JENNY KISSED ME
Australia, 1986, 98 minutes, Colour.
Ivar Kants, Deborra Lee- Furness, Tamsin West, Paula Duncan.
Directed by Brian Trenchard Smith.
Jenny Kissed Me is a quotation from a poem by 19th century poet Leigh Hunt, Rondeau. However, the film was not a success. Perhaps it was more telemovie material and would reach its intended audience via television instead of cinema.
The film is based on reality - but seems contrived in this film. It reflects the background of broken marriages, city pressures, the attraction of the bush. It also features a terminally ill stepfather taking his daughter into the bush and being chased and besieged by the police and media.
Ivar Kants does his best as the stepfather. Deborah Lee Furness (pictured) is effective as the fickle mother. Tasman West (Frog Dreaming) is a talented child actress. There is support by Paula Raymond.
Director is Brian Trenchard Smith, noted as a director of action films (Man from Hong Kong, Death Cheaters, BMX Bandits, Frog Dreaming). The film takes advantage of Melbourne locations and the beauty of the Dandenong’s and the mountains surrounding Melbourne.
1. Interesting entertainment? A human story? The intended audience for this tale of sentiment and action?
2. Melbourne locations, the city, institutions, homes, massage parlours? The Dandenongs and the mountains? The musical score and its dramatic style? Song?
3. The quotation from Leigh Hunt? Despite all, Jenny kissed me?
4. A contemporary urban story, characters and situations, interest? The credibility of characters. situations?
5. The focus on Jenny: a child's world, a child's emotions, her life in the mountains. play, relationship with Carol, with Lindsay? The mystery of Lindsay's and Carol's behaviour? Ambulance, hospital, waking, her mother not there. the fights, the bike? Mal? Her being taken away, the massage parlour, resistance. hatred? The flat and Gaynor? School? Letter to her father? Seeing him in the street, running away? Mal giving the information? Institution and tantrums? The car chase? The beach, the court. reconciliation with her mother? Seeing her father? The siege and the flight? The adult and child in the bush, the animals and the stars, Lindsay teaching her? The death? The effect on Jenny? Jenny kissed me?
6. Lindsay in himself, the father figure. work, loving Jenny, loving Carol? The relationship with her, tensions? Mal? His sick mother? Discovering Carol away?, Her departure, alone and angry? His illness? Searching for Jenny? The car, the street? Taking her? The bush. eluding the pursuers? The lyrical time with his daughter? Teaching her? Death? The symbolic focus at the end on the possum and his return?
7. Carol in herself, with Jenny, in the country, with Lindsay? The strength of the love between them? The storm, Mal and her being away from home? The clash with Lindsay, going to the city. friendship with Gaynor, the massage parlour? Jenny and her tantrums, school? Clients? Anger, the pursuit of Lindsay? A reconciliation with Jenny?
8. Gaynor and the world of massage parlours, wealth, fashionable clients?
9. Mal and his relationship with Carol, liaison? Antagonism towards Lindsay? Letting the police know the truth?
10. The world of the courts, institutions, schools? Pressure on children? The responsibility of parents? The police, the chase, the bush?
11. A story of sentiment? Real, unreal?
