Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17503175.2020.1756172
K. Harman
ABSTRACT Set in mid-1820s Van Diemen’s Land, The Nightingale depicts a dark and disturbing Tasmanian past populated with redcoats, convicts, Aboriginal people, and a few free settlers. Controversial scenes include the repeated rape of a young female convict, the murders of her husband and infant, and the rape and murder of an Aboriginal woman. Uncanny parallels can be drawn between the on-screen experiences of the white female lead, and the violence visited on the bodies of Tasmanian colonial woman Elizabeth Tibbs, her husband, and infant in 1826. After situating the film within its historical context, this paper provides a mimetic reading through elaborating these parallels. It interrogates key points of divergence between these fictional and historical accounts of women’s lives to explore what they reveal about gender, class, race, violence, and justice in colonial Van Diemen’s Land and its depiction in twenty-first century Australia.
{"title":"Uncanny parallels: Jennifer Kent’s the Nightingale, violence, and the Vandemonian past","authors":"K. Harman","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2020.1756172","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2020.1756172","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Set in mid-1820s Van Diemen’s Land, The Nightingale depicts a dark and disturbing Tasmanian past populated with redcoats, convicts, Aboriginal people, and a few free settlers. Controversial scenes include the repeated rape of a young female convict, the murders of her husband and infant, and the rape and murder of an Aboriginal woman. Uncanny parallels can be drawn between the on-screen experiences of the white female lead, and the violence visited on the bodies of Tasmanian colonial woman Elizabeth Tibbs, her husband, and infant in 1826. After situating the film within its historical context, this paper provides a mimetic reading through elaborating these parallels. It interrogates key points of divergence between these fictional and historical accounts of women’s lives to explore what they reveal about gender, class, race, violence, and justice in colonial Van Diemen’s Land and its depiction in twenty-first century Australia.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"14 1","pages":"35 - 46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17503175.2020.1756172","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49393557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17503175.2020.1757014
A. Lambert
{"title":"The Nightingale Sings in a New Year … ","authors":"A. Lambert","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2020.1757014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2020.1757014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"14 1","pages":"1 - 2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17503175.2020.1757014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47735948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17503175.2020.1756171
Joanne Faulkner
ABSTRACT The presence in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale of children, and of violence against them, has so far been little commented upon, as much commentary has focused on the film’s depiction of rape and colonial gender relations. Yet key plot points are articulated through violence against a child — and the exclamations at these points by the film’s antagonist, Lt. Hawkins, of “shut it up” and “I can’t stand the ... noise of it,” indicates a critical role played by representations of children that may be turned against colonial power. This article examines the-role of the child as a site of immanent critique of colonial violence in The Nightingale, in the context of the use of representations of childhood in settler-colonial film and culture more broadly.
{"title":"‘I can’t stand the noise of it’: the figure of the child and the critique of colonialism in Jennifer Kent’s the Nightingale","authors":"Joanne Faulkner","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2020.1756171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2020.1756171","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The presence in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale of children, and of violence against them, has so far been little commented upon, as much commentary has focused on the film’s depiction of rape and colonial gender relations. Yet key plot points are articulated through violence against a child — and the exclamations at these points by the film’s antagonist, Lt. Hawkins, of “shut it up” and “I can’t stand the ... noise of it,” indicates a critical role played by representations of children that may be turned against colonial power. This article examines the-role of the child as a site of immanent critique of colonial violence in The Nightingale, in the context of the use of representations of childhood in settler-colonial film and culture more broadly.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"14 1","pages":"23 - 34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17503175.2020.1756171","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46885308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17503175.2020.1740404
Michelle Arrow, James F. Findlay
ABSTRACT Acclaimed Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent’s film The Nightingale has generated intense debate since its premiere at the 2018 Venice Film Festival. Set during the Black War in Van Diemen’s Land in 1825, the film is an unflinching depiction of colonial and sexual violence. Kent told The Saturday Paper that she ‘wanted to tell a story that is relevant to my history and my country’. Her vision of British colonisation, and its consequences for those caught in its wake, taps into a conversation with a strong presence in Australia’s public, political and cultural life over the last three decades. This article critically introduces The Nightingale as an historical film; that is, a film set in the past which offers an interpretation of history. We ask: how does The Nightingale represent the past? How might we situate it within longer traditions of historical representation of frontier conflict, and the convict experience? How did audiences respond to the film? And finally, how might we situate The Nightingale in the moment of its reception? What does it mean to make a film about colonial violence at the same moment as the Uluru statement called for truth-telling about our history?
