Head On

Australia 1997

Reviewed by Mark Sinker

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

Australia, the present. After attending a Greek wedding, young Greek-Australian Ari stays over at his brother Peter's flat, where he meets Sean. Home again, he finds his father Dimitri angry and mother Sofia worried. He leaves, scores some drugs, which he loses, gambles some money he borrows from his friend Johnny, buys more drugs and sells them to Joe. Joe's mother Tasia tells his fortune: someone called 'S' wishes to care for him. He tells Tasia he intends to leave home. Back home, Ari's sister Alex tells him she's going to have sex with her boyfriend Charlie that night. After Dimitri and Ari dance an authentic Greek dance, the family sit down to a meal, which is curtailed by arguments.

At Tasia's, Joe and Dina announce their engagement. Ari does drugs with Dina and has partial sex with Betty. Sofia tries to dissuade Ari from leaving home. After dropping Alex off with Charlie, Ari goes to a club where he meets Sean. He leaves when Johnny arrives in drag; Sean follows him and says he loves him. Taking a taxi with Johnny, Ari checks up on Alex and Charlie, but Alex makes him go. The taxi runs a red light; Ari and Johnny taunt the police and end up in a cell. Johnny is beaten up by a sergeant. Released with Johnny, Ari goes to a club where he meets Sean. At Sean's, they have sex, until Ari starts a fight, is beaten and thrown out. He dances, Greek-style, on the docks.

Review

"I don't take it up the arse," says Ari to Betty. "Course you do," says Betty. "You're Greek. We all take it up the arse." A pitiless study of the conflict between freedom and identity, Ana Kokkinos' debut feature is not so much about what it's like to be young, Greek and gay in Australia today as it is about what it's like to detest being young, Greek and gay in Australia today. Ari and his friends refer to their fellow Greeks as "dumbfuck wogs", not as some in-your-face insult appropriation, but more from misery and self-disgust. Of all those around him, Ari can best use his looks and grace to slip across frontiers and dodge the ties that bind, and in doing so arouses admiration and panicked hostility in his friends and relatives. In particular his father, a working-class Marxist, is reduced to bombastic lectures on work, responsibility and earning the right to freedom. But less strident requests that he compromise are even less convincing to Ari: at least his father's insults make him stronger, and respect the threat he poses.

"This isn't Europe any more: we're in Asia!" Ari yells from the car at passers-by - and Head On's visual style confirms this, at times resembling the lunge and blur of cinematographer Chris Doyle's work with Wong Kar-Wai, establishing around Ari a sense of drug-induced solipsism (although it's less the lacerated melancholia of Wong's films than a self-absorption born of a furious if inarticulate idealism). It's not that Ari doesn't believe in better things, rather that he refuses to believe that his father's values - or for that matter anyone else's - amount to much more than a half-baked collusion with self-hatred, a plea for the gentrification of the soul. Yet Ari well knows he often fails to live up even to his own truths. By forcing Sean to beat and reject him, he appears to be punishing himself for not standing by Johnny, while he recognises the wrongness of his earlier over-protective intrusion on his sister Alex's freedom ("You're worse than Dad," she tells him).

The history of the youth movie is the (often enjoyable) history of the recuperation of Jean Genet as the poet of outlaw love, from Brando's Wild One all the way up to the Shangri-Las' 'Leader of the Pack' ("He's good-bad, but not evil"). But Head On could not be less of a rites-of-passage/getting-of-wisdom movie - the poetry and pain of outsider love are not redeemed, no haven of loving acceptance is found, no possibility of reconciliation is glimpsed. For importantly (and impressively) Kokkinos has placed centre stage that element in Genet most commonly side-stepped as wholly unpalatable: his "original and disturbing notion that homosexuality is congenial to betrayal and, further, that betrayal gives homosexuality its moral value," as critic Leo Bersani put it in Homos.

Ari, as he himself insists, is no poet, no scholar. He barely knows why he does what he does, only that he must do whatever his emotions tell him. Perhaps to drive this home, Kokkinos' approach to narrative is intense and sometimes over-condensed. The movie is compact, its surface polished, unyielding and unforgiving, and viewers will surely find in it a reflection of their personal obsessions, possibly mistaking this for deep content. Certainly the centrality of Genet's influence that's proposed here is in no way a clarification of his perhaps irresponsible commitment to betrayal as a radical political act - indeed some will consider it more a critique than an endorsement. But equally, Head On is seductively clear about the lyricism and lure of pure irresponsibility and about the cruel light this sheds in on all those who resist lyricism and lure and build such resistance into their politics.

Credits

Producer
Jane Scott
Screenplay
Andrew Bovell
Ana Kokkinos
Mira Robertson
Based on the book Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas
Director of Photography
Jaems Grant
Editor
Jill Bilcock
Production Designer
Nikki Di Falco
Music
Ollie Olsen
©Australian Film Finance Corporation Limited/Head On Productions Pty Ltd./Film Victoria
Production Companies
Australian Film Finance Corporation presents a Great Scott production
Developed and produced with the assistance of Film Victoria
Production Co-ordinator
Kim Travis
Production Manager
Catherine Bishop
Unit Manager
Andy Pappas
Location Managers
Alistair Reilly
Tim Scott
Post-production Co-ordinator
Rochelle Oshlack
Assistant Directors
Phil Jones
Christian Robinson
Iian Pirret
Script Supervisor
Annie Went
Casting
Dina Mann
Art Director
Paul Heath
Costume Designer
Anna Borghesi
Costume Supervisor
Keryn Ribbands
Make-up/Hair Supervisor
Christine Miller
Additional Make-up
Ann-Maree Hurley
Title Design
Ruth Grüner
Titles/Subtitles
Optical & Graphic
Greek Music Supervisor/Consultant
Irine Vela
Music Engineers
Paul Efthimiou
Ross Cockle
Soundtrack
"Opium Shuffle" by Richard Maguire, Steve Hellier, performed by Death in Vegas; "Leave You Far Behind" by Howard Saunders, Simon Shackleton, performed by Lunatic Calm; "Ajare (Brothers in Rhythm Club Mix)" by Joseph Wisternoff, Nick Warren, Tifat Siddiqui, performed by Way Out West; "Know Your Product" by Chris Bailey, Ed Kuepper, performed by The Saints; "Las Vegas" by Maurice Ar, Glenn Bennie, Vincent Giarrusso, performed by Underground Lovers; "Everything I Wanted" by Dannii Minogue, Mark Taylor, Steve Torch, performed by Dannii; "Theme from Shaft" by/performed by Isaac Hayes; "If I'm in Luck I Might Get Picked Up" by/performed by Betty Davis; "You're Not the Only One Who Feels This Way" by Allan Balmont, Simon Hensworth, David Johnstone, performed by Ammonia; "Freak" (Re-mix for Us Rejects) by Daniel Johns, performed by Silverchair; "Loaded" by Bobby Gillespie, Robert Young, Andrew Innes, performed by Primal Scream; "Tiny Little Engines" by Ollie Olsen, Andrew Till, Geoffrey Hales, performed by The Visitors; "You Sexy Thing" by Erroll Brown, performed by Hot Chocolate; "Living in a Child's Dream" by Michael Bower, performed by Masters Apprentices; "Gonna See My Baby Tonight" by Kevin Borich, performed by La De Das; "Fige ke ase me" (Go Away and Leave Me) by Panagiotis Gavalas, Konstandinos Virvos, Anastasios Koulouris, performed by Orchestra