"One Night The Moon"
Film Review - Radio National Arts Today
Reviewer
Julie Rigg
Director
Dir: Rachel Perkins; Sc: John Romeril
Cast
music composed by Kev Carmody, Paul Kelly, Maireed Hannah.
Cast: Kaarin Fairfax
Paul Kelly
Memphis Kelly
Kelton Pell
Ruby Hunter
An Australian film musical, one might think, deserves a bit of fanfare, or at least some hoopla and a drum roll or two. Even if it does weigh in at a mere 57 minutes long.
One Night The Moon is a film which taps into one of white Australia's most potent myths: that of the lost child, the child missing in the bush.
In this case, the bush is actually the stark and ancient country of the Flinders Ranges, and in the cool, serene imagery director Rachel Perkins and cinematographer Kim Batterham have conjured, they have rarely looked so beautiful,
The story is set in the l930's and begins with images of great peace and security. In a small settler homestead a mother is putting her child to bed, and singing her a lullaby about 'the night the moon came rolling by calling all dreamers to come for a ride.' It has the dreamy simplicity of a fable, this scene, the mother lying curled against the child on the bed, the father entering - drawn by the singing. It becomes even more magical when the small girl, woken by the bright light of the full moon rising, climbs out of her window to follow it.
When the parents find the empty bed, the father rides for help. But the police arrive in the morning with an Aboriginal tracker and there is conflict. The father doesn't want a black tracker on his land.
Paul Kelly plays the father in this film, Kaarin Fairfax the mother, and the small girl is their daughter Memphis. The Perth actor Kelton Pell plays the tracker, Albert, and Ruby Hunter his wife.
Kelly has a significant presence onscreen: his weathered face is that of a driven man, and he is at ease in the landscape in a very convincing way. But for me, acting and performance honours go to Kaarin Fairfax and Kelton Pell...she with an openness rarely seen in music drama, Pell with his pride, compassion and disgust at those who would risk a child's life for a prejudice.
One Night The Moon has interesting origins. When composer Paul Grabowsky was Head of ABC Television Arts and Entertainment wanted to bring more music drama to the screen. The ABC teamed with Australia's development division Oz Opera, and with Kevin Lucas from Music Arts Dance films.
They called for submissions from a range of artists. They were looking particularly for potential works in which the music drove the story.
Ten projects were shortlisted, four were commissioned, and this is the first to have production completed. Kevin Carmody, Paul Kelly and Maireed Hannan wrote the music, John Romeril wrote the original script and Rachel Perkins rewrote, shifting the point of view of the drama more decisively towards that of the mother of the missing girl.
It's an interesting idea this...the music driving the story. In opera it does, it must. But I think in film it has to be integral. I once heard a very gifted documentary maker, who worked in radio, talking about 'taking the sound dog for a walk'. His point was that in many works, the sound dog is either dragging on the leash, or pulling ahead, dragging the narrative behind.
Here they are in step most of the way. The music, the songs, unfold so disarmingly, so fluidly that they deepen the mood of impending tragedy while holding the suspense. When Paul Kelly drives the tracker Albert from the farm the refrain is 'this land is mine'. But Albert's quiet refrain is 'This land is me'.
Only once, about three quarters of the way through does the weave between music and story lose it's rhythm, and the sound dog drag behind. When the father is despairing in the homestead kitchen, we want to be out on the ranges with the mother and the tracker.
But it builds to a powerful emotional climax, this film, enhanced by the gravity and sweetness of Kaarin Fairfax's performance. She is a considerable talent as an actor and singer, Fairfax, and it is good to see her on screen again.
One Night The Moon is a film which takes a difficult idea and succeeds with a lightness of touch. The issues it deals with are stark, and the story could have been very heavy-handed, but it's told with eloquent simplicity.
Such are the dilemmas of releasing small, risk-taking Australian films, that it is screening only in five cinemas in capital cities around Australia. Seek it out now; it needs to be seen on a big screen.
Film Review - Radio National Arts Today
Reviewer
Julie Rigg
Director
Dir: Rachel Perkins; Sc: John Romeril
Cast
music composed by Kev Carmody, Paul Kelly, Maireed Hannah.
Cast: Kaarin Fairfax
Paul Kelly
Memphis Kelly
Kelton Pell
Ruby Hunter
An Australian film musical, one might think, deserves a bit of fanfare, or at least some hoopla and a drum roll or two. Even if it does weigh in at a mere 57 minutes long.
One Night The Moon is a film which taps into one of white Australia's most potent myths: that of the lost child, the child missing in the bush.
In this case, the bush is actually the stark and ancient country of the Flinders Ranges, and in the cool, serene imagery director Rachel Perkins and cinematographer Kim Batterham have conjured, they have rarely looked so beautiful,
The story is set in the l930's and begins with images of great peace and security. In a small settler homestead a mother is putting her child to bed, and singing her a lullaby about 'the night the moon came rolling by calling all dreamers to come for a ride.' It has the dreamy simplicity of a fable, this scene, the mother lying curled against the child on the bed, the father entering - drawn by the singing. It becomes even more magical when the small girl, woken by the bright light of the full moon rising, climbs out of her window to follow it.
