Story of beauty, charm and tragedy

Press, 8 November 1984, Page 19

Story of beauty, charm and tragedy

Tony Isaac first began thinking about making a film about the New Zealand writer, Iris Wilkinson, 10 years ago when he read her book, “Passport to Hell.” At first it was just the tiniest germ of an idea, but it later became “quite an obsessive thing” to him. “Passport to Hell” was the first Wilkinson work Isaac had read. He thought it was excellent and its introduction gave him a feeling for Wilkinson as a person. “I read more of her novels, then started on her poetry. It was all so' good and there was something about it that made you ask, ‘Who was the person who wrote this stuff?’,” he said. “Something about her personality came through. It was this feeling for her character that made me decide to make a film about her. “She was fascinating in terms of the incidents in her life as well, but we didn’t

know that till we had started researching the film.”

The result of Isaac’s 10-year-old idea is the New Zealand movie for television, “Iris,” screening on Two at 8.25 p.m. on Saturday.

The film stars the Australian actress, Helen Morse (“A Town Like Alice,” “Far East,” “Caddie”), as Wilkinson. It was directed by Isaac and produced by him, along with John Barnett. The screenplay is by Keith Aberdein, based on the life and works of Iris Wilkinson.

The film operates on two levels — one the life of Wilkinson, the other a group of film-makers working on a film of her life. In recreating a complex character, the director, writer and actress become totally seduced by the beauty, charm, magic and tragedy of Iris Wilkinson,

By the time she was 30, Wilkinson — pen name

Robin Hyde — had a life strewn with impressive achievements — successful journalist, published novelist, poet, biographer. But a darker side had emerged — an illegitimate stillborn child, disastrous love affairs, a mental breakdown, an attempted suicide.

In 1939, aged 33, in a despair fuelled by benzedrine and barbiturates, she took her own life.

New Zealand actors appearing in “Iris” include John Bach, Philip Holder, David Aston, Donagh Rees, Gay Dean, Katy Platt and Liz Mcßae.

Wilkinson’s son, Derek Challis, aged 54, an Auckland marine biologist, appears in one of the presentday scenes as himself. Tony Isaac said Challis had been very friendly and helpful. “He understood what we were trying to do — make a drama conveying the spirit of Iris Wilkinson, not a strictly factual documentary of her life,” he said.