OBSERVANCE

Australia, 2015, 90 minutes, Colour.
Lindsey Farris, Stephanie King, Brendan Cowell, Christian Willis, Benedict Hardie.
Directed by Joseph Sims- Dennett.

Observance is a small-budget Australian film featuring Lindsey Farris as something of an anonymous man, Parker, who has been given the job of surveillance of a woman in a building on the other side of the street. The structure of the film is seven days, each day nominated, with the man not having any details about why he was observing the woman but reporting by phone daily to the employer (voiced by Brendan Cowell).

The film opens with enigmatic sequences of sea and cliffs, later going back to fishing on the cliffs and a death – memories and/or dreams.

The young woman, Stephanie King, stays in her flat the whole week although visited by a mysterious man – with touches of violent confrontation.

In the meantime, in the dingy situation, Parker undergoes something of a transformation, physically and mentally, strange dreams and behaviour, the environment taking on sinister tones – until, ultimately, there is a violent confrontation between the man and the woman. Which, perhaps, was the intention of hiring Parker for surveillance.

While the production is Australian, there is a glimpse of American dollars, and all the performers speak with an American twang – a kind of mid-Pacific catering to international audiences that was a feature of a number of Australian films made during the 1970s and 1980s.

1. A small budget drama, surveillance, suspense, mysterious and enigmatic, touches of horror?

2. An Australian production, for an international audience, the accents and American twang, vague locations?

3. The city, the railway and underground, the streets, the lane, the building exteriors, the apartment and the woman’s life, the building for surveillance, dingy? Musical score?

4. The use of the images of the cliff, the sea, fishing, the brother-in-law fishing, dead? Sepia, drained of colour, the insertion into the action? The meaning?

5. The structure of the film, the seven days, each day on screen?

6. The girl, emerging from the station, going home? Her staying in the house for the week? As seen through the telescope? As seen at the window, on the balcony? Her ordinary behaviour? The arrival of the man, their interactions? Touches of violence? Her coming outside, coming into the building, curious?

7. Parker, very little background given, the visit of his brother-in-law, giving him information, his bringing supplies? Parker and his job, it being extended, the payments? The dingy setting, his blocking the windows, the whole for the telescope, the jar with the black contents, the audience seeing the rat? His being wounded, cutting his finger, the word on his back, the showers, his attempt at treatment? The effect of the days, the phone calls and his reporting? His going out, the rubbish bin? The coverings off the windows? The surveillance technology?

8. The cumulative effect of his watching, the effect on himself, his psyche? The significance of his dreams and his imagination?

9. The effect on his mental state, the black, his vomiting? Moving from reality to imagination and back? His going into the house, setting up the bugging, not being able to hear clearly what was being said?

10. The man, on the balcony, on the phone, his threats to Parker? His behaviour with the girl?

11. The build up to the climax, the girl’s rejection of her fiance? Coming to the building, the confrontation with Parker, his bashing her to death?

12. Background to the surveillance, the boss and the phone calls – the story of the businessman and discarding his mistress? His son? The employer setting up Parker – and the killing?