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Kelly Kupper
MED231
Australian Cinema
Semester 1, 2004

The Monkey's Mask

Part 1

Cast and Credits
Director
Samantha Lang
Writers
Annie Kennedy
Dorothy Porter (the novel)
Cinematographer
Garry Phillips
Producers
John Maynard
Robert Connolly
Co-Producer
Domenico Procacci
Production Company
Arenafilm, Australian Film Finance, New South Wales Film and Television Office, Studio Canal +, Asmik Ace, Fandango
Studio
Strand Releasing
Susie Porter............................... Jill Fitzpatrick
Kelly McGillis........................... Professor Diana Maitland
Marton Csokas........................... Nick
Deborah Mailman....................... Lou
Abbie Cornish........................... Mickey Norris
Jean-Pierre Mignon..................... Tony Brach
Caroline Gillmer........................ Barbara Brach
Brendan Cowell......................... Hayden
Bojana Novakovic...................... Tianna
John Noble................................ Mr. Norris
Linden Wilkinson....................... Mrs. Norris
Jim Holt................................... Bill McDonald
Chris Haywood.......................... Dad Fitzpatrick
John Batchelor........................... Steve
William Zappa........................... Detective Sergeant Wesley
(Movies.com)
Release Dates
Australia
Theatrical Release- May 10, 2001
DVD Release- March 15, 2002
Canada- September 13, 2000 (Toronto Film Festival)
Germany- November 15, 2000 (Verzaubert Film Festival)
UK- March 28, 2001 (London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival)
UK- March 30, 2001 (London)
Italy- June 1, 2001
Japan- June 23, 2001 (Tokyo)
USA- July 27, 2001 (limited)
France- August 15, 2001
Netherlands- September 11, 2001 (Film by the Sea Film Festival)
Spain- June 7, 2002
Hong Kong- November 29, 2003 (Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival)
(IMDB.com)

Box Office
Compared with all releases in Australia in 2001, The Monkey's Mask came in at #183. In it's opening weekend, the film grossed $42,888. The opening weekend made nearly 29% of the films total of $150,177 in theatres (Moviemarshal.com).
In the US, the film grossed a total of $49,007 in the 143 days spent in theatres (The-numbers.com).

Interviews

Samantha Lang Interview

During this interview on The Movie Show, Samantha Lang discusses her role as director of Monkey's Mask. She talks about the challenges of creating a movie based on a verse novel and why she chose to do it. She also explains her interest in the topics addressed in the film and in the characters' personalities and dynamics. Samantha illustrates some difficulties in directing a movie that includes some violent and untraditional sex scenes and how to make them work. This is an interesting interview that reveals some behind the scene information about creating the film The Monkey's Mask.

(The Movie Show)

Dorothy Porter Interview

In her interview, Dorothy Porter, writer of the novel The Monkey's Mask discusses poetry in society and the film. She also briefly touches on how she feels her novel translated into a film.

(Suite101.com)


Reviews

There is no shortage of reviews to be found on The Monkey's Mask. Various reviews were found in newspapers, critical essays and on Web sites. Some offer a more in-depth view of issues raised in the film and others concentrate on what elements they did or did not like about the film.

The Monkey's Mask Online

The Monkey's Mask has significant online presence. It is found on virtually every movie site, such as imdb.com, movies.go.com, hollywood.com and afc.gov. At these sites you are able to search many facts about the film, such as who stars in it, who produced it, what the film is about, etc. I was able to easily access a wide variety of information about the film throughout numerous different countries through the internet. Cast and crew information, the synopsis, reviews, release dates, box office information, news items and many other topics were readily available. Also, due to the nature of the film, it is discussed on many gay and lesbian Web sites. Many of the sites are interested in shedding light on issues surrounding the gay community and bring The Monkey's Mask into their discussions. The film's participation in various film festivals throughout the world also gave the film some attention on the Web. It was not difficult to locate sites that despised, loved, praised or even didn't understand the film. The information that I was not able to gather included things such as interviews with the cast, other than Samantha Lang and Dorothy Porter. The producers and stars of the movie either kept a low profile in terms of discussion, or there is simply not enough Web interest in their point of view. All in all, I found most information I set out to find could be easily accessible.

