Look Both Ways

1. Look Both Ways Directed by Sarah Watt - OVERVIEW -

2. LOOK BOTH WAYS • Setting • Contemporary Australia – role of media and news in our lives when private becomes public, bombardment of events projects negative, alarming view of the world. • Arnow Hill train disaster – issues of death and human vulnerability/mortality, grief and loss, fortune/fate, luck and free will to choose. • Over one weekend – intense heat, no reprieve until climactic rainstorm at end of film. Pressure cooker – places characters under pressure to change, adapt or implode/combust.

3. Nick • Awarded photojournalist. Single. ‘Poverty, wars, natural disasters then back to the mini-bar’ - Cynical, jaded perspective of life ‘I’ve got thousands of photos but I don’t know what they’re for’ – lost, without purpose. He understands the world through images rather than words. Finds it hard to express himself through speech. • Lost his beloved father to cancer and witnessed the traumatic battle his father went through, estranged from his mother. DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER (event) - sends his life/sense of self into chaos. (reaction) • Becomes very distressed/unsettled. • Fear of death, starts to see it everywhere. • Fear of his own body betraying him. • Brings back images of his father’s pain and suffering. • Has great trouble expressing his suffering – at work, to his mother, to Meryl. Cannot admit it to himself or to others. • Grieves silently, alone.

4. Nick – JOURNEY, DEVELOPMENT, CHANGE 1. Attempts to reach out, to connect and share: • tells Phil at work. • Phil is awkward, does not console Nick. • He has an impact on Phil’s life. • SEEKS SUPPORT FROM MERYL: met at a crossroads/the railway tracks. • Both have witnessed tragedy. • Share a connection: they discuss the issue of ‘death’. • Both have a shared connection over Rob’s death and sense of grief over their father’s death. • “Death, what are we talking about death for? It’s not like the good old days when you ignored the concept of it.’ MERYL • When you went and flirted with it’ NICK • Embraced it wholeheartedly MERYL. • Discuss seeing death everywhere. ‘Do you see it in me?’ NICK • Nick recognises same sense of loneliness and fear of being overwhelmed in Meryl – her paintings. Begins to reach out to Meryl • share a sexual connection or release from their isolation. • Both are vulnerable and are attempting to become stronger through the union. • Seek solace and comfort in each other. • Nick’s suppressed grief over his father begins to surface • His cancer brings back memories of his father’s battle. • He asks ‘Do you believe in God?’ to Andy – parallels his father’s grappling with religious issues. • He argues with his mother’s way of handling the loss. • Failed attempt to tell his mother of his cancer.

5. Nick CLIMAX, RESOLUTION, WHAT HAS HE LEARNT? • Nick battles with his inner despair: attempts to outrun it, struggle against it and finally accept it. • Nick finds in Meryl a listener, a comfort and ultimately a strong connection. • He embraces the need to open up to Meryl rather than shut her out. • He embraces the idea of a future for himself, hope and looking forwards in a positive way. • He embraces the idea of a shared life – with pain and joy. To live life to the full.

6. Meryl • Talented but struggling artist, designing cards. • Artwork shows inner turmoil, loneliness, isolation and fear. • Lives alone. • Thinks in images: sees danger and death everywhere. • Dissatisfied with life – bitter that it hasn’t worked out as planned: • ‘That should make a clean sweep – nothing of anything.’ DEATH OF FATHER (event) • Dealing with the recent death of her father, know that she feels guilt over the way she left things with him. WITNESSES ROB’S DEATH (event) • Connection with Nick over issues of death, loss, grieving. MEETING NICK • Nick pursues Meryl after scene of the accident.

7. MERYL ATTEMPTS TO REACH OUT, CONNECT, SHARE: • overcomes paranoia where she sees threatening incidents and sees Nick as a threat. • Lets Nick into her home, into her bed. • ‘jumps in’ to deep waters of relationship, meeting the mother. • We see her worries abate when she is with Nick, her fears depicted in the imagery disappear • Shares her feelings over the death of her father and her guilt • Opens up and gives understanding, solace and ultimately her heart to Nick.