{"title":"A critical introduction to The Nightingale: gender, race and troubled histories on screen","authors":"Michelle Arrow, James F. Findlay","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2020.1740404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2020.1740404","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Acclaimed Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent’s film The Nightingale has generated intense debate since its premiere at the 2018 Venice Film Festival. Set during the Black War in Van Diemen’s Land in 1825, the film is an unflinching depiction of colonial and sexual violence. Kent told The Saturday Paper that she ‘wanted to tell a story that is relevant to my history and my country’. Her vision of British colonisation, and its consequences for those caught in its wake, taps into a conversation with a strong presence in Australia’s public, political and cultural life over the last three decades. This article critically introduces The Nightingale as an historical film; that is, a film set in the past which offers an interpretation of history. We ask: how does The Nightingale represent the past? How might we situate it within longer traditions of historical representation of frontier conflict, and the convict experience? How did audiences respond to the film? And finally, how might we situate The Nightingale in the moment of its reception? What does it mean to make a film about colonial violence at the same moment as the Uluru statement called for truth-telling about our history?","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"14 1","pages":"14 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17503175.2020.1740404","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44536511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17503175.2020.1757013
Rebe Taylor, J. Everett
ABSTRACT The symposium ‘The Nightingale: Gender, Race and Troubled Histories on Screen’ opened with a discussion between Jim Everett, the film’s associate producer and Aboriginal consultant, and Associate Professor Rebe Taylor, Senior Research Fellow in the College of Arts, Law and Education at the University of Tasmania. Rebe and Jim have known each other since 1999, when they met at a history conference: as Rebe noted, ‘we’ve never really stopped talking since then.’ Jim is a Senior Indigenous scholar at the University of Tasmania and he is currently working on a Master’s thesis with Rebe. In this (edited) transcript of their conversation, Rebe and Jim discuss the way he came to be involved with the film, the casting and production process, and his reaction to the finished film.
{"title":"‘I just felt sad and angry all in one thing’: Jim Everett in conversation with Rebe Taylor on making the Nightingale","authors":"Rebe Taylor, J. Everett","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2020.1757013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2020.1757013","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The symposium ‘The Nightingale: Gender, Race and Troubled Histories on Screen’ opened with a discussion between Jim Everett, the film’s associate producer and Aboriginal consultant, and Associate Professor Rebe Taylor, Senior Research Fellow in the College of Arts, Law and Education at the University of Tasmania. Rebe and Jim have known each other since 1999, when they met at a history conference: as Rebe noted, ‘we’ve never really stopped talking since then.’ Jim is a Senior Indigenous scholar at the University of Tasmania and he is currently working on a Master’s thesis with Rebe. In this (edited) transcript of their conversation, Rebe and Jim discuss the way he came to be involved with the film, the casting and production process, and his reaction to the finished film.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"14 1","pages":"15 - 22"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17503175.2020.1757013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43217630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17503175.2020.1756173
James F. Findlay
ABSTRACT This article considers the convict/Aboriginal partnership at the heart of Jennifer Kent's The Nightingale. In doing so it locates Clare and Billy’s relationship within a broader representational history of convict/Aboriginal partnerships on screen. It explores how The Nightingale conforms to, or ruptures, the narrative patterns and tropes that have developed around such encounters. Furthermore, it considers the partnership’s revisionist potential and continuing limitations as a representational means to exploring the multi-layers of power, violence and colonisation on screen.
