Sirens (1994)
Tara Fitzgerald: Estella Campion
Photos
Quotes
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Sheela : Do you like your husband?
Estella Campion : Do people usually marry people they don't like?
Sheela : Quite often, I'd say.
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Pru : Imaginations are a luxury.
Anthony Campion : Beg your pardon?
Pru : Most people can't afford them.
Anthony Campion : Well, I don't think imagination is dependent on economics, is it?
Pru : What if you're working in a factory doing exactly the same thing day after day?
Estella Campion : I think an active imagination is what allows people to do that kind of work.
Pru : Oh, well, you'd know, of course.
Estella Campion : I just think that's what you'd have to do. You'd have to be imagining other things.
Pru : Please don't start telling us what the working class does and doesn't think, thank you very much.
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Norman Lindsay : I freely admit that the human universe is infinitely richer than my meagre palette. For instance, I do absolutely no justice at all to the nervous nellies and the shrinking violets, the saints...
Estella Campion : You're very contemptuous of shrinking violets, aren't you, Mr. Lindsay?
Norman Lindsay : Dear Estella, I'm a shrinking violet myself. I mean, I choose to live not in the real world but in here.
[he points to his head]
Norman Lindsay : I flee from the real world into my little studio and there before me is the unlimited canvas of my imagination.
Anthony Campion : Yes, but your paintings don't stay in the studio, do they? They do go out into the real world. And while you have a wonderful imagination, Lindsay, most people's are, quite frankly, stunted and you absolutely have no idea what effect they might have on people or what they might incite them to. Rape?
Norman Lindsay : Mr. Campion, in my opinion, the female body is the most beautiful thing in the world. And if it turns you into a ravenous maniac, then I would suggest that it may be a very good idea if your wife takes the greatest care to get undressed behind a screen.
Rose Lindsay : Well, Estella's seen the pictures, too. Does that mean we're in danger from her?
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Estella Campion : Sometimes you have too high of an opinion of me.
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Estella Campion : They're trying to shock us, aren't they?
Anthony Campion : Oh yes, well, church-baiting's always been a popular pastime. I used to get an awful lot of it at university. Atheists, for some reason, always think it's funny to roast the dusty old Christian. The great thing, of course, is not to be too dusty. You should have seen Lindsay's face when I started quoting Joyce at him.
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Anthony Campion : I think some things are best left unsaid.
Estella Campion : But that means we'll always be strangers.
Anthony Campion : No, not really. Only small parts of us.
Estella Campion : The bad parts?
Anthony Campion : No, I think it's good to have a few secrets.
Estella Campion : Do you?
Anthony Campion : Mm. That way, in 50 years time, we'll still be able to surprise each other.