Collecting Information

The main source of my information on The Monkey's Mask was on the Web. I found there was a wealth of Web sites that can quickly and easily connect you to exactly what you are looking for. For basic information I used the movie sites listed above. For more detailed or specific information, I found that google.com was most efficient. The Murdoch University library Web site was also extremely helpful in providing information on journals and newspaper articles. Through a combination of all of these sources, I felt I was able to collect much useful information.

Part 2

Synopsis

Jill Fitzpatrick (Susie Porter) is a private investigator hired to find Mickey Norris, (Abbie Cornish) a missing poetry student. Jill's investigation draws her into the unfamiliar poetry scene, Mickey's friends and finally her professor. She is immediately attracted to the "femme fatale" Professor Diana Maitland (Kelly McGillis) and is unable to deny her passion. Regardless of the fact that Diana is married to Nick, (Martin Csokas) and their affair is jeopardizing her work, Jill is unable to pull herself away.

The missing girl's body shows up and Jill decides it is time to re-evaluate her priorities, and her suspects. When she finds out she is closer to the truth than she thought, Jill nearly gets herself killed. The conclusion of the case forces Jill to think about her own life and attempting to take control of it.

Despite the stylistic darkness of the movie, I found it to be quite refreshing. The Monkeys Mask seems to take various cliché situations and adds an exciting and original twist.

It included the typical "femme fatale" character often present to lead the male character into undesirable circumstances, or death. However, in this film, it wasn't a male. Instead, Diana was working to compromise the female investigator, Jill. Diana's character drew Jill in, made her mind stray from her work and knew exactly how to manipulate her. This variation on a standard introduced new and thought provoking ways to view the characters and how they interact with one another.

Also different in the film is instead of portraying the hard, detective character that will go to all lengths to solve the case at hand, Jill's character struggled to balance her job and her feelings. She had to navigate unfamiliar surroundings and feelings in order to be able to do her job. The film lets us glimpse into her inner thoughts through the interesting voice overs that follow the verse style that was adapted from the novel The Monkey's Mask, written by Dorothy Porter.

I truly appreciated the way in which this film developed deep, multi-dimensional characters and laced them through the entire film. Through each scene, relationship and action the film was telling us something about the character. This smart, intriguing film delivered a well thought out story and characters that make it truly unique.

Critical Uptake

Critics of The Monkey's Mask seemed to concentrate on a few hot topics about the film whether they liked it or not.

The sex scenes depicted in the movie sparked a lot of conversation. It seems that all critics made some comment on the amount of sex in the film. Some thought these were the best moments of the movie, some thought the scenes lacked any real passion and still others felt that there was little that was interesting in the story without them. Lydia Marcus stated in The Advocate, "I love the fact that sex is such an essential element of this film, more so than the plot-- which boils down to which of the bland, interchangeable suspects is responsible for the young poet's disappearance" (The Advocate). Luisa F. Ribeiro, writing for Box Office Online, recognizes the dominant role of sex in the film but states that "McGillis and Porter have absolutely no chemistry whatsoever, which thoroughly dampens the erotic aspect of the plot" (Box Office Online). Whether they liked it, or not, critics were unable to ignore the prevalence of sex in The Monkey's Mask.

Another hot topic among the critics was the character development. Again, there were wildly different opinions about how well the film portrayed individual characters. Most agreed that the supporting actors did not get enough attention, which many felt took away from the story. One critic stated, "The perfunctory progress through the case is made all the more irritating by the director's apparent lack of interest in the very people posed to the audience as potential suspects," (Sensesofcinema.com) . Some seemed to discredit the way in which we were allowed a peek into Jill's head through the use of voice overs and the chapter headings adapted from the novel, while others found it to be quite interesting and original.

