Cinema Papers No.130 June 1999

P R IN T E D P O S T A P P R O V E D P P 3 4 2 7 2 /0 0 0 0 7

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Rising Sun has a sim ple eth o s. W e lo v e films'.

W e enjoy and u n d erstand th e film -m a ftiliP l process. O ur effe c ts d ire c to r is a m ulti a w a rd ­ w inning fe a tu re film cin em ato g rap h er. W e know th a t technolo gy does not drive film m aking, people do. Visual e ffe c ts are no d ifferent. C om e and m eet our p e o p le. Y ou’ll like us. No really.

Rising Sun Pictures. G reat effects. G reat people.

Ask for a showreel to see t i p results for yourself.

Driven C 20,000 Leagues Underthil lile: +61 8 8364 60’ info@rsp.com.au

rising

or a showreel plea; or Gail Fuller.

contents

CINEMA PAPERS • JUNE 1999

NUMBER

130

IN SIG H T S m b its

2

com m en t

8

BILL COLLINS queries the lack film variety on the small screen.

obituary

10

farewells the late Joan Long.

MARTHA ANSARA

inreview

39

FILMS: Redbait, The General, Divorcing Jack, Praise, The Craic.

BO O KS: Once Upon a Time in America, The Birds, David Lean: A Biography, High Concept; Don Simpson and the Culture o f Hollywood Excess, The Chaplin Encyclopedia.

Erskineville Kings Reunited brothers rekindle their sibling rivalry. MARK SMITH talks to Alan White’s about his directorial feature debut.

technicalities BARRIE SMITH looks

49 at CGI

animation.

SEAN C o u s in s review s scrip t­ processing softw are.

In a Savage Land Bill Bennet discusses anthropol­ ogy, sexuality and filmmaking with A n d r e w L. U r b a n .

18

12

Another World Emma-Kate Croghan captures Sydney's state of regeneration and anticipation in her new feature, Strange Planet. TlM HUNTER 22

SIGHT UNSEEN

Strange Fits of Passion Duplicating Psycho inproduction dirty dozen

59 64

Remaking Psycho may be like reinventing the wheel.

Kubrick's final film E yes Wide S hut promises to be

Melbourne filmmakers, Elise MicCredie and Lucy Maclaren, chat with MLARK SMITH about their all consuming feature.

controversial. Is it more o f the same from thè master o f : coming; attractions?

32

R ic h a r d C o m b s

R ic h a r d F r a n k l in

S ÌL J À

cty

26

20

“uONfRONTlNG... CONTROVERSIAL.. COMPELLING...

blasts from the screen like the cinematic progeny of same unholy union between lars von Trier amiAbe1Ferrara.

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

a film by JON HEWITT

your taxes atwork... and play

m STARTS @ PALACE CINEMAS APRIL 29 (MELB/SYD) ; MAY 13 (ADELAIDE) PALACE FILMS

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

1

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Changes to our funding arrangements meant we were unable to bring you the March issue, but we think that this special Cannes Film Festival edition is one of our best ever.

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he 16th St Hilda Film Festival will run this year from May 25 to 30,

and is, for the first time, under the directorial auspices of Melbourne film buff icon, Paul Harris, best known as a presenter for the long-running Film

' Signed articles represeht the views of the authors and not; neces- •sajfily those of the editor and publisher. While every care is taken with manuscripts and materials suppliedsto the^magazine;.neither-/ the editor nor the publisher can accept liability for any loss,or damage whichrnayarise.This.magazine may not be reproduced in whole or part without the express permi&ion of the copyright . owners. Cinema Papers is pubJished by MTV Publishing Limited, 116 Argyle St,'Fitzroy, VIC, Australia 3065, and 15 indexed by FIAF"

B uffs Forecast on 3RRR, and numer­

AWARDS GET A NEW NAME

matheque’s first film screenings as the

ous columns and reviews in The Age.

W

Melbourne University Film Society

This year the Festival will run over six

arner Roadshow has signed a

(MUFS) in 1949. Celebrating that was,

days, and will screen new Australian

Pacific Film & Television Commission

the screening of an ongoing retrospec­

short films, a selection of short films

for the naming rights and provision of

tive, “Carlton and Other Suburbs”,

fresh from Sundance, a market day,

a $2,000 cash prize for the Queens­

which examines Cinem atheque’s

and a special archival event premiere

land New Filmmakers Awards. They will now be known as the Warner Roadshow Queensland New Filmmak­ ers Awards. Warner Roadshow has

involvement on local filmmaking over

screening of Bayside Reflections, a

sponsorship deal with the

the past 40 years. Rarely-seen films

look at the history of Port Phillip Bay,

and previously lost films such as

with obvious special interest paid to

Ballade (Gil Brealey, 1952) and the

St Kilda and Luna Park. All screenings

been a long-standing supporter of the

tongue-in-cheek Prince Philip news­

will take place at the George Cinema

Awards, which are open to senior sec­

reel Royal Rag (1954) are included in

in Fitzroy St, St Kilda.

ondary students, tertiary students and

the programme. The retrospective,

independent filmmakers under the age

and other anniversary screenings,

of 30, since their inception 13 years

such as a Gil Brealey retrospective, an

ago. Winners of this year’s Awards,

exhibition of MUFS memorabilia and

including awards for directing, editing,

an on-line oral history project, will con­

T

he Society of Motion Pictures and

Television Engineers (SMPTE) is

gearing up for its 1999 conference,

sound, scriptwriting and acting, and

tinue throughout the year, and will be

being held this year from July 13 to 16

the prestigious Kinetone Award, will

screening at Cinemedia at Treasury

at the Sydney Exhibition and Conven­

be announced during a gala awards

Place (formerly State Film Theatre).

tion Centre. This year it will examine the impact digital technology has had

ceremony on 28 April, 1999.

NEWVISION’S TALENT SCHEME

N

ewvision Films has set up a sub­ sidiary to assist in developing

new and established Australian film-

BABE, BOX OFFICE SUCCESS: THE SEQUEL ollowing in its precursor’s foot­

F

steps, Babe: Pig in the City

(George Miller) topped the box-office

on the broadcast and film industry.

With international guests, headlined by keynote speaker, Dr Ian Childs, Head of Research and Development at the BBC in the United Kingdom, just

» .1

■CINEMA PAPERS IS PUBLISHED WITH FINANCIAL; ASSISTANCE FROM THE A 'U S TM lA N Tm iyf COMMISSION AND CINEMEDIA

Martha Ansara is ?Sy d n e y Bill Collins on

f ilm a k e r .

p r e s e n t s c l a s s i 'c m o v i Cs

Fo x t e l ’ s FX C h a n n el .

Richard Combses a Lo n d o n - b a sed WRITER AND REGULAR CONTRIBUTED TO" S ig h t a n d S ound S ean Cousins

is a w r ite r an d film

MAKER.

Richard Franklin«is a

d ir ec t o r who

-HAS WORKED EXTENSIVELY AUSTRALIA AND OVERSEAS.

Michael Helms Fatal Visio n s .

Kevin Janner

is th e e d ito r of

is a p r o je c t io n is t

AND WRITER.

Paul Kalina is a c o lu m n ist a t Th e .

A g e Gr e e n Gu id e an d a co n tr ib u ter to Media Da y .

making talent. They are looking at

charts in 1998 as the highest-earning

about all aspects of the digital age and

Christopher Matthews

becoming more involved in feature

Australian film for the year, having

their ramifications will be explored.

Me lb o u r n e b a s ed f r e ela n c e w r it e r .

projects at script stage, reading

earned $4.33171, and was still in

Industry professional panels will d is­

Adrian Rawlins

scripts, meeting filmmakers and facili­

release and performing well at the

cuss the digital age and its application

is a p o e t - p h il o s o PHER WITH AN INTEREST IN ROCK CULTURE.

tating the developing of new ideas.

beginning of 1999.

to the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and

Barrie S mith

For more information, contact Lizette

Other top Australian earners for

exhibitions of the latest television,

is a

is a S y d n e y w r it e r , /' DIRECTOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER.

Atkins or Frank Cox at Newvision in

1998 were Alex Proyas’ Dark City

radio and film technology will fill two

Rick Thompson

Melbourne on (61.3) 9646 5555, or

($ 3.35m), Ana Kokkinos’ Head On

halls of the Exhibition Centre. And just

STUDIES AT LATROBE UNIVERSITY.

Bruna Papandrea in Sydney, on

($i.79m ), Gillian Armstrong’s Oscar and Lucinda ($1.77) and The Wiggles Movie, directed by Dean Covell

for a change of pace, this year’s SMPTE

Andrew L. Urban writes for Mo vin g P ic t u r e s . His on -l in e ’ zine is located at : www.urbancinefile.com.au

0414 432 436.

GOLDEN CINÉMATHÈQUE

2

SMPTE THE BEST

AUSTRALIAN fIL M i'V '.

COMMISSION

($i.55m ). Overall, Australian films

dinner will be held poolside at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre.

For more information or registra­

arch 1999 marked the 50th

earned a collective $25.6111 in 1998,

tion, ring (61.2)9977 0888 or email:

anniversary of Melbourne Ciné-

down from $28.4111 in 1997.

smpte99@bigpond.com

M

l e c t u r e s in cin em a

Paul V ietta js a Melbourne based freelance writer .

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

NOW

HOLY SMOKE DIRECTOR J A N E CAMPION

LOCATED

AT

FIFTEEN AMORE ยกRECTOR M AURICE Mi

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ME, M Y SE LF, I DIRECTOR PIP KARMEL

BA BE: PIG IN THE CITY DIRECTOR GEORGE MILLER

FA CE/OFF DIRECTOR JO H N WOO

DARK BOGLE

* MR ACCIDENT DIRECTOR YAHOO SI

fc F E T C H IRECTOFTLYNN-MARJ

M O U SE H U N I DIRECTOR GORE V E R B I N S K I

THE MATRIX DIR ECTORS ANDY AND LAR R Y WACHOWSKI

THE THIN RED LINE DIRECTOR TERRENCE M A LICK

Fox Studios Australia, Driver Ave, Moore Park N5W 1363 Ph 61 2 9383 4800 Fx 61 29383 4801

bits

Brian Harradine, an active anti­ pornography advocate who holds the balance of power in the Senate, although such claim s were refuted.

Other issues raised by all of this dia­

LOLITA SHOCKS AGAIN!

logue centre around Lolita’s singling

E

ver since Vladimir Nabokov’s

out, as condoning paedophilia (when

novel Lolita appeared in 1955, it

it’s not) when other films, such as

has been no stranger to controversy.

Hurly Burly (Anthony Drazan, 1999) Happiness (Todd Solondz, 1999) or even Payback (Brian Helgeland, 1999)

Numerous bans and scandals followed the book wherever it went. When

Stanley Kubrick directed its first

have as much, if not more, morally

screen adaptation in 1962, there were

questionable content. At the end of

outcries, even though the girl’s age

the day though, all the brouhaha has

had been bumped up to 15. So it’s no

drawn both attention and an audience

surprise that Adrian Lyne’s new ver­

to Lolita, where neither would have

sion has once again created noise.

necessarily been guaranteed if it had

Originally shot in 1996, with Jeremy

just been slipped in unawares.

Irons as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain (who was 14 at the

distribution rights, but not without

Minister, John Howard, joined in,

time) as Dolores, Lolita had a great

some loud protest first. A collection of

promising to investigate the possibil­

deal of trouble finding an American

coalition MPs, including South Aus­

ity of overruling the board and

distributor, and finally had a one-week

tralian Liberal MP, Trish Draper,

banning Lolita. This in turn created a

two new trainees will be placed in

theatrical release, essentially to make

objected to the film’s release in Aus­

flurry of comments and opinions from

Round 2 of the Digital Visual FX

it eligible for entry into the Academy

tralia, and called the film “sick and

all and sundry, either supporting the

(Effects) Traineeship Scheme. After

Awards.

bizarre”. And when the board of the

politicians, or supporting the Board,

four of the six Round 1 trainees have

and claiming that the Federal govern­

since been offered full-time work with

Australian screens on 15 April of this

Office of Film and Literature Classifi­ cation gave the film an R18 rating, the

ment had'promised such actions to

their host companies, and the other

year, after Beyond Films picked up the

outcries became louder, and Prime

woo the vote of independent senator,

two likely to snapped up at any

The film finally found its way onto

TRAINEES IN FX he New South Wales Film & Tele­ vision Office has announced that

T O P TEN

E

lizabeth (Shekhar Kapur, 1998) and Shakespeare in Love (John

Madden, 1999) have set new stan­ dards for historically-based film: why not just suppose something hap­ pened and then make it fit into established fact. Just in those two films alone, suggestive history has moved in leaps and bounds, with the Virgin Queen painted in a not-so-virginal light, and Shakespeare’s famous Juliet actually starting life as Ethel, a pirate’s daughter, before transforming into a cross-dressing lady of noble birth. So here’s a list of suggestive history ideas that may make very entertaining films indeed.

1. The burning of Rome

is what Dr Faustus is actually about?

9. Azaria

Now that all the 1492 films have been

Wild, but true.

We’ve all heard the stories, the theo­

done, perhaps now we’ll get the real

7 - JFK

ries, but this one debunks the lot. It

story: that Columbus was in fact a

We can never have enough about this

was actually Meryl Streep who

womanizing, drunken spendthrift,

historical moment, but let’s just

kidnapped Azaria, blessed with the

fleeing a host of spurned Italian and

imagine that the FBI had nothing to do

desire to use her newly-polished A us­

Spanish lovers and debt collectors -

with it, and that it was in fact Marilyn

tralian accent, and certain

he just went a little further than most.

Monroe’s publicist, working in

foreknowledge that she would indeed

4. Dante and his vision of Hell

cahoots with British television station

be asked to play Lindy Chamberlain in

Inferno is probably one of the most

ITV, who organized Kennedy’s assas­

years to come.

vividly-im agined landscapes in West­

sination. It was Monroe’s publicist

10. Skase

ern literature, but where exactly did

because, of course, he knew too

The truth is, he died before reaching

he get this from? Was it religious fer­

much, and ITV, because it wanted to

Majorca; the figure that we’re seeing

vour, a revelation? Or was Dante a

sabotage the BBC’s new Saturday

is a well-paid actor doubling for Skase

drug-addicted scroff having a big lend

teatime programme, Doctor Who -

and doing his own stunts in tfie pool

of the church and society by tapping

which is exactly what happened. News

and recent lung surgery scenes.

into their most vulnerable weakness:

of the president’s a ssassi­

the guilt of sin?

nation delayed Doctor

5. Edward and Mrs Simpson

Who’s premiere telecast,

ancient Rome was in fact a ruse cre­

Daring to be controversial comes the

but ultimately to no avail.

ated by Nero to allow his lover to

shocking, and some might say taste­

Perhaps a sequel could tell

escape the palace without Queen

less and unnecessary, revelation that

the story of how ITV actu­ ally did permanently

Maybe the fiery fate that befell

4

3. Christopher Columbus

Poppia’s knowledge. And, so con­

Mrs W allis Simpson was in fact a

sumed with passion for this unknown

transvestite. Not a new idea perhaps,

damage Doctor Who in

lover was Nero, that he felt the whole

but a great film premise. Oh, and

the late ‘90s.

city should experience the burning

Edward didn’t even know.

8. The Bloomsbury Set

sensation that fired his loins. As for

6. Kit Marlowe

Virginia Woolf, Dora Car­

his fiddling, well, who’s to say that

Sham elessly cashing in on Shake­

rington, Lytton Strachey, and the whole bohemian

music was involved at all?

speare in Love perhaps, but upsetting

2. Marco Polo in China

the canon nevertheless: playwright

bunch of artists known

Why did Marco Polo stay so long in

Christopher Marlowe was heterosex­

as the Bloomsbury Set

China, and at whose behest? Did the

ual! What does this mean for his play

were, in fact, a literary

Kublai Khan keep him on for his

Edward II? Is it time for revisionist

myth, designed perhaps

backgammon skills, or did the Khan

thinking to claim that there is no gay

by them all to achieve

have a much darker secret? White

theme to this play, and dare we sug­

publicity, even scandal,

slavery? Male harems? The possibili­

gest that while Kit may have had male

and we all know how well

ties are endless.

admirers, he spurned them all, which

scandal sells.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

FRAMEWORKS

S

in

UNIT

ltY

l -

AUSTRALIA

6, 6 8 L I L Y F I E L D

RD, R O Z E L L E , N S W , 2 0 3 9

T E L (61) 2 9555 4577 F A X (61) 2 9555 4399 EMAIL framewks@ozemail.com.au

mbits

have been ignored, along with a number of proposals that would have prevented the displacement of Australian drama through the dumping of cheap subsidized New

moment, the future looks bright for

Zealand programming.

the new trainees. Aiden Sarsfield will join the 3D department of digital effects and design house Animal Logic, and Trevor Smith w ill be attached to

Dfilm Digital Film Services.

SCREENWEST PARTNERS GRANADA

S

creen West, WA’s film and television funding and devel­

opment agency, has formed a

AUSTRALIAN CONTENT: THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT

T

partnership with UK production company Granada Media. Granada

he Australian Broadcasting

and ScreenWest will contribute up

Authority has released its new

to $6 million each to the project,

Australian content rules, much to the

named Granada West, over the

dism ay of many industry organiza­

next five years, and will increase

tions. The safety net for Australian

income and production opportunities

Armiger, who replaces Jeremy Fabinyi

content on television has been

in Western Australia.

after his resignation from the Board at

p h eno m enally- this year alone saw a

the last board meeting. Armiger has

4 0 % increase in ticket sales - to the

previously been the president of

point where it has become one of the

replaced with a New Zealand/A ustralian content quota, which True Blue

CORRIGENDUM

spokesperson Anne Briton believes

T

may lead “commercial broadcasters to

the Mardi Gras Film Festival grow

hose gremlins were at it again last

the Australian Screen Composers

largest and most comprehensive film

issue, and paying no attention to

Guild, and has worked as a record

festivals in the country.

the fact that it was an anniversary

producer, songwriter, guitar player

to meet their ABA imposed Australian

issue, they ploughed straight into Tom

and composer.

content targets.” True Blue is a coali­

Ryan’s article “Passions: Past & Pre­ sent” (Cinema Papers, No. 129, January 1999, P37), and altered the footnotes concerning Lorna Doone. It

D

arm to its international distribution

company’s new General Manager.

division based in Australia. Granada

was in fact the US version of the film,

McAusland previously held the posi­

Media recently acquired Artist Ser­

directed by Phil Karlson in 1951, that

tion of Digital Effects Producer with

M. Ryan was referring to, and not the

Dfilm, and joined the company while

British 1935 version, directed by Basil

working on Alex Proyas’ Dark City

Deane, as printed.

last year.

vices, and has appointed Chief Executive Peter Beilby as Managing Director of Granada Media Interna­ tional, Australia.

rely exclusively on New Zealand drama

tion of organizations, including the

Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), Australian Children’s Televi­ sion Foundation (ACTF), Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA), Australian Screen Directors Association (ASDA) and the Australian Writers’ Guild, which believes that

film has announced the appoint­ ment of Alaric McAusland as the

C

ranada Media, along with its partnership with ScreenWest,

has announced the opening of a new

subm issions made by industry and Government film agencies that the ABA’s draft Standard released in November 1998 failed to guarantee minimum levels of Australian content

APPOINTMENTS

J

oining the Board of copyright soci­ ety Screenrights is screen

composer and musician Martin

ast November, the Australian Film

L

Institute unanimously appointed board member Denny Lawrence as

FESTIVE AUSTRALIANS number of new Australian films

Lawrence, a writer and director,

A

replaces former chair Bob Weis, after

January were the feature films; Two

serving in that role for four years.

Hands, directed by Gregor Jordan, starring Heath Ledger and Bryan Brown, and John Curran’s Praise, starring Peter Fenton and Sacha Horler, along with the short film Two Girls and a Baby, directed by Kelli Simpson starring Claudia Karvan and Nikki Wendt.

the new chairman of the AFI Board.

Lawrence has also served on the boards of the Writers Guild, The Aus­ tralian Screen Directors Association, and the Commercial Television Pro­ duction Fund.

T

he Australian Film Commission

have been seen at international

film festivals in recent months. Attend­

ing the Sundance Film Festival in

has announced that Chief Execu­

tive, Cathy Robinson has not renewed her contract and will be leaving the organization in August of this year.

She will be pursuing new challenges and opportunities.

howing its nose at the Rotterdam Film Festival earlier this year was Paul Middleditch’s Terra Nova, star­ ring Angela Punch McGregor, after

S

being seen at both Montreal and Edin­ burgh film festivals. Also at Rotterdam

eyond Films has appointed James Jusko as Vice President of

was Fresh Air, directed by first-timer

Neil Mansfield and starring Nadine Garner. Director of Photography Daniel Featherstone was recently based in Beyond’s Los Angeles office. awarded the Best Student Cinematog­ Jusko has most recently served as Vice raphy prize at the Camerimage President of Sales at Keystone Pictures Festival for Cinematography in in California.

Poland, for his work on AFTRS student fter Queer Screen’s most suc­ film Great Falls, directed by Yves Stencessful Mardi Gras Film Festival ing. And short filmmaker Andrew Soo ever, executive officer Tony Grierson had his film Liu Awaiting Spring debut has announced his departure. Grier­ at the Berlin Film Festival in February, son has been involved with Queer where it won the Teddy Award for the Sales & Co-production. He will be

A

Screen for four years, and has seen

6

best Gay and Lesbian short film.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

creators of theatrical trailers - sales trailers •feature film tv commercials - electronic press kits featurettes •promotional reels contact Helen Campbell, shaun farrington, rhys kelly at ZEALOT - 60 sophta st surrv hills nsw 2010 australia •phone 61 2 9212 2505 •fax 61 2 9212 2511 - email zealot@-zealot.com.au

"

Movie Lovers

By Bill Collins

Y

ou know how much reading means in your life when you speak with someone who is not a reader.

This is a thought from C.S. Lewis and I

couldn’t agree more! Let’s apply the same thought to movies and movielovers. You realize how much movies mean to you when you speak with someone who isn’t particularly inter­ ested in movies, whose movie experiences are confined for the most part to what is new, not necessarily the best, usually the best-known and most-aggressively promoted.

In a recent article in Sight and Sound (October 1998), Camille Paglia made some interesting comments about her recent book for the BFI Film Classics series. FHer contribution is a stimulating study of Alfred Hitchcock’s

The Birds (1963). I was particularly taken with this paragraph: In my film criticism I take the posi­ tion of the fan. I look at film from the point of view of appreciation. I

(1993) was not the first adaptation of

believe it’s the critic’s function to

that novel. A friend in Los Angeles sent

Foolishly, I thought both

open the work further to the audi­

me a tape of an earlier version, pro­

would have been inter­

ence, not to demean the work, to

duced by Pandro S. Berman at RKO

ested and I was surprised

attack it, to find all the racism, sex­

Radio in 1934. The director was Philip Moeller. It was the first film he

by their lack of interest.

The position of the fan? I imagine that

directed, the second was Break of

viduals resist seeing

ism or homophobia in it.

Why do so many indi­

refers to the audience or readers with

Hearts (1935), also at RKO, with

recommended films? Why

their sometimes unspoken questions.

Katharine Hepburn and Charles Boyer.

do they not take reason­

Why should I see this film? Will I enjoy

Philip Moeller was a playwright and

able advice? Why?

it? What makes it so special, so inter­

producer as well as one of the

esting, so attractive, so important?

founders and a director of the Theatre

with some friends and

What has the movie got for me? What can I expect? Is there something I

Guild. The leading players in The Age of Innocence (1934) are Irene Dunne,

to want something other

should know about the film or its sub­

john Boles, Lionel Atwill, Julie Haydon,

than the movie you rec­

ject matter or its production which

Laura Hope Crews and Helen Westley

ommend or would like to

may make it more enjoyable, more

(also a founder of the Theatre Guild).

share with them. They do

stimulating?

As a person who has been present­

As you may well think, this is a fas­

I have such a problem others. They always seem

not know as much about

cinating film even if it not as

the movies as I do. They probably do not read

ing films on television and in cinemas

“important” as the admirable Martin

as well as writing about them and

Scorsese film. I was excited to see it.

much about them. They

being a researcher — for more than 30

Yet, some movie lovers — or sup­

only know what they see

years — these are some of the ques­

posed movie lovers — don’t care. 1

on television or read

tions which I have addressed.

really wonder about the quality or the

about in newspapers.

intensity of some movie-lovers’

They do not read film magazines, not

know. They do not love movies. There

approach to film.

even the truly commercial, promo­

is a difference. I know a lady who has

tional magazines you can purchase at

built up a collection of movies on

cinemas.

videotape — but she only collects

I fancy myself as a movie explorer as well as a researcher with access quite often to information not readily

I mentioned that I had seen the

available. I am stirred by a frequent

1934 film to a movie critic who said

notion: There is probably something

nothing at all, then started talking

else if you can find it.

I do believe that most people’s

movies she has seen before. She

about something else. I mentioned the

interests in movies are reliant on crit­

tends to see only movies she has previously viewed.

film to another buff. He made no com­

ics’ opinions, publicity and promotion.

Scorsese’s wonderful film of Edith

ment, was silent for a few seconds,

They are not movie explorers. The

Wharton’s The Age of Innocence

then launched into a resumé of what

movies they love are the movies they

Quite recently I learned that Martin

8

he’d been doing lately.

Some of us are forever seeking new experiences. For instance, do you

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

com m ent

You can forget about commercial television. They don’t cater for movielovers anymore; they used to when the television set was virtually a movie museum. Commercial television is a selling business more than it is an entertainment business miniature: Two Seconds (1932) with

a potent allegorical tale from a novel

Edward G. Robinson, Preston Foster

by Vicki Baum (author of Grand Hotel),

Denham and Edward Percy, stunningly

and Vivienne Osborne and Heat Light­

set in a hotel in Berlin early in 1945,

shot by George Barnes, with music by Ernst Toch, featuring Ida Lupino, Louis

once-famous play by Reginald

ning (1934), from a play by Leon

featuring Raymond Massey, Andrea

Adams and George Abbott, a possible

King, Faye Emerson, Kurt Kreuger, Hel­

Hayward, Isobel Elsom, Elsa Lanches-

inspiration from Robert E. Sherwood’s

mut Dantine, Peter Lorre and an

ter, Evelyn Keyes and Edith Barrett.

The Petrified Forest (1936), with Aline

exciting cast delivering mean, moody

MacMahon, Ann Dvorak, Preston Foster.

and magnificent melodramatics.

Edgar Selwyn’s Men Must Fight

Gregory Ratoff and Otto Brower’s

The last five are vintage movies which I have managed to acquire for presentation on my FX Movies Channel

Sins of Man (1936), an unforgettable

on Foxtel. They are the tips of the

by Reginald Lawrence and S. K. Lau­

drama from Joseph Roth’s novel Job,

movie iceberg. There are more, many

ren, climaxed by an air-raid over New

featuring Jean Hersholt, Allen Jenkins

more, to come — and if movie lovers

York in 1940, featuring Diana Wynyard,

and, in his movie debut, Don Ameche

are keen to explore the wonders of

Lewis Stone and Phillip Holmes (Killed

in a dual role.

(1933), a futuristic drama from a play

in World War II as is his character in the film).

Edward Sedgwick’s Free And Easy (1930), Buster Keaton’s first talkie, also a satirical musical set in the

Samuel Fuller’s astonishing Pickup

On South Street (1953), with Jean Peters, Richard Widmark, Thelma Rit­ ter and Richard Kiley.

Charles Vidor’s underrated The

movies, the more fascinating are the movies I can obtain.

There are so many interesting movies — and so many of them could disappear forever if we don’t do some­ thing about it! Let us give thanks to

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio in Culver

Loves of Carmen (1948), with Rita Hay­

Ted Turner for making so much of the

City, with Anita Page, Robert Mont­ gomery, Trixie Friganza, and

worth, Glenn Ford and Victor Jory, as

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros,

well as his The Desperadoes (1943), Columbia Pictures’ first Technicolor

and RKO Radio Pictures available for

appearances by Fred Niblo, Cecil B. de Mille, Karl Dane, William Haines and

film with Randolph Scott, Glenn Ford,

screenings. And now I want more from

Claire Trevor and Evelyn Keyes. And

the Twentieth Century-Fox library and

Ladies in Retirement (1941), from the

the those of other studios. Don’t y o u ?®

Jackie Coogan, among others.

Peter Godfrey’s Hotel Berlin (1945),

cable television and retrospective

check the movies which are now being played, mostly by ABC-TV, after mid­ night? Or do you tape from television only those movies you know already or ones with your favourite stars?

Now, I am sure we all have our biases, our predilections and our hang-ups but are available for change and new experiences. The movies of SBS are a godsend. So are the cable television channels. You can forget about commercial television. They don’t cater for movie-lovers anymore; they used to when the television set was virtually a movie museum. Com­ mercial television is a selling business more than it is an entertainment busi­ ness and it is no longer home cinema.

Thanks to cable television I have been able to catch up with some amazing movies. I sometimes think that there are more interesting, provocative and cogent movies than there are bad ones. Here are a few of them: William A. Wellman’s Midnight Mary (1933) with Loretta Young and FranchotTone, his Other Men’s Women (1930) with Mary Astor, Grant Withers, Regis Toomey and, in the supporting cast, James Cagney and Joan Blondell.

Mervyn Le Roy’s two of probably many more neglected masterpieces in

C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

9

Joan Long, AM

1925-1999

by M artha Ansara

A

s a figure within the Australian film industry, Joan Long inhab­ ited two worlds. An eminent film producer and writer, she was widely recognized for her many accomplishments and her years

of illustrious service to the industry. But Joan was also - uniquely for a filmmaker of her stature and generation - a woman. And as a woman, who never forgot the struggles and the pleasures of being at once a professional filmmaker and female, she was very much part of another sphere which meant a great deal to her and where she was particularly cherished. The striking combination of feminism and femininity which Joan revealed to other women within this second world was wonderfully evoked at her funeral by her friend and colleague, Jenny Boddington.

Jenny has kindly agreed to Cinema Papers pre­ senting these more personal memories. But for those who need to be reminded of Joan Long’s more tradi­ tional biography, she was born Joan Dorothy Boundy in rural Victoria, one of five children, to a Methodist minister and his wife. An Honours graduate in His­ tory from Melbourne University, she Joined the film unit of the Department of Information (DOI) now Film Australia, just after World War II. Beginning as a secretary, she determined to have a more active production role. From this base, Joan participated in the emerging film culture that gave birth to the Sydney Film Festival, began her writing career and was eventually allowed to direct.

With Joan’s marriage to the journalist and writer Martin Long came the obligations of motherhood: two stepsons, a daughter and a son. However, as

wise counsel were the Australian Writers Guild (Pres­

pated in are too numerous to mention, although she

soon as she could, Joan returned to work at the DOI,

ident 1972 - 73), the Australian Film Council (1970 -

was particularly proud of having been one of the few

by then known as the Commonwealth Film Unit. Her

73) and the Committee of the Screen Production

family obligations kept her close to home and she

Association, having been a founding member of its

women to give evidence at the 1972 Tariff Board Inquiry into the industry.

concentrated on scriptwriting. Then, as her children

predecessor, the Independent Feature Film Produc­

grew older, she began to participate in a variety of

er’s Association. She also served on the Interim

was with that other indefatigable film campaigner,

ways in activities that culminated in what became

Council of Australian Film Commission, and the

Anthony Buckley. After working with him on Caddie

known as the Australian Film Renaissance of the

Council of the Australian Film and Television School.

Her abiding interest in film history and film culture

decision to become the producer of her next script,

early 1970s.

In a period in which Australian filmmakers were

(1976), for which she wrote the script, Joan made the

motivated her thirty years of recording film oral his­

The Picture Show Man (1977), a fictionalized venture

tory and her involvement with the Sydney Film

into Australian film history. She then co-produced

Anderson on The Pictures That Moved (1969), one of

Festival, where she served at times on the Publicity

the first histories of early Australian cinema. This

Committee & History Committee. She was part of the

searching for local origins, Joan worked with Alan

was followed by a sequel, The Passionate Industry

Film Pioneers Oral History project of the early 1980s,

(1972), which she directed herself. With her hus­

the Filmmakers Oral History Group from 1993 until

Puberty Blues (1981) with scriptwriter Margaret Kelly and produced Silver City (1984), written and directed

by Sophia Turkiewicz. In 1989, she produced David Williamson’s Emerald City (1989), based on David

band, she turned her research into a book The Pictures That Moved: A Picture History Of the Aus­ tralian Cinema, 1 8 9 6 -19 2 9 (1982). Her scripts for Anthony Buckley’s Sand, Snow and Savages (1973), and the award-winning Paddington Lace (1970),

the present time and she wrote historical articles on

Williamson’s play. On these films Joan was an active

women filmmakers for Cinema Papers.

As a researcher, Joan had direct knowledge of the way in which our historically important films and

and creative producer, working closely with screen­ writers, negotiating deals and supervising production.

At the time of her death, Joan was collaborating

documents have disappeared and campaigned vigor­

again with Anthony Buckley to raise production

directed by Chris McCulloch, led to wide recognition

ously for a National Film & Sound Archive, serving as

finance for her new script about the McDonagh

of her abilities and to her greater prominence in

Chair on its first Interim Council, and producing the

Sisters, who made successful Australian features in

industry bodies and campaigns.

impressive policy document Time on Our Hands,

the 1920s and were a great inspiration for Joan. Her

which gave a comprehensive analysis of the task

portrait of director Paulette McDonagh reflected not

ahead. The political campaigns which she partici­

only a personal and political understanding of his-

Joan’s idealism infused all that she did. Amongst the organizations to which she donated her time and

10

One of Joan’s most important work associations

C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

obiturary

tory but a life-long dream of seeing the potential of

casting around in her mind for better possibilities for

women filmmakers realized within a viable Aus­

me - and others - and at this time the coming of tele­

tralian film industry. The success of her daughter,

vision engaged her attention as an escape for me.

the talented writer Alexandra (Alexi) Long, was cause

The following year, just before the Olympic Games, I

for particular pride and satisfaction. Joan was

did get a job at the ABC, as a film editor. Much better

actively supportive of many other women filmmakers

paid and more trips to Sydney.

and was, in turn, supported both personally and pro­

In the same letter of 1955 where she divagated on

fessionally by her long friendship with film

my future, she reverted to the absorbing topic of

researcher and historian Judy Adamson.

clothes and looks:

Boddington’s portrait of Joan Long expresses very well the interplay of society, work, marriage, mother­ hood and female friendships that, in fact, character­ ized the lives of the women who appeared in Joan’s own films.

Joan Long’s Funeral It is exactly ten weeks since Joan went into intensive care. The cliché describes it well: she put up a gal­ lant fight - as indeed she would - she who was always dauntless, positive, brave.

I met Joan fifty-two years ago in 1947 . 1was a gormless girl of twenty-four with a husband and a three-year-old child, desperately seeking a job at the DOI film unit - no qualifications. There was this gor­ geous redhead sitting at a typewriter outside Stanley

My dear I am now 31! It appals me. As for your saying I have no worries about looldng old, lines are appearing on my face at a giddy rate [...] I rushed off and bought the new Elizabeth Arden cream hoping to stave off the ravages of time, and I’m trying to cultivate a pleasant, charming expression, because I keep telling myself that the time is not far off when that will be all I have left.

In 1957 she was pregnant. In June she wrote:

I have just read Grantly Dick Read’s Childbirth Without Fear and it is the only thing which has succeeded in inspiring me with fear so far.

Actually, I have some serious criticism of the inferences he draws from what I think is insuffi­ cient scientific data.

In September:

married one at that, to a staff job. Which inci­ dentally is better paid than a director. (Although women still only get 85% of the male rate) I said to Martin before the interview, “May the best man get the job”, but I’ll be annoyed if some smooth talking Englishman gets it - it’s time Australia stood on her own two feet [...] The first week nearly killed me. The 1964 Holden culmination of expensive driving lessons - arrived on Sunday. I started work on Monday. The housekeeper arrived on Monday night. M y period arrived on Monday morning, two weeks early! [...] I have so much to tell you [...] I do enjoy going to work so much more than staying at home.

But I’m on a really foul job now - a re-write of somebody else’s cliche-ridden commentary.

In October that year, Joan began work on the early history of Australian film script, which was a major turning point, and more than anything else probably led to the public career that she carved for herself. She would become an influential Australian film identity.

In 1970, my husband and cameraman-partner died and I moved my three young children to Sydney, almost impulsively. I was batting about like an idiot

Hawes’ office in King Street, where the film unit was

I wish you could come and stay for a while. Don't think

and Joan’s well-considered advice was mostly

housed until the Burwood School of Arts was made

the baby makes any difference It won’t be occupying

ignored. After a time, she arranged a wonderful tem­

ready. She was twenty-one, a history graduate from

your bed - this little “it”, of course, was Alexandra.

porary job for me doing research for her history film

Melbourne and she, too, was mad keen to work in

At this stage we compared notes on the irritation our

at the Mitchell Library. When it was finished, I moved

films in the newly set up government film unit. She

mothers caused us. And Tim, Joan’s second baby, was born.

back to Melbourne. Crazy, but no criticism from Joan.

had superb white teeth and a shapely mouth, turquoise eyes and a flaming mass of red hair. She

In September 1962 she wrote:

The trouble was she thought I could do better than I

was stunning.

She was always casting around in her mind for better possibilities [...]

Eventually I too got a job at the film unit, by then located at Burwood. In those days, women were only employed as Assistants (F) - standing for female -

You will be staggered to hear that I did a script for the DOI. The film was about Tuberculosis for the Department of Health. They didn’t have any case histories so it’s much duller than your cancer film [...] I sent Tim to kindergarten which he loved. I got a wonderful girl to come in the morn­ ings, so that gave me three hours. Then I did more work at night, if I wasn’t too exhausted.

The Department seemed genuinely impressed with it. It could be very nice on the whole, made the way I imagined, but some clot will get hold of it I suppose.

Her forbearance and support were phenomenal. thought I could. Quite fortuitously, after many months of doing this and that, I got a job as the first curator of photography at the Melbourne gallery, which kept me occupied for the next fifteen years, just when Joan was doing her important and public work in feature films. We still saw each other from time to time and I stayed with her in Sydney, but there were no long letters. Occasional postcards when either of us were overseas was about all.

Our children grew up as children do and I felt the tug of Sydney, my favourite city, again. We slid into the comfort of our long friendship as if it were a

and were restricted to the cutting room, not allowed

By her characteristic phrase, “some clot”, I knew

favourite cashmere cardigan. We exchanged books,

on location. I think we got four pounds a week, or

exactly what she meant. She continued:

went to films and exhibitions, subscribed to the

maybe five, but the male production assistants with career paths stretching ahead, while we had none - got seven pounds ten.

Early in 1950, Joan was staying at my house and Martin Long, whom she would shortly marry, was vis­

How I appreciated your paragraph about moth­ erhood [...] No longer are they babies, but devils with independent minds which they pit everlast­ ingly against your tiredness and weak points.

That’s my Alexi!

