Passionless Moments (1983) User Reviews

get out of my head!

[postmanwhoalwaysringstwice · 8/10 · 26 September 2006]

Jane Campion's "Passionless Moments" is a short film containing ten short films. More than being simply short, they are tiny. The film deals with nonsense that goes through one's mind that no one dares share when asked "what are you thinking about". It's really a wonderful concept for a short film, and the result is a funny, touching piece of work. It would be impossible to pick a favorite bit, and truthfully it would do a disservice to the film itself to try and express the actual occurrences in each mini-short. It might be worth noting that Gerard Lee was indicated in the credits as ex-director. Perhaps that's why the finished product has far more visible passion than the sketches themselves, which comes straight from the filmmaker's chair.

a gem of a short film

[framptonhollis · 8/10 · 6 March 2018]

The later-much-more-recognizable-and-flat-out-acclaimed female filmmaker Jane Campion started her career making semi-obscure-but-still-notable short films, and this is one of the earliest and likely best examples of said films. 'Passionless Moments' is a film that straightforwardly depicts a few minor and mostly inconsequential awkward occurrences that are often entirely within the characters' minds. The film is quirky and queer, but there is something uniquely "bland" about the style, which isn't to say the film isn't visually interesting (there's one brilliant little moment in which Campion makes something as minor as lint blowing above a man's head seem like some sort of mystical, mythical moment of magic; it's super simple and brief but is hands down by far my favorite part of the (short) film), but that just the overall manner in which everything is handled is very quiet and quaint. There is virtually no soundtrack, not a single line of actual dialogue, and the narrator is nearly monotone in his narration. The film is often humorous, but ends with a super somber sort of feeling. A unique and intelligent arthouse film.

early Campion vignettes

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 18 November 2019]

This is essentially a student film by director Jane Campion. It's black and white. It's a series of vignettes narrated by the same man. Non of the moments are long enough to have lasting impact. The kid has a quirky idea. Eating pork is probably the most compelling mostly because it's about something real. The others are less memorable although I probably won't forget the half-naked guy exercising. As a student film, the black and white looks good and it has some interesting ideas.

Humorous reminder of our 'secret lives' and what we take for granted.

[IsabelT · 19 March 1999]

Campion and Lee had the audience roaring at their look of everyday moments we take for granted. The narrator's deadpan voice adds a nice sardonic touch. My favorites were the man singing "that 70's song about cleaning up jeans," and the little girl with the tissue box. An amusing little film, made suddenly poignant by the narrator's last voice over - approximately 'there are over one billion moments in a neighborhood, and most of them are gone before we realise it.'

Piglet From University of Sydney Piggery, Camden

[boblipton · 7/10 · 18 November 2019]

Various individuals going about their days, suffer distracted moments in which they think ridiculous, amusing, or ordinary thoughts.

Jane Campion's early short subject offers us brief glimpses into the thoughts of people, none of which are particularly unusual. A small boy turns an errand into a world-saving moment; a woman eating sliced ham thinks about her uncle's pig; and so forth. It's an exercise in boredom, and the creativity it engenders... most of which isn't worth pursuing, although I've been on world-saving missions too, and so have you.

If there is a serious point to this movie (and I'm not sure there is), it's that a certain amount of boredom is necessary. Boredom impels us to relieve the boredom, boredom allows our minds to roam, boredom makes us write reviews of movies on the IMDb -- 7000+ and counting, as I type these words. Do they make a difference to anyone?

Probably not.

If you ever think you're hearing a woodpecker in Australia . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 23 November 2019]

. . . the sound is ACTUALLY being made by a rotund lady pounding dirt out of a rug, PASSIONLESS MOMENTS teaches viewers. Anyone who's ever been "Down Under" knows that it is full of dirt. (That's why "Nicole K." is so much filthier than "Charlize T.") This is also the reason that it's so hard to think of any Aussie flick which is not positively earthy. It would probably improve this islet's travel business IF someone came up with a way to make a clean breast of things. Think about it. Does PICNIC OF HANGING ROCK sound all that tasty to you? IF they could raise palatable food in Australia such as sheep or rabbits, their dingoes would not have to slink around eating babies! A film came out recently about some lady who crossed this region coast-to-coast, either on horseback, by camel, or by plodding along on her own two feet. She documented that there was sand and dirt clogging her viewfinder in every direction, each step of the way! No wonder that those "Kodak Moments" are so "passionless" Down Under, woodpeckers or not.

Remarkable first film

[bfinn · 9/10 · 31 August 2001]

A remarkable first short film by a student (or fresh out of film school) - as much for the script as anything else. I happened to see it on TV as a teenager and then made various other people watch it too when I spotted it coming round again.

The film simply shows a series of short quirky moments in people's everyday lives. For example, a man stretches his arm as he wanders out of his house, and this gesture is mistaken by a neighbour who thinks he's waving at him.

Quirky moments such as these have since become the stuff of observational comedy, except that the ones depicted here are so small that they would pass quite unnoticed if not isolated and commented on by this film.

A collection of little moments in life that happen to us all, but which we seldom think about

[crculver · 5/10 · 13 June 2016]

The short PASSIONLESS MOMENTS is one of Jane Campion's student films, made in 1983 during her time at Sydney's Australian Film and Television School. She directs a script written by Gerard Lee consist of ten short vignettes on embarrassing or awkward little moments that happen to everyone at some time or another, but which we seldom think about: a man stretching his arm out accidentally makes his neighbour think that he's waving to him, and thus instigates an awkward interaction between two men who have never even spoken before; a boy who has just bought green beans from the shop imagines that they will explode if he doesn't get them home in 20 seconds; a depressed man lying on the floor and looking at the ceiling notes the myriad motes of dust visible in the light.

All of the vignettes are narrated by the same man in a rather dry and analytical voice, which together with the quirky themes endows PASSIONLESS MOMENTS with humour. I wouldn't rank this among my top shorts, but I nonetheless am happy it's in my collection, and this is, along with "Peel", one of Campion's early successes.

Passionless movie

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 13 May 2016]

"Passionless Moments" is an Australian black-and-white movie from the early 1980s, so this one is already almost 35 years old. Writer and director duo are Gerard Lee and (then not yet) Academy Award winner Jane Campion. Both worked together on several projects in their long careers and this is just one of them. Another would be very recently "Top of the Lake". But here it seems that they are not yet at their best. I know it was intended to make this look very neutral, observant and bleak, but in my opinion this is what ultimately destroyed the film. This film is basically a short film that consists of several smaller short films. And that was another problem. There just was not the time to identify with any of the characters or even care for them to some extent. A disappointing watch and if you decide to skip it, then you are not missing much.

Good stuff...

[gravity_eyelids · 24 February 2003]

Each of the segments is so simple, yet Campion displays a great deal of ingenuity for being able to not overlook such mundane aspects of human nature. As idiosyncratic as the events may be, they are still very much normal. I think this is what makes the ideas seem so amazing, is that they are the product of mere observation, of using the everyday events of the real world to make a film.

I loved the part about cleaning the jeans. That was just hilarious.

cinematic cinema

[paranoidandroid-1 · 27 December 2001]

While I really admire this film, a very lovely collection of moments which describe human idiosyncracy, I must say that it is best viewed in a theater. Some films have humor that is so sophisticated, so esoteric, that it demands projection at 24 frames per second, and anything less than the silver screen does not do it justice. Take "Stranger Than Paradise". The editing technique is what makes the film so funny and wry. The full of effect of the technique just doesn't fly on a television screen; t.v. screens just aren't cinematic. Passionless Moments is wonderful, but buyer beware: only purchase the film if you have access to a theater.