Cinema Papers No.134 August 2000

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“ I want the audience to feel the sun warming the bricks.

To smell the bread baking down the street. And to see the hope that reaches beyond the al leyway.”

“ I need th e ir heads to pound fro m the car s c r e e c h in g in to th e s ta tio n . Their noses to w r in ­ kle fro m th e f u m e s . Their hands to dig into the a rm re s ts as the car s peeds o f f . ”

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contents.

august.september.00

Reviews.

34.Film My Mother Frank Jesus’ Son Mr Accident Rules of Engagement Eye of the Beholder Bootmen 39. Reading The Comedy Writer Mighty Movies: Movie Poster Art from Plollywood’s Greatest Adventure Epics and Spectaculars Bloomsbury Movie Guide: Jaws Cambridge Film Flandbook: The Piano Twin Peeks, Australian & New Zealand Feature Films Which Lie Did I Tell?

42.Video Another Day in Paradise Me and Will Rumpelstiltskin

40. DVD Run Lola Run The Winslow Boy Crazy in Alabama

10

18

Storming The Castle. Tearlach Flutcheson charts The C astle's US release while executive producer Michael Hirsh sets the record straight to Michaela Boland.

Byrning the Candle. Michaela Boland interviews Rose Byrne, one of Australia’s hottest young actors.

23

DOT.COM.WHAT? Shane Danielsen searches for answers to the dot.com.craze sweeping through the film industry.

26

Screen Culture Under Seige. W ill the AFI survive the latest round of funding cuts?

28

Man Overboard. Cinematographer John Seale writes about lensing this year’s SFX extravaganza The Perfect Storm.

30

Cacking Themselves. To celebrate the release of Yahoo Serious’ latest film Deb Verhoeven casts a glance over Australia’s love of quirky comedies.

M r A c c id e n t -

Regulars, OS.Editorial. 06„Newsfront. Industry news. OT.Fresh Air. Letters and email reports.

08.The Box. Ingrid Ohlsson 1 5 . The Getting of Wisdom. Colin Moody 1 5 . Final Cut. EliseMcCredie. 21. To Market To Market. John Thornhill To be really successful Australian films need to sell internationally 22. Snapshot. John Safran previews Oh Harvey Where Art Thou? . 45.Supplement. Spotlighting the exhibition and distribution industries. 54. InProduction. W hats g o in g on in the in d u s tiy ? 5 8 . The Sum of Us. Local reviewers rate releases.

visual fx ofm ne/online ed itin g te le c in e 3D CGI Sydney -

2 6 3 D a rlin g h u rs t R d D a rlin g h u rst N SW 20 1 0

M e lb o u rn e - 12 T h is tle th w a ite S t S o u th M e lb . V IC 3205

P h 6 1 2 93 6 8 0355 F a x 6 1 2 936 8 0455 P h 6 1 3 969 9 46 3 3 F a x 61 3 969 9 3226

d ig ita l m atte p ainting design

eves tv se n e s d ocu m entanes b roa d ca st d esig n fe atu re film s opening title s

check out more than 4 0 0 ,0 0 0 items in the National Collection on-line

I www.screensound.qov.at Screen So u n d A ustralia NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE

CONTRIBUTING W RITERS

JOHN SEALE IS AN ACADEMY AWARD -

MICHAEL WARD IS A FREELANCE

WINNING CINEMATOGRAPHER. WHEN

COMEDY WRITER WHO HAS WRITTEN

NOT WORKING OVERSEAS HE LIVES IN

FOR THE M IC A L LE F PROG RAM AND

SYDNEY.

B AC K B E R N E R ON ABC TELEVISION. HE ONCE FELL ASLEEP DURING

TEARLACH HUTCHESON IS AN EX­

AWAKENINGS AND WOKE UP IN THE

PATRIOT AUSTRALIAN AND THE

MIDDLE OF SLEEPERS.

MANAGER OF THE INWOOD THEATRE IN DALLAS, TEXAS.

MEGAN SLOLEY. COMING OF AGE IN THE ERA OF VALLEY GIRL, YOU CANT

MADELEINE SWAIN AMONG MANY

STOP THE MUSIC AND XANADU

OTHER THINGS SHE REVIEWS FILMS

INSPIRED HER TO WEAR WHITE

FOR THE M E LB O U R N E W E E K LY .

PLASTIC EARRINGS, LEG WARMERS,

SARAH THOMAS HAS FULFILLED

ABOUT CINEMA.

INDIAN HEADRESS AND WRITE STUFF MYRIAD INCARNATIONS IN THE FILM,

DEB VERHOEVEN IS FILM CRITIC FOR

JOHN SAFRAN CO-HOSTS THE

COVER ROSE BYRNE PHOTOGRAPHED

THE M E LB O U R N E TIM ES AND

BREAKFASTERS ON MELBOURNE'S

BY ANSON SMART FOR HARPERS BAZAAR.

MUSIC AND ARTS WORLDS IN

SHANE DANIELSEN IS A FEATURE

LECTURES IN CINEMA STUDIES AT

3RRR FM, WRITES FOR TV AND IS

ADELAIDE AND SYDNEY AS WRITER,

WRITER FOR THE A U STRALIAN.

RMIT UNIVERSITY. SHE RECENTLY

SOON HEADED OVERSEAS ON HIS

EDITED TW IN PEEKS, AUSTRALIAN

OWN FILMING PROJECT.

MICHAEL BODEY, SHOWBIZ EDITOR

AND NEW ZELAND FEATURE FILMS.

CRITIC AND PUBLICIST. SHE HAS ALSO PROVEN HER COMPLETE LACK OF TALENT AS A PRACTITIONER IN

FOR THE D A ILY TELEGRAPH. IS A FILM

ANY OF THESE FIELDS.

JOURNALISM RARITY.

GROUP PUBLISHER DAVID MCDONOUGH dmcdonoughidniche.com .au ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER STEVEN METTER sm etteridniche.com .au

Welcome to Wood Wood

EDITOR MICHAELA BOLAND m bolandidniche.com .au

->Yep, it’s August 2000 and Olympics hoopla abounds. Not to

DESIGN

ringts] by organising Suncreen Sydney. A component of the

be left out of the main game, the film industry has leapt into the

ROB DAVIES robdidniche.com .au GLENN A MOFFATT glenn.aldniche.com .au

Olympic Arts Festival, Sunscreen w ill showcase classic Australian films free of charge at outdoor venues. A great gift to the Olympic city and its visitors during the games lead-up -

COPY EDITOR MICHELE FRANKENI m frankeniidniche.com .au

August 31 through September 10.

After a sluggish couple of years for local releases we're starting

ADVERTISING MANAGER LARRY BOYD TEL: 103] 9525 5566 lboydfdniche.com.au

to witness a domestic box office resurgence lead by The Wog Soy early this year and followed by the heavily advertised

PRODUCTION AURORA OLIVER aolivertdniche.com .au

Looking for ALibrandi, which just might creep over $9 million.

Initial word on the heavily-guarded Roadshow release The Dish

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS EMMA CRIMMINGS, LEIGH WHANNELL MADELEINE SWAIN, ADRIAN MARTIN MICHAEL HELMS. RUTH HESSEY DINO SCATENA, MICHAEL BODEY BARRIE PATTISON, CEC BUSBY EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD NATALIE MILLER. ROSS DIMSEY SCOTT MURRAY, SALLY-ANNE KERR LYNDEN BARBER, TED GREGORY TRACEY MAIR SUBSCRIPTIONS TEL: 1800 806 160 em ail: subscriptionsidniche.com .au

is positive and Palace has backed a winner with Chopper. A free publicity-fest, Chopper is also proving a critical success and has come in at number one in The Sum of Us [p.58]. Congratulations to producer Michele Bennett, lead Eric Bana and director Andrew Dominik. It has also been interesting to note the number of ex-cops, law reporters and assorted riff raff who have been called on to review the film for the daily press. A fresh approach seen first in Cinema Papers 133.

Issue 133, incidently received a very positive review in The Sunday Age on July 9. While we were chuffed to receive the praise we were disappointed our specially-commissioned feature by US

CINEMA PAPERS IS A PUBLICATION OF NICHE MEDIA PTY LTD ACN 064 613 529 TRADING AS NICHE PUBLISHING MANAGING DIRECTOR NICHOLAS DOWER

movie writer Joe Queenan on blockbusters was judged to be a buy-in. After generating the original idea, we had worked closely with Mr Joe to tailor the story for our audience. Must we stamp 'Exclusive' all over our stories to prove they're unique? We hope not.

We're very pleased cinematographer John Seale had the chance to write about tensing The

FINANCIAL CONTROLLER STEVEN METTER

Perfect Storm while holidaying in Australia recently. Seale has since moved on to the UK where

MARKETING DIRECTOR MALJONES

he'll be working for the next 300 years on the Harry Potter films. If the hype surrounding the Harry Potter books is any indication, those films should be, well, big.

ART DIRECTOR GLENN A MOFFATT

We were happy filmmaker and radio chatterer John Safran was able to write Snapshot, our short

MELBOURNE OFFICE 165 FITZROY STREET, ST KILDA, MELBOURNE, VIC 3182 TEL: 103) 9525 5566, FAX: (03) 9525 5628 PO BOX 2043. ST KILDA, MELBOURNE, VIC 3182 SCANNING EASTERN STUDIOS, TEL: 103) 9587 6166 FILM & PRINTING SOUTHERN COLOUR, TEL: 103) 9701 5544 COVER Rose Byrne photographed by Anson Smart fo r Harpers Bazaar.

film page. In previous issues writers have been asked to tackle completed works but the lateral thinking Safran dived in from the side and examined a partially completed film instead.

One of an exciting group of emerging Australian actors, our cover chick Rose Byrne is on fire.

Featured in the current release, My Mother Frank with the equally hot Matthew Newton, Byrne is eagerly awaiting the release of The Goddess of 1967, where she plays her first lead role, as a blind girl with shocking red hair opposite Japanese Prada model Rakiya Kurokawa.

In between she's been cast as a handmaiden in Star Wars Episode Two and enjoyed her stage debut with the Sydney Theatre Company's La Dispute.

Next!

ISSN 0311-3639 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED, STORED IN A RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR

BY ANY OTHER MEANS. ELECTRONIC, MECHANICAL,

Michaela Boland

PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING OR OTHERWISE. WITHOUT THE PRIOR PERMISSION IN WRITING OF THE PUBLISHERS. WHILE EVERY EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO ENSURE THE ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, THE PUBLISHERS ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS OR ANY CONSEQUENCES OF RELIANCE ON THIS PUBLICATION. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS PUBLICATION DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE EDITOR. THE PUBLISHER OR THE PUBLICATION. © 2000 NICHE MEDIA PTY LTD.

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [05]

Australian Imax will screen locally ->An Australian produced IMAX film called Solarmax premiered in London on June 27 as part of the opening of the new wing of that city's Science Museum. Chronicling the solar max the peak period of solar spots and flares, the film uses footage from both satellite and earth based telescopes, with additional computer generated animation.

Dendy will release One Day in September in August.

Let the Games Begin

pay rental separately, competing for

screening of Mark Lamprell’s debut

A collaboration between

feature My Mother Frank and, after a

director/producer John Weiley,

short intermission High Fidelity, the

physicist Robert Eather - who hand

new film based on Nick Hornby's

built an IMAX format camera - and the

popular novel of the same name.

Sydney post production company Lux

Problem being, at least for the second

Monkey, the producers were

film, dialogue from the fast talking

concerned that Solarmax may never

American actors, lead by John Cusack,

screen in Australia.

was difficult to understand for a large

Following screenings at Washington’s

section of the audience (seated at the

Smithsonian Institute and New York's

rear of the balcony).

Museum of Natural History, the film is

Some frustrated audience members

receiving a wide roll out across

could be overheard querying each

Europe and the US.

other about missed dialogue, others

An Australian release date for

left or moved to find vacant seats

Solarmax has not been set but the

downstairs where the audio was

future of IMAX cinemas in Australia is

customers” . He said both companies

clearer.

confirmed despite administrators

->For two weeks in September

agreed on "the efficiency of creating

While the general manager of BVI,

being appointed.

Sydney is hosting the greatest

more circuits together to save costs” .

(distributors of High Fidelity] Alan

Confirming the continued existence of

sporting event in the world. Yadda

The companies additionally share a

Finney, denied a film ’s release could

IMAX Cinemas in Australia (so long as

yadda. To get everyone in the Olympic

stake in Adelaide’s Palace Nova

be seriously damaged by a poor

senior employees take ’considerable’

mood, Dendy distributors has decided

Eastend in conjunction with three

preview exhibition, he said "we

pay cuts) one of the administrators

to launch on August 24- the

independent shareholders. Hoyts had

assume exhibitors, because they’re

said the IMAX sites must continue

documentary One Day in September.

a share in the Nova Rundle Street

the people on the spot, (see to it that)

operating because the structures

Winner of the 2000 Academy Award

when Palace/Village opened a four-

sound and image presentation is 100

could be used for little else than

for best documentary, One Day in

screen cinema in the same street.

percent".

indoor rock climbing.

September explores the events

All owners decided to join forces after

surrounding eleven Israeli athletes

both businesses suffered and the

being held hostage by Palestinian

collusion has resulted in a financial

terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympic

turnaround for both cinemas.

Games. The film contains music from

A Hoyts/Village/Force joint venture

the period, eye witness accounts and

also owns and operates eight cinemas

what is billed as ’dramatic’ archival

in New Zealand, currently in litigation

footage.

through the NZ Commerce Commission, the NZ equivalent of the ACCC.

Exhibition cooperation

The NZCC believes the joint venture is "anti competitive" says Andrew

->The twin powers of the Australian

Bowden, Village Roadshow group

exhibition industry, Hoyts and Village

manager, investor relations "and w ill

have joined forces to open a multiplex

probably close it down” .

in Sydney’s George St.

No such threat hangs over the

Megan Sloley reports Village chief

Adelaide or Sydney sites.

executive Graham Burke said the deal

A festival conundrum

was the result of two years of negotiations but the dual occupation of the site is not a joint venture.

-^The closing night of the Sydney Film

Burke likened the arrangement to "an

Festival threw up an interesting

airport terminal where two retailers

dilemma. A capacity audience bedded

sell the same product but operate and

down at the State Theatre for a

[6] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

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CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [7 ]

Reviewers cannot appraise actors And they’re not the only ones

the box ingrid ohlsson ->Julia Roberts' breasts - or boobs'

get into the 800-word territory,

and phoney populism.' What's missed

in Australia and phenomenally well in

as her character Erin Brockovich calls

throwing in a few lines at the end on

here is the fact that Julia Roberts'

the US. Sometimes these investments

them in the film of the same name -

how the actors measured up could be

career is all about phoney populism:

are justified. Certain films draw a

have recently proved a convenient

construed as avoidance. And although

her extraordinary ability to be boringly

good deal of their wattage from their

handle (excuse the image) for film

things have improved quite a lot on

ordinary and dazzling star-like

leads. I couldn't imagine Erin

reviewers. Collectively reviewers have

this front over the years as film

simultaneously, and her skill in

Brockovich without Roberts, Holy

chewed up valuable column inches

reviewing has become a more

exploiting the combination to

Smoke! without Kate Winslet or

expressing surprise at the size of

specialised occupation (as opposed to

maximum effect.

American Beauty without Kevin

them while marvelling at the

something that someone from the

Embarrassment and an over­

Spacey. These are actors who have the

cleverness of the costumes that give

sports desk can knock up if there's

developed sense of politeness are

ability to carry the narrative of the film

them that extra oomph. They have

nothing else on), old templates

philosophised on the way they have

survive. Just ask the actors who

been portrayed as 'weapons, not

automatically flick to the last few

victims' and, ironically, bemoaned the

paragraphs of the review because

fact that too much focus on you-know-

that's where they know they'll find

what is upstaging the excellence of

the verdict.

Roberts' performance.

Performance is the most ephemeral

To be fair on reviewers, it has to be

part of a film. Occasionally the

said that this breast obsession began

direction, or editing, or screenplay or

The rule for the sensitive reviewer who doesn’t like a performance is not to touch it. Yak on about everything, and if you can’t avoid it, a quick line buried some­ where towards the end should do it.

with the makers and promoters of the

camera work is so good that it

film spinning the angle for all it's

transcends easy dissection, but

other factors that may contribute to a

within their performance. Pinpointing

worth. And if they can get so much

there's always a technical element

general reticence to review

what this quality is, and how it feeds a

mileage out of a cleavage, why

there for discussion if the art of the

performance. (I suspect this is

film is not easy. Getting to the essence

shouldn't the media hop on board?

work proves too elusive. Acting has its

particularly so in a place like

of character is something that

No reason at all, except that in your

technical aspects too, but reviewers

Australia, where the paths of those

literature has struggled with for years,

average sized newspaper review it

often don't know a) what they are and

involved in the smallish film

and in the end it may well be that the

leaves little room to talk about any

b) how to separate them from the

communities cross frequently.) Actors

level of insight and attention required

other aspect of the performance,

person of the actor.

are their work (among other things)

for the job is more within the realm of

which, come to think of it, may be the

The failure to recognise the work in a

and performance is by its very nature

poets and novelists than the time-

point entirely.

performance and the tendency to

self-exposing. Bagging a performance

restricted, ideas-wary world of

Performance is difficult to discuss and

attribute its effect (often negatively) to

publicly is not a comfortable thing to

journalism .*

any angle that can provide an 'in' is

some innate quality in the actor (a gift

do. The rule for the sensitive reviewer

welcome. Oft-used devices, include

from the gods as opposed to

who doesn't like a performance is not

Ingrid Ohlsson is a former actor and

physical description (see above),

something designed and crafted (is

to touch it. Yak on about everything,

theatre reviewer, and now works as a

speculations about the stars' salaries

common among reviewers who,

and if you can't avoid it, a quick line

writer across a number of areas.

and the relationship between co-stars

paradoxically, are determined not to

buried somewhere towards the end should do it. A classic example of this

(particularly if they're romantically

be impressed by movie stars. Why

linked and without question if they're

look in depth at the work of someone

is The New Yorker review of Eyes Wide

married), Oscar prophesising and the

like Harrison Ford when you know that

Shut, which mentions the fact that

filching of choice bits, ie clichés, from

he was only cast because market

Nicole Kidman has a small mouth

the media releases that drum to the

research said he should be, and when

before moving, with pointed swiftness,

beat of: 'role of a lifetime', 'born to

he's only doing what he always does?

onto another matter entirely. In

play this role' and 'as you have never

An example of this is A.O. Scott writing

Australia, the master of this technique

seen her before'.

in the New York Times on Erin

is the perennially polite David Stratton

If we are talking a quick grab

Brockovich, who complains that 'Ms

[a reviewer, I must say, I rarely

containing a directive to ‘go see' or

Roberts spends the next 90 [minutes]

disagree with).

An actor is, more often than not, the

avoid like the plague’, there's not

content to be a movie star. As the

much wrong with gossip or PR

movie drags on her performance

hook for the audience. Film producers

recycling. But when a review starts to

swells to bursting with moral vanity

recognise this and pay actors very well

[8] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

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second feature The Dish, expat Aussie Tearlach Hutcheson examines The Castle’s much-delayed US release.

[10] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

-»When it was released in Australia in 1997, The Castle became one of the most profitable Australian films on record. Shot for next to nothing and relying on cast and crew pay deferrals, it ended up grossing $10.5 million. What made its success particularly notable was that the film was so avowedly Australian - proudly parochial, even - in its idiom.

But while that proved a strength at home, what would it mean for the film's chances overseas? Well, in mid-May 1999, The Castle finally opened in the US, after a protracted word-of-mouth campaign.

Let me begin by uncloaking myself. I’m an Australian The Castle’s courtroom capers.

who runs an arthouse theatre in Dallas, Texas. Don't ask me how I ended up in Texas from Sydney, because I don't really know.

You could put it down to my fervent nationalistic pride, but I really wanted to screen The Castle. I should point out at this stage that I am deeply cynical of the Australian media, which frequently over-hypes the reception Australian films receive in the US. So exaggerated are the tales of audiences wildly throwing their clothes to the rafters in joyous response to the latest export from home that I can only wonder where they’re reporting from. It certainly isn't this town Sure, some Australian films do well, butane ones that create a huge impact on US audiences are few and far between, and far less^cxihqmomthartx^ independent American prockict, or e.Ven EfNtjsh period pieces.

But the reason I’m here Australian media, but rathen^to offer a fl^jfo-the-, wall account (at least/as th\^\fly sees it) of ti reaction to The Castile.

The film opened inAhe US on might mean little Ao an Austral'

the US film exhibito'r it was hugely significant/ months, every studiò, in the country had b 4 e /j juggling its release schedule around à™the^May day: the 19th, the day The Phantom Menace was sgt^ for release. It became impossible to.reac newspaper, turn on the TV or listen to'the'ìradio without hearing some reference to tWjo^ng-awaited Star Wars movie about to eru^t\prr§^1;eens everywhere. How could the noi/!-Fox^udi@s possibly do battle with the'Force'?

\

' \

V.

In the case of Miramax the answerwas to go small, and release perhaps the tiniest film in Its slate and

So exaggerated are the tales of audiences wildly throwing their clothes to the rafters in joyous response to the latest export from home that I can only wonder where they’re reporting from.

It certainly isn’t this town. / / ' f\ WorkinaT3og''people - creative talents Santo Cilauro, Ton>-Gleither, Jane Kennedy and Rob Sitch, with

j

x \

el Hirsh providing theyn nagement muscle mu ■ j ad given up on di The Castle outside Wed instead\on other projects

play a David versus Goliath game.

umours abound about The Castle among US exhibitors. It is said that Miramax had been offered the film prior to Sundance for US$1 million. The company turned it down. But the 1998 festival screening generated such intense interest that a

Could there have been something deliberate about

including7\~'Rfvh'r Somewhere (an ABC TV fishing

the timing? The Castle opened in Australia in 1997

series] and The Panel (a weekly TV chat show). They

about US$6 million.

just as the Star Wars trilogy was being re-released.

also set about producing the now much-awaited The

Whether or not that figure is in any way accurate,

frenzy of bidding pushed its price up to somewhere

Of course, it did well, though after the run director

Dish (releasing through Roadshow on October 19],

one thing is certain: Miramax bought the film in

Rob Sitch remembers telling himself: “At least we

when "a smart woman in the office” (as Sitch puts it)

January 1998. So why did it take 16 months for it to

won’t have to go through that again." Little did he

sent a copy of the film to Sundance.

be released in the US?

suspect.

So how do you show an American audience a film considered so quintessentially Australian? Well, the

"That was the turning point," says Sitch. "The

Originally The Castle was slated for released in

Sponsors' Night people heard about it and

October 1998. Some exhibitors felt Miramax may

decided to show our film instead [of the one booked],

have changed its mind about putting the film out on

first thing is you have to get somebody to buy it. The

and it took off."

the market at that time because of a growing

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [11]

Executive producer of The Castle, Michael Hirsh believes vehemently “everything written about The Castle's US release has been wrong”.

