Kiss or Kill (1997 film)
Encyclopedia
Kiss or Kill is a 1997
Australian thriller about two lovers and fugitives from the law who are pursued across the Australian Outback
. The film was written and directed by Bill Bennett
, and stars Frances O'Connor
and Matt Day
.
in which a little girl watches helplessly as a man, presumably her father, appears at the door, douses her mother with petrol and sets her alight.
The young girl, now a woman in her twenties, is Nikki Davies (Frances O'Connor
). Nikki and her boyfriend, Al Fletcher (Matt Day
), are small-time criminals who target married businessmen. Nikki picks up a charmless patent attorney in a bar and accompanies him back to his room where she slips something in his drink. The man passes out, Nikki lets Al into the room and they begin casing it for valuables.
Then things start to go wrong. Al discovers their mark is not merely unconscious but dead. They flee the scene but back at their place the situation gets more complicated. A video in the patent attorney's briefcase features a famous ex-footballer, Zipper Doyle, engaged in pedophilia. Enraged, Nikki leaves an abusive message on the answering machine at Doyle's gym. Meanwhile, Al fast-forwards to the next scene in the video. Doyle is with a woman who looks disconcertingly similar to Nikki.
At the break of day, the lovers depart Adelaide
, setting out across the Nullabor Plain for Perth
. Soon they are being pursued by Doyle - who wants his tape back - as well as the police. That night they stop at a motel in the middle of nowhere, run by a lonely eccentric by the name of Stan (Max Cullen
). Stan's attempts at hospitality backfire when Nikki's shirt catches alight over a dinner of fondue
. This incident and a sleepwalking
episode later that night not only underscore the lovers' precarious situation but also serve as reminders of Nikki's horrible past.
At a truck stop the next morning, Nikki overhears that Stan has been murdered. She demands to see Al's wallet and finds it stuffed full of cash. Al insists he only robbed Stan. Back on the road, the couple become aware that they are being followed. Al realises it's Zipper Doyle and veers off-road. Doyle fires at them and chases after in pursuit. Fortunately for Nikki and Al, Doyles' Jaguar
can't manage the territory their 4WD can.
Pulling over to get their bearings, they make a bizarre discovery. Adler Jones (Barry Otto
)
has been hiding in the boot. While Al is on the verge of attacking Adler, Nikki is persuaded by Adler's offer of help. Adler suggests the couple stay at his place nearby (amusingly located in a former nuclear testing site). When they arrive and meet Adler's wife Bel (Jennifer Cluff), Al acknowledges the apparent wisdom of Nikki's instinct to trust Adler.
The next morning Nikki discovers Adler and Bel dead in their beds, their throats cut. Al appears and knocks Nikki out. Evidently he has decided Nikki must be committing the murders - only semi-consciously in her sleep - and ties her up at a safe-house. It is here that the police finally catch up with the couple. However, after a night in a cell a strange lawyer turns up and organises bail. He drives the bemused lovers to a motel where he instructs them to wait. Suddenly Zipper Doyle appears and forces them at gun-point to get into his car.
By now the police have discovered Doyle's participation in a pedophilia ring and are pursuing him as well as Nikki & Al. When Doyle sees a road-block he begins issuing commands to Nikki who is in the driver's seat. Nikki ignores him and drives straight into the road-block. Doyle is killed in the crash, the lovers are only wounded. In a concluding voice-over
Nikki explains who was responsible for the murders on the road and how they got off for the death of the patent-attorney (always wipe your prints and only target pedophiles).
Al, for his part, is aware that Nikki is psychologically volatile. Although he accepts her innocence he does insist that people can do "weird things" in their sleep. This intuition is later lent credence when Nikki relives her mother's murder in her sleep and nearly kills Al in the process. When Adler & Bel are found dead, Al ties Nikki up, apparently for her own benefit as well as his.
Underlying the central question of who is doing the killing are other doubts. Al can't understand why the patent attorney died and interrogates Nikki about how many pills she gave them. In bed at night at Adler and Bel's, Al tells Nikki that the woman in Doyle's video looked a lot like her.
