Australasian Cinema

home MASTER LIST inclusive list by date Australian Cinema (2008 unit) film details directors writers producers cinematographers New Zealand films NZ films by date top ten best films AACTA, AFI awards auteurs one-time directors endings couples bibliography links TYPES OF FILMS American art films Asian biopics books=>film bush cars children comedies coming of age crime diasporas disability docos exploitation Fremantle, WA gay horror/SF/fantasy indigenous Jewish metafilm music prison road films Russian shorts social realism sport surf Tasmania teenpics war WA westerns women's films

 

Somersault

Photography: Matt Nettheim
Runtime: 106 Minutes
Certification: Australia: MA, Singapore, M18, Switzerland: 14.
Principal Cast & Crew
Abbie Cornish – Heidi
Sam Worthington – Joe
Lynette Curran – Irene
Erik Thompson – Richard
Holly Andrew – Bianca
Leah Purcell – Diane
Olivia Pigeot – Nicole
Blake Pittman – Karl

Credits
Director – Cate Shortland
Producer – Anthony Anderson
Writer – Cate Shortland
Cinematography – Robert Humphries
Music – Decoder Ring
Editor – Scott Gray
Production Design - Melinda Dorling
Production Companies: Red Carpet Productions & Hopscotch Films
(AFC, 2004-2005 & IMDB, 2004)
Also known as: More than Scarlet (Australia working title)
Release Dates: Australia - 16 September 2004, United Kingdom – 4 March, 2005, Germany – 19 May 2005, Nedlands 25 August 2005.
Box Office Figures: Budget: $4 Million (AUD)
Gross: $1,816,096 (Australia)
(Boschen, 2004 & Herald Sun, 2004).
Bibliographic Details
Interviews with cast and crew

Cate Shortland
Before the films release
'Abbies road to stardom', 2004, The Age, [online], accessed 21/04/05, from www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/10/1094789669931.html?from=storylhs

Pike, A. 2004, 'Somersault – Email interview', Electric Shadows, [online], accessed 21/04/05, from http://www.electricshadows.com.au/film/2401409674&w=interviews+cate+shortland+somersault&d=48355A6D7B&icp=1&.intl=us
Runcie, S. 2004, 'Cate Shortland, writer/director, Somesault', Australian Film Commission, [online], accessed 21/04/05, from http://www.afc.gov.au/newsandevents/afcnews/converse/cate_shortland/newspage_123.aspx

After the films release

Martha, 2005, 'Woman's hour', BBC Radio, (sound recording), [online], accessed 21/04/05, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2005_09_wed_01.shtml

Pomeranz, M, 2004, 'At the movies', ABC Online, [online], accessed 20/04/05, from
http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1188951.htm

News articles
'13 for somersault', The Herald sun, [online], accessed 21/04/05, from http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0%2C5478%2C11230730%255E10431%2C00.html

*There are many more news articles that can be obtained via search engines, Hotbot and Yahoo and through the Murdoch university database, Factiva.

Reviews

Before the films release

Maddox, G. 2004, 'Cold comfort', Sydney Morning Herald [online], accessed from Factiva, Dow Jones Interactive, 20/04/05.

Pike, A. 2004, 'Somersault', Ronin Cinemas, [online], accessed 20/04/05, from http://www.electricshadows.com.au/film/2401409674&w=interviews+cate+shortland+somersault&d=48355A6D7B&icp=1&.intl=us

Pomeranz, M, 2004, 'At the movies', ABC Online, [online], accessed 20/04/05, from http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1188200.htm

After the films release

Brussat, M. 2005, 'Movie Review', Rotten Tomatoes, [online], accessed 20/04/05, from http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com/click/author-2896/reviews.php?cats=&letter=&sortby=default&page=4&rid=1371554

Cline, R. 2005, 'Somersault', Shadows on the Wall, [online], accessed 20/04/05, from www.shadowsonthewall.co.uk/05/somersau.htm
Channel 4, 2005, 'Somersault' [online], accessed 20/04/05, from http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=142825

