7th(2005)
Somersault
Cate Shortland
- Australia
- 2004
- 106min
- 35mm
- color
SYNOPSIS
The title Somersault is a metaphor for adolescence, a continuum of endless twists and turns that all of us go through. Heidi, a 16 year-old-girl, puts herself out in the risky feat of life. After being caught in a clinch with her mother’s boyfriend, she runs away from home. Without a plan, her journey ends at a resort, where she meets new friends, new neighbors and new love. After all the risk-taking, can she make a sound landing, or will she be thrown to the ground? Or, will she try another somersault?
Somersault describes a girl’s journey like a somersault that traps her in circulating tracks of desire and lack. Her journey is going down to her inner side. In beautifully captured scenes of nature giving unique sense of sadness, Cate Shortland tells about inner turbulence of teenage girl who desires intimacy with others to love and to be loved by, only fails to find the right way. Heidi and Irene’s pseudo-mother/daughter relationship is interesting, and images of nature showing inner side of Heidi in camera in motion catch our eyes.
(Kwon Eun-sun)
Somersault describes a girl’s journey like a somersault that traps her in circulating tracks of desire and lack. Her journey is going down to her inner side. In beautifully captured scenes of nature giving unique sense of sadness, Cate Shortland tells about inner turbulence of teenage girl who desires intimacy with others to love and to be loved by, only fails to find the right way. Heidi and Irene’s pseudo-mother/daughter relationship is interesting, and images of nature showing inner side of Heidi in camera in motion catch our eyes.
(Kwon Eun-sun)
PROGRAM NOTE
The title Somersault is a metaphor for adolescence, a continuum of endless twists and turns that all of us go through. Heidi, a 16 year-old-girl, puts herself out in the risky feat of life. After being caught in a clinch with her mother’s boyfriend, she runs away from home. Without a plan, her journey ends at a resort, where she meets new friends, new neighbors and new love. After all the risk-taking, can she make a sound landing, or will she be thrown to the ground? Or, will she try another somersault?
Somersault describes a girl’s journey like a somersault that traps her in circulating tracks of desire and lack. Her journey is going down to her inner side. In beautifully captured scenes of nature giving unique sense of sadness, Cate Shortland tells about inner turbulence of teenage girl who desires intimacy with others to love and to be loved by, only fails to find the right way. Heidi and Irene’s pseudo-mother/daughter relationship is interesting, and images of nature showing inner side of Heidi in camera in motion catch our eyes.
(Kwon Eun-sun)
Somersault describes a girl’s journey like a somersault that traps her in circulating tracks of desire and lack. Her journey is going down to her inner side. In beautifully captured scenes of nature giving unique sense of sadness, Cate Shortland tells about inner turbulence of teenage girl who desires intimacy with others to love and to be loved by, only fails to find the right way. Heidi and Irene’s pseudo-mother/daughter relationship is interesting, and images of nature showing inner side of Heidi in camera in motion catch our eyes.
(Kwon Eun-sun)
Director
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Cate ShortlandCate Shortland
Cate Shortland graduated from Sydney University with a B.A. in Fine Arts in 1991. She also studied film direction at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. She has written and directed four short films: Strap on Olympia (1995), Pentuphouse (1998), Flowergirl (1999) and Joy (2000) which have been acclaimed at festivals around the world including Oberhausen, Tampere, Clermont-Ferrand, Berlin and London. Between 2001 and 2003 Shortland directed episodes of The Secret Life of Us for Southern Star/Channel 4. Somersault is her feature debut film.
Credit
- ProducerAnthony Anderson
- Cast Abbie Cornish, Sam Worhtington, Lynette Curran
- Screenwriter Cate Shortland
- Cinematography Robert Humphreys
- Music Decoder Ring
