THE NIGHTINGALE
****
Director: Jennifer Kent
Screenwriter: Jennifer Kent
Principal cast:
Aisling Franciosi
Baykali Ganambarr
Sam Claflin
Damon Herriman
Harry Greenwood
Ewen Leslie
Charlie Jampijinpa Brown
Country: Australia/Canada/USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 136 mins.
Australian release date: 29 August 2019
Previewed at: Sony Pictures Theatrette, Sydney, on 27 May 2019.
It’s been five years since Australian writer/director Jennifer Kent’s much acclaimed first film, The Babadook, and her sophomore work, like that movie, also mines the dark material stemming from grief, but that’s where the similarities end. The Nightingale is an historical drama set in Van Diemen’s Land (today’s Tasmania) in 1825 and its protagonists speak different languages reflecting their disparate origins: English, Gaelic and palawa kani, a reconstructed dialect compiled from remnants of original Indigenous Tasmanian tongues. It’s an intriguing choice for the actor-turned-director, who was wooed by Hollywood after the international success of The Babadook and could have made any script or genre of film she desired. Talking to The Saturday Paper, however, Kent explained that she “wanted to tell a story that is relevant to my history and my country.” And that she’s done. The Nightingale examines issues about the founding of Australia, about colonialism, about racism, about dispossession, about violence and about loss. And she’s pulled no punches in doing so - she certainly can’t be accused of gilding the lily of our historical origins!
Clare (Aisling Franciosi) is an Irish convict indentured to the vile English soldier, Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin). She has served her sentence and is waiting to be granted her ticket of leave so she can make a life for herself, her husband Aidan (Michael Sheasby) and her infant child, as a free settler. Hawkins, however, takes sadistic pleasure in abusing her and keeping her his prisoner and refuses to let her go. After a shocking act of violence one night, Hawkins leaves the garrison to head for Launceston, where he’s expecting to secure a promotion to captain. He takes with him a small group of enlisted men, including a vicious soldier called Ruse (Damon Herriman). Seeking revenge, Clare decides to follow the party but she’s told, “There’s a war on, you know!” (the so-called ‘Black Wars’ of the period), so she hires a young Indigenous tracker, Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), to safely guide her through the bush. As she stalks Hawkins and his group, she and Billy learn more about, and from, each other, and Clare begins to question the validity of her quest but she finds that, once the wild horses of vengeance are at full gallop, it’s not so easy to rein them in and their fury is contagious.
Debuting at the 2018 Venice Film Festival, the graphic violence in The Nightingale caused quite some consternation in certain quarters, before the film was awarded the Special Jury Prize and the Best Young Actor Award for Ganambarr (deservedly so; he’s exceptional). One can’t help but ask if the negative reaction was because this was violence depicted by a female director, whereas if the film was directed by a man it would have been passed over as quotidian? Franciosi, hailing from an Irish/Italian background, is perfectly cast as the convict woman Clare, because she speaks Irish Gaelic and she is a trained opera singer (Clare’s not called ‘the nightingale’ for nothing). She brings all of Clare’s qualities to the fore and has said, “I knew within the first five pages that [Kent’s screenplay] was something different, and I thought, ‘This one’s mine. I have to get this one.’ I often find that strong women are written unrealistically, but I knew immediately that Clare was very human. She has her flaws, she’s not always likeable, but she’s incredibly resilient and powerful; a fully-formed human being as a lead female character.” Ganambarr, too, embodies Billy, his sorrow and his lack of comprehension about these white invaders, be they masters or slaves. He’s a Yolngu man and an experienced dancer with the troupe Djuki Mala but he’d never acted before The Nightingale, although you’d never know it. Kent explained that, “Baykali has a deep emotional intelligence; I didn't really have to talk about scenes with him, he just knew who Billy was… He’s an extraordinary actor.”
Beautifully filmed in Academy ratio by Polish DoP Radek Ladczuk, who also shot The Babadook, Kent’s movie looks a treat, the beauty of the Tasmanian wilderness belying the harshness of the story at its heart, and Jed Kurzel’s spare, haunting music is well-suited to the material. All other production values are excellent, particularly the rough-hewn costumes, combining to give the film a suitably raw, authentic look. These were hard times and it shows. Importantly, Kent drew on the expertise of Indigenous writer, poet and playwright Jim Everett, an elder of the Plangermairreenneer clan of the Ben Lomond tribe of north-east Tasmania, for her script. His cultural knowledge was indispensable in getting the milieu correct. He says, “You rarely see the truth being told even in documentaries about what happened in Tasmania, that there was a definite attempt at genocide. I felt that as a fiction [the screenplay] reflected real history, and so I should give it my support.” After seeing the film in Venice, he added “… I felt a great sadness but also a great pride.” The Nightingale is a tough, uncompromising work of fierce originality that will cement Jennifer Kent’s place in the pantheon of great Australian writer/directors.
