I found it hard to watch this film without comparing it Paul Cox's "Man of Flowers" from the mid eighties which I loved. Both have the central theme of a wealthy but sexually dysfunctional man persuading a young woman (who has an artist as a partner) to pose naked for him to help him address sexual problems which stem from some sort of Oedipal relationship with his parents. Norman Kaye who played the central figure in Man of Flowers is here relegated to the role of butler. His presence in many of the Anna/Edward scenes only underscores the connection.
Where the two films differ markedly is that Man of Flowers was centred on Norman Kaye's story whereas Human Touch seems centred on Jacqueline McKenzie's. However, the encounters between Anna and Edward seem to me to be kept very much at arm's length. We mostly find out about them when she tells David about them, indeed David is the character that I felt I knew most about by the end of the film, and therein lies the problem for me. I didn't understand Anna's transformation because it was never really shared with us, and Edward seemed almost relegated to a minor character by the end of the film, so the final scene with the slideshow seemed unimportant and heavy-handed (like the cave sequence earlier).
I did like Ouspensky's installations, even though I couldn't really see the relevance of his character. Paul Grabowsky's music was beautiful and deserves a mention. But my overall feeling is that story seemed interesting, but it failed in the telling of it by not involving us enough. A missed opportunity.
Where the two films differ markedly is that Man of Flowers was centred on Norman Kaye's story whereas Human Touch seems centred on Jacqueline McKenzie's. However, the encounters between Anna and Edward seem to me to be kept very much at arm's length. We mostly find out about them when she tells David about them, indeed David is the character that I felt I knew most about by the end of the film, and therein lies the problem for me. I didn't understand Anna's transformation because it was never really shared with us, and Edward seemed almost relegated to a minor character by the end of the film, so the final scene with the slideshow seemed unimportant and heavy-handed (like the cave sequence earlier).
I did like Ouspensky's installations, even though I couldn't really see the relevance of his character. Paul Grabowsky's music was beautiful and deserves a mention. But my overall feeling is that story seemed interesting, but it failed in the telling of it by not involving us enough. A missed opportunity.