The amount of changes made to the film, the price paid and audience reactions have all been mis-reported.

He says a music track and a skerrick of dialogue were the only changes made between The Castle’s Australian release and its US release several years later. Was a reference to ‘pool’ table in the trailer dubbed to become ‘billiard’ table in the feature? Hirsh cannot recall.

While refusing the verify production company Working Dog earned US$6 million from the film’s sale to arthpuse distributors Miramax at Sundance 1998 (a sum widely reported in the trade press) Hirsh believes the US release was an overall success. Stressing the sale figure was for world rights (excluding the UK and South Africa), he says what started out as a very small Australian film received sound critical reviews in the US media, played to appreciative audiences and earned box office of almost A$2million, despite being released on the same day as Star Wars Episode 1.

But why did Miramax sit on The Castle for 18 months before releasing it on the same day as the most anticipated film of 1999?

They were waiting for the right moment and then... "their argument was counter­ programming, in hindsight it didn’t work,” Hirsh says.

During the waiting period he felt anxious and nervous but lacked the power to tell Miramax when to release the film.

Would he work with Miramax again? “Sure, if it was appropriate” but he notes the likelihood of this happening following the company’s switch, in recent years, toward producing its own product rather than buying finished films for release, is very small.

“One of the things that we know (through the US experience) the film plays exactly the same -every time". Between them, Hirsh and director Rob Sitch witnessed at least 20 screenings.

The poor box office was due to a lack of the allimportant marketability - the big stars and big release budget so necessary for the US market, according to Hirsh.

Marketing which could have benefited from a concerted campaign. But increasingly, the big international distributors are cautioning local filmmakers from seeking high market prices.

The argument runs that a high sale price w ill limit the marketing spend and prejudice the film's chances at the box office.

"I didn’t get that sense," Hirsh says.

Miramax was very easy to work with. Hirsh, Sitch and lead actor Michael Caton travelled to the US for the film’s release and Miramax encouraged the production company’s input along the way. Unfortunately however, Shakespeare in Love and Life is Beautiful were being released about the same time so, “the Miramax marketing machine was going to those two films”. •

[12] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

concern that it had paid too much for it. Time and special consideration were needed to devise a strategy to ensure the distributor had the best chance of recovering its expenses.

Of course, in film more than most other industries, you've got to spend money to make money. So how could Miramax possibly make back its investment without spending perhaps half as much again in marketing? The answer: the almost-mystical Word of Mouth.

Miramax hoped the strategy that had reaped Fox Searchlight such dividends with The Full Monty could work just as well with The Castle. The company held numerous free screenings of the film Tiriel Mora and Michael Caton hatching the plan.

in major cities around the United States; in Dallas alone there were eight free screenings. Each screening targeted a different demographic, whether it was people who live close to airports, Australian expat groups or Middle Americans in general.

But here's the thing with free screenings in the US. Everybody, including the major studios, is doing them, with the upshot that they have become virtually ineffective as a marketing tool. With at least three free movies a week, the discerning public can pick and choose between films. The Castle, with its unknown cast and dodgy picture quality, was pitched against the likes of Brendan Fraser in The Mummy.

Predictably, it struggled to draw a crowd, rarely pulling in more than 150 people per screening. The movie was usually shown in auditoriums with a capacity of 300-500. With such a sparsely populated theatre, generating the empathy needed to make the film a success was extremely difficult (this phenomenon was seen with Muriel's Wedding, too).

Nonetheless, the word of mouth was generally positive. So too were the audience survey responses.

But here's the problem with surveys: you only get extreme response, either very positive or very negative (those who don't feel particularly strongly tend not to fill out the survey, dumping them instead on the theatre floor). Out of the 400 surveys collected at my theatre we received only two negative responses.

Good word of mouth, good survey results. The film should be selling itself, right? But asking the 1000 or so people who had seen it over its eight Dallas screenings to spread the good word in a city of three million people is... well, you do the maths.

-The critical response to The Castle was mixed. Andy — Klein, writing out of Los Angeles for a Dallas publication, finished his review with these words: "This sort of comedy is dependent on a genuinely generous attitude towards it characters. If the makers of The Castle have such an attitude, it doesn't come through very clearly."

It’s easy enough to talk about how much the film cost and how much it was sold to North America for. But there’s no getting around the fact that in almost all cases, the lower the cost of the film the more technical faults it has.

Klein was pointing towards an ambivalence that was also noted by some Australian critics of the movie, a

film critics. Ebert had proclaimed the movie "This

North America for. But there's no getting around the

suspicion that the filmmakers may have harboured a

year’s Full Monty". But using this quote may prove to

fact that in almost all cases, the lower the cost of the

sense of superiority to their characters. That's a

be a double-edged sword, leading audiences to

film the more technical faults it has. The Castle was

dangerous perception in the US, because of that

expect something quite different than the film they

shot on 16mm film and transferred to 35mm, and it

American thing about never making fun of yourself.

are actually about to see.

looks like a 16mm film transferred to 35mm.

Americans also have difficulty in relating to

There were also other critics who, while enjoying the

Audiences do notice, and are often unforgiving, of

characters like the Kerrigans. They really have no

film, struggled with reference points. Jane Sumner

such things, especially American audiences used to

reference point for such people. The closest thing

of the Dallas Morning News referred to the moral

watching films that have been touched up by

might be the American 'redneck', but the redneck of

majority when she wrote: " The Castle may not be

Industrial Light and Magic.

American popular culture is either an unsympathetic

about what the religious right means by family

Yet for all that, American audiences seem to enjoy

savage, as per Deliverance, or a noble fool, as in The

values, but that's the underlying theme of this

the film. Released on the arthouse circuit, which

Beverly Hillbillies, neither of which really

modest, sunny satire that has you grinning all the

normally attracts audiences willing to be more

approximates the Kerrigan tribe.

way to the car."

forgiving of the technical problems of a small-

Other critics were kinder - or, at any rate, could be

The Castle also suffers from the same problem that

budget film, The Castle received enthusiastic

made to appear so. In its press campaign for The

afflicted director Emma Kate Crogan's Love and

responses. In my theatre, people have been known

Castle, Miramax extracted a quote from Roger Ebert,

Other Catastrophes. It's easy enough to talk about

to break into applause at the end of the film, though

one of America's most widely read (and watched]

how much the film cost and how much it was sold to

they seem to struggle, particularly in the beginning,

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [13]

What the American critics said The Castle, directed by Rob Sitch, is one

What makes The Castle so startlingly

This domestic comedy from Down

Written and directed by a clutch of

of those comic treasures Like The Full

good is that about midway through

Under is ... more thoughtful, noticing

Australian comics who are their

Monty and Waking Ned Devine that

the picture, we realise the joke is on

and inventive than nine out of 10 big-

country’s equivalent of Second City,

shows its characters in the full bloom

us.

budget comedies out of Hollywood.

The Castle is refreshingly,

of glorious eccentricity.

Gary Thompson,

For all the fun it has with the family's

affectionately, exuberantly unironic.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Philadelphia Daily News

individual and collective lack of taste,

So unironic, in fact, as to be radical.

the script clearly takes these people

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

A feel-good comic fairy tale that flashes

The Castle has the ultra-slow pace,

to heart - and so w ill you.

its family values like an oversize

ultra-thick characters and ultra-slim

Susan Stark, Detroit News

The satire and inventive wit of

rhinestone bracelet... Essentially a

plot of a PBS sitcom pilot. Hardly

one-joke movie ... But The Castle

worth a night at the movies. And yet

An agreeably flaky Aussie comedy

team behind this (led by Rob Sitch),

moves along nimbly enough to keep

... The Castle is charming and, yes,

that taps that it's-always-the-'50s

are right on the money. If you're

from settling into a pudding that even

uplifting.

comfort zone.

looking for straight-ahead belly

Darryl, in all his gastronomic

Bob Heisler, LA Times

Owen Gleiberman,

laughs ... I advise you pay the

innocence, couldn't stomach.

Working Dog, the Australian comedy

Entertainment Weekly

Stephen Holden, New York Times

Kerrigans a visit.

Desson Howe, Washington Post

with the dialect. I sometimes wondered if they didn't get the jokes, or is it just that they’re not as funny as I remembered? There are, of course, some jokes that are simply so culturally specific that Americans were never going to get them. Like the "can you move the Corolla so I can move the Torana to get to the Commodore?" exchange.

Despite the cultural differences there were some fundamental truths that Americans could relate to well. You don't buy houses next to airports, power­ lines, or landfills, for instance. The first major audience response in the film always occurs when Darryl (Michael Caton) asks the building inspector if he knows anything about lead.

US audiences seemed to appreciate the dry understatement underpinning much of the comedy.

References to the daughter's hairdressing diploma as a college degree, the walk home from the airport, the nearly dry lake, the lawyer who dictates a letter then types it up himself: These are all moments that know no cultural boundaries. There ■were moments which took on added significance in a foreign land: when Farouk (Costas Kilias) says he _doesn't mind living next to a runway because at least these planes don't drop bombs, it is especially relevant to an audience whose country is currently bombing Serbia.

Life is Beautiful was eventually an Oscar winner for Roberto Benigni and Miramax, but it took 20 weeks of gradual growth to turn word of mouth into decent box office.

It's difficult to know if changes were made in the script to satisfy American sensibilities. To know for sure, one would need to see the films side by side.

might call the American mentality.

The trailer for the film did, however, refer to a pool

Surveys held after the film 's release revealed a

table, while the movie refers to a billiard table.

positive reaction. Audiences on the way out were

The trailer also had Tracey Kerrigan (Sophie Lee)

heard telling incoming patrons that they were in for

telling her mother Sal (Anne Tenney], “ I'm not going

a treat (of course, there was also the occasional

to have children till I'm at least 23,” a scene that

audience survey response calling the film

was cut from the film. What's more, Miramax issued

“ numbingly boring” and "definitely unfunny").

a last-minute request to switch some reels because

But the central question remains both for exhibitors

of "technical problems" - and yet we had already

and for Miramax. For exhibitors, the choice is

played the film with the suspect reels and found no

between allowing the film the time it needs to build

such problems. Changes may have been made in

or pulling it to make space for the summer's big

the substituted reels.

releases. For Miramax, it's a case of if The Castle is

Was Miramax right to be so fearful about the fate of

indeed a word-of-mouth film, how much time does

The Castlel At the end of the day, this is a film with

it need before tongues start wagging? Life is

the near-universal premise of the underdog

Beautiful was eventually an Oscar winner for

overcoming apparently insurmountable odds. It's a

Roberto Benigni and Miramax, but it took 20 weeks

theme that has proven a winner with audiences

of gradual growth to turn word of mouth into decent

from Rocky (and before) to Strictly Ballroom (and

box office. The Castle didn't get the same

beyond), and one with enormous appeal to what we

opportunity.«

[14] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

Uke bees to a honey pot The Australian arts grant culture needs a shake up

the getting of wisdom.colin moody ->The Australian film and television

film and television industry, though

preserve our Australian culture", the

build a railway from Alice Springs

industry is in crisis. Or so writers,

only those of course whose jobs are

sentiment remains the same. At the

to Darwin.

directors, producers and actors of

genuinely threatened by the emergent

next glamorous, glitzy, gala evening of

Let's say it takes five years to build.

anglo-celtic origin would have us

globalised market.

wondrous awards for all the beautiful

During that time the workers are to

believe. More funding is the catch-cry

That is, actors, producers, directors

people who so selflessly give of their

have no artistic implements and are

under the auspices of the need to

and writers, of anglo-celtic extraction

time to troop up the red carpet, one

not allowed to tell each other stories.

protect our Australian culture.

who write and depict this myopic view

may see the facade crack. The

The poets are on no account to be

But what is Australian culture and

of Australian culture. Ironic also that

dispossessed who are being fed this

allowed writing materials. In the

why should it need protecting?

this is the same insidious bunch who

crap and told constantly how much it is

meantime all the theatres w ill be shut

For jobs?

created and now perpetuates the

in their interest to preserve the status

or black as the saying goes.

With the building of film and television

cultural cringe phenomenon which is

quo may perhaps smell a rat. They may

The entire Australian arts budget w ill

studios in both Queensland and New

used to advantage when being applied

begin to correlate government funding

be given to the Aboriginal health and

South Wales, the on-again off-again

to home audiences who "just don't get

and untruthful depictions of the world

education services. The five years

proposed studio for Victoria and the

it” when failing to support homemade

as a plot to keep them right where they

following the railways completion w ill

resultant growth in overseas

crap. Used self-detrimentally when

are-, spending what's left of the paltry

see an explosion in artistic fervour.

this same group cry foul of anything

sums they garner from the sale of their

Cut all government funding of the arts,

productions coming to Australia, job growth has never been more healthy.

that is “ un-Australian" being given the

labour on movie tickets, and the

and watch the bourgeois "artistes" run

Add to this that US productions pay

least drop from the gravy-train that is

products advertised on television and

to catch the last gravy train leaving the

considerably higher rates than

arts funding in this nation.

at the movies. If not they can always go

station. With their Freddie Freeloader

local productions and one may begin

The dispossessed and the totally

to smell a vested interest in the

ignored have little to complain about

clamour for protection of our

since they have nothing to lose and

Australian values.

everything to gain in the changing

For over a hundred years the

environment.

prevailing depiction of a true blue

Perhaps the Australian arts industry is

dinky-di Aussie bloke has been the

a microcosm, of sorts, of the

laconic, hard-working, hard-drinking,

worldwide reaction to the global

With the successful bourgeoisification of all but the lumpenproletariat, the pursuit of mammon has become all. to the casino for a bet and watch the

passes so tastefully dangled round

working class stoic possessor of true

market place. Naturally those who

awards ceremonies live.

their insincere necks like so many

wisdom and high moral fibre under

have their monopoly removed are

They might cry: "Cut all government

ribbons of concern.

One eats, shits and or dies. All the rest

pressure. Supported by the equally

going to fight. Flowever, it might be

funding of the arts now!"

stoic tough-as-guts Aussie sheila who

wise to check with others before the

The very concept of state-sponsored

is propaganda. To claim otherwise is

in recent times has begun to out-

call "national identity under threat"

arts is truly beyond nelly. How many

to be disingenuous to say the least.*

tough the blokes - who are now far

is utilised for self-interest and

people go to the opera, ballet and or

more concerned with the Australian

economic greed.

modern dance? Theatre, films? Lots,

Colin Moody is an actor of anglo-

male pastime of dressing up as

Flypocrisy aside, what is the need, if

lots and lots. But what would happen

celtic origin currently portraying the

women. Afterall, someone has to

any, for a society to have a depiction of

if there was no government funding?

character of radio broadcaster Tom

do it.

itself? With the successful

The world as we lazy fat bastard

Dooley in the ABC drama Something

This one-eyed view of Australian

bourgeoisification of all but the

artistes know it would end. No more

in the Air.

deeply concerned ponderous articles

societal make-up has of course

lumpenproletariat, the pursuit of

always ignored or marginalised

mammon has become all. It is ironic

on "blondie, the anorexic latest hot

slightly over fifty percent of the

that in the past actors were thought of

young thing who cares so deeply for

population.

as society’s fringe-dwellers and

the world she's waiting in line for her

Not until the show Heartbreak High

writers the source of intellect for

chance to hold a black baby up and

did we see on Australian television

revolutionary change.

shame you into salving your guilt with

anything that remotely represented a

Yet here we have a society undergoing

a credit card". All of which can only

true depiction of the demographic mix

great change and at the forefront of

happen if we have enough starving

in the population.

protest are the members who fought

black babies so let's keep them coming.

It is no surprise then the main source

so hard to get the world the way they

Idea: Arrest all poets. Arrest all artists

of demonstration comes from the

want it. Revolution and reaction?

of every hue for that matter, and put

anglo-saxon community within the

"Let them eat cake” or “We want to

them in a chain gang and make them CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [ 1 5 ]

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Email: ogteam@og.com.au .

Phone (03)9826 9077

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Currently distributing The Dinner Game (Le Diner De Cons), Comedian Harmonists, Love Etc, Love Is The Devil, The Assistant, Would 1 Lie To You and Wallace & Gromit.

New titles for late 2000 include Innocence (Paul Cox), No Ball Players Here (Monique Schwarz) and Train de Vie (Radu Mihaileanu).

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October Special fes

Education and Training, short Films, SPAA <Where are the young film makers of the future are learning their trade and what are they picking up or missing in the courses? Does the training match industry expectations and needs? How well prepared are the new breed to deal with technological changes? What retraining is possible in a working industry?

Issue 135 examines the training issues and Looks for the practical implications in the field. We get down to the essentials on state of the art in

To find out how you can advertise in this next issue of Cinema Papers, contact larry Boyd on (03) 95255566 or email lboydfi3niche.com.au

I

Where is the audience?

It’s time to share responsibility of finding out

final cut.elise mccredie ->We are told over and over, in every

the marketplace? Flave distributors

newspaper: “The Australian film

have lost all faith in the financial

crisis. Our industry w ill be in crisis if

industry is in crisis", "The Australian

returns of Australian films and so are

filmmakers are forced to replace the

film industry has lost its way” ,

therefore taking fewer development or

creative process of filmmaking with a

"Australian audiences aren't going to

marketing risks? We are trapped in a

cynical attempt to second guess the

see Australian films because they rely

vicious cycle.

market.

on rehashing the same tired 'quirky'

As the media propagates the myth

Were Fellini, Godard and Campion

formulas".

that the Australian film industry is in

thinking of market forces and the

I am tired of the media insisting the

crisis, distributors have greater

demographic when they were making

film industry is in crisis. Box office

justification for not investing in local

what are now seen as masterpieces?

office returns with an industry in

returns for local films may have

films during production or marketing.

bunch of newspapers ads.

As filmmakers and screenwriters we

dropped but the industry is not in

This caution could push the industry

What needs to be addressed is

should be diving headfirst into worlds

crisis. Last year Two Hands received

into crisis.

whether a film's poor performance at

of vision and imagination where

rave reviews and earned close to $5

We need to shift the argument from

the box office is in fact the film's fault

anything can and w ill happen. Our

million at the box office. Similarly,

being about money (because let's face

or the fault of the marketing strategy.

need to tell a particular story must

Looking for Alibrandi has been a box

there w ill never be enough) to focus

Distributors must employ people who

outweigh marketplace concerns. We

office and critical success. The Wog

on responsibility. Distributors must

understand that a unique campaign

are putting the cart before the horse

Boy has topped $10 million, while

begin to share responsibility for the

and not just an expensive one, w ill sell

by demanding of our new writers at

smaller independent films like Praise,

diminishing audiences for Australian

a film. To be fair some distributors

every public seminar - who is your

Feeling Sexy and Soft Fruit may not

films. If a distributor commits to a film

have begun to take responsibility and

audience? Just write, be inspired,

have lit the box office on fire, they are

then they have a responsibility to

developed new strategies, but far

create worlds and emotions that

definitely heralding the arrival of new

actually distribute it. Instead they all

from all.

excite and confront. Dive in, succeed

voices of great vision and talent.

too often read the market, hedge their

Recently Jonathan Teplitzky's Better

bets, and pull the plug.

Than Sex screened to an impressed

When the film in question does poorly

Sydney Film Festival opening night

at the box office their position is

audience. Informed pundits are

vindicated. Yet it is close to impossible

already hedging their bets on a box

for a film to do decent box office

office return above $6 million for the

without financial and marketing

micro-budget movie.

support. Again we are trapped in a

Why all the doom and gloom? It’s been

vicious circle.

We should be acknowledging scripts which don’t rely on formulas, films which tell important and powerful intimate stories

five years since we've had a break-out

"But we're a business” comes their

Australian films are not some

beyond all expectations or fail

hit like Shine but why do we judge as

plea for exoneration. Yes, distribution

homogenous disaster area. Individual

gloriously but learn and grow, and

successes only those films receiving

is a business but successful

titles have unique marketing needs.

trust that the audience is there...

international acclaim? Instead we

businesses are fuelled by inspiration

Until all distributors take on board this

somewhere . . . we just have to share

should be acknowledging scripts

and vision, not just capital.

reality, more and more filmmakers

the responsibility for finding them.

which don’t rely on formulas, films

The local industry cannot compete

w ill be take inspiration from the

which tell important and powerful

with the marketing budgets allocated

successful distribution of films like

Elise McCredie is an actor, writer and

intimate stories.

to American films but it can compete

The Boys and Feeling Sexy and do it

director. Her first feature Strange

The media argues Australians are

in other ways. The industry's

for themselves.

Fits Of Passion was selected for The

turning away from local product.

distribution sector desperately needs

It is crucial we acknowledge and

1999 Cannes Film Festival. A year

Admittedly the audience for Australian

to approach film publicity

applaud the fact that for a relatively

later it was released in Melbourne on

films in 1999 was three percent, down

imaginatively.

small industry Australia produces

two screens. Due largely to the

from four percent in 1998. Why? Is it

Filmmakers are constantly told they

many powerful and original films. The

efforts and tenacity of the lead actors

because Australians don't want to see

need to know the audience for their

irrefutable fact that many are not

and the support of Glebe’s Valhalla

Australian films or because the print

film. This refrain should be thrown

reaching an audience needs to be

cinema it enjoyed a limited season in

and advertising budgets for local films

back at distributors. It is not enough to

tackled head on. We cannot keep

Sydney in June 2000. Elise is

are so much smaller than the

approach each film with the same old

blaming filmmakers for making films

currently writing her second feature

advertising budgets of American films

tired marketing routine - a couple of

Australians don’t want to see. It is

and will appear in Clara Law’s The

and are therefore being swamped in

billboards, a run of posters, and a

imperative not to equate poor box

Goddess Of 1967.9 CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [1 7]

->Winter 2000 is proving a very good season for Rose Byrne. But at 9.30am, perched in a favourite Balmain cafĂŠ, her big sleepy eyes reveal plainly the demands of the past few weeks.

Each evening she has been performing on stage with the Sydney Theatre Company production of La Dispute, Pierre Marivaux's play about four kids raised in isolation then released into society, while during the days Byrne has been part of the Star Wars set.

From local theatre production to international blockbuster and back again. Despite working around the clock, with a bit of sleep thrown in, she is remarkably unfazed. On her busiest day last week Byrne left home at 4.45am to be on set at Fox Studios at 5am. Many costumes and layer upon layer of make-up later, she wrapped at 6.30pm (and had 30 minutes to remove costumes and make-up before leaving Moore Park for the Sydney Theatre Company in Walsh Bay. She was due on stage, made up and in costume, at 8.15pm.

An industry veteran at 21, Byrne's been acting professionally for nine years after securing her first professional role in the local feature Dalias Doll opposite the wise talkin' New York comedian Sandra Bernhard.

Directed by Ann Turner, the 1994 film about a US golf pro visiting Australia was never released theatrically.

