BREATH
Australia, 2017, 115 minutes, Colour.
Samson Coulter, Simon Baker, Elizabeth Debicki, Ben Spence, Richard Roxburgh, Rachael Blake, Jacek Koman, Megan Smart.
Directed by Simon Baker.
The immediate interest in Breath is that it is based on a novel by celebrated author, Tim Winton. It is also a celebration of Western Australia, Tim Winton’s home state.
This is a beautifully crafted film, especially with its theme of surfing and the spectacle of the waves in the Indian Ocean on the south of Western Australia’s coastline. The surfing is a reality of the lives of the central characters but it also serves as a metaphor, challenge, achievement, excitement and exhilaration, a contribution to personal development and, in the case of adolescents, their journey towards manhood.
The director is Simon Baker (himself a competitor in surfing in his younger days). Having directed some television episodes in the US, he makes an auspicious film debut as a director at home. He also contributed to the screenplay along with veteran writer, Gerard Lee (sometimes a collaborator with Jane Campion) and Tim Winton himself – who also supplies the voice-over narration for the film.
This is the 1970s. On the one hand, life in Western Australia seems fairly conventional, a traditional home, pleasing mother and father with their son – which does contrast with a dysfunctional home, an alcoholic father who is abusive to his teenage son. The boys go to school, rather formal in its way, everyone in school uniforms, and looking forward to a rather proper social, and teenage dancing. The son has a quiet relationship with his father, a sympathetically gentle performance from Richard Roxburgh – and some sadness that, ultimately, he does not or cannot confide in his father or his mother, Rachael Blake, quietly in the background.
Yet, with a focus on the central character, a 13-year-old boy, Bruce Pike, nicknamed Pikelet, this is a story of growing up, friendship, sexual education, disappointments, physical and psychological challenges, self-knowledge, possibilities for failing and success. His friend is Loonie (Ben Spence). This is Samson Coulter's first film. He is completely convincing as is Ben Spence as Loonie.
Simon Baker is Sando, a surfer, a man of seemingly independent means whose life and exhilaration is riding the waves. Sando is a sympathetic character, meeting the two boys who have taken to the surf and enjoying it, offering them his shed where they can leave their boards as they go home. He becomes a mentor to them, bonding, affirming, challenging. At home, in house which Loonie describes as hippy, there is Sando’s wife, an American, Eva, played by Elizabeth Debicki. A skier, she has been hurt in an accident and has moved as far away from snow in Utah as possible. Initially she seems an enigmatic character, somewhat distant, even to her husband.
At the core of the story is the relationship between Eva and Pikelet. He is intrigued by this woman, beginning with an adolescent crush, moving to infatuation. There is a seduction sequence, an affair, enthusiasm moving beyond puppy love – and the inevitability of the relationship coming to an end.
Watching these sequences, while knowing that they take place in the 1970s, audiences can bring a contemporary sensibility, an adult exploiting an underage adolescent, seeing this kind of behaviour now as criminal. In some ways, the screenplay seems to indicate that this is possibly normal behaviour. It raises the question of seduction, who seduces whom, who exploits whom, and the question of the younger participant’s willingness to be exploited. In fact, further questions could be asked from 21st-century hindsight about Sando when he takes Loonie on a long trip to surf in Indonesia, unaccompanied.
And the title? The film opens with holding one’s breath underwater, understanding that breath is life, the sound of gentle snoring by Pikelet’ father as he sleeps, the control of breath in surfing, being toppled by waves and emerging to the surface, and a sequence of sexual hyperventilation with plastic bag and belt, the risk of suffocation and loss of breath.
Complex, a significant contribution to Australian cinema.
(Interesting that Tim Winton should include in the novel:
"Had my parents known what Sando was getting me into, I doubt they would have been so trusting. Back then, the idea of a grown man spending so much time with teenaged boys wouldn't have troubled them or anybody else, for all that sort of fear and panic was far into the future."
And again:
" Perhaps it was irresponsible of Sando to lead us into such a situation". "I have no doubt that in a later era he'd have been seen as reckless and foolhardy, yet when you consider the period and the sorts of activities that schools and governments sanctioned, Sando's excursions seemed like small beer".)