Belvoir, exchanged symptoms of ageing and went for walks. Although clothes were no longer a subject for discourse, we were never short of subjects to air.

I remember one night, in the 1960s I think, when she took her seat at the Drysdales’ dining table up at

iting, when my marriage came to a very dramatic

In April 1967 she was offered a casual writing job at

Bouddi, and Tass announced in loud appreciative

end. In the event, I fled with my son to Melbourne,

the film unit:

tones, “Joan you’re a ball of fire.” And so she was.

leaving Joan to cover my trail. She always referred to it as The Long Night!

It broke my heart to return to Melbourne, but it was necessary for my son, who needed my extended family. Without Joan’s fascinating letters always offering support, gossip and loving friendship, I don’t know how I’d have survived the next six years.

I got a dreadful job, on a pittance, making 16mm films for the Postmaster-General’s head office, but at least it gave me the odd trip to Sydney. In a letter from Joan of eleven closely-typed pages, in 1955, she rages at length on my entrapment in Melbourne with my Mickey Mouse job. She also wished for me an interesting man! Even a husband! She was always

C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

Oozing charm he buttered me up - I was thor­ ough, reliable,always did a good job, etc., etc., but they felt the job was too much for one per­ son (I quite agree from the ad) and they felt that no one applicant had all they wanted, so they wanted to appoint two. He explained in the trickiest way why I wasn’t being offered the staff job - 1 was too stunned to take him up on it [...]

He said the “young man” they were appointing was “brilliant and volatile” and had a “minimal knowledge of films”, but was full of “creativity” (Implication - I’m not?).

I suppose it was too much to hope that a com­ mittee of men would appoint a woman, and a

Another time he said, “She’s amazing. You think she’s a real North Shore woman - until she opens her mouth by God - and then she nearly floors you with her acuteness and her subtlety.”

I have no doubt that her upbringing in Victoria, in a Methodist minister’s family of five children, with not a great deal of money, imbued in her a spirit of obligation, of service, and of giving herself to the community. And giving also, from a capacious spirit, to family and friends, as she did in rich measure all her life.

It is tragic that we must come together here to say goodbye to our very dear friend, too soon, far too s o o n .®

11

Erskineville Kings is an emotive and evocative first feature that im parts the story of two brothers: Barky (M arty Denniss) and Wace (Hugh Jackm an). B arky who left home two years earlier to escape their drunken and abusive father has returned, som ew hat reluctantly for his funeral. Reunited, the brothers become aw are of the anger and resentm ent that has built between them . The resultant conflict is played out am idst pool-tables, beer and m ates at Kings Hotel, located in the decayed, post-industrial landscape of Erskineville. Director Alan White has constructed a film that is uniquely Australian, distinctly hum an, and intensely emotional. He took tim e-out in Los Angeles to talk with M ark Sm ith in Melbourne.

YOU COME FROM A BACKGROUND IN COMMERCIALS. Yeah, in 1985 i started directing commercials and

characters that I knew in it. It’s beginning to change anyway; people are a lot more interested in contem­

music videos. The long and the short of it is, that by

Because I really didn’t want to move to make a film. I

porary Australian films that seek to tell the truth

around 1992 , 1started to work a lot in the States. The

would have preferred to have stayed in Australia, but

about life.

production company I was working through - I’d

it was difficult for a commercial director to be taken

shown the script to them - were interested in putting

seriously. I was moving purely because it was a way I

what Australia is and what it means to you. You get

up the money for it, given that I move to Los Angeles

could get the money for the film. I still wanted, and

terribly homesick living here, so as much as anything

and work for them. So I figured that was a good idea.

still do want, to tell Australian stories.

the desire to go back and make a film was purely the

The only other thing that I did of interest, while mak­

The other thing is that living over here people find

Living over here gives you a heightened sense of

desire to go back. And I’m hoping that by making

Erskineville, people will see me as more than just a

ing commercials, was put my creative energies into

out you’re Australian and they make Crocodile

playing in bands, which I did up till 1991, when I better give the music away.” That’s how it evolved

Dundee (Peter Faiman, 1986) jokes, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliott, 1994) jokes or Shine (Scott Hicks, 1996) jokes. You

COMPARE TO BUDGETS OF THE COMMERCIALS YOU USED

and how I ended up over here. It was kind of following

begin to realize that our whole culture is defined by

TO MAKE?

my nose.

I’d been offered a couple of more action-based

movies these days.

studio scripts here, which wasn’t what I wanted to do,

films had really broad caricatures of Australians. So

“spec” in my backyard. They launched my career in

but there were simply more opportunities for a com­

after endless “shrimp on the barbie” jokes, I just

Australian advertising circles. It was like that, and like

mercial director here.

wanted to make an Australian film with Australian

playing in bands where you’d be doing graveyard

decided, “Well if I’m going to get a film made, I’d

12

C o n s id e r in g th e m o v e , w h y m a ke s u c h a d is t in c t l y A u s t r a l ia n f il m ?

I think we went through that period where most

commercial director.

HOW DOES THE BUDGET FOR ERSKINEVILLE KINGS,

The only comparison I could make is I made some Super 8 commercials for Homer Hudson Ice-cream on

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

shifts in studios to record something. It was really going back to those things.

It’s basically a half a million dollar film, so it was drawing on every little favour I could draw on. I built up a whole lot of relationships with a bunch of people

1 0 1MÉLH ANO MAYBE L E A R # R 0 M . common stereotyjlS of Aultralians on film. It’s under-

doing. It sjgB ^ M ke a pompous om Mei. but I think it

acting in a whole lot of w ^ S ^ flg ftS tp ff the train and

was som,i||^fig that certainly inspired me. While we

a stack of people behind you, essentially having direc­

he’s confused; he is, very definitely, aninigm a. We

w e re jB m g t h e film, I was rea l S ^ j l azan’s autobiog-

torial power, so it’s a much longer process. Having

were faking a risk in playing him 1hat'w(ay%Pcause it

who were really, really good to me.

A lot of the cost in commercials is because you have

said that, it was really good training for me. It made it a lot easier to make the film because I knew what I needed. Sure it would have been great to have more

Kaurests^ori people’s willingness to understand wfty he’s^the way he is.

W h o s e id EA:w/iSyiT,Tp..cAST H ugh Ja c k m a n ?

raph g i l night. I don’t know j ^ W r s just one of those t ^ m ilf On the Waterfrontm im j) has got to be one of •.my/avourite films.

W J I^ e the idea that fM tljIan convey a reality, and

money. Well, I don’t know, because I wanted to make

It was mine. When it.came-,to casting, it was people

a film, in budget terms, true to how big the sense of

that I’d met over the years, p.eople that I’d really

watch and-m ayfe^am ifrom . That style of cinema,

the film was.

admired. I felt that if I could" g ^ |ib e/jg h t ensemble,

Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980), Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies (i q P i l l l l l B i ilms that influenced

I realize that people expect different kinds of Aus­

without making obvious choices, it would be better-

of ordi ^ S beople can be interesting to

tralian films, the kind they want to go and see in the

for the film. It ended up a good thing because a ln | j j j |

me. On a s t ^ ^ p r levef/T suppose Woody Allen’s

cinema. Erskineville Kings isn’t The Castle (Rob Sitch,

everyone, bar Aaron Blabey, knew of each oiher-,

Manhattari-'iigfg), and Sidney Tu m llf Ssi2 Angry Men

1997), so you have to be realistic about how much

socialized together and what not.

money you throw at it, given the potential audience.

Hugh was living in Melbourne when I got him to

HOW DID YOU BECOME INVOLVED WITH THE PROJECT

audition for it, and he was just so much J j j l l l r than

AND WHO WROTE THE SCRIPT?

(1957) were?frlms that I had ru n n in fT W i% h smy head while making the film.

'

Certainlyiindterms of Australian films that haveHiafcLj

everyone else. It was a mixture of admiTafion for

an effect on mp;1 guess it was Sunday Too Far Away ™

A lot of the actors actually went to acting school, the

people’s acting ability, plus a network of common-

(Ken Hannam, 1 9 7 ^ The, Year My Voice Broke (John

Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts,

thinking people who really wantedatb make a film

f;i>Cngan, 1987) - again film^tjpat showed a bit of what

together. I met Marin Mimica, who plays the stoner

together.

character Kane, and he introduced me to Marty Den-

It’s curious though, because when I said Hugh Jack-

/understand to be a reality.

I know that all films have a stylistic imprint, they’re

niss. Marty and I hit it straight off and he had, in his

man was in the film, at first-people would say: “Isn’t -

heightened realities, but I like where th j v start When

possession, a scene that Anik Chooney had developed.

he the song and dance guy?” And I would say: “You

you ask yourself, “How would this be if it was’foT;; |

It was the end scene in the bar and I thought: “Wow

know what, he’s an actor:|iltj$as funny for me A

real?”, that seems a good starting point. Films that

this is great.” I felt very attracted to it, to that scene.

because I was trying tp d.etach the two things.^He’:s;Jl

run that gamut have always had an influence on me.

Basically, we wanted to make it a low-budget film

really one of these guys who has the ability-to play in

Ultimately, it becomes a thing of making a film that

and that was an over-riding concern on how the whole

14

ORDINAR« PEOPLE CAN BE I M E S I J B

different genres, m

you and your friends would like to see. You’re hoping

story played out. We wanted to make it very, very sim­

W h a t d ir e c t o r s h^ ^ in f l u e n c e d Y o u j ^ H ^ f e

that everyone else will want to see it. But it’s good to

ple, so we just expanded the day backwards and

THE FILM?

try and change things a little, run against what’s com­

forwards. I was living over here, so Anik would write a

It’s topical over here at the moment, butPVe always

script, I’d write a script, he’d write a script, I’d write

been a huge fan of Elia Kazan and his approach to act­

IS THAT PART OF THE REASON YOU USED THE

one, and that’s, pretty much, how it evolved.

ing, that whole group theatre thing he started up. I

E r s k in e v il l e l o c a t io n ?

monly seen or played out.

W h y d id y o u c h o o s e Ma r t y D e n n is s f o r t h e lea d

can see that in the way the guys approached this film.

Well originally it was because we would go to Newtown

ROLE, THAT OF THE RETICENT BARKY?

There was that sense of a bunch of people coming

to develop the script and, walking through it, we felt

Well it’s completely him. [Laughs] I mean I didn’t have

together, of trying to do something that’s a bit more

that it was such a great part of Sydney. They grew up

to do anything. We went out on a limb with that char­

real and less theatrical or over-the-top. The weird

in Western Australia, so it was really me taking my

acter and I felt Marty could carry it off, simply because

thing was that strange parallel between what those

favourite part of Sydney and making it the place

he is that. But we really set out to play against the

guys were doing in New York and what we were

that this guy comes back to. It appealed to me as

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

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SOMPC409/DCC

a landscape against which this story is set. It’s like

cheaper way of getting the sound- track

the Yuppies tried to fix Newtown and Erskineville up,

together. I did have other songs in there -

but it never worked. So it’s always retained its

which I couldn’t afford - so I thought let’s

slightly bohemian character.

try some of mine. When I put them in they

My mum also spent a lot of time there, she moved

worked thematically with the scenes, oth­

from Canberra to Newtown, when she was younger,

erwise I wouldn’t have used them.

so that whole area appeals to me. I like the idea that

I felt they were still a part of that Sydney,

it has a history and it can be incredibly colourful. It

Trade Union Club, inner-city music scene

felt like the right place to set this. I wanted to see

that seemed to thrive in the early ’80s. I

Sydney, not as a postcard, but as what I find interest­

wasn’t trying to make it a period film or

ing in it. And it seemed to reflect exactly what I

capture that period, I just feel that music is

wanted on that level.

still relevant to that area. I guess I put in a

There are no trees in the whole film. There’s this

lot of songs I liked.

kind of strange Australian inner-urban thing. Victo­

W e l l it ’s y o u r f il m , y o u can h a v e

rian buildings that owe more to Britain than they do to anywhere else. They’re painted these wild colours and you have that sense of the hot Australian sun. I wanted to capture that particular Australian character.

T h e o t h e r g r e a t A u s t r a l ia n f l a v o u r is t h e m a t e s h ip .

T h e m a t e s h ip in t h e film c o m f o r t s t h e

WHATEVER SONGS YOU LIKE. things up and is a way of diverting yourself around it,

Yeah, that’s basically what it gets down to, I wanted

but here they all had to deal with it.

to give it that flavour. I didn’t want it to feel too

T h e r e ’s few w o m en in t h e f il m . Is t h is a n o t h e r

poppy. In a lot of ways, Died Pretty defines those

DELIBERATE TAKE ON THOSE GUYS?

kinds of spaces for me. I tried all sorts of songs and

It was distinguishing between them. The only female

some things just didn’t sit. The ones that are there, I

CHARACTERS, BUT IT’S ALSO RESTRICTING; THERE’S A

you see with the older guys is the woman who

put them in and they just sat so perfectly andjtfWder-

REAL SENSE OF THE PECKING ORDER. WAS THAT SOME­

crashes the car. With the younger guys, there’s three

scored the scenes.

THING THAT YOU DELIBERATELY TRIED TO CAPTURE?

girls living in the house. I didn’t want to be too obvi­

Absolutely. Hopefully it’s clear, but what I was trying to

ous about it, but I was saying, “Well maybe these

guess I find that a little overt. I think our earsdipve

do is show how the younger guy and his group of

younger guys are more comfortable when including

become accustomed to scores in films, butr'they’re so

friends have a slightly different protocol than the older

women into their circle.”

guys. With Wace and Coppa [Andrew Wholley], and

With the older guys there’s still a distance. Wace

I didn’t want to put too much score in theMm. f

unreal and so manipulative. I really only wanted to put score in when Barky is by himself. It \|pjEa gam­

Trunny [Aaron Blabey], even though Wace is going out

talks about his girl; she’s left him, then he talks about

ble, because, although scores are manipi|lative, they

of his mind, his mates continually support him. Even

his girlfriend not understanding him. There’s a paral­

can draw people in as well.

though Trunny is finding it incredibly difficult to deal

lel with his relationship with her and how he sees

T he m u s ic w o r k s w e l l w ith t h e p a c e o e t h e f il m . It

with him, they still provide a support. There’s more of a

what happened with his mother, whereas Barky has

IS VERY LANGUID; IT DOESN’T RUSH, IT EVOLVES ALMOST

maleness to the older guys. The younger guys, it’s a

chosen a girl who is Indian, an outsider within an

NATURALLY.

real subtle brush, but they’re different. You see them in

older Australian society.

female company - Barky deals with the woman who smashes Coppa’s car - in a softer way.

The idea was to distinguish between a younger

Again, I didn’t want to make any grandiose state:

Right. The idea was to accumulate knowledge so that you’re slowly drawn into this event, in'the same way

ments on that level, I just wanted it to be there. Barky

as it would evolve in real life. I mean things aren’t

appears more comfortable with the woman who

immediately laid out to you.

ideal of what mateship is and an older ideal. I mean

crashes the car. I was trying to seed this generational

Coppa and Trunny support Wace to the last, but they

difference, that mateship within a younger genera­

I’d had some time away from the film and people had J

tion can include a more feminine element.

said: “We’re not sure why that young guy [Barky] is so taciturn.”

feel something for Barky as well. It’s about communi­ cating a pain, and that was really the intention. All of

YOU ALSO WROTE SOME OF THE MUSIC IN THE FILM?

these guys, particularly Barky and Wace, just have an

Yeah, at last i could put some of my band-years to ~

inability to communicate the truth of their pain. They

good use. In the same way that I have a fond'ne'ls'fo'ii

rationalize it in different ways.

It’s curious how it evolved into doing the flashback.

So I felt that maybe I’ve got to define it. It still philojjj sophically works for me. Bucky does go to the

Newtown and how you don’t commonly see Sydney

apartment and he does go to sleep, so it worked. It

depicted like that, there’s all this music that’s been

definitely doesn’t feel like a stylistic imposition, and it

Australian character, but you can recognize in your­

around me, as a part of the Sydney music scene, that

feeds you a little bit more information. It becomes^ . t

self a pain, and you can ultimately come to terms

I wanted to hear in it.

I wanted to explore the idea that you can be a tough

with it. Mateship is popularly seen to cover those

I wouldn’t have used my songs, but it became a

point-of-view dream in which we see the father out of control and the young Wace powerless to do anything about it.

Once I put it in there, I thought: “Wow, this works.”

At the end, when Wace starts his monologue, you

j

really start thinking of that earlier event and all the pieces come together. It did help speed up the front, inform the audience as to why this guy is the enigma he is, and help them to understand Wace.

The stories that interest me invariably contain peo­ ple from dysfunctional families. It’s like it’s true of everyone. I was talking to my mates the other day! I just got married, I’m thinking about having a kid and my mate says, “Why? Why are you going to have a kid? Look at our families, think of any of our friends who have normal families.” But I think they’re good stories, I think they’re stories that people will watch.

Certainly Secrets and Lies brought that home to me, that was a lot of inspiration in making this film.

W e l l , t h e y ’ r e h um an s t o r ie s a r e n ’t t h e y ?

Yeah, yeah and that’s what I like. I mean I’m biased; I love going to the movies and empathizing with those kind of stories. Because often you just feel like you’re the only bastard in the world who’s like that. Then you find out that everyone else is just as fucked up.

[Laughs long and hard]

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

@

17

At the tail end of production, in damp Adelaide, a weary B ill B ennett spoke to A ndrew L. U rban about his latest feature film and the difficulties of shooting on location...

irport security with its buzzing arch beeping at a metal pocket pen is the closest we usually come to a world that is ‘other’ or ‘alien’ to us in safe, cos­ mopolitan Australia. A fleeting moment that, too.

The flight from Sydney to Adelaide is routine, and it’s only when we transfer to the production van and finally arrive at the end of a long drive as darkness settles and the rain turns itself on that we realize how cosseted we live.

In outer Adelaide, puddles challenge our city shoes and fences break our cross garden walk as we try to get inside the house that has been rented for a few crucial scenes in the making of Bill Ben­ nett’s latest and most ambitious feature film, In A Savage Land. The old family home has become a factory where Bennett is manufacturing something tangible out of a vision outlined in a script. The elements must have a sense of irony, playing this melancholy night as a motif for the much grittier, much earthier setting of this film, most of which is shot in a remote and physically harsh New Guinea island - inaccessible to us mere observers. Adelaide rain and muddy puddles seem insignificant.

Bennett is on a serious adventure, on more lev­ els than one. Not only is he attempting to make a grand (epic?) romance in a remote, hopefully exotic (savage?) location - he is leaping from Iow­ an d mid-budget filmmaking to high-budget, highrisk, high-tension filmmaking. The film questions what is primitive - what is civilized. What happens when an old-fashioned Western marriage inter­ sects with the matriarchal culture of New Guinea.

“It feels like having skated over a huge lake of thin ice - and that’s just the physical side of having

18

done it”, he says, as we sit in one of the rooms of this large family home, isolated in a giant drawing room, the crew (and the mountain of decisions) shut out for a short while. “I’ve never been more scared making a film”, he says in his tonally unemotional manner of speaking. But behind the flat matter-of-factness, Bennett hides a real insecu­ rity, like all artists, one that needs to be defied, to be stared down. It’s the tail end of the shoot, most of it completed on the Trobriand Islands of New Guinea, the creative forces needing to be kept afloat as exhaustion meets incessant demand.

Bennett - and all of them - are in their own savage land, new terrain full of unpredictable danger and unknowable outcomes.

Set in the late 1930s, In A Savage Land is the story of a newly-married anthropologist husband and wife team Phillip (Martin Donovan) and Evelyn (Maya Stange) who travel to an island group in New Guinea to study the sexual mores of a group of villagers. Their relationship begins to break down when the woman realizes her husband is wrongly interpreting the research to further his own academic ambitions. She enlists the help of a pearl trader, Mick (Rufus Sewell), to travel to another island where she intends to research a vil­ lage 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.

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

Does this sound like a film Bill Bennett would make, he of Mortgage (1989), Backlash (1986), Spider & Rose, (1994) Kiss or Kill (1997)?

He stares a moment.

Thematically it is actually simitar to my other films [...] three people in an alien landscape, and the central

B e n n e tt is an xiou s to co m m u n ica te , "but fa t ig u e , enorm ous fa t ig u e , is d r a in in g h im . The New G u in e a sh o o t w as h e ll. I t w as chosen fo r its a u th e n tic ity , fo r its untouched w ilderness a n d its savagery

character is a woman. And it deals with sexual and gender politics and male/female power. It’s different

In the end, it is a romance - if it’s possible to reduce it

Creatively, as a director, seeing these actors step into

in scale, scope and period, of course [...] period was

to one single word. But it deals with complex things

the skins of the characters and lift these people off

difficult to get my head round.

[...] and I suppose it’s not a traditional romance; the

the page has been most satisfying. It could have been

The period is a consequence of the story. Bennett had always been fascinated by the Trobriand Islands, ever since the age of 8, when he found old photos taken by his war photographer father.

What at first looked like a sexual paradise turned out to be something even more complicated.

characters are all flawed.

But creating this savage and romantic world has enormous risks for a filmmaker whose terms of reference are the Australian outback, or urban mis­ fits. Bennet says,

naf [...] with lesser actors. I believe if you aspire to anything out of the ordinary, there is a risk of failure.

So it’s yet to be seen if it’s successful.

These doubts are always swirling, and Bennett wonders aloud: cs=- 56

So the idea of a love story set against this complex social structure evolved - and having the central char­ acters as anthropologists would enable us to step into the culture and examine it.

As before, his wife Jennifer worked with Bennett on the script but this time her credit is up front and bold. They also share producing credits, in what is an appropriate affirmation of Jennifer’s significance in the filmmaking partnership.

The pressure is held at bay for a few moments as we talk; Bennett is anxious to communicate, and fatigue, enormous fatigue, is draining him.

The New Guinea shoot was hell. It was chosen for its authenticity, for its untouched wilderness and its savagery. Fortunately, it delivered on all counts.

But it took its toll, so isolated and undeveloped as to be the equivalent of shooting on the moon. A hot, steamy, jungle-covered moon - with wily locals who squeezed every advantage out of the strangers.

But it’s not a Discovery Channel travelogue Bennett is making; C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

19

of Psycho ]] - reflects on the re-make of the original H

B sycho (the re-make) is a good film. But I mainly because it is a faithful copy of a great film. Whether it should have been ■ H g g B made this way (or at all), is another B ^ ^ ^ B matter. As is the tricky question of whether copying is a legitimate under­ taking, artistic or otherwise.

The following is not a review, but rather a reflection, by the person who did the next closest thing, by making the sequel Psycho II. First how­ ever, I would like to tell the story of a film I didn’t make.

Early in 1998 I met Producer Mace Neufeld at Paramount Studios. He was planning a re-make of Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966) and offered me the script to read. I commented I thought it superior to the original in that it had a good sec­ ond act and an up ending. He told me Frankenheimer had turned down the re-make of the original. A couple of months later, Gus Van Sant abandoned the project to make Psycho for Universal (an amusing paradox, since the original Psycho was made under Hitchcock’s contract for Paramount and later acquired by Universal).

How close a copy is it? It is almost shot for shot, which does not in itself bother me. If you set out to re-make a Hitchcock film (and many have been - such as his own re-make of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 and 1956) —it makes some sense to use his mise-en-scene which was, after all, his greatest talent. But this approach does not nec­ essarily serve a new cast, screen ratio and colour.

It is said the cast and crew watched a DVD of the original on set while shooting, to duplicate not only the camera set-ups, but the pace and perforEb

B ■ P

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

mances. Thankfully, the performers made the parts their own (they are different people, after all), but in so doing created one of the first problems.

For example, Norman’s monologue immedi­ ately prior to the ‘madhouse’ speech is shot per the original in a three-quarter side profile. Which Hitchcock would not have done, had he known how Vince Vaughn was going to play the scene.

Understandably, since everyone knows the pay-off, Vaughn makes more of the self-revelatory material than did Tony Perkins. There are tears in Vaughn’s eyes, but it is not possible to see them, because the camera is at the wrong angle - Hitchcock’s, for a different performance.

The frame ratio is, for me, a bigger problem.

Because they were undoubtedly viewing the DVD on a television monitor, they were looking at 1.33 framing, but shooting 1.85. Hitchcock, who had shot his prior two pictures in the 1.85 Vistavision process, chose not to do so with Psycho. However, nowadays the standard so-called ‘wide screen’ (achieved by masking in the projector) renders this a faithful copy of Psycho as it would be screened in a cinema now, but not as it was then. The tops and C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

bottoms of frames are not pleasing - in certain instances, close-ups are uncomfortably close (Anne Heche’s mouth almost disappears in one early shot) and wide shots are often neither fish nor fowl (one group shot at the Sheriff’s home has masses of headroom, but chops the cast off at the knees - a framing which would have been unac­ ceptable to Hitchcock).

The colour decision was probably not a creative one. Hitchcock had filmed his pictures on either side of Psycho in Technicolor and chose specifi­ cally to shoot Psycho in black and white, largely because he believed the blood in the shower would cause censorship problems (more on this in a moment). Hitchcock was right. The corpse and especially the cleaning-up of the bathroom are much harder to take in the new version. But, as I say, the decision was probably not a creative one.

I, too, had a gun held to my head because the tele­ vision potential of a black-and-white film is not as great, and perhaps my capitulation influenced the decision here.

I did not set out to list the differences between the films, but since it is the next question everyone asks me (after the good/bad one I have answered already), here is a short sample.

A truly fascinating moment occurs in the original. As Marion (Janet Leigh) drives through the rain, we hear the voice of the

rich Texan from whom she’s stolen the 540,000 (now 5400,000), saying he will get back every cent of it from her “soft flesh”. At this moment, Hitch­ cock had Janet smile. Only Hitchcock, with his fundamentalist Jesuit upbringing, could have so indicted Marion (Eve as the instigator of “original sin”), but a fascinating moment nonetheless, which does not occur in the re-make. However, for rea­ sons that escape me, Heche relishes Marion’s decision to steal the money in the scene where she packs her bags - which Janet Leigh does not.

ITony Perkins was quite fine boned and appeared the taller for it, but look at him next to Gary Cooper in Friendly Persua­ sion (William Wyler, 1956). Nonetheless, he only donned the wig and dress for the finale. Elsewhere, Hitchcock used similarly lithe stand-ins for Mrs Bates. From the very first shot of Mrs B. pacing at her window in the re-make, it is clearly a man (presumably the thick-set Vaughn) in drag.

In my favourite scene in the original, the parlour scene prior to the murder, Perkins stutters on the word “falsity” which, at least at the time, was perilously close to a sexual reference to Marion’s (and Leigh’s) ample bust and what used to be called “falsies”.

(Norman stutters several times over such refer­ ences). In spite of, or perhaps because of, Heche’s smaller breasts (which we see briefly 57

21

another with EmmaKate Croghan

Director E mma -KatE CROGHAN made something of a name for her­ self three years ago at Cannes with her first feature film, and Other Catastrophes. Now she’s finished her second, Strange Planet, a film about a year in the life of six single people in their mid-twen­ ties. She’s feeling very confident about it, her career path, and herself as a person, and she talks with T im H unter , C I N E M A P A P I R$ * JUNE 1999

C

a n

y o u

t e l l

m e a b o u t S tr a n g e

P l a n e t ; w h a t it ’s a b o u t , a n d w h e r e y o u ’ re g o in g WITH IT? It’s about six young people whose lives cross. Look­ ing at the film, now that it’s nearly finished, it’s about a period in people’s lives that [Pauses to reflect] it’s hard for me because the subject matter feels quite immediate. It’s not looking back at something and being nostalgic; it’s a very immediate experience.

B e c a u s e t h e c h a r a c t e r s a r e in t h e ir m id -t w e n t ie s , a n d y o u ’ re

26 , 27 ?

Yes, and with the other film [Love and Other Catastro­

phes 1996] - although I don’t want to get into comparisons - we were looking back at something, and having quite a bit of nostalgia for it. The thing that we’re looking at here is people in their mid-to-late twenties. The girls are in their mid-twenties, and the guys are a little bit older, and for everyone I’ve spoken pen? How much is destiny, how much do we have

commented on this - is that we moved from Mel­

You have to decide what you’re doing, and people

absolutely no control over, and what do we force to

bourne to Sydney to make the film. We wanted to

make big life changes, or are making career decisions,

happen? And I think the conclusion that we draw is:

make a film in a city that’s reflective of what the char­

to, that has been a very odd time in their lives.

and it’s actually pretty messy. Strange Planet is about

fuck knows. Sometimes it’s a bit of both. Sometimes

acters are going through. Sydney’s under construction

that complicated period. The subject matter is quite

you’ve got no control over anything, things happen,

at the moment for the year 2000 Olympics, it’s so

immediate; the actors in the film are the same age as

but you have the choice about how you deal with it.

messy, and we really wanted to capture the feeling-

well. They were all going through that stuff; so there is

You can’t force it.

something about it that’s quite raw in that sense. Not

There’s one guy in the film who thinks he has a

that the film’s raw at all - it’s actually very polished -

really happy marriage, but his wife leaves him, and

but there’s a messiness to the emotions in it.

he thinks, “Everything I based my life on was an

It’s actually quite nice, because I don’t think we draw any kind of conclusion, except that it’s okay, and life goes on. You don’t have to go out and con­ quer your lives and do this or do that. It’ll all be okay.

illusion and a delusion”. It’s true actually, but then

bourne to my friends here, and I’m just going to take

be constructive?

It’s strange, because it’s a comedy; I think it’s funny, people seem to think it’s funny; but there’s a slightly darker edge to it.

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

All around the world I get people standing up and going, “Oh my God, I’ve been trying to explain Mel­ them to see the film.” We wanted to do that in a way

probably be okay. And If it’s not, that’s okay too. we believe about our lives. Do we make things hap­

you know, all the really nice cafés.

what do you do? How do you keep on living and

Don’t panic about it so much; whatever you do, it’ll There’s also a lot of the stuff in the film about what

because with the other film we really captured some sort of feeling about Melbourne, a very autumnal feel,

The other thing we set out to do in the film, and we’ve managed to achieve - a lot of people have

for Sydney, but also get the big city feel to it, and the messiness, the construction and the jet-age. I think we managed to do that with a lot of time lapse, and the city builds up on you. It’s nice to feel that you set out to do something, and to find that you’ve realized it.

23

It ’ s in t e r e s t in g t h a t y o u s a y it h a s a d a r k e d g e to

a happy ending, but it’s not a happy-ever-after end­

similar understanding of, and interest in what it is

IT, BECAUSE JUST EVEN READING THE SYNOPSIS AND

ing. You know they’re going to go on from this point

that makes us human; what is it to be living now.

GETTING AN UNDERSTANDING OF STRANGE PLANET FROM

and it’s not all going to be perfect, it’ll be hard, but

We’re both very interested in modern stories, we’re

THAT, IT SEEMS TO BE MORE WEIGHTY.

they’ve got better skills to deal with it. They’ll just

not interested in period stories. We have similar

It is; I see it, and I think “How grown up!” But by the same token - 1haven’t seen Head On [Ana Kokkinos,

find another set of problems. is n ’t t h a t w h a t l if e is a l l a b o u t in a lo t o f w a y s ?

preoccupations, we tike the same things, and we like the same things in films that we watch. We can go

Yes. The film is designed to be circular, and the end­

and see a movie separately and then come back, and

in the way those films are dark. It’s dark in the way a

ing could be the beginning, and the beginning could

we’ll have much the same thoughts about it.

Massive Attack song is dark. Does that make sense?

be an ending. Not everything is tied up for the audi­

1998]

or Praise [John Curran, 1999] - but it’s not dark

Stavros has come through a different tradition,

ence. But that’s good, because you should be going

from something where it took him a while to come to

As opposed to the way the Violent Femmes are dark.

away and thinking about it later on. Thinking about

film; whereas it’s something I’ve always wanted to

It’s not down, dirty and raw.

those people, and have the mood permeating you in

do. In some ways, Stavros has more real life to draw

some way.

from, whereas I’ve spent so much of my life sitting in

T h a t ’ s q u it e e f f e c t iv e im a g e r y .

YOU ALSO MENTIONED BEFORE THAT YOU DIDN’T WANT TO GET INTO COMPARISONS WITH LOVE AND OTHER Ca t a s t r o p h e s , b u t I s u p p o s e it ’ s in e v it a b l e , an d th e w ord

I’v e h e a r d a r o u n d to w n is t h a t t h is is

L o v e a n d O t h e r Ca t a s t r o p h e s in S y d n e y , b u t it DOESN’T SOUND LIKE IT [...]

Without giving it away, all the characters do find

a theatre; that I have so much film knowledge. So

partners at the end of the film, but I don’t think you

sometimes that’s the difference, but mainly it’s the

really know if it’s going to work for them. But it’s still

similarities, and that makes it harder to define our

positive in the end; no one dies or anything.

creative relationship.

YOU CO-WROTE THIS SCRIPT WITH PRODUCER-PARTNER

It’s another one of those questions, like saying “If

No. I wonder if they’ve seen it. It seems a little bit

STAVROS KATZANZIDIS, AND YOU WORK WELL, AND

you liked Love and Other Catastrophes, you’ll love

easy, I think. That’s the thing that’s going to be diffi­

CLOSELY TOGETHER. HOW DOES YOUR WORKING

Strange Planet.” It’s that need that people seem to

cult; it’s going to be too easy for people to compare

RELATIONSHIP HAPPEN? WHAT’S THE NATURE OF YOUR

have to pigeonhole things, and give everything a

them. What I see mainly is the differences, and it’s

CREATIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH KATZANZIDIS?

name, and wanting to know the details; and it’s not always like that.

hard to be that distant from your own work, but I’ve

It’s pretty much reflective; we write together. When

actually had a few other people, whose opinion I

people ask that, they often want to define the creative

respect, say that it is a much more mature film. It’s

relationship: who does what, and all that. And that’s

obsession with where exactly an idea comes from;

about a different time; it doesn’t have that nostalgia.

difficult, because it depends on the day. Obviously

what part of your life. Every character you write is

For the people that it’s made for, my feeling is that

you complement each other, and make up for each

you, in a sense, but people are always looking for the

it’ll resonate with them. But if you’re going to see it

other’s weaknesses; you know, one person’s stronger

character that is you, full stop. It’s a bit more messy,

and you want to see another Love and Other Catastro­ phes, you’ll probably be a little bit put off, because

in one area.

it’s not as easy.

Strange Planet has a very uplifting ending, but it’s

Stav’s very structure-based, and I tend to bring

It’s quite interesting that people also have an

it’s a bit more nebulous than that.

A r e yo u in a m a d , f l a t - s p in p a n ic to f in is h t h e f il m ?

more popular culture to it; but that’s neither here nor

Yes and no, but because of the stage that the film is

there. Some days it completely switches around.

at. We personally can’t do anything; the mad panic is

not as easy to eat. It’s a good meal, but it’s not a

W o u ld it b e m o r e f it t in g to s a y t h a t y o u a n d

over. We start the final mixing tomorrow, and every­

sorbet ice cream, which I think Love and Other Cata­

KATZANZIDIS SHARE A SIMILAR VISION AND WORK

thing takes as long as it takes, so there’s nothing you

strophes was - not that that’s necessarily a bad thing

TOWARDS THAT SAME VISION?

can do, but hope that the labs have enough free time.

- but you’re going to have work a little bit harder;

I think the reason that we are able to work together is

So it’s actually feeling good at the moment, because

everything’s not tied up. We keep saying the ending is

because we have a similar outlook on life. We have a

I’m coming out of that ‘working 24 hours a day’ state.

I l ia v f ^ ^ r o B ^ rv a n ), Sally (Alic e G amer), Alice (Naomi

24

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

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A re yo u f e e l in g c o n f id e n t a b o u t S t r a n g e P l a n e t ’s PERFORMANCE AT CANNES?

if it were a third or fourth film. And I think that’s sad, and it’s sad for the work of other people in the film.

It’s interesting, because I like the film, and I’m very

For instance, the production designer is a woman

proud of it. We made a very low-budget first film;

called Annie Beauchamp, her work is amazing in it.

and then we were given money, and you can see it. We

Some of the actors are new to the screen, first-timers,

made a better film, and the money went on the screen,

and I’m very concerned that they will not be treated in

so I’m very proud of it. But by the same token, if you

the same way because the film will carry all this bag­

take anything to the film festival at Cannes, you’re petrified.

gage. My baggage. I feel sad for them, and sad for the

You give two years of your life to the thing, and then

film, if that happens.

S p e a k in g of c a s t in g , yo u h a ve an in t e r e s t in g m ix

you have to go here and there, especially in a market­

OF OLD AND NEW. NAMES LIKE TOM LONG AND FELIX

place where there is so much product, and so many

W il lia m so n rin g b e l l s .

people vying for attention. I think it makes it harder to

Tom Long is playing Ewan, and the only thing you’ll

go back when we had such an extraordinary experi­

probably know him from is SeaChange; he plays the

ence last time, but that can never be repeated.

young clerk in that. He’s also had minor roles in other

SO HAVE YOU FELT PRESSURED BY THE ‘SECOND FILM SYNDROME’?

Personally, no, because as soon as I finished the first

films. He was also in Two Hands [Gregor Jordan, 1999], in a completely different role.

Felix has done a lot of theatre, and yes, he is the

one, people were going, “Now make a second one”.

son of David Williamson. He’s also done quite a bit of

There’s all that pressure, but I have felt and main-

television. He’s most well-known for his gay hair-

Sally (Alice Garner).

J

Strange Planet

•|

he film is designed to be circular and the ending could be the beginning and the beginning could be the ending. Not everything is tied up for the audience. But that's good, because you should be going away and thinking about it later on.

T

Absolutely, it’s quite interesting, because he’s very softly spoken in this film. He plays the jilted husband, and often because of his size, he plays aggressive Australian characters. But in

Strange Planet he’s playing a Jewish guy who’s very well put together, and quite softly spoken. He worked very hard, because the character was very different for him.

W hat n ew s is t h e r e on th e Ho l l y ­ w ood

FRONT, BECAUSE THERE IS A

“ r u m o u red ” p r o je c t in d ev e lo p m e n t ? tained all along, that all I have to do is make the film I

It’s based on a book by Philip K. Dick

want to make. After that initial hot flush of media and

called The Scanner Darkly, which is

critical attention - your film lasts a lot longer than

not very sci-fi. It’s more autobiographi­

that - you just have to be proud of your work.

cal on his part. It’s about drugs,

As long as you don’t buy into all that attention,

dresser in a Clairol ad, but he’s playing a different

and it’s a bit darker.

Ken [Sallows, editor] finds it funny that I should

and don’t make decisions out of fear, or make them

part, although he’s got a comic character. It’s interest­

because you believe it’s the right thing to do, then

ing, he’s actually quite suave, but in the film he plays

make two romantic comedies here, and then, when I

you’ll be all right.

I haven’t felt any pressure during the making of the

a real dag.

Naomi Watts, who plays Alice, has just started film­

go to do the American film, it’s this dark sci-fi thing.

