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Film Superficial Style

[unclear: Kin] Deep [unclear: irected] by Geoff Steven [unclear: Naza]

Bob (Ken Blackburn) runs the local [unclear: lectrical] Appliances store. Confident, [unclear: rash], reassuring, he is the self appointed [unclear: otive] force in the town of Carlton, [unclear: sident] of the Businessmen's [unclear: Progres-ve] Association and leader of the [unclear: cam-ngn] to put the town on the map. With a $20,000 budget the BPA will [unclear: nance] an advertising campaign through-[unclear: it] the country to attract families [unclear: anting] to get away from it all and [unclear: dustry] to make sure they can't. The [unclear: ntradiction] doesn't seem very [unclear: ap-irent] to some of the BPA members, at Bob knows what he's about: with [unclear: re] public's money raised "for the [unclear: blic's] good" he's on the way from [unclear: ecoming] just another shopkeeper to fully fledged capitalist.

One of his schemes is to invite top [unclear: uckland] boxers down for an exhibition out at the climax of the local school-by competition. That draws the crowds I right. Another idea is to get the owner the run-down gym to hire an [unclear: Auck-nd] masseuse. Contrary to [unclear: expecta-ons], she doesn't draws the crowds at [unclear: I], but she does bring out a great [unclear: any] latent frustrations in the local [unclear: pulation]. Bob, ever the leader, is [unclear: t] of course an idle bystander to [unclear: e] bitter culmination of events.

[unclear: kin] Deep was made on location in [unclear: etihi]. The town and its rituals are [unclear: posed] bluntly to the camera: the [unclear: -male] pub, the brusqe waitress in [unclear: e] formica top restaurant, the gala [unclear: nee], the wife who hands around [unclear: ie] food and expects any other [unclear: oman] in the room will preter to [unclear: a] the same. All these things are [unclear: ch] in subtle humour. Sometimes [unclear: s] an easy joke, at other times it's [unclear: zor-sharp] satire. But never are [unclear: e] able to laugh with the characters; most never, in fact, do we see them [unclear: ghing]. Or enjoying themselves at [unclear: I]. The subject deserves all the sat-[unclear: it] can get, it's just that satire needs [unclear: a] attack the life of its subject, not [unclear: ie] simple facade put there by the [unclear: tirist] in the first place.

A cross country run by the town's [unclear: ungsters] is a good example. Up [unclear: all] and down dale we watch the [unclear: run-rs] toiling along. That's all we do, [unclear: atch]. The film makes no attempt [unclear: a] enter into the spirit It happens [unclear: ain] with a wood-chopping [unclear: compition]. A group of big strong men [unclear: t] up lengths of tree trunk in the Miring rain and proceed to chop [unclear: em] in half. The camera follows [unclear: is] with close ups of the hands reaching for axes, metal clamps being driven into place, axes biting into the wood. We ice almost nothing of the people and get no sense of excitement or competition at all. The meaning of the event for its participants and thus for the film's audience is destroyed.

Possibly the filmmakers have intended this to happen. Perhaps they mean to show that the principle purpose of these fundraising ventures is not the enjoyment or achievement of those taking part but their potential for lining the pockets of the town's businessmen. But surely there is some sort of pretence that the former just doesn't exist.

Anything can be made to appear absurd if its meaning for those who are doing it is shown to be so. For example, thirty grown men chasing an inflated pig's bladder round on the grass sounds ludicrous. But a game of rugby certainly is not ludicrous, and if one wanted to make a film which captured something of the spirit of New Zealand it would be cheating to treat it as such. This film is an attempt to capture something of the New Zealand spirit, yet the wood chopping and the cross country run are examples of just this kind of trick. As an examination of small town life the film is just as the title suggests, and it's not clear why.

The main plot of Skin Deep centres around Sandra (Deryn Cooper), who has come to the town to get away from the city (she says). Bob becomes her main customer ; from the very beginning his interest in the goings on of city massage parlours is apparent to Sandra and the audience. Her response is difficult to understand. She doesn't encourage him, nor does she discourage him.

Worldly-wise and disillusioned, she is to an extent trapped by her circumstances. Presumably she had hoped that a change of scenery would lead to a change of habits, yet she does very little to bring this about. She just doesn't seem to care, while at the same time (when loneliness overcomes her) she care desperately.

There are two other women in the film. Bob's wife (Heather Lindsay): who seems happy enough doing whatever her husband wants, and the wife of the town's accountant (Glenis (Levestam) she is the local voice of civil decency, impressionable and when it comes to church sermons and bitter as hell when there's a whiff of prostitution about.

As a film about the predicament of women. Skin Deep is pretty, depressing, containing not the faintest hint of anything that might be done about this destructive state of affairs. In its portrayal of these three people (and of the men who hover about defining their lives for them) it will undoubtedly ring true for a great many people who see it. It's hard to believe the filmmakers' intention was to depress their audience, yet it's hard to see what else they were trying to do for anyone to whom will the film will speak directly,

Having said all this, I have to admit I came out of the cinema having enjoyed myself. Partly it was because of the skin deep presentation of small town life (all that subtle humour at the town's expense). Partly it was because of the film's superb camerawork and beautifully finished form. Director of Photography Leon Narby's experience in avant garde shines through in the sense for movement, colour and form. The wood chopping episode for example, fascinating exercise in creating an intimate feeling for the things happening (even though people and meaning are excluded).

Very largely my enjoyment came from the atmosphere of confidence the film exudes In every sense it is professionally made, nowhere more so than in the acting. Blackburn is especially good as the self-seeking small-time big shot. Cooper' manages the difficult combination of self confidence (she has no trouble "handling herself") and loss of self (she doesn't know what to do with herself) with apparent ease. Levestam is disturbingly bitter while Grant Tilly as her husband develops his own pathetic brand of bitterness with a quiet flair. A sequence at the dance when the portly accountant tries to keep step with Sandra and has to face his cold condemning wife at the end is among the best in the film;

Skin Deep is worth seeing. Even more than its predecessors in the emerging local film industry, Sleeping Dogs and Solo., its overall execution demonstrates considerable ability (all the more remarkable for being made for only $180,000). Yet it also shares with (hose films a reticance to treat its themes with any depth. That flaw is all the more disturbing for hiding behind a surface appearance of having been overcome.

Simon Wilson