Starring: Michael Leunig
Distributor: Madman Films
Runtime: 100 mins. Reviewed in Feb 2020
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This documentary features well known Australian Icon, Michael Leunig, best known as a cartoonist for his insightful drawings, but also as a respected philosopher, and a whimsical poet.
Michael Leunig is a difficult person to interview. His cartoons, for example, project his genius, but he is reluctant to subject his talent to public scrutiny. He is immensely fearful that he might lose it.
This is an extraordinary documentary of a famous artist, whose cartoons are regularly published in The Age, and The Sydney Morning Herald and they have appeared in those publications for decades. His cartoon drawings of The Duck and Mr. Curly, offer philosophical reflections on life’s meaning, and have stimulated readers for years. His animal and human characters celebrate being alive, as well as the joys and sorrows of life (that Leunig tells us “are close together”). His cartoon characters and social commentary reflect “the momentum of weaponised whimsy”.
The film aims to take viewers in many directions. First, it provides penetrating access into Leunig’s childhood memories that incorporate fleeting memories of past events that are clearly very meaningful to him, such as a childhood friend crying in a school playground, or a playmate expressing sadness at losing his father. The film’s final focus takes us deep into Leunig as an ageing person. In the film, he visits one of his primary school teachers, Joan, who is facing death, and Leunig meditates and muses over what death might mean to both of them as they journey through the remainder of their lives.
The meaning of the word, “fragments” in the film’s title is important. We come to know the meaning of life to Leunig through tiny bits of information, rather than through elaborate story-telling. In the movie, morsels of information are gathered from sensual memories resurrected introspectively by Leunig over time.
In many ways, the film raises more issues than it answers, and we are never sure about the impact of Leunig’s “morsels of information” on Leunig himself, or on us, except to know they intimately reflect his artistry. Just as Leunig is an artist whom the viewer never completely understands, we know that the experiences that Leunig writes about, and draws about, are highly personal and meaningful to him, but we relish the fact that his work is tapping personal experiences of our own in ways that also express the essence of his creativity.
Kasimir Burgess, as Director, is entirely respectful of the man the movie honours. Her style of direction preserves the privacy of the man she is filming. It is hard to know whether Leunig has pushed Burgess to that outcome, or has gently steered her to it, but we are never in doubt that Leunig would want it just that way.
Along the way, Burgess uses interesting directorial devices. She uses child actors, for example, who are then described by Leunig himself, as if the child inhabits Leunig’s past. An effective musical soundtrack reflects what is happening on the cinema screen
This is a film that communicates the desire of Leunig not to be completely “found”, but his artistry is abundantly evident as he puts pen to paper, draws, and reflectively introspects. The viewer comes to appreciate the power of Leunig’s work to communicate how human imagination can soar, and facilitate social criticism and personal comfort through the arousal of human empathy.
We never get to understand fully the man behind the name of Leunig, but the creativity of Leunig’s work makes that question fascinating to explore. What makes this documentary significant is not just the artistry of Michael Leunig that it reveals, but the subtle and intelligent way Burgess has incorporated Leunig’s cartoons and poetry into the story of his life.
Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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