The Plumber (1979 film)
| The Plumber | |
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The Plumber DVD cover
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| Directed by | Peter Weir |
| Produced by | Matt Carroll |
| Written by | Peter Weir |
| Starring |
Judy Morris Ivar Kants |
| Music by |
Rory O'Donoghue Gerry Tolland |
| Cinematography | David Sanderson |
| Edited by | Gerald Turney-Smith |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | CEL (video) (1986) |
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Release date
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Australia: 8 June 1979 United States: (limited) March 1980 (wide) November 1981 |
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Running time
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76 min |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | A$150,000 |
The Plumber is a 1979 Australian psychological thriller film. Written and directed by Peter Weir, The Plumber was originally made and broadcast as a television film in Australia in 1979 but was subsequently released to theaters in several countries beginning with the United States in 1981. The film was made shortly after Weir's critically acclaimed Picnic at Hanging Rock became one of the first Australian films to appeal to an international audience. The film stars Judy Morris, Ivar Kants, and Robert Coleby, all of them being most notable as actors in Australian soap operas.
The film opens as Dr. Brian Cowper (Robert Coleby) takes a shower in the apartment he shares with his wife Jill (Judy Morris), who is a masters student in anthropology. As he exits the building's elevator on his way to work, an ominous character is seen entering and randomly choosing the button for the ninth floor. He knocks on the Cowpers' door and announces himself as Max (Ivar Kants), the building's plumber. Jill insists that they did not call for a plumber, and Max assures her that he is simply doing a mandatory check of the building's pipes.
Max maintains an affable, loquacious facade. Once inside the bathroom, he starts to chip away at the tile under the sink. When Jill rushes to the bathroom to see what he is doing, Max impishly encourages her to leave him to his work. He closes the door and then takes a very loud shower. Meanwhile, Brian has been informed that a team from the World Health Organization is coming to interview him about his work. He calls Jill to share the news, and in his glee, he dismisses her concerns about Max.
Max tells Jill that the apartment's pipes are a mess and that he will come back tomorrow to replace them. After he leaves, Jill goes to the bathroom to look at the mess that Max made, and he suddenly appears behind her. He claims that the door was unlocked and that he was just bringing in her groceries, since he had noticed they were in a heavy box. This basic pattern of Max's odd, slightly ominous behavior recurs and expands throughout the film. He keeps finding excuses to visit the apartment, and his work in the bathroom only makes a bigger mess each time. Because Brian never sees Max, he dismisses Jill's concerns out of hand. In one shot, Max patiently waits in his car for Brian to leave before heading up to the apartment.
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Wikipedia