Byrne went on to appear in episodes of television dramas, including Wildside, before she rocketed to fame in 1999 opposite Australia's hottest recent export Heath Ledger, in the crime comedy Two Hands.

Her latest feature, My Mother Frank, where, opposite Matthew Newton she portrays a uni

student, Jenny, releases August.

My Mother Frank, starring Sam Neill and Sinead Cusack, and directed by feature film newcomer Mark Lamprell, portrays a woman going through a period of change.

Byrne is pretty chuffed with her performance (wearing a long brunette wig] and she especially values the friendships she made on set.

"I'd never really kept a friend from a film ever. Matty (Newton) was the first one. So it was really interesting for me to learn you can have friends from the industry too," she says.

For the last few years Byrne has been seeing Two Hands' director Gregor Jordan. The relationship has now ended, she says, due to the demands and geographical distances imposed by their careers Jordan is currently shooting the feature Buffalo Soldiers in Munich. Despite her relationship with Jordan, Byrne says she has never really hung out with the 'industry' crowd.

Now she finds herself in the middle of a group of predominantly Sydney-based twenty-something actors including Pia Miranda, Kick Gurry and

[18] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

Last year she featured in Hands, this year she got a role in the coveted Star Wars and next year her first lead film will be released. Michaela Boland writes Rose Byrne is on the up and up.

Rose Byrne backstage at the 1999 AFI AWards

Rose Byrne in The Goddess of 1967

Leeanna Walsman (Looking for Alibrandi).

Walsman also starred in La Dispute and subsequently picked up a bounty hunter role in Star Wars after the film's casting agent, Robyn Gurland, went to observe Byrne on stage.

Byrne had met Gurland during a recent holiday in New York. "She was trying to meet people from Australia who were interesting." During the meeting she invited her to La Dispute.

"Apparently she'd watched every Australian film from 1979 or whatever to get a bit of an idea about the talent out here.”

Gurland met Rose after the show. Luckily the actor didn't know she was in the audience during the performance “otherwise I would have been really scared” , she confesses.

Byrne can discuss her couple of weeks work on Star Wars but she's banned from disclosing any plot details. Which could be a difficult task anyway given very few people on set are privy to the full script.

Security is tight - but the myriad of online gossip sites carry full reports daily (of varying accuracy) for full fan enjoyment.

Walsman has even received a digital makeover on one site to show what her character may look like.

The common wisdom would have Rose continue developing her acting and profile in Australia until such time as she is cast as a lead in a quality Australian film with legs that take it overseas.

In Star Wars Episode Two Byrne plays a handmaiden to Natalie Portman's Padme. "I'm like the person behind the person behind her, like a glorified extra really," she laughs.

Playing a handmaiden in corsets, big collars and fluted sleeves, Byrne says she's been blown away by

and on-set crews. Byrne recently ate with the off-set

(The industry 'buzz' on Goddess? A visual feast but is

the fabrics and detailing of her six costumes.

crew. "And there's like 600 blokes who are working

otherwise quite weird).

She's visited LA and screen tested for a few parts -

“ One's like paper with dots on it and there's an

making buildings." She describes the scene as, "like

Armani one that's a blue and purple velvet one..."

being in jail because there's this huge tent and all

some after being recommended by Heath Ledger.

Australian actors are fond of going on (and on) about

these blokes in their jeans and..." at which point

After the craziness of La Dispute and Star Wars, she

the how ace the food is on Hollywood film sets. They

Byrne the actor takes over performing a type of

has nothing scheduled for spring.

are fam iliar anecdotes - there must be other

convict farce hunched over the table in an endearing

“ I’d like to go back but my agent always says, 'You’ve

differences between local film sets and the big

caricature....

gotta wait for your vehicle here. You've gotta wait for

ones?

Though some parts of the local industry are

your vehicle here'."

Nope, says Byrne. "I fully agree. That is how you can

struggling for survival alongside the big US

The common wisdom would have Rose continue

tell, the food and the freebies. You get free Snickers

productions occupying Sydney's Fox Studios, the

developing her acting and profile in Australia until

on this set. Big ones. Free chewing gum, free Coke,

films have been good for a handful of local actors.

such time as she is cast as a lead in a quality

free juice," Byrne confides enthusiastically. Plus

In M.-/-2 John Poison received the break he would

Australian film with legs that take it overseas.

there's the full range of biscuit shapes... Byrne runs

otherwise have struggled to get. Likewise Belinda

However, the poor international sales of local films

through the list..., “ pizza,savoury, chicken crimpy,

McClory and Hugo Weaving in The Matrix and

in recent years could mean she is waiting a long

barbecue, cheese...”

Richard Roxburgh in M:l-2. Now Byrne is part of a

time for her Oscar and Lucinda or her Muriel's

"Who gets free Snickers? What is that? On a usual

younger group fielding opportunities.

Wedding to show up.

(Australian) set there's a couple of crusty Arnotts

Byrne is eager to kick-start a Hollywood career but

Sure, Cate Blanchett and Toni Collette sailed more

and stale Lan Choo Tea.'

she's caught in a tricky in-between space. Yes, she

smoothly overseas than Byrne may sail if she were

Additionally, Byrne says the sheer scale of

was in the biggest film of 1999, but she's only just

to leave tomorrow - but then there’s nothing quite

everything and the money behind it is somewhat

completed filming her first lead role - playing a blind

like the impatience of youth...

daunting.

girl opposite Japanese Prada model Rakiya

Especially when she can so easily cast a sideways

Each meal time there are two sittings, for the off-set

Kurokawain in Clara Law's The Goddess of 1967.

glance at her Two Hands buddy Heath Ledger. •

[20] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

Selling Australian films internationally Local box office success Is not enough

to market to market.john thornhill ->There is a common misperception

spent between the subsequent two key

that an Australian film with

film markets.

respectable local box office

The major costs of each film includes

performance is a success. However,

- market office rental and overheads,

with the exception of a few micro­

production and printing of marketing

budget aberrations an Australian film

materials, trade advertising, talent

must sell overseas in order to recoup

attendance, screenings and

its full budget for the investors.

international public relations. Strategy

The key markets are the US, UK,

meetings (in conjunction with

Spain, Germany, France and Japan,

producers) are held with specialised

and along with the key international

creative designers and trailer-makers.

market places where the buying and

The key image for each film is vital, as

selling takes places, the markets are

its applications (poster, brochure and

continually changing and evolving.

full-page trade press ads) help

For Australian films, over the past 18

determine the collective buyers'

months prospects for success have

interest. Market screenings are very

proven difficult. This is most likely due

competitive, as the number of films

to the plethora of English language

often varies from between 300 and 500

films flooding the marketplace from

over a seven to 10 day period.

the UK (lottery driven) and the US.

There are mass print and electronic

The disappointing foreign box-office

media in attendance at Cannes and if a

performance of many Oz pics in recent

film is in the festival for example, we

years may be another factor.

need to disseminate 1800 press kits.

We need to elevate the stature of our

However, the media at most other

films by increasing individual budgets

festivals, is restricted to trade

to help reclaim our position as a

publications. Therefore, with the

producer of outstanding indie films.

exception of Cannes and possibly

Beyond advocates a collaborative

Sundance, actors generally only

marketing approach with filmmakers.

represent added value.

After we view a rough-cut of each film,

At most festivals, the only media

we determine the optimum launch

that influences buyers are the

strategy. Usually, this involves

trade publications.

prioritising a list of major festivals,

Prior to each market or festival asking

The first screening of Strictly Ballroom at Cannes in 1992 went off.

The first screening attendance often determines the success or failure of the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s international prospects. All our efforts, resources and expenditure are directed to this moment.

such as Cannes, Sundance and

prices of 'high', 'medium' or Tow' for

screening schedule diary colour

advertising initiatives. Because buyers

Toronto. If the film is subsequently

each territory are decided. Of course,

brochure per film and catalogue is

live in a 'proverbial bubble' at

selected by a premium festival -

these estimates can be

sent to our data base of 1700 odd

markets, word-of-mouth moves faster

American Film Market, Cannes or

comprehensively wrong. For example,

buyers. The sales team contacts these

than an electric current.

Mifed - we simultaneously plan the

after the initial screening of Strictly

buyers to schedule market meets and

It is paramount for a leading sales

film market premiere. The scale and

Ballroom at Cannes in 1992, Beyond

screen of promo reel of film trailers.

agent to ensure quality buyers attend

budget of a festival premiere varies

doubled the 'high' estimates and Gary

The buyers are then geared up and

a near capacity premiere, then if the

considerably. Most festivals are

Hamilton could have sold the film

hopefully like us they become

buyers are ebullient, we only need to

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;director driven' and so he or she

throughout the world three times

unrestrained in their collective

sell the film. If this does not transpire,

often becomes a catalyst to assist

over. The reality also is the worst

enthusiasm to see our premieres.

we pray for rain to support the

reaction can be a film bereft of a

The first screening attendance often

subsequent screenings. Life goes on..*

At this stage an international

market with corresponding zero sales.

determines the success or failure of

After three years as an itinerant

marketing budget allows for

To galvanise support and 'buyer'

the film's international prospects. All

gemmologist John Thornhill has been

expenditure over a 12-month period,

interest, a few weeks prior to each

our efforts, resources and expenditure

working in the film industry for

though approximately 70 percent is

market launch, prominent advertising

are directed to this moment. The

almost 20 years. He has been

expended at the festival/market

is placed in the leading trades and a

film's reaction cannot be reversed,

marketing manager for Beyond Films

launch. The remaining 30 percent is

mail-out, comprising of a Beyond

regardless of any new market or

for the past eight years.

the launch.

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [2 1]

Oh Harvey where art thou?

2000. digital video.17 min.

W RITER JERMY W EINSTEIN DIRECTOR JEREMY W EINSTEIN CAMERA NAOR BAR-ZEEV PRODUCER IMI W EINSTEIN

snapshot.john safran -^Family connections can really give you a boost in life. Ask Sofia Coppola or Sophie Gosper. Angelina Jolie or Angela Bishop.

Melbourne filmmaker, Jeremy Weinstein has a father who makes blinds and curtains. So it's not looking too good in the nepotism stakes.

However, his namesake Harvey Weinstein makes big budget Hollywood movies, heading up Miramax International [Pulp Fiction, The Crying Game). Jeremy has no evidence that he's related to Harvey but this doesn't stop him from trying to hunt down and cash in on the surname in his doco/video diary film Oh Harvey Where A rt Thou.

As I write Jeremy is still in the offline edit, splicing and dicing the hours of footage he captured at this year's Cannes Film Festival, chasing Harvey and trying to discover if blood, even

Next thing, Harvey’s at the buffet with his white plate, plucking hors d ’oeuvres from the smorgasbord. Jeremy realises he better seize the moment or else he’s going back to Melbourne without a Harvey scene in the can.

tenuous blood, is thicker than water.

He knew Cannes was the only chance

footage reminiscent of JF K s book

talking, although the covert-camera

Because film people like films about

to jump Harvey. As Jeremy sees it,

depository scene, Jeremy traps Harvey

work means the conversation is not

film people, Jeremy hopes he can get

unlike Hollywood, this is the town

in the crosshairs of the DV lens.

where nobody knows you're a nobody.

This is getting him nowhere so he

captured on microphone. From what > we see, the Weinsteins are getting on

Oh Harvey Where A rt Thou? up at one of the big festivals, even Sundance.

His first foot-in-door stop, with his

calls it a night. He hears that Harvey is

famously. Then Harvey spots the

cameraman Naor Bar-Zeev, is the

staying at the Hotel Du Cap, so he

camera. He's not impressed. The

comedies: "Have A Break” , a finalist in

Miramax office in the festival city. He

starts loitering around there to

anxious cameraman pulls away.

the 1998 Metropolis Super 8 film

tries to sweet talk the first gatekeeper

increase the serendipity-potential. It

As mentioned, Jeremy has hours of

competition, and ''The Goldcoinsteins”

in the labyrinth - the receptionist. As

pays off. One morning Jeremy is busy

this stuff. He is now going through the

which ran during 1998 Celluloid Soup

often happens in these inter-cultural

eating the cheapest thing on the menu

task of amputating the chunks of

Film Festival. Climbing the micro­

exchanges, the Yank has no idea what

at the hotel’s café when the fat tycoon

footage that are too distant from the

mogul ladder Jeremy has become one

the Aussie is talking about. He big

himself comes down for a bite.

project's premise. Talking your way

of the organisers of Celluloid Soup

notes himself as being somebody

Jeremy vocalises his nervousness to

into Cannes' parallel-porn festival

2000. He's pushed the project to this

Down Under, but just as he sucks her

the camera, while Harvey strolls

may be a colourful experience but

stage, self-funded and self-produced.

in, he chickens out and own up to not

around in the background looking for

what’s it got to do with Harvey?

But in a case of nepotistic life

being a rich and powerful media

a table. Next thing, Harvey's at the

Luckily, Jeremy has the Justin Case

imitating nepotistic art, Jeremy's

mogul. He hits the brick wall.

buffet with his white plate, plucking

Cannes video diary (screened last year

father, Imi Weinstein - the blind and

Next he's off to the worldwide

hors d'oeuvres from the smorgasbord.

on ABC-TV) as a May-Day-May-Day

curtain maker - wants to step in as

premiere of Miramax's Golden Bowl.

Jeremy realises he better seize the

warning as to what can go wrong

producer. Jeremy's unsure, as more

The gala opening is being held at the

: moment or else he's going back to

when you dawdle around with a DV,

established producers are also

Jeremy has previously shot two short

two-thousand seat Palais Cinema.

Melbourne without a Harvey scene in

with an access pass, but without a

handing him business cards. In Imi's

Jeremy hooks up with a production

the can. This café-of-the-stars has a

focus. Jeremy w ill also have to

favour, he could help raise finances

| strict no-paparazzi policy, so his

laterally chart out his film 's narrative

for the online edit and make sure the

fifth story apartment, with a balcony

cameraman stays back while the less

to weave around the mic and camera

curtains at the premier look top notch.

that directly overlooks the red carpet

famous Weinstein heads for the

shortfalls when Weinstein finally

Listen, Jeremy, if Harvey owes it to

and female celebrity cleavage. With

Miramax mogul. Jeremy starts small

meets Weinstein.

you, you owe it to Im i.*

company that has rented an adjacent

[22 ] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

Everyone’s talking^ ‘D otcom s! but -, do(

wMWglliiiMSB

^VBRB9H9Br Shane Danielsen

went searching, for a n s w e flp * ^ ^

Instant attention, and instant (albeit limited) acclaim.

admits, this doesn't entirely preclude the possibility

In this respect, probably the biggest news in recent

of further development: “Well, there are certainly

months has been the establishment of P0P.com - an

opportunities for spin-offs," says Weaver. “ Obviously

online venture founded by two of Hollywood's biggest

it would be terrific for both us and the filmmaker if a

guns, directors Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard

buzz built up around our short films and original

(and their respective production houses,

productions which we couldn't ignore, and which lent

DreamWorks and Imagine Entertainment], in

to them being spun off into a television series or a

conjunction with former Microsoft CEO Paul Allen.

feature film. But at the same time, it's not our

Rachel Weaver visited Melbourne recently to attend

number-one goal.

the St Kilda Film Festival, and her role within the new

"We’re not simply a farming tool for DreamWorks or

organisation - comparable to that of a vice-president

Imagine content, by any means,” she adds. "It would

of acquisitions (as with many of the new digital

have to be one of those rare cases where something

concerns, POP.com has dispensed with job-titles per

garners a lot of attention, and really cries out to be

se) - granted her an unusually clear perspective on

taken offline and put into a wider distribution system,

some of the changes overtaking the industry.

such as television or the cinema. But we'd certainly

Neither a online studio, nor a distributor in the

never ignore that opportunity, should it present

traditional sense, POP.com is instead "a digital

itself.”

entertainment company, focusing on short-form

Atomfilms' site, Gargi explains, is refreshed every

entertainment on the web." Their programming is

day: as well as its turnover of fresh material, new

two-fold: "We're playing short films in an ongoing

categories and areas are regularly introduced, partly

festival that we call POPFest," Weaver explains, "and

in order to reflect its changing content, and partly to

we're also creating original productions, live-action

sustain the interest of regular visitors. And for the

and animated, and serialised shorts, between three

moment, at least, the strategy seems to be working:

to five minutes in length, with continuous storylines

the Atom Films web site tabulated 1A million unique

and characters. We’re working with celebrities, yes,

users in March 2000 - with 25 percent of that figure

but we’re also working with emerging talent."

Little wonder, therefore, that the fledgling outlet has been bombarded with submissions from all over the world. To date, one Australian short film (Samuel MacGeorge's B&W Freezer) has been selected for

www.atomfilms.com

Maybe three- to five-percent of what’s submitted to us, actually ends up making it onto our site.

www.reelplay.com

www.POP.com

mjmi

inclusion in POPFest - and more than its novelty, or

"visiting" from outside the US - and its program of

have to wonder whether the people who need to see

even the famous names behind it, this slightly old-

free-to-view films and animations were watched 2.7

it, are actually accessing it.

fashioned process of viewing and inviting films is a

million times during that month.

Maybe they are. Maybe right now, LA is full of

large part of what sets POP.com apart, betraying as it

These figures are impressive, certainly - yet one

development executives going online every day to

does a qualitative, curatorial impulse that's unusual

rather important question remains unanswered:

check out some hot new talent. But I doubt it,

in the radically democratised realm of the web.

who's actually watching this stuff? Key executives

somehow." There’s also the thorny issue of

Much the same message is echoed by Jannat Gargi,

from Miramax and DreamWorks - or your average

broadcast rights and royalties. As a "stateless"

Director of Acquisition & Development at

teenage slacker from Ohio? If we allow that, in most

medium, the internet defies most of the existing

Atomfilms.com. "We're currently receiving hundreds

cases, the purpose of a filmmaker posting their work

contractual provisions attaching to studios,

of submissions a week,” she confirms, adding that

goes beyond simple ego-gratification - that it's done,

filmmakers and their work. It remains a largely

"we go out and attend all the major international

much of the time, with the specific aim of attracting

uncharted frontier, and a general uncertainty as to

festivals in search of product." She's quick, however,

serious studio attention and, by extension, with the

terms, has led to some byzantine, not to say

to emphasise the rarified nature of their search,

hope of launching a professional career - then one

opportunistic contractual provisions.

however: "We're extremely selective: maybe three-

must consider it, for the most part, a dismal failure.

'Getting exposure is great," says McCarthy. "That's

to five-percent of what's submitted to us, actually

Lyn McCarthy, former head of Dendy Films, now chief

what short films have always been about. But there’s

ends up making it onto our site. Right now, our

of Maverick Films - and a distributor with almost two

a lot of legalities to contend with, in terms of rights.

catalogue lists between 1200 and 1300 titles - though

decades' experience in the Australian film industry -

Internet rights are still largely undefined, and the

not necessarily every film we license goes up on our

admits to being faintly sceptical of the current

terms are incredibly vague: I know of filmmakers

web site."

Among their more market-driven peers, however,

dot.com mania: "I find myself wondering, what's the

who've given their work to one of these dot.com

real audience for all this?” she says. "I mean, you put

companies - who ve cheerfully taken all world rights

both Atomfilms and P0P.com count as minor

your film up online; it gets seen by a bunch of 12-

- and then, a few months later, had to go crawling to

anomalies, in that they view online consumption, via

year-old geeks all over the world... Big deal. "If it’s

the web, as an end unto itself - though Weaver

being intended as a sales tool, as people claim, you

them cap-in-hand to get it back, in order to show in it their home territory."

[24] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

A N ONLINE PRODUCT GUIDE WITH 1000's OF PR O M O REELS! Reeipiav-com has the most trailers and key art to give you the best visual presentation of product online-before, during and after th e market.

Log on today! It’s free

filmbazaar.com roadside in front of the Noga Hilton at the Cannes Film Festival 2000.

REELPLAY.com larger than life at The Majestic Hotel at the Cannes Film Festival 2000.

POP.corn's Weaver admits that "there isn't really a

what they should be looking for."

internet-only television pioneer DEN.

precedent on how these deals are done. We're simply

She also cites budgetary considerations: removing

The example of the latter is especially applicable

trying to work out systems that benefit both the

the need for international freight costs, increasing

here. DEN spent up big (upwards of US$60m, by all

filmmaker and ourselves, and which are fair. And it's

the pace of dialogue between parties.

accounts) and enjoyed strong word-of-mouth, at

been a long process, but we're now finally reaching

With this, at least, McCarthy is in full agreement:

least in its pre-launch phase, but like many of the

that point."

"As a concept, I think that's definitely the way of the

online film studios, was handicapped by lousy

Ironically, the other (and indeed, more prevalent]

future, because even if you’re willing and able to go

content. Shows like Fear Of A Punk Planet

strand of dot.com activity at Cannes posited the very

to half-a-dozen markets a year - and your company

(described by one American critic as "Andy Hardy-

antithesis of the event which hosted it - the viability of

can afford to send you - there's stilt no way you can

meets-Johnny Rotten") and Redemption High (“an

nothing less than a parallel marketplace, held not in

cover everything. And travelling overseas, for

Aaron Spelling-style drama about Christian

the physical world, at a designated time and place,

Australians in particular, is always an expensive

teenagers who asked, in each episode, 'What would

but at all hours, everywhere, in cyberspace.

business. So in cost terms, this dot.com thing

Jesus do?"') conspicuously failed to attract an

In this respect, one of the leading contenders is

could be a great help, particularly for smaller

audience. With no viewers, and virtually no revenue,

Reelplay Inc: the first of the virtual film marketplaces

outfits like ours."

the site had no option but to cut its losses

But then there's the flipside: as she concedes, "an lot

and shut down.

to be fully up and running, having launched last ^ ^ ^ ^ H O c to b e r at the London Screenings and MIFED. "We have several locations, or portals, to suit many i-------------different needs," says Rachael Shapiro, the

of films are sold based on existing relationships

Similarly, the future for the current crop of dot.com

between buyers and sellers. As in any business, that

film companies is far from certain; all that is

-whole face-to-face, social thing is very important.

-guaranteed, is a turbulent ride. Merrill Lynch

company's vice-president of marketing and

But you can't develop that over email, and I think

analyst Henry Blodget was recently quoted as saying

creative affairs.

that's one aspect that a virtual market can't hope

that three-quarters of current "E-tailers” will eventually disappear, either through collapse or

"Ultimately, we want to reach a stage where, in the

to replace."

same way that people reach for their daily copy of

“ I don't think any of us think that what we're doing is

consolidation. Meanwhile, almost everyone within

Variety, they log-on to Reelplay to see what's out

going to replace the markets," says Shapiro.

the film industry, whether online or off, insists that

there."

“ Because, first and foremost, people still want

the marketplace is unable to support more than a

The first portal is intended specifically for sales

personal contact. They want to know, if they enter

handful of distribution/original content sites -

agents and distributors; the second - launched in

into a business relationship, precisely who it is

perhaps two or three in America, and two in Europe.

