''Modern Love'' is the debut feature film of award-winning

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n director

Alex Frayne Alex Frayne is an Adelaide-based Australian photo artist whose images have received attention locally and abroad. He studied Film at the Flinders University of South Australia, where he met long-time collaborator and cinematographer Nick Remy ...

. It was independently financed and filmed in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, where the director lives and works. The team behind the film (Sputnik Films) includes award-winning cinematographer

Nick Remy Matthews Nick Remy Matthews, ACS, is a British-born, Australian-raised director of photography who lives in Spain. In 2020 he was named "Cinematographer of the Year" by the Australian Cinematographer's Society. He was also named by''Variety'' as one of t ...

and

Australian Film Institute The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsib ...

winning sound designer Tom Heuzenroeder. ''Modern Love'' premiered at the 28th

Moscow International Film Festival The Moscow International Film Festival (russian: Моско́вский междунаро́дный кинофестива́ль, translit. ''Moskóvskiy myezhdunaródniy kinofyestivál''; abbreviated as MIFF) is the film festival first h ...

and progressed to dozens of other film festivals, including the

Locarno Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, s ...

São Paulo International Film Festival The São Paulo International Film Festival ( pt, Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual film festival held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. A non-profit event, the festival is organized ...

, and the

Fajr Film Festival Iran's annual Fajr International Film Festival ( fa, جشنواره بین‌المللی فیلم فجر), or Fajr Film Festival (little: FIFF; fa, جشنواره فیلم فجر), has been held every February and April in Tehran since 1982. T ...

in Iran. It made its Australian screen debut at the

2007 Adelaide Film Festival The 3rd Adelaide Film Festival took place in Adelaide, South Australia, from 22 February to 4 March 2007.Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

's'' critic Richard Kuipers who called it:

''"unlike anything else in the entire Australian genre catalogue."''

The film earned theatrical runs in Australia (Nova Cinemas), and in New Zealand at the Paramount Cinema in Wellington. Dominion Post film reviewer Graeme Tuckett wrote that it was:"NZ review"
/ref>

''"the best thing playing in town. No contest."''

Synopsis

John, his wife Emily, and their small son Edward leave the city for what they believe will be a brief foray to the countryside to claim John's inheritance – a small shack. They find themselves in a strange back-woods rural setting...nothing is what it seems, and John's behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre as he crosses paths with the unusual inhabitants of the area, some of whom he knows from a distant past. As his connections to the area are gradually revealed, we are shown a puzzle and a tapestry of our hero and his life before he moved away. To his wife's horror we witness a man who belongs to a long lineage of disaster and mishap and rural weirdness. As the realisation sets in of what has happened, the spectre of the next-in-line, his son Edward, becomes spookily evident.

Cast

*Mark Constable as John *

Victoria Hill Victoria Hill (born 18 February 1971 in Adelaide) is an Australian actress, writer and producer. She is now based between Los Angeles, New York City and Sydney. Early life and career Victoria Hill is the daughter of Robert Hill, a former ...

as Emily *William Traeger as Ed *Craig Behenna] as Daniel *Don Barker as Old Tom *Barbara West as Motel Lady *Chrissie Page as Mother *Michael Baldwin as Father *Irene Tunis as Rosa

Criticisms

''Modern Love'' received harsh reviews in Australia with some critics focusing on the ambiguity of the title as well as the disorientating plot structure the film offers. Both

and Nick Matthews maintain the title to be valid yet neither has fully explained its origins at any time throughout the film's exposure to audiences. Jake Wilson of

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

derided the film as being akin to an Australian "

Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky ( rus, Андрей Арсеньевич Тарковский, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ɐrˈsʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ tɐrˈkofskʲɪj; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Russian filmmaker. Widely considered one of the greates ...

" work, while dramaturg Phyllis-Jane Rose branded it the "darkest" film ever made. Frayne himself calls the film "Australian Gothic," and "like walking into a nightmare which you wish would last longer." These inclinations explain both the film's art-house success in Europe as well as its muted response in Australia. In France the film picked up the Best Foreign Film award at the ECU Festival in March 2007.

DVD releases

In Australia the film was released by Accent Underground."Accent Underground"
/ref> In the United States the film was released by Seminal Films.

Film Festivals

*2006

Hof International Film Festival The Hof International Filmfestival is a German film festival that takes place in Hof, Bavaria, every year in October. Apart from numerous foreign productions, the main focus traditionally is on German films. During six festival days, about 130 f ...

, Germany *2006 Split New Films, Croatia *2007

, Iran *

2007 Adelaide Film Festival The 3rd Adelaide Film Festival took place in Adelaide, South Australia, from 22 February to 4 March 2007.Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival is a film festival held in Kuala Lumpur. KLIFF 2010 Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival (KLIFF) will be held at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur & Malaysia Tourism Center (MATIC) from 24th until 28 Nove ...

*2007 Bradford Fantasy Film Festival *2007 ECU Film Festival, France *2007 Salento International Film Festival, Italy

Box office

''Modern Love'' grossed $549.00 at the box office in Australia.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Modern Love (Film) 2006 films Australian horror thriller films Films set in Australia 2000s English-language films