{"title":"Convict/Aboriginal partnerships and ruptured histories in The Nightingale","authors":"James F. Findlay","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2020.1756173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2020.1756173","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article considers the convict/Aboriginal partnership at the heart of Jennifer Kent's The Nightingale. In doing so it locates Clare and Billy’s relationship within a broader representational history of convict/Aboriginal partnerships on screen. It explores how The Nightingale conforms to, or ruptures, the narrative patterns and tropes that have developed around such encounters. Furthermore, it considers the partnership’s revisionist potential and continuing limitations as a representational means to exploring the multi-layers of power, violence and colonisation on screen.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"14 1","pages":"63 - 76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17503175.2020.1756173","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42921248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17503175.2020.1757836
C. Elder
ABSTRACT This article explores the marketing and non-Indigenous critical responses to the film The Nightingale (2018) by reading it alongside the reception and responses to a similar film, made over a decade earlier, a film that also studies the multi-layers of colonial violence. Using the film The Proposition (2005) as a foil this article considers the ways that violence figured by two non-Indigenous directors working in a postcolonial Australian context is interpreted by the critics reviewing films. The articles considers the different tropes, non-Indigenous critics offer viewers of the film. How do they suggest consumers interpret or experience the film? The argument is that the tropes, and cues can be understood both in terms of the immediate film experience, but also, for Australian viewers in terms of two ‘events’ – Reconciliation and the Uluru Statement – that help shape what national and counter histories of Australia have power at different times. The objectives of the article are therefore twofold. The first is to catalogue some of the ways each films’ marketing machine and then some key critics explained or described the plot and narrative of the two films, in particular how they explained the idea of colonial trauma in relation to the two events. The second objective is to examine how the reviewers/marketing material explained how each film deployed these ideas in order to challenge historically powerful understandings of history and belonging – in its multiple meanings – in Australia.
{"title":"‘Brutal’ and ‘Grisly’: exploring the (non-Indigenous) critical reception to two Australian postcolonial films of the frontier, The Nightingale (2018) and The Proposition (2005)","authors":"C. Elder","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2020.1757836","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2020.1757836","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the marketing and non-Indigenous critical responses to the film The Nightingale (2018) by reading it alongside the reception and responses to a similar film, made over a decade earlier, a film that also studies the multi-layers of colonial violence. Using the film The Proposition (2005) as a foil this article considers the ways that violence figured by two non-Indigenous directors working in a postcolonial Australian context is interpreted by the critics reviewing films. The articles considers the different tropes, non-Indigenous critics offer viewers of the film. How do they suggest consumers interpret or experience the film? The argument is that the tropes, and cues can be understood both in terms of the immediate film experience, but also, for Australian viewers in terms of two ‘events’ – Reconciliation and the Uluru Statement – that help shape what national and counter histories of Australia have power at different times. The objectives of the article are therefore twofold. The first is to catalogue some of the ways each films’ marketing machine and then some key critics explained or described the plot and narrative of the two films, in particular how they explained the idea of colonial trauma in relation to the two events. The second objective is to examine how the reviewers/marketing material explained how each film deployed these ideas in order to challenge historically powerful understandings of history and belonging – in its multiple meanings – in Australia.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"14 1","pages":"47 - 62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17503175.2020.1757836","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41868217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-02DOI: 10.1080/17503175.2019.1700010
A. Lambert
{"title":"Migrant and diasporic film and filmmaking in New Zealand","authors":"A. Lambert","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2019.1700010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2019.1700010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"13 1","pages":"83 - 85"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17503175.2019.1700010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45071868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-02DOI: 10.1080/17503175.2019.1693481
Stuart Richards
ABSTRACT This essay looks at the critical reception of Australian queer cinema demonstrating the difference in reviews of queer Australian films. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Elliot, Stephan. 1994. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Sydney: Roadshow Distribution) and The Sum of Us (Dowling, Kevin, and Geoff Burton. 1994. The Sum of Us. Sydney: Southern Star) will be compared to films that came later in the 1990s, notably Love and Other Catastrophes (Croghan, Emma-Kate. 1996. Love and Other Catastrophes. Sydney: Fox Searchlight), The Well (Lang, Samantha. 1997. The Well. Sydney: Southern Star) and Head On (Kokkinos, Ana. 1998. Head On. Melbourne: Umbrella Entertainment). These later films managed to generate buzz on the queer film festival circuit as well as at general international film festivals. Their queerness attracts international LGBTQ audiences while, secondly, genre-related elements have the potential to attract a wider cinephile audience. I will utilise paratextual elements, particularly reviews during their film festival and theatrical runs, to demonstrate how they cross-over to wider audiences. In investigating their framing and reception, these films increasingly engage audiences through their genre signifiers. This essay demonstrates that the discourse around Australian queer cinema has matured to offer multi-faceted perspectives.
