The Nightingale premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on 6 September 2018, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion and won the Special Jury Prize, while Ganambarr won the Marcello Mastroianni Award. The film was theatrically released in Australia on 29 August 2019 to widespread acclaim, with particular praise for the performances of the cast, cinematography, writing, visual style, and acknowledgement of racial violence in Australia, though it generated controversy over its graphic portrayal of rape and murder.
Plot
In 1825, on the eve of the Black War, Irish convict Clare Carroll works as a servant for a Colonial force detachment commanded by Lieutenant Hawkins. The unit is visited by an officer to see if Hawkins is fit for promotion. Clare, nicknamed "Nightingale", sings and serves drinks for the men. After work, Clare visits Hawkins to make an inquiry, and he forces her to sing a special song for him. Hawkins makes unwanted advances on her and Clare rebuffs them. She asks about the letter of recommendation that would free her, her husband Aidan, and their infant daughter Bridget, but Hawkins rapes her for her perceived insolence. Aidan suspects that Clare has been hurt but remains calm when he confronts Hawkins about the letter, but he fails to sway him.
That night, Aidan engages in a brawl with Hawkins, his second-in-command Sergeant Ruse, and Ensign Jago. The visiting officer witnesses the incident and decides that he is unfit for promotion. Hawkins commands Ruse and Jago to gather supplies for a journey through the bush to the town of Launceston, Tasmania, in hopes of negotiating with the officer. Before departing, the soldiers intercept the Carroll family, attempting to flee. Hawkins rapes Clare and bids Ruse to do so as well, which he does. Hawkins shoots and kills Aidan, and commands Jago to quiet Clare's crying baby, resulting in Jago swinging the infant against the wall and killing her. Instructed to kill Clare and "finish things," a hesitant Jago hits her in the head with his rifle butt.
The following morning, Clare awakes. She then reports the incident to a RMP officer, but realizes that he's of no help, so decides to seek revenge herself, with the help of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy. Clare presents the mission to Billy as her desire to rendezvous with her husband on his journey. At first, Clare is openly racist towards Billy and he sees her as no different from the English colonists who murdered his family. Their mutual hostility dissipates, however, as they learn about each other's tragic pasts and realize that they are both survivors of conquered peoples with persecuted cultures. Billy tells Clare that his actual name is Mangana, palawa kani for "blackbird", the yellow-tailed black cockatoo, and that he wishes to go north to reunite with the female survivors of his tribe. Meanwhile, the officers recruit three white convicts and an Aboriginal tracker, Charlie, for their journey. Hawkins takes a liking to one of the convicts, a child named Eddie, and Ruse kidnaps a woman named Lowanna to be used as a sex slave. Aboriginal men kill one of the convicts and injure Jago in an unsuccessful rescue mission. Hawkins holds Lowanna hostage, then kills her, distracting the men. He, Ruse, and the convicts flee, leaving Jago behind. Later, Clare and Mangana stumble upon Jago, whom Mangana assumes is her husband. Clare corners Jago, stabbing and beating him to death (an event that haunts her later nightmares). A shocked Mangana considers abandoning Clare, but when he learns the reasons behind her quest for revenge, he decides to stay.
Charlie, as revenge for the soldiers' actions towards the natives, diverts the journey to a dead end on the summit of a mountain. Ruse kills him, but Hawkins chastises Ruse, as Charlie was the only one who could have led them out of the bush, and forces him to be their guide as humiliation on the way back down. After Clare and Mangana find Charlie's body, Mangana performs burial rites and informs Clare that now he, too, seeks vengeance. The two approach the group of four men, but Clare freezes when she sees Hawkins, allowing him to graze her with a musket shot, forcing Clare and Mangana to split up. Mangana is found and forced to be the new guide. He brings the soldiers back to the main path to Launceston, and Hawkins orders Eddie to kill Mangana, but Eddie hesitates, allowing Mangana to escape. Hawkins tries to abandon Eddie, but when Eddie begs for a second chance, Hawkins shoots and kills him. Clare also finds her way back onto the main path and reunites with Mangana. They encounter a chain gang of Aboriginal men, one of whom informs Mangana that he is now the last of his people. When the prisoner yells at his captors about their treatment of indigenous people, they shoot him and the others dead before proceeding to take their heads as trophies. Later on, while eating dinner with a sympathetic couple, Mangana weeps openly, lamenting the loss of his people and home.
