Love and Other Catastrophes

Emma-Kate Croghan’s feature debut Love and Other Catastrophes (1996) should be compulsory viewing for all university undergraduates. It is the story of a group of students navigating their way through sex, relationships, an education and everything in between. Alice (Alice Garner) is struggling to finish her drawn-out thesis. Her housemate Mia (France O’Connor) can’t commit to her cinema studies major or her girlfriend, Danni (Radha Mitchell). Meanwhile, whilst Ari (Matthew Dyktynski) philosophises between sexual conquests, Michael (Matt Day) just wants to keep things simple.

In my opinion, Matt Day is the standout performer in L&OC. He plays the ‘loveable dork’ well; gawky with just the right amount of earnest. Alice Garner’s portrayal seems very natural, but her whining can grate after a while (though her character’s criterion for choosing boyfriends matches my own, so I suppose I can’t critique her too much).

As a recent graduate herself at the time of production, Croghan succulently captures the niceties of being an Arts student. The influence of Hollywood’s screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s makes Love and Other Catastrophes enjoyably quirky (without the appearance of trying too hard).

The story of Love and Other Catastrophes as “an exercise in fast-paced, low-budget collective filmmaking” also makes it worthy of praise. Croghan and her producer self-funded the production of the film, raising the initial $25,000 to make L&OC through personal loans and credit cards. They got their friends (also recent film school graduates) to work for next to nothing and shot on a shoe-string budget. Pretty impressive seeing as the film went on to Cannes and international distribution rights were bought for around $800,000.

Who will like it? Prospective students, current students, ex students. Cinema studies majors in particular will appreciate Croghan’s spot-on faculty and course observations. L&OC should also please Melbournians, as they should recognise some familiar haunts.

What I think: As the first film I ever watched for my cinema studies course, Love and Other Catastrophes is something special (though the likeness between the film and my university life kinda scares me).

By Steph.