Сообщение SunnyDay » Пт янв 11, 2002 7:03 am
Peach
Apollo Score: Readers' Rating: 82 (2 votes)
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"Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its details." (Heraclitus, ~500 B.C.)
Great thinkers have long known the value of studying the tiniest detail in the search for knowledge. Great truths can exist in the most obscure of places. And so it is with film. Grand sweeping epics may take our breath away, but bring us no closer to an understanding of ourselves or provide any keen insight into the nature of beauty or truth. At the same time, a tiny, apparently insignificant short film can express a refined awareness of life not evident in a dozen extravaganzas.
"One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite--that that particular peach is just a detail." (Pablo Picasso, 1956)
This brings us to an independent short (15 minute) film from New Zealand named Peach whose main claim to fame is that it features one of the earliest appearances on film of Lucy "Xena" Lawless, in a brief but important supporting role. She plays a nameless but strikingly beautiful tow-truck driver whose dazzling smile flames like a comet across the screen and captures the attention of Sal, a quiet but pretty Maori woman (Tania Simon). Sal is labouring in a bad relationship with a swinish man named Mog (Joel Tobeck), so the sunny smile and encouraging words offered by this magnetic stranger are very alluring. The peach, which Sal buys at the grocery store for an exorbitant price, is a symbol carrying with it a cluster of meanings. Its price suggests its value. Then there is an obvious Edenic allusion, particularly when Sal takes a big juicy bite out of the fruit and proudly displays it to The Smiling Stranger. The peach also represents opportunity: a chance to get out from under the thumb of Mog. Furthermore, the smiling Lucy encourages Sal to adopt a carpe diem philosophy, and not let moments (as well as people and opportunities) slip away under-experienced.
Director Christine Parker embraces her setting with a tightly framed but beautifully photographed film. Both Lawless and Simon are striking to look at, and Parker makes sure that we can appreciate their appeal. Despite having the feel of a parable, this is also an unpretentious film.
Peach: a wee film, but pithy.
"The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things." (G.C. Lichtenberg, ~1765)