Sirens (1994)

Elle Macpherson: Sheela

Photos 

Quotes 

• Giddy : Did you know it's dangerous to wake somebody up if they're dreaming because, well, you leave part of your brain behind. And if it happens too many times, you go feeble in the head.

  Sheela : Yeah. You're living proof.

• Sheela : [Anthony has just gone to the outhouse]  I should have warned him about the redbacks.

  Estella Campion : What are they?

  Sheela : Small spiders with big teeth. They live under toilet seats usually.

  Estella Campion : How do you know if they're there?

  Sheela : By the screams.

• Sheela : My dad was a sailor.

  Estella Campion : What does he do now?

  Sheela : He's dead.

  Estella Campion : Oh. I'm sorry.

  Sheela : A shark took him. They found an arm, with his watch. That's what they buried, the arm. Still used a normal-sized coffin though, just for appearances.

  Estella Campion : [has already heard that Giddy's father was killed by a shark]  I hadn't realised sharks were so...

  Sheela : Successful?

• Anthony Campion : [needs to go to the toilet]  Um... whereabouts is the, uh...

  [he cocks his head and makes a clicking noise] 

  Sheela : [to Giddy]  Take him out to the thunder box.

• Sheela : You'll have trouble sleeping. She sleeps next door and she snores terribly.

  Giddy : I do not.

  Sheela : She sounds like two possums mating.

• Sheela : [about Anthony, who has just gone to the toilet]  Does he always take the Bible with him when he goes to the dunny?

  Estella Campion : It wasn't the Bible. He just doesn't like wasting time, that's all.

  Sheela : Well, from the size of it, he could be there all night.

• Sheela : Do you like your husband?

  Estella Campion : Do people usually marry people they don't like?

  Sheela : Quite often, I'd say.

• Sheela : [as Estella tries to wake up Anthony, who is sleeping very heavily]  What'd you do to him? He's exhausted!

• Sheela : Watch this. Watch Giddy's skin.

  Giddy : Don't you dare. Don't, Sheela.

  Sheela : One day we're gonna tickle you. I'm gonna keep tickling you all over.

  Giddy : Stop it.

  Sheela : Look at her arms and legs. Look at the goose pimples.

  Giddy : Sheela, will you be quiet?

  Sheela : Do you know who else will be doing it?

  Giddy : Shut up.

  Sheela : He'll be tickling you, too.

  Giddy : He will not.

  Sheela : He'll tickle you... there.

  [she pokes Giddy] 

  Giddy : Shhh!

  Sheela : If you tickled her long enough, she'd burst, her insides would go everywhere.

  Pru : Sea slugs do that. When they get attacked, they spit their insides out. You can eat them and go all night. There are islands where the women gang up and ambush their favourite men and feed them the longest sea slugs they can find. And the men get so incredibly hard, you can hang heavy clothes and jewels and necklaces from their erections.

  Giddy : But doesn't it hurt?

  Pru : Excruciatingly.

  Sheela : I reckon Giddy's guts would be good for that.

  Giddy : They would not! My giblets are pure and innocent, like my mind.

• Norman Lindsay : The fact is, the gloomy God of the Old Testament still has us by the scruff of the neck today. When He was invented, there was a lot of pagan religions around that celebrated sexuality and fertility and so on. So how was this new religion to compete with something that was so popular? Well, by saying that sex was evil and that women, the embodiment of sexuality, were in fact responsible for the downfall of mankind in the Garden of Eden!

  Rose Lindsay : Yes, and we've been second-class citizens ever since.

  Anthony Campion : Mrs. Pankhurst would be proud of you, Rose.

  Rose Lindsay : [thumps the table]  Why can't we be vicars or priests?

  Sheela : Or popes?

  Rose Lindsay : Because we're too deafened by the din of our bodies to hear God's Word.