THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Bill Hunter. Screenplay/Director: Stephan Elliott. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
You know the times are a-changing when drag queens are to be the subject of *two* movies in the space of one year. We're not talking about SOME LIKE IT HOT or TOOTSIE or MRS. DOUBTFIRE; we're talking about genuine, larger-than-life, cattier-than-Felix drag queens. You might not think it the most marketable of subjects, but production is underway on a studio project featuring Wesley Snipes, TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING, JULIE NEWMAR. And the thunder of that film is being stolen by the deliciously lightweight Australian import THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT. While it's gentle and respectful of its characters, it's also a big, goofy musical filled with belly laughs.
PRISCILLA opens in Sydney, where cabaret drag performer Tick (Hugo Weaving) receives a call from an old friend asking him to provide the entertainment at a resort hotel in the outback. Tick (who performs as "Mitzi") enlists the aid of two friends for the act: Adam (Guy Pearce), a high-spirited young queen stage named "Felicia;" and Bernadette (Terence Stamp), a transsexual veteran of Les Girls. Together, they set off across the outback in a bus dubbed Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. However, Priscilla proves to be something less than a royal coach, and its many breakdowns serve as preludes to a series of culture-clash encounters between the off-beat threesome and the considerably more conservative townspeople they meet along the way.
Perhaps the wisest decision made by writer-director Stephan Elliott was not to spend too much time contriving an excuse for Priscilla's passengers to go west. He is concerned primarily with getting them on their way and letting the characters carry the story, and at that he succeeds. The three principles are marvelous characters spectacularly performed. Hugo Weaving, who was so impressive in Jocelyn Moorehouse's 1992 feature PROOF, anchors the trio as the anxious Tick, who fears revealing to his cohorts that the "friend" he is helping out is actually his partner in a marriage of convenience...and the mother of his son. He is also frequently forced to act as referee in the squabbles between Adam and Bernadette. Guy Pearce plays Adam as completely carefree, a flamboyant youth who has had little experience with confronting ugly prejudice. Bernadette, on the other hand, is much more experienced, and grows impatient with Adam's giddy bitchiness. As Bernadette, Terence Stamp delivers a knock-out performance, summoning a uniquely genuine femininity to accompany a light-hearted world-weariness. This is no campy drag act he turns in, but a sensitive and funny study of a character who has had to deal with the singular challenge, as she describes it, of "being a man one day and a woman the next."
Stamp is also a treat in PRISCILLA's marvelously staged musical numbers. While Mitzi and Felicia perform with sass and energy, Bernadette goes through the motions professionally but looking exactly like she "did this *years* ago." Costume supervisor Emily Seresin deserves special kudos for the wild outfits which highlight the film; particularly noteworthy is an impromptu performance of "I Will Survive" for an audience of aboriginals (accompanied by digeridoo), and the big show at the resort featuring numerous gaudy costume changes.
There is one truly unfortunate element in PRISCILLA, and it really leaves a bad taste in the mouth. A rural gentleman named Bob (Bill Hunter) who befriends the "girls" has a Southeast Asian mail-order bride, and she is a horrendous shrieking stereotype. Her character, and accompanying performance launching ping-pong balls from a portion of her anatomy, are truly unworthy of this film. But if you're willing to grit your teeth through her appearance, PRISCILLA will prove to be a mostly delightful piece of entertainment, suprisingly wise and touching.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 queens of the desert: 7.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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