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MED 231
Australian Cinema
Assigment 2 - Critical Review

Feeling Sexy

Tutor: Dr. Garry Gillard
Tutorial: Thurs, 2:30-3.30
Elina Mubin

Part one: Film Information

Credits – Cast Production Cast:
Susie Porter- Vicki
Tamblyn Lord – Greg

John Donatiu - Art Student Lover, Hugo
George Neumann - Tattoo Man
Preston Warne - Macho Sex King
Jack Thompson – Shopkeeper
Davida Allen - Screenwriter, Director
Chris Noonan - Executive Producer
Carolina Haggstrom - First Assistant Director
Tracey Robertson - Associate Producer
Christina Molyneux - Costume Designer
Hillary A. Austin - Production Designer
Garry Phillips - Cinematographer
Claire Jordan - Composer (Music Score)
Heidi Kennessey - Editor

Shouna Wolifson - Casting
Liam Egan - Sound/Sound Designer
Glenys Rowe – Producer

Release Dates and Box Office Information
Weekend 23rd - 28th Dec 1999
(* Three day figure - opened on Dec 26)
(WIR = Weeks In Release, S.C. = Screen Count, % +/- = change in takings over last week)

TW TITLE WIR 23-28 Dec S.C. % +/- $ TOTAL
1 END OF DAYS* 1 3,760,107 260 na 3,823,765
2 TOY STORY 2 4 2,475,152 324 na 10,748,927
3 BICENTENNIAL MAN* 1 2,134,103 219 na 2,134,103
4 BOWFINGER* 1 1,984,048 153 na 1,985,248
5 INSPECTOR GADGET 2 1,755,773 242 na 2,357,462
6 POKEMON: THE MOVIE 2 1,140,693 297 na 4,423,161
7 THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH 5 1,111,724 251 na 12,238,455
8 THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 3 900,497 208 na 8,700,874
9 SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS* 1 817,505 74 na 817,505
10 ANNA AND THE KING 2 810,245 148 na 2,009,998
11 HOLY SMOKE* 1 303,034 29 na 305,807
12 BEING JOHN MALKOVICH 1 291,932 18 na 442,362
13 THE SIXTH SENSE 12 205,433 102 na 28,145,867
14 THE BONE COLLECTOR 6 198,532 159 na 6,576,723
15 BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB 1 167,539 7 na 167,539
16 MUPPETS FROM SPACE* 1 138,090 149 na 180,594
17 THREE TO TANGO 4 70,314 70 na 1,781,557
18 THE DINNER GAME 1 64,008 6 na 87,508
19 FEELING SEXY 1 50,170 6 na 50,170
20 MICKEY BLUE EYES 6 48,365 60 na 4,098,377

Information taken from :http://www.moviemarshal.com/
Release date: 23 Dec, 1999.
149 FEELING SEXY M Niche 23 Dec 26,617 7.47 356,363
http://www.moviemarshal.com/ Release date
Interview with the Filmmakers.
I found it extremely difficult to find interviews with the filmmakers of Feeling Sexy, though the online presence as far as reviews went was quite good. I will discuss further on the possible reasons why I had such difficulty finding interviews. However, reading further through this analysis, you will find a couple of comments that the Director has made about the film.
Reviews.
Reviews can be found at:
http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/index.php3?action=review&id=179
http://www.shoalhaven.net.au/entertainment/see_change.html
http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/index.php3?action=review&id=179
http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/movie.aspx?m=153113
http://www.mtv.com/movies/movie/136489/plot.jhtml
http://us.imdb.com
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/review/film/s163159.htm
http://urbancinefile.com.au
http://www.binnaburrafilm.com/festivals.html
http://urbancinefile.com.au
http://www.art-galleries-schubert.com.au/www/artist_info/Davida_Allen.htm
Another site that I had a look at was http://www.netspace.net.au. I did not find this page very helpful, as there was no review, (though the movie was listed under the reviews section), they got the release year wrong, saying 2000 when it should have been 1999. In addition, the page itself was not very well designed.
Awards and Achievements
There was no substantial evidence to pinpoint to the Awards this film has however; the film was acclaimed to participate in various Film festivals around the world.
Wellington Film Festival
New Zealand, June 1999
Toronto International Film Festival 1999
Vancouver Film Festival
September 24 - October 10 1999
Gijon, Spain September 1999 Cork, Ireland October 1999
London Film Festival
Goteborg Film Festival
Sweden, 28 Jan - 6 Feb 2000
Singapore Film Festival
31 March - 15 April 2000
I undertook the main part of my research on the World Wide Web, as my film is not a recent film (considering the time frame) I did not think there was much chance of it having a mention in any books or other hard copy references. I did have a look in Cinema Papers, and did not find much useful information, but any other attempts to find references in other non-web publications were fairly desultory. I put the keywords of "Feeling Sexy", "Davida Allen" and "Susie Porter" into the search engine, and got a numerous websites based on reviews and general movie information. After I felt that I compiled enough information on the reviews of the film, I started the search for the interviews with the filmmakers and box office and release dates information.
Previously, I have already mentioned the fact that I had great difficulty finding interviews with the filmmakers. It was primarily because I was searching in the wrong places or perhaps because of the fact that I was unfamiliar with the web sites. I tried using various keyword searches using the director's name and the main actress, but there was not substantial information that lead me to any interview. What I managed to acquire from my findings were interviews based on the director's works in other medium such as Davida's art career.