Fitzgerald, M. 2005, 'Love under the glass', Time Pacific, [online], accessed 20/04/05, from http://www.time.com/time/pacific/magazine/article/0,13673,503040906-690188,00.html
Pierce, N. 2005, 'Somersault', [online], BBC online, accessed 20/04/05, from www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/02/22/somersault_2005_review.shtml

*Note: these are just a sample of some of the reviews available. More reviews can be found online via the hotbot and yahoo search engines. Alternatively, more reviews can be obtained from the red carpet productions website, http://www.redcarpetfilms.com.au/somersault/

Essays

Clayfield, M. 2004, 'Killing the gatekeeper: autonomy, globality and reclaiming Australian cinema', Senses Of Cinema, [online] accessed 21/4/05

Online Presence

The film has quite a presence online, because it provided a resource for the majority of information I gathered. Web literature on the internet included photographs, posters, biographies, quotes, interviews and reviews. The Internet Movie Database provided me with a foundation for my research and related links to the film. I also used the search engines, Yahoo and Hotbot to find such literature on the film. The Murdoch library database only proved useful in finding newspaper articles. Factiva, which hosts an array of international newspapers, was a good resource for this. I found it incredibly difficult to track down essays relating to the film. This may be because the film is quite new and was only released late last year. I was only able to access one essay from Senses of Cinema, which seemed more like a review of the film and was not much help. I also located an essay on the Australian Film Commission's (AFC) website, but it is still in the pipeline of being published with access only granted for a fee. However, the AFC website had a lot of information, such as an interview with director and writer, Cate Shortland. It was useful in understanding the thinking behind the plot and some of the narrative elements at work within the movie, particularly the setting.

Critical review of plot and commentary

The plot of Somersault revolves around the journey of its protagonist, sixteen year old, Heidi. When Heidi's mother catches her live in boyfriend and daughter being intimate with one another, Heidi is left too ashamed to stick around. She leaves her Canberra home and heads for the snow town, Jindabyne, where she hopes to stay with a man she met back in Canberra. After her arrival in the town, Heidi calls the man only to find that he cannot remember her.

Not only is Heidi desperate for money and a place to stay, she is desperate for affection. There are numerous times in the film when Heidi can be seen using her physical beauty and charm to flirt with men in a desperate attempt to survive and find love. In the scene where Heidi enters the ski shop in search of a job, the camera focuses on a shot of Heidi and Roy's hands, followed by Heidi's dialogue, "it might get busy sometimes" (Shortland, 2004). The camera shows Heidi's body language and the focus of her eyes on Roy's. The camera then moves to a close up of Ray's face and we hear his dialogue, which suggests that Heidi's flirtation has caused a change in heart. Rays tells Heidi it does get busy sometimes, but then hesitates when someone enters the shop. He tells her there are no jobs available and then moves to walk away from her.

After a sexual encounter with a boy she met at a bar, Heidi is left looking for a place to stay again. She meets Joe at a bar and out of desperation she or more or less forces Joe to take her with him. As the plot continues, the pair's relationship develops and they begin meeting regularly for companionship and sex.

Throughout the plot, Irene's character functions as a motherly figure. The morning after Heidi and Joe's first night together at the motel, Irene catches Heidi eating the breakfast left outside another guest's room. The audience is again cued to realize the desperation of Heidi's situation, because yet again she has spent the night with someone she barely knows in exchange for a place to stay and belong and yet again, she has been left stranded. After catching Heidi, Irene offers her some breakfast. At breakfast, Irene agrees to give Heidi the room for the night, provided she pays for it in a couple of days.

Heidi finds a job at the service station soon after this and later befriends Bianca, her co-worker. Irene rents out her son's old place to Heidi and things start to look up for her. However, after Heidi runs onto the road naked in an effort to stop Joe from leaving, Irene asks Heidi to leave. When Heidi visits Irene to return the key, she thanks her and breaks- down, confessing that the reason she left home was because she kissed her mother's boyfriend. Irene takes Heidi into her home and explains that no matter what she has done, her mother will still forgive her, because she loves her. The audience is cued to understand that Irene can relate to the relationship that a mother has with her child, because although her own son was in jail for shooting someone down, her tears for him made it clear she still loved him. Throughout the plot, Irene's actions have served to benefit Heidi and in this way, Irene has looked after her. Irene's character functions as a mother, motivated by the fact that she, as a mother, has lost a child to crime and that Heidi is visibly a young girl, in need of affection and care.

