WRONG WORLD

Australia, 1986, 97 minutes, Colour.
Richard Moir, Jo Kennedy, Nicolas Lathouris, Esben Storm.
Directed by Ian Pringle.

Wrong World was written and directed by Ian Pringle. He made Wronsky and Plains of Heaven, films about individuals, isolated, in contact with nature but struggling with the meaning of their lives. These themes are taken up, on a more world-wide level, in Wrong World.

Some sequences of this film are set in New York, in the Mid-west, but especially in La Paz, Bolivia. They add a dimension to an Australian focused film. Richard Moir, star of Plains of Heaven (Heatwave, 27A, An indecent Obsession), is the disillusioned doctor who intended to save the world by working in Latin America. Jo Kennedy (Starstruck) won Best Actress award at the 1985 Berlin Film Festival for her accurate and sensitive performance as a drug addict. There is a good local supporting cast and Melbourne (Spencer Street) locations. The film also has a journey through the Victorian countryside to the (symbolic/ nihilistic?) border town of Nhill.

Credits are excellent. The film is philosophical, wordy and reflective. It is also open-ended.

1. A quality drama? The meaning of life? Illusions and disillusionment? Relationships and dependence? Australian focus? Universal focus?

2. The title and the focus on the world? The explanation of a right world and, things going wrong and askew, a wrong world? American locations, New York and the Mid-west? The atmosphere of the Bolivian sequences? Contrasts with Melbourne and the Australian countryside? Differences and similarities? The contribution of location photography?

3. The structure of the film: David Truman and his voice-over, his diary? Creating a perspective? Disillusionment? The will to try again or not? The range of memories and the interconnections? A road film and its conventions? Enigmatic
ending?

4. The musical score, moods, comment? Mary's song, her singing it, the lyrics - and its being used at the ending?

5. The title and its meaning? Right and wrong worlds? Where people live? Inhabiting worlds? The laws and structures of worlds? Making a world right? making it wrong? Australia, the United States, Bolivia - right or wrong worlds? David's world, Mary's world? The importance of the Twenty Questions game? The discovery theme? Creating a possible right world - dying and rising?

6. The experience of David Truman? The significance of his names? Youthfulness, ambitions and hopes, wanting to do good, a doctor, changing the world, going to Bolivia and his work there, frustration, corruption, the fatalistic views of the Indians, the work in the hospital, deaths, withdrawing, morphine, drinking, sleep? To the United States? The exhilaration and depression of New York, Times Square? The driving through the United States - all day, a long journey? Running out of petrol? Differing lifestyles? Affluence, lack of money? Being on the move? The decision to return - Melbourne as a place for the end of the world? Memories, his being haunted? Questions for an answer?

7. The portrait of David on his return? Robert and his friendship and financial help (reasons and motives)? The contrast between the two men? Success and failure? David's experience at Killara? The diary, the memories, the encounter with the old man and his batteries and feeling that he could not get out of the institution? The discussion with the doctor about the prescriptions? Fascination with Mary? Chasing her, defending her? The taxi-ride and the impulsive decision to leave? Being caught up in Mary's world, the station, the room. her friend. being wet. sleeping, being robbed? The second encounter with Robert, driving. the discussion, his office. the loan? Returning and discovering Mary? Lawrence and the drugs? The thugs? The decision to leave Melbourne? Hiring the car. decisions? Talking with Mary, attracted to her? Sharing, differing perspective, age, outlook. experience? David becoming more alive, eating, driving, the sexual encounter? Her song? Delivering her to Nhill? Was he coming to terms with his experience, his profession as a doctor, his future? The journey as a form of Twenty Questions to gain an answer which may not have been there but which would be valid?

8. Mary and her background. growing up in Nhill, being in Killara, her sister and comparisons, drugs. Lawrence, ripping off the dealers, her carefree attitude. not being confined, the motel and her being drugged, the car, the decision to go to her sister. talking with David. her refreshing outlook, straightforwardness, alertness, the experience of the trip. the sexual encounter with David? Her memories? The humour of the discussion with the little girl at the petrol station? The broken windscreen and its effect? The dawn by the lake? Her song? Arriving at her sisters - what did she find? Her future? A new stage of her life?

9. The sketch of Mary's friend. rat-like. his style, seedy. encounter with David. a spiv? His observations on life?

10. The contrast with Lawrence. the drug dealing, his selfishness. with Mary, the decision to return to Melbourne?

11. Robert and what David might have been? His motivations. success?

12. The sketch of the little girl and her discussion with Mary, the effect of this comic touch in the film?

13. The indication of Mary's sister and her lifestyle in Nhill? The average Australian way of life?

14. The themes of search. the road. freedom, individuals and society? Institutions and their oppressiveness, the possibility of help? Self-help? A right world?