Part two: Critical Review

Synopsis and Opinion
In Davida Allen's first ever made film, she has been able to portray a wonderful ability to combine humour, both visual and verbal, and give her characters emotional traits in her characters. Susie Porter who plays Vicki, has contributed from her natural acting talent to such a colourful and emotional character. Vicki in this film comes of as a vulnerable, sensitive, and loveable personality. As the screenwriter and director, Allen`s visual talent is depicted well on the screen. Her use of bright colours, creative camera angles reinforces the surreal world in which Vicki finds herself as wife and mother. I actually found Feeling Sexy quite a gratifying experience. I somewhat identified with the character in terms of how I relate the creative art gestures with my own mother whom is an artist. The manner in which the character derives inspiration by immersing herself in her surroundings is identifiable. However, I wouldn't take the identification aspect to the same extent as how Vicki derives sexual gratification from her own visual imagery.
In this film, the portrait of marriage is conveyed to be funny, sweet and simultaneously, emotionally draining Vicki, a woman who refuses to accept her exhausted husband Greg's protestation that marriage can't be passionate every minute of the day.
Allen tells us more about love and sex - and marriage and kids - in the course of a short feature than many experienced filmmakers manage in a mini-series.
"The film's images effortlessly rehabilitate the distinctively Australian expressionism inaugurated by Jane Campion's early work. Allen's images as much looser as befits the film about an unabashedly physical woman; when we laugh at the way she frames Greg's dorky walk shorts, or his dreadful 70's shirts and hair, we can also see he's a spunky little guy." (Gallager, 2000) At Venice, a journalist asked Davida to explain the funny costume that the husband wears in the film. Davida said "Come to Queensland and you'll understand! " Perhaps Queensland is the only place in the whole world wear grown men still wear shorts and long socks...."
"Her camera's shots are portrayed to be much kinder to woman's fashion and celebrate the freckled flesh of her heroine in and out of her sexy bohemian attire. As to the children we never see them in full; only as grasping hands, bandaged limbs, messed up, hungry mouths." (Gallager, 2000) (Vicki complains that the kids are killing her imagination.
I very much enjoyed how the Allen's images appeared to be cartoonish. It added a different splash of style from the films I'm used to watching. The visuals come off to be radiant and bright giving the viewers a sense of pleasure looking at the interior light and texture of the tropical domestic setting. The usage of some primary colours is probably a reflection of her particular favourites. The also famous painter, Allen was able to convey perfectly Vicki's traits to tell the viewer how she outshines as true artist.
I noticed the progression of the images throughout the succession of the film, as they turned dark. It portrays the daunting and gradual change of the Vicki's personality. Allen's visual imagery from the use of symbolic colours has given the audience a sense of narrative direction instead of the Director being reliant on non-digectic sounds as a driving tool like most melodramas tend to rely on. The visual direction contributes vastly to the overall affect of the cinematography.
Tracking back to the scenes of the film, there was a gripping scene where Greg's 'watch dog' viciously attacks Vicki. However, we only see the aftermath of the attack as Vicki lay sobbing at the corner in the shambles of the living room, Greg comes home from work to find her in that state of shock. He begins to console her by hugging her reassuringly, conveying to be apologetic for Vicki's mistakes. Through film, we can infer how both characters survive the affair of Hugo, the art student, the attack of the dog, just as they survive the Tattoo Man, the Orange Garage Man and various other challenges to domestic bliss. The ending of the film really shifted my perception of Greg being an overly cynical husband to such an understanding and sweet one. We confidently predict that Vicki and Greg won't be the only ones feeling great after the sweetly bliss of feeling sexy.
Critical Uptake
Within critical circles, the debut feature, Feeling Sexy was touted as a great achievement for a first time director/screen-writer, Davida Allen, who comes to filmmaking from an established career as an Australian painter. "It has been acclaimed at the Melbourne Film Festival, June 1999, where incidentally a judge who saw the film came up to Davida afterwards and offered us $10,000 towards the cost of blowing it up to 35mm!"
(http://www.art-galleries-schubert.com.au/www/artist_info/Davida_Allen.htm)
Now that's what you call audience a good audience response. However, it wasn't enough to win any particular awards for the short feature genre of melodrama. I suppose Allen's goal was motivated only to achieve a different type of creative exploration through her short feature.
Feeling Sexy is a film which is emotionally involving. It portrays a well thought of examination of the mechanics of relationships.
The idea for the film came from Allen's interest in relationships and she questions:
What is the spice of life? How do you keep feeling alive, when every day can be the same? When the people you share the day with are the same? How can two people within marriage keep feeling like they did when they first met each other? The new and freshness of someone new in their lives? I'm sure that some point or another we all have experienced something similar to the raised themes. After all, we can concur that it is hard to keep everything new and shiny. Everything grows old and dull.
"As an artist I've always worked from my own observations, and I am fascinated with relationships. How they last and why they deteriorate, and why the gloss of a new relationship fades, and what it is that can keep people together for years. It is hard to keep everything new and shiny. Everything grows old and dull. I wanted to disguise the recipe of how a marriage can stay together as a fairy tale" - Davida Allen.
Allen wanted to disguise a recipe of how a marriage can stay together and believed she had a recipe for keeping a marriage alive, and decided to disguise it in a fairytale which ended up as Feeling Sexy.
General Position of Australian Film
The first thing that must be said in a discussion of the uptake of Australian film generally, and already mentioned, that this film has made portrayed a different limelight by judging the comments made by art critics in Australia. Although, it didn't not achieve any substantial achievements in Australia or other countries, the participation of the film itself in various countries has conveyed the daring step that the first time screenwriter/director is willing to take. It seems to bode very well for the future of Australian cinema, indicating that upcoming film directors or screenwriters coming from a different medium background is able to break new grounds and diversify their talents through Australian cinema. It also paves new horizons for those filmmakers to take a more dramatic and artistic styles into their film mediums.
Moving onto the genre in the film, I'd classify this particular film to include elements of melodrama intertwined with that of romantic comedy. Traditionally, melodramas are perceived of intertwining elements such as "subordination of character development to plots in which there were exciting events, thrills and fears, chance happenings, coincidences, missed meetings, sudden conversions, last-minute rescue and revelations." (Week 5, Melodrama) Respectively, this film does reverberate most of these elements mentioned above through the acting style, narrative structure, and aspects of film style as mentioned in the textual analysis. Adding to the spice of the melodramatic elements, are the essence of general romance and comedic rudiments. The juxtaposition of both these genres layers the narrative with multiple textures drama and excitement.
Conclusively, Feeling Sexy, although a short feature film, has impacted the audiences viewing and highlights general themes with bold and vibrant strokes of a drama filled rollercoaster. Feeling Sexy has achieved success in establishing a simple yet complex piece of artwork that is different enough to be uniquely Australian, and in artistic sense, original in comparison to mainstream short feature films in the market to hook audiences in. It demonstrates the unique Australian ability for upcoming new filmmakers to invest and diversify their artistic talent through the Australian cinema medium.

