Maslin Beach

This leisurely film explores the lives of a group of people spending a day at a nude beach in Australia. While the film primarily focuses on a guy who breaks up with his girlfriend, we eavesdrop on various conversations among common folk out to get a tan. Like much of the conversations, the nudity becomes mundane. The most amusing thing about the film is an ice cream vendor who rides around in his vehicle. He doesn't pay attention to his driving and sunbathers must keep watch lest they get run over. He also doesn't stop for any customers. It's not a bad way to spend an hour and a half, but neither is it something to write home about.

Various people descend on the nude Maslin Beach. Simon and Marcie are a young bumbling couple on the verge of marriage despite reservations. Gail, Paula, and Jenny are young women looking for love. Gail befriends a little kid named Daniel and gets hit on by creepy old guy. Jill and Justin split with the introduction of a mysteriously silent guy. There's a guy looking for the meaning of life in some interesting places. There's Ben who drives crazily his smoke-spewing ice cream van and pontificates about love with Simon.

There are so many more characters in this movie. Some of them are less interesting. Some of them are downright annoying to watch. The couple, who tries to cheat on each other but ends up put together by a matchmaker, is horrible to endure. That's the main problem with this movie. It wants to be funny. It's plenty quirky but many times, it ends up being annoying. The best bit has an overweight woman telling another woman about her bad boyfriend who crazy-glued his penis to her. It's very usual and fun but it's the exception. It's most notable for a lot of naked people. The acting is amateurish. It's different but not necessarily good.

I caught this movie the other night on free-to-air TV (that'll never happen in the USA!). I was absolutely enchanted by it, yet find it difficult to say quite why!

It wasn't the nudity (yes, I DID notice it) - or perhaps it was the nudity, plus the fact that the actors weren't all "models". The cast pretty much covered the full spectrum of body shapes (and some other shapes!) and the appearance of naked-but-not-so-gorgeous people made the nudity ... unimportant, but unavoidable.

This movie evoked memories of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City", not by its content but rather by its context. It just gets on with the job of telling stories. These aren't great stories; some aren't even interesting. They are all stories of sex and love, but "little" stories, like those that affect you and me. They are stories worthy of the telling and the audience is possibly richer - certainly no poorer - for having heard them.

It's a charming movie, and yes - they are nearly all starkers!

Maslin Beach is a real nudist/naturist beach south of Adelaide, on the Fleurieu Peninsula, in South Australia. It is also the name of an Australian film that used the beach as a location.

Maslin Beach is labelled a romantic comedy. This could be slightly misleading, as it is not a 'hilarious' film, nor is it really romantic in the traditional sense, but it does have light-hearted moments. Much as life itself, there are also moments of sadness too. It is also entirely shot at the nudist beach mentioned above, and nudity runs throughout the length of film. The viewer quickly learns to accept this as normal, and concentrate on the plot, not the copious amount of flesh.

Simon and Marcie (Michael Allen and Eliza Lovell) arrive by car at a beach-side car park. They take their belongings to the beach, and while they are walking, a voice-over from Simon talks about his confusion about what real love is. The rest of the film is an exploration of this, framed by one complete day at the beach. The basic story is of what happens to Simon's love life, but there are also many other characters highlighted in several separate vignettes.

When they arrive at the beach, both Simon and Marcie appear bored with each other. Marcie sees them as a 'Romeo and Juliet' romantic couple. Simon is just bored with it all. Next, we are introduced to Gail (Bonnie-Jaye Lawrence), Paula (Zara Collins) and Jenny (Jennifer Ross). They are walking down the beach together discussing Gail's chances of finding the 'perfect' man, aided by the 'powers' of a necklace that brought good luck to her Grandmother. However, there are many more interesting people on the beach, not all of them 'attractive' and young (part of the realism of this film).

To service the beach's patrons there is a flatulent, short-sighted ice-cream salesperson with a van. This is Ben (Gary Waddell), who is a friend of Simon, and is also his unofficial counsellor. I would think that this character is the main comic element. It is hard to say though, as there is nothing about Ben that would make you laugh aloud, unless you were intoxicated, male and very young! Maslin Beach does have a major redeeming feature though, and that is that it does not dwell too long on any one subject. As the quality of acting is variable, the script is suspect and everything about Maslin Beach is cheap, the lack of continuity is a positive boon. In fact, there is something about this film (not the nudity) that I find appealing. It is hard to define what it is, but it could be something to do with its bluntness, and downright 'Aussie' attitude to carnal matters.

The camera work in Maslin Beach deserves a mention. Sometimes it is very good, with some stunning static shots and 'pans' of the beach, cliffs and a sunset. As nudity is a major factor in this film, framing is an important aspect of the camera work. There is no sense of gratuity in the framing, meaning that the framing is done so that the camera does not dwell on 'private' body parts. This helps to ease any sense of viewer discomfort from being within the subject's 'personal space', and makes the film more tasteful. Not an easy task, given the location for filming.

Maslin Beach is neither a 'skin flick' for post-pubescent, testosterone charged males, nor a 'Mills and Boon' romance for under-appreciated women. Maslin Beach does not seem to fit anywhere in genre. The actors are not 'attractive' in the Baywatch sense, and are just 'normal' people that you would see on the beach anywhere. It does not have a message to put across and it would not even act as a tourism advertisement, other than perhaps to Naturists. Apart from the Australian accent, the filming could have been in any sunny country. What makes this film distinctly Australian is the fact that it is pointless (cinema verite?), and only Australian Cinema, and other medium sized National Cinemas, could consider such a rash option. At the same time, these medium sized cinemas have room for experimentation in the quest for identity, and a 'flop' is not going to damage their reputation too much. It is always possible, given that Maslin Beach is now a collector's item, that the film might become internationally popular, but it is very unlikely.

During this critique, I have been sounding highly negative, at times, about Maslin Beach. This is not the real position, as I found the film very easy to watch. I enjoyed it as a reflection of near reality and real people (and problems). The problems confronted in the film are those of the everyday, and a little low on spectacle. This does it no harm in my view, and I wish that more films dealt with the everyday like this. There is a connection here with the cinemas of Europe, and with French film in particular. They rarely deal with major disasters or catastrophes, but with the everyday. Hollywood is in direct opposition to this, and rides the crest of the hyper-real action/drama/angst wave. The pace too, is much faster in Hollywood, but it is not reality. Maslin Beach is not exactly 'Jacques Tati' either, but it is on the right track, even if it does ignore issues of multi culturalism, equality, gender orientation and so on, that are of such importance in current cinema. I am sure that you will either love or hate this film, with little room for a middle ground.

If you are looking for the latest Hollywood blockbuster, don't watch this movie. If you are sick of the production line, "let's all make a movie like the last big thing" meat grinder, plastic, spoon fed dribble then this movie might just entertain you for 100 minutes. I'm not going to do the plot thing,Jox has already done that. What I would like to make note of is the refreshing "differentness" of the movie. I have seen nothing like this before. Overall the way the movie started looked like another B or C grade movie and by the time the main characters got to the beach it was like a totally new experience, refreshing and new with a distinctly Aussie feel to it, not one of the psuedo American wannabe pictures that most australians make.

Having said this, I know this film won't appeal to everybody, but give it a try with an open mind, its different, innovative and doesn't pander to the norm. I hope Wayne Groom makes more movies, and that Bonnie - Jaye Lawrence continues to act, she is a refreshing change to the so called ideal woman that seems to be on all our screens at the moment, she is what I would describe as natural ... you don't see that much anymore.

Just my 2 cents worth :)