Director: Peter Duncan
Writer: Don Watson
Original Screenplay: Rob George & Peter Goldsworthy - based on the play "Percy & Rose" by Rob George in collaboration with Maureen Sherlock
Director of Photography: Martin McGrath
Percy Grainger: Richard Roxburgh
Rose Grainger: Barbara Hershey
Karen Holten: Emily Woof
Alfhild de Luce: Claudia Karvan
Herman Sandby: Simon Burke |
Mention Percy Grainger and I grit my teeth, remembering my antipathy to the less than dulcet tones, to my schoolgirl ear at least, of "English Country Garden". Then I remember "free music", terry-towelling clothes and a range of whips that I saw at the Grainger Museum at Melbourne University. Certainly an oddball! Now Percy, complete with all his eccentricities, has been brought to life and to the screen by Peter Duncan, he who wrote the award-winning "Children of the Revolution" and the less well received "A Little Bit of Soul".
For a lawyer turned film-maker Peter Duncan certainly seems to be able to pull his weight in terms of cast for his films. He has worked with the likes of Judy Davis, David Wenham and Geoffrey Rush and, in his latest film "Passion", he is working with Richard Roxburgh and Barbara Hershey, as well as the delightful Emily Woof (the only highlight of the very wooden film "The Woodlanders") and Claudia Karvan who has always succeeded in lighting up the screen for me, whatever the quality of the script.
"Passion" seeks to tell the story of one of Australia's most eccentric composers, Percy Grainger: a pianist of world renown, a health fanatic, a cultural anthropologist, a personal biographer and a sexual deviant - at least in the eyes of the Edwardian society of the early part of this century, he is perhaps best remembered for his arrangements of "English Country Garden" and "Danny Boy". Grainger was such a multifaceted person that he set his filmic biographers a mammoth task. They, no doubt wisely, chose to focus on a one year period in his life, one which they considered brought together the essential elements of this extraordinary person: his unusually close relationship with his mother Rose; his love affair with the woman who came closest to supplanting her as the love of his life - Karen Holten; and the contradictory elements of his character which ranged from lighthearted larrikan, through outstanding pianist, to devotee of self-flagellation.
"Passion" has impressive performances, beautifully integrated music and sound, evocative cinematography, and a strong directorial hand. Despite all this, the film seems to only skim the surface of the complex and contradictory character at its centre with the result that I felt more than a little frustrated at the end. Maybe Percy Grainger is better suited to a mini-series than a feature film.
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