{"id":22879,"date":"2019-11-20T22:01:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T12:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=22879"},"modified":"2019-12-02T22:16:22","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T12:16:22","slug":"the-nightingale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=22879","title":{"rendered":"The Nightingale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tagfilm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"thenightingaleposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Jennifer Kent
\nWriter:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Jennifer Kent
\nCast:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Aisling Franciosi, Baykali Ganambarr, Sam Claflin, Harry Greenwood<\/p>\n

I<\/span>t’s 1825 and in the penal colony known as Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), a young Irish convict Clare works as a servant for Lieutenant Hawkins.\u00a0 Having completed a seven year sentence, she is desperate to be granted freedom for herself, her husband Aidan and their infant baby.\u00a0 Hawkins has little interest in Clare’s freedom.\u00a0 He forces her to sing for his troops (her talent earns her the nickname The Nightingale) and is more interested in his own affairs – chiefly a visit from Seargeant Ruse which may grant him a promotion he feels is long overdue and his opportunity to leave Van Diemen’s Land.<\/p>\n

When Clare asks Hawkins for her release, he reacts violently and harshly to her request, beat Clare and raping her in his cabin.\u00a0 Clare returns to her husband Aidan who suspects something but Clare insists he calm down and sleep the night before approaching Hawkins.\u00a0 Aidan fails to take Clare’s advice and when he and Hawkins get into an altercation, Ruse dismisses Hawkins’ chance at promotion, citing his inability to keep peace and order.\u00a0 Incensed, Hawkins takes two of his soldiers with him to Clare and Aidan’s home and inflicts upon them a harrowing and violent retribution.\u00a0 He then leaves\u00a0for Launceston, hoping to secure his promotion without Ruse’s endorsement.<\/p>\n

When the local authorities shown no interest in delivering justice, Clare decides to pursue Hawkins to get her revenge.\u00a0 She enlists the help of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy.\u00a0 Culturally worlds apart, they initially have a fractious relationship, as Clare treats Billy with hostility.\u00a0 Over time they find some common ground (a love of singing, a hatred of the English) and begin to form an unlikely friendship.\u00a0 As the days pass, they get closer and closer to another encounter with Hawkins.<\/p>\n

\"thenightingalethumb\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Nightingale<\/em> is one of the year’s most divisive movies.\u00a0 It has seen mass walkouts at festivals in Europe and in Australia.\u00a0 Some audiences have veraciously taken against the film and jeered during screenings.\u00a0 Although I don’t agree with the detractors, I can understand the source of their ire.\u00a0 I would place\u00a0The Nightingale<\/em> in a category of cinematic brutality and mental anguish that is only occupied by a handful of films such as\u00a012 Years A Slave<\/em> and\u00a0The Passion of the Christ<\/em>.\u00a0 The opening half hour of this film is emotionally gruelling and makes\u00a0The Nightingale<\/em>\u00a0a film that I would be extremely\u00a0cautious about who I would recommend it to.\u00a0 It requires a fortitude that I think very, very, very few people sign up for when they watch a film.\u00a0 Australia is also a country that is still uncomfortable with acknowledging the genocidal acts of the First Fleet colonialists and I think most Australians would find the unflinching gaze of Jennifer Kent’s lens extremely challenging.<\/p>\n

For those who can stomach it, there is a powerful and affective drama to absorb.\u00a0 Aisling Franciosi and Baykali Ganambarr are both exceptional and utterly convincing in their performances as Clare and Billy.\u00a0 There is a grounded realism that anchors\u00a0The Nightingale<\/em> and that means it is a revenge film that cannot and does not\u00a0dabble in the sensationalism and blood lust commonly associated with the genre.\u00a0 Clare is bent on getting her revenge but we suspect it will cost her her soul and probably more.\u00a0 Likewise, its heartening to see the growing bond between Billy and Clare but there is an understanding by the audience that their time together is limited and they exist in a\u00a0world that offers no chance of a peaceful conclusion.<\/p>\n

It’s incredible to think what Jennifer Kent has achieved in her career to date.\u00a0\u00a0The Babadook<\/em> was crowd funded on Kickstarter.\u00a0 I think everyone was expecting another horror film for her follow up.\u00a0 The Nightingale<\/em> confounds expectations and is a bold and\u00a0jaw-dropping production of a totally different genre and scope.\u00a0 It\u00a0is made with astonishing craftsmanship and\u00a0nuance considering it is just Kent’s second feature.\u00a0 And crucially it shines a light on a dark passage of Australian history that few other filmmakers dare to tread.\u00a0 Though extremely difficult to watch, it has its rewards for those willing to persevere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2398,2133],"class_list":["post-22879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-australia","tag-jennifer-kent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22879"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22911,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879\/revisions\/22911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}