Box Office.
Awards
Australian Cinematographers Society
1999, Won Award of Distinction for 'Feature Productions Cinema', Jaems Grant.
Australian Film Critics Circle Awards
1999, Won AFCC Award for 'Best Male Actor', Alex Dimitriades
Won, 'Best Cinematography', Jaems Grant
Won, 'Best Supporting Male Actor', Paul Capsis
Australian Film Institute
1998, Won 'Best Achievement in Editing', Jill Bilcock
Won 'Best Achievement in Costume Design', Anna Gorghesi
Won 'Best Achievement in Directing', Ana Kokkinos
Won 'Best Achievement in Sound', Lloyd Carrick, Craig Carter, Livia Ruzic, Roger Savage.
Won 'Best Film', Jane Scott
Nominated 'Best Original Music Score', Ollie Olsen
Nominated 'Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role', Alex Dimitriades
Nominated 'Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role', Paul Capsis
Nominated 'Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Source', Andrew Bovell, Ana Kokkinos, Mira Robertson.
Australian Writers Guild
1998, Won Awgie Award, 'Feature Film- Adaptation', Andrew Bovell, Ana Kokkinos, Mira Robertson.
Gijon International Film Festival
1998, Nominated Grand Prix Asturias, 'Best Feature' Ana Kokkinos
LA Outfest
1999, Won Grand Jury Award 'Outstanding Foreign Narrative Feature', Ana Kokkinos
San Francisco International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
1999, Won 'Best First Feature', Ana Kokkinos
Verzaubert- International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
1999, Nominated Rosebud Award, 'Best Feature'.
As demonstrated by the number of awards for which the film has either won or been nominated for, Head On has received much acclaim the world over. Garnering many rave reviews since its release, it has been regarded as an invigorating and impressive entry to Australian films.
Previous Works
Head On is director Ana Kokkinos debut feature film. Prior to this she has directed and co-written with Mira Robertson, who also worked on Head On, the short film, Only the Brave, which received critical acclaim and theatrical release.
The producer Jane Scott has an extensive association with Australian film industry, beginning in 1972 with her work on Bruce Beresford's 'The Adventures of Barry McKenzie', with other works including Gillian Armstrong's 1978 My Brilliant Career (associate producer), Peter Faiman 1985 Crocodile Dundee, Baz Luhrman's 1991 Strictly Ballroom (Line Producer), Phillip Noyce's 1986 Echoes of Paradise , and most prominently, her work as producer on the worldwide success Shine.
Principal male lead Alex Dimitriades first appeared with Claudia Karvan in the film The Heartbreak Kid, then starring in the following television series Heartbreak High. Dimitriades has also appeared in the series Wildlife, with the film Head On the most confronting of his roles to date.
Interviews
Interview with director and co-writer Ana Kokkinos, co-writers Andrew Bovell and Mira Robertson and producer Jane Scott, by Andrew L. Urban in,
Cinema Papers, June 1998, number 125, pp. 27-30 and page 72.
Interview with director and co-writer Ana Kokkinos, by Andrew L. Urban in,
Urban cine file website;
wysiwyg://339/http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=1418&s=Interviews
Interviews with Ana Kokkinos and Jane Scott in Palace website;
http://www.palace.net.au/headon/reviews.htm
Search Details
A relatively recent film, attempts to finds information concerning Head On within print literature found little success. However, journals like Cinema Papers and Sight and Sound proved useful containing some reviews and interviews. For the most, the majority of the information to be found on the film was found online.
Online Presence
Numerous reviews exist online for the film Head On. One only needs to enter the title 'Head On', or the directors name 'Ana Kokkinos', in any search engine to access such articles. The Internet Movie Database, IMDb, site contains a comprehensive listing of the films details, with reviews and also provides links to other sites with reviews of the film.
Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com
Urban Cine file
http://www.urbancinefile.com.au
Film.com
http://www.film.com/film-review/1999/13112/4946/default-review.html
Inside out films
http://www.insideout.co.uk/eiff/reviews/D-H/headon.htm
Nitrate Online review
http://www.nitrateonline.com/2000/rheadon.html
Queer views review
http://www.queer-view.com/01000er/1004headon/english1004.htm
Edinburgh Film Society
http://www.eufs.org.uk//films/head_on.html
Bright lights film journal
http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/27/headon.html
Film Journal International
http://www.filmjournal.com
Palace films
http:///www.palace.net.au
The Movie Show
http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/reviews.php3?id=231
HEAD ON: Critical Review
Like the title of the novel by Christos Tsiolka upon which the film is based on, Head On is indeed Loaded. Loaded with drug use, sex scenes, violence, anger, confusion, apathy and frustration, the film is one which overwhelms the viewer. Beckoning one with the words, "Full One, All Night, Come On," the film hurtles indeed, head on, through the precarious existence of Ari (depicted boldly by Alex Dimitriades), a 19 year old homosexual Greek Australian.