The film is very detailed and explicit in its portrayal of Heidi's sexual encounters and at times I felt rather uncomfortable watching the situations that she got herself into. However, the scenes functioned to cue the audience into realizing that in Heidi's desperation for accommodation and affection she more often than not felt she had to use sex as a tool. This plot detail aids in showing Heidi's character trait of vulnerability and fragility. In the threesome scene, Heidi is drunk and doped up. One of the two boys at her flat decides to take advantage of her and proceeds to caress and undress her, knowing that she is not in any right state. When Joe confronts her on the incident, she tells him that she did not to want be alone. Heidi's desperation for affection shows that she was often vulnerable to exploitation from others.

The detailed visuals discussed above evoke a sense of empathy for Heidi, because at such a young age, Heidi is vulnerable and naïve. The soundtrack, particularly the sound of what seems to be a xylophone works with the image of Heidi as innocent and childlike. It almost sounds like something you'd imagine to hear in a fairytale and it is played at the beginning of the film with the close up of Heidi's scrap book.

In an interview with the director and writer, Cate Shortland, (Pike, 2004) says that as a child her mother would point out things that were beautiful. This can be seen as a direct influence in the construction of Heidi's character who notices such things, including leaves rustling on the ground and snowflakes. In the scene where Heidi eats a sausage roll outside, she can be seen tearing the snowflake off the paper and saving it. Heidi's scrapbook functions to show how she collects things she finds beautiful and interesting and preserves them as a memory. These elements are repeated throughout the film and serve as motifs within the plot that remind the viewer of Heidi's childlike innocence and her tendency to dream.

At the end of the plot, Heidi emerges from being a very confused, young girl to a much wiser and learned one. From the beginning, the plots focus on Heidi served to show a journey, her journey of self discovery, of love and affection. At the plots conclusion, when Joe leans forward to say goodbye, Heidi gently pushes him back and smiles. By now, she is aware of Joe's affection for her, but she is also aware that she is better off going home with her mother. The love and affection that Heidi craved is now given by her mother, who has obviously forgiven her. Heidi's mother arrives to take her home, the pair embrace in the car and the story ends on the journey home.

Critical uptake of film

Before films release

Mostly all the reviews I found reflected positively on the film and it proved difficult for me to find ones that didn't. The beauty and effect of the film's cinematography was raved about in many reviews. The snowy mountain landscapes of Jindabyne were described as naturally beautiful, giving the film "a real sense of possiblity and wonder" (Humphreys, 2004). Notably, the cold setting presented a different idea of Australia to the world (Maddox, 2004). Shortland's work was described as nothing short of impressive talent. She was even cited as the most gifted film maker to come out of Australia in the past ten years, see review by Pike.

After films release

Many of the reviews mentioned the critical acclaim the film had received at the numerous festivals where it had been screened. One review by Cline (2005) opened with the fact that the film received 13 AFI awards. Reviewers also touched upon the fact that the film was Shortland's first feature and that emerged from the Aurora Script Project.

Critics who reviewed the film before and after its release said much of the success of the film was hugely due to the two lead stars, Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington, whose performances were extremely convincing. Many said Cornish's performance made Heidi's struggle, fragility and journey of self destruction and awareness seem very real and very emotional. Due to her performance in Somersault Cornish has been tipped by many in the film world as the next generation of Australian talent. She has also been dubbed by many reviewers as the next Nicole Kidman, because of her striking likeness to her.

The film was described as strong, heart wrenching, thoughtful and beautifully made by a number of reviewers after its release. It has been classified as a beautiful coming of age drama and an honest portrayal of a contemporary generation, struggling to make sense of the world, see reviews by Cline and Fitzgerald.

