Black & White & Sex

What is wrong with Australian cinema-goers? This is an amazing example of our talented industry: The script, the cinematography and the actresses all blew me away. The director has made a bold statement regarding censorship, about what we can see and hear and why that is. After watching this movie last night, I'm still thinking about it the next morning, and will continue to do so for many days - now that is a sign of a good film. If you've missed it at the movies, wait until it's on DVD and buy it. We need to support our struggling film industry. We need to get behind talented directors and actresses like these, and we need to make more intellectual movies like these.

This movies does what it intends to do. "Angie is determined to set the record straight about sex" is in the storyline, and she (in the plural sense) does. Multiple versions of Angie allow for a wider look at the similarities within sex workers, though only can be connected to those who freely enter the trade, do not face violence, police corruption etc.

The film is written and directed by John Winter who wants the male viewer to see the film as more than simply sexual, but it is hard to do so. The male gaze is amplified with Matthew Holmes (the interviewer), who essentially explores his own prior relationships through relating to various prostitutes.

Overall, the film doesn't explore more than a simplistic look between money, sex and emotions. It tries to explicitly imply the power that sex has on people, and the reversal of roles in the film helps to dictate this well. There are a few character developing moments in the movie, but overall it does not "set the record straight on sex". In a way it tries to universalize emotion by having the multiple Angie's, and generalizes all males in the same way.

The emotional connection with the audience is built through a physical one, rather than anything else, as vulnerability is seen throughout the film, but is not explained as anything outside of the physical, with little importance paid to power and dominance.

I would rate this film a 5/10 while the ratings might range from 3-8 depending on personal tastes. The film doesn't seem to have much of a budget, and didn't need it. The transitions were good and provided the meaning intended. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, and that might explain the low feedback for this movie. It is dealing with a taboo subject, but it deals with it superficially, and therefore there is but a few statements that can be taken away (if you have no knowledge on the subject), but otherwise it isn't worth watching.

This is a truly wonderful film, made in the true spirit of inventive, exciting indie filmmaking. John Winter, the director/writer of the piece (some folks would call that an 'auteur') has an impressive slate of producing credits (Rabbit Proof Fence, Doin' Time for Patsy Cline) but this is the first time he has taken charge of all the principal creative elements of a feature film - and he does an amazing job. He has assembled a truly wonderful cast of Australia's most interesting and versatile female actors, to deliver an exciting, sexy, intriguing, and riveting 90 minutes of sheer brilliance. The film is brave and unusual - challenging, yet easy to go with - I was blown away by it. The wonderful Valerie Bader is sensational, and the black and white photography adds an element to the whole piece that a colour shoot would have lost. The casting director Dina Mann (Head On, Japanese Story, Mallboy) has done a magnificent job here and deserves special mention. Go and see this film - support it - tell distributors and exhibitors to get behind this film - the Australian film industry desperately NEEDS unique films like this to drag it out of its torpor.

I didn't expect much when I first started watching it but then I couldn't stop. Why? It was so real true and ... intellectual. You'd never expect this truth to be spoken out. It needed an actress to do it. A high spec one.

... I don't condone this activity (avoiding spoiler) but the psychology of it should be understood. Very skilled work of a director and a crew. Photography is a marvellous piece of art.

Not for everyone but for mature thoughtful person may be a broadening perspective exercise.

At the end I highly recommend this movie as it was something surprisingly good and thought provoking.

For most of the movie I was totally into it. That is till the moment I realized the interviews were not real (but a scripted one, its a film-not a documentary; silly me). It felt like a bucket of cold water being poured over my head. But till the realization dawned, it came across as a pretty overwhelming series of talks with the sex-workers, too bad it was not real. If the interviews were not make-believe, it would have been quite a piece of work. Since I watched this without any prior information about the project, I watched through 90% of the movie believing it to be a documentary & I was deeply moved by it. That is until the last segment where the script suddenly stops making sense, and all the built up quickly evaporates. Hence the 5 of 10 rating.