The Last Days of Chez Nous

One of the lovely things about going back to study is that I’ve discovered films I would probably not have otherwise watched. One of these is The Last Days of Chez Nous (Gillian Armstrong, 1992), a film that has shot whatever-used-to-be-my-favourite-Australian-film off the list to become my favourite Australian film. Yay! And it’s not hard to see why – writing in the online journal Bright Lights, Richard Armstrong likens the emotional tone to Cassavetes and Woody Allen. With a script by Helen Garner, The Last Days of Chez Nous is a quietly shot urban drama with the breakdown of a marriage at its core.

Set in a labyrinthine terrace in Sydney’s inner west the film is visually arresting, and the elusive structure – the house is constructed as a series of interlinking rooms, one space opening into the next as the characters move through them – reflects the twisting, intersecting relationships of its inhabitants. Just as we never get a feel for the layout of the house, the film refuses to provide an easy to read map of the characters. The tensions between Beth (Lisa Harrow), JP (Bruno Ganz) and Beth’s sister Vicki (Kerry Fox) sizzle like an electric wire, but the film refuses to give them any resolution. Ian Craven observes that the characters are ‘caught in a complex network of drives,’ all desiring things that don’t seem to be able to live together. Beth, a writer, wants to maintain her autonomy, and at the same time have her marriage, while JP feels neglected and unloved by her strong, dominant way of managing things. Vicki wants to become a writer like Beth, but lacks the discipline to actually sit down and write. I was reminded here of Woody Allen’s Hannah and her Sisters, where Hannah (Mia Farrow) takes care of everyone and everything so well that the other characters drift away from her, wanting to feel needed.

Armstrong accentuates the tension with the use of high angle shots and off kilter close-ups where the characters faces sit awkwardly in the frame, reflecting their unease. Armstrong loves close-ups, and she uses them well, drawing attention to the domestic details of her characters lives to give them breath. A pen, a desk, a bed, the food they eat, the bowls they use are all lovingly shown. We catch glimpses of their interior spaces through doorways and windows. Beth’s study is frequently observed like this, and it is a sacred room in Vicki’s eyes; Beth’s space, where Beth creates. More than anything Vicki wants what Beth has, and in the end she gets JP. However the listless way she begins cleaning their new apartment suggests that what she thought she wanted may not be what she wants at all.

Armstrong’s most recent film is the disappointing Death Defying Acts, but I hope she makes more films like The Last Days of Chez Nous – stories where we are dropped into the lives of others, where we watch them struggle and grow as they learn something about themselves, where we recognise ourselves, where we wonder what we would do and how we are, because after all, we are always traveling.