louise homfray in alvin purple

I forced Laura to watch Alvin Purple last night, because I believe it to be an unpleasant but necessary component of being an Australian. What a surprise to see Louise Homfray in it, though in fact it is filled to the brim with people who have Crawfords heritage (some of whom, like Jacki Weaver, went on to arguably bigger things, and others of whom essentially didn't: not sure where Elli Maclure fits in to those reductive categories). Louise Homfray is uncredited, though she does have one line, which at least is not about how she runs a boarding house or how the neighbours can't keep it down after 10 o'clock, though clearly this character could have said either of those things. 

Alvin Purple hasn't aged well, but with AP the question of whether it could have aged well or badly was never really the point. It's oddly sophisticated in places you weren't expecting, and ridiculously pat everywhere else. Alvin himself is a slightly more nuanced character than you might remember but that could just be lazy writing/conceptualisation, rather than anything else. There are some special features on the DVD, a documentary (of sorts) by Brian Trenchard-Smith apparently from the time (at least, it has worn-out-video lines through it) including, strangely, some deleted scenes. Also, some interviews from ten years ago or was it longer, when the DVD was released. It is here I think where Tim Burstall passively aggressively complains about Penne Hackforth-Jones refusing to do nude scenes and dismisses her character as a girl who did a psychiatry course at university. Yes, but, that's how anyone gets to be a psychiatrist. I'm not sure what other qualifications he thinks are needed, though clearly he was hoping willingness to be nude is one of them.