Referencing:
1. http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/index.php3?action=review&id=179 (Visited, April 18, 2005)
2. http://www.shoalhaven.net.au/entertainment/see_change.html
(Visited, April 18, 2005)
3. http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/index.php3?action=review&id=179
(Visited, April 18, 2005)
4. http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/movie.aspx?m=153113
(Visited, April 20, 2005)
5. http://www.mtv.com/movies/movie/136489/plot.jhtml
(Visited, April 20, 2005)
6. http://us.imdb.com
(Visited, April 20, 2005)
7. http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/review/film/s163159.htm
(Visited, April 21, 2005)
8. http://urbancinefile.com.au
(Visited, April 21, 2005)
9. http://www.binnaburrafilm.com/festivals.html
(Visited, April 21, 2005)
10. http://urbancinefile.com.au
(Visited, April 21, 2005)
11. http://www.art-galleries-schubert.com.au/www/artist_info/Davida_Allen.htm
(Visited, April 21, 2005)
Bibliography:
1. Neale, Steve 2000, Genre and Hollywood, Routledge, London and New York: 183, citing Thomas Elsaesser 1987 (1972) "Tales of sound and fury: observations of the family melodrama", Monogram.
2. Laura Mulvey 1977-8, 'Notes on Sirk and Melodrama', Movie, 25, Winter: 53-6. Laura Mulvey 1986, 'Melodrama in and out of the home', in Colin MacCabe, ed., High Theory/Low Culture, St. Martin's Pres, New York: 80-100. (Week 5, Lecture, Melodrama)
Filmography
1. Feeling Sexy, (David Allen, 1999) Duration, 47 mins.