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There were four different endigs contemplated for The Well. Three were discarded because "one was highly melodramatic but a bit tricksy, another version was too sentimental and a bit dull, and a third was too dark and also a bit tricksy," says director Samantha Lang, who makes her feature film directing debut with this Competition entry.
The Well is about "how the need for love can corrupt you", says Lang. "We wanted the structure to be like a string, which we tie in a knot and the ending unties it. I feel this is a story you need to see - the meaning is infused through the whole film, so it's not very American and doesn't have a three-act structure." Indeed, when Lang finished the assembly, she rang producer Sandra Levy "and I told her this is a very odd film - it's ambiguous and mysterious, as well as a psychological drama."
Adapted from Elizabeth Jolly's novel by Laura Jones, The Well is about two very different women of different ages and with seemingly nothing in common. They meet by chance and initially thrive on their new friendship, but as time passes, each discovers that appearances can be deceptive. An accident with serious consequences seals their fate.
Like Lang, Levy was fascinated by the notion that "a great hunger for love can turn bad when it becomes corrupted by greed and possession." Miranda Otto stars as Katherine, the young, sensuous girl who is taken into Hester's (Pamela Rabe) home to help around the house.
"We weren't absolutely faithful to the book," says Lang, who was invited to direct the adaptation by producer Sandra Levy. At 29, the tyro director is just 18 months out of the Australian Film Television and Radio School. "I think they wanted young blood," she remarks.
Lang was a great admirer of Jones' script. "It had a rich visual language and the relationship between the two women was something I felt I could work with: the older woman, her repressed sexuality, and the younger girl who was always dancing... Every time I read it, I felt an impulse to explore, and I got more and more clues about hoto construct the film. I liked the idea of impossible love, and it's not about sex. I always cull from different parts of film culture, but I particularly wanted to make a film with images that describe the way you feel - images that convey subtext, using the camera to add extra meaning... creating atmosphere. I wasn't going for naturalism, but I was trying to find a reality for the characters, and wanted the locations to mirror Hester's strange character."
The dry blue-grey bush of the Sydney set and t eerie, Gothic landscape of the high country provide a backdrop that serve to make the characters stand out in stark relief.
Lang's debut feature follows several short films, both as writer/director and producer/director, including her much applauded 26-minute drama Audacious (1995), starring Dee Smart, John Polson and Aden Young, winner (among other prizes) of the Dendy Short Fiction Award. Lang's next project is another adaptation, this time of Dorothy Porter's novel, The Monkey's Mask, to be produced by Bridgit Ikin. Andrew L Urban
Prod co: Southern Star Xanadu
Prod: Sandra Levy
Dir: Samantha Lang
Scr: Laura Jones (adapted from the novel by Elizabeth Jolly)
Ph: Amanda Walker
Art dir: Michael Phillips
Cos: Anna Borghesi
Ed: Dany Cooper
Mus: Stephen Rae
Cast: Miranda Otto, Pamela Rabe, Paul Chubb, Genevieve Lemon, Frank Wilson, Steve Jacobs
Running time: 102 mins
Int sales: Southern Star