The theme of trust is developed in three sub-plots. When Nikki and Al arrive at Stan's motel, Stan can be overheard arguing with Adler. At the Jones', Nikki notices a photo of Adler and Bel with Stan and wonders about the dynamic between the three of them. Zipper Doyle is widely admired and respected by the public but is really a pedophile. Finally, even the police who are pursuing Nikki and Al start doubting each other in the very amusing "bacon story" (see The Cops below).
that this has affected her ability to trust people in adult life. The residual effect of the experience is apparent in the way in which she is traumatised when her shirt catches on fire at Stan's motel. The suspicion that her sleep-walking is attributable to her mother's murder is confirmed in an episode where she relives in her sleep what she saw as a child. As well as exemplifying how childhood experiences endure in the adult personality, Kiss or Kill also presents the possibility that these experiences can be transcended. Even in the most frightening circumstances, Nikki maintains a largely loving, trusting and intimate relationship with Al, one that ultimately endures.
Nikki is the young victim of violence in the prologue: Zipper Doyle is a perpetrator of violence against children in the film's present. Thus Doyle's appearance represents, at one level at least, a resurfacing of Nikki's past. On this reading, her flight across the desert with Doyle in pursuit is, amongst other things, a flight from her traumatic past. Ultimately the conflict is resolved when Nikki kills Doyle (and nearly herself too) by driving full-speed into a police road-block. Notably, Nikki does this against the instructions of Doyle, who has a gun at her head.
, is the leading female character in the film. She appears sophisticated, in control and witty at first, however as the film progresses Nikki’s true erratic, nervous personality is revealed. She gives off an air of confidence, wearing short skirts, tight tops with glamorous hair and make up, she chain smokes and her relationship with her boyfriend is overtly sexual. After the death of her mother, an orphaned Nikki turns to a life of petty crime, ending up in a juvenile detention centre, where she meets her future boyfriend, and partner in crime Al Fletcher, played by Matt Day
. Although Nikki and Al have been together a long time, and thus know each other very well, there is a strong element of mistrust between them. This becomes particularly apparent as their relationship is put under much strain and doubt with a string of murders following the couple across the desert. Nikki is traumatized by an incident in which her sleeve catches on fire, it is assumed that this provokes memories of her mother’s horrific death and she begins sleepwalking as a result.
); tall, masculine, and a criminal. Al is Nikki’s best friend and boyfriend. He is a main character in the story and plays a vital role to the development of Nikki’s character. They met in a juvenile detention centre and have pursued their troubled ways, now partners in petty crime. Al is short tempered, we see this when he attacks the truck driver almost unprovoked. We learn that he is anxious and paranoid, this is demonstrated in the scene where he ties Nikki up, leaving her in the middle of nowhere. From this we learn that Al too has trust issues, and he has perhaps experienced a traumatizing event himself, despite his already harmful relationship with his parents and childhood rebellion. Despite Al’s trust issues his affection towards Nikki is definitely love which he demonstrates this numerous times. For example when Nikki gets burnt on the fondue set at the motel. Al also demonstrates this affection for Nikki through sexual acts, they are almost inseparable. He is not always trustworthy and the audience can, at times, question his loyalty. This is assumed after Al steals the money from Stan and doesn’t tell Nikki about it.
The character of Al reflects Nikki’s incapability to trust men, and her underlining fear of pain. Without Al Nikki’s transformation is incomplete. Although Nikki says that she will never completely trust Al, through what they have been together it can be concluded that he has unconsciously helped Nikki breakthrough some of her childhood damage.
"Matt Day
's good looks belie a certain undercurrent which he uses to full effect in his character of Al." Matt Day portrays the character of Al as impulsive, strong willed and troubled. His interpretation of this bruised character is convincing as the audience can se the trauma beyond his hard exterior.
is the owner of the motel that Nikki and Al visit the first night they're on the run. Stan lives by himself and runs the motel in the middle of the Nullabor desert. He is a small, chubby man, who wears a t-shirts with swirls on it 'to ward off the spirits.' According to Stan, who is evidently deluded, his wife went missing in the caves nearby and never returned. Stan is crazy and clearly eccentric but upon his death is referred to as "a good bloke" by another character in the film. It appears that Stan had an affair with Adler Jones' wife. When Nikki and Al arrive at the hotel, a heated conversation between Stan and Adler can be overheard.