January, at Sundance - is for films seeking

they're dealing with. And, corny as it sounds, you

Of the rest, the overwhelming majority will either

representation and/or distribution. “So that sales

can't underestimate the power of a handshake.”

be assimilated, or go under. Mergers and alliances

agents can now not only come to our site to sell, they

That image, of hands clasped in concord across a

will be the watchwords of the 12 months to come,

can also look for product to acquire. And that's a

table, is an apt one: emblematic of a physical reality

as companies struggle to capture viable market

section designed specifically for independent

that’s slowly overtaking the fantasies of the new

shares. By the end, the landscape w ill be almost

filmmakers - everything from projects-in-

breed of online entrepreneurs.

unrecognisable - though a whole lot less crowded.

development and scripts, to shorts, features,

In May, even as Cannes was a-buzz with hype, the

“ I think there'll probably be a real shakedown in the

documentaries. All looking for distribution,

dot.com world was taking its first real hit - prompted,

next year to 18 months,” says Weaver. “ By then the

ultimately, but also a way to market to their

most analysts agree, by a sudden downturn in the

real players will start to emerge, and the little guys

particular audience. We're just acting as an

Nasdaq and some poor tie. unrealistic] management.

w ill either get bought up, or fall by the wayside.

intermediary, a marketplace, putting these people

Among the various online ventures that went under -

It's inevitable."

together. "Ultimately, our aim is simply to become a

Toysmart.com, Brandwise.com - were two especially

Says McCarthy: “A lot of people right now are

service,” she adds, "a way of making people’s jobs

high-profile blow-outs: first, British online retailer

thinking they’re in on the ground floor of something

easier. So that, when they finally get to the market,

Boo.com, launched late last year by Swedish

that’s going to make them rich. And I think, for a lot

they've already looked at a few trailers, they've done

entrepreneur Ernst Malmsten in a blaze of publicity;

of them, there's going to be a very rude awakening

a search, they know what's out there that’s new and

and then, a few weeks later, the collapse of would-be

before too long."*

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [25]

->The Australian Film Institute is synonymous with Australian film. Just ask Academy Award winning actor Geoffrey Rush, or director Baz Luhrmann, two high profile film makers and AFI Award recipients who recently spoke in support of the embattled film culture body.

Or ask the producers behind the record number of 25 Australian feature films vying for publicity through this year's AFI Awards on November 18.

They w ill all state publicly the Australian Film Institute is doing a grand job promoting Australian film and servicing the industry’s cultural side.

But peak funding body, the Australian Film Commission, has told the AFI it w ill no longer fund

And the Winner Is? With big changes underway in Australia’s film culture arena Michaela Boland wonders if this year’s AFI Awards will be the last.

some of its activities.

Meanwhile, during this uncertain period, a lobby group for a recently emboldened player in the screen culture arena, ScreenSound Australia, is quietly issuing a challenge to the glamorous event.

ScreenSound, the National Film and Sound Archive has undergone some changes in recent years. The Sydney office has relocated to Fox Studios, the 'Archive' banner has been superseded by the catchy name, ScreenSound, and the branch of the government's arts department finds itself flush with resources following a funding increase and move by the Canberra head office into a more efficient premises.

Now the ''Friends of the National Film and Sound Archive", represented by respected industry figures, film producer Glenys Rowe and distributor and cinema operator Andrew Pike, is circulating an 11 point discussion paper advocating new roles which should be undertaken by the new, invigorated ScreenSound.

Among the proposals, the Friends advocate for ScreenSound to lead national debate on topical issues such as the recent censorship debate on Catherine Breillat's film Romance. It should publish a serious film magazine, host premieres of new works, host 'meet the filmmaker' events, and present film retrospectives. ScreenSound should be the industry focal point for fostering new talent, exchanging ideas and, "Friends believes that the Archive is the most appropriate and most logical place to organise and host the national film awards".

-Canberra-based Andrew Pike co-authored the discussion paper but when pressed, he says this blatant bid for the awards, the AFI's strongest arm, was misjudged. He is considering requesting that point be removed from the paper and explains, "it is a draft discussion paper, it is not policy".

“The AFI does have meagre resources but it's doing a lot with them. ScreenSound has significant resources that it should be doing more with."

The paper proposes ScreenSound pursue many identical objectives to those currently undertaken by the funding-threatened AFI but Pike is not advocating a cannibalisation of the Institute's territory. “ I want more money coming into film culture, not less," he says.

The director of ScreenSound, Ron Brent says he is, “in general very supportive of what (Friends] is proposing" but he w ill not publicly support the group's bid to host the film awards.

"We're very keen to see the maintenance of those (threatened) services but the AFI has been constrained by limited resources and one of the things we'd like to do is help the AFI exploit those services better," he says.

The AFI is under threat, in part, because the [26] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

above Ron Brent (Director of ScreenSound Australia) below Ruth Jones CEO AFI

above Geoffery Rush (Shine) below Catherine Martin & Baz Luhrmann (winners Byron Kennedy Award 1999)

AFI images compliments of AFI Research & Information

-^The Australian Film institute is synonymous with Australian film. Just ask Academy Award winning actor Geoffrey Rush, or director Baz Luhrmann, two high profile film makers and AFI Award recipients who recently spoke in support of the embattled film culture body.

Or ask the producers behind the record number of 25 Australian feature films vying for publicity through this year’s AFI Awards on November 18.

They w ill all state publicly the Australian Film Institute is doing a grand job promoting Australian film and servicing the industry’s cultural side.

William Anderson, Mel Gibson & Bill Hunter

But peak funding body, the Australian Film Commission, has told the AFI it w ill no longer fund some of its activities.

Meanwhile, during this uncertain period, a lobby group for a recently emboldened player in the screen culture arena, ScreenSound Australia, is quietly issuing a challenge to the glamorous event.

ScreenSound, the National Film and Sound Archive has undergone some changes in recent years. The Sydney office has relocated to Fox Studios, the ‘Archive’ banner has been superseded by the catchy name, ScreenSound, and the branch of the government's arts department finds itself flush with

Hugo Weaving, Lynda House, Russell Crowe, Jocelyn Moorhouse

‘

Presenter Jacki Weaver and Ray Barrett receiving his award for Best Supporting Actor In The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith

resources following a funding increase and move by the Canberra head office into a more efficient

film producer Glenys Rowe and distributor and

“We didn’t say these services shouldn’t exist. We thought the client base and the eventual outcomes were not appropriate for the AFC to be funding.”

cinema operator Andrew Pike, is circulating an 1i-

Kim Dalton AFC chief executive

premises.

Now the "Friends of the National Film and Sound Archive", represented by respected industry figures,

point discussion paper advocating new roles which should be undertaken by the new, invigorated ScreenSound.

Australian Film Commission is reviewing funding to

Among the proposals, the Friends advocate for

two of the AFI’s five core activities: a research and

been established. Chaired by a member from the

ScreenSound to lead national debate on topical

information service and video sales.

department of the arts, key AFI representatives were

of representatives from associated organisations has

issues such as the recent censorship debate on

It w ill continue funding the AFI Awards and the

joined by a representative from VictoriaJapeak film

Catherine Breillat's film Romance. It should publish

institute's exhibition sector, which facilitates forums

body, Cinemedia, from ScreenSound, the AFC, the

a serious film magazine, host premieres of new

for the discussion and appreciation of local and

Australian Film Television and Radio School and Film

works, host ‘meet the filmmaker' events, and

international films. The executive division, which

Australia.

present film retrospectives. ScreenSound should be

oversees these functions may exist in a reduced

The AFC wants some of these organisations to assist

the industry focal point for fostering new talent,

capacity in the future, because, quite simply, there

the AFI’s transition into a leaner future.

exchanging ideas and, "Friends believes that the

may be less to administrate.

The group met for the last time on July 3. Its

Archive is the most appropriate and most logical

As part of the AFC’s funding review a working party

Canberra-based Andrew Pike co-authored the

recommendations should assist the AFI in its funding application for 2001, which was due by the end of July.

place to organise and host the national film awards’’. discussion paper but when pressed, he says this

c

Winner of Best Actor and Actress Awards Jack Thompson for Breaker Morant and Tracy Mann for Hard Knocks

In general terms the AFC acknowledges the value of the research and information service, and video sales,

blatant bid for the awards, the AFI’s strongest arm, was misjudged. He is considering requesting that point be removed from the paper and explains, “it is a draft discussion paper, it is not policy” .

"The AFI does have meagre resources but it’s doing a lot with them. ScreenSound has significant resources that it should be doing more with.”

The paper proposes ScreenSound pursue many identical objectives to those currently undertaken by the funding-threatened AFI but Pike is not advocating a cannibalisation of the Institute’s territory.

"I want more money coming into film culture, not less,” he says.

The director of ScreenSound, Ron Brent says he is, “ in general very supportive of what (Friends) is proposing” but he w ill not publicly support the group’s bid to host the film awards.

“We're very keen to see the maintenance of those (threatened) services but the AFI has been constrained by limited resources and one of the things we’d like to do is help the AFI exploit those services better,’’ he says.

The AFI is under threat, in part, because the

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [2 7 ]

Australian cinematographer John Seale prefers shooting intimate dram as but som ehow he found himself behind the lens on this year’s big budget SFX extravaganza The Perfect Storm. He writes exclusively for Cinema Papers about how he spent more than US$100 million.

->l think most people would agree the new blue/green screen technology where backgrounds are put in after filming is not as nearly appealing to work with as the old systems of front or rear projection. Or better, shooting everything 'live'.

When shooting live the whole frame is recorded instantly and the background light can and does influence the foreground considerably. The cameraoperators can actually 'operate'. They can cut the average, or balance artificial light, or shoot using available light if they desire - whatever is the best solution at that moment.

Live shooting also keeps the cinematographer slightly out of control, which can be advantageous in some ways because a 'lucky mistake' can happen.

Natural light has its own tricks. It can suddenly do something you may never have anticipated, with stunning results.

When filming with front or rear projection, the 'lucky mistakes’ would seldom occur, if ever. Nevertheless, by having the background plates there to shoot, light on the foreground actors can still be manipulated and synchronised to that plate and therefore have a reasonably realistic Took' to the frame. You still get to "operate".

Bluescreen, however, has none of that. Unless you

Cinematographer John Jeale

-have seen the plates that are going to be compositedto the foreground action, you don't have a clue as to the way those plates will, or should, affect the

themselves at all times, knowing that wherever the

foreground.

And even if you do see the plates, movements and

awful constant blue glow was, a major apocalyptic

For the actors in the foreground, it was more than

storm was brewing.

This was particularly interesting when we would

just a case of "off to work we go into a storm on a

strike lighting. The digital artists would have to

we could make it.

reaction to bluesceen. In some scenes, the actor

synchronise the background to match the

Consider this. Four 10Omph wind machines, two 2000

may have to talk to the end of a broom, held in front of the screen, or a laser beam dot and listen and

foreground lightning , so it was imperative the vfx

gallon dump tanks (which dropped water 50 feet onto

(video effects) house always followed, or slaved, the

the baffles that directed the water onto the actors)

react to lines off camera' ie, act by yourself to an

foreground fx . This became Perfect Storm’s rule of

and three water cannons were all pointed directly at

inanimate object with its lines coming from another

thumb - we w ill wag your tail. It held for the duration

the actors all day AND they kept coming up laughing.

direction altogether.

Julia Roberts was very vocal about this after doing

of the film.

Then there were the three wave makers creating 4ft

There were times in the pursuit of reality when the

high waves on the surface of the tank. No wonder the

Steven Spielberg's Hook. When she played

lighting in the rushes or dailies would not look too

humour wore a trifle thin at times. And we were

Tinkerbell, it seemed she spent weeks talking to the

good because the bluescreen was not giving us the

controlling the cameras by remote upstairs in the video box with coffee and donuts!

density of that light w ill be very difficult to synchronise. And don't even ask about an actor's

this amazing help from the vfx team.

sound stage” . That storm was as close to reality as

other actors off camera, actors who were never

image of the background.

actually there. She vowed never to act in that kind of

Imagine relying on the b/g effects making a lightning

But led by George Clooney, the actors would always

movie again. On some film sets, actors watch

flash silhouette an actor against the wave. We had to

attack the next day w/ith renewed energy and

monitors, placed on the proper eyeline, to see the

wait weeks, almost months, for postproduction to

enthusiasm. Even the bruises and sprains, bumps,

other actors. Oh joy.

In The Perfect Storm our bluescreen work was quite

give us the result. In all cases, the result was

cuts and twisted joints seemed to heal overnight even

stunning.

though the next day was like the first.

extensive, but for the actors the bluescreen was

It must be remembered that there is no other way

The long and intensive pre-production allowed us to

always in the background, lurking behind them like a

we could have made the film, considering the

organise and run the show on schedule. I had three

monster. Therefore, the actors could play off

awesome magnitude of that n ig h t‘s storm, without

and a half months and used every single second of it

[28] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

...and could have done with more. All scenes were storyboarded, and these were put through intensive editing before being transferred to animatics, which were again edited.

At the same time the vfx shots were being isolated

“On some film sets, actors watch monitors, placed on the proper eyeline, to see the other actors. Oh joy.” handshakes to go faster, further, lower etc.

and priced, as the budget had to be kept under the

Bros lot was rigged to shoot full sun at midday, dusk

US$100million - and with this kind of a show it would

and dawn, overcast rain to full apocalyptic storm to

Compromises can always be reached and, most

be too easy to run over.

Here we discovered one of German director Wolfgang

night. All with full lightning fx! It went way over

times exceeded, sometimes to our great surprise.

budget and there was no real way to reduce it.

As the new technology advances, so shall we,

[Das Boot) Petersen's strengths. He had an ability to

The constant need to learn about and understand the

because the effects that can be digitally created are

decide what he DIDN'T need, so the storyboard

new technology can be gained reasonably easily,

awesome. There is no way that “TPS" could have

editing was a slash and burn exercise. He pared

because someone out there knows it and has used it.

been made with the same visual impact unless we

down the shots to what would make the film, without

They'll readily pass this on to the ignorant because,

walked hand in hand with this new technology.

compromise.

On most of the films I seem to have been able to keep my camera budget and package reasonably low

in the end, we’re all making the same film, and the

VFX companies such as Industrial Light & Magic, who

gathered knowledge w ill culminate in a better film.

mastered the effects, will go on developing software,

Most people in the film industry now specialise in a

as they did for “TPS", allowing filmmakers to

and, in fact, mostly under budget.

particular field. From dealing with these problem

But this one was big, and we needed a lot of toys,

solvers you can quickly asses the mechanical or

contemplate VFX that were yesterday’s dreams.

Today, they're reality.

such as two Super Techno cranes (full-time), an

creative limits that may apply on your set, and can

The technology is changing so rapidly that what was

Akela, underwater cameras, muliple cameras and

change or adapt aspects to suit your particular

cutting edge yesterday, is reality today and obsolete

more. My budget went way over.

Then of course there was the lighting package, which

needs. This may require bending a few rules here

tomorrow. That’s why the visual recording process

and there, but it mostly gets down to "pushing the

was massive to say the least. Stage 16 on the Warner

technical envelope" and requiring these technical

and its use by the tomorrow's filmmakers is so exciting. It can work. • CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [29]

B a u x cinematic

Yahoo Serious latest film prompts 1 to cast, an eve over an,Australian steeped in quirky comedies.

->You can always te ll when the Australian film

exposed as possible. According to the AFC report,

industry's number crunchers are nervous. Their

exhibitors in particular yearn for the halcyon days of

Ken Hall revived the national industry with his Dad

audible jitters over low ticket sales are invariably

the gaudy, quirky comedy - bring back Muriel's

and Dave comedies, many of which were actual

followed by the whooshing and slapping sounds of

satirical nuptials or Priscilla's farcical adventures.

revivals (On Our Selection being a good example).

comedies slamming onto cinema screens across

Craic us up one more time. And filmmakers have

Hall's films were, for the most part, an uneven mix

the country.

heeded their call with alarming alacrity. So far this

of bucolic farce, smutty puns and laboured moral

tucked firmly under its arm. Way back in the 1930s

For the past few years there's been quite a bit of

year we've seen Nick Giannopoulous' self-

postures. And he set the tone for most of the

concern about the unpopularity of Australian films.

deprecating The Wog Boy, and now there's Yahoo

successful Australian comedies that have followed.

From the highs of the mid-90s when local films took

and his high-haired Mr Accident. Both films are a

Hall's legacy can be equally seen in a suburban

around nine percent of the national box-office (think

monument to the pervading resonance of 'quirk' in

satire like The Castle and the capital capers of Mr

Muriel's Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla,

the Australian cinema.

Accident. In The Castle, the Kerrigans, a thinly

Queen of the Deserf], the local box office sank last

There is a longstanding theory that all successful

disguised update of Ken Hall's country bumpkins,

year to an unflattering three percent.

national cinemas arise from, and are defined by, two

the Rudds, have shifted inland to occupy the

A report commissioned by the Australian Film

genres - comedies and soft-porn - and in Australia's

metropolitan fringe. But the same rustic ingredients

Commission quickly identified the problem.

case perhaps a combination of both (think of films

are there - the upstanding Dad on a journey to

Australian films, it announced, were tackling

like Alvin Purple and The Adventures of Barry

national righteousness, his loyal wife (known only as

'difficult subject matter' and this was simply no

McKenzie}. According to theorists the yokel is

Mum, Mother or Ma) and their bevy of half-witted

good. Tom Jeffrey, President of SPAA (Screen

always local. Humorous films are the frontline

Producers Association of Australia) concurred:

vanguard of certain national or native traditions in

children (portrayed in The Castle by Steven Curry, Sophie Lee and co,].

"Last year our films didn't work at the box office.

Why? In my personal view ... I reckon they were too

the struggle against the suffocating tentacles of Hollywood.

dark." Pie's not talking f-stops.

And so whenever the Australian film industry has

rather than quirky comedy. A humour celebrating

The answer? More comedies - preferably as over­

emerged from a crisis it has been with a comedy

the sentimental pursuit of domesticity. Dad's

[30] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

The Kerrigans, not unlike the Rudds, are a family that simply want to be... a family. Theirs is a dorky

reluctance to take centre stage, his defence of ordinariness, his sure knowledge of his own inadvertence flies in the face of the quirky comedy's lust for flamboyance, it’s the difference between the self-deprecating Col'n Carpenter and the celebrity

Exhibitors in particular yearn for the halcyon days of the gaudy, quirky comedy - bring back Muriel’s satirical nuptials or Priscilla’s farcical adventures.

Craic us up one more time.

seeking Norman Gunston.

Like The Castle, M r Accident also owes an inheritance to Dad & Dave - only this time there s no Dad. The film 's writer-producer-director-star,

in the image of a frill-neck lizard in full fright.

comedy can be summarised in the (farmyard-sized)

There's a fear-inspired flagrancy at the heart of the

world of difference that separates the scrawny

Yahoo Serious - whose very name w ill always be

quirky comedy which makes it the exception rather

chook from the strutting rooster.

remembered by future generations of film buffs as

than the rule in Australian feature films. The

Judith Brett, musing on the chook in the Australian

being synonymous with the quirky comedy - plays

cultural reflex inspiring anxious laughter is the fear

unconscious, once summed up the chicken's

Roger Crumpkin like a latter-day version of the

of being sprung for pretentiousness, an accusation

purchase on vulnerability and ordinariness by

incorrigibly naive Dave. There's even a direct

the quirky comedy simultaneously invites with its

drawing on the familiar figure of the straggly

connection. David Field who appears as the sexually

Took at me' clamour for recognition.

Australian chook scratching out its meagre

unresolved Lynden in Mr Accident played Dan in the

A quirk is a characteristic flourish, a tic alluding to a

existence in a dusty, undernourished landscape.

most recent revival of On Our Selection [Dad &

larger difference. To ‘quirk’ is to strive to stand out

This, she felt, was an image that set the chook apart

Dave: On Our Selection, 1995).

Film w riter Lynden Barber once described the

from the flock. To ‘dork’, on the other hand, is to

from the plump and contented English hen or the

settle for one’s own lot. The avian metaphor of the

crowing Asian cock, an image that goes on to speak

quirky comedy as, the cinematic equivalent of being

flock seems particularly apt since, according to my

about white Australia's own precarious, superficial

turned into a koala' - all cute and emblematic. If I

dictionary at least, a 'dorking' is a large white fowl.

relationship to the landscape.

had to describe the genre in terms of Australian

In the pecking order of the Australian film industry

There is Brett believes, ‘a secret identification' in

fauna, I’d be more inclined to see the quirky comedy

the difference between the dorky and the quirky

most Australian hearts between themselves and the

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [31]

chook. When I conjure up the embracing terms of a fowl-human universe I am reminded of a long forgotten Australian short film. It wasn't a chicken, it wasn't really a comedy and it probably wasn't what Brett had in mind but Doethe's Jansen's macabre short Maria the Immaculate or Babyduck (1989) captures this 'secret identification' in disarming detail. Maria gives birth to and then nurses a pink, plucked, duck carcass before eventually trussing her 'baby' for the oven. Jansen's potent image of defencelessness (the baby as a sitting or dead duck and vice versa] works equally well, perhaps even better, with a chicken (the unrivalled embodiment of fearfulness and timidity).

This confronting conflation of fowl and human appears more forcefully in the final vengeful moments of Todd Browning's Freaks (1932) when the nefarious trapeze artist is literally rather than metaphorically transformed into a feathery chicken-woman.

As a creature of straightened surfaces and shortened horizons the chook's already evident vulnerabilities are further underscored by its incapacity to take flight and so it devotes itself instead to mulling and fretting and pecking over the

Priscilla Queen of the Desert

same old ground. Brett describes the chook's frustrated flappings as, 'more aspiration than achievement'. It's a sentiment often applied to an Australian cinema that sets its limits on similarly frustrated flights (of fancy], a cinema which thrives on the apologetic encouragements of the 'nice try', and which seems to have embraced the perpetual state of being almost - but not quite - good enough.

You only have to look at the AFC's latest policy objectives for the industry to see just how potent the idea of being permanently 'in development' can be.

Brett is not the only commentator to expend her thoughts and words on the cultural consequences of chicken identification. Cluck! The True Story of Chickens in the Cinema is an unprecedented and comprehensive homage to fowl films. In this book, Jon-Stephen Fink combs the film archives for evidence of chicken suppression and sublimation in the cinema. According to Fink, 'We must not shrink from recognising that our redemption - from pain,

Hall’s films were, for the most part, an uneven mix of bucolic farce, smutty puns and laboured moral postures. And he set the tone for most of the successful Australian comedies that have followed.