In Launceston, Clare confronts a newly promoted Hawkins as a mass murderer and a rapist in the presence of his fellow officers, while Mangana watches in hiding. The two then flee town, but Mangana dons war paint, and returns, despite Clare's pleas that he will be murdered. She follows as Mangana enters the hostel where Hawkins and Ruse are lodged, and proceeds to kill them both, but not before Ruse shoots and deeply wounds him. Clare and Mangana flee and arrive at a beach where Mangana sings and dances, declaring himself a free man, while Clare sings a Sean-nós song in the Irish language as the two watch the sun rise.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2019)
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, director Jennifer Kent was "deluged" with film scripts from the United States after the success of her debut film The Babadook (2014), but decided to focus on writing and directing The Nightingale.[9] IndieWire reported that shooting for The Nightingale began on location in Tasmania in March 2017.[10]
Due to the brutality of the film's scenes, psychologists were brought on set to support the actors.[11]
Release
The Nightingale was released in the United States on 2 August 2019 by IFC Films, and in Australia on 29 August by Transmission Films.[12][13] The film was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 75th Venice International Film Festival,[14][15][16] and had its Australian premiere at the 2018 Adelaide Film Festival.[17] IFC Films announced on Twitter that it had bought the rights to distribute the film in the US and set a release for summer 2019, following its festival run.[18]
Reception
Critical response
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2019)
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Nightingale holds an approval rating of 86%, based on 241 reviews, and an average rating of 7.5/10. Its consensus reads "The Nightingale definitely isn't for all tastes, but writer-director Jennifer Kent taps into a rich vein of palpable rage to tell a war story that leaves a bruising impact."[19] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[20]
Marcella Papandrea from The Super Network said "There is no doubt The Nightingale won't be an easy watch for most, but it is an important watch. Jennifer Kent has carefully and respectfully crafted a brutal story, spilling harsh truths along the way."[21]
Controversy
The Nightingale received media attention following its initial screenings at the Sydney Film Festival, where approximately 30 out of 600 film-goers walked out of the cinema[22] due to its extreme depictions of rape and murder. One viewer was heard shouting "I'm not watching this; she's already been raped twice" as she exited the cinema. Kent defended the decision to show such violence, saying that the film contains historically accurate depictions of the violence and racism which was inflicted upon the indigenous Australian people of that time.[22] The film was produced in collaboration with Tasmanian Aboriginal elders who asserted that this is an honest and necessary depiction of their history and a story that needs to be told. Kent said she understands the negative reactions, but stated that she remains enormously proud of the film and stressed to audiences that this film is about "a need for love, compassion and kindness in dark times."[23]
At the 2018 Venice Film festival, an Italian film critic shouted a sexist comment when Kent's name appeared in the credits. It was similar to the slurs used against the film's protagonist. The Nightingale was the only film directed by a woman to be included in the festival's main competition.[24]
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American actress. She began her career on television during the 1970s before making her film breakthrough in the teen film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). She received critical praise for her performances in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Miami Blues (1990), Backdraft (1991), Single White Female (1992), and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994).
Kim Ki-duk was a South Korean film director and screenwriter, noted for his idiosyncratic art-house cinematic works. His films have received many distinctions in the festival circuit, rendering him one of the most important contemporary Asian film directors.
Esther Davis is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and its film adaptation, Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears, and as Amelia Vanek in The Babadook. Other major works include a recurring role as Lady Crane in season six of the television series Game of Thrones, Sister Iphigenia in Lambs of God, and the role of Ellen Kelly in Justin Kurzel's True History of the Kelly Gang.
