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Airdate: Movie: The Eye of the Storm

Charlotte Rampling, Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis star in Fred Schepsi's 2011 melodrama.

There’s a pretty quick turn-around from the big screen to the small screen when ABC1 screens Fred Schepsi’s 2011 film The Eye of the Storm this Sunday night.

That’s because ABC had money in this one.

The cast includes Charlotte Rampling, who more or less steals the film, plus Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis. Not all the elements work perfectly together, but it’s still a bit of fun trying to watch them act each other off the screen.

In a Sydney suburb, two nurses, a housekeeper and a solicitor attend to Elizabeth Hunter (Charlotte Rampling) as her expatriate son and daughter convene at her deathbed. In dying, as in living, Mrs. Hunter remains a formidable force on those around her.

Estranged from a mother who was never capable of loving them Sir Basil (Geoffrey Rush), a famous but struggling actor in London and Dorothy (Judy Davis), an impecunious French princess, attempt to reconcile with her. In doing so they are reduced from states of worldly sophistication to floundering adolescence.

The children unite in a common goal – to leave Australia with their vast inheritance. Using the reluctant services of their family lawyer Arnold Wyburd (John Gaden), a man long in love with Mrs Hunter, they scheme to place their mother in a society nursing home to expedite her demise.

Panic sets in as the staff sense the impending end of their eccentric world. Mrs Hunter confesses her profound disappointment at failing to recreate the state of humility and grace she experienced when caught in the eye of a cyclone fifteen years earlier.

For the first time in their lives, the meaning of compassion takes the children by surprise. During a ferocious storm Mrs Hunter finally dies, and in the process she relives her experience in the cyclone. Standing on a beach, she is calm and serene as devastation surrounds her.

8:30pm Sunday, 3 June ABC1.

2 Responses

  1. Patrick White iis an author that really makes you work when reading his material….I wonder how that will translate to the screen….
    I am a fan of Fred Schepsi’s work and the cast looks good…..I will watch!

  2. Well, there are three good reasons to watch this right there. Not surprisingly, the film and its actors have been nominated for a stack of awards and picked up a gong in Melbourne.

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