SPIRITS OF THE AIR, GREMLINS OF THE CLOUDS

Australia, 1989, 93 minutes,
Norman Boyd, Rick Davis, Michael Lake.
Directed by Alex Proyas.

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds is an experimental film. It was nominated for design and costume at the Australian Film Institute Awards. However, it is an eccentric film akin to European or Latin American experiments.

The film is set in the distant future in Australia, A stranger ‘is being pursued and comes across an eccentric brother and sister in the deserted countryside. The sister is epileptic, the brother is lame - however, he wants to help the young man to fly and escape. Brother and sister have the opportunity to escape, but are unable to.

While the plot outline is straightforward, the visuals, the creation of mood, the interactions and the rather hysterical performances from the brother and sister create a bizarre film.

Director, Alex Proyas went on to direct The Crow 2, Dark City, Garbage Days and I Robot.

1. The title, the meanings?

2. Creative and experimental film? European and Latin American parallels?

3. The surreal atmosphere: futuristic, the mediaeval tones, the ruined cars, the ordinary house, the desert, Smith being pursued, the ambition to fly? The flying machine?

4. The use of religious emblems: the gargoyles on the roof, the crosses and the graves, the Catholic symbolism and popular piety, pictures of Mary and the Sacred Heart?

5. The stranger and his being pursued, his physical and psychological state, collapse, arrival, Felix receiving him, Betty and her fearful reactions, his hunger, the meal, cleaning himself up, interaction with the brother and sister, practising the flying, the experiments, the building the craft, the decision to go, his leaving and escaping?

6. Felix and his character, lame? Parents, trapped? The atmosphere of disaster, his relationship with Betty, her epilepsy, the meals and her fears, his enthusiasm for flying, his experiments, drawing board, feverish and hysteric, his success, his inability to leave?

7. Betty and her epilepsy, playing the fiddle, her clothes and wigs, eccentric behaviour, whimpering and fear, paranoia, her room, her religion, her not wanting to leave her father, her attitudes towards her brother, staying?

8. The silhouettes of the pursuers - with the mediaeval visual overtones? Music?

9. The future, isolation, people trapped, the terrain?

10. The contrast with flight, failure, experiments, the exhilaration of escape?

11. The film as offbeat, experimental, visual and verbal impact, narrative strength and weakness, surreal?