THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Australia, 2006, 119 minutes, Colour.
Tom Long, Greta Scacchi, Colin Friels, Anna Tov, Deborah Mailman, Nadine Garner, Sybilla Budd, Genevieve Picot.
Directed by Anna Kokkinos.
The Book of Revelation is based on a novel by British author Rupert Thomson. The original setting was Amsterdam but Anna Kokkinos and her co-screenwriter, Andrew Bovell (Lantana), decided to relocate it to Melbourne. This works very well.
The setting in the city (which is photographed with great attention) is the world of dance. Tom Long portrays Daniel, a young man with a future in dance and choreography. He is living with his fellow dancer, played by Anna Tov. Greta Scacchi has a very good role as the director of the dance company. Colin Friels is her former husband, now a police officer and detective in the sexual crime unit.
When Daniel disappears and does not return for almost two weeks, people are concerned. In flashback, the audience knows that he has been abducted by three women who want to use him as a sexual tool and rape him. They are hooded women (in the vein of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut).
The film goes to some limits in its representation of this abduction and the sexual torment. Some consider it exploitation. The film-makers said they tried to push the envelope but stay within its bounds. Many audiences have disagreed, many favourable, a number critical.
When Daniel returns, he is unable to stay with the dance company and works in a pub. He wants to find the women who humiliated and tormented him, moving into a promiscuous search for these women, finally making a mistake that leads to his arrest. However, there is some salvation in the presence of a young Aboriginal woman, Julie, played by Deborah Mailman (AFI winner for Radiance). Colin Friels also offers support and the film ends with him inviting Daniel to start at the beginning in order to move towards some kind of therapy and healing.
Anna Kokkinos had been a lawyer, won the best Australian short film and grand prize at the Melbourne film festival with Only the Brave. Her other feature film apart from some television series was Head On with Alex Dimitriadis as a young man trying to find his sexual identity in Melbourne, especially in the Greek community.
1.The impact of the film? Confronting, challenge? Mixed reactions?
2.The use of the city of Melbourne, the streets, the Arts Centre, homes, the dance world, the open spaces, the waterfront, the clubs? The musical score? The choreography and the music?
3.The dance setting, the opening, the extensive dance sequences, movement, contemporary style, men, women, dance and gymnastics? The rehearsals? The choreography? Daniel within this context? Bridget? The themes, sexuality? The action of the film like a dance? The women later wanting Daniel to dance for them? Isabel as the head of the company? Performance, understudies, the show going on? The later scenes of training, Daniel’s presence, the possibilities for his being a choreographer?
4.The introduction to Daniel, his appearance, physical, his energy? The rehearsals? His relationship with Bridget, tense? His going to get the cigarettes? Walking along the streets? Disappearing? Isabel and her enthusiasm, as a patron?
5.The mystery of his absence and his return? His coming to consciousness in the open space in the suburbs? Going back to Bridget, to Isabel? His not being able to talk about what happened? The psychological journey of his abduction? His wanting to identify the women, punish them? His need to understand himself.
6.Daniel being away, the reactions, Bridget and her concern, continuing her dance, on his return being hurt, the confrontation? The brittle relationship? Isabel, her upset, her concern for Daniel, the dance continuing? The understudy going on? Her decision to get the help of Mark Olsen? The past relationship? His skills in detecting?
7.Daniel’s disappearance, his remembering sounds, the waterfront, his going to the pub, working? Disappearing from the dance company? His reactions with the people in the pub, Mark and his visit, having the beer, talking? Explaining how he was married to a dancer?
8.The impact of the flashbacks, Daniel being taken, the injection, the women with the hoods, his being on the floor, the white room, tied up? The three women, their identifying marks and his noticing them? Wetting himself, the torment, the sexual behaviour, their lust, making him perform, the sexual encounters, tempting him, making him dance, his being naked and bare, shame, the effect? His anger?
9.The reverse expectations from ordinary stories – the male being abducted, the male being victim? The women’s fantasies?
10.Exploitation or not? The boundaries? What can be presented visually?
11.The meeting with Julie on the train, their talking, the bonds, friendship? The significance of her being Aboriginal? Their talking, going out, going to Isabel’s for the dinner and enjoying it? Her going to the club, Daniel’s disappearance, her dismay at what had happened, not wanting to make contact?
12.Mark, reappearing at the meal, his explanation to Daniel, his character, his reflections on his relationship with Isabel, the break-up, the friendship? Not seeing her for years? Reconciling?
13.Isabel, a proud woman, her dance company, being demanding? Her choreography? Her concern about Daniel’s absence? His return? Wanting him to continue, the appointment, his not turning up? Her illness, the dinner, her enjoying it?
14.Daniel and his reaction to his experience, the promiscuous search for the women in Melbourne, going to the clubs, going to the hospital, the doctor, his suspicions?
15.At the club, seeing the woman, the hair, drawing a conclusion, his assaulting her, the arrest? Julie and her distancing herself? His humiliation, in jail, the phone call for help?
16.Mark arriving, telling him that they had reached the end point but he needed to go back to the beginning, inviting him to start?
17.The overall impact of the film, serious-minded, transferral of a novel to the screen, making audiences uncomfortable, the exploitative aspects, insight?