But we’re still only in development. The writer that I

film. I haven’t felt like “Oh my God, if I don’t make a

ing the pilot for a new series in L.A., so that’s exciting.

employ-ed is very busy at the moment, but he’s just

With Claudia [Karvan], we’d pretty much written the

started on a second draft, and I’ll probably move to

good film, everyone’s going to think it’s a fluke.”

Whatever people say before they have seen the film

part for her, so I don’t know what we would have done

the United States in May - just before or after Cannes

will not diminish what I think about it.

By the same token, I worry about people comparing

if she’d said she couldn’t do it; and we just wanted

- and get it moving along a bit. I’ve always wanted to

Alice [Garner] to be around. We thought it was good

make a film there.

my films. But that’s a more distant thing, like not

for her to play something that was very different from

worrying about my ego personally; it’s more worrying

her. A lot of the time, she’s a good actor, but she’ll

about the film as if it were a different entity.

play versions of the same character. So this is some­

This film - that is a film in its own right, and has its own strengths, and w eaknesses-w ill not, because it is a second film, be treated with the same respect as

CI NEMA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

I have another project that I would like to write, that I’ll film back here in Australia. That’s how I’m planning I would do things; get the American film, and then

thing completely different for her.

A nd Aa r o n J e f f r e y ’s r o le is p r e t t y d if f e r e n t to h is

come back home.

LAST ROLE IN THE INTERVIEW [CRAIG MONAHAN, 1998].

able to commute between Australia and the

People seem to be able to do that more now, to be 56

25

26

C I N E MA P A P E R S â&#x20AC;¢ JUNE 1999

ticism . Kubrik’s shockingly unex e morbid. It w as certainly thefirn ibrik has played with his audienc ke account of his death. W hich n<

nswerabli to years. I

ere two remark-

uring February, principal photogra­ phy was completed on Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick’s film based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler,

D

Traumnovelle (Dream Story),

m at one was affair and the other so instantly com bustible. What they had in common was an Australian actress and a turn-of-the-century Viennese doctor-cum -dram atist who, in hf&Mpie, had been the hottest miffia event of a ll.

starring husband and wife Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Filming had begun in November 1996, making this “the longest continuous shoot in motion-picture history”, according to John Baxter’s Kubrick biography. In September and October, no longer one of “Kubrick’s Captives”, as a newspa­ per story about Eyes Wide Shut was called, Kidman appeared on stage in an updated version of a much more scandalous Schnitzler work, the play with which he ushered in the twentieth century, Reigen or La Ronde. The new version was called The Blue Room and was an immediate sell-out success, mainly because all five female rôles were played by a variously - and for some reviewers, overwhelmingly - undressed Kidman.

Was one Schnitzler suggested by the other?

Playwright David Hare wrote The Blue Room at the suggestion of theatre director Sam Mendes, who had the idea of a new La Ronde, with its cross-sectioned take on sexual morés, for a new century. Reports don’t connect it with the Kubrick film. Even so, with Kidman, dubbed “theatrical Viagra” by one reviewer, taking The Blue Room to Broadway, executives at Warner Bros, must be thinking of the connection and what an ideal time it would be to release Eyes Wide Shut.

But here, of course, we move into a different time entirely: Kubrick time. The article on “Kubrick’s Captives” had mentioned a possible release date of 18 December 1998. Conjecture now is that it will be some time in 1999, and some even say that this will be a new Schnitzler for a new millennium.

The critic Andrew Sarris was beginning to look askance at these methods as far back as 1963: His [Kubrick’s] métier is projects rather than films, publicité rather than cinema. He may wind up as the director of the best coming attractions in the industry.

Nicole Kidman in the London production of The B lue Room.

C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

Five years later, Sarris noted that Kubrick’s filmography had only increased by two: E>r Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (1964) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Thirty years further on, his filmography has only increased by four, with a fifth waiting in the wings. Sarris, one might say, was prescient

27

about Kubrick’s career with an exactness worthy of HAL 9000.

Conversely, one might say that Kubrick has taken Sarris’ jibe and turned it into an art form.

His “cinema of coming attractions”, defined not just by its time-consuming methods but by the extreme secrecy that surrounds it, is epic in the attention it commands before a frame of film is seen. Statements about the film, whether issuing from its two megastars or anonymous press releases, repeat a mantra of it being a story about “sexual obsession and jealousy” (or “jealous and sexual obsession”). The press, meanwhile, clocks the number of shooting (mainly reshooting) days and the actors who have come and gone from the production (Harvey Keitel, Jennifer Jason Leigh).

Most curious of all was a news item on televi­ sion, the medium to which everything is accessible.

This included a visit to the set - a contemporary New York neighbourhood, complete with yellow cabs, built at a British studio. But all the pro­ gramme offered was a distant view, from what looked like a cover of trees, as though it were scouting an enemy camp. For hotter gossip there’s the Internet, with websites buzzing about Cruise and Kidman’s scenes of full-frontal nudity or crossdressing. Compared to filmmaking of this reach and impact, Kubrick’s earlier epics - Spartacus (1960), say, or 2001 - look like home movies.

If Kubrick's is a cinema of coming attractions, then perhaps criticism can take it on in these future L tense terms.

chaos underlines bourgeois decorum, in fact all public and private morality. But here there are only two characters - a doctor, Fridolin, and his wife, Albertina - and they are not shown moving at random across all social strata, in a restless sex­ ual rummage. Here the rummaging goes on internally. There are teasing discussions between husband and wife about their past lives and fan­ tasies, real social occasions for flirtation (a masquerade ball), and more ambivalent scenes which are dreams in fact or metaphor. What they all reveal is that behind the partner each has cho­ sen stands a legion of possible partners; and behind those putative liaisons, in turn, stands the partner each has chosen.

This might be a challenge to bourgeois moral­ ity, to the social pretences of fidelity and monogamy. But it could also be read as a defence of them, as a drama about the necessity of those pretences, or as something more clinical in the study of desire and its intersection with personal identity and public morality. ilm criticism, of course, can have no Social conventions are a way to rationalize and truck with gossip, and there’s nothing cope with a world of desire which acknowledges substantial that can be said about the none of these limits. But, at the same time, we film until its release. Or is there? If reveal who we are through the choices we make Kubrick’s is a cinema of coming attractions, then perhaps criticism can takethat it onlimit in what we might have been. Choice - and the conventions that come to endorse it - is also a these future-tense terms. Perhaps we can construe human way not of banishing but of accommodat­ and discuss his films while he is still assembling those shadow selves and serial liaisons. them as projects. To put it flippantly, film ing history is now being asked to wait too long for the fin­ And here’s where Kubrick’s picture begins. Not ished article. really because, as a cold and objective observer of In a more seriously-playful mood, the following the human condition, he is well qualified to carry is offered, not as another production history of out a dissection of desire. Nor because his sardonic attitude to the arms race, the space race and the Eyes Wide Shut, but as an attempt to square up to Vietnam peace race would make him a match for this coming attraction, to analyze, assess and even the cynical Schnitzler in the sex race. To begin with, review what doesn’t yet exist in the public eye. this is not even a good description of Schnitzler.

The most obvious place to start is with Schnitzler and Traumnovelle. This was written in 1926, In photographs, he looks like a jaunty roué, and five years before Schnitzler’s death, and could be La Ronde is certainly funny about its characters’ capacity for delusion, deceit and betrayal. But the seen as a complementary end-piece to La Ronde roué was a qualified doctor, presumably with his (as that play has generally been called since Max own capacity for objectivity, and what is most Ophuls’ film version of 1950). From opposite per­ spectives - external and internal, as it were - they impressive about the parade of partners dumping both deal with the psychology of serial sexual each other to the power of ten in La Ronde is the size of the case load. Schnitzler’s world is various behaviour.

In La Ronde, ten characters play a kind of sex­ and comprehensive. Partners are not so much ual musical chairs in ten self-contained playlets. exchanged as transmuted, as each character seeks a Character A mates with character B who moves on new incarnation for his or her desire, and in turn to character C, and so on, until the music stops becomes the vessel for someone else’s. There’s as with character A again. Schnitzler wrote these much idealism here as cynicism. La Ronde is about the population that desire creates, rather than the scenes in 1900, and published them privately in pain it leaves behind - here again, its reputation is 1903, not intending that they should be performed off the point. in public. When the play was staged in 1921, in Vienna and Berlin, it provoked a furore: battles Traumnovelle closes its particular cycle of desire on a note of optimism and renewal: with inside the theatre, demonstrations with antiSemitic temper outside, and the Berlin cast hauled the usual noises from the street, a victorious ray of up in an obscenity trial. Schnitzler withdrew the light through the opening of the curtain, and the play and declared that it should not be performed clear laughter of a child through the door, the new day began. again in his lifetime.

Could Traumnovelle have provoked a similar After she and Fridolin have confessed to the outrage? It could, in that it shows how a sexual varieties of desire they have lived through, or

F

28

imagined, over two days and nights, Albertina concludes: the reality of one night, let alone that of a whole lifetime, is not the whole truth. “And no dream”, he said with a slight sigh, “is entirely a dream.”

One can picture the sunniness of this in Eyes Wide Shut, the dreamy indefiniteness and the blankness that neither excludes nor is cancelled by a certain balefulness. The scene is flooded in white light, Kubrick’s medium for moments when we have come to the end of things, dissolving every­ thing that is known and not known. It’s a trip to the limits of the universe and back, the gentle pen­ dulum that swings between “The reality of one night ... is not the whole truth” and “no dream ... is entirely a dream”. Barry Lyndon (1975) begins with a love scene that is both blank and baleful the beginning, as the narrator tells us, of all the hero’s troubles, and of his trip to the end of the century that will form and reform him while leav­ ing the indefinitely dreaming Barry of that first scene untouched.

The pendulum of Bany Lyndon swings between its epic narrative of events and this diffuse core of human material. Traumnovelle, on the other hand, has easy access to the interior life of its characters.

Its situation - and the narrative problem for a film - is just the opposite: no events, just processes, as scenes collapse in and out of the characters’ dreams and imaginings, and even the concrete details of their daily lives are easily transmuted and transplanted. At various points in his long night’s journey, it reassures Fridolin to think how “in a few hours he would be walking around between the beds of his patients in his white hospital coat”.

But a white coat is just one of the costumes he will wear, and it’s an image of order that easily pro­ vokes contrary images, of death and disease.

Fridolin and Albertina - who has no occupa­ tion, other than wife and mother - live in a secure bourgeois world, with one child and vague ser­ vants, in ’20s Vienna. Updating this to contemporary New York, Eyes Wide Shut has apparently given husband and wife a dual profes­ sion as psychologists, perhaps with other means of access to their interior states. “Completely wrong”, said Nicole Kidman, in an interview while rehearsing The Blue Room, about reports that she plays “a sex psychologist hooked on heroin”. But that’s not altogether unlikely - morphine is the drug of choice in Traumnovelle.

But if this is almost entirely an interior novel, it is also pre-eminently a ‘performed’ story. Mas­ querade is the theme, and it’s played out on various occasions. Fridolin and Albertina have just been to a masquerade party when the story begins, and have been titillated by two encounters, he with “two women in red dominoes” and she with “a stranger whose blasé manner and apparently Polish accent had at first charmed her”. At home, they’re prompted to confess to a couple of quasi-erotic encounters during a holiday in C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

w o m an , a suicide, w h o m he ca n ’t positively id e n ­ tify as the m asked w o m an (“he n o w sh u d d ered to realize th a t his w ife had co nstantly been in his m in d ’s eye as th e w o m an he w as seeking”). B ut w h oever she is, th e bod y on the slab “co uld only be to him th e pale corpse o f the preced in g n ig h t d o o m ed to irrevocable decay” .

Sg: ow have these scenes been tran slated in to Eyes Wide Shut ? W e k n o w w h ere th e y ’ve been tran slated , fro m | ; a list o f locations in Jo h n B axter’s 9 biography: Kubrick took over the Rothschilds’ giant country house Mentmore for some scenes, and hired an entire floor of London’s Lanesborough Hotel for a week, including its $6,ooo-a-night Royal Suite. Retracing his 2001 steps, Kubrick began shooting at the mansion of Luton Hoo, which had been the site for an unused por­ tion of the earlier film.

D enm ark, an d th e n F rid o lin is called o u t to atten d to a dying patien t.

T his begins a n ig h t o f serious p arty in g and shape-shifting. T h e p atien t, a privy co uncillo r, is already dead; his d au g h ter, w h o seem s rath e r fevered to F rid o lin - p erh ap s she has tuberculosis?

- ab ru p tly breaks o u t w ith a d eclaratio n o f love for him . H e escapes in to th e street an d m eets a you ng p ro stitu te, M izzi (w hat else, as she says, w o u ld she be called?). H e dallies w ith her, after a fashion (“he w o o ed h e r like a sw eeth eart, like a beloved w o m an ”) b efore w an d erin g off to a local dive.

T h ere he ru n s in to a disreputable friend fro m his m edical stu d en t days, n o w an itin e ra n t en tertain er, a pian o -p lay er fo r hire - “th e vaudeville com pan y he had been w ith had suddenly gon e to pieces” w h o invites F rid o lin to a secret an d rath e r frig h ten ­ ing-sound ing ex travaganza, th e ev ening’s grand cerem onial.

T his is a m ask ed ball held just outside to w n it’s alw ays th e sam e party, b u t alw ays at a differen t house - reach ed by m eans o f “a m o u rn in g -co ach ” w ith a sepulchral driver. T h in k o f Jo n a th a n H a rk e r ascending to C astle D racula - th e m o o d an d shapeshifting o f h o rro r fiction begins to grip here.

F ridolin has hastily o u tfitte d him self w ith a m o n k ’s costum e, an d finds ev eryone a t th e p a rty dressed as m on ks an d nuns. T h a t is, u n til th e nun s slip aw ay to m ake a d ram atic reap p earan ce w ith o u t any cos­ tu m e at all - save fo r th e ir m asks. T h e m on ks, w h o C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

have n o w becom e “cavaliers in w hite, yellow , blue an d re d ”, rush to w ard s them .

B ut F ridolin is ch eated o f this free tick et to an orgy. T h e celebrants sense th a t he is n o t one of them , an d he is th rea ten ed w ith dire consequences.

T h en the m o st beautiful w o m an present, w ho seem s particularly attracted to F ridolin , offers to ato n e fo r his crim e. F ridolin is driven out, still n o t sure if the w o m a n ’s sacrifice m eans h e ’s been espe­ cially favou red o r just m ade the victim of an elab o rate ch arade. H e ’s sure, th o u g h , w h at her ‘sacrifice’ w ill entail, before he hears h er cry out, “ H ere I am , tak e m e - all o f y o u .”

H e retu rn s to A lbertina in th e early h o u rs o f the m o rn in g an d finds her just com ing o u t o f a real dream . She reco unts this in elaborate detail, som e o f it picking up on his recen t experiences — m onks an d soldiers, even D anish an d Polish accents, circu ­ late freely. Its narrativ e, th o u g h , involves F ridolin being offered royal h u m o u r by a m ysterious w o m an , an d w h en he refuses being hum iliated: naked (his final costum e), he is w h ip p ed an d th en led to crucifixion.

T o F ridolin , this dream tale has th e force o f a real betrayal, an d he takes it as a licence to play o u t all th e desires he reh earsed th e nigh t before. H e retraces his steps to th e co u n cillo r’s dau g h ter, to M izzi an d th e m ysterious house, b u t all to no avail.

A t th e en d o f a n o th e r nigh t, he is back in his h o sp i­ tal, in the m orgu e, w ith th e body o f an u n k n o w n

All o f w hich suggests - yellow cabs n o tw ith stan d ­ ing - th a t this u p d atin g is rath e r rem o te and self-enclosed. In an in te rio r g eography film , the present-day fu rn itu re m ust seem as arbitrarily im po sed on the ch aracters as th e ch angin g-roo m décor at th e en d of 2 0 0 1 . K ubrick’s ab stracting, generalizing ten dency - th a t universal p e n d u lu m sw ing th ro u g h all his film s - gives th em n o t so m uch a n ear-fu tu re as an all-our-histories look.

T h a t is, history w ith m ost o f its ch aracteristic fea­ tures blan d ed o u t to allow for elegantly-spare sym phonies o f light an d co lo u r an d the sense th a t w e’ve passed this w ay before. O r, rath e r, th a t w e’re alw ays passing this w ay, eith er evolving to th e stars (2001) o r de-evolving to th e ch im pan zee-typ ing gam es of The Shining (1980).

The Shining th ro w s up som e interesting co m p ar­ isons w ith Eyes Wide Shut, th o u g h in term s of finally assessing th e new film , close co m parisons should be resisted. The Shining is an o th er co n tem ­ p o rary story, w h ose h o rro r elem ents are less a generic given th an a w ay o f visualizing ch aracters’ inner w ishes - for each o th e r’s destru ctio n , m ainly, in an o th er tale of jealousy an d obsession. It’s n o t sexual this tim e because it’s ab o u t a fath e r’s jeal­ ousy o f his so n ’s greater ability to ‘see’, w hich stem s fro m his ow n lim ited pow ers in lim itless cir­ cum stances. Som e nice visions, w ith real K ubrick lighting effects, have already been w ritten fo r him

by Schnitzler, as in this o d d tab leau w h en F ridolin goes to the co stu m er’s shop: A blinding light was diffused over the entire passage down to the end where a table, covered with plates, glasses and bottles, could be seen. Two men, dressed in the red robes of vehmic judges, sprang up from two chairs beside the table and a graceful little girl disap­ peared at the same moment.

B ut th e ghosts o f The Shining an d th e ghosts o f Eyes Wide Shut are a different m atter alto gether.

M ad Jack in th e fo rm er is h isto ry ’s rep eatin g m ech­ anism , a handy play g ro u n d for th e O v erlo o k H o te l’s bad m em ories. The Shining is a h o rro r film w ith a cosm ic sense o f h u m o u r. B ut in Eyes Wide Shut, th e ghosts are th e sp o rt th a t people m ake of each o th e r, th ey are th e spectral p artn ers th ey are searching for - ideal versions, o r recreatio n s of unconscious prim al versions - th ro u g h th e p artn ers they have. In a film w ith only th ree p rincip al play­ ers, th ey are th e im aginary ro n d e, th e p o p u latio n th a t S chnitzler revealed w ith th e m edical m a n ’s eye for th e n eat cross-section.

29

Nicole Kidman and lain Glen in The B lue Room.

desire ricochets (“freed fro m all ethical b o n d s”) betw een th o se do u b led loves - ideal, spectral, “beyond th e h u m an reg ister” - back to th e love th a t m ade th e chase necessary.

Schnitzler is th e film ’s startin g p o in t, an d this is also tru e in a neatly dou bled sense. H is Reigen w as largely rescued fro m th e lim bo o f scandal w h en M ax O p huls tu rn e d it in to La Ronde. A nd O p huls is the film m aker m ost often cited by K ubrick as his m ajor influence, w h o has b eq u eath ed him b o th th a t fin-de-siecle, en d-o f-th e-H ap sb u rg s m o o d sardonic and d etach ed ab o u t h u m an affairs - an d an elegantly, endlessly-roving cam era to trace the circular course o f ch aracters’ destiny. A n d h o w elegant o f fate to lo o p K ubrick’s lo o p w ith a new stage p ro d u ctio n o f La Ronde, w ith th e star o f

Eyes Wide Shut.

his The Blue Room, D avid H are to o k a m o re optim istic, m o d ern slant on w h at is assum ed to be S chnitzler’s cynical, d isenchanted view o f love an d desire: Our sexual pasts are full of ghastly mismatches: mak­ ing love to the wrong person for the wrong reason.

But that is how you learn, through sexuality.

So lim ited a scale, so precisely psychological a subject m atter, m ay seem a surprise fro m a direc­ to r k n o w n fo r tak ing bigger slices of history. B ut b ehavio ur is th e key to ev erything in K ubrick, b ehavio ur rep eatin g itself until it constitutes the shape o f history. Is Barry Lyndon a stately to u r th ro u g h the eig hteen th century, o r the m ost am biguous subjective odyssey of identity form ation?

It is a film w ith one princip al player w h o contains h isto ry ’s m ultitudes. T h e ap p ro ach K ubrick to o k fro m th e very beginning has been described by his one-tim e p ro d u cer, Jam es B .H arris: “H e w o u ld co nstantly em phasize th e w ay people behaved. H e advised m e to read F reu d ’s Introduction To Psy­ choanalysis an d also Stanislavsky’s w o rk s [...]”

F reu d ’s acco u n t o f dream s predicts th e chaos unleashed in Traumnovelle, fro m F rid o lin ’s ad ven­ tu re (“th e ego, freed fro m all ethical bonds, also finds itself at one w ith all th e dem ands o f sexual desire”1) to A lb ertina’s ow n dream , w hich F ridolin finds so shocking: Wishes for revenge and death directed against those who are nearest and dearest In waking life, against the dreamer’s parents, brothers and sisters, husband or wife, and his own children are nothing unusual.2

30

A co n tem p o rary F reud ian psychoanalyst, D arian L eader, has w ritten ab o u t h o w love for a p a rtn e r is alw ays directed at som eone beyond the p artn er, som eone w h o m ust rem ain ideal or spec­ tral: “T o find a co ntinuou s love, a love th a t w o n ’t let you dow n, one has to go beyond th e h um an register” (W hy do w o m en w rite m o re letters th an they post?) H e describes th e case history o f one w o m an w h o com bined th e tw o, m aking her reallife lover also a spectral ‘o th e r’ by creating anxiety ab o u t his suppo sed disappearances an d th e n h u n t­ ing for him in th e local m orgues.

T his retu rn s us to Traumnovelle, an d to th a t persistent m irro rin g stru ctu re in K ubrick w hich eith er has plots busily duplicating them selves (The Killing, 1956) o r characters pursuing th eir shado w selves in a rio t o f personality th a t is also an im age fo r th e lim its o r personality. So P eter Sellers rico ­ chets th ro u g h b o th Lolita (1962) an d Dr Strangelove. H u m b ert H u m b ert an d Q uilty co n­ d u ct th eir ow n ro n d e, an d friend an d foe are played by th e sam e actors in K ubrick’s first film , Fear And Desire (1953). T hese are chase scenarios, played o u t in th e ex ternal w o rld , an d follow an ideal form by circling back to th eir beginning. Eyes Wide Shut is a pu rsu it th ro u g h dream an d fantasy,

Schnitzler m ay w ell be an acute co m m en tato r on sexual m orés, p articularly on th e deceit an d hypocrisy o f those V iennese g entlem an w h o co uld pose as pillars o f society w hile setting them selves up w ith a little som eth ing fro m th e lim itless w o rld o f desire. B ut if th e re ’s som eth ing d eep er th an cynicism at w o rk here, it is a m elancholy ab o u t w h at this circular pursuit, th e rum m aging th ro u g h spectral p artn ers an d serial liaisons, says ab o u t the solidity, th e reality, o f th e pursuer.

It’s revealing th a t th e sequence o f exploitative m en in La Ronde ends w ith a w istful aristocrat, w hose flaw is n o t hypocrisy b u t th a t he “thinks to o m u ch ” . T his has b red en n u i an d purpo seless­ ness, a feeling th a t “all th e things people talk ab o u t m ost d o n ’t exist”, an d th a t if desire is lim itless, choice is pointless: “T h ere is alw ays som eo ne aro u n d w h o likes y o u .” H o w like R ed m o n d B arry - p rete n d aristocrat, as a p re te n d er in m ost things - w h o pursues all his desires so ruthlessly yet retains to th e en d R yan O ’N e al’s unfixed, faraw ay, m oo ncalf gaze T h a t m elancholy has deep en ed in Eyes Wide Shut, even th o u g h th ere is n o p e rio d w istfulness here, only a hard er, m o d ern edge to th e p u rsu it of desire, an aggressive assertion o f th e rig h t to ex plore fantasies, and an easy acceptance o f th e relativity an d contingency o f all things, especially h um an relationships. B ut K u brick’s abstracting tendencies, his futuristic stream linin g o f any décor, an d his w ay o f digging in to perform an ces, going for ex trem e ecstasies o r terro rs w ith n o social co n ­ te x t at all, lifts his subjects as cleanly o u t o f th e p resen t as o u t of any tim e, p ast o r future. W e are left in th a t realm w h ere all o u r ghosts an d doubles ricochet aro u n d , clam ouring for reco gnition.

A com plicating facto r in Eyes Wide Shut is the script by F rederic R aphael, a novelist an d screen­ w riter w hose o w n fiction has d ip p ed in to La Ronde/Traumnovelle territo ry . T h e tro u b le is R ap h ael’s usual m od e is satire o r brittle social com edy, w h ich slips so easily in to th e cynicism of w h ich Schnitzler an d K ubrick have been accused.

Interestingly, K ubrick first an n o u n ced in 1971 th a t Traumnovelle w o u ld be his n e x t project, an d in C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

th e sam e y e a r R a p h a e l p u b lish e d a n o v el, Who Were You With Last Night}, th a t seem e d a t least to

h av e b e e n in flu e n c e d b y th e S ch n itzler. T h e re se m ­ b la n ce w as clo se e n o u g h to crea te so m e co n fu sio n a b o u t w h e th e r Eyes Wide Shut w as actu ally b ased o n th e R a p h a e l nov el.

Who Were You With Last Night ? is an o d d am alg am o f S ch n itzler th e m e s w ith ch aracte rs fro m th e d isg ru n tle d realism sch o o l o f B ritish fic­ tio n . Its h e ro is an ex -sailo r w h o stu m b les in to d o m esticity w h e n h e gets his g irlfrie n d p re g n a n t o n th e ir first d a te, a n d stu m b les in to a c a re er as a salesm an o f o u t-o f-to w n business d e v elo p m en ts.

B u t th e b o o k is a ru n n in g m o n o lo g u e in w h ic h he fan tasizes a b o u t reg a in in g fre e d o m by b lo w in g u p his n e a re st a n d d earest, a n d rem in isces a b o u t e n c o u n te rs in A m ste rd a m ’s re d -lig h t d istrict.

In te rsp e rse d w ith th is are g lim p ses - cin em atic flash -fo rw ard s - o f a c u lm in atin g session o f office sex in te rru p te d a n d given a sadistic tu rn by a m a n w ith a gun .

It’s an ev ery d ay te sta m e n t to th e v io len ce an d u n p re d ic ta b ility o f desire, w ith a d rab , lived-in, H o m e C o u n tie s am b ien c e a n d a h e ro p u sh in g his w ay u p fro m u n d e r, like B arry L y n d o n , to beco m e an alm o st-y u p p ie. It d u ly tap s in to S ch n itzler’s u n d e rly in g pessim ism a b o u t th e h u m a n in su b stan ­ tiality th a t goes w ith th e ran d o m n e ss o f atta c h m e n ts: “P eo p le a re like th e se so lid objects th a t a re n ’t really so lid a t all, th a t h av e all this em p tin ess in th e m .” A n d m u ta b ility leads to th o u g h ts a b o u t p a ra llel lives, sh a d o w existen ces: There’s no evidence there aren’t several more of us, each one of us, somewhere,

and

every time we come

to a crossroads, make a decision, maybe one of us goes one way and one the other.

T h e h e ro sp ecu lates o n th e se m a tte rs in a ra th e r g rim , cle n ch e d -jaw w ay, w h ic h R ap h a el w o rk s in to a fictio n a l play fu ln ess - a n d , m o st strik ingly, a cin em atic m o d ish n ess. T h e b o o k ’s ap p e a ra n c e m u st h av e c o in cid e d w ith th e release o f Perfor­ mance (D o n ald C am m ell a n d N ic o las R oeg, 19 7 0 ) a n d Who Were You With Last Night ? is th a t film ’s o u t-o f-to w n co u sin - sh ap e-sh iftin g , ro le-p lay in g a n d p e rv e rse sex u ality w ith o u t b e n efit o f d rugs, ro c k stars o r g an g sters (ex cep t fo r th e G rah am G ree n e-ish m a n in a m ac w h o tu rn s u p a t th e en d to p u t th e h e ro a n d his lo v e r th ro u g h so m e u n e x ­ p e c te d h o o p s). In b o th , th e flash -fo rw ard s, th e c u t-u p ed itin g style, em p h asize an in te rm in g lin g o f id e n tity a n d h a p h a z a rd sh iftin g o f sex u ality th a t b e co m e s a n e w ’7 0 s m o d e w h ile rem a in in g as o ld as S ch n itzler. It is ca rrie d o n by Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (N ico las R oeg, 1 9 8 0 ), w ith a p sy c h o an a ly st-h e ro a n d visual re m in d ers, v ia G u s­ tav K lim t, o f th a t e n d -o f-th e -H a p sb u rg s seed bed.

Eyes Wide Shut is th e late st film in th e g en re, a little late in a rriv in g b u t th e n th a t - like th e a p p e a ra n c e o f The Shining seven years after The Exorcist (W illiam F ried k in , 1 9 7 3 ) - is p a rt o f K u b rick ’s O ly m p ian deliv ery system . It w o rk s b ecau se m o d ish n ess, an y tim e -c o d in g a t all, is ex c lu d e d fro m th e p ro d u c t. Eyes Wide Shut m ay

delve in to th e lim itless w o rld o f desire, th e u n b o u n d e d n e ss o f p e rso n a lity , b u t it d o e sn ’t sug­ g est an in fin ity o f ch o ices th ro u g h an in fin ity o f ed itin g . K u b rick ’s n a rra tiv e style is tra d itio n a l to th e p o in t o f stately ; h e is n e ith e r p a rtic u larly in te r­ ested in n o r a d e p t a t n a rrativ e, d e sp ite w h a t is o fte n assu m ed a b o u t th e h o n in g o f his tec h n iq u e in lo w -b u d g e t th rillers. H e tak es in fin ite p ain s, an d alm o st in fin ite tim e, to establish his space - w h ich m ay be, as h ere, ju st a few ro o m s. B u t th is th e n b eco m es th e e x te n t o f th e k n o w n u n iv erse, an d th e te rro r his c h aracte rs face - w h ich shifts th e g ro u n d a little u n d e r S ch n itzler - is d ealin g w ith th e ir o w n lim its w ith in th is lim itlessness.

A ctually, th e m o d ish v e rsio n o f Eyes Wide Shut alrea d y exists. It is th e film Two for the Road (1 9 6 7 ), d ire c te d by S tan ley D o n e n a n d w ritte n by F re d e ric R ap h ael. S ch n itzler is a t w o rk h ere, an d th e th e m es R ap h a el w o u ld ex p lo re in b o th Who Were You With Last Night ? an d th e K u b rick film , th o u g h in a ra th e r in -b etw een state. T ed io u s a n d irrita tin g in itself, Two for the Road is a fascin atin g cro sso v er p o in t b e tw ee n sw ingin g ’6 0s cin em a - a w o u ld -b e k n o w in g piece a b o u t th e pitfalls o f m a r­ riage - an d th e co m in g ’70 s g en re a b o u t in te r­ w eav in g lives a n d desires.

T h e film in te rc u ts v ario u s trip s to F ran c e ta k e n

by A lb ert F in n ey a n d A u d rey H e p b u rn a t d ifferen t stages o f th e ir re latio n sh ip - w ith th e ir o ld er, estran g e d selves occasionally passing th e ir y o u n g er, b u b b ly selves o n th e ro ad . T h e ir m arital tiffs - w h ich are su p p o sed to ex p lain th e ir d eep d isillusion - are trivial. B u t o n e can h e a r R ap h ael w o rk in g to w a rd s S ch n itzler m o d e w h e n she accuses him , as h e presses h e r to m a k e love, “It w o u ld n ’t m a tte r w h o I w as, w o u ld it?”, o r w h en h e accuses h e r, a fter she re tu rn s fro m a b rie f F ai­ son, “A re yo u su re y o u rem e m b e r w h ich o n e I am ?” T h e re ’s even a visual effects gag, w ith F in n ey ’s car su d d e n ly b e co m in g tw o as h e p o n d e rs p u rsu it o f a b lo n d e, w h ich literally plays o u t th e ‘m u ltip le selves a t th e cro ssro ad s’ id ea in W h o Were You With Last Night ? In m an y w ays, R a p h a e l’s Eyes W id e S h u t im agines w h a t w o u ld h a p p e n if his Two for the Road co u p le p u t u p at th e O v e rlo o k H o te l, th e n fo u n d th e y w e re c o n ­ fin ed th e re w ith th e ir vario u sly trav ellin g selves.

So w h a t ex actly is Eyes Wide Shut? S peculating a b o u t th e m a n y sex scenes in v o lv in g its tw o stars, D av id T h o m so n in The Independent n e w sp a p e r is p re d ic tin g an actin g rev elatio n : her [Kidman’s] performance [...] may take us, her and cinema sexuality, to new, inner depths. Don’t be sur­ prised if what you see is enough to make you forget the hype about the ‘ideal’ box-office couple, and wake up to two astonishing actors.

A ll w ell a n d g o o d in th e o ry , b u t in p rac tice C ru ise a n d K id m an w ill n o t im p o se th em selv es in th is w ay. T h e y w ill rece d e in th e spaces o f th is sto ry d u p licatin g them selves, re-im ag in in g each o th e r, as th e y go - as surely as d id th e astro n a u ts in 2001 o r Barry Lyndon w ith in his o w n histo ry . T h e p ain ed , placeless visage o f R y an O ’N e a l h a u n te d every

The outer process, the grand the historical and cosmic ploi , i s one Kubrick is known for. . .

C I N E M A P A P E R S » JUNE 1999

scene o f th e la tte r film , b u t it d id n o th in g fo r th e a c to r’s career. S ex m ay sim ilarly be all o v e r Eyes Wide Shut, b u t co u ld th e re su lt be cin em atic V iagra? N o t really.

N o r is th is c o n tra d ic tio n n e w to Eyes Wide Shut, alth o u g h it m ay be K u b rick ’s first a tte m p t to a p p ro a c h th o se in n e r d e p th s, his first film in a n e arly fifty -y ear c a re er th a t really deals w ith sex u al intim acy.

A n o th e r o f A n d re w S arris’ c o m p lain ts, as th e film m a k er h e a d e d in to th e stra to sp h e re o f everfo rth c o m in g a ttra c tio n s, w as “his in creasin g relu c tan ce to ex p ress an a p p a re n tly p e rv e rse p e r­ so n ality ” . Y et th a t c o n tra d ic tio n has b e en th e real p erv ersity , th e c o n tra d ic tio n b e tw ee n th e in te llec­ tu a l re m o te n ess a n d co ld n ess asso ciated w ith K u b rick a n d th e q u ite in tim a te situ atio n s, th e p e rso n a l a n d d o m estic realities, th e b e h av io u ra l d etails in w h ic h all his film s are ro o te d .

P erh a p s it’s less a c o n tra d ic tio n th a n a m a tte r o f c o m p le m e n ta ry pro cesses, cycles, in th e affairs o f m en . T h e o u te r p ro cess, th e g ra n d design, th e h is­ to rica l a n d cosm ic p lo t, is th e o n e K u b rick is k n o w n fo r b ecause it m o st clearly ex p resses his view o f a d e term in istic un iv erse, th e tra p w ith in w h ich p e o p le - like th e 2001 a s tro n a u t - jo g fo r all etern ity . It’s w h y sto ry tellin g in te re sts K u b rick less th a n h isto ry -m ak in g - w h ich , in effect, m ean s a sto ry w h ich is d o o m e d to re p e a t itself, like th e ca talo g u e o f h o rro rs in The Shining, o r th e e n d ­ lessly rep la y ed h eist o f The Killing.

B ut th is p ro cess is m a tc h e d by th a t im m e rsio n in th e m u n d a n e , in th e ro u tin e ly h u m a n , th a t flu x o f b e h a v io u r - eq ually, p sych ologically, d e te r­ m in e d - in w h ich p e o p le ex ist n o t b ecau se th e y th in k b u t because th e y re p e a t them selv es. A n d sex is th e g re a t re p ro d u c e r - n o t in th e sense o f b io ­ logical re p ro d u c tio n , b u t th ro u g h all its m e c h ­ anism s fo r fan tasy an d p ro jec tio n . C a re ta k e r Ja c k is th e to o l o f b o th h isto ry an d his o w n cru m b lin g im a g in atio n , a n d th e clo ser H u m b e rt H u m b e rt co m es to b e d d in g L o lita - a n o th e r “g racefu l little g irl” - th e m o re h e is to rtu re d by th e m a n ic in te r­ v e n tio n s o f busily d o u b lin g C lare Q u ilty.

O f co u rse, Eyes Wide Shut d o e sn ’t have an e x tern al, co sm ic - o r ev en a th rille r - p lo t to syn­ ch ro n ize w ith its in te rn a l re p e titio n s. B u t th e n n e ith e r d id The Shining, u n til Ja c k b e cam e th e fig­ u re in th e cosm ic carp et. A n d like th a t film , Eyes Wide Shut uses its lavish d é c o r to e x p a n d as far as it needs. Ju st as th e in te rn a l a n d th e e x te rn a l tu rn easily in to o n e a n o th e r, space can c o n ta in all o f tim e. B ut in th e specific n a tu re o f its sex u al fan ­ tasies, a n d th e w ay it u n co v ers th e m , Eyes Wide Shut leads in a n o th e r d irec tio n . M o re g e rm a n e h e re is so m eth in g said by th e actress Ire n e K ane, w h o p lay ed th e h e ro in e in K u b rick ’s seco n d film , Killer’s Kiss, in 1 9 5 5 : “A t th e tim e, S tan ley w as fascin ated by sex a n d sadism . H e o n ce said th a t M ick ey S pillane k n e w all th e re w as to k n o w a b o u t reac h in g a u d ien c es.”

K

iller’s Kiss - w h ic h o n ce rejo iced

in th e m o re S pillane-ish title o f “ Kiss M e, Kill M e ” - w as a p o t­ b o ile r K u b rick talk s o f h av in g th ro w n to g e th e r w h e n his first, m o re in tellectu ally am b itio u s film , failed. Y et precisely b ecau se it w as so m ak esh ift, th e p lo t quick ly d ro p s aw ay, o r resolves itself 56

31 ;

TT ■

■

—

OW LONG HAVE

never really seen that. I’m sure they’re

YOU BEEN

there, but I just felt that I’d never seen

INVOLVED IN THE

the confusion and anxiety, the angst.

FILM INDUSTRY?

E M: I graduated, as an actor, from VCA at end of 1992

Often girls’ sexuality at a young age is portrayed as being all together, and there are a lot of movies about boys’

and worked as an actor for about four

coming-of-age. I thought I’d like to

years. I did a lot of television, a couple

express the confusion of being young

of long running series (The Damnation

and confused - of having your brain

of Harvey McQ, G.P., State Coroner),

tell you one thing, your heart and

and then, in actually writing and direct­

emotions tell you another, of not quite

ing, not very long at all.

I wrote the Strange Fits of Passion

knowing how to place yourself in the world. Build a picture of a young girl

script about three years ago, but I was

who has a sharp intellect, but that

kind of acting all through that time and

then stifles her from behaving emo­

doing rewrites, et cetera. The only

tionally or being able to really connect

other thing I’ve written is an episode

with people.

of Raw FM, for the ABC, and this is the first thing I’ve directed. So, I’ve been

I thought that was an interesting dilemma for a young woman at the end

involved for about seven years profes­

of the millennium. That sounds a bit

sionally, but largely as an actor, and

wanky, but it came from that desire.

in the last couple of years as a writer

T h e l o o k o f t h e film r e m in d e d m e o f

and director.

