South Solitary

Last updated

South Solitary
Directed by Shirley Barrett
Written byShirley Barrett
Produced by Miranda Culley
Starring Miranda Otto
Marton Csokas
Cinematography Anna Howard
Music by Mary Finsterer
Distributed by Icon Film Distribution
Release date
  • 29 July 2010 (2010-07-29)(Australia)
Running time
121 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Box office$5441 (New Zealand)
A$279,341 (Australia) [1]

South Solitary is a 2010 Australian romance film set on South Solitary Island and directed by Shirley Barrett.

Contents

Plot

Meredith Appleton (Miranda Otto) arrives on South Solitary island with her elderly uncle George Wadsworth (Barry Otto). Her uncle has been sent as the new Head Lighthouse Keeper after the suicide of the last one. Her uncle is shown to be a gruff man very critical of the slightest disorder. Meredith meets the local girl Nettie (Annie Martin), whom she asks to care for her lamb. She then meets the mother, Alma Stanley (Essie Davis) and her two sons, Tom (Reef Ireland) and Robbie (Benson Adams). The father, Harry Stanley (Rohan Nichol) takes George for a tour of inspection where George disapproves of the state of loose animals, the absence of lighthouse keeper Jack Fleet (Marton Csokas), and a previous history of lighthouse outages.

The first night, as Meredith is preparing tea for her uncle, she hears baby birds chirping in the stovepipe so she douses the fire and is not able to prepare hot tea for her uncle. Jack Fleet has a panic attack on his watch, brought on by his war trauma. Nettie introduces Meredith to the unreliable emergency message system using homing pigeons. When Nettie tries to send a routine message that all is well on South Solitary the birds return to their coop thus rendering the system useless. While having afternoon tea with Alma, Meredith reveals she is unable to give birth to the unsympathetic mother. She lost her fiancé in the war, then became pregnant through an affair with a married man, but complications meant her womb was removed. Making friends with South Solitary’s strange residents is hard for Meredith who finds the isolation difficult. Harry visits her during her bath, and seduces her. Sent to fetch her dad, Nettie sees Meredith and Harry in bed together and tells her mother who tells George, and the family is next seen quitting the island on the next passing ship.

While pushing up a store of supplies from the beach without Stanley to help, George overly exerts himself, becomes very ill with a heart attack and dies. Jack must keep solitary watch as there is no one else and proves himself a sensitive and capable keeper. Together the pair bury George and provide a eulogy for him. A whole gale quickly forms stranding Meredith at the lighthouse with Fleet for several days during which she learns how to turn the light and the Flag semaphore system and gets to know him. She conveys her sense of loneliness to Jack and her desire for a sense of permanence, with more conversation than Jack is used to, causing him to have a panic attack with hallucinations of a ship in distress, so that he runs off into the wilderness. Covering the island, Meredith finds her lost lamb which Jack helps her to recover. Meanwhile Jack sees a ship in the distance and signals for it to pick up Meredith who wants to stay. She begs him not to send her away, but he finds it too stressful having close company and refuses. As she leaves they kiss, and arrange to keep in touch, even that Jack will visit when he next has leave. Meredith looks out for him from the water then catches sight of the semaphore message he has displayed; she is seen smiling as she draws away from South Solitary.

Cast

Reviews

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 71% with a rating of 5.6 out of 10. Out of 17 reviews counted, 12 gave it a positive review and 6 gave it a negative review. [2]

Related Research Articles

You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play premiered on Broadway in 1936, and played for 838 performances.

USS <i>Golet</i> Submarine of the United States

USS Golet (SS-361), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the golet, a California trout.

<i>Kentucky</i> (film) 1938 film by Otto Brower, David Butler

Kentucky is a 1938 American drama sports film with Loretta Young, Richard Greene, and Walter Brennan. It was directed by David Butler. It is a Romeo and Juliet story of lovers Jack and Sally, set amidst Kentucky horseracing, in which a family feud goes back to the Civil War and is kept alive by Sally's Uncle Peter.

<i>Street of Chance</i> (1942 film) 1942 film by Jack Hively

Street of Chance is a 1942 American film noir mystery film directed by Jack Hively and starring Burgess Meredith as a man who finds he has been suffering from amnesia and Claire Trevor as a woman who protects him from the police, who suspect him of murder. He is suspected of the murder of the wealthy Harry Diedrich. The only eyewitness to the murder was Harry's mute grandmother, and she can only communicate with others through sign language.

<i>The Big Broadcast of 1936</i> 1935 musical film by Norman Taurog

The Big Broadcast of 1936 is a 1935 American comedy film directed by Norman Taurog, and is the second in the series of Big Broadcast movies. The musical comedy starred Jack Oakie, Bing Crosby, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Ethel Merman, The Nicholas Brothers, Lyda Roberti, Wendy Barrie, Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles, Akim Tamiroff, Amos 'n' Andy, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Argentinian tango singer Carlos Gardel.