Circumstances of Production

Somersault was the first film to come out of the Aurora script development project and was Shortland's first feature film. The $4 million film was not a huge production. It was shot within and around Canberra and its snowy mountain range, Jindabyne. This setting was inspired by the director's own childhood memories of the Brindabella mountain range.

For Shortland, the setting gave warmth to the romance between Joe and Heidi. Interviews with Shortland show that she drew much of her inspiration for the script from real life. In Canberra, Cate's gay friend was bashed and took the man responsible to court. The man turned up with his young girlfriend and Cate says she was always curious about this girl. The formation of Heidi, Joe and Richard stemmed from this incident. The film's characters were loosely based on the people from this real life incident.

The freshness of the film was captured by a young girl who would visit her whilst she was writing the script for Somersault. Cate was able to listen to her Friday night activities and include them as part of Heidi's dialogue. The prop of the scrapbook, an important motif in the film was inspired by this young girl (Runcie, 2004).

Previous Works

Cate Shortland is an Australian writer and director, born in New South Wales. Graduating from the Australian Film Television and Radio School, she received the Southern Star award for the most promising student. For three years she directed episodes of The Secret Life Of Us, an Australian television series. She has written and directed four award winning short films, including: Strap on Olympia (1995), Penthouse (1998), Flowergirl (2000) and Joy(2000) which have all been worked on with producer, Anthony Anderson (Wikipedia, 2004).

For Somersault, Shortland again collaborated with producer Anderson, who set up Red Carpet Productions in 1996 to form independent Australian films (Wikipedia, 2004). Shortland has also collaborated with Somersault's production designer, Melinda Dorling and Cinematographer, Robert Humphries many times before. The European inspired props including the cuckoo clocks were all a result of Shortland's and Dorling's desire to make the film look and feel different (Runcie, 2004). The cold setting of Jindabyne, showed a different part of Australia and presented a different idea of what Shortland says is often thought of as "the sunburnt land" (Maddox, 2004).

The lead actor, Abbie Cornish had little formal training, only attending weekend classes at a Sydney theatre. Somersault provided Cornish with her first lead role (The Age, 2004).

General position of Somersault
The film has been critically acclaimed and took $2 million at the Australian box office. In terms of box office gross, Somersault came second in the top five, 2004 Australian films. The film's box office takings were said to have been hampered, because of their limited distribution and screenings across cinemas in Australia. The film won a record 13 awards at the Australian Film Institute Awards presentation in Melbourne in categories of best film, best direction and screenplay, best actress, best actor and more. The film even outdid Jane Campion's, The Piano, which won 11 awards in 1993. In terms of critical and market horizons, the film gained a favourable position within Australia's 2004 theatrical market, compared to other independent films worldwide that were produced and distributed on approximately the same scale.
A total of 318 films were released into the Australian theatrical market in 2004. 16 of these were Australian films, which is up on 2003's output. Australian films earned 1.3 per cent of the total box office of $907,218,000. Typically, American films dominated the Australian box office in 2004, with 63% of films released, earning 85.9% of the total box office earnings. These output figure show that much of Australia's film-making relies on Government financing. Although the Government has responded by signaling a number of initiatives for film makers, production rates are low.
Film Genre
Although this film has been called a drama, I believe it also shares many conventions with the women's film genre. Doane and Basinger (Gillard, 2005) suggest that the women's genre is characterized by its focus on the female lead. Somersault's plot focuses on the journey of its protagonist, Heidi. Doane and Basinger say that the woman's film deals with issues significant to women. Heidi's character is portrayed as vulnerable and fragile, yet desperate to survive. The film deals with issues of love and affection. In the beginning of the film, we see Heidi bring in the washing and then later on, we see her fetch her mum at the bar. As Heidi stands at the bar, she watches her mum flirt with the men that she's drinking with. From the little that we see of Heidi's mother, Nicole, we are cued to recognize that she is accustom to spending very little time with her daughter. We can also see that Heidi would like it another way, that she would like to spend time with her mother or time with someone, anyone that loves her.