L ove and Other Catastro phes

Wa s it d if f ic u l t m a kin g t h a t t r a n s i ­ t io n

FROM ACTOR TO WRITER AND

DIRECTOR?

E M: The writing one was really grad­

(E m m a -K a t e C r o g h a n m a d e m e t h in k t h a t

IN THE

1996), w h ich

A u s t r a l ia n f il m s

1970s SEEMED PREOCCUPIED 1980S THEY WERE

WITH SEX, IN THE

ual, because I’d be dumb-struck with

PERIOD PIECES AND NOW A LOT OF AUS­

the script, and it was over three years,

TRALIAN FILMS ARE ABOUT THE QUIRKY

so that transition wasn’t too hard. I

RELATIONSHIP. WOULD YOU AGREE?

think, as an actor I have a good ear for

L M: Well, I think that the similarity

dialogue. I read so many scripts and

between this and Love and Other Cata­

often rewrite them. You need to alter

strophes is due mainly, or becomes

television dialogue to make it sound

more obvious, because of the age of

more natural. I believe I’ve got a good

the characters. But, Love and Other

ear, so it’s just how dialogue sounds.

Catastrophes, I think, is really an

That kind of writing was quite easy.

ensemble piece about a whole group

The structure of the film, to make it analogy-driven story-wise, was much harder. I had a script editor who worked largely with that; I felt a lot

of people, and how they interact is the most important thing.

Whereas this is really about one per­ son and how the other characters

more confident writing themes. It was

interact and inform her journey. I know

much harder for me to actually get

what you mean, but I think that’s kind

them into a coherent film, with a

of a world-wide thing. If you look at a

beginning, a middle and an end. That

lot of American independent movies, a

was the part that I needed help with.

The direction side was a bit more of a sudden leap. I did go to film school

lot of them are around those kinds of themes. My guess is, it’s probably because they’re cheap to make.

(New York Film Academy) for a month

E M: I think more young people are

in New York in 1997, but that was quite

making films than they were in the

quick and I was pretty much learning

1980s and I guess they write about

on the run.

what they know, which is relation­

YOU SAY THAT YOU REWROTE THE

ships, confusion and sexuality. That’s

s c r ip t .

something that seems to come up a

D id t h e s t o r y e v o l v e m uch

DURING THAT OR DID IT STAY MUCH THE

lot, now that the age group of filmmak­

SAME AS THE ORIGINAL?

ers has lowered. It seems like there’s a

E M: Just before we started shooting I

lot of filmmakers in their twenties and

re-read the very first draft and the

thirties now, where in the 1980s I

emphasis was the same, but it had

can remember thinking it was men in

changed quite a lot structurally. The

their fifties that made them. Maybe

things that I’m strong at, the charac­

that’s the shift.

ters and the dialogue, were pretty

L M: It’s also to do with, I think, the

much consistent.

idea that films have become more

W h a t w a s t h e in s p ir a t io n fo r t h e FILM?

genuinely contemporary and, there­ fore, when I say cheap, it’s an area

E M: I wanted to write a twisted com-

that people have access to. You can’t

ing-of-age film for a girl. I thought I’d

go out and shoot a low-budget period

33

E M; [Laughs.] Tough one! I didn’t

words I wrote of the film were “She

actually set out to destroy all men, I

stands in the street looking up the

Because you see so many deals go

achievable. Also the amount of money

guess that kind of happened by acci­

road”, or something like that. She

through at Film Victoria, you get an

that you can get nowadays, in real

dent really. It’s a good summary.

stayed as “She” because I never got

idea of what people will agree to and

terms it’s going down and down.

L M: “She”, the main character, had to

around to naming her and then I

what they will never agree to, so it

E M: For me, when I wrote it I wanted

have a whole series of bad experiences

sort of liked it. At the end “She” does

really makes it much easier to do the

to write a film that spoke to me and to

and, ergo, the men in it have to be

have a name.

negotiations for investors. The con­

my generation, my peer group. I wrote

pretty sad.

this before Love and Other Catastro­

IS THAT ON THE ANSWERING MACHINE?

E M: I don’t know that the women in it

E M: Yeah, it’s symbolic that “She”

tracting was quite a long torturous process on this one.

phes, and when that came out I

are much better really. “She” is totally

doesn’t have a clue who she is, does­

W ho w o u ld yo u s a y t h e a u d ie n c e is

thought that it was doing the same

confused, Jaya sleeps with everybody,

n’t really have an identity and that only

FOR THE FILM?

thing, but I’d never seen another

Judy is this desperate woman that only

by the end she does.

Australian film do it before. It was

wants to have a baby. So the women

W hen d id y o u b e c o m e in v o l v e d w ith

how people have responded to it. We

directly appealing to my age group, in

are pretty poor. There’s not any female

t h e s c r ip t ,

actually put out a survey from the first

a way that wasn’t a working-class

character in there that you kind of go:

L M: I actually came into the process

couple of screenings and got people

stereotype; it was more a middle-class

“Oh yeah, you’ve got it together”. I’m

very late in the piece. I think it was

to fill in what did they like, what didn’t

film, it wasn’t period.

Lu cy?

L M: Well, it’s certainly interesting

more interested in characters that are

about a month before they started pre-

they like and so on and so forth. Some­

IS THE FILM MAKING A STATEMENT ON

inept; they, to me, are more the people

production.

body wrote on it, “Anyone who’s ever

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND THE POST­

who are struggling in the world.

MODERN VIEW OF SOCIETY?

E M: Well, not really. I mean I’m a bit of a fan of postmodernism, but I think it’s

Tim White, the executive producer,

“ S h e ” u s e s f e m in is m a s a w ea p o n to

rang and asked me to be involved. But,

KEEP PEOPLE AWAY FROM HER.

I had read the script before and had

E M : Yeah, she does a bit, it’s a pro­

been a young woman and says they don’t relate to this film is lying.”

We do find that anyone who actually

been involved when I was working at

still remembers that ghastly feeling,

Film Victoria.

where you just don’t know how to do

completely fallible as well. I think that

tective thing. A lot of what she says is

we love to have theories and labels on

true, but it serves to distance people

D id y o u r f o r m e r p o s it io n a s S c r ip t

it, you don’t know how to get it right,

everything these days and it can just

from her and also to justify her own

D e v e l o p m e n t Ma n a g e r w ith F ilm V ic ­

constantly feeling that you’re totally

become incredibly confusing if you’re

inadequacies. I think as she keeps say­

t o r ia

young and you’re not discovering any­

ing: “If she can get a fuck, that means

PRODUCING THIS FILM?

thing for yourself because it’s already

she’s alright.” So there’s a bit of that

L M: Probably not, because I wasn’t

that respond to it very strongly, and

theorized for you.

in there. If she can theorize about the

really that involved with the scriptwrit­

that has actually crossed a very broad

rest of the world, she’ll be alright, she

ing process. I wasn’t around when they

audience. We’ve had men in their for­

can still claim moral superiority.

were doing the real solid work of

ties and fifties saying that they

developing the script.

absolutely loved it. But I think that the

M en d o n ’t c o m e o u t o f t h e film LOOKING TOO ROSY. THE MEN IN THE FILM ARE EITHER WOMANIZERS AND

A nd w h y is M ic h e l a No o n a n ’ s c h a r ­

PHILANDERERS (PABLO AND FRANCIS),

a cter ca lled

HOPELESSLY INEPT (JOSH AND MR. I S e l d it t ), u n f a it h f u l ( S im o n ) o r c o n f u s e d (Jimmy). |S t h is b a s e d on PERSONAL EXPERIENCE?

3h

are going to work for a project.

film, it’s a contradiction in terms, but you can make something like this; it’s

IMPACT ON YOUR APPROACH TO

inadequate in this weird thing called “relationships”. They’re the people

I was actually Project Manager at

main demographic is women from

E M: It started off as an identity thing,

Film Victoria as well, which is produc­

about sixteen upwards. Sixteen to

in that, “She” doesn’t really know her

tion investment. And having that

identity and that she is kind of lost.

background is really helpful in putting

YOU MADE NUMEROUS SHORT FILMS AND

The theory came out later. The first

together and working out how deals

FILM CLIPS IN THE PAST, HOW DOES THE

“S h e ” ?

thirty-five, forty-ish.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

PROCESS OF MAKING A FEATURE COM­

can tell the difference between a

PARE TO MAKING THOSE?

Melbourne film and a Sydney film, to

used to be a lot more $4 million dollar

because they’re being run by Craw­

L M: It’s a lot longer. [Laughs.] It really

the point where you can say that David

movies being made in Melbourne than

fords, are definitely going to be those kinds of studios.

Although it does seem that there

around Melbourne. The studios there,

is, that’s the first thing. I think the

Caesar and Rowan Woods make

there are now. Apart from that, which

thing that makes it harder making a

Melbourne-style films. You know, they

is just a theory, I don’t really have an

feature film, in terms of length, is to

make low-budget, grungy kinds of pic­

answer. It is a bit disturbing though.

maintain the right story-line and keep

tures, which obviously means there is

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE FILM

the flow of the drama working over

no such thing as a Melbourne film.

INDUSTRY DEVELOP IN VICTORIA? MAYBE

be a mistake, because there’s already

WE NEED A FOX STUDIOS ON THE YARRA?

enough of it. I don’t know that there’s

ninety minutes, or eighty minutes as this one is.

But the financing structure has made

But to create something like Fox in Melbourne, I might be completely wrong, but my feeling is it would just

it very difficult now to make a low-ish

L M: I’m a great believer in having a

any more films wanting to come out

budget film in Australia - more difficult,

strong local industry, especially now

here that can’t find a studio.

than, say, a ten-minute film you can

in fact, than it was a few years ago,

that there is Fox Studios in Sydney and

look at and say, “Okay I can tell that I

because the Film Finance Corporation

Warner Bros in Queensland. I think

really advantageous for Melbourne,

lose interest in this spot.” It doesn’t

had a film fund which was budgeted at

that if Melbourne has something that

attracting international productions

have the huge ramifications that it

$2.5 million and that was a really good

is specifically driven by the idea of

like Noah’s Ark and Moby Dick and

does in a film where you’ve got a

platform for people to make their first

attracting overseas production we may

that probably performs the same pur­

story-line, that’s very complicated. So

films with a reasonable sized budget.

end up with market saturation.

It’s a much more complex process

in that way it’s different.

Also, it costs more money. You have

But now you can either make one

I think the Docklands has been

The Horizon Tank, for instance, is

pose in the end.

Ba z L u h r m a n n , w ith t h e a s s is t a n c e

Fox S t u d io s , is

for a million dollars, through the AFC,

designed so that it will be mainly dri­

of

a lot more people involved, you have

and I think you’d find that most of

ven by local production and that’s

DEVELOPMENT FOR A FILM WITH AN

a lot more variables and this one had

the things the AFC are funding are

really good. The other thing in Mel­

EXPECTED BUDGET OF $40 MILLION. IS IT

a lot of cast. A big cast. And when

around the $4 million dollar mark. So

bourne is that we’ve always had an

DISHEARTENING WHEN YOU NEED LESS

you’re talking about having a big cast

stylistically it’s more driven by Syd­

incredibly strong television industry.

THAN 1% OF THAT AMOUNT TO FINISH

over five or six weeks, their availability

ney’s style. You know, that bigger

We make a lot of television in Mel­

YOUR FILM, BUT ARE HAVING TROUBLE

becomes an issue, all those sort

budget film.

bourne and it is the staple of crews

LOCATING THE FUNDING? L M: No, not really because Baz

of things.

Short films are really manageable, because the shoots are usually a week or two weeks, and, once they’re done, they’re done. It’s much simpler. I mean we’ve been working, officially working, on this since July now and it’s just going to be finished in a couple of weeks [April]. So it’s a long process.

A r e t h e r e a n y l e s s o n s t h a t y o u ’v e LEARNT PRODUCING THIS THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH OTHER PEOPLE STARTING OUT IN THE INDUSTRY? L M: I think that when you’re doing

c o m p le t in g s c r ip t

It seems like there’s a lot of filmmakers in their twenties and thirties now, where in the 1980s I can remember thinking it was men in their fifties that made them.

Luhrmann works outside the funding structures and he’s just made a film that’s made squillions of dollars for the studio. And good on him! I think it’s absolutely fantastic that there’s an Australian filmmaker who’s really taken it right up to the Americans and is actually making projects that can attract that sort of finance.

I’m not in the same game, I’m not in the same industry almost. I mean Australia and Hollywood are not the same game. It’s a very, very

a low-budget project at this length

different way of making films.

you have to know your story

The government funding here is

incredibly well, incredibly inti­

vital and they’re the sort of pro­

mately. And know what you need

jects I’ve been involved in,

to spend money on, what you

whereas Baz Luhrmann isn’t.

absolutely have to have, as

Strictly Ballroom [1992] received

opposed to what it would be nice

money from the Film Finance

to have. That process of constantly

Corporation, but since then it’s

refining and making sure that what

all been foreign investment.

you need for the story, you can

It’s not really even in the same

afford. That’s the hardest thing

ballpark. [Laughs.] I don’t look at

about doing something for a

it and think I wish I had $40

low-budget film.

million to make Strange Fits of Passion, you know. It just doesn’t

T h e r e a r e f e w e r f e a t u r e s b e in g PRODUCED TODAY IN VICTORIA THAN,

make sense.

SAY, OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS.

S e e in g t h a t A u s t r a l ia n f il m s

W h y h a s t h is s it u a t io n d e v e l ­

ARE UP AGAINST THAT SORT OF

o ped

AND DO YOU THINK IT’S A

SERIOUS DOWNTURN?

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION, DO YOU THINK THAT THEY CAN SURVIVE

L M: It’s a tricky question, but the

IN A CLIMATE OF BIG-BUDGET HIGH-

answer might lie somewhere in that

TECHNOLOGY FILMS?

Melbourne has traditionally pro­

L M: Well traditionally there has

duced the more low-budget and

always been a market for both,

more distinctively Australian - not

and, I think, at the moment the

distinctively Australian, that’s not

environment is very encouraging

true - but the more low-budget films

in some ways. For instance, the

made by people who work in a dif­

whole independent thing in

ferent way than people in Sydney.

America, appearing - not out of

I think that Melbourne is a very

nowhere - but really breaking

strong, tight, firm community and

loose and turning into a major

you can almost tell the difference

force in the film industry. That is

between - well not really. But you

really encouraging. ©

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

35

rback Hero

Siam Sunset

PC: Paperback Films Pty Ltd. AD: Beyond Films & Polygram Filmed

Entertainment. IS: Beyond International. D: Antony J. Bowman. Ps: Lance W.

PC: Artist Services Productions. AD: UIP.

Reynolds, John Winter. CP: Dani Rogers SW: Antony J. Bowman. DOP: David Burr.

IS: Southern Star Film Sales. D: John Poison.

E: Veronika jenet. PD: Jon Dowding. CD: Louise Wakefield. SD: Greg Burgmann.

P: Al Clark. EPs: Andrew Knight, Peter Beilby.

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Claudia Karvan, Angie Milliken, Jeanie Drynan,

SWs: Max Dann, Andrew Knight. DOP:

Andrew S. Gilbert.

Brian Breheny. PD: Steven Jones-Evans. CD:

Synopsis: Jack, an outback road-train truckie, moonlights as a romance novel­

Louise Wakefield. E: Nicholas Beauman.

ist. When his book becomes a best-seller, he must do some fast-talking to

C: Paul Grabowsky. SD: John Schiefelbein.

convince his long-time friend, Ruby, to be the writer.

Cast: Linus Roache, Danielle Cormack, Ian Bliss, Roy Billing, Alan Brough, Rebecca Hobbs,

PC: Gray Malkin Films. AD: Palace Films. IS: Scanbox Asia Pacific. D: Jon Hewitt.

Terry Kenwrick, Deidre Rubenstein, Peter

Ps: Meredith King, Phillip Parslow. EP: Jon Hewitt. AP: Daniel Scharf. SW:

Hosking, Victoria Eagger, Robert Menzies,

Jon Hewitt. DOP: Mark Pugh. PDs: Vanessa Cerne, Lisa Collins. E: Alan Woodruff.

Eliza Lovell.

C: Neil McGrath. SD: Jock Healy.

Synopsis: Perry’s perfect life creating colours for

Cast: Belinda McClory, John Brumpton, Frank Magree, Peter Docker, Anthea Davis,

an English paint company becomes a world of

Neil Pigot, Damien Richardson, James Young, Paulene Terry-Beitz,

pain after the tragically bizarre death of his wife.

Robert Morgan, Daniel Wyle, Ray Mooney.

When he wins a bus trip across Central Australia,

Synopsis: A dark, contemporary police thriller about a few weeks

it is an odyssey in search of an elusive colour -

in the lives of some used-up Melbourne detectives. Constructed as a

‘Siam Sunset’ - and some relief from the natural

series of snapshots of the Homicide, CIB, Vice and Drug squads, Redball is a

disasters that mysteriously pursue him.

gritty and hard-hitting.

Here's what's likely to be the Australian

PC: Foster-Grade. AD: Village Roadshow Ltd. IS: Beyond international. D: Ted Emery. Ps: Marc Gracie, David Foster. EPs: Bruno Charlesworth, Alan Finney.

SW: Jimeoin. DOP: John Wheeler. PD: Penny Southgate. CD: Michael Chisholm. E: Michael Collins.

Cast: Jimeoin, Alan McKee, Robert Morgan,

Spank

Colin Hay, Jane Hall, Catherine Arena, Nicholas Bell, Greg Evans, Kate Gorman, Geoff Paine, Anita Cerdic, Anne Phelan.

PC: Ultra Films Pty Ltd. AD: Palace Films. IS: Intra

Synopsis: Two Irish lads find themselves caught up

Film, Rome.D: Ernie Clark. P: David Lightfoot. CP:

in a bungled IRA mission. Fearing for their lives, they

Scott McDonald. EPs: Rolf de Heer, Domenico

flee to Australia, and end up being chased across the

Procacci. SWs: David Farrell, David Lightfoot.

country by the Immigration Department, the SAS,

DOP: David Foreman A.C.S. PD: Aphrodite Kon-

and an Irish “super grass”.

dos. E: Ted McQueen-Mason. C: Sean Timms.

SD: Des Keneally.

Cast: Robert Mammone, Vince Poletto, Mario Gamma, Frank Mussolino, Victoria Dixon-Whittle, Lucia Mastrontone, Marco Venturini.

Synopsis: Paulie returns from Italy to find his old

Strange Planet PC: Strange Planet Films. AD: Newvision Films. IS: Beyond

mates, Nick and Vinny, planning to set up a café

International. D: Emma-Kate Croghan. Ps: Stavros Kazantzidis,

in the city’s premier cafe strip. Vinny’s girlfriend,

Anastasia Sideris. SWs: Emma-Kate Croghan, Stavros

Tina, bankrolls their plans, but they can’t find a

Kazantzidis. DOP: Justin Brickie. E: Ken Sallows.

building. Enter local rich kid Rocky Pisoni,

PD: Annie Beauchamp.

temporarily in charge of his Pa’s building devel­

Cast: Alice Garner, Tom Long, Felix W illiamson, Claudia Karvan,

opment company. Rocky takes over the project

Naomi Watts, Hugo Weaving, Aaron Jeffrey.

with disastrous consequences.

Synopsis: Strange Planet is an upbeat, warm-hearted comedy about life on earth and traces a year in the lives of six people.

36

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

Erskinville Kings PC: Underground Films. AD: Palace Films. IS: Southern Star.

D: Alan White. Ps: Annette Simons, Julio Caro. SWs: Alan White, Anik Chooney. DOP: John Swaffield. PD: Andrew Horne. E: Jane Moran.

Cast: Marty Denniss, Hugh Jackman, Leah Vandenberg, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Blabey, Andrew Wholley.

Synopsis: A gritty drama about the tough-love reconciliation between two brothers after the death of their father.

Feeling Sexy IS: Beyond International D: Davida Allan. P: Glenys Rowe. EP: Chris Noonan. SW: Davida Allan.

Cast: Susie Porter, Tamblyn Lord.

Synopsis: Vicky is a married mother of two, but she is still restless for more - more life, more love, more everything! How a n she have her cake and eat it too?

PC: Bill Bennett Productions. AD: Beyond Films.

IS: Beyond International D: Bill Bennett. Ps: Bill Bennett, Jennifer Cluff. SWs: Bill Bennett, Jennifer Cluff.

Cast: Rufus Sewell, Martin Donovan, Maya Stange.

Synopsis: In the late 1930s, a husband and wife anthropologist team travel to an island group in New Guinea to study the sexual mores of a group of villagers. Their relationship begins to break down when the woman realizes her husband is wrongty interpreting the research to further his own academic ambitions. Enlisting the help of a pearl trader, who she begins to fall in love with,

film delegation this year at Cannes

she travels to another island intending to study another village. By the time she returns, war has broken out in the Pacific and the Japanese are poised to invade.

PC: RB Films. AD: Beyond Films. IS: Beyond Interna­ tional. D: Neil Mansfield. P: Rosemary Blight. SW: Neil Mansfield. PD: Gavin Barbey. E: Dany Cooper.

Cast: Nadine Garner, Marin Mímica, Bridie Carter.

Synopsis: Seven typically funny/sad days in the lives of three aspiring artists - a filmmaker, a painter and a musician - who are almost 30 and live, work and rock

AD: Village Roadshow. IS: Beyond International D: Brad Hayward. Ps: Brad Hayward, Trish Piper. SW: Brad Hayward.

under the flightpath in the multicultural inner-west­

Cast: Sara Browne, Astrid Grant, Nicholas Bishop.

Synopsis: Occasional Coarse Language is the story of Min’s

ern suburbs of Sydney.

and find a new direction in life. Promises are made, loyalties

Passion

are tested and friendships stretched ... and then the phone

PC: Matt Carroll Films. AD: Beyond Films. IS:

outlook on life while trying to give up smoking, lose weight

rings - “Whose place for M elrosel”

Beyond International. D: Peter Duncan. P: Matt

Occasional Course

Carroll. SWs: Don Watson, Peter Goldsworthy, Rob George.

Cast: Richard Roxburgh, Barbara Hershey, Emily Woof, Claudia Karvan, Simon Burke.

PC: Emcee Films. AD: The Globe Film Co. IS: Southern Star. D: John Curran. P: Martha Coleman. SW: Andrew McGahan. DOP: Dion

Synopsis: Passion is the story of acclaimed pianist, composer and

Beebe. PD: Michael Philips. CD: Emily Seresin. E: Alexandre de

eccentric Percy Grainger

Franceschi. SD: PhilTipene.

and the intense relation­

Cast: Peter Fenton, Sacha Horter, Joel Edgerton, Yvette Duncan, Ray Bull,

ship with his mother,

Marta Dusseldorp, Gregory “Tex” Perkins.

Rose, which dominated

Synopsis: Gordon, a 25 year old unemployed chain-smoking asthmatic,

his life. The film charts

meets Cynthia, who has her own addictions; and for an explosive

Percy’s rise from child

moment of warmth and madness, laughter and terror, Scrabble and sex,

prodigy to the toast of Edwardian London,

it seems they might even save each other.

revered and celebrated throughout the world

C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

37

All 'Lightning 2' Laser film recorders look the same and they are.

ah

'Lightning 2' laser film recorders are calibrated identically.

All

are supported by qualified Cinesite technicians the world over.

All use Kodaks

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Boarding-house blues i M ark Smith checks in and

finds Gordon’s chest isn’t the only thing creaking in Praise

Irishman abroad

Jimeoin’s stars as an Irishman on the run in an Australian road-movie.

i

42

C histopher M atthews

enjoys the drive.

Robin O’Hood

John Boorman’s modern tale of an Irish criminal who becomes a folk hero. T im H unter looks at T he General.

40

in re vie HOMI-SCHLOCK • KITSCH-ITCH • MICK- FLICK

F ilm

Production Designers : Vanessa Cerne , Lisa Collins .

Director

of

Photography : Mark Pugh

Editor : Alan Woodruff.

d e v e lo p in g b u t s till d is c e r n in g

th a n a T V s c re e n .

v id e o m a rk e t, th e firs t w a v e s im p ly

th e h a n d s o f f ilm m a k e rs a n d a ll s o r ts o f w a n n a b e s . W ith S u p e r 8 g r a d u a lly d is a p p e a r in g a n d th e

T h e firs t e ffo rts w e re ty p ic a lly

c a l s u p p o r t a n d m a rk e te d to a

s a n k w ith o u t tra c e . In A u s t r a lia ,

h o rro r a n d c rim e ite m s . T h e fo rm e r

th e e n e rg e tic a n d h ig h ly e n te r ta in ­

p ric e o f 1 6m m ra p id ly r is in g it w a s

m a in ly c a re fo r d e v e lo p m e n ts in

in g te e n crim e flic k

p e rh a p s in e v ita b le th a t v id e o w o u ld

th e w o rld o f m a k e -u p e ffe c ts a n d

(M a rk S a v a g e , 1 9 8 6 ) n e v e r m a d e it

Detective Chris Hill), Peter Docker

b e c o m e th e m e d iu m o f c h o ic e for

th e - w ro n g h e a d e d - p e rc e p tio n o f

fu rth e r th a n a p o s itiv e D a v id S t r a t ­

(Detective James “Lamz” Fry), Anthea

th e e m e r g in g - i.e ., b u d g e t-c h a l­

an e a s ily - p le a s e d , ra b id a u d ie n c e

to n

le n g e d - film m a k e r w ith

re a d y a n d w a it in g to p a y b u c k s to

Horror {K e n d a l

c o m m e rc ia l a s p ir a tio n s . S o , to o ,

v ie w a n y t h in g m a rk e d ‘ h o rro r’ . T h e

M a rtin , 1 9 8 8 ), th e o th e r g r e a t s h o tin -M e lb o u rn e e ffo rt o f th e 1 9 8 0 s,

“Robbie ” Walsh ), Frank Magree (Senior

Production Company : Gray Malkin Films .

Davis (Detective Toni “Tone”

Australian Distributor : Palace Films .

Johnston ), Neil Pigot (Detective David

International Sales : S canbox Asia Pacific .

Writer /D irector : Jon Hewitt Producers : Meredith King ,

“Bingo ” Wright), Damien Richardson (Detective Richard “Rix ” Dixakos), James Young (Detective Max “Maxie ” Malleson ), Paulene Terry -B eitz (Dr Rose Edwards), Robert Morgan (Senior Detective Mike Brown), Daniel Wyle , Ray Monney

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

h a rd e r to s e e on a n y t h in g o th e r

S ound Design : Jock Healy.

Cast : Belinda Mc Clory (Detective Jane “JJ”

Phillip Parslow .

Executive Producer : Jon Hewitt.

Associate Producer : Daniel S charf.

a e sth e tic a lly p le a s in g a n d e ve n

e q u ip m e n t b e g a n to fa ll into

Composer : Neil McG rath .

Wilson), John Brumpton (Detective Robert

REDBALL

B

y th e m id ’8 0 s a c c e s s to v id e o

Marauders

Variety re v ie w . Houseboat F la n a g a n , O llie

w a s th e in e v ita b ility o f th e s h o t-o n -

la tte r b e c a u s e , “ H e y , h a s th e re

v id e o fe a tu re . U n d e rs ta n d a b ly , w ith

e v e r b e e n a tim e w h e n crim e

n o w o n ly s e e m s to e x is t in th e

a ll its te c h n ic a l lim ita tio n s , th e in i­

h a s n ’t b e e n o n th e a g e n d a o f m a s s

ro u tin e s o f c o m e d ia n s w h o w a n t to

tia l re a lity w a s le s s th an

h u m a n in te r e s t? ” W ith no t h e a tr i­

u s e it a s a fa il-s a fe la u g h - in d u c in g

39

review Films continued

atrically around Australia, not once

is no stranger to the benefits of good promotion.

With a solid background in film exhibition and distribution that had him toiling fo r- and loving— both arthouse and outhouse prod­ ucts, the writer-director and co-executive producer of Redball, Jon Hewitt, in partnership with

of, Robert Rodriguez’s ElMariachi

ball is an actors’ piece.

With developed script, a cast

(1992) there’s been a certain amount of no budget features given the big corporate make over - Sydney’s answer to Love and

AFI Award-winning actor and

Other Catastrophes (Emma-Kate

never would. Lacking any substan­

writer, John Brumpton, in the rôle

Croghan, 1996), Occasional Coarse

tial financing, digital photography

of McClory’s partner, also deserves

Language (Brad Hayward, 1998), is the most recent example. Redball,

of the biggest unit shifters for bot­ tom dwelling video company the Home Cinema Group released it

became the only option. Principal

mention here as does that of Frank

three times, including most

filming took place over a period of

Magree and Peter Docker. That is

however, is none of these. Don’t

recently in a special edition format

several weekends in Melbourne in

just one reason separates and

let the corporate logos attached to

with three hours of extra footage and documentary commentary!

1997. This do-or-die attitude actu­

distances Redball from your aver­

it fool you as Redball is the work of

ally fuels the production and goes

age police drama is the casting of

a visionary whose hand is evident

That in itself was unique which it

a long way to establishing the tone and decidedly edgy feel of the fin­

many interesting actors in minor

in every area of the filmmaking

then immediately topped by

rôles, including Phil Motherwell,

process from the raw and at times

becoming the subject for the first

ished product.

Michael Burkett and James Ward-

hilarious dialogue to the design of

law. Even the use of‘celebutantes’

the CD soundtrack cover (the best

The most succinct and savvy

tralian film. Trouble with its format

description of Redball was natu­

James Young and Chris Hatzis has

presentation of an Australian

still existed though as too many

rally supplied by its creator who

soundtrack on CD to date!). Just as

local commissars-of-culture have

uses the logline: A powerful con­

paid off big time.

There’s no mistaking Redball

sought to bury it, perhaps through a lack of understanding, but that’s

temporary police thriller about a

for television though, besides its

your attention, Redball requires

few weeks in the lives of some used-up city detectives.

obvious relationship to the superb

your presence in a cinema, right

docu-drama Blue Murder. As for its

now.

Through spitting out seemingly

a Royal Commission can demand

it’s more like Phil Karlson’s Fenix

All that information and more

ball builds itself in a way that’s

went into Redball. After five years of banging his head against vari­

more common of literature and

ter contemplation of Lars Von Trier.

From the influence of Seyen (David

ous funding-body walls, Hewitt

-to the carefully-assembled music

device can be extremely effective.

soundtrack Redball positively cries

acceleration of technological advances had begun to up-end the

This situation also places greater

out for a wide screen and decent

emphasis on the actors’ own story­

sound system in order to achieve

playing field. For less than the cost

telling ability.

The casting of Belinda McClory

maximum impact. A morbid joke floats right through Redball that

is crucial to the success of Redball, not only from behind the scenes

screen. Whatever, it’s a pleasure to

1996), ground out Bloodlust in 1991. Despite it being overly

to be purchased from the local chain store.

The seeds for Redball had actu­ ally been planted with Hewitt as a teenager during a tour-of-duty

where her participation paved the way for the inclusion of further under-utilized Australian talent, but most importantly for her acting as central character Detec­ tive JJ Wilson.

It’s mainly through the role of

Production

can be easily missed on the small at last view a state-of-the-art video transfer on a big screen with negli­ gible scan lines.

At its début Australian screen­ ing, Redball became the first film to sell out the flagship Cinema One

company :

Merlin Films

in

ASSOCIATION WITH J&M ENTERTAINMENT

Writer / director : John Boorman Producer : John Boorman Executive producer : Kieran Corrigan

Fincher, 1995) - horror or cop film?

said, “Fuck it.” Simultaneously the

been given over to hiring, was able

THE GENERAL

City Story crossed with the charac­

then specifically detective fiction.

In the right filmmaking hands, this

of Bloodlusts entire tape stock, a new digital equivalent to the six-

© MICHAEL HELMS

portrayal of casual corrupting evil,

disparate shards of drama that don’t immediately connect, Red­

genre-film encyclopaedia will have it listed.

fellow tyro writer-director Richard

Director of photography : S eamus Deasy Composer : Richie Buckley Editor : Ron Davis Production designer : Derek Wallace Costume designer : Maeve Paterson S ound recordist : Brendan Deasy Cast : Brendan G leeson (Martin Cahill); Adrian Dunbar (Noel Curley); S ean Mc G inley (Gary ); Maria Doyle Kennedy (Frances); Angeline Ball (Tina); Jon V oight (Inspector Ned Kenny); Eanna Mc Liam (Jimmy); Tom Murphy (Willie Byrne ); Paul Hickey (Anthony); Tommy O’Neill (Paddy); John O’Toole (Shea); Ciaran Fitzgerald (Tommy); Ned Dennehy (Gay); V innie Murphy (Harry ); Roxanna Williams (Orla); Eammon Owens (Young Martin Cahill).

Distribution : Columbia T riStar

at the Village complex during the

modicum of the exploitation

behind the bar at a hotel regularly

the bedevilled Wilson that the

otherwise listless Melbourne Inter­

goods. A not-quite-epic tale involv­ ing a bi-sexual trio of vampires

frequented by many Russell Street-based detectives, the then

emotional impact of corruption,

national Film Festival of 1998. Few films matched this feat but many

J

without fangs, dumb-ass gang­

central home for the Victorian

violence and general psychological handling of someone being

will follow in its wake as part of the

assume is the title character,

sters, guns and religious bigots, its marriage of attempted Hong Kong

Police Force.

do-it-yourself filmmaking trend

leaving his established and

that’s going to become increas­

style action to bad American

revolving around the investiga­

respectable-looking suburban home - wearing for some reason a

accents, cheap effects and sub­ amateur thesping is conducted in

After producing a script in 1994

exposed to such events on a daily basis is generated. Many of the

ohn Boorman’s new film, The

General, begins with a man

(Brendan Gleeson), whom we can

tions of a notorious paedophile

scenes depicting the activities of the cop milieu - such as ‘loading

technology is truly here and now.

balaclava, which he then takes off

case and packed with remembered

up’ suspects, sexual coercion,

On the night few people were

as he sees no one else in the street

ingly prevalent simply because the

such a self-reflective and cynical

anecdotes of the cops bar scene

playing beerhunter after hours or

ready for Redball including the Vic­

- and hopping into his car. Once

way that it can easily have you laughing with it as opposed to just

Redball began to gel even further.

attending a scrum-down - don’t

torian Police who demanded their

the car is started, though, a gun­

Upstairs at Panorama, the ahead-

credit be removed and even later,

at it.

of-its-time purpose-built video

involve her but do affect JJ and on what she has to reflect. McClory’s

street press hipsters who proved

man emerges from the bushes and shoots the man in the face. Two

projection venue that Hewitt estab­

portrayal of the psychological

they weren’t,

women leave the house and rush

is the most successful made-on-

lished and ran for a short time in

deterioration of her character is

and in fact more myopic than

over to the car, screaming, “Where

video title yet to shoot out of a

the early ’90s (when people bitch

more than convincing and justifies

their lame criticisms would have

are you now then when we need

cathode ray in this country. For

about the lack of product being

the avenging angel finale, which

you believe.

you?” Police, onlookers and news

Arguably, until now, Bloodlust

starters, through Hewitt’s utiliza­

screened today it amazes me why

still seems like a, ahem, cop-out.

tion of superior marketing and

Panorama wasn’t patronized to a

going theatrical aren’t out of the

distribution skills, it conquered the

greater extent — the video preju­

The sustained performance is even more amazing though when you

ordinary (as of this writing Sony

Kenny (Jon Voight), is asked, as he

consider the piecemeal conditions

just announced a new range of dig­

arrives, whether the IRA were

of the production. McClory has

ital cameras, one of which comes

responsible, and whether it was

previous major stumbling block of video-only films by traversing the­

40

Matrix (Larry and Andy Wachowski, 1998) besides a major rôle in Blue Heelers. All of which, alongside the release of Redball, should right­

central cast. And, if anything, Red­

ball simply had to be made or it

Wolstencroft (Pearls Before Swine,

its own somewhat limited abilities, Bloodlust still delivers more than a

work Hewitt was able to attract his

and crew and camera in hand, Red­

figure-priced camera that most of Bloodlusts $70,000 budget had

ambitious and often far exceeding

so expect more) and in the wake

but three times as part of various

decent internationally-produced However, it can be presently found

in at just over an affordable $2000

budget cyberpunk action-fest The

festivals. It then went on to be one

okay because the purchase of any

on video shop shelves having been recently re-released and its maker

since completed work on mega­

first public reading. Through this

fully raise her profile. The work of

web site devoted to a new Aus­

adjunct to John Lamond jokes.

the script, eventually giving it its

dice thing), a theatre group who hired the space began to rehearse

Sure, shot-on-video features

reporters are soon on the scene, and one particular inspector, Ned

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

* * » * » * » * 0 * » * * * # j^ S * # * « * S lp N u »

% i á i K k m m i h b ^ i * 4tk Jk

A

tru e t h a t th e p o lic e m a y h a v e b e e n c o lla b o r a t in g w ith th e m in t h is c a s e . T h e in s p e c to r re fu s e s to a n s w e r , b u t lo o k s in g rim s a t is f a c ­ tio n a t th e b o d y a s it is w h e e le d o ff to a w a it in g a m b u la n c e .

W h o th e m u rd e r e d m an w a s , w h y h e w a s s h o t, h o w h e c a m e to liv e w h e re h e d id , a n d w h y it w a s t h o u g h t th e p o lic e , e s p e c ia lly th e fe a tu r e d in s p e c to r , a n d th e IR A w e re in v o lv e d in th e s h o o t in g , are w h a t t h is film is a ll a b o u t , to ld , o b v io u s ly , in fla s h b a c k . A n d to s ta rt th e s to r y , th e film r e tra c e s th e G e n e r a l’s life b a c k to h is c h ild h o o d in D u b lin .

A s a b o y , M a rtin C a h ill (E a m m o n O w e n s ) liv e d in th e h ig h -r is e s lu m d is t r ic t o f H o lly fie ld . F a th e r­ le s s a n d p re tty m u c h d e s titu te , M a rtin a n d h is b r o th e rs re s o r te d to s t e a lin g fo o d , s o h is fa m ily c o u ld s u r v iv e , u n til he w a s c a u g h t a n d s e n t to a c o rre c tio n a l s c h o o l.

A b u s e fro m b o th p r ie s t s a n d th e p o lic e d id n ’t d e te r y o u n g C a h ill,

ju s t ify in g in m a n y w a y s h is c rim in a l

a n d , a s h e g r o w s u p , t h ie v in g

a c t iv it ie s a s a s o r t o f la tte r-d a y

b e c o m e s h is c h o s e n p r o fe s s io n .

R o b in H o o d e th ic .

