Cinema Papers No.123 March 1998

APPROVED PP34272/000Q7

ARMSTRON

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repeatable, sca la b le cam era m oves in stop-m otion or re a l tim e for se a m le ss, precision com posites

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braveheart saving private ryan george michael. jesĂşs to a child

dr doolittle

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CINEMA PAPERS • MARCH 1998 I N S I G H T S mbits

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inperformance

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NUMBER

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123

F O C U S

The Director’s Edge.

DEAN CAREY

festivals

m r*

10

■"3B 'Irl|

Hiit Nederlands Film Festival.

BRUCE MOLLOY

screen culture

12

AS CIA and the history so far.

RUTH JONES

inperspective

14

Danes Down Under.

SOLRUN HOAAS

inconference

16

5th International Documentary Conference.

YEAR OF THE DAY 1997 was a busy year for actor M att Day, and his 1998 schedule is filling fast. TlM HUNTER talks to one of Australia’s most soughtafter screen performers

IAN STOCKS

inreview

18

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FILMS: Hurricane Streets, Ma Vie en Rose, Jackie Brown, Bandwagon, Oscar and Lucinda, Joey, The Wiggles Movie BOOKS: Stanley Kubrick: A Biography, Cinema and the Great War, Bogart, Frank’s 500 plus Books Recerved technicalities

Getting an Airing

Hot Stuff Cinema Papers has a few tips on who to look out for in 1998 and beyond

Into the War Zone Michael W interbottom’s Welcome to Sarajevo is a passionate and provocative film about a journalist’s covering the war in Bosnia. The up-and-coming director of Jude and Butterfly Kiss talks to J an E pstein

W e’ve heard it all before: you spend years of your life making a film and then nobody gets to see it. M ichael K itso n meets four young filmmakers who prove that, with the right topic, a good crew and maybe just a bit of tenacity, it doesn’t have to be that way

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The film production model that has sustained cinema for 60 years has been turned on its head. ANNMARIE CHANDLER inproduction

59

dirty dozen

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116 Argyle St, Fitzroy, VIC; Australia 3065 PO Box 2221, Fitzroy MDC, VIC 3065 -• Tel: (61.3) 9416 2644 Fax: (61.3) 9416 4088 email: cp@parkhouse.com.au Editor: Scott Murray Deputy Editor: Paul Kalina Editorial Assistance: Tim HCinter , Advertising: Terry Haebich , Subscriptions: Mina Carattolf ‘ Accounts: Lindsay Zamudio Proofreading: Arthur Salton Office Cat: Oddspot Legal: Dan Pearce (Holding Redlich) MTV Board of Directors: Ross Dims'ey (Chairman), Natalie Miller, Matthew Learmonth, Penny Attiwili,Mjcj)ael Dolphin Founding Publishers: Peter Beilby,' Scott Murray, Philippe Mora -Design & Production: Parkhouse Publishing Pty Ltd Tel: (61.3) 9347 8882 Printing: Printgraphi.es Pty Ltd Film: Condor Group Distribution: Network Distribution © COPYRIGHT 1998 MTV PUBLISHING LIMITED Signed articles represent the view s of the authors and not neces­ sarily those of the editor and publisher. W hile every care is taken

W H O W R O TE AMISTAD? teven $ p ie lb e rg may have his

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FILM A U S TR A LIA FUNDING TO CONTINUE enator Richard Alston, Minister

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for Communications, Information, Economy and the Arts, announced recently that the Government will retain Film Australia as a Commonwealth-owned and fully integrated company, following the Gonksi Report’s recommendations of 1997.

Film Australia’s Board is particu­ larly pleased, as it means its National Interest Program will continue through to 2003, enabling it to work with inde­ pendent filmmakers to record events such as the Olympic Games and the Centenary of Federation celebrations.

The Federal Government has also voiced its support of Film Australia’s proposal to establish its presence in Victoria. “ Under the National Interest Program, Rim Australia already com­ missions productions from many states, including Victoria,” explains Rim Australia Chairman Chris Chap­ man, “but the factual production sector there is now such a significant contributor to National Interest Pro­ gram output that Rim Australia needs a presence that a Melbourne represen­ tative will give.”

H APPY BIRTH DAY rban Cinefile, “the world of film

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in Australia on the internet” as it

is known, celebrates its first birthday on 28 February. Andrew L. Urban, Aus­

2

tralian correspondent for Moving Pictures International and host of SBSTV’s Front Up, leads the team of avid film viewers and commentators responsible for this informative, enter­ taining and occasionally irreverent site of cinema lore. Urban Cinephile is located at www.urbancinefile.com.au.

SUE M URRAY LEAVES TH E AFC ue Murray, Director of Marketing

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for the Australian Film Commis­ sion for the past 16 years, has decided not to renew her contract, and will be leaving in March, 1998. She is leaving to pursue her interests in the private sector.

Murray has received tributes from the AFC’s Chief Executive Cathy Robin­ son and new Chair Maureen Barron, and will be greatly missed by all those who worked with her.

D ISTRIB U TIN G FINE FILMS AND ATM O SPHERE AROU ND AU S TR A LIA eorge Florence, manager of

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Melbourne’s art deco repertory cinema, the Astor, has teamed up with M arkSpratt of Potential Films to found Chapel Distribution. The express aim of this new venture is to return to distribution the large number of feature films in the Turner Entertainment Library, previously controlled by UIP. The Library special­ izes in pre-1949 Warner Bros, and pre-1986 MGM films* and will enable

hands full with the plagiarism accusations over his recent film, Amistad, but that isn’t the only con­ troversy. The New Yorker has already run an article about who in fact wrote the script.

The film itself credits only David Franzoni (who, in fact, had been commissioned several years ago by Dustin Hoffman to do an adaptation of the book Spielberg is now alleged to have plagiarized). The New Yorker argues that Steven ZaiUian.should share joint credit, and include-s^examples of his dialogue as opposed to Franzoni’s (it is cheese and chalk).

However, the Screen Writer’s Guild doesn’t place much emphasis>on dia­ logue, preferring to base authorship ;on structural issues. So* Franzoni gets the credit and Zaillian nothing... but not quite.- . ¿Though the Amistad multimedia CDROM, presskit credits only Zaillian.on the cover, the material inside tells a different story. There are three ver­ sions of the film’s trailer, and each credits the screenplay to Franzoni and Zaillian. A slip-up or the facts finally coming out?

with m anuscripts and m aterials supplied to the magazine, neither the editor nor the publisher can accept liab ility for any lo ss or c damage which may arise. This magazine may not be reproduced in whole or part without the express perm ission of the copyright owners. Cinema Papers is published by MTV Publishing Limited, 116 Argyle St, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia 3065, and is indexed by RAF. ,

AUSTRALIAN FILM COMM ISSION

CINEMA PAPERS IS PUBLISHED WITH FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE AUSTRALIAN FILM '

'C O M M ISSIO N AND CINEMEDIA’ .

contributors D e a n Ca r e y is D ir e c t o r o f T he A c to rs Cen tr e in Sy d n e y . H is t h r e e b o o k s on ACTING ARE PUBLISHED IN AUSTRALIA, THE UK AND

USA.

A n n m a r ie Ch a n d l e r le c t u r e s in M e d ia A rts a n d Pr o d u c t io n a t U n iv e r s it y of T e c h n o lo g y , Sy d n e y .

Jo h n Co n o m o s t e a c h e s a t t h e C o lleg e of

Fin e A r t s , Sy d n e y .

Ja n Ep s t e in is a M e lb o u r n e w r it e r a n d FILM REVIEWER. SOLRUN HOAAS IS A MELBOURNE FILMMAKER (AYA, PYO NG YANG D IA R IE S ).

Rü t h Jo n e s - is; CH§jF Ex e c u t iv e ok t h e ? \ A u s t r a l ia n Fil m I n s t it u t e .

M ic h a e l K it s o n is a M e l b o u r n e w r it e r ON FILM. B ruce M o l l o y is a Pr o f e s s o r o f Fil m and

T e l e v is io n a t B o n d U n iv e r s it y .

Ka r l

QuiNfris a

f il m r e v ie w e r b©;r a n d

pDiTO'R o f T h e C i t y W e e k l y .

films such as To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944), The Philadel­ phia Story (George Cukor, 1940), High Society (William Beaudine, 1955), and Pink Floyd - The Wall (Alan Parker, 1982) to be distributed around Aus­ tralia again.

Chapel Distribution will also acquire new prints of classic re-releases, start­ ing with Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (William Keighley, 1941).

M ic h e lle Ry a n is a M e lb o u r n e w r it e r 0 $ FILM. IA n ^St o c k s is a f il m m a k e r a n d lec tu r er in f il m a n d t e l e v is io n a t

Q u e e n s l a n d -<~

U NlyERSJ.TY OF T ech NOLOGY. A n d r e w Im-U r b a n u s ,o n e o f n atur '£ , s; |£ TRUE GENTLEMEN AND CAN PE dNTAl 1ED* ON WWW.URBANClijjEFILEJ§0M-.AUjRAy m o n d

Y o i | nTsI i s a L ecturer ' in

Co MM U,NIc| t) 0 NS^iN Ef-SCjREEN aI t UDI iS & i •a t Ce n t r a l Q u e e n s l a n d

;SYDfey, CA'MP.'usrTI

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1 9 9 8

Director: Bill Bennett DOP: Malcolm McCulloch

lire c tor:ChrisKinnedvm OOP: Andrew Lesnie

THE BENEFICIARY Director: Graeme Burfoot DOP: Danny Pope

Director: Craig Lahiff DOP: Bria^Breheny

CHILDREN OF TH PirectoCLf eter Duncan DO

Director: David Caesar DOP: Joseph Pickering

FES TIVA L OF A U STR ALIAN FILM LAUNCHED

cinema-going, with a 2,000 space

mbits

A

TH IS IS HUGE! reater Union has opened a new

of Australian Film, a celebration of Aus­ tralia and its people through Australian

video walls showcasing previews, and three Gold Class auditoriums, each seating 28 patrons, with an exclusive

film, was launched in Melbourne.

bar and lounge area.

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Megaplex in the Adelaide suburb of Marion. This 30-screen complex is

the largest in Australia, most possibly the world, and has an overall seating capacity of 5,676, ranging from 547seat cinemas through to more intimate 104-seat cinemas. Some of these cine­ mas will be themed: the State is modelled on Sydney’s State Theatre;

s part of the 1998 Australia Day festivities, the inaugural Festival

parking lot, wall-to-wall megascreens, fully-automated projection systems,

Presented by the National

Australia Day Council, The Australia Day Committee (Victoria) and the State Government of Victoria, and curated by Cinema Papers editor Scott Murray, the festival ran from 19-25 Jan­

there is a Hollywood-themed cinema; a

uary 1998, opening with the Victorian premiere of Gillian Armstrong’s Oscar and Lucinda, at the Regent Theatre in

Warner Bros cartoon-themed cinema;

Collins Street, Melbourne. Classic and

NO INCREASED CLASSIFICATION FEES, PLEASE he Australian Independent Dis­ tributors Association (AIDA) has

T

called upon the Federal Government to

abandon increases in fees pertaining to censorship classification which came into effect on 1 November 1997.

These new fees are deemed to be

: Melanie (Bridget Fonda).

Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. co ver

Siren would be interested in having a look, please send your VHS cassettes to: Animation Originals, C/- Siren Entertainment, 23 Wangaratta Street, Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia.

Alternatively, ring Jonathan A lle y for further info. Tel: (61.3) 9429 9555.

Fax: (61.3) 9429 9333.

FILM A U S TR A LIA ’S FEDERATION DOCO

H

ot on the announcement of Film

Australia’s continued govern­

ment funding comes the news that its three-part documentary, Federation, is now in production.

Written by Sue Castrique and directed by ian Munro, the project has been in research and development for five years, and will document the events, personalities and experiences of people throughout the colonies in the decades leading up to Federation.

Episode one will focus on The Land, episode two on The People, and episode three on The Nation.

TH E SILVER SCREEN RETU RNS TO TH E REGENT and a sports-themed cinema. The Gob Mobile, Australia’s only motorized Candy Bar, will also travel up and down the 230-metre complex, dispensing popcorn and soft drinks.

The foyer is the size of two Olympic swimming pools; the Candy Bar is 30 metres long, and there is only one pro­ jection room, measuring 225 metres.

It’s anticipated that up to 28 differ­ ent films will be screening in the complex. That’s an alarming statistic, given that Melbourne and Sydney have on average 45 different new releases screening each week. What this means for Adelaide’s cinema industry is any­ body’s guess, especially since the Megaplex includes four arthouse cine­ mas. With the recent openings of Palace and Nova cinemas in Rundle

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Jedda (Charles Chauvel, 1955), Sunday Too Far Away (Ken Hannam, 1975), Bit­ ter Springs (Ralph Smart, 1950), They’re a Weird Mob (Michael Powell, 1966), Newsfront (Phillip Noyce, 1979), The Overlanders (Harry Watt, 1946) and The Adventures of Barry McKenzie

inequitable and harsh, and will adversely affect independent film pro­ ducers and distributors. The same fee applies to all films, be it a mainstream 200-print release or an independent or foreign single-print release, the increase making the distribution of the latter films even more difficult.

(Bruce Beresford, 1972), were screened, along with a selection of short films and newsreels. The Festival is expected to become a regular annual event around the Australia

AIDA proposes that the Government abandon this increase and replace it with a system scaled according to the number of release prints of a film, a system currently operating in other

Day weekend.

countries.

M EGAPLEXED

AN IM ATED SIREN iren Entertainment, those crazy

forgotten Australian films, such as

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he Melbourne suburb of Sunshine is the next installment of the Megaplex boom currently sweeping

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Mall, Adelaide may be in danger of screen overload; or perhaps they’re

the country. Village opened its 20screen complex on 18 December.

The promotional material is saying

pop-culture-Manga/Troma-cultkinda guys, are compiling a selection of contemporary animation in 1998, and are looking for suitable material. If you’re sitting on an animated film, no

just making up for lost time.

that this is the revolutionary future of

longer than 20 minutes, and you think

t’s been more than 25 years since the Regent Theatre in Melbourne has been used as a picture house, but celluloid has returned to the renovated and august hall. A restored print of My Fair Lady (George Cukor, 1964) screened there, with a live band and organ music, for an exclusive threeday season in November, and it seems

I

that it wasn’t an isolated incident.

Plans are afoot to screen special film seasons at the Regent in between live shows. Film restorer and enthusiast James Sherlock from Filmcare has been approached to assist in advising and co-ordinating the screenings.

Sherlock, who was instrumental in organizing the My Fair Lady screen­ ings, is hoping to obtain other restored prints of classic films, such as Rear

Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) and It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (Stanley Kramer, 1963) to screen at the Regent from April 1998. On his C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA R C H 1 9 9 8

Frameworks, first in non-linear in Australia, has once again taken the initiative in film editing. We are the first facility providing a dedicated non-linear assistant’s room for syncing rushes which allows for true 24FPS cutting, providing frame accurate edl’s, cut lists and change lists for feature films. This method of post for 24FPS film provides a one to one relationship with picture time code, film key code numbers and sound time code.

This method provides simple and frame accurate output of cut lists, change lists, picture and sound edl’s directly from the Avid. This avoids the need for trace back edl’s for sound post production and conversion between 24FPS and 25FPS for cut lists.

(

For fu rth e r details, and a m ore com plete explanation o f the d iffe re n t post p ro d u ctio n m ethods, please co ntact Stephen F. Smith at Fram eworks.

“Knowledge, Experience, Service” Frameworks Edit Pty. Ltd.

Suite 4, 239 Pacific Hwy, North Sydney, NSW 2060

Tel : 02 9955-7300 Fax : 02 9954-0175 Email : framewks@ozemail.com.au

)

mbits wish-list are films such as the silent Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1926), and Wings (William A. Wellman, 1927), which will play with live musical accompaniment.

~“ Tie WA Film and Video Festival has transformed into the 12th Annual

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W A Screen Awards and the ceremony will be held at the outdoor cinema located at “ Camelot” , the art deco style Mosman Park Memorial Centre on 27 February 1998.

The Awards will honour both pro­ fessional and student filmmakers

With healthy attendances for My

under the age of 30, and awards prizes in both genre and craft categories. four sessions over three days), the There is also the Festival of Perth future of film at the Regent should Young Filmmaker of the Year Award, prove to be most successful. worth $5,000 and awarded to a film­ maker under the age of 25.

M ILLION $ M OVIES! A number of workshops will also he first feature film commissioned run as part of the festival, ranging as part of the joint initiative, from “ Handmade Animation” to Million $ Movies, has been announced.“Marketing and Distribution” .

Fresh Air is to be written and directed For more information, call the

by Neil Mansfield and produced by Festival office on (61.8) 9335 1055

Fair Lady (7,000 patrons attending

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Rosemary Blight.

The Australian Film Commission and SBS Independent, in association with Beyond Films, The Premium Movie Partnership and UK Channel 4, have joined together for this initiative.

Million $ Movies will commission five feature films, each with a budget of $1 million.

Fresh Air was also supported through the AFC’s New Screenwriters Scheme, where Mansfield was teamed with Bill Bennett as his mentor. It’s a comedy described as a hybrid of kitchen sink drama, neo-realism and

or fax (61.8) 9335 1283.

A P P O IN TM E N TS BC Network Television has

A

„ appointed two business affairs managers to work with its general manager Penny Chapman and the network commissioning editors, to develop and negotiate funding, distribution and rights agreements for Network Television. From Britain comes Linda Stone, who has been serving as Business Development Manager with BBC Drama, and will manage the business affairs for Drama

and Children’s programme commis­ sions for ABC TV. Tim McGee will manage business affairs for Arts, Entertainment and Factual program­ F E S TIV A LTH IN G IE S AN D STUFF ming, and has previously been he inaugural CrowsFest, an out­ Business Manager for General door screening of AFTRS student films, will kick off on 19 March. A large Programming at the ABC. screen will be erected on the corner of he Australian Film Commission Holterman and Willoughby Streets in has announced that Maureen Crows Nest, the heart of film and tele­ vision production land, or you’ll be Barron has been appointed as its new Chairman. Barron was the able to watch the show in video moni­ Business Affairs Manager for the tors set up in Willoughby Street cafés.

Southern Star group, and replaces For further information, ring Feehan Sue Milliken, who completed her Communications: (61.2) 9267 2711. observational comedy, and will go into production in March 1998.

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term on 30 June 1997. ay TV channel Arena is running its Graveyard Shifty Films Com­ petition again in 1998. Entrants are asked to send their best - or worst B-grade short films. They can be hor­ ror, sci-fi, musical, or anything that can be classed as B-grade, and it’s best if they’re way over the top. Palace is a sponsor this year, and will be screen­ ing the finalists at a special public judging in May. Prizes include a Sony digital video camera and a 35mm print of the winning short film. The best and worst of the films entered will be

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screened on The Graveyard Shift, hosted by the vampish Tabitha on 15 May. Entry forms are available at Palace Cinemas^ or by calling: 1900140122.

6

CORRIGENDUM inema Papers no. 121 carried

C

Briti-sllbooks rather than American editions.

Cinema Papers likes to have the last word, and on this matter it will with a forthcoming article on recent Hollywood novels, hardly any of which

close focus facility.

Panavision’s new camera is the Millennium System.

The 35mm Aaton camera operates

amuelson Film Service has

at continually variable speeds between 3-32 fps.

Cameras operate at 25 fps for PAL TV compatibility, and 30 fps for NTSC

brought to our attention several additions and one correction to Lind­

TV compatibility.

Perspective correction lenses are

say Amos’ article on cameras and lenses in the previous issue of Cinema Papers (“The Emperor’s New Camera” , pp. 51-54.)

also known as shift/tilt lenses. See Kevin Reynolds’ One Eight Seven, on recent release, where this facility has

are available locally as they have not Ibeen published in UK imprints.

S

Panavision Spherical Primo lenses are available in 11 focal lengths from 10mm to 150mm (all at T1.9), as well as zooms in the following ranges: 17.575mm, at T2.3; 24-275mm at T2.8; i35-42omm, Lightweight l| 27-68mm and Lightweight II, 17.5-34111111, all at T2.8. Anamorphic Primos are available in 35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 75mm,

PO BOX 2221 FITZROY MDC VfC^o6s

been frequently used. n the review of Heaven’s Burning in the previous issue (p. 65), the composer was listed as Carl Vine.

He certainly was the composer first assigned to the feature film, but was replaced at a later date by Graeme Koehne and Michael Atkinson! Cinema Papers apologizes for the error. ®

I

email cp@parkh‘o'use.com au

1997AFIAWRDS: THE FALLOUT CONTINUES •. .

D e a r E d it o r ,

In 19.94,' Cassie Hanlon won a<-BKFTA for Excellence in Make-Up a n d H a irv , Design for her contribution on The

Adventures o f Priscilla, Queen ofthe Desprt. H;er com petition was Mrs Doubtfireand Interview with the Vampirp. She also won-an award at theT994iS^n Sebasfian Film Festival for BestMáke-Up and Hair.

In 1995, PetefFrampton and Paul Pattison won|if¡ Oscar for Make-Up and Hairfor'theirwork.on Braveheart.

Our work is a direct resulGoTrrieetingswith Directors, DOPsrCefetume Designers and u ltim a te ly !^ actors: ' -’In 1997, Australian Make-Up Artists and Hairdressers are not'eve if mentioned on the officiahlpplication form for accreditation as a protetfsional voter for the AFI Awards* let albne have a category for an award foiiBbst Make-Up and Hair.

Remember how distracting a badlyiglfecl wig.can be 30 metres changes, specifically referring to a film acrossjthe screen? known in Australia as Miss Smilta’s ' Viva lajlow der puff: * Feeling For Snow, based on a novel Sincerely,

by Peter Hoeg. Fellow pedant and Nikki Gooleyj Jpfry Drury, longtime contributor Geoff Gardner ;„C a ssie Hanlon,,|&%iHenslpy,s I has checked the dustjacket of the US Óebbie-.Láns e rf Make j Up _EffectJ|€ edition ofthe novel, and confirms that | | | f l | u p jstudLoVMASK Make-Up the US title was in fact Smilla’s Sense |f ^ u d io , Marilyn McPherson, o f Snow, not, as claimed on th e s e Nonlll'Wáfánabe Nei Ilf Katherine pages, Smilla’s Sense for Snow.

Parkinson, Paul Pattison, Amanda However, our point remains: cour­ Royybottom, YvoWrféSayage;^! tesy ofthe Commonwealth book agreement, Australian readers are ''Lesley Vandlrwalt, Jan “fig g y ” forced to buy overpriced, poorlyZeigenbejn, Chelyi W illiam s., designed and inappropriately-titled a brief commentary on title

100mm (a IFat T2.0). The Mk II series is available in similar focal lëhgths with

D e a r E d it o r !?-*

With anqther year, of AFI Awa\d£:come and gong! tfìere is a great anomaly in the votijfg systermlast year tilfat need sito bejaditessed thisfyear. ~ I aitifa member ©PtheAFI. I am effe© a Continuity person.

I am thè Director’s right-hand person in relJfarsaM and !bh thèfset.

I am also the Editor ^ representa­ tive on set.

Yet, both ASD Am iilS pAA%ay.eseen fit to advij|eIthevÀFI that the continuity person should noj l?e"a professional voter for the AFI A w nds If representativesbM if se Ihnèé organizations w ouldliketó compir* out on set and watch-for halfjaW’bour, they would-clearly see the great mistake they have made.-/ It’sThiWsort oTignorance that shows hdw;parocifpl t hf||eiorga filia ­ tions are%/vh|l internationally both?

Australian Continuity and Make-Up;!,' and Hair crew are greatly sought after is a jo kef W p a u g lfS g m ig fìt havtòjust W .ossed the line’.

Sidcereìy, IgW nn Maree Danzey Annie Beres «ford, Carmel Torrasio, Karen Mansfield Linda Ray, Karmda Parkinson, Larraine Q ùinnV ll^ì I ’G oodw inr.^K^M ^aHM I.*.

C I N E M A P A P E R S g MA RC H 1 998

Ti 1 | a -.

|

PSSS m m mm

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MORE tha n MEETS the

wmm

in p e rfo rm a n c e

The Director’s Edge

by Dean Carey

W

e all know about the pressure of time and money.

When budgets are being slashed or ‘trimmed’, the first casualty of the red pen is often a small block of time entitled “rehearsal”. “ Let’s make it up on the run. Why waste valuable hours? The actors know what they’re doing” , someone says. It’s a familiar state of affairs.

As directors, what do we do then to make the most effective use of every moment? Know­ ing exactly what to do is the only answer: capitalizing on every conversation, meeting, rehearsal and camera rehearsal to create the world necessary for the story to be revealed with richness, detail and depth.

The one thing that exhilarates both actors and directors alike is that moment when text and action become indispensable; when one demands the other, and what has to happen in the scene suddenly becomes inevitable. This unity both in the scene and between the actors creates the one essential element that engages an audience and produces an unmistakeable reality-atmosphere. When atmosphere exists it creates the exact conditions where all that is said and done is charged and necessary. With­ out it, actors self-motivate, act in isolation, and the style and execution of each shot begins to overpower the story through embroidery and decora­ tion. The production team’s attempt to manufacture atmosphere for it is not springing from the fusion between and theseries dialogue.

This is theeach firstactor in a regular of articles and is dedicated to the director at w ork-w ith limited time, limited resources, and perhaps limited experience working with their allies on set: the actors.

Each instalment will look at practical approaches and on-set exercises that create the exact working conditions to promote atmosphere and to connect actors to each other and to the scene at hand - simple and effective tools of the trade. Each article will build upon the previous and offer a range of on-set options and rehearsal techniques to create dynamic, com­ pelling work.

T h e check list “ If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” When you work with actors who possess a sharp instinct and are plugged into the script and situation, the following four questions do not need to be asked. But this is not always the case. Many pressures - both internal and external - can drive actors away from their hunch and natural ability. They then seem forced, self-conscious, unable to make quick and effective choices. Something’s going wrong. And the longer it is left unattended, the worse it will most likely become. You must address it fast, and in exactly the right way.

8

If the scene isn’t working to its optimum, consult the following check list.

Are your actors: hearing each other; claiming the situation and its importance; reacting to each other, moment by moment; revealing the story and its meaning?

If any one ofthese elements is missing, the scene will have a dramatically-reduced impact and will not fulfil its function. These ingredients are the active dynamics which create drama and believability. With­ out any one of them, your scene will lose its integrity and purpose.

Let’s briefly explore each element, then see how to replace it if it’s missing.

Your actors need to be listening to each other.

Without this, there can be no true communication, no connections, no relationship. The dialogue will seem forced or disconnected, the characters playing states of emotion and living in isolation of each other. Listen­ ing is one of the most natural things to do, and the first thing to go when pressure or self-consciousness is felt.

Your actors need to be claiming or personalizing the stakes involved in the scene - owning their sig­ nificance and, more importantly, their consequences.

For without this sense of ownership, the audience asks the simple question: “Why am I watching this?”

The scene seems lifeless, without depth and validity; it doesn’t seem important enough to demand the actors’ attention, let alone to drive the story forward.

Your actors need to be reacting off each other, connected on an emotional and physical level so that

each person displaces the energy of the other. With­ out this palpable cause and effect moment by moment, the characters will start to self-motivate and begin to act in their own bubble. To create reality and relationships and to motivate each line of dia­ logue, the actors must respond to each other; relate, and react accordingly. This produces spontaneity and the feeling that what we are witnessing is hap­ pening now and for the first time.

Lastly, your actors need to reveal the meaning the scene must have. Every scene has a function, a rea­ son for being there. It tells a story, exposes the themes, raises particular issues and confronts us with its substance. Without this being revealed, we ask the question, “What was all that about? It seemed important, believable and even engaging, but for what reason? What have I been left to digest? How does it contribute to the film?” Without meaning, you’re left with sound and fury signifying nothing.

As you can see, these four essential elements are integral and will always be present when the scene is working. If this is the case, you do not question them but take them for granted and expect them to always be present. What do you do, though, when one or all are decidedly lacking?

E xe rc ise n u m b e r 1. “A n d A g a in ” This simple direction can come from yourself or any actor during the rehearsal of the scene. Many direc­ tors stop the action and talk through a particular problem. This often interrupts any 43 C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

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festivals MìkeVani

Nederlands Film Festival

by Bruce JVLolloy ilm festivals are of many types. Really big festivals like Cannes or Venice are international festivals featuring (as they claim) the best of world cinema.

Other festivals are specialist festivals concentrating on a selected category such as children’s films, documentaries or films in a particular language. The Nederlands Film Festival, held in beau­ tiful Utrecht where the towering Dorn spire overlooks canals and cobbled streets, is a specialist festival concen­ trating on Dutch cinema. According to Festival Director Jacques Van Heijningen, the major role of the Festival is to provide a showcase for all Dutch films made in the previous 12 months. It also

10

provides an opportunity for new film­ makers and unknown films to be “discovered”, as happened with last year’s winner of the top award, Long Live the Queen, which went on to be considered for a foreign-language Oscar.

The FHolland Film Meeting is the market part of the Festival where Dutch producers meet foreign distribu­ tors and television programmers. Van Heijningen’s vision is to have it become the major marketplace for Dutch films, bringing foreign buyers and press to Utrecht. Fie believes it makes good economic sense to attract buyers to Holland rather than send product to Berlin, Cannes or Toronto, where it may be lost in the pack. So

far, however, Dutch film marketing authorities remain unconvinced.

The organizational structure of the Festival consists of the triumvirate of van Heijningen as Director and Chief Executive, whose major responsibility is raisingthe $1.5 million to run the Festival, Flerman de Wit as Festival Pro­ grammer, who must decide what films are selected in what categories and what films and television programmes are not admitted, and Doreen Boonekamp as Festival Producer, who ensures that the logistics of the Festi­ val are effective. The major sponsor is the brewer Grolsch, with support from local and national government.

The competitive sections are for features, documentary and short films.

Screening outside the competition are films that have had a Dutch commer­ cial release. The most notable of these is All Stars, the top-grossing Dutch film of the present season and likely to be very successful and popular in interna­ tional theatres. All Stars follows the

career of a football team (soccer, of course!) comprising players who have been together since they started play­ ing at the age of 10. Now in their mid-20S, the team members are moti­ vated more by social than sporting concerns, and the pressures of life threaten the team’s existence as it moves towards its 500th game. Preg­ nant wives and young children, problems with parents (particularly fathers), and secrets and lies involving relationships and sexual identities cause discord and dissension, as the film explores themes more serious than rituals of mateship and male bonding. Director Jean Van de Velde handles the narrative with humour and assurance.