Stefanakis and the haBiBis, lead singer: Jim Kavvadas, keyboards: Evangelos Kirkopoulos, drums: George Kirkopoulos, clarinet: Steven Kirkopoulos, bouzouki: Vasilios Gheorgopoulos, bass: Irine Vela, guitar: Mulaim Vela, drums: Zois Tsika; "Chtes to vradi stou karipi" (Last Night at Karipi's) by George Katsaros, performed by Katsaros; "Tsifteteli orientale" (Oriental Belly Dance) by Dimitrios-Takis Lavidas, performed by Takis Lavidas; "Mi mou thimonis matia mou" (Don't Be Angry with Me My Love) by Stavros Kougioumtzis, performed by George Doloros; "Mia kalimera" (One Good Morning) by Demetre Christodoulou, Dora Sitzani Loizou, Emmanuel Loizou, performed by Maria Mercedes; "Tha spaso koupes" (I'll Break Cups) (trad), arranged/performed by the haBiBis, toubeleki: Zois Tsikas; "Milo mou kokkinno" (My Red Apple) (trad), arranged by Racheal Cogan, Irine Vela, performed by the haBiBis, clarinet: George Kirkopoulos; "Thrash 9" (trad), arranged/performed by the haBiBis; "Dimitroula mou" (My Dimitroula) by Panayiotis Toundas, performed by the haBiBis, toubeleki: George Kiriakidis, clarinet: George Kirkopoulos; "Sinefiasmeni kiriaki" (Cloudy Sunday) by Vasilis Tsitsanis, performed by Elena Mandalis; "To koritsi apopse theli" (Tonight the Girls Want to Dance) by Hristos Kolokotronis, Ioannis Tatosopoulos, performed by the haBiBis, toubeleki: George Kiriakidis, clarinet: George Kirkopoulos; "Garcilama" (Dance in 9) (trad), arranged by Irine Vela, performed by the haBiBis, featuring oud: Christos Bolzidis, toubeleki: Zois Tsikas; "Genithika gia na pono" (I Was Born to Be Hurt) by Vasilis Tsitsanis, Konstandinos Virvos, performed by the haBiBis, accordion: George Kiriakidis; "O thromos" (The Road) by Kostoula Mitropoulou, Dora Sitzani Loizou, Emmanuel Loizou, performed by Manos Loizos; "Bouzouki Solo" performed by Irine Vela
Choreography
Zois Tsikas
Sound Design
Craig Carter
Livia Ruzic
Sound Recordist
Lloyd Carrick
Sound Mixer
Roger Savage
Foley
Artists:
Jerry Long
Steve Burgess
Stunt Co-ordinator
Zev Eleftheriou
Cast
Alex Dimitriades
Ari
Paul Capsis
Johnny, 'Toula'
Julian Garner
Sean
Elena Mandalis
Betty
Tony Nikolakopoulos
Dimitri
Damien Fotiou
Joe
Eugenia Fragos
Sofia
Dora Kaskanis
Dina
Maria Mercedes
Tasia
Alex Papps
Peter
Vassili Zappa
Vassili
Andrea Mandalis
Alex
Chris Kagiaros
groom
Ourania Sideropoulos
bride
Anthony Lyritzis
boy in car
Ana Gonzalez
woman sweeping
Maya Stange
Janet
Aimee Robertson
nose ring girl
Nathan Farinella
young Ari
Paul Farinella
young Peter
Allan Q
Vietnamese man
Aris Gounaris
dealer
Fiv Antoniou
card player
Nicholas Polites
Costa
Wasim Sabra
Charlie
Robert Henry Price
fishing cap man
John Rakkas
barman
Katerina Kotsonis
Ariadne
Nicholas Pantazopoulos
George
Michael Psomiadis
grey beard
Nikos Psaltopoulos
Stav
Chrystal Kyprianou
Mary
Diana Stathis
woman
Marnie Statkus
punk girl
Costas Kilias
taxi driver
Ayda Daher
Charlie's mum
Neil Pigot
senior constable
Fonda Goniadis
wog cop
Gary McMahon
thin man
Okan Husnu
Rat
Blake Osborn
good-looking guy
David Chisholm
shaved head
the haBiBis
Racheal Cogan
lead/harmony vocals/recorder
Pascal Latras
lead vocal
Irine Vela
Cretan lute/bouzouki/guitar
Mulaim Vela
guitar
Achilles Yiangoulli
lead & harmony vocals/bouzouki/hand drum
Certificate
18
Distributor
Millivres Multimedia
9,401 feet
104 minutes 28 seconds
Dolby
In Colour
Some subtitles
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011