Spider and Rose
Sam Donovan 19862522
List of cast and credits
Director Bill Bennett
Producer Lyn McCarthy and Graeme Tubbenhauer
Line Producers Julia Overton
Scriptwriter Bill Bennett
Director of Photography Andrew Lesnie
Production Designer Ross Major
Costume Designer Ross Major
Sound Recordist Syd Butterworth and Andrew Plain
Editor Henry Dangar
Composer Cruel Sea
Musical Director Christine Woodrop
Cast Ruth Cracknell, Simon Bossell, Max Cullen, Lewis Fitz-gerald, Jennifer Cludd, Tina Bursill, Beth Champion, Marshall Napier, Bruce Venables, Bob Baines,
Produced by Dendy Films, 1994 in 35mm in Australia, runs 90mins.
Released June 1994
Box Office Figures were as follows:
in Australian it took $905,581.00
in New Zealand, $45,000.00
and in South Africa, $22,532.00
Spider and Rose was not released outside of these countries and so no other figures are available.
Spider and Rose had a medium to high budget of $3.4million. No figures are available for it’s video release.
Interviews were conducted with Bill Bennett, Lyn McCarthy, and Graeme Tubbenhauer in Cinema papers, Vol 100, but no other interviews were found. No subsequent interviews or articles were found subsequent to the film’s release in ’94.
After checking the database in Murdoch’s library, the Australian Film Index revealed no other citations of articles other than what I had found, so I checked the Film International Index in the database and came up with the same, though it had more general information on the cast and credits.
Online presence was nil. I utilised several search engines using Spider, Rose and both, and came up with nothing.
I think there is a lack of information for the film Spider and Rose, but more written on the Director, producers and cast, though less available on the film itself, especially no information on the film subsequent to its 94 release. There were some major Hollywood releases that year that may have shadowed Spider and Rose’s limelight, such as:
Forrest Gump, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Interview with the Vampire, Legends of the Fall, The Madness of King George(UK), Natural Born Killers, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, Shallow Grave, Speed, and White - the second of the French three colours trilogy. All these films were very successful and perhaps a small Australian production at that time may just not have seemed glitzy enough to reviewers compared with these successful competitors. Also there was only one other Australian release that year that I could find which was Priscilla, followed in 95 by Babe. Spider and Rose did win an AFI award for Best Actor in a supporting role for Max Cullen’s role as Jack.
Bill Bennett has been involved in some pretty impressive productions, a list of the total below:
Alvin Purple, ‘73 Backlash, ‘86 Dear Cardholder, 86
Jilted,’87 Malpractice, ’88 Mortgage, ’89
Nirvana Street Murder. ’91 Petersen, ’74 Street to Die, ’85
Shipwrecked (UK) ’85 Two if by Sea (US) ’96
Andrew Lesnie the Director of Photography also has an impressive list of films under his belt:
Babe, ’95 Daydream Believer, ’92 Farewell to the King, (US)’88
Lorca and The Outlaws (UK),’85 Mad Max 2,’81 Two if by Sea (US) ’96
Unfinished Business,’85 You Seng (HK) ’93
Andrew and Bill obviously liked working together and did it again in ’96 with Two if by Sea.
Ruth Cracknell has a variety of films to her name as well: The Best of Friends ’82
Emerald City, ’89 Kokoda Crescent ’87 Molly ’83
The Night The Prowler ’79 Smiley Gets a Gun ’58 That Lady From Peking ’70
And a host of Australian Television programs, her most well known being Mother and Son.
Simon Bossell only has the two films - Spider and Rose and Joh’s Jury ’93 but I believe he has also appeared in a number of television shows, but this did not show up in any of the works I researched.
Julia Overton has many titles to her name : Buckley’s Chance, ’80
A Dry White Season, (US) 89 Fistful of Flies, ’96
Kemira Diary of a Strike, ’84 Meeting Venus (US) ’90
Room to Move (US+Aus) ’87 The Boy Who Had Everything,’83
One Night Stand, ’84 Tudawali, ’87
Until The End of The World Travelling North, ’86
Winter of Dreams, ’81
And Max Cullen who played the AFI award winning role of Jack has too many films to mention, there are 31 films, many of them quality films from Australia’s early cinema history.
Spider and Rose is a road movie about the attitudes and lived experiences of two very different people who both find themselves in situations beyond their control. While Rose, (Ruth Cracknell) plays an ageing woman who has just lost her husband, Spider (Simon Bossell) is a young bloke who is into partying, music and chics. The two reviews in Cinema Papers praised the film, but one review was critical of parts of the script calling it self conscious and weak at times. I feel that this is because of the problematic subject matter of dealing with topics such as ageing, rebellion, social expectations and tradition.
The film is primarily about two things, empathy and individuality. Each of the two main actors come to understand each others perspectives on life and learn to not be affected by the ideologies of the dominant groups, or families and friends, around them, or by any other external view of what they should or should not be doing with their lives.
It is a timeless piece which if released today would still retain its charm and relevance, because the human condition will always be relevant. Its script is witty, honest and punchy and often funny, with moments of real tenderness. The two lead actors are well suited to their roles being both credible and entertaining. The theme is about not taking people for granted or assuming that we know them, and not making judgements based on face value. The film starts with Rose walking away from a car accident, leaving her dead husband behind. She has suffered a great shock and is confused. A year later she meets Spider as her ambulance driver and not very happy about this job of driving Rose to her 70th birthday party in a distant country town. Spider is a bit rebellious and sees Rose as nothing but an old woman to whom he can not relate, and who now is about to stop him from attending his own farewell party. Rose is a little bitter and angry and does not feel appreciated or understood by anyone. Her husband was the last person that she felt bonded to emotionally, and the only human being interested in what she had to say, and in her as a person. Through the journey to the country, Spider and Rose have many arguments and differences of opinion and are thrown together in awkward situations which eventually lead them to have a better understanding of each other, and their individual prejudices. It is a very dialogue driven film which I found brilliantly written and timed. Ruth Cracknell’s nude scene has escaped much comment in Cinema papers, and rightly so, it was just a part of the story line, but nonetheless, a brave role for an older woman, or anyone in fact, considering it would not be attracting an audience based on anything risque. I think the audiences may have found this scene quite confronting and perhaps this is why it has escaped comment.
