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Australian director Fred Schepisi has had a tough time finding an opportunity to make a film on homesoil, and not for want of trying. The acclaimed director who boasts Hollywood Studio films such as ROXANNE, EVIL ANGELS and SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION yearns for the days of his DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND and THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH. But politics and lack of funding has forced this incredible director offshore far too many times.
Well at last, Schepisi found himself caught up in THE EYE OF THE STORM, an adaptation of the very challenging novel by Australia's Nobel Prize winning author Patrick White, and his first Australian production in 23 years. Of course local actors jumped at the chance to work and experience the Schepisi-effect, including Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis - who shine not only under Schepisi's direction, but immersed in Patrick White's complex characters. They are joined by a society of local talent and British actress Charlotte Rampling, who plays the matriach of White's most dysfunctional family.
THE EYE OF THE STORM opens in final act of Elizabeth Hunter's (Rampling) life. Bed ridden, but still playing the starring role of her own production (life), her estranged children (Rush & Davis) are summoned to her bedside. And so begins the tumultuous recital of past emotions, resentments, begrudges, but surprisingly not regret.
Each character holds their own center stage, and while it is hard to warm to any of these characters, it's hard not to be drawn into them as well. Something Schepisi and his actors worked assiduously on.
Check out our chat with Fred Schepisi and Geoffrey Rush and you too will find yourself lost in the THE EYE OF THE STORM.
