RADIANCE
Australia, 1998, 85 minutes, Colour.
Deborah Mailman, Rachael Maza, Trisha Morton- Thomas.
Directed by Rachel Perkins.
Radiance is based on a play by Louis Nowra and was filmed on the Queensland coast. The plot device is familiar. A mother dies and her three daughters come back home for the funeral - they talk, they clash, truths are told, they are able to make a transition from unhappy past to a future with hope. What is different is that the family is aboriginal and the hurts of the past and the truths told reveal not only to the woman but also to the audience a great deal of the hidden suffering and hardships, the lingering hurts of aboriginal women.
It is the zest for life and the ironies of the situation that carry the film along with the fine performances of the three women, especially Deborah Mailman as the young and exuberant Nona.
This film touched a nerve at Sydney and Melbourne festivals, winning the most popular film awards. Produced impressively on a small budget, it has much to say (and to feel) about Australian society. Topical and moving.
1.Australian interest? Aborigines? Queensland? The heritage of the past? The present?
2.Queensland settings, the fields, the crops, the sugar cane, the fires, the sea and the island, the pier, the house, the beachfront? The musical score? The excerpts from Madame Butterfly?
3.The title: the initial flame and matches, the sun and its glow, light, colour, the ashes swirling in radiance? The radiance box, its sweet smell? The combination of the symbolic and the mundane?
4.Louis Nowra, his plays, the adaptation for the screen, the three-hander, stagebound, the locations, opening up the characters and the plot, the car, the fields, the beach? The emphasis on dialogue? The blend of the realistic and stylised?
5.The prologue and the matches, Nona, her testing herself for the pregnancy, her reaction, her return home?
6.Nona, the phone call, her mother’s death, talking with May, the return? May’s reaction? Putting Nona down? Wondering whether Chrissie would come or not? Her arrival?
7.The dead mother as a pivotal presence: the impact of her death, the photo in the house, her glamour, her reputation, following the rodeo trail? The Black Prince and the men in her life? Her dying in the chair? The priest’s version at her funeral? Human and flawed? Her reputation as a witch, the boys throwing stones on the roof? No-one at the church? May, her memories of her being given away, staying home, caring for her mother, going out and screaming, the mother’s antagonism, not expressing any love? Her keeping Nona, her giving Chrissie to the nuns? Nona and the special visit to the convent to see Chrissie, without her awareness? Chrissie, leaving home, no contact, the return, the effect, in the church? The singing of ‘Amazing Grace’?
8.The priest: realistic and caricatured, his sermon, his talking about the mother’s being flawed, his sexual stare at Nona? His delivering the ashes? The Catholic background, the mother staying a Catholic, Chrissie going to the nuns, the picture of the Sacred Heart?
9.Nona, the focus of the film, her age, moods, thinking of herself as a slut, Chrissie calling her this, like her mother, going away, pregnancy, the conflict with the father, her black eye, Chrissie and the makeup? The return, staying, her devotion to her mother? The dresses for the funeral, appropriate or not, Chrissie giving her the scarf? Weeping at the church? Her up and down moods? Getting the box, wanting to scatter the ashes, the radiance? Chrissie going to the airport, Nona causing the delay, Chrissie’s return? Going under the house, getting the radiance box, tugging and the spilling of the ashes, the three sisters laughing? Her interaction with the sisters, listening to the stories, not believing the stories about her mother? Her response to May, response to Chrissie? The rain, in the car, going on the beach? Her imitating Madame Butterfly? Chrissie’s hard words, the slap? The issue of the burning of the house, her wanting to go to the island, her reaction? The telling of the truth, the discovery about Chrissie? Her idealising her mother, the Black Prince? On the pier, diving, going to the island, scattering the ashes? Her return – and talking to Chrissie, not calling her Mum?
10.Chrissie, the opera background, the CD, her style, dress, return, coming for the sisters rather than her mother? The effect, the talk? Tensions? Nona and the dress, giving her the scarf, at the church, not joining in the hymn? Going back, wanting to go to the airport, the delay, their taking her back to the house? The issue of the ashes? Nona’s performance and Madame Butterfly? May and her bitterness? Chrissie and her tension about Nona going under the house, slapping her? The story of the rape, the truth, on the beach? The fire, the intensity, May bringing her out? Her future relationship with Nona?
11.May, older, a hard life, given away, her return, bitterness, driving, busy in the house, at the church, the ashes, in the wedding dress, the lay‑by? Harry and the truth? His wanting back the house? Urging Chrissie to tell the truth? Her eagerness in wanting to burn down the house? The effect? Her mellowing? Her needs?
12.The action taking place over one day, the focus on the sisters and their mother, portraits of the three women, the interactions, the importance of the Aboriginal heritage, hardships? Their future?
