Siam Sunset (1999)

A British design executive, who seemingly has everything going for him has his life totally changed when a refrigerator falls from an aircraft and lands on his wife. He decides to getaway ... See full summary »

Director:

John Polson

Writers:

Max Dann, Andrew Knight

Stars:

Linus Roache, Danielle Cormack, Ian Bliss

6 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Linus Roache	...	Perry Roberts
Danielle Cormack	...	Grace
Ian Bliss	...	Martin
Roy Billing	...	Bill Leach
Alan Brough	...	Stuart Quist
Rebecca Hobbs	...	Jane
Terry Kenwrick	...	Arthur Droon
Deidre Rubenstein	...	Celia Droon
Peter Hosking	...	Roy Wentworth
Victoria Eagger	...	Rowena Wentworth
Robert Menzies	...	Eric
Eliza Lovell	...	Michelle
Heidi Glover	...	Stephanie Droon
Lachlan Standing	...	Ben Wentworth
Esme Melville	...	Dot

Storyline

A British design executive, who seemingly has everything going for him has his life totally changed when a refrigerator falls from an aircraft and lands on his wife. He decides to getaway from it all by taking a trip to Australia. On his bus, he meets a wild group of eccentrics, including a woman who has stolen cash from her drug-dealing boy friend. As the movie moves along, we learn further that the executive is constantly accident-prone and drawn into unlikely situations. The film's title refers to a new design color that Roache is trying to develop.

---

Plot Keywords:

slapstick comedy | british | design executive | refrigerator | eccentric | 

---

Taglines:

A man's search for the ultimate colour in the face of overwhelming catastrophe.

---

Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Romance

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 April 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Cor do Entardecer

Filming Locations:

Outback, South Australia, Australia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Artist Services, Channel Four Films, New South Wales Film & Television Office

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in South Australian Film Corporation 40th Anniversary Showreel (2012)

---

Soundtracks

Hallelujah
Performed by Vince Jones

User Reviews

When you know some of the people behind the making of this film, you will know what to expect

When you know some of the people behind the making of Siam Sunset, you will know what to expect from this film.

It is co-written by Andrew Knight who is the creator of some of the most successful comedy on Australian TV in recent times including Fast Forward / Full Frontal and SeaChange. There's Al Clarke, who produces Siam, who was also the producer of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert as well as Nineteen Eighty-Four (now there's an odd paring). Most tellingly though is that it is directed by John Polson - the man behind Tropfest - the fun and popular short film festival in Sydney.

Looking at those names should tell you that they will make a fun film with comedy slightly on the dark shade, some unglamorous characters who are realistic in some respects yet totally absurd in others, plus . . . er, a big bus in the middle of Australia's outback.

And that is what you get with Siam Sunset.

Perry (Linus Roache) an English industrial chemist for a paint company (he makes colours) has his life going just the way he wants it with his wife and work. This is turned completely upside down (or should I say crushed) after a freak accident and begins to feel that he is a curse for everything and everybody around him. From being happy and content, he is now a wreck. He wins a trip to Australia and uses that as a kick start to regaining some of that inner peace that he so dramatically lost. This is expressed in his search for a colour that he calls siam sunset.

He joins up with a bus tour in Adelaide and soon wishes he hadn't. Well, at least until he meets up with Grace (Danielle Cormack) who is on the run from her drug dealer boyfriend. Grace helps Perry to find his siam sunset. The help partly involves some very dangerous sex (it involves a bed on the verge of collapse, a ceiling fan that is set to fall onto the bed, some dangerously protruding steel coat hooks, dodgy electrics and a taipan snake sleeping underneath the bed just for good measure - the sex scene had to be coordinated by the stunt people).

John Polson is unashamedly a populist as demonstrated in Tropfest and in the fact that this film won the audience award at Cannes. So with Siam he gives us an amusing and entertaining 90 minutes, but it is by no means going to strike up post-film conversations on it's stunning originality or whether it's OK to have an open marriage.

This is Polson's feature directorial debut and he has relished the use of the wide screen format. He captures plenty of beauty of the Australian landscape.

Roache is suitably fish-out-of-water without slipping into English stereotypes. Cormack (who was in Topless Women Talk About Their Lives) as Grace is an enticing addition to the film and the rest of the cast are great fun to see.

Siam includes all of the ingredients of recent successful Australian films - that's a good and bad thing at the same time, but if you enjoyed movies like Priscilla, Muriel's Wedding and Two Hands then you should enjoy this film - just don't expect it to change your life.