A s th e a d u lt s e e n in th e film ’s

T h e p o lic e , in p a rtic u la r, are

p r o lo g u e , a n d m a rrie d to h is c h ild ­

p r e s e n te d a s m e a n , s im p le -m in d e d

h o o d s w e e t h e a r t F ra n c e s (M a ria

b u ffo o n s , w h ile C a h ill’s frie n d s

D o y le K e n n e d y ), C a h ill d e lig h t s in

a n d a s s o c ia t e s a re h is m e rry m e n ,

n ig h t-tim e b u r g la r ie s , b u t s p e n d s

a lb e it w ith s o m e fa irly u n s a v o u r y

m o re th a n th e o c c a s io n a l s tin t in

p a s t im e s o f t h e ir o w n . F ra n c e s ,

ja il. A n d it’s a fte r b e in g r e le a s e d

C a h ill’s w ife , h e r s is t e r T in a (A n g e -

DIVORCING JACK

an a ffa ire w ith h e r, h e h a s n o id e a o f th e tw is te d a n d c o n v o lu te d

Director : David Caffrey Producer : Robert Cooper Executive producers : Nik Powell, Stephen Woolley , David Thompson Co- producers : Frank Mannion , Georges Benayoun Co - executive producers : Marina Gefter , Gary S mith , Chris Craib Production executive for BBC: Jennifer McAu field Line producer : Jane Robertson S criptwriter : Colin Bateman

fro m o n e s u c h s o jo u r n , w h e n C a h ill

lin e B a ll) a n d th e ir c o lle c tiv e

re tu rn s h o m e to fin d h is h ig h -r is e

c h ild r e n are p r e s e n te d a s m e e k

h o m e n e ig h b o u r s b e in g e v ic te d ,

b u t lo y a l, a lw a y s re a d y to s ta n d by,

Director

m a k in g w a y fo r th e w r e c k e r s , a n d a

a n d b e n e fit fro m , th e ir m e n .

Editor : Nick Moore Composer : Adrian Johnston Production designer : Claire Kenny Costume designer : Pam Tait Cas t : David T hewlis (Dan S tarkey); Robert Lindsay (Michael Brinn); Rachel Griffiths (Lee Cooper ); Jason Isaacs (“Cow Pat” Keegan ); Laine Megaw (Patricia Starkey); Richard Gant (Charles Parker ); Laura Fraser (Margaret).

Distribution : Newvision Films

n e w h o u s in g d e v e lo p m e n t, th a t th e s to r y p ic k s its p a c e u p .

O n e o f th e p o lic e o ffic e r s o v e r ­

It a ll s m a c k s o f b e in g to o s im ­ p lis tic a n d , d e s p ite b e in g s h o t in b la c k a n d w h ite , it is to o ro s e -

s e e in g th e e v ic tio n is th e in s p e c to r

c o lo u r e d . Y e s , th e re a re tim e s

s e e n d u r in g th e p r o lo g u e a n d , a s

w h e re C a h ill’s d a r k s id e is

C a h ill d ig s h is fe e t in a n d re fu s e s

re v e a le d , p a r tic u la r ly w h ile to rtu r­

to le a v e firs t h is H o lly fie ld fla t, a n d

in g o n e o f h is o w n m e n b y n a ilin g

th e n th e re s u lt a n t d e m o litio n s ite ,

h im c r u c ifix io n -s ty le to a p o o l

it b e c o m e s K e n n y ’s p e r s o n a l m is ­

ta b le , b u t, fo r th e m o s t p a rt, it’s h is

s io n to b r in g C a h ill d o w n . N e e d le s s

a m u s in g a n ti-e s t a b lis h m e n t a tti­

to s a y , it b e c o m e s C a h ill’s m is s io n

t u d e s a n d a c t io n s th a t are m o s t

to a v o id b e in g n ic k e d , a n d h u m ili­

s h a r p ly in fo c u s .

a t in g th e p o lic e , e s p e c ia lly K e n n y , in th e p r o c e s s .

Based

Divorcing Jack Colin Bateman

on the novel

of photography : James

p r e d ic a m e n t h e ’s a b o u t to b e c o m e

b e y o n d h is c o n tr o l is no n e w p lo t

e m b ro ile d in . For s ta r te r s , h is w ife

d e v ic e , b u t it d o e s m a k e fo r g r e a t

P a tric ia (L a in e M e g a w ) is n ’t p a r tic ­

e n te r ta in m e n t. H itc h c o c k p r o b a b ly

u la r ly im p r e s s e d w ith S t a r k e y ’s

d id it b e s t w ith

fo rm , a n d t a k e s h e r re v e n g e b y

(1 9 5 9 ), b u t firs t-tim e d ire c to r D a v id

p o ta to in g M a r g a r e t’s w a r e h o u s e

C a ffre y d o e s n ’t d o to o b a d ly h e re .

a p a rtm e n t.

Divorcing Jack is

B u t th e re are b ig g e r e v e n ts on th e h o rizo n . N o rth e rn Ir e la n d ’s firs t

North By Northwest

a liv e ly a n d s p ir ­

ite d film c e n tre d on a s m a r t ­ m o u th e d h e ro in th e m id d le o f a

by

Welland

in d e p e n d e n t e le c tio n is o n ly d a y s

p o litic a l a n d p e r s o n a l b o g - a n d

a w a y , a n d S t a r k e y is s e c o n d e d to

g e tt in g d e e p e r a t e v e ry tu rn .

c h a p e ro n e v is it in g A m e ric a n jo u r ­

T h e w lis is p e rfe c tly c a s t h e re ,

n a lis t C h a r le s P a r k e r (R ic h a rd

f in a lly fu lfillin g th e p r o m is e he

G a n t) d u r in g th e e le c tio n c o v e ra g e .

s h o w e d in

S t a r k e y ’s n o t a s im p r e s s e d a s

1 9 9 4 ), w ith ju s t th e rig h t c o m b in a ­

m o s t o f th e o th e r jo u r n o s are w ith

tio n o f s c r o fu lo u s h u m o u r,

PM c a n d id a te M ic h a e l B rin n

in t e llig e n c e a n d b e m u s e m e n t.

(R o b e rt L in d s a y ), a n d le ts it s h o w .

S o it’s ra th e r u n fo rtu n a te t im ­ in g on a ll fro n ts w h e n S t a r k e y

A

Naked (M ik e

L e ig h ,

L in d s a y , n o t a w e ll-k n o w n film a c to r, is a ls o p e rfe c tly c a s t a s th e s m o o th , p o lis h e d p o litic ia n , a s is

film th a t u s e s an im a g e o f A u s ­

d is c o v e r s M a r g a r e t a lm o s t d e a d in

Is a a c s , g iv in g h is c h a r a c te r a

tra lia n R a c h e l G riffith s in a

h e r a p a rtm e n t, e s p e c ia lly w h e n

s o p h is t ic a t e d , u r b a n e , a n d t h e r e ­

s h e ju s t h a p p e n s to be th e e x - g ir l­

fo re m o re m e n a c in g e d g e .

n u n ’s h a b it w ie ld in g a g u n , a n d h a s th e title

W ith o u t w a n tin g to b e c o m e

T h e lik e a b le b u t in n o c e n t ro g u e c a u g h t u p in e v e n ts w e ll

Divorcing Jack,

h a s to

c a tc h y o u r a tte n tio n re a lly . A n d so

frie n d o f IR A m a n “ C o w P a t” K e e g a n (Ja so n Is a a c s ), a n d , a s he

A s fo r th e w o m e n , th e y a ll s e e m a little u n d e r -u t iliz e d , b u t

in v o lv e d in a r g u m e n ts a b o u t Irish

it d o e s , b u t it e n d s u p b e in g n o te ­

d is c o v e r s th e n e x t d a y , th e d a u g h ­

a re s t ill w e ll-d r a w n a n d e q u a lly

b a s e d on a c o n ­

p o litic s , b e c a u s e t h is film s e e m s

w o r th y fo r m o re th a n th e s e tw o

te r o f B r ia n 's e c o n o m ic

w e ll-p e rfo rm e d . In fa c t, fo r c h a r a c ­

t e m p o ra ry tru e s to ry , b u t B o o rm a n

to s k ir t a ro u n d th e m a s w e ll, o n e

c u r io s itie s .

s p o k e s p e r s o n . S t a r k e y h a s to lie

te r s th a t a re s o im p o rta n t to th e

a lm o s t t r a n s fo r m s C a h ill in to a

h a s to q u e s tio n w h y w e a re a g a in

liv in g le g e n d , a m o d e r n -d a y h e ro ,

p r e s e n te d w ith a c rim in a l, a lb e it a

The General is

It’s s e t in c o n te m p o ra r y B e lfa s t,

v e r y lo w , lin k e d a s h e is to h e r

p lo t, a n d w h o h a v e q u ite a lo t o f

an d h a s a s its m a in c h a r a c t e r D an

m u rd e r, a n d th e m y s te r io u s d e a th

s ig n if ic a n t a c tio n , w e s e e v e r y little o f t h e m in d e e d .

a n d , th e re fo re , th e s to ry s e e m s to

c h a r m in g a n d re a l o n e , a s a s y m ­

S ta r k e y , p la y e d w o n d e r fu lly iro n ic

o f h e r m o th e r a s w e ll, w ith o n ly

ta k e o n m y th ic , a lm o s t e p ic - in th e

p a th e tic c h a ra c te r , a n d s o m e th in g

a n d g lib -t o n g u e d b y D a v id T h e w lis .

M a r g a r e t’s d y in g w o r d s , “ D iv o rc e

tru e s e n s e - p r o p o r tio n s . C a h ill is

o f a ro le m o d e l.

S t a r k e y is a jo u r n a lis t w r itin g a

J a c k ” , a s a n y c lu e to th e w h o le

c o n fu s in g a n d h a rd to f o llo w , b u t

Belfast

u n fo rtu n a te b u s in e s s . W ith th e

e v e r y t h in g is a c c o u n te d fo r o n c e

h e lp o f P a r k e r, a n d th e m y s te r io u s

th e e n d -c r e d it s ro ll. In m a n y w a y s ,

v e r y m u c h th e lik e a b le la rr ik in ;

In fa c t, d o w e n e e d to a s s u m e a

s a t ir ic a l c o lu m n fo r th e

A t tim e s , th e w h o le t h in g g e ts

c h e e k y , w itty , r e s o u r c e fu l, b u c k in g

m o ra l o r p o litic a l s ta n d p o in t on

Evening News, a n d

th e s y s te m - in d e e d , m o c k in g th e

t h is is s u e , o r c a n w e ju s t e n jo y th e

p o w e r fu l e n e m ie s a r o u n d to w n a s

a n d fo r tu ito u s n u r s e -b y -d a y ,

it d o e s n ’t re a lly m a tte r, b e c a u s e

s y s te m b y re n d e r in g it in e ffe c tu a l -

film fo r w h a t it is: a m o d e r n -d a y

he d o e s fr ie n d s - m o re , m o s t p r o b ­

n u n o g r a m -b y -n ig h t L e e C o o p e r

th e jo u r n e y w a s s o e n jo y a b le . I f s a

has as m any

a n d m a k in g h is o w n ru le s o f life up

le g e n d s u r r o u n d in g a re a l a n d f a s ­

a b ly . B u t a fte r h e m e e ts y o u n g art

(R a c h e l G riffith s ), S t a r k e y b e g in s

ta le to ld at b r e a k n e c k s p e e d t h a t is

a s h e g o e s a lo n g . In t h is w a y , h e is

c in a t in g m a n ?

s tu d e n t M a r g a r e t (L a u r a F ra s e r),

to u n ra v e l a v e r y m e s s y a n d

v e r y f u n n y a t t im e s , s u r p r is in g ly

in v ite s h e r h o m e to a p a rty a n d h a s

c o m p le x b o tc h -u p .

(b u t n e v e r g r a tu it o u s ly ) v io le n t a t

p r e s e n te d in a fa v o u r a b le lig h t,

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

© T IM H U N TER

41

review Films

PRAISE Production Company : Emcee Films

continued

Distibution : G lobe Film Co .

Director : John Curran Producer : Martha Coleman Writer : Andrew McGahan

others, but quite enthralling all the way. The only problem is that it’s likely to get over-hyped by all themarketing, publicity and critical reviews, and that never does a good film any favours.

As for Rachel Griffiths’ charac­ ter and the title well, seeing how they are both vital to the plot, I’m not going to say any more about them. You’ll just have to see it for yourself. @ PAUL VIETTI

Director of Photography : Dion Beebe Editor : Alexandre De Franceschi Production Designer : Michael Philips Costume Designer : Emily S eresin S ound Design : Ph il Tipene .

Cast : Peter Fenton (Gordon), Sacha Horler (Cynthia), Marta Dusseldorp (Rachel), Joel Edgerton (Leo), Yvette Duncan (Molly), Ray Bull (Vass ), G regory Perkins (Raymond), Loene Carmen (Cathy).

he press-kit for Praise comes in a natty little box, that for all intents and purposes looks like a cigarette packet. It even has a faux-warning on it. “Loving puts

your heart at risk” it reads. Ciga­

ogle an obese man, a drunken

rettes feature largely in this film, as

argument, a masturbating cretin,

morally-bankrupt characters and

do many other addictions and

but always remaining on the

their statement on a materialistic

predilections: sex, alcohol, LSD, heroin, poor dietary habits, and many of the seven deadly sins.

periphery. It refuses to become

and image-driven society. At least

involved, just as Gordon refuses to

Hurly Burly’s group of misan­

emotionally entangle with Cynthia Praise offers a voyeuristic

thropes try to communicate.

Gordon and Cynthia’s relationship

han’s 1991 Vogel Award-winning

glimpse of life on the edges of

just diminishes from sexual frenzy

novel, of the same name, Praise tells the story of the relationship

society. An edge littered with mis­ creants who have lucked out,

dysfunctional wills.

between asthmatic Gordon (Peter Fenton) and exczema-ridden Cyn­

victims of a fragmented society, and, although the film does not

thia (Sacha Horler). Visually

judge these people, it does fail to

pleasing and evoking a tangible

illustrate why we, the audience, or they, are there.

Adapted from Andrew McGa-

and tropical lushness, the film looks great. Its settings, principally a Victorian mansion turned board­

audience to empathize with its

into a silent stand-off; a battle of Fenton and Horler are excellent

The audience is simply an

ing-house, have a faded and

adjunct to the relationship between wheezy Gordon and itchy

tarnished elegance that belies

Cynthia. We watch as he bravely

in their respective rôles and are well supported by Joel Edgerton (Leo), Marta Dusseldorp (Rachel) and Yvette Duncan (Molly).

Although it is pleasing to see lonely Vass (Ray Bull) find himself a woman, it is hard to empathize with any of their plights.

their state of decay. The camera,

informs her of his small penis, as

Returning to the mock-ciga­

under the guidance of DOP Dion

she tells of her voracious sexual

Beebe, roams the decrepit lodg­

appetite. As Gordon ejaculates pre­

rette box-cum-press-kit, one reads that the director, John Curran,

ings like one of its dipsomaniac lodgers, pausing occasionally to

maturely and Cynthia complains, we look on, unabashed. Scrabble,

claims this genre of films scares him the most. “Mostly speaking, I

neediness and compulsion unite

don’t like youth love stories with

them, as the boarding-house

sex, drugs, and clubs. I rarely see a

quakes beneath their impassioned throes and under the weight of its

film of this genre that touches me it’s all very superficial.” His com­

alcoholic and misogynist tenants.

Gordon and Cynthia are victims of their own making. The film

self-fulfilling prophecy and, in this case, one cannot agree more.

ment has, unfortunately, become a

doesn’t allow its audience to think otherwise, for it offers no reason

© MARK SMITH

THE CRAIC

for their apparent malaise. Both come from seemingly privileged

Production Company : Foster -G racie .

backgrounds: he spawned by

Australian Distributor : V illage Roadshow Ltd .

International Sales : Beyond International.

Director : Ted Emery .

Producers : Marc G racie , David Foster .

members of Queensland “squattocracy”; she the “army-brat” daughter of a Major, so perhaps they’re just slumming it - post­

Executive Producers : Bruno Charlesworth , Alan Finney .

modern hipsters, looking for a beat experience. Kerouac might have be pleased, but this pair of beatniks aren’t redeemed by any spiritual­ ity; they’re no dharma bums.

Gordon chooses his destiny by throwing in his job, ridding himself of Cynthia, and smoking, even though he is seriously asthmatic.

When he puffs alternately on a cig­ arette and a Ventolin inhaler, his

of

Writer : Jimeoin .

Photography : John Wheeler .

Production Designer : Penny S outhgate .

Costume Designer : Michael Chisholm .

Editor : Michael Collins .

Cast : Jimeoin (Fergus ), Alan Mc Kee (Wesley ), Robert Morgan (Colin), Colin Hay (Barry), Bob (Bob Franklin ), Jane Hall (Alice), Catherine Arena (Erica), Nicholas Bell (Derek ), G reg Evans (Himself), Kate Gorman (Margot), G eoff Paine (Russell ).

reland is a small country. Cold

I

foolhardiness reveals itself to be

and verdant, its very name

foolishness. As for Cynthia, if it hadn’t been Gordon’s penis, it

evokes quaint vistas of thatched

would have been somebody else’s, for she’s a victim of her own com­ pulsive needs. Sometimes people are their own worst enemies.

At the risk of climbing on a high

stone cottages, peat fires, snug pubs, and treacle-dark pints of Guinness. For a small country with a modest-sized population, it has made a large imprint on the world.

James Joyce and Oscar Wilde

(moral) horse, it could be argued

immediately come to mind, while

that the graphic drug use in the film is little more than a reflection

two of the country’s latter day

of its characters’ self-indulgence and that of its makers. “Look at the

42

Director

Liam Neeson and Neil Jordan are saints.

risk we’re taking, we’re showing it

Here, in the Antipodes, it would appear that Ireland is the flavour of

like it is”, controversy for its own

the moment; there are more Irish

sake. Hurly Burly (Anthony Drazan, 1999) does it better by allowing the

pubs in Melbourne than in most Irish hamlets. There are stage pro-

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

B oob

s c rip ts a n d h a v in g th e m w ritte n , w ra n g lin g for rig h ts to th e 1952 novel

The Hoods b y

H a rry G re y

(p s e u d o n y m fo r D a v id A ro n s o n ; re is s u e d b y B lo o m s b u r y a s

Upon a Time in America,

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA A drian Martin , BFI Publishing , London , 1998, 96 PP., illu s ., rrp $24.95.

Once

1 9 9 7 ). T h e

n o v e l is m a in ly n o ta b le for s t a k in g a cla im for je w s a s im p o rta n t g a n g ­ s te rs at a tim e (1952) w h e n g a n g s te r s w e re g e n e ra lly s e e n a s Ita lia n o r Irish (a s Ed w in T o r r e s ’

y an d la rg e , S e r g io L e o n e ’s

Carlito’s

film w o r k h a s n ’t e lic ite d the

R ic a n s tw e n ty y e a rs la te r). A bil-

c ritic a l an d s c h o la rly a tte n tio n it

d u n g s ro m a n a n d p o o rly-w ritte n

d e s e rv e s — u n lik e su c h be tte r-

b o o k o w in g an e n o rm o u s an d

B

d u c tio n s ,

Riverdance a n d Ireland.

B o o k s h o p s are b rim fu l o f m e la n ­

j

th e s e c h a ra c te r s c ro s s a n d a pur-

j

s u it e n ta ils .

ch o ly to m e s a b o u t p o v e rty -

R e p u lic a n C o lin ’s re tice n ce to

W ay w o u ld do for P u e rto

s e rv e d o eu vres a s G o d a rd ’s an d

u n re c o g n iz e d d e b t to H e n ry R o th ’s

W e lle s ’ — n ot le a s t b e c a u se h is

c la s s ic o f m o d ern A m e ric a n lite ra ­

th o u g h , is its p o rtra y a l o f e xtre m e

film s are s h ifty , p la y fu l, m u ltifa ri­

tu re ,

A u s tra lia n c h a ra c te rs . Fo lk h e ro e s

o u s , d e a d s e rio u s in a w a y th at

Hoods g a v e

P art o f th is g e n re ’s attra ctio n ,

Call It Sleep

(1 9 3 4 ),

The

Le o n e a s itu a tio n , a

strick e n Irish c h ild h o o d s a n d S t

j

fo rg e t p a st e v e n ts , c o u p le d w ith

o f A u s t r a lia ’s m y th ic -b u s h p a st are

o n ly b o tto m le s s co m ic v is io n s can

s e ttin g , e ve n ts, an d a fa m ilia r

P a tric k ’s D a y is , m ore a n d m ore,

j

the fa ct th a t he is w a tc h e d o ve r b y

r e le n tle s s ly c ru c ifie d in th e se , the

be, an d c o n s e q u e n tly v e ry hard to

d y n a m ic b e tw e e n tw o m a le s.

b e c o m in g part o f th e A u s tra lia n

j

m e m b e rs o f the B ritish S A S , ju s t a s

m o st c o sm o p o lita n o f u rb an tim e s.

w rite a b o u t. H is c a llin g -c a r d ,

Le o n e a n d h is team are re s p o n s i­

Fistful of Dollars

ble for th e a m b itio u s ,

j

N o th e rn Ire la n d is w a tc h e d o ve r by

In

j

B ritis h fo rc e s , m ay be v ie w e d a s an

s h e a re rs , m in e rs, tru c k -d riv e rs ,

D o lla ri, 1 9 6 4 ), h ad th e s a m e re la ­

The Craic,

i

a lle g o r ic a l re fe re n ce to th e “ trou -

d ru n k e n h o te l p a tro n s an d co u n try

tio n to the c in e m a o f g e n re s th at

fe a tu re s tw o Irish la d s on th e run

j

b le s ” in N orth ern Ire la n d , a n d,

re s id e n ts all g e t a la m b a stin g .

b o p m u s ic had to trad ja z z (and

from an IR A “ s u p e r g r a s s ” . C ra ic ,

j

g iv e n the film ’s IR A an d B e lfa s t

W h ile

p ro n o u n c e d c ra c k , is Irish s la n g for

I

b e g in n in g , th is a llu s io n is not too

n ew g ro u n d in its la m p o o n in g o f

a la u g h , a g o o d -tim e , a g ig g le , an d

j

e xtre m e . C ry p tic a d v ic e th a t, per-

Jim e o in ’s film o f th e s a m e n a m e

j

an d p ro n u n c ia tio n is ju s t th at.

c o m m e rce c a le n d a r.

S o , it’s no s u rp ris e th a t th e la t­ e st A u s tra lia n c o m e d y ,

The Craic,

itin e ra n t fa rm -h a n d s ,

(P er un P u g n o di

in te rte m p o ra l s tru c tu re o f th e film .

A d ria n M artin m ig h t a c c e p t th is tru ism : e ve ry film ’s to p ic is c in ­

cre a te d a s m u ch c o n tro v e rs y a s A

e m a ; b u t s o m e film s are m ore so

Bout de Souffle an d Citizen Kane

th an o th e rs , an d n o n e m ore m ore

fa m ilia r A u s tra lia n c a ric a tu re s , th e

h a d d o n e in th e ir tim e ). A d ria n

so th an L e o n e ’s. M artin d o e s a n d

h a p s , Ire la n d n e e d s to lo o k m ore

p rice o f a d m is s io n is w e ll-s p e n t, if

M artin s e ts o u t to re d r e s s th e b a l­

h a s d o n e m ore t h in k in g a b o u t film

j

to th e fu tu re , th a n d w e ll on its

o n ly to se e an d h e a r th e sa rto ria l

a n ce an d s u c c e e d s a d m ira b ly .

c riticism th an m o st; h is s tr a te g ic

j

p a st. T h is c o n n e c tio n is re in fo rced

an d o ra lly e le g a n t C h a rle s “ B u d ”

Once Upon a Time in America

(Alan M cK e e ) h a ve h a d an e n jo y ­

j

fu rth e r into th e film : w he n F e rg u s,

T in g w e ll a s a la c o n ic , cro w h a tin g ,

(1983) is L e o n e ’s la s t film , c o m p le t­

k n o w in g . He w o r k s th e in v is ib le

a b le n ig h t on th e G u in n e s s . B ut

i

in c o n v e r sa tio n w ith A lic e (Jane

m e lo n -fa rm e r.

in g a n o tio n a l A m e ric a n trilo g y

lin e b e tw e e n d e s c rip tio n an d

w h e n an a lte rc a tio n in a B e lfa s t

j

H a ll), e x p r e s s e s th e o p in io n th a t

fis h -a n d -c h ip p e ry re s u lts in the

j

Ire la n d is “ fu c k e d ” . “ It’s a lo v e ly

F e rg u s (jim e o in ) a n d W e s le y

a rre st o f IR A h a rd -m a n , C o lin

i

c o u n try , b u t it’s fu c k e d ” he s ta te s ,

(R o b e rt M o rg a n ), th e p a ir flee to

j

re p e a tin g th e p o in t for e m p h a s is .

The Craic d o e s n ’t

b re a k a n y

First-tim e fe a tu re film d ire cto r

b e g u n w ith

Once Upon a Time in u n a V o lta il W e st,

s a m e tim e m e a s u rin g h is u s e o f h is ow n fe e lin g s , re s p o n s e s , a n d e x p e ­

the West (C ’era

s tr in g o f te le v is io n c o m e d y cre d its

1 9 6 9 ), th e n

b e h in d h im , he is b e s t k n o w n for

the Revolution

(G iu la T e s ta ,1 972,

Fistful of Dynamite or

Full Frontal, Fast Forward, Acropo­

i

a v ie w o f A u s tra lia b y an o u ts id e r,

lis Now an d D-Generation.

Duck, You Sucker).

j

Jim e o in . T h o u g h no w le s s an out-

is a ls o r e s p o n s ib le fo r d ire c tin g

fa m ilia r b a c k p a c k e r p a stim e , c a r

j

s id e r, h e ’s a lm o st a s re c o g n is a b le

th a t k its c h icon

w in d s c r e e n -w a s h in g , fills F e r g u s ’

i

in A u s t r a lia a s P a u l H o g a n , a n o th e r

p e rh a p s th is is w h y A u stra lia n

and W e s le y ’s d a y s - th a t is u n til

j

c o m ic tu rn e d s c rip tw rite r.

k itsc h fe a tu re s so la rg e ly in

a p p e a rs in the form o f 1 9 8 0 s g a m e -

\

P e te r F a im a n , 1 9 8 6 ) fo llo w e d B arry

s a fa ri s u its , b o d y s h irts , to u p e e s ,

w arm e r c lim e s , n a m e ly A u s tra lia , to e s c a p e h is w ra th .

In S y d n e y , th a t a n n o y in g ly

H o g a n ( Crocodile

d e s tin y in t e iv e n e s . For F e rg u s it

Dundee,

Craic.

B u t he

Countdown,

an d

The

C h e a p B a li-s ty le fa s h io n s ,

sh o w ico n , G re g E v a n s , w h ile

I

H u m p h rie s, c re a to r o f the co m ic-

b le a c h e d b lo n d e h air, p e rm s,

W e s le y ’s c o m e s k n o c k in g , d r e s s e d

i

s tr ip c h a ra c te r B a z z a M c k e n z ie ,

co m b i v a n s a n d , th a t te m p le o f

as an im m ig ra tio n o ffice r.

j (The Adventures of Bazza McKen\ zie,

W in n in g a b lin d -d a te c o m p e ti­ tion on ve ile d

The Meet M a rk e t- a

Perfect Match -

th in ly -

F e rg u s

B ru c e B e re s fo rd , 1 972) in

b e g in n in g an e v e r-in c r e a s in g tra d i-

tre m e n ts to th e ta le . Even th o u g h

i

tio n o f b ro a d A u s tra lia n c h a ra c te rs ,

th e G o ld C o a s t lo ca tio n is a c tu a lly

d e p a rts fo r Q u e e n s la n d , fo llo w e d c lo s e ly b y W e s le y a n d a d ilig e n t

j

(D a vid S w a n n , 1 9 9 8 ),

Welcome to Woop Woop

s ta lw a rt from th e Im m ig ra tio n

i

E llio t, 1 9 9 8 ),

D ep artm e n t.

j

1 9 9 7 ),

j j

1994) an d

In a ty p ic a l “ o u t o f th e fry -p a n

G o ld C o a s t, are im p o rta n t a c c o u ­

\

j Crackers

an d into th e fire ” s c e n a r io , C o lin ,

o v e r-d e v e lo p e d u rb a n ity , the

The Castle

(S te p h a n

(R o b S itc h ,

Muriel’s Wedding (PJ. Strictly Ballroom

H o gan , (B a z

P a tte rso n L a k e s in M e lb o u rn e , it b e a rs a re m a rk a b ly c lo s e re s e m ­ b la n ce to P o rp o is e S p it o f

Muriel’s

Wedding fam e.

T h e c o m b in a tio n o f g o o d

L u h rm a n n , 1 9 9 2 ) h a ve a ll re in-

d ire c tio n , c le v e r s c rip tw ritin g an d s tr o n g a c t in g p e rfo rm a n c e s m a k e

now in h id in g a fte r “ g r a s s in g ” on

i

fo rce d lo n g -s ta n d in g p e rc e p tio n s

h is IR A c o m p a tr io ts , e n d s up in the

j

o f A u s tra lia . A n d a lth o u g h

sam e p a rt o f Q u e e n s la n d . W ith a

\ Craic h a s n o n e o f th e b la c k h u m o u r j th a t m a d e th e tw o la tte r film s so

e x p e rie n c e . If a p re v ie w a u d ie n c e ’s

film ’s p o te n tia l m a rk e ta b ility an d

B arry (C o lin Flay) a n d B o b (B o b

j j

a b ra v e film m a k e r w h o in c lu d e s a

e a rn in g s , o n e im a g in e s th a t

Fra n klin ) - C o lin p r e p a re s fo r a ne w

j

s c e n e , a lb e it b rie f, o f a u tility-

Jim e o in a n d h is p ro d u c tio n team

life. B u t he is re lu c ta n t to fo rg e t

j

tru c k lo a d e d w ith d r in k in g A b o rig -

are in for a b it o f a c ra ic in g g o o d ­

F e rg u s ’ a n d W e s le y ’s t r a n s g r e s ­

j

in ie s , in th is e ra o f th in -s k in n e d

tim e th e m s e lv e s .

s io n . P re d ic ta b ly , th e p a th s o f a ll

:

p o litic a l c o rre c tn e s s .

new id e n tity , a n e w h o u s e an d a p a ir o f g u a rd ia n S A S a g e n ts -

The

m e m o ra b ly a ffe c tin g , it’s

CI NEMA P A P E R S • JUNE 1 9 9 9

The Craic an

e n jo y a b le c in e m a

re a ctio n is a n y in d ic a tio n o f a

®

C H R IS T O P H E R M A T T H E W S

a n a ly s is e x tre m e ly w e ll, a t th e

Once Upon A Time in

T e d Em e ry is no n o v ice . W ith a

re le a s e d a s

B u t e s s e n tia lly th is is a co m e d y,

c h o ic e s h ere are c o n s id e r e d an d

It is (fittin gly)

rie n ce o f th e film . T h is is a p a rtic u la rly im p re s s iv e a c c o m ­ p lis h m e n t b e c a u s e , for M artin ,

h is m o st e le g ia c a n d le a s t o ve rtly

Once Upon a Time in America

c o m ic w o rk, a lo o k b a c k a c r o s s

p e rs o n a l film : a film w h ic h s e p a ­

is a

y o u th b y an a g e in g g a n g s te r.

ra te s its e lf from o th e r film s ,w h ic h

Le o n e s p e n t tw e n ty y e a rs o r so

fa s c in a te s an d ta n ta liz e s o n e w ith

p r e p a rin g th e p ro je ct, w ritin g

its e n ig m a s a n d la c u n a e , w h ic h one

iii

review

enthusiasm addition to the BFI’s

haunting presence of Rebecca

Camille Paglia , British Film Institute ,

Film Classics series.

In his first venture since the

(1940), into the mundane everyday and subtly shifting perspectives to

104p p ., RRP $24.95

ground-breaking Psycho (1961), Hitchcock “addresses the theme of

accommodate “a release of primi­

erhaps no other English-speak­ ing filmmaker has been the

destructive, rapacious nature that

events of the sequence; but the dreaming and the mapping are

subject of such intense scrutiny, praise and condemnation as Alfred

was always implicit in his fascina­ tion with crime”. Based on a 1952

also description and analysis, which are also evoking and pre­

Hitchcock, who, in a career span­

Daphne du Maurier short story,

ning more than forty years, has

cannot completely solve but to which one must return and return

scribing, and in this remarkable

spawned more imitators than a

and a series of newspaper reports of bird attacks, The Birds was an

chapter we see Martin create mem­

frog has tadpoles. There are count­

ambitious, large-scale venture

three central female characters: an insecure mother; an isolated ex­

until its secrets are resolved. Bet­

ory before our eyes. It is a pleasure to join in this seeing and spinning.

which, thanks to complicated spe­ cial effects and matte processes,

girlfriend; and a sophisticated new woman in the life of macho Mitch,

Books continued

(apparently) simply recounts the

P

tive forces of sex and appetite that have been subdued but never fully tamed”.

The inner-dynamic of the film, and a good reason why it still cap­ tivates, is the underpinning of

Subsequent chapters grace­

less excellent monographs about this seminal British director, not the least of which is Robin Wood’s

fully meld Martin’s agenda and the requirements of the BFI series.

Hitchcock’s Films. So, do we need another Hitchcock book, or is it a

Chapters 3 and 8 are extremely useful pre- and post-production

case of whenever you hear of a good new book, you rush out and

the years, however, its reputation

a postscript. The first chapter sets

histories about script develop­

buy an old one?

has steadily grown.

Hitchcock has placed three “devour­ ing females at the crux” of his story.

the context of Leone’s work (the book is as much about Leone as

ment, and about the various release versions of the film (here Martin reads different cuts against

Seen now, 35 years later, one is immediately struck by Hitch­ cock’s mature artistry, subtle

Pleshette represent the clinging, self-sacrificing aspects, while the

ter yet, Martin knows and shows the reader’s basic demand of criti­ cism: “Tell me about X (the topic, the subject); now make it change for me.” And he does.

The book has ten chapters and

about the given film), does a brief literature review, and sets the course: Leone’s cinema is an “impure, hybrid” cinema involving operatic, exhibitionistic, fairytale, oneiric, and Romantic elements. In two telling passages, he sums Leone up.

Regarding Leone’s Westerns:

He abstracted the memory of this genre, minimizing its con­ ventional plot logic and maximizing its ‘attractions’, its purely spectacular elements.

Regarding Once Upon a Time in

America:

There is a wrenching duality in the film: towards epic enchant­ ment on the one hand, and massive disenchantment on the other; the imaginary, moviemade America pitted against the real, historical America. The great ‘cinema machine’ - and all it means for us as cinephiles - is revved up, but the ultimate des­ tination of this euphoric mental voyage is an extremely black one. Indeed, a melancholic disil­ lusionment is the key emotional note of Leone’s testament.

Martin quotes Serge Daney:

as viewers, when we had learned to see, to deduce, to imagine, on the basis of the rebus they [film­ makers] offered us,

his vision of the ideal film). Chapter 4 is an essay on the theme of male friendship. Chapter 5 is a tight,

Because Camille Paglia sources a substantial number of books, interviews and articles on Hitch­ cock, her new book on The Birds

was also fraught with technical dif­ ficulties. Ironically, in its day, the film laid a bit of an egg with critics, but the public flocked to it. Over

Jessica Tandy and Suzanne

predatory element is conveyed in

mentary naturalism” initially

book, but her idiosyncratic

deployed to establish the film’s

Melanie’s habit of using either a pencil or cigarette to jab and stab

precise disquisition on the gang­ ster genre and how Once Upon a

approach, brilliant frame-by-frame

later eruptions of violence and

the air when she’s speaking to her

commentary and peppery wit

slow deterioration of culture

Time in America fits and doesn’t.

immediately make this delightful book a must buy.

before nature’s onslaught. Coming as it did in the early ’60s, The Birds follows on from the ’50s radioactive-giant-insects-on-the-

“male quarry” or, more signifi­ cantly, in her practice of twisting

Chapter 6 tackles the (for me) very difficult area of music and segues from there into dance and rap.

During an interview, Paglia said

Chapter 7 is a sharp move from the repeated toilet

rampage movies, and clearly

imagery in the film into notions

movies of the ’70s and late

of melancholy and death.

’90s. What partly distinguishes it, however, is Hitchcock’s

pre-empted the disaster

Chapter 9 symmetrically bal­ ances chapter 2: a close

manner of fleshing out his four main characters so that, when the birds descend,

symptomatic reading of the late, crux scene in Deborah’s dressing room, while chapter 10

there’s plenty of meat for them to peck!

deals with possibilities arising

Paglia begins by placing The Birds “in the mainline of

from the ending. The postscript catalogues instances of Leone’s imagery and techniques crop­ ping up in films of the past two

the phone cord when she’s speak­ ing on the telephone. This binary representation of women as con­ versely vulnerable and predatory leads to two of the film’s most vibrant exchanges between women.

British Romanticism, descending from the raw

The first is the tense, brandysoaked discussion between ex-girlfriend Annie and her rival, Melanie, in the former’s home. The other takes place in the besieged diner where a woman accuses Melanie of bringing on the bird attacks, thus further linking woman to complex vitalities beyond the rational mind. Paglia observes that the woman’s charges are irrational, but “they

decades.

The BFI Film Classics-Modern

nature-tableaux and sinister femme fatales of Coleridge”.

have a mythic power that cannot

Classics series is, of course, uneven. When it began, Martin

As someone who shares Hitchcock’s view of women

be shaken off. On some level

was among those who expressed some reasonable reservations. But this volume justifies the series. It is beautifully produced: 43 of its 55 illustrations are in colour and all are in widescreen format (although the extensive screen-credit appen­ dix gives neither the aspect ratio in

that when the British Film Institute invited her to write about Hitch­ cock’s 1963 film she saw it as a great opportunity to redress some wrongs. “He’s a first-rate artist”, she pointed out.

But you have to realize how low his reputation is right now

attuned to nature’s occult

ode to woman’s sexual glamour” and is struck by its themes of “cap­ tivity and domestication”. Not

Seen here in her first role, model-turned-actress Tippi Hedren couldn’t have stepped into a more

before time, she also places Hitch­ cock among noted Surrealist

demanding and arduous part. But thanks to her extraordinary poise

filmmakers, with themes and

and innate sense of body language, in the space of five tortuous days she goes from strong-willed, flirta­ tious and impeccable fashionplate to a dishevelled, semi-comatose

best anthology of Australian film criticism to date, Continuum v. 5,

nor the colour process); the bibli­ ography is select in the best sense

among feminists. Tippi Hedren has never got one good word any­

such as Un Chien Andalou (Luis

#2,1992; one of its themes was a special way of seeing films. Martin

of the word; the design and layout

where in film criticism. The masses liked Tippi Hedren, but the critics

Buhuel, 1928), which Hitchcock clearly favoured. Like the American

have been snobbish about her

Surrealist Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, Hitchcock made a career of

make it a pleasure to read. This book sets the standard for the BFI series, and it is gratifying that a writer and writing produced by Aus­ tralian film culture should do so. ©RICK THOMPSON

from the very start.