.from tyranny, from disaffection, from meaninglessness and chaos - resides in universal awareness of the interwoven fates of chickenkind and humankind. That awareness in modern times is enshrined in motion pictures, the ultimate refuge of ultimate truth.'

things apart’. Its not until he meets the girl of his

By Fink's reckoning, Flollywood itself is an elaborate

dreams (a prize winning chicken-sexer), that Roger

profile, makes a brief but notable appearance and in

mechanism purposefully designed to connect

has a larger, philosophical revelation: 'You made

a sense anticipates the defining charactersitics of

humans with their chicken-ish ancestry. He

me realise. Parts are like people - they belong

the cameo in Australian films. More recent local

uncovers the existence of a secret council that

together.' Unfortunately, and as many an Australian

films have dealt with their cameos in less relaxed

meets twice yearly in Petaluma, California, to

actor can testify - good parts don't come along

ways. Like the uncomfortable appearance of film

decide when, where and what kind of chicken scene

everyday and Mr Accident is no exception.

critics Adrian Martin and Paul Harris in Love and

w ill be included in any film. Completion funding

Roger's faith in the power of parts might in some

Other Catastrophes (1996) - which despite their

quite often rests on the decisions of the clandestine

way account for the appalling cameos that dot the

evident awkwardness did kind of work in context.

chicken council.

film. Yahoo Serious has possibly exceeded even his

Or Alan Finney in Welcome to Woop Woop (1998) -

Fink's Flollywood chicken conspiracy seems as

own past practices (remember Max Walker in

which didn't. Kylie Minogue's short-lived but

Graham Kennedy, in clear exploitation his media

likely an explanation as any for Mr Accident, the

Reckless Kelly?}. Elle McFeast occasions the screen

much publicised showing in Cut (2000) was just

story of a good guy (in desperate need of a comb

as a spurned sex kitten. Flacco appears as himself

about outclassed by the haunting presence of

and a girlfriend) who pits himself against an evil

in an inexplicable gesture to an alien spaceship

Alexander Downer's childhood cubby house in the

egg empire and their fowl deeds (like refashioning

subplot. Surely not even the forgettable

same. (True!)

the Opera House shells into something

Dallas Doll (1993) stooped this low when it

The point of the cameo is to nod to the film 's

more marketable).

summarily introduced an otherworldly plot-device

specificity, to celebrate its 'recognisability'. A cameo

Yahoo Serious takes the title role as Roger

(although you could be excused for thinking that

appearance is supposed to let us in on the film 's

Crumpkin, a maladroit man who must overcome the

Sandra Bernhardt's role was something of an

locale, to reveal to us just how far down into the

privations of his childhood. Roger you see, is the

extended cameo]?

loop a film (and its viewers) can reach. Its about

unhappy child of a pair of post-structuralists: ‘We're

These celebrity cameos recall another, much earlier

value-adding fo ra knowing (nudge nudge) audience.

parts people, we don't make things up we take

Sydney comedy of quirks and eccentricities. In

If you don't recognise Flacco then nothing is lost.

Michael Powell's They're a Weird Mob (1966),

But if you do, then the film ‘means' more. Or so the

[32] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

The Wog Boy

Muriel’s Wedding

filmmakers hope. It's a particularly economic method of layering the plot. Instead of relying on the script to create recognisable characters, the cameo gestures at prior representations, at already givens.

The same sort of economic thinking has given rise to another recent industry phenomenon, the rise of the instant auteur (of which Yahoo Serious was an early example]. In Australia nowadays you can be an auteur after only one film - and if you're keen enough to believe the Tropfest hype, before you've made a feature.

This newfound form of immediate authorship, is made up of a checklist of effects - like people who ‘do’ method acting - you can now 'do' Auteurism. A few angled, arty close-ups in the style of Jane Campion and hey presto! you too can claim a signature style. Its all a matter of arranging a few requisite 'on screen indicators' with the right

In M r Accident you should be thinking about Jim Carrey only without the facial facility and self-mockery. Add a few drops of Jackie Chan complete with an outtake credit sequence and you have Yahoo.”

amount of frequency. These 'indicators' (the phrase comes from a particular policy framework ordinarily used to discuss Australian content) are meant to be “seen so it is also important to labour them. In Mr Accident you should be thinking about Jim Carrey only without the facial facility and self-mockery. Add

the perils of caring too much and having an ongoing

a few drops of Jackie Chan complete with an

commitment to the cause and it just happens to be

(‘50,000 chooks a day, They won't raise my take

outtake credit sequence (only minus any actual

about chooks. Me and Daphne (1976), an

home pay’]. The film seems especially torn between

of migrant workers and rallying theme songs

bloopers and the unfettered physical humour) and

unassuming docudrama set in a chicken factory in

graphically exposing the onerous working conditions

you have Yahoo (take me Seriously).

Western Sydney remains one of Australia's most

of the factory and a transparent fascination with the

Authorship in the Australian film industry is no

controversial films. When the owners of the chicken

graphic geometry of the production line. The same

longer measured from the idea of personal

processing in which the film was shot expressed

divided purpose occurs in Brian McKenzie's

expressiveness but is proved instead by the amount

their discomfort with it's less than favourable

extraordinary documentary (also about meat

of distance a filmmaker can generate from their

documentation of factory conditions, the films

processing) A Winter's Harvest (1979).

work. Nor is the point to develop a set of serial

executive producer, the AFTRS, opted to withdraw

Both Me and Daphne and A Winter's Harvest are

relationships between any given auteur's films -

the film from circulation. The Sydney Filmmakers

deeply concerned with what happens next - with the

what we’re looking for is the capacity for

Co-op (that’s co-op not coop) ‘re-acquired’ a print of

processes that occur after the fact (of death, of

professional distance, or better still, ironic distance

the film which was distributed for many years by

production, of censorship). In a sense Daphne and

- the space of the quirky ha ha. And don’t be fooled

one of the producers from the backroom of her

Me got bitten on the bum by its own interest in the

into believing that the industry's sudden taste for

house. While the Film School busied itself by taking

afterlife. When Daphne's mum despairs, ‘If they can

'practitioner development' might extend to an

the Co-op to court, the film 's original prints were

put a man on the moon you'd think they could

interest in the evolution of an individual filmmaker's

lost.

organise a chook factory better' you have cause to

oeuvre. Instead expect to see inner-city filmmakers

On viewing the film you wonder what all the fuss

wonder about the film factory in the same

blithely encouraged to make humorous films about

was about. Me and Daphne is likeable enough, an

despondent terms. Film policymakers in Australia

the suburban fringe, straight filmmakers to keep

awkward progenitor of the type of documentary

are explicitly narrowing their ambit to the chicken

optioning queer content. Just so long as no one

filmmaking that became an industry staple for a

and egg arena of production only. The real question

cares too much about the subject at hand.

while in the early 80s. Uncomfortably scripted

is, does anyone care anymore about what happens

One Australian film which particularly demonstrates

dialogue is edited between the disembodied voices

to films afterwards...* CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [33]

My Mother Frank

ultimately insignificant piece of film which is saved only by two fine

W rite r and Director M ark L a m p re ll Key Cast Sinead Cusack. M atthew Newton, Sam N eill, Rose Byrne, Sacha H o rle r Producers Phaedon Vass, Susan Vass, John W inter

performances on the part of Irish talent Sinead Cusack as Frank and Australia's boy-of-the-moment, Matthew Newton as her son. Their roles are well-constructed and

D istributor

refreshingly original (how rare it is to

Beyond Film s

discover such a meaty female role on

Country of Origin A u stralia Duration 94 m inutes

Australian screens] but surrounding these two are myriad insipid roles which serve only as obstructions to

Sam Neill’s role as Frank’s university professor is appallingly written

Jesus' Son

what this film should - and could - be.

-> “Get a life,” David screamed at his

Sam Neill's role as Frank's university

unabashed and some unfortunately

Director Alison Maclean

mother. And so she did. The only

professor is appallingly written and

immature attempts at originality. The

problem was that she got his life.

directed, as is Sacha Horler's turn as

characters of Frank's social set who

She is 'Frank' - Frances Regina Aileen

the daughter Margaret. But My Mother

are desperate for her to return to their

Nano Kennedy, a devout Catholic who

Frank's greatest problem lies not in

fold, where she was content in her

immediately endears herself to

its characters but its effort to find

misery, are curiously costumed all in

audiences with her collection of

itself. The film twists and turns

white. Perhaps Lamprell is

eccentricities, her devotion to her

impatiently throughout the 90 minutes

representing their lack of substance,

NewVision

dead husband and her tendency

as it tries to decide what it is really

their one-dimensional personalities,

Country of origin

towards over-protecting her son. But

about. Is it a boy's quest to win the

their resistance to Frank's selfexpression or their naivety and

Cast Billy Crudup, Samantha M orton, Dennis Hopper.

Denis Leary, Jack Black, W ill Patton, Greg Germann, H olly H unter Producers M argot Bridger, Elizabeth C uthrell, Lydia D ean-Pilcher Distributor

USA Rating

her life - full of one-dimensional

heart of the girl of his wet dreams

characters - is boring her senseless.

(played with superior sweetness by a

reluctance to pushing the boundaries.

Literally. So Frank decides to broaden

dark-haired Rose Byrne)? Is it a

It is, disappointingly, our guess.

her horizons by enrolling in a

woman's battle to free herself of the

Religious references also abound,

university course - at her son's

chains which her family and society

predominantly in the form of two

a chequered career of late. Although

university.

bind her with? Is it the growth of a

quirky nuns - one of whom enjoys her

this reviewer is probably one of the

R Duration 103 m inutes

->Drug-fuelled road movies have had

What follows is a simple and heartfelt

bond between mother and son or is it

own personal journey to mirror

very few around to admit to a sneaking

work from first-tim e feature director

simply a story of triumph over

Frank's. Then there is a curious

enjoyment of Fear and Loathing in Las

Mark Lamprell, who has also written

adversity?

obsession with exploding cans and a

Vegas it's clear that the indies do it

this story. It is a quaintly original but

Adding to the chaos are many

devastatingly romantic gesture from

better. Gritty and grimily realistic in

[34] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

Frank's dead husband which brings

production design (check out Crudup’s

about parallels in David’s love life.

fascinatingly filthy fingernails) Jesus'

If one can ignore the distractions, the

Son recalls other 'Sundance' type

underlying story of My Mother Frank

films like Another Day in Paradise and

morphs into a pleasantly enjoyable

Drugstore Cowboy. The qualities it

film, easily forgiven for its

shares with them are its strong (and

sentimentality and its hit-and-miss

sometimes wildly funny] streak of

script. It is beautifully shot, making

humour and a range of quality

the most of the imposing Sydney

performances. And there's a great

University and the ramshackle

soundtrack. Any 70s film featuring

mansion which serves as the Kennedy

Hang On Sloopy’ has to score a few

home. Newton and Cusack are a

points in anybody's book.

perfect coupling and, for an attempt at

Such welcome levity underlines how

a first feature, My Mother Frank is

far the tone of Jesus' Son is from

indeed impressive. We wait with

Alison Maclean's last cinematic

hopeful anticipation for Lamprell's

offering, Crush (1992), a moody and

next offering. • Sarah Thomas

unsettling piece set in New Zealand,

Col. Terry Childers [Jackson], while under siege, saves the life of a fellow marine, Col. Hays Hodges (Jones).

Cut to 28 years later and Hodges is retiring (you could never say that about Jones' acting] as a Marine.

Childers still ploughs on in a world without an enemy, wallowing in that frightful military melancholy that craves the action of yesterday, not today's relative peace.

That desire for action seemingly initiates a frightful international incident that brings Childers to courtmartial. He calls on his old buddy Hodges to represent him against a Billy Crudup plays an amiable loser - labelled Fuck Head

where the director Lived for much of

And any miracle healing is left to one

her life. Now she's back working in

of the many laugh-out-loud scenes in

the US - directing such things as TV's

the film. Said scene involves a hunting

Sex in the City- and it shows.

knife, a drug-addled orderly and a

Crudup plays an amiable loser -

man's brain. And that's all you need to

labelled Fuck Flead by an early love

know at present.

rival and living up to his sobriquet with

In the end the episodic nature of the

increasing appropriateness as the film

tale - based on a collection of short

progresses. Very much a drifter, FH

stories by Denis Johnson - makes for

gets carried away by the wind or a

a meandering and vaguely familiar

whim, which leads him into the

experience, but one which

company of heroin addict and all

nonetheless gently charts FH's

round partner-in-crime, Michelle

gradual awakening; not with any bells

(Morton, diving headlong into the role

and whistles mind: the character is

as she is wont to do, and sporting a

never going to be queuing up to join

Rules of Engagement Director W illiam Friedkin Producer Richard D. Zanuck, Scott Rudin & Robert Evans Cast Guy Pearce, Sam uel L. Jackson, Tom m y Lee Jones, Anne Archer, Ben Kingsley W riter Jam es Webb & Stephen W Gaghan Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini Country of Origin US Distribution Roadshow

surprisingly good and understated

Mensa.

American accent).

The cameos are all neatly delivered...

Using flashback and playful cutting

although don't you hate it when you

capitalise on his breakthrough

techniques (including the neatest use

know someone huge is due to appear

American performance in L.A.

of a split screen since Pillow Talk],

anytime and you spend the entire

Confidential? Good on him, I’d say, if it

Maclean has FH stumblingly narrate

movie thinking "I wonder when Holly

means he doesn't attain Gwyneth-like

his own history with charm and a

Hunter's going to show up" as you

omnipresence.

touch of post drug-fucked hindsight.

do here?

And if his performance in William

But what are we to make of all the

But the movie stands or falls on the

Friedkin's latest elementary drama,

government that requires a scapegoat.

Jesus allusions? Apart from the title,

central performance of Crudup and

Rules of Engagement, is typical of

No matter that Hodges is now a poorly

Christian iconography abounds, from

he is superb. Whether stoned or

such careful selection, he made the

regarded drunk (as Jones seems to be

FH's crown of thorns, to the graffiti on

sober, he ambles along with such

right choice.

in all his films now).

the train, to the surreal imagery with

appealing candour, geniality and

It would have been too easy for Pearce

Enter Major Mark Biggs (Pearce), the

the Sacred Heart. Certainly Christ was

downright good naturedness, it's

to waltz into a swag of mediocre

imperious, upstart lawyer

reputedly one for hanging with whores

hard not to wish him well.

and misfits, but whether he was ever as tractable as our hero is debatable.

Jesus’ Son recalls other ‘Sundance’ type film s like Another Day in Paradise

• Madeleine Swain

Some would argue Guy Pearce didn't

The Imperious upstart lawyer Major Mark Biggs (Guy Pearce)

Hollywood films and fizzle. To pick a

representing the Government.

meaty supporting role like this, in

Thankfully, director Friedkin does

what was always going to be a

Pearce's first scene justice, giving him

middling American success, shows a

an arresting hallway entrance.

rare wisdom.

And Pearce plays it just right. The look

How can you not look good next to a

he has going is perfect, all harsh

couple of hams like Tommy Lee Jones

shadows consumed in his chiselled

and Samuel L. Jackson?

jaw and cheekbones. Very sharp and

The Rules of Engagement are the

warlike, he evokes a young Pacino,

rules US military forces must adhere

without needing to wear an ethnicity

to when engaging with combative

on his sleeve as the young Pacino did.

enemy forces.

He is the major delight in a film that

On screen, Rules of Engagement is a

we’ve seen many times before.

trumped up courtroom drama with all

Technically, it has that Hollywood

the finesse of Friedkin's paltry 1990s

competence and the story has a well-

directorial offerings, Blue Chips and

buffed smoothness. But it remains a

Jade. His classics, The French

story laden with the very predictable

Connection and The Exorcist are,

turncoats, surprise witnesses and

sadly, but a memory.

moral quandaries inherent in such

Rules Of Engagement opens in 1968,

wan courtroom drama.

in a not very Vietnamese jungle, where

• Michael Bodey

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [35]

Bootmen

theatricality that underpinned the project. This is particularly galling when Bootmeris technical aspects are

Director

so strong and the dancing set pieces

Dein Perry Cast

so effectively (if unrealistically) staged.

Adam Garcia, Sam W orthington,

But Bootmen deviates and chases that

Sophie Lee, Susie Porter, W illiam Zappa

prized "wide audience” . It drops most

Producer H ilary Linstead, Dein Perry Antonia Barnard

of what made Tap Dogs great.

W riter

Bootmen has the soul of a strong,

Steve W orland

popular film. Pity it lost its heart.

Cinematographer Steve Mason Country of Origin Australia Distribution

Mr Accident

Tw entieth Century Fox

->From the first rattle of the Fox

Adam Garcia tapping in Bootmen.

Director Yahoo Serious

Searchlight drumroll, it's clear there

Cast

is overseas money riding on Bootmen, the film adaptation of Dein Perry's global theatrical success, Tap Dogs,

"ball and chain". Of course, I'm not a

boys' struggles and misadventures, all

dancer/gay/emotional but some of my

the while dropping emotional pointers

Yahoo Serious, Helen Dallim ore, David Field, Grant Piro, Jeanette Cronin Producer Yahoo Serious

and its offshoot, Steel City.

best friends are.

at just the right moments before the

And while first-tim e director, Perry

Sure, the stage show's appeal rested

expected, but too short, finale.

has set up Top Dogs to achieve

on the flannel and muscle attitude of

One could argue many of the actors,

commercial success here and

boys doing tap but this verges on the

some of whom are from Perry's stage

overseas, his narrative and style

ridiculous. It means Porter's and Lee's

troupe, are ill-equipped to deal with

choices niggle at the essence of his

roles, in particular, are woefully

anything more than their elementary

stage creation, to the film's detriment.

disrespectful (and Lee needs a new

characterisations. So a pro such as

universal leveller in the world of

Entertaining though it may be,

agent, someone who can get her

William Zappa stands out like a

comedy. Without words Rowan

Bootmen, is not the joyous,

something more substantial than a

giant sequin.

Atkinson slays them in Somalia,

unrestrained hoot Steel City and Tap

hairdresser role).

The very central lead, Adam Garcia,

Jacques Tati has them rolling in the

Dogs were on stage.

Lee is Linda, the object of the affection

does have a bit of early John Travolta

aisles in Alice Springs and Buster

Though easy to watch, the film is self-

of two brothers, Mitchell (Sam

about him but it's that bit including

Keaton busts guts around the globe.

conscious when it should be over the

Worthington) and Sean (Adam Garcia).

looks, smooth dancing feet and basic

But when the slapstick fails and the

top. Where's the skin, sweat and

The Newcastle brothers have another

acting skill. No wonder Worthington,

pratfalls fall flat on their face, what's

energy that made Tap Dogs such a

thing in common - they've been tap

playing his brother, charms him off

left? If you're smart: a good story and

beaut entertainment?

dancing since they were kids, although

the screen in a dominant and very

hopefully some witty repartee. That's

Instead, the latent self-consciousness

Mitchell long abandoned any

likeable performance.

why even those who have trouble

results in the film rushing though its

aspiration to continue as Adam chased

Indeed, Worthington's presence

swallowing Jerry Lewis' shenanigans

limited characterisations, simple

his dream of becoming a professional

encapsulates the enjoyable, and best,

can enjoy The Nutty Professor.

motivations and an elementary plot -

tap dancer. The film skips through the

aspects of the film - he's ruggedly

And if the well of comic inventiveness

Distributor Roadshow Country of origin Australia

| Physical humour - it's the great

ie, a boy denied things he loves strives

handsome, roughly hewn and deals a

has all but dried up you’ll just have to

to prove others wrong.

wonderful line in fruity dialogue.

fall back on an appealing central

The cinema screen demands

Only then, when Bootmen drops its

character. People w ill forgive a lot if

outrageous excess, so you've got to

posturing, is it terrific. It shows

your protagonist has something

wonder why w riter Steve Worland

glimpses of being an Australian film

different to offer. Whether it be Mr

smothers it with the too-obvious

that sounds and feels as an Australian

Bean's misanthropic mean streak or

allusions to "men's men” - the rugby

film should precisely when it doesn't

Laurel and Hardy's wonderfully

league-playing, steel-working, car-

try too hard. It's a shame that very

mismatched yet symbiotic

stealing meatheads kept in line by

same Australianess means overt

relationship. Which brings us to the

women portrayed as the loathsome

machismo overwhelms the

geek with the carrot-top...

[3 6 ] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

Yahoo Serious clearly believes in the

help but feel sorry for her.

Beholder is a distinct improvement on

ongoing appeal of his gormless twit in

And if the movie hadn't dug itself in

his last effort, the grotesque Welcome

the red fright wig, for this is the third

deeply enough already, Serious

To Woop Woop, but well, that’s not

time he's moved heaven and earth to

decides to use the delicate strains of

saying much.

get the character onto the big screen.

'Moon River’ to remind the waiting

A sub-Hitchcockian study of identity

Following the successful Young

world of a movie they could be sitting

and obsession, this film most

Einstein (1988), he conjured up the not

and watching... Bad move, Yahoo.

obviously recalls Vertigo in its lead

so-earth-shattering Reckless Kelly

• Madeleine Swain

character’s tormented attempts to

(1993) and now he’s back as accident-

reclaim a woman that has died or in

prone Roger Crumpkin, a hapless and

this case, simply walked away.

hopeless handyman with all the worldly wisdom of Bad Boy Bubby

In case there’s any doubt that we’re in

Eye of the Beholder

(before he leaves the basement).

Why Roger is such a babe in the woods is never explained, but his ineptitude only just loses out in the extraordinarily irritating stakes to the baby doll voice required of his female lead and counterpart, Sunday Valentine (Dallimore). Dallimore has a

Jason Priestly in Eye of the Beholder

Director Stephan E lliott Cast Ewan McGregor, Ashley Judd, Jason Priestly, k. d. lang, Genevieve Bujold, Patrick Bergin Producers A l Clark, N icholas C lerm ont W riters M ark Behm (novel], Stephan E lliott

homage territory, Elliott even has his

Eye (Ewan McGregor, miscast) is a

protagonist, the eponymous Eye,

cold, detached surveillance expert for

shack up in a church bell tower in San

the British government. His

Francisco. But reverence of course,

preoccupatiorrwith his job has led to a

does not necessarily equate with style,

breakdown in his personal life, with

and while elements of the suspense

his wife and daughter leaving him

genre surface now and again, they

years ago.

rarely congeal to form a coherent,

His current assignment is quickly

suspenseful narrative.

ditched when he fleetingly

normal voice, we’ve heard it. And

Distributor

There are no screws tightening in

photographs mysterious Joanna

she’s a perfectly capable actor.

Roadshow

Elliott’s script (adapted from Marc

(Ashley Judd], a woman who reminds

But if this is her idea of a move into the big time, well, she should have some serious words with her agent.

And fast.

Country of Origin UK / Canada Rating MA Duration 109 m inutes

As we all know by now, Serious also

Behm’s 1980 novel), no sudden plot

him of his lost daughter. From here an

twists of note, no headlong

obsession forms that leads him in on a

acceleration to a climax anywhere

pan-American stalking mission.

near as devastating as that of

A number of implausibilities annoy.

