THE QUIET ROOM
Australia, 1996, 92 minutes, Colour.
Celine O'Leary, Paul Blackwell, Chloe Ferguson, Phoebe Ferguson.
Directed by Rolf de Heer.
Rolf de Heer came to prominence with his Bad Boy Bubby, winner of AFI awards and many overseas awards. However, his subsequent film, Epsilon, a science-fantasy exploration of our world, has been shown only in one Sydney theatre. With The Quiet Room, he is getting a little more attention. The Quiet Room focuses on a seven year old girl and her child's point of view of her parents' marriage and its deterioration. She stops talking, hoping that this can have an effect on them. De Heer has often spoken of his love for children and his concern for them, especially the impact of their parents. He has an ability to communicate children's perceptions. This was a strong theme of Bad Boy Bubby.
The Quiet Room is a serious film and not a `just a night out' kind of film. In these days of increasing consciousness of the varieties of abuse of children and the impact of the abuse, De Heer has made a contribution to this growing
awareness.
1. A different kind of film? Family? Children?
2. The location: the action happening within the house, within the little girl's room? Outside the house, the glimpses of the beach and the dog running, the walking in the countryside? Confined and restricted - with hopes for opening out? The musical score and its quiet themes?
3. The structure of the film: the focus on the little girl, at age seven, the younger girl? Her being able to move in and out of her present situation and into the past? Communicating with her younger self? Her hearing her parents, her voice-over continually throughout the film, her dialogue with them, though their not hearing it? Her decision not to speak, her motives, her decision to speak?
4. The portrait of a marriage disintegrating, the husband and wife in love, ordinary situations, their impatience with each other, growing tensions, leaving, the separation, the father visiting? The hopes for reconciliation, the seeming failure? The little girl and her perception of this process?
5. The director's understanding of children? His writing the dialogue for the seven-year-old girl? Her speaking as a seven-year-old? Yet the sophistication of her observations, analyses, responses?
6. The portrait of the parents, the loving mother, her care for her daughter, ordinary things in the house like washing the sports uniform? Making the beds and weekends? Her love for her husband, the tensions, her impatience, ordering him away? The separation? The counselling? The hopes for the future, the promise of the country, the promise of a dog? The husband, his love for his daughter, his relationship with his wife, the growing tensions? His exasperation, leaving? His visits and his daughter's excitement? His going away, the counselling? The possibilities of an eventual reconciliation?
7. The incidental characters, the babysitter, the adolescent, her reaction to the little girl? The estate agent and her looking over and noting the things in the house? The removalists and their coming in and out and making their decisions about taking things?
8. The little girl, her love for her parents, the games, their picking her up, going into the bed? The interaction with the seven-year-old?
9. The seven-year-old, her appearance, the quality of her voice-over? Her decision not to speak, wanting to do something for her parents, leaving it too long and then feeling she could not begin to speak? Her hiding in the cupboard - wanting to go to the toilet, having to speak, their finding her again? The main time when she didn't speak, her activities in her room, her drawings, reading? Her observing her parents? The games, lifting her up, going to the bed? The sophistication of her observations, her remarks that she was only seven years old, yet her looking at the kissing, the embracing, the body language, the continual tensions? In her room, her observations on her fish, the hope for a dog, the dream of running along the beach, walking in the country? The details of her parents' interactions, her watching, her hiding, the removalists? Her finally hoping her manoeuvres and strategy had worked? The portrait of a young girl?
10. Insights into marriage, family, disputes? The effect on children? The insight into the experiences of children?