When the parents find the empty bed, the father rides for help. But the police arrive in the morning with an Aboriginal tracker and there is conflict. The father doesn't want a black tracker on his land.
Paul Kelly plays the father in this film, Kaarin Fairfax the mother, and the small girl is their daughter Memphis. The Perth actor Kelton Pell plays the tracker, Albert, and Ruby Hunter his wife.
Kelly has a significant presence onscreen: his weathered face is that of a driven man, and he is at ease in the landscape in a very convincing way. But for me, acting and performance honours go to Kaarin Fairfax and Kelton Pell...she with an openness rarely seen in music drama, Pell with his pride, compassion and disgust at those who would risk a child's life for a prejudice.
One Night The Moon has interesting origins. When composer Paul Grabowsky was Head of ABC Television Arts and Entertainment wanted to bring more music drama to the screen. The ABC teamed with Australia's development division Oz Opera, and with Kevin Lucas from Music Arts Dance films.
They called for submissions from a range of artists. They were looking particularly for potential works in which the music drove the story.
Ten projects were shortlisted, four were commissioned, and this is the first to have production completed. Kevin Carmody, Paul Kelly and Maireed Hannan wrote the music, John Romeril wrote the original script and Rachel Perkins rewrote, shifting the point of view of the drama more decisively towards that of the mother of the missing girl.
It's an interesting idea this...the music driving the story. In opera it does, it must. But I think in film it has to be integral. I once heard a very gifted documentary maker, who worked in radio, talking about 'taking the sound dog for a walk'. His point was that in many works, the sound dog is either dragging on the leash, or pulling ahead, dragging the narrative behind.
Here they are in step most of the way. The music, the songs, unfold so disarmingly, so fluidly that they deepen the mood of impending tragedy while holding the suspense. When Paul Kelly drives the tracker Albert from the farm the refrain is 'this land is mine'. But Albert's quiet refrain is 'This land is me'.
Only once, about three quarters of the way through does the weave between music and story lose it's rhythm, and the sound dog drag behind. When the father is despairing in the homestead kitchen, we want to be out on the ranges with the mother and the tracker.
But it builds to a powerful emotional climax, this film, enhanced by the gravity and sweetness of Kaarin Fairfax's performance. She is a considerable talent as an actor and singer, Fairfax, and it is good to see her on screen again.
One Night The Moon is a film which takes a difficult idea and succeeds with a lightness of touch. The issues it deals with are stark, and the story could have been very heavy-handed, but it's told with eloquent simplicity.
Such are the dilemmas of releasing small, risk-taking Australian films, that it is screening only in five cinemas in capital cities around Australia. Seek it out now; it needs to be seen on a big screen.
Dreams of the lost child in One Night the Moon
Article from "Peephole Journal" by Ruth Richards
It's a haunting image, yet strangely serene. We watch as a young girl, pale-skinned and dark-haired, dressed in a white nightdress and boots, runs across a stark landscape chasing the light of the moon. Seen from a distance, she is an almost ghostly figure. Accompanied by wistful music, a strangely gentle and welcoming harmony, the child is drawn towards the moon. One Night the Moon (2001) is well known for its use of music and songs, but this scene stands out in particular, as it evokes the familiar theme in Australian film of the lost white child.
Rachel Perkins, an Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman, is the founder of production company Blackfella Films and one of Australia's most celebrated filmmakers.1 One Night the Moon is her second feature film (following Radiance (1998)), and first musical (her second musical work is the perhaps more widely recognised Bran Nue Dae (2009)). Set in 1932, One Night the Moon is based on true events: when Rose (Kaarin Fairfax) checks on her daughter Emily one night to find her gone, a massive search is organised. But, when the police bring in Aboriginal tracker Albert (Kelton Pell), Rose's husband Jim (Paul Kelly) refuses his help, stating, "No blacks on my land." Originally the script centered on the story of the tracker but Perkins shifted the focus towards the mother and the loss of her child.
The use of music and song in One Night the Moon differs from and challenges the conventions of the traditional musical format. There is relatively little spoken dialogue; the narrative unfolds through the music (written by Mairead Hannan, Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody) as well as giving voice to the inner thoughts and emotions of the characters. This is exemplified in scenes such as "This Land is Mine," where Jim and Albert sing a duet of sorts. Jim sings of owning the land, whilst Albert counters with "This Land is Me." Another example would be through the song "What Do You Know," in which Rose sings and asks Albert this very question, and he responds in song from a different location. The music is a constant presence, inextricably woven through the film. Discussing the use of the songs in an interview with Kathryn Millard, Perkins states that even though the music is not meant to be expositional, it somehow finds the in-between space of expressing both "exposition" and "inner world." She states, "They're not dialogue and they're not song but somewhere in between."2
In a moment in the film that occurs just prior to the scene in which Emily (Memphis Kelly) disappears into the night, she is safely in bed, lovingly being sung a lullaby by her mother and father:
One night the moon came sailing by Called all the dreamers to come for a ride.
