Sirens (1994) Poster

(1994)

Sam Neill: Norman Lindsay

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Photos 

Sam Neill in Sirens (1994) Sam Neill and Pamela Rabe in Sirens (1994) Hugh Grant, Elle Macpherson, Sam Neill, Tara Fitzgerald, Portia de Rossi, and Tziporah Malkah in Sirens (1994) Hugh Grant and Sam Neill in Sirens (1994) Sam Neill in Sirens (1994) Elle Macpherson, Sam Neill, and Tara Fitzgerald in Sirens (1994) Elle Macpherson, Sam Neill, Portia de Rossi, Tziporah Malkah, and Pamela Rabe in Sirens (1994) Sam Neill in Sirens (1994) Hugh Grant, Elle Macpherson, Sam Neill, Tara Fitzgerald, Portia de Rossi, Tziporah Malkah, Ellie MacCarthy, Pamela Rabe, and Julia Stone in Sirens (1994) Hugh Grant, Sam Neill, and Pamela Rabe in Sirens (1994) Hugh Grant, Elle Macpherson, Sam Neill, and Tara Fitzgerald in Sirens (1994) Elle Macpherson, Sam Neill, Portia de Rossi, and Tziporah Malkah in Sirens (1994)

Quotes 

  • Norman Lindsay : Now as for the suffering that my poor pictures will cause for the few people that will get to see them, it's nothing compared to the suffering that the Church has caused over the centuries. The burning of witches, the Spanish Inquisition, the slaughter of pagan tribes and so on. Anyway, there we are. Must get back to work.

    Anthony Campion : Well, I don't think the Church can be blamed for everything that's been done...

    [turns and sees Sheela and Pru posing naked] 

    Anthony Campion : [stutters]  in-in-in-in its name but we'll take this up later.

    [he walks out] 

  • Anthony Campion : Your characters all seem so ravenous. Can't love ever be a gentle thing?

    Norman Lindsay : Yes, of course it can, but I'm not painting love scenes.

    Anthony Campion : Sorry, yes, lust scenes.

    Norman Lindsay : But there is a fierceness in desire, isn't there? In lovemaking? One of life's great conundrums.

    Anthony Campion : Virtually the only one, according to your paintings.

  • Norman Lindsay : I freely admit that the human universe is infinitely richer than my meagre palette. For instance, I do absolutely no justice at all to the nervous nellies and the shrinking violets, the saints...

    Estella Campion : You're very contemptuous of shrinking violets, aren't you, Mr. Lindsay?

    Norman Lindsay : Dear Estella, I'm a shrinking violet myself. I mean, I choose to live not in the real world but in here.

    [he points to his head] 

    Norman Lindsay : I flee from the real world into my little studio and there before me is the unlimited canvas of my imagination.

    Anthony Campion : Yes, but your paintings don't stay in the studio, do they? They do go out into the real world. And while you have a wonderful imagination, Lindsay, most people's are, quite frankly, stunted and you absolutely have no idea what effect they might have on people or what they might incite them to. Rape?

    Norman Lindsay : 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, then I would suggest that it may be a very good idea if your wife takes the greatest care to get undressed behind a screen.

    Rose Lindsay : Well, Estella's seen the pictures, too. Does that mean we're in danger from her?

  • Norman Lindsay : Look, Jesus never said anything about chastity, anyway. That all started with a bunch of grumbling old men on some God-forsaken island somewhere that suddenly decided the body was bad for the soul.

    Anthony Campion : [sarcastically]  Atlantis, was it?

    Rose Lindsay : It's a pity for women it wasn't.

  • Norman Lindsay : When I 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! It's a vile notion that a god should sacrifice himself for the sins of mankind, it's a pestilent notion.

  • Norman Lindsay : Mr Campion, I am an artist and I refuse to be compromised by the scruples of the public!

  • Norman Lindsay : [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.

  • Norman Lindsay : [arguing with Anthony about how the Church represses people sexually]  When brave little Dolly Rogers allowed me to play with her private parts, I seriously thought I'd be struck by lightning!

  • Norman Lindsay : 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 was a lot of pagan religions around that celebrated sexuality and fertility and so on. So how was this new religion to compete with something that was so popular? Well, by saying that sex was evil and that women, the embodiment of sexuality, were in fact responsible for the downfall of mankind in the Garden of Eden!

    Rose Lindsay : Yes, and we've been second-class citizens ever since.

    Anthony Campion : Mrs. Pankhurst would be proud of you, Rose.

    Rose Lindsay : [thumps the table]  Why can't we be vicars or priests?

    Sheela : Or popes?

    Rose Lindsay : Because we're too deafened by the din of our bodies to hear God's Word.

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