Cate Blanchett, human redback

South Australia has some lovely things going for it — Flinders Ranges, the Barossa, the road back to Melbourne — but is nevertheless often maligned by low sorts who think it funny to make jokes about blackouts, shuttered factories and, inevitably, bodies in barrels. It is most unfair, as some of the state’s residents still have jobs and are statistically unlikely to be murdered, although this might change as blackouts become more frequent. Yet the slurs persist, which is why profile-lifting exercises such as the Adelaide Festival are so very important: taxpayers in other states get to see that all the support they must lavish on their mendicant neighbours actually produces something tangible, something that can be sold, visited, seen — allowing that the lights stay on, that is.

Given its importance in banishing South Australia’s reputation for homicidal oddities, one can only wonder at the Festival directors’ decision to make a big deal about a new, very short film featuring Cate Blanchett and produced by lower-cased two-time Archibald winner del kathryn barton. The Conversation just loves this “slick and strident feminist work”:

“Although it was not made with deliberate political intent, it has the potential to resonate loud and unapologetic, like a lightening rod for our times.”

So what is it that Adelaide’s arts wallahs recognised as “a lightning rod for our times” and “an uncompromising celebration of female power”? Why, the love life of the redback spider! An unfortuunate choice, one would think, to promote a state infamous for bizarre butchery. We learn that barton

“draws on the natural sciences to advance her exploration of the complex psychology of relationships. With RED, she examines mating rituals and the imperative to reproduce as evidenced in redback spiders.”

The trailer suggests Ms Blanchett attempts to validate this metaphor by spending much of the film writhing in garments made of onion bags, sometimes crossdressing, sporting a hot pink bondage mask and hacking at her more conventional wardrobe with a large pair of scissors. Those who wonder what insights humans might gain about our species’ behaviour by observing the fabulously wealthy actress consume her paramour during the act of procreation can read the rest of The Conversation’s gushing review. There is a chance, a small one, enlightenment will have descended by the final paragraph:

“Female creative power is an undeniable and vital force of nature. As such it is usually misunderstood, traditionally feared and difficult to restrain. Like barton’s RED, however, it demands respect and deserves to be celebrated.”

If critic Heather L. Robinson‘s prose sometimes seems as if it, too, has been convulsed by a toxic nip, there is at least one sentence that is quite explicit:

“RED was developed with additional support from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and the Art Gallery of South Australia.”

Sadly, Ms Robinson assembles no words to explain why one of Australia’s most successful and exhibited artists needs taxpayer support to draw parallels between humans and amorous eight-legged cannibals.

Could it be, do you think, that only an arts bureaucrat might appreciate ms barton’s point?

The trailer can be viewed in full via the link below. Enjoy! You probably helped pay for it.

UPDATE: Adelaide Council further advances the cause of art in South Australia. If weekend zombies received no grants, would they still rise from the grave? Click the image below to see what $8000 buys.