He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (2001)

A nightmare chase through hell in a never-ending, unrequited daisy chain of desire...

Director:

Richard Lowenstein

Writers:

John Birmingham (novel), Richard Lowenstein

Stars:

Noah Taylor, Emily Hamilton, Romane Bohringer

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Noah Taylor	...	Danny
Emily Hamilton	...	Sam
Romane Bohringer	...	Anya
Alex Menglet	...	Taylor
Brett Stewart	...	Flip
Damian Walshe-Howling	...	Milo
Torquil Neilson	...	Otis
Sophie Lee	...	Nina
Francis McMahon	...	Dirk
Ian Hughes	...	Iain the Socialist
Robert Rimmer	...	Derek the Bank Clerk
Sayuri Tanoue	...	Satomi Tiger
Linal Haft	...	Brisbane Goon 1
Nathan Kotzur	...	Brisbane Goon 2
Haskel Daniel	...	Jabber

Storyline

A search for love, meaning and bathroom solitude. Danny goes through a series of shared housing experiences in a succession of cities on the east coast of Australia. Together these vignettes form a narrative that is surprisingly reflective.

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Plot Keywords:

police | deadpan comedy | hedonist | claustrophobia | ex boyfriend ex girlfriend relationship | 

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Taglines:

Some people will do anything to get out of paying the rent

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Australia Italy

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 August 2001 (Australia)

Also Known As:

E morì con un felafel in mano

Filming Locations:

2 Taylor Street, Annerley, Queensland, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

AUD 3,900,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fandango, Notorious Films Pty. Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sam's comment, "... the recession we had to have ...", is a quote from former Australian treasurer, Paul Keating, Keating famously referred to the early 1990s recession in Australia as "the recession we had to have". Keating's statement caused much comment in Australia and cost the then Labor government much support. The quote has since been parodied in Australia in many different situations.

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Goofs

In the scene with Dirk and Nina arguing over the pineapple chunks, the label on the can changes from shot to shot, from "pineapple pieces" to "sliced pineapple". Neither can contains "pineapple chunks" as said in the dialogue.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Danny: Flip, turn the fucking TV off! People are trying to sleep.
[Flip does not respond]
Danny: Flip, have some fucking consideration.
[Danny turns the TV off]
Danny: For Christ's sake, Flip... Flipster? Oh, shit. Shit! Fuck!

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Crazy Credits

Apologies to: Jean-Luc Godard, Buster Keaton, Louise Brooks, Anna Karina, Antonin Artand, Robert Bresson, Jean-Pierre Melville, Andrei Tarkovsky, Fedorico Fellini, Emir Kusturica, Wong Kar Wei, Yasujiro Ozu, Jean-Paul Satre, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Alain Delon, Francis Ford Coppola, Elvis Presley & Sandy Harbutt.

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Connections

References Cabaret (1972)

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Soundtracks

"Ian Gets It"
Performed by Emma Bortignon

User Reviews

Felafel rolls up housesharing

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.