The plot was a third topic that was discussed frequently among critics. Some felt the plot was a fresh deviation from the typical films of its style while others found it to be quite hollow. If they liked it, they highlighted Jill's navigation through the storyline, and if they didn't they claimed the murder mystery took a back seat to the sex and central relationship.

The bulk of critical material seemed to dislike The Monkey's Mask on the basis of a slow pace, hollow story, lack of chemistry between Jill and Diana and a bad adaptation of the verse from the novel.

Circumstances of Production and Release

Production of The Monkey's Mask has an interesting twist in the way it is adapted from the Dorothy Porter prose novel The Monkey's Mask (1994). Extra considerations had to be made in deciding exactly how to use the language from the novel, if at all. As director Samantha Lang stated in her interview referred to earlier, the production team had a difficult time with this issue. On one hand, the language could be seen as interesting, intriguing and different, whereas on the other it might get complicated, confusing and turn some viewers away. Lang noted that decisions were made to use the poetic language freely, then it was taken out completely and finally they ended up using verse on particular occasions and worked at making it sound as real as possible.

Some circumstances of the film that may have effected how it performed at the box office are the ratings and its cast. It is likely that a number of viewers were turned away by the adult rating that the movie received based on the strong language and sexually explicit scenes. One element that may have drawn more viewers is the fact that Kelly McGillis is a well-known name due to her role in the popular Top Gun.

Prior Work

Samantha Lang
Also produced The Well which debuted in 1997 at a Cannes Competition. It was her first feature film.

Anne Kennedy
Also was a writer for Crush (1992)

John Maynard
Also produced The Bank (2002), The Boys (1999), Loaded (1996), An Angel at My Table (1991) for which he was a co-producer, The Navigator (1989), Sweetie (1989), Vigil (1984) and Skin Deep (1978).

Robert Connolly
Was director and writer for The Bank (2002) and Producer for The Boys (1999).

Susie Porter
Starwars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)................. Hermione Bagwa
Better than Sex (2000)..................................................... Cin
Feeling Sexy (1999)......................................................... Vicki
Two Hands (1999).......................................................... Dierdre
Amy (1998).................................................................... Anny Buchanan
Welcome to Woop Woop (1997)......................................... Angie
Paradise Road (1997)..................................................... Oggi
Mr. Reliable (1996)........................................................ Fay
Idiot Box (1996)............................................................. Betty

Kelly McGillis
At First Sight (1999)....................................................... Jennie Adamson
North (1994)................................................................. Amish Mom
The Babe (1992)............................................................. Claire
Cat Chaser (1991).......................................................... Mary DeBoya
Winter People (1989)...................................................... Collie Wright
The Accused (1988)......................................................... Kathryn Murphy
The House on Carroll Street (1988)................................... Emily Crane
Made in Heaven (1987).................................................... Annie Packert
Top Gun (1986)............................................................. Charlotte 'Charlie' Blackwood
Witness (1985)............................................................... Rachel
Rueben, Rueben (1983).................................................... Geneva

Martin Csokas
Kangaroo Jack (2003)..................................................... Mr. Smith
Garage Days (2003)........................................................ Shad Kern
Timeline (2003).............................................................. De Kere
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).......... Celeborn
Rain (2002)................................................................... Cady
XXX (2002)................................................................... Yorgi
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001).......... Celeborn
Heaven Sent (1998)......................................................... Raoul
Broken English (1996)..................................................... Darko
Twilight of the Gods (1995)............................................. Soldier
A Game with no Rules (1994)........................................... Kane
Jack Brown Genius (1994)............................................... Dennis
(imdb.com, movies.go.com)

Australian Film

This film seems to be saying that the somewhat unsophisticated, goofy and no-nonsense Australian character will not do the Australian films justice anymore. It illustrates that the view is outdated, and the film takes care in creating a dimensional, insightful character. Through the clever and telling voice overs the audience gets an inside view of Jill's true feelings and how she navigates through her life. She discusses her struggles and downfalls, but also in doing so, it shows us that by recognizing her own weaknesses she really is a strong person. She was portrayed as never really quite fitting in with her surroundings at first, as when she was exploring the unfamiliar poetry scene, and in matters of her sexuality. It is important, however in its representation of a woman in a typically masculine role. This film brings important issues such as homosexuality and women as powerful in the work force to the forefront and enables discussion through its bold manner.

