R4VEN
Well-known member
"Beautiful Kate" only opened in Australia on 6th August, and I saw it today.
I don't normally blather on about a film I've seen, but I found this one to be extraordinary. Written (adapted from the novel by US writer, Newton Thornburg) and directed by Rachel Ward (who played Meggie in The Thorn Birds, and fortunately is a much better director than an actor!!) it stars Ben Mendelsohn, Bryan Brown & Rachel Griffiths, and a stunning performance by Sophie Lowe as Kate. The novel was set in Iowa, but Ward wrote it for Australia, and she has captured the mood and ethos of the country, which is not bad for a woman born to an upper class family in Oxfordshire.
Prodigal son (Mendelsohn - who is now 40 years old!!) returns to remote family property when patriarch (Brown) is dying, and old family wounds are re-opened.
Nothing new there, but there is something about this film which has stayed with me. The musical score (by Tex Perkins) is haunting, the scenery is at once beautiful and ugly, and the delicate subject-matter is alluded to, rather than in-your-face.
I'd be interested to hear what others think of this movie. It's the old cliche of family secrets opened 20 years later, but it's not done in a cliched way.
Some of the subject-matter - i.e. the family `secret' - could be deemed quite controversial. Sensitive souls may need this warning.......
Check out the website:
http://www.beautifulkatemovie.com.au/
I don't normally blather on about a film I've seen, but I found this one to be extraordinary. Written (adapted from the novel by US writer, Newton Thornburg) and directed by Rachel Ward (who played Meggie in The Thorn Birds, and fortunately is a much better director than an actor!!) it stars Ben Mendelsohn, Bryan Brown & Rachel Griffiths, and a stunning performance by Sophie Lowe as Kate. The novel was set in Iowa, but Ward wrote it for Australia, and she has captured the mood and ethos of the country, which is not bad for a woman born to an upper class family in Oxfordshire.
Prodigal son (Mendelsohn - who is now 40 years old!!) returns to remote family property when patriarch (Brown) is dying, and old family wounds are re-opened.
Nothing new there, but there is something about this film which has stayed with me. The musical score (by Tex Perkins) is haunting, the scenery is at once beautiful and ugly, and the delicate subject-matter is alluded to, rather than in-your-face.
I'd be interested to hear what others think of this movie. It's the old cliche of family secrets opened 20 years later, but it's not done in a cliched way.
Some of the subject-matter - i.e. the family `secret' - could be deemed quite controversial. Sensitive souls may need this warning.......
Check out the website:
http://www.beautifulkatemovie.com.au/
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