This local production was filmed in 2008, but has sat on the shelf for a couple of years because it is a tough sell to audiences looking for their money's worth at the cinema. In French, Littler Deaths means orgasms, which gives you a little insight into what the film is about. The film itself comprises of ten short vignettes that all deal with love, lust, sex, intimacy and relationships. The link between the various stories is Abe Forsythe (from Always Greener, Fireflies, etc), who plays a bored young man working at a tollbooth on a major freeway. To alleviate the boredom he occasionally imagines the lives of those passing through.
While Little Deaths has been written by Giula Sandler (a writer for television series like McLeod's Daughters, etc), each segment has been directed and shot by different filmmakers. All of the young and emerging filmmakers have made short films, and are experienced with the constraints of the medium, and they bring their own distinctive style and sensibility to the material. Similarly, most of the cast comprises of new and unfamiliar faces.
However, one story about a young couple attempting to make their own home-made sex video features David Michod, now better known as the writer/director of the superb Animal Kingdom. Adam Zwar stars in a story that gives us some insights into the sex life and habits of what he calls "the toxic bachelor", an unrepentant womanizer. And veterans Magda Szubanski and comic Peter Moon appear in the tale about a woman who desperately tries to cope with her husband's snoring by escaping into her own surreal fantasy world.
As with most of these anthology films though, some segments work better than other, and not all segments are as engaging or as interesting. Some - especially the segment when a woman is texting her boyfriend while trying to find him at Federation Square - are quite lightweight. Another story deals with the connection that develops between a woman and a peeping tom.
It is hard to see Little Deaths appealing to a broad audience.
While Little Deaths has been written by Giula Sandler (a writer for television series like McLeod's Daughters, etc), each segment has been directed and shot by different filmmakers. All of the young and emerging filmmakers have made short films, and are experienced with the constraints of the medium, and they bring their own distinctive style and sensibility to the material. Similarly, most of the cast comprises of new and unfamiliar faces.
However, one story about a young couple attempting to make their own home-made sex video features David Michod, now better known as the writer/director of the superb Animal Kingdom. Adam Zwar stars in a story that gives us some insights into the sex life and habits of what he calls "the toxic bachelor", an unrepentant womanizer. And veterans Magda Szubanski and comic Peter Moon appear in the tale about a woman who desperately tries to cope with her husband's snoring by escaping into her own surreal fantasy world.
As with most of these anthology films though, some segments work better than other, and not all segments are as engaging or as interesting. Some - especially the segment when a woman is texting her boyfriend while trying to find him at Federation Square - are quite lightweight. Another story deals with the connection that develops between a woman and a peeping tom.
It is hard to see Little Deaths appealing to a broad audience.
