NOISE
Australia, 2007, 108 minutes, Colour.
Brendan Cowell, Maia Thomas, Nicholas Bell.
Directed by Matthew Saville.
Noise was well received by critics on its release. Popular audiences were divided.
The writer-director was highly successful seven years later in writing and directing the police drama, Felony.
The noise of the title includes the general noise in the cities but focuses especially on the issue of tinnitus as affecting a policeman, his collapse on an escalator, going to the hospital for diagnosis, his living with the ringing in his ears, his girlfriend suspicious after reading his documents and thinking he might have cancer.
The focus of the film is on a killing spree in Melbourne train, with one survivor, a young woman who was wearing a headset at the time and then discovers the bodies. She is initially treated harshly by the police. Gradually she remembers more and more about the experience, even the behaviour of the killer. She is afraid that she might be identified and he would come for her again. He had stolen her painting and returned it with the caption, Dead Meat, to the police trailer while the officer was absent on a case.
The officer is Mc Gahan, played by actor and playwright, Brendan Cowell. He thinks that he has been penalised because of the tinnitus but is assigned to a trailer parked in a street in Sunshine where he encounters a number of local people, the former boyfriend of a woman who has been murdered, a bigot spouting his racist ideas, who eventually pulls a gun on him. There is also a mentally-impaired young man in the neighbourhood, Lucky Paul.
While there is an emphasis on police investigation, the film is more of a psychological drama, of the young woman gradually becoming aware of what happened to her, of the policeman during his stint in the trailer.
At the end, there is one of those interesting discussions about what happens at the moment of death, whether good people reaffirm their choice in the 10 seconds between the stopping the function of the heart and then of the brain, or whether those who are ‘fuckwits’ continue in that choice of life.
In 2014-2015, there were quite a number of crime dramas – including Felony, which makes Matthew Saville something of a pioneer.
1. The acclaim for the film? Divided public opinion? Awards?
2. The title, silence and noise, the effect of noise? Tinnitus?
3. The Melbourne settings, the railway, the station, the underpass, the train carriages, the crime scenes? The police officers? The trailer? Interiors? Situations, Sunshine, the streets?
4. The train, Lavinia, her headset, sitting in the carriage, the man falling, her realisation, seeing the various corpses, on the floor, the train stopping, the police forcing her to the ground, on the stretcher, wanting her purse, the discovery that she was diabetic? Her picture gone? In hospital, Detective Burchall interviewing her, the sympathetic policewoman looking after her? Her lack of memories? Their increasing over time, seeing the killer, the fear, his having the gun to her head, escaping from the train? Her fears, that he could identify her? Her father in the television interview? The picture, having Dead Meat painted on it? The removal of the paint, returning the picture to her? Her visit to the trailer, talking with Mc Gahan, wanting straight talk, his opinion on whether she should be afraid not? His reassurance? Her leaving in the police car, hearing the shots and looking back?
5. The character of Mc Gahan, at the station, his collapse on the escalator, in hospital, the diagnosis of tinnitus, his experience of the ringing in his ears? The tests? His girlfriend, preparing to sing at the Carols, her police work? His going to headquarters, the officer criticising him, asserting that thickly he was being got at, the argument about the document and hospital? Being assigned to the trailer? The woman officer and his relieving her? John Smith and his turning up, the wisecracks and their not being understood? Sitting in the trailer, reading? The disturbance outside, the drunk, the gun, his ordering him away, the owner of the shop, hosing down the vehicles, talking?
6. The dead woman, the site of the crime, the journalists and newspapers, television commentaries, wanting to connect the murders? The murdered woman’s boyfriend, coming in to chat? His own burdening himself? Comfortable with Mc Gahan?
7. The young man coming in, his bigotry, swearing, Mc Gahan confronting him, ousting him?
8. The character of Lucky Paul, slow witted, coming to the trailer, the biscuits, wanting two, taking Mc Gahan’s cap, Mc Gahan going to get it back, the confrontation with lucky Paul, the photos? The driver identifying Paul, involved in the attack on him with friends? Mc Gahan and the former boyfriend fighting, the arrests? Mc Gahan missing the return of the picture? At home, the tinnitus, the information about his case, his girlfriend wondering whether he had cancer? Her anger with him? His life quietly at home? In the trailer, Christmas, watching the carols? The finale, the biggest arriving, hostile, shooting, Mc Gahan and his pursuit, the shooting and the car crash, Mc Gahan himself being shot, shooting the killer?
9. The importance of the discussion about heaven and hell, moments of death, reaffirming once basic choice, living a good life, or being a fuckwit? The importance of this when he himself was shot?
10. The details of the police investigation, Burchall and his presence, interrogations, of Lavinia, of Mc Gahan, the issue of the painting and his visiting the trailer? Those at work at the trailer? Both men and women in the force?
