''Whoever Was Using This Bed'' is a 2016 Australian short film directed by Andrew Kotatko. It is based on the short story by

Raymond Carver Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. He contributed to the revitalization of the American short story during the 1980s. Early life Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, a mi ...

from his 1988 collection ''

Elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

''. The film stars

Jean-Marc Barr Jean-Marc Barr (born September 27, 1960) is a French-American film actor and director. He is best known for working on several films from Danish film director and frequent collaborator Lars von Trier since ''Europa'' (1991). Early life and edu ...

Radha Mitchell Radha Rani Amber Indigo Ananda Mitchell is an Australian actress. She started her career with various appearances on Australian television, including a regular role as Catherine O'Brien in the soap opera ''Neighbours'' (1996–97). Mitchell la ...

and features the voice of

Jane Birkin Jane Mallory Birkin, Order of British Empire, OBE (born 14 December 1946) is an English-French singer and actress. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She als ...

. The film was co-produced by Altaire Productions and Midnight Coffee Films, with post-production funds successfully raised via

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

.Radha Mitchell calls on her fans to help fund the final stages of her latest film Whoever Was Using This Bed

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

14 March 2015.Crowdfunding campaign for short starring Radha Mitchell
,

IF Magazine ''If'' was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. The magazine was moderately successful, though for most of its run it was not considered to be in the first tier of American ...

9 March 2015. ''Whoever Was Using This Bed'' won Best Drama in the

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 ...

Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) is a professional organisation of film and television practitioners in Australia. The Academy's aim is "to identify, award, promote, and celebrate Australia's greatest achievements i ...

's 2016 Social Shorts competition.Social Shorts - Drama Category
, Social Shorts 17August 2016. It is Kotatko's second adaptation of Carver's writing, the first being '' Everything Goes'' starring

Hugo Weaving Hugo Wallace Weaving (born 4 April 1960) is an English actor. Born in Colonial Nigeria to English parents, he has resided in Australia for the entirety of his career. He is the recipient of six AACTA Awards, Australian Academy of Cinema and Tel ...

Abbie Cornish Abbie Cornish (born 7 August 1982) is an Australian actress. Cornish is best known for her film roles as Heidi in ''Somersault'' (2004), Fanny Brawne in '' Bright Star'' (2009), Sweet Pea in ''Sucker Punch'' (2011), Lindy in '' Limitless'' (20 ...

and

Sullivan Stapleton Sullivan Stapleton (born 14 June 1977) is an Australian actor who is best known for his roles in the television series ''The Secret Life of Us'', '' Strike Back'' and '' Animal Kingdom''. He also starred in the NBC crime drama '' Blindspot''. S ...

Synopsis

A married couple (Barr and Mitchell) is woken in the dead of night by a mysterious phone caller (Birkin). Unable to sleep, the couple are drawn into an unsettling examination of their darkest fears and desires.

Cast

as Ray *

as Iris *

as The Caller

Release

The film had its Australian premiere at the 25th Flickerfest International Short Film Festival.Flickerfest - Best of Australian 6 Programme - 2016
,

Flickerfest Flickerfest is an international short film festival held annually in January at Bondi Beach, Sydney. It is an Academy and BAFTA recognised short film festival for both international and Australian film makers. History The festival originated ...

19 December 2015. It was nominated for Best Australian Short Film.Flickerfest unveils competitive program
,

14 December 2015.

Background

In an interview about ''Whoever Was Using This Bed'' in The Brag Magazine, Kotatko said: "People who’ve seen the film have told me that it plays like an intimate American drama from the '70s, but there’s definitely a visual quality to the film that evokes classic film noir. I think it also has an emotionally unnerving and suspenseful quality to it. It feels a bit like a thriller."Five Minutes with Andrew Kotatko, Director of Whoever Was Using This Bed by Chris Martin
, The Brag Magazine 21 December 2015.

expressed her reasons for doing the project in The Beast Magazine: "I wouldn’t normally be attracted to do a short film, except this is such a character piece, and it’s so dependent on the two lead performances. It’s sophisticated, and in a sense, it’s very adult. Not in an x-rated sense, but thematically it’s mature, and that was of interest to me."Radha Mitchell - Never Say Never by Daniel Hutton
, The Beast Magazine 1 January 2016.

shared his thoughts on the film's story in an interview for Filmink Magazine: "There’s something very human about Carver’s short stories and daily happenings that I think every couple has maybe gone through this. He otatkowas able to leave it as open and as modern as possible but also give it his own kind of spices and wishes. The characters are really well built, especially in the writing and I think they leave a really big range for interpretation."What We Talk About When We Talk About Jean-Marc Barr by Matt Lowe
, Filmink Magazine 7 January 2016.

Critical reception

Matthew Lowe of Filmink Magazine gave the film 18 out of 20, noting that "''Whoever Was Using This Bed'' is an impeccably well-made short film, deeply melancholic and enriched by its superb performances".Review: Whoever Was Using This Bed by Matthew Lowe
, Filmink Magazine 14 January 2016. US film critic Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid gave the film 3 and a half out of 4 and observed that "''Whoever Was Using This Bed'' occupies a state of sad, inescapable truth. To my eyes, Kotatko comes the closest of any filmmaker to capturing Carver on film."Review: Whoever Was Using This Bed by Jeffrey M. Anderson
, Combustible Celluloid 17 September 2015. In his review, ABC Radio's Movieland critic CJ Johnson wrote that "''Whoever Was Using This Bed'' is an intelligent, precise and mature short film that doesn’t rely on Carver’s innate abilities; in transposing this gripping little two-hander to the screen, Kokatko makes plenty of cinematic choices of his own, informed by his obvious deep regard for the source material."Reviews: The First Monday In May and St Kilda short Whoever Was Using This Bed by CJ Johnson
Film Mafia / Movieland 13 May 2016.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 3520884, Whoever Was Using This Bed 2016 short films Australian drama short films 2010s English-language films