Passion
(Period Drama -- Australian-U.S.)
Directed by Peter Duncan. Screenplay, Don Watson, based on the play "Percy & Rose" by Rob George, an original screenplay by George and Peter Goldsworthy and research based on John Bird's biography "Percy Grainger."
Rose - Barbara Hershey
Percy - Richard Roxburgh
Karen Holten - Emily Woof
Alfhild de Luce - Claudia Karvan
Herman Sandby - Simon Burke
Mrs. Lowery - Linda Cropper
Queen Alexandra - Julia Blake
Problem with any film about Grainger (1882-1961) is finding a focus on his scattered life and accomplishments. Though born in Melbourne, he spent most of his life outside Australia, first in Europe and then the U.S. Initially building his career as a concert pianist, he then became involved in the movement to recover English and Celtic folk songs; his compositional style was closest to British exile Frederick Delius and, like him, his works comprise a large number of smallish, quirky pieces, turning against the rigid Austro-German format of symphonies, concertos and the like.
In movie terms, Grainger is still best known for his brief, explosive appearance (played by David Collings) in Ken Russell's 1968 telepic on Delius, "Song of Summer," in which he's introduced with the memorable line, "That's Percy Grainger. Sometimes he composes." Duncan's pic bundles a lifetime into a few months in 1914 London, just prior to WWI and the move by Grainger (Richard Roxburgh) to New York, where he jumped out a window 47 years later.
With the help of his devoted mom, Rose (Barbara Hershey), he forges a brilliant career in Blighty's salons, despite an erratic tendency to shock the bourgeoisie by launching into ragtime rather than rondos. His best friends are musician couple Herman (Simon Burke) and Alfhild (Claudia Karvan), for whom Percy has an undisguised passion and to whom he regularly proposes marriage.
Percy's problem is Rose, who has mad fits as syphilis eats away her brain and with whom, per pic, he's locked in a sadomasochistic incestuous relationship that involves, among other things, offering his nipples for sewing practice. (Apart from brief flashes, pic is visually restrained on the physical details of their bond.)
In between pounding the ivories, sessions with Rose and jotting down bird calls and folk songs, Percy is targeted by Karen (Emily Woof), a budding pianist who asks to study under him. Herman and Alfhild encourage the relationship, and Rose, after checking her out, also seems keen. She asks Karen to help her "restrain" Percy: "Passion can destroy genius if it is not contained," she says. But what looks like an ideal arrangement sends Rose off the rails again when she finds Karen is complying with Percy's masochistic impulses -- whipping sessions that they photograph for posterity.
With these kinds of ingredients, the movie could have ended up a terrible mess, and may still seem so to general viewers unfamiliar with Grainger's music or not entranced with its considerable passion and beauty. Pic has a slightly stylized, extrapolated feel that doesn't try to situate the Graingers' world within a regular one: The small circle of relationships and Grainger's music are the thing, and Duncan shows a real feel for the latter, as well as the heady days of idealized artistry that preceded the shattering of European society by World War I.
Led by Roxburgh's eccentric, boyish and impassioned Grainger, the cast handles some extremely difficult dialogue well -- a tribute as much to Duncan's success in constructing a self-contained universe as to the actors' abilities. Karvan and Burke are good as Grainger's tolerant, grounded friends, and promising young British thesp Woof is believable as a woman prepared to take on her lover's private obsessions in the cause of his greater talent. Hershey is the least secure of the key cast but OK.
Though heavy with interiors, the widescreen film has a rich look, with lenser Martin McGrath's stress on reds and blacks contributing to the Edwardian feel. The plentiful extracts from Grainger's work are well chosen and arranged, with especially powerful use of the folk song "Shallow Brown." Most of the pic was in fact shot Down Under, to no negative effect apart from the mild Aussie accents among several cast members.
Camera (Technicolor U.K. prints, widescreen), Martin McGrath; editor, Simon Martin; music director, Christine Woodruff; music arranger, Alan John; production designer, Murray Picknett; art director, Karen Land; costume designer, Terry Ryan; sound (Dolby Digital), Guntis Sics, John Paine, Phil Judd; line producer, Adrienne Read; assistant directors, Emma Schofield, Mark Egerton; casting, Liz Mullinar, Nina Cole. Reviewed at Munich Film Festival, June 26, 1999. Running time: 98 MIN.
