Beneath Clouds (2003)

Enough to say that I did not go looking for this movie.....it found me and transfixed me while I was channel surfing....and watch it I did - enthralled by the atmospheric capture.Recently I was traveling in outback rural Australia and so many memories stirred of places that I knew in childhood ..... One pub or store little towns with clapboard houses and the poorest of the poor both socially and economically and the dreams one dared not dream as a young person...This movie was excellent in so many ways.....following Lena home I was almost shocked to enter her life at home....I knew families that lived like that, watching the teenagers hanging out together....the memories surfaced. I did not ask anything from the plot....there is no point asking when you find circumstances like this to negotiate but there was enough reality for me that I came looking today to read more about the movie, the actors and the producers etc - job well done ...the discomfort of rural youth well captured along with he rural magic

There are very few movies that I will want to watch more than once, but Beneath Clouds is definitely one of them. The majority of movies I have seen over the past years were very much focused on plot development and I think most viewers will expect a movie to be heavy on the storyline. What I expect from a movie is something totally different, though. None of my favourite movies have a a memorable or particularly well developed storyline. However, they all have something in common. All of them have a very powerful and gripping atmosphere, and it is this atmosphere that comes to my mind whenever I think back of these movies. Not a particular scene, a particular quote or a masterly twist in the storyline, not the visual effects or the sophisticated sound. This movie would be just as enjoyable watching it from a low quality videotape on a black and white telly with low sound quality. Beneath Clouds instantly became a favourite with me, from the very first moments I started watching it. I love this movie, simply because it gives you an experience, a combination of vision, sound, thought and emotion that cannot be described with words and that is exactly what I expect from a movie. If you think what I am saying here is b.ll.cks and doesn't make sense - well, it's up to you. But if you know what I am blathering about you will understand and LOVE this movie. Wochit.

I was fascinated by the atmosphere of this film. The lots ofclose-ups together with the attracting photography and thesensitive performance of the two young people make this abreathtaking film. The easy-going rhythm of the film feels never as too slow but isinherent to the character of the aboriginals. The soundtrack also gives this film an extra dimension and is veryenjoyable. Together with "rabbit-proof fence" and "picnic at hanging rock" oneof the Australian films which impressed me most.

Ivan Sen was a guest of the Dendy art-house cinema group at the advance screening I attended. He spoke about the script writing process, casting and funding hurdles at length.The previous 6 years of Ivan's career have been devoted to producing short films; all of which have thematically built towards the story in 'Beneath Clouds'.Taking its title from the Pearl Jam song 'Black', the film shows two young people (Lena and Vaughn) who escape from restrictive situations to rendevous with a remote parent in a search for love and validation ... only it is not clear if that love will be returned.Sen wrote the script from his own experiences growing up in Alice Springs with an Aboriginal mother and an absent European father (like Lena) and his full-blooded cousins constantly in and out of juvenile courts and detention centres (like Vaughn and Lena's brother). He said that at first writing a feature-length script was difficult given his past film efforts ran to a maximum of 30 minutes. However, the interim draft boasted 140 pages. During and between script-writing he listened to lots of music (not only Pearl Jam!) and wrote some musical phrases and themes that become the film sound-track in the hands of Alistair Spence. The final script was 90 pages, and, by neat coincidence, the running time of the film is exactly 90 minutes!Vaughn was cast by approaching a young man on the streets of Moree. Damian Pitt was initially incredulous at being asked to play a lead role in a feature film, but was quick to come around. The approach of casting Lena, explained Sen, was more conventional. Although he tried to recruit a female lead in the same way as Damian was found, the process of driving by, pulling up slowly, rolling down the window and asking 'do you want to be in a movie?' was fraught with too many sleazy connotations to be taken seriously by the young women he approached! Through a friend, Sen viewed an audition tape featuring Danielle Hall, and though initially ambivalent, the director was awestruck after meeting her in her hometown of Wee Waa and immediately sensed her ability to identify with the character and project the lines of the script as if they were her own. Obviously, judges at the Berlin festival were equally moved. The remainder of the cast were largely amateur, recruited around Moree.Funding for the film was conditional on it being a feature, to enable it to travel the worldwide festival circuit as a stand-alone picture. Chief funding bodies were the NSW Film Commission and the Pacific Film & TV Commission - the former association ensured all location filming was in NSW. Roads and scenery around Moree, Gunnedah, Blacktown and Sydney show a great dynamic range of terrain and geography. From the time of the green-light of funding to shooting took only 4 months; the shoot went for 6 weeks; and post-production/editing took 6 months; all at a cost of 2-and-a-half million Australian dollars (roughly one-and-a-quarter mill. US dollars). Not cheap by Oz standards but not expensive either in an international sense.My impression of the film is of a modern classic, up there with Gallipolli, Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith. It was well-deserving of the attention of the Berlin jury, and Ivan the auteur and musician has a great future ahead of him. His next project will be a black comedy set in Mexico about people who visit a small town hoping to be abducted by aliens.Mr Sen, best of luck, and please don't get all indulgent like Russell Crowe or Billy Bob Thornton by fronting a lame rock band! Keep it real.