Dance Me to My Song (Palace Films Collection) (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Featurette-Interview with Rolf de Heer Theatrical Trailer-Dance Me To My Song
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	98:54 (Case: 101)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Rolf de Heer
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Heather Rose Joey Kennedy John Brumpton Rena Owen Catherine Fitzgerald Susie Fraser Carmel Johnson Phil MacPherson
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	Box	Music	Graham Tardif

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I first saw Dance Me To My Song in a cinema about ten years ago. I clearly remember how impressed I was that someone would have the courage to make this film with such frankness and honesty. Rolf de Heer again goes where most filmmakers would fear to tread. In Dance Me To My Song, he delivers a film that is equally confronting, inspiring and occasionally, very funny.

    Julia (Heather Rose) lives alone in a small house in the suburbs. She has Cerebral Palsy, so although she cherishes her independence, she is reliant on her part-time carer, Madelaine (Joey Kennedy). Julia's independence is limited to the use of her motorised wheelchair and communicating via a voice synthesizer. She still needs assistance with the vast majority of her daily tasks and Madelaine arrives each morning to aide her with these. The problem is, Madelaine is not a particularly caring person and has little patience for Julia's disability.

    Madelaine treats her carer's role simply as a job and is far more occupied with keeping male companions longer than a one night stand. Julia has little choice than to put up with Madelaine's indiscretions, because she's told that the only alternative is for her to go back into a home.

    After one of Madelaine's many temper tantrums, Julia is again left alone in the house. She cleverly uses her wheelchair to corral a handsome young man walking down her street. Although he appears to be in a hurry, Eddie (John Brumpton) takes the time to help Julia and it isn't long before he warms to her wicked sense of humor.

    The very nature of Eddie's life is quite mysterious, but this is no deterrent to Julia who develops a healthy crush on him. Madelaine sees Eddie as another conquest and sets about his seduction, even though she's aware of Julia's feelings for him. However, things come crashing down when Madelaine misconstrues a compassionate act and she banishes Eddie from Julia's life.

    Julia must now decide if her disability should allow others to dictate her life. She finds the courage to confront Madelaine, re-establishing the dignity and respect that she has missed for so long.

    Dance Me To My Song was written by Heather Rose, with Frederick Stahl and is based on certain experiences from Heather's life. Rolf de Heer came in to the writing process later, offering assistance from a cinematic perspective.

    The small cast are all excellent, especially Heather Rose and Joey Kennedy, whose brave performances are at the very soul of this film. Another performance worth singling out is Rena Owen's wonderful portrayal of Julia's old and dear friend, Rix.

    Sadly, Heather Rose passed away on 5th October 2002, just one day after her 36th birthday.

Video

    Dance Me To My Song is presented letterboxed in the correct aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Obviously, this is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Despite a slightly grainy appearance, the level of sharpness is still reasonably good. Blacks were clean and noise free, while shadows displayed excellent detail.

    The colours in the film have been nicely transferred to DVD, with no apparent problems. All appear totally natural and well balanced.

    There were no MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Apart from a couple of very minor instances of aliasing, film-to-video artefacts were well controlled. Film artefacts were virtually non-existent.

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitles available.

    This is a DVD 9, dual layer disc. The layer change occurs at 65:20 and isn't overly disruptive.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio track available, English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s), which is surround encoded.

    Dialogue quality was clear and concise throughout and there were no obvious problems with audio sync.

    The original music score by Graham Tardif is mostly piano based. With this score, Graham sustains an air of doubt with the audience and prevents them from feeling completely at ease.

     The nature of this film really doesn't warrant a big surround audio mix. On the whole, the surround channels carried some effective ambient sound and music. There was nothing in the way of direct sound placement.

    The subwoofer was only active on a couple of occasions.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The main menu is static, 16x9 enhanced and features a sample of music from the film.

Featurette - Interview with Rolf de Heer   (27:45)  

    This featurette was produced this year by Madman Entertainment and is not directly related to Dance Me To My Song. Rolf de Heer talks about his beginnings as a filmmaker. He tells of his days as a storeman at the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and how he advanced himself, before applying to The Australian Film & Television School. Rolf also discusses many of his films, with footage from them incorporated into the dialogue.

Theatrical Trailer

    Dance Me To My Song (2:15)

    At the time of writing this review, there is no R1 edition of Dance Me To My Song available.

    Once again, Rolf de Heer goes where most filmmakers fear to tread. Dance Me To My Song is a courageous and brutally honest film, which has won the hearts of many people. Hopefully in time, Madman will release this rarely seen film separately, but for the time being at least; it's exclusive to the Rolf de Heer box-set.

    Although this transfer isn't 16x9 enhanced, the video and audio transfers are still very good.

    The "interview" extra on the DVD isn't directly related to Dance Me To My Song , but it's still a must see for admirers of Rolf de Heer's films.

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Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall