Alexandra's Project
I finally caught "Alexandra's Project", after having wondered at length if I could cope with its rumoured intensity, having first read about it in the program of the Montreal World Film Festival last September. And now, having lived through the experience, I smile at the memory of a bunch of women with whom I chatted before "The Story of Lotus" at the time. They were pretty convinced that "Alexandra's Project" would collect an award or two; it won the "Golden Zenith for the Best Film from Oceania".
Rifling through some reviews, I found this comment from the one at Rotten Tomatoes rather interesting:
In many ways, Alexandra's Project begins where Lantana finished as it rips into the myths of marriage: how appearances can be deceiving, how routine and tradition can stifle happiness, and how husbands can control their wives with a perceived sense of superiority. Alexandra has had enough, and her "project" stands as a kind of ultimate revenge for 20 years of physical or psychological abuse.
It's much darker than Lantana and Alexandra does some pretty shocking things on that tape – things that have Steve squirming and audiences wincing. But its brilliance is in the way what's said and done on a simple videotape flips the balance of power in a typical marriage, making the husband an impotent onlooker.
... partly because I'd forgotten about "Lantana", yet another excellent Australian film which gets beneath your skin. (I appeared not to have blogged about it, but I believe I saw this around the time of the Melbourne Film Festival in 2001.) And ... partly because I feel the issues raised in "Alexandra's Project" are very relevant to relationships today. Though one might argue the elements of the story in this film are too exaggerated to be "real", it carries an effective mechanism to shock and to drag us out of our comfort zones so we could have a good think about things — with the sinister shadow of reality in its wake.
I'd always judged a film by how it remains in my memory a day or two later. Coming out of the cinema with my gracious escort for the evening, I muttered aloud that this film has all the elements of a traditional definition of a short-story, though I didn't have the time to explain myself then, and now's not the time because that's a whole other post by itself. :)
It is rare that an independent Australian film doesn't move me; I wasn't going to pass up the chance to see this one if I could help it. And well, neither should you.
Posted by sniffles at January 07, 2004 05:35 PM