) is a mysterious element to the film kiss or kill. Throughout the movie he is seen as kind hearted, quiet man yet underneath he is a cold killer. He appears strange and somewhat mysterious, due to the little detail revealed about him throughout the film. He is a crucial element to the story, creating the unpredictable plotline. Adler is the mystery link that puts the pieces together after the death of Stan, the drunken motel manager and his wife. Stan mutters in drunken slurs about the ‘unphanthomable tunnels under the desert’, he also informs us of the couple that live out on the abandoned nuclear testing site.
) and Crean (Andrew S. Gilbert
). The two detectives experience ups and downs whilst investigating the murder, never quite able to catch Nikki and Al, whom they are chasing on suspicion of murder of Paul, a businessman whom Nikki and Al ripped off. As the detectives chase the protagonists, one step behind, they come across more murdered bodies, who they suspect died at the hands of Nikki and Al as well.
A favourite scene for many reviewers was the comedic scene between the two detectives, nicknamed the “bacon scene”. This scene takes place at a roadside diner, as the detectives have a conversation about how the younger of the two, Crean, doesn't eat bacon. James Berardinelli stated in his review of the film, the scene begins similar to something from Pulp Fiction, with the conversation being borderline-hysterical. David O’Connell described the scene as having a classic, wordless punchline which is worth the wait. This scene was also the only scene with fully written dialogue in the film.
This scene also shows how much the detectives know about each other, or really, how much they don't know about each other, continuing the mistrust theme which runs throughout the film. Crean tells a series of stories about his background, ranging from being adopted by Mossad agents that were killed in a plane crash, to having a child with cerebral palsy, all of which Hummer didn't know. Like other scenes in the movie, mainly those that involve Nikki and Al, the scene shows how they come to a realisation that they actually knew very little about each other's personal lives, even though they are with each other every day.
is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit causes the subject of the shots to appear to "jump" position in a discontinuous way. An indecisive cut is cutting from a shot to another shot of a different shot size while framing the same subject and the difference in image size or angle must be decisive. These methods as well as hand held camera work gives the viewer an insight into the lives of Nikki and Al, as their lives are indecisive and jumpy, on the edge and ultimately gives what the director calls as a ‘dirty look’. It also lets the audience feel like they can relate to the characters because it is something extra apart from the film itself they can experience with the characters.
Relational editing is the editing of shots to suggest association of ideas between them. For example: The flame unites scene 1 & scene 2, the prologue & the body of the film. Together with hearing Nikki’s voice it confirms that the adult woman we now see was once the young girl who witnessed her mother’s murder. (It also suggests that the residue of that trauma is still with her). Along with a [shot-reverse shot] (one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character, presumably looking at each other), cutting between the young Nikki and her mother, Nikki’s experience of this horrible event is emphasised.
The 180 degree rule
is a basic guideline in film making that states those two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. The 180 degree rule
is broken during Kiss or Kill. It is most prominent and significant during the scene located at the dinner, and Nikki confronts Al about the murder of Stan. The rule has been broken and so from the viewer it looks as if Nikki is talking to herself as the camera doesn’t cut to Al. This technique emphasizes Nikki’s internal struggle and her ultimate trust issues.
. However, Kiss or Kill is often referred to as a thriller, due to the films unique presentation and regular use of red herrings to trick the audience. The film is an outback road movie, like many released around the same time and takes place on the outback roads of rural Australia.
Through the main characters, the film also takes on a less cliched lovers-on-the-run aspect. Rather than the usual setup of rebels running from oppression, the movie portrays the detectives chasing them as clever jokers. Al and Nikki are often shown to be flawed, overemotional people. Throughout the movie there are also traces of black humour, usually shown by the detectives.
, Kiss or Kill won five out of a nominated eleven awards, including Best Film, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Direction, Best Achievement in Sound and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Andrew S. Gilbert). It was also nominated for the Gold Hugo Best Film award of 1997 at the [Chicago international Film Festival]. Frances O'Connor won Best Actress at the 1997 Montreal World Film Festival
along with Wayne Peashley for Best Artistic Contribution in relation to sound, the film was also nominated for the Grand Prix des Amériques. In 1998 the film received recognition at the Film Critics Circle of Australia
awards, winning five out of a possible eight nominated awards including best film.
