David O'ConnellMIFF 2010: The Tree/Dreamland
August 3rd 2010 04:24
The Tree
A new Australian feature co-financed by French interests, The Tree is a simple, evocative exploration of grief and the lasting impression death makes on a young family. When a man (Aden Young) dies suddenly whilst driving his daughter Simone (Morgana Davies) up the drive of their rural property, he leaves behind a wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and three young children to deal with the devastating ramifications.
Simone takes the loss especially hard and soon the gigantic tree against which her father came to rest in his final moments takes on special significance. She senses his watchful, possibly supernatural presence lingering in its towering frame and when its huge roots begin to damage the structure of their house, she defiantly stands in the way of any proposal to have it removed.
The Tree is the second feature from director Julie Bertucelli who made Since Otar Left seven years ago. Here, she's adapted an earlier screenplay that was based on a novel by Judy Pascoe. The result is a mostly engaging but subdued drama that never scales any great dramatic heights. There’s nothing exceptional about the performances either; the casting of Gainsbourg, as fine as an actress as she is, doesn’t feel quite right. She just can’t evade that fish-out-of-water impression her presence creates.
Thankfully Marton Csokas gets a more favourable support role than he did in South Solitary, and though underwritten and clichéd – as the replacement father figure who alienates the grieving child - he makes the most of it. Young Davies makes her mark too, but was I the only one who found her attention-seeking antics a bit irritating in the film’s third act? Regardless, The Tree’s sobering conclusion is nicely handled even if it doesn’t resonate with any real cathartic power.
Dreamland
Aboriginal filmmaker Ivan Sen made a big splash with his AFI award winning debut Beneath Clouds in 2002. After an eight year absence he’s returned with a true oddity: a cryptic, no-budget, experimental film shot on video in grainy black and white with mostly a single actor in the frame. Set in and around Nevada’s Area 51, we follow a mute man (Daniel Roberts) as he obsessively drives around the desert, scouting the area for signs of activity.
Is the man a rabid UFO hunter? A former astronaut haunted by a sighting in the skies? A former abductee? Snippets of information to be gleaned from the film’s murky, overlapping visual clues point to any of these possible conclusions – or none of them. Brief narration opens and closes Dreamland, but in between there is only a single one-sided conversation in which our protagonist meets up with his ex-wife (Tasma Walton) in a motel room.
Sen deserves marks for originality if nothing else. With great effectiveness he creates an elliptical sense of mystery that is heightened by the occasionally eerie ambience of his sound design and self-composed score. The main bone of contention with Dreamland however is its inevitable repetition; too many open-ended questions that are denied answers remain, even after the cross-cutting of NASA footage and other dream-like reveries that seem to haunt this man.
Any experimental film that attempts to prod at the boundaries of the form deserves credit for sheer audacity, but at the end of the day the lack of any narrative structure or anything approaching characterisation leads to an overwhelming frustration. Dreamland then is ultimately a failure, but not an entirely uninteresting one.
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Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
As for Dreamland
going hard David - very impressed with how comprehensive you coverage of this festival is!
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Cheers Matt, both of these are certainly worth a look. You'll be checking out The Tree I know to see how Csokas fares! And Dreamland is daringly original if nothing else.
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
click here - not saying it's absolutely brilliant or anything but definitely has something to say on the topic
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Wouldn't bother with South Solitary. He's better served in this one though it's not a great film either.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
To be honest I've not seen him in much I've really liked, despite his obvious talent as an actor. He's often cast as Eastern European types, such as the NZ flick Broken English.
I haven't seen Kingdom of Heaven, but I did enjoy his brief work in The Bourne Supremacy.
His new one, Dream House, sounds promising.
He was in a brilliant NZ short called A Game With No Rules from 1994 directed by Scott Reynolds.
A Game With No Rules excerpt one
A Game With No Rules excerpt two