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“Welcome to Summer Bay”: Rewatching the early years.
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<blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 196839" data-attributes="member: 23"><p><span style="font-size: 22px"><u>Episodes 154-160</u></span><em> (...continued)</em></p><p></p><p></p><p>This turn of events and the scenes leading up to it have given Norman Coburn and Barbara Stephens in particular the opportunity to turn in terrific and subtle performances. Episode #160 saw each given wonderful moments with artful direction from Paul Moloney and achingly beautiful Bevan Lee dialogue.</p><p></p><p>First up is Barbara, as the camera pans extremely slowly across the hospital room, across various monitors, Alan himself, to Barbara and Alan’s entwined hands and then up to an intimate close up of Barbara for the latter part of one of the most lyrically emotive dialogues (almost monologues) in the series:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.vgy.me/rg5PJb.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/2f44uf.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/KMi4vF.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/fpRRJB.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/saWWMy.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/TlFtIe.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/mdUS9y.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/H2T3F4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p>Barbara Stephens is stellar. Her nuanced reading of already beautiful dialogue creates one powerful moment, and a healing one too: the subtle moment where Donald places his hand onto her shoulder as she cries is perhaps the couple's first physical contact for many years.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Then there’s Donald, visiting his son and finally saying the words he couldn’t when Alan was able to hear him. As you’d expect, Donald struggles for words, which means there is plenty of space in the scene. As it plays out in a single shot, Paul Moloney chooses a painfully slow zoom across Alan’s bed to a close up of Donald’s face:</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.vgy.me/3236mQ.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p>Norman Coburn is wonderfully understated. He’s in frame the entire time and the result feels incredibly intimate and made for a potent and moving viewing experience. Donald has never seemed more vulnerable and exposed. And the visual matches. He is almost lost in the shadows, isolated and very much alone in his pain, despite his son lying in front of him and Bobby hiding in the corner, equally unseen in the shadows. So understated is he that it almost seems as though he's not <em>doing</em> anything, which in turn creates the sense that it's not enough, or there's something missing. All of which reinforces the very feelings with which Donald is punishing himself. There's a beautiful, very small moment where he turns his head slightly away and down - almost into his own shoulder - as though the intimacy is too much for him, before forcing himself to look back at his son.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I love the unfinished almost-but-not-quite element of Alan discovering that Donald had pushed for Brett Macklin to sponsor his surfing and seeking his father out, but collapsing before he could thank him. That they were so close to being on good terms is incredibly cruel, which makes it more poignant. Indeed, it’s Bobby who discloses this fact to him. It’s done in anger due to his resistance to what he perceives as her intrusion into his family’s private grief, but turns into a beautiful moment of detente. As with Barbara and Alan, Bobby is greater for her complex relationship with Donald, and this run of episodes has further enriched this.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: right"><em>continued...</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Spells & Karma, post: 196839, member: 23"] [SIZE=6][U]Episodes 154-160[/U][/SIZE][I] (...continued)[/I] This turn of events and the scenes leading up to it have given Norman Coburn and Barbara Stephens in particular the opportunity to turn in terrific and subtle performances. Episode #160 saw each given wonderful moments with artful direction from Paul Moloney and achingly beautiful Bevan Lee dialogue. First up is Barbara, as the camera pans extremely slowly across the hospital room, across various monitors, Alan himself, to Barbara and Alan’s entwined hands and then up to an intimate close up of Barbara for the latter part of one of the most lyrically emotive dialogues (almost monologues) in the series: [IMG]https://i.vgy.me/rg5PJb.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/2f44uf.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/KMi4vF.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/fpRRJB.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/saWWMy.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/TlFtIe.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/mdUS9y.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/H2T3F4.jpg[/IMG] Barbara Stephens is stellar. Her nuanced reading of already beautiful dialogue creates one powerful moment, and a healing one too: the subtle moment where Donald places his hand onto her shoulder as she cries is perhaps the couple's first physical contact for many years. Then there’s Donald, visiting his son and finally saying the words he couldn’t when Alan was able to hear him. As you’d expect, Donald struggles for words, which means there is plenty of space in the scene. As it plays out in a single shot, Paul Moloney chooses a painfully slow zoom across Alan’s bed to a close up of Donald’s face: [IMG]https://i.vgy.me/3236mQ.jpg[/IMG] Norman Coburn is wonderfully understated. He’s in frame the entire time and the result feels incredibly intimate and made for a potent and moving viewing experience. Donald has never seemed more vulnerable and exposed. And the visual matches. He is almost lost in the shadows, isolated and very much alone in his pain, despite his son lying in front of him and Bobby hiding in the corner, equally unseen in the shadows. So understated is he that it almost seems as though he's not [I]doing[/I] anything, which in turn creates the sense that it's not enough, or there's something missing. All of which reinforces the very feelings with which Donald is punishing himself. There's a beautiful, very small moment where he turns his head slightly away and down - almost into his own shoulder - as though the intimacy is too much for him, before forcing himself to look back at his son. I love the unfinished almost-but-not-quite element of Alan discovering that Donald had pushed for Brett Macklin to sponsor his surfing and seeking his father out, but collapsing before he could thank him. That they were so close to being on good terms is incredibly cruel, which makes it more poignant. Indeed, it’s Bobby who discloses this fact to him. It’s done in anger due to his resistance to what he perceives as her intrusion into his family’s private grief, but turns into a beautiful moment of detente. As with Barbara and Alan, Bobby is greater for her complex relationship with Donald, and this run of episodes has further enriched this. [RIGHT][I]continued...[/I][/RIGHT] [/QUOTE]
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“Welcome to Summer Bay”: Rewatching the early years.
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