GOLDEN BRAID

Australia, 1991, 91 minutes, Colour.
Chris Haywood, Gosia Dobrowolska, Paul Chubb, Norman Kaye, Monica Maughan, Sheila Florance, Paul Cox.
Directed by Paul Cox.

Golden Braid was co-written by director Paul Cox with playwright Barry Dickens (who also appears as the barber). It is an adaptation of a Guy Du Maupassant short story, La Chevalier.

The film relates to themes in Cox's other films, most especially Man of Flowers. It can be seen as a
companion piece to this film, a reclusive aesthete and his confrontation with his emotions, sexuality, sense of mortality.

Chris Hayward is very good as Bernard (and has appeared in most of Cox's films). Gosia Dobrowolska (Silver City) is the Salvation Army worker who is having an affair with Hayward. Comic and character actor Paul Chubb is her well-meaning but naive Salvation Army husband. Other Cox regulars appear including Norman Kaye, Monica Maugham, Robert Menzies and Sheila Florence, who is to appear the next year in her award-winning role in Cox's A Woman's Tale. Cox himself appears briefly as a priest in the confessional scene.

The film is about isolation, obsession, the erotic, relationships, mortality and immortality.

1. The impact of the film, study of obsession, the wry humour of the screen play and characterisations? The artistic and art style?

2. The adaptation of a French short story, the credibility in the Australian setting, the credibility of the obsession of Bernard with the Golden Braid?

3. The Melbourne settings, the city and suburbs, homes, shops, Salvation Army? The Doctor's rooms? Realism and credibility? Fantasy and artistic interpretation? The finale and the park?

4. Cox's visual style, tabloids, the art traditions, works of art, music, the sounds of the clocks? The aesthetic sensibility? The long tracking style? Editing? The line between art and kitsch - in its treatment of Bernard's obsession?

5. Bernard, his obsessions, sexuality, philandering, the tempted suicide, affair, narcissism? His perversity? Isolation, the infatuation with the Braid, his behaviour? Wood in sympathy with him - and a critique of Bernard's experience?

6. The title, symbol, fetish, the fiction about the Braid, Bernard's fantasies, erotic relationship, understanding of the Braid's survival after the death of the human to whom it belonged? The unreality of the Golden Braid?

7. Chris Hayward as Bernard, the glimpses of his life, the clocks, his skills, the delight in the clocks, in art? His obsessive nature, the psychiatrist and the sessions? The affair with Therese, the relationship, sexual encounter, passion, deceit? Treating her as real or not? His self-centredness? The furniture, the drawer, the finding of the Braid? The donor, the donor and Joseph? The strained relationship because of the Braid? The housekeeper and her normality, cleaning, the Braid - and throwing it away? The lady with the clock, the clock and the deer? Bernard and his ability to fix the clock? The Cabinet, buying, listening to the proprietress of the shop, her obsessive story, writing to herself? Fixing the cabinet? Elaborating the history of the Braid, the obsession and passion, the story, the tenderness, the carrying of the Braid, the opera, masturbation, protecting it? With Joseph and the crisis? The Doctor, the losing of the Braid? The ending with Therese, the park, children and reality? The emotional and psychological journey, aesthetic and sexual journey, growth and relationships?

8. The normality of the characters - or not? The measure of what was normal?

9. Therese, the Salvation Army background, the relationship with her husband, his being unaware? The affair with Bernard? The changing relationship, the erotic experiences, the sexual encounters? Her satisfaction with the affair? The break, the puzzle about the Braid? Sequences with Joseph and his misunderstandings? The dinner and the behaviour? The ending and the truth? The final relationship with Bernard?

10. Joseph and his religious background, the good and naive man, the do-gooder, working, relationship with his wife, home, the iron and shyness, the dinner and his drinking, ignorant and boorish manner, hurt by Therese?

11. The portrait of the psychiatrist, his listening to Bernard, the device, observations about relationships and the experience of the Braid?

12. The manager of the shop, the furniture, the clocks? Her obsession and writing letters?

13. Bernard and his visit to Ernst, the relationship with Ernst, brothers? Money and support? Paradise and her relationship with Ernst? The contrast and lifestyle with that of Bernard's?

14. The lady with the clock, her gratitude to Bernard for fixing it?

15. The range of supporting characters - the bank manager, the clockmaker, the barber, the shop assistant, the clerks?

16. Bernard's dreams - Paul Cox's home movie style, visual style, content - in relationship to Cox's own European background, the European story, Bernard and his experiences?

17. The overall impact - a European sensibility in an Australian setting?