1. The Tim Winton story, his literature, reputation, versions of his work in film? His collaborating on the screenplay? His speaking the narration?
2. A story of the 1970s, teenagers of the time, adults and the background of hippies and freedom of expression? Families, school, the issue of true manhood, growing up, sexual education? In the background of surfing and achievement, exhilaration? The musical score?
3. The settings, the south-west of Western Australia, the coast, the town, homes, the streets, the river, the coast, the cliffs and beaches, the magnificence of the waves? The visual beauty of the film, spectacle?
4. The narrator, Pikelet, his memories and observation of the past, the end and filling in the later stories?
5. The title, the many aspects of breath and breathing, the opening with breathing underwater, breath has life, the breath and Pike’s father snoring, holding one’s breath in the surf, sexual behaviour and hyperventilation?
6. Pikelet, his age, serious adolescent, introverted, seen swimming with Loonie, his friendship with Loonie, the contrast in character and temperament? Loonie as rough, daring? The meals and Loonie at his home? Admiring his mother and the cooking? The kindness of Pikelet’s father, the mother not to the fore? His not confiding in his parents? Bike riding, Loonie and the danger with the truck and almost crash? Going to the water with friends, the back of the truck, looking at the sea, the surfers? At school, his relationship with Queenie, her sitting next to him in the bus? His prospects?
7. Loonie, his age, brash, extroverted, daring and taking risks, enjoying the excitement? His alcoholic father, the visit to his caravan, his father wanting them to chop wood, the deal about the payment? His later injury, caused by his father and his drinking? At the surf, the encounter with Sando, the money for the surfboards, Sando offering to let them keep them at his house? The surfing together, the exhilaration, the influence of Sando? Taunting Pikelet? His sudden disappearance, going to Indonesia with Sando, the later information about drugs, his bringing some back for Pikelet, his disappointment in Pikelet backing out of surfing? The information, the aftermath, his being shot in the back of his head, the drug deal gone wrong?
8. Pikelet’s father, sympathetic man, the opening with the two sitting on the river fishing – and the return to that scene at the end? The jobs around the house, gardening, domestic? His tenderness towards his son, putting his arm into the bed, touching him with affection? Their being present together, his son looking at him? Giving him the lift to the social? The presence of his mother, sympathetic, but in the background, in the kitchen, meals…?
9. Sando, his reputation as a surfer, his house and Loonie calling it a house for hippies? The encounter with the boys, offering to leave their boards in his shed? His skill as a surfer, training the boys, as a mentor? His becoming their friend, understanding them, the bonds?
10. The encounter with Eva, Sando leaving her sometime for Indonesia? American, skier, the accident and the consequences, and not being able to live near snow? Going to America for the operation, the return, not wanting the boys around? Her reaction to Sando’s disappearance, disappointment, resentment? Pikelet and his attention, helping, the attraction, the sexual encounter, her removing his shirt after the rain, the issues of seduction, exploitation, who is exploiting whom, the question of whether Pikelet was letting himself be exploited? The collage of the relationship, his continual bike rides to Either, the sexual encounters? Her request for the hyperventilation, the plastic bag and the belt, Pikelet and his not liking the experience? Weeping? Seeing her and presuming she was pregnant, wanting to know if the baby was his?
11. The effect on Pikelet, taking the board, going to the wave, the achievement in private? Not having a photo – and Loonie wanting to have a photo but Sando declaring that they knew because of their being there? Sando’s return, the secrecy, Sando appreciating what had happened with the surf, finding the surfboard, his giving it to Pikelet because of his achievement?
12. The background of the social, the alienation from Queenie, her upset, wanting to go to the social with Pikelet, his agreement, the dancing, her wanting to kiss, backing away?
13. The break with Eva, Sando’s return, his happiness at her being pregnant?
14. Pikelet and his sexual education as a teenager, issues of manhood, his future?
15. Sando and Loonie, the return, the challenge, Pikelet saying that surfing was not for him? His reasons? Sando and his persuasion, Loonie and his reaction, Sando believing and respecting Pikelet?
16. The epilogue about what happened to Loonie?
