It was kind of startling to see, last time I looked at WALKABOUT, how pervy it was. The male gaze was front and centre, yanking on the zoom bar at inappropriate moments. I may try to write something about it next time, because it hasn’t really been discussed, and Nic Roeg’s gone now, alas, so he won’t be offended. I think the film probably is still very strong, but its curiosity about Jenny Agutter’s body is not quite either scientific or innocent.
I START COUNTING features a really astonishing performance from WALKABOUT’s young female star, Jenny Agutter, and is, at least in comparison with the more celebrated Roeg film, a tad more discrete. Anything approaching nudity or undressing is either brief or carefully framed to avoid overt titillation. Still, Greene’s background in commercials and the combined skill of him and the talented Alex Thompson on camera tend to make the film look like a compilation of product shots from advertisements for fiteen-year-old schoolgirls (“Get yours today!”) It lacks Roeg’s more overt salaciousness, or his matter-of-fact in-your-faceness, but can’t quite eliminate that voyeuristic effect.
It should be about the FEMALE gaze — and it is — but Greene can’t efface his own way of looking.
The gloss (lots of white paint on everything courtesy of designer Brian Eatwell) is positive in some ways, because I START COUNTING is a serial killer thriller that never looks or feels like one. The slightly incessant song helps there too. And the dreamy attitude of the main character makes this entirely appropriate — schoolgirl Wynne wants to identify the man who’s murdering girls in her neighbourhood, but it’s obvious that she’s not primarily intent on bringing him to justice. It’s more like the reformation fantasy.
All Wynne’s ill-advised behaviour makes her a frustrating character to root for, but the downplaying of overt tension (gentle Basil Kirchin idylls rather than Bernard Herrmann pounding thrills) helps stop us giving up on her in irritation. The film’s real subject is adolescence, not murder, just as SEBASTIAN was a love story only incidentally concerned with codebreaking.
I START COUNTING stars Nurse Alex Price; Captain Potter; Young Winston; Dr. Branom; Mrs Sannerson; Doctor Seward; and Buster.
shadowplay 