| Head On | |
| Director: | Ana Kokkinos |
| Producer: | Jane Scott |
| Based On: | Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas |
| Editing: | Jill Bilcock |
| Distributor: | Strand Releasing Umbrella Entertainment |
| Runtime: | 104 minutes |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English, Greek |
Head On is a 1998 Australian LGBT-related romantic drama film directed by Ana Kokkinos, who wrote the screenplay with Andrew Bovell and Mira Robertson. The film is based on the 1995 novel Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas. The film stars Alex Dimitriades, Paul Capsis, Elena Mandalis and Damien Fotiou. The film tells the story of Ari (Dimitriades), a dissolute 19-year-old second generation Greek-Australian in Melbourne. Ari is caught between his conservative Greek background and modern Australia, amid his homosexual desire.
The film premiered in May 1998 at the Cannes Film Festival, three months ahead of its Australian premiere.[1]
The film gained notoriety upon its release for its sexual explicitness, including a graphic masturbation scene performed by Dimitriades and numerous sex scenes. The film was a commercial success in Australia and received mixed reviews from critics, with positive reviewers praising its stark realism, the lead performance by Dimitriades and the uncompromising subject matter. It received nine nominations at the 1998 Australian Film Institute Awards and won 29 awards and accolades in Australia and overseas.[1]
Australia's National Film and Sound Archive curator recognises it as a pioneering project in Australian filmmaking: "In terms of iconoclast daring, Head On has no equal in Australian cinema." Continuing that it concludes with the "most beautiful and enigmatic endings of any Australian film." It was Australia's first example of New queer cinema and is regarded as a "landmark piece of Australian queer cinema".[1]
We meet Ari, a dissolute 19-year-old second generation Greek Australian living with his working class parents and sister in Melbourne. He is unemployed and has an increasingly volatile relationship with his Marxist father Dimitri (Nikolakopoulos), who lectures him on responsibility. His mother, Sophia (Fragos), has a tender relationship with her son, but is worried about him. Unbeknownst to his parents, he engages in illicit drugs and casual sex with men. His sister, Alex (A. Mandalis), also hides her relationship with a Lebanese Australian from her parents.
Ari's friends are all second generation Greek Australians too. He is disappointed in his best friend Joe (Fotiou) for following convention rather than his heart by marrying Dina (Kaskanis). His other friend Johnny (Capsis) defies convention and is an extroverted cross-dresser, adopting the persona of Toula. He also connects easily with Joe's sister, Betty (E. Mandalis), as she too, engages in risky behaviours and rails against her Greek background.
After staying at his brother, Peter's (Papps) student house, Ari senses romantic chemistry with Peter's Anglo housemate, Sean (Garner). At Joe's house, his mother, Tasia (Mercedes) speaks to Ari in private about what she saw in his tea leaves. She saw Sean and tells him: “Find a girl, get married, and then it doesn’t matter what you do.” Ari and Dina take drugs together and he has partial sex with Betty.
Ari then goes to meet Sean at a club. Johnny, dressed in drag, convinces Ari to continue on to another club. Sean agrees to catch up with them later in the night. However, Ari and Johnny's taxi is stopped by the police. Both are humiliated, stripped and beaten at the police station. Johnny is savagely beaten by a Greek Australian cop that takes out his anger on him. Once released, Ari is not badly hurt, and goes to meet Sean at a club. They have sex at Sean's flat but Ari starts a fight, with Sean fighting back and kicking him out of the bedroom. In the early morning light, Ari at Melbourne's docks, dancing, Greek-style, reflecting on his meaningless life.[2]
Several Greek Australian actors from Kokkinos' previous film, Only the Brave appear in this film. Elena Mandalis and Dora Kaskanis, protagonists of the previous film, again took on Greek Australian roles as Betty and Dina.[3] Eugenia Fragos was also cast as the mother of Ari (Dimitriades). She had previously played Mrs Stefanou, mother of Vicki (Kaskanis) in Only the Brave.[4] Elena Mandalis (Betty) and Andrea Mandalis (Alex) are real-life sisters.
The "bashing" scene at the police station, where Ari and Toula are assaulted by cops, was written for the film and does not come from the novel.[5] Such incidents were not uncommon at the time in Australia. Kokkinos hired a cop for the rehearsals period and asked if the scene was overblown, he responded “No. Quite the contrary.”[5]
The film premiered in May 1998 at the Cannes Film Festival, three months ahead of its Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival.[1]
It also received premieres and screenings at film festivals around the world, including: 1998 Cannes Film Festival, Jerusalem Film Festival, Frameline Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, New Zealand Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival and Gothenburg Film Festival, among others.[6]
It returned to the Melbourne International Film Festival for a special screening at the 2022 festival.[7]
It also had theatrical distribution in fifteen countries outside Australia, and secured a limited theatrical release in the United States.[1]
It was a commercial success in Australia, as the third highest-grossing Australian film in 1998.[1]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 63% based on reviews from 24 critics.[8] Film critics Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton both gave the film 4.5 out of 5 stars on SBS.[9] Stratton also published a review inVariety praising Dimitrirades for his "fine, brave work", adding "Onscreen in virtually every scene, the young thesp utterly convinces as a reckless, hedonistic seeker of instant gratification."[10]
The film critic, Paul Byrnes wrote about the film's importance for the National Film and Sound Archive: "In terms of iconoclastic daring, Head On has no equal in Australian cinema...Head On is not just about the state of denial within the Greek community in Melbourne. It’s a bomb aimed at the placid and polite styles of Australian film." Byrnes concluded "It is more like a Scorsese film, a descent into a form of hell, in which the main character must battle his demons or die. The extraordinary finale, in which Ari dances on the docks where so many migrant families arrived on Australian soil, coupled with a narration that remains defiant and unapologetic, is one of the most beautiful and enigmatic endings of any Australian film."[11]
Head On divided the Greek community in Australia, Kokkinos said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Kokkinos said "what it did is that it opened up a dialogue between younger Greeks and their parents. What the film has done is that it has broken down barriers."[12]
The film received a retrospective review in The Guardian in 2014: "Head On is social realism crossed with a nightmare; kitchen sink drama that enters the realm of the senses...But viewed as a slow-burning portrait of an extended nightmare – of a coming of age gone brutally wrong – the film is painfully brilliant."[13]
1998 Australian Film Institute Awards
And 8 nominations:
San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
The soundtrack includes mostly Australian, British and Greek musical artists and composers: Death in Vegas, Lunatic Calm, Way Out West, The Saints, Underground Lovers, Dannii Minogue, Isaac Hayes, Silverchair, Primal Scream, The Visitors, Hot Chocolate, The Habibis, and Manos Loïzos.[2]