摘要本文考察了澳大利亚酷儿电影的评论接受度,展示了对澳大利亚酷儿影片评论的差异。《沙漠女王普里西拉历险记》(艾略特,斯蒂芬,1994年)。沙漠女王普里西拉历险记。悉尼:路演发行)和《我们的总和》(道林、凯文和杰夫·伯顿,1994年。《我们的总和》(The Sum of Us,Sydney:Southern Star)将与20世纪90年代后期的电影进行比较,尤其是《爱与其他灾难》(Croghan,Emma Kate,1996)。爱情和其他灾难。悉尼:福克斯探照灯),《井》(郎,萨曼莎,1997年。The Well。悉尼:南方之星)和Head On(Kokkinos,Ana.1998。Head On。墨尔本:雨伞娱乐)。这些后来的电影在酷儿电影节和一般的国际电影节上引起了轰动。他们的古怪吸引了国际LGBTQ观众,其次,与类型相关的元素有可能吸引更广泛的电影爱好者。我将利用副文本元素,特别是在电影节和影院放映期间的评论,来展示它们是如何向更广泛的观众传播的。在调查它们的框架和接受度时,这些电影越来越多地通过其类型符号吸引观众。这篇文章表明,围绕澳大利亚酷儿电影的讨论已经成熟,可以提供多方面的视角。
{"title":"More than just a gay pun: the changing nature of Australian queer film criticism","authors":"Stuart Richards","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2019.1693481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2019.1693481","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This essay looks at the critical reception of Australian queer cinema demonstrating the difference in reviews of queer Australian films. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Elliot, Stephan. 1994. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Sydney: Roadshow Distribution) and The Sum of Us (Dowling, Kevin, and Geoff Burton. 1994. The Sum of Us. Sydney: Southern Star) will be compared to films that came later in the 1990s, notably Love and Other Catastrophes (Croghan, Emma-Kate. 1996. Love and Other Catastrophes. Sydney: Fox Searchlight), The Well (Lang, Samantha. 1997. The Well. Sydney: Southern Star) and Head On (Kokkinos, Ana. 1998. Head On. Melbourne: Umbrella Entertainment). These later films managed to generate buzz on the queer film festival circuit as well as at general international film festivals. Their queerness attracts international LGBTQ audiences while, secondly, genre-related elements have the potential to attract a wider cinephile audience. I will utilise paratextual elements, particularly reviews during their film festival and theatrical runs, to demonstrate how they cross-over to wider audiences. In investigating their framing and reception, these films increasingly engage audiences through their genre signifiers. This essay demonstrates that the discourse around Australian queer cinema has matured to offer multi-faceted perspectives.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"13 1","pages":"51 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17503175.2019.1693481","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43096688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}