Shot in Melbourne mainly in interiors the film is a city story with little urban flavor. It is a study of two people that has lived inside themselves most of their lives. Patricia (Wendy Hughes) under the shadowing figures of her parents and Peter (Norman Keye) looking after his mother. The enclosed spaces are a direct display of a life conditionally lived within, so much so that each domestic space reflect and communicate the experience of living inside one of the characters’ mind.
The few outdoor sequences are also telling of the characters conditions, because of the way they are shot, and for their position within the story. The first is at the beginning of the movie after Peter’s mother funeral. It briefly follows Peter’s family car from the church to the cemetery. In a dark humorous sequence the family car ends up overtaking the funeral car with the body forcing the latter to a chase. The possible metaphor here is that after the death of the mother Peter might had finally made it into the open. On the other hand this being outside is limited, circumscribed. The streets of Melbourne appear here very European, in the sense that they seem to belong to a more stratified and enclosed image of town. This is achieved by filming with a point of view that hides the vanishing point. As in the photo above the wider perspective of the Melbourne street is shortened with a diagonal point of view that has the effect of reducing its natural sense of almost unlimited depth. Danks referred to this style as Melbourne standing-in for any number of other places as ‘the light, sensibility and actuality of Europe in various Paul Cox films’
A similar ‘European’ dynamic is at play in the ‘lake scene’. The two characters, Patricia and Peter, are dating and they haven’t made contact yet. After a drink in a bar by the lake they go outside and walk along the water, at the end of the walk they manage to kiss. This is the first time they are shown outside together. The whole scene illustrates the acting out of a desire through the movement of the bodies. The characters move from inside the restaurant to the open space around of the lake. Mentally they move from a state of stasis to a state of action. Here again the way the scene is shot suggests a specific reading of the space. In fact despite the openness of the space of the lake the feeling of the scene is sense of containment and control. The effect is created by keeping the heads of the characters within the horizon line of the lake. Peter and Patricia are outside of themselves but they are still inside their interior space.
“Lonely heart” is visually a characteristic Paul Cox film, despite having the story a bit lighten up by production interest. But from the long extra contribution it seems that Cox was the only one truly emotionally caring for this two characters. Both producer Phillip Adams, main actress Wendy Hughes (she did a terrific job on Patricia) are sympathetic but a bit distant in their comments. This is a non classic Australian story, not because this characters do not exist in Australia but mainly because there is not often an eye for them, in a tradition that prefers larger than life stories.
1. Adrian Danks 1999 “Don’t Rain on Ava Gardner Parade” http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2011/59/don%E2%80%99t-rain-on-ava-gardner-parade/
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