<i>Tea for Two</i> (film) 1950 musical comedy film starring Doris Day and Gordon MacRae, and directed by David Butler

Tea for Two is a 1950 American musical romantic comedy film starring Doris Day and Gordon MacRae, and directed by David Butler. The screenplay by Harry Clork was inspired by the 1925 stage musical No, No, Nanette, although the plot was changed considerably from the original book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel; and the score by Harbach, Irving Caesar, and Vincent Youmans was augmented with songs by other composers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lighthouse keeper</span> Profession in the shipping industry

A lighthouse keeper or lightkeeper is a person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Lighthouse keepers were sometimes referred to as "wickies" because of their job trimming the wicks.

<i>Captain January</i> (1936 film) 1936 film by David Butler

Captain January is a 1936 American musical comedy-drama film directed by David Butler. The screenplay by Sam Hellman, Gladys Lehman, and Harry Tugend is based on the 1890 children's book of the same name by Laura E. Richards. The film stars Shirley Temple, Guy Kibbee, and Sara Haden.

<i>Ah, Wilderness!</i> (film) 1935 film

Ah, Wilderness! is a 1935 American comedy-drama film adaptation of the 1933 Eugene O'Neill play of the same name. Directed by Clarence Brown, the film stars Wallace Beery and features Lionel Barrymore, Eric Linden, Cecilia Parker, Spring Byington, and a young Mickey Rooney. Rooney stars as Richard in MGM's musical remake Summer Holiday (1948).

<i>Danger – Love at Work</i> 1937 film by Otto Preminger

Danger – Love at Work is a 1937 American screwball comedy film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Ann Sothern, Jack Haley and Edward Everett Horton. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The screenplay by James Edward Grant and Ben Markson focuses on an attorney's frustrating efforts to deal with a wildly eccentric family.

<i>The Phantom Light</i> 1935 film

The Phantom Light is a 1935 British crime film, a low-budget "quota quickie" directed by Michael Powell and starring Binnie Hale, Gordon Harker, Donald Calthrop, Milton Rosmer and Ian Hunter. The screenplay concerns criminals who try to scare a new chief lighthouse keeper on the Welsh coast, in an attempt to distract him from their scheme.

<i>Java Head</i> (1934 film) 1934 British film

Java Head is a 1934 British historical drama film directed by J. Walter Ruben and an uncredited Thorold Dickinson. It stars Anna May Wong, Elizabeth Allan and Ralph Richardson.

Shirley Barrett was an Australian film director, screenwriter, and novelist. Initially Barrett was a singer in the band Fruit Pastilles from 1981-83. After ending her time in the band, Barrett went on to write for films. Her first film Love Serenade won the Caméra d'Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. She wrote and directed two other feature films Walk the Talk (2000) and South Solitary (2010). Barrett's script for South Solitary was awarded multiple prizes, including the Queensland Premier's Prize and the West Australian Premier's Prize. Her first novel Rush Oh! (2016) was shortlisted for the 2016 Indie Awards for Debut Fiction and the 2016 Nita May Dobbie Award, and long-listed for the 2016 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Her second novel The Bus on Thursday was released in 2018.

<i>The Groom Wore Spurs</i> 1951 film by Richard Whorf

The Groom Wore Spurs is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Richard Whorf and starring Ginger Rogers and Jack Carson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashley Kafka</span> Comics character

Dr. Ashley Kafka is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually in stories revolving around the superhero Spider-Man. Introduced in The Spectacular Spider-Man #178, she was created by writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist Sal Buscema. The character was inspired by therapeutic hypnotist Frayda Kafka. In the comics, Dr. Kafka is a psychiatrist at the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane, and an occasional ally of Spider-Man. After having been killed by Massacre, Dr. Kafka was twice "reanimated" with her soul intact in a cloned body by Ben Reilly and Norman Osborn, dying again in the former body to the Carrion Virus before going on to become the Queen Goblin in the latter body after being magically corrupted by Osborn's "sins" by the Beyond Corporation.

<i>Voice from the Stone</i> 2017 American film

Voice from the Stone is a 2017 American supernatural psychological thriller film directed by Eric D. Howell and written by Andrew Shaw, based on the novel of the same name by Silvio Raffo. The film tells about a young patient of a female psychologist, who gave a promise to the dying mother to remain silent, until her spirit returns. The film, shot in Italy, stars Emilia Clarke, Marton Csokas, Caterina Murino, Remo Girone, Lisa Gastoni and Edward George Dring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitman Sisters</span> Black Vaudeville quartet

The Whitman Sisters were four African-American sisters who were stars of Black Vaudeville. They ran their own performing touring company for over forty years from 1900 to 1943, becoming the longest-running and best-paid act on the T.O.B.A. circuit. They comprised Mabel (May) (b. Ohio; 1880–1942), Essie (Essie Barbara Whitman; b. Osceola, Arkansas, July 4, 1882 – May 7, 1963), Alberta "Bert" (b. Kansas; 1887–1964) and Alice (b. Georgia; 1900–December 29, 1968).

<i>Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears</i> 2020 film directed by Tony Tilse

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears is a 2020 Australian mystery adventure film directed by Tony Tilse and starring Essie Davis as Phryne Fisher. It is based on the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries television series and the series of Phryne Fisher novels written by Kerry Greenwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William R. Dunn (actor)</span> American actor (1888–1946)

William R. Dunn was an American actor on film and stage and in vaudeville.

References