Soft Fruit

Critical Review and Bibliography by Tegan Madsen (19916388)

Credits

Director Christina Andreef

Producer Helen Bowden

Executive Producer Jane Campion

Written by Christina Andreef

Cinematographer Laszlo Baranyai

Editor Jane Moran

Music Antony Partos

Sound Designer Sam Petty

Production Design Sarah Stollman

Costume Design Jane Holland

Distributor Fox Searchlight

Cast

Jeanie Drynan Patsy

Linal Haft Vic

Genevieve Lemon Josie

Sascha Horler Nadia

Alicia Talbot Vera

Russell Dykstra Bo

Jordan Frankland Thomas

Terry Weaver Podge

Trevor Mills Smudge

Cheyenne Dobbs Gertie

Dion Bilios Bud

Andrew Hunter Bikie #1

Pat Bishop Nursing Sister

Barry Evans Bikie#2

Marin Mimica Swifty

Release Dates

Sydney film Festival: June 23, 1999 New Zealand: June 8, 2000

Australian release: October 28, 1999 Iceland (Video Release): March 5, 2001

US (Sunderance Film Festival): January 21, 2000 Malaysia (Australian Film Festival): March 15 2001

US release: March 17, 2000 France: June 15, 2001

Argentina (Bueno Aires Film Festival): April 11, 2000 HongKong (Australian Centenary Film Festival):

September 9, 2001

Source: Internet Movie Database (http://imdb.com/search)

Box Office Figures

Australian Box Office Gross

Opening: $3,984 Total Gross: $396,454

US Box Office Gross

Opening: $6,051 Total Gross: $11,132

Sources: The Numbers, Box Office Data, Movie Stars, Idle Speculation (Http://the_numbers.com/movies/2000/FRUIT.html

Urban Cinefiles (http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/News_Bums_on_seats_New.asp)

Interviews

Jeanie Drynan

‘DRYNAN, JEANIE; Soft Fruit’, in Urbancinefiles, (http://urbancinefile.com.au/home/article_view.asp? Article_ID=2919&Section=Interviews) 1997- 2002

Reviews and Essays

Ellingson, A. ‘Soft Fruit’, in Box Office Magazine, 2000

Fitzgerald, M. ‘Steel Life With Volcano: Christina Andreef turns death, sex and lunch into a bittersweet and surprisingly satisfying mix, in Time Magazine, 1999

Mathews, J. ‘Soft Fruit’, in New York Daily Times, 2000

Monder, E. ‘Soft Fruit’, in Film Journal International, 2001

Parry, C. ‘Soft Fruit’ in, iF Magazine, 2000

Scott, A. O. ‘Soft Fruit: untangling the knots in Fraying Family ties’ in, The New York Times, 2000

Thomas, K. ‘Movie Review: Soft Fruit’, in Los Angeles Times, 2000

Wilson, C. ‘Soft Fruit’ in LA WEKLY, 2000

Winter, J. ‘Family Viewing’, in The Village Voice, 2000

There are also other reviews on ‘Soft Fruit’ to be found on the Internet.

‘Soft Fruit’ official site (http://www.foxsearchlight.com/production/softfruit.html)

Cancela, L. ‘Soft Fruit, de Christina Andreef’, in Otrocampo festivales, 2000 (www.otrocampo.com/festivales/bsas2000/softfruit.html)

Keller, L. ‘Soft Fruit’, in Urban Cinefile, (http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp? a=2675&s=video_files), 1997-2002

Klein, A. ‘The Family Hour’ in Los Angeles New Times, (http://www.newtimes la.com/issue/2000-04-06/film6.html), 2000

Maitland, M. ‘The last days’, in Cinebooks database, 2000

Notaras, G. ‘Soft Fruit, a missed opportunity’, in World Socialist Web Site, wsws.org, (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jan2000/soft-j28.shtml), 2000

Null, C. ‘Soft Fruit’, in film critic.com, 2001

Padmore, C. “Soft Fruit’ in, Apollo guide Review, (http://apolloguide.com/mov_revtemp.asp? Cld=2269), [date of publication not available]

Scholfield, S. A. ‘Soft fruit, in M/C Reviews Familiar Funny Farm, (http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/soft.html), 2000

[This site has since been closed]

On-line Presence

Most of the reviews I found for Soft Fruit were on the world wide web, although the presence of this film on the internet is not in any way great. The Internet Movie Database provided the most information pertaining release dates and information about film crew and actors. The Rotten Tomatoes web site was particularly useful in directing me to reviews on Soft Fruit; the Urban Cinefile web site also led to reviews and the only interview I managed to dig up- which was with Jeanie Drynan.

Collecting the Information

Searching for information on this film proved to be a bit of a nightmare. I thought there would have been a lot of information on the web for this film and reviews for Soft Fruit would have made it into many film magazines (since it is Christina Andreef debut feature film). I searched various film journals including Film Comment and Sight and Sound at the Murdoch University Library but was unsuccessful in finding reviews on the film or interviews with its filmmakers and actors.

As previously mentioned, most of the information I found was on the internet- where the Rotten Tomatoes web site led me to reviews from other publications. The search engines I used were Google.com and Yahoo.com

Critical Review

Christina Andreef’s debut feature film ‘Soft Fruit’, 1999, explores the reality of dying in what feels a very natural and at hard times hard-hitting manner with bouts of comic relief to soften the impact of the blows assaulted by death.

The film starts off with Patsy’s (Jeanie Drynan) grown up children flying back to the family nest in the coastal town of Port Kembla so that their terminally ill mother can spend her last weeks in a chaotically full house, surrounded by those who love her.

Nadia (Sacha Holler) has packed up herself and her children and made her way back home from Sydney, contributing scenes of nudity, sex and masturbation to the film. Josie (Genevieve Lemon) has come home from America with her children making certain everyone knows how great she, America and her life over there are. Bo (Russell Dykstra) has been released from prison on compassionate grounds and relieves his mother from the constant rambling’s’ of his bossy sisters. Lastly, Vera (Alicia Talbot) despite only living down the street, has come home to play the role of Head Nurse to her mother, occupy the most comfortable bedroom in the house and to throw temper tantrums when nobody listens to her.

The narrative of the film forces the audience to position them selves in both Patsy’s and her family’s shoes. We follow Patsy through the experiences of her apparently agonising treatments and adventures into the land of drug induced hallucinations whilst her children take it in turns to look after her. We are faced with the reality of the future Patsy has come to terms with and has begun to embrace as she gives up her chemotherapy and shops for her own coffin. We also witness the anguish Nadia, Vera, Josie, Bo and husband Vic go through trying to understand the way their mother/ wife has given into death while they try and convince her to fight for life.

‘Soft Fruit’ does not wholly focus on death. Andreef also looks at the dysfunctional family ties that exist between the film’s central characters. There is a lot of sibling rivalry going on through out the film as brother and sisters alike fight for mum’s attention. Patsy tries to be fair to all her children and the audience gets to be a part of the unique relationships she has with each of her offspring. We see her treat them all in a way specific to making that particular child feel loved and important.

The film ends with Patsy’s son and husband re-evaluating their formerly dissolved relationship, coinciding with Patsy’s death. The children all leave home again, and Patsy gets a twenty one-bullet salute (a compromise of the twenty one-gun salute she’d asked her husband for).

‘Soft Fruit’ compels its audience to reflect on how they would react to the situation of a dying loved one. On one hand we want our loved ones/ Patsy to fight for their/her life because we don’t want to face our potential loss. However through the use of Patsy’s point of view, we also get the sense that death would be a blessing in relieving our loved one from pain. Christina Andreef uses family realism as a tool to create comedy through out the film, which helps to balance out the feelings of melancholy evoked by this narrative.

Critical Uptake

‘Soft Fruit’ received a varied reception across the globe. Many critics hailed Christina Andreef’s debut feature film as “hilarious” and suggest that Andreef does a brilliant job of balancing humour with pathos. A review in Time Magazine, (1999) states, “‘Soft Fruit’ is a tear-jerker, but it jerks our tears with an art”. Many reviews also hail performances by Actors in particularly the work of Jeanie Drynan.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are those who did not think the film was remarkable in any way. “… Andreef’s feature-length debut, is a mutant strain of her mentor’s [Jane Campion] domestic horror comedies”, (Winter, The Village Voice, 2000). Christopher Null, from Film Critic.com (2001), suggests ‘Soft Fruit’ is “the epitome of what’s wrong with Australian cinema today”. He goes on to add, “the whole story reeks of falsehood, yet another dysfunctional family from down under, waiting for someone to die so the movie can end. Bizarre without any sense of subversion…”

Despite bad reviews by some critics, ‘Soft Fruit’ won a myriad of awards around the world including: The AFI award for Best Lead Actor which went to Russell Dykstra and Best Actress in a Supporting Role which went to Sacha Holler. The film shared the Film Critics Circle Award for Best Original Screenplay (2000). ‘Soft Fruit’ was voted Most Popular Australian Film at the Sydney Film Festival (1999), it won the International Critics’ Prize at Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival (1999) and Special Jury Prize at the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema (1999). The soundtrack for ‘Soft Fruit’ by Anthony Partos, went on to win The APRA Award for Best Original Soundtrack, and also The Australian Film Institute and Australian Guild of Screen Composers Award.

Source: Null, C. Filmcritic.com, 2001

Winter, J. The Village Voice, 2000

Circumstances of Production

There was not much information to be found regarding the circumstances of production for ‘Soft Fruit’. In a review I found on the film in Time Magazine, (2000) I discovered that Christina Andreef based ‘Soft Fruit’ on her own experiences, in particular her own mother’s death in 1989. Andreef “…became interested in what grief looks like… as opposed to how you see it in the movies, with much wan and pallid languish.’’ (Fitzgerald, Time Magazine, 1999).

The Interview with Jeanie Drynan found on the Urban Cinema web site, reveals Christina Andreef wrote the role of Patsy specifically for Jeanie Drynan. Andreef met up with Jeanie Drynan to show her the script, but Drynan did not commit to the role at first. Drynan was later invited to the screen test for the role of Patsy, but failed to turn up, as she was more interested in concentrating on her family at the time. Eventually Drynan received a call telling her that Andreef was really keen to cast her as Patsy. Drynan turned up to rehearsals, took part in some improvisation work with Sacha Holler, Alicia Talbot and Genevieve Lemon and decided she was up for the role. It wasn’t until the film’s premiere at the State to close the Sydney Film Festival that Christina Andreef revealed that she had written the role of Patsy specifically for Jeanie Drynan when introducing the film.

‘Soft Fruit’ was financed by the AFC, as were the two short films Christina Andreef directed preceding ‘Soft Fruit’, ‘Excursion To The Bridge Of Friendship’ and ‘The Gap’.

Sources: Time Magazine, 2000

Urban Cinefiles, 1997- 2002

Prior and Subsequent Work

Director of ‘Soft Fruit’, Christina Andreef’s prior work includes being long time assistant to director Jane Campion. Andreef worked with Campion on ‘Sweetie’ (1989), ‘Angle at my Table’ (1992) and ‘The Piano’ (1993). Andreef was also assistant director to Alison Maclean on ‘Crush’ (1992).

Sort films directed by Christina Andreef include ‘Excursion To The Bridge Of Friendship’ (1993), ‘The Gap’ (1994) and ‘Shooting the Breeze’ (1996)

Producer, Helen Bowden’s was also responsible for producing ‘Parklands’ (1996).

Executive Producer Jane Campion has had an extensive career in film. Her works date back to 1982 when she directed ‘An Exercise in Discipline- Peel’. Other works of Campion include being both Camera Operator and Director on the film ‘Passionless Moments’ (1983). She directed three movies during 1984, ‘Mishaps of Seduction and Conquest’, ‘Girl’s Own Story’ and ‘After Hours’. 1986 saw Campion direct ‘Dancing Daze’ and ‘Two Friends’. In 1989 she was Director and Casting Director for ‘Sweetie’. During 1990 Campion directed both the film “An Angel at My Table’ and the miniseries of the same title. Campion then moved on to write and direct ‘The Piano’ (1993). 1996 saw her direct ‘The Portrait of a Lady’. ‘Wholly Smoke’ (1999) was written and directed by Campion. “In the Cut (2002) currently concludes Jane Campion’s work in film.

Cinematographer of ‘Soft Fruit’ Laszlo Baranyai, also has quite and extensive career in his field of cinematography which appears to have begun in (1985) where he was the cinematographer for ‘Gyerekrablas a Palank utcaban’. Other film productions where Baranyai has been part of the cinematography include, ‘Elvarazsolt dollar, Az’ (1985), ‘Khromoj dervish (1985), ‘ A Masik ember (1987), ‘Clowning around (1992), True Love and Chaos (1992), ‘Crackers’ (1998) and Dead end (1999). Baranyai was Director of Photography: second unit on the film ‘Zeus and Roxanne’ (1997).

He has also worked on television series as a Cinematographer, his works in Television include: “Raw FM” (1997), ‘The Genie From Down Under 2’ (1998), ‘Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude’ (1998) (mini series), ‘Eugenie Sandler P.I’ (2000), ‘Sparky D Comes to town (2001), ‘Horace and Tina’ (2001) and ‘Short Cuts’ (2002). Laszlo Baranyai was also Director of Photography: second unit on other television productions such as, ‘Lena: My 100 Children’ (1987), ‘Silver Strand’ (1995), ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ (1999), ‘On the Beach’ (2000), and ‘Waiting at the Royal’ (2000).

Jeanie Drynan who plays the role of Patsy in ‘Soft Fruit’ is quite a familiar Australian face. She has appeared in many movies throughout 1966 to 2002. She has also appeared in numerous television shows. Drynan’s film appearances include, ‘They’re a weird mob’ (1966), ‘2,000 Weeks (1969), ‘Don’s Party’ (1976), ‘The Picture Show Man’ (1977), ‘Money Movers’ (1979), ‘Touch and Go’ (1980), ‘Fantasy Man’ (1984), ‘Relatives’ (1985), ‘Cappuccino’ (1989), ‘Muriel’s Wedding’ (1994), ‘Paperback Hero’ (1998) and ‘A Kind of Hush’ (1998). Drynan’s television appearances include guest appearances in “Riptide” episodes #1.8 and #1.13, “Boney” episodes #1.11 and #2.9 and in “Bluey” episode #1.26. She also appears in the following Television series, “Class of’74” (1974), “Chopper Squad” (1978), “Prisoner” (1979), “A Season in Purgatory” (1996) and “Dossa and Joe” (2002).

Linal Haft, Vic in ‘Soft Fruit’ has appeared in the following films, ‘Birth of the Beatles’ (1979), ‘Moulin Rouge’ (2001), ‘He Died with a Felafel In His Hand’ (2001) and ‘The Man Who Sued God’ (2001). His Television appearances include: ‘I, Claudius’ (1976) (mini series), ‘Minder on the Orient Express’ (1987), ‘Escape from Sobibor’ (1987), ‘Pete Townshend Live from the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House’ (1993), ‘The Three Stooges’ (2000), ‘The Potato Factory’ (2000) (mini series), ‘Ihaka: Blunt Instrument’ (2000) and ‘Love is a Four- Letter Word’ (2001). Haft’s notable television guest appearances include: “Homicide” (1964) episode # 1.145, “Riptide’ (1968) episodes # 1.22 and # 1.24, “The Sweeny” (1975) episode # 4.6, “Minder” (1979) episode # 3.13, “The Professionals” (1977) episode # 5.10, “Remington Steel” (1982) episode # 4.2, “Dempsey and Makepeace” (1985) episode # 2.1, “Roll Over Beethoven” (1985) episode # 2.7, “Matlock”
(1986) episode # 2.1, “Casualty” (1986) episode # 3.1, “The Upper Hand” (1990), episode # 4.12, “Good Guys Bad Guys” (1997) episode # 2.9, “The Bill” (1983) episode # 1998.106 1/19/2001, “Farscape” (1999) episodes # 2.20 and 2.21, and “Water Rats” (1996) episodes # 6.25 7/31/2001 and #6.26 8/7/2001.

Genevieve Lemon who plays the role of Josie in ‘Soft Fruit’ has not appeared in quite as many movies/ television series etc as Jeanie Drynan and Linal Haft. Her Film appearances include: ‘Luigi’s Ladies’ (1989), ‘Sweetie’ (1989), ‘Big Ideas’ (1992), ‘The Piano’ (1993), ‘Billy’s Holiday’ (1995), ‘The Well’ (19970 and ‘Holly Smoke’ (1999). Lemon’s television appearances are as follows, “The Young Doctors” (1976), “Prisoner” (1979) (1984), “Neighbours” (1985) (1991-1992), “Seven Deadly Sins” (1993) (mini series), “Heartland” (1994) (mini series) and “After the Beep” (1996).

Sacha Holler plays Nadia in ‘Soft Fruit’, she has also been seen in other film productions such as, ‘Billy’s Holiday’ (1995), ‘Blackrock’ (1997), ‘Praise’ (1998), ‘Babe: Pig in the City’ (1998), ‘My Mother Frank’ (2000), ‘Walk the Talk’ (2000) and ‘Russian Doll’ (2001). Her television appearances include: “O’Loghlin On Saturday Night” (1999), “Grass Roots” (2000), “Changi” (2001) (mini series), ‘Secret Bridesmaid’s Business’ (2002), ‘Halifax f.p: 21’ (2002) and “Crash and Burn” (2002).

