THE DEATH AND LIFE OF OTTO BLOOM

Australia, 2017, 85 minutes, Colour.
Xavier Samuel, Rachel Ward, Matilda Brown, Rose Riley, Terry Camilleri, Amber Clayton, Jacek Koman, Tyler Coppin, Suzy Cato- Gashler, John Gaden.
Directed by Chris Jones.

Whew! And that’s an understatement.

It may or may not be helpful to be informed that this is a film which is dramatises physics and metaphysics: what it is to exist, to exist in time, what is identity, what is consciousness, what is memory. This may sound off-putting but, on the other hand, it could be seen as challenging.

The setting is Melbourne and film is set in the early 1980s through to the early 1990s.
In under 90 minutes, the screenplay invites its audience into a narrative about a young man, Otto Bloom (Xavier Samuel). He is found homeless by the police but is not a vagrant – but he has no idea who he is. The person who tries to discover his identity is a psychologist an enthusiastic young woman, Ada (Matilda Brown) who studies him, is attracted to him, forms a relationship with him.

What emerges is the extraordinary revelation that Otto is living in two directions at once. (It may be useful to recall the curious case Benjamin Button and the fact that his physical growth was from adult hood to infancy but Otto’s change is in his consciousness). Physically, Otto’s growth has been ordinary, from infancy to adulthood. His significant problem is that he is unable to remember the past. As he lives his life, he cannot remember anything. But, and here is the extraordinary aspect of the story, his memory moving from the future to the present, his memories are all of the future.

Watching the film, it is very difficult to get one’s mind around this double dynamic let alone imagine it.

The dramatic device for the audience understand more about Otto is the introduction of six characters of significance in Otto’s experience (though he does not remember them), presented as talking heads, interspersed throughout the film revealing more of Otto as a character. As we struggled to comprehend the consequences of Otto’s consciousness journey from the future, we need the commentaries from these observers. Fortunately, the selection of actors for these roles is very effective. Rachel Ward is the older Ada, engaging the audience in her exuberance in memories as well as the sadness and regrets. Other observers include philosophers, scientists, the policeman, an arts manager… Jacek Koman, John Gaden, Terry Camilleri… (For good effect Rachel Ward and Matilda Brown are actual mother and daughter.)

Quite an amount of the dialogue raises issues of time, relativity, Einstein, a nod to Stephen Hawking, the audience sometimes tempted to consider some of the dialogue as sententious. This is not to suggest that the film narrative has no plot development. In fact, it is divided into chapters, tracing what happens to Otto, celebrity, achievement (especially in art) but also the decline and fall of Otto Bloom, a media darling, then rejected, and mocked by the media, curious about his relationships, with Ada, with a singer and her being in the public eye becoming too much for her, taking up with an American manager.

The scope of the film is quite ambitious for writer-director Chris Jones – and, to be fair to him, to Otto Bloom and his admirers, the film should probably be seen again.



1. The title, expectations?

2. The Melbourne sitting, the 1980s and 1990s, later years? The hospital, the psychologists offer, the mansion, the world of art exhibitions? New York sequences? The musical score?

3. Structure, the range of talking heads, their insertion into the narrative? The psychologist, the philosophical observer, the scientist, the policeman, the art dealer? The framing of the events and flashbacks through the talking heads? Access to Otto for the audience through them?

4. The use of colour, black-and-white?

5. The introduction to Otto, his being found by the police, the interview, Ada and her interrogation, his not having any memories? Taping the interviews? His confiding in her, that he had no memories? Living for the future into the past without memories of the past? The credibility of the character, Xavier Samuel’s performance?

6. The role of the policeman, his memories, the interview? Finding Otto, his seeming to not have any criminal background?

7. The philosophical and scientific issues: time, relationships, relativity, physics, Einstein, the reference to Stephen Hawking? Otto and his physical age, the decline of his interior age and consciousness? Difficulties for the audience in comprehending Otto’s experience, his descriptions?

8. The statements about science and philosophy, the claims, the accusation of pretentiousness? Mystical aspects – especially with all the photos of Ada and Otto present in them?

9. The chapter headings, Otto’s rise and fall, celebrity, the media, art, relationships, the importance of public opinion, public opinion and its collapse, his death?

10. The older Ada, compared with the young and enthusiastic woman, her work, at home, bringing Otto to the home, the relationship, the course of the relationship, its coming to an end? In terms of his coming from the future and knowing the future? Not remembering her name? His later painting of her? Ada and searching all the records, photos, not able to find any record of him?

11. Otto going to the media, their puzzle, his personality and as being accepted? The break with Ada? Suzy, art, her career, Singer? The effect of public scrutiny? Her mental state, killing herself? His not remembering her? The public and their reaction to his lack of grief?

12. Nancy Barron, the Americans, taking up with Otto, being his agent, sharing his decline?

13. Ada going to New York, the turn? His poor art after successful options? His becoming more reclusive?

14. TV commentators, sneering at him about his style?

15. His becoming a child in consciousness, the killer, his being stabbed? The police, the interviews, his sense of destiny – and his knowing the end of his life?

16. A film of imagination, intellect, story and symbols?