When John, a composer, is told by his wife Helen that she has been having an affair, his world begins to collapse around him. Instead of attempting to address the issues that led his wife to seek solace with another man, John pursues a negative response. To make matters worse his father is dying in hospital. As John becomes more and more morose, his behaviour also becomes increasingly unpredictable, leading to incidents that are underpinned by potential violence. Unable to continue living with her husband, Helen and their daughter move out. John's attempt to suicide by overdosing on pills fails and he instead wakes up to find himself in a psychiatric unit. It is not until his father dies that John is finally able to gain perspective on the reasons for the break-down of his marriage and the extent of his loss.
(Source: Australian Screen)
'Although they possess 'a European heart', writes director Paul Cox of his films, their roots are firmly in Australia (1998a: 82). In this chapter, I attend to the diasporic aspects of the biography and early films of Paul Cox, exploring well-known works such as Kostas (1979), Lonely Hearts (1982) and Man of Flowers (1983), and paying particular attention to My First Wife (1984). This largely historical chapter works to better comprehend how such films, from the 1970s and 1980s, 'construct' Paul Cox as an exilic, 'homeless' Australian film-maker. These films, well received by Australian and international audiences and critics, popularized Cox's name in the art house world as an Australian auteur making subtle films about human relationships, as 'Australia's Ingmar Bergman' (Chipperfield 1989: 12; Rattigan 1991: 224-26). It is through the recurring themes of exile and isolation, the diasporic motifs of memory and migration, and filmic strategies deploying the construction of mental landscapes and 'European' interiors that the personal relationship between Cox the film-maker and his adopted homeland is to be understood. ' (Introduction)
'Although they possess 'a European heart', writes director Paul Cox of his films, their roots are firmly in Australia (1998a: 82). In this chapter, I attend to the diasporic aspects of the biography and early films of Paul Cox, exploring well-known works such as Kostas (1979), Lonely Hearts (1982) and Man of Flowers (1983), and paying particular attention to My First Wife (1984). This largely historical chapter works to better comprehend how such films, from the 1970s and 1980s, 'construct' Paul Cox as an exilic, 'homeless' Australian film-maker. These films, well received by Australian and international audiences and critics, popularized Cox's name in the art house world as an Australian auteur making subtle films about human relationships, as 'Australia's Ingmar Bergman' (Chipperfield 1989: 12; Rattigan 1991: 224-26). It is through the recurring themes of exile and isolation, the diasporic motifs of memory and migration, and filmic strategies deploying the construction of mental landscapes and 'European' interiors that the personal relationship between Cox the film-maker and his adopted homeland is to be understood. ' (Introduction)
