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Amazon.co.uk Review
Sirens is an affectionate, semi-fictional comedy of manners set in 1930s Australia. In an audacious stroke of casting Hugh Grant plays a stereotypically awkward and diffident Englishman, in this case a Church of England priest. The priest is despatched into the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in an effort to press the Good Word upon Norman Lindsay, an artist whose lurid works are scandalising the upright citizenry. Lindsay--capably played here by Sam Neill--really existed and though he fancied himself as a dashing Bohemian artist, his paintings were dreadful.
Sirens sees Grant's rigidly decent young priest and his equally prim wife (Tara Fitzgerald) gradually tempted further and further into the rustic bacchanalia that Lindsay has founded up in the bush. This sensual world is represented by Lindsay's young muses, played by supermodel Elle MacPherson, a pre-Ally McBeal Portia De Rossi and Kate Fischer. The three are more or less unclothed for most of the film, and spend what seems an unnecessary amount of time washing each other in rock-pools. This may or may not reflect awareness on the part of the producers that the film's predictable plot and overwrought dialogue weren't going to fill a lot of seats without some help.
On the DVD: Sirens is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, but there are no extra features.--Andrew Mueller
Product Description
A young Priest (Hugh Grant) and his wife Estella move to an Australian parish. Before they arrive the bishop asks them to visit an eccentric artist prone to sexual depictions and requests that he voluntarily withdraw a controversial work called 'Crucified Venus', which depicts a naked female from his show.
Upon their arrival at the studios the young couple become drawn into the seductive world of the Lindsay family and their provocative models.
The sensuous models Sheela (Elle Macpherson), Giddy (Portia De Rossi), and Pru (Kate Fischer) captivate the very proper Estella and lead her on a journey of sexual awakening amidst the erotically charged, guilt-free environment.The longer the couple stay, the more they find themselves drawn into the sensuous pleasures of the world and begin to question their own beliefs and values.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
SIRENS is a beguiling film that pokes fun at the sexual repression that may result from an overactive religious zeal. Hugh Grant, as the Anglican minister Anthony Champion newly arrived in early 20th century Australia, is asked by the bishop to pay a call on a local artist, Norman Lindsay, and to beseech him to withdraw from exhibition a painting considered scandalous. Horror of horrors, it includes scantily clad ladies. Starkers, actually.
Anthony and his young spouse Estella, played by Tara Fitzgerald, arrive at Lindsay's estate to find the artist, portrayed by Sam Neill, busily painting away. Norman's earthy wife and three resident female models serve as his inspiration, and clothing on the four is, more oft than not, unabashedly optional. This in-your-face display of live, nubile flesh leaves the Reverend rather tongue-tied and confused (as only Grant can play it). At first, wife Estella shares her husband's righteous indignation. Then, the lush, humid, tropical surroundings and free-spirited lifestyle of the Lindsay estate, along with the presence of a hunky handyman, begin to work their liberating magic on her repressed desires. (A very nice touch is the representation of Temptation as a large serpent that slithers through occasional scenes unnoticed by anyone but the viewer.)
It all sounds potentially raunchy, but never is. Rather than being a manipulative, licentious debauchee, Neill's on-screen persona is one of an amused, live and let live observer of human nature - a sort of detached Hugh Hefner. There's an abundance of casual nudity, but it's almost artistically presented. The sexual nature of a couple scenes is more sensuous than bawdy. And, one of this film's undeniable attractions is real-life model Elle MacPherson, who plays the role of one of the uninhibited SIRENS, and who shows an eyeful. Boy, does she ever. It's an amusing and well-done adult, fairy tale.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is one of those films that was made enjoyable by the quality of the acting.The story is basically about a reserved english vicar and his wife who are made more sexually adventurous by some models who work for an artist in the Australian countryside.A film with a lot of nudity in it but the naked bodies are always used to tell the story rather than make it appear shocking or daring.If you've seen Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a funeral - the production he is most famous for - you'll see in this movie that he really is a rather good actor and can do the serious stuff too.And watch out for a fine acting performance from Elle Macpherson who shows she is more than just the most attractive tall woman in the world!
31 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
I have always had trouble with the fact that all the posters, adverts, and box-notes for this film make it out to be some kind of romantic comedy for Hugh Grant and Elle MacPherson. Such a position is not only misleading, it's flat-out untrue.
Sirens is about the debate of human sexuality, and the two extreme opinions: Grant's Catholic priest and the tight-laced conservatives who denounce sexuality as sinful and guilty, and Neill's bohemian artist, his family, and his live-in models, who celebrate it as healthy and wholesome. It's obvious from the start which side writer/director John Duigan supports, but he gives both sides their due. The principals and the minor characters are all entertaining and well-acted, even if only Tara Fitzgarald's Estella and Portia DiRossi's Giddy get any real development through the story.
Credit is also due to the production side, especially to cinematographer Geoff Burton, who provides lush and beautiful visuals throughout, and composer Rachel Portman, who skillfully interweaves the mystical and the mirthful.
If you're looking for a romantic comedy or a chance to see Elle MacPherson prance around in the alltogether, leave this alone. But if you're interested in a sumptuous, non-exploitive, and thought-provoking discourse on our sexuality and how it makes us human, Sirens is a movie to treasure.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Poor Performance by Hugh Grant
Apart from Tara Fitzgerald who gives a bravura performance as Estella, the clergyman's wife, the acting in this film is not good. Read more
Published 2 months ago by H. A. Weedon
A multi-layered story
This film can be watched as a mildly titlating story, and as such it is blandly adequate. However it is in fact a much more subtle exporation of human mores than might at first be... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Michael Ashton
Overlooked Gem.
The DVD quality is average and by no means poor but this film will be transformed one day if it gets a Blu-ray makeover. The Audio is superb. Read more
Published 8 months ago by JrF
Norman's Wisdom
This is an affectionate, thoughtfully-made and delicious piece - the lighting, the script, the clothed and unclothed scenes and tableaux. Read more
Published 13 months ago by chrishux
Amusing and whimsical
An amusingly delightful fun film of whimsical fictional fantasy served on a platter of historical fact. It is set in rural Australia's beautiful Blue Mountains in 1930. Read more
Published 13 months ago by R. C. Harris
Found via Amazon
I like this 1990s film. Hugh Grant as a vicar & some might like the actresses?
The "retro" view of rural "near Sydney" also appeals to me.
The "retro" view of rural "near Sydney" also appeals to me.
Published 15 months ago by D. Mosley
An Under the Radar Movie
Sirens is a movie that we picked up on some years after it was released. It is an odd film, slightly "arty" in some ways; in others, broad in its appeal. Read more
Published 23 months ago by golferjohn
A entertaining wander through early Australian ethics
As a film about a deliberately controversial artist it was amusing. A generally good story enhanced greatly by some very erotic scenes with Elle MacPherson and the blond out of... Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2001
'Sirens' is not the world's greatest film
Even if you're tempted to watch this video for a chance to see Elle MacPherson in very few clothes, don't bother! Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2000
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