Miro Bilbrough

Being Venice

‘The opening scene of Bilbrough’s Being Venice is one of Australian cinema’s most intimate immersions...'
- Luke Carman, 'Transcendental Waters: George Miller and the Ciné-poetics of Miro Bilbrough', Southerly Journal

'Venice is played with considerable intensity and adult sexuality by McConnell, and veteran Australian comic actor Gary McDonald gives a fully rounded portrait of cautious, disapproving Arthur—constantly jet-lagged, teeth in a glass overnight and writing protest letters to Vladimir Putin and various dictators. Most striking is Bilbrough’s artistic design...Greatly assisted by cinematographer Bonnie Elliot and production designer Alex Holmes, she goes for painterly compositions and carefully selected locations, with an onscreen bow to the works of American artist Edward Hopper.’
- Frank Hatherly, Screen Daily, 20 June 2012

‘This is a gentle, thoughtful film, with more questions than it has answers, happy to revel in its doubts. Being Venice is also stunningly well performed, deceptively well written, and shot through with a heat-hazed love for its setting that borders on the rhapsodical.’
- Graeme Tuckett, 19 October 2013**** (4 stars).

‘Beautifully shot in locations carefully chosen as an homage to the painter Edward Hopper, the charming aesthetic of Bilbrough’s feature film debut makes for memorable viewing…Being Venice presents a compelling portrait of romance, family tensions and bohemian living, beautifully packaged by director Miro Bilbrough, designer Alexander Holmes and cinematographer Bonnie Elliott.’
- Luke Illot, FilmDoo

Review,  Nicholas Didier , Télérama.fr, 14 February 2015

'Venice Film All About Being There', feature article by Tom Cardy, The Dominion Post, 17 October 2013 

FLOODHOUSE

‘Floodhouse is like a concentrated dose of Jane Campion and Wes Anderson combined'
- Peter Keough, 'A Certain Tendency in 53rd Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival', Fipresci, 2004

‘Floodhouse charts the sensual awakening of a teenage girl in the most fecund of physical and emotional environments. Beautifully photographed, acutely observed and marked by a dazzling lead performance by Victoria Thaine…Bilbrough's intimate script and precise visual approach reach deeply into characters portrayed by an excellent cast.'
- Richard Kuippers, Variety, October 29, 2003

‘A richly detailed character study of 15-year-old Mara…Thaine gives a remarkable performance as the teenager whose sensual awakening in the isolated environment is beautifully filmed and delicately told by writer-director Miro Bilbrough.’
- David Stratton, TV Week, 2003

‘Potent and surprising in its re-visioning of the Australian cinematic texture…Bilbrough’s Floodhouse is the classic achievement of popular art: an intensity of effects balanced upon a simple frame…Like Bilbrough’s other films, Floodhouse is a startling example of an alternative cinematic poetics; a poetics concerned with the lyrical, literate and intimate.’
- Luke Carman, 'Transcendental Waters: George Miller and the Ciné-poetics of Miro Bilbrough', Southerly Journal

‘Floodhouse…is awe-inspiring for its frank honesty… one of those films you want to see again.’
- Ron Holloway, 53rd Mannheim-Heidelberg IFF, German Film, 2004.

‘Floodhouse is great film-making because it feels like its been worn by its author; lived and shared as intimate stories on a mattress in the middle of the night, recreated as a work of short fiction—allowing the imagination to arbitrate fact—and then, only then, adapted to the screen with a deep love by all those involved for the material.’
- Michael Kitson, ‘Fifty Minutes From Home: An Australian Film Festival’, Metro, issue 139, 2004

BARTLEBY

‘Bilbrough’s interpretation of the Melville story is a wry and brilliantly acted study of conformity and compassion.’
- Mimi Brody, San Francisco International Film Festival 2001.

URN

‘Urn, hauntingly beautiful, concerns the sorrows of loss and the consolations of remembrance…Skilfully lit, cleanly and economically composed of a few striking images (a flight of bats, a decapitated head on a plate), URN is a visual haiku.’
- Elliot Stern, Village Voice, June 18, 1996.