Flitchcock’s 1958 thriller.

Chief among them is Elliott’s obvious

seems to believe in the old maxim: if

Director Stephan Elliott has departed

In fact, it's difficult to feel any kind of

intent to fetishise the hi-tech, state-of-

you want something doing, do it

from his penchant for broad comedy -

frisson at all when the film ’s main

the-art technology employed by Eye, yet at the same time he would have us

yourself - he’s credited in the

some would say thank heavens - and

characters remain simply the watcher

producing, writing, acting and editing

turned his hand to a psychological

and the watched for far too much of

believe that police all over the United

departments on all three of his films.

thriller. The resulting Eye of the

the film ’s running time.

States are too ill-equipped to nab a

Of course the upshot of this is that

killer with no qualms about leaving

when the film is a lame duck,

clues all over the place.

only one pair of shoulders can really

The director’s predilection for wide-

bear the blame.

open spaces and the road movie harks

And M r Accident is a duck with both

back to another of Elliott’s four

wings and legs in splints. The plot -

features, The Adventures of Priscilla,

some silly yarn about a wicked factory

Queen of the Desert. In Eye of the

boss lacing eggs with nicotine - is

Beholderwe tramp all over the States

feeble and unengaging; the

(mostly a morphed Montreal, actually]

characterisations are two-dimensional

taking in a variant of the Aussie

and grating. Featuring David Field as

outback, Death Valley, and end up in

yet another cartoon gangster - it is

the icy expanses of Alaska. Here at

almost Sample People all over again -

last McGregor’s character moves

and only one gag raises even half a

beyond mere voyeurism and actually

smile (a visual jest about red wine and

interacts with his quarry. By this time

salt). Oh and spare a thought for poor

however, a lukewarm th rille r has

Libby Gore - sidelined in a rather

cooled irrevocably.

tasteless minor cameo here, you can’t

• Michael Ward CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [3 7 ]

T R A N S P O R T & L O G IS T IC S

Shane McKechnie

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S«- the ca-wfítefíéfecte oí WF Dumb and Qansber ami there’s Something about Mar?

-^Perhaps director Peter FarreUy saw the tepid response to his latest film, Me, Myself & Irene coming. Why else would he bother trying to write low brow literature?

His publishing company sure as hell

Movie Poster Art from Hollywood’s

revisit after the woeful sixth instalment

Greatest Adventure Epics and

(Mick Brown’s Performance}.

Spectaculars [Lawrence Bassoff

Thankfully, Nigel Andrews’ dissection of Jaws is a cracker. Apparently,

some still say 'they don’t make 'em

Andrews was told to write whatever he

like they used to’.

wanted, however he wanted, on the classic thriller. And he did.

terrific selling punch!” as a blurb

While full of the usual useless trivia,

spruiking one classic film notes.

anecdotes, buffery and the occasional

Featuring film posters and artwork,

insight, found throughout the

page A-Z listing of features from the

from a time when exclamation marks

Bloomsbury series, this book also adds

two countries.

meant something, Mighty Movies

storyboards from the climactic scene

Adrian Danks’ summary of Melbourne

gloriously reproduces some glorious

and eight pages of colour stills.

on screen and Verhoeven’s bold

cinema memories. The brief,

They're welcome bonuses among

revisiting of Ken G. Hall’s work are

elementary editorials and Jean

the silliness.

particularly readable.

Simmons’ introduction, accompanying

Who knew Robert Duvall was

There’s no troubles reading William

the posters are piffle next to the over

Spielberg's choice for Brody

Goldman’s Which Lie Did I Tell?

the top sales pitches for these epic

(eventually played by Roy Scheider) or

(Bloomsbury $29.95). He’s frank, he’s

films. But that’s not the point. Why

a chocolate shark that oozed jelly

fun and he reads like he’s delivering

blood was rejected as a confectionery

an alcohol-fuelled, off-the-record after

novel called The Comedy Writer (Penguin, $22.95) by the co-writer of There's Something About Mary. Might even sell some copies to people who think it’s a manual, not a novel.

What a pitch, particularly when those who read his first novel, Outside Providence, knew Farrelly had already off-loaded his overly sentimental personal memoirs in that one. Pity then that Farrelly's second novel is so

a juicy rollick through Hollywood and

that lists the film's five major sound

its foibles by the famed screenwriter

effects. As Bruce would say: Wahh-

who first said "nobody knows

HWOWNGGGH-HWOOOH!

anything" about the town. He’s

The Cambridge Film Handbook for

achieved enough not to care anymore

Jane Campion's The Piano (Cambridge

and it shows in his breezy style.

University Press, $34.95pb/$99hb) is,

It isn’t as pithy as his original,

necessarily, more serious. The six

Adventures In The Screen Trade, but

specially-commissioned essays on the

sequels rarely are.

film are more direct than most film

• Michael Bodey

as Leonie Pihama's on its Maori

Henry O'Halloran, is an aspiring

representation cast an objective, and

scriptwriter in 1990 Los Angeles.

intriguing, eye over The Piano.

Quelle surprise! Henry’s a feckless,

After such a bore, Mighty Movies:

dinner speech. Which Lie Did I Tell? is

referencing, you have to love a book

Zealand pride in the film, essays such

In The Comedy Writer, the narrator,

undemanding read.

tie-in? Despite its lack of sources and

analysis. Despite the immense New

tepid and unmemorable.

a quip but rarely of insight. An

feature Films

This collection of film art "packs

knew they’d sell a copy or three of a

frustrating soul occasionally capable of

Australian Í Heui Zealand

Collection, $43.90) emphasises why

888 Wm

W H IC H LIE D ID I T E L L 1

If you can conquer the occasional over­ analysis and sometimes impenetrable

would you want to compete against a

language, this is a thoughtful book to

tag line such as Paths Of Glory's -

have an intellectual wrestle with.

W illia m

"Never has the screen thrust so deeply

The same could be said of Twin Peeks,

into the guts of war!” Indeed.

Australian & New Zealand Feature

No creature has penetrated so deeply

Films, edited by Deb Verhoeven

into the cinema psyche as Bruce, the

(Damned Publishing $43.90). It can be

shark used in Jaws. The mechanical

a too obtuse appreciation of our film

killer, named after Steven Spielberg’s

canon, full of 'metonymies, dualisms'

lawyer, is just one of the many stars in

and ‘discourses' but, again, if you can

the Bloomsbury Movie Guide No.5,

wade through the bloated academic

Jaws (Bloomsbury $29.95).

writing, there are some interesting

The Bloomsbury Guides deserved a

ideas before its comprehensive 300

by

G o ld m a n

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [39]

explanation of the objectives of each

(although at times it appears less like

scene, evaluating their effectiveness

a film and more like a play).

and highlighting the in-jokes that non-

The special features section includes

German members of the audience

the option of commentary by the

may not have understood: these tasks

director and actors over the film but

are performed objectively which is

where Run Lola Run is informative

refreshing.

and interesting The Winslow Boy is not. The comments by Mamet and Title The W inslow Boy Director David M amet

Cast N igel Hawthorne, Jerem y N ortham , Rebecca Pidgeon, Gemma Jones Producer Sarah Green Distributor TriS tar Pictures Country of Origin Germany Rating G Duration 100 m inutes Price $40

Rebecca Pidgeon are tiresome and wandering. There are some interesting discussions but these are few and far between. Far too often minute-long pauses are broken only by nervous giggles and pointless trivia highlighted to American Mamet - such as the changing of the guard in front

The Winslow Boy is a period film set in

of Buckingham Palace - to fill the void.

early 20th century England based on

The special features also includes a

Director Tom Tykw er

the fortunes of a young boy and the

featurette of the film, an over zealous

Cast Franka Potente,

trial of a crime he did not commit. The

appraisal of Mamet's direction and the

his non-American background to give

film is adapted from a 50-year-old

performance of the cast.

the piece an original perspective but

Title Run Lola Run

M oritz B leib treu,H erbert Knaup Producer Maria Kopf Distributor T riS tar Pictures Country of Origin Germany Rating M Duration 77 m inutes Price $40

play based on a true story. It revolves

rather takes the safe route of ordinary

around justice and the disproportionate rights the judicial system affords the wealthy as opposed

-^Intelligent and fun, Run Lola Run is

to everyone else.

an energetic film set around the

Directed by David Mamet, and with a

premise of small, seemingly

great cast headed by Sir Nigel

inconsequential moments. Divided into

Flawthorne, The Winslow Boy is

three separate segments which start

professionally acted and well directed

Title Crazy in Alabam a Director Antonio Banderas Cast Melanie G riffith, David Morse, Lucas Black, Meat Loaf Aday Producer Jam es Dyer Distributor T riS tar Pictures Country of Origin USA Rating M Duration 108 m inutes Price $40

heroes overcoming the 'evil' establishment.

The special features section includes an interesting montage with commentary by Banderas. Flowever, it is a little over indulgent in its appraisal of the objectives the film reached and the originality of the

with the same premise, Lola (played

Antonio Banderas' directorial debut

by Franka Potente) has twenty

sees him directing his wife Melanie

scenes removed at the final editing

minutes to save her boyfriend Manni

Griffith in a drama set in 1960s

stage (with an explanation of the

(played by Moritz Bleibtreu) from the

Philadelphia. The film revolves around

reason for cutting the scenes) and a

mob whose money he has misplaced.

parallel stories of Griffith's Aunt

very short bloopers reel which is not

Each segment is based around the

Lucille and Peejoe (played by Lucas

in the least bit amusing.

small incidences that affect Lola as

Black) facing the inequalities

she desperately runs across town to

prevalent in 1960s America. Peejoe

her boyfriend. Different circumstances

finds himself in a moral bind

slightly alter her path and thus the

regarding the death of his friend, an

outcome.

American-Negro, killed by the local

The intelligence does not limit itself to

sheriff after being detained for

the film but extends to the DVD

breaching the "no blacks" policy at the

presentation of Run Lola Run. There is

local swimming pool.

an extremely interesting and thought

Crazy in Alabama covers familiar

provoking commentary by director

territory as it glorifies ordinary

Tom Tykwer and star Franka Potente.

Americans reestablishing American

The two discuss the entire film from

society in the 1960s. Unfortunately

beginning to end giving a detailed

Banderas does not take advantage of

[40] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

screenplay. Also included are two

â&#x20AC;˘ Shane Stephens

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I u n d e rs ta n d m y s u b s c rip tio n w ill s t a r t w ith th e n e x t a v a ila b le is s u e an d o n ly o n c e p a y m e n t has b e e n re c e iv e d .

PUBLICATION

Another Day in Paradise

grow old? In Mel and Sid, the answer

you can say "kindred spirits", they're

seems to be that if you survive, you

on a thousand-mile quest to retrieve a

can stay young-at-heart forever.

holy biker relic - Peter Fonda's

Woods makes the part his own -

'chopper' from Easy Rider. Thus

equally scared and scary - and even

begins a long, blonde journey of the

the often-irritating Griffith rings true.

soul as they encounter all the perils of

Gregson Wagner brings a tired,

the road trip - bad cops, bitchy

waifish charm not unlike Chloe

waitresses and, of course, their own

Sevigny's performance in Kids, while

inner demons.

Rumpelstiltskin Director M ark Jones Cast Kim Johnston Ulrich, Tom m y Blaze, Max Grodenchik, Allyce Beasley Producer M ichael Prescott Distributor 21st Century Pictures Country of origin US Rating MA Duration 88 m ins

Kartheiser presents a far more

Lead performers Behr and Rose also

From the creators of Leprechaun

sympathetic figure than that film's

take writing, production and direction

(no, seriously], comes another

preening baby sociopaths.

credits in their behind-the-camera

splattered-up, schlocked-down

Clark's background as a photographer

debut. The screenplay is

version of a folk tale about little

is apparent in his use of Eric Edwards'

unremarkable but their obvious

people. "Somewhere in Europe" in

cinematography, which is lush

personal investment in the story does

the 14-OOs, Rumpelstiltskin's

enough to distract from the fact that

help bring it to life. However, Rose, the

attempt to steal a baby is thwarted

this is a pretty seedy story. But despite

more experienced actor of the two,

by a witch who imprisons him in a

a few questionable elements, this is

tends to overshadow Behr with her

stone figurine. In an exposition

ultimately a thoughtful, provocative

greater charm and range.

more Scooby Doo than Brothers

movie.

Cameo roles include a demented turn

Grimm, the entombed dwarf turns

Director Larry C lark Cast Jam es Woods, M elanie G riffith, Vincent Kartheiser, Natasha Gregson W agner Producers Stephen Chin, Larry Clark, Jam es Woods Distributor Eagle Entertainm ent Country of origin US Rating R Duration 97 m ins

Me and Will Directors Melissa Behr and Sherrie Rose Cast Melissa Behr, Sherrie Rose, Patrick Dempsey, Seym our Cassel Producers Melissa Behr, Sherrie Rose, Pierre David Distributor 21st Century Pictures

Whatever you think of Larry Clark, at least he lets you know what you're in for right from the start. His blazing directorial debut, Kids, opened creepily with a too-young teen Lothario working a syrupy seduction on an equally young girl. His follow­ up, Another Day in Paradise, opens again with teen lovers but within five

Country of origin US Rating MA Duration 96 m ins

by Lynch and Van Sant regular Grace

up in modern LA, on the shelves of

Zabriskie, as Will's obsessive-

a "weird antique store". New

compulsive mum, and M. Emmet

mother Shelley (Kim Johnston

Walsh as a gold-hearted hayseed.

Ulrich) finds him pretty fascinating

See if you can spot Once Were

and takes him home. Big mistake.

Warriors director Lee Tamahori, who

Max Grodenchik seems to be having

is also named as "Mentor" in the

fun in the title role, which seems

closing credits.

conceived as a sawn-off version of

Road movies always lose something

Freddy Krueger, but fails to

on the small screen, but this is no

reproduce the Elm Street killer's

great tale to begin with. If a grittier,

evil allure. The script doesn't help -

tattooed version of Thelma and

this guy's wisecracks make Freddy

Louise sounds appealing, this might

sound tike Dorothy Parker.

be for you, but to most it w ill seem

Production values are cheap, cheap,

all too familiar.

cheap, and there's plenty that just doesn't make sense. If he wants a

minutes, the lad is involved in some

baby, LA's full of them - why is he

incredibly lurid violence. Consider

so fixated on Baby Johnny? There's

yourself warned.

also a nasty misogynistic tone,

Mel (James Woods) and Sid (Melanie

which only adds insult to injury,

Griffith) are junkies, thieves, and 40-

and the filmmaker has apparently

ish. When they take young Bobbie

gone out of his way to kill off as

(Vincent Kartheiser) and Rosie

many police as possible. I smell

(Natasha Gregson Wagner) under their

an angry young man with an

wing, a cosy but delinquent family unit

agenda. This is pure Z-grade

is formed. Continuing his interest in

genre guff, custom-made for the

the course of young lives going off the

video market, but with barely a

rails, Clark is now asking, how do they

redeeming feature. â&#x20AC;˘ Alister Shew

[42] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

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SYDNCY • MELBOURNE • AUCKLAND • WELLINGTON • LONDON • L.A. • KUALA LUMPUR

EX H I B IT IO N A N D D I ST R IB UT IO N

Exhibition and Distribution:

an overview -^1999 was an extraordinary year for most Australian exhibitors and

many prints generated for smaller films to try and fill screens". Conversely Alan

distributors, especially those releasing and/or exhibiting US made blockbusters.

Finney of Buena Vista International (Australia) says that "there are never too

Total box office for the year was $704 million -11.7 percent up on the $603 million of 1998.

many prints - just sometimes too many expectations of a particular film ” .

Exhibitors added 170 screens bringing the national total to 1746 by the end of the

status of 1999 in retrospect. Based on its figures to June 30, the MPDAA reports

year. According to the Motion Picture Distributor's Association of Australia

while the industry is on track for a total box office of $709 million by the end of

(MPDAA], which has been gathering box office data from Australian distributors

this year, this equates to a significant drop in growth compared with 11.7 percent

since 1926, 1999 was the 11th consecutive year of record box office growth and

for 1999 and 10 percent for 1998. Similarly, although exhibitors have added

screen expansion in this market. Due to lack of adequate data, the MPDAA no

another 31 screens over the past six months bringing the national total to 1777,

longer calculates annual figures for admissions, but a very rough estimate of 78

growth has slowed in comparison with the two years prior.

Box office and industry data for the first half of 2000 confirms the extraordinary

million admissions comes from dividing total box office by an average ticket price

Major exhibitor Village Roadshow also scaled down its profit projections by $6 to

of $9 - "which hasn't varied by more than $1 for about eight years," according to

$8 million for the last financial year due to slower than expected box office from

the MPDAA.

January to April 2000.

An Australian Film Commission Report released on January 21, 2000, shows 84

Box office and screen level data alone does not provide a detailed picture of the

percent of the 1999 box office came from US films (mainly studio made), 9.5

market and is obviously not the only gauge of success for individual businesses.

percent from UK films, 3.5 percent from Europe/other and three percent from

According to the Australasian Film Commission films with big budgets, high

local product which means that multiplexes gained a lion’s share of the year's

production values and well resourced marketing campaigns currently generate

total box office.

the biggest box office locally. It's report also shows "Australian films compare

The top five films of 1999, (all US studio based), individually grossed more than

favourably with other low budget, independently produced film s” .

$20 million compared to 1998 when only Titanic took over $20 million.

Happily, 2000 has already provided some surprises in this respect, with the

Interestingly, the total number of films released nationally in 1999 was 258 -

popular success of Australian features The Wogboy (Twentieth Century Fox) $11

down from 271 in 1998 and 282 in 1997.

million and Looking For Aiibrandi [Roadshow Film Distributors] $7.6 million (as

One Likely explanation for this apparent contradiction is a rise in the number of

of June 30, 2000). Yet while Roadshow is aggressively acquiring and distributing

prints per film - or for certain films.

Australian films, other distributors and exhibitors generally believe Australian

Natalie Miller of specialist distributor Sharmill Films suggests "there may be too

product still presents too much of a challenge for too little return. • Megan Sloley

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [45]

EXHI BI TI ON A ND D I ST R IB UT IO N

Distribution UNITED INTERNATIONAL PICTURES

releases Bootmen and Baz Luhrman's

Stephen Basil-Jones said, “CTA is the

(AUSTRALIA]

Moulin Rouge.

biggest distributor of arthouse product

Owner: United International Pictures

BUENA VISTA INTERNATIONAL

in Australia based on its annual release schedule" (15 this calendar year). Most successful recent arthouse

US Studio Partners: Paramount, Metro Goldwyn Mayor, Universal

OwnenThe Walt Disney Company

releases are The Opposite of Sex ($1.6

Managing Director: Michael Selwyn

US Studio Partners:Touchstone,

million box office), Run Lola Run ($1.8 million), and The Winslow Boy

Film product category: Mainstream &

Hollywood Pictures, Walt Disney

specialist

Pictures

($1.4 million). Basil-Jones confirms

No of releases in 2000: 45

Managing Director: Alan Finney

that '99 was "a quiet year” for

Australian Releases in 2000: My

Film product category: Blockbuster &

Columbia, but claims the business has

Mother Frank, Kick (jointly with

arthouse

turned around in 2000 with 40 titles on

No of releases in 2000: Approx 30

the release slate.

Australian Releases in 2000: Mailboy

Columbia "is not the most aggressive

Beyond Films Limited) Angst UIP Australia distributes films locally

distributor of Australian film" said

on behalf of its three major studio

Buena Vista International (Australia), a

Basil-Jones. “ Our focus is currently

owners plus Dreamworks SKG

wholly-owned division of The Walt

on Asian film as the logical addition to

through Universal. It also distributes

Disney Company, releases films

the strong local trend in Asian food,

in Australia for Beyond Films as well

produced by its studios plus films

fashion and spirit". Parent company

as acquiring local films in its own

acquired from other sources.

Columbia Tristar International recently

right. Biggest recent releases are

Australian managing director Alan

established a Hong Kong production

Gladiator ($30 million box office to

Finney believes "each individual film

office to acquire and produce Asian

end June 2000), M:l-2 ($25 million to

determines the release strategy rather

films to feed its markets. See the

June 2000) and American Beauty

than the financial resources of the

Silkscreen sidebar.

($18.9 million). Recent successes in

distributor." He sees "risk-taking as

specialised area are Snow Falling On

part of the territory".

Cedars ($4 million) Tea With

Finney views the local market for

Mussolini ($4.3 million) and Being

specialist films as very healthy, "with

Owner: Village Roadshow - 50%; The

John Malkovich ($3.1 million).

most of these titles performing better

Greater Union Organisation - 50%

Managing director Michael Selwyn

per head of population than in the US".

US Studio Partners: Warner Brothers

said, "While the level of attendance is

BVI Australia recently acquired its first

Chairman: Ian Sands Managing Director: Joel Pearlman

ROADSHOW FILM DISTRIBUTORS

still very healthy, costs associated

Australian title, Mailboy w ill be

with releases continue to escalate at

released later this year.

Film product category: Blockbuster &

an alarming rate.”

With 30 years industry experience,

arthouse

He added that Australian product is

Finney said, (when) “an Australian film

No of releases in 2000: 30

proving particularly challenging right

hits the mark, the Australian audience

Australian Releases in 2000: The Dish,

now, “audiences seem to be wary of

forms a much closer and intimate

Risk

them".

relationship with the film than with

Local releases over past 12 months

other movies” .

Founded in 1968, Roadshow Film

COLUMBIA TRISTAR AUSTRALIA

distributor for Warner Brothers since

Owner: SONY Pictures Entertainment

owned by Time Warner.

very pleased with the campaign - just

US Studio Partners: SONY Pictures,

Managing director Joel Pearlman says,

not the result". He concludes "not

SONY Classics, Screengems

"Roadshow handles the largest

much is new and changing except an

Managing Director: Stephen Basil-

blockbuster to the smallest arthouse

increasing understanding of the

Jones

film and believes "the biggest story in

importance of the internet in film

Film product category: Blockbuster &

local distribution so far is the

marketing".

arthouse

increased success of Australian films".

No of releases in 2000: 40

He cites box office figures for Two

include Cut and Strange Fits of Passion (with Beyond), Selkie and

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX

Twentieth Century Fox managing director Robert Slaviero.

Distributors has been the exclusive

Siam Sunset. "We had great hopes for Siam Sunset" says Selwyn, "and were

UIP managing director Michael Selwyn.

1971 and also distributes for Newline

Australian Releases in 2000: 0

Hands (REP 1999 release) at $5.6 million, The Craic (Roadshow 1999) at

OwnenTwentieth Century Fox

Columbia Tristar Australia has been

$5.2 million, The Wogboy (Fox 2000) at

Managing Director: Robert Slaviero

distributing locally since 1996,

$11 million and Looking For Alibrandi

Managing Director Robert Slaviero

releasing titles directly for Sony

(Roadshow 2000) $7.6 million to June

was not available for interview but

Pictures, Sony owned Screengems and

2000 .

according to its Australian web site,

Sony Pictures Classics.