With no real plot or solid story line the film adopts the 'a day in the life of' style, following with an unflinching verve the various sordid encounters that fuel Ari's existence, for it is an existence not a life. There is a strong sense of entrapment throughout the film, whether it be the entrapment of a homosexual in a homophobic society, the entrapment of a disinterested son under an overbearing father, or the simple dissatisfaction of being stuck within the suburbs with no viable escape. The film is a torrid descent into the relentless, senseless existence of Ari. It presents an Australia of the bleak suburbs, with a seedy visual style, that is similar to that of another Australian cinematographer, Christopher Doyle. The lack of plot may be seen as reflecting the lack of purpose within Ari's life. Casual drug use, discomfiting gay sex scenes and outbursts of frustration make the film a difficult, yet intense experience.
Through a seething internal monologue we are introduced to Ari and the cynicism and resentment that indelibly mark him. Nearly choking with the need to explicitly separate himself from what is expected of him, Ari derides society and scorns the values that have worn out his parents, spewing forth sentiments like,
"They tell you that God is dead, but man, they still want you to have a purpose. They say look at your parents, hard working migrants, worked two jobs, struggle all your life, buy your kids a house. Yeah, that's a purpose. They tell you to be a doctor, a teacher, be creative, do something, believe in something, believe in family, in the future, save the world, believe in love, but fuck it…" (1)
Without compunction Ari further denounces himself, "fuck it, I'm no scholar, I'm no poet, I'm no worker" (2). Throughout the film the defiance and rejection evident within his words are constantly demonstrated, as Ari seems to deliberately alienate himself from those around him. At a club scene where he is introduced to a group discussing multiculturalism, he is grossly obnoxious, and in the scene where it appears he will finally embrace a loving relationship with Sean, he infuriates and repulses Sean with his belligerent, goading movements.
At times, the film lapses into cliché. The father is an often seen before figure of overbearing patriarchy, the heavy handed migrant father struggling for control over his wayward second generation offspring. The mother adopts the role of the wearied martyr, having to continually appease her husband, while attempting to understand her son. The character of Johnny, or 'Toula' is, whilst one of the few noble, fearless characters within the film, also stereotypical of the flamboyant drag queen, the victimized yet outspoken outsider. Even aspects of Ari's character have been seen before. Stereotypes like the James Dean figure, the sullen, misunderstood 'Rebel Without a Cause' teenager and the homosexual outcast have all been portrayed before.
There is a constant sense of an often inexplicable anger and apathy within Ari. He talks of moving out, yet does nothing to put his words into effect. He mocks the values which others live by, yet has little of his own, living his life with a gross hedonism that is both compelling and repelling at the same time. However, the aggression and unease which exist within him are tempered with fleeting glimpses of tenderness, as demonstrated by Ari with his younger sister, and occasionally his mother.
However, this occasional tenderness with his family is not deep enough, with the film ending with a sense of loneliness. The image of Ari dancing by himself on a wharf is both striking and pitiful. His final reflective words are devoid of hope for redemption or change, yet despite this they are also filled a grim acceptance and a lack of concern. The film feels no need to embark on a journey of discovery or change. Ari is who he is, and the film is, a sometimes confrontational, portrait of that.
"I'm a whore, a dog, a cunt.
My fathers insults make me strong. I accept them all.
I'm sliding towards the sewer, I'm not struggling.
I can smell the shit, but I'm still breathing.
I'm gonna live my life.
I'm not going to make a difference.
I'm not going to change a thing.
No ones going to remember me when I'm dead.
I'm a sailor and a whore, and I will be until the end of the world." (3)
Situate the film in relation to Australian national cinema as a medium sized English language cinema
It has been said, "By virtue of its medium size, Australia and Australians become known internationally for a narrow range of things: peoples, stereotypes, myths and settings. They are known as 'outback freaks'." (4) (page 92) Head On is significant in that it presents an Australia beyond such myths and stereotypes. The film portrays an Australia outside of the expectations and preconceptions that an international, perhaps even domestic audience may hold. Based entirely within the suburbs, there are none of the grandiose scenes of the rolling outback or the magnificent open spaces that have characterized many famous Australian films, like Ken Hannam's 1975Sunday Too Far Away or even Stephen Elliott's 1994 Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. The Australia that is presented is not the mythic, nor the much celebrated Australia.
