Swan Song | Dir: Todd Stephens | Opens 26 Dec at LUNA | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
OUTinPerth this week hosted an advance screening of Todd Stephens’ film Swan Song for Patron supporters, supporters, collaborators and dedicated readers. The film features a powerful and captivating performance from Udo Kier and it’s a fil that will have you thinking about life, legacy and friendships.
Udo Kier, now in his late 70’s, has had a long and distinguished career as a character actor appearing in over 220 films. He’s worked with notable directors including Lars von Trier, Werner Herzog, Paul Morrissey and Alexander Payne. Rarely has he taken the role of lead actor, but here he is front and centre as the intriguing and mesmerising retired hairdresser Pat Pitsenbarger.
Living out his days in a soulless drab nursing home, there’s not much happening in Pat’s life. When a lawyer drops by to inform him that local socialite Rita Parker Sloan has passed away, Pat is dismissive. Her dying request is that he do her hair and makeup for her funeral, and she’s left a generous payment in her will for his services. At first Pat is not interested, he hasn’t forgotten the falling out they had many years ago.
Soon, however Pat embarks on an odyssey to confront the ghosts of his past – and collect the beauty supplies necessary for the job. A journey that brings him into contact with an interesting array of characters, some new and some which force him to confront his past.
It’s a road trip story, and even if the journey is just across town, when you’re in your advanced years that can be a pretty epic quest. As Pat realises how much the world has changed while he’s been locked away in his nursing home, he is confront by what lasts, what leaves and what remains.
With each step of his journey, Pat comes back to life, reclaim his lost flamboyance. His confidence builds, his personality returns, his wit gets faster, he moves from shuffling along in life to finding a space in the middle of the dance floor.
Udo Kier is fascinating as Pat, and he’s joined by some first rate acting talent with well known faces including Jennifer Collidge, Michael Urine and Dynasty star Linda Evans, but the real joy is the cavalcade of character actors who fill this world.
Many of them are actors who appeared in director Todd Stephen’s earlier camp comedies Another Gay Movie, and it’s follow-up Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild. Stephanie McVay plays a shopkeeper who recalls Pat giving her a memorable haircut decades earlier, Eric Eisenbrey, who appears in flashbacks as Pat’s former partner David, is another Another Gay Movie alum among the cast – and Jonah Blechman who play Nico in the dual films appears, as does Brandon Lim.
Swan Song is nothing like Stephens previous work, it a sophisticated, nuanced and intelligent film that provokes a lot of questions about our identities, ageing, the changing world and the to-and-fro between letting go of the past so we can move forward, and protecting and cherishing the past so we never forget what came before.
Swan Song will be opening at LUNA on 26th December.
Graeme Watson
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