Charlie Thomas Cox is an English actor. He is best known for portraying Matt Murdock / Daredevil in the television series Daredevil (2015–2018) and other projects as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Elcho Island, known to its traditional owners as Galiwin'ku (Galiwinku) is an island off the coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Wessel Islands group located in the East Arnhem Region. Galiwin'ku is also the name of the settlement where the island's largest community lives. Elcho Island formed part of the traditional lands of the Yan-nhaŋu, according to Norman Tindale. According to J. C. Jennison, the Aboriginal inhabitants were the Dhuwal, who called themselves the Kokalango Mala
Palawa kani is a constructed language created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the Aboriginal people living on the island now known as Tasmania or lutruwita.
Jennifer Lynn Siebel Newsom is an American documentary filmmaker and actress who is the current First Partner of California as the wife of Governor Gavin Newsom. She is the director, writer, and producer of the film Miss Representation (2011), which premiered in the documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival. The film examines how the media has underrepresented women in positions of power. The Mask You Live In (2015), her second film which she wrote, produced and directed, scrutinizes American society's definition of masculinity.
Daniel Edwin Henshall is an Australian actor. Following his film debut in Snowtown (2011), for which he won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Henshall appeared in films such as These Final Hours (2013), The Babadook (2014), Acute Misfortune (2018), and Catch the Fair One (2021).
Anomalisa is a 2015 American stop motion animated psychological comedy-drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, who co-directed with Duke Johnson. It was based on Kaufman's 2005 audio play of the same name under his alias Francis Fregoli, which is considered an exploration of the Fregoli delusion. Anomalisa follows British middle-aged customer service expert Michael Stone, who perceives everyone as identical except for Lisa Hesselman, whom he meets in a Cincinnati hotel.
The Babadook is a 2014 Australian horror film written and directed by Jennifer Kent in her feature directorial debut, based on her 2005 short film Monster. Starring Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney, Barbara West, and Ben Winspear, the film follows a widowed single mother who with her son must confront a mysterious humanoid monster in their home.
Jennifer Kent is an Australian director, screenwriter, and former actress. She is best known for writing and directing the psychological horror film The Babadook (2014). Her second film, The Nightingale (2018), premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Lion.
Aisling Franciosi is an Irish actress. She won an AACTA Award for her leading role in the film The Nightingale (2018). On television, she is known for her roles in the RTÉ-BBC Two crime drama The Fall (2013–2016), season 2 of the TNT series Legends (2015), and the BBC One miniseries Black Narcissus (2020).
Sweet Country is a 2017 Australian drama film, directed by Warwick Thornton. Set in 1929 in the sparsely populated outback of the Northern Territory and based on a series of true events, it tells a harsh story against the backdrop of a divided society in the interwar period in Australia.
Marriage Story is a 2019 drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach, who also produced the film with David Heyman. It stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as a warring couple going through a coast-to-coast divorce. Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Julie Hagerty, and Merritt Wever appear in supporting roles.
The 75th Venice International Film Festival was held from 29 August to 8 September 2018.
The Corrupted is a 2019 British crime thriller film directed by Ron Scalpello from a screenplay by Nick Moorcroft. The film stars Sam Claflin, Timothy Spall, Noel Clarke, David Hayman, Charlie Murphy, Naomi Ackie, Joe Claflin, Sam Otto, Cathal Pendred and Hugh Bonneville, and follows an ex-convict who tries to win back the trust of his family after losing everything to a local crime syndicate.
Baykali Ganambarr is an Yolngu actor and dancer. He received the 2018 Marcello Mastroianni Award for his role in The Nightingale and was nominated for the 2019 AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the same role. He was nominated for the 2021 AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in The Furnace.
The 16th Irish Film & Television Academy Awards took place on 18 October 2020. Because no ceremony was held in 2019, this ceremony honoured films and television drama released in both 2018 and 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no physical ceremony took place; instead, there was a "virtual ceremony" hosted by Deirdre O’Kane.
The Furnace is a 2020 Australian adventure drama film written and directed by Roderick MacKay. Set in the Western Australian outback during the goldrushes of the 1890s, the film's characters include "Afghan" cameleers, a white gold thief, and local Aboriginal people. It was nominated for several AACTA Awards.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