Screenwriter: Jennifer Kent
Principal cast:
Aisling Franciosi
Baykali Ganambarr
Sam Claflin
Damon Herriman
Harry Greenwood
Ewen Leslie
Charlie Jampijinpa Brown
Country: Australia/Canada/USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 136 mins.
Australian release date: 29 August 2019
Previewed at: Sony Pictures Theatrette, Sydney, on 27 May 2019.
It’s been five years since Australian writer/director Jennifer Kent’s much acclaimed first film, The Babadook, and her sophomore work, like that movie, also mines the dark material stemming from grief, but that’s where the similarities end. The Nightingale is an historical drama set in Van Diemen’s Land (today’s Tasmania) in 1825 and its protagonists speak different languages reflecting their disparate origins: English, Gaelic and palawa kani, a reconstructed dialect compiled from remnants of original Indigenous Tasmanian tongues. It’s an intriguing choice for the actor-turned-director, who was wooed by Hollywood after the international success of The Babadook and could have made any script or genre of film she desired. Talking to The Saturday Paper, however, Kent explained that she “wanted to tell a story that is relevant to my history and my country.” And that she’s done. The Nightingale examines issues about the founding of Australia, about colonialism, about racism, about dispossession, about violence and about loss. And she’s pulled no punches in doing so - she certainly can’t be accused of gilding the lily of our historical origins!
Clare (Aisling Franciosi) is an Irish convict indentured to the vile English soldier, Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin). She has served her sentence and is waiting to be granted her ticket of leave so she can make a life for herself, her husband Aidan (Michael Sheasby) and her infant child, as a free settler. Hawkins, however, takes sadistic pleasure in abusing her and keeping her his prisoner and refuses to let her go. After a shocking act of violence one night, Hawkins leaves the garrison to head for Launceston, where he’s expecting to secure a promotion to captain. He takes with him a small group of enlisted men, including a vicious soldier called Ruse (Damon Herriman). Seeking revenge, Clare decides to follow the party but she’s told, “There’s a war on, you know!” (the so-called ‘Black Wars’ of the period), so she hires a young Indigenous tracker, Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), to safely guide her through the bush. As she stalks Hawkins and his group, she and Billy learn more about, and from, each other, and Clare begins to question the validity of her quest but she finds that, once the wild horses of vengeance are at full gallop, it’s not so easy to rein them in and their fury is contagious.
Debuting at the 2018 Venice Film Festival, the graphic violence in The Nightingale caused quite some consternation in certain quarters, before the film was awarded the Special Jury Prize and the Best Young Actor Award for Ganambarr (deservedly so; he’s exceptional). One can’t help but ask if the negative reaction was because this was violence depicted by a female director, whereas if the film was directed by a man it would have been passed over as quotidian? Franciosi, hailing from an Irish/Italian background, is perfectly cast as the convict woman Clare, because she speaks Irish Gaelic and she is a trained opera singer (Clare’s not called ‘the nightingale’ for nothing). She brings all of Clare’s qualities to the fore and has said, “I knew within the first five pages that [Kent’s screenplay] was something different, and I thought, ‘This one’s mine. I have to get this one.’ I often find that strong women are written unrealistically, but I knew immediately that Clare was very human. She has her flaws, she’s not always likeable, but she’s incredibly resilient and powerful; a fully-formed human being as a lead female character.” Ganambarr, too, embodies Billy, his sorrow and his lack of comprehension about these white invaders, be they masters or slaves. He’s a Yolngu man and an experienced dancer with the troupe Djuki Mala but he’d never acted before The Nightingale, although you’d never know it. Kent explained that, “Baykali has a deep emotional intelligence; I didn't really have to talk about scenes with him, he just knew who Billy was… He’s an extraordinary actor.”
Beautifully filmed in Academy ratio by Polish DoP Radek Ladczuk, who also shot The Babadook, Kent’s movie looks a treat, the beauty of the Tasmanian wilderness belying the harshness of the story at its heart, and Jed Kurzel’s spare, haunting music is well-suited to the material. All other production values are excellent, particularly the rough-hewn costumes, combining to give the film a suitably raw, authentic look. These were hard times and it shows. Importantly, Kent drew on the expertise of Indigenous writer, poet and playwright Jim Everett, an elder of the Plangermairreenneer clan of the Ben Lomond tribe of north-east Tasmania, for her script. His cultural knowledge was indispensable in getting the milieu correct. He says, “You rarely see the truth being told even in documentaries about what happened in Tasmania, that there was a definite attempt at genocide. I felt that as a fiction [the screenplay] reflected real history, and so I should give it my support.” After seeing the film in Venice, he added “… I felt a great sadness but also a great pride.” The Nightingale is a tough, uncompromising work of fierce originality that will cement Jennifer Kent’s place in the pantheon of great Australian writer/directors.