y separately published work icon Studies in Australasian Cinema periodical issue   peer reviewed assertion
Issue Details: First known date: 2020... vol. 14 no. 1 2020 of Studies in Australasian Cinema est. 2007 Studies in Australasian Cinema
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The most powerful films are frequently divisive and often stay with you, making an impression that requires a response. After my first viewing of Jennifer Kent's (2019) film The Nightingale, I felt heavy and immobilised. I felt the weight of the film in my body, and at the same time was unsure as to whether to be angry at the violence or to see it as an absolute diegetic necessity; to question the spectacle of both victimhood and agency, or to loudly applaud a different representational perspective of Australian/Tasmanian history, colonial violence, space, gender and indigeneity. In truth, the film invites all of these reactions and more, as evidenced by the contributions featured in this special issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema, guest edited by Michelle Arrow and James Findlay. Multiple threads of temporality, identities, bodies, emotion, language, critique, memory, sound and location are, like the film, interwoven in a series of passionate and provocative responses, from Arrow and Findlay's vital ‘Critical Introduction’ to rigorous articles from Joanne Faulkner, Kristyn Hamer, Catriona Elder, James Findlay, and the inclusion of Rebe Taylor's remarkable conversation with Jim Everett, the film's associate producer and Aboriginal consultant, taken from the symposium ‘The Nightingale: Gender, Race and Troubled Histories on Screen’ held at the University of Technology, Sydney in December 2019.' (Editorial introduction)

Contents

* Contents derived from the 2020 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
A Critical Introduction to The Nightingale : Gender, Race and Troubled Histories on Screen, Michelle Arrow , single work criticism

'Acclaimed Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent’s film The Nightingale has generated intense debate since its premiere at the 2018 Venice Film Festival. Set during the Black War in Van Diemen’s Land in 1825, the film is an unflinching depiction of colonial and sexual violence. Kent told The Saturday Paper that she ‘wanted to tell a story that is relevant to my history and my country’. Her vision of British colonisation, and its consequences for those caught in its wake, taps into a conversation with a strong presence in Australia’s public, political and cultural life over the last three decades. This article critically introduces The Nightingale as an historical film; that is, a film set in the past which offers an interpretation of history. We ask: how does The Nightingale represent the past? How might we situate it within longer traditions of historical representation of frontier conflict, and the convict experience? How did audiences respond to the film? And finally, how might we situate The Nightingale in the moment of its reception? What does it mean to make a film about colonial violence at the same moment as the Uluru statement called for truth-telling about our history?' (Publication abstract)

(p. 3-14)
‘I Just Felt Sad and Angry All in One Thing’ : Jim Everett in Conversation with Rebe Taylor on Making the Nightingale, Rebe Taylor (interviewer), single work interview

'The symposium ‘The Nightingale: Gender, Race and Troubled Histories on Screen’ opened with a discussion between Jim Everett, the film’s associate producer and Aboriginal consultant, and Associate Professor Rebe Taylor, Senior Research Fellow in the College of Arts, Law and Education at the University of Tasmania. Rebe and Jim have known each other since 1999, when they met at a history conference: as Rebe noted, ‘we’ve never really stopped talking since then.’ Jim is a Senior Indigenous scholar at the University of Tasmania and he is currently working on a Master’s thesis with Rebe. In this (edited) transcript of their conversation, Rebe and Jim discuss the way he came to be involved with the film, the casting and production process, and his reaction to the finished film.' (Publication abstract)

(p. 15-22)
‘I Can’t Stand the Noise of It’ : the Figure of the Child and the Critique of Colonialism in Jennifer Kent’s the Nightingale, Joanne Faulkner , single work criticism

'The presence in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale of children, and of violence against them, has so far been little commented upon, as much commentary has focused on the film’s depiction of rape and colonial gender relations. Yet key plot points are articulated through violence against a child — and the exclamations at these points by the film’s antagonist, Lt. Hawkins, of “shut it up” and “I can’t stand the ... noise of it,” indicates a critical role played by representations of children that may be turned against colonial power. This article examines the-role of the child as a site of immanent critique of colonial violence in The Nightingale, in the context of the use of representations of childhood in settler-colonial film and culture more broadly.' (Publication abstract)

(p. 23-34)
Uncanny Parallels : Jennifer Kent’s the Nightingale, Violence, and the Vandemonian Past, Kristyn Harman , single work criticism

'Set in mid-1820s Van Diemen’s Land, The Nightingale depicts a dark and disturbing Tasmanian past populated with redcoats, convicts, Aboriginal people, and a few free settlers. Controversial scenes include the repeated rape of a young female convict, the murders of her husband and infant, and the rape and murder of an Aboriginal woman. Uncanny parallels can be drawn between the on-screen experiences of the white female lead, and the violence visited on the bodies of Tasmanian colonial woman Elizabeth Tibbs, her husband, and infant in 1826. After situating the film within its historical context, this paper provides a mimetic reading through elaborating these parallels. It interrogates key points of divergence between these fictional and historical accounts of women’s lives to explore what they reveal about gender, class, race, violence, and justice in colonial Van Diemen’s Land and its depiction in twenty-first century Australia.' (Publication abstract)

(p. 35-46)
‘Brutal’ and ‘Grisly ’: Exploring the (non-Indigenous) Critical Reception to Two Australian Postcolonial Films of the Frontier, The Nightingale (2018) and The Proposition (2005), Catriona Elder , single work criticism

'This article explores the marketing and non-Indigenous critical responses to the film The Nightingale (2018) by reading it alongside the reception and responses to a similar film, made over a decade earlier, a film that also studies the multi-layers of colonial violence. Using the film The Proposition (2005) as a foil this article considers the ways that violence figured by two non-Indigenous directors working in a postcolonial Australian context is interpreted by the critics reviewing films. The articles considers the different tropes, non-Indigenous critics offer viewers of the film. How do they suggest consumers interpret or experience the film? The argument is that the tropes, and cues can be understood both in terms of the immediate film experience, but also, for Australian viewers in terms of two ‘events’ – Reconciliation and the Uluru Statement – that help shape what national and counter histories of Australia have power at different times. The objectives of the article are therefore twofold. The first is to catalogue some of the ways each films’ marketing machine and then some key critics explained or described the plot and narrative of the two films, in particular how they explained the idea of colonial trauma in relation to the two events. The second objective is to examine how the reviewers/marketing material explained how each film deployed these ideas in order to challenge historically powerful understandings of history and belonging – in its multiple meanings – in Australia.' (Publication abstract)

(p. 47-62)
Convict/Aboriginal Partnerships and Ruptured Histories in The Nightingale, James Findlay , single work criticism

'This article considers the convict/Aboriginal partnership at the heart of Jennifer Kent's The Nightingale. In doing so it locates Clare and Billy’s relationship within a broader representational history of convict/Aboriginal partnerships on screen. It explores how The Nightingale conforms to, or ruptures, the narrative patterns and tropes that have developed around such encounters. Furthermore, it considers the partnership’s revisionist potential and continuing limitations as a representational means to exploring the multi-layers of power, violence and colonisation on screen.' (Publication abstract)

(p. 63-76)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 21 Dec 2020 12:36:04
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