In the feature competition, Karakter (Character), based on a classic Dutch novel and directed by Mike Van Diehm, was regarded as a strong prospect for the top honour, the Golden Calf. This award, incidentally, is named not in honour of the false god of the C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1 998

Israelites in the Old Testament, but to recognize the Utrecht area’s major producer of wealth, the Friesian cow, though this distinction has not spared the award the criticism of fundamen­ talist Christian groups.

Character is not without its own biblical overtones as it follows the career of the bastard son of a ruthless bailiff whose ambition drives him into relentless conflict with his strongwilled father. It is a beautifully-crafted film. Set in the 1920s, the film has a strong narrative, solid performances, superb art design and cinematography that exemplifies the continuing Dutch mastery of the interplay of shape and shadow. Already selected for Compéti­ tion in Cannes, Character will be a strong contender for a Golden Globe or Oscar nomination for best foreign-lan­ guage film.

Closer to Australia geographically, the historic epic Gordel van Smarag (or “Tropic of Emerald”) is a romance in the style of The English Patient. Set in C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1998

Indonesia, Orlow Seunke’s 125-minute feature traces the unfolding of a love affaire over 10 dramatic years of Dutch colonial history, counterpointing pub­ lic events with private lives.

In 1939, Theo Staats arrives in Java and immediately falls in love with the beautiful Eurasian nightclub singer Ems, who is already married to a rich but elderly Dutchman. Their love affaire, the scandal of the expatriate community, is interrupted by the Japanese invasion. Ems’ husband is killed by the Japanese while Theo is captured, tortured and imprisoned.

Ems sleeps with the Japanese com­ mandant to obtain better treatment for Theo, but when the war ends and they are reunited, Theo bitterly resents this infidelity. The counterpoint of personal relationships and historical events continues as the Indonesian struggle for independence from the Dutch impacts upon the lives of lovers.

Finally, Ems must choose between husband and homeland. With its judi­

cious combination of newsreel and fic­ tional footage, this film is reminiscent of Newsfront (Phillip Noyce, 1977) and has an important part to play in help­ ing Holland come to terms with its colonial past.

The Festival also marks the feature debut of celebrated short film pro­ ducer Paul de Nooijer. His film, Exit, was directed in collaboration with his son Menno. Those familiar with de Nooijer’s work, such as the short Stop Action Faces, will not be surprised by the avant garde style of what is an extended speculation on a range of topics including art, pornography, the voyeuristic nature of cinema, American sexploitation films and the impact of mid-life crises. Exit is definitely a film for the festival and arthouse circuits rather than general audiences.

The Utrecht Festival also contains a wide selection of documentary films and shorts, formats in which Dutch film­

makers have a long and distinguished record, as well as a section devoted to promising student work. Each year, the Festival invites a distinguished film­ maker to deliver a lecture entitled “Cinema Militans” on an aspect of cin­ ema. Three years ago it was Dutch-born Australian director Paul Cox, last year American director Alan Pakula (Klute and All the President’s Men), and this year Ate de Jongh. De Jongh has produced much of his recent work in the US, where he directed the feature Drop Dead Fred as well as episodes of Miami Vice. His ideas on film funding are worth consideration in the Australian context, as Holland has a population and a volume of feature production roughly com­ parable with Australia.

Well-organized and extremely friendly to visitors, the Nederlands Film Festival is highly recom­ mended for festival junkies or anyone with a strong interest in Dutch film. ©

11

s c re e n c u ltu re

Australian Screen Culture Industry Association

by Ruth Jones

L

ast year’s Review of

representation and the need for a con­ Commonwealth assis­ tinuing screen culture presence within tance to the film the film, television and multimedia industry (the Gonski industry. When David Gonski was Report) had an unin­ asked why he had recommended a cut tended consequence: it led toofthe at least two-thirds to screen culture formation of a new industry organiza­ funding, he responded that he had tion, the Australian Screen Culture great respect for the work of the orga­ Industry Association (ASCIA).nizations involved, but believed there The months from the release of the was more ‘bang for the buck’ to be Report through to the May federal found in script development and budget were a watershed for screen production funding. culture. And for those still confused by the term “screen culture”, it is a catch­ all term to cover activities including festivals and screenings, conferences, seminars, publications, industry awards, production support, access to facilities and entry-level training, con­ textualized exhibition and distribution, research and information, commentary and critical analysis of film, television and multimedia.

Loosely, it is the environment in which films and other screen pro­ grammes are made, seen and discussed.

As a brief recap, the Gonski Report recommended that federal screen cul­ ture funding be cut from the current $2.9 million per annum to a maximum of $1 million per annum; that assis­ tance be provided to screen culture activities of a national nature only; and that funding of activities be subject to an annual open-application process.

Acceptance ofthe recommenda­ In asserting the fundamental impor­ tance of screen culture, the onus was tions would have meant significantly on the organizations involved to edu­ reduced Commonwealth funding to cate policy-makers, industry and the state-based organizations including: wider community about our work.

Open Channel (Vic); Metro TV (NSW); The case that had to be made was that Media Resource Centre (SA); WA Film and Television Institute; Brisbane screen culture was not an optional Independent Filmmakers (now State of extra, but an essential ingredient in the Art); the Brisbane, Sydney, Mel­ the development and maintenance of a healthy screen industry and culture. bourne and St Kilda Film Festivals; We had four messages: Experimenta Media Arts; Melbourne Super 8 Group; MCA Cinematheque; Screen culture provides unique and Sydney Intermedia Network.

• opportunities for you n g people It would have dramatically reduced to w ork in the film, television and funding to: the AFI; Cinema Papers-, multimedia industry.

Cantrill’s Filmnotes; Real Time; and To grow and remain competitive, other screen culture organizations the production side ofthe industry with a national brief, which would requires a constant stream of new pro­ have had to compete for a much jects and new talent. smaller pool of funds.

The vast majority of training for the The mobilization ofthe screen film and television industry does not culture network that followed the

1

Report’s release, and the national campaign that ensued, highlighted the benefits of national co-ordination and

12

take place at the film schools - it hap­ pens at state-based screen resource centres, which in 1995 conducted 157

professional training courses, attended by 2,403 people. 7,986 clients used their facilities and 1,067 programmes were produced using their facilities.

Screen culture is an excellent • use of taxpayers’ m oney and returns more than it costs.

2

In the 1995/96 financial year, the Australian Film Commission’s screen culture budget, including funding for multimedia, was $3,131,168. Expend! ture by state/territory agencies on screen culture over the same period was $1.91 million.

The total income generated by the screen culture sector in 1995 was $13,510, 506 - a 77 percent return on the investment.

Australian screen culture inter• nationalizes our film, television and multimedia industries and pro­ jects our country to the world.

Awards promote the range of Aus­ tralian production activity, from high-profile industry awards to stu­ dent, short film, video and multimedia awards. They are an important hook for the promotion of the Australian industry and a selling point both domestically and internationally.

Australian screen culture inspires • and shapes Australian culture.

It drives the future film industry.

Screen culture organizations develop audiences and buyers for Aus­ tralian film, television and multimedia product. Film festivals are an essential

means by which distributors assess a film’s audience, market their films, sell to overseas and domestic buyers and attract the attention of critics. Festivals and screening events support profes­ sional development by allowing practitioners to discuss and view the work of their domestic and interna­ tional peers. They are used by established production industry fig­ ures to identify new trends and emerging filmmakers and technicians.

Distribution of Australian indepen­ dent film and video to schools, tertiary institutions, public libraries, commu­ nity organizations, and government

departments is undertaken by the Aus­ tralian Film Institute and, of course, by Film Australia. The AFI returns approxi­ mately $200,000 per annum to Australian filmmakers.

The screen resource organizations are critical players in multimedia development. The Media Resource Centre, WA Film and Television Insti­ tute, Metro TV and Open Channel all offer a variety of multimedia produc­ tion and skills development opportunities and resources.

These were the messages we commu­ nicated in a campaign which saw us contact in writing, by telephone, or in personal meetings, the Minister for Communication and the Arts, Richard Alston; key staff at the Department of Communication and the Arts; the media; and every state and federal politician, of all political persuasions.

The sub-text was: This is what we deliver for $3.1 million. c r4 3 C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RCH 1998

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Danes down under

by Solrun Hoaas n Australia, the major source for most viewers seeking Scan­ dinavian films has been SBS, which regularly buys and pro­ grammes them. They seldom reach our cinema screens or film festi­ vals. This year, despite the numerous outstanding features from the region hailed elsewhere (Jan Toell’s Hamsun with Max von Sydow and Gitte Nprby, to mention one1), our local festivals offered very little.

This may be due to an ingrained prejudice among the Australian public to films that conjure up ponderous mysticism or excruciating dissections of family relationships. Most are not as attuned to Carl Dreyer’s Nordic Noh of pure emotion or the best Hamsun film adaptation to date, Henning Carlsen’s Suit (Hunger; recently re-released), as would be this Norwegian expatriate.

Similar kinds of public perceptions of dour national traits long prevented Japanese films from reaching a broader public until the discovery that Japanese cinema offered both comedy and highly-sophisticated animation, which now have a cult following here.

Perhaps the success in Australia of Danish director Lars Von Trier’s Break­ ing the Waves and his television series Kingdom (Riget), broadcast in 1995 on SBS and followed by theatrical release ofthe even bolder Kingdom II (Riget II), will help to change those ingrained perceptions to the benefit of all Scandinavian cinema.

Although an introduction to new Danish cinema organized through the Australian Film Institute may not reach a broad audience, the recent season of Danes down under revealed a vigorous film culture.

The accompanying guest appearances of Morten Arnfred, co-director of Von Trier’s Kingdom and King­ dom II, and Vibeke Windelpv, producer ofthe two Kingdoms and Breaking the Waves, gave lively insights into both the production environment of a small nation and some revealing anecdotes from behind the scenes.

This year, Denmark produced around 25 features which, they pointed out, was quite exceptional, as the norm has been around 12-15 Per year. This sud­ den surge was partly due to the great number of co-productions.

The films shown in the AFI season, selected by Peter Kaufmann, included one feature-length docu­ mentary, Under New York (Jacob Thuesen), about the subculture ofthe homeless, and two films by first-time feature film directors, The Eighteenth (Den Attende) and Belma, which reveal a more energetic, pacy, almost documentary style, a departure from the social-realist films that dominated the ’70s or the

I

14

period films of some of the more established direc­ tors, such as Bille August or Nils Malmros. The Eighteenth, confidently directed by Anders RonnowKlarlund, might be described as a Danish Short Cuts which moves between the lives of several characters in the course of one day - the day Danes voted for the second time on whether or not to join the EU. One influence on the new filmmakers is the Dan­ ish Film Institute’s workshops for new filmmakers, suggests Jesper Andersen ofthe DFI. In some respects, their funding structures are not unlike those ofthe Australian Film Commission. Notable dif­ ferences are that the three film consultants have greater individual power (as they can make personal decisions on projects); that if rejected, filmmakers can take the same project to another consultant for a

second hearing; and that consultants are appointed for three-year terms, with a maximum of six years, to ensure a healthy turnover of preferences - a policy the AFC might do well to adopt for anyone directly involved in production-funding decisions.

The DFI can fully fund a feature, although this is not usual. More commonly, if a consultant gives the nod to a project, the filmmaker can on that basis go out and raise funding, and 50 percent finance from the Institute is more common. These projects are subject to quality criteria, but can be made in other languages and countries than Denmark. There is also the 40/60 system: if you can raise 40 percent ofthe budget, you can get the remaining 60 percent with­ out consultants vetting the script.

Breaking the Waves is the biggest project under­ taken to date by Zentropa, the company started five years ago by Lars Von Trier and Peter Aalbaek Jensen.

They produce a number of films by other directors, particularly new and younger Danish directors.

According to Vibeke Windelov, they lose money on most of them, but recoup on Von Trier’s films, which have gained international recognition and a cult fol­ lowing around the world. As a producer, she has a very practical approach to the new trend for numerous co-financiers on one project. With 28 different “pro­ ducers” on Breaking the Waves, no one producer had C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RCH 1998

inperspective

Aunougn an muoaucuon 10 new

Danish cinema organized through the AFI may not reach a broad audience, the recent season of Danes down under revealed a vigorous film culture. more say than the rest, a ‘divide and rule’ principle of operation. Her advice to those seeking co-production partners in Europe is to look for someone of your own size, and to check out the structure of the partners to ensure you have the same decision-making powers.

She avoids dealing with organizations that have to go to a board for decisions.

Denmark has had a film school since the ’60s, and the Danish Film Institute was started in 1972.

In addition to its workshops for training, some focused on Arhus which has its own ‘film house’ for short films, there is also the now well-established European Film School in Ebeltoft, which provides an eight-month course within the framework of the folkeh0gskole (a type of popular educational institu­ tion characteristic of Scandinavia, which started up to provide further education in rural areas). Ebeltoft C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

annual intake.

Morten Arnfred was involved in starting up the School and, as one of the country’s more experi­ enced directors, has also taught film, drawing on a very varied background ranging from cinematogra­ phy to first A.D. (on Breaking the Waves) to directing half a dozen features of his own (including Land of Plenty [Det Er Et Yndigt Land], which won a Silver Award in Berlin, Heaven and Hell [Himmel Og Helvede] and, more recently, The Russian Singer [Den Russiske Sangerinde] and Nightvision).

From speaking to him, it appears that a very symbiotic and relaxed working relationship has benefitted the films. Von Trier is known for his many phobias, and often works his phobias into his films, but would find it difficult to direct them.

They include flying, even going above ground floor.

Therefore, he would have had great trouble being on set while shooting some of the scenes in Kingdom, scenes with blood and gore, lift shafts, Mrs Drusse’s flight or Dr Helmer on the rooftop, gazing across at his beloved Sweden, or the very dangerous scene of the oil-rig accident in Breaking the Waves. Morten Arnfred is sometimes the only one on set, directing the actors, and consulting with Von Trier, who then has the freedom c ? 44

Top: Anders Rennow Klarlund's The Eighteenth.

Above: Jacob Thuesen's Under N ew York.

15

5th International Doco Conference

by Ian Stocks

D

espite the initial pall cast by threats of funding cuts and general poverty in the documentary industry, the 5th International Docu­ mentary Conference in Brisbane was a raging success, with a record number of delegates and a full schedule of ses­ sions ranging from pitch and promotional sessions to information sessions about markets, and theory and policy discussions.

Led by Melanie Guiney, the QDox team achieved the record turnout of more than 530 delegates from all states and territories, with a very r—

— ■— —

strong contingent from down south, reassuring both the Queensland envi­ ronment and the national bodies that the documentary section is fighting back against proposed cuts.

The level of debate on documentary policy and practice was extremely high, with some key speakers offering many possibilities for ways of launch­ ing documentary into a new phase of relevance in the Australian social and broadcast environment. Key speakers proposed a range of strategies which could lift documentary from its current marginalized status within the com­ mercial broadcasting environment.

There were also suggestions on ways of renegotiating existing deals with public service broadcasters like

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the ABC and SBS, in addition to expo­ sure to new market forces, including the heavy representation by Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and other major local and international distributors.

Over all, the Conference triggered fresh interest in the spirited promotion of viable projects in a range of genres.

Judged against previous Documen­ tary Conferences, the Queensland organization rose to the occasion with well-selected venues and a seamless set of management procedures which meant that the five or six simultaneous programmes ran smoothly, and yet provided opportunity for delegates to sample both the delights of Brisbane and the wide range of material and

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information presented. It was probably the best-organized Doco Conference ever, and was marked by a mood of co-operation and enthusiasm which dispels the current predictions of gloom and doom about the future of funding for the documentary area.

Three days before the Conference, Senator Alston, Minister for Communi­ cation and the Arts, made an announcement ensuring retention of Film Australia’s National Interest Pro­ gram and the Lindfield Site, as well as the footage library. The position of doco in the Australian cultural and funding environment seems to be guaranteed at least until 2003.

The status and availability of key players within the industry, both in the production area and the broadcast and funding areas, further glossed the importance of the Conference and its relevance to burgeoning Queensland production. The enthusiasm and diver­ sity of production was not missed by local broadcasters and policy makers.

QDox estimated an attendance of 300 prior to the event, but within a few hours of opening the actual attendees rose to more than 450, which initially placed a strain on venues which had been arranged for a lesser number.

However, the flexibility of the Southbank site, and the convenience of grouping of all major venues within a walkable precinct, meant that the over­ flow could be accommodated immediately. Supplementary sessions provided for those who failed to get admittance to the first presentation.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RCH 1998

documentaries Dr Roberta Sykes (author) and Eddie Mabo Jr. f :

Key international filmmaker atten­ dees included: Elliott Halpern, a multi-award-winning Canadian pro­ ducer, with his film about the influence of Jewish entrepreneurs on the estab­ lishment of Hollywood; Rigoberto Lopez, with his spirited film about the origins of Cuban and Caribbean salsa music; Duan Jinchuan, with his sensi­ tive portrait of life for Tibetans in Lhasa; and Sanjay Kak, one of India’s better-known documentary directors; amongst others.

The Conference widened its scope to include papers on documentary and a range of highly-relevant screenings.

These included many classics of Amer­ ican cinéma vérité, some important Indian and African work, and a range of contemporary documentary projects both in development and completed or scheduled for screening.

Queensland, with its important sit­ uation in the Aboriginal and Island Nation and the range of environments which include many traditional owner­ ship areas, was well placed to make a major initiative in putting Aboriginal and Islander Indigenous programmes into the main stream ofthe Confer­ ence. This strategy was highlighted by the official opening ceremony on Day One, which was launched by the Jagera Jarjum Indigenous dance group and carried important speeches by filmmakers such as Rachel Perkins.

Some initial difficulties with the PA system and the size ofthe audience, who failed to observe injunctions to dampen down their chat, meant that C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RCH 1998

Phillip Adams’ keynote speech was eclipsed. However, order was restored by the efforts of Tim Read, Director AFC Development, and the 400-plus guests gave Rachel Perkins’ observa­ tions on the nature of a documentary medium their full attention.

The keynote by Adams, copied for distribution to all delegates by the next afternoon, is a resounding vote of appreciation for documentary filmmak­ ers, “the second-class citizens of

Molly Dineen.

was the visible presence of key broad­ casting and policy spokespeople who remained available most of the time, with Geoff Barnes and Mike Rubbo of the ABC putting in many hours on pan­ els and as chairs of sessions.

Key market players were also avail­ able for consultation and impromptu pitching sessions. These included Geoff Barnes of the ABC; Claire Jager from SBS Independent; Karen Brown and Andrew Brann from Channel 4;

Phillip Adams: “ Better, surely, to confront the common enemy the overpaid, over-praised, over-privileged bastards who make feature films; the people who claim to be critics, who rave about them; and the audiences, remarkably uncritical, who flock to see them.” cinema”, unlike their counterparts in drama:

Better, surely, to confront the common enemy, the overpaid, over-praised, over-privileged bastards who make feature films; the people who claim to be critics, who rave about them; and the audiences, remarkably uncritical, who flock to see them.

The Conference offered enormously valuable possibilities for networking, given the fact that most delegates loy­ ally braved the occasionally-stifling heat and walked the extensive precinct to various venues, or patiently waited for mini-buses to transfer them between sessions. A very positive sign

Stephen Lambert from the BBC; David Tiley of the AFC; the recently-appointed Susan MacKinnon ofthe FFC; Deborah Stewart and Chris Haws from Discovery Channel; David Franken from the Seven Network; and a range of marketing and distribution experts from areas as diverse as Film Australia, National Geo­ graphic USA, Direct Cinema USA, True Stories from Germany, Beyond Interna­ tional and Jennifer Cornish Media. This further lifted the relevance and impor­ tance ofthe Conference, and there was much free exchange about the possibil­ ities of sales and production deals with the international broadcast and niche market areas.

Debates ranged over the future of

funding for the AFC, particularly for the development phases of documentary production. There were concerns about the shrinking availability of funds to ensure the core programme and various forms of assistance marked for documentary in the inter­ national area.

A healthy spread of projects was pitched in the major Documart pitching sessions, with the popular choices being offered deals on the spot by inter­ ested broadcasters and distributors.

The business side ofthe Conference certainly dominated and, at times, some English delegates said it was more like a trade show than a docu­ mentary conference concerned with the aspirations ofthe medium. However, in many diverse venues, the medium was discussed from the basics of media reception and distribution and its rôle in the education sector, through to the effectiveness ofthe guerrilla docs pro­ gramme, and the impact of DVC technology and multimedia strategies for documentary production.

A strong feature ofthe Conference was participation by Queensland con­ veners and research personnel. The policy paper, “State ofthe A rt-A rt of the State?”, edited by Trish Fitzsimon, myself and Pat Laughren, arrived at the opening to provide a launchpad of sup­ porting material for those with time to read its comprehensive analysis ofthe state of play. The policy paper was sup­ ported by the AFC and carried into print with timely support from AFC Chief Executive Cathy Robinson.

1 •• 43

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I haven’t trained. I think that my best

CHOOSING JOBS?

asset is my instinct; it’s something I’ve

As a teenager, I was quite happy to cruise; whatever came along, came along. It was all very new - and it was better than being at school.

For the last few years I’ve started to make choices, to think about trying to do something different from the last thing — trying to stretch myself a bit more, push myself out of my usual comfort areas, do things that are going HOW DID YOU GET INTO ACTING?

I fell into it really. I was a fan of movies.

to challenge me, keep me interested.

In terms of technique, I think I’ve always worked instinctively because

for me is that I get to do what I want

started to trust a lot more.

A re f il m s l ik e K i s s o r K i l l a n d D o i n g

to do. I’m getting a good choice of

T i m e f o r P a t s y C l i n e d e l ib e r a t e

things now and I’m learning a lot more; you just pick things up by osmosis more than anything else.

CHOICES, SO YOU COULD STRETCH AND CHALLENGE YOURSELF?

Exactly, and they cover either end of

But that’s the way it happens in this

the spectrum. It was great timing as well, because after Patsy Cline I was very conscious of finding something that was very different. Often when you do something, producers and

industry.

It’s an evolutionary thing. If you look at anyone’s career, with the odd

directors see it and say, “Will you do that for our film?” That’s what

When I lived in Moonee Ponds, I’d catch a train into the city and see

do A Country Practice for two years. I left that after having enough - two years on a long-running television show is enough for anyone - and did a bit more theatre in Sydney. My first film was Muriel’s Wedding.

How

There’s a lot of support in Australia, a lot of institutional support - not just for actors but for filmmakers in general - that we have to make sure we don’t take for granted.

20

I n a n in t e r v ie w 1, M ir a n d a O t t o t o o k THE INTERVIEWER TO TASK OVER THE p e r c e iv e d

A u s s ie B r a t Pa c k c o n c e p t ,

WHICH YOU’VE BEEN MADE A PART OF.

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happened for Love and Other Catastro­ phes. They’d seen Muriel’s Wedding and said, “Can you come and do that for us?” Sure, it was nice and relaxed, a bit of fun in Melbourne, and it turned out beyond what I could possibly imagine in terms of its success.

I remember going out for a drink with Matt Dyktynski, who played Ari. He said, “Have you looked at our con­ tract? If they get the money for this, we get paid!” It was quite good money, and I said, “Matt, don’t dream! You’re setting yourself up for disappointment, you know. It’ll sit under someone’s bed and they’ll never read it.” Then

1think it’s manufactured; it’s not something that really exists. It’s like when people talk about a new wave, the new brat pack, or anything like that. For me, I’ve auditioned for a film, I’ve got the part, I’ve got the script, I’ve talked with the person, and I did the film. It’s not like you were selected by a committee to be the new brat pack.

There are many misconceptions when people talk about a brat pack as a sin­ gle entity.

But in another way, it’s not such a bad thing. I mean, it’s good for all of us. It’s a good spin: “These people are the brat pack, like in the States.”

They’ve always dealt with that star thing so much better over there than we have. I think it’s because we can’t deal with bullshit very much. I proba­ bly should be saying, “Yeah, the brat pack, we all hang out, go to the same

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a punt and gives them a lead. That’s the beauty of the Australian industry.

a couple of films here that might not be commercial successes, but they’re successes in their own right. People still take a punt on you because they know you can do the job and that you’re familiar with the medium.

“This is the thing for me.” Everyone tends to find their calling at some stage in their life; I just happened to be lucky that I was 12.

out of school at the start of Year 12 and moved to Sydney when I was 17 to

pieces here and there, slowly build themselves up, and somebody takes

grow, learn and blossom here than you do, say, in America, where there is so much more at stake. You can make

astronaut, so the only way to live out ' my fantasies was to be an actor.

When I was in primary school, I used to go to West Theatre on the weekend with a friend - a kids’ workshop thing. I can remember going along with him and thinking,

that vividly, because at lunchtime everyone was asking Kylie what it was like to have a famous sister.

So I did that series, a play at the Playbox Theatre called Black Rabbit, and then another series called House Rules at the ABC. After that, I dropped

exception, most people get bits and

I think you have a lot more chance to

whatever film was out. I saw Star Wars [George Lucas, 1977]; I grew up on those Spielberg and George Lucas movies. It didn’t take me very long to figure out that I wasn’t going to be an

I got my first professional gig when I was 14. 1used to go to St Martin’s Theatre in South Yarra after school at University High. I just got myself along there, and got involved in any way I could. A school friend’s sister, who worked for a little [acting] agency in Carlton, said she’d keep an eye out.

They sent me to this audition, and I got the part. It was a kids’ show called C/- The Bartons [1988] on the ABC. In fact, the first job I did was two days’ work as an extra in a show called Fame and Misfortune [1986], in which Ben Mendelsohn played this gang leader. I was in his gang, and we had to beat up this bloke. Then his sister came out and beat us up with a base­ ball bat, and that was Kylie Minogue [before Neighbours, while sister Dannii was in Young Talent Time]. I remember

believe them when they say, “You’re a fuckin’ has-been.” What it equals

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1997 YOU WERE THE LEAD IN

bars”, but we aren’t used to that at all.

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TWO FILMS AND NOMINATED FOR BEST

ARE ALL WORKING AT THE SAME TIME

L e a d A c t o r in t h e AFI A w a r d s .

AND ALL CROSSING OVER EACH OTHER

It ’ s a b ig j u m p .

IN A SPATE OF FILMS.

It’s a good jump, but realistically this is peripheral stuff you deal with in promoting your film. Everyone says this and that about you, but you don’t take any of it on. Because when they start saying, “You’re the hot new thing, blah blah blah,” and you start believ­ ing all that shit, then you’ve got to

It’s great, it’s a good boom, it’s causing excitement and it’s terrific that people are talking about Australian cinema in a way that it hasn’t been talked about since the ’70s. You couldn’t ask for more, could you? @ 1 Cinema Papers, no. 120, October 1997.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1998

ing a young kid. [Writer-director] Chris

Muriel's Wedding P. J . H ogan, 1994 Muriel’s Wedding was the best audition I’ve ever done in my life. Usually, you go to an audition, do your bit, and sit on your arse for three months ringing your agent every day, waiting and waiting. In this case, I went for the audition; [direc­ tor] P. J. [Hogan] was there, as was [producer] Jocelyn Moorhouse and [co­ lead] Toni Collette. We sat down, did a couple of scenes, and we workshopped the bean bag scene. That finished: “Thanks for coming.” I said, “Yep, yep, cool”, and he says, “Well, it’s yours!”

And that was my first film.

Love and Other Catastrophes E m m a -K a te C roghan, 1996 I hadn’t worked for about six months.

My agent got the script, and said, “There’s a character in it you can play pretty easily. There’s no money. What do you want to do?” I thought it was better than sitting and stewing in my own neu­

Kennedy was a bit concerned that I’d chubbed up. By the time I got to do Kiss or Kill, I was about five kilos less than what I normally am. It was a full-on experience. shoot for me - a few days here, few days there. It was the first time I learned about movie deals: how you get paid; so much an hour for this, wow! It was a pretty hard job for Guy [Pearce] and Claudia [Karvan], but I had a good time mucking around with them. It got pretty obscene on the set, you know; we really sank low. Megan was in shock some days over the stuff we’d come up with.

In movies like When Harry Met Sally ...

[Rob Reiner, 1989], there’s always the mate, so I knew that I was doing the comic relief. Again, it was one of things where you think, “I know what I need to do here. This is what they want from me.

This is what I will deliver.”

It was unashamedly commercial, and that was it. They were making a commer­ cial number, and it made a heap of money. I’ve got more recognition out of that than any of the others. People in video stores come up and say: “Hey mate, I saw you in that movie.

You were funny in that.”

“Thanks mate.”

“Did you really get to fuck her, or what?”

They started calling me “Quick Draw McGraw” because of that scene.

Doing Time for Patsy Cline C h ris K e n n e d y, 1997 roses, I may as well do it. I went to Melbourne and met Emma-Kate and Stavros [Efthymiou], the producer. We went out for coffee and they explained what they wanted to do. So I spent two weeks in Melbourne, hanging out, hav­ ing fun, not thinking that it was a big deal. But it was a good little learning experience. In fact, what I wanted to know was how they were going to shoot a film for nothing. I thought that if they can get it to this stage, I’m in, good on ’em. And it turned out beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

I saw there was a movie in production called Doing Time for Patsy Cline. I thought, “That is a fuckin’ great title.”

So I rang up my agent, who said, “It’s another young part”, but I wanted to have a look. I got the script and thought, “This film is cool.” Then I heard Richard Roxburgh was doing it; I’d seen Blue Murder and was absolutely blown away

Dating the Enemy

day. It was that quick.

It was also great fun and a pretty easy C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1998

after the screening. She said, “I love the film, but you can’t do it again. It’s enough.” I said, “I know, that’s exactly

how I feel.” She said it would probably mean sitting around for a while, even doing small parts, but that we have to start being picky. Two weeks later Kiss or Kill came into the office. She said, “I think I found the one!” I read it and it was great. She lined up a meeting with [director] Bill Bennett about a week later. I rocked up to this meeting know­ ing that he had only seen Muriel’s Wedding and Love and Other Catastro­ phes and was considering me for the part of a sociopathic, bloody, potential murderer! I didn’t shave for a couple of days, stayed up late, turned up hungover, looking my worse, chain-smoked all the way through, swore a lot. At the end of the lunch - I think he saw right through it, he’s a pretty perceptive guyhe explained the whole thing to me. I was thinking to myself, “I wonder what happens next. Probably line up an audi­ tion or reading.” And he just said: “So, do you want to do it?”

“Yes.” “Okay, see you on the Nullarbor next month.”

M egan S im p s o n H u b e rm a n , 1996 Again, that was through my agent, who got the script from the producers. In fact, they’d been looking for the charac­ ter and had interviewed people.

Apparently they couldn’t find anyone. I had an audition. On the Thursday, I rocked up and met [director] Megan [Simpson Huberman] and did the audi­ tion. Then they got me in to meet Sue Milliken, the producer. I met with them, had a chat, and started shooting on the Tuesday, after rehearsing on the Mon­

Kiss or Kill Bill B e n n e tt, 1997 My agent saw Love and Other Catastro­ phes, and actually rang me up straight

by him. So I worked my arse off, and I got it. I went in there, sang a couple of country-and-western songs in my cow­ boy boots, and things worked out.

It was a fuckin’ ball. We had a great time; great Italian food, hanging out with Richard and Miranda [Otto] and a great crew. I made a lot of really good friends. Subsequently, most of that crew shot The Sugar Factory as well. It was just a great experience, and also the biggest role I’d done; my first lead role in a film, but, man, it was a workout.

I had to lose weight because I was play­

I walked out of the cafe thinking, “Fuck, now I’ve told him I can deliver, I’ve got to do it.” I knew at the time that I was doing Patsy Cline, so it was pretty strange playing a naive virgin country boy, finishing that job on the Friday, doing a screen test for The Sugar Factory on Sunday, and flying to Ceduna on Monday to play this other character, Al. Only two weeks of rehearsal, two weeks to grow sideburns, and straight into seven weeks in the desert, improvising, rolling around in dirt, screaming and cry­ ing, bashing people up, getting into knife fights.

In terms of dialogue, the whole thing was improvised. It was very clear-cut what had to happen in terms of story and information, plotline and stuff, but in terms of one-on-one dialogue there were suggestions in the treatment, but

we came up with the bulk of it.

With the jump cuts, the cast and crew spent the first two weeks saying to Bill: “You can’t do that. You’re crossing the line. You’ve got no continuity.”

“I want to do something different.”

“But at that point I had my hand here!”

“Fuck that, do something else.”

Everyone was saying, “This guy is nuts; he doesn’t know the first basic rules about filmmaking.” Then he got Henry [Dangar], the editor, to send over a rough cut of the first scene we shot, and we sat in this hotel room one Friday night with a couple of beers and watched it. They didn’t touch it from that first cut. We all watched, and went “Ohhhh!” It all made sense. It was a great experience; the tables were turned.

So often in a film you’re working around the technical aspects; you actually have to compromise your per­ formance for technical reasons. You have to direct your lines to a piece of gaffer tape because your eyeline isn’t right, or you have to deliver the same tine 50 times so they can cover from every angle. There was none of that. We had the technicals working around us.

Often those guys, poor bastards, didn’t even get to see a run before shooting it.

The Sugar Factory R o b e rt C a rte r, 1998 It’s based on the novel by Robert Carter, who wrote the screenplay and directed it. It’s been his big passion for 15 years

to get it up. It’s looking at life through the eyes of Harris, a very intelligent, eccentric teenager who doesn’t really fit into any kind of typical teenager thing; a non-conformist, with a very wry sense of humour. The theme of it is like Secrets and Lies [Mike Leigh, 1996], I guess. He lives the perfect suburban life: nice suburban family, mum and dad, big house, backyard, kids. He mows lawns for the neighbours, has a bit of a crush on this neighbour up the road, an older woman who’s got a couple of kids.

Then his world collapses around him, and you follow his journey, from when he uncovers this secret of his family that’s been buried, that had scarred him as a child, was subsequently forgotten and comes back to haunt him. He has a breakdown and he ends up in a halfway house for kids with personality disorders to work out his troubles and uncover this family secret. It’s a redemption story in a way.

21

GETTINO AN AIRING HIP HOP CITY NEUR1OMANCER1 WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY 9 RAGE OF INNOCENCE f f l 1THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS S E s a i M S E l l CINEMA p a p e r s !

CHRIS ZIWAR NEUROMANCER

Twenty-three year-old Chris Zwar studied Media at Deakin. In 1994, he and three other Rusden students made a 15-minute documentary on the Melbourne Rave scene, In Search of a Sub-culture. They had no money and minimal resources, but their labours excited the interest of Dasha Ross, Executive Producer of Docu­ mentary at the ABC. Making Neuromancer, named after the William Gibson novel, was a “humbling experience”, says Zwar, who knows there are hundreds of filmmakers out there. Zwar can’t believe that one year out of film school he got his first directing credit, and on a project he wanted to make.

22

Zwar hopes Neuro­ mancer will be a lasting impression of the Aus­ tralian Rave scene, as it teeters on the brink of transformation into wholly new and unrec­ ognizable beasts.

With its 15-year Rave history, Mel­ bourne was the obvious choice for much of the shooting. Sydney lost its edge in 1995, he says, when the death of Anna Woods from Ecstasy changed the Rave scene irreversibly. Raves were targeted by the police and forced to move into existing club premises. This took the gigs out of the organizers’ hands and put them into those of unadventurous management.

Neuromancer attended the big Rave, Hardware II, orchestrated by 20-something Richie Rich, and a smaller Rave held in the Flemington Rock Climbing Centre. Both were shot on film, a first for a Rave docu­ mentary. Zwar: We faced special problems, with the extremes of light [from black to burnout]. Video always looks so ‘noisy’ in these conditions and can’t deliver ‘solid’ blacks, so we shot on a new high-speed Kodak stock, 640 ASA.

Hardware II was the 40th Rave Richie Rich had organized. Tony Hall set the crane on Friday night. About 4,500 people attended and DOP John Brawley got some excellent footage.

There were 16 sub-woofers evenly distributed throughout the venue and a lot of money was spent on the lighting and the show. It’s not about fashion or being seen; it’s really about the music and dancing.

We did two types of interview, one lot with the Rave organizers and the other with the Ravers them­ selves. These industry professionals - making a living in the Rave scene, producing music, running Raves and promoting the culture - have done hundreds of interviews and the set-up doesn’t faze them. But for interviews with the Ravers, it was important not to freak them out.

Zwar scaled down to a two-man crew and even worked alone gather­ ing vox-pops with a Mini-DV. Zwar agrees that Anna Woods’ death was tragic but, nonetheless, he argues that it is extraordinary that one sub-culture should be hounded almost out of existence in favour of rock ’n’ roll, a culture which boasts and iconicizes its countless deaths by alcohol, heroin and cocaine.

Advice for young filmmakers: That would be like the blind leading the blind, just get out there and do it, and good luck!

TIM MUMMERY THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS AND WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY

The Pursuit of Happiness, a 20minute doco about the day-to-day business of a door-to-door sales firm, was made by Tim Mummery as a student at the Victorian College of the Arts. It was purchased by the ABC for Loud Dox. To fill the 25minute segment, the five-minute Windows of Opportunity was com­ missioned.

Mummery studied a BA in Anthropology in Western Australia.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

After travelling overseas, he com­ pleted a Graduate Diploma with subjects in documentary theory and, in 1996, was accepted into the VCA School of Film and Television’s newly-created Postgraduate Docu­ mentary stream. Mummery: Documentary wasn’t a burning desire of mine. I had a genuine interest in [docos], but I didn’t see it like some people as an easy route to [narrative] filmmaking.

Now it’s all Mummery wants to do.

A recipient of the Film Victoria Mentor Scheme, Mummery was paired with mentor Steve Thomas (a documentary filmmaker with credits far exceeding the space here). The Mentor Scheme brought Mummery to the attention of Dasha Ross. Upon viewing The Pursuit of Happiness, she purchased it from the Victorian Col­ lege of the Arts for $6,000.

The Pursuit of Happiness was an accident, says Mummery. His studio, Jindie Films, overlooks a Richmond laneway where, early one morning, he witnessed a group of businessmen and women standing in a circle singing and making ‘affirmations’.

This group of hawkers and can­ vassers were warming up for their day selling door-to-door. Dressed in a suit and tie, Mummery joined their C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

morning warm-up, where the group leader announced their goals and gave tips on pitching to customers.

Mummery revealed himself and they agreed to let him film them: It was great building relationships with these people, on what is essentially an ugly subject. It’s pretty shocking and propagates the [adage], “Greed is good.” You actually see these people diving for a fifty-dollar note dropped on the ground.

see more from this young filmmaker and anthropologist.

Advice to young filmmakers: Talk is valuable but you have to go out there and do it. By doing it, you learn to structure the story [in the field].

Remember that research pays and never forget that you are dealing with real people, who are going to have a life [beyond] the screening of your film.

PAUL FPNPCH

Windows of Opportunity sits com­ Director Paul Fenech is 29 years old fortably with Pursuit. A study of car-window cleaners at the intersec­ (too old to have done a Loud film, tion of Punt Road and Hoddle Street but the ways of the ABC are a mys­ tery to us all) and married with a in Melbourne, it is also a comment one-year-old son. He’s been revisit­ on the current economic climate, ing his teens for his ‘devotional’ comparing the old hands with the doco, Hip Hop City. upstart young punks, who vie with One decade ago, Paul Fenech was each other to eke out a living on the hanging with as many street. as 300 homeboys Mummery’s DOP was documen­ tary filmmaker Stewart Carter. Carter around the Marble, graduated from the VCA film school under the stairs at Cen­ tral, in Sydney. Angry in the late ’80s, when documentary with a bombardment was then frowned upon. Carter had to push it uphill to complete his grad­ by mainstream or Anglo culture, these uating doco, Ma’s Pie Float, about a ‘wanna-be toughs’ late-night pie-trailer on the steps of reacted by embracing Flinders Street station. an American ghetto In the company of Thomas and culture called hip-hop.

Carter, Mummery is in excellent Back then, “It wasn’t hands and it is inevitable that we will HIP HOP CITY

really about break dancing, it was belonging.” Training as a boxer “for the fitness aspect”, Fenech says - there was also a turf-war going on, between the Nazi punks and the homeys, and the police weren’t always gentle moving them on.

Fenech studied at Leichhardt High and involved himself with Metro TV. Scoring a job at the ABC as a floorsweeper, he worked his way up to direction. With David Webster, business partner and the producer of Hip Hop City, Fenech now makes film clips, commercials and docos through their company, Livewire Productions.

“The media has always centred on the thugs”, says Fenech, whose aim has been to devote 25 minutes to portraying the culture of hip-hop,

23

through its own music, its dance and its art, known as “graffing” or “tagging”.

Fenech hopes he’s captured some­ thing of the Aussie flavour. “The MCs aren’t afraid to use their own accents”, and Australia’s relative nearness to Pacific Islander culture is also having its influence. One of those interviewed, Trey, a Fijian Australian, says hip-hop’s culture parallels her own background with storytelling around the kava bowl equating to rapping, the breakdanc­ ing and DJ mirroring the traditional dance and drum: There is a recognizable clothing style, but it isn’t a uniform or an expensive fashion: tracksuits, sneakers with fat laces. But it’s also about being able to recognize famous graffiti and knowing the music.

Fenech shot some days and nights over three weeks, attending a Jam and hanging with a Crew.

A Jam gathers all the hip-hop elements in a gig. There’s some “graf”, and the band and the audience come together.

It’s all pretty passive, a few drinks, camaraderie, some fun.

In Werrington, in outer Sydney, they filmed guys living the hip-hop lifestyle under a railway bridge. “One guy had been depressed for years. The hip-hop scene stabilized him”, says Fenech.

Another guy had been a car thief, hiphop had settled him: “He still breaks the law graffing, but on the scale of things, his level of criminality is less.”

Borrowing the hip-hop elements of saturated colours and frenetic movement used by ‘graf-artist’ Paul Westgate, as well as from music-vids, commercials and Spike Lee, Fenech hopes Hip Hop City will contribute to hip-hop culture rather than cap­ ture it.

In the process, after shooting mul­ tiple video formats, like lipstick-cam, DVC and SP, and using a dolly for quality camera movement, Fenech “mixed” these images in the editing room, utilizing a hip-hop musicalformula known as “turntable-ism”, or the scratching together of two music tracks.

Even in the face of going main­ stream, Fenech doesn’t feel that hip-hop has had its day; he says it has maintained its integrity and is still evolving.

Advice to young filmmakers: It’s about integrity, to yourself and the subject.

You have to ask yourself, “Why are you doing it and are your skills up to it?”

You can’t be the captain of the ship if you haven’t cleaned the barnacles off the bottom, and you have to work your way up and learn it all. If you haven’t done this, then why are you doing it?

n Wednesday 21 January, SBS-TV’s “ Eat Loud Carpet” featured a series of films focusing on issues of racism and preju- . dice in Australia. The films, by filmmakers 13 to 28 years of age and of two-to-three minutes duration each, were commissioned by SBS as part of the Loud initiative.

Skater, Skippy, Homie, W og, by brothers Andrew "(16) and Brendan (14) Dowell, exposes the myths that exist between the Homies from the Sydney sub­

NICOLk MCCUAIG RiAOE OF INNOCENCE

Their exams behind them, Year 12 students from all over Australia descend on the Gold Coast to party.

“It’s a rite of passage for these kids”, says Rage of Innocence's director, Nicole McCuaig. “Many have never drunk before. It’s a week of new experiences. They don’t know their limitations, and we make no judge­ ments.”

With a couple of docos under her belt, one on Rugby Union and another on women surfers, 27-year-old McCuaig (also too old according to Loud guidelines) holds a Commerce Degree and spent four years in post-production, two of which were spent as a commercials editor.

She teaches Media at Bond University, where one of her students, Alice Jones, now a 23-year-old journalist, pointed out that nobody had yet covered this amazing annual experience in any­ thing more than a cursory manner and that nobody had talked to the Schoolies.

McCuaig was able to call on

urb Hurstville and the'Skaters|and Suffil^ of Cronulla and Miranda.

Bad News, by 28-year-old Sofya Gollan,"explores the notion that to be born deaf is a disability in the' eyes of hearing people.

In Goth to be Greek, Tim Slade (24) and Andrew Georgiou (25) debunk the myth that Goths can’t get a date.

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school student whose short, W hite is Not Black,

friends who had attended Schoolies’ Week in the late ’80s, and described the experience as “mind-blowing”.

Since then, Schoolies’ Week has assumed the proportions of a Gold Coast event, generating between $8-10 million and, like the Mardi Gras, building its own traditions and culture.

“We were a three-girl cameracrew. During the' day it was all holiday atmosphere, sun and surf”,

says McCuaig, but at night it was different. The youth loved the cam­ era and in the street the crew were mobbed. “We managed to keep rolling through most of it, but a couple of times we had to tell the DOP, Kristen Jones, to put the camera down.” cs»45

asks what Happens to Aboriginals wh'o don’t have black skin.

ATOM Award winner Patrick Hughes) whorisT7f J | | ^ currently studying at the VCA School of Rlrhlfnd^liiPIB vision, explodes the myth that young people don’t care in No Passion for the Fight. Islttfde that young jg people can’t be bothered with pblffics^etairetT-fTi^® p jg g jjire of finding,ajj^ j^ icio cd t ic ^ ^ r is this insta tonvenlm rm yth c ^ ^ ^ b y ^ ^ B y them for the problems they’ve created, he asks.

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EVERYBODY'S ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE NEXT BIG THING THAT'S NOTHING NEW. AND SOMETIMES PREDICTIONS AND PROPHECIES HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD, AND SOMETIMES THEY'RE WAY OFF. WE'RE NOT ABOUT TO MAKE ANY RASH JUDGEMENTS ABOUT THESE SIX PEOPLE; SUFFICE TO SAY THAT THEY'RE FACES AND T ALE N TS WORTH LOOKING OUT FOR IN 1998.

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H U N T E R Name':; HEATH LEDGER' Prof^TbriVActor A g e : i 8 .

Training/Background: Theatre and dance Credits so far: Sweat (Television), Blackrock (Steve Vidler, 1997), Paws (Karl Zwicky.'.i 1997), Home and Away (Television), Poor (Television) Prediction: With a strong dance and theatre background in Western Australia, Ledger^

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has been dabbling in television recently, as well as scoring supporting roles in a c o u -| pie of feature filmsiHisTead rotetas Conor in Roar, a fantasy television series set in 1 400 AD Ireland but filmed jn Queensland, was in an American co-production, and h a sj brought Ledger more attention. The fact that the series has,already?^en axed in the,^ States shouldn’t hurt his.careertbo much; itTl;certamly make local talent scouts sit upj and watclrhim in future.^

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Name: JOHN SAFRAN Profession: Director Age: 25 Training/Background: Journalism course, RMIT, advertising Credits s o la r: Race Around the World Prediction: With little experience before being selected for the ABC’s Race Around the World series last year, Safran soon proved himself to be something of a tearaway film­ maker. His unpredictability won him quite a lot of attention - especially after his naked dash through the streets of Jerusalem. He has dabbled in the music industry with his parody song “Not the Sunscreen Song”, a send-up of a track offBaz Luhrmann’s CD “Something for Everyone”, and has been a graveyard shift DJ on Triple J. It will be inter­ esting to see what sort of offers and projects he becomes involved with in the future.

CI NEMA PAPERS

MARCH 1998

Name: TIM MUMMERY Profession: Director Age: 27 Training/Background: Victorian College of the Arts Credits so far: The Pursuit o f Happiness (short documentary), Out There and Back, Windows o f Opportunity.

Prediction: Mummery made it into the LOUD festival in January because his graduate documentary, The Pursuit o f Happiness, was made while he was 25. It has already been screened theatrically, so Mummery probably doesn’t need any more help with his career for the moment. He is definitely one of the VCA graduates to watch, as long as he isn’t overexposed, and as long as expectations are kept at a reasonable level.

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Name: JESSICA NAPIER Profession: Actor Age: 18 Training/Background: No formal training Credits so far: Police Rescue (television), Echo Point (television), Love Serenade (Shirley Barrett, 1996), Twisted Tales (television), Blackrock (Steve Vidler, 1997), M urder Call (television), Wildside (television) Prediction: Daughter of actor Marshall Napier, the majority of Jessica's work has been, understandably perhaps, on the small screen, but her film career is just beginning. Her role as Rachel in Blackrock brought her much attention, and she is considered by casting agents to be one of the new hot properties. She has been fortunate to have worked in television’s ‘upperscale’ o f drama for the past four years, and is set to take off ve ry shortly.

g p . Name: SULLIVAN STAPLETON Profession: Actor ~ A |ir2o 11|' Training/Background: St Martins Youth Theatre, Theatre Training/^ | C re d its so far: Miss Taurus (short film), Bab,y Bath Massacre(Stuart McDonald, 1996). ||l. \ River Street (Tony Mahood, 1997),, Blue Heelers (television), Good Guys, BadGuys > H ^ K fg le visio n ), State Coroner (television), Halifax f.p\ (television), Raw FM (television )/" JS m ih p ^ e n ie from Down Under II (television)*, neighbours (television), Amy (Nadia Tass) Jail, lean, good-looking, andtalented, Stapleton has the potential and the presence to be one of Australia’s major actors. Stapleton hasn’t been professionally p /* tra i^ c lf,*bjs«fthat doesn’t seem to rqatter. He.has enough talent to prove that instinct is often more valuable than training. ,His supporting role in River Street certainly did him s a few favours, despite the film’s box-office failure, and his performance in Amy, yet to be seen, will set himuon biswvay. t%ibig breakthough isxstill to come.

Name: DONNA SWAN Profession: Director Age: 35 Training/Background: VCA Crédits sofar: SKUD Prediction: Having won quite a number of awards for her 1996 VCA graduate film, Swan has been working on her first feature film script while doing the fe st| vais with SKUD. Her roufe into filmmaking started with Political Science at the University of Queensland before moving into more arts-based study. She sees film â sn medium for commenting or ‘critiqueing’ society, and is drawn to its ‘visual poetry’ Th realizing political and human stories.

MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM

to

W ith .", »tide and B u tte r fly - f i s , M ichael W in te rb o tto m is helping to res to re British cinem a fro m the doldrum s into which it sunk in the late 1980s. His latest film, W e lc o m e t o S a r a je v o , which stars Stephen Dillane, W o o d y Harrelson, Kerry Fox and M arisa Tom ei, prom ises to be his m o st am bitious, international and, judging fro m the respon se the film elicited at its pre­ m iere at Cannes, controversial to date. Jan Epstein1 spoke to W in te rb o tto m a fte r its Cannes début, w here so m e m em bers o f the press w e re highly critical o f the d irecto r’s perspective on the w ar in Bosnia.

W e l c o m e t o S a r a j e v o is s o d if f e r e n t t o y o u r OTHER FILMS. WAS THIS BY CHANCE OR DESIGN?

just try and make films which I’m interested in.

It would be strange in a way if a film of a Thomas Hardy novel was very similar to a film about les­ bian serial killers in England, or a film about Sarajevo.

They are very differ­ ent subjects and, inevitably, very dif­ ferent films. n the case of W e lc o m e to S a r a je v o , I was sent a script called “Natasha’s Story”, which was based on Michael Nicholson’s book of the same name. It was very specifically about the experi­ ence of Nicholson and his taking a child out [of Sarajevo]. I was interested because it seemed to me a possible starting point to make a film about what is happening in Sarajevo. then asked Frank Cottrell Boyce to work with me on the screenplay. The starting point was to have not a montage, but lots of short stories; to have lots of chapters almost within the film. At one stage, that was perhaps more obvious than it is now.

The idea was that perhaps for five minutes you go off and have a story about Risto [Goran Visnjic], Quite later, you would have a story about the orphanage, which ties in. Or you would have archive footage show­ ing something happening in parallel to the main story.

One of the difficult experiences working on it was there was so much I wanted to put in. I hope the film reflects that without being completely chaotic. We

wanted to say, “This is happening here, but something else is happening over there and it is just as impor­ tant.” We have some central characters and want the audience to become emotionally involved with them, but the minor characters have their own stories and they are just as important.

Equally, there are millions of people who aren’t in the film, who also have their stories.

It seems to me watching the war at the time, and going over there later to make a film, that the West was sitting on the fence, trying not to get involved. It had a minimal involvement with very limited mandates, but always had the capability to do far more, far earlier.

If you compare what happened in Bosnia with what happened in the Gulf, the contrast in the speed and scale of the response is so vast that you can’t help but think it was outrageous how little was done in Bosnia.

In Britain, I remember endless arguments about whether we could afford to have troops there; whether we should withdraw the troops because it was too expensive; whether we should pull out straightaway when a British soldier died. The cost to Britain in human and financial terms was somehow seen as far more important than the war itself.

T h e r e w a s a lo t of t a l k d u r in g a n d a f t e r t h e G u lf W a r a b o u t h o w t h e m e d ia h e l p e d m a n u f a c t u r e that w a r . In

W e l c o m e to Sa r a j e v o , you take a

DIFFERENT VIEW OF JOURNALISTS.

I thought it was important for the film not to be cynical

29

about journalists. In the particular case of Sarajevo, a lot of journalists were killed. They were targets in the war and risked their lives by being there.

In Britain, at least, there were a lot of journalists who were committed to the subject and campaigned for something to happen. Papers like T h e G u a rd ia n and T h e I n d e p e n d e n t frequently ran stories saying the British government was standing by and watching while this city was being destroyed, and that that was not acceptable.

I think the journalists were very deeply affected by the war. They didn’t want to simply go there as tourists.

They didn’t want to be on the fence.

wrong with the attitude of the rest of the world, particularly in Europe. This was a war in Europe, but people wanted to keep their hands clean and not do anything about it.

A lot of people in Europe grew up feel­ ing that there wasn’t going to be another war in Europe, and yet here was a war in Europe. For people living outside of Bosnia, there was a sense of “There is a war happening but we are not going to pay much attention to it.”

I’m sure most people felt this should be the most important event in their lives, but somehow it was only 10 minutes a day. That kind of disassociation is strange.

Jude Fawley (Christopher Eccleston) and Sue Bridehead (Kate Winslet).

W h a t , t h e n , d o y o u s e e k a s a f il m ­ maker?

To find a story I’m interested in and then try to make a film that I would want to go and watch. That generally means trying to engage with some­ thing which is, on the surface, quite difficult, and trying to make it in a way that is interesting and accessible.

There is no point making a film about Sarajevo if only people who are really interested in Sarajevo are going to watch it. They have probably already thought about it a lot. I wanted to make a film that would encourage people who perhaps had already forgotten Sarajevo, and had no interest in Bosnia, to come and watch this film and be engaged, shocked and moved by it.

It is c e r t a in l y s h o c k in g . Y o u a r e JOLTED INTO NEW WAYS OF THINKING AND FEELING.

It is hard to say, really. It is going to be very hard to persuade people to come and watch it. I hope that if people come and see the film then they will suggest to other people that they should also watch it. Whether people will come I don’t know. It is now down to Channel 4 and Miramax and all the distributors, in a way.

HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT FILMING IN Sa r a je v o ?

W9WP j | p t l | e s s e n t i a l l y a love-story. Although it has a positive ffnouah when they are together to feaUi&t it is not ahoiifchow shittv everything is. It is about

They wanted to show people back home what was happening in order to change something. The trouble was that the people back home didn’t do anything and the journalists felt incredibly frustrated. Lots of them have written about their sense of impotence and anger. I wanted to show that side of journalism.

There are contradictions of being a journalist in situations like that. Obvi­ ously journalists are well-paid and well-fed and relatively secure com­ pared to civilians. But they also have to do terrible things. When you are watching footage of someone dying, a cameraman has to rush over to take those pictures. That is a terrible thing to have to do. But I don’t think that invalidates the idea that you should see those pictures.

The inevitable logic of those who criti­ cize such footage is that you should ignore any war that is happening; that by not getting involved you keep your hands clean. That was exactly what was

30

W a s m a k in g a f il m o n s u c h a s u b j e c t A DIFFICULT EXPERIENCE FOR YOU AS A HUMAN BEING?

It was a difficult experience, and obvi­ ously there were a lot of things to remember from it. It would be very nice to be able to say how this changed my life and affected me in this way or that, but I’m not sure it would be honest.

Obviously you have a concern to start with, because that is why you want to make the film. At the end of the film, you’ve spent a long time meeting peo­ ple, going to places, looking at material - especially, in this case, watching hours and hours of material. That affects you in different ways, but only in the same way that all experience does. I think it would be too pat and glib to say, “What I learnt from the war in Sara­ jevo w as...”

I don’t think the film has a simplistic solution or a moral, because that’s too reductive. I know that doesn’t make for a very good interview, but that is how I feel.

There were irritations rather than prob­ lems: very few phone lines, difficulties with accommodation, areas where there were still a number of land mines. On the whole, though, Sarajevo was relatively straightforward because we had co-operation from SAGA, the film company there.

A lot of the crew worked with SAGA and had made a lot of documentaries during the war there, so they knew the city very well. They also knew the story very well, so when we needed to film with extras or whatever, that side was easy. In some ways, that more than compensated for any problems in shooting there.

When we first went there, we showed the script to SAGA. The Bosnian gov­ ernment authorities liked the script and approved it. They made some sug­ gestions, but nothing significant.

Among the people working with us, there were people whose background was Bosnian Serb, Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat, Bosnian Catholic.

Within the government side of Sara­ jevo, there is still an ethnic diversity.

Of course it is predominantly Muslim, but there is no ethnic tension.

There is a huge division there between people who are on one side of the war and people on the other side. If you have spent three-and-a-half years being shelled by someone, you are not going to be that sympathetic to them.

What was interesting was going to Macedonia, where we had to film some interiors. In Macedonia, there is a com­ plete division between, on the one hand, the Muslim side of the city, and, on the other side, the orthodox side of the city; between Muslim villages and orthodox villages. There has always been that split in Macedonia. And that is what is so awful about the fact of Sarajevo. Sarajevo was actually a mod­ ern city, a European city, a successfully-integrated city and that has been destroyed.

HOW DID YOU FIND STEPHEN DlLLANE [ j o u r n a l is t M ic h a e l H e n d e r s o n ]? H e IS BOTH SO MATURE AND SO UNKNOWN.

Stephen has done a lot of theatre work and also quite a lot of television in Eng­ land, but not very much film. I don’t know why he hasn’t done more film.

When the script was very first sent to me, the producers said, “Talk to Jeremy Irons.” But before we began casting, that idea had disappeared, and we met lots of actors.

I just thought Stephen was right for the part. He is very intense but, as an actor, also very restrained. He doesn’t try to grab attention in every scene. If he is working with a girl who is sup­ posed to have lost her parents, you don’t spend all your time wondering what Henderson is feeling; you spend your time wondering what the girl is feeling. He was very good like that.

W h a t w a s t h e t r ig g e r t o u s in g K e r r y Fo x ?

I just really admire Kerry’s acting abil­ ity, especially in A n g e l a t m y T a b le . I liked the idea that she wasn’t English, even though her character [Jane Carson] was working for an English news company. I thought the combination of her and Stephen and Woody [Harrelson, who plays Flynn, the cameraman] would be good.

W h y d id y o u s e l e c t t h o s e p a r t ic u l a r A m e r ic a n a c t o r s ?

Because I like them.

Flynn is supposed to be an American star journalist and it was great to get Woody, who is a genuine American star.

It is different with Marisa [Tomei], because she is supposed to be playing someone [Nina] who almost acciden­ tally ends up in Sarajevo. The real character on whom Nina is based had gone to drama school, hadn’t done much acting, got interested by watch­ ing the news, raised money and ended up taking these children out. I felt Nina would feel vulnerable, maybe out of place and struggling, doing her best but not having had a lot of experience.

I liked Marisa and felt she would be good for that.

W h a t a b o u t t h e c h il d r e n , e s p e c ia l l y Em i r a [E m i r a N u s e v ic ]?

We had a casting agent

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Wagering Life

The Elmore Leonard adaptation frenzy continues, as Andrew L. Urban discovers

Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda delighted critics and audiences with its audacious narrative games and spirited fabulation. Director Gillian Armstrong has attempted the near impossible in bringing so literary a work to the screen, but Raymond Younis is fair pleased with the results

34

36

Jackie Brown

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Baxter Blues

Ken G. Hall labelled John Baxter’s book on Australian cinema “a sickening mass of inaccuracies”. Scott M urray finds Baxter’s biography on Stanley Kubrick little different 39

Wigglemania

HURRICANE STREETS Directed by : Morgan J. Freeman .

Producers : Galt Neiderhofeer , Gill Holland, Morgan J. Freeman . Executive producers : LM. Kit Carson , Cynthia Hargrave . Line producer : Nadia Leonelli S criptwriter : Enrique Chédiak . Director

Exploitation isn’t only confined to low-rent sex-and-slash pictures.

Karl Q uinn finds a new exploitation genre gripping the souls and passions of an underdescribed generation: the two- and three^year-olds 38

OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID BURR. PRODUCTION d e s ig n e r :

P e t r a Ba r c h i . C o s t u m e

d e s ig n e r :

Na n c y B r o u s . Ca s t : B r e n d a n S e x to n III (M a r c u s ) , Ly n n C o h en (L u cy ) , S h a w n E l l io t (P a co ) , J o s e Z u n ig a (K r a m e r ), E d ie Fa lc o (Jo a n n e ), Da v id R o l a n d F r a n k (C h ip ), A n t o in e M c Lea n (H a r o l d ) , Ca r l o A lba n (B en n y ) , M t u m e Ga n t (L o u is ), Da m ia n C o r r e n t e (Ju s t in ), Da v id M o s c o w (S h a n e ), H e a t h e r M a t a r a z z o (A s h l e y ), R ic h a r d P e t r o c e l u (H a n k ), A d r ia n G r e n ie r (P u n k e r ), L M . K it Ca r s o n (M a c k ), I s id r a V e g a (M e l e n a ). A u s t r a l ia n

d is t r ib u t o r :

N e w v is io n F il m s . USA. 1 9 9 7 . 3 5 m m . 88 m in s .

ilms about ghettoized urban youth and the loss (or even total absence) of innocence have become something of a sub-genre in the past decade or two. Some are incredibly didactic, such as One Eight Seven (Kevin Reynolds, 1997), others are gratuitous {Kids, Larry Clark, 1995), but few are as sensitively observed as this film,

F

Hurricane Streets.

The story revolves around Mar­ cus Frederick (Brendan Sexton ill), a boy who has just turned 15. He appears to be on his own, and in many ways he is. His father is dead, his mother, Joanne (Edie Falco), is in prison, apparently for assisting illegal immigrants, and he lives with his grandmother, Lucy (Lynn Cohen), who runs a dive of a bar in New York’s East Village, and seems to be rarely home. But for all that, Marcus seems content. He C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

waits for the day when his mother will be released from prison and they return to New Mexico to live.

In the meantime, he hangs out with a group of guys who have made an old bomb shelter into a club house, and keep themselves amused with small-time black marketeering at the local school.

Then Marcus meets Melena (Isidra Vega), a 14-year-old girl with a very protective and abusive father (Shawn Elliot), and the two form a friendship that teeters on the edge of a relationship, despite her father’s restrictions. But just when Marcus feels that life is on the up, it all comes crashing down.

In many ways, the plot, the situ­ ations and even some of the characters in Hurricane Streets are all fairly standard stuff. At times the dialogue, too, is a little on the

33

sureview Films

continued banal side, but what really raises this film above many of its peers is the characterization of Marcus, and Sexton’s performance.

Here is a young teenager who truly is, as most adolescents are, a mass of contradictions. He has a gentle and engaging innocence and idealism alongside a streetwise understanding of the harshness of life. He may be involved in small­ time felony, but he has a well-developed sense of morality and is, above all, an honest and genuine person. The sensitivity that Sexton gives Marcus is so dis­ arming that at first it’s not at all obvious. Yet by the end of the film, you are left watching both the char­ acter and the actor playing him in awe of the accomplishment. And what makes it even more effective is the fact that Sexton looks 15, complete with acne and the promise of development not yet begun. No idealized notions of teenage perfection here.

Freeman, as a young writerdirector, still has much to learn about filmmaking and writing, but he has made an impressive debut, rich with gentle irony, sadness and a perceptive understanding of the human condition. © TIM HUNTER

MA VIE EN ROSE Directed by A lain Berliner . Producer: Carole Scotta. Co-producers : Alain Berliner , John McGarth , Jacqueline Pierreux . S criptwriters : Chris Vander Stappen , Alain Berliner , based on a story

by Chris Vander Stappen . Director of PHOTOGRAPHY: YVES CAPE. EDITOR: SANDRINE D e e g e n . M u s ic : D o m in iq u e Da l c a n . Ca s t : M ic h è l e La r o q u e (H a n n a ), J e a n -P h il ip p e E c o f f e y (P ie r r e ), H e l en e V in c e n t (E l iz a b e t h ), G e o r g e s D u Fr e s n e (L u d o v ic ), Da n ie l Ha n s s e n s (A l b e r t ), La u r e n c e B ib o t (L is e t t e ). A u s t r a l ia n

d is t r ib u t o r :

C o l u m b ia T r is t a r . B e l g iu m . 1 9 9 7 . 3 5 m m .

89

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m in s .

rith the near demise of con­ temporary French cinema from the screens of Australia’s arthouse circuit, the arrival of Alain Berliner’s M a Vie en R o se is a wel­ come start to the year. His feature début, a French-Swiss-Belgium-UK co-production, may not set the world on fire - though its winning of a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film suggests it may - but it signals an auspicious début by a young filmmaker working out of one of the world’s most vibrant film com­ munities.

M a Vie en R o se opens to a spectacularly vivid colour montage - an over-the-top homage of sorts

to the over-the-top works of pho­ tographers Pierre and Gilles — which seemingly contrasts a bland, modern, middle-class housing development with the lurid motifs of a ’50s Technicolor musical. It is overlaid with a popsicle tune by French singer Zazie.

Simply stated, nine-year-old Ludovic (Georges Du Fresne) believes that he is female, that it is his birthright to dress in girls’ clothing, and that he will eventually fall in love with and marry a mem­ ber of the opposite sex (that is, a mate). Initially, Ludovic’s predilec­ tions are accepted and tolerated as naive childhood whims, but before too long his behaviour is scorned by the conservative community where his quintessential^ bour­ geois family lives.

As pressure mounts on Ludovic’s loving and supportive parents to ‘modify’ Ludovic’s tendencies - he is barred from playing with the neighbour’s son, and eventually forced to enrol in another school - a crisis develops within the family. His father, Pierre Oean-Philippe Ecoffey), perhaps too predictably adopts a harsh disciplinarian stance; mother Hanna (Michèle Laroque) is left to deal with her husband’s growing hostility, which soon manifests itself as blame for what he per­ ceives to be her soft line on their wayward son.

The other link in this growing conflict is Hanna’s grandmother, who refuses to allow the prejudice and ostracism to affect her nurtur­

ing of Ludovic. Herein lies one of the film’s most poignant and tren­ chant themes: the possibility, indeed the distinct likelihood, that Hanna and Pierre’s generation are themselves profoundly confused over how to deal with gender and sexuality and its place within their domestic, social and professional realms. Has this generation, the film pointedly appears to be ask­ ing, got it all so completely wrong?

And how ironic that it has, given its claims to tolerance and liberalism, exemplified by the signature scenes of healthy and hearty upwardly-mobile families confi­ dently makingtheir way in their model community.

Ludovic is less a product of these skewed values than he is its hapless and unfortunate victim.

M a Vie en R o se is at its best when it snakes its way through the tan­ gled web of domestic and social conflict, and the ultimate tragedy of parents and children who must sublimate their innate behavioural instincts to the rules and conduct of a rigid social order that seeks to quash individuality in the interests of conformity and respectability.

For as long as the drama remains within the walls of this suffocating but all-too-vivid domestic setting, M a Vie en R o s e is involving and, in the best sense of the word, melodramatic. The performances, particularly those of the striking Georges Du Fresne and Michèle Laroque, are immedi­ ate and direct in their meaning and intent, yet understated.

Less successful, however, are the plethora of supporting charac­ ters, who are mostly relegated to broad and hideous caricature: the uptight and sexually-repressed devout Catholics next door; the sleazy playboy across the street who hides behind bushes to avoid an encounter with a ‘homo’. These characters, which the film merci­ lessly exploits for parodie effect, are used mostly to cast cheap and smug shots.

Finally and most disappoint­ ingly, however, the screenplay flounders in its final act. The family, now jobless, outcast and on the verge of self-immolation, packs up house and heads to a new town.

Their neighbours there include a sympathetic single mother and her tomboy daughter. The resolution is rich in promise, but it is a contrived escape that is far too obvious for the film’s own good. © PAUL KALINA

34

:1 1

JACKIE BROWN

_________________________ D ir e c t e d

by

Q u e n t in T a r a n t in o . P r o d u c e r :

La w r e n c e B e n d e r . Ex e c u t iv e P r o d u c e r s :

11

R ic h a r d N. G l a d s t e in , E l m o r e L e o n a r d , B o b W e in s t e in , Ha r v e y W e in s t e in . C o P r o d u c e r : Pa u l H e l l e r m a n . S c r ip t w r it e r s : E l m o r e L e o n a r d , Q u e n t in T a r a n t in o .

Ba s e d

on t h e n o v e l

Rum P unch

L e o n a r d . D ir e c t o r

of

by

El m o r e

Ph o t o g r a p h y :

G u il l e r m o Na v a r r o . P r o d u c t io n D e s ig n e r : Da v id W a s c o . C o s t u m e D e s ig n e r : M a r y C l a ir e Ha n n a n . E d it o r : S a l l y M e n k e . Ca s t : Pa m G r ie r (Ja c k ie B r o w n ), S a m u e l L. Ja c k s o n (O r d e l l R o b b i ), R o b e r t Fo r s t e r (M a x C h e r r y ), B r id g e t F o n d a (M e l a n ie ), M ic h a e l K ea to n (R a y N ic o l e t ), R o b e r t D e N ir o (L o u is G a r a ), M ic h a e l B o w e n (M a r k Da r g u s ), L is a Ga y (H a m il t o n S h e r o n d a ), T o m ‘T in y ’ Lis t e r J r . (W in s t o n ), Ha t t ie W in s t o n (S im o n e ), Q u e n t in T a r a n t in o (A n s w e r in g M a c h in e V o ic e ; A u s t r a l ia n

d is t r ib u t o r :

u n c r e d it e d ).

Ro a d sh o w .

US. 19 9 8 . 3 5 m m .

T here’s a line in Ja ck ie B row n which, in a way, sums up the mood of Quentin Tarantino’s adap­ tation of Elmore Leonard’s novel {Rum P un ch ). Ordell Robbi (Samuel L. Jackson) is meeting Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) in a black neighbour­ hood bar during a rather tense episode. They’re alone bar the bar­ man, who makes a low-key pass at Jackie; she is indeed a handsome woman. Ordell shakes his head in wry amusement and says in his black badass way: “I bet if you came here on a Saturday night, you’d need nigger repellant...” The tone of the language is perfectly typical of the film, a tale set in the underworld of Los Angeles in the ’70s.

There is no moral to this story but then there are no morals to confuse its central characters, bar one: Max Cherry (Robert Foster).

Morality is not the issue so much as the law, loyalty and greed. Van­ ity takes a peek, too, but the central story is of an unmarried black woman, who at 44 has everdecreasing choices in life. She takes what she can. She is a stew­ ardess on a small airline that skips in and out of Mexico, which means she has a chance to bring in some illegal cash for the gunrunning Ordell Robbi. When the feds catch her on a trip, she saves her skin by setting up a sting to give them Robbi. But she feels she can do better than that: she can sting not just Robbi, but the cops, too, by double crossing them all. It doesn’t mean she’s a bad woman, but she’s playing hardball with a hard­ ball gun runner. And getting herself a pension of half a million dollars.

This black female heroine, while flawed, is impressive as a smarter schemer than the rest of the crims, and even smarter than

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

the special task force cops, headed

by Ray Nicolet (Michael Keaton).

Much will no doubt be made of these elements on talk shows and in journals: “Look at this: a middle aged black sister whips ass.

Hooray, Quentin Tarantino!” And, yes, indeed, Tarantino has told this story brilliantly - but it is, after all, Elmore Leonard’s story. (A refer­ ence to LA C o n fid en tia l is unavoidable, and you can argue between yourselves over which is the better film.) That source novel is evident in some of the longerthan-Tarantino scenes heavy with dialogue, but they never drag.

Nothing in this film drags: it’s taught with dramatic tension, tem­ pered and filled out with plenty of sardonic humour, as well as a con­ siderable heart, which seems odd in the context, but gives the film its long-term life.

The fact that Jackie Brown is

such a handsome but unattached woman provides the setting for the sexual/romantic undertones that drive the motivations of Jackie Brown’s ally in the story, the bonds bailman, Max Cherry (Robert Fos­ ter). Now, whoa there, a middle-aged white bondsman romancing a middle-aged black crook? Which is the greater sur­ prise: that it’s touted as a major mainstream film, or that it’s por­ trayed on screen by a whiteass director? Who cares. Anyway, they both recognize it’s a hopeless case.

Tarantino and his cast can take credit for making us accept and believe this attraction between them; it turns on the credibility and complexity of both characters, defined for us early on.

Max is the only character in the film who remains ‘clean’ of the cor­ ruption and greed that drive all the others - some of the special force

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

cops excepted. Foster plays him with unshakable conviction, a security that comes from know­ ing and loving your character.

Jackson’s confident, arro­ gant, sharply-dressed, pony-tailed dude of a gun run­ ner is the dark sun around whom the planets revolve: Melanie (Bridget Fonda) is a blonde with a bong and a low ambition level: when Ordell warns her about smoking dope, “That shit’ll rob you of your ambi­ tions”, she quips back, lazy but fast, “Not if your ambition is to get high and watch TV.” Her flat is where he hangs out and does busi­ ness. He hardly ever goes to his own dump, where a comatose young black female lounges on the sofa, unintroduced, except to Louis Gara (Robert De Niro), a bank rob­ ber just out after four years in prison. This is yet another De Niro, after all this time: an underdressed underachiever with a hang-dog expression but a fatally-short fuse.

The idiosyncratic nervous ticks are absent, the character beams out of him, the eyes speak of confusion, fear and a modicum of bravado.

Fonda finds her character, but it takes a while for us to fully under­ stand her various sides. She manages to retain a mystery while

apparently being a simple, twosided young woman; it’s a compleat performance, peaking perhaps in what may be the shortest sex scene on film, and the most droll.

This is Tarantino territory, but his camera is much steadier: his approach is a blend of classic film techniques and personal flourishes - not to mention his punchy use of music, often juxtapositioning source music while jump-cutting between scenes for great effect.

Many scenes, especially in the first half of the film, are taken in simple, eloquent shots. The camera is still as it watches the action. In other scenes, always crucial and dra­ matic, the point of view is the boot of a car, looking up, or from the back seat of a van where Ordell and Louis are heavy in confronta­ tion in the front. We also observe Ordell from the back, watching his thinning but long and straightened hair, as he lounges on his couch during a critical phone conversa­ tion. All of it. These, and the use (once) of a split screen, and (three times) of a Rashomon-like retelling of a crucial incident, are technique tools that Tarantino uses to keep us in the critical balance between prediction and surprise, on the edge of a smile but with a sense of fear and foreboding in our guts. ©ANDREW L. URBAN

BANDWAGON D ir e c t e d

b y Jo h n

S ch u l tz . Pr o d u c e r s :

A l yso n P o o l e , Jo h n S c h u l t z . C o - p r o d u c e r : M ic h a e l S h e v l o f f . S c r ip t w r it e r : J ohn S c h u l t z . D ir e c t o r

of p h o t o g r a p h y :

S ha w n

M a u r e r . E d it o r : J o h n Pa c e . P r o d u c t io n d e s ig n e r : I r in a

R iv e r a . C o s t u m e s : B et zy

R e is in g e r . Ca s t : K e v in C o r r ig a n (W y n n K n a p p ), S t e v e Pa r l a v e c c h io (E r ic E llw o o d ), Lee H o l m e s (T o n y R id g e ), M a t t h e w H e n n e s s e y (C h a r l ie F lag g ), D o u g M a c M illa n (L in u s Ta t e ). A u s t r a l ia n d is t r ib u t o r :

D e n d y . USA. 1 9 9 7. 3 5 m m .

1 0 3 MINS.

A s in life, it is in the nature of music to draw a bunch of dis­ parate individuals together, almost against their will, and put them in a van for a very long period of time.

B a ndw agon is a strange hybrid.

It looks like a low-budget explo­ ration of regional subculture made by someone who knows the terri­ tory, but it is packaged in a conventional narrative, made by someone who knows the trajectory.

Writer-director John Schultz is the former drummer of The Con­ nells, a staple of the US college market, and he wrote the film while directing The M a kin g o f Ju ra ssic P ark for Steven Spielberg. The cin­ ematography and sound design of B a nd w ag o n has a grunge aesthetic: it is hard, dark, wet and sharp, and incorporates the ‘blue look’ of indoor film used outdoors. It has the look and feel of a low-budget film, but is set firmly within the structure of a mainstream movie.

Schultz’s script is witty and well-observed. The Circus Monkey band members engage in a thick, often cynical verbiage relieved only by the silent Linus (Doug MacMil­ lan) and his Sphinx-like utterances.

The general discourse is lazy and understated and peppered with musical references. “Where’s Wynn?”, someone asks. “He’s out there between the Tangerine trees and marmalade skies” is the reply.

It is a recurring characteristic of the grunge film that the characters physically inhabit a space where they are unwanted and yet related to another time and space that has long since past-or has not yet begun. They are extremely articu­ late and prone to sudden violence.

Charlie Flagg (Matthew Hennessy), the constantly-enthused, compulsively-theorizing drummer, is the founding force of the band, and provides the garage where not only is smoking forbidden, but snacks and drinks in colourful plas­ tic cups are compulsory. Charlie’s mother and sister appearto repre­ sent a kind of twilight zone of eerie normality: the mother smiles and

35

in review Films

continued provides while the sister screams and vilifies.

Tony Ridge (Lee Holmes), the shy, Morrissey-like lead singer, will only perform in the cupboard. “It is no good”, he says to Charlie; “I can sense you’re there.” He eventually comes out of the cupboard but turns his back to the audience. He writes the lyrics, which, it becomes apparent, are all written about a girl called Ann. When Ann appears, she has the effect of the coke bot­ tle in The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Eric Ellwood (Steve Parlavecchio) is the quick-tempered bass player who needs to learn better gun etiquette. Wynn Knapp (Kevin Corrigan) is the lead guitarist who, appearance-wise, puts one in mind of a white Jimi Hendrix, if that is possible.

The most charismatic member of the team, however, is the largely silent road manager, Linus Tate, played by Doug Macmillan, real-life lead singer of The Connells, the band on which the film is more than possibly based. He spends

36

most of his time studying a heavy tome, the contents of which are revealed only at the end. Linus is something of an oracle, a high priest of road management, lend­ ing credibility to the band by his sheer presence. At one point he enters the room unannounced, silences a humming cymbal and disappears.

The life of the band is certainly not glamourized. They stew in their own juices and eat in nasty cafes, lugging around their Marshall stacks and putting up with shoddy advertising: one texta-scrawled poster calls them “Circle Monkey”.

They do have a moment of glory when, stranded by the side of the road, the bass player fixes the van, the motor turns, and for one glori­ ous moment they hear themselves on the radio. They jump victori­ ously on the lonely road until the car battery is extinguished and they wilt in silence.

The band must learn to cope with each other, confront their own demons and make that choice of any successful band. Circus Mon­ key is not only the name of the band, but a metaphor for the con­ dition the band hopes to avoid.

They do not want to be purchased

by a record company just because the suits fit, but they are sick of the tortuous practicalities of indepen­ dence. The record company executives appear rather too cliched, and the band’s choices rather too predictable. These sort of stereotypes are disappointing in an otherwise cleverly written film and could have been easily avoided.

The soundtrack of Bandwagon is certainly one of its strongest points, and it wouldn’t be surpris­ ing if the music took off in its own right. It will be an interesting addi­ tion to the rock-road-grunge movie genre. Think of it as Spinal Tap for the Clerks generation. © MICHELLE RYAN

OSCAR AND LUCINDA Directed

by

Gillian Armstrong .

Producers : Robin Dalton , Timothy White .

Associate producer : Mark Turnbull.

Scriptwriter : Laura Jones, based on the novel by

Peter Carey . Director

of

PHOTOGRAPHY: GEOFFREY SlMPSON. MUSIC: T h o m a s N e w m a n . E d it o r : N ic h o l a s B e a u m a n . Ca s t : Ra l p h F ie n n e s (O s c a r H o p k in s ), Ca t e B l a n c h e t t (L u c in d a Le p l a s t r ie r ), C ia r a n H in d s (R e v e r e n d D e n n is Ha s s e t ), T o m W il k in s o n (H u gh S t r a t t o n ), R ic h a r d R o x b u r g h (M r . J e f f r is ), C l iv e R u s s e l l (T h e o p h il u s ), B il l e B r o w n (P e r c y S m it h ). A u s t r a l ia n

d is t r ib u t o r :

Tw e n t ie t h C e n t u r y Fo x . A u s t r a l ia . 1998.

1 3 2 MINS.

eter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda was published in the year of Australia’s bicentennial celebra­ tions. It is intimately concerned with the question of identity and colonization, and with the relation­

P

ship between the Empire and its satellites, or between the centre and the margins. Indeed, in the novel and film, Oscar and Lucinda are outsiders to a considerable degree.

The film downplays the colo­ nialist context and emphasizes, quite understandably, the love story between one who is tor­ mented by the question of whether he ought to wager on the existence of God, and another who is fasci­ nated by glass and gambling. Both are drawn together by common interests: their shared status as outcasts - at least in a symbolic sense, as marginal figures; their love of gambling and, more impor­ tantly, wagering, in Blaise Pascal’s sense (that is, wagering as a matter of life and death or as a matter of salvation).

The film explores their meeting in Australia against a background of colonial expansion. Oscar thinks of a plan by which his love of Lucinda can be demonstrated.

He decides to build a glass church and to transport it through uncharted territory - that is, Abo­ riginal territory - to the settlement at Bellingen. This is the stuff of a Werner Herzog film, and there are nods to films such as Fitzcarraldo (1982) here, with its highlighting of grand but ill-fated aspiration and of the extent to which the boundaries between passion and madness can be blurred. Director Gillian Armstrong was clearly attracted to the grandeur of Oscar’s idea, to the cinematic possibilities and to another touching story of starcrossed lovers with elements of passion, grandeur, heroism and tragedy.

The film carefully introduces each of the characters. Oscar (Ralph Fiennes) associates the sea with death from a very early stage (the death of the mother); Lucinda (Cate Blanchett) does not fear the sea but loves glass for its ‘liquid’ qualities and for its strength. So, Armstrong weaves a pattern of contrasts out of these and other leitmotifs.

Another striking example is apparent when Lucinda proceeds to try and lose a fortune even as Oscar sets out to build one.

There is another crucial difference, too: Oscar associates gambling with religious experi­ ence; in other words, his understanding of religious faith is informed by Pascal’s emphasis on the radical uncertainty of religious

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

Oscar (Ralph Fiennes) and Lueinda (Cate Bianchetti.

O scar and Lucinda.

beliefs which are underpinned by the need to wager one’s whole life on an unknown but passionatelydesired outcome. Lucinda associates gambling with pleasure; it is an extension of her unorthodox self, her eccentricity.

The narrator in the film (Geof­ frey Rush) also turns out to be a gambler of sorts. He is aware of the fact that the union of two gamblers produced him albeit indirectly (across the span of a few genera­ tions). He is the distant progeny of two gamblers, one “obsessive”, one “compulsive”, as he himself informs the viewer.

The film is also concerned with a key element of the novel’s struc­ ture, namely the genealogy of storytelling or the genealogy of narrative. Carey takes great care to highlight a continuous tradition of narrative from the time, at least, of

\ Oscar and Lucinda, and of the nar\ rater's grandfather, to the present.

I i In other words, Carey’s novel is an \ affirmation of the narrating func! tion even as it subverts some of the I j pretensions of narrators in fiction. \ For example, Carey is clearly fond I of storytellers, perhaps because of i their vivid imaginations and magi| cal qualities (when seen in the \ context of mythology and mythi making), but he is also suspicious ; of the notion of narrative omni| science, impartiality or closure, i It is interesting to note that this I j narratological irony is largely lost \ in the film. The film’s narrator I rarely seems to be as playful or as I | self-reflexive as Carey’s narrators.

J The cost of the change is notable: I the film’s narrator takes himself far I 1 too seriously as a storyteller when [ he is placed next to Carey’s ironic, i playful and self-reflexive narrators.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

So the film is given a very different emphasis and, as a consequence, necessarily overlooks or ignores a number of questions that make the novel so challenging: questions about the selective rendering of historical storytelling, of blind spots in whitewashed narratives, of preferences on the part of story­ tellers which betray racist assumptions or questionable theo­ retical presuppositions. Carey’s novel highlights such problematic elements within an ostensible reconstruction of the story of the two lovers; the film focuses on the story of the lovers. Much is lost in the translation.

Notwithstanding these eva­ sions, absences or exclusions, the film is certainly vivid and affecting.

Certainly, the scenes of the glass church being transported down­ stream are striking and memorable

- no less so that the scene of a ship being dragged through the Amazon

by Herzog’s admirable madmen.

Armstrong’s style is vivid, too: she employs parallelism with great effect; the camera dwells on the two lovers with great affection; many scenes are intercut dynami­ cally to give a sense of two seemingly separate lives coming together mysteriously, suddenly and fortuitously; indeed, the direc­ tor’s love of these outcasts is almost palpable in countless frames. They are captured in many close-ups; and the understatement is welcome.

The film is quite long (slightly too long, perhaps, given the exclu­ sions, but only slightly); in general, however, the tempo is measured carefully, and the marriage of sound and image is often stirring and thought-provoking.

There are less-satisfying aspects in the film: Carey’s novel was intended to stir honest and candid discussion about our past, especially its violent, cruel and bru­ tal aspects. The novel was partly intended to highlight the plight of the indigenous people of this coun­ try in the era of violent colonization.

The film’s representation of the bar­ baric and unnecessary slaughter of indigenous people, it must be said, does not transcend mere tokenism.

In one short scene, the only scene really in which the violence is focused upon, the film shows a group of Aborigines being killed by Oscar’s men (much to his dismay).

The camera descends as it focuses on the last embers of life ebbing out of their young, twitching bod­ ies. It is a forceful scene to be sure, but its forcefulness is compromised somewhat by its brevity. It is as if the filmmakers felt that they had to include something, but had no time or inclination to develop it, to make it an integral part of the film’s the­ matic trajectories, in the way that this theme is woven into the trajec­ tories of the novel.

This is a great pity, for it detracts from the film’s otherwise laudable affirmation of the figure of the outcast, the inhabitant of the margins. Indeed, there was a great opportunity in this respect to say something intelligent and detailed, something honest and profound, about the status of real outcasts and marginalized figures in this country today.

However, in other respects, the film is an important one. It signifi­ cantly extends Armstrong’s concern with marginal places and spaces; it uses colour coding in evocative, if sometimes predictable, ways (for example, black and grey in Oscar’s childhood home, dull shades in London and Oxford; brighter hues in Australia); Rennes, as Oscar, actually has the “scarecrow” look that Carey often attributes to his protagonists; Blanchett, as Lucinda, has a touch of wildness which the character requires; the visual emphases on water, glass, stream and structure are often deeply satisfying within the film’s iconography; and the scenes with the glass church, an embodiment of Oscar’s passion and madness, are unforgettable. The final scenes are quite poignant, with just the right measure of irony.

This should be one of the high­ lights of the year. © RAYMOND YOUNIS

37

in review Films

continued JOEY Directed

by : Ian

La k e . Executive

Barry . Producer: Michael producers :

Greg Coote,

Robyn Burke , A lex Waislitz , Heloise Waislitz . Associate

producers :

Grant & Danielle Dajani. Line

Maxwell

producer :

Brian Burgess . Scriptw riter : Stuart Beattie. Story

by :

Maxwell Grant &

Stuart Beattie. Director

of photography :

David Burr . Production Lawson . Costume

designer

designer :

Editor : Lee S mith . Sound

Peta

Marion Boyce.

recordist : ) ohn

SCHIEFELBEIN. COMPOSER: ROGER MASON.

Cast : Jamie Croft (Billy MacGregor), Alex McKenna (Linda Ross), Rebecca Gibney (P enny Mac Gregor), Harold Hopkins (Kanga-Catcher), Tony Briggs (Mick), Ruth Cracknell (Sylvia ), Ed Begley Jr (Ambassador Ross ), Erroll O’Neill (Farmer Dixon ). Australian distributor : Roadshow Film Distributors . Australia .

wasn’t so obvious. Arguments about it being a children’s film, and therefore needing to be straight up and down, carry no weight. Chil­ dren can be much more attuned to story and character subtleties than they are often given credit for. But there is no subtlety here, only film scripting by numbers, dial-astereotype characters and a way-too-deliberate production design. Just when did Sydney get 1960s NewYork-style cabs? I thought they were all Ford Falcons or Holden Commodores.

Interestingly, two characters who actually come out ofthe film as relatively fresh and funny: a bumbling pair of community televi­ sion news reporters who end up helping Billy, are nowhere to be found in the Media Information Kit

e all know about exploitation cinema, right? Blood, guts, sex, nubile teens in compromising positions in cheap and nasty prod­ uct aimed straight at a niche market. Forget about more abstract concepts such as artistic quality or longevity of appeal.

It has no sex (if you except the undoubted appeal of Dorothy the Dinosaur), no violence (if you turn a blind eye to the odd pratfall), and absolutely no nubile teens (though

Jamie Dunne first stuck his hand up Aggro’s behind. With their early childhood teaching back­ ground (Cook, Field and Page teamed up at uni­ versity), their colour-coded skivvies (red for Murray, purple for Jeff, blue for Anthony and yellow for Greg, the lead vocalist) and their wax-museum grins, The Wig­ gles are the apotheosis of “nice” parentally-approved entertainment software for parents who have lost faith in Saturday-morning cartoons on the telly. Bung in a The Wiggles video (and plenty do; W ake Up Jeff, their 1996 release, sold 120,000 units in its first month) and you’re guaranteed of an extra 47 non-vio­ lent and non-judgemental minutes in bed. For this, The Wiggles are to be praised.

But for their debut motion picture they are to be damned.

The W ig g le s M o v ie is a triumph of

supplied to film reviewers. Could it be that they were inserted into the script at a very late stage to help lift the lacklustre and formulaic screenplay?

Am I sounding too cynical? I think not, because the mercenary “Let’s make a family film and aim it at the American market” ideal per­ meates this whole production, and subsequently robs it of any human­ ity, warmth, individuality and respect for its audience that it might have had. © T IM HUNTER

the pre-pubescent dancers are a sprightly bunch), but The W ig g les M o v ie is without question a piece of exploitation cinema. And, what’s more, it exploits its market with a ruthlessness of which Roger Corman would be proud.

As any Australian parent with a child born in the past five years or so knows, The Wiggles (Murray Cook, Jeff Fatt, Anthony Field, and Greg Page) are the biggest thing to happen in pre-school-age chil­ dren’s entertainment locally since

niche marketing over virtually every other element of contempo­ rary filmmaking. Technically, narratively, performatively, it is (to put it mildly) undistinguished. Even the music is a disappointment.

Adults have always been able to take some solace in the fact that The Wiggles had a solid grounding in rock ’n’ roll, and were unafraid to dip into other musical idioms in search of a catchy riff (in fact, much of their success with parents has rested on a nostalgic appeal to the

THE WIGGLES MOVIE Directed

by

Dean Covell. Producer:

Hilton Fatt. S criptwriter : Greg Truman.

Director

of photography :

Production

Scott Preston .

designer : Andrew

Horne,

Deborah S zapiro . Editor : Marc Van Buuren. Choreographer : Leanne Halloran.

Music : T he Wiggles

and John

Field .

Cast : Anthony Field (Anthony, The Blue Wiggle), Greg Page (Greg , The Yellow Wiggle), Jeff Fatt (Jeff, The Purple Wiggle), Murray Cook (Murray, The Red Wiggle), Tony Harvey (Wally the Great), Leeanne Ashley (Dorothy Australian

the

Dinosaur).

distributor : Twentieth

Century Fox . Australia . 1 9 9 7. 83

m ins .

W

1 9 9 7 .3 5 m m .

T his latest Australian venture into family films is something of a disappointment. By trying to throw in all the right ingredients, it ends up as an embarrassinglycontrived film, pitched too obviously at an American market.

The story is simple: young Billy MacGregor (Jamie Croft) lives on a farm with his mother, Penny (Rebecca Gibney). There is no man of the house-he died some years earlier —so most ofthe heavy work around the farm is done by the Aboriginal farmhand, Mick (Tony Briggs). When a mob of kangaroos is kidnapped off the adjoining property, Billy finds one joey left behind and decides to care for it.

Mick informs him, though, that the joey won’t survive without its parents, so Billy, under the cover of night, pops Joey in his backpack and hops on the train to Sydney to find the kidnapped roos.

Once in Sydney, he meets the requisite composite of wacky and colourful characters - some good, some bad - who help, or hinder, Billy’s efforts to reunite Joey with his folks. Included in the comple­ ment is the rich and eccentric Sylvia (Ruth Cracknell), who runs an animal hospital; the new American ambassador, Mr Ross (Ed Begley Jr); his bored daughter, Linda (Alex McKenna); and the very two-dimensional KangaCatcher (Harold Hopkins), the villain ofthe piece.

If only everything in this film

38

fact that Fatt and Field played together in 1980s pub-rock heroes, The Cockroaches). But much ofthe music here is recycled (and not in the post-modern sense in which much of all their music is recycled).

Such classics as “Dorothy’s Birth­ day Party”, “Dorothy Would You Like To Dance”, “Hot Potato” and “Can You Point Your Fingers and Do The Twist?” are known and loved by two- and three-year-olds across the nation. And who could ever forget the rollicking sounds of “D.O.R.O.T.H.Y.”? The W ig g le s M o v ie is, in a sense, a “greatest hits” collection, with pictures.

In such a package, does plot matter? Not much. Three-year-olds are not particularly attentive to such things, and tend to prefer their drama to come in short slabs (there is one rule of thumb that suggests a child’s attention span measures roughly one minute for each year). So if The W ig g le s M o v ie is loud, colourful, disjointed and ultimately rather pointless, it is unlikely to suffer in the eyes of its target audience one little bit.

The Wiggles may or may not be an astonishingly cynical crew. In point of fact, they seem absolutely charming. Yet they do appear guilty of one major miscalculation, which could yet curtail their success.

They appear to have neglected to address the fact that few parents will send their three-year-old chil­ dren off to see a movie alone, regardless of its innocuousness.

Perhaps it is a sign of their whole­ hearted commitment to their audience that they have eschewed the usual sops to adult viewers (in­ jokes, star cameos, sophisticated verbal or musical references).

But maybe not. Maybe ensur­ ing parents will be as stultified by the movie as their young children will be transfixed (though mine timid soul - was actually fright­ ened!). And what better way of ensuring the full exploitation ofthe most lucrative market of all: the parents who just want to sleep in on Saturday morning. Who’s exploiting whom? © KARL QUINN

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

Booké

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STANLEY KUBRICK A BIOGRAPHY J o h n B a x t e r , Ha r p e r C o l l in s , Ha m m e r s m it h , 1 9 9 7 , 3 9 9 il l u s ., r r p

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ast year’s controversy over the unathorized Germaine Greer biography centred on whether writers have the right to pry into the lives of the living. The enter­ tainment industry has tended to be somewhat unconcerned about this issue, given the seemingly-insatiable and largely-unquestioning desire for books on living stars, directors, producers, etc.

Australian author John Baxter has had some success in this vein with books on Federico Fellini, Ken Russell and Steven Spielberg, among others. And now he tackles Stanley Kubrick.

Baxter opens his new book with an evocative word picture of the filming of Spartacus: At thirty-two, Stanley Kubrick is the youngest person ever to direct a Hollywood epic. Kirk Douglas, the film’s star and exec­ utive producer, gave it to him after firing the older, less mal­ leable Anthony Mann at the end of the first week. On a weekend’s notice, Kubrick, known for little more than a low-budget crime film, The Killing, and a First World War drama, Paths of Glory, sud­ denly found himself in charge of a $12 million enterprise [...]

But if the experience is weigh­ ing him down, Kubrick shows no sign of it. He has already fired the leading lady and infuriated Kirk Douglas by taking the film at his own deliberate pace. The star has an uneasy feeling he’s hired the wrong man. Hoping for a kid he can push around, he’s found him-

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self saddled instead with a film­ maker of steely resolve who sometimes seems almost to rival him in ego and stubbornness. [p. 2] Perhaps Kirk Douglas should have done his homework better and rung up people to find what sort of director Kubrick was during the making of his previous film, Paths of Glory. Then he wouldn’t have made this costly mistake.

But hold on: Wasn’t Kirk Douglas in Paths ofGloryi Didn’t he spend months on location with Kubrick? Wouldn’t he have known exactly what sort of director Kubrick was before deciding to use him to replace Anthony Mann?

Isn’t what John Baxter has written total nonsense?

In fact, Baxter even goes on to contradict himself on p. 130, when he writes that Douglas balked at replacing Mann with Kubrick because the latter was an “ingrate [...] I asked him to do something for me, and he refused.”

So, was Kubrick a malleable, inexperienced kid (p. 2) or an unco-operative ingrate (p. 130)?

Biographers are supposed to try and understand their subjects, not just regurgitate bits and pieces grabbed from here and there, and assembled without much real thought.

Biographers also ought to get such basic facts as their subject’s age right. Mann was fired in March 1959. As Kubrick was born on 26 June 1928, that means he was 30 at the time of being hired, not 32 as Baxter writes.

Sadly, much of the book continues on this sloppy level. Baxter appears more interested in going for his idea of dramatic storytelling than sticking to the/his facts.

On page 13, he writes: Apart from his two early crime thrillers, Killer’s Kiss and The Killing, Kubrick never made an American film, not even when he lived there. His cultural perspective was always European

| | 1 | | 1 1 | !

[•••] Again Baxter reveals that he can’t count, because Fear and Desire, Kubrick’s first feature, was shot and set in California. So, let’s make that three American-based films. In fact, every film Kubrick made in the USA was set in the USA. Even more striking is the fact \ that five of Kubrick’s next nine ! features were wholly or partly set i in the USA, even though they were

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

all made in the UK. So Baxter’s point is wrong-headed. In fact, what other director in history has been so obsessed with recreating his home country in films when living and working elsewhere?

Baxter is also a keen enthusiast of the unsubstantiated claim. Even though he didn’t interview or speak to Kubrick, he assumes an omni­ scient perspective: Because Kubrick had invested so much time and effort in Barry Lyndon, its commercial failure, the worst of his career, depressed him acutely, [p. 295] One turns to the notes for this chapter (“Kubrick in Hell”!), but there is no corroboration for this ‘insight’. Not that such considera­ tions seem to worry Baxter; on and on he goes making unsubstanti­ ated proclamations about how Kubrick feels: Early in his life, Kubrick made a decision that to live and work on his own terms was worth the price of ostracism, [p. 364] Apart from Baxter’s having no idea whether Kubrick actually ever felt this, when has Kubrick been ostracised, and by whom?

Baxter claims Kubrick declined to direct the script of Terry South­ ern’s Blue Movie (a witty novel dedicated to “the great Stanley K”), because Kubrick rightly decided that he had nei­ ther the temperament for porn nor the patience to subjugate his invention to the rigid demands of erotic ritual, [p. 195] As Baxter again gives no corrobora­ tion, one can only assume Kubrick communicated these inner thoughts to Baxter telepathically.

Photograph captions also receive the Baxter imprimatur: Kubrick receiving, with his usual impassivity, Adolphe Menjou’s complaints about his role as General Broulard.

Producer/star Kirk Douglas tries without success to talk Kubrick round to his vision of Spartacus.

But Baxter has absolutely no idea what Douglas or Menjou were saying to Kubrick when those photographs were taken, and his (perhaps whimsically-intended) inventions have no place in a book intended for adults.

If all this were not enough, there is Baxter the insightful and poetic wordsmith: That [Kubrick] should come at the end of his career to make Eyes Wide Shut, a film about two selfinvolved people and their

fantasies, has a sour suitability.

As light dims, a lens can become a mirror, reflecting back to the voyeur an image of himself. [p. 14] Leaving aside Baxter hasn’t seen Eyes Wide Shut and has no right to discuss the “film” (how does he know how it will end up?), Kubrick, like most directors, looks through a camera lens. No matter how dim the light, there is never a reflection of the director in the lens. (Of course, if Kubrick were in front of the camera, looking back, and thus maybe seeing a reflection, he is no longer in the position of voyeur.)

Baxter’s slick-sounding quote is nonsense, as is much of this slip­ shod ‘cut-and-paster’. ©SCOTT MURRAY

CINEMA AND THE GREAT WAR A n d r e w K e l l y , R o u t l e d g e , Lo n d o n N ew Y o r k , 1 9 9 7, 2 1 9 rrp

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orld War I seems to be grip­ ping the imagination of the late 20th century more than any other conflict (cf all the WWI films in preparation or awaiting release).

Whether it is because that war is seen as representing the death of a nobler era and the start of rapidly-disintegrating humanity, whether it be that so many lost their lives for so pointless a com-

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bat, WWI is a major source for cinematic exploration.

Andrew Kelly, a “cultural plan­ ner and film historian”, has sought to record and analyze the cinematic treatment of this war, from the 1914 anti-war Ned med Vaabnene (Lay Down Your Arms, Holger-Madsen) to La Vie et Rien d’Autre (Life and Nothing But, Bertrand Tavernier, 1990), with an understandable emphasis on such classics as La Grand Illusion (jean Renoir, 1937), Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957) and, the author’s favourite,

All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1933).

When Kelly sticks to the histori­ cal and cultural facts, he is always interesting. His account of the production of Paths of Glory is particularly revealing, as are his chapters on the less well-known films, such as those made by the defeated Germans. His comments, too, on the preponderance of WWI films being anti-war in perspective are reassuring to all humanists.

Where Kelly is less convincing is when he attempts film criticism.

His views are often fascinating, but they are so unargued as to be exas­ perating. On p. 75, for example, he confidently writes “the brutality of war has always been portrayed best in monochrome”, which is an extremely interesting assertion, but Kelly doesn’t choose to discuss it. This would have made an excel­ lent chapter in itself.

Equally, of Joseph Losey’s King and Country (1964), Kelly writes: [...] Hamp [Tom Courtenay] is too simple and naïve to attract affection and sympathy. Finally, there are no uplifting moments; Paths of Glory ends on a mes­ sage of hope, King and Country with an old general in his car.

The condemnation of war is just as strong, but the humanity is absent, [p. 180] This is most puzzling. Why can’t a

39

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I I B I I P m A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1 9 9 J S

¡preview Books

continued simple and naive character attract affection and sympathy? Forrest Gump achieved exactly that for mil­ lions around the world. And where is the evidence that humanity is missing in King and Country?

The mix of points is also con­ fusing. Why does Kelly refer to an old general in a car and what does it mean? Is this evidence of an absent humanity, or is that Hamp’s simpleness?

Kelly is, understandably, very Eurocentric in his choice of films.

The only Australian feature to get a guernsey is Gallipoli (Peter Weir, 1981), of which all Kelly writes is, “Again a romantic view of the war, though at least this time it showed it from an Australian point of view.”

Kelly makes no attempt to explain why the film takes a romantic view, if indeed it does. Maybe there is a case for saying it has a romantic view of mateship, but “of the war”?

And if Gallipoli is deserving of men­ tion, what of other Australian works such as Forty Thousand Horsemen (Charles Chauvel, 1945)?

A final reservation about this book is the cost: an almost unbe­ lievable $ 110. One can’t recommend so flawed a book at so high a cost, though a few hours spent in a library reading the his­ torical sections might be effort well spent.

©SCOn MURRAY

BOGART A.M. S perber

and

Eric La x , London,

Weidenfeld and Nicolson , 1 9 9 7,

pp . 6 76 .

hat more can be said about Humphrey Bogart, an icon of classic Hollywood cinema as

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enduring as Mount Rushmore, that has not already been written over the years? Plenty is the answer, if one reads Sperber and Lax’s com­ prehensive and highly readable account of Bogart’s career and life in Hollywood since the 1930s till the ’50s; one of the original ‘city boys’ (according to Robert Sklar) who left his indelible mark on the cinema, popular culture and the mythology of the American popular imagination.

Whilst most contemporary books on Bogart tend to focus on a particular aspect of Bogart the film icon and particular stages of the actor’s life - 1am referring to such examples as Stephen Bogart’s memoir of his father, Bogart: In Search of My Father, Lauren Bacall’s By Myself (1980), Katharine Hepburn’s charming

The Making of the African Queen (1987) and Jeffrey Meyer’s Bogart: A Life in Hollywood (1997) - the Sperber and Lax book tends to present a lively, well-researched global overview of Bogart’s life and screen persona.

It is an astonishingly well­ paced, thoughtful and informative biography of the actor that endeav­ ours to delineate the complex nuances, tensions and enigmatic ambiguities of Bogart the person the actor and cult figure of cine­ ma’s dreamlife who has shaped our public values of stoic dignity, masculine self-definition and exis­ tential solitude. The book rarely slows down as an immense, multi­ faceted canvas of the actor’s life, screen performances, and his untimely death.

‘Bogie’, the American cult icon that has impacted on our cultural and psychic lives, is evidenced in so many complex and telling ways: from crime fiction (Lawrence Block), comic books, the cinema and most notably film noir — Bogart’s notable performances in The Maltese Falcon Cohn Huston, 1941) , Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) , High Sierra (Raoul Walsh, 1941), The Treasure of The Sierra Madre Cohn Huston, 1948) and In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950) are central to the form. Television (sitcoms, private eye and police shows from the ’50s to the present day), popular music (rock ’n’ roll,

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1998

pop and jazz), and video art (Jean Paul Fargier’s Play It Again, Nam) all suggest the centrality of Bogart as a cultural myth in contemporary life and countless media represen­ tations. How many of us are familiar with Godard’s homage to Bogart in A Bout de Souffle (Breathless, 1959), with Jean-Paul Belmondo caressing his mouth with his fingers as he pronounces the word “Bogey” in a trance-like state in front of a movie still from The Harder They Fall (Mark Robson, 1956)? “Bogey” is also the name that the reclusive silent cinema actress and author Louise Brooks uses in her famous evocative remi­ niscences of the actor and other figures of the goldern era of Holly­ wood.

Clearly, the posthumous Bogey cult is a dynamic, complex phenomenon rooted in the socio­ cultural fabric of everyday life, particular/ in the ’60s and early ’70s, when cinema came of age (so to speak) with the feverish embrace of auteurism, the mush­ rooming of film clubs and screening societies on university campuses, and posters of the actor (amongst other screen, rock ’n’ roll and revolutionary political per­ sonas) plastered on every young adult’s bedroom wall to resemble an interior bedroom scene from a French NewWave movie.

What is refreshing and surpris­ ing about Sperber and Lax’s substantial in-depth account of Bogart’s art and career is that despite its massive archival mater­ ial and chronological sweep of the authors’ material, the book does not become (as I read it) a dutiful chore. In other words, unlike the more bland ‘Moby Dick’ epic biographies of movie actors or directors, this book does not disappoint in terms of readability.

It is eloquently written and quite absorbing in its non-didactic approach to its subject. The authors do not focus on Bogart, the movie celebrity as such, but wisely instead treat Bogart as the subject in the context of his own cultural Zeitgeist.

The Sperber and Lax biography is a collaborative effort where the authors did not meet for their mutual goal. Ann Sperber, who died in 1994, spent seven years researching closely Bogart’s career and life: she interviewed over 200 people who knew and worked with

Bogart, ranging from such figures as Katharine Hepburn, John Hus­ ton, studio executives and hotel bellboys to Bogart’s childhood friends. Sperber unearthed many fresh, revealing details about Bogart’s upper-class childhood (despite the appearance that his parents were remote, conflictridden and alcoholic), his stagetrained craftmanship in the ’30s and ’40s, running battles with Jack Warner and the soulless working environment of the ruthless studio system, and his regrettable entan­ glement with the McCarthy blacklist hysteria of the era. Sper­ ber became interested in Bogart as a direct consequence of her research for her 1986 The New York Times bestseller Murrow: His Life and Times. She became sympa­ thetic to Bogart’s liberal views, his stance against the 1947 House Un-American Activities Committee, and the FBI’s interest in him since the ’30s. What intrigued Sperber, amongst other things, was how Bogart’s screen performances as an apolitical loner were at odds with his non-conformist views.

Eric Lax, the author of a 1991 bestselling biography of Woody Allen, took over the project after Sperber’s death and fashioned the material in two years to complete the biography. The result is a fairly definitive portrait of the actor: his early Broadway apprenticeship; his struggles against poor scripts; the rough-and-tumble ethics of the Warner Bros. Studio; four mar­ riages; booze; his professionalism as a screen performer who sought interesting and innovative film directors to work with; and the lasting achievement of creating a screen persona that not only sug­ gest a brooding hard-boiled cult hero notable for his dark romanti­ cism and intergrity, but someone who always sought to transcend the roles he played in a career of 25 or so years.

Bogart was very astute at exploiting his public image and overcoming his personal defects, like “his hissing lisp”, which he acquired as a result of a shrapnel wound during his Navy stint in World War I. Bogart was intellectu­ ally restless - his chess set was always at hand for the breaks between the scenes on a movie set - morally upright, politically aware and quite courageous (viz, his brave endurance facing throat

cancer). What is impressive with Bogart’s biographical trajectory is his almost Nietzschean willpower to transform his early gangster roles - he died more than any other Warner Bros, contract player in the ’30s, as we are reminded by Jerome Charyn in his entertaining and witty, part memoir-part chroni­ cle, Movieland (1989) - and played so many second fiddle roles to such luminaries as Pat O’Brien, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Leslie Howard, or even some dead-end kid like Leo Gorce. With

High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, Bogart, the movie myth, started to take place. Charyn pinpoints the turning point in Bog­ art’s career with High Sierra: But the climate changed around 1941. Bogart’s face belonged to the Forties. That monkey’s grin suddenly turned handsome. The tight, corkscrew body took on a sexual tone. It was an America of shadows, about to enter a war.

And Bogart’s unconventional looks, his nervous ways, felt right.

He appears in High Sierra, a killer again, mad Dog Earle, but now we pause to look at his face. His tight skull interests us. There’s no James Cagney to get in the way.

He befriends a crippled girl. And the Bogart who will enchant us is about to be born.

His tough guy face with its obliga­ tory dangling cigarette (a face which oozes laconic stoicism as much as vulnerability) has endured till now. It’s a face known around the world: it represents, amongst other things, the existential ambi­ guities and nervousness of urban America as the site of the American dream. If we compare Bogart as photographed by George Hurrell in 1941 with Richard Avedon’s starkly minimalist photograph of 1953, we can clearly see the progressive advance of the actor’s illness, but, equally significantly, Bogart the person has emerged from the “studio-bio” stylized look, in which Hurrell’s focus was on Bogart, the screen creation.

Sperber and Lax’s biography illuminates Bogart’s screen per­ sona as an expression of the birth of the tough-guy cultural icon, as represented by James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan and John Garfield (a significant dramatic and cultural presence in Hollywood cin­ ema whose fine work tends to get

41

review

Books

continued overlooked time and again), as well as Bogart himself.

The biography sheds much light on Bogart’s formation as one of the key screen icons of American cinema: it details his complex, compliant relationship with jack Warner and his studio, the inner workings of Hollywood, the many relationships with directors like Nicholas Ray, Michael Curtiz and Howard Hawks, amongst others, and his relationships with his costars, producers and writers. It speaks also of Bogart’s increasing self-critical professionalism: of the urgent necessity to be honest with himself and others, to improve his craft as an actor, to do worthwhile projects and, finally, to contribute towards a civil society. The authors, through Bogart’s own words and actions, have located Bogart in the context of his own psychology and American popular culture.

It is also important to stress one key reason Bogart matters today as much as he mattered back in the ’60s. His anti-hero tough-guy persona of laconic solitude and fragility can be seen not only as a result of the cinematic and literary hard-boiled origins of his screen persona; significantly, his iconic appeal has much to do with the ascendancy of popular existential­ ism in American, English and French popular culture in the ’50s.

Sperber and Lax have given us a worthwhile, splendid biography that does have fresh and signifi­ cant things to say about their subject. They have taken the reso­ nant raw material of Bogart’s art and life and fashioned it into a finely nuanced .and Hluminating biography of an actor who is syn­ onymous with American cinema.

B o g a rt is not a hagiography, nor a spleenish put-down: instead, it is a book that contains much valuable information about Bogart, the production histories of his movies, the sociocultural climate of the ’40s and ’50s, and why Bog­ art matters as a powerful cultural symbol of our dreams. © jOHN CONOMOS

42

FRANK’S 500 THE THRILLER FILM GUIDE A lan F r a n k , B.T. Ba t s f o r d Lt d , Lo n d o n , 1 9 9 7, 286

p p ., il l u s , in d e x ,

$ 3 7.9 5

I t is often a tricky business trying to categorize films according to genre since so many films embrace elements and utilize conventions from a multitude of genres. Accord­ ing to Alan Frank, author of F ra n k ’s 500, however, if a film makes the pulse race a little faster, then it can be branded a thriller. Assuming, then, that you can broaden your definition of ‘thriller’ to accept such unlikely inclusions as R o b in a n d the 7 H o o d s (Gordon Douglas, 1964) - the so-called rat-pack’s last comic fling - or The B o d y g u a rd (Mick Jackson, 1992) - which is more likely to put the pulse into a state of near-catatonia - F ra n k ’s 500 proves an interesting, easy-touse, A-Z guide which spans thriller film history from the gangster movies of the 1930s to the contem­ porary action flick.

All films listed include a brief summary plot, full credits, and seg­ ments of film reviews drawn from a variety of sources contemporary to each film’s respective release. But most of the reviewing space goes (naturally) to Alan Frank, whose forthright critiques make up the bulk of this book. Frank’s approach is often irreverent and highly per­ sonal, and he makes no excuses for this, claiming in the introduction that “not all the blood in these pages belongs to the films - some of it is the result of my unfortunate tendency to take a chainsaw to sacred cows.” And take a chainsaw to sacred cows he does. Support­ ers of Tarantino who believe him to be the star auteur of the late 20th century may balk at Frank’s allu­

sions to him as a “hollow hero” or an “unclothed emperor”, and at his criticism of R e s e rv o ir D o g s (Quentin Tarantino, 1992) as an “amazingly overrated” film. And while Frank describes The G odfa­ th er (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) as a “triumph of hype over content and execution” and B o n n ie a n d Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) as “meretricious”, at least it opens up debate and proves that Frank is one commentator who refuses to slavishly follow critical fads.

Of considerable interest to fans of B-features is the addition at the end of the book of 25 B-grade thrillers made in the heyday of cin­ ema when double bills were the norm. No thriller film guide would be complete without the inclusion of B a b y Face N e lso n (Don Siegel, 1957) or Roger Corman’s M a ch in e Gun K elly (1958), and it is to Frank’s credit that he has not neglected what is often a treasure trove of unexpected entertainment and a thematically, cultural perti­ nent body of work.

Although by no means defini­ tive, F ra n k ’s 5 0 0 is an interesting and entertaining guide to those films that are intended to thrill. © KAREN HORSLEY

doesn’t is not the result of sloppy proofreading, but of meticulous research as evidenced in this thor­ ough study of Robert Wiene’s masterwork. A man after our own hearts, author David Robinson dedicates many lines to the study of the title itself.

THE GRIP BOOK :

I

SECOND editio n

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HALLIWELL’S FILM & VIDEO GUIDE 1998 EDITION

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HOLLYWOOD THE NEW GENERATION

CAPE FEAR BLOOMSBURY FILM CLASSICS

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Originally published 1934.

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SERPICO BLOOMSBURY FILM CLASSICS Peter Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing , London, 1997, 312 pp ., $16.95

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SHAFT

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Includes chapters written by Robyn Nevin and Baz Luhrmann

Ernest Tidyman , Bloomsbury Publishing , London, 1 9 9 7, 2 1 4

Booko R eceived ALIEN RESURRECTION A.C. Crispin , based on the screenplay by loss Whedon, Warner Books, London,

1997, 276 pp ., S12.95

Originally published 1971.

BRITISH POPULAR FILMS 1929-1939 THE CINEMA OF REASSURANCE S t e p h e n C. S h a f e r , R o u t l e d g e , Lo n d o n N ew Y o r k , 1 9 9 7, 2 7 8

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BRITISH CINEMAS

BY THE ACTORS AND FILMMAKERS WHO MADE IT Brian McFarlane, Methuen, London, 19 9 7, 656 pp ., $ 3 9 .9 5

L’ÀGE D'OR BFI FILM CLASSICS Paul Hammond, BFI Publishing , London,

MEL GIBSON AND HIS MOVIES

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Surely that title should read D as K a b in e tt d e s Dr. C a lig a ri ? That it

THE ELVIS FILM ENCYCLOPEDIA

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AN IMPARTIAL GUIDE TO THE FILMS OF ELVIS

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C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1 998

'?-j 8 inperformance

punch, you are allowing the actors to

^ 3 12 screen culture

momentum the actors are building and can create an intellectual rather than

connect - whilst they are still in the s ce n e -to the essence of the scene, thereby fulfilling its function.

It’s cost-effective and has significant outcomes.

The campaign was successful in

Once again, this exercise cuts out brain-overload talk time, and gets each actor’s instinct on-line and up to speed.

achieving what it set out to do: that is, maintain the status quo regarding fed­ eral funding for screen culture. Equally

instinctive environment.

The scene may be simply being read or moved, or you may be rehears­ ing on-set prior to a take. When “And Again” is sidecoached by yourself, the character who has just spoken repeats their line. When they repeat it, their aim is to clarify their intention. This may manifest itself through volume, emphasis, a move, adding urgency, driving their point home h a rd e r-it doesn’t matter how. The focus is to make clear the meaning of the line.

You may sidecoach “And Again” two, three or four times until you feel satisfied the moment is clear and effective. If “And Again” is not called again the scene continues. Each actor can also sidecoach each other from within the scene. They allow the char­ acter to ask “And Again” from that character’s point of view.

This easy yet effective technique allows the scene to keep rolling, and allows the moments of significance the turning points, the release of vital information, the moments of crisis, the moments of revelation - to have their full weight and charge. Thus, you can direct the scene toward the territory it needs to exist in with a simple phrase.

When “And Again” is said, the person with the previous line knows instantly the scene requires more at that moment. So they confront more, seduce more, intrigue more, defy more, evade more. They can keep in the action and remain as the character whilst the exercise charges the scene around them.

In terms of our four essential ele­ ments to a scene, it helps to activate each one. When “And Again” is said, the actors are able to re-hear what was just said, to re-digest the information, and reconnect to the process of com­ munication. The exercise also allows actors the luxury - which they never get - to reclaim their line and its importance or relevance; time to allow the moment’s significance to really ‘drop-in’ on a deeper level, thus rais­ ing the stakes. In terms of reacting, once someone has said, “You’re fired!” three or four times in your face, with the relish gaining more bite each time, I defy any actor to not react accordingly and find themselves totally involved and motivated. In terms of revealing meaning, through your choice as director as to when you sidecoach and which moments you feel require added significance and C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1 998

Hints: You may need to remind the

important, the campaign has, in receiv­

actors not to mistake volume for inten­ tion. Their focus is to clarify intention not simply become aggressive.

ing a supportive response from the Minister, established a positive rela­ tionship for ongoing discussion and

You may also need to keep your eye on the actor, saying “And Again”

communication.

The lesson learnt from the Gonski campaign was that nobody can speak

from within the scene and make sure they are saying it from the character’s mouth, not the actor’s. In other words, using our “You’re fired!” scenario, the character on the receiving end may say “And Again” three or so times, and as they utter this their incredulity increases; they rise slowly from their chair in shock at what has just occurred, their eyes narrow and fix hard on the person behind the desk with all the power.

You may after three or four or five “And Again”s still not get what you feel the moment requires. Fine. This means you may have to stop briefly and alter the choice the actor is making, as the scene is not heading where it needs to go. For example, staying with our sce­ nario above, the relish which became amplified over the four repeats of “You’re fired!” may not serve the story.

So you stop, consult with the actors and remind them of the cost to them­ selves of firing a close colleague and friend. Therefore, when you restart the scene, over the four repeats of that moment, not the relish but the pain now begins to be amplified during the line, the regret and the human cost.

The scene now has a new trajectory because of this altered choice.

When used by the actors, the “And Again”s should feel every much a part of the scene as the dialogue itself. In fact, it becomes extra dialogue. Beware actors using it as a ‘technique’, thereby actually objectifying themselves and slowing down the momentum and drive the scene requires. Each charac­ ter is demanding clarification of the moment, not the actor.

Use “And Again” whenever you need to initiate clear, precise commu­ nication through giving each actor the chance to settle, orientate themselves and focus on the task at hand. ©

In the next issue, we will explore fur­ ther sidecoaching techniques that push the boundaries of your scene and which create dynamic and explosive results - fast.

for screen culture as well as we can ourselves; and that we must not place ourselves in a position again where our contribution to a healthy national film and television industry can be overlooked or underestimated.

The next challenge facing the screen culture sector is how to build on the lessons learned in the cam­ paign, and how to ensure that screen culture continues as a major force within the film and television industry.

The Australian Screen Culture Indus­ try Association (ASCIA) was born as a result. ASCIA formalizes the national coalition of screen culture organizations which lobbied in the wake of the Gonski Report release. It has three key aims: • Screen culture to be recognized as an integral part of a healthy/robust film and television industry; • Screen culture to provide unique opportunities for Australians to work in film, television and multimedia; and • Screen culture to be adequately resourced so that it can contribute effectively to the broader Australian screen industries.

Full ASCIA membership is available to not-for-profit screen culture organiza­ tions. Organizations and individuals which support the aims and objectives of ASCIA are eligible for associate mem­ bership. ASCIA committee members are: Sabina Wynn, General Manager, Metro TV, NSW; Lazar Krum, Executive Director, Open Channel, Victoria; Stuart Glover, State of the Art Queensland; Vicki Sowry, Director, Media Resource Centre, South Australia; Simon Ambrose, Executive Director, Film & Television Inst., WA; and this author, Chief Executive, AFI, and Interim Chair.

The production industry and screen culture are inextricably linked. The connection between the success of the production industry and the services delivered by screen culture organiza­ tions deserves closer scrutiny and it is an issue that will be taken up vigorously by ASCIA. ©

j

17 documentaries

The Conference seemed to offer the possibility of a new maturity for the documentary industry. It addressed in a mature way an increasing concern with more flexible and more appropri­ ate methods of support and market assistance, and a widening of horizons to include a diverse range of possible outlets and future venues and distribu­ tion channels for the completed product. The comprehensive screening programme offered an opportunity to come right up-to-date with a broad spectrum of Australian and interna­ tional documentary production with very high overseas representation.

Notable guests functioning within the fabric of the Conference, and appearing on a multitude of panels both as chair and panel members, included: Gil Serine; David Bradbury; Chris Masters; John Edginton (award­ winning British investigative journalist); and respected filmmaker, teacher and author Alan Rosenthal, who came as a late replacement for Michael Rabiger who was unable to attend.

The range ofwomen filmmakers included: British BAFTA Award-winner Molly Dineen; Erika Addis; Trish Fitzsimon; Mitzi Goldman; Fiona Cochrane; recent ‘racer’ Olivia Rousset; and an extraordinary diverse and powerful set of documentary voices which are vali­ dated by current production and aspirations into new genres, evidenced by filmmakers such as Jeni Thornley.

There is a refreshing return in many debates to analysis of the development of the documentary experience, with many references to past achievements and future directions of the documen­ tary voice. One of the more telling comments was by David Tiley, who referred to documentary expressions as a “metaphor for observed reality” .

While the Documentary Conference in itself didn’t explore major themes in terms of documentary expression, there was enough diversity in both the programme and the opinions offered to satisfy teams of academic researchers. Recreational possibilities included the opening evening presen­ tations, Conference dinner, and night celebrations of indigenous culture under the Story Bridge at Kangaroo Point.

Added benefits were premiere screenings of work provided by major distributors such as the Discovery Channel, and preview screenings of two timely new films by David Brad­ bury (Jabiluka), and Richard Frankland and John Hughes {After Mabo). ©

43

^ 3 15 inperspective to watch on the monitor and see how it works.

The relationship started six years ago when Von Trier was doing a tech­ nically-complicated commercial, and needed someone to take care of the actors and to help organize things.

“We never discussed what kind of co­ operation it would be”, he says, adding that he knew what it would be like working with Von Trier. “Maybe I have a lighter view of life. Maybe I have more optimism. We create a kind of synergy.”

through his medical exam.

Breaking the Waves when she knew

And running through it all are the themes of good and evil, the cause of evil (if I see evil, is it due to my eyes or to glasses I wear?), how to recognize

that Emily Watson was very nervous after a sex scene, and as woman-towoman told her how good she was.

“The next morning Lars came to talk. I

it, the uncertainty of these distinc­ tions, the beauty of that very uncertainty of whether something is

know when he hates me”, she says candidly. “ Don’t you ever say anything

evil, and what to do about it. The two dishwashers in the basement again function beautifully as a chorus com­ menting on the goings-on above - the silliness that is maybe the evil. When a plate breaks, it is liberated from the

eternal rounds of being dirtied and I remember an interview recorded washed. with Ingmar Bergman recently, where There are some hilarious parallels he said that in Denmark the filmmak­ as the group-therapy session is inter­ ers seem to talk to each other and cut with the childish therapeutic co-operate more, while in Sweden each is working on his or her own, more isolated from each other. Morten Arnfred felt the greater competition when he shot his latest film in Stock­ holm. There, once you’ve directed a feature, you’re not likely to go back and A.D. for another director, he sug­ gested, whereas he would have no qualms about taking on such a role. “ Denmark is a small country and we know each other” , he says. (The role of first A.D. in Denmark, it should be noted, often involves more creative input than is generally the case in Australia.)

With Kingdom II, the popular series returns bolder and more outrageous than before in testing the audience’s willingness to join in this trip into the supernatural, this rollercoaster ride in the bowels of Copenhagen’s largest public hospital, Riget (“ Kingdom”).

Where the first four-part series built up its suspense gradually with whisper­ ings and visual hints of supernatural goings-on, ghosts in lift-wells and hor­ rible secrets that must out, here Lars Von Trier and his co-writer Niels Vorsel let all stops out, and go for the more outrageously visual: Judith’s child that grows into a deformed monstrosity, an embodiment of both good and evil, who chooses its own fate.

There are running gags and sub­ plots: Swedish doctor Helmer’s attempt to slip a voodoo concoction into his hated colleague; Kroghoj’s cof­ fee; Professor Bondo, who has turned his body into a living laboratory, gain­ ing credence among his medical students for sacrificing all for science; Dr Moesgaard’s brush with alternative psychiatry; the staff betting on hospi­ tal racers; and Moesgaard’s son Mogge, who even studies Swedish to brownnose Dr Helmer to let him

44

games of the hospital consultants in the Masonic lodge. And our hypochon­ driac, Mrs Drusse, whom we thought was leaving the hospital in the first episode, is now back with good reason and back with a mission to save the “ Kingdom” . She grows stronger and more central - a detective in touch with the spirits, who lets nothing stop her get to the bottom of things.

Ernt-Hugo Jasregard (Helmer), who was memorable as the train conductor in Von Trier’s Europa (aka Zentropa), is as good as ever as the Denmark-hating Swedish doctor. The actor had worried to Von Trierthat the Danish audience would hate him, but the director assured him that, on the contrary, they would love him, and they did. Here, he no longer stands on the roof gazing across to the coast of Sweden, but instead vents his venom into the toilet bowl as he ponders his own health.

Inter-Scandinavian rivalry is always a good source of jokes.

The series is not without its lyrical and human moments: Judith’s mater­ nal love for her monstrous child; the child-like bumbling and tender­ hearted Bulder’s love of his mother, Drusse. Where Helmer’s gentler side was allowed to come out more in the relationship with Rigmor (Gitte Nprby) in the first series, here it takes a differ­ ent turn as the badger-dissecting Rigmor finally feels she’s had enough, and decides to take control.

This is intelligent entertainment for an audience willing to suspend disbe­ lief and join in the ride.

Both Arnfred and Windelpv agree that Lars Von Trier’s approach to the actors is much more confident now than in his early films. “ He is a great manipulator”, says Vibeke. “ He is very aware of what he is doing.” She goes on to recall an incident on the set of

to my actors. I need her to be so inse­ cure and I don’t want her to know she is good” , the director told her. And he was right, adds the producer with a smile.

In the beginning of Breaking the Waves, they never did any rehearsals on set. The French camera operator, with a i,ooo-foot mag on his shoul­ ders, hand-held, was told he had to find a way to cover the actors. Then they realized he didn’t understand what Von Trier was saying. At one point, he wanted the Frenchman off, because, “ He’s too good. I want him to mess” , said Von Trier.

Normally, says Arnfred, we never told the actors what to do, but shot scenes all the way through in one take - often 6-7 pages of script. Breaking had an 11-week shoot preceded by one week of talking it over with the actors.

Sometimes they would do 4-5 takes of an entire scene, but were always told to do it differently. “We would do some pick-ups and intercut. We forgot about continuity. That’s very old-fash­ ioned.”

Vibeke Windelpv said to me last Ju ly-afte r she managed to sneak me into Denmark’s Radio TV studios dur­ ing the filming of Kingdom II to get a rare video interview with Von Trier for a promo for the series on Japanese television channel WOWOW-that he thinks it’s good he has his phobias.

Because of them, he does not waste a lot of time going to festivals or get dis­ tracted by promotion, but can concentrate on the creative work. To this filmmaker trying to fill the eco­ nomic gaps, he was both pleasant and forthcoming. Windelpv, for one, is quite happy to continue the working relationship on his next feature, a musical, and on Kingdom III. The one Von Trier film neither Arn­ fred nor Windelov have worked on is what they call his Christmas film, which he shoots 3 minutes of each year with the same actors, to be released in the year 2024.

As for the real world of hospitals, Von Trier assured me that reality is much worse than anything he has con­ jured up in Kingdom. © 1 Ed: reviewed in “Postcard from Val­ ladolid”, no. 114. February 1997, p. 29.

-23 2 4 L o u d

For their subjects, McCuaig found a gang of boastful boys on the beach and attended a Booze-cruise on the canal, where they found a group of girls.

There’s a ‘vulture culture’ of older men who prey on the Schoolies, particularly the younger girls, and, in one case, we represented a boy who was raped on Schoolies’ Week.

“The idea of the documentary was not to be too preachy”, says McCuaig, and she left it to the viewer to decide. This writer was struck by how these kids are old enough to make their own decisions, but that they don’t always make the right ones and they definitely aren’t always adult enough to cope with the consequences.

One of the girls who attended 10 years’ ago now has a child of her own. She says she couldn’t stop her daughter going to Schoolies’ Week, but that she’d want her to be aware.

McCuaig: In the editing, I’ve watched these guys so many times telling the camera these things they’d never tell their parents, and I feel like they’re my little brothers.

If I was to run into them on the street, I couldn’t stop myself hugging them.

McCuaig feels like she’s been through it all with them.

Advice to young filmmakers: The longer you can stay out of corporateculture, the fresher your ideas. It’s been great to be able to do something professional, but personal, too. It takes so long waiting to be heard that, by the time you do get your airing, it’s usually too late and you’ve lost your energy. The Loud Festival was a terrific initiative.

Getting film funding in Australia is a lot like winning the lottery.

It’s getting even tougher if you have any form of film education. The ABC made a point of disqualifying those who knew how to handle a camera or had made films before (yet chose two people well outside the Loud age requirements).

While the next lot of ‘Around the World Racers’ were being trained-up from scratch at the AFTRS over Christmas, I’d like to ask what the ABC is offering to film students who have just spent three years and a fortune putting them­ selves through film school. Where are the programming windows and the commissions for these filmmakers? © C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1 998

*sa 30 Winterbottom

in Sarajevo who saw about 400 children.

We then saw maybe 100.

Essentially, I didn’t want the girl in the film to be special. The whole point is that all the children in the orphanage

vison. It was made for the BBC and then shown at various festivals and got bought [for cinema release]. But in the UK it was just television.

are as special as each other. We didn’t

Future Projects

want it to be that traditional thing of

W h a t is y o u r n e x t p r o j e c t ?

their eyes [Henderson’s and Emira’s] meeting across the room, of a special bond between two people which is why he ends up rescuing her. We

I Want You, a love story set in Hast­

wanted it to be almost by accident that he ends up taking her.

Kiss area ... though a slightly more

ings, which is a small seaside town. It is an obsessive love story and is a kind of going-back towards the Butterfly grown-up version.

W h y h a v e y o u c h o s e n S l a w o m ir I d z i a k t o s h o o t it ?

British Cinema HOW CAN YOU EXPLAIN THAT BRITISH CINEMA WAS IN SUCH A CRISIS TEN YEARS AGO, BUT IS NOW REALLY THRIVING?

If you have a crisis as bad as we had a crisis, then things inevitably have to get better. The British Labor Party’s election song had a line about “Things can only get better” - the same for the British film industry. Even as recently as four years ago, there were so few films being made.

Obviously, if someone has a success, then it helps other films get made.

Channel 4, for instance, has recently had some big financial successes and was therefore able to support a film

Because of his work on Three Colours: Blue and The Double Life ofVeronique [Krysztof Kieslowski], They are fantas­ tic films.

I Want You is a love story, but it is seen through the eyes of a boy. I wanted an outside view of England.

Slawomir has a real involvement in every aspect of filmmaking. I hope it is going to work out really well. He is a brilliant cinematographer.

H a v e y o u c a s t it y e t ?

Yes, Rachel Weis and a young Ameri­ can actor called Alexandra Nonola, whom nobody knows. Also Labina Mitevska, who has a small part in

Sarajevo.

like Sarajevo.

There are also companies like Poly­ gram, which now has a big London base and is making films for the whole of the world. It is not specifically a British company, but it has a big input in Britain.

Then there are companies like Mira­

W h a t a r e y o u r c in e m a t ic in f l u e n c e s ?

max. In some ways, the way Americans perceive the international marketing of films is working now. It favours Britain in that it has a European aspect to it, but it is also English-language.

In the past, that has always squeezed Britain because it never knew whether it was trying to make European or American films. Maybe it doesn’t mat­

No t H o l l y w o o d ?

ter so much now, because films are just seen as films and are distributed in the same way around the world. The structure has changed and that has helped Britain.

The whole television thing has also changed. People like Ken Loach and Mike Leigh made a lot of stuff for tele­ vision, and in some ways that has disappeared in Britain because of Channel 4’s success with films, which are financed by television but made for

I come from the north of England, so I particularly liked the films by Lindsay Anderson, Ken Loach and Karel Reiszfilms that had been shot there.

I also really like Wenders and Fassbinder and a whole lot of stuff I watched as a teenager.

Obviously some great films have been made in Hollywood. I love Scorsese’s films, but his films have been heavily influenced by European films, so there is a circular thing there. I don’t feel a particular affection for Hollywood films.

Is / W a n t Y o u a n e x p e n s iv e f il m ?

No. The irony is that big-budget films have even rpore limitations than lowbudget films. This has a budget of about £3 million. We will have far fewer limitations than if we were mak­ ing it for £30 million. Hopefully it is enough money to do what we want to do, but there is not too much commer­ cial pressure to stop us from doing what we want to do. As long as you have enough money to make the film, then the less money the better. ®

the cinema.

W h ic h is w h a t h a s h a p p e n e d t o y o u r

Go Now. Go Now was made specifically for teleC I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1 998

1 Epstein was one of two journalists who recorded this interview with Winterbot­ tom in Cannes, May 1997.

45

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te c h n ic a litie s

The making of Space Jam and putting the filmmaking “assembly line” into transactional space

by Annmarie Chandler

his article looks at the impacts of new elec­ tronic networks within the film industry by examiningtheirapplication in the production of animated

T

films. It analyses their effects on issues such as facility location, changes to the traditional filmmaking process and benefits to large-scale productions. It proposes that changes taking place in the filmmaking process in the ’90s are linked to more general changes in the digital “ information society” itself, where the entertain­ ment industries have a key role to play, and where creative collabora­ tions between remotely-located workers will take a higher profile in future work practices.

The research team found that lead­ ing network applications in filmmaking are occurring in advanced industrial countries, and predominantly the USA and UK, where the major western film industry sectors are located. A sample C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1 998

was chosen from user organizations currently doing remote domestic or international collaborations, using technologies likely to be adopted for international collaboration in the near future. For this particular study inter­ views were conducted with Warner Bros., LA, and the post-production company Cinesite which has branches both in LA and the UK.

Tra n s a c tio n a l S p a ce and Film P ro d u ctio n Australian academic Peter White argues that the creation and control of transactional spaces is positioned to become “the strategic resource battleground for control of media and communication systems” and also proposes that development funding needs to be directed to this changing media environment as much as the development of interactive and multimedia content.1 Taking White’s definition, electronic transactions happen when transac­

tions that could have occurred in physi­ cal, purpose-built environments are performed over electronic networks.

Much as we take this for granted in applications such as electronic banking or email, there are a broad number of factors now contributing to their adop­ tion within the media industries to carry out the work of media production that would have previously been per­ formed in distinct and centralized geographic locations. These applica­ tions include the use of video conferencing, voicemail, email for data transfer, audio and video faxing, digital transfer of animation and specialeffects sequences, and access to electronic libraries for stock footage.

Until recently, the film industry production model for pre-production through to post-production followed for the past 60 years a tried-and-true path or “assembly line” . For example, the lecture that producer David 0 .

Selznick gave to Columbia University’s Film Study Group on the film produc­

tion process in 19372 would have been relevant up until the application of computers to post areas in the late 1980s, when the impact of new digital processes (non-linear editing) began to change traditional workflows by introducing new factors of speed but increased flexibility of material pro­ cessing into film editing and product design. American cinematographer Dean Cundey captures this culture shock aptly in a statement he uses regularly, “in the old days - about a year ago”, referring to some of the adjustments to digital processes that filmmaking teams are now accommo­ dating.3 It is understandable therefore that this industry’s view of its organiza­ tional structures and work practices could, until fairly recently, be seen as stable and unaffected by major changes and developments occurring in the broader information and busi­ ness sectors via the development of new digital technologies and commu-

47

te c h n ic a litie s

nication practices. This is however no longer the case, and developments in these areas are being applied to pro­ duction to create changes in the way organizations perform production tasks, work globally and form produc­ tion teams.

S p ace Jam and C h a n g e s to th e T ra d itio n a l A n im a tio n P rocess Space Jam Qoe Pytka, 1996) is the largest animation and visual effects film to be made in recent history. Its primary technique, that of combining animated characters with live action film footage, is not new and has been happening since 1909 in films which utilize various film technologies to achieve a combination of live action and cartoons. Acclaimed featurelength films which have utilized this effect as their major compositional device include Dot and the Kangaroo (Yoram Gross, 1979) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis, 1988).

Space Jam, however, took this process much further, and the opening of the film itself illustrates the com­ plexity of the combination of many different media. The film commences on Michael Jordan and

48

pans up leaving the standard live action world behind for a miniature rooftop [...] the camera moves higher to a computer created sky and the Nerdluck’s planet repre­ sented as a 3D world [...] the representational camera movement then passes into a giant curved mouth and ends on a scene of classic cartoon 2D animation.4 These visual features become the major elements of the entire film which is a weave between live-action, real actors (most notably Michael Jordan), archival basketball footage, computer-graphics environments (most notably the basketball stadi­ ums) and 2D cartoon characters.

Wendy Aylsworth, Vice President of Technology and Facilities for Warner Bros. Feature Animation, provides the most simple and comprehensible description of this complex process.

All the different live and composited elements were “shot to film, then the pieces of film were combined” to cre­ ate the final integrated screen image.

The “combination” work was done entirely with computer and transferred digitally to film.

Aylsworth comments that what is

called the “backend” of production or the post-production phase is becom­ ing more tight and more compressed.

In the case of Space Jam, there were strict marketing deadlines imposing a tight schedule. Flowever, from our research, it was also evident that this sense of a compressed timeframe is being caused by the increases in the amount and scope of work generated by the number of new visual elements selected for a film. These elements increase the details and choices requiring quality monitoring and approvals. Obviously, it would not be commercially wise to simply extend filmmaking production schedules and costs to accommodate this increased level of material processing and deci­ sion-making, and new ways of working with time and space factors need to be found to both maximize creative input and minimize the restrictions of sched­ uled events.

Because of the complex require­ ments of the animation process and their short production schedule, the Warner Bros. Space Jam production recruited a group of internationallylocated animation studios to produce the work. Utilizing new electronic net­

works into its schedule, the film went from conception to finished product in one-third of the time for a normal ani­ mated feature film.5 The key facilities were the Warner Bros, feature anima­ tion facility in Sherman Oaks, L.A., which specialized in the 2D characters, and Cinesite, a digital-imaging and post-production company which has facilities in both London and Holly­ wood, and is well-known for its major visual effects role in films such as Waterworld (Kevin Reynolds, 1995), Broken Arrow (john Woo, 1996) and Mission Impossible (Brian de Palma, 1996). Cinesite provided the creative and production talent to perform the full spectrum of services, from design and special effects supervision to image creation, animation and final compositing.6 In this film, many of the 3D animation specialists for the wire­ frame drawings were working from the UK end of the company. The work was split by scene. The London crew cre­ ated, animated and rendered the practice gym scenes, while the Holly­ wood crew did the same for the rest of the 3D imagery and did all the com­ positing of live action, 3D animation and 2D animation.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1998

In a fa st growing,chaUeriging-indnstry,~.we at Atlab understand the importance of growth and technical development. That id why, we are proud to lead the way with innovations that keep us competitive on an interjrvationa Lfilm stage. Our recently upgraded sound facility now enables us to manufacture SRD and JOT'S, digital optical-sound negatives.

C Offering you the tools of the future.

te c h n ic a litie s

It is worth looking in some detail here at the complexity of the visual work on Space Jam to understand the challenges now being faced by digital feature-film animators and the enor­ mous achievements performed by this film. Many of the aesthetic elements that might have once been controlled by a cinematographer, under a direc­ tor’s guidance on the set while filming, had to be simulated by computeranimated control to achieve both pho­ torealistic performance and visual style.

For example, in the construction of the film it was important to see Jor­ dan’s spontaneity as a basketballer; however, as an actor in the film, he was playing his games with animated characters on the screen. To allow him to perform freely as he would in a real stadium, Jordan played basketball in a green gym with a group of green peo­ ple, the “Groundlings” . The Groundlings are an improvisational comedy group in Los Angeles. They were recruited as stand-ins for the car­ toon characters. Thus the Groundlings represented various cartoon charac­ ters from Bugs Bunny to the Monstars.

They were dressed in green so that

50

they could be easily matted out of the scene with chroma-keying techniques.

The green scenes of Jordan and the Groundlings were digitized and all the green then removed, taking everything out of the footage except Jordan, the basketball, the hoop and the backboard, leaving him looking like he was playing basketball against invisible people in a black limbo.

Red tennis balls, spread uniformly around the room on a grid, were used aposteriori to compute the camera position at each frame. This allowed the DOP to use a handheld camera, giving a more natural aspect to the scenes. The camera track data was “applied” as input to the animation package. The camera position was then used to position cartoon charac­ ters in the scene, and as input to the 3D animation system so that the com­ puter-generated backgrounds were rendered with the same camera moves. The 2D animators used the resulting photo-rotos as guides for their animation. The photo-rotos helped them get the perspective correct and position the animated characters within the frame and in relation to the live action characters,

floor, etc. The ball is real when Michael Jordan is touching it, but had to be put into animated form when the cartoon characters were touching it. When little mistakes occurred in the footage, like a green character accidentally passing in front of Jordan, and there­ fore removing parts of his body during the digital work of removing the green, they were filled over with animated cutaways: i.e., “Sylvester” chasing “Tweety Bird”, thus hiding the loss of his body to the sequence.7 Other numerous digital effects were required in the animation and compositing work to simulate the “ look” of a real cinecamera filming the scenes and to reproduce the live action “feel” . These included simulat­ ing shadings in the drawings for “ key” and “fill” lights on the characters and stadium animations by compiling numerous tone mattes8 and recreating camera effects such as motion blur on movement in the scenes. The effects also included complex rendering of lens “ perspectives” in the drawings to provide cinecamera views of object “distortion” for movements such as pans and dynamic movement in the game itself.

N e tw o rk C o lla b o ra tio n and W o rk Practices In the making of Space Jam, the talent was spread fairly evenly between both locations of Cinesite in the UK and LA; however, the largest share of the work was done in Hollywood. The London crew created and animated the prac­ tice gym. The shots were then composited in Hollywood.

Cinesite used a 3-tier network sys­ tem for its inter-company work and work with Warner Bros, during the making of the film. A basic ISDN sys­ tem was used to transfer 3D wire files and the occasional image and texture maps between animators in the UK and the USA. An ISDN 30 system connected to a video-conference system was also used by production management peo­ ple at both sites of the company for scheduling negotiations and for cre­ ative approvals of the animation sequences (playouts of the animation sequences) where directors and pro­ ducers could talk to the animators.

Most of the network collaboration on the 3D animation sequences between the trans-Atlantic bases of the company was done on the ISDN dial-up connection with two 64kb channels.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RCH 1998

The state government has established a fundlfor the encouragement of IfOWlJ lilllllllHkCfS. Eligible projects wilt be mainlySDOPt fiCtiOH IjllHS .

M

documentaries or experimental films. j

The fund is administered by thb New South Wales Film & Television Office.

•The Fund ls open to mumuuHio or teBIHS Ol ¡ndlVidU3lS between the ages of "Ig an d Ji ye ars who areNSW residents

i

.

•The Fund w ill make direct grants towardsOPOl UCtl

and post production costs on

•Projects must demonstrate HUitUPel 3Hd CCODOItliC benefit tO NSWan be entirely produced in NSW using NSW based service providers »Each project's principal photography must begin within six months of approval •There is 00 POStTiCtlOn on the format Ifilm or tape], subject matter or type of film •The ms ximum grant will be in the range of $Z0,000"$Z5f000, but the assessment ee may larger araht grant for a proposal of exceptional merit rr committee mav recommend a laraer •The closing date for the next round is 20 M arch 1998 Guidelines and application for the Young Filmmakers Fune must be used and are now available from

Mew South Wales Film & Television Office

Level 6,1 Francis Street East Sydney NSW 2010

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE

45TH S Y D N E Y FILM FESTIVAL 5 - 1 9 JUNE 1998

raining

Dendy Award for the Best Film or Video in the DOCUMENTARY category: Dendy Award for the Best Film in the FICTION category (under 15 mins): Dendy Award for the Best Film in the FICTION category (between 15 and 60 mins): Dendy Award for the Best Film in the GENERAL category: The Ethnic Affairs Commission Award: The Yoram Gross Animation Award: The NSW Film and Television Office Rouben Mamoulian Award:

2,500 $2,500 $2,500 $2,500 $2,500 $2,500 $2,500

of visual effects and digital media.

Entry forms available from Sydney Film Festival, PO Box 950, Glebe NSW 2037. Tel: (02) 9660 3844. Fax: (02) 9692 8793.

Email: info@sydfilm-fest.com.au

Call (07) 32913300 for details or check out the web site: www.siliconstudio.com.au

CLOSING DATE: 4 MARCH 1998

te c h n ic a litie s

The primary transfers were proxies and short video resolution clips to check for look, corrections and continuity.

Most of this work was transferred asynchronously (not in real face-toface time). Occasionally, the render files were sent from London to Holly­ wood to be rendered when there was enough computer processing capacity in Hollywood. All of the 2D cell anima­ tion (backgrounds, characters, etc.) were sent from the animation facility in Sherman Oaks to Cinesite L.A. There is a strong possibility of increases to workloads provided by the increased flexibility of choices directors and effects producers have through visual network communications. An electronic networked environment can, for example, encourage more transac­ tions to create different versions of the same shot. Hence it becomes possible to do a shot, say, 6 different times in the same amount of time it would take to courier a video copy of the one-shot version. This increase in creative collab­ orations, however, has the benefit of improving the shot and, hence, the final film product.

To maximize design decisions about the composition of shots, Cinesite and Warner Bros, produced what are termed “ hero shots” for each scene as the first stage of approvals.

The hero shot means that the director, special effects supervisor, art directors and chief compositor choose a specific shot in each scene to define the look of the scene. It is usual that all the col­ laborations for these purposes would take place in Hollywood “face to face” , where the primary creative people and decision makers on the film are located. The shot was then put onto film using the Cineon film recorder9 for the producer’s approval. Once the hero shot was established, the larger production teams took its chief ele­ ments to design all the other shots in a particular sequence to build the scene. The “ hero shot” technique is not unique to Space Jam or digital post-production, and was used in the days of optical visual effects as well.

It’s basically a benchmark against which other shots within the scene can be compared. The advantage in the digital process is that many of the parameters that give the shot its look can easily be copied and applied to other shots. In the Cineon compositing application, these parameters are con­ tained in a file that can be transmitted (even by email) to other artists work­ ing on the show and used as the starting point for other shots.

52

Cinesite also used a combination of email on the Intranet with ISDN trans­ missions of visuals for work between the distributed offices. A typical visual interaction would be for the person doing wireframe drawings at one end of the network to transmit sketches to the graphics modeller at the other, who can then see what’s required. The company could foresee this becoming a form of “video mail” in the future.

Conventional email was used fre­ quently by the whole team to report messages on progress, rather than waiting or having to be in the same place and time that the message arrives. The asynchronous nature of this form of communication often suited very busy production teams who could check and respond to their messages when they had time in the day, not miss important communica­ tions, but also deal with them in appropriate spaces in the working day without being interrupted on more important tasks.

Having the high-speed connection in place also facilitated new work prac­ tices and collaboration in the animation process. At the outset, it was assumed that all transmission of elements would be from Warner Bros, in Sherman Oaks to Cinesite in Hollywood. When the animation elements were transmit­ ted, however, over a fibre optic OC-3 ATM connection, they found that some­ times something didn’t work with the live action or 3D animation. A system was therefore set up where some of the key Cinesite people went to the Warner Bros, site to make sure the visual elements were working together:

carried into the actual compositing tasks. Doing the pre-composite work at the client’s facility with a few selected staff allowed them to work more easily and faster over the lines later, and improved on the conven­ tional methods of tape exchange.

It also improved the turnaround time on later approvals.

It takes careful and skilled produc­ tion management of these systems and the project to separate what sort of communications need to occur directly between people, and what ones can occur remotely. This is one of the major challenges in managing new forms of asynchronous communica­ tion, which is being learnt by the early adopters of the systems who will have an edge in their application. It is the view of most people in the film indus­ try that many creative decisions still need to be made through face-to-face discussions and problem-solving in a screening room. For example, it is very difficult to “show” an artist what’s wrong or right with a shot if you are not there to discuss it and point at the material. There may be no “ right or wrong” answer in coming to a creative decision where there are a variety of viewpoints and expertise to be consid­ ered, and people need to feel the confidence of the “ presence” of the major stakeholders and creators in coming to a decision about what works or what doesn’t on the big screen.

At the same time, a lot of produc­ tion communication and detail can be managed using email and video con­ ferencing for less crucial elements of the production workflows. The art in

[A] lot of production communication and detail can be managed using email and video conferencing for less crucial elements of the production w orkflows. The art in production management w ill be the ability to understand and select the communication channel or combination of systems which best suit the task, the project and the production company's productivity. i.e., that the camera angles were the same for all the shots and that the lighting, colours and positioning were working. This necessitated the trans­ mission of live-action elements (usually lower-resolution proxies) to Sherman Oaks. Using a combination of the net­ work and co-located workers, it was possible to identify and resolve prob­ lems faster and avoided having them

production management will be the ability to understand and select the communication channel or combina­ tion of systems which best suit the task, the project and the production company’s productivity.

The work Cinesite completed in Lon­ don on the Space Jam project was able to be achieved with a number of other projects happening at the same time.

V id e o C o n fe re n c in g Cinesite used their video conference facilities for both inter-company com­ munications between their two offices in the UK and USA, and with their clients. They regularly used the system for senior staff meetings so that the London and Hollywood people could meet and their R&D department had a weekly telephone conference and a video conference every two months.

They see strong advantages to com­ pany morale in this practice, creating an environment where people feel they are all part of the same team even though they are in different countries.

During the making of Space Jam, they had a weekly conference call between the director and people in London. The system has two channels so that a video can also be played and sent at either end. The video signal has compression in it, but they haven’t found that a problem for most deci­ sion-making. If high resolution is required, then they send a tape over, or the film itself is used in conven­ tional couriered communications.

They used to always send a back-up video but now find this is no longer necessary for every transaction.

In conventional work practices, it is also usual for the effects supervisor to be on the client’s site at all times and sit in the projection theatre for approval of each final shot composi­ tion. However, the new systems mean that work can be approved earlier on in the shot so that the work produced nearto completion of a sequence will be a high-quality result and will require less alterations and final approvals. People “still have to fly occasionally, because there is nothing like face-to-face and sitting down with somebody and reaching over their shoulder and stuff like that - but it’s made it possible for them to communi­ cate more frequently”10.

These factors of increased “ inti­ macy” amongst remotely-located workers and companies using visualnetworked communications were also confirmed in our earlier research on the Videofax and its application within the Australian advertising industries11, where the systems were being used to minimize the need for international travel for creative decisions, but not remove it altogether.

A shared view by most people inter­ viewed about the new systems is that management and leading creative per­ sonnel will always need to travel for some interactions, but the systems will mean less travel for post-producC I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

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te c h n ic a litie s

tion personnel who don’t require as much face-to-face interaction for their work. Cinesite saw the systems as assisting its staff to work in more effi­ cient ways and minimizing time spent getting over jet lag. It is also able to have its company expertise positioned where they are happiest, regardless of where the work is coming from. There are human factors to consider here, such as the workforce generally get­ ting more mature about family needs and more resistant to being split because of work. The new electronic networks can also accelerate higher turnaround of projects in remotelylocated companies or branches because “there’s no way you could move people around the world at this rate” . The systems have allowed the company to do a lot of American films in their London facilities where the capabilities of the London personnel can add value.

A re th e s y s te m s c h a n g in g th e film in d u s try?

It is easy to view new technologies themselves as the agents of change and that their invention is therefore instrumental to large social and eco­ nomic changes in the way industries work. This view of technological deter­ minism has been challenged for some time, however, and more recent theo­ ries see an inter-relationship between both economic and technological developments in the evolution of the information/entertainment sectors.

Many of the conditions and factors giving rise to the need for new commu­ nication technologies can be found within recent developments in the film industry itself: • the desire for increased output or turnaround on projects; • increases in the speed and flexibil­ ity of programme design (encouraged with the adoption of digital post-production facilities); • significant process changes in programme design and material processing (Le., digital filmmaking for animation, special and visual effects); • changes in company structures from large vertically-integrated structures (studios) to ones who outsource more services; and • changes in the distribution market within the film-production sector, from being focused on theatrical distribution to include broader entertainment sectors (video, cable, music, print media, etc.) and thus seek greater returns through

54

penetration and integration with these sectors.

In relation to the search for busi­ ness, the centralized financial location

These changes are no different to events happening in other manufac­ turing sectors of the information economy and are not specifically tied to the technologies themselves, but more to the way the market sector desires to work.

Thus the evolution and adoption of the new technologies can be seen as a

maximizes the opportunity to do “face-to-face deals” for projects and future contractual work. In an environ­ ment where work is essentially

response to these factors rather than the cause of them.

It is unlikely that the commercial end of the feature film industry will retract from these developments as is sometimes hoped by those threatened with the “culture shock” to 60 years of stable practices, and some of their characteristics will begin to influence the way lower budget and more inde­ pendent producers need to work.

However, filmmakers like Nick Park CWallace and Grommit) will probably

freelance and project by project, there is also a necessity for a presence in these centres to maintain contacts which are developed through both social and business interactions, and this is made much easierthrough geographic proximity.13 What is changing through the availability of the new network communication technologies, however, is the ability to perform contractual work on a production without the need to be located in the same space.

Early adopters of these networks are revealing that they can minimize the “transaction costs” that would nor­ mally be associated with remote work, in relation to the need for the high

Another commonly-held assumption about new communication technologies is that they will inter­ nationalize the industry by changing the major centres of film production on a global level. It would be far too simplistic, however, to conclude that the. availability of the technologies themselves could cause, or be agents for. major rôle changes to regional and international centres of film production. still go on producing independent masterpieces that win Oscars, utilizing traditional stop-frame film animation that requires years to produce.

Another commonly-held assumption about new communication technolo­ gies is that they will internationalize the industry by changing the major centres of film production on a global level. It would be far too simplistic, however, to conclude that the availability of the technologies themselves could cause, or be agents for, major rôle changes to regional and international centres of film production.

Research previously conducted on the US industry12, for example, outlines the importance of both social and economic factors in the geo­ graphic clustering of primary facilities in major centres like Hollywood.

While the industry there has changed or “vertically disintegrated” from its historical studio and oligopoly fea­ tures of production, and uses many more independent companies now to supply services, the major studios still largely control finance and distribution.

levels of consultation, approval and quality control required as part of the production process. In this way, and with their knowledge of revised work practices, they will make the use of their services and skilled creative per­ sonnel much more attractive to the major studios and financiers of film production.

In te rvie w s Kim Libreri and Martin Weaver, Cinesite UK. Bob Amen, Cinesite US. Wendy Aylsworth and Dan Kronstadt, Warner Bros. Studios

A c k n o w le d g e m e n ts The article is the result of a research collaboration with Ellen Baker and Tom Fisher, School of Management, University of Technology, Sydney.

The researchers wish to thank the management and staff of all the companies that participated in this study for their co-operation and for permission to publish these results.

The study was supported by the Aus­ tralian Research Council under grant number A 79530730, assistance from

the Australian Film Television & Radio School Research Unit and a grant from the Faculty of Business, University of Technology, Sydney.

1 Peter White, Online Services: Informa­

tion Abundance and Transactional Space, Bureau of Transport Communi­ cations and Economics Conference paper, 1995, p. 1.

2 R. Behlmer, Memo from David .

Selznick, Macmillan, London, 1972, pp.

0

4 7 3 -9 3 Lindsay Amos, “Reality Blues”, Cinema Papers, no. 114, February 1997, p. 18.

4 Bill Warren, The Technical Background to Space Jam, tech notes, Space Jam Web site http://www.spacejam .comWarren 1996, p. 3.

5 Bill Warren, op cit, p. 5.

6 Compositing is the animation process of composing all the elements together for the final film image: i.e., designing and blending visual effects footage, 2D animation and 3D computer graphics with live-action footage shot with a moving camera.

7 Warren, op cit, pp. 7-9.

8 Tone mattes is a process whereby each animated character has multiple mattes drawn over it to provide shad­ ings. In traditional animation, these are layers of celluloid with paint on them which are then photographed.

Disney is known to have used sheets of glass. In computer animation, they are scanned into the computer and laid over the animation where elements such as density, colour and other sim­ ulations of photochemical effects can be achieved digitally.

9 Cineon is a digital film system manu­ factured by Kodak where original film images can be scanned and digitized.

The system comprises three stages.

After the scanning stage, the digitized images can be combined and manipu­ lated. In the third stage, the fresh digital images are recorded out onto film at film resolution with no loss of quality in the standard of the original negative.

10 Interview with Bob Amen, Cinesite.

11 F. Baker and A. Chandler, T. Fisher and R. Moss, “Moving Pictures: A Case Study of the Videofax and Film Produc­ tion”, Media Information Australia, no.

80,1996, pp. 66-74.

12 S. Christpherson and M. Storper, “Flex­ ible Specialisation and Regional Industrial Agglomerations: The Case of the U.S. Motion Picture Industry”,

Annals of the Association of American Geographers, No. 77(1), 1987, pp. 104117.

13 S. Christpherson et al, op cit.

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A

and “Scratchy”, the two were carefully studied by ustralian audiences are squirming animators at Animal Logic. “ Everything Gore [Verbin­ in their seats this summer at the ski] does has to be completely photorealistic” , says latest Dreamworks picture, Brown.

MouseHunt, thanks to Sydney based-animation house Animal In order to meet the specifications that Verbinski required, Logic Film. The popularity of the film owes muchAnimal to the Logic’s research division extended the limits of existing technology by developing com­ realistic quality of its computer-generated creatures. puter programmes specifically designed for the Chris Godfrey, Visual Effects Director of Animal project, matching computer-generated cockroach Logic, believes that it was the company’s interna­ with live specimen, and also a minutiae of scratches tional reputation for quality special effects that and reflections for the 3D fork model in order to secured the production for Animal Logic - not only of achieve the highest degree of photorealism. “To critters but additional effects work throughout the reach the desired effects, we had to go beyond the film. “There’s a growth path, movie to movie”, he restrictions of available software”, says Senior Ani­ says. “You’re only known for your last credentials. mator Lindsay Fleay.

What Hollywood wants to see is good, seamless Animation work was based on the creation of mul­ integration ... high-quality work. In Australia, we are tiple cockroach models. Three models in all were technically and economically very creative.” required for various scenes.

After the initial brief with MouseHunt director In the kitchen scene, one whole-bodied version Gore Verbinski, Animal Logic Film art director Andy pops its head out of a cigar box and walks into a Brown and Godfrey each travelled to the USA to plate of lobster. Two halves of a cockroach were cre­ spend time on the shoot. Even before Godfrey had ated for the restaurant scene in which the Mayor brought back detailed information from the shoot slices away at his meal, revealing (in close-up) the (lens and lighting references), extensive work on rear end of the cockroach stabbed on a fork (which cockroach models, their textures and movement,

was already under way.

The Animal Logic Film team in Sydney had begun researching the computer-generated critters, with the assistance of Dr Hayley Rose and two cock­ roaches from Sydney University. Nicknamed “ Itchy” C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1998

was textured, lit and composited by Technical Direc­ tor David Dulac). He then spits out the front half and it wanders offscreen.

The story gets messier. For the revealed insides of the cockroach, Fleay sourced texturesrin fish guts to

create a yellow liver-shaped flesh. Andy Brown then photographed crab goo and this was eventually used for the texture of the roaches. Says Fleay, “ Usually there is a taboo on grunge and yuk, but in this case it had to look totally revolting. So we pulled out all the stops!”

For the ‘goo’ to be just right, however, the entire project required close communication with Visual Effects Supervisor Charlie Gibson at Rhythm & Hues in Los Angeles. In so doing, an effective revision process was worked between Sydney and LA to ensure creative feedback and fluency of production.

Through the utilization of satellite and ISDN connec­ tions, material could be transmitted back and forth almost instantaneously. The material was finished and rendered in Australia, then sent back on DLT for output in the USA. “And the film’s making money!” , adds Godfrey. “ From a Hollywood perspective, that’s important.”

Animal Logic cgi team Executive producer: Chris Godfrey, Producer: Fiona Chilton, Producer: Melanie Ritchie, Art director: Andy Brown, Technical director: David Dulac, Animation director: Lynne Cartwright For more information, contact Nicole Graham.

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Funding Decisions Children's Television M isery G uts

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Documentaries Fa’fafines in Paradise M uggers

59 59

Feature Films In a Savage Land D ear C laudia

59 59

Adult Televison Drama A D ifficult W om an Q ueen K at, Carm el & St Juda G et a Life

I

59 59

Children's Television Drama R ound the T w ist 3

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Documentaries A rt from the H eart T he A stonishing A shtons T he A stronaut Rom ancing the C hakra Edge of the Possible Em ily’s Eye T he First Star Servants of the Ancestors T he Instinctive A rchitect Railway A dventures Across Australia The U ltim ate Sin V isions of Yankalilla

59 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60

Features in Pre-Production Paperback H ero Passion Second Drill Features In Production Babe in M etropolis Jam es Pow der Burn Spank

60 60 60

H ead O n H urrah In T he W inter D ark M r Pum pkin’s Big N ight T he T hin Red Line Documentaries Federation

60 61 61 61

Features in Post-Production T he Beggars’ O pera Cafe 61 T he Boys 61

61 61 62 62 62 62

Short Films Stairwell

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Television Village People Go N orth D ow n U nder H om e of the Blizzard 13 G antry Row

62 62 62

«production ■

COMPOSERS • DANCING RUGBY PLAYERS AND CAFE BOYS

FFC Funding Decisions Fallowing a Board meeting November, 1997, , theF’F G has entered , into contract negotiations with the producers of the following projects:

Children s Television MISERY GUTS

(13x30

MINUTE

children ' s

m in i - series )

B arron E ntertainment & S teel S tem P oppy P roductions Ds: TBA EP: Paul B arron P: J an T yrell W: M ary M orris Presales: C hannel N ine , BBC Distribution: B eyond D istribution

eith is the only son ofVin and Marge Shipley: they live above a fish'n'chips shop in South London and things are tough. Keith's parents are misery gutses and he is convinced that the only way for the family to regain its former happiness is for him to make his parents smile again. Keith embarks on a mission to cheer his parents up. He buys a brilliantly coloured tropical fish from Australia, where the sun shines all the time, the sea is full of fish and coconuts just fall into your hands.

When all his efforts to cheer his parents up fail spectacularly, Keith decides he must somehow get his parents to Australia. People couldn't be unhappy in a paradise where fish sparkle like rainbows and it's sunny and warm all the time. Or could they?

K

D ocum entaries FA'FAFINES IN PARADISE

(NON-ACCORD DOCUMENTARY) R e A ngle P ictures Ds: H eather Croall , Eva W underman EP: Eva W underman W-P: H eather C roall Presale: SBS, CHANNEL 4 Distribution: B eyond INTERNATIONAL

irSpmoa, there are three recognized sexes;-S.amoans say the third sex

I

Production Survey

comes about when a young boy demonstrates strong feminine traits, and it is customary that the family may bring him up as a girl from as early as five years old. There is no confusion about whether the child is a girl or boy, she is brought up as a fa'fafine, an accepted part of traditional Samoan life. This documentary gets inside the lives of three flamboyant fa'fafines and contrasts the different experiences for rural and urban fa’fafines. All three are Involved in the annual fa'fafine beauty contest Aunt Tania, now in her fifties, sits on the panel with the Prime Minister of Samoa as one of the judges; Cindy has won the title in recent years and is tipped as the favourite; Biondie, the youngest of the three, has never won the title and will be hoping to be crowned In 1997.

-Finance for the following featuie“fihn was also • approved by the'Board in October, 1997: MUGGERS Redman E ntertainments D: D ean M urphy EPs: J ohn W olstenholme , Gary S m it h , C hris Craib Ps: N igel O dell, D avid Redman W: R obert T aylor Distribution: P olygram , W inchester Films

W

hen two medical students dangerously in debt to a psychopathic loan shark - hack Into their professor's computer to access a crucial exam, they become embroiled in an illicit organ transplant scam. When a suicide lands at their fe e t-a n d his kidneys fall into their la p s -th e y cash in, becoming players in the lucrative trade. But there are complications: their competitors want them out of the game. And dangling in front of all the players is an irresistible lure - a 5100,000 liver. Their dreams of becoming doctors looks like becoming reality until one of their victims turns up dead, a fellow student goes missing, and the police are called in. Life and death. Love and passion.

Murder, intrigue and eighteen holes of golf. And they're not even doctors yet

C I N E M A B A P E R S • MARCH 1 9 9 8

Feature Films

realizes her husband is wrongly interpreting the research to further his own academic ambitions. She enlists the help of a pearl trader to travel to another island where she intends to research a village of headhunters, and begins to fall in love with him. By the time she returns to her husband, war has broken out in the Pacific and the Japanese are poised to invade their island.

IN A SAVAGE LAND

DEAR CLAUDIA

Following a’Board meeting held in December, 1997,-the FFC has entered into contract negotiations with the producers of the , following projects:

(100 MINS)

(100 MINS)

B ill B ennett P roductions

J. M c Elroy H oldings W-D: Chris Cudlipp P: J im M cE lroy Co-P: D es P ower Distribution: UIP, B eyond I nternational

D: B ill B ennett Ps: B ill B ennett , J ennifer B ennett W s: B ill B ennett , J ennifer Cluff Presale: S howtime Distribution: H ollywood P artners , B eyond Films

S

et in the late 1930s, a newly married husband and wife anthropologist team travel to an Island group in New Guinea to study the sexual morés of a group of villagers. Their relationship begins to break down when the woman

# 4 »

ear Claudia is a comedy about a lonely postman, a desperate hitchhiker, a gifted sculptor, an infatuated pilot, a misplaced cop, a street kid, a mistress, a miner, a butcher, two thieves and a dead man.

Claudia and Walter crash into the story by plane. The others arrive in a bag of mail.

D

Adult Television Drama

.

* EP Executive ProducerP Producer Co-PGo-Producer AS Associate Producer LP Line Producer ... ; ID Director SW Scriptw riter »C Cast ’-PC Principal G^lsQ , SE Story Editor^’ * WD W riter-director DIST D istributor NOTE: PrgductwnSurvey forn u ■ now adhere to a revued form at.

Cinema Papers regretoffim nnot a ccept ihfornwt'idn'Teceivedin a, different form at.

Cinema Papei s doej not accept reJponJiMlityfo'r tESdccurqcy o f an y information j applied by production companies Thu u ' particularly the caoe when information changej hut the production company make<f no „ attempt to correct what bao , already been supplied.

A DIFFICULT W OM AN

(4X1 HOUR MINI-SERIES) S outhern S tar X anadu Ds: TBA EPs: Errol S ullivan , S ue M asters P: S andra L evy Ws: N icholas Ha m m o n d , Steve V idler Presale: ABC

T rout Films D: M oira Moss P: Chris W arner

Presale: ABC Distribution: B ecker ENTERTAINMENT

Q

ueen Kat, Carmel & St Jude Get a Life explores the friendship

between the three girls from a country town who move in together in a small inner-city house for their first year of university. By the end of the first year so much happened, so much has been learnt And despite the clashes between them, a close and intimate friendship has finally been cemented between the three girls.

C hildrens Television Drama ROUND THE TW IS T 3

(13X25 MINUTE MINI-SERIES) A ustralian C hildren' s T elevision Foundation Ds: TBA P: B ernadette O 'M aho ny , Patricia Edgar Ws: Ray B oseley, C hris A nastassiades , Esben S torm Presales: ABC, BBC, N ickelodeon , D isney I nternatio nal

Distribution: ACTF he third in the series of the highly popular children's television miniseries Round the Twist is a humorous contemporary fantasy seen through the eyes of three children who live in a lighthouse on the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria.

T

D ocum entaries

Distribution: S outhern S tar

nne Harriman is Senior Research Pathologist at Bauer-Ritter, the most successful medical company in the Southern Hemisphere. A Board member of Logan College, her lover of five years is finally leaving his troubled marriage and they will be openly together at last Anne's life shows every sign of gliding into its best stage - until her best friend, Giselle Mackenzie, gets killed. W hat follows is a series of revelations, clues and scraps of information that lead Anne out of her comfort zone and into a bizarre, shadowy landscape of political and criminal intrigue as she relentlessly pursues her friend's killer.

A

QUEEN KAT, CARMEL & ST JU DE GET A LIFE

(4X48 MINUTE MINI-SERIES)

AR T FROM THE HEART

(55 MINUTEACCORD) RM Films P-D: Richard M oore W s: R ichard M oore, J eremy Eccles

Presale: ABC

M

arket forces have changed the fundamental nature of Aboriginal art forever and spiritual concerns have almost entirely been replaced by financial concerns. Market forces have played a central role in altering the direction of Aboriginal art, currently estimated to be worth S100 million p.a. and affecting various artists in the industry: from the senior artists beleaguered by their families to produce art for cash, to the artists involved in the creation of "tucker art", created mainly for tourist consumption.

59

Sm Ê

production

ProductionSurvey continued THE ASTONISHING ASHTONS

(55 MINUTEACCORD) J ohn M oore P roductions

dramatic course of the creation of a masterpiece and the tragic, sometimes funny and compelling story of its conception and construction.

W-D: L isa J ane W allace P: J ohn M oore Presale : SBS

shton's Circus is the longestrunning circus in the western world. It has survived because of the extraordinary commitment and determination of the Ashton family. The circus survives the lean times and the smaller towns by doing well in the large provincial cities: During the build-up towards one of these seasons, the Ashtons face a series of challenges.

EMILY'S EYE

(54 MINUTE ACCORD)

A

THE A STRO N AU T

(55 MINUTE NON-ACCORD) B eyond P roductions Ds: A lan H all , P eter C harlie W-P: A lan H all EPs: P eter A bbott , A lan Hall Presales: ABC, D iscovery C hannel Distribution: B eyond I nternatio nal

ROMANCING THE CHAKRA

(55 MINUTEACCORD) Froxoff Films W-D: A n na B roinowski Ps: L isa D uff, A nna B roinowski Presale: ABC

omancing the Chakra is a journey

R

into a diverse and confronting place. W e travel with couples as they search for the meaning of life and love through a variety of New Age therapies, ranging from the conventional to the extraordinary. We hear their emotional dilemmas and ambitions forthemselves and each other, and we experience their often entertaining progression towards a new version of the 'truth'.

EDGE OF THE POSSIBLE

(55 MINUTEACCORD) Film A rt Doco W-D: D aryl D ellora P: S ue M aslin Presale: ABC

998 is the 25th anniversary of the official opening of the Sydney Opera House. Jorn Utzon, the architect, was awarded the first prize in a competition to design an Opera House for Sydney.

In 1957 he flew to Australia to begin work on the construction of the greatest building Australia has ever seen and, indeed, one of the finest achievements of modern architecture.

Utzon was forced from the project in 1966 and has never returned to Australia. This film will chart the

60

.I taly , I ndependent N etherlands P ro ­ gram O rganization , Z D F /A rte

RAILW AY ADVENTURES ACROSS AUSTRALIA

Production company: Paperback Films Pty Ltd Distribution company: B eyond F ilms & P olygram Filmed E ntertainment Pre-production: 5/1/98...

Production: 20/2/98...

Post-production: 6/4/98...

(6X45 MINUTE NONACCORD)

(55 MINUTE ACCORD)

Look Films P roductions D: Rodney L ong EP: W ill D avies LP: M ichael N eil-S mith Presales: C hannel 10, Readers D igest Distribution: T apestry I nternational

his elegant and romantic method of transport serves as the vehicle to capture the imagination of viewers as they experience the enormity of Australia. With the host, Scott McGregor, travelling around this extraordinary country utilizing the strange and wonderful rail lines, we will experience hidden parts of this diverse country and meet those people who make this country so unique.

T

(55 MINUTE NONACCORD)

W-D: S tephen M ac L ean EP: M artin Fabin yi P: Fran M oore Presale: ABC

Carolyn-M iller Productions D: T erry Carolyn Ps: T erry Carolyn , Robyn M iller W: Robyn M iller Presale: ABC Distribution: Eaton Films

T

SERVANTS OF THE ANCESTORS

(55 MINUTEACCORD) R esonance P roductions W-D: M alla N unn P: J o - ann e M cG owan Presale: SBS

atricia Gladys Nunn is a social worker and healer who lives and practises traditional Swazi rituals in Albany, WA. In April, she will return to Swaziland to perform the most significant ancestral rite in Swazi culture, the bringing back of Gobuyisa ceremony. As a mixed race Swazi she will cross strict race boundaries to perform the ceremony.

P

THE INSTINCTIVE ARCHITECT

(55 MINUTE NONACCORD) Hilton C ordell & A ssociates D: C hristopher T uckfield Ps: C hris H ilton , D avid M artinez W s: C hris H ilton , M ichael C ordell Presales: ABC, Radio T elevision S w iss

i

i

C laudia Karvan (R uby ), H ugh J ackm an (J ack ), J eanie D rynan (S uzie ), B ruce V enables (A rtie ), R itchie S inger (R alph ), Charlie L ittle (E rrol).

J

ack, an outback road-train truckie moonlights as a romance novellist.

When the book becomes a best-seller, he must do some fast-talking to convince his long-time friend, Ruby, to pretend to be the writer.

PASSION Production company: M att Carroll Films Distribution company: B eyond Films

Principal Credits

Featured in Pre-Production

Government A gency Investment Development: FFC Marketing International sales agent: B eyond Films international distributor: HOLLYWOOD Partners , B eyond Film s , REP

Principal Credits

Cast

Director: A ntony B o w m an Producers: Lance R eynolds & J ohn W inter Co-producer: D an i R ogers Scriptwriter: A ntony B o w m an Director of photography: D avid B urr Production designer: J on D owding Costume designer: L ouise W akefield Editor: V eronika J enet Sound designer: A udio L oc Sound recordist: G reg B urgmann

R ichard Roxburgh (P ercy G rainger )

P

n 1984, Jenny Tanner's husband Laurie returned home from a parttime cleaning job to find his wife's body slumped in a chair, covered in blood with .22 bolt action rifle placed between her knees. An autopsy showed she had been shot twice in the head and through both hands, indicating they had been held in front of her forehead 'in defence'. Despite the impossibility of such wounds being self-inflicted, police maintained it was suicide and, although the coroner returned an open verdict, the case was closed. Acting on a tip-off 12 years later, author and investigative journalist Andrew Rule began digging for clues. His discoveries will finally bring justice to the memory of an innocent woman.

I

VISIONS OF YANKALILLA

(55 MINUTEACCORD) Flaming S tar Films D: R osie J ones P: S haryn P rentice W: R osie J ones Presale: SBS

efore an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared on the wall of the local Anglican church in Yankalilla, life in the little town in South Australia was peaceful and predictable. But since the entrepreneurial new priest at Christ Church recognized the marketing power of the apparition to rejuvenate the dwindling congregation, nothing

B

assion is the story of acclaimed

pianist, composer and eccentric, Percy Grainger, and the intense relationship with his mother Rose, which dominated his life. The film charts Percy's rise from child prodigy to the toast of Edwardian London, revered and celebrated throughout the world.

Planning and Development

SECOND DRILL

Casting: Faith M artin & A ssociates Extras casting: Lydiard & ROSSI Budgeted by: JOHN WINTER

Production company: V erdict P ictures Pty Ltd Production: A pril 1998

Production Crew

THE ULTIM ATE SIN

M ushroom P ictures

he now fabled Lee Gordon was an American hustler and show biz promoter who arrived in Australia just in time to launch the U.S. rock-and-roll invasion. His scheming, manic energy changed the local popular landscape forever, and through him, Johnny O'Keefe achieved his ambition to become Australia's premier and pioneering rock-and-roll star. The First Star will tell us much about Australia's relationship to American pop culture as it does about Johnny O'Keefe's relationship to Lee Gordon.

\

Director: PETER DUNCAN Producer: M att Carroll Scriptwriters: PETER GOLDSWORTHY, Rob G eorge Based on the stageplay: PERCY AND ROSE By: Rob G eorge

PAPERBACK HERO

T

THE FIRST STAR

Cast

tourists of all nationalities and denominations are coming to Yankalilla to see the apparition and to attend the healing mass at the Church, now named The Shrine of Our Lady of Yankalilla. His innovations have attracted both devoted support and bitter opposition.

Production Survey

P-W-D: J essica D ouglas H enry Presale: SBS

hrough the lives of four-year-old Emily Wu, her mother Jenny and father John and their parents, Emily's Eye brings the audience to an understanding of the power of acceptance and communication to overcome prejudice. Emily was born blind in one eye, totally deaf and was thought to be intellectually impaired.

She has overcome huge physical handicaps and at three years old is communicating with the world. This is a compelling story of love and survival in a time when tolerance in Australia is being eroded by a proportion of our society who are frightened by inevitable change.

| i | |

Enfant terrible of international architecture". It's a reputation that Renzo Piano earned in 1971 with his winning design forthe Pompidou Centre in Paris. It's a reputation he still hasn't shaken, despite the fact he is now pushing 60. This film will reveal the intention behind some of Piano's major works and his hands-on approach as he designs and constructs one particular project — the Sydney skyscraper that may come to redefine the genre. m

I ris P ictures

I

n 1998, the first Space Station assembly flight will blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida ushering in a dynamic new era of collaboration to build and sustain a permanent presence in space. The AstronautmW capture what it means to become one of the élite who travel into space, providing viewers with a unique understanding of the technological skills and the special characterthat distinguishes those who make it as a 'card carrying' astronaut.

1

\ has been the same. Busloads of

^

Principal Credits

Production manager: ROSSLYN ABERNETHY Production co-ordinator: Stottie Production secretary: LOUISA KORS Location manager: C hris S trewe Unit manager: D ave S uttor Production runner: A n J11 B ryers Production accountant: N adeen K ingshott Completion guarantor: FACB Legal services: T ress C ocks & M addox Travel co-ordinator: S howtravel

Director: CHARLES " B ud " TlNGWELL Producer: Cameron J am es M iller Co-producer: PETA CRAWFORD Executive producers: OSCAR SCHERL, J ames P odaridis Scriptwriter: ANTHONY LANGONA

Production Crew Production manager: R on B uch

he disturbing and violent portrayal of Sunny Clinsman, 55 and terminally ill with weeks left to live, who pays two estranged army recruits to kidnap his only son's gay lover, in an attempt to lure his son Evan into a catand-mouse game fuelled by a hidden agenda of suicide and self-retribution.

It is the cruel story of a military man so guilt-ridden that he forces his only son into killing him. A suicide drama that demonstrates the raw facts of a life spent living by a code. A lesson in expectancy. A drill we will all have to encounter.

T

Camera Crew Focus puller: JOHN WAREHAM Key grip: L ester B ishop Gaffer: G raham R utherford

On-set Crew 1st assistant director: C harles Rotherham 3rd assistant director: M arc A shton Continuity: J enny Q uigley Boom operator: Gary D ixon Make-up: M argaret S tevenson Make-up assistant: M aree M c D onald Stunts co-ordinator: DANNY BALDWIN Unit nurse: Connie W ebber -R udd Catering: Eleets Catering

Art Department Art director: A dam H ead Art department co-ordinator: Katie N o n Art department runner: D ean M c Gwyer Art department assistant: CHRISTINE FELD Draftsman: A ndrew H ays Props buyers: P aul H urrell & M ichelle SOTHEREN Standby props: H arry Z ettle Action vehicle co-ordinator: M ark "H arry " W ard

W ardrobe Wardrobe supervisor: G raham P urcell Standby wardrobe: H elen M aggs

Construction Department Construction manager: A ndrew Gardiner Set finisher: B ob D aley

Post- production Mixed at: S pectrum Films Laboratory: A tlab

Featured in Production BABE IN METROPOLIS Production company: K ennedy M iller Distribution company: UNIVERSAL PICTURES Production: S eptember 1997 ...

Principal Credits Director: G eorge M iller Producers: GEORGE MILLER, D oug M itchell , B ill M iller Line producer: BARBARA GlBBS Scriptwriters: GEORGE MILLER, JUDY MOR­ RIS, M ark Lamprell Director of photography: ANDREW L esnie Production designer: ROGER FORD Costume designer: N orma M oriceau Editors: J ay Friedkin , M argaret S ixel Composer: N igel W estlake

Government A gency Investment

Punning

Production: FFC & P acific Film and T elevision C o m m issio n (PFTC)

Storyboard artist: P eter P ound

Marketing

Visual effects: T he N eal S canlan S tudio

International distributor: B eyond Films Ltd

Artdirector: COLIN GlBSON

and

Development

Production crew Art Department

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1998

Planning and Development Casting director: Dina Mann Extras casting: Cameron Harris Production crew

Production Crew

p ro d u ctio n Production Survey continued A nimals

Set dresser #2: P ete B axter Assistant set dresser: Kath B urton Standby props: JOHN KING Storyboard artist: B en S kinner

Animal trainers: K arl L ewis M iller , S teve M artin

Cast

W ardrobe

J am es C romw ell (F armer H oggett ), M ag d a S zu b an s k i (M rs H oggett ), M ickey R ooney

H

aving triumphed at the National Sheepdog Trial, Babe returns home a hero, but in his enthusiasm to be at the side of his beloved "boss", the little pig accidentally causes a mishap which leaves Farmer Hoggett in traction confined to bed. With the bank threatening foreclosure, Mrs Hoggett's only hope for saving the farm is to accept an offer for Babe to demonstrate his sheep-herding abilities at an overseas State Fair in exchange for a generous fee. Thus, Babe and Mrs Hoggett set off on a journey that takes them to a far away storybook metropolis, where Babe encounters an incredible assortment of animal friends, experiences the joy and sorrow of life and learns how a kind and steady heart can mend a sorry world

JA M E S Production company: T he J am es Gang P ty Ltd Distribution company: BEYOND Film s , REP D istributio n Pre-production: 10/11/97 - 1 6 /1 /9 8 Production: 19/1 - 13/3/98 Post-production: 16/3 - 28/8/98

Principal Credits

Wardrobe supervisor: ROBYN ELLIOTT Standby wardrobe: AMANDA CRAZE Wardrobe assistant: L isa J avelin

Development: Film V ictoria Production: FFC, NSWFTO

Marketing International sales agent: B eyond Films

Cast R ussell P age (J a m e s ), Rebecca Y ates (C lair e ), M artin H enderson (T o m ), Paul M ercurio (D avid K n ig h t ), Radha M itchell (T a m a r a ), P eter Gw yn ne (D r D errick ), P hillip H older (M r P ow er ), G eorge S partels (J ack G r an t ), K ip Ga m b l in (R o land ), Ra in y M ayo (D a n ik a )

J

ames is the comic story of a young rugby hero who leads a secret double life as a ballet dancer.

Production manager: PERRY STAPLETON Production co-ordinator: RUTH WATSON Production secretary: VANESSA CRITCHLEY Location manager: ANTON D enby Unit manager: RlCK KORNAAT Production runner: SCOTT LOVELOCK Production accountant: SOPHIE SlOMOS Insurer: H .W . WOOD Completion guarantor: FACB ; Legal services: R oth W arren Travel co-ordinator: STAGE & SCREEN Freight co-ordinator: STAGE & SCREEN

POWDER BURN Production company: E den STREET FILMS Budget: $1 .3 m Production: 21/1/98...

Principal Credits Director: S tephen P rime Producer: T im N icholls Co-producer: G reg R ead Line producer: GILLIAN PHILLIPS Executive producers: Stephen P r im e , J am es Roberts Scriptwriter: S tephen P rime Editor: J am es R oberts Art director: TlM NiCHOLLS Casting: S ally B ristoe 1st assistant director: G reg R ead

Cast TO BE ANNOUNCED

owderBurnls a character-driven potboiler about three streetwise 20somethings who live outside society’s rules. It's an energetic, off-beat film where everything happens on the run and happens fast

SPANK Production company: U ltra Film s P ty Ltd Distribution company: PALACE CINEMAS E n t . C orporation Pre-production: 24/11/97 - 2/1/98 Production: 5/1-10/2/98

Camera Crew

Principal Credits

Focus puller: K a tr in a C rook Clapper-loader: S im o n W illiam s Key grip: B rett M cD owell

Director:ERNlE CLARK Producer: DAVID LlGHTFOOT Co-producer: S cott M c D onald Executive producer: Rolf de H eer and D omenico P rocacci Scriptwriters: D avid Farrell & D avid L ightfoot Director of photography: D avid Foreman

On-set Crew 1st assistant director: A drian PlCKERSGlLL 2nd assistant director: G uy Cam pbell 3rd assistant director: D im it r i E llerington Continuity: LYNN-MAREE D anzey Boom operator: D avid P earson M ake-up supervisor: J an "ZlGGY" Z eigenbein Choreographer: Paul MERCURIO Still photography: S kip W atkins Catering: Ea t a n d S hoot T hrough

A.C.S. Production designer: APHRODITE KONDOS Editor: T ed M c Q ueen - M ason Composer: SEAN TlMMS Sound recordist: D es K eneally

Planning and Development Script editor: D u ncan T hompson Casting: ACTORS INK Casting director: A ngela H eesom

A rt Department Art director: CATHERINE MANSILL Art department co-ordinator: A lice L uey Art department runner: B en SKINNER Set dresser #1: JULEIT JOHN

On-set Crew 1st assistant director: D avid L ightfoot 2nd assistant director: J ulie B yrne 3rd assistant director: CLAIR PARKER Continuity: T rudy Gardener Boom operator: R ob CUTCHER Make-up: S uzy W arhurst Make-up assistant: JODIE LENAINE-SMITH Unit nurse: MlCHELLE M c G ow an

A rt Department Art director: P hil M acpherson Props buyer: P ersia B rokensha Standby props: Roger Lamey

W ardrobe Wardrobe supervisor: Gwendolyn " J a c k " S tukely Standby wardrobe: M olly O 'G rady H anr ahan Wardrobe assistant: Karin von B rehren

Post- production

Planning and Development

Production Crew

Camera Crew Focus puller: Rags P hillpot Clapper-loader: SUNNY WILDING Steadicam photography: H arry Pa nag io tidis Key grip: MARCUS B0SIST0 Gaffer: G raeme S helton Best boy: D ave S m ith

Recording studio: A lan Eaton S tudios Laboratory: ATLAB Laboratory liaison: Ian R ussell Negative matching: N egthink Screen ratio: 13:1 Shooting stock: KODAK

Director: Lynda H eys Producers: M ariel B eros, S haron K ruger , Ross M atthew Scriptwriter: S tuart B eattie Director of photography: M artin M c G rath Production designer: LUIGI PlTTORINO Costume designer: A nnie M arshall Editor: JOHN SCOTT Composer: N erida T yson C hew Sound designer: G untis S ics Casting: Faith M artin & A ssociates Extras casting: KATE FlNSTERER Storyboard artist: D avid R ussell Shooting schedule by: ADRIAN PlCKERSGlLL

Camera Crew Production co-ordinator: LEONA ClCHON Location manager: NADINE SCHOEN Unit manager: J ohn Fairhead Production assistant: CLAIR PARKER Production runner: A n n a S teel Financial controller: FACB Production accountant: T rudy T albo t Insurer: W ebser H yde H eath Completion guarantor: FACB Legal services: R oth W arren Freight co-ordinator: AUSTRALIAN AlR Express

Post- production

Government A gency Investment

Production Crew Production manager: SCOTT M c D onald

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA R C H 1 9 9 8

Production manager: A ngie B lack Production co-ordinators: Eleni A rbus & D o n na Camero n Production assistants: R euben B rett, B rad L evins

Post-production supervisor: T ed M c Q ueen -M ason Assistant editor: A drian M c Q ueen - M ason Laboratory: ClNEVEX Laboratory liaison: I an A nderson Video transfers by: AAV

Focus puller: G rant S w eetn am Clapper-loader: M artin S m ith Grips: M att B ates & M att B lackwood Gaffer: C hris Loveday

On- set Crew 1st assistant director: CAROLINE WATERS 2nd assistant director: JOSH A dam 2nd unit D0P: D arrell MARTIN Continuity: MERRAN Elliot Boom operator: R ob D aw so n Hair & make-up: KATHERINE FURNESS Catering: H eather ' s H ealthy M unchies & H ealth Food T hyme Runner: A lan JOHNSON

Cast H olly Fisher (B ecky), Ca it u n M c D ougall (L ouise ), R ebecca M acaulay (J ustin e ), P ip M ushin (T o m ), T orquil N eilson (M arshall ), R obert T aylor (S im o n ), Collette M a n n (M ary ), R ed S ym ons (R ichard ), J ohn Flaus (S t ic k m a n ), G eorge Ka p in ia r is (R estau ­ rateur )

A

fter a 30th birthday party, Louise, Becky and Justine open an underground cafe in their backyard garage which becomes the most popular place in town. Even the policeman and the nosy next door neighbour become regulars. The money starts flowing in, finally freeing them to follow their dreams. But when push comes to shove, will they keep sight of their original goals?

THE BOYS Production company: A renafilm Distribution company: FOOTPRINT Fil m s , G lobe Film C o m pany Production: J uly 1997 ...

Principal Credits

Other I nvestment Production: P r em ium M ovie P artnership

Government A gency Investment

(PMP) Marketing

Development: AFC Production: SBS I ndependent , P rem ium M ovie P artnership

Government A gency Investment Development: SA Film Corporation Production: FFC and SAFC

Budget: $45,000 Production: 8/9-11/10/97

Principal Credits Director: VlCKY FlSHER Producers: V icky Fisher , H olly Fisher Scriptwriter: VlCKY FlSHER Director of photography: KATINA B owell Creative consultant: ELLERY Ryan Production designer: K ent I nkster Editor: ClNDY CLARKSON Sound recordist: N ed, D aw so n

W ardrobe Wardrobe supervisor: KERYN RIBBANDS Standby wardrobe: KELLY FOREMAN Wardrobe assistant: S hane P hillips Post-production 1st assistant editor: R ochelle Oshlack Dubbing editor: Craig Carter Sound editor: Room WITH A Vu, C raig Carter Mixed at: SOUNDFIRM Laboratory: ClNEVEX Camera equipment: LEMAC Shooting stock: K odak

Government A gency Investment Finance: Film Finance C orporation (FFC), Film V ictoria Distribution: P alace (A u stralasia , S outhern S tar Film S ales

Cast

Cast

THE BEGGARS' OPERA CAFE

A rt Department Art director: PAUL H eath Art department co-ordinator: C olette B irrell Art department runner: A d am M c G oldrick Buyers/dressers: LlSA THOMPSON, M urray K elly Standby props: S im o n CARTER

A lex D im it r ia d e s , P aul Ca p s is , W illia m Z a p p a , J ulian Garner , M a r ia M ercedes, E ugenia Fragos , A lex P apps

D avid W e n h a m , T oni Collette , Lynette C urran , J ohn P olson , J eanette Cr o nin , A n n a L ise , A nthony H ayes

Featured in Podt-Production

C a t e r in g

Catering assistant: ROSE B ygrave

Marketing

Cast

P

On- set crew 1st assistant director: PHIL JONES 2nd assistant director: C h r is t in a ROBINSON 3rd assistant director: IAIN PlRRET Script supervisor: ANNIE WENT Boom swinger: M a l HUGHES Make-up/hair supervisor: CHRISTINE M iller Choreographer: ZoiS TziTAS Greek music co-ordinator: I rin e V ela Still photography: JOHN S a r v is Unit publicist: F ran L a n ig AN Catering: Ea t Y our HEART O ut FILM

International distributor: A x io m Film s

R obert M a m m o n e (P a ulie ), V ince P oletto (R ocky ), M ario Ga m m a (N ick ), Frank M ussolino (V in n y ), V ictoria D ixon -W hittle ( J o ), Lucia M astro n tone (T in a ), M arco V enturini (A n g )

aulie returns from Italy to find his old mates Nick and Vinny planning to set up a cafe in the city's premier cafe strip. Vinny's girlfriend Tina bankrolls their plans, but they can'tfind a building. Enter local rich kid Rocky Pisoni, temporarily in charge of his Pa's building development company.

Rocky takes over the project with disastrous consequences.

Camera crew Focus puller: PETTER STOTT Gaffer: JlM H unt Best boy: ROBBIE HECHENBERGER Electricians: DAVID L ovell, Chris D ewhurst

A rt Department Art director: PAUL BEAGLEY Art department assistant: JODIE M c N air

Director: Row an W oods Producers: R obert C onnolly , J ohn M aynard Scriptwriter: STEPHEN SEWELL Based on the play titled: THE BOYS Written by: GORDON GRAHAM

International sales agent: INTRA Fil m , Rome Publicity: David Farrell Poster designer: Robyn W att

Production manager: Catherine B ishop Production co-ordinator: KlM T ravis Producer's assistant: CHRISTINA NORMAN Production secretary: J a n a B lair Location managers: A listair R eilly , T im S cott Unit manager: ANDY PAPPAS Unit assistant: N ino N egrin Production runner: KlM REED Production accountant: GlNA HALLAS Insurer: H .W . WOOD Travel: TRAVEL TOO

T

he Boys tells the story of Brett

Sprague, a bad-seed brother who returns to his family home after several years in gaol. Things have changed while Brett has been away: his brother, Glen, has moved out; youngest brother Stevie's pregnant girlfriend now lives with the family; and his mother, Sandra, has taken on a new lover. On his first day back, Brett sets about restoring his own family order. In doing so, he reunites his brothers with horrific consequences.

HEAD ON Production company:HEAD O n P roductions , Pty Ltd Production office: MELBOURNE Production: 20/8 -1 0 /1 0 /9 7 Location: MELBOURNE

Principal credits Director: A n a KOKKINOS Producer: J ane S cott Scriptwriters: ANDREW BOVELL, A n a K okkinos , M ira R obertson Director of photography: JAEMS GRANT Production designer: N ikki D i Falco Costume designer: A n n a B orghesi Editor: JlLL BlLCOCK Composer: P eter B est Sound designer: Lloyd Carrick

N

ineteen years old. When all Ari's energy and defiance, pain and joy is jammed into one high-velocity night of dancing, sex and drugs, he's running head on into his own kind of freedom.

HURRAH Production company: H urrah P roductions Pty Ltd Production office: MELBOURNE Budget: $3.6 m Production: 23/8 - 3/10/97 Location: W entw orth , N S W

Principal credits Director: Frank S hields Producer: J ulie MARLOW Co-producer: JOHN WOLSTENHOLME Executive producers: David R oe, L es L ithgow Line producer: D a nie l S charf Scriptwriter: JOHN WOLSTENHOLME Director of photography: N ino M artin etti , ACS Production designer: Pa u l H olt Costume designer: A n n a SENIOR Editor: B ill M urphy Composer: PETER BEST Sound designer: David Lee

Planning and Development Storyboard artist: Ralph M oser

Production Crew Production manager: E lisa A rgenzio Production co-ordinator: A n n a M olyneaux

61

production

Production Survey continued Production secretary: ELEANOR PHILPOTTS Location manager: M a l B ryning Location assistant: Cath L ee Unit manager: LEIGH A m m itzb o l Unit assistant: PHILLIP TAYLOR Production accountant: TREVOR B lainey Insurer: HOLLAND INSURANCE Completion guarantor: F.A.C.B. Legal services: Foster H art Travel: S tage & S creen T ravel

Camera Crew Focus puller: T rish K eating Clapper-loader: Tov B elling Camera equipment: Cameraquip Key grip: NOEL M udie Grip: Oliver P etrovic Gaffer: L es Frazier Best boy: A dam K ercheval Lighting equipment: Frazier L ighting Generator operator: ANDREW JESPEN

On-set Crew 1st assistant director: B ob H oward 2nd assistant director: Steve H ardm an Continuity: J ulie B ates -B rennan Boom operator: GERRY N uci -F ora Make-up/hair design: ANDREA Cadzow Make-up/hair: JENNIFER LAMPHEE Special fx co-ordinator: P eter S tubbs Stunts co-ordinator: W ally D alton Safety supervisor: PETER CuLPAN Safety report: PETER CULPAN Security: T ed M urray Still photography: L isa T omasetti Unit publicist: Fran Lanig an Catering: K eith Fish , Yvett S ini Runners: J oclyn M cCaho n , M atthew S aville , S a nd i A ustin

A rt Department Art director: P hilip B oston Art department co-ordinator: M arian Long Art department: D a n ie l Ow en Art department assistant: G erard K eily Set dressers: MARITA M u ss e tt , C olin R obertson Standby props: B en B auer Armourer: JOHN Fox

W ardrobe Wardrobe buyer: CATHERINE H erneen Standby wardrobe: K aren Falting

Construction Department Scenic artist: COLIN BuRCHALL Construction manager: D ave Franks Key carpenter: MlCK GOLITSCHENKO Carpenters: A nthony La m o n t , M ath ew B olger. G ilbert H anson

Post- production Post-production manager: M al B ryning Assistant editor: B arry Lanfranchi Laboratory: ClNEVEX Shooting stock: K odak Double head projector: T he J oinery Length: 95MIN Gauge: 35 m m

Government A gency Investment Finance: Film Finance Corporation (FFC)

Other Investment Production: P r e m iu m M o vie P a r tn e r sh ip (P M P )

Distribution: T otal Film and T elevision , M ayfair Entertainm ent

Cast: M arton C sokas (R aoul ), T ushka B ergen (J u lia )

hrough the shimmering red-ochre distance, in the white-hot light of passion, two lovers create their own reality. Hurrah'is a mysterious, intense love story.

T

IN THE W IN TER DARK Production company: R.B. Films Distribution company: The Globe Film Co.

Principal Credits Director: JAMES BOGLE Producer: R osemary B light Line producer: B renda Pam Scriptwriters: J ames BOGLE, P eter Rasmussen Based on the novel titled: In the Winter Dark by T im W inton Director of photography: M artin M c Grath Production designer: NICHOLAS M c Callum Costume designer: W endy C ork Editor: SURESH A yyar

Production crew Production manager/co-ordinator: S a m T hompson Location manager: M ichael D avis

On- set crew Still photography: Ph ilip le M esurier Unit publicists: Gayle Lake , T racey M air

Government Agency Investment Development: A ustralian Film Finance C orporation , N ew S outh W ales Film and T elevision O ffice

A rt Department Art director: Laura Elkington Art department runner: Sally B ridle Set dresser: Cass O 'D onnell Props makers: A dam H ead , M iles B low

Post-production Assistant editor: Ka i M0HRH0LZ Edge numberer: A tlab Sound transfers by: A tlab Laboratory: ATLAB Laboratory liaison: SlMON Stoney Negative matching: Chris Row all Film gauge: S uper 16 Shooting stock: K odak

Marketing International sales agent: SOUTHERN S tar

Cast B renda B lethyn (I da Stu b bs ), Ray B arrett (M aurice S tu b bs ), R ichard R oxburgh (M urray J aco b ), M iran da Otto (R o n n ie ).

Principal Credits Directors: M ichelle W arner & P riscilla Cameron Producers: MlCHELLE WARNER & P riscilla Cameron Associate producer: Kath ar in a K eil Scriptwriters: MlCHELLE WARNER & P riscilla Cameron Director of photography: G rant MARKERT Production designer: LAURA Elkington Costume designer: AUREOLE McAPUNE Editor: Ray Cooper Sound recordist: GRAEME HlCKS

Planning and Development Script editor: M egan S im pso n -H uberman Casting: DAMIEN ANTHONY Rossi Casting consultants: Lydiard & Rossi Casting Consultants Extras casting: Lydiard & Rossi Casting C onsultants Shooting schedule by: A ngella M c P herson Budgeted by: P riscilla Cameron

Production Crew Production manager: Cath H all Production asssitants: KlM PRENTICE & Cathy Fraser Production runner: SARAH N oller Insurer: ClNESURE Legal services: RRR C onsultants

DEAD LETTER OFFICE

Cast

FAM ILY CRACKERS

Caroline K enna (M elody H arriso n ), A lan L ock (J im m y )

KILLER JO N ES

A

psychological thriller, in the tradition of Hitchcock, with a twist.

LIQUID BRIDGE REFLECTIONS

Television

VENUS FACTORY

0TPF DECISIONS, The -foliowhig- three ¡proj ects have recently1bfeen approved

D ocumentaries FEDERATION

?^hy.$he'-CbnmLerfciai- ^

(3 x 1 HOUR SERIES)

Television^Production Fund:

Production company: F ilm A u stra lia Director: I an M unro Producer: A n n a G rieve Executive producers: S haron C onnolly ,

VILLAGE PEOPLE GO NORTH DOW N UNDER

M egan M c M urchy

(DOCUMENTARY)

Writer: S ue CASTRIQUE

his series documents the events, personalities and experiences of people throughout the colonies in the decades leading up to Federation. It is an epic tale of how a nation was made.

It tells the story not only of 'the founding fathers' but also 'the people'.

It reveals what life was like in the colonies for those who were excluded as well as included in the rights and privileges of Australian citizenship.

This is the story of the winners and losers, of the struggle not just to make an Australian nation, but to create an Australian democracy.

D: S a ra h S tephen s

T

Ps: J ohn K earney and J ohn C h ase Presale: NINE NETWORK

he documentary centres on Allen Murphy, formerly part of the legendary seventies band. The Village People, who is now resident in Australia. At his invitation. The Village People will meet with the Aboriginal musicians he now plays with and teaches in the Northern Territory.

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HOME OF THE BLIZZARD (DOCUMENTARY) Prospero P roductions

Government A gency Investment

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Production company: S py P roductions Pre-production: 15/9/97 - 23/10/97 Production: 2 4 /1 0 /9 7 -2 2 /1 1 /9 7 Post-production: 24/11/97 - 23/1/98

Laboratory: A tlab Film gauge: 16 m m Shooting stock: K odak Ea s tm an T500 and T200

CAFFIENE

On-set Crew

Other I nvestment

MR PUMPKIN'S BIG NIGHT OUT

AM Y

Camera operator: G rant MARKERT Focus puller: M argaret M cC lymont Clapper-loader: RlCKlE B yrne Camera assistant: M argaret M c Clymont Camera type: A rri SR2 Key grip: L eigh T ate Assistant grips: T ony O 'L oughlan Gaffer: D an MlCHAUD Best boy: MICHAEL BAKER 1st assistant director: A ngella M c P herson 2nd assistant director: KlM PRENTICE Continuity: KATHARINA K eil Boom operator: Greg S teele Make-up: S ue K elly T ate Make-up assistant: S ue K enchington Hairdresser: S ue K elly T ate Still photography: V incent L ong & T ony O 'L oughlan Catering: A nn CAMERON & N arelle W alsh

A pted

122 FOR THE FOLLOWING:

Post- production

Camera Crew

Production: PREMIUM M ovie PARTNERSHIP (P M P )

n intense psychological drama. In the Winter Dark is set in a secluded country valley where Maurice Stubbs and his wife Ida attempt to hold together a life-long but fragile relationship, while Murray Jacob and Ronnie struggle to find love.

As the pain from an unresolved tragedy threatens to erupt from Maurice and Ida's past, Jacob and Ronnie are drawn into the older couple's desperate attempts to stop their lives unravelling.

SEE ISSUE

Development: Film Q ueensland Production: Private

Short Films

Cast

STAIRW ELL

S ara Z ang o bani (D eidre ), M elinda B utel (L ou ), A my Gray (jo ), Paul T assone (D a n ), A ndrew B ooth (M r Pu m p k in ), Dann y M urphy (C hris ), Francis C hang (L ester ), Grant Ebeling (P olicem an )

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hree girls, one pumpkin, more fun than you can poke a stick a t

THE THIN RED LINE Production company: P hoenix P ictures -F ox 2000 Production: 23 J une -N ovember 1997, P ort D ouglas , Queensland Distribution company: T w entieth Century Fox

Principal credits Director: T errence M alick Producers: Grant H ill , Robert G eisler , J ohn R oberdeau Executive producer: G eorge S tevens J r.

Line producer: GRANT H ill Scriptwriter: TERRENCE MALICK Based on a novel titled: The Thin R ed Line

By J am es J ones Director of photography: JOHN TOLL Editors: BILL WEBER, LESLIE JONES Production designer: J ack Fisk Costume designer: M argot WILSON

Other Credits Production manager: V icki P opplewell 1st assistant director: S kip Cosper Unit publicity: FIONA S earson , DDA

Cast S ean P enn , J ohn T ravolta , J im Caviezel , A drien B rody , Elias K oteas , N ick N olte, B en C h aplin , J en Cusack , W oody H arrelson , B ill P u lm a n , J ohn S avage , Gary O ld m a n , G eorge C looney , M iran da Otto

ased on Jones' sequel to From Here to Eternity, the film depicts an episode of military history in 1942 when the first division of the US Marine Corps attacked the beaches of Guadalcanal, where Japanese troops had dug in. The 'thin red line' represents the fine line between defeat and victory in the battle.

B

Presale: N ine N etw o rk

his documentary follows the journey often Australians who travel to Antarctica to restore Sir Douglas Mawson's huts.

T

Budget: $78,000 Production: J an uary 1998

Principal Credits

13 G AN TRY ROW

Director: D en ise R o berts Producer: lAN COOK Associate producer: K errie M a in w a r in g Scriptwriter: A lan Lock Director of photography: K en PETTIGREW Editor: N icole La m a c c h ia Sound designer: G ra n t S hepherd

R obert B runing P roductions

Production Crew

D: C a t h e r in e M illar

(FORMERLY KNOWN AS 'HANDHOLD') (2 HOUR TELEMOVIE)

Production co-ordinator: A nn C h ester m a n

W: T ony M orphett

Location executive: M a ude H eath

Presale: N etw o rk T en

Location manager: JACQUI B rown Production assistant: K aren S aun d ers

Camera Crew Camera operator: M a tth e w T em ple Focus puller: N icho las Ow e n s Clapper-loader. B rian M c E lhinney Key grip: A ngus G o w an s Gaffer: P hil M ulligan Best boy: J im m y B ell Lighting supplied by: FLEET LIGHTING

A

modern day pyscho-thriller set in inner-city Sydney

Awaiting R elease TRUTH ABOU T TARO (116) SUGAR FACTORY (116)

On- set Crew

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1st assistant director: R ichard S m ead Continuity: KlRA BOHN Make-up: ALAN M ead Still photography: L u d w ik DABROWSKI Catering: G et R eel

PIGEON (119) ABERRATION (119)

A rt Department

OUT OF THE BLUE (119)

Art director: ANGELO KARAGEORGIOU Assistant art director: TAMARA H eath

GREYSTOKE2(119) JU STICE (121)

IN P R O D U C T IO N “Introduction ” id compiled by Tim Hunter.

Please contact him a t Cinema Papers, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons, on 039416 2644or fax 0394164088 TEL (03) 9416 2644 G I N E M A P A P E R S • MARCH 1 9 9 8

inhabits a special position in the effects food chain. Our growth traverses cinema from Mouse Hunt to Face/Off and Blackrock to Babe. Cross-breeding talented designers, animators, compositors with our formidable technical resource base _

and experience developed over many years of servicing the international film market makes Animal Logic the

J B B Âť

rarest of animals.

ISIS SiBlifS

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CONTACT Zareh Nalbandian E zareh@al.com.au

Chris Godfrey E cg @a l . c om. a u

AnimalLOGIC FILM

T 612 9 9 0 6 1232 F 612 9 9 0 6 7433 or v i 5it us at www.animalogic.com

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A pan el o f twelve film reviewers has rated a selection of the latest releases on a scale of 0 to 10, the latter being the optim um rating (a dash m eans not seen).

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Je o M -P ie rre J e n n e t H E A V E N ’S B U R N IN G

C r a i g L a It i f f T H E ICE STO RM flag L e e T H E JA C K A L

M ic h a e l C a t o n - J o neA A LIFE LESS O R D IN A R Y DaHHt) B o if le MRS B R O W N

Jo h n M adden R O A D T O N H IL L Sn e B r o o k a S P IC E W O R L D : T H E M O VIE

B o h S p ie r A TH A N K C O D HE M ET LIZZIE

C it e r i e N o v t la n T IT A N IC

Ja n te a C a m e ro n TO M O R R O W N E V E R DIES

R o g e r S p o t t iA v e o o d e TO P LE S S W O M E N T A L K A B O U T T H E IR LIVE S

H a m f S in c la ir

1. The only way to locate the sunk British frigate is via the corrupted satellite tracker, which Bond (Pierce Brosnan) has.

He takes a high-altitude flight and a rapid skydive to reach the wreck. There he swims into Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh). How did she find the wreck? How did she get there so fast in a Chinese junk that might struggle to top two miles an hour?

2. At the end, Wai Lin is underwater, wrapped in a chain hanging from a structural beam of the stealth boat. The boat is blown to smithereens. The chain still hangs. From what?

3. In the pre-credit sequence, we are told that an explo­

64

sion near a nuclear warhead will cause a nuclear apocalypse (which is why Bond flies the plane, and warhead, out of har­ m’s way). In the final scene, a nuclear missile is on the boat which is blown up, but there is no mushroom cloud. What happened to internal logic?

4.

The film goes to extraordinary lengths to promote China as the West’s finest and most understanding ally. This is propaganda/disinformation of the same disingenuity and scale practised by the film’s monstrous villain. What hap­ pened to knowing irony?

C I N E M A P A P E R S • MA RC H 1998

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