Okaythen's Negotiated Study
~Erskineville Kings~



Click here to go to
my Work Journal

Click here to go to
Malcolm ~ review

Click here to go to
the Home Page

Click here to go to
Comparison



Review

Erskineville Kings is a uniquely Australian film. It portrays the Australian male aspect of brotherhood, and shows the conflict resolution between the two brothers after the two each have different memories and views on their father, from childhood. Barky, (Marty Denniss) and Wave (Hugh Jackman) reunited when Barky returns from the canefields of Queensland after escaping the brutal treatment he received as a child from his abusive father. The majority of the film, when something eventually eventuates is played out in the Kings Hotel in Erskineville (post-industrial inner-Sydney area). It is a typical Sydney scorcher, and the mates of Wace, and old mates of Barky's intend seeing it out with beer and smokes at the pub. They are present through out most of the film's duration and are genuinely pleased and anxious to catch up with what Barky has been doing with himself during the three years he ran away for. However his brother Wace is not so understanding. He does not believe that Barky was treated so harshly when he was a child, and that he just received a clip over the ear to put him in place once in a while and that everyone gets that. But Barky vividly recalls otherwise. And the film follows the progression of the resolution between the two.

Cinematography

Genre: Drama, Australian, Conflict resolution

Camera Angles:
The camera angles of the majority of shots that are not focused on people are perspective shots of the setting. And the buildings are shown to be very square and straight. There are shots, like the one where Barky is walking down a large set of steps, with the sun directly behind him, where the camera is angled upwards, towards Barky coming down, with the square building on the left that portray this. With the camera positioned in this way, the shadow formed on the square building with a definite straight edge; consequently the shadow was directly separated from the bright sunlight by a defined dark line. Falling into place with all the other defined lines in the shot. There are a number of these shots throughout the film's duration. These effects occur always on buildings. The whole film being set in the city, shot after shot is looking up towards perspective, shadowed, clean lined buildings. Often rooftops, footpaths, alleys and train-station platforms at the begging of the film particularly, when Barky has arrived in Sydney and is walking back through buildings to his old mate's place. There are reasonable amounts of high low and eye level shots composing the film, but during dialogue the shots cross from person to person.

Shots:
In the film (cinematography aspect) I was aware that the choice of shots in this film included a lot of shots being of the people in it. I suppose that is all that there really can be there isn't a lot of action. But particularly there were mainly shots of the speaker's face, and upper chest. Most of the film's shots were all aimed at a character. Not many actual extreme close-ups but more regular close-ups. The surrounds are mostly red, orange or dull flaky creams. There is also a fair amount of 'Point of View' shots, which are shots from the view of a character. These occurred mainly in the Kings hotel when the disagreements between Barky and Wace happened. However in the perspective shots of the buildings, the ones that are involved are all run down buildings, with chapping paint jobs, and dull powdery colours, or their bright orange sunlit portions, which contrast with the black shadowed sections.

Sound:
The soundtrack is a very thoughtful composition. There are no words at all and the music has been chosen obviously to cast back moods or thoughts in the film at the time. There is not a lot of dialogue during the music, and between the music and what you can see you can find out a lot about the character by just watching. No non-diegetic sounds or voice over (narration) are in the film's soundtrack. Only reflective music or single speaking voices. The music soundtrack is instrumental.

Lighting:
The lighting in this film has been applied in a mixture of really bright direct sunlight with hard shadows, and there are also cooler, shadowed, more restful sections in the film as well. There is a lot of the same lighting in this film, and when it does change it is between the two extremes. There are bright sunlit glarey walls, with adjacent blue skies, and competing with these is shadowed indoors, not as exceptionally glarey lighting sections. The lighting in the film aids the opinion of the extreme light, dark, right-angled perspective, clashing sectors of the film.

Language:
The language that is present reflects the setting, time and storyline of the film. It is a kind of lethargic, can't be bothered, type of speech. The movie is quiet accustomed to this form of dialogue. The dialogue isn't the kind that requires continuous attention from the viewer. Meaning that the viewer doesn't have to listen and register absolutely everything the character says. This is because of the Australian, slow going, taste in the language. As a result it is a very typical male communication. Also for the occasions that occur in this film, it has remarkable similarities to what male's speech is like, in unprepared circumstances, in Australia.

Top

Erskineville Kings[Work Journal][Malcolm][Comparison][Home Page]
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1