Everynight ... Everynight

Everynight ... Everynight is an Australian drama film directed by Alkinos Tsilimidos and released in 1994. Based on a play of the same name, written by Ray Mooney, the film details the early life of contract killer Christopher Dale Flannery and is set inside Melbourne's HM Prison Pentridge's maximum security H Division.[1] Filming was undertaken at HM Prison Geelong.

Everynight ... Everyday
Directed byAlkinos Tsilimidos
Produced byAlkinos Tsilimidos
Written byRay Mooney
Alkinos Tsilimidos
StarringDavid Field,
Bill Hunter,
Robert Morgan
Music byPaul Kelly
CinematographyToby Oliver
Edited byCindy Clarkson
Distributed bySiren Visual Entertainment
Release date
1994
Running time
92 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Dale, who is held on remand, is awaiting a court hearing and yet to be sentenced, highlighting the horrific injustice of the repeated beatings he's subjected to. Although the first depicted beating lasts less than 3 minutes of screen time, the actual beating it was based on allegedly lasted a gruelling 7 hours.

Initially Dale submits to the psychological and physical traumas of his situation. By day they attempt to break his spirit and sanity by forcing him to smash blue-stone with a pick, invoking images of Australia's convict heritage, while another inmate is compelled to perform more demeaning behaviour such as licking faeces off toilet doors. Gradually Dale becomes indifferent to the bashings and horrors of prison life and develops an alternative, subversive way to exist and express his rage.

At one point Dale is depicted pacing his cell naked and mumbling incoherently. It seems as if the ego shattering experience has forced him to the verge of insanity. It's not until he claims : "I've resigned from this life" and urges the other inmates to do so as well, that we see method in his madness. By refusing to play the dehumanising prison game anymore the guards have lost their threat of psychological and physical suppression over him and he in turn has reaffirmed the power of the simple utterance of which he can never be deprived. Although contact between the inmates is strictly forbidden at night they manage to shout and finally communicate through the prison walls. "Unity in adversity!", Dale shouts beginning a chant which reverberates throughout the cells. Meanwhile, Berriman, realising the threat of pure violence or psychological abuse is no longer effective starts to panic.

As Dale walks defiantly from the prison in the last scene to be tried, the failure of the correctional system to produce docile, disciplined bodies pulls its last punch. Even if the system has enframed Dale he has maintained his sanity and his voice.

Cast
  • David Field as Dale
  • Bill Hunter as Berriman
  • Robert Morgan as Kert
  • Phil Motherwell as Bryant
  • Jim Daly as Barrett
  • Jim Shaw as Governor
  • Billy Tisdall as Gilchrist
  • Simon Woodward as Gaunt
  • Theodore Zakos as Driscoll

Awards

The film was awarded the 1994 Best First Fiction Film Prize at the Montreal World Film Festival[2] and also nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 1994 Australian Film Institute Awards[3] and a nomination for the Bronze Horse award at the 1994 Stockholm International Film Festival.[4]

References
  1. Everynight... Everynight Archived 12 May 2011 at WebCite, National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved 18 January 2008
  2. "1994 World Film Festival Awards". Montreal World Film Festival. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
  3. "Australian Film Institute Awards - 1994". Australian television information archive. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
  4. "Stockholm International Film Festival - Sweden" (PDF). Australian Film Commission. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
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