Stars and crescent moons decorate the walls of Emily's bedroom and she is bathed in the warm glow of candlelight. As her parents bid her goodnight, her bedroom is the picture of safety. That feeling of safety doesn't leave, as one might expect, when Emily climbs out her window and follows the light of the moon. The harmony we hear is soothing and inviting, as if the moon itself was using the song to draw Emily away, out of her bed and towards the light. The moment takes on a dreamlike quality. It may be exactly that – a dream. The film cuts from Emily making her way across the landscape to Rose waking from a fitful sleep. She checks her daughter's room, as if sensing something isn't right, and finds her gone. The trance-like mood is broken and a new sense of urgency and threat takes over as her parents desperately search for their daughter. Rose's dream is later confirmed by Albert, who tells her: "Emily followed the moon. Kids follow light."
As stated above, the disappearance of the lost child (more specifically, the lost girl) is a familiar theme in Australian cinema, Other Australian films, such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975) and Dot and the Kangaroo (Yoram Gross, 1977), also feature the disappearance of white girls. However, in those films the moment of disappearance is filled with a sense of foreboding or danger. The three girls in Picnic at Hanging Rock – Miranda, Irma, and Marion – are teenagers at a boarding school, and older than Emily. Like Emily, they too seem to be "spirited away" by some other-worldly force. We never find out what causes them to become so entranced and the moment they vanish is filled with terror (experienced by the viewer through the character of Edith, who runs away screaming). Dot more closely resembles Emily. Around the same age, she becomes lost when chasing a hopping mouse through the bush, tripping and falling into a gully and losing her way home. We experience this disappearance from Dot's perspective, and it is disorienting. The bush takes on a menacing aspect (being a children's film, the menace is somewhat relieved when Dot encounters Kangaroo, who helps her find her way home). In One Night the Moon Perkins offers a unique treatment of the story of the lost child, in that Emily's moment of disappearance is not menacing – it is the aftermath that becomes tragic. Perkins' film thus emphasizes the perspective of the mother and the tracker.
The music we hear during Emily's disappearance returns again and again; the familiar theme plays as Rose remembers moments with her daughter, playing together or teaching her to knead dough. If the music of this film is intended to express the inner thoughts and emotions of its characters, then this music is a literal reflection of the pure and unconditional love Rose feels for her daughter. But, the same musical theme is repeated as Albert sits alone at night, having just sung about his connection to the land, his ability to track. The sung line, "Beyond the known, we're not alone" speaks to his understanding of the land, in extreme contrast to that of Jim's. The music is associated with Jim only once, and briefly. The loss of Emily has caused Jim to withdraw from his wife as he obsessively tries to find Emily on his own; after shouting at Rose that he'll find her, he attempts to reach out and gently touch her, as Rose weeps in bed. It is the only time we hear Emily's theme associated with Jim, and still the focus is mostly on Rose. It is also the last time in the film that Jim reaches out to Rose, to offer her any sort of comfort. The more this musical motif recurs, the more it becomes tinged with sadness.
The sequence of Emily's disappearance is filtered through Rose's perspective – a dream that, thanks to Albert, she learns is a reality. Fiona Probyn writes of the connection shared between Rose and Albert, that their joining forces to find Emily "signals the discordant harmonies of reconciliation" – in particular, she explores their connection through the duet "Unfinished Business."3 But, Perkins highlights their connection in other ways too. One of the lines in that song, sung by Rose, is "Every day I'm with the child, she walks on my dreams." Rose and Albert, the settler wife and the tracker, meet in that in-between space, the dreamscape of Emily's disappearance. They become joined by the light and song of the moon, to be heard one last time as they follow the path Emily took.
- "Perkins, Rachel," The Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, accessed January 29, 2017. https://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0277b.htm
- Kathryn Millard, "One Night the Moon: Interview with Rachel Perkins," Senses of Cinema November (2001), accessed 29 January, 2017. https://sensesofcinema.com/2001/australian-cinema-culture-criticism/moon_interview_perkins/
- Fiona Probyn, "'This Land is Mine/This Land is Me': Reconciling Harmonies in One Night the Moon," Senses of Cinema 19, March (2002), accessed 29 January, 2017. https://sensesofcinema.com/2002/australian-cinema-and-culture/this_land/
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LINKS
https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/a-darker-side-of-the-moon-20021217-gduxx2.html#:~:text=One%20Night%20the%20Moon%20was,Alice%20Garner%2C%20on%20a%20score.
https://onenighthemoon.wordpress.com/synopsis/
https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/one-night-moon/notes/
https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/a-darker-side-of-the-moon-20021217-gduxx2.html#:~:text=One%20Night%20the%20Moon%20was,Alice%20Garner%2C%20on%20a%20score.
https://onenighthemoon.wordpress.com/synopsis/
https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/one-night-moon/notes/
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