After Heidi watches her mother at the bar, she decides to employ other means to get the love and affection she desires. In this way, the film deals with issues significant to women, because it looks at a young woman on a journey of self discovery and love. Women of all ages can relate to this path, because knowing who you are and having some kind of love in your life is an important aspect of growing up and grasping life.

Somersault fits into Doanes' sub category of a love story, because much of the plot focuses on Heidi's romance with Joe. As the story develops, the audience realizes that the relationship between the pair is reaching another level. After their first night together, Heidi persues Joe, telephoning his house and leaving endless messages for him. Heidi begins to get serious about the relationship when she questions Joe of his feelings for her. After meeting Stuart, Heidi and Joe proceed to the Chinese restaurant where Heidi asks Joe a series of questions. Joe's rudeness and his failure to answer her questions cause Heidi to eat a handful of chopped chillies. She is obviously upset by Joe's failure to tell her where the relationship is going. Although Heidi doesn't really find out until the end, the audience knows of Joe's feelings and his sexual confusion, because of the films omniscient narration. The scene in which Joe likens Heidi to perfume comes to mind, because this is where we hear of his feelings.

At the end of the film, Heidi rejects all of Joe's advances towards her, including his attempt to hold her hand and embrace her goodbye. Heidi realizes she is loved and no longer has to use sex to find love. By reaching out to all available males within the plot, Heidi explores the world of heterosexual love and in this way addresses the female audience. The film can therefore be defined as a woman's film, because it adheres to many of the genre conventions set out by Doane and Basinger (Gillard, 2005).

The woman's film has been identified as an Australian film genre since the 80's through the works of Susan Dermody and Elizabeth Jacka. More recent examples of strong females within the Australian film industry include Gillian Armstrong, director of The Last Days of Chez Nous and My Brilliant Career and Jane Campion, director and writer of Holy Smoke and The Piano. These women direct and make films about women and also cast women as their leads. Shortland herself cites Armstrong and Campion as direct influences to her own career (Shortland in Maddox, 2004,). Tom Roberts (1996) discusses the lower participation rates of women in certain sections of the Australian film industry and the concentration of male orientated plotlines and thus male leads onscreen. However, films made by female director's, including Shortland herself help to identify and distinguish the women's film genre and women working within the Australian film industry. The fact that Somersault was selected for the Cannes film festival furthers this pattern of emerging female directors within the Australian film industry.

References

'Abbies road to stardom', 2004, The Age, [online], accessed 21.04.05.

Australian Film Commission, 2004-2005, 'Somersault' and 'Australian films 2004 box office share', [online], accessed 20.04.05.

Boschen, P. 2004, 'Somersault', in Movie Marshall, [online], accessed via Murdoch WebCT, 20.04.05

Channel 4, 2005, 'Somersault', [online], accessed 20.04.05.

Doane and Basinger in Gillard, G. 2005, 'Lecture 6', [online], accessed via Murdoch WebCT, accessed 21.04.05.

The Herald Sun, 2004, '13 for somersault', [online], accessed 21.04.05

Humphries, A. 2004, 'Somersault', in Electric Shadows, [online], accessed 20.04.05.

Internet Movie Database, 2004, 'Somersault', [online], accessed 20.04.05.

Maddox, G. 2004, 'Cold comfort', Sydney Morning Herald [online], accessed from Factiva, Dow Jones Interactive, 20.04.05.

O'Regan, T. 1996, Australian National Cinema, Routledge, London.

Pike, A. 2004, 'Somersault' & 'Email interview', Electric Shadows, [online], accessed 20.04.05.

Red Carpet Films, 2004, 'Somersault', [online], accessed 21.04.05

Runcie, S. 2004, 'Cate Shortland, writer/director, Somersault', Australian Film Commission, [online], accessed 21.04.05.

Shortland, C. 2004, 'Somersault' (video recording), Red Carpet Productions, Australia.

Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2004, 'Cate Shortland', [online], 21.04.05.