I've seen this film a couple of times (mainly because of Amanda Donohoe...ahem). I'm not sure what the film though means when it regularly shows the characters of Kingsland and Irving momentarily as having really old and cadaverous bodies. Is this how they percieved themselves after living it rough? That's my assumption, for what it's worth.
"We want the finest wines known to humanity", Withnail & I
Amanda certainly brightens up this film.
There are some prior instances, sometimes it seems with a body double, where Amanda frets over her shrinking breasts. The shot before the nuns appear where the couple lay side by side looking emaciated is meant to illustrate how their island adventure comes perilously close to ending in starvation.
The truth is rarely pure and never simple. O Wilde.
I see the superimposed shots of malnourished skin depicting their actual state of health, they perceive themselves as the viewer does - healthy and able to cope without help from the outside.
This is probably a little far out but I like the way this film invites interpretation.
I think you are correct. That is the most logical way to interpret what you see. It is really quite interesting how strong a role one's emotions can plan in perceiving one's own appearance, or a significant other's.
shareYup!
Obviously the actors couldn't be made to lose that much weight (although these days it has been done to a point - Tom Hanks has had to lose weight for the other Castaway movie plus Philadelphia and Renee Z had to put on weight to portray Bridget Jones and also Charlize Theron gained weight for her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos in "Monster").
But you can't expect an actor to risk his/her health by becoming dangerously malnourished, hence the need to show the close-ups of genuinely sick people. At least I presume the extras were sick. The man who stood in for Olly Reed was also shaking uncontrollably.
That said, the character Lucy did appear to be semi-aware of her weight loss. I seem to recall a scene where she was noticing how her breasts had virtually vanished - around the same time as her hair began to fall out in clumps due to vitamin deficiencies.
We know they are supposed to be very underweight because the director ensures that when the Australian guys arrive with the Census forms, the camera hones in on Lucy and Gerald from the men's perspective. They are seen to look shocked as they look at Lucy's stomach.
I often drink to make people seem more interesting
It was a bad special effect to make them skinny
shareyes, it was quite a bad scene given that Reed was quite paunchy in reality. But in order to stay true to the story they had to have the characters walking around scantily clad as that is how it was. It was just included to show the audience how drastic the reality actually was
"Has anyone seen my wife?" - Columbo
Nope, this was the direct result of lack of proper nutrition since during the drought, Gerald's so-called "vegetable garden" withered and died.
Both of them really didn't think this through thoroughly. Also Gerald forgot to pack the iodine and they were getting nasty sores.
They perceived themselves as a lot less emaciated than they became for they had nobody to compare themselves with. This was to show the viewers the reality of how malnourished they became.
I often drink to make people seem more interesting