The film is shot in quite a unique way providing an unusual perspective and promoting a feeling of being a part of the action. Bennett had hoped to produce something that would resemble the work of William Eggleston, an American stills photographer of whom he is a great admirer. He says "His photographs have a very distinct look in that the colour is very complex. Andrew and I spent hours perusing these photographs, trying to break down the effects he achieved. We then did extensive camera tests with various filter packs to try and get a look that would not be copying that, but would be distinctly Australian…I basically wanted the film to play stylistically against the script. The script reads as a kind of pastoral story, but I wanted it to be shot in a very urban, gritty, confrontational style, and yet still keep a semblance of elegance and also a real edge in terms of very abrasive camera movements. Maybe for the first time in my life, I feel as though I’ve found my distinctive style." (94 Cinema Papers , vol 100) .
The film was not marketed in a big way at the time, and I believe the release of so many memorable Hollywood films as listed above at that time led to Spider & Rose being a little neglected. There was a review in Juice Magazine, but I have not been able to locate that article, only the quote "Original and unpredictable from start to finish" and from the SBS movie show, "Rich, human and delightful", both quotes appearing on the video jacket.
At the time of it’s release, McCarthy and Tubbenhauer attempted to have the film made as a co-production with Zenith films in London, but the Film Finance Corp. stepped in after changes to the film fund in ’92. Sian Jenkins from the West Australian office of the Film Finance Corp. said that the $3.4million budget was quite high, even for today. This would have allowed them all a lot of creative freedom to produce something that was true to their ideals.
Bill Bennett had not made a film for four years before making Spider and Rose. His past productions left a lot of room for improvisation, but this script had thirteen drafts before taking it to filming, and in my opinion was a finely tuned, well thought through piece. Bennett has certainly come a long way since the Alvin Purple days, and collaborating with both British and American production companies has seen his style develop more thoroughly in his last film, Two if by Sea, which was produced in America and released internationally with a great deal of advertising, marketing and success. The works of Ruth Cracknell have been very diverse and have spanned a career over forty years. Cracknell has always been taken seriously on the big screen, but is possibly best known in Australian households for the long running television series Mother and Son. Many of the people associated with Spider and Rose have participated in little or no further productions since its release in ’94.
It seems that Australian films are still being born in the world of international acceptance. It also seems that glitzy Hollywood style films like Priscilla and Strictly Ballroom are the ones that receive the most publicity and the most limelight. Films like Spider and Rose that really have something to say about the human condition are not appreciated in the commercial market place as much as I would hope. Other films like The Boys received little attention and marketing compared with the comedies released such as Muriel’s Wedding and The Castle, which are still talked about. In many of the discussions in texts by Tom O’Regan, Spider and Rose does not get a mention. Perhaps this is a sign that Australian films are still not as acceptable if they don’t have a distinctly Australian feel. I see Spider and Rose as being a very international type film, only with Australian credits on the list, and Australian accents on the screen. I do not think that Australian film is being valued as much as it should be when there is so much on offer and often containing more meaningful narratives than their Hollywood counterparts. I think there is still an expectation that Australian films will be ocker to a certain extent, and that we will always have our tongues planted firmly in our cheeks, so that when a sincere film comes along like Spider and Rose, and indeed other films like Cosi, they just do not get the recognition they deserve. Many people go to the cinema and watch films on video to escape everyday life, or to see everyday life re - presented to confirm ones place in the world, confirm stereotyping, and affirm ones right to exist as they do. Films often serve as a form of hegemony in their own right, re-stating what is ‘normal’ or acceptable in behaviour, and seeking retribution for on-screen injustices and punishing those that are deemed to deserve it. When films come along that confront everyday views of what is socially acceptable, people often feel threatened and put out by the ideals they are being confronted with. I think this is why many important films are not widely accepted in the general community, because they go against what is morally or even legally accepted as being right. Spider and Rose, with its nudity of an older woman, and its confrontational ideas of who deserves respect and why, is one such film that challenges peoples conceptions. The recent release of the Bjork film Dancer in the Dark is another film that confronts people’s ideas of what is acceptable. It seems that it is all right to see a film about a horrible murderer who is put in jail or put to death because that is seen as justice, but when someone kills a man and then themselves for the sake of their son, well that is just unacceptable behaviour and therefore too confronting to be entertaining. Such films question our values which I believe it is their job to do, and leave people uncomfortable with themselves. Many cinema goers just want to walk out feeling good about themselves, and when a film reveals their own prejudices it is bound to be less recommended. This is perhaps why Priscilla was such a great success, even though it represented homo-sexuality and cross-dressing in a way that could have been unsettling for many viewers, but as it dealt with these issues in a comedic way, and with so much glitz and style, it was greatly accepted by its audience. I hope that in time, films like Spider and Rose will be appreciated by audiences for their confronting and stylised representations of human relationships and human prejudices. With an ageing population, films like this can help reinforce the value of older people in the community, and help bridge the gap between generations.