WARM NIGHTS ON A SLOW MOVING TRAIN

Australia, 1988, 94 minutes, Colour.
Wendy Hughes, Colin Friels, John Clayton, Chris Haywood, Rod Zuanic, Norman Kaye, Lewis Fitz Gerald, Steve J. Spears.
Directed by Bob Ellis.

Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train focuses on Wendy Hughes as a school teacher who is a prostitute at each weekend on the Sydney - Melbourne Express. It is interesting as a train story with the ironic touches of the prostitute choosing her men and seducing them.

Wendy Hughes is excellent in the central role, acting various personalities according to the men she picks up. She is more like herself when she performs as the schoolteacher in the classes of a Catholic school and with her injured brother. Her clients are very well-acted by John Clayton, Rod Zuanic, Norman Kaye, Steve J. Speirs, Grant Tilley. Lewis Fitzgerald is her brother.

Colin Friels is a mysterious man and his encounter with the woman leads to a political assassination. There are some guest spots including Chris Haywood at Spencer Street station.

The film was written by Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence, writers of many films including Emoh Ruo, Goodbye Paradise, Unfinished Business. The film works quite effectively (and is reminiscent of Ken Russell's Crimes of Passion, the Kathleen Turner character who is a professional woman by day, prostitute by night, and the Diane Keaton character in Looking For Mr Goodbar).

1. An interesting portrait of characters? Thriller?

2. The train and its atmosphere? The Sydney to Melbourne express, the contemporary atmosphere, editing and pace, the musical score and moods?

3. The title and the indication of themes?

4. The train, travel, the people on the train and their various background, the steward and his relationship with the girl, the passengers and the seduction?

5. Jenny and her appearance, her various appearances? Adapting for the men? With the coach, the prostitute style, her intuition, her interaction with the men, style of seduction, letting them know about the money, her performance, her strictness with the rules? Impersonal and not wanting to be involved? Not after 3 a.m.?

6. The clients and her appearance? Manner?

7. With the young soldier, a nurse with the salesman, with the singer, with the clergyman? Her desire to be various personalities and the opportunity to act them out?

8. Jenny and Brian, her love for her brother, their interactions, his morphine addiction, his story and the possibilities of Olympic success? Taking him for walks in the Melbourne surroundings? Her support, their attitude towards their mother? His finally being cared for? Brian as a character in the film - highlighting Jenny's character?

9. The various men - and their sexual relationship with the woman? Jenny's assessment of the characters of her clients? The coach and his divorce, his talk about the Catholic church and his sister the nun, his preoccupation about sin and Hell, his separation from his wife, his infatuation with Jenny? The soldier and his youth, from the country town, marrying Vanessa, loneliness, leaving home, infatuated with Jenny, wanting to marry her, accosting her on the station? The salesman as a widower, his having discovered God, yet allowing himself to be seduced? The singer and his background, easy come, easy go? The glimpse of Jenny with the clergyman? The steward and his help, his manner, money, his own loneliness, homosexuality and relationships, philosophy of God (God creating the world and setting it off and then dying or going away)? His discussions with Jenny and their philosophy of sexual relationship and companionship?

10. Jenny and her talk at the church with the coach, her sitting in the church and listening to the chair sing the religious hymns, her being at peace in the church, her relationship with the nuns? Classes and her skill as an art teacher? Her religious heritage? Her response to the philosophy of God of the steward? Themes of sex, religion, sin, guilt?

11. The mysterious man watching her, her attraction, his accosting her, the seduction, the passionate encounters, yet her strictness with the rules? Her explaining things to him? The growing involvement? A future? The phone calls? His proposing the murder? His hold over her and his confidence of it? Her acceptance? Her fear? Blackmail?

12. The credibility of the set-up, the motive, her asking the background of the politician? The explanation of his influence? The man and his having studied with him at Oxford? Her decision to do the murder, her reaction against it, seeing it as a dream? The seduction of the politician at the party on the train, putting on the nail, the sexual encounter, killing him, getting rid of the nail in the toilet? The photographs and the exposure? Her response to the interviews? The achievement? The man going to Washington and leaving her?

13. An exploration of sexuality in an Australian context? Men and women? Needs, use? The Australian prostitute? The men and their relationship to her?

14. The final close-up of the woman in the train window? The film as a portrait of a woman, complexity, the dark side, murder?

15. An effective human drama? Political thriller?