PEACHES
Australia, 2004, 109 minutes, Colour.
Hugo Weaving, Jacqueline Mc Kenzie, Emma Leung, Matthew Le Nevez, Sam Healy, Tyson Contor.
Directed by Craig Monahan.
Peaches was written and directed by Craig Monahan who directed the award-winning drama The Interview (also starring Hugo Weaving). This film won the AFI awards for acting and directing in 1998.
The screenplay for Peaches was written by Sue Smith who wrote a number of television series including Brides of Christ, The Leaving of Liverpool, My Brother Jack.
The setting is the fruit-growing areas of the Murray. The film focuses on a group working in a peach factory, with flashbacks to the past. The central focus is on a young woman played by Emma Leung, who was miraculously born after her parents were killed in a car crash. She has been adopted by her mother’s best friend, Jude, played by Jacqueline Mc Kenzie. There is a history between Jude and Alan Taylor, the boss of the peach factory (Hugo Weaving).
The film has comic touches about the life of ordinary people in a factory town. It also is a drama about relationships and search for identity and meaning in life. It also has overtones of social concern in terms of unionism, conditions for working in the factory, retrenchments, foreign ownership buying factories and closing them down.
The film is a reflection of life, risks, failures, hopes for success – a story of contemporary of Australian battlers.
1.The film as a piece of Australiana, comic, serious, social concern?
2.The title, the peaches themselves, growing them, canning them? The jokes about the Big Peach? Illustrating themes? The visuals of the peaches?
3.The opening, the miracle birth, the car crash? Stephanie and her being the miracle baby? The finale, the flashback to the crash, Stephanie and her survival in going past the Black Spot? Succeeding where her mother did not survive? The film and its story of the present, the insertion of the flashbacks? Personal stories, social issues?
4.The narration by Stephanie, description, her reactions?
5.Stephanie, the focus, her age, experience and lack of experience, the miracle baby, growing up in the town, her dependence on Jude, her dyslexia, wanting to work, the interviews and signing on, on the factory line, her blurred vision, Jude’s concern, her watching Alan Taylor? Her relationship with Jude, scenes at home, the bonds between the two, mother-daughter relationship? The encounters with Brian, reaction to him, interest, seeing him having sex with his parole officer, her hold over him, making him read her mother’s diary? The difficulties with her own reading? The effect of listening to her mother’s story, imagining it? The curiosity about Alan? About Alan and Jude?
6.Her life at the factory, her work, with the women, leaving the women and their chatter, discussions with Brian? The party and the drugs? Alan and her flirting? Seeing him bashed? The affair? Talking to him about the past and her mother?
7.Alan, in the past, his stammer, glasses, the relationship with Jude, friendship with Jass and Johnny? Their life together, the factory, the peaches, the union, his election? His love for Jude, her concern with Stephanie, his marrying Sue, the family, the separation? The union, his supervision? The discussions with his brother? The discussions with Steph, the affair? The decisions about the factory, the retrenchment, the pink slips, his being bashed? His going to the dance, with Jude, her following him into the toilet, the confrontation? Talk, resolution?
8.Jude, her friendship with Jass, with Alan and Johnny? In the past, young, the feather dance with Jass in the factory, joking and laughing, the group, the swims, the strip game? Stealing the Big Peach? Their plans, the election, Alan and his decision to stay, Jude staying? Jass and Johnny and their going? The crash? Jude adopting Stephanie? Losing Alan? The mother-daughter tensions, her being demanding on Stephanie, Stephanie’s reaction, saying that her mother was never happy? In the workplace, the difficulties, union leader, confronting Alan? Her suspicions of Brian? Following Alan, the confrontation?
9.Jass and Johnny, their love, the past, exuberant? Planning to leave, the trip to Queensland, the accident and death?
10.The various people in the town, the women at the factory, Stephanie and her grandfather? The executives?
11.Brian’s story, his violence, in jail, with the parole officer, the friendship with Stephanie, his reading the diary to her? His relationship with his brother? Going off at the end – repeating the story of Jass and Johnny?
12.Stephanie and the effect of the experiences, understanding the adults better, trying to burn down the factory?
13.The earthy tone of the film, ordinary people, failures and sense of failure, the possibility of risks, hope? The social situation, factories, foreign ownership?