Roadshow has a strong commitment

Twentieth Century Fox has 15 films

Columbia is one of the "big four"

to local product "and is the most

slated for release between July 2000

distributors of blockbusters, with

aggressive distributor in this area”

and April 2001 including Australian

Twentieth Century Fox, BVI and UIP.

Pearlman claimed. The company

[46] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

BVI managing director Alan Finney

[ f o r the wid est wide sh ot]

n

film studio , 117 Rouse Street Port Melbourne 3207 Victoria Australia www.cascadefilms.com.au/mfs

Telephone:

613 9646 4022

Facsimile:

613 9646 6336

E X H I BI T I ON A N D D I S T R I B U T I O N

seeks films with commercial potential

PALACE FILMS

at script stage and targets local

Catastrophes and My Name Is Joe but Ulee's Gold disappointed despite a

producers. He attributes recently

Owner: Antonio Zeccola

local tour by star Peter Fonda.

successful Australian product to the

General Manager: Tait Brady

This year's releases include Ghost

filmmakers' understanding of the

Film product category: Blockbuster &

Dog, Pornographic Liaison and Jesus'

audience for the films and hopes this

arthouse

Son but Newvision has scaled down its

leads to a continuous supply of

No of releases in late 2000/early

annual volume of releases from 15 to

commercial Australian product.

2001: 12

nine in the last couple of years to

“The local industry is a mature

Australian Releases in 2000:

concentrate on local production. First

market” he concludes, "in that all

Chopper, Yolngu Boy, Beware Greeks

Newvision production effort, Better

major studios are represented, there

Bearing Guns, Serenades, The

Than Sex, w ill be released in October

is a large number of multiplexes, our

Goddess of 1967

this year. Cox also owns fifty percent

market is driven by big releases from

of Melbourne's Kino cinema with the

the US and is very competitive... with

Palace has been involved in the

Becker Group. Cox says "the Kino

high cost media". As a result,

distribution of specialist film product

business has grown by about twenty

Roadshow has evolved its marketing

since 1965 and under the Palace

percent over the past year, but only

name since 1976. Antonio Zeccola and

twenty percent of Kino product comes

Tait Brady handle acquisitions,

from Newvision” . Cox believes

strategies into web sites.

DENDY FILMS

purchasing international product from

bringing foreign investment into

sales agents and festivals.

Australia is essential to the growth of

Owner: The Becker Group

Brady said "Local product is mostly

our industry.

Head of film division - Dendy & REP:

acquired at script stage as films need

Mark Gooder

a distributor to get financing from the

Head of Dendy distribution: Troy Lum

FFC (Film Finance Corporation)- one

No of releases in 2000: 12

of the few funding options along with

Australian Releases in 2000: 0

the AFC (Australian Film

Head of Becker Film Divisions: Mark

Commission), Showtime and private

Gooder

Fully owned by Becker Entertainment

sources” . Palace sells through to

Head of distribution: Mark Gooder

since '98, Dendy Films specialises in

video, pay television, free to air,

Film product category: Blockbuster &

“the best of arthouse and foreign

airlines and hotels.

arthouse

REP FILM DISTRIBUTION Owner: The Becker Group Limited

language film product" according to

Major issues for Palace currently are

No of releases in late 2000: 11

head of distribution Troy Lum.

increased competition in the specialist

Australian Releases in 2000: 0

Dendy and REP do not conflict by

area bringing with it increasing film

allocating specialist product over 30

purchase, promotion and advertising

Part of the Becker Group Limited,

print capacity to REP and anything

costs. Brady also perceives "a deep

REP has distributed film locally for 15

below that to Dendy. Due to a two year

rooted audience conservatism”

years with current product focus on

run of successful releases including

favouring mainstream fare and

"200 print mainstream commercial

Waking Ned Devine ($5 million box

requiring "endorsements and awards

product and 30 print 'crossover

office) A ll About My Mother ($1.2

attached to a film". Palace has shifted

titles'."

million), The Blair Witch Project [$ 10.6

its focus away from small, foreign

Company head Mark Gooder said REP

million], Buena Vista Social Club ($1.5

features with "something new to say”

"aims for 'break-out' product that can

million) and The Cup ($500,000) Lum

and towards Australian films in its

compete with studio product" and w ill

claims that this is "the most

next slate of films.

increase releases from nine in 1999 to

NEWVISION FILM DISTRIBUTORS

grossers of the past 12 months are

Owner: Frank Cox

Co-distributed with Dendy Films, and

successful time in Dendy's history with $15 million revenue coming from

11 by end of 2000. Two biggest REP

the last 12 months".

He agrees that box office is not the

The Blair Witch Project ($10.5 million)

only criteria for success especially in

Film product category: Specialist

Two Hands ($5.6 million). Up-coming

relation to specialist product, adding

No of releases in 2000: 9

releases include Saving Grace, as a

that "overheads were kept low

Australian Releases in 2000: Better

joint venture with Pinefilm

because some films were very cheap...

Than Sex

others didn't see the value in them” .

Dendy w ill release up to 12 titles in

Entertainment, Girlfight, Cherry Hills and Subterrano produced by Becker

Distributing locally for 20 years,

Feature Films - production arm of

2000 but there is no local content. "We

Newvision is what Frank Cox calls "a

Becker based in the US.

never get offered any Australian film s”

specialist operation, marrying

Gooder believes that two factors

says Lum, who believes that "big

commerce and art wherever possible

having a negative impact on the

Australian films cater to an

to push art to a commercial

industry are “the poor performance of

international audience and don't

audience". Biggest successes in

the Australian dollar against the US

Australia have been Kundun, Chasing

dollar” causing increased acquisition

Amy, Kiss or Kill, Love & Other

costs for international product and the

reflect our cultural reality".

[48] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

Head of Dendy distribution Troy Lum.

Palace Films owner Antonio Zeccola

Beyond Marketing Manager John Thornhill

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E X HI B IT IO N A ND D I ST R I B U T I O N

"rising costs of promotion and advertising".

over the years.

"Twelve years ago (as an exhibitor), I was able to get Mona Lisa exclusively

BEYOND DISTRIBUTION LIMITED

for The Longford plus My Left Foot and

Owner: Public Company

would play in multiplexes".

Truly Madly Deeply today those films Managing Director: Mikael Borglund Marketing Manager: John Thornhill

THE GLOBE FILM CO.

Film Product Category: Arthouse No of releases in 2000:10

Owner/Directors: Andrew

Australian releases in 2000: My

Mackie/Richard Peyton

Mother Frank, Kick [With UIP]

Film Product Category: Australian

Beyond has distributed locally for 18

Australian releases in 2000: Mullet,

months, setting up theatrical releases

Till Human Voices Wake Us

No of releases in 2000: 2/3

Sharmill Films owner Natalie Miller.

Pinefilm managing director Sean Rothsey

via UIP and managing marketing and publicity in-house. Marketing

Globe has distributed film locally for

manager John Thornhill estimates

over six years releasing around 40

Local distributor Columbia Tristar’s Asian film package SilksCreen

current release rate is 10 per year

titles in total including Secrets and

opened nationally across 11 cinemas on July 6. The titles are, The Road

"though we are mainly an

Lies and Praise. Owner Andrew Mackie

Home (Zhang Yimou), Shower (Zhang Yang), The Emperor and The

international sales agent” . Around

says distribution has been scaled down

Assassin (Chen Kaige), Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano), Crouching Tiger

fifty percent of the company's

since March '99 "because a major

Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee).

theatrical release schedule is

backer left to set up his own

Sony Picture Classics acquired three of the titles, while the other two

Australian including My Mother Frank

company". The focus is now on

were produced by Columbia

and Kick due out later this year.

provision of marketing and publicity

Tristar Productions Asia.

Thornhill says that the local market is

services although Globe w ill still

Columbia Australia packaged

"pretty tough...you need to be highly

release two or three Australian films

up and branded the program

selective and control the size of your

per year using its own resources.

before presenting it to every

print and advertising budget."

independent and arthouse PINEFILM ENTERTAINMENT

cinema in Australia.

SHARMILL FILMS

(P1NEFILM GROUP OF COMPANIES)

Managing director Stephen

Owner: Natalie Miller

Owner: Pinefilm Group of Companies

No of releases in 2000: 5

Managing Director: Sean Rothsey

“We then chose the best.”

Australian releases in 2000:

Film Product Category: Commercial

The cinemas selected were Melbourne's Nova, Palace Como and Village

:

Basil-Jones said the cinemas then made submission outlining how they would support the program:

Innocence (Paul Cox) Nijinsky [Paul

No of releases in 2000: 8

Rivoli; Dendy Opera Quays, Palace Verona and Roseville Cinemas in

Cox documentary)

Australian releases in 2000: 0

Sydney; Electric Shadows in the ACT; Palace Nova Eastend in A d e la id e ;!^ !

Distributing locally in its own right

One surprising omission was Melbourne's Kino Cinema. Part-owner,

No Ball Players Here (documentary]

Luna and Windsor in Perth and the Hoyts Regent in Brisbane.

Sharmill has been distributing locally

since April 1999, at rate of eight

Frank Cox said he was not surprised by the selection of Cinema Nova,

for 30 years, specialising in smaller

theatrical releases per year, Pinefilm

due to its eight-screen capacity, but “had been under the impression

foreign arthouse product. Owner

aims for mainstream product "with box

Natalie M iller’s first film was The

office pulling stars, directors and

Exterminating Angel and most

current hot genres" says managing

successful title was An Angel at My

director Sean Rothsey.

Table ($1.7 million box office). Miller

The company's next four releases are

cautions good box does not always

Ben Elton’s Maybe Baby, The Bogus

equate to profit.

Witch Project, The Miracle Maker

"Once you take out film hire, advance,

(claymation) and Saving Grace, a joint

prints, advertising, etc and send fifty

release with The Becker Group who

percent to the producer there isn't a

w ill manage film rights and license.

lot left over. A much smaller film like

Rothsey believes niche and arthouse

The Comedian Harmonists, (which

product is now overpriced as "sales

has earned) $150k to date and still in

agents and producers fail to appreciate

cinemas can provide a better margin".

changing market conditions using the

Miller, who also owns the Longford

old norm of three percent of a film's

Cinema in South Yarra and part owns

budget as the price to buy for

the Nova Carlton and Nova Adelaide,

Australia.

says the concept and consumption of

Pinefilm’s main focus is now direct to

arthouse, has changed dramatically

video sales. • Megan Sloley

[50] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

. that only one cinema would be chosen per stater.

«3 rv e e \r*r\v n CiII14I- d tu r u .

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Track it. Edit it. Mix it.

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-■ A i n r l A division of M w l i l

E X HI B IT IO N A ND D I ST R I B U T I O N

Pentecost said, “Reading committed to the Australian market in the early 90s when it was under-screened by US standards, but expansion accelerated in the late 90s creating greater competition". He acknowledges that major Owner: Reading Entertainment Inc. (US)

commercial interests “being the ‘duopoly of Village and Hoyts' - the ACCC’s

Cinema Division: Reading Cinemas

description not mine - have made it difficult for Reading to expand its cinema

Chief Operating Officer: Neil Pentecost

sites as per the original schedule”. Reading had aimed for a 10 percent

Total national sites; 10

share of the market, but Pentecost estimates it is currently around six

Total national screens: 71

percent. Graham Burke, Chief Executive of Village Roadshow, recently estimated the Reading market share lower at around three percent.

Reading is fully owned by Reading Entertainment Inc in the United States, a

Pentecost is hopeful that the change of government in Victoria may

property developer and motion picture exhibitor in all its markets

eventually reverse current planning laws that enabled “major commercial

encompassing the US, Australia, Puerto Rico and New Zealand. The dual

interests” to block the development of a Reading multiplex in Burwood

business focus enables Reading to own much of the property on which it

because it was outside a major shopping area. He says that the legislation is

builds its cinemas in contrast with most major competitors in Australia.

still “a warm topic”, but as the Reading-owned property in Burwood is “now

Global strategy to build bigger screens and stadium capacity than

valued at double what we paid for it", the company has not lost out.

competitors’, is also being followed through in Australia with a 600-seat,

Pentecost believes that lengthy legal proceedings instigated by "shopping

20m screen cinema at Reading Geelong.

centre developers and other cinemas” to prevent the building of a multiplex

Reading entered the local market in 1996 with its first six-screen multiplex

on the Reading owned Moonee Ponds Market site are "drawing to a close".

at Townsville, QLD. To date Reading has invested $160 million dollars in the

He predicts that Reading will commence building in about 12 months’ time.

development of its cinema chain in Australia which now incorporates

Despite competitive and legislative disincentives, Pentecost is optimistic

Townsville, Redbank, QLD (eight screens); Harbourtown, QLD (16 screens);

about the future for Reading in Australia. He says, “Townsville and Geelong

Bundaberg, QLD (four screens); Mandurah, WA (six screens); Belmont, WA

have been particularly successful... with Geelong growing the market there

(10 screens); Market City, NSW (five screens); Dubbo, NSW (five screens);

by 60 percent and now maintaining a 50 percent market share in competition

Elsternwick, VIC (five screens); and, Geelong, VIC (eight screens). This totals

with the established Village multiplex". He believes that “Sydney is still

10 locations and 71 screens. Two more sites are under construction in

underscreened and Melbourne offers scope for screen growth” especially

Auburn, NSW, and Chirnside Park, VIC, with sites planned for Tumbi Umbi,

since Lendlease relinquished its $76 million share of Hoyts to the Kerry

QLD, Newmarket, NSW, Burwood, VIC and Frankston, VIC.

Packer owned Consolidated Press Holdings in March 1999. "But although

Neil Pentecost is Chief Operating Officer at Reading Entertainment. He came

this is a facilities driven business,” concludes Pentecost, “the product still

to the position in September 1999 from Hoyts where he was operations

has to be there, and no exhibitor can control product.”

manager for NSW and QLD.

• Megan Sloley

EX H I B I T I ON A N D D I S T R I B U T I O N

Exhibition THE GREATER UNION ORGANISATION

corporation a 33.3 percent share in

development and approval.

between "15 and 20 percent increase

around 37 new generation multiplexes

CEO Michael Hawkins believes the

in revenue over the past 12 months".

Owner: Amalgamated Holdings

nationally. These are branded Village

marketplace is extremely competitive

Limited

Cinemas in Victoria, Greater Union in

but not oversupplied. "Overscreening

Cinema Division: Greater Union

New South Wales, South Australia and

is the mantra of the majors" he says,

DENDY CINEMAS

General Manager: Richard Parton

Western Australia and Birch Carroll &

"but there are still desirable markets

Total national sites: 54

Coyle in Queensland. Village owns 9

with pockets of opportunity. Like

Head of Becker Film Divisions: Mark

Total national screens: 400

multiplexes and cinemas outright has

Sydney with only three megaplexes for

Gooder

International: Cinemas in Middle East,

a 50 to 75 % share in another 21

its four million population when

Head of exhibition: Mark Sarfaty

Poland, Netherlands and Germany

cinema joint ventures including the

Brisbane has three for its one

Total national sites: 5

arthouse Europa chain. Village also

million". AMC programming is

Total national screens^ 1

owns a 50 percent share of Palace

mainstream and Hawkins suggests

Australia's oldest film exhibitor which

Cinemas as a "silent partner" in the

that any competitive megaplex

now owns 100 percent of Birch Carroll

words of Graham Burke.

screening smaller, arthouse product

1998, which included Dendy Brisbane,

and Coyle giving it a total of 54 Greater

Best performing Village sites "seesaw

"shouldn't be mistaken for anything

Dendy Newtown, Dendy Martin Place

Founded in 1910, Greater Union is

Owner: The Becker Group Limited

Becker purchased Dendy Cinemas in

Union managed sites and 400 screens

between the Jam Factory, Melbourne,

other than a cinema which needs to

and a 50% share in the Kino Cinema in

nationally. Greater Union also has a

the Marion in Adelaide, Crown Casino

fill its screens".

Melbourne. An existing Dendy

33.3 percent share (with Village and

in Melbourne, and Macquarie and

Warner Brothers) in around 37

Castle Hill in New South Wales" says

HOYTS

came with the purchase, which

multiplexes (making up some of the

Burke with location and good product

54) plus 50 percent of Roadshow Film

the key success factors.

Owner: Consolidated Press Holdings

distribution arm, REP Film Distribution - a 10 year old business.

distribution division (now Dendy Films) Becker still runs in addition to its own

Distributors.

Though Village had to reduce its profit

Cinema Division: Hoyts

The company has sites planned for

expectations for the June 30 year end

Chief Executive Officer: Paul Johnson

Becker opened another site at Ocean

Chermside in Brisbane and Burwood,

due to poor product, "momentum has

Total national sites: 40

Quays in Christmas 1999, which has

Hornsby and Bondi in Sydney though

been regained in the last two months"

Total national screens: 338

generated "fantastic box office from

screen expansion w ill slow this year in

according to Burke with the release of

International: Cinemas in Argentina,

day one" says Mark Gooder, who also

favour of refurbishment. Most

Gladiator and MI2 and "this w ill be

Chile, United Kingdom, Europe, New

oversees distribution at Dendy Films

successful sites are the Megaplex

maintained with new releases A

Zealand, Mexico and the United States

and REP. Gooder says the Dendy chain

Marion, SA (30 screens); Macquarie,

Perfect Storm and Me, Myself, Irene.

NSW (16 screens); Castle Hill, NSW

Burke believes that the cinema

PALACE

the kind that can only be seen at 3

Owners: Tony Zeccola - 50%; Village

which can be seen in multiplexes" and

(16 screens); Indoorapilly, QLD (16

division is set for a "great next

screens); Garden City, QLD (16

quarter" and that the industry

specialises in arthouse product, “ both places and 'mainstream arthouse'

screens); and, Liverpool, NSW (12

generally "is in the best shape of any

Roadshow - 50%

likes to support Australian product.

screens). Programming is mostly

country in the world due to the high

National Programming Manager: Kim

Turnover has increased and cinemas

mainstream product but sites in

standard and quality of our theatres...

Petalas

are more profitable since the Becker

Cairns, Manuka ACT and megaplexes

and aggressive marketing". Per capita

Cinema Division: Palace

acquisition "partly as a result of more

screen alternative and limited release

visits to cinemas is at five per year

Cinemas/Europa

open programming sourcing from

films.

according to Burke, in contrast with

Total national sites: 21

many distributors rather than just

Greater Union believes Australian

2.5 per year in the United Kingdom

Total national screens: 56

Dendy" says Gooder.

films require specialised attention and

and three per year in Europe.

Village Roadshow bought a 50 percent

• Megan Sloley

particular effort in marketing and AUSTRALIAN MULTIPLEX CINEMAS

share of Palace from Tony Zeccola in

tours, gala premieres and focus on

Owner: Australian Multiplex Cinemas

With 56 screens across 21 cinemas

school bookings has paid dividends.

Chief Executive Officer: Michael

nationally the Palace/Village joint

Hawkins

venture is the largest arthouse circuit

Total national sites: 5 (QLD only)

in Australia. Zeccola concurs with

Total national screens: 37

Graham Burke that Village is a "silent

Directors: John Kirby/Robert Kirby

Australian Multiplex Cinemas is fully

Zeccola managing all aspects of the business. Exceptions are Palace NOVA

promotion. Supporting The Wogboy and Looking For Alibrandi with star

VILLAGE

1994 who retains a 50 percent share.

Owner: Village Roadshow Limited

partner” in the joint venture, with

Chief Executive: Graham Burke

Australian owned, with cinemas in

Total national sites: 75

Queensland since 1921. The company

Eastend in Adelaide and the NOVA in

Total national screens: 532

opened its first multiplex at

Melbourne where Palace/Village is

International: 124 sites/1013 screens

Sunnybank (eight screens) in 1995 and

one of a number of owner/managers.

has since added sites at Stafford (10

Most profitable sites are Norton St,

Major profit driver in the Village

screens), Redcliffe (eight screens),

Leichhardt, The Verona, Paddington in

Roadshow cinema division locally is a

Tweed Heads (six screens) and Noosa

Sydney, and Palace Balwyn, Dendy

three way joint venture with The

(five screens). Sydney is now the focus

Brighton and The George, St Kilda in

Greater Union Organisation and

for expansion with three sites

Melbourne. Zeccola maintains that

Warner Brothers (US), giving each

currently at various stages of

most cinemas have experienced

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [5 3]

InProduction Feature Filing In pre-production TEMPE TIP GIV Productions Distribution company: Becker Group Principal Credits Director: Michael Ralph Producer: David Rowe Line producer: David1 Lightfoot Executive producers: Richard Brezzo, Phil Davey, Johnathdn Shteinman Scriptwriter: Michael Ralph Director of photography: David Foreman ACS Editor: Adrian McQueen- Mason Composer: -Seen Timms Sound recordist: Toivo jjiem ber Synopsis Everyone dream i.of findj'ng a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. ?B;ut you don't expect to find it in Tempe. For Max Franklin thetsearch started in .a hole in the ground of his- ■ own backyard.

In production NIJINKSKI Illumination Films and MusicArtsDance Films Distributiomeompany: Sharmill Filmsvand WTV (US) Budget: 1.2-million Principal Credits Director: Paul Cox Producer: Paul Cox, Aanya Whitehead Executiypproducer: Kevin Lucds, William Marshall ^Scriptwriter: Paulpox Based on the diaries of Vaslav Nijinbky Composer: Paul Grabowsky Planning and development Researchers :jLeonie Ve'rhoeven, Margot Wiburd Dance Consultant: Alida' Chase Shooting schedule by: Aanya Whitehead Budgeted by: Aanya Whitehead Production Crew Insurer: Cinesure Completion guarantor: Film Finances Ltd Legal services: Marshalls and Dent On-sOt Crdw Choreographer: Alida Chase,!';: Leigh Warren Unit publicist*: Catherine Lavelle Wardrobe Designer: Jilly Hickey Government Agency Investment Development: South Australian Film Corporation Production: South Australian Film Corporation, Australian p ilm Finance Corporation, SBS Indep'endent

SynopsjpT Vaslav Nijinsky was probably the greatest dancer of all time - the God of the Daneeand his ‘Cahiers’ (Diaries) must be one of the most ¿extraordinary and moving

literary works ever written.

Tffe film usés the words of Nijinsky, written in ,1919 in St Moritz'where fte had retired, suffering extreme mental' agony.

THE BANK Arenafilm Pty Ltd Principal Credits Director: Robert Connolly Producer: John Maynard Scriptwriter: Robert Connolly Director of Photography: Tristan Mi la ni ffir s t Assistant ’Director: Phil Jonéijæ Production Manager: Elisa Argenzio.

