South Solitary: the twitter verdict
Shirley Barrett’s latest film South Solitary, which opened the Sydney Film Festival last night, has received mixed opinions from the Twitter users in the audience.
While Empire Magazine called it “beautifully shot and performed”, others said that the protagonist’s pet – ‘a sheep in a pink bonnet’ – was the highlight of the film.
The film is the story of a woman (Miranda Otto) who in 1927 arrives at South Solitary island, accompanying her uncle (Barry Otto), the new lighthouse manager.
These are some of the reactions from last night’s premiere:
Any trailer?
http://tix.sff.org.au/session2.....h+Solitary
One can only presume that it was the people who have the same pompous attitude as Shirley Barrett when it comes to making films that actually liked the film.
There has been too much of the wrong kind of back patting going on in the Australian Film Industry for far too long, and this was a classic example.
This film reflects every single thing that is wrong with Australian Cinema. Pompous, boring plot, with a sneering contempt for the audience.
Who is the target audience other than tea sipping Country Practice fans of 20 years ago?
There is NO target audience, because Shirley Barrett, with a script like this, has once again managed to alienate the Australian public through self indulgent film making, because all they care about is themselves and not the public who are the ones who pay their money to see films.
For crying out loud, make something worth seeing, and something that people would get EXCITED about seeing from Australian filmmakers.
A desperate woman of loose morals with nothing likable about her, stuck on an island with a sheep, is NOT that film.
Half a star out of 5.
Is the audience at the opening night of the SFF really an unbiased sample as many I spoke to had some commercial connection with the Australian Film Industry ? Time will tell 🙂
Very true, thinkingmedia.tv, and time will tell.
I’m prepared to immortalize my words and go on record as saying that this film will be a flop. I’ll be surprised if it makes over $250,000. Another film with nothing new to offer, once again funded by SA, Lou, is continuing Screen Australia’s diabolical and tyrannical reign by continuing to fund films which nobody will want to see.
No target audience equates to no audience at all.
Whilst making a film which guarantees box office success is an incredibly difficult task in itself, Screen Australia has cemented itself as a true promoter of Box Office Poison.
I loved this movie!! Excellent script, well-drawn characters and moments that had me laughing out loud. A completely satisfying experience from beginning to end.
So much for the detractors. If South Solitary was set on an island off Normandy with Audrey Tautou as the heroine, it would have gained instant “Amelie’ status. Thank god, Shirley Barrett has bravely made a captivating Australian film without the obligatory Australian crassness. It’s extremely evocative and its sense of solitude is palpable. Miranda Otto was superb even if Barry was a tad caricature-ish. Four and a half stars and no buts.
It is amazing how a movie can extract such contradictions in review. What is wrong with being a tea sipper anyway?. I loved this movie because it evokes the kind of isolation of Australian outposts which was still around when I grew up in a country town in the 50’s. I came out overwhelmed by the stark beauty of cold wild landscapes and the pain of men who have been forgotten as a result of WW1, something I hadn’t really been exposed to before. I don’t think I am a snob, I just like poetry in film!