ONE NIGHT STAND

Australia, 1984, 94 minutes, Colour.
Tyler Coppin, Cassandra Delaney, Jay Hackett, Saskia Post.
Directed by John Duigan.

One Night Stand is Australia's cinema contribution to the films on nuclear issues. It came out soon after the release of The Day After, Testament, Silkwood. It employs a non-direct presentation of the issues and human repercussions. In fact, it is a blend of realism and fantasy in the setting of Sydney Opera House and theatre. The theatre imagery pervades the film - and even the irony of the title, the one night stand.

The film was written and directed by John Duigan (The Trespassers, Mouth to Mouth, Winter of Our Dreams, Far East) . Duigan attained some celebrity with Mouth to Mouth, the story of two boys and two girls unemployed, trying to make some meaning of their life in Melbourne of the '70s. He employs something of the same pattern with four youngsters in Sydney at Christmas time and New Year - the irony of the New Year being the end of the world as they know it. The film is written for and the visual and sound appeal is directed to younger audiences. The film offers an image of people not wanting to notice nuclear realities, being more involved with Tattslotto etc. Ultimately, they are caught and have to face the reality of the nuclear drop. The film blends comedy, romance as well as surrealistic images. Audiences and critics were divided on the success of this particular style - but it is certainly different from the directness of The Day After, the human drama of Silkwood and the lingering aftermath of the nuclear drop in Testament.

1. The nuclear films of 1983-84? The impact of the American films - for American audiences, world-wide audiences? Creating a trend? The urgency of the nuclear debate in the early '80s? For Australia? The impact of this film for Australian audiences? Young audiences?

2. The films of John Duigan - his writing and direction, his particular perspectives, skills?

3. The title and its theatrical background? The irony of the final performance? (The casual aspect of the title, the sexual connotations of the use of the phrase)? Performance and moving on? Or taking a stand?

4. The credibility of the screenplay: the atmosphere of Sydney, the four youngsters and their work, personal style? Christmas and New Year? The ordinariness of situations? The four youngsters and their interests, work? The giggly tone of their life, the sex appeal etc.? Their being involved in ordinary things - Tattslotto results? Not noticing the news, television, the world events and their dangers? The reaction to the drop of the bomb? Personal, somewhat nonchalant, surviving, being scared, grieving, the world-wide repercussions? The change with the realisation of what had happened?

5. The film's use of Sydney: the visuals of the city, the harbour, the bridge, the opera house, the beaches? The fact that the bomb could be dropped on Sydney? The aftermath of the drop: the nuclear sky, the storms? The possibility of sheltering in the opera house, in the Underground? The end of the world in the Underground? The use of Sydney for Australian audiences?

6. How emotionally persuasive was the screenplay? Making emotional sense? The basic situation and characters, the manner and manners of the four, their talk, comedy, irony? Pleasant, flip comic, nice? Serious? The growing awareness of the enormity of what had happened? The visuals of nuclear suffering in Europe, America? How real? Understated?

7. The film as propaganda: American presence, the warship, the American bases, the opening protest march? The use of actual footage of a protest march? The chants, the banners? The propaganda of nuclear danger and people's lack of awareness: the use of Christmas, Santa Claus images, New Year? Ignoring it, ignorant? The need for information? Discussion? The visuals, the memories? The end - the need for stances? A one night stand being too late?

8. The humour of the film: for younger audiences, laughs, talk, flip, the range of performances, singing and dancing, strip poker? Obvious and corny humour?

9. The blend of the surreal and the real: the atmosphere of theatre and performance? The opera house as symbol? The visuals of the opera house - seats, stages etc.? The ballroom dancer sequences? The organ player? The pianist? The Shakespearian group with the costumes and characters from King Lear? The white rabbit and the atmosphere of Alice in Wonderland? The costumes and the Had Hatter's Tea Party? The scenery on the stage? Lighting, colour, music? The songs and dances? The importance of the sequences from Metropolis? The mood, the comment? (Metropolis, Fritz Lang, Germany, 1926 - the silent classic about a future world of robots and of destruction)?

10. The nature of the plot: its ordinariness at first, the development, almost cliche characters and sequences leading to the serious? The importance of the insertion of the flashbacks: for information, for memory, for the yearning for the past, regret at what was to be lost?

11. The opening demonstration and its effect? The focus on the U.S. as a nuclear power? Sam on the ship, the protest, the Americans knowing of the dangers of the war months in advance? Stances and reactions? The singing of 'It Hight As Well Rain Until September' and the use of that song for the four entertaining the group in the Underground, the song for the end of the world? The newspaper headlines, television information, radio? The film giving sufficient background of reality for the possibility of nuclear war?

12. Sydney at Christmas, the girls on the lawn, the schoolchildren, the Santa Clauses, the dates, the Midnight Oil concert (and the importance of Midnight Oil, the lyrics of their songs, especially 'Short Memory'), the beach, swimming? The relationships, sexual fumbling, exaggerated stories, boys boasting, the girls reacting? The Christmas tree? Brendan and his van and the comedy of its being towed away? The seeming banality of ordinary life - and the irony of what was to come?

13. The two girls and their friendship, work, sharing the flat, reactions, dates with the boys, summing them up? Their control? Seeing Sam in the theatre? Meeting Brendan again - and his putting on a show and their catching him? Their dressing to please the boys, trying to cope, performances, the strip poker, the sexual relationships -Sharon and going with Brendan, Eve and her reserve? Trying to phone family? The situation getting worse, wanting to get help, the desperate going out into the night with the umbrellas? Moving to the shelter? The pathos of their final singing?

14. Sharon: pleasant, strong, the car, clothes, the games, flip humour, supporting the group, sexual relationship with Brendan? The meaning of the events? Ordinary - trying not to worry? The school memories, the help, the nice girl. Even and her skirt pinned up, the pathos of the break-up with her boyfriend?

15. The comparison with Eve: nice, coping, drinking, the strip poker, seeing the television, weeping, having to tell the others, needing support and giving it, friendship with Sam, the final singing? The memories of the migrant, the religious traditions? The death and the funeral, prayer - and the little boy playing with the plane, 'Be Thou My Vision', reading in class and being mocked, her skirt being pinned up? The background of the Czech migrants, the learning of English, her parents? liking Australia? The meaning of God and prayer?

16. The boys - complementing one another, strengths and fears, preoccupations, the strip poker, the laughter, the differing sexual relationships, Brendan and his thinking of Sam as homosexual after his suggestion there be one sex, their fumblings and uncertainties?

17. Brendan: Santa Claus, following the girls, the bravado and vanity, the van being taken away, his work in the opera house, his put-on performance and their reaction, his support for the group, strip poker, seeing the sky with Sharon, the macho image? The memories of his unhappy home life, ambitions, absent mother, the bullies crushing his guitar? Sam, the American presence, the ship, his running away from home, the photo in the paper, being asleep in the opera house, his means of surviving - the Mars Bars etc.? Knowing about the war? His being a pacifist, the reaction? Attraction towards Eve? Pleasant, the television?

18. His own memories: his girlfriend, the Statue of Liberty, Paris and its beauty, the girl and her skating, his alcoholic mother and he a young boy?

19. The range of people in the opera house representing the variety of the arts? The growing panic? The group of people in the shelter? The Salvation Army people and keeping spirits up, the songs at the end?

20. The group, the bomb falling and the song?

21. The film confronting the audience to reflect on how each would act at the end of the world, the nuclear disaster: the visuals of the destruction in Europe, the physical suffering and death, coping, stoic reaction, 'She'll be right'? The meaning of life? The religious implications?