The film presents neither the bushman, nor the convict, or the ocker or the battler or any other of the images seen as being the 'typical' Australian. The fear of Australian culture and people being stereotyped and almost caricatured is avoided in Head On, which flouts the perpetuation of such myths through presenting an urban and multicultural society. Not only that, but the film concentrates on characters who although they consider themselves as Australian, are also unabashedly Greek, thus making it difficult to define and categorize Australia and its people, especially as 'outback hillbilly freaks'. In focusing on Greek Australians, Kokkinos presents a fuller Australia, one which remembers that Australia is no longer an exclusively Anglo-Saxon nation.
Head On also shatters the myth of a Australia being a multicultural society, whose diverse internal elements happily co-exist together. The club scene where a discussion concerning multiculturalism is taking place reveals the tensions, the resentment and intolerance that exist between differing minority groups. An elderly Greek man claims of the Vietnamese, "they're not like us. The Vietnamese spit in the street. They give them houses and jobs… We had to struggle for everything", to which the response from one in the group is "That's what's wrong with this country; everyone hates everyone. The skips hate the wogs. The wogs hate the Asians", (Ari) "And everyone hates the blacks", "Yeah, exactly". (5)
The problems and tensions arising from multiculturalism are one of the many issues of contemporary social problematization that Head On presents. Kokkinos looks also at the treatment of gays and other such 'deviants', the issue of ethnicity, in particular Greek Australian ethnicity, patriarchy, the generational and sub cultural cleavages and the burden of familial expectation.
Despite the medium size of Australia, and the relatively "minor place in the international trade in national symbolic images" (6) (page 77) that Australia holds in comparison to countries like the USA, Head On manages to demonstrate the significance of Australian films, through gaining the recognition and respect of not only the domestic audience, but also the international audience, and the world of gay films. Head On is able to succeed where the all consuming Hollywood dominance fails, as there is no need to redeem the characters or sugar coat the endings, thus presenting a more convincing, raw honesty that is lacking in more commercial entertainment. It tells a uniquely Australian story that could not be replicated by Hollywood.
Head On is advantaged by being an English language film despite the occasional use of subtitles, as the lack of a language barrier means a better chance for the film to break into the American or British markets. Another advantage of being an English language film is that "they are able to invest more in image and sound", (7) (page 83) Within Head On, a throbbing soundtrack captures the restlessness of Ari as he moves through the streets, with the bouzouki often adding to sense of the insidious.
However, the advantages of sharing the same language are also weighed out by the disadvantages, which demand a higher standard in order to be competitive. The audience familiarity with the Hollywood formula may also alter expectations for the film. In many Hollywood films that deal with homosexuality, the protagonist unlike Ari is likeable and the lovers he takes are generally attractive or at the least acceptable choices, unlike those of Ari, whose questionable choices are ones like the grizzled old man in the Greek club.
There is a social and cultural proximity between Australia and Hollywood. Being a medium-sized English language cinema, Australia imports much of the product consumed by its audiences, thus developing an audience expectation and standard derived from Hollywood products, the main import. Such proximity between the USA and Australia can provokes criticism of their influences, bringing allegations of a weakly developed Australian culture. It evokes the question of whether or not Australian filmmaking should emphasize or down play what is Australian in their films. Within Head On, Kokkinos presents issues which are particularly relevant to Australia like multiculturalism and ethnicity as demonstrated with the Greek-Australian dilemma of identity.
"It would be fair to say, that with first time feature director, Ana Kokkinos' audacious work, Australian cinema has come of age…" Paul Fischer, Urban Cinefile: The World of Film in Australia on the Internet.
While it is debatable as to whether or not Australian cinema has fully, both domestically and internationally, 'come of age' as Paul Fischer claims, one may assuredly state that works like Ana Kokkinos' Head On are ample demonstration of the continually developing strengths and relevance of Australian film in both the local and international scene today.
FOOTNOTES
1- 'Kokkinos, Ana. Head On. A Great Scott Production. 1998
2- ibid.
3- ibid.
4- O'Regan, Tom. Australian National Cinemas. , page 92. New York: Routledge. 1996
5- Kokkinos, Ana. Head On. A Great Scott Production. 1998
6- O'Regan, Tom. Australian National Cinemas. , page 77. New York: Routledge. 1996
7- O'Regan, Tom. Australian National Cinemas., page 83. New York: Routledge. 1996
REFERENCES
Kokkinos, Ana. Head On. A Great Scott Production. 1998
O'Regan, Tom. Australian National Cinemas. New York: Routledge. 1996
(refer to Online Presence)