Another component that I feel contributes to the films important role as an Australian film is the way in which it seems to follow the Hollywood pattern to a degree, possibly in order to appeal to a wide audience, but also includes key creative elements to set it apart. I found the poetry and deep insights into Jill's mind to be successful elements in The Monkey's Mask. Instead of having an elaborate chase scene, or highly technical instruments that may have been typical in Hollywood, those artistic elements played a role in getting the point across. In order to compete with the dominant film cultures of the United States or Europe, Australian cinema seems to go mainstream with a twist. Without having the same financial resources as Hollywood, Australian cinema looks to artistic direction to offer something to impress a wide audience.

Finally, the way in which the film incorporates both city life and bush life in Australia is an important element in the character of the film. It offers a glimpse into Australian culture and how it is different from the rest of the world. The history and experiences surrounding bush and city life are uniquely Australian and add dimension to the characters and stories in ways that non-Australian films do not.

While not all Australian films become popular in the US or elsewhere other than Australia, when they do, they prove that they contribute elements to the industry that are not like those in other films.

Type and Genre

I found this film to be an interesting spin on film noir. It still contained a sort of stylistic darkness throughout each scene. The music, lighting, backgrounds for the voiceovers, mellow tones of voice and overall feeling that I took away from the movie was dark, almost dreary.

One thing that I particularly like about the film is that it could conceivably fall into a number of different types or genres.

In the US, the film is often referred to as a mystery. I suppose the fact that she is an investigator searching for a murderer and runs into many hurdles along the way is partly what places it in this category. Again though, it varies from how a typical mystery would often be carried out. The element that many critics say was left out… the parade of the suspects, is often a central part in many mysteries. The Monkey's Mask, however was more interested in the development of the characters and relationships and how they navigate through them, than producing a "who dunnit" that would have viewers on the edge of their seats. The classification, erotic murder mystery, perhaps does a better job of explaining the dimension.

Perhaps the classification of The Monkey's Mask as an Art Film may be stretching the definition slightly, but there is no doubt this film includes some elements common to Australian art films, none the less. The fact that the film was adapted from a novel written in verse and incorporates some of the language into it offers an artsy dimension. A few of the key scenes are also situated around poetry readings that are meant to give the viewer a look into the missing girls inner thoughts and feelings. The way in which many critics were bothered by the slow pace or lack of suspects, etc. could be attributed to the tendency of the film to take its time with the characters and experiences rather than zipping through to the conclusion of the mystery. The narratives included in the film can be considered to also be a key element in interrupting the flow of the story in order to offer time to make the audience think about the motivations and feelings of the character rather then who she will investigate next.

The Monkey's Mask interestingly followed the sort of protocol typical to many Australian crime films that deal with an investigation. In the film the emphasis was on the detectives point of view. The audience was able to be a part of what the character was thinking and feeling. In The Monkey's Mask we were invited in through a series of voice overs that showed the inner feelings of the investigator, Jill. The view of the investigator also had some sort of limitation or restriction placed on it as we discussed in lecture. Jill, in The Monkey's Mask, was clouded by her intense feelings for another woman. She was not able to truly concentrate on her job as much as she knew she should have because of her strong feelings for Diana who was actually highly involved in the case. Jill doesn't know this at first, but even as she should start to have some idea, it seems as thought she might be pushing to the back of her mind. The Monkey's Mask has an interesting way of staying true to the Australian crime film formula while adding some intriguing dimensions of its own.

Overall, The Monkey's Mask was an original film that captured many elements considered to be true to Australian Cinema.