Melanie is a kind of vampire

as “capricious and elusive”, Paglia sees the film “as a perverse

images from his overall ceuvre traceable to early Surrealist films,

dreams and maps a world as he

marauders. Mother-dominated

layering of themes and the “docu­

which the film was shot-released,

sequence of Once Upon a Time in America. He shows how the film

played by Australian Rod Taylor.

In a sense, the women are “the birds” as much as the film’s avian

(1963) is, in one sense, also an old

a reminder that Martin edited the

demonstrates this in an intense close reading of the opening

44

THE BIRDS

messages.”

mess covered in scratches, ban­ dages and hair in disarray! But where past feminist critics have

With these points in mind, Paglia set about fashioning her

introducing the uncanny, whether it be the unexpected criminality of

seen misogyny, Paglia sees a com­ plex universal sex-war of give and

insightful and bubbling-with-

A Shadow of a Doubt (1943) or the

take being waged between the

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

re s e a rc h p a in ts a p o rtra it o f a

Le a n o b s e s s iv e ly c a rrie d o n w h a t­

c o lo u r fu l m an , p a rt-v is io n a ry ,

e v e r th e im p e d im e n t, u n til 1 9 7 0

p a rt-s to ry te lle r.

w h e n c ritic s , w e a ry o f h is t r a d e ­

L e a n ’s c h e q u e re d c a re e r

a s a tra in e e ch a rte re d

“ S u c h a b ig film , fo r s u c h a s m a ll

a c c o u n ta n t, re p le te w ith

ro m a n c e !” , o n e w ro te . Le a n w a s

u m b re lla a n d b o w le r h a t o ve r

c ru s h e d , an d d id n ot m a k e a n o th e r

h is ra th e r la rg e , p ro tru d in g

film for 14 y e a rs .

tra v e lle d th e w o rld e x te n s iv e ly ,

in d u s t r y - a frie n d in the

v a in ly s e e k in g lo c a tio n s fo r fu tu re

a c c o u n ts d e p a rtm e n t - h is

p ro je c ts . W h ile he b id e d h is tim e

Q u a k e r fa th e r w a v e re d in h is

w a itin g to s e c u re th e n e xt p ro je ct

w o w s e r o p in io n s , an d the

on h is ow n te rm s an d s c a le ,

y o u n g Le a n w a s a llo w e d to

Gandhi (1982)

g o to w o rk a s a te a -b o y an d

b le s s in g , into R ic h a rd A tte n b o r­

th a t b io lo g ic a l im p e ra tiv e s a n d e le ­

[...] H itc h c o c k p o rtra y s th e v a g in a

DAVID LEAN: A BIOGRAPHY

a s a m a le p r is o n .”

m e n ta l p o w e rs ru le m o rta ls

W it a n d an a p p re c ia tio n o f th e

c la p p e r -lo a d e r a t G a u m o n t

o u g h ’s h a n d s . It w a s n ot u n til 1985 th a t Le a n re s u rfa c e d w ith an a d a p ­

a b s u rd ca n n e v e r g o a s tra y in a

w o o d on th e s e a o f life.

b o o k , an d th e re ’s no la c k o f it here

H itc h c o c k , P a g lia a r g u e s , w a s

a s P a g lia s p ic e s up h e r arch a s id e s

H

ta tio n o f E. M. F o rste r’s

A Passage

in h is late a d o le s c e n c e a n d ,

to India.

h a v in g an in s a tia b le p a s s io n

fa s h io n e d for its s w e e p in g v is t a s

for c in e m a , d rifte d from

a n d c o n s p ic u o u s ly s p e c ta c u la r , it

C o n s id e re d d e c id e d ly o ld -

d e p a rtm e n t to d e p a rtm e n t,

q u ic k ly b e c a m e a m a jo r hit. T h e

le a rn in g h is tra d e . He fo u n d

c ritic s w e re s ile n c e d , a n d Le a n

h is n ic h e a s a m a s te r film e d i­

fo u n d h im s e lf a b a n k a b le d ire c to r

to r a n d s o o n m ad e h is m a rk

o n ce a g a in .

malion Parallel

(1 9 3 8 ) an d

Pyg­

U p o n th e re s to ra tio n a n d re-

The 49th

re le a s e o f

(1941).

Lawrence of Arabia

in

1 9 8 9 , n e w g e n e ra tio n s d is c o v e re d

It w a s th is s o lid re p u ta tio n a s

th e s ty le an d s to ry th a t Le a n w a s

an e d ito r th a t led p la y w rig h t N oe l

fa m o u s for, o n e th a t o th e r d ir e c ­

C o w a rd to in s is t on h irin g Lea n as

to rs , s u c h a s S te v e n S p ie lb e r g , h ad

e w a s a p o e t, a s c h o la r a n d a

c o -d ire c to r on h is c ritic a l a n d p o p ­

m a d e th e ir ow n .

m ig h ty w arrio r. He w a s a lso

u la r s u c c e s s ,

Kevin Brownlow, Faber & Faber , New York , 1997, 810 pp ., illus., index, rrp S35.00

h e lp le s s ly flu n g a b o u t lik e d rift­

p a s s e d , w ith L e a n ’s

S tu d io s .

on c la s s ic s s u c h a s is

D u r in g h is re tire m e n t, Le a n

so n he k n e w in th e film

Le a n sta rte d at th e s tu d io

The Birds

Ryan’s Daughter (1 9 7 0 ).

d e rid e d

e a rs . C a llin g on th e o n ly p e r­

se xe s. Th e m e ssa g e o f

m a rk e x tra v a g a n c e , m e r c ile s s ly

b e g in s w ith a d is a s t r o u s stin t

In Which We Serve

no m is o g y n is t b u t a s u b tle

w ith H itc h c o c k ia n g h o u lis h n e s s .

o b s e r v e r o f th e e b b a n d flo w o f

S h e p o s itiv e ly c ro w s lik e a W . C.

th e m o st s h a m e le s s e x h ib itio n is t

(1 9 4 2 ). T w o fu rth e r C o w a rd a d a p ­

o u re d w ith an a w a rd fo r life tim e

s in c e B a rn u m an d B a ile y .

ta tio n s a n d tw o m o o d y D ic k e n s

a c h ie v e m e n t from th e A m e ric a n

d e sire , a n d its in flu e n c e on the

F ie ld s w h e n the b ird s sw a rm

s e x u a l d y n a m ic s flo w in g b e tw e e n

a ro u n d the is o la te d h ill-to p s c h o o l

m en an d w o m e n . A s a c h u b b y

c ro w d e d w ith c h ild re n :

y o u n g s te r , he liv e d in aw e o f b e a u ­ tifu l w o m e n fo re v e r b e y o n d h is re ach . A s a film m a k e r, h is d is ­ p la ce d e r o tic is m -tu rn e d -v o y e u ris m a llo w e d him to c re a te s o m e o f the m o st in c a n d e s c e n t im a g e s o f g o d ­ d e s s -lik e w o m e n e v e r p u t to c e llu lo id . W ho ca n fo rg e t G ra ce K e lly ’s e n tra n c e in

Rear Window

(1954) o r Kim N o v a k ’s p h a n to m ­ like b e a u ty in

Vertigo

(1 9 5 8 ).

B u t b e h in d H itc h c o c k ’s a d u la ­

As soon as the little snacks hit the road, the crows rise from the gym [...] I generally settle down to laughing and applaud­ ing the crows [...] whom I regard as Coleridgean emissaries vandalizing sentimental [...] notions of childhood.

T h is d ia lo g u e , ta k e n from

Lawrence of Arabia

(1 9 6 2 ), a p tly

d e s c r ib e s its d ire c to r, D a v id Le a n , th e s u b je c t o f an e x tra o rd in a ry

a d a p ta tio n s , (1946) a n d

Great Expectations

Oliver Twist (1 9 4 8 ),

saw

L e a n ’s c a r e e r a s a d ire c to r flo u rish .

In th e late 1 9 5 0 s, Le a n a b a n ­

In M arch 1 9 9 0 , Le a n w a s h o n ­

Film In stitu te . D e s p ite ill h e a lth he a tte n d e d a n d in a h e a rtfe lt s p e e c h he th a n k e d th e m a n y c o lle a g u e s for h is y e a rs in th e in d u s try . B u t he

d o n e d h is p r e v io u s ly m o d e st

left h im s e lf p le n ty o f tim e to b e ra te

B ritis h p r o d u c tio n s for ‘m e g a p ro ­

th e v e n a lity o f t h o s e w ily ‘m o n e y -

ra b le to a la tte r-d a y Lea n e p ic ,

d u c tio n s ’ . U tiliz in g b o th s iz e an d

m e n ’ a n d p ro d u c e rs .

B r o w n lo w - in th e ro le s o f in te r­

sta tu re , Le a n riv a lle d h is A m e ric a n

v ie w e r, re s e a rc h e r a n d w rite r —

c o lle a g u e s w ith

h a s p ro d u c e d a s w e e p in g b io g r a ­

River Kwai (1 9 5 8 ),

b io g ra p h y b y K e v in B ro w n lo w .

H e rc u le a n in s c o p e a n d c o m p a ­

The Bridge On The m a k in g it c le a r

In h is e ig h tie s , Le a n a tte m p te d to b rin g Jo s e p h C o n r a d ’s

Nostromo

to th e s c re e n , b u t th e p ro je c t w a s

B u t it’s p o o r y o u n g C a th y B re n n e r,

p h y o f o n e o f B ritis h c in e m a ’s m o st

th a t he w a s no w in th e b u s in e s s of

e v e n tu a lly a b o rte d d u e to fin a n c ia l

p la y e d by a b u b b ly V e ro n ic a

e n d u rin g a n d e n ig m a tic m o tio n

p r o d u c in g e p ic s .

p r o b le m s a n d L e a n ’s p r e c a rio u s

C a rtw rig h t, w h o is at v a r io u s tim e s

p ictu re d ire c to rs.

s la p p e d b y P a g lia for b e in g too

Le a n w a s fre q u e n tly a s k e d

W h ilst L e a n ’s film s w e re

h e a lth . S a d ly , he d ie d in A p ril 1991.

im m e n s e ly p o p u la r w o rld w id e ,

In h is tim e , Le a n h a d p r o d u c e d 16

tion la y fe a r a n d s u s p ic io n . For

“ h a le a n d h e a r ty ” a n d o ffe re d a s a

th ro u g h o u t h is c a r e e r w h e n th e

Lea n h im s e lf s e e m s a d is ta n t c h a r­

m o tio n p ic tu re fe a tu r e s , an d

him , w o m e n w e re a ls o s u p r e m e

s a c rific e to the b ird s ju s t to b u y

p u b lic w o u ld s e e h is life s to ry p u b ­

a cte r, a b la n k p e rs o n a lity , far

e d ite d m a n y m ore.

b e in g s o f a rtific e a n d d e c e p tio n . S o

S u z a n n e P le s h e tte m ore s c e n e s .

lis h e d . He s h ie d a w a y from s u c h a

re m o v e d from th e la rg e r-th a n -life

d a u n tin g ta s k , an d it w a s n ’t u n til

p e rs o n a litie s he c o n ju re d on

From u n d e fin e d a n x ie ty a t the

he to o k m o rd a n t p le a s u r e in r a is ­ in g th em on p e d e s ta ls a n d the n

s ta rt to c a ta to n ic w ith d ra w a l by

The Birds

th e late 1 9 8 0 s th a t he re le n te d ; on

s c re e n — a s tr a n g e c u rio in th e

cre d o n e v e r w a v e re d : “ ro m a n tic

c o n d itio n th a t B ro w n lo w be its

w o rld o f c e le b rity . A n in te n s e ly p ri­

s to rie s , h a n d s o m e ly to ld , on a

e ro d in g the fo u n d a tio n s o n w h ic h

th e film ’s e n d , P a g lia ’s

th e y sto o d . A s he d id w ith T a llu la h

a g e n u in e a fic io n a d o ’s re a d in g o f a

a u th o r. Le a n h a d g r e a t re s p e c t for

v a te m an , Le a n c o u ld be d e s c rib e d

g r a n d s c a le ” . R e c e n t film s s u c h a s

Lifeboat

m a s te r fu l film b y an o rig in a l ta le n t.

B ro w n lo w , p rim a rily fo r h is film

a s a la tte r-d a y ro m a n tic w ith d e lu ­

The English Patient

c o c k a g a in u s e s w a r d ro b e , fe m a le

M ix in g , a s it d o e s , m yth , p s y c h o l­

re s to ra tio n w o rk a n d d o c u m e n ­

s io n s o f g ra n d e u r. He left s ix w iv e s

M in g h e lla , 1 9 9 6 ) a n d

a c c e s s o r ie s a n d h o u s e h o ld p a r a ­

o g y a n d h e r ow n b ra n d o f

ta rie s , a s w e ll a s h is

(c ru e lly d u b b e d “ c e llu lo id w id o w s ”

C a m e ro n , 1 9 9 7 ) s u g g e s t th a t L e a n ’s to rch h a s b e e n p a s s e d on.

B a n k h e a d in

(1 9 4 4 ), H itc h ­

is

A u d ie n c e t a s te s m a y h a ve c h a n g e d o ve r th e y e a r s , b u t L e a n ’s

(A n th o n y

Titanic G am e s

p h e rn a lia to d e fin e a n d s lo w ly

“ s tr e e t-w is e fe m in is m ” , it is a b o o k

in tric a te ly -re s e a rc h e d b o o k s on

b y B ro w n lo w ) fo r th e n e xt o f h is

d e s ta b iliz e h is fe m a le c h a ra c te r s .

th a t s h o u ld p le a s e P a g lia ’s fa n s,

c in e m a , n o ta b ly h is d e ta ile d s tu d y

g re a t u n d e rta k in g s . A p e rfe c tio n ­

P a g lia ’s r e a d in g o f M e la n ie

H itc h c o c k s c h o la r s a n d n e w c o m e rs

o f th e s ile n t film era, T h e P a r a d e ’s

is t, Lea n c a u s e d g r ie f fo r h is a c to rs ,

id e a lis t. B oth b e lie v e in p r o d u c in g

th ro u g h th is m e th o d is s h a r p , b it ­

a lik e . In its e x u b e r a n c e an d a n a ­

G o n e By.

te c h n ic ia n s a n d th e ‘m o n e y -m e n ’

a q u a lity p ro d u c t, a n d th is g re a t

in g an d fu n n y : M e la n ie ’s

ly tic p o w e r, it is a b o o k w o rth y o f

e v e r-p re se n t c lu tc h b a g “ is a h u n t

th e g r e a t film c ritic P a rk e r T y le r.

b a g in w h ic h to s t u ff m a le q u a rry

CI NEMA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

© D M E T R I K A KM I

B ro w n lo w , lik e L e a n , is an

(h is v o la tile r e la tio n s h ip w ith p ro ­

b io g ra p h y , like its s u b je c t , is d e s ­

fa ll into th e “ a s to ld b y ” c a te g o ry :

d u c e r S a m S p ie g e l a lo n e c o u ld fill

tin e d to b e a c la s s ic .

on th e c o n tra ry , its p a in s ta k in g

a n o th e r e x p a n s iv e b io g ra p h y ).

B ro w n lo w ’s b io g ra p h y d o e s n ’t

©

K E V IN JA N N E R

45

HIGH CONCEPT: DON SIMPSON AND THE CULTURE OF HOLLYWOOD EXCESS C harles Fleming , B loom sbury , London , 1998, illu s ., index , 294 p p ., rr p . $44.95.

igh Concept: Don Simpson

H

and the Culture of Hollywood Excess is a serious attempt to delve into Hollywood cinema of the 1980s and one of the decade’s fig­ urehead producers, Don Simpson.

It is a lively, provocative, if uneven book — best in its detailed dissec­ tion of Simpson’s colourful life, worst when it turns into a broad­ side against Hollywood ‘excess’.

It is suitably salacious and con­ tentious. It pulls no punches and takes few prisoners; most refresh­ ingly, it spares the reader the moral judgements one would expect when it comes to taking stock of Simpson’s notoriety.

The book’s starting point, appropriately, is Simpson’s death in January 1996. Simpson was a long-term drug user; for at least two decades, his body had with­ stood a steady regimen of alcohol, prescription and recreational drugs. (When he finally expired, he was apparently sitting on the toilet reading a biography of Oliver Stone.) Attempts at going clean over the years had failed, and he had been on a severe downward spiral for a considerable time in the period leading up to his death.

When told of his death, Disney head Michael Eisner told reporters he had been expecting to receive the call for years.

Simpson’s drug problem, and numerous other ones, were no secret. Indeed, his drug abuse, renowned sexual perversions, hellraising and trouble-making were legion since Simpson arrived in Hollywood from smalltown Alaska.

Detailing the numerous vices of the crowd that gathered at the popular Hollywood watering-hole Morton’s to pay tribute to Simpson in early 1996, Fleming writes: And there around them were their agents, managers, lawyers and colleagues — the executive enablers — who knew all of this, knew it and were amused by it and were paid handsomely to keep it to themselves.

At best, Simpson’s excesses were tolerated; at worst, they were fostered and supported by the

46

took many forms, but were mostly

preferring the straight exchange of

founded upon drugs, hookers, food, alcohol and a manic-depres­

money for sexual services, seem­ ingly frightened of personal ties

sive personality.

During the final phase of his life, Simpson rarely left his Stone

with women.

As a producer, Simpson and his

Canyon home and had ended what

heimer presided over a handful of films that would define the notion

was potentially his last and only link with reality via a long associa­ tion with fellow producer Jerry

producing partner Jerry Bruck­

of the ‘high concept’ film. Accord­ ing to former studio executive

There’s a pattern here that would repeat itself on numerous Simpson films. For instance, the story: a blue-collar worker who realizes her dream of dancing, but must first be brought down to her lowest emotional ebb; a love story that is a mere backdrop to the hero’s quest; a protagonist with­ out parents forced to develop skills

Bruckheimer.

Fleming’s book, however, is not

Richard Sylbert, the June 1975 release of Jaws (Steven Spielberg)

an exercise in finger-pointing or apportioning blame for the scores of approbates whose dirty laundry

forever changed the way movies would be released and marketed.

of self-reliance from an early age; male characters who develop a kin­ ship through adversity that places them in a venerated position to the

It’s a dubious point-just read any account of the marketing of Gone

women.

Music was an integral element

is scattered throughout these pages. Neither is it a moral crusade against a culture of excess that, in any case, both predates and sur­ vives Simpson’s stint in Hollywood.

The Simpson that emerges in these pages is not one-dimensional.

He is a mercurial fire-brand: a meddling, hands-on producer with a sharp instinct for the business and an unyielding conviction for his own ideas. He absorbed the culture of his milieu, and was happy to flaunt, if not exploit it, for the world to see. He was shame­ less about a lifestyle and behaviour that would not be toler­ ated in any other sphere of life. He abhorred the hypocrisy of those colleagues who lied about their indulgences. A decade after Barry Diller learned of Simpson’s drug habit and fired him from the lot, Simpson regaled an acquaintance:

They fired me on a fucking morals charge! They had execu­ tives buggering boys in the backseats of their Porsches, and they fired me on a fucking morals charge!

He was heroically forthright and honest; on the dust-jacket notes, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas says Simpson would have liked the book’s accuracy and terrible truths.

He used his considerable power and wealth to further the careers of those who shared his predilections, and shockingly abused those who didn’t (his treat­ ment of the female assistants who didn’t concur with the sexual prac­ tices that Simpson considered normal is sick-making).

Without in any way making excuses for Simpson’s aberrant behaviour, he was a profoundly troubled and conflicted person.

He was deeply insecure about him­

powers-that-be at the helm of the

self, particularly where it concerned his looks and physique;

largest USA studios. The excesses

he was paranoid and defensive,

with the Wind (Victor Fleming,

not only of the culture described in

1939) - though Sylbert later explains very succinctly the chang­

the films, but its marketing (Simp­ son was amongst the first to exploit the potential of the thennascent MTV phenomenon; every

ing culture of movie-making that would come to fruition in the ’80s:

It was meetings and meetings and manufacturing stories and manufacturing movies. Until then, we worked with writers on material we believed in. Sud­ denly it changed. W hat Eisner brought in was the television mentality, a fodder factory.

The shift brought with it a new role for producers, one that Simpson would thrive in. In 1981, Simpson was elevated to position of presi­ dent of production at Paramount, inheriting a slate of films for which he had little enthusiasm. He par­ layed his way onto An Officer and a Gentleman (Taylor Hackford, 1982), a project he was passionate about. Interestingly, the aspect of the story Simpson was particularly drawn to was not the love story, but the competition between the wrong-side-of-the-tracks, chip-onthe-shoulder officer Zack Mayo (played in the film by Richard Gere) and the steely-eyed gunnery sergeant, Foley (Louis Gossett Jr.), who would whip Mayo into officer material. Simpson’s relationship with director Taylor Hackford and producer Martin Elfand was fiery, to say the least.

The first film completed under the partnership of Simpson and Bruckheimer was Flashdance (Adrian Lyne, 1983) described here as “a high-concept fairy tale cued to modern sensibilities”. There were radical differences — between Simpson, the various scriptwriters who were roped in (and often just as quickly out again), studio head Dawn Steele and director Adrian Lyne — over the direction the film should take, but Simpson’s vision finally won out.

time the clip was played on televi­ sion was a free advertisement for the film.)

On other projects, Simpson exercised a brilliant perspective.

Briefly oversighting screen­ plays and treatments of The Godfather Part III (Francis Ford Coppola, 1990), which had been in the works for several years already, Simpson insisted that, as The Godfather had been essen­ tially the story of Don Corleone, and The Godfather2 [sic] had been

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Simpson

essentially the story of his son Michael Corleone, Godfather3 [sic] must be the story of Anthony, Michael’s son. He suggested that the child has been estranged from

disagree over who hit upon the idea of casting Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest, 1984), a rôle for which Sylvester Stallone and Mickey Rourke were

his mother, Kay, and has returned to the family, as a graduating naval cadet, to attend Michael

considered.

Few of the films that Simpson produced are likely to be enshrin­

Corleone’s funeral.

Simpson wrote that Anthony,

ed as anything other than big

wants to realize his father’s dream of legitimizing the Cor­ leone family enterprise. He’s opposed by other dons. Even key members of his family are against him. This modern-day Mafia is a breed apart. The code of Omerta (“Silence or death”) no longer seems to exist. The organization is full of independent operators with no sense of loyalty— squealers, snitches, informants who can be bought by rival dons and law enforcement alike [...]

The sons of Corleone are cursed, their lives are an inher­ ited disease, a miasma [that] forces them to commit their fathers’ crimes [...] Every crime in the house of Corleone is a crime against the filial bond itself.

money-earners, though some, most notably Days of Thunder (Tony Scott, 1990) failed to attain even that status.

Simpson left his mark on Holly­ wood cinema. As a self-described ‘creative producer’, he was a vital element of big-budget, high-con­ cept movie-making that is still very much in our midst. His extravagant lifestyle is emblematic of Holly­ wood myths, the actual practice of which may still be as prevalent as it always was. High Concept: Don

Simpson and the Culture of Holly­ wood Excess lays bare some terrible facts about the mores and milieu of Hollywood at its most decadent and foul (to most tastes, at least). This book goes some way toward explaining how it came to be that way, and why, quite possi­ bly, that culture will persist. © PAUL KALINA

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

Bookd R eceived

QUARTET David Thomson, Bloomsbury Publishing , London, 1998,194 p p ., illus ., $29.95

100 BEST FILMS OF THE CENTURY Barry Norman, Orion Books Ltd , London, 1998,272 pp„ ILLUS, INDEX, $39.95

CLOSE UP: GEORGE LUCAS THEMAKINGOFHISMOVIES Chris S alewicz, Orion Books , London,

BFI FILM AND TELEVI­ SION HANDBOOK 1999 Eddie Dyja, Editor , BFI Publishing , 1998, 416 pp ., ILLUS., index , £18.99

BFI MODERN CLASSICS: THE EXORCIST-2 N D EDITION Mark Kermode, BFI Publishing , London, 1998, ILLUS., £7.99 Originally published in 1997

BLOOMSBURY FILM CLASSICS: ALL THE PRESIDENT'S M EN-THE ORIGINAL NOVEL Bob Woodward & Ca rl B ernstein , Bloomsbury Publishing , London , 1998, 363 pp ., index , $16.95 Originally published in the United S ta tes , 1974.

THE CHAPLIN ENCYCLOPEDIA Glenn Mitchell, B.T. Batsford , London, 288pp , rrp $39.95

am quite happy to admit to an enormous prejudice on behalf of Charles Chaplin, whom I consider to be the greatest creative motiva­ tor after William Shakespeare and

I

before Bob Dylan: his amazing tight-rope dancing and ballet-box­ ing between comedy and tragedy, sentimentality and romance, ideal­ ism and world-awareness soaring high above mono-dimensional genius and achieving total theatre to a much greater degree than Richard Wagner ever did. However theatrical his tragi-comedies may appear alongside movies of a dif­ fering, “newer” technique, their efficacy — to a viewer willing to suspend disbelief — never palls: one can literally watch them thou­ sands of times and laugh again and again with the freshness of a well-loved child.

The saddest aspect of today’s movie scene is the extreme naïveté of the showing of these master­ pieces. This compendium seeks to concentrate on the films them­ selves rather “than on any sexual

or political intrigues” (as the author so sweetly puts it), but also covers exhaustively every player who appears in any film, every aban­ doned project Chaplin undertook.

In fact, everything one could ever wish to know about the subject. His devotion to Chaplin is absolute.

The one flaw, to my eyes, is that, in describing what happens step-by-step and blow-by-blow, one somewhat squashes humour and treads on the delicate balance of comedy and tragedy which is the essence of Chaplin’s exquisite art. But as an “encyclopaedia”, this is a compelling book and a won­ derful reservoir of source material.

It squashes many false rumours, such as the supposed rivalry, even enmity, between Chaplin and Keaton, and raises the important minor point of whether the artist did or did not cut his own hair.

With recent publicity about George Orwell’s attribution of Communist sympathies to Chaplin — a point which belongs in the most absurd waste-basket of McCarthyist nonsense — it is good to have the often critical as well as laudatory material Mitchell here includes. Highly recommended. © ADRIAN RAWLINS

CI NEMA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

BLOOMSBURY FILM CLASSICS: THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL-THE ORIGINAL NOVEL Ira L evin , B loomsbury Publishing , London , 1998, 245 pp ., $16.95 Originally published in the United S tates , 1976.

BLOOMSBURY FILM CLASSICS: THE HUSTLER -T H E ORIGINAL NOVEL Walter T ev is , Bloomsbury Publishing , London , 1998, 207 pp ., $16.95 Originally published in the United S tates , 1959.

1998,143

pp ., illus .,

$24.95

THE EISENSTEIN READER Richard Taylor , editor , BFI Publishing , London, 1998,186 pp ., illus ., index , £14.99

GET THE PICTURE, 5TH EDITION: ESSENTIAL DATA ON AUSTRALIAN FILM, TELEVISION, VIDEO AND NEW MEDIA Rosemary C urtis & Cathy G ray, edito rs , Australian Film Commission , S ydn ey , 1998,330

pp ., illu s . index ,

$35

Charles Drazin , Bloomsbury Publishing , London, 1998,186 pp ., illus ., $29.95

BLOOMSBURY MOVIE GUIDE N0.4: DAVID THOMSON ON THE ALIEN

RAT PACK CONFIDENTIAL S hawn Levy , Fourth Estate Ltd , London, 1998,344 p p ., illus ., index, $29.95

ROBIN WILLIAMS Andy Dougan, Orion Books Ltd , London, 1998, 264 pp ., illus ., index, $39.95

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Max Al u n Collins , Penguin Books Australia, 1998, 317 pp ., $14.95 Based on the sc r een p u y by Robert Rodat

Barney Ho skyn s , foreword by Todd Ha yn es , Faber & Faber Ltd , London, 1998, 130 pp ., illu s ., index , $22.95

T im Rose Price , afterword by P hilippe Ro u sselo t , Orion Books Ltd , London , 1998,180 pp ., illu s ., $24.95

THE GUINESS BOOK OF FILM

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE: THE LOVE POETRY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

T essa Clayton , Ian Fitzgerald , editors , Gu in ess Publishing Ltd , London , 1998, 360 PP., ILLUS.

William S hakespea re , Faber and Faber Ltd , London, 1999, 75pp ., illu s , $12.95 Collection complied by Miramax Bo o ks /Hyperio n , 1998

JACOB'S HANDS Aldous Huxley & Christopher Isherwood , WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY LAURA HUXLEY &

David Bradshaw , Bloomsbury Publishing , London , 1998,122 pp ., $19.95

SO WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT THEN? S hilo T McC lean, Australian Film T elevision & Radio S chool, S ydney , 1998, 103 pp ., illus ., index , $19.95x

INFOG 97 PROCEEDINGS A Conference on the impact of recent

C hris Brophy , editor , A ustralian Film Institute Research

& I nformation and

ANSPAG, Melbourne , 1998,130 pp ., $25

THE LAVENDER BUS: HOW A HIT MOVIE WAS MADE AND SOLD Al C lark , C urrency Pr e s s , Australia , 1999, 178 pp ., $19.95

BLOOMSBURY MOVIE GUIDE N0.3: CHARLES DRAZIN ON BLUE VELVET

Antony J. Bowman, Penguin Books Ltd, Melbourne , Australia , 1999, 308 pp ., $16.95 Based on the author’s own sc r een p u y

THE SERPENT'S KISS: THE ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

SCREEN CULTURE PRACTICE

William Goldman , Bloomsbury Publishing , London , 1998,279 p p ., $16.95 Originally published in the United S tates , 1974.

PAPERBACK HERO: A NOVEL LOVE STORY

GLAM!: BOWIE, BOLAN AND THE GLITTER ROCK REVOLUTION

DEVELOPMENTS IN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON

BLOOMSBURY FILM CLASSICS: MARATHON M AN-THE ORIGINAL NOVEL

T he Official Companion to the BBC series G eoff Tibballs , introduction by Richard E. Grant, Boxtree , London, 1998,128 pp ., illus ., £9.99

STEPMOM Maggie Robb, Warner Books , London, 1999,232 pp ., $16.95 Based on the scr een p u y by Gigi Levangie , Jessie Nelson , Steven Rogers , Karen Leigh Hopkins & Ron Bass

TITANIC AND THE MAKING OF JAMES CAMERON Pa u u Pa r is i , Orion Books Ltd , London , 1998,234 pp ., illu s ., index , $19.95

VELVET GOLDMINE MAKING MOVIES: CARTOONS BY ALAN PARKER

Todd Ha yn es , with a foreword by Michael S t ip e , Faber & Faber Ltd , London , 1998, 141

pp ., illu s .,

&29.95

Au n Parker , BFI Publishing , London, 1998, 149 pp ., illus ., £7.99

THE MAKING OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL

WOMEN IN FILM NOIR E.A nn Ka p u n , editor , BFI Publishing , London, 1998, 238 pp ., illus ., index , £11.99 New expanded edition

47

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CGI Animation

But, undisguised in this sector of the motion picture-television-multime­ dia industry is the sheer enthusiasm and vigour of individuals and teams out there. Cinema Papers spoke to three companies engaged in CGI ani­

By Barrie Smith

mation to discern the state of play.

With all, the common desire was to

T

create animation sequences for fea­

o make a dollar out of CGI animation, current R ising Sun theory would seem to Over on the banks of the Torrens, Gail indicate you need little Fuller of Rising Sun Pictures stresses more than a huff of featuresoft­ film work has “always been Octanes and a slew of dedicated our ambition ware to get your team into action.

But and focus”. There is a staff complement of 11, working with t’ain’t necessarily so!

Silicon Graphics will happily sell you

ture film productions.

“a couple of Octanes” plus a suite of

the boxes, while the software distribu­

around 10 machines feed an Origin

Like many in CGI animation it

four films with Rolf de Heer. Fuller

tors will delightedly ship you the

200 server, which is, as she says, “the

pays to cover a broad canvas. Rising

explains that Clark’s presence has

programmes to put life and motion into

backbone of the whole thing”, and

Sun has, in the past, been busy with

always given Rising Sun “a focus on

the bits and bytes of CGI graphics. And?

about four SGI 0 2 S .

television commercials for major

film”. After three years of operation

companies.

this focus has paid off handsomely:

Operators? The human interface?

In software — for animation, Soft-

Children’s television is another

Rising Sun’s first major film project,

No problem: tech colleges and art

Image, Alias/Wavefront and Maya,

schools across the country are ship­

plus “quite a few miscellaneous bits

area that has enticed. The company

30 shots for The Real Macaw landed

ping out computer-savvy designers by

and pieces that do different things”

recently completed a series of 13 half-

at the doorstep.

the box load.

However, an important element is

like Elastic Reality for morphing and

hours called Driven Crazy for

Fuller:

Photoshop for painting. For composit­

Barron Entertainment. A live-action

missing in the motion equation: the

ing, the group runs the Avid Illusion

concept, the series still contained many fantasy elements.

animation director. And many ambi­

system. Fuller feels it “basically does

tious groups are attacking this problem

everything that Flame does, but runs

in various ways.

on Octane”.

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

A Rising Sun company director is feature-film DOP Tony Clark, who shot

W e d id n ’t go d o w n th e Babe (C hris N o o n a n , 1996) ro u te o f an im ating beak m ov em ents, b u t w h a t w e did p ro v id e w as a stand-in for th e real birds th a t w ere the stars o f th e

49

te c h n ic a litie s

sh o w ... a co m pletely an im ated stu n t d o u b le th a t w as used an y ­ w h ere w h ere th e re w as a d an g er o f th e b irds flying aw ay o r aspects o f th e p e rfo rm an ce th a t w ere eith er d an g ero u s o r th a t th ey just c o u ld n ’t get th e b ird to p erfo rm . W e th e n filled in w ith o u r co m pletely co m ­ p u te r-g e n erate d bird . I th in k it w as ab o u t th e to u g h est call yo u can have. B ut it w as a real challenge because, o f co urse, it h a d to h o ld u p n e x t to th e real, living b reath in g thing . W e ’ve h a d a very g o o d resp o n se to o u r w o rk on th at.

So, what’s next?

Currently, four features are on the lists: Bill Bennett’s In a Savage Land-,

Siam Sunset, John Poison’s directorial début; and Sample People, by first time director Clinton Smith, for which Rising Sun are creating a fantasy sequence. And another: a children’s film Selkie, shot in Adelaide, based on a very old myth about the people who turn into seals when they hit the water. For the latter, the company is making a 3D seal, a sim ilar require­ ment to The Real Macaw.

Fuller:

F o r us, I th in k o u r n e x t step is a p ro ject w h ich involves a lo t m o re an im atio n . W h a t w e ’ve been doin g at th e m o m e n t is visual effects an d selected shots on a fee fo r service basis. W e w o u ld love to w o rk to w ard s g ettin g a film o f o u r ow n u p - pro b ab ly in th e ch ild ren ’s area.

In terms of the CGI animation industry, Fuller predicts that entry-level costs would fall as “the animators become much more like grips and gaffers, hav­ ing their own equipment”. In this fashion, she could see it becoming practical to assemble a team for a particular project as a virtual team.

Im agine

If

Alistair Murray of Melbourne’s Imagine

Asked how long would the production time be, Murray answered “Long!” as

If has the opinion that the current

he explained the basic processes

hunger for CGI animation is driven by

involved:

public taste as audiences embrace this relatively new method of story telling.

His company has a staff of 21 peo­ ple, driving a mix of SGI Octane and a DECAlpha 500 MHz plus four work sta­ tions. The company “render box” has

T h e first o n e is design, p re p ro d u c ­ tio n an d m o d ellin g o f th e ch aracters. T h en , once th e ch arac­ ters have been m ad e an d th e sets co m p leted , th e an im atio n fo r each scene is done.

four CPUs. The software complement

While he admits there is a current fer­

follows the route of Softimage as the

vour about CGI animation, he denies

3D animation package, Photoshop as

it’s all that new:

the 2D graphics package and Softim­ age Eddie as the compositing package.

The company also has a deep involvement in children’s animation.

Murray:

W e ’re invo lved in a p ro jec t invo lv­

50

ing A u stralian b u sh lan d ch aracters aim ed at th e ch ild re n ’s m ark et. The Enchanted Billabong is a story ab o u t fairies, w ith fully “C G ” g en ­ erate d b ack g ro u n d s an d ch aracters.

T h e film w ill be “e x p o rte d ” as an IM A X 3D fo rm at. E verythin g w ill be in stereo, so dou ble th e am o u n t o f ren d e rin g is req u ired .

A b o u t 2 0 -2 5 years ago television p eo p le started using effects. T h a t w as a m ajo r change in th e w ay th a t ev eryone lo o k ed at things.

He feels you don’t discard techniques but adopt a new vision. The public, in

his view, is becoming increasingly aware of the look that they get — whether they know it or not. Because of that, all it needed was a Jurassic

Park and a Toy Story to make people accept it.

Murray:

T h ey co uld have d o n e Jurassic Park o r Antz ten years ago, b u t it w o u ld have tak en th em ab o u t ten years to m ake. T h e tech n o lo g y has h ad a hell o f a lo t to do w ith w h y people w o u ld even b o th er. A cceleration o f h ard w are an d softw are capabilities have n o w m ade thing s conceivable w ith in a tim e-fram e. T h a t is ab o u t th e only reaso n th a t things have ch anged so dram atically. As th e y ’ve been able to p ro d u ce stu ff faster, th e y ’ve b een able to speed u p th e learn in g o f techniqu es.

When the time comes to find art talent, Murray says that,

A lo t o f th e p e o p le w h o are w o rk ­ ing h ere have a graphics b a ck g ro u n d an d have been in te r­ ested in a rt fro m school. A lo t of th e p eo p le, especially y o u n g p eo p le

b etw een 17-22 , w a n t to get in to it [C G I an im ation ] because it’s th e latest thing . T h e re ’s alw ays been a hell o f a lo t o f p e o p le w h o are ta l­ en ted , b u t n o w th e y ’re getting m o re access to th e gear.

He adds,

T h ere are only a lim ited n u m b er o f p eo p le w h o have h a d en o u g h ex p erien ce ... if y o u ’ve h a d five years o f C G ex p erien ce y o u ’re actually like an o ld tim er. T h a t’s th e type o f p e rso n w h o becom es an an im atio n directo r.

Murray has noticed the software used by most CGI designers is becoming,

seriously co m p licated . In a w ay it’s like learn in g a m usical in stru m en t.

Y ou can play on e badly really easily, b u t to play on e w ell it just takes n o th in g b u t tim e to get b etter. T h e p e o p le a t th e to p k n o w th e 10 p e rc e n t th a t n o b o d y else gets to . Y ou can lea rn 60 p e rc e n t o f it easily, y o u can lea rn an e x tra 3 0 p e rc e n t after a co uple o f years b u t it’s th e final te n th th a t m akes y o u th e ex p ert.

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

AUSTRALIA’S PREMIER NATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION

APRA applauds Burkhard Dallwitz, winner of the Golden Globe for best original score for his work on The Truman Show.

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rem e m b er th a t th e b o x is only p a rt o f w h a t m akes an im atio n special, a g o o d a n im ato r k n o w s exactly w h a t so m eth in g look s like in th e ir head before it h ap p en s in reality. T o m e, th a t is th e skill.

