TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US
Australia, 2002, 104 minutes, Colour.
Guy Pearce, Helena Bonham- Carter, Lindley Joyner, Frank Gallacher.
Directed by Michael Petroni.
"Till human voices wake us" is a quotation from the early stanzas of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot. The overtones of the stanza are of water and drowning and death. The title is evocative of this story of a psychologist who goes back to his country Victorian home to bury his father. His memories and dreams take him back to the time when he was in love with a young girl, Silvy. They shared everything together and, on the night of the town dance, she drowned.
As he comes back to the town, he encounters a strange young woman on a train and then sees her throw herself from a railway bridge into the river. He saves her, takes her home, tries to understand her, break through her amnesia, hypnotises her and then discovers that she is the spirit or the ghost of Silvy. This enables him to come to terms with his past - presented symbolically by his going to swim in the river which drowned her.
Guy Pearce once again shows his versatility in presenting a very restrained young man, repressed as he tries to forget his past and not live emotionally. He is well supported by Helena Bonham-Carter? as the ghost. Young Lindley Joyner is excellent as the young Guy Pearce. The film is written and directed by first-time director Michael Petroni. The story is so vivid and the re-creation of country Victoria so strong, that one suspects a number of autobiographical elements in the film.
1. The title, the quotation from T.S. Eliot and The Love Songs of J. Alfred Prufrock? The context of death and drowning?
2. The beauty of the Victorian countryside, of the past, of the present? The town of Genoa? The surroundings, the bush, the river?
3. The themes of death, of Sam's father, of Silvy? The film as a ghost story, a sense of the supernatural and the transcendent? The interaction between this world and the next? The purgatorial themes and reconciliation?
4. The opening and Sam giving the lecture on memory, willing memory, repressed memory? The world of imagination and dreams? His comment about not dreaming and psychoanalysts not willing to dream? Ruby's response about all dreaming but not remembering? The importance of the musical score and its dreamlike qualities accompanying the flashbacks as well as the present?
5. Sam as an adult, lecturing, the news of his father dying, playing the chess game with him, his father's quiet death, literally looking him in the eye and seeing his own reflection in his father's eye? The discussions about the funeral? The importance of his father's wishes, the property at Genoa, going back in the train?
6. The structure of the film moving between the present and the past via such devices as the train carriage, the photos, the rooms, the landscapes?
7. The gradual revelation about Sam and his life story? Of Silvy and what happened to her? The introduction to Ruby on the train, her presence and sudden disappearance? The irony of the Scrabble game and "Ruby, me" - and Sam's changing it to "bury me"?
8. Sam as a young boy, going home for the holidays in the train, Russ giving him a lift home, his relationship with his father, his father's practice and patients, at home with his father, drawing the beetle, his going out on his bike, the friendship with Silvy, their bike rides together, talking, sharing so much, shared imaginations, the swimming? The audience learning about Silvy and the braces on her legs? His going to work with Silvy's father, learning wisdom from him, the birth of the calf and the father talking about people facing the truth and not covering it? Sam as a strong young boy, pleasant young boy? The irony that he would have turned into the repressed adult Sam?
9. The dance, their leaving, going to the water, the kiss, the discussions about the moon and the river and the reflections? Silvy's drowning? Its effect on Sam, his weeping, going to his father? Going to Silvy's father, his father building the boat, explaining to Sam about growing pains?
10. His father's funeral and its effect on him?
11. Going back to the house, the camera wandering the house with Sam, the rooms and their memories, presences and absences? His looking at the box of memories, the photos, especially of Silvy? His dozing and sleeping? How much was memory, how much was dream?
12. His going out in the rain, driving, seeing Ruby standing on the bridge, her falling, his rescuing her from the water? Her not drowning? Taking her back to the house, keeping vigil with her, her weakness, her talking, eating, playing Scrabble - Ruby and "bury me", her being the first guest in the house? Her amnesia, some of the memories, Sam and his decision to hypnotise her, going back, her reliving the past, revealing who she was, the experience of drowning and Sam trying to save her? Their sexual encounter and the culmination of their love?
13. Sam wanting her to tell him the truth and what he was to do, the quotation from T.S. Eliot and the book of poetry, her dying and the description of her experience? Her dying again but in peace?
14. Sam getting the boat, putting her on the boat, going into the water and swimming, the experience of water as cleansing, refreshing, regeneration and freeing? Her disappearing from the boat? His getting into the boat, lying in peace, floating towards his new future?
15. The effectiveness of the themes of life and death, emotions and love, regeneration and renewal, symbols of water, the discussions about spirit and the soul and freedom?
