He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (2001) Reviews

• Don't judge a book by it's cover

  KH_11_NZ2003-08-12

  This film is a perfect example of the old saying not to judge a book by its cover. Here in NZ the DVD cover is a shot of him underwater with cigarette smoke hazing it over a little which looks uncannily like his head is in a toilet bowl. Out of pure curiosity I finally ventured up enough courage to take the 'plunge' and rented it out. What I found pleasantly surprised me. The dialogue is actually quite witty and sharp at times. What really makes this film tick however is the characters. They are from all walks of life covering a multitude of nationalities, much like a real flatting / boarding situation is. Noah Taylor plays his part as a washed out and uninspired writer named Danny down to pat even though I think he must have the least amount of dialogue in the film. Emily Hamilton plays Sam, a young and somewhat naive girl who, like most young people, hasn't totally decided what to do with her life. I found her performance to be quite convincing and not contrived or overacted like some performances can be in these types of low budget art films. Romane Bohringer plays a spooky role as a pagan who takes her religion very seriously at times (The scene where she convinces one of her brainless flatmates to be a 'sacrificial lamb' upon a burning stake is hilarious) Her performances are also above average and generally tend to give the viewer the impression she is a witch bent on injecting chaos into any given domestic situation. Alex Minglet is perfectly casted as Taylor, a serious drinker who enjoys dressing up in commando gear and playing golf with frogs. His antics had me in stitches whenever he appeared on screen. There are other brilliant little support performances by Haskel Daniel as 'Jabber the Hut' who controls (and worships) the television set and Francis McMahon who plays Dirk who is having troubles coming out of the 'closet'. Also look out for some weird European dude who only says two lines during the film, "They are very, very fit." - Oddball stuff but makes for good humour, especially if you are a person who has been flatting at one time or another. This film isn't just about laughs however. Ideas and themes of friendship and new beginnings are put across quite seamlessly into the plot as Danny experiences a rite of passage which takes him from being stuck in the past to looking forward to the future and leaving the mess (which follows him from flat to flat during the film) well behind. Brett Stewart plays a heroin junkie named Flip who is trying to get ahead in life but finds himself caught in a ever increasing downward spiral of drug intake. I feel this film touches upon the issue of hard drug addiction quite well as you can visibly see what it is slowly doing to Flip. The film is set in Australia and is in my personal opinion one of the best films to emerge from there in a while. The soundtrack is complimentary and the ending will leave you with a smile on your face. I recommend this film to anyone who has a taste for small budget arty type films and can enjoy a little bit of black humour with their vegemite on toast in the morning. 7/10

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• Felafel rolls up housesharing

  Philby-32002-03-17

  Putting John Burningham's best-selling but episodic reminiscences of house-sharing into a watchable feature film was quite a challenge, but a veteran house-sharer, Richard Lowenstein (`Dogs in Space'), succeeds here by having several of the more interesting and bizarre characters follow the narrator (Noah Taylor) from city to city. The felafel, in fact, a throwaway line in the book, is given centre stage, and the result is a well-focused tale of the horrors of house-sharing – it's the `Secret Life of Us' meets `Romper Stomper'. Noah Taylor is one of those actors who cannot fail if given a goofy role, and here he is perfect as Danny, the aspiring writer roughing it with a collection of druggies, minor criminals, aspiring sorceresses and actors, while trying to evade his creditors and write a prize-winning story for `Penthouse'. Allegedly irresistible to women, he fails badly with his female housemates. As one of them says, incredulously: `Have an affair with you? I'm not a masochist!' Romane Bohringer gives another strong performance as Anya, a sort of social bomb-thrower with a taste for Druid ritual, who puts any place she joins into an uproar in no time. Then there is Taylor the mad drunk (Alex Menglet), Flip the junkie (a touching performance from Brett Stewart), Nina the terminally vain soap actor (Sophie Lee hopefully not as herself) Iain the doctrinaire socialist (Ian Hughes in Melbourne of course) and Dirk the emerging homosexual (Francis McMahon), amongst others. Some of the landlord's agents do not lack colour either eg Linal Haft's rent collector as gangster in Brisbane. All these characters are somehow accommodated in the story, though an early peak (the great bikie party in the Brisbane house) is followed by rather a flat period in Melbourne. Once the circus reaches Sydney, however, things pick up again – perhaps it's the more effervescent air. The tropical squalor of the first house, a battered `Queenslander,' reminded me a little of `Praise', a vastly different film in tone, but Danny is not necessarily one of life's defeated, though it seems like that sometimes. This movie has a decidedly upbeat tone; the last place might have been pretty rugged, bet there's always the hope of something more salubrious, or at least of more congenial flatmates. No doubt admirers of the book will take offence at what has been left out, but Lowenstein should be given credit for giving it a cinematic context.

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• An excellent Australian Film

  goodfellas_692002-03-10

  I can't understand why everyone here on imdb is bagging this film...I found it to be a thoroughly original and refreshing piece of australian cinema. i can't make any comparisons between it and the book as I am not familiar with the book, but the only advice I can give is that you should see this film.

• So true

  techcon2001-09-09

  If you have ever lived in a share house then I reckon you'll immediately appreciate this movie. I think Noah Taylor did a brilliant job in this movie, we need more like it. The director (Richard Lowenstein) did a great job of not making Noah look like Nick Cave, too much! I also loved the sound track to this movie..who would think of using Dr Who sound track in their movie...very funny. Overall this movie from start to finish was very entertaining, almost a laugh a minute. All up a fantastic movie.

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• A fine film from Australia

  craigkiwinz2003-10-14

  I certainly enjoyed this inventive and unique piece of Australian moviemaking. I think that it was extremely well put together piece of film. I was always in pain from laughing so much. When the scene with the skinheads with the chainsaws happened I almost swallowed my Coke can !!! I must also compliment the casting director as the cast was certainly very well matched to their roles and made this film a pleasure to watch. I have been in the film industry ten years myself and would feel very proud to have been involved in such a production. My favorite character Was the African redneck, a brilliant and hilarious performance. Miss Hamilton is an outstanding actress with a huge future. Along side her alluring beauty is a marvelously dedicated and intelligent actress, I thought Miss Hamilton made the film so much the better. Congraduations to the crew and artists for producing one of the ten best films I have ever seen. And you go Miss Hamilton, you have everything it takes to go as far as it gets. Craig Wilson

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