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Berry describes the company’s out­ put as “the traditional combination of television commercials and some long form work” flowing along with the desire,

Jelly Babies: Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

D igital Pictures GM of Sydney’s Digital Pictures, Chris Berry agrees “finding good people is not easy” adding the company has

been fo rtu n a te in being able to pick u p a co u p le o f n ew p eo p le over rece n t tim es an d p a rt o f th a t has co m e as a result o f th e u n fo rtu n a te dem ise o f C onja. W e ’ve en d ed up w ith th ree o f th e ir key staff.

DP’s modus operandi is predominantly in the 3D area with Alias/W avefront and Maya running on a combination of SGI Octanes, High Impacts and Indi­ gos. Also in use is 3D Studio on an NT system with, from the 2D side, Inferno, Fire, Flint, etc. The company’s anim a­ over 20 years, involved himself in an

internal training scheme for people

amazing variety of o u tpu t: from

who show potential and enthusiasm.

traditional animation, motion graphics

He agrees there is a lack of experi­

and claymation to special effects CG

enced animation designers and notes

3D animation for features and

that “some of the more traditional

commercials.

two or three 3D boxes on the end of

He reminds us to

Berry believes that “Projects like these help extend the expertise of our artists.” ©

His experience includes Universal Pictures in London for a Spielberg film,

the rest of their facility,” which he

enabling him to develop an expertise

feels is,

with motion-control systems as well as

a bit like a dag th a t hangs o ff a sh eep ’s b um , w ith n o real th o u g h t p u t in to h o w th a t reso u rce is in te ­ g rated in to w h a t you o ffer y o u r client base. T h ey p ro b ab ly have a co u p le o f capable 3D an im ato rs, b u t no design o r an im atio n d irec to r to be able to pull th e co m p o n e n ts in to th e overall p ro jec t to m arry it seam lessly. It’s like: W e b e tte r have

N o w if yo u can visualize so m eth in g you can do it. I h o p e th a t w e ’re n o t goin g to see a re tu rn to th e early days o f C G w h en a lo t o f an im atio n w as d o n e by p eo p le fro m c o m p u te r ra th e r th a n a rt b ack g ro u n d s - w h en th e lack o f visualisation skills led to som e terrib ly sterile w o rk .

tion director, Russell Tagg, has, for

A continuing process is the company’s

tape-house post facilities have tagged

52

3D , o th erw ise w e m ig h t m iss o u t o n th e job.

to increasing th e a m o u n t o f w o rk w e get involved in fro m th e featu re film side. In th e past, o u r e x p eri­ ence w ith th e featu re film has been quite exciting, b u t it’s o nly b een in fairly sm all chunks. I th in k th a t only n o w are w e able to tak e on larger, m o re fascinating projects.

develop a critical eye for complex 2D layout perspective distortions.

In his opinion, things haven’t changed over the years,

b u t ra th e r it is th e w ay results are achieved th a t has ch an g ed d ra m a ti­ cally. W e ’re still creatin g im ages w e co u ld have d o n e m any years ago, b u t th e n th e re w as a d efinite lim it to w h a t so m eth in g co uld lo o k like.

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

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L

te ch n ica litie s

Script-processing but its Spartan appearance will appeal to some, particularly as there is now a

programmes

significant price difference.

SCRIPTWARE has at its heart a system called Scriptype/E, which per­

By Sean Cousins

forms the same set of functions as Smart Type/E in FINAL DRAFT. In fact beside their proprietary names, and interfaces, there is little to distinguish

ave you asked yourself

the two instruction sets.

recently: Do I need a

OneofSCRIPTW ARE’S best fea­

script-processing pro­

tures is the ‘Scene Shuffle’ mode. With

gramme? If you are

the click of button a script is reduced

writing scripts on a

to just the scene headers, allowing the

computer, then you probably do.

writer to rearrange the scenes in any

These programmes are designed to

order. The text from these scenes (and

make writing in correct script format

the corresponding scene numbers) is

faster and more consistent. Even if you type 150 words per minute and have the skills to create a ‘macro’ or a key­ board-shortcut on your standard word processor, when it comes to editing, the script-specific programmes really

When it comes to editing these script specific programmes really shine The technology that makes repeti­

moved automatically. There is also an option to show the first two lines of each scene.

Another great feature is the Notes menu. To add reminders, suggestions,

tosh environment, consequently it has

questions and ideas to your script, just

shine. Having the ability to easily

tive typing and re-formatting obsolete

a professional appearance and, for

place the cursor in the text where you

move between scenes, create lists of

is called Smart Type/E. It is well

those familiar with the Mac, is logical

want the note, hit the key combination

scenes (which can be printed on to

named, as it seeks to effect ‘intuitive’

and intuitive. FINAL DRAFT claims to

[ctrl-N on a Mac] and type away. These

index cards) and, best of all, be

behaviour. One of the ways it does

be 1 0 0 % cross-platform compatible.

notes can be printed separately, col­

untroubled with scene renumbering

this is by memorizingthe names and

This means it should be possible to

lectively, or within the script. There is

or cutting-and-pasting your 100 page

locations when they are entered, so

view your script on a Wintel machine

also a Bookmarks feature that allows

labour of love surely justifies the

that the next time you need to type

(providing it has FINAL DRAFT software

marked-up text to be viewed in a

expense.

them only the first letter or two need

installed) without converting. Very

separate window. Click on a bookmark

The next question is which pro­

be tapped in (before it offers to type

handy if your writing partner or editor

and be transported to that spot in the

gramme should one choose? If you

the rest for you). You need only hit the

has a Wintel PC.

sc rip t-v e ry useful for editing and re­

have done any research on the sub­

TAB key. But, as they say at Studio

ject, you will know there are a great

Bert, there’s more! Smart Type/E

of these features, has been a popular

many to choose from, each claiming to

attempts to interpret the formatting

product in the W intel/PC world for a

can also be set up for the stage play

be the best programme available. In

‘logic’ of screenplays. For example, an

number of years, evidenced by the fact

format, TV drama and a half-hour Sit­

reality, there is very little between

‘Action’ line usually follows a ‘Scene

that it is still available in a DOS ver­

com format. Final Draft also has a

most of the programmes in terms of

Heading’, a ‘Character Name’ is always

sion. Like its competitor, it is basically

collection of successful US sitcom

features and price. Two of the leading

followed b y ‘Dialogue’. Knowing this,

a conventional word processor with

scripts that can be used as ‘tem­

programmes, both with local distribu­

Smart Type/E automatically changes

add-ons. A feature of the programme

plates’, available at additional cost.

tors, are FINAL DRAFT and SCRIPTWARE.

the formatting to suit. It’s as simple as

is a large menu-bar (called a ‘Button

typing the first letter of a character’s

Bar’) that can be customized to match

In the Macintosh environment, per­

SCRIPTWARE, which shares many

drafting text.

Like its competitor, SCRIPTWARE

Obviously, both SCRIPTWARE and FINAL DRAFT are designed in the USA,

haps the de facto standard for script

name, hitting TAB, then RETURN,

the user’s needs. If you are not accus­

consequently they both have features

processors is FINAL DRAFT, by BC soft­

entering the dialogue, and so on to

tomed to keyboard short cuts, you can

which scriptwriters in other parts of

ware. It has most of the bells and

The End. Soon you’ll have reams of

easily add icons (Speed Buttons) to

the world will find annoying. Neither

whistles of the better word proces­

dialogue on perfectly formatted pages,

the menu bar for virtually any oft-

programme allows the ruler, and

sors. Features such as background

so you can spend the time you used to

repeated task. Included are dozens of

therefore page size, to be calibrated

pagination, multiple undo/redo, vari­

waste changing formatting editing it

cute little illustrated ‘head shots’

in cms, offering only Inches or Points,

able text justification, adjustable font

all out again.

designed to match the personalities of

nor are there plans to change this in

your characters, as well as icons for

future versions.

size and style (including colour), WYSI­

Similarly, once you have created

WYG pull-down font menu, (limited)

your first Scene Heading, Smart

more banal things like moving around

find-and-replace, and so on.

Type/E offers to type the scene loca­

the script.

Of course, all of these programmes

tion (INT, EXT), the time (DAY, NIGHT

incorporate features specifically to

etc) and even remembers the loca­

make writing screenplays less labour-

tions. After typing BOB’S ROOM once,

In terms of appearance SCRIPTWARE is not quite 24-bit sophistication,

SCRIPTWARE does not offer an Australian or British Dictionary/Thesaurus presently. FINAL DRAFT offers a ‘British English’ Dictionary

56

intensive. The makers recognize that

just typing b+o will be enough for the

SCRIPTWARE is available in Mac-OS,

FINAL DRAFT is available in Mac-OS

writing screenplays involves a great

program to intuit the rest thereafter.

Windows, and DOS versions:

and Windows versions:

deal of formatting and repetitive typ­

Once other locations have been

Published by: Cinovation Inc

Published by: Screenplay Systems Inc

ing of such things as Character Names,

entered, a list of the scene locations

Local distributor: Strictly Literary

Transitions, as well as the ‘More’ and

pops up. Select one, hit the TAB key

www.powerup.com.au/~literary

Local distributor: Like Magic www.flnaldraft.com

‘Continued’ page formatting conven­

and it’s done. In this way, a Scene

Telephone: (07) 3 8 4 8 114 1

Telephone: (02) 9 9 71179 6

tions, and Scene Headings (regrettably

Heading can be entered with as few as

Facsimile: (07) 3 8 9 2 19 2 9

Facsimile: (02) 9 9 7 12 2 6 1

and immutably called Slug Lines in

four keystrokes!

COST: $A350

COST: $A549 plus $A is postage

FINAL DRAFT).

C I N E MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

FINAL DRAFT grew from the Macin­

55

^ 55 technicalities: script­ processing programmes and Thesaurus. But unfortunately it is

*= 2325 another world United States. And I’m excited about

I don’t know if it’s mainstream [...] it’s a

doing it in a different environment,

thinking person’s film. But look at Dr

an optional extra, available from the

seeing how their system works, what

local distributor for $100.

that’s like, and then coming home.

Zhivago [David Lean, 1965] or Lawrence of Arabia [David Lean, 1962], or The Piano [Jane Campion, 1993] -

Most frustrating for the Australian scriptwriter, neither programme

It’s being developed for Jersey, Danny De Vito’s film production com­

they’re all thinking people’s films.

effortless look, which has a magical effect. It’s very cohesive.

T his, d esp ite th e fact th a t D o n o v a n fo u n d p lay in g his ch a ra c te r in v o lv ed a g o o d deal o f pain .

It was painful - personally confronting in some aspects of Phillip’s crisis of

page under the scene number (in

Danny De Vito really believes in the

accord with Australian standards).

writer and the director-what they call

Is th is his p riv ate co d e fo r th e film s th a t fo rm a rô le m o d el fo r In a Savage Land ? Is it u p h im self ju x ta ­ p o sitio n ? Is it ju st th a t th e y are all h igh ly em o tio n a l film s: “B ut th a t’s w h a t I d o b est [...] I th in k I w o rk b est w ith em o tio n a l c o lo u rs.”

W h e n R ufus Sew ell first re a d th e script, his reac tio n w as,

in America, “the créatives”’. He’s quite

Oh my God, a real movie part! I was

ing programme, you will want to be

supportive and there isn’t that sense of

very excited reading the script. It

need to know they can protect me. But

confident that it is possible to import

fear of the creative process.

struck me like it was a rôle a Robert

while I did less improv on a script than

Mitchum or a Humphrey Bogart could

usual, Bill listened, and we had a very

allows adequate modification of the

pany. They’re bankrolled by Universal,

elements necessary to produce a

and my deal with Universal is that I

script conforming to Australian specifi­

work with Jersey.

cations. It may be only a sm all thing,

They’ve done Gattaca [Andrew Niccoll,

but it is not possible in either pro­

1997] and Out of Sight [Steven Soder­

gramme to underline a Scene Heading

bergh, 1998] and, of course Pulp Fiction [Quentin Tarantino, 1994].

so that it runs the full width of the

If you are about to buy a scriptwrit­

your scripts without having to re-format them.

In a lot of bigger studios it’s harder

faith and how he thinks he was, versus how the world perceives him. It rips him apart, and I had to deal with that pain - how his relationship fell apart.

D o n o v a n ’s refu g e w as B e n n e tt’s d irectin g a p p ro ach .

With each new director you go through a dance, trying to develop some trust both ways. I think I can make myself terribly insecure about the process and

to try and find a place. So I’m quite

play. Then I went and took it in the

healthy relationship. It’s also probably

confident about working with Jersey.

opposite direction. And I’m surprised

the first film I’ve been on when we had

bit. SCRIPTWARE claimed I could

I hope we get to make the movie;

to hear it described simply as a

not a single day of tension, or pres­

import scripts from other word proces­

development is a very unusual position

romance - it’s misleading because it’s

sured people lashing out.

sors (which I could do) without the

to be in. ®

You better be sitting down for this

loss of formatting (which I could not).

something not gritty and realistic.

Office ‘98 (and, I assume, from other earlier Microsoft word processors), without losing most of the formatting, is to use the cumbersome ‘cut and paste’ method. The tech support peo­ ple say that an RTF (Rich Text Format) option (that will do a better job of maintaining formatting) will be avail­ able in the next version.

FINAL DRAFT did a better job of importing text on my computer (it is after all a Mac native programme).

They claim it is equally effective on a Wintel machine.

SCRIPTWARE, to its credit, comes with an excellent manual written with a sense of fun, a minimum of jargon and a layout that quickly enables one to grasp the essential elements of the programme.

Best of all, SCRIPTWARE offers an excellent, extremely prompt, e-mail Tech-support service for those of us outside the US. I sent them a list of questions regardingthis programme and received a reply the following day.

Regrettably, not all the answers were completely satisfactory.

Neither FINAL DRAFT nor SCRIPTWARE is perfect. Because they are designed for, and by Americans, changing the settings to suit A us­

-;-.3 31 eyes wide shut

in to a n ig h tm arish fra m ew o rk (w ith o n e actu al n ig h tm are inclu d ed ) a ro u n d th e cen tral situ ­ atio n o f a ten tativ e love affaire b etw ee n a y o u n g co uple. T h is develop s - like th e ro u g h tim e schem e o f Traumnovelle - over a m e re tw o days.

It involves m u ch am biguou s to in g an d fro in g o f feeling, an d an occasion apiece fo r o n e to a b a n d o n th e o th e r. W h a t c o n ­ nects th e m , th o u g h , are th e ir d ifferen t b u t eq ually v u ln erab le physical situ atio n s (he’s a b o x er, sh e’s a d an ceh all girl), a n d b efo re th e ir love affaire is clin ched th e film has p a ire d th e m th ro u g h th e p u n ish m e n t th e y suffer.

K u b rick ’s film s o f late have suggested - after his ru n o f ex p lo itab le ‘big subjects’ u p to A Clockwork Orange (1971 ) so m eth in g o f a falling b ack o n its o w n reso u rces, even to his b eg in ­ ning s in genre. U n d er co ver o f S ch nitzler, F re u d a n d th e lo n g est re c o rd e d s h o o t in m ov ie history, he has n o w m ad e “ Kiss M e, Kill M e ” - a t last, o r again. ©

tralian requirements is, in both cases, difficult and ultimately unsatisfactory.

None-the-less using a script writingspecific word processor is an incomparable improvement on a conventional word processor. ©

not about people or events being romanticized. You tend to think of

The only way to import from Microsoft

56

“a 19 a savage land

1 Sigmund Freud, “The Censorship of Dreams”, from Introductory Lectures On Psychoanalysis.

2 Freud, ibid.

It’s tellin g th a t an ac to r o f S ew ell’s ex p erien ce fo u n d th e rô le e n o r­ m o u sly challenging: “M y first th o u g h t w as, can I d o it [...] o r w o u ld I fuck it up , I th o u g h t p ro b a ­ bly I’d fuck it up . So I th o u g h t I sh o u ld be b ra v e .”

S ew ell’s ev id en t en th u siasm fo r th e film is sh ared by all th e team , fro m lead acto rs to crew , a n d w a tc h ­ ing th e m w o rk dispels an y suspicion th a t it’s so m eth in g p u t o n fo r th e visiting jo u rn o . C hris W eb b , for ex am p le, o n e o f th e in d u stry ’s m o st so u g h t after an d p ro ficie n t ‘F irsts’ (T he F irst A ssistant D irec to r - like a S erg ean t M a jo r in th e arm y, is indispensable to even th e b est directo rs), is a g o o d gauge fo r h o w a s h o o t is goin g - if yo u can read him , th a t is. W h e n he calls o u t, “L o ck it d o w n ”, it’s th e to n e o f his voice th a t gives aw ay th e level o f angst. H is d ry h u m o u r a n d q u ie t effi­ ciency give h im an iro n grip o n th e p ro d u c tio n p ro cess itself.

M a rtin D o n o v a n - th e A m erican ac to r b est k n o w n fo r his w o rk w ith H a l H a rtle y (b u t n o t lim ited to th at) - is o v e rw h elm ed by th e ex p erien ce.

T h e n e w co m er o n th e set is th e m u c h a n ticip ate d M ay a S tange, an A u stralian actress in h e r th ird m ov ie - b u t h e r first lead role. She says, I knew this would be confronting and testing, I expected I would lose the plot at some point and I was a bit dis­ appointed when I didn’t. I worried that maybe I wasn’t doing it properly. But Bill Bennett and I did lots of prepara­ tion - four months researching and training physically - which was the best thing. Swimming, gym, yoga and running [...] It’s like a marathon, mak­ ing a film like this.

T h e ro le itself p u t a stra in o n S tange: Playing a role that is emotionally demanding can put you into an irra­ tional head space in yourself, making it difficult to operate with the technical demands of filmmaking while keeping emotionally on track - no tantrums or anything - but it’s an amazing skill to live on two planes.

B ut S tange seem s to m an ag e it; in h e r early tw en ties, she seem s to have a p o o l o f w isd o m at h e r disposal: As an actress, you live a thousand lives and you learn to experience things you wouldn’t otherwise. It’s always a life­ changing experience - and this is an extreme case. What this [filmmaking experience] has left me with as an actor and as a human being, is a sense

I’m really glad I did this - I’ve had an

of being relaxed about who I am.

incredible experience. The ingredients

That’s what you get when you work

have all come together in the film: the

with good artists and film m akers.®

location, the people, and a culture we’ve never seen before. It’s a tradi­ tional epic kind of story and style of shooting, almost cinéma vérité, a very

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

C3* 21 psycho

p rio r to th e sh o w e r scene), ag ain it w o u ld a p p ear so m eo n e m issed this n u an ce.

T o n y P erkin s to ld m e it w as im p licit in th e o rig in al th a t N o rm a n m astu rb ates w hile w a tch in g M a rio n un d ress. I w as n o t aw are o f th is an d d o u b t m an y o th e rs g o t it. H o w ev er, in th e n e w v ersio n it’s b la tan t, d am ag in g th e iro n ic (no it w as b old ) effect o f m ak in g N o rm a n th e dili­ g e n t b o y clean in g up after his b an sh ee m o th e r in to an au d ien c e id e n tificatio n figure.

M o s t su rp risin g , h o w ev er, is th a t w hile b e in g slavish to a scene like th a t a t th e S h e riffs h o u se (w hich H itc h co c k ch arac­ terize d as a “B scen e” a n d th re w aw ay , in o rd e r to sp en d 10 o f his 3 0 -d ay sched ule in th e sh o w er), th e n e w v ersio n varies th e sh o w e r m u rd e r - to m y m in d co n sid erab ly . T w o cu taw ays o f a sto rm y sky have b een in serted as w ell as (if I am n o t m istaken - it h a p p e n s p re tty fast) an ad d itio n a l sh o t o f an eyeball. I d o n o t tak e issue w ith th e single heli' c o p te r m ov e in to th e b e d ro o m w h ich o p en s the film (H itch co ck w o u ld have d o n e it in o n e if te c h ­ n o lo g y an d b u d g e t h a d p e rm itted ).

B ut I am m y stified a t th e a d d itio n a l ro ta tio n , th e n tru n c a tio n o f th e dolly p u ll-b ack fro m th e eye an d co rp se, w h ich is also q u ite p o o rly ex ecu ted (as are m an y o f th e cam era m oves). A n d to m y u tte r a sto n ish m e n t, th e y m iss th e m ajo r co n ceit in th e e n tire scene.

L o o k ag ain a t th e sh o t o f Ja n e t L eigh’s h a n d (alm ost certain ly th a t o f M arli R en ­ fro , h e r n u d e dou b le) reach in g fo r th e sh o w e r cu rta in . It h a d alw ays b o th e re d m e h o w p o o rly fra m ed it is, u n til I realized it is n o t p rim a r­ ily o f th e h a n d , b u t a full-fram e sh o t (adm ittedly o u t o f focus) o f fem ale breasts. H itc h co c k to ld th e H ay es office (th en ru n by a m a n n a m e d B reen) th a t he h a d used a bo y in th e sh o w e r an d th a t th e re fo re th e re w as n o possibility breasts w ere seen. H e h ad in fact u sed a strip p e r w h en J a n e t L eigh insisted o n th e o b lig ato ry b rea st cu ps th a t w ere used at th e tim e. It w o u ld a p p e a r th e creatives (and I’m d elib ­ erately n o t singling o u t th e d irecto r) believed H itc h c o c k ’s “leg en d ” ra th e r th a n th e ir o w n eyes.

A n d th e y a p p e a r also to m iss th e p e n e tra tio n sh o t o f th e kn ife (just b elo w th e navel - d o n e w ith a ru b b e r to rso ) fo r th e sam e reaso n .

E n o u g h nit-picking!

O n e p le asa n t su rp rise fo r m e w as th a t (as w ith a n e w th e a tre p ro d u c tio n ) h e arin g fam iliar d ialogue afresh can so m etim es give it n e w life. H e re th e in te llectu a l-th em a tic c o n te n t has risen to th e su r­ face, as th e p lo t m ach in a tio n s beco m e less im p o rta n t. D ialo g u e w h ich w as terrib ly fam iliar “M o th e r is n o t q u ite h erself to d a y ”, “Y o u eat like a C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

b ird ” (M iss C ra n e fro m P h o en ix ), “ ... p u t h e r so m ep lace” - seem ed fresh an d intelligent. A n d a sad co m m en tary o n co n te m p o ra ry screen w ritin g .

E specially w h en on e co n sid ers Jo sep h S tefan o w as a m in o r p lay w rig h t (h ard ly an A rth u r M iller) w rit­ ing his first screen play, o f w h ich th ey film ed th e first d raft. A n d , above all, th e m isrem em b ered fact th a t H itc h co c k w as slu m m in g a n d w as p illo ried at th e tim e fo r descen d in g to th e “tra sh y ” B -pictures of, say, W illiam C astle (w hose The Tingler th e year b efo re is th e p ic tu re m any p eo p le m isrem em b er as th e film in w h ich th e b lo o d w as red in an o th e r­ w ise b lack -an d -w h ite film ).

I confess I d id n o t sit th ro u g h th e w h o le film , w h ich I w o u ld co n sid er an in d ic tm en t o f a review er, b u t, as stated , this is n o t a review . B ut I w ill v e n tu re to suggest th e reaso n Psycho th e re ­ m ak e m ay n o t have b een th e success th a t w as h o p e d fo r (heads ro lled a t U niversal).

F ro m M a rio n ’s d eath , Psycho is essentially a m ystery w ith a tw ist - so m eth in g H itc h co c k saw as an tith etical to “su sp en se” ; th e so rt o f fare associ­ ate d w ith th e Alfred Hitchcock Presents show , th en at its peak. Psycho w as sh o t by H itc h c o c k ’s televi­ sion u n it an d at o n e p o in t he g o t co ld feet an d co n sid ered re-cu ttin g it as a special 9 0 -m in u te ep isod e. B ut th e terrib le m ystery (the E d G ein case can still strik e terro r) is n o lo n g er a m ystery, an d th e su rp rise en d in g n o lo n g er surprising . N o rm a n has b een o u t o f th e clo set (or sh o u ld I say arm o ire) th irty -n in e years. A n d w h ile th e o riginal still hold s, fo r m e th e fruitless p u rsu it o f M a rio n an d u n m ask ­ ing o f p o o r N o rm a n sta rte d to w ear th in especially as a “co p y ” (except, th a t is, as a cu riosity an d co n te m p la tio n o f p o st-m o d ern ity ).

It has been arg u ed th a t th e 1 96 0s began w ith Psycho an d it is easy n o w to fo rg et th a t H itc h ­ co ck ’s m ain cen so rsh ip p ro b le m vis-à-vis the sh o w er m u rd e r w as n o t violence b u t n u d ity . T h e co m b in a tio n o f th e tw o (n o t to m e n tio n th e cin e­ m atic ch alleng e o f dealin g w ith “m o th e r”) w o u ld have suggested R o b e rt B lo ch ’s nov el w as c o m ­ pletely in a p p ro p ria te fo r cin em atic tre a tm e n t, b u t H itc h co c k w as u p to th e challenge.

As a 1 2 -year-o ld, I saw Psycho five o r six tim es a t th e Savoy T h e a tre in R ussell S treet. It scared th e bejesus o u t o f m e. M o re so th a n an y th in g ever since - th e o nly th in g th a t cam e close (especially w ith th e fol de ro l su rro u n d in g it) w as The Exorcist (W illiam F ried k in , 197 3).

T h e early scenes w ere literally d rea d fu l (as in full o f d read ). A w o m a n in a b ra o n a b e d w ith a m a n in th e m id -a fte rn o o n just h a d to be h ead in g fo r so m eth in g terrib le. A n d once she to o k o ff th e b ra (even fo r th e p u rp o ses o f sh o w erin g ), y o u k n e w she w as gone.

I am ce rta in H itc h co c k w o u ld have ch o sen to have M a rio n n a k ed in th e o p e n in g scene if it h a d b een d o n e even a decad e late r (cf, Frenzy, 1 97 2).

T h e re-m ak e retain s th e bra, b u t ad d s som e taw d ry w a llp ap e r an d th e so u n d o f o ff-screen fucking. B ut even if th e illicit co u p le h a d been using g y n aeco ­ logical in stru m en ts, th e terrib le seediness o f it all is inevitably, alm o st en tirely, gone. A n d w ith it th e sense o f a w o m a n ru sh in g h e ad lo n g n o t to w a rd s “a p riv ate islan d ”, b u t p e rd itio n . T h is w as really a given, since th e 19 6 0 s en d ed th e m o rality w h ich H itc h co c k w as b o th rep ressed an d fascin ated by.

I w as m u ch criticized in Psycho II fo r ch an g in g th e g ro u n d -ru les at th e en d o f th e seco n d act by stabbin g V era M iles th ro u g h th e m o u th . I d id th is fo r o n e reaso n . H itc h co c k h a d ch an g ed th e g ro u n d -ru les, co m p letely p u lled th e ru g fro m u n d e r th e au d ien ce by killing his lead in g lad y at th e en d o f th e first act. H a d I b een ask ed to re ­ m ake th e original, regard less o f w h e th e r I to o k th e co p y -b o o k a p p ro a c h (and w e used R ich ard A n o b ile’s p h o to b o o k o f Psycho w h e n w e w ere sto ry b o ard in g ), I w o u ld have ta k e n m y m a n d a te to be th a t o f ad ju stin g p articu larly th e o p e n in g to th e m o d e rn (or ra th e r p o st-m o d e rn ) m o ral sensibility.

It w as after all H itc h c o c k ’s, n o t a u th o r R o b e rt B loch’s, p relu d e to th e m u rd e r, an d th e date o f th e n ew p ic tu re is titled as 199 8. T h is m ay n o t have been possible, b u t h ere is a n o th e r in stan ce o f th e co p y -b o o k a p p ro a c h n o t serving th e m aterial th irty -n in e years later.

W h ich brings m e to th e bigger an d v ex ed q u es­ tio n o f copying. A p p aren tly th e re are at least a h alf-d o zen g en u in e “M o n a L isa”s in th e w o rld . A rt ex p erts agree th ey are g enuine, y et it is k n o w n L eo n a rd o d id n o t p a in t th e m all. It is k n o w n he p a in te d m o re th a n one, so th e copies, th e “ fakes”, all pass for gen u in e “m a sterp ieces” . (F or m o re sim ilarly asto n ish in g a rt trivia, I reco m m en d O rso n W elles’ F For Fake (1975 ).

Psycho is n o t H itc h co c k ’s m asterpiece (th at h o n ­ o u r is claim ed, a t least o n th e Saul Bass p o ster, by Vertigo tw o years earlier). It is, h ow ever, o n e o f th e g reat w o rk s o f cin em a an d arguably th e tw e n tieth ce n tu ry ’s Oedipus Rex. It is co m m o n fo r a rt stu ­ dents to copy th e g reat m asters - an d p e r th e above ex am ple ap p aren tly a rt forgers are capable o f fo o l­ ing n o t only th e ex p erts - b u t th e likes o f E lm yr D e H o ry has actually ex p an d ed th e o euvre of M o d ig lian i an d o th ers (n o t im itatin g existing w o rk s, b u t p ain tin g ‘g en u in e’ w o rk s in th e style of).

T h is Psycho is n e ith e r a w o rk o f stu d y (ex cep t p e rh a p s fo r its d irec to r), n o r a forgery. It is a m o n ey -m ak in g v en tu re, lik en ed by its m ak ers to a B ro ad w ay revival. H o w ev er, it is generally in c u m ­ b e n t o n a n e w p ro d u c tio n o f an y th in g fro m S hakespeare to Showboat to p u t som e so rt o f n ew spin o n th e m a terial (n o t alw ays fo r th e best).

B ro ad w ay ’s d em ig o d (and T o n y P erk in s’ close p e r­ sonal friend) S tep h en S o n d h eim has said th a t th e g rea t th in g ab o u t cin em a (as o p p o sed to th e atre) is its “p e rm a n e n c e ” . W h ich , he p o in ts o u t, is also its failing (in th a t it can n ev er be im p ro v ed ).

So w e n o w have tw o Psychos a n d several sequels. I d o u b t scholars o f fu tu re m illen n ia w ill be terrib ly co n fu sed , b u t G us V an S an t has d o n e so m eth in g th a t’s n o t b een d o n e b efo re, tak in g p o st-m o d e rn p astich e to n e w h eig h ts (or d ep th s d e p en d in g o n y o u r perspective). F o r m y p a rt, le t’s h o p e this w ill n o t be th e tre n d se tte r its fo re ­ b ear has becom e. ®

57

HARRISON SERIES 12 AUTOMATED CONSOLE

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BG&D atlb 18 9 9

Funding Decisions Feature Film My Mother Frank

75

Dogwatch

75

From the Outside

75

Hildegarde

76

Children'sTelevision Drama Thunderstone 2 Round the Twist 4 Search for Treasure Island 2

75 75 76

Documentaries Pig Tusks & Paper Money The Loved Ones Living on the Edge Least Said, Soonest Mended

Facing the Demons Fire and Ice The Fortune Teller The Business The Battleships The Syren’s Song Rhinestone Cowboy Flashbacks Business Behind Bars Growing Old Gracefully The Governor-General Funny by George The Pecking Order

75 75 75 75

75 75 76 76 76 76 76 76 76 76 76 76 76

Production Survey

Cha Cha Cha D’Armour Mission: Impossible II

76 76

Grandfather & Revolution

76 76

The Adventures Of Chuck Finn Dr Jekyll & Mr Flyde Farscape Survivor Series Too Close For Comfort Tribe

Television

Features in Production Chameleon II Diamondback

Features in Post-Production Desire Hypersleep Story Komodo Mr Accident Sample People Something Different Tomorrow

76 77 77 77 77 77

Features in Pre-Production

77 77 77 77 78 78

Short Films 78 78 78 78 78 78

Above the Dust Level Art for Pete’s Sake Full Moon, Dirty Laundry Onan’s Revenge Opening Day Snowdroppers

Documentaries When the Window Opens Maiden Over

77

77 77

inproduction ■

BACKING

DIAMONDS

FF C Funding Decisions FROM THE OUTSIDE

^Following a Board meeting | i ;v,-held in'October 1998, the ‘if~ FFC has entered into .contract negotiations with the i

(90 MINUTES) M ushroom P ictu res P ty L td /C herub P ictu res P ty L td

^ ^ ^ a h jEersToFtheCf^tbi^hel^ ^ j

W-D: A ndrew D ominik P: M ichelle B ennett

' projects:! ^ | £ $ J |

EPs: A l C lark , M ichael G udinski

Co-P: Martin Fabinyi Dist: P alace E ntertainm ent ,

Feature Films ==_ ======_ =_ =^ MY MOTHER FRANK (95 MINUTES) I ntrepid F ilm s P ty L td

B eyond F ilms

n the surface he is quite charming.

On a deeper level one has to wonder about the real motivation i behind the ambitions he presents to the world. From the Outside is a psychological portrait of the life of a notorious crime figure.

O

W-D: Mark L amprell Ps: P haedon V a s s , S usan V a s s , J ohn W inter Dist: B eyond F ilm s , B eyond D istribu tion , i PM P, C hannel 4

F

rank, 51 year-old Frances Regina Aileen Nano Kennedy, has created a safe, secure, if somewhat bizarre world for herself, and it's boring her to death.

Everyone thinks Frank should get a life and, after initial resistance, she enrols atthe same university as her son David.

Frank-the-worrier becomes Frank-thewarrior until she and her friend are expelled for cheating. It seems things can't get any worse, but they do - she discovers she has Alzheimers disease.

My Mother Frank \s a film about how life offers you two basic options: change or die.

onathan

B lack R ay F ilm s P t y L td W-D: Laurie M c I nnes P: R ichard B rennan Dist: T he G lobe F ilm C o, I ntra F ilms

W

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people still grow their own food and

C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

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LIVING ON THE EDGE

(55 MINUTE ACCORD)

(55 MINUTE ACCORD)

e a r /

. EP'Fxecütive.Prbdticér, 'P Producer ® <" Ck>-P'Çô-Produçer ,AS Associate Producer as HP, Linç’Producer, "D -Director

I guana F ilm s P ty L td P-W-D: P aul R oy AP: J ennifer A inge Presale: ABC TV

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iving on the Edge ventures behind the stereotype of the 'Good Samaritan' and examines reality of life for an Australian aid worker. The film explores what motivates workers who choose this occupation and how they are selected. It looks into the hardships, dangers, rewards and disappointments of those working amongst the world's most needy-the victims of natural disasters, famine, war, poverty and politics.

L

Following a Board tele-con ieiienfce Ik LI in November T998, the FFC has entered mtoionliact negotiations with the producers of the lollowing piojiit.s

i H / f,

^ 3p vGas$ ¿¿T PC Principal Cast SE Story Editorjj WD W nter-directm DIST Distributor

j NOTE: '•Production Survey form.* non adh te to a revised format. Cinema Papers itqitltiltannotai.tt.pl information received in a different format D ocumentaries - f 1 Cmcinarpapcrs does not PIG TUSKS & PAPER MONEY . accept responsibilityfo r the j (55 MINUTE ACCORD) | accuracy o f any information L illia n a G ib b s P roductions P ty supplied by production com L td panics. This is ¡particuldS'ly D: T racey H olloway 5 the east when mformahon P: L illiana G ib bs changes but the production Presale: ABC TV company makes no attempt to or most of us money is a fact of life.

Without it, our most basic needs torrttl what ha »already bun would go unmet In Melanesia most j Ç' >2-5^ • supplied^ ■

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THE LOVED ONES

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(90 MINUTES)

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Presale: A B C TV

Ds: M ark D e F riest , J ulian M c S w iney EP: J onathan M. S hift Ws: P eter K inlock , B arbara B ishop ,

hunderstone Ztells the story of Noah and his friends from the future, the Nomads. Together they combine forces, not only to rescue the population of animals in Haven from drought, but also to fight mysterious Family, whose motives for time travel aren't all they seem to be. Eventually Noah and his friends are met with the toughest task of a ll-to change history.

j

ince opening in 1935,the Lort Smith Animal Hospital has pursued the unique policy that all animals should receive treatment regardless of the owner's ability to pay. Today the hospital has reached crisis point The hospital is currently operating at a loss of a million dollars a year. To help raise money and bring Lort Smith into the new Millennium, administrators have employed a dynamic young fundraising firm. The Loved Onesvj\\\ weave together intimate stories from contrasting worlds as staff, clients and management struggle to realise their dream of the "Animal Hospital of the Future".

W-D: Kate Hampel P: A ngela B orelli

M. S hiff P roductions P ty L td

David P h illips , Marieke Hardy , H elen M cW hirter , R oger D unn , L ois B ooton Presales: N etwork T en , T he D isney C hannel Dist: B eyond D istribution , T ele I mages

i i

• LAUNDERING

S

T axi F ilm s P ty L td

(1 3 X 3 0 MINUTE MINI SERIES)

DOGWATCH

illiam is a ship's captain, somewhere in South East Asia in the 1960s. His last ship went down with his entire crew and since then he has been unemployable and an alcoholic.

Now he has a job, but not an enviable one. The owner of the ship wants it sunk for insurance. A crew has been found for William - and they are a 'hard loti. Out to sea the bosun takes over the ship and reveals a plan to sell guns to the natives. By the time the crew return from their mission, William has discovered a hold full of bodies, victims of the Triad. He correctly concludes that this is the real reason for the scuttling of the ship and undoubtedly no witnesses are intended to remain alive.

The question is who is the killer?

build their own homes. Money and i possessions are gauges of success, i our common measure of wealth based ■ j on acquisition. Throughoutthe Pacific, j traditional wealth and status is j measured by the distribution of food j and valuables. In Melanesia, these | paradigms now operate i simultaneously. The film will explore j the meaning of money for people who j have only recently begun to use it. Shot j in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon I Islands and Vanuatu, it will challenge i some of our long-held beliefs about the j quality of life, power and wealth and j how money works.

THUNDERSTONE 2 J

FORTUNES

j

Child rend Television Drama

I

• TELLING

Children s Television Drama ROUND THE TWIST 4 (1 3 X 2 4 MINUTE EPISODES) A ustralian C hildren ' s T elevision F oundation

i

i through the eyes of three children who i live in a lighthouse on the Shipwreck j Coast of Victoria.

D ocumentaries LEAST SAID, SOONEST MENDED (52 MINUTE ACCORD) F lying C arpet F ilm s P t y L td P-W-D: S teve T homas Presale: S B S

j | | | | | j

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ispatched at 15to an institution, where she was hidden away and arrangements made for the subsequent adoption of her baby, Steve Thomas'sister, Val, spent the next 25 years not knowing where her child was, or whether she was alive or dead. Val's determination and her relinquished daughter”s curiosity brought about their eventual reconciliation. This event generates new encounters and provokes fresh revelations as the old family motto 'least said, soonest mended'is challenged in favour of an atmosphere of truth unthinkable 30 years ago.

FACING THE DEMONS (52 MINUTE ACCORD) T he D ee C ameron C ompany D: A viva Z iegler P: D ee Cameron Presale: ABC

j | j j

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I

n 1994, four young men attempted an armed hold-up at a suburban pizza restaurant The hold-up resulted in the murder of an innocent young man working there. Six months later the four robbers were arrested and convicted, their lives and dozens of others were in tatters as the ripple effect of the horrific murder spread.

Facing the Demons is a highlycharged, emotional story which documents the efforts of an ordinary Australian cop as he tries to bring the four convicted criminals together in one room to face the toughest jury they'll ever have to meet the family of the victim.

D: E sben S torm EP: P atricia E dgar P: P atricia E dgar Ws: C hris A n a sta ssia d es , E sben S torm , R ay B oseley Presales: ABC, BBC, N ickelodeon , D isney International Dist: ACTF

T

he fourth in the series of humorous, contemporary fantasy, seen

LOVE

FIRE AND ICE (27 MINUTE ACCORD) B r eakfast C reek A r t ist s Ps: J im D ooley, Mark C hapman W: J ohn Orr Presale: A B C

T

wenty-five years ago. The Iceman lost his mind boxing. Today, his 22

59

inproduction ProductionSurvey year-old son, Ricky Thomberry, risks all for a World Super-Middleweight championship. Ricky has a baby son the same age he was when one punch threw his dad into another world in one of the worst cases of brain damage the sport has seen. Fire and Ice tells the story of this good-looking, articulate, intelligent young man and his date with destiny, and asks - does history repeat itself?

he Raymond children are seeking to escape from Treasure Island in the old submarine. With their parents once more in the hands of their enemies, the children flee to the unknown Western side of the Island. They are joined by their friends, plus a more sinister companion. The children realize that this quest may also lead to ancient pirate treasure.

THE FORTUNE TELLER

D ocumentaries

T

(27 MINUTE ACCORD)

THE BUSINESS

W-D: R u s s e l l V ines

(52 MINUTE ACCORD)

P: S o n j a A r m s t r o n g

Presale: ABC

ene Rivkin is The Fortune Teller. He is the definition of "making it". He represents all that is supposed to be good about being rich and famous and is not shy about displaying it. He gets richer and richer because he knows all about what's "going up" and what's "going down". He knows about shares.

He can predict the future. His image is also a commodity he sells to punters who share his aspirations, who, like him, want to be at the top end of town.

Following a Board meeting held in December 1998, the FFC has entered into contract negotiations with the producers of the following projects:

THE BATTLESHIPS ( 4 X1 HOUR NON-ACCORD) RG A F ilm s P ty L td D: P eter B utt P: R ob M c A uley Ws: R ob M cA uley , P eter B utt Presales: AB C, C hannel 4

Feature Films HILDEGARDE (90 MINUTES) D avid H annay P roductions P ty L td D: Di D rew

Ps: D avid Han n a y , H eather Ogilvie W: G abrielle S ara P endergast Dist: S canbox I nternational , UIP, B uena V ista

H

ildegarde is a duck, the much-loved pet of Christopher, Jeremy and Isabel. Grieving the untimely death of their father and struggling with the hardships caused by his loss, they continue to do all the things they did before his death. But it's just not the same. None are old enough to really understand and each expresses their loss differently. A light appears in their life, however, when they realize that Hildegarde is incubating a clutch of eggs and things seem almost like they were before. Until the children discover her missing.

Child rend Television Drama SEARCH FOR TREASURE ISLAND 2 (1 4 X 3 0 MINUTE EPISODES) G rundy T elevisio n P ty L td D-AP: H oward R ubie EP: A ndrew B rooke P: R oger M irams

Ws: D avid P h ilip s , K aren P etersen , R obert L oader Presales: S even N etwork , TVE, RTE, FA Dist: P earson T elevision I nternational , C oral E uropa , S tudio Hamburg F ernseh A llianz (FA)

60

ot so long ago, Stephan Elliot wrote and directed The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Four years and one flop later, he is making a movie Eye of the Beholder. Creatively, he is under enormous pressure to deliver a hit. He simply can't afford another flop. Enter Lizzy Gardiner, Academy Award winning costume designer and friend of Elliot's for more than 20 years, she's on the set to design the costumes. This time she's brought with her a new friend: a camera. Elliot has given her permission to document the whole process: the financial dealings, casting, preproduction, shooting and post­ production. Gardiner has unlimited access to the whole shebang.

W-D: L aura Z usters P: J udi M c C rossin Presale: S B S

T he Business travels with seven people as they follow their dreams of wealth and freedom through the seductive world of Network marketing.

It is big business, ruled by companies like Amway, JewelWay, Neways and Mannatech. It is run by a part-time army of representatives who do the business at nights and on weekends, while holding down their regular jobs.

The majority of people who do well at Network Marketing in Australia are Lebanese, Greek, Indian or Vietnamese.

efore the nuclear bomb, no weapon on earth had evoked so much fear, veneration and passion as the battleships. In destructive power, it has no equal. Spanning almost two centuries, the series examines the rapid revolution of firepower and battleship design. In four dramatic episodes. The Battleships brings to television the story of the most awesome war-machines ever built, and their pivotal role in global history.

B

THE SYREN S SONG (52 MINUTE ACCORD) I ronlung P roductions P ty L td Ds: J an L ucas , Matthew L overing P: J an L ucas W: J ohn T rigg Presale: S B S

A

rne Barnbrook is just ten years old and was born with the extremely rare condition phocamelia (literally meaning limbless). Arne's parents would do anything for her. But Arne also has two older siblings - and living with a Syren, whose call is so incessant, is not such an easy life. The Syren's Song explores the complexity of life for a family whose journey must centre around the existence of one m em ber-Am e-the only one who appears unaffected by her disability.

FLASHBACKS

B roken H ill Production: F ebruary /M arch , FOR 20 WEEKS

P rincipal

Cast T om C ruise

No

D ocumentaries THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL

CHAMELEON II

F ilm A rt D oco P ty L td (M ovie of the W eek )

W-D: D aryl D ellora P: S ue Maslin Presale: ABC

Production company: WlLSHlRE COURT &

V illage R oadshow P roduction S ervices for UPN (P aramount )

W

ith unprecedented access to the highest constitutional office in Australia, this film will chart, for the first time, a year in the life of the Governor-General of Australia. Not just any year, it is the twelve months leading up to the national referendum on the Republic of Australia.

P rincipal

B ennett G ordon Writer: B ennett G ordon Production manager: B rian B urgess (QLD) NO OTHER DETAILS SUPPLIED

FUNNY BY GEORGE

Production companies: B eyond F ilms &

(55 MINUTE ACCORD)

Pre-production: F rom 15 F ebruary

M ushroom P ictures Production: M arch 1999, FOR seven w eeks

P early W hite P roductions

P rincipal

D: D on P ercy P: J eremy K ewley W: J im M urphy Presale: ABC

Producers:MARTiN Fa b in yi , B ill B ennett ,

J ennifer B ennett

Funding

eorge Wallace, larrikin comedian found success on stage, in movies, and on the wireless. Audiences of the '20s, '30s and '40s recognised in George the unvarnished Aussie, his humour mirroring the working class Australia of his time. Funny By George follows the life and career of George Wallace and analyses his importance to the culture of Australian comedy.

THE PECKING ORDER (27 MINUTE ACCORD) B uona N otte P roductions P ty L td W-Ds: K yla B rettle , G reg S piller P: C ristin a P ozzan Presale: ABC

(52 MINUTE ACCORD)

usiness Behind Bars is about one

B of the most powerful and

recession-proof industries today. As overcrowding intensifies in Australian prisons, governments are turning to the private sector to manage and own correctional facilities. This film takes an inside look at the private prison entrepreneurs who are paving a new future in the Australian correctional system and for the prisoners in their care. This documentary seeks to understand the different perspectives and approaches in providing the most effective correctional system in Australia and the United States.

he Pecking Order is an intimate portrait of two radical animal activists who have emerged against great odds from the matrimonial depths of suburban Melbourne. With few resources, great tenacity and a particularly daring approach, they take on the government and big business in the edible economy. Local heroes often dismissed as extremists, theirs is a storv of the undardog in an optimistic

Survey Features in Pre-Production

G

C ast K ylie M inogue , Daryl Hannah

S ynopsis

A

witty teen horror movie revolving around a mysterious murder during the making of a student film in the Adelaide Hills. The story picks up twenty years later as a young film student attempts to complete the unfinished film.

Production company: V on Z erneck /

S ertner F ilms & V illage R oadshow P roduction S ervices Locations: H interland

P rincipal

credits

Director: N oel N osseck Executive Producers: F rank von Z erneck ,

R obert H. S ertner Supervising producer: R ick ARREDONDO Production manager: J ulie FORSTER (QLD)

S ynopsis

company: Slipstream Films

Features in Post-Production

Production: J une 1999

P rincipal

DESIRE

credits

Writer-director-co-producer: David G iles

C ast

W-D: D ominic B ourke P: M elanie C oombs Presale: SBS

rowing Old Disgracefully\s a biker documentary about a son's attempt to understand his father, four years after a family break-up, by riding with his Dad and gang: Ulysses.

B eyond E ntertainment

D iamondback tells the story of environmental havoc as a newly developed species of snake escapes following a truck crash. Thirty years later the snake population has reached epic proportions and must be controlled...but at what cost?

X lt jd u e t t c in

(52 MINUTE ACCORD) M e l -O -D rama P ictures

(G erm any ) Government funding: SAFC Other funding: M ushroom P ictu res ,

(M ovie of the W eek )

T

P roduction

Overseas investment: M BP F und

DIAMONDBACK

CHACHACHA D'AMOUR GROWING OLD DISGRACEFULLY

credits

Director:KlMBLE R endall

G

BUSINESS BEHIND BARS

W-D: C athy S cott Ps: P at F isk e , C athy S cott Presale: SBS

credits

Director: C raig B axley Co-producers: B rian B urg ess ,

CUT

F lashbacks looks at the lives of four

P aradigm P ictures

OTHER DETAILS SUPPLIED

Features in Production

(56 MINUTE ACCORD)

W-D: S tephen R amsey P: J ane R am sey Presale: ABC

Vietnam veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress, brought on by horrific experiences in combat. Last year Brian Finch found that his symptoms were relieved by going back to Vietnam and in Flashbacks, he accompanies three other veterans hoping that through the trip, they too will have the liberating experience. As they travel, we will flash back to their individual war stories, illustrated by unique home-movies, and explore the emotions they go through during the trip. The film will reveal insights into the nature of war and help us come to terms with this tumultuous period in our history.

credits

Director: J ohn W oo

R am sey F ilm s P ty L td

RHINESTONE COWBOY

D: L izzy Gardiner P: J ane S cott W: Matt F ord Presale: A B C

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Locations: Fox S tudios , S ydney ,

(55 MINUTE ACCORD)

(55 MINUTE NON-ACCORD) G reat S cott P roductions

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II Production company: C ruise W agner for

N

BOB P ictures

R

Following a Board meeting held in February 1999, the FFC has entered into contract negotiations with the producers of the following projects:

I n n e r s e n s e P r o d u c t io n s

H ugh Laurie ( pending confirmation )

S ynopsis

A

Production company:

romantic comedy set in "one of the most beautiful cities in the world Sydney", and culminating in funny, touching climax filmed at "Symphony Under the Stars", with more than 10,000 attendees as extras.

Pre-production: 18/10/98 - 30/11/98 Production: 1/12/98 - 18/12/98 Post-production: 21/12/98-1/6/99

P rincipal

credits

DirectorBiLL Mousouus Producer: B ill MOUSOUUS Scriptwriter: B ill M o u s o u u s Director of photography: CON FlLIPPIDlS Production designer: E llen M a c L en n a n

C I N E MA P A P E R S â&#x20AC;˘ JUNE 1999

inproduction Production Su rvey Editors B ill M ousoulis and N igel B u esst Composers: B ill M c D onald and S hane O'M ara Sound recordist: HELEN M c G rath

P unning

and

G old C oast Budget: S25 million Production: 19/10/98-19/12/98 Distribution: SCANBOX A sia PACIFIC

Development

P roduction C rew

Production manager: V a n e s s a B r ow n Locations manager: J a m ie M c C le n n a n

On-S et C rew

On- set C rew

1st assistant director: BERNARD O'CONNOR 2nd assistant director: L uke D ove Continuity: L isa K ilby Boom operators: B ruce M owson , N igel B uesst Make-up: M ichelle T affe Hairdresser: M ichelle T affe Still photography: S imon F ord , H elen M adden , S alvatori L olicato Unit publicist: B renda M a c D onald Catering: B renda M a c D onald

1st assistant director: T oby P ease Make-up/hair supervisor: S ally G ordon Unit publicist: F iona SEARSON, DDA

A rt Department

et aga in st the backdrop of a seem ingly tranquil isle, Komodo follow s the grisly adventures of Patrick Connally, a fifteen year-old boy who suffe rs the lo ss of his fam ily in a most horrific and terrifying ordeal. The protagonists in this s c ie n c e fiction adventure exist in our w orld today the Komodo Dragons.

P ost- production Post-production supervisor: B ill M ousoulis Music performed by: B ill M c D onald and S hane O'M ara Laboratory: ClNEVEX Film gauge: 16mm Screen ratio: 1.33: 1 Video transfers by: L emac Off-line facilities: S unrise P icture C o.

C ast J uliet H one (A nna ), B elinda O'C onnor (F in o u ), P aul W ilson (P au l ), R ad R udd (E v a n ), M onica P ereira (S k ye ), F iona Latham (C in dy ), C arlo S an G ior ­ gio (M a r tin ), J im S haw (S teven ), J ohn M inihane (G ra n t ), K ate H enry (L o u ise )

S ynopsis

S

everal interconnecting sto rie s of love, lo ss, desire and despair, am ong both g a y and straight ch a ra cte rs. Th e main story co n ce rn s A n n a, a s u c c e s s fu l but lonely novelist, w ho falls for Finola, a v iva cio u s young w riting stu d e n t

(M

o v ie o f t h e

W

Wardrobe supervisorJULIE MIDDLETON

C ast J ill H en n essy , B illy B urke , K evin Z egers , S imon W estaw ay , P aul G leeson

S ynopsis

S

P rincipal C redits Director: YAHOO SERIOUS Producers: Y a h o o SERIOUS,

Director: MIKE Haber Producer: M ichael Lake Executive producer: C hip Hayes Line producer: B rian B urgess

Government A gency Investment Production: S outh A u s t r a l ia n F ilm C o r p o r a tio n

Marketing International sales agent:

S canbox A sia P acific Ltd

A

rom antic com edy about fre e-ra n ge e ggs, refrigerators and w hether m ankind is alone in the universe.

Production Company: K omodo F ilm P roduction P ty Ltd

Gold C oast

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

SAMPLE PEOPLE Production company: L iving M otion P ictures Budget: $2 m Pre-production: 21/9/9 8 -31 /10 /98 Production: F rom 2 N ovember , 1998 Post-production: D ecember 1998

P rincipal C redits

A

rom antic com edy about the rules of love, sex, lifestyle and evolution.

Production company:

B arron E ntertainm ent L imited Locations: M urray R iver , S outh A ustralia Production: EARLY MARCH - JUNE 1999

P rincipal

Funding Government Funding: S A F C Other Funding:PRlVATE INVESTMENT

Marketing International Sales Agents: CASCADE

(S cottish T elevision I nternatio nal ), B arron E ntertainm ent L imited Presale: G ermany Broadcaster: S even N etwork

DR JEKYLL& MR HYDE (PILOT) Production company:

C oote & Ha yes , V illage R oadshow P roduction S ervices Locations:

G old C oast , W arner R oadshow Movie W orld S tudios , B r isb a n e , H ong K ong

P rincipal

98

S ynopsis he story of w orld-renow ned mountain clim ber M ichael Groom and his co m e b a ck from a se rie s of m ountaineering accid e n ts on Everest.

T

credits

Director: C olin B udds Executive producer: J eff Hayes (QLD) Line producer: Darryl S heen (QLD) Writer: PETER LENKOV

WHEN THE WINDOW OPENS Producer: A n g e la Fa r ia Locations: AUSTRALIA, NEPAL Government Funding: P FT C (INTERNATIONAL M a rk et in g F u n d in g M IP C O M )

credits

Director. Mario A ndreacchio Producer: B ar bie T aylor

D ocumentaries

S ynopsis

D

r H enry Je k y ll, a young co ck y surgeon, has ju st ended his tenure as a country hospital doctor.

An ticipating a w ealth y, happy future with his adored new bride, Je k y ll goes to Hong Kong for their honeym oon, w here their blissful one-d ay m arriage ends in tragedy.

Production company: REACH AROUND F ilms Budget: $20,000 Pre-production: 28 SEPTEMBER D ecember 1998 Production: 1 - 18 D ecember 1998

FARSCAPE Production company: N ine F ilms and

Locations: BRISBANE, I n d ia

T elevision P ty Ltd

Funding; P F T C , S B S

Production office: SYDNEY Location: Fox S tudios , S ydney Production: 28/9/98 - M arch 1999

Broadcaster: S B S

P rincipal C redits

S ynopsis

T

hree A u stra lian men se a rch for a mate. Th eir quest is alm ost like a contem porary fairytale with the king, the prince and their lovers. Th eir s e a rch cro s s e s national borders through the internet, n e w sp ap ers and travel with each of the friends from different cultural b ackgro u n d s. Lust, com patibility, love, dictation by society, and a desire to belong are intrinsic to each of the c h a ra c te rs’ se arch .

GRANDFATHER & REVOLUTION

A

SOMETHING DIFFERENT TOMORROW

MAIDEN OVER Producer: E ls VAN P oppel

(POST-PRODUCTION FUNDING)

S ynopsis n edgy inner city youth drama about four close -kn it groups se ekin g to e sca p e the ten sio n s of urban life over a sw eltering w eekend.

S ynopsis

KOMODO

office:

P ost- production Assistant editor:ADRlAN M c Q u e e n - M a s o n

Cast

Y ahoo S erious (R oger C rum pkin ), H elen Dallim ore , David F ield , G rant P iro , Gary Ma c D onald

No other details supplied

P roduction

Wardrobe supervisor: R uth de la Lande Wardrobe buyer: S unny G race Standby wardrobe: K elly F oreman Wardrobe assistant: HEATHER WALLACE

K ylie M inogue ( J e s s ), B en M endelsohn ( J ohn ), S imon Lyndon (A ndy ), David F ield (TT), J oel E dgerton , P aula A rundel , Nathalie R oy, J ustin R osn iak , Matthew W ilkinson

C ast

( 1 3 X 2 4 MINUTE EPISODES)

S ynopsis

W ardrobe

1st assistant director: PETER J VOETEN Make-up/hair: W endy D e W aal Unit publicist: F iona S earson , DDA

A rt Department

THE ADVENTURES OF CHUCK FINN

A rt Department

On- set C rew

Art director: K erri A insworth Assistant designer: J o A nna B eikoff

Cast M ichael O'M alley (P auly ), J ennifer H en n essy (S am antha ), A nthony S harpe (C ory ), T am ara D onnellan (E mma ), L ochie N oble (M a tt ), J ason M c Fadyen (P ete ), S hannon S wan (G olfer ), M elanie B erg (S ecretary ), Maureen A ndrews (N u rse )

Art department runner: P eter S antucci Set dresser/props buyer: J enny D rake Props buyer: T ony C ronin Standby props: A ndrew G ibbs Carpenter: K evin J arrett

W a r w ic k R o s s

Co-producers: L ulu S erious , David R oach Line producer: D ennis K iely Scriptwriters: Y ahoo S erious , David R oach Director of photography: S teve A rnold Costume designer: A nna B orghesi Editor: S imon M artin

L ochie J unior Catering: PEACH PlT

On- set C rew 1st assistant director: D avid W olfe -B arry 2nd assistant director: C lair P arker 3rd assistant director: J amie N icholai Continuity:TRUDi Gardner Boom operaior:R0B CuTCHER Make-up: JENNIFER LAMPHEE Make-up assistant:J0DEE L enaine - S mith Safety/stunts co-ordinator: Vic W ilson Safety/stunts assistant: B rad B uckley Unit nurse: M ichelle M c G owan Still photography: MATTHEW NETTHEIM Catering: EVANGELINE FEARY- F ood NOIR

MR ACCIDENT Production company: H a p p y B r an d F ilm s Distribution company: G oldw yn F ilm s Production office: S yd n e y Production: 2 /1 1 /9 8 -2 /9 9

eek)

P rincipal credits

Focus Puller: C raig "R a g s " P hillpot Clapper-loader: M ichael B am bacas Key Grip: M arcus B osisto Assistant Grips: RlCK BELFIELD Gaffer: G raeme S helton Best Boy: Dave S mith 3rd Electrics: J ames H opwood

W ardrobe

HYPERSLEEP STORY Production company: V il u g e Roadshow P roduction S ervices for W ilshire C ourt (P aramount P ic tu r es ) Budget: S4.5 MILLION Locations: W arner R oadshow M ovie W orld S tudios

Camera C rew

Television

Script assistant: W ayne G utteridge Continuity: BRUCE M c K ay Boom operator: VlNCE J arrett Make-up: D ebra F ranklin Technical adviser: S am L ittle Still photography: SlMONE S proat ,

P roduction C rew

P roduction C rew

he inau gural arrival of a cru ise ship with its A u stra lian p a sse n g e rs transform s a remote villag e com m unity in Vanuatu.

On- set C rew

Development

Production manager: David L ightfoot Production co-ordinator: J ulie B yrne Production secretary: M elanie B runt Location manager: N adine S choen Unit manager: JOHN FAIRHEAD Unit assistant: F rank M angano Production runner: BRENDAN WINTER Production accountant: T rudy T alboty Green room driver: Gary B uss Completion guarantor: FA C B

Director of photography: D a v id B urr Production designer: G eor ge L iddle Editor: M ich a el Fa l u v o l l it a

C amera C rew

and

Casting: G reg A pps

C ammie M organ Scriptwriters: C raig M itchell , Hans B auer

Camera operator: CON FlLlPPlDlS Focus puller: FIONA T rigg Clapper-loader: SHANE Lyons Gaffer: S teven D e R ango

W ardrobe

Camera operator: CHRIS GABARDI Camera assistant: N ina K elageora Camera type: D igital V ideo Key grip: R yan G riffin

Director: MICHAEL Lantieri Producers: TONY LUDWIG, ALAN RlCHE Co-producer: CHRIS BROWN Line producer: TOM HOFFIE Executive producers: DEVESH CHETTY,

Production managers:JERlLYN STANDISH, B ar bar a C lifford Location manager:BERNARD O'CONNOR Production assistants: A lbert O ng , S imon F ord , B renda Ma c D onald Production runners:J0HN K a g a d is , R ahnee S quire -W ilson

Wardrobe supervisor: M ichelle T affe

P eter B uckm aster Director of photography: David F oreman Production designer: J ohn S antucci Costume designer: R uth DE LA Lande Editor: FRANS VAN0EN8ERG Sound recordist: D es K eneally

P lanning

1000

T

P roduction C rew Production supervisor: D ean I rwin Producer's assistant: R ichard S tan sbu ry Production runner: DANIELLE SHEA

Camera C rew

P rincipal C redits

Script editor: A lbert O ng

Art director: E llen M ac L ennan Assistant art director: M ichelle T affe

Director: CLINTON SMITH

Line producer: David L ightfoot Executive producer: J onathan S hteinman Scriptwriters: C linton S mith ,

Locations: W arner R oadshow S tudios ,

P eter S train Associate producer: C ameron B erg Scriptwriters: JASON M c Fadyen , S hannon S wan Director of photography: CHRIS GABARDI Editor: GREG HUTCHINS Sound designer: A nthony S harpe Sound recordist: S arah C orneliusen

Producers: E m ile SHERMAN, B a r t o n S m ith

continued

Line producers: H eath & E mily W helan Executive producers: A ndrew T illey ,

Directors: B rian H enson , A ndrew

P row se , P ino A m enta , R owan W oods , T ony T ils e , B rendan M aher , Ian W atso n , P eter A n drikidis Producer: M att C arroll Executive in charge of Production: P eter C o o g a n

Executive producers: B r ia n HENSON, K r is N o b l e , R o c k n e S. O 'B a n n o n , R obert H a lm i J n r , M a r g a r e t L o e sch

Co-executive producer: D a v id K e m per Director of photography: C r a ig B a r d en ACS Production designer: R icky Eyres Costume designer: T erry R yan Editors: M ark P erry , N eil T humpston ,

Director: PETER HEGEDUS Producer: Ia n La n g Writer: P eter H e g e d u s Locations: B r is b a n e , H u n g a r y Funding: P F T C , A F C , S B S Broadcaster: S B S

1st assistant director: A d r ia n P ic k e r sg ill

S ynopsis

M ake-up/hair supervisor:

S imon K laebe

P roduction C rew Production manager: HELEN PANCKHURST

On- set C rew

L esley V anderw alt Unit publicist: F iona S earson , D D A

P

eter H egedus confronts his grandfather, the leader of the Com m unist Party during the Ru ssian invasion of Hungary. W h at he finds is a man of contradictions.

Marketing Australian broadcaster: T he N ine NETWORK U.S. broadcaster: U S A N etw ork International sales agent:

T he J im H enson C ompany

EPI Director: RANDALL WOOD Producers: R a n d a l l W o o d ,

P rincipal C redits

G a b r iel le J o n e s

Directors: JASON M c Fadyen , S hannon S wan Producers: JASON M c Fadyen , S hannon S wan

Location: V a n u a t u Funding: P F T C , S B S Broadcaster: S B S

S ynopsis

Cast B en B r o w d e r , C la u d ia B u c k , A n t h o n y S im c o e , V ir g in ia H ey

S ynopsis

F

arscape tells the

story of astronaut Jo h n Crichton, a man from ourtim e, w ho, during an experim ental s p a ce

61

^production Production Su rvey continued

Producer: ANDREW SLATTERY Scriptwriter: A ndrew S lattery Director of photography: TAMIE M eem Production designer: ANDREW SLATTERY Editor: PAUL ROBINSON

P unning m ission, is hurled a c ro s s a thousand g a la x ie s to a com pletely alien world.

He finds him self aboard a starship populated by e sca p in g political p riso n ers from m yriad alien cultures.

Crichton m ust survive in a world he barely un derstands, keeping one step ahead of the pursuing Pe a ce ke e p e rs w ho w ill stop at nothing to capture him.

SURVIVOR SERIES (2 EPISODES OF A DOCU-DRAMA SERIES) Production company: United P roductions , UK Locations: BRISBANE, HINTERLAND Broadcaster: ITV , B ritain

P rincipal credits Director: SlMON KEERFOOT Production manager: Harry Y ates (Q LD) 1st assistant director: J ane Hamlin

S ynopsis

T

wo ep isod es of this se rie s are filmed in Q ueensland. The first is a recreation of the N e w ca stle earthquake; the second episode is the recreation of the A sh W e d n e sd ay fires in V ictoria.

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

i

is too dangerous to live on, and too dangerous to leave.

Short FLima

P rincipal

(4 HOUR M INI SERIES) Production company: C rawfords A ustralia Budget: $6.2 MILLION Location: M issio n B each , Queensland Pre-production: OCTOBER 1998

P roduction December 1998 Distributor: PARAMOUNT PICTURES I nternational

P rincipal credits Producer: JOCK B lair Writer: J ock B lair

Government A gencies I nvestment Production: P F T C , FFC

S ynopsis

A

sm all group of tourists board an old sailin g boat, the Se a Tram p, for a trop ical island-hopping cru ise through a largely overlooked corner of M icronesia. It should have been the holiday of a lifetim e, but five da ys out from port they re scu e M inh-Tam , a young V ietnam ese w om an, from her sinking fish traw ler. A s they attempt to outrun M inh-Tam 's attackers, who have reappeared at the prospect of fresh booty, a fire breaks out below d e ck of the S e a Tram p, and the ship burns to the w aterline and sinks. Only a handful of the cre w and p a sse n g e rs survive the tw in perils of pirates and fire to reach an uninhabited island that

62

P ost- production

S ynopsis

Camera C rew Focus puller: CAMERON DUNN Clapper-loader: SiONEAD B uhler Camera type: A aton Key grip: Matt A ndrews Gaffer: K arl ENGELER Best boy: A ndrew W illiam s

S ynopsis

TRIBE

A rt D epartment

On-set C rew 1st assistant director: J ohn Martin 2nd assistant director: S am F orster Continuity: E ve SPENCE Boom operator: Luis Olivares Make-up: T ina G ordon Still photography: W illiam N ewell Catering: S et M enu (A manda R oberts )

A rt Department Art director: J acqui L aurenson Standby props: D enie P entecost & M el L ivermoore

A nimals

Music performed by: S pike M itchell

Marketing Publicity: A ndrew S lattery

Cast

hree art critics arrive to judge the competition finalists. J a y and Pete have a scam in the w orks; J a y e avesdrop s on w hat the critics like of each painting and relays it to Pete by mobile. Pete grad u ally paints his own 'origin al' from Ja y 's information, and has it dow nstairs in time for the critics to make of it w hat they w ill.

T

FULL MOON, DIRTY LAUNDRY P rincipal

credits

Director: T ravis B ain Producer: A nna Davis Director of photography: J ared Y oung Scriptwriter: T ravis B ain Editor: J ared Y oung Sound design: L uke B erthelsen Sound recordist: Oisten P reus

P roduction

crew

1st assistant director: SCOTT FREEBAIRN Camera operator: J ared Y oung Camera assistants: L ucas C omino, A manda N innis Dolly grip: LUCAS COMINO

Animal trainer: ANIMAL H ouse

P roduction C rew Production manager: G eoff WlLLMAN Production co-ordinator: Catherine H arrison Production secretary: Carly B enedet Storyboard artist: ANTHONY SMITH Insurers: ClNESURE UNDERWRITING A gen cies , F ilm I nsurance U nderw riting A gencies P ty Ltd

J ohn Crompton , A n n a L ehm ann

S ynopsis

A

short film about love found and lost in a laun drom at

ONAN'S REVENGE

C amera C rew

Production company: R ed M ovies P ty Ltd Production: DECEMBER 1998

Focus puller: MlCHEAL CURWOOD Clapper-loader: JOCELYN ROSEN Camera type: ARRI SRII Key grip: L eroy Page , M ax M igliore , Paul G rey Dolly grip: M att A ndrews Gaffers: JEREMY DlBBEN, JASON FRACARO Video split operator: PETER TODD

P rincipal credits Director: BRUCE REDMAN Producers: BRUCE REDMAN, Dani ROGERS Co-producer: N athan Mayfield Scriptwriter: BRUCE REDMAN Director of photography: Jo ERSKINE Production designer: Matthew Crocker Editor: JOLIE CHANDLER Composer: B arrie G ott Sound designer: L iam P rice Sound recordists: Gary D ixon , P aul J ones

P unning

and development

Casting: G reg A pps - PROTOTYPE CASING, G illian R ollo - S potz

P roduction

Artworks: NlKKl MARSH

P roduction C rew

Producers: W endy Dar ke , Caroline Haw kins

1

On - S et C rew 1st assistant director: A ndrew S lattery Boom operator: L ee JAMESON Make-up: T am sin S crimshaw Still photography: N atalie R utherford

credits

Production manager: LlBBY SHARPE Production co-ordinator: LARA E sden Production accountant: Jo D riscoll Insurer: H.W. W oods P/L Legal services: B rett Oaten

credits

s long natural history se rie s for B B C TV; do cu-dram as of d a n ge ro u s/scary situations, such as being bitten by a snake w hilst mountain clim bing or w alking, and a crocod ile e sca p in g from its crate w h ilst being air freighted in a sm all plane.

Camera C rew 2nd unit D.O.P: J anice P etersen Lighting: L indsay G osper

B arry S hepherd (1 st Male C r itic ), R od A n sell (2 nd Male C r itic ), Katherine R oyle (F emale C r itic ), C ar l C aulfield (S hoopy ), Owen B arnes (P ete ), A lex D rago sljevic ( J a y )

Production company: B B C T V (UK) Locations: Far N orth Queensland

999

P roduction C rew Production manager: A ndre S lattery

Director: Carla D rago Producer: KATH SHELPER Scriptwriter: Carla D rago Director of photography: JUSTIN B rickle Production designer: E lizabeth Mary M oore Costume Designer: ELIZA GODMAN Editor: R ay THOMAS Sound designers: G eorge T enure & N igel C hristensen Sound recordist: R ob S chreiber

(DOCU-DRAMA SERIES)

P rincipal

Development

Casting: A ndrew S lattery Storyboard artist: PAUL ROBINSON Shooting schedule by: T amie M eem , P aul R obinson

ABOVE THE DUST LEVEL Production company: S carlett P ictures P ty Ltd Budget: $150,000 Pre-production: NOVEMBER 9 - 27, 1998 Production: NOVEMBER 30 D ecember 4,1998 Post-production: DECEMBER 7, 1998- M arch 1,1999

and

Director of photography: D a nie l Featherstone Editor: H elen B arry Sound designer: PETER RING

Gaffer: SlMON STEWARD Best boy: STEVEN R ae Make up: E lizabeth Marten Production manager: R od OSBORNE Art director: S ean V andenberg Camera type: A rrifex 35 BL Cast

crew

ON-SET CREW 1st assistant director: C u r e R ichardson 2nd assistant director: SONOMA MESSAGE Art department: S hani Dargan , B rett B rown Continuity: B rook F lint Make-up: A nn aleise S mith , Mary Davies Sound recordist: PETER ROBINSON Boon operator: P eter H ensley Still phtography: ROD Su vic

Production Manager: N athan Mayfield 1st assistant Director:CHRiSTY B eard 2nd assistant Director: REBECCA M c E lroy Production Assistant: Ka yt D ouglas Production Runner: Dael Oates Makeup/hair: J acquie D eacon Wardrobe: S usan Cox, J a ckie T revathon Travel: S tage & SCREEN M elinda Easton

Camera

P ost- production Sound editor: P eter R ing Composer: S tuart H unter Recording studio: B ig JESUS B urger S tudios , S ydney Titles/Animation: A nthony S mith Shooting gauge: SUPER 16MM Final gauge: 35 mm Screen ratio: 1.66:1 Shooting stock: K odak Off-line facilities: POST OFFICE F ilms Telecine: V ideo Lab Neg Matching: CHRIS ROWELL P roductions

crew

Focus puller: M argy McCLYMONT Clapper loader: DARCY YuiLLE Key grip: K urt Olsen , S carlet Olsen Gaffer: T ony H oltham Assistant electrics: CHRIS WALSINGHAM

C ast

P ost production

A ngus K ing , K eith R obinson

Laboratory: A t u b (G old C o ast ) Video post: C utting E dge

S ynopsis

Finance

wo real estate agents com pete with each other to sell a house. The first em ploys the dialogue of Sh ake sp e are , the rom antic e x c e ss of K eats, and the w it of Stoppard. Th e other attempts to sell the house.

T

Government funding: PACIFIC F ilm & T elevision C ommission (PFTC)

Cast R yan van D ijk (Y oung A ndrew ), Darren W eller (A ndrew ), J acki M ison (C atherine ), C atherine M iller (A liso n )

SNOWDROPPERS

S ynopsis

A

young man o b sesse d with his fertility com es to term s w ith his 'paternal instinct' in a hostile w orld.

OPENING DAY Production company: FUSION F ilms

P rincipal

Director: T ravis B a in Producer: A n n a D avis Director of photography: J ared Y oung Camera operators: L ucas COMINO, J ared Y oung Camera assistant: M ichael Canfield Sound design: L uke BERTHELSEN

S ynopsis

credits

Director: L uke S hanahan Producer: G eoff WlLLMAN Scriptwriter: L uke SHANAHAN

hree A u ssie blokes take an A m e rican e xch a n ge student out for a stran ge night on the town.

T

P ost- production Laboratory: ATLAB Laboratory liaison: J an T hornton Film gauge: S16 mm Screen ratio: 1:1.85 Shooting stock: K odak V ision 200T Video transfers by: OMNICON Off-line facilitiesJsLAND F ilms

Government A gency Investment Production: A ustralian F ilm C ommission

Cast J an e T urner (C h ristin e ), T obin S aunders (W ayn e ), M elinda D im itriades (L is a )

DU “Inproduction” io com piled by Tun H unter Pleaoe contact bun at Cinema Papero,

S ynopsis

A

n inner-city apartm ent block, a se asone d hypochondriac, belligerent neighbours and som e vanishing underpants...the se cre t lies

Above the Dust Level.

Tuesday,

Thursdaye3 Friday afternoons,

, on 03 9T162644 or fa x 059T164088

ART FOR PETE'S SAKE Production company: S lattery F ilms Pre-production: 1/11/98 - 30/1/99 Production: 1/2/99 - 5/2/99 Post-production: 8/2/99 - 22/2/99

P rincipal

credits

- jTEL (03) 9416 2644

Director: PAUL ROBINSON

C I N E M A P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

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TH ETH IN RED LINE T e r r e n c e Malick

T

re 5

he Australian film industry has had a bad run

laic of film-types. Past misfires include Hotel de Love

music is overdone, the script laboured, the acting

with that popular, but American genre, the

(Craig Rosenberg, 1996), All Men Are Liars (Gerard

and the jokes forced.

romantic comedy. While we tend to do dark comedy

Lee, 1995), and to a lesser degree, Dating the Enemy

- i.e., Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann, 1992),

(Megan Simpson Huberman, 1996). Already this

a serve, it’s not as deserving. At least Jackman and

Muriel’s Wedding (PJ. Hogan, 1994), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliott,

year, we’ve had two attempts, Dear Claudia (Chris

Karvan actually spark romantically and this makes

Cudlipp, 1999) and Paperback Hero (Antony J. Bow­

up for some broad caricatures and some very awk­

1994) - or in more recent times, even darkly dark -

man, 1999), but they’re being crucified by critics.

ward establishing scenes.

i.e., Kiss or Kill, (Bill Bennett, 1997), Head On

64

c = p (O — o bo o .§ re bo tc -= re </> (0 V a.-“ ■*-' >> O -fi ■aia re I e

This is understandable with Dear Claudia (see

And while Paperback Hero is getting just as harsh

Maybe we should just learn our lesson, and leave

(Ana Kokkinos, 1998), The Boys (Rowan Woods,

above) which is, for all intents and purposes, a lame

the dreamweaving to those who do it best, while we

1998). We don’t have a handle on that most formu­

and unfunny film with no romantic spark at all. The

stick to what we do best. TH

C I NE MA P A P E R S • JUNE 1999

S M PTE ■ s'9 9

ctV

-

Contact Expertise Euents, PO Box 547, Manly NSUJ 1655, Rustralia Phone: + 61 2 9977 0888 Fax: + 61 2 9977 0336 LUebsite: LULum.enpertiseeuents.com.au

FHKBOCK NOLU ON: +61 2 9977 0336 E-mail: smpte99@bigpond.com or □ I mould like to knom more about exhibiting, please contact me mith further details □ I mould like to attend the exhibition and/or conference, please send me the releuant information Name: .............................................................................................................

Position: .............................................................................................................

Company: .............................................................................................................

Address: ............................................................................................................. ........................................................... P o stco d e :................................. Country: Telephone: Facsimile: Email: LUebsite:

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