Stephan Elliott is at his best when the extravagant clothes and rude jokes leave room for tired people doing a job. We rate the warmth of Priscilla more highly than his determination to keep every exchange funny.
Fi1m perspective
An opera performance on a bus roof gives a fair idea of what Stephan Elliott can do. In The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), cinematographer Brian J. Breheny gives that ridiculous staging the serious attention it needs. We laughed with pleasure at a show mounted where nobody sensible would put one. The film earns our affection between the numbers, too, as Elliott finds the routine irritations of a working life beneath the extravagant clothes. His drag performers can be funny simply because they are tired of having to entertain.
His feature debut, Frauds (1993), preceded the breakthrough of Priscilla by a year. Welcome to Woop Woop (1997) drew criticism for crudeness and uneven tone, familiar risks for a director so fond of excess. The Hollywood thriller Eye of the Beholder (1999) took him away from that comic territory. Easy Virtue (2008) turned to Noël Coward, while Swinging Safari (2018) found its comedy in 1970s Australia. Those changes of material matter, though Priscilla remains our reason to recommend him.
What makes Priscilla worth returning to is how often Elliott allows the actors to do less. Terence Stamp plays Bernadette, a middle-aged trans woman and drag performer, with the impatience of someone for whom putting on a show has become work. His restraint gives the serious passages weight without turning Bernadette into a lecturer. Hugo Weaving’s Tick keeps the feeling credible, while Guy Pearce’s Adam puts an eager, needling energy into the bickering. We believe they have said these things to one another before.
Elliott’s weakness is his reluctance to let a joke pass without making sure it registers. Even in Priscilla, some lines strain, and the sentiment can become too insistent. Yet the quieter moments suggest a director who understands the fatigue of being entertaining, and who can make us care about people once the number is over. That is the side of his work we would like him to trust more. Start with Priscilla, and give Stamp’s pauses as much attention as the clothes.
Biography
Stephan Elliott is an Australian film director and screenwriter. Born on 27 August 1964 in Sydney, New South Wales, he began his career as an assistant director in the Australian film industry in the 1980s.
His first feature, the black comedy Frauds (1993), screened at Cannes. He wrote and directed The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), which also screened at Cannes and brought him international recognition. Subsequent films include Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), Eye of the Beholder (1999), Easy Virtue (2008) and A Few Best Men (2012). He has also written the stage adaptation of Priscilla.
