IN CORPORE

Stars: Clara Francesca Pagone, Naomi Said, Kelsey Gillis, Sarah Timm, Frank Fazio, Christopher Dingli, Timothy McCown Reynolds, Amelia June, Simone Alamango, Don Bridges and Naomi Lisner.
Directors: Sarah Jayne Portelli and Ivan Malekin.

Available to view via LIDO at Home. 

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

The challenges faced by four women who just want to shape their destinies on their own terms is the bridging device that binds this portmanteau drama from co-directors Sarah Jayne Portelli and Ivan Malekin.  

Confronted with personal and social hurdles stemming from traditional gender stereotyping, the protagonists in this bracingly contemporary work are not always likable, but that’s kind of the point; whether you love them, hate them or just don’t get them, if you don't respect the decisions they make in the running or ruining of their own lives, then you are part of the problem.

In Corpore (a Latin adverb, meaning ‘in body; in substance’) is broken into four stories, each one focussed on vibrant young women coping with relationship complications. In Melbourne, sculptress Julia (Clara Francesca Pagone) is visiting her friends and parents on a brief trip home from her New York base. Recently wed to a much older man and with broadminded views regarding polygamy and open marriages, Julia indulges her desires when she has morning sex with her old friend Henri (Frank Fazio).

In Malta, Anna (Naomi Said) is facing pressure from her long-term boyfriend Manny (Christopher Dingli) and her extended family to bear children, a life-changing decision that she is not yet willing to undertake. In Berlin, gay couple Rosalie (Sarah Timm) and Milana (Kelsey Gillis) are struggling with jealousies and insecurities steadily on the boil. Then, in New York City, we rejoin Julia as she shares her moment of meaningless infidelity with her silver-fox husband, Patrick (Timothy McCown Reynolds), who, like most of the men in the film, reacts with self-centred petulance and brattish intolerance.  

Two key directorial decisions ensure In Corpore will surface mostly in daring festival placements and in the homes of indie-minded inner-city urbanites. Firstly, the dialogue is improvised, with the actors bouncing off each other with a delivery style that is sometimes pitched a bit high. When it is done right, it conveys heartbreak and honesty and humanity with an aching accuracy; best among the cast is Naomi Said, whose soulful performance is lovely.

The other stylistic choice that Portelli and Malekin gamble with are intensely staged and extended sex scenes. These sequences are clearly designed to positively convey the nature of the emotional connections shared by the characters; in the wake of a particularly heated argument, Timm and Gillis have rough shower sex that speaks to the desperation they are both feeling as their relationship frays. Said and Christopher Dingli make passionate love, yet when their motivations are revealed, the awkward honesty captured is remarkably moving. Many filmmakers claim they only use sex scenes to advance their narratives and build character, but few achieve that noble goal; Portelli and Malekin, and their fearless cast, do so with grace and class.

In Corpore is a slyly subversive battle-of-the-sexes commentary that positions modern young women determined to chart their own course through life as a kind of new heroic narrative arc. The DNA of such landmark empowerment films as Paul Mazurky’s An Unmarried Woman (1978) and Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends (1978) courses through its veins. Like those independently-minded films, In Corpore may also emerge as a work that ushered in a period of social change.

MORGANA

Stars: Morgana Muses, Petra Joy, John Oh, Anna Brownfield, Judith Lucy and Candida Royale.
Directors: Josie Hess and Isabel Pappard

WORLD PREMIERE: Melbourne International Film Festival, Friday August 16 at The Capitol Theatre.

Available from July 9-19 via Perth Revelation Film Festival's online screening event, COUCHED.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

The emergence of a vibrant, creative free spirit from the constraints of societal expectation is captured with genuine affection in Morgana, co-directors Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard’s expansive yet deeply personal account of one woman’s coming-of-middle-age journey. Charting a course from the depths of despair to artistic and emotional fulfilment then back again, this frank, often funny and very moving portrait piece is an engaging crowd-pleaser, particularly for those who adhere to the sex-positive beliefs of their protagonist.

Having grown up in the harsh climes of Coober Pedy, Morgana Muses bought into the ‘suburban ideal’ of her mother’s longings and was soon constructing her own middle-class façade. Having married well and embraced motherhood, she soon found herself sadly unfulfilled in a union devoid of warmth; the dissolution of her marriage and subsequent disconnection from friends and family led to thoughts of self-harm. These moments are thoughtfully reconstructed through a ‘little boxes’ motif, in which Morgana is captured peering longingly through the windows of a grey suburban landscape.

The turning point came as Morgana’s life force was at its lowest ebb; a ‘last hurrah’ sexual experience awakened in her a hunger to explore the boundaries of what she always believed were acceptable sexual practices. With her old life fading fast, Morgana Muses reinvents herself as a feminist porn actress-filmmaker, her debut film Duty-Bound becoming an award-winning global hit that takes her from suburban Melbourne to the BDSM mecca, Berlin.

Via her friendship, co-director Hess (who features at key moments in her own doco) is afforded rare access into Morgana’s highs and lows over a period of several years; the 70-minute feature began life as a short, morphing into a frank and confronting study of mental health and its impact upon the creative process. Hess and Peppard, one of the local industry’s most respected animators and horror sector artists, are clearly advocates for the practice of ethical pornography and strong feminist ideals, but these themes, while central, never overshadow the universal humanity at the core of Morgana’s narrative.

Most importantly, the woman herself proves a complex, fearless frontwoman for her own story. Muses bares all, yet it is her physical openness which ultimately proves the least shocking of her revelations; the self-reflection and psychological torment she is willing to expose for the documentarian’s lens is first-person storytelling at its bravest. Audience empathy is so engaged that, by the time the ‘cherry-on-top’ moment happens deep in the third act, the intimacy required to fully accept every inch of Morgana Muses is comfortably in place. So sex positive and emotionally resonant is her factual film journey, everything about the body and soul baring of Morgana Muses feels convincingly empowering and wonderfully real.

Morgana Documentary - 'First Look' Teaser #2 from House of Gary on Vimeo.