An outstanding, smart and intelligent film from the talented John Winter. I’ll let David and Margaret from “At the Movies” do the review. We’re biased – Audio Loc thinks it’s brave and fabulous and the whole team was so proud to be involved in this production. We’ll leave the review to the experts…..from “AT THE MOVIES” with David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz….

Black & White & Sex

Rated MA
Review by David Stratton
On a sound stage, a director and his crew film Angie, a prostitute. The director encourages her to talk about her work, her attitudes, her lifestyle. She responds frankly and forthrightly, but she also draws the director himself into the film, probing his attitudes towards her profession.

In this low-budget, totally independent Australian film, Angie is played by eight different – very different – actresses but the dialogue flows continuously as the different faces, and bodies, of this very independent woman change from one scene to the next. Writer-director John Winter gets wonderful performances from his eight women. They include Katherine Hicks, who is first seen as a Marilyn Monroe-like character, an older woman, Valerie Bader, a dimpled nymphet, Saskia Burmeister and Maia Thomas, as perhaps the most confident face of this woman. The others, all good, are Anya Beyersdorf, Roxane Wilson, Michelle Vergera More and Dina Panozzo.

As the director, Matthew Holmes asks the questions but is only seen from behind or in silhouette. Shot in black and white, occasionally using multiple screen images, this exercise in style contains some extremely candid dialogue and interesting insights into the oldest profession. But mostly it’s a showcase for eight exceptional actresses.

Further comments

DAVID: Margaret?

MARGARET: I think this is a very interesting film.

DAVID: Very, yes.

MARGARET: I wondered what I’d got into when it first started. I thought it smacked of prurience but, in fact, it goes way beyond that into a dynamic between the director and these actresses, whores, if you will, presenting their lives, I suppose and their attitudes.

DAVID: Yes.

MARGARET: I think it’s brave. I think it’s imaginative. I think it is so well performed by these women.

DAVID: They’re really great, aren’t they?

MARGARET: They’re really terrific.

DAVID: Yes.

MARGARET: The depth of talent in this country. And when it first started I thought it was a documentary. That’s how – I didn’t recognise the first actress.

DAVID: Yes.

MARGARET: And then you realise that they are performances and you’re even more impressed.

DAVID: Yes.

MARGARET: To bring that degree of reality to the presentation.

DAVID: And it’s also, within its limitations, very stylishly done, I think.

MARGARET: Yes, exactly.

DAVID: Yes.

MARGARET: Exactly.

DAVID: Yes.

MARGARET: No, I think this is maybe not for everyone but really another very interesting Australian film. I’m giving it three and a half stars.

DAVID: Me too, three and a half.