1997 in film
-Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...
Australian thriller about two lovers and fugitives from the law who are pursued across the Australian Outback
Outback
The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...
. The film was written and directed by Bill Bennett
Bill Bennett (director)
Bill Bennett is an Australian film director, producer and screenwriter.-Biography:He has directed 16 films since 1983. His film Backlash was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. Three years later his film Malpractice would be screened in the same section at...
, and stars Frances O'Connor
Frances O'Connor
-Background:O'Connor was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire, England to a pianist mother and nuclear physicist father. When O'Connor was two, her family moved back to Perth, Western Australia. O'Connor was raised a Roman Catholic and attended the Mercedes College in Perth...
and Matt Day
Matt Day
Matthew "Matt" Day is an Australian actor best known for his film and television roles.-Early life and career:Matt Day was born in Melbourne in 1971...
.
Plot summary
Kiss or Kill opens with a woman off camera explaining how she has difficulty trusting people, especially men, because of things she saw when she was young. This comment introduces a prologuePrologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
in which a little girl watches helplessly as a man, presumably her father, appears at the door, douses her mother with petrol and sets her alight.
The young girl, now a woman in her twenties, is Nikki Davies (Frances O'Connor
Frances O'Connor
-Background:O'Connor was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire, England to a pianist mother and nuclear physicist father. When O'Connor was two, her family moved back to Perth, Western Australia. O'Connor was raised a Roman Catholic and attended the Mercedes College in Perth...
). Nikki and her boyfriend, Al Fletcher (Matt Day
Matt Day
Matthew "Matt" Day is an Australian actor best known for his film and television roles.-Early life and career:Matt Day was born in Melbourne in 1971...
), are small-time criminals who target married businessmen. Nikki picks up a charmless patent attorney in a bar and accompanies him back to his room where she slips something in his drink. The man passes out, Nikki lets Al into the room and they begin casing it for valuables.
Then things start to go wrong. Al discovers their mark is not merely unconscious but dead. They flee the scene but back at their place the situation gets more complicated. A video in the patent attorney's briefcase features a famous ex-footballer, Zipper Doyle, engaged in pedophilia. Enraged, Nikki leaves an abusive message on the answering machine at Doyle's gym. Meanwhile, Al fast-forwards to the next scene in the video. Doyle is with a woman who looks disconcertingly similar to Nikki.
At the break of day, the lovers depart Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, setting out across the Nullabor Plain for Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. Soon they are being pursued by Doyle - who wants his tape back - as well as the police. That night they stop at a motel in the middle of nowhere, run by a lonely eccentric by the name of Stan (Max Cullen
Max Cullen
Max Cullen is an Australian stage and screen actor. Max has appeared in many Australian films and television series but is best known for his role in the film Spider and Rose and the television series The Flying Doctors and Love My Way.Cullen was born in Wellington, New South Wales...
). Stan's attempts at hospitality backfire when Nikki's shirt catches alight over a dinner of fondue
Fondue
Fondue is a Swiss dish of melted cheese served in a communal pot over a spirit lamp , and eaten by dipping long-stemmed forks with bread into the cheese...
. This incident and a sleepwalking
Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. Sleepwalkers arise from the slow wave sleep stage in a state of low consciousness and perform activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness...
episode later that night not only underscore the lovers' precarious situation but also serve as reminders of Nikki's horrible past.
At a truck stop the next morning, Nikki overhears that Stan has been murdered. She demands to see Al's wallet and finds it stuffed full of cash. Al insists he only robbed Stan. Back on the road, the couple become aware that they are being followed. Al realises it's Zipper Doyle and veers off-road. Doyle fires at them and chases after in pursuit. Fortunately for Nikki and Al, Doyles' Jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
can't manage the territory their 4WD can.
Pulling over to get their bearings, they make a bizarre discovery. Adler Jones (Barry Otto
Barry Otto
Barry Otto is an Australian actor with a long list of memorable roles on stage and in film. Otto received an AFI Award for Best Supporting Actor in Strictly Ballroom as well as being nominated for Bliss, Cosi and The More Things Change......
)
has been hiding in the boot. While Al is on the verge of attacking Adler, Nikki is persuaded by Adler's offer of help. Adler suggests the couple stay at his place nearby (amusingly located in a former nuclear testing site). When they arrive and meet Adler's wife Bel (Jennifer Cluff), Al acknowledges the apparent wisdom of Nikki's instinct to trust Adler.
The next morning Nikki discovers Adler and Bel dead in their beds, their throats cut. Al appears and knocks Nikki out. Evidently he has decided Nikki must be committing the murders - only semi-consciously in her sleep - and ties her up at a safe-house. It is here that the police finally catch up with the couple. However, after a night in a cell a strange lawyer turns up and organises bail. He drives the bemused lovers to a motel where he instructs them to wait. Suddenly Zipper Doyle appears and forces them at gun-point to get into his car.
By now the police have discovered Doyle's participation in a pedophilia ring and are pursuing him as well as Nikki & Al. When Doyle sees a road-block he begins issuing commands to Nikki who is in the driver's seat. Nikki ignores him and drives straight into the road-block. Doyle is killed in the crash, the lovers are only wounded. In a concluding voice-over
Voice-over
Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...
Nikki explains who was responsible for the murders on the road and how they got off for the death of the patent-attorney (always wipe your prints and only target pedophiles).
Trust and Familiarity
Nikki and Al's relationship is often passionate and at times tender. However, as accumulated mysteries present themselves throughout the narrative, they are forced to question how well they really know each other. Nikki has difficulty accepting Al's protestations of innocence regarding Stan's death and admonishes him for not telling her he had raided the motel's till.Al, for his part, is aware that Nikki is psychologically volatile. Although he accepts her innocence he does insist that people can do "weird things" in their sleep. This intuition is later lent credence when Nikki relives her mother's murder in her sleep and nearly kills Al in the process. When Adler & Bel are found dead, Al ties Nikki up, apparently for her own benefit as well as his.
Underlying the central question of who is doing the killing are other doubts. Al can't understand why the patent attorney died and interrogates Nikki about how many pills she gave them. In bed at night at Adler and Bel's, Al tells Nikki that the woman in Doyle's video looked a lot like her.
The theme of trust is developed in three sub-plots. When Nikki and Al arrive at Stan's motel, Stan can be overheard arguing with Adler. At the Jones', Nikki notices a photo of Adler and Bel with Stan and wonders about the dynamic between the three of them. Zipper Doyle is widely admired and respected by the public but is really a pedophile. Finally, even the police who are pursuing Nikki and Al start doubting each other in the very amusing "bacon story" (see The Cops below).
Childhood and Personality
As a very young girl, Nikki witnesses her mother being murdered in the most horrible fashion. She states in a voice-overVoice-over
Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...
that this has affected her ability to trust people in adult life. The residual effect of the experience is apparent in the way in which she is traumatised when her shirt catches on fire at Stan's motel. The suspicion that her sleep-walking is attributable to her mother's murder is confirmed in an episode where she relives in her sleep what she saw as a child. As well as exemplifying how childhood experiences endure in the adult personality, Kiss or Kill also presents the possibility that these experiences can be transcended. Even in the most frightening circumstances, Nikki maintains a largely loving, trusting and intimate relationship with Al, one that ultimately endures.
Nikki is the young victim of violence in the prologue: Zipper Doyle is a perpetrator of violence against children in the film's present. Thus Doyle's appearance represents, at one level at least, a resurfacing of Nikki's past. On this reading, her flight across the desert with Doyle in pursuit is, amongst other things, a flight from her traumatic past. Ultimately the conflict is resolved when Nikki kills Doyle (and nearly herself too) by driving full-speed into a police road-block. Notably, Nikki does this against the instructions of Doyle, who has a gun at her head.
Nikki Davies
Nikki Davies, played by Frances O'ConnorFrances O'Connor
-Background:O'Connor was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire, England to a pianist mother and nuclear physicist father. When O'Connor was two, her family moved back to Perth, Western Australia. O'Connor was raised a Roman Catholic and attended the Mercedes College in Perth...
