High Tide (1987 film)
| High Tide | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Gillian Armstrong |
| Produced by | Sandra Levy |
| Written by | Laura Jones |
| Starring | Judy Davis Jan Adele Claudia Karvan |
| Music by | Peter Best |
| Cinematography | Russell Boyd |
| Editing by | Nicholas Beauman |
| Release date(s) | 1987 |
| Running time | 104 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
High Tide is a 1987 Australian film, from a script by Laura Jones, about the mother-daughter bond, directed by Gillian Armstrong. Armstrong reported that when she began work on High Tide she pinned a note above her desk: "Blood ties. Water. Running Away." Jan Adele plays Lilli's mother-in-law Bet, in her film debut.
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[edit] Plot introduction
Two-time Academy Award nominee Judy Davis, (Sybylla in My Brilliant Career, and Adela Quested in A Passage to India), plays Lili, a back-up singer for an Elvis Presley impersonator, living on the edge of show business. She gets stranded in a small, coastal town and befriends a teenage girl, Ally (Claudia Karvan), without knowing she is the daughter Lili left behind as an infant, after her husband's sudden death.
[edit] Synopsis
Lilli is one of three backing singers for a touring Elvis impersonator until she is fired. Then, left alone at the beginning of winter she is stranded in a ramshackle beach town on the windswept coast of New South Wales. This remote, working class, tourist-town has a pervasive sense of rootlessness and movement. The people survive by changing their occupations with the seasons and work hard in small businesses. Here , stuck in the Mermaid Caravan Park, she encounters her teenage daughter Ally (Claudia Karvan). When Lilli's young surfer husband had died, she felt lost; she gave up her baby to her mother-in-law, Bet. Lilli has been drifting ever since, and getting wasted. Bet is a rowdy, belligerent woman, devoted to Ally - she has taken care of her for 13 years but she has no idea how unhappy the girl is. Lilli has an immediate rapport with the lonely Ally even before she knows that Ally is her daughter, and after she knows, she can't take her eyes off her. They belong with each other. but Lilli's terrified of taking on the responsibilities of motherhood, and Bet tells her she's riff-raff. When we first see Ally she is in the water; surfing is - "her refuge from the noisy junkiness of life with Bet. Bet isn't a monster, she's simply the wrong person to be raising the pensive Ally, whose emotions are hidden away, like her mother's. The drama is in our feeling that Lilli must not leave her daughter in the embrace of this raucous old trouper." [1]
[edit] Awards
In 1987 the film was nominated for seven AFI Awards (Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress x 2, Best Sound) and won in the Best Actress in a Lead Role (Judy Davis) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Jan Adele) categories. In 1989 Judy Davis won the NSFC Best Actress award for her role.[2]
[edit] Cast
- Judy Davis as Lillie
- Jan Adele as Bet
- Claudia Karvan as Ally
- Frankie J. Holden as Lester
- John Clayton as Col
- Colin Friels as Mick
- Toni Scanlan as Mary
- Monica Trapaga as Tracey
- Barry Rugless as Club manager
- Bob Purtell as Joe
[edit] Box Office
High Tide grossed $206,185 at the box office in Australia,[3] which is equivalent to $414,432 in 2009 dollars.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Pauline Kael, Hooked ISBN 0714529036
- ^ IMDb awards
- ^ Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office
[edit] Further reading
- Murray, Scott; (ed.) (1994). Australian Cinema. St.Leonards, NSW.: Allen & Unwin/AFC. p. 259. ISBN 1863733116.
[edit] External links
- High Tide at the Internet Movie Database
- High Tide at the NFSA
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