dmmartindale (03/10/83)
Speaking of films from "down under", I saw "Smash Palace" last night. Well done, and very intense in places. Review: (I didn't write it, but I basically agree.) A fluent, gripping account of marital break-up by a young New Zealand director with an extremely bright future. The story picks up eight years into the marriage of a New Zealand scrap dealer and his French wife, who is becoming disenchanted with her dreary life in the country. The film evokes a sense of claustrophobia that reveals an acute understanding of the way things feel when they begin to go wrong. Highly recommended. dir. by Roger Donaldson. New Zealand 1981. 100 mins.