HOTEL SORRENTO
Screening at the Serge Constantin Theatre, Vacoas
Wednesday 21 February 2007 from 7:30 PM
Synopsis
Three sisters are reunited at their seaside family home by the disappearance of their father. Based on the award-winning Australian play by Hannie Rayson.
On Location
Courtesy of Andrew L. Urban (www.urbancinefile.com.au)
Evocative late afternoon sunlight plays on the long jetty of Sorrento pier, much as it had done for a century or more, and the seagulls' raucously beseeching cries hang over a still Port Phillip Bay in a nostalgic refrain. Director Richard Franklin, wearing shorts in the face of the autumn cool, is lying on his back on a green-topped pontoon, checking a camera angle with Geoff Burton.
A small bunch of locals watch as the crew set up for a Steadycam shot, the operator gradually coming to resemble some alien spider. Is this a sign of change in Sorrento? Is the world discovering us? With luck, no; Sorrento will still be the same in another decade, the 19th century village it now is, the only sign of contemporary urban man being the focaccia sandwiches sold in the Gourmet Deli next to the ancient Continetal Hotel.
A little while later, Franklin quotes the narration that introduces the play that inspired the film, pointing to the local landmarks described. He has a home of his own near by, and there is a feeling of belonging in the way he talks about the film. Hannie Rayson's award winning play, set in this port south of Melbourne on a peninsula that grows wine and entertains socialites, is becoming a film in which Beyond has not only invested its faith as distributor - but also its cash as a key investor. Hotel Sorrento is a character study, a performance piece for which Franklin and sales/production company Beyond International have assembled a cast that includes Joan Plowright, Caroline Goodall, Caroline Gillmer, Tara Morice and Ray Barrett.
"I think it's the best ensemble cast I've ever worked with," says Franklin. The film tells the story of three sisters from Sorrento, and how one stayed behind looking after their dad (Barrett) while the other two made themselves big careers in the US and the UK.
Now they are back together for a while, and old emotional baggage comes out, cultural identities are reassessed and painful wounds of memories scratched open. In the scene on the jetty, the sister with an American advertising career is urging her Sorrento-bound sibling to turn the tea shop into part of a franchise chain. They - Tara Morice as the advertising executive, Caroline Gillmer as the local - talk as they walk on the beach, following the Steadycam, and onto the jetty.
"The film says something about our Australian culture," Franklin believes. "These are all things I've not concerned myself with earlier," remarks the man who made Psycho II. "I developed with action/suspense/adventure/melodrama - and I'm still fond of it, and plan to do more. But these other things I'm interested in in my personal life and as a recognised proponent of international film making, I wanted to make something national. It now seems not as important to me as in the 80s to make things accessible to international markets...
"I wanted to do something about real life, real people and a real place." Franklin searched for a good play to make a film, "because I think most modern theatre is better than modern cinema, and my brother in law is a lecturer at the drama school in Monash University - this was his favourite..."
The jetty scene is also a jetty scene in the play: "it jutted out into the audience - sometimes the energy of a play can be lost when artificially forced into a cinematic mode," he says. "Sometimes theatre's strength is its very containment..."
Beyond's marketing manager John Thornhill was quickly attracted to the script, and encouraged the company to invest in the production: "I loved the script because it made you care about the characters," he says.
Production Information
Director: Richard Franklin
Producers: Richard Franklin, Helen Watts
Writers: Richard Franklin, Peter Fitzpatrick
Cast: Joan Plowright, Caroline Goodall, Tara Morice, Ray Barrett, Caroline Gillmer, John Hargreaves, Nicholas Bell, Ben Thomas
Duration: 107 min
Genre: Drama/Family
Original Australian Theatrical Censorship Rating: M
Screen Ratio: 1.1:85
Selected Awards
- 1995: Tokyo Int, Film Festival. (Domestic)
- Australian Film Institute Awards - Best Adapted Screenplay & Best Supporting Actor.
- Film Critics' Circle of Australia - Best Music Score.
Australian Film Festival 2007 proudly sponsored by:
- Australian Film Commission
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- The Ministry of Arts and Culture
- The Mauritius Film Development Corporation
- Air Mauritius
- IDP Education
- La Sentinelle
- Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation
- Scott & Co Ltd
- Urban Cinefile