How superficial is the depth of the arguments posed here? Art, religion, nudity, sex, blasphemy and the class struggle in a teeny tiny corner of the world.
SIRENS
Written and directed by John Duigan
[b]Norman: [reading from newspaper] The repetitious excesses of Norman Lindsay have long been a source of consternation to clean-living citizens of this country. For many years he has painted men and women who seem to be slaves of cocaine or a similar drug which has reduced them to frenzied and shameless morbidity. Today, however, not content with scorning all standards of public decency, he has chosen to profane the most sacred image of the Christian church, the Crucifixion.
…
Sheela: [talking about an outhouse] I should have warned him about the redbacks.
Estella: What are they?
Sheela: Small spiders with big teeth. They live under toilet seats usually.
Estella: How do you know if they’re there?
Sheela: By the screams
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Anthony: I don’t think there’s anything sinful about the body. There’s a tradition of religious painting featuring the nude. lt’s a question of…how the artist uses the body that’s important.
Giddy: So, do you think Mr Lindsay’s paintings are crude?
Anthony: Some l think are profane.
Giddy: Oh, that’s good!
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Anthony: So you’re a genuine believer in Atlantis?
Norman: Well, l lived there in a former incarnation.
Anthony: l ask because the cataclysm can be seen as an image of moral collapse and some think we’re going through a similar period of decay. Do you explore that in your painting?
Norman: l think people have always been decaying…whenever they can.
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Pru: lmaginations are a luxury…Most people can’t afford them.
Anthony: l don’t think imagination is dependent on economics, is it?
Pru: ln a factory you’re doing exactly the same thing day after day.
Estella: An active imagination is what allows people to do that kind of work.
Pru: Oh, well, you’d know, of course!
Estella: l just think that’s what you’d have to do. You’d have to be imagining other things.
Pru: Please don’t tell us what the working class does and doesn’t think, thank you very much.
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Estella: Did you get anywhere with Mr Lindsay?
Anthony: He insists it’s up to the public to decide for themselves if they want to see his pictures. Of course, they have to see them first to decide, by which time the damage has been done, but that is a bit of logic which is lost upon him.
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Norman: When l was a boy, my mother used to try to instruct us on the sad story of Jesus, how He died on the cross for us. My whole being rose in revolt against the idea! lt’s a vile notion that a god should sacrifice himself for the sins of mankind, it’s a pestilent notion.
Anthony: Well, l couldn’t agree with that.
Norman: As for the suffering my poor pictures will cause a few people, it’s nothing compared to the suffering the Church has caused. The burning of witches, the Spanish lnquisition, the slaughter of pagan tribes and so on.
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Anthony: l suppose there’s no point in trying to prevail on you to help persuade Norman just to withdraw that particular picture?
Rose: Mr Campion, have you actually seen it?
Anthony: Yes, very briefly in the gallery.
Rose: l was the model for it, you see…
Anthony: Ah.
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Norman: lf God didn’t want us to play with these parts, why did He make them so much fun?
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Norman: The fact is, the gloomy God of the Old Testament still has us by the scruff of the neck today. When He was invented, there were a lot of pagan religions that celebrated sexuality and fertility and so on. So how is this new religion to compete with something so popular? By saying that sex was evil and that women, the embodiment of sexuality, were responsible for the downfall of mankind in the Garden of Eden!
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Estella: They’re trying to shock us, aren’t they?
Anthony: Well, church-baiting’s always been a popular pastime. l got an awful lot of it at university. The atheists always think it’s funny to roast the dusty old Christian. The great thing, of course, is not to be too dusty. You should have seen Lindsay’s face when l started quoting Joyce at him.
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Estella: You’re very contemptuous of shrinking violets.
Norman: Dear Estella, l’m a shrinking violet myself. l choose to live not in the real world but in my head. l flee from the real world into my little studio and there before me is the unlimited canvas of my imagination.
Anthony: But your paintings, they do go out into the real world. While you have a wonderful imagination, most are stunted and you have no idea what effect they’ll have on people or what they might incite them to. Rape?
Norman: Mr Campion, in my opinion, the female body is the most beautiful thing in the world and if it turns you into a ravenous maniac l’d suggest it’s a good idea if your wife takes the greatest care to get undressed behind a screen.
Rose: Estella’s seen the pictures too. Does that mean we in danger from her?
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Pru: You’re so patronizing, Mr Campion. Everyone has a rich imagination. What stunts it is capitalist exploitation. Go to Soviet Russia where they’ve been liberated, there’s an explosion of creativity.
Anthony: Have you been to Soviet Russia, Pru? Have you? I’m sorry, l thought for a moment someone knew what they were talking about instead of banging on in this tired bohemian way. The only thing Communism has exploded is every value, religious or otherwise, leaving a vacuum of moral anarchy.
Pru: Anarchy is freedom!
Anthony: Balls! Sorry. Sorry. Freedom for the strong to dominate the weak. lt’s exactly as before, just a different set of bullies.[/b]