Hugo Weaving, Web Weaving, Russell Crowe, Proof Review
 
Hugo Weaving, Proof, main

n.  Hugo Weaving ~ Proof 

AU Movie 1991:     Hugo content: approx  84%   (86 mins )
Character: Martin ~ Emotionally damaged blind photographer
Cast: Hugo Weaving   Martin,  Geneviève Picot   Celia,  Russell Crowe   Andy,   Heather Mitchell   Martin's Mother 
Dir/Wri: Jocelyn Moorhouse 
Availablity: VHS available UK, US, Australia. Not yet released on DVD.

Hugo Weaving: Proof Plot/Comments:

Martin, bind since birth lives alone and emotionally/physically isolated. He has good cause to be mistrustful: his cleaner/self-appointed home help, Celia( Geneviève Picot),  is obsessed with him, turning to bitterness and revenge at his repeated rejections .  She exploits Martin's vulnerability by placing objects where he will walk into them or silently wait for him to return home, watching him undress until something gives her away: in many ways she practices a sort of psychological rape of his privacy. 
   This theme of invading privacy/sense of self ~ essentially the only thing that anyone really has ~ runs throughout Proof: knowing that Martin can't see them gives people the opportunity to stare in a way they would never do to a sighted person, or to ignore him (and his disability) with impunity.
Hugo Weaving, Proof, touch Celia
  Martin has learned through experience to distrust , especially those he might care about. 
   The root of his obsession and withdrawal from real human contact was his dying mother, who described an old man raking leaves outside of his window every day. As a child, he never believed her, knowing she was patronising him, keeping him inside to save herself the embarrassment of being seen with him; faking her own death and abandoning him so she didn't have to be with him. 
    As confirmation he has a photograph, the first he ever took, which he believes is proof that the garden was empty, that his mother was lying, that she hated him, that he can't trust anyone.

Proof Gallery
Proof Press Kit
Next:  The Taming of the Shrew
Back: Wendy Cracked a Walnut
Web Weaving

    By way of a cat he accidentally crushes, Martin meets Andy, an underachieving, amiable dishwasher (Russell Crowe). Finding his candour refreshing, Martin asks him to act as his describer and give him detailed mental images of the photographs of the things he 'sees' during the day, allowing him to accurately label and archive them. 
     Why? As proof that what he is photographing, what he experiences and thinks to be true, really is true.
    As Martin begins to open himself up and trust someone for the first time in his life, Celia becomes increasingly jealous and her tricks become increasingly vindictive: she calls away Martin's guide dog for long periods, making him wander around the park in vain looking for it; while he knows that she is responsible, he  is unable to see it, unable to prove it. After being crushingly rejected and humiliated a final time as she tries to seduce him, Celia looks to punish him by getting her hooks into Andy and breaking the trust between them.

Typical Hugo Weaving Quotes:

  • On his emotionally sado-masochistic relationship with Celia:"She wants me. If I can deny her what she wants, I can feel pity for her"
  • " They're just dead ocular tissue…you can look into them but they can't look back"
  • Doctor: "You've been blind all your life".                          Martin:" I know".              Doctor: "What were you doing driving a car?"                    Martin: "I forgot."


Comments & Queries:

  • AFI awards: Hugo Weaving (actor), Russell Crowe (supporting actor), Director & Script (Jocelyn Moorphouse), Editing (Ken Sallows). Nominated: Genevieve Picot (actress).
  • Weaving was occasionally spotted by bemused friends strolling the streets and eating in cafes while blindfolded.
  • Genevieve Picot also worked with Weaving  in  The Making of Nothing, The Seven Deadly Sins, & True Love and Chaos. Heather Mitchell, who played Martin's mother in the flashbacks, later performed opposite Hugo Weaving in 2003's   The Real Thing. See The Usual Suspects for a huge list of recurring Weaving co-workers.

Drawn to her, Andy talks to Celia in the park as she 'borrows' Martin's dog again. Seeing him pointing a camera in their direction and not wanting him to think that he is in on her game, Andy runs. But it is too late: he is caught in the photo. When Martin, triumphant at having proof of the disappearing dog, asks him to describe what is there, Andy tells his first lie: it's an empty park. 
     As he guiltily becomes increasingly attracted to Celia, his lies continue, and when Martin unknowingly walks in on them having sex in his own house, they try to take advantage of his blindness as a cover. It fails. Trust and friendship are irrevocably shattered .
Hugo Weaving, Proof, Russell Crowe, Park
Hugo Weaving, Proof, fired, Celia

Estranged from Andy, Martin fires Celia. At this point she becomes a much more sympathetic character, her vulnerability finally revealed. But Martin has been too disappointed in human nature to recognise her honesty. As Andy says later, his standards are just too high: "everybody lies…except you".  Taking Andy inside the house one last time, a brittle Martin explains the reasons for his lifetime of distrust. Andy is shown a photograph. He describes an old man raking leaves. Martin realises that his whole personality and judgement on life have actually been the result of childhood mistrust and a lie to himself. 
Martin finally has his proof.

Proof is an exceptionally well-made film. Jocelyn Moorhouse's direction and script (her first for a feature film) are remarkable. The cast are superb: Genevieve Picot is a fantastic combination of sultry bitterness and crushed desperation; Russell Crowe displays early charisma and sensitivity; and Hugo Weaving is absolutely astonishing as the stoically mistrustful, self-loathing, emotionally castrated loner with a childlike innocence and need for trust. 

This is simply a stunning film.

Hugo Weaving Content


Perhaps the most astounding thing about Hugo Weaving's performance is that many critics and audiences assumed he was actually a blind actor: his eyes focus on strange distances and fail to emotionally register anything; his normally expressive blue eyes seem to suck in all the light, leaving empty brownish points of unfocused distrust (as Martin says, blind eyes are "just dead ocular tissue…you can look into them but they can't look back").
   It's an astonishing performance, expertly combining Martin's privacy-saving public mask with real emotion and vulnerability. 
Hugo Weaving, Proof, Russell Crowe, Genevieve Picot

Key Points:
    Martin is emotionally damaged and will avoid having trust broken again at all costs. Except for a brief scene involving him 'driving' Andy's car, Weaving never smiles once in the entire film: his face is a carefully blanked mask, his emotions hidden further by his dark glasses, which only Andy sees him without. 
      The one exception to this is Celia's forced seduction, where she treats him to the Melbourne Orchestra: heart pounding, he takes off his glasses (his shield from public scrutiny ~ even as dead ocular tissue, it seems that the eyes are still the 'gateway to the soul') and allows himself to experience emotion in public. 
       Later, when Celia takes him to her house (a shrine of all the photos she unknowingly takes of him), she nearly succeeds in seducing him, although it's as much out of pity and hate on his part as it is love on hers. As she begins to take off his trousers, he panics ("I can't...not with anyone"): he will not let himself go; self control is the only control he has in his life.