Summary:
An Irish woman serving a prison sentence on Tasmania in the 1820s survives a horrific tragedy and then sets out for vengeance with the help of an Aboriginal man.
My Thoughts:
I watched “The Nightingale” as part of our joint ongoing movie discussion series with Celebration Cinema and the Kaufman Interfaith Institution. If you were previously unaware of this series, don’t worry, you didn’t miss much; our discussion for “The Nightingale” was actually the inaugural meeting. Next month we’ll be discussing “Tel Aviv on Fire”, so if you’d like to join us for that showing, it will take place at Celebration Cinema Woodland in Grand Rapids on October 15, 2019 at 6:30 PM.
When Michael and I were looking through the list of films we could select for the discussion, we saw Jennifer Kent’s (“The Babadook”) name attached to “The Nightingale” and knew that this film was one we both really wanted to see. “The Babadook” is a wonderfully written, wonderfully directed horror film that really delved into the psychological and emotional turmoil of loss and depression; I think all of us at TMM hold that film in very high regard. So, we figured anything with Kent’s name attached to it at least had to be pretty good.
As we sat down to watch the film, it became apparent almost immediately that “The Nightingale” was quite different from “The Babadook” in almost every aspect except quality. “The Babadook” was a great debut film; it stays relatively grounded, but it finds a way to transcend itself and say something more than just something about the subject material. Where “The Babadook” felt like a great debut film, “The Nightingale” feels like a film from a veteran filmmaker whose already got a few great hits under their belt. While I think a few scenes in “The Nightingale” were a bit more ambitious than Kent was able to actually achieve perfectly, for the most part, this film is a gritty, brutal, bleak portrait of a broken world where hope and love are the only things which one can really cling.
“Bloody white folk…”
Clare (Aisling Franciosi) is an Irish convict who has served her full prison term and is waiting for the British Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin, “Adrift”) to grant her freedom papers so she, her husband, and her baby can leave the prison colony. Hawkins continually refuses, though he has no right to do so, and furthermore he continues to rape and abuse Clare whenever it suits him. After Hawkins is looked over for a promotion, he decides he will venture to an outpost to apply for the position in person, but before he does he and a couple soldiers go to Clare’s home, rape her, kill her husband and child, and leave her for dead. When Clare awakens, Hawkins has left for the outpost, and Clare decides to go after them with the help of an Aboriginal man named Billy (Baykali Ganambarr). As the two make a trek across the country, they find themselves beset by violence on all sides.
In Kent’s official statement about “The Nightingale” she said: “I wanted to tell a story about violence; in particular, the fallout of violence from a feminine perspective. To do this I’ve reached back into my own country’s history. The colonization of Australia was a time of inherent violence; towards Aboriginal people, towards women, and towards the land itself, which was wrenched from its first inhabitants. Colonization by nature is a brutal act, and the arrogance that drives it lives on in the modern world. For this reason, I consider this a current story despite being set in the past. I don’t have all the answers to the question of violence, but I feel they lie in our humanity, in the empathy we hold for ourselves and others.”
I think the thing that I liked most about this film was the way that it slowly developed these themes that Kent was trying to champion. In the beginning, Clare is as racist towards Billy as Hawkins or any of the other soldiers on the island. That constant barrage of inherent violence has weathered her and it’s changed her, turned her into a cold person. When Clare sets out for vengeance, she has every intention to kill all of those that have wronged her, but as the story goes on, and she becomes more exposed to that violence, she seems to realize how utterly pointless and cyclical the violence begetting violence really is in the end. Clare undergoes subtle changes throughout the film, and so does Billy; it’s those subtle changes in character that really elevate the film overall.
Kent’s statement also addressed the idea that, though this film that is set nigh 200 years ago has incredibly modern themes. Even from the opening scene, the idea that one specific type of person can be attributed less worth comes into play when Hawkins asks Clare to sing, calling her ‘His nightingale’. This (and plenty of other degrading comments towards women) all felt very reminiscent to some of the #MeToo movement stuff going on today. Gender politics play a huge part in this movie- people are constantly referred to by their sex, as if that makes them worth more or less. Furthermore, even amongst the men that consider themselves ‘higher class’ than the others around them, there is a kind of skewed pecking order; people constantly seem to have to berate and belittle others in order to make themselves feel better. Sam Claflin’s character, who seems in charge at the prison colony, soon falls into a pattern of abuse and chastisement towards those accompanying him on his journey once he no longer is in control; Claflin’s character seems to be an embodiment of everything that is wrong with colonization and toxic masculinity at the same time.
Verdict:
This is a brutal and challenging film, but I also think it’s one that is relatively important and relative to today. I think the subtlety with which Kent handles this very difficult subject matter shows a lot of class, and, when looked at with “The Babadook”, I believe it shows promise of the beginnings of a very impressive career. I wholeheartedly recommend this film, though, if you’re squeamish, I urge caution.
Review Written By: