The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Starring Terence Stamp, Hugh Weaving and Guy Pearce
Reviewed by Kath Gelber
I'm not surprised this movie got a standing ovation at the sought-after midnight screening at Cannes. It's outrageously camp, hilarious, very well acted and generally a lot of fun. Most importantly, it allows the audience to deal with some very difficult and controversial issues through the medium of humour.
This is a tactic which often brings harsh criticism on those who try to use it. A couple of examples spring to mind. One is an Australian comedian, Sue-Ann Post, who deals with incest and child sexual abuse through humour. When I saw her a few years ago, she warned us she was coming to a part in her show that many women found it hard to laugh at. She taught us that when we did laugh we not only understood and empathised, but we also began to heal.
The other example is a Jewish woman comedian who presents the Holocaust in joke form. She has been harshly criticised from within her own community for daring to make jokes out of the incredible suffering and horror of this period of contemporary history. Her defence is that humour is one way of working through these experiences and coming to terms with them.
Priscilla is intended to be funny, as well as presenting the movie makers with a fantastic opportunity to go totally over the top in the costume department. But it also deals with some very serious issues.
The most obvious of these is homophobia. The three central characters are all the victims, both in the past and during the course of the movie, of some horrific displays of homophobia, ranging from verbal abuse and ostracism to physical violence.
Many things get them through — humour, a can of pink paint, fighting back and taking their oppression out on others. This means that, yes, they can be sexist and racist. Suffering homophobia doesn't make them into inherently nice people. And besides, faced with a tricky situation, a sexist joke can often win the boys in the outback pub to your side, at least for a while.
Many have criticised Priscilla for its sexism and racism, and certainly most of the women in the story aren't particularly appealing. The strongest criticism I've heard has been directed at the role of a Filipina bride who is stuck out in the middle of the desert with nothing to do, and would rather amuse the boys at the local pub than be bored stupid sitting at home.
It is definitely true her role could have been presented in a more sensitive way. But does portraying the sexism and racism that exist in society make the film itself sexist or racist? In the case of the Filipina bride, it was made more than clear that it was her circumstances which made her who she was — lack of choices at home made her desperate to marry an Australian whom she didn't know to get out, desperate to get to Sydney to start a new life, but instead she found herself stuck in the middle of the desert with nothing to keep her occupied but a boring husband.
The film touches on other issues as well. Everything from fashion to child abuse, from the gay ghetto to gay and lesbian parenting gets a go, and in between a few very serious moments, you mostly just get to laugh a lot. A hint for the more serious movie goer is not to run out during the credits — there's a little surprise in store.
In the end the characters are very human. They have their good and their bad sides, and every now and then they surprise you. Terence Stamp's performance in particular is extraordinarily good. Go and see it — you'll laugh your tits off.