Film

Sirens

Name: Sirens
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Released: 1994
Cast: Hugh Grant, Tara Fitzgerald, Sam Neill, Elle Macpherson, Portia De Rossi

Other titles called Sirens: the 2011 series (Channel 4).

Period drama

A 1934 Australian comedy about a prudish Anglican clergyman sent to censure an artist's nudes, who finds his repressed wife gravitating toward the painter's freewheeling models. It's light and occasionally silly, underpinned by genuine warmth and curiosity about desire, restraint, and how people surprise themselves. Charming rather than sharp, it rewards watching for the performances and the period detail.

TMDb rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy bawdy, sun-warmed comedy about repression and desire, where the jokes about art and faith land with a light, knowing touch.

Skip it if you want a brisk plot or a sharp satire; this is more languid and sensual than pointed, and its wit leans on mood and performance rather than momentum.

What it asks of you: Ninety-eight minutes of unhurried talk and lingering looks, where the comedy seeps in gradually rather than arriving in punchlines.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Withnail & I1987

Two unemployed actors drift through London in shabby gentility, getting steadily more absurd. Like Sirens, it's about people at odds with the world around them, held together by affection and the comedy of constraint meeting chaos.

But It's very British, very quotable-cult, and moves at a meandering pace that can feel like watching paint dry if you're not in the mood.

A Room with a View1986

E.M. Forster's Edwardian romance about a young woman learning to live authentically against social expectation. Same DNA: repression versus desire, the pull of beauty and freedom, period detail you can feel on your skin.

But It's genuinely romantic and earnest in a way that can feel safe and old-fashioned if you came for comedy rather than yearning.

Mona Lisa Smile2003

Julia Roberts as an art teacher in the 1950s encouraging young women to think beyond their prescribed roles. It shares Sirens' warmth about female connection and the liberating power of seeing art and desire differently.

But It's a feel-good drama that sometimes mistakes sincerity for depth, and the messaging can be a bit on-the-nose.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Sirens

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Prophet2009

Both films understand that proximity to a charismatic outsider (the painter, the Corsican mentor) forces orderly people to see themselves differently. The stakes are just inverted.

A brutal French prison drama about a young man transforming himself through will and performance. It shares Sirens' core idea: people are not fixed, they reshape themselves when placed in new company, and desire (for power, connection, freedom) rewrites you.

But It's violent, claustrophobic, and morally bleak—the opposite of Sirens' lightness, but operating from the same engine.

The Dreamers2003

Bernardo Bertolucci's film about young cinephiles in 1960s Paris. Unrepentant about beauty and sensuality, it has the same curiosity about how bodies and ideas entangle that makes Sirens tick.

But It's sexually frank and can feel pretentious. Some will find it self-indulgent rather than moving.

Midnight in Paris2011

A romantic fantasy about yearning for the past and the allure of artistic freedom. It captures that same wistful quality about a different era and people unburdened by convention.

But It's Woody Allen operating in his safest, most tourist-friendly mode, and can feel slight if you want something with more edge.

The Talented Mr. Ripley1999

Set in 1950s Italy with gorgeous cinematography and a cast drawn to beauty and transgression. It shares the visual richness and the moral complexity about desire and social performance.

But It's a thriller about a sociopath. Sirens is much gentler, and Ripley's darkness might feel like a different film entirely.

Amélie2001

Whimsical Paris where people bloom when someone cares enough to see them. It has the same playful warmth and delight in human connection beneath the surface fussiness.

But It's aggressively cute and can feel saccharine if you're allergic to magical-realism whimsy.

Far from the Madding Crowd2015

A woman choosing her own path in a conservative pastoral world, surrounded by men with different ideas of who she should be. Period-piece feminism with genuine sensuality and landscape beauty.

But It's slower and more melancholic than Sirens, and some will find the pacing frustrating.

Pandora's Box1929

Both films use a woman's desirability as a prism to show how men and society respond. Sirens is comedy; Pabst shows what happens if you pull back the laugh.

G.W. Pabst's silent masterpiece about a woman's sexual magnetism destroying lives around her. The same era's frank reckoning with desire and its social cost, shot with a visual poetry that makes you feel the weight of it.

But It's a tragedy about exploitation and moral ruin. Watching it feels like bearing witness rather than entertainment, and the ending is genuinely bleak.