Production Designer:.Luigi Pittorino -.Editor: Nick Meyers Sound Designer: Sam Petty Casting: Mulünars Storyboard A rtis y ia m Morris Cast David Wenham, Sibylla Budd, •Steve Rodgers, Mitchell Butel STAR WARS EPISODE II— THÈ,RlèE OF$HE EMPIRE 'Production company: JAK Productions/ Lucasfilm Ltd PrincipauCredits Director: George Lucas 'Producer: Rick McÇâllum Go-Screenwriter: Jonathan Hales Éditor: Ben Burtt Director of Photography: David Tattersall I production Designer: Gavin Bocquet Costume Designer:TOfjshafe| Biggajt ' æaÆng Dir^ f e : Robin Gurland Stunt Coordinator: Nick Gillard' C ast..

Ewan McGregor, N a ta lie ^ Portrriàn, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Ahmed Best, Samuel L Jackson, Christopher Leej ; David Bowers, Rose Byrne, Matt Doran, Joel Edgerton, Jay Laga'aia, DanielÆogàn, Alethea McGrath, Bonnie Piesse, Susie Porter, MattPv Rowan, Veronica Segura, Leeanna Walsman Art Department Design Director: Doug jphiang Gonc'épt Artists: Dermot Power, Ian McCaig, Jay Shuster, Ed Natividad, Bë'nton Jew Concept Sculptor: Robert liâ m e s Sets and Property Set Decorator: Peter Walpolè Property Master: Ty te ig e r V is u a l E f f ^ l ^ Visual Effectpfupervîéor: John Knoll Animation Director^ Rob Coleman Animatics/Pre-Vis.ualisation Pr èl-Vi s ualisa t ion/Effects Supervisor: David Dozo.ret Animatics Artists: Dan Grégoire, Euisung Lee, Matthew Ward Synopsis Set 10 years after,5fai? Wars Episode One, The Phantom

[54] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

Menace, Darth Sidious, takdssj! dVff the Republic, turns it into an empire andMntrgljS^ everything. The'Clone Warn: ' reach their p in n a c l^ s the Jedi Knights struggle to defend the galaxy from th ||g | forcePof evil. Meanwhile, Anakin Skywalker fa lls ’in love with Queen Amidala but Jfegins to succumb tothlF ~ Dark Side of the Force’.

SU|iERANO Production company: Becker Films Distribution company: REP Films PrincipajLGredits Director: Esben Stori|l '; Producers: Richard Becker, Barbi Taylor Scriptwriter: dsbenUtorm Director of photography: Graeme Wood Production Disignerujghris Kennedy Planning and Development Casting: Ann Faye Production Crew Production Manager: J a n e ^ Sullivan, Pro llfg ti e rf go- or di n| | | r : C la^Shefvington Location manager: Peteiggg Hicks ” On-set C r e ^ 1gj assistant d irtite r: Chris ^ Webb Unit publicist: Amanda’ Huddle A rt Department Art director:|l|rott Bird Special Effects supervisor: PeterStubbs Wardrobe .

W ardroblldesignenTess ifchofi'eld Wardrobe supervisor: Katrina Pickering Marketing Publicity: Amanda Huddle Cast Alex DimitriadeJ;, Tasma Waltpn pynopsiS Subterano is a v irtu a l® holographic game in which &Ektoman|c|God-like killer, *Hiunts His victims through a subterranean maze.

In postyproducmori MOULIN ROUGE ProdUctioneompany: Bazmark Productions Distribution company.: Twentieth Century Pox* Principal Credits^ Director: Bazffluhrmann Produceig: Baz/Luhrmann, Martin Brown, Fred Baron Scriptwriters: Baz Luhpmann;Cra.ig (Pearce D0P: Don McAlpine g it I Nice le|Ki d ma n,; Ewa n McGregor, Richard’*Roxbjurgh, John Leg^izamo^Garry McDonald '•§>ynpps^^ A ypugg man castlfefeide the jshacklesMf his middle cla^sT society- to bed'pmf’ a Writer and join themanks. of the^jifejeliving artisticiunderworld of Paris.

SBCDMOtfgprr Principal Gj^itsg^ llp e c to r: Stu a ||M c BrainIp ProdueenBon Silver, Michel Bouskila-, Stuart M<|§rarth’ey H rip tw rite r: I j ù art IlfPcBratney Based on .the original screenplay titled Spudmonkey by:.Stuart McBratney Direc-torpf photegräphy: Andrew Strahorn Production designer: :Geor g in a|Green hi Ili >.

Edito rs^Ra che Ip. ri ers.on, Cheryl Potter Composes: Stuart McBratney anlrTroy MenyWeatherlp Sound re^ófdlst:?!Dhrii Cromia ■S,ound a ris ta n t:, Leigh Colenfàn Pllfinirfciand De\re|gm ellt ' Jp rip t editor: T o j|fl g tts -Casting: Stuart l^c-B>atn% ■Cadl|jJ c o n ^ i l r t ^ ^ ^ i i ’ ■ Kangris «Extras la s ting- Tim Wood, Daniella Rigby Storyboard^artist: Stuart McBratnly tehoolidg schedule by: Clnjnsty Beard ■.-Budqeteljby: Jon Silver Vickie J|est PfoductionCSw Production manage^ Vickie Oest Production lo'-ordinàtor: Daniella Rigby, J.|;^ ih e P itc h e r Producer’s, a S j|ta n t: ®^|l "Baker i liocatiqn manager: CarLBakerf Unit manageiaJustin^ Hatcher Unit as^stant: David Mobcfehlan Procluction assistant Liberty Meitzer,;Kif Saint production^ruhneiaKTiSine Hanger' Insurer: Holland Ih su ra n c^fi JlUA, QBE Legal servicfs': Malcolm Mc-Bratney.

Camera Crew Focus pulleFS: Travis Trew ih,|| A rlfiL e o n ^ S Clapper-loader: €van Burrows Camera tygfe: Aifri pf|om Lerhac) ¿Key g ni p : A dd#' M'cPha i l Assistant grips: Liam Connor, Mark French, Evaji OldmjpL' GafféV: Glenn Jones B é ij ^ p l j ^ ìes Th'tfMpsOh ■: ¡ElectriciaóMLuke Dillon Assistant electricians: D^k; Sheph’erd, •i^w hom pspifr Tim Wade. R c ^ S id Alcazar ,0n-s^t Grew F irs^B sistant d ire c to r® hristy Bepd; ^ ^ i n d fe s is tant d ir^ to r : DaniellaSRigby Third ^ S is ta n ffli rettorr: MaVco Sin^alia^ " •Gp'nti n u ity® | hery l «lotte r-a hd gachél Gri:drfSon 'Boom operator: Luke Haywara ClintiBricp^M’egan tMpGorrh^|_,.

Maker u p ® iffa kwi | l| l Skinndr

Make-up as'sistafit. E m m a M Louise Downie*Cheri^ èoutheiré'h-,, Hai rdresse r : T 'lff^ y Beckwith-Skinner f||f^ ¿ o ffic e r^ C h ?|is|y Bfeal.d ..Unit nuffSe: V icki,fpes^S «Sfili phofogra|h^: Carlos Van Ja g p lM a rtin ^m ith ' "ijn itp u b licist Tom B e tt^,^ ^a te l-i ng ® j sti ne>Hate h'er David Mcllachlan EagraBoys Art Department A ftd irlè to rTSu z ie^Bt^c k|haw "Assista nt ^ t l di riAotor : Jlirh Allan Set dosser: Ptjier Wmglfit Michelle M^ns'ofiT C lift Bn cels ProBSPe^ p n: David l?1ae|ie ±S i@ jby props.:’I^ark elder Wardrobe W §drobe& perviS or: Lani |E,Vans WardrobptassistWntS: Joanrv^ Wright, Dpnielte MoriènS' Post-production Ifitm A ^id |p g auge: Super 16mm S ho ot i ngfst^c k-fIKoda k Video tra h§ers.bJpBeeps Pty l|td Vide’ogp’ecial fx: B e ^ ^ H PtylLtd Video master by:|j|beff| ^ Pty Lfd tGreg'Powell, A liS taife“ jFdm k i nsy Sa rn a nth a Fitzgerald, Damien Garvey, jKaihryn Lifter, Vèrrfén JohnSon;?;Liz PSjhy.lEnr oIÌTa O'Neill, L£uis,e Bojpjjfby

i t piz-za delivery.I^W who a^hjeve-sjhis dre^ ffi of drummirnjsin agU pessful rocklbandfqnly to;fcfb; replace*^ S c o m ^ u tW s e d djums

Production company Wi p S ^ ^ b e ^ ^ P tV .lttti? r Post Producfid’n l l m i l Nbvemb,erM§0% Principal Credits Di reetjqr: Steve n>J aeo brs ^ f Producer: Anna-Maria iMontieelli; ' ;Cop'roducer: iPhtlip He.arn|haw .Cori ptwr iter: Ani|a|MMi,a Mon,t i f i l i g it ^ulajMarcelM Lourde m l P I r tolome. Alex D im itriadesS Alifee A n ^ r a ,’Bipfdg®| .^Tlomares, Helfe'n ThompsonSynopsis A comii^ storv o f^ K p a |id h m oth'él/1 auouter ’ ^ S io n s h ip ; th^émilòyepl Wye n gf f « e j ud il i a ndM Jufvivaf in a smajl industpiafe^ to’wn dutilig 1®60? ' WILLFULL L a te jt e.

Principal Credits D ir e m in ^ ^ e l In fo ltì--,* Russell ^ e a ffu v e p^o.d riS h e rìfS’h Jobbins S G ri|tw r'^r: p r r f y M p ^ B Director ofepIrotdgMphy. & e vè A rn d ^ M

Production desirin g George Liddle flp jto r: Nicholas Beauman l^ogigoser: Antony Parto’s s'" Soro|i recordilp Andrew Be Hetty Planning and development Castirfq lAlison Barrett Casting ExtrastWsting: Michele Ryan .

Production Crew Production manager: Dennis ' Kiely Production fb.-ordinator: Cassandra Simpsons Producer's Assistants: Michele Ryan •Locatf|| m angjlp Robin Clifton Unit manager: Simon Lucas Assistant unit m lllager- Brad R o b e rts ^ Unit assistant: Mardi M om psO TiP at Lacey P ro d u d p M a s s i^ M i’i l^tieGordon Production runner: Kane

HBridh-Production accountant: Lyn fe y e ‘s ;: Accounts asjistan^ Tracey McKeown IhM'rer: HW Wood AustraliSkv? P/L Legal services: Nina .

Stevenson & Associates fCamera Crew Camera t^r/a fto r: Robert Agganis Foc,us pullej| Adrien Seffrin ClajTper-loader: Brett Tracey Keyfoap: Greg Molineaux Assistant grip: Andy RennieGaffpr: M i ' ^ s f # ^ « Best boys: Mark Newnham, Mark Watson Onfs’et Crew FirsL-assis,tant d jre c to p a ® ie C rooksS S e cfn | assistant flr jc to r : Tom Read -.Third assista* director: A h n a ra Osborne Continuity: Karen MansfieleM Boom operator: Nicole L azarofW Make-up/hainisupervisor: Trish .Glover Make.^up/hair artistSSherry HubbaLd Special effecS P aridetx Fx^ Stunts co-ordinator: Reel S tin ts iUhifeurse: PaE^Buchani.r S till photography: Simon C a rd w e lH w i i t publicist: Catherine Laydlle, CllPR Ga f i n a: Mighty BiteS Art Department A rt director/Richard Hobbs A rf e B artment co-ordinator: Antheg Hodge Art departn||nt p g n e r: Sinclair Whalley le t dresser: MartpMcElrgy SDjraftsman: Robin Auld ’¡¡¡bps buyer: Lisa ‘Blitz’ B renna^H Stab d by props: Ben Wa.lker Wardrobe Wardrobe supervisor: Julie Miiffdleton Wardrobe buyete§ruzanne M iddleton/'• Standby wa?d?obe: Andrea Hood

Wardrobe^assistant: Penny; / Mackie Animals A nim a||andler: Dimity Bjork •Horse w rangle^ Ware/s--'.

Liverty Stable's.. ©0nstr§jltion Department Constructiojrmanager: John R a n if^ Leading, hand: Marcus Smith Carpen|efg Chuck Morgan^, Rick L o c k || Ross, Cairnes?§§ Ke&jh JpM H enw fbd, Ian Grant, Robert A r t ^ ^ ^ Studios: Max Studios Post-production PoBproddJztion supervisor: Syfvp W a lk e r-W ils o ^ l Assistant editor: Sirpon KlaeTpa''.'''

Shooting stock: Kodak Cast Anna Llge Phillips, Anne m Looby, C Thomas Howell, 'C harteS |jngw ^l, Jbhnpilden MOLOCH GIV Productions^.

D jsS bf l l n company: B icke r Grp/up Principal Creditst Director:" Ernie Clark Producer: David Rowe p in e produeenfflivid jLightfoot Executive ||rod|ce rs: Ri c j l rd Brezzo, Phil Davey Scriptwriters: Louis Fra.nklin, Rob George Di recto r joLp hoto g ra phy; DavidfForeman ACS Ed¡tor: Adrian McQueen-' ‘Mason Composer: SeariTfimms Sound recordist: Toivo Ifember Production Crew Dale Fairbairn’ ; Art department Art director: Ray PattiSon Post-production fjfo st-producti on^s^p e rv is o r : Ted Mc/Queen-Mason Synopsis Four university students on a '£WD holiday in the hope of finding gold instead find the town of Moloch and itsjs.eeret inhabitants. ;

¡¡¡HE ENCHANTED BILLABONC/: TEB P/L Slmagihe if P roduction - D & R;.

Productions?- Distribution Columbia Tristan Budget: 10jG milBbn Animated CGI feature film ” ' 9 M 3 D lim fl film Principal CnèditslT. Dir!fctor:KϧvidWaddington Producers^R'ob McKenzie, David Waddington Executive-Producer: Jack Wegman Scriptwriter: Michaël Wagffet'' Based- on the original Screenplay titled: The Enchanted Billabong By: Michael Wagn'er, David Waddington Producfpn designer: Wayne Bryant Editor: David Waddington Composer: Craig Bryant Sound Designer: Juliett Hill

Planning and Development Planning and Development Casting: Actors Ink CastingriBedford & Pearce Production Crew Video Master by: FMTV ..

Production manage?: Dale .

Cast Fairbairn Chloe Lattagfzi; Danie'LT: Production co-ordinator: Deparis, Tommy Dysart, Joan", Rebecca Somerton pilokenshire, Suzy Cato, „ Location manager: Nadine Jenny Se'esman, Mathew Schoen King, R h f|jj Rees "'Production runner: Paul Synopsis^ |jp.iqhtfoot A boy learns to believe in an Production accountant: Deb eHchantefi world and the characters that exist thereJL Wilde iK n s iire r: FIUA and in doing so. he learns to Completion; guarantor: FACB believe in himself.

Post production Post-production supervisor: DUSK Ted McQueen-Mason Production company: Dusk Cast: Gary Sweet Productions Budget: 500,000 Synopsis On the outskirts of the small Duration: 90 igpjns outback town of Imyph, lies a Principal Credits tightly secured military Director: IqbaSiarkat compound. Twenty years prior Producer: David Phillips a meteor crashed intofhe Sine produced Desmond compound site unleashing a«g p tin d y Scriptwriter: David Phillips alien chemical wifh/the ability to clone living beings. The .

Director of photography: donellare being sent back toVincent Tay the town while their original Production designer: Toby selves are kept comatose, at P a rke r the compound. Nobody Editor: Paul Rodrieguez .. suspects a ttiipg. When Sound recordist; Oliver seeuifty is broken a tlh e Neuman11fi| compound the original Planning and Development townsfplk escape and head Extras casting: Kerry ! back tp town where they Lamming confront themselves and Storyboard artist: Bridgejtt.. where" no one knows who is Dolan the original and w hols the Shooting schedule by: Chris clone.

Maclldowie Budgeted by: Desmond Hundy THE MERCHANT OF Production Crew FAIRNESS Production manager: Linda Clandestine Pictures Pty Ltd -.

H ona^i Duration: 95 mins Produ etidneo-o rd i nato r : Principal Credits p o b e rt Luppino Director: Shane Luther Location manager: Manjoosh Producer: Shane Luther Joshi j Line producer: Adam D o lm a il Unit manager: Jane'Bowden Scriptwriter: Shane Luther Assistant unit manager: Matts Director of photography: Tinrit-.

J e n k jM i Spicer lEProd ip t io h r u nne r : Natash a Production designer: Martine Newton Simmon|sT:i; Assembly editor: Miclfeal Editor: Cindy Clarkson -Zadro Composer: Tamil Rogeon Legal services: Tress Cocks & S qiplldesigner: Keith Maddox Thomas Cast Sound recordists:.Tim David Phillips, GeorgtrSais, Sympjfds, Joan Ke|ly Rose Frasca,; Mathew Script editor; Annette Blons.ki M ariciS e. Peter Demllkian, Ronan McChdleny, W in d y Casting: Faith Martin -Saengsuwan Legals: Emily Slade, Holding/ Synopsis Redlicfi“ "; Dusk ¡1 an Aussie yarn about Shooting Stock: Kodak a "son, abstain and a solution.

Laboratory: Cinevex Camera Equipment:" TWO WELLS Panavision GIV Productionjs>^ Sound Equipment: Pink Noise Development Investment: Distribution company: Becker Australian Film Commission Group Cast Principal Credits ShanMLuther, Director: MichaeTRalpftllf Produce® David Rowe Sara Zwangobqni, Antonia Line prodi^erbDavi'd Strakosch, Denn McCoy. Kestie Morassi, Camerqn' Lightfoot Nugent, Andrew Curry, Scriptwriter: Rob George Norman Yemm, Sam Based on an original Marsland, Marg Downey screenplay by: Adam Head .& Synopsis.; Rodney Brennan Directopvof pjrotography: Everyone wants someone David Foreman A C S ^ else’s life. Julian just wants . his own ba;ck. A childhood Editor.- Adrian McQueen friend is obsessed with him, a Composer: Sean Tim m sf? gang of losers have-*embra|ted Sound recordist: Toivo him as their best mate and a L e m b e llil

teenage temptress won't take "maybe’’ for an answer.

MULLET Porchlight/Films Distribution company: The Globe Film Co Budget: $1.3M Principal Credits Director: David Caesar Producer: Vincent Sheehan Director of photography: Robert Humphreys Production designer: Elizabeth Moore Sound designer: Liam Egan Sound recordist: Paul Finley Editor: Mark Perry Planning and development Casting: Shauna Wolifson at Liz Mullinars Production Crew Production manage?: Michelle Russell Onset Crew list assistant director: John Titley Government Agency Investment Development: NSWFJO, Australian FiIm Commission...

Production: Showtime,^ Australia, SBS, I and NSW Film and.TV Office.

Marketing International sales agent: Axiom Films (UK) Cast Ben Mendelsohn, Susie Porter, And rew S Gilbert, Belinda McClory. Tony B a rry ,; Kris McQuade, Peta Brady, Wayne Blair.

Synopsis A film about fishing, football and family.

TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US Production company: DND Productions/ Key Entertainment Investors,: AFFC, Key Entertainment, Film Victoria International sales: Key Entertainment/ Tomorrow Films Australia/NZ Distribution: Globe Film Co Production Crew Writer/Djrector: Michael Petroni Producers: Shana Levine, Dean Murphy, Nigel Odell, !|pfyid Redman,/Thomas Augsberger, Matthias Emcke Executive Producers; Andrew Deane, Beau Flynn, Yoram Pelman, Stefan Simchowitz, Gareth Wiley Associate Producer: Justin Pearce Line Producers: Nigel Odell, David Redman Production Manager: Lucy Maclaren Director of Photography: Roger Lanser Production Designer: Ralph Moser Editor: B ill Murphy First ad: Karan Monkhouse Art Director: Adele Flere Costume Designer: Jeanie Cameron Production Co-ordinator: Anna Molyneaux

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [55]

Sound: John Wilkson, Perry Dwyer, Mich ae Instate r, Scott Findlay Casting Director: Mauralgay & Associates Marketing Unit publicist: Andrew Mackie feast Guy Pearce, Helena Bonham Carter I Synopsis^ The story of#hnan (Guy Peape) whofrahaunted by the presence o f|f dead childhood" sweetheart (Helena Bonham Cdrter) when he returns to his rural hometown, after a long absence. , ]

Telefeatures In production

SOUTH PACIFIC Principal Credit#!

DirectorSDick Pearce Producer: ChristSacani Producer (Au'srt): Sue Millikèn ËXe'çutivêTproducer- Michael Jaffe, Howard plptnstfinlV ' ;J "Glenn Close, M[chael'Gore K n p tw rite r: Lawrence Cohen Based on the novelet led: fTales of the South Pacific ' by: James A Michener Director of photography: «Steve Windon Production* designer: Patrizia^ Von Brandenstein sÇonnposer: Rodgblfjs and Hammerstein pre.und record is/: G.untis Sibs „ Planning and development Wasting: Christine King 'Casting- con s u It ânt s f ’ Mullinars Casting ..'ExtrasfcaStin g : J a ne’Dawkinsl Dialogue coaqjjlV ictoria," Miewleska“ ^ Production Crew Unit Production manager: Anne Pruning Assist Pnhduction'màna^er: ^ n n if e r desJJhamp^p ProductiorfWo^ordinator: Paula Jeîïsen ;Prad ucepja assistant: EmândaM homa|pK Production secretary: Deb- ' Alfêck Jbocation managed: Karen ponesJi'l Transport manager: Andy Matthews Unit manager: Wilt Matthews Assistant u n it ma nager: Graedonle Breton Unit assistants: Nat Purdon, Christian McCollum, Ricrard Olsen, Kim Bostock, Ron Gladman lllo d u ctio n assistant: Karl McMillan Production runner: Col |Héidke;.Ed Fitzgerald Production Accountant: Angela Kenny Accounts assistant: Deb Sutherland, Tammy Miller paymaster: Kylie Wilkie fSmifh Insurer: HW Wood, Le'gaf servip^rSteyensp'n and Court Travel co-prdinator: Kpfe Jodd Fre ig ht g - o rd i halo M Danielle .Srour CamerP'Gçew  Cajqera operator: Mar|S|| ;§ p ic e ^ [

A Focus D u lle rf f l a ia |p ilp o tt?

A C la o q tr Iq ^ e n Ita lm in ^ p ; ■ Platt

>EB] CINEMA PARERS AUG

B Focus;puller: Jem Ray.her B Clapperloaden |?imon William's A d d iti^ffil ’picus^fDayid Ddnkley Camera loader: Matthew Windon Key .grip: Warren Grteef Dolly grip: Toby Churchill Brown Assistant grips: Adam Kuiperv Cra ig J ac kso ny J aso nyt raws? |§ason Weeks Gaffer: Reg GareicfeS Best boy: Alan Dunsta'n Electrician': