Praise
( dir. John Curran
)
Australia
:
Emcee Films
,
1999
Z938781
1999
single work
film/TV
humour
Within the confines of a seedy Brisbane boarding house, Gordon, the inert protagonist, and his demanding, eczema-suffering girlfriend Cynthia repeatedly attempt to connect with each other. Unlike other films portraying sex in a rather open and frank way, Praise is less about sex than about failure. Being a loser has been a regular mainstay of independent films for a long time, but this film attempts to expose the emotional strata rather than the social aspects. Cynthia's crudeness becomes the expression of self-defeating behaviour and Gordon's torpor is played for much more than laughs from the audience. Praise is in many ways an era-defining Australian film, accurately portraying and examining the contemporary landscape of heterosexual love and the blurring of traditional gender roles and emotional states.
1988
St Leonards
:
Allen and Unwin
,
1995
Z77695
1995
single work
novel
(taught in 4 units)
'It's the Bicentennial year and for Gorden - failed writer and bottleshop boy - it seems his life is going nowhere. It's time to escape. From his overcrowded house, from Brisbane, from Expo '88, from everything. He stumbles into Wayne who has connections in Darwin and the promise of work. So the two of them head north towards swamps and crocodiles and sandflies innumerable, in search of inspiration, and of their rightful place in the culture of a nation.' (from back cover)
