criterionforum.org

"A minor official classic film about childhood, perhaps on a par with Bob Clark’s A CHRISTMAS STORY in the US or Ken Loach’s KES in the UK. [...] CELIA is extraordinarily complex and merits multiple viewings. The fact that it’s so hard to categorise is one of its most appealing factors. A psychological study of children and parents and a period political piece, it’s an equally valid and interesting exercise to approach it for its connections with horror cinema."

Kim Newman on Ann Turner's dark and glorious CELIA - out on Blu-ray this week.

A rave at Beaver

"CELIA is one of those rare debut features that is so thoughtfully structured, so impressively acted – there’s not a wrong note in any of the performances here – and so confidently directed... It’s a film that never shouts because it never needs to, but which still managed to leave me quietly reeling, and itching to watch it again. Remarkable. [...] A terrific film on an excellent Blu-ray. Highly recommended."

A rave from Slarek at Cine Outsider of our new CELIA Blu-ray

I finally got around to watching the film again (3rd viewing) and it holds up just as well as my previous viewings, including my first on its initial cinema release.

Beautiful restoration and excellent special features. A shame that interviews with Rebecca Smart, Nicholas Eadie & Mary-Anne Fahey weren't included. For those who don't know Victoria Longley sadly passed away in 2010: https://tvtonight.com.au/2010/09/rememb ... toria.html

The films reception in Australia at the time of its release was rather muted if I'm recalling correctly. Clearly it was a hard film to market and despite very respectable reviews disappeared from screens after only a couple of weeks. More perplexing was the films under performance at the industry awards (known at the time as the AFIs) with only two nominations for Fahey & Longley nominated for best supporting actress (with Longley winning). I'm still mystified how the film failed to gain nominations for picture, director, actress (Smart), supporting actor (Eadie), original screenplay and a number of technical awards.

So glad Second Run released this on Blu Ray and it has been and continues to be discovered given how criminally overlooked it was in its native country over 30 years ago.

Really hope somebody will release Ann Turner's 1994 feature Dallas Doll starring Sandra Bernard, Victoria Longley and a young Rose Byrne. It came and went in a flash in the mid 1990s and doesn't appear to have even been released on DVD anywhere.

Dallas Doll is basically an unofficial re-working of Pasolini's Teorema in which Sandra Bernard plays a golf player who seduces members of a family (father, mother, son, daughter and if my memory is correct it is implied the family dog too). It is an hilarious film and miles away from Celia, though I understand it was a troubled shoot which I suspect may have had something to do with Sandra Bernhard perhaps changing dialogue but I don't actually know the reasons. I saw Sandra Bernhard in a show she performed in Sydney in September 1993 and she mentioned the shoot was very difficult and thanked actress Lindy Davies for helping her get through it. (Sorry for going off topic).

Anyway, another great release by Second Run.