, is the leading female character in the film. She appears sophisticated, in control and witty at first, however as the film progresses Nikki’s true erratic, nervous personality is revealed. She gives off an air of confidence, wearing short skirts, tight tops with glamorous hair and make up, she chain smokes and her relationship with her boyfriend is overtly sexual. After the death of her mother, an orphaned Nikki turns to a life of petty crime, ending up in a juvenile detention centre, where she meets her future boyfriend, and partner in crime Al Fletcher, played by Matt Day
Matt Day
Matthew "Matt" Day is an Australian actor best known for his film and television roles.-Early life and career:Matt Day was born in Melbourne in 1971...
. Although Nikki and Al have been together a long time, and thus know each other very well, there is a strong element of mistrust between them. This becomes particularly apparent as their relationship is put under much strain and doubt with a string of murders following the couple across the desert. Nikki is traumatized by an incident in which her sleeve catches on fire, it is assumed that this provokes memories of her mother’s horrific death and she begins sleepwalking as a result.
Al Fletcher
Al Fletcher (Matt DayMatt Day
Matthew "Matt" Day is an Australian actor best known for his film and television roles.-Early life and career:Matt Day was born in Melbourne in 1971...
); tall, masculine, and a criminal. Al is Nikki’s best friend and boyfriend. He is a main character in the story and plays a vital role to the development of Nikki’s character. They met in a juvenile detention centre and have pursued their troubled ways, now partners in petty crime. Al is short tempered, we see this when he attacks the truck driver almost unprovoked. We learn that he is anxious and paranoid, this is demonstrated in the scene where he ties Nikki up, leaving her in the middle of nowhere. From this we learn that Al too has trust issues, and he has perhaps experienced a traumatizing event himself, despite his already harmful relationship with his parents and childhood rebellion. Despite Al’s trust issues his affection towards Nikki is definitely love which he demonstrates this numerous times. For example when Nikki gets burnt on the fondue set at the motel. Al also demonstrates this affection for Nikki through sexual acts, they are almost inseparable. He is not always trustworthy and the audience can, at times, question his loyalty. This is assumed after Al steals the money from Stan and doesn’t tell Nikki about it.
The character of Al reflects Nikki’s incapability to trust men, and her underlining fear of pain. Without Al Nikki’s transformation is incomplete. Although Nikki says that she will never completely trust Al, through what they have been together it can be concluded that he has unconsciously helped Nikki breakthrough some of her childhood damage.
"Matt Day
Matt Day
Matthew "Matt" Day is an Australian actor best known for his film and television roles.-Early life and career:Matt Day was born in Melbourne in 1971...
's good looks belie a certain undercurrent which he uses to full effect in his character of Al." Matt Day portrays the character of Al as impulsive, strong willed and troubled. His interpretation of this bruised character is convincing as the audience can se the trauma beyond his hard exterior.
Stan the Motel Owner
Stan played by Max CullenMax Cullen
Max Cullen is an Australian stage and screen actor. Max has appeared in many Australian films and television series but is best known for his role in the film Spider and Rose and the television series The Flying Doctors and Love My Way.Cullen was born in Wellington, New South Wales...
is the owner of the motel that Nikki and Al visit the first night they're on the run. Stan lives by himself and runs the motel in the middle of the Nullabor desert. He is a small, chubby man, who wears a t-shirts with swirls on it 'to ward off the spirits.' According to Stan, who is evidently deluded, his wife went missing in the caves nearby and never returned. Stan is crazy and clearly eccentric but upon his death is referred to as "a good bloke" by another character in the film. It appears that Stan had an affair with Adler Jones' wife. When Nikki and Al arrive at the hotel, a heated conversation between Stan and Adler can be overheard.
Adler Jones
Adler Jones (Barry OttoBarry Otto
Barry Otto is an Australian actor with a long list of memorable roles on stage and in film. Otto received an AFI Award for Best Supporting Actor in Strictly Ballroom as well as being nominated for Bliss, Cosi and The More Things Change......
) is a mysterious element to the film kiss or kill. Throughout the movie he is seen as kind hearted, quiet man yet underneath he is a cold killer. He appears strange and somewhat mysterious, due to the little detail revealed about him throughout the film. He is a crucial element to the story, creating the unpredictable plotline. Adler is the mystery link that puts the pieces together after the death of Stan, the drunken motel manager and his wife. Stan mutters in drunken slurs about the ‘unphanthomable tunnels under the desert’, he also informs us of the couple that live out on the abandoned nuclear testing site.
The cops
There are two main detectives which feature in the film Kiss or Kill, Detective Inspector Hummer (Chris HaywoodChris Haywood
Chris Haywood is an English-born, Australian-based film and television actor/producer.-Early life:Haywood was born in Billericay, Essex, England. He spent his early childhood in Chelmsford before moving to High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire where he attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School from...
) and Crean (Andrew S. Gilbert
Andrew S. Gilbert
Andrew S. Gilbert is an Australian actor best known for his AFI Award-winning role in Kiss or Kill and other supporting work in Look Both Ways and The Dish and his recent role as Gavin Braithwaite on the ABC series, Bed of Roses. He is also known for his collaboration with Director David Caesar on...
). The two detectives experience ups and downs whilst investigating the murder, never quite able to catch Nikki and Al, whom they are chasing on suspicion of murder of Paul, a businessman whom Nikki and Al ripped off. As the detectives chase the protagonists, one step behind, they come across more murdered bodies, who they suspect died at the hands of Nikki and Al as well.
A favourite scene for many reviewers was the comedic scene between the two detectives, nicknamed the “bacon scene”. This scene takes place at a roadside diner, as the detectives have a conversation about how the younger of the two, Crean, doesn't eat bacon. James Berardinelli stated in his review of the film, the scene begins similar to something from Pulp Fiction, with the conversation being borderline-hysterical. David O’Connell described the scene as having a classic, wordless punchline which is worth the wait. This scene was also the only scene with fully written dialogue in the film.
This scene also shows how much the detectives know about each other, or really, how much they don't know about each other, continuing the mistrust theme which runs throughout the film. Crean tells a series of stories about his background, ranging from being adopted by Mossad agents that were killed in a plane crash, to having a child with cerebral palsy, all of which Hummer didn't know. Like other scenes in the movie, mainly those that involve Nikki and Al, the scene shows how they come to a realisation that they actually knew very little about each other's personal lives, even though they are with each other every day.
Editing
A jump cutJump cut
A jump cut is a cut in film editing and vloging in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit causes the subject of the shots to appear to "jump" position in a discontinuous way...
is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit causes the subject of the shots to appear to "jump" position in a discontinuous way. An indecisive cut is cutting from a shot to another shot of a different shot size while framing the same subject and the difference in image size or angle must be decisive. These methods as well as hand held camera work gives the viewer an insight into the lives of Nikki and Al, as their lives are indecisive and jumpy, on the edge and ultimately gives what the director calls as a ‘dirty look’. It also lets the audience feel like they can relate to the characters because it is something extra apart from the film itself they can experience with the characters.
Relational editing is the editing of shots to suggest association of ideas between them. For example: The flame unites scene 1 & scene 2, the prologue & the body of the film. Together with hearing Nikki’s voice it confirms that the adult woman we now see was once the young girl who witnessed her mother’s murder. (It also suggests that the residue of that trauma is still with her). Along with a [shot-reverse shot] (one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character, presumably looking at each other), cutting between the young Nikki and her mother, Nikki’s experience of this horrible event is emphasised.
The 180 degree rule
180 degree rule
In filmmaking, the 180° rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line...
is a basic guideline in film making that states those two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. The 180 degree rule
180 degree rule
In filmmaking, the 180° rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line...
is broken during Kiss or Kill. It is most prominent and significant during the scene located at the dinner, and Nikki confronts Al about the murder of Stan. The rule has been broken and so from the viewer it looks as if Nikki is talking to herself as the camera doesn’t cut to Al. This technique emphasizes Nikki’s internal struggle and her ultimate trust issues.
Music
Interestingly there is no music at any point throughout the film. The credits roll by silently, and even the DVD menu uses only ambient sound. Thanks to the frequent jump cuts, the lack of music is rarely even noticeable. The silence in the movie was used by Bennett to emphasize the tense nature of uncomfortable situations.Genre
Kiss or Kill was the first Australian film to be described as film noirFilm noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
. However, Kiss or Kill is often referred to as a thriller, due to the films unique presentation and regular use of red herrings to trick the audience. The film is an outback road movie, like many released around the same time and takes place on the outback roads of rural Australia.
Through the main characters, the film also takes on a less cliched lovers-on-the-run aspect. Rather than the usual setup of rebels running from oppression, the movie portrays the detectives chasing them as clever jokers. Al and Nikki are often shown to be flawed, overemotional people. Throughout the movie there are also traces of black humour, usually shown by the detectives.
Reception
The film, released in 15 countries world wide, received mixed reviews from critics around the world. Some hailed it as a hard hitting, effective piece of cinema. Others criticised what they regarded as a cliched plot line and tacky editing.< At the 1997 AFI awardsAustralian Film Institute Awards
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
, Kiss or Kill won five out of a nominated eleven awards, including Best Film, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Direction, Best Achievement in Sound and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Andrew S. Gilbert). It was also nominated for the Gold Hugo Best Film award of 1997 at the [Chicago international Film Festival]. Frances O'Connor won Best Actress at the 1997 Montreal World Film Festival
Montreal World Film Festival
The Montreal World Film Festival , founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF...
along with Wayne Peashley for Best Artistic Contribution in relation to sound, the film was also nominated for the Grand Prix des Amériques. In 1998 the film received recognition at the Film Critics Circle of Australia
Film Critics Circle of Australia
The Film Critics Circle of Australia is a group of cinema critics that judge Australian films.-External links:**...
awards, winning five out of a possible eight nominated awards including best film.
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Australian Film Institute Awards Australian Film Institute Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,... |
Best Achievement in Direction | Bill Bennett Bill Bennett (director) Bill Bennett is an Australian film director, producer and screenwriter.-Biography:He has directed 16 films since 1983. His film Backlash was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. Three years later his film Malpractice would be screened in the same section at... |
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| Best Achievement in Editing | Henry Dangar Henry Dangar Henry Dangar was a surveyor and explorer of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He became a successful pastoralist and businessman, and also served as a magistrate and politician... |
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| Best Achievement in Sound | Wayne Pashley, Toivo Lember and Gethin Creagh | |||
| Best Film | Bill Bennett, Jennifer Cluff and Corrie Soeterboek (co-producer) | |||
| Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role | Andrew S. Gilbert Andrew S. Gilbert Andrew S. Gilbert is an Australian actor best known for his AFI Award-winning role in Kiss or Kill and other supporting work in Look Both Ways and The Dish and his recent role as Gavin Braithwaite on the ABC series, Bed of Roses. He is also known for his collaboration with Director David Caesar on... |
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| Best Achievement in Cinematography | Malcolm McCulloch | |||
| Best Achievement in Costume Design | Ruth De la Lande | |||
| Best Original Screenplay | Bill Bennett | |||
| Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role | Matt Day Matt Day Matthew "Matt" Day is an Australian actor best known for his film and television roles.-Early life and career:Matt Day was born in Melbourne in 1971... |
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| Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role | Chris Haywood Chris Haywood Chris Haywood is an English-born, Australian-based film and television actor/producer.-Early life:Haywood was born in Billericay, Essex, England. He spent his early childhood in Chelmsford before moving to High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire where he attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School from... |
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| Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role | Frances O'Connor Frances O'Connor -Background:O'Connor was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire, England to a pianist mother and nuclear physicist father. When O'Connor was two, her family moved back to Perth, Western Australia. O'Connor was raised a Roman Catholic and attended the Mercedes College in Perth... |
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| Montréal World Film Festival Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival , founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF... |
Best actress | Frances O'Connor | ||
| Best Artistic Contribution | Wayne Pashley (sound) | |||
| Grand Prix des Amériques | Bill Bennett | |||
| Chicago International Film Festival Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America.... |
Best Film | Bill Bennett | ||
| 1998 | FCCA Awards | Best Actor (Female) | Frances O'Connor | |
| Best Director | Bill Bennett | |||
| Best Film | Kiss or Kill | |||
| Best Supporting Actor (Male) | Chris Haywood | |||
| Best Actor (Male) | Matt Day | |||
| Best Supporting Actor (Male) | Andrew S. Gilbert | |||
| Best Cinematography | Malcolm McCulloch |
External links
- Australian Screen Kiss or Kill Entry, (including curator's notes and a map of the settings).