Celia (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Interviews-Crew-Film review and interview from the Sunday program Audio-Only Track-David Stratton interviews Ann Turner Gallery-Photo-41 images Theatrical Trailer-German Theatrical Trailer Teaser Trailer-Umbrella Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	98:46
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Ann Turner
Studio Distributor	Seon Films Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Rebecca Smart Nicholas Eadie Victoria Longley Mary-Anne Fahey Margaret Ricketts Alexander Hutchinson Adrian Mitchell Callie Gray Martin Sharman Clair Couttie Alex Menglet Amelia Frid William Zappa
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$24.95	Music	Chris Neal

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
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

     Every now and then a film emerges from total obscurity to once again grace our screens and hopefully find a whole new audience - one such film is Ann Turner's 1989 debut feature, Celia.

    I remember first seeing Celia at AFI Judging Screenings before its cinema release back in 1989. I must admit though, until recently I'd forgotten that this film even existed. That's not to say Celia is a poor film - on the contrary, it's quite the opposite. For some reason Celia has become one of those forgotten films, disappearing from sight and mind for twenty years. Whatever the reason for this, I can say that it's great to have it back.

    It was assumed at the time that writer/director, Ann Turner was an emerging talent in the Australian film industry. However, Ann's body of work since Celia has only been moderate at best. Similarly, the young lead in Celia, Rebecca Smart was also heralded at the time as an actor with potential star quality. Although she has never reached that sort of status in her career (probably happily), Rebecca has worked extensively since, mostly in local television productions.

    Celia is set in suburban Melbourne during the late 1950's. Nine-year-old Celia (Rebecca Smart) is the only child of Ray and Pat Carmichael (Nicholas Eadie and Mary-Ann Fahey) and they live in their modest family home. Celia is mourning the sudden death of her beloved grandmother, but thanks to a vivid imagination, her granny lives on. Celia's imagination is often consuming and she frequently sees the world in a combination of reality and fantasy.

    New neighbours move in next door and Celia soon has a new lease on life. Alice and Evan Tanner (Victoria Longley and Martin Sharman) and their three children provide the perfect distraction for Celia. She bonds immediately with the Tanners - especially with Alice, who she forms a special connection with.

    Ray also develops a none to subtle interest in Alice - an interest which is not reciprocated. But the friendship between the Carmichael's and their neighbours is soon shattered when it's discovered that the Tanners have connections with a communist organisation. This flies in the face of Ray's highly conservative beliefs and he insists that his family cuts all ties with them - in particular, Ray forbids Celia from any contact with them.

   In an offer of compensation for losing her friends, Ray buys Celia the pet rabbit she has always wanted. Murgatroid the rabbit becomes Celia's closest companion and she takes the rabbit everywhere. Celia's friends also embrace the rabbit and soon Murgatroid is an integral part of their group. However, there is a problem emerging that will again distort Celia's world.

    The metaphorical connection between the communists and the rabbits now becomes obvious. The state of Victoria is experiencing a severe rabbit plague. Even though the issue is not directly related to pet rabbits, in an effort to control their prolific breeding, the State Government announces a blanket ban on rabbit ownership.

    Even though Celia and her parents try to resist the confiscation of Murgatroid, the rabbit is rounded up and sent to the Zoo with hundreds of others. Celia never loses hope of getting her back and in time the Government relaxes the laws, allowing rabbit ownership with a permit.

    However at the Zoo, the reunion between Celia and Murgatriod is met with tragedy. Now, all reminence of innocent childhood fantasy is blurred by Celia's desire to make someone pay for the injustices bestowed upon her.

    Celia received two AFI Award (Australian Film Institute) nominations in 1989, both for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Victoria Longley and Mary-Ann Fahey were the nominees - Victoria won the award. Regrettably absent from the nomination list that year were Ann Turner and Rebecca Smart.

    Whatever the reason for Celia's twenty years of silent obscurity, it's good to see it remedied with a decent DVD presentation.

Video

    Celia is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.77:1, which is 16x9 enhanced. I couldn't confirm the correct ratio, but it's likely to be 1:85.1.

    Despite some occasional softness (probably inherent in the source material), the film displays a decent level of sharpness and clarity. Blacks were clean and shadow detail was generally very good.

    The soft and unobtrusive colours in the production design compliment the 1950's era nicely. They contrast well against the green and leafy suburban streets. All colours appeared natural and were perfectly balanced on the disc.

    There were no MPEG artefacts evident in the transfer. A couple of instances of minor aliasing were noticed, but in general film-to-video artefacts were not an issue. Film artefacts were negligible.

    Unfortunately there are no subtitles on the DVD.

    This is a DVD 9, dual layer disc. The layer change was easily noticed during a scene at 58:16.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track available on the DVD - English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) which is surround encoded.

    Dialogue was excellent throughout and there were no apparent issues with audio sync.

    The original score for Celia is credited to Chris Neal. His score compliments the theme of childhood innocence and the elements of fantasy in the film.

    While the use of ProLogic II dispersed sound to the rear channels, there was nothing of great significance noticed. Sound from the rear speakers consisted of music and subtle ambient effects. In any case, the nature of this film doesn't really warrant a remixed 5.1 audio track.

    The subwoofer was active during certain passages of music, but otherwise remained passive.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

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

Sunday Program Review (7:15)

    Film critic, Peter Thompson reviews Celia on the Nine Network's, Sunday program. This review was broadcast on the Sunday program at the time of the film's release in 1989. Peter also talks with writer/director, Ann Turner about the film and naturally there is some film footage incorporated into the review. The fashions and the quality of the source video shows the vintage.

Audio Only Interview With Ann Turner (10:57)

    Film critic, David Stratton discusses aspects of Celia with Ann Turner. As the title suggests, this is an audio only interview, which plays over a still image of Ann Turner.

German Theatrical Trailer (1:53)

    This is the German trailer for Celia, complete with dubbed voices.

Stills Gallery

    A collection of 41 images - a combination of film stills and behind-the-scenes images.

Umbrella Trailers   

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall