The Adventures of
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
(1994)
Genre:
Comedy/Drama
Plot
Outline: Two
drag queens and a transsexual get a cabaret gig in the middle of the desert.
A
bitchy, gaudy, outrageous, kitsch comedy classic (8/10)
Running
Time: 104 mins
Country:
Australia
Language:
English
Colour:
Colour
Sound
Mix: Dolby
1994
proved to be rather a good year for Australian movies, with both this and
MURIEL'S WEDDING delighting international audiences with their cheeky
over-the-top humour, panache, pathos, winning performances, and fun soundtracks.
Both, of course, heavily featured the music of ABBA (Australia has long had a
particular love-affair with the Scandinavian quartet - it was probably no
coincidence that it was decided to shoot the group's own feature, ABBA: THE
MOVIE, during the Australian leg of their 1977 world concert tour). In MURIEL'S
WEDDING the band's music is perhaps treated with more reverence and respect -
Muriel Heslop is, after all, a huge fan, and the film itself is of a far more
serious, distinctly black nature. PRISCILLA, on the other hand, constantly
revels in its own bitchiness and catty humour, and has countless memorable, and
in many cases unprintable, lines of dialogue, including stabs at the supergroup
- "I've said it once and I'll say it again - no more f***ing ABBA";
"What are you telling me - this is an ABBA turd?" Of course ABBA is
merely one of MANY verbal targets for the film's three main protagonists, but
far from this alienating us from any of them, we cannot help but be swept along
by the sheer garish joy of the entire venture.
The
basic plot focuses on recently bereaved transsexual Bernadette (a magnificent,
hardly recognizable Terence Stamp), who teams up with two younger drag artistes,
sensitive Tick/Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) and screaming queen Adam/Felicia (Guy
Pearce), so that they can travel half-way across Australia on board a
dilapidated bus named "Priscilla", in order to perform a cabaret act
at a remote casino run by an ex-partner of Tick's, soon revealed to be, horror
of horrors, a WOMAN! Along the way they encounter all sorts of absurd situations
and individuals almost as strange and unconventional as they themselves are.
Bernadette, against her better judgement, falls for gruff mechanic Bob (Bill
Hunter, who also features in MURIEL'S WEDDING) that they pick up en route, and
in so doing he loses his "mail-order" bride Cynthia (Julia Cortez),
who in one especially memorable scene does things with ping-pong balls you just
don't want to imagine!
The
performances are really the thing here - Terence Stamp (who won numerous
accolades for his cast-against-type labours) is amazing and totally credible as
the quietly dignified transsexual, and it is hard to believe that Weaving and
(especially) Pearce have not worked as flamboyant, lip-synching drag queens all
their professional lives! The gaudy, outrageous costumes won a well-deserved
Oscar, and the photography of the barren, surreal landscape is also masterful,
as is Stephan Elliott's creative direction and hilarious, ultimately poignant
script. The soundtrack may not be to everyone's taste, but it has enough camp
classics to satisfy anyone yearning to relive the tacky heyday of the '70s -
including ABBA's "Mamma Mia", the Village People's "Go
West", and Gloria Gaynor's superb "I Will Survive", given a
gloriously inventive rendition to a bunch of appreciative aboriginals, with one
of their number joining in most enthusiastically.
A true kitsch classic, then - well worth re-visiting, again and again ... and again.