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Beneath Clouds Director: Cast: Dannielle Hall, Damian Pitt Release: Nationally on May 23, 2002 Rated: M
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Floating Road Investment in this country's young filmmaking talent is beginning to bear fruit. Several exciting young Australian directors are emerging from our educational institutions, and none more prominently than Ivan Sen. Having won several awards for his short films; Sen now breaks into features with Beneath Clouds. And quite a debut it is. Despite its uniquely Australian themes, Sen seems to have been heavily influenced by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard and Hal Hartley in his approach to the material. Dialogue is mostly kept to a minimum, the characters revealing themselves through their actions and relationships. The film is essentially a road movie, a device popular in American cinema, but not often embraced by Australian directors. This marks Beneath Clouds as quite an unusual Australian film, and Sen as a director not afraid to challenge conventional filmmaking wisdom.
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If there's a downside to this film it's that the lack of dialogue places more demands on the audience. Combined with the film's deliberate pacing, this may well alienate those brought up on popcorn movies. Not that to do so is necessarily a bad thing - it's actually refreshing to see a filmmaker who doesn't compromise on his vision for the sake of making the material more "palatable".
What is definitely very palatable is the stunning cinematography, which makes full use of the modern Australian landscape. This is complemented nicely by the atmospheric musical score, also co-written by Sen. Dannielle Hall picked up a best new actor award in Berlin, and her performance confirms her promise. She conveys her character's hope and determination through subtle non-verbal cues - a roll of the eyes, a glance down the road, a resolute turn on her heel. Damian Pitt, plucked off the streets of Moree to play the role, gives Vaughan a raw, visceral energy. You can see the resentment at everything life has thrown at him smouldering behind his eyes. Sen's road movie structure allows for few of the supporting characters to get much in the way of screen time, and while some of them are less than convincing, they add to the texture of the film nonetheless. Beneath Clouds is an important Australian film; one that demands attention and calls for it without selling out on its messages. This is a film that will probably divide audiences (as it did in Berlin); but whether you love it or hate it, you won't be able to ignore it. David Edwards Send us your feedback on this article or anything else in The Blurb |
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The
plot itself is fairly straightforward. In a small community outside Moree,
Lena (Dannielle Hall) feels trapped. Her Irish father is (apparently)
in Sydney, and she longs to be with him, dreaming of one day going to
Ireland. For the time being though, she's living with her Aboriginal mother.
The family is caught in a spiral of poverty and alcoholism. When her younger
brother is arrested for stealing cigarettes, (leading her mother to express
relief, not regret), it's the final straw for Lena. She hops the next
bus to the city. But at a remote town, the bus stops for the passengers
to have breakfast, and Lena misses it when it resumes the journey. Alone
and broke, she meets Vaughan (Damian Pitt). The handsome young Vaughan
isn't all he appears though. He's just broken out of a prison farm, in
hopes of seeing his ailing mother once more before she dies. Since they're
both heading in the same direction, they strike an uneasy alliance. 
Sen's
story is essentially a dense allegory; combining familiar themes about
growing up and young people seeking their place in the world, with deeper
issues like Aboriginal reconciliation and national identity. Although
both Lena and Vaughan are Aboriginal, Sen never rams these issues down
the audience's throat. Occasionally, Sen uses a heavy-handed device, but
these are rare and hardly detract from the drama. And while the film is
certainly an allegory, but it doesn't forget about making us care about
the characters. >>>
