yep, I know. you are spot on, Kendall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Catch you later!


> [Original Message]
> From: Kendall David Corbett <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 6/14/2005 3:47:11 PM
> Subject: Re: film info wanted please
>
> Mag, et al,
>
> =20
>
> Reading Ebert's reviews, I'm no longer surprised by his enthusiastic
> "thumbs up" to "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Sea Inside."  Phrases like
> "... Heather Rose, who also stars in it-even though she has cerebral
> palsy, and communicates through a computer and a speaking machine" and
> "...young woman trapped in a wheelchair by cerebral palsy...."  and "we
> identify more with her than with the 'normals' (emphasis added)in the
> story."  Every one of these phrases, and the over all tone of the
> reviews you included in your post tell us that Ebert is just glad that
> he (or any of his family or friends) isn't "a cerebral palsy victim."
>
> =20
>
> One wonders if Ebert wasn't able to, as Evan Williams suggested,
> "...identify with her."  "It is a difficult feat to bring off; and
> because we are forced to get close to Julia - in a sense to become her -
> many will find this good and brave film more than they can bear." Many
> in the US film industry seem to have said that disability, in whatever
> form, is "more than they can bear."   Ebert's second review of the film
> states: "It is the kind of film where the human will and
>
> spirit overwhelm you."  I wonder if Ebert was overwhelmed to the extent
> that he was unable to see the person using the wheelchair and
> communication board.
>
> =20
>
> Kendall Corbett
>
> =20
>
> An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)
>
> =20
>
> The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
> persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all
> progress depends on the unreasonable man.
>
> =20
>
> -George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950
>
> =20
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tamar Raine [mailto:[log in to unmask]]=20
> Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 3:02 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: film info wanted please
>
> =20
>
> here are a number of reviews! Just did a search.
>
> =20
>
> Dance Me to My Song
>
> By Roger Ebert
>
> From the Telluride Film Festival:
>
> Another much-discussed film, but this one with a happy ending, is Rolf
> de
>
> Heer's "Dance Me to My Song," an extraordinary Australian work that was
>
> written by Heather Rose, who also stars in it-even though she has
> cerebral
>
> palsy, and communicates through a computer and a speaking machine. As
> the
>
> film opens, she's at the mercy of a stupid and cruel "care giver" who
>
> neglects and insults her. Using her motorized wheelchair and her lively
>
> intelligence, she tries to figure a way out of her dilemma. In the
> opening
>
> shot, the heroine seems hopeless and alien. By the end, we identify more
>
> with her than with the normals in the story.
>
> =20
>
>  From the Hawaii Film Festival:
>
> by Roger Ebert
>
> "Dance Me to My Song" takes place in Australia, and tells the story of a
>
> young woman trapped in a wheelchair by cerebral palsy, and trapped
>
> psychologically by a cruel, manipulative caregiver. During a time of
>
> excruciating frustration, she wages war against all of the barriers
> around
>
> her, and succeeds, amazingly, in attracting a lover. The film stars
> Heather
>
> Rose, who also wrote it, and who plays, as she must, a cerebral palsy
>
> victim much like herself. It is the kind of film where the human will
> and
>
> spirit overwhelm you. It was directed by Rolf de Heer.
>
> =20
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
>
> Dance Me to My Song
>
> by Evan Williams
>
> The Australian
>
> AUDIENCES in Adelaide have been accorded the modest privilege of being
>
> allowed to see Dance Me To My Song a week before the rest of us; they
>
> should seize the opportunity. Financed by the South Australian Film
>
> Corporation, Rolf de Heer's marvellous film was shot in Adelaide, as
> were
>
> his other successes The Quiet Room and Bad Boy Bubby. The Quiet Room and
>
> Dance Me To My Song were selected for competition in Cannes.
>
> =20
>
> Heather Rose, the cerebral palsy sufferer who stars in Dance Me To My
> Song,
>
> was in Cannes for this year's screening, and I can still see her on the
>
> steps of the Palais, cradled in the arms of her co-star John Brumpton,
>
> beaming to the crowd and looking terrific in a blue satin number with
>
> off-the-shoulder neckline. A more genuinely warm and delighted reception
>
> from that notoriously cynical crowd is difficult to recall; and it
> wasn't
>
> just the Australians who were cheering.
>
> =20
>
> Later I wondered if the image of that ecstatic moment had coloured my
>
> opinion of the film, but I needn't have worried. At a second viewing in
>
> Sydney it looked as brave and exhilarating as ever, possessing all the
>
> passion of Shine with none of the phoniness and pretension. But its
>
> weaknesses could be seen more clearly. Surely no professional carer
> could
>
> be as diabolically unfeeling as the ghastly Madelaine (played by Joey
>
> Kennedy), and yes, there are times when the story is hard to believe -
>
> though this may simply mean that the unbelievable is more wonderful when
> it
>
> happens.
>
> =20
>
>  Rose (who collaborated on the screenplay with de Heer and Frederick
> Stahl)
>
> plays Julia, a young woman confined to a wheelchair at her home in an
>
> Adelaide suburb, dependent on an electronic voice-box and visits from
> her
>
> carer, who comes each day to feed and clean her. Anyone squeamish about
> the
>
> details of these attentions will be sorely tested in the opening scenes.
>
> Arriving late and flustered for a morning call, Madelaine discovers
> Julia
>
> distressed on her bed, briskly feels her for wetness, mutters her relief
> on
>
> finding her dry ("Thank Christ"), hauls her to the toilet, shovels baby
>
> mush into a well-smeared and protesting face ("I wish you could eat like
> a
>
> normal person instead of a bloody animal"), and promptly flounces off.
>
> =20
>
> In the evenings, it is Madelaine's habit to make herself comfortable in
>
> Julia's house, to which a boyfriend is occasionally admitted; as a
> special
>
> treat, Julia's wheelchair is positioned near the bedroom door so she can
>
> observe the lovemaking ("you can watch, but you have to shut up"). That
>
> Julia hungers for love and companionship in these surroundings is hardly
>
> surprising; what is surprising is the way she goes about finding it.
>
> =20
>
> Eddie appears one day in the street, a passer-by - cool, unassertively
> good
>
> looking, with a nonchalant and taciturn humour. Julia, on the footpath,
>
> blocks his way with her wheelchair. There's some dodging about and a
>
> cautious exchange of glances; Julia heads him off again. At first this
>
> behaviour seems more perverse than flirtatious, but Eddie is persuaded -
> he
>
> is curious, after all - to follow her into the house. Conversation via
>
> synthesiser is marked by some playful banter; Eddie, too, finds himself
>
> saddled with toilet duties, and the mood is the opposite of romantic.
> But
>
> the development of this unlikely friendship, its fitful and prankish
>
> progress towards genuine attachment and mutual respect, is the central
>
> miracle of the film. And what follows is largely predictable - Eddie's
>
> seduction, the jealous and uncomprehending fury of Madelaine's reaction,
>
> her determination to get Eddie for herself. The outcome will come as no
>
> surprise to viewers of inspirational movies, but de Heer preserves the
>
> freshness and integrity of his subject matter with a steely control,
>
> leading us to a truly exultant final scene.
>
> =20
>
> As Eddie, Brumpton manages to suggest that he is driven by something
> more
>
> than pity or natural tender-heartedness. It is in some ways the most
>
> difficult part in the film. But Rose is the shining centre of the story;
>
> there is mischief in those looks, an impish greed in her love for Eddie
>
> that gives a kind of playfulness to those painfully contorted movements.
>
> =20
>
> Her eyes speak for her: the few pitiful syllables coaxed from her
> computer
>
> are more like subtitles for the audience than words for Eddie. A
> repeated
>
> grunting - sometimes more of a snarl - punctuates her exertions. It's a
>
> sound so rhythmic and primal that I wondered if it was Rose's natural
> voice
>
> or a sound effect - like the sinister collage of humming and throbbing
>
> David Lynch used for The Elephant Man. Yet in Julia even these minimal
>
> sounds take on a natural expressiveness.
>
> =20
>
> The weaknesses lie in the other characters - a Madelaine too hateful to
> be
>
> believed (mainly the fault of the writing) and a lesbian chum with a
> heart
>
> of gold (Rena Owen), the only seriously sentimental touch in the film.
>
> =20
>
> With Dance Me To My Song, de Heer has broken new ground for the familiar
>
> "disability" picture. He has reversed the normal perspective of the
> viewer.
>
> In most of these films - Gil Brierley's Annie's Coming Out is the best
>
> comparison - it is the carer's viewpoint that matters: Will Angela Punch
>
> McGregor break through to Annie's cloistered disabled soul? In de Heer's
>
> film we see the story through Julia's eyes. It is Julia who is
> struggling
>
> to break through, to reach the world beyond herself. And not without
> some
>
> wonder and embarrassment, we identify with her. It is a difficult feat
> to
>
> bring off; and because we are forced to get close to Julia - in a sense
> to
>
> become her - many will find this good and brave film more than they can
>
> bear. But stay with it to the end: the rewards are rich indeed.
>
> =20