8. CLIMAX/RESOLUTION • Initial pain and heartache at being dumped by Nick. • She accepts his cancer diagnosis and continues to open up to embrace the future together. • He returns and we see both of them embrace the desire to live life to the full together.

9. Andy • Hostile, sarcastic, Aggressive and self-obsessed. • Pessimistic, paranoid about the world and his place in it. • World out to get him. • Dysfunctional relationships, baggage and failure. • Obsessed with issue of male suicide, sees world from negative perspective. • Isolated, alone, walls up. • Dissatisfied with life and career, resents Arts diary. Reporting on Rob’s death (event) • Takes negative slant. • Fails to consider potential harm. Anna announces her pregnancy (event) • Denies responsibility • Accuses Anna, blames her. • Does not acknowledge her emotional state. • Refuses to acknowledge his mistake • Shuts her out, lack of maturity, concern ‘Well, now I know.’

10. Andy - Resolution & Change • Andy struggles with his insecurities. • He attempts to be a ‘good father’ but fails– Kathy scolding him for crossing the road. • Andy’s inner struggle: failed attempt to connect to Anna. • Failed attempt to see Julia about his printed story. • Bottling of anger, failure, obsession with suicide spirals and explodes. • His suicide attempt at the railway tracks – climactic scene where Nick saves him. • Andy ‘gives in’ to fate, begins to see that life isn’t out to get him. • Resolves to see Anna, we see him take on the responsibility of fatherhood and full life experience with Anna.

11. Activity • Brainstorm variations/wordbanks surrounding the following ideas: - death - accidents - fate and our lives - communication/opening up - role of the media

12. Themes & Issues • Death, grief, coping with loss • Fate versus Free will • Role of the media in our lives • Connection & communication

13. Death, disease, mortality, grief, coping and loss DEATH • Arnow Hill train disaster – death on mammoth scale, tragedy, loss of human life catastrophic. • Rob’s meaningless death at the train tracks. • Meryl’s father’s death. • Nick’s cancer diagnosis and his father’s death. • What defines a tragic loss of life? What scale? Do we ‘rate’ death: death from old age, premature death, accidental death, suicide. • How fragile and vulnerable are we? How careful/concerned should we be to death? Should we be ever mindful of it? Should we place ourselves in harm’s way? • What are we scared of? When do we become so fearful of death? Is there an age where we evaluate/confront our mortality? • Is our death meaningless? Is our life meaningless? • Do we respond to death by grieving, coping and loss in a universal (7 stages) way or is it very personal, individualised? • Are we isolated or connected by grief and loss? Is grief a personal or private matter? • Can something be born out of death? What gives us hope in the face of tragedy?

14. Accidents, fate, free will, change • Arnow Hill disaster, Rob’s death. • Anna’s accidental pregnancy • Nick and Meryl meeting • Nick’s cancer diagnosis Questions raised: • Are accidents meaningless? Does the outcome of an event depend primarily upon our interpretation of it? • Are the significant events in our lives fated? Do we have the free will to change ourselves? To change future events? • Can we change? Are our characteristics set? • Should tragedy in our lives be viewed as challenges to overcome, the world out to get us or just meaningless events that take place?

15. Role of media in our lives • Nick, Andy & Phil – work for local newspaper. • Reports on Arnow Hill disaster. • The report on Rob’s death. • Reaction of Julia and train driver to newspaper story. • Reaction of Anna and her friends. • Are we bombarded with negative images of tragedy, poverty, war? Have we changed as a society as a result? • Does the media have a responsibility in reporting? To ‘get it right’, to respect those connected? • Does there need to be a line between the public and private worlds? • What is newsworthy? What is ‘fodder’?

16. Communication & Connection • Nick, Meryl and Andy’s need to connect, to share. • Communication breakdown – Nick’s mother, train driver, Andy and Anna. • Isolation and disconnection through pain and suffering – train driver, Julia, Meryl, Nick and his parents. • How important is connection to others in our emotional health and well being? What happens if we don’t? • Why is it so difficult to open up? What keeps us from opening up to others? What sometimes gets in the way? • How can we overcome these hurdles to communication and connection? • When is communication effective and when is it damaging? • Are we connected to everyone else? Are connections established through shared experiences or are they fated?