Whoever Was Using This Bed

Whoever Was Using This Bed is a 2016 Australian short film directed by Andrew Kotatko. It is based on the short story by Raymond Carver from his 1988 collection Elephant. The film stars Jean-Marc Barr, Radha Mitchell and features the voice of Jane Birkin.

Whoever Was Using This Bed
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAndrew Kotatko
Produced byAndrew Kotatko
Marie Slaight
Written byAndrew Kotatko
Based on"Whoever Was Using This Bed"
by Raymond Carver
StarringJean-Marc Barr
Radha Mitchell
Jane Birkin
Music byBen Frost
Jon Hopkins
Robert Mackenzie
CinematographyGeoffrey Simpson, ACS
Edited byRoland Gallois, ASE
Production
companies
Midnight Coffee Films
Altaire Productions
Release date
  • 13 January 2016 (2016-01-13) (Flickerfest International Short Film Festival)
Running time
21 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

The film was co-produced by Altaire Productions and Midnight Coffee Films, with post-production funds successfully raised via crowdfunding on Kickstarter.[1][2]

Whoever Was Using This Bed won Best Drama in the Australian Film Institute / Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts's 2016 Social Shorts competition.[3]

It is Kotatko's second adaptation of Carver's writing, the first being Everything Goes starring Hugo Weaving, Abbie Cornish and Sullivan Stapleton.

Synopsis

A married couple (Barr and Mitchell) is woken in the dead of night by a mysterious phone caller (Birkin). Unable to sleep, the couple are drawn into an unsettling examination of their darkest fears and desires.

Cast

Release

The film had its Australian premiere at the 25th Flickerfest International Short Film Festival.[4] It was nominated for Best Australian Short Film.[5]

Background

In an interview about Whoever Was Using This Bed in The Brag Magazine, Kotatko said: "People who’ve seen the film have told me that it plays like an intimate American drama from the '70s, but there’s definitely a visual quality to the film that evokes classic film noir. I think it also has an emotionally unnerving and suspenseful quality to it. It feels a bit like a thriller."[6]

Radha Mitchell expressed her reasons for doing the project in The Beast Magazine: "I wouldn’t normally be attracted to do a short film, except this is such a character piece, and it’s so dependent on the two lead performances. It’s sophisticated, and in a sense, it’s very adult. Not in an x-rated sense, but thematically it’s mature, and that was of interest to me."[7]

Jean-Marc Barr shared his thoughts on the film's story in an interview for Filmink Magazine: “There’s something very human about Carver’s short stories and daily happenings that I think every couple has maybe gone through this. He [Kotatko] was able to leave it as open and as modern as possible but also give it his own kind of spices and wishes. The characters are really well built, especially in the writing and I think they leave a really big range for interpretation.”[8]

Critical reception

Matthew Lowe of Filmink Magazine gave the film 18 out of 20, noting that "Whoever Was Using This Bed is an impeccably well-made short film, deeply melancholic and enriched by its superb performances".[9]

US film critic Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid gave the film 3 and a half out of 4 and observed that "Whoever Was Using This Bed occupies a state of sad, inescapable truth. To my eyes, Kotatko comes the closest of any filmmaker to capturing Carver on film."[10]

In his review, ABC Radio's Movieland critic CJ Johnson wrote that "Whoever Was Using This Bed is an intelligent, precise and mature short film that doesn’t rely on Carver’s innate abilities; in transposing this gripping little two-hander to the screen, Kokatko makes plenty of cinematic choices of his own, informed by his obvious deep regard for the source material."[11]

References
  1. Radha Mitchell calls on her fans to help fund the final stages of her latest film Whoever Was Using This Bed, The Daily Telegraph 14 March 2015.
  2. Crowdfunding campaign for short starring Radha Mitchell Archived 2015-04-02 at the Wayback Machine, IF Magazine 9 March 2015.
  3. Social Shorts - Drama Category Archived 2016-07-29 at the Wayback Machine, Social Shorts 17August 2016.
  4. Flickerfest - Best of Australian 6 Programme - 2016 Archived 2016-04-01 at the Wayback Machine, Flickerfest 19 December 2015.
  5. Flickerfest unveils competitive program Archived 2017-01-05 at the Wayback Machine, IF Magazine 14 December 2015.
  6. Five Minutes with Andrew Kotatko, Director of Whoever Was Using This Bed by Chris Martin Archived 2016-05-05 at the Wayback Machine, The Brag Magazine 21 December 2015.
  7. Radha Mitchell - Never Say Never by Daniel Hutton Archived 2016-04-06 at the Wayback Machine, The Beast Magazine 1 January 2016.
  8. What We Talk About When We Talk About Jean-Marc Barr by Matt Lowe Archived 2016-04-04 at the Wayback Machine, Filmink Magazine 7 January 2016.
  9. Review: Whoever Was Using This Bed by Matthew Lowe Archived 2017-03-17 at the Wayback Machine, Filmink Magazine 14 January 2016.
  10. Review: Whoever Was Using This Bed by Jeffrey M. Anderson Archived 2016-05-05 at the Wayback Machine, Combustible Celluloid 17 September 2015.
  11. Reviews: The First Monday In May and St Kilda short Whoever Was Using This Bed by CJ Johnson, Film Mafia / Movieland 13 May 2016.
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