Sirens (Sirenas)

It is not the bosoms, really. No, there is an earnest quality here that is dependent on performances and landscapes and an essential moral tale than on the bounteousness of bums and bosoms frolicking in Australia. Neil is always good, Tara Fitzgerland is fine, and that often one-note Hugh Grant works perfectly as a priggish English priest who opens up ever so slightly when all is said and done. And much is said and some is done. There is some absolutley wonderful photography and some perfectly awful and obvious photography that would make Hallmark blush. Pretty good script with the story wandering about more than a bit. Shorter would have been better and the blue shots of nude statuary of indifferent quality by this nice but hardly profound Australian artist(on whose life and an episode therein, is it based)could have been a one-shot affair for my money. But I liked it for the performances.

I never heard of this film until the director for our theater company mentioned it as a possible project to adapt to live theater. I have to say when I first viewed the film I was a bit shocked for personal reasons. We have a fairly small group and if taken directly it would mean I would be playing one of the nude models. After studying the film's critiques and background I slowly came around to appreciate the film's merits, if not completely comfortable with the nudity. The point is that the nudity is not suppose to be comfortable from the audience point of view. The story takes place in an almost mystical world untarnished by outside influences and taboos. It is indeed a wonderful Eden. As an actress I had to be comfortable within the Eden created on stage, despite being uncomfortable in front of fellow "actors" and the audience. This has become one of my favorite films for helping me grow as an actress and as a member of the audience.

I absolutely love this truly erotic film. An exploration of the awakening of a woman's sexuality, it is beautifully filmed and acted, and has many moments of wit and humour.

Some reviewers object to the heavily laden symbolism attributed to various parts, such as the shots of the snake. Well, symbolism is part of what good writers refer to as "subtext", it isn't too often seen these days, and is at least part of an attempt to have the film say more than what the characters say to each other. This is an artistically valid thing for any film to do, and raises the level of film culture generally, if only a little.

I have yet to see anyone commenting on the superb score - this wonderful music by Rachel Portman (whose work I otherwise do not know) is a delight from start to finish, and unlike most movie music, would stand on its own as a concert piece. The main theme, quirky, cheerful and rhythmically very interesting, seems to take as its inspiration the Vaughan Williams "March of the Kitchen Utensils" heard at the very start of the film as we follow Hugh Grant's feet walking through the art gallery, but it is very much an excellent piece of music in its own right. The "Dream Variations" are suitably dreamy, and coupled with the slow motion photography make for a superb piece of cinema.

John Duigan (writer, director) is not often mentioned in the same breath as other well known Australian directors such as George Miller or Peter Weir or Bruce Beresford, but personally I think he stands up with the best of them. A true Auteur (he has scripted most of the films he has directed) his films are always very interesting character studies. A more well known recent film he made was "The Leading Man" which starred Jon Bon Jovi as an American actor who comes to London to appear in a West End Play, and is "hired" by the director to seduce his wife. As in The Leading Man, Sirens is about the interactions between characters, this providing in my view more than enough in the way of plot and sub-plot. If Duigan's films always seem to be about human sexuality, well, after all, that is what drives most human relationships, whether we want to admit it or not. I think what stands out about Duigan's films, and particularly about Sirens, is their total honesty about human sexuality, without (and I know some will disagree) being excessively prurient.

A final line - I love the helicopter shot at the very, very end of the film. It is a beautiful, painterly landscape scene (which fades out *just* too soon), but one's love of its beauty is strengthened by one's admiration of the five actresses, who had to climb to the top of this sheer-looking rocky outcrop and remove all their clothes for the shot! They have my appreciation, and my sympathy!

This movie was a nice surprise to me. I expected something more raunchy, considering it's reputation with a lot of naked women (all gorgeus by the way). Instead, I found it to be a sweet and unexpectedly innocent movie about being yourself, accepting who you are, exploring your possibilities. Tara Fitzgerald is simple super as the curious wife of Hugh Grant's vicar (who seems to be constantly blushing and who is his usual bumbling self). She simply has the meatiest part and she surely takes advantage of that. All the "naked ladies" deliver very respectable performances. Only Sam Neill seems to be a bit too lost amid all these different personalities and doesn't really convince. Absolutely stunning visuals (it's shot in Australia, but apart from the odd scenes at a bar, it all seems to take place in some gorgeus never-never land). And the nudity didn't disturbed me one bit since it's presented in a very unaffected and natural way. Truly different and very refreshing!

"Sirens" (title refers to Homer's sirens) tells of a young church official who is dispatched to visit a painter at his remote Aussie studio/estate to dissuade him from showing a painting of a nude on a cross. Hugh Grant plays the minister who, with his wife, encounters four beautiful models (one is the artist's wife) who bemuse him with their nude romps and sensual ways. Moreover, he's distressed by his wife's apparent interest in the unabashed frolicking. "Sirens" is a not too serious and somewhat sensual film with a thin plot. The film's appeal is in the moment-to-moment situations, the shangrila "feel" given to the harsh outback locale, the feminist antics of the bevy of babes, etc. Some will find the film tedious while others will be captivated by it's subtle charms.