KISS OR KILL
Australia, 1997, 88 minutes, Colour.
Frances O' Connor, Matt Day, Chris Haywood, Andrew S. Gilbert, Max Cullen, Barry Otto.
Directed by Bill Bennett.
A film noir chase thriller. Frances O' Connor is excellent as a troubled women who, with a boyfriend (Matt Day) runs a scam to rob visiting businessmen in an Adelaide hotel. One dies and they go on the run. The victim was also involved in criminal activity, so they are being pursued by criminals as well as the police. And there are considerable complications during their stopovers on the Nullabor involving Max Cullen, Barry Otto and murders - and growing suspicions.
It is tautly done, without a musical score, and creates a thriller atmosphere. Writer-director, Bill Bennett, is well-known for docudramas and encourages his cast to spontaneity and improvising. Local film noir which won the AFI Best Film and Director awards for 1997 and a Best Supporting Actor award for Andrew S. Gilbert.
1. The quotation from Dylan Thomas: the focuses on experience, images, shadow, celluloid and film? Kiss or kill?
2. The South Australian settings: the city of Adelaide, the landscapes of Outback Australia, the desert, sand and water? The towns, the houses, the petrol stations? Motels?
3. The lack of musical score? The use of natural sounds? The impact for audiences?
4. The jump-cut editing? The effect of this style for response to characters and plots? The improvised performances and their effect?
5. The title and the overtones of film noir?
6. The prologue and Nicole? The little girl at home with her mother, the single parent, domestic? Answering the door, the brutality of the mother's being set alight? The anonymity of the attacker? Nicole and her cowering in the room? The later flashback? The traumatic effect? Nikki's experience? Her sleepwalking?
7. The development of the scam? Her meeting Paul at the hotel, Al accosting her at the bar, her taking him to the room? Her flirtatiousness, his drinking? The tablets? The sexual advances, the brutality, her coyness and not wanting her face touched? His death, her impersonal reaction? Letting Al in, collecting the valuables, the cassette?
8. At home, trying to undo the case, getting the axe to it? Her discovery of the tape, Al and Nikki watching it? Their reaction, her anger, the abusive phone call on the answering machine to Zipper? Going off in the car, throwing out the credit cards, the wallet? No appreciation of the police and detection?
9. Zipper Doyle, his reputation, his appearance on the cassette, the paedophilia, the entertaining with Felicity? His coaching, signing autographs, the gyms? Listening to the tape? The link with the newsman at the Ten Network? Driving in pursuit, sleeping overnight on the road, stalking Nikki and Al? The confrontation, the shooting? The chase and his being unable to catch them? The fake lawyer? Abducting the two, the gun at Nikki's head, her crashing the car? His death? The background of pornography, paedophile rings?
10. Nikki and Al, the detectives giving the information about them, the crime background, working as a team, being in detention when young, the bond between them? At home, the scams, the car, tossing the wallet out the window? Al and his tension about the death of the man in the motel? Nikki and her disregard? The driving, arriving at the motel, the shower, settling down? The encounter with Stan, the meal, his telling his story about the tunnels and the desert? Nikki and her catching fire and her panic? Al flying off the handle?
11. Frances O'Connor and her screen presence as Nikki, the style, improvisation? The background of her life, the trauma, sleepwalking? The scams and the death of the man in the hotel? Her personal fears, love for Al? On the road together, the swim? Her reaction to Stan's death, suspicions? Their stealing the four-wheel drive? The stranger in the back of the van? Having to trust him? At his place, the opals, feeling at home? Her further sleepwalking and the deaths of the couple?
12. Al and his background, his rich father and his alienation? Short fuse? The scam, trusting Nicole? On the trip, his being anxious about the man's death? Bringing Nikki back during her sleepwalking? Robbing Stan, his shock at the death, his fear that Nikki had killed Stan?
13. Stan and the motel, the charges, his talk, the tunnels? Character, his photo with the couple? The stranger at the motel, his being odd? Hitchhiking? The hospitality, the house, Bell and her jewellery? The kangaroo meat? Their deaths - and the reality of the murders?
14. Al and his fears, tying up Nikki, buying the goods at the shop (and the information being given to the police)? The confrontation with the police, the arrest, the interrogation and the pressure, Nikki and her confession, Al and his ringing his father and his anger with him? The fake lawyer? The time in the motel, mutual trust yet fear? Being abducted by Zipper, the drive and the crash?
15. The detectives - as characters, at work, their skills, the talk between the two? Talking with Zipper, the autographs, the suspicions? Driving in pursuit, the discovery of the murders? Bargaining with Harry to do the tracking, the tracking and the discovery of the dead couple? The discussions - and the humorous story about bacon and Mossad? Their interrogations, different styles? Solving the case and the praise they got for breaking the paedophile ring?
16. Harry, at home, skill as a tracker, bargaining for the money, the tracking, his observation of the wounds to the throat, solving the murder mystery?
17. The glimpse of the people in the Nullarbor, atmosphere of realism - the couple whose four-wheel drive was stolen, the people in the motel, the staff?
18. Al and Nikki being called the detritus of society? As criminals, compared with Zipper and the paedophile ring? The police and their work? Road movies and crime movies and the conventions of the genre?
19. Kiss or Kill as a film noir - people being torn between their desires and their sense of integrity? A different kind of film noir because of the improvisation rather than stylised use of conventions?