Russell Dykstra plays the role of Bo in ‘Soft Fruit’, he has also appeared in the following film productions, ‘Paperback Hero’ (1998), ‘Lantana’ (2001) and ‘Garage Days’ (2002). He has been in the television series “Bondi Banquet” (1999), and guest appeared in “Medivac” (1996) episodes # 1.12 11/26/1996, and “Water Rats” (1996) episodes # 6.9 4/10/2001 and # 6.10 4/17/2001.

Source: Internet Movie Database

Position and Value of Australian Film

O’Regan states “All national cinemas need to be prestigious, Other and simply mundane. All seem to need to reject and embrace Hollywood” (Australian National Cinema, 1996, pp141). Andreef certainly did reject a Hollywood style format when making ‘Soft Fruit’. What could have been a very melodramatic film is in my opinion a mundane, realistic film with bouts of comedy. As mentioned previously ‘Soft Fruit’ won many awards throughout Australian and International film festivals. I don’t this would have been possible if Andreef had strived to create a commercial copycat version of a melodramatic American film.

The element of mundaneness contributing to the success of ‘Soft Fruit’ in the festival film market was also responsible for its commercial failure. Many of the reviews I found from the US made mention of the presence of ‘droll humour’ in the film, and how the storyline “reeks of falsehood”, (Null, filmcritic.com, 2001). One of the things I loved about this film is how realistic it is. The mundane lives of the characters, to me is typical of lives led by Australians. I’m not trying to suggest that Australia is a country occupied solely by boring individuals, but rather that we are not a nation abundant with ‘super stars’ who fancy ourselves as the be- all and end- all of the Universe. We are everyday ‘normal’ people.

Patsy, the mother in Andreef’s film is a character you could imagine to be your best friend’s mother or the lady who lives down the street. The daughter characters in ‘Soft Fruit’ are all played by plump, voluptuous women, they are women who other Australian women can identify with. In fact none of the characters on display in the film are attractive by ‘Hollywood’ standards of wafer thin, polished skin and all- round manicured beauty.

In one of the reviews I found on ‘Soft Fruit’, the author makes mention of the lush green gardens surrounding the family home, she goes on to say “Australia never looked so verdant on film”, (Winter, The Village Voice, 2000). Americans are obviously still connecting Australia to the idea of Australia being a barren wasteland, exhibiting only desert and swamps, portrayed in films such as ‘Crocodile Dundee’. Perhaps contemporary Australian films such as ‘Soft Fruit’ could serve as a tool to educate other nations on the reality of the way the majority of Australians live- in towns and suburbs.

Sources: O’Regan, T. Australian National Cinema, Routledge, London, 1996

Australian National Cinema as a medium sized English Language Cinema

“Hollywood dominates English language cinema” (O’Regan, 1996, pp77). Subsequently, the cinema of Australia along with Britain, New Zealand and Anglophone Canada are medium sized English language cinemas. These countries have to compete with each other for exposure within the similar exhibition markets they share (O’Regan, 1996, pp77).

Consequences of Australia’s medium sized English language cinema for ‘Soft Fruit’ are problems relating to exposure of the film. ‘Soft Fruit’, being just one of hundreds of Anglophone films to come out between 1999 and 2000 had to compete with an abundance of English language cinema. Not only did the film have to compete with dominant Hollywood films, but also had to compete for attention within the festival film market with other medium sized English language cinemas.

Despite winning many awards in Australia, the Box office figures for “Soft Fruit’ show that the film did not do so well within its home country where it only grossed $396, 454 (Urban cinefiles) and worse yet in America where it earned $11, 132 (The Numbers). ‘Soft Fruit’ however, was hailed at Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival and Italy’s Torino Film Festival where it would have been screened as a ‘foreign film’, most likely with subtitles.

‘Soft Fruit’ is a great example of the struggle Australian cinema is under, competing for attention and exposure as a medium sized English language cinema with in an Anglophone market dominated by Hollywood.

Sources: O’Regan, T. Australian National Cinema, Routledge, London, 1996

The Numbers, Box Office Data, Movie Stars, Idle Speculation (Http://the_numbers.com/movies/2000/FRUIT.html

Urban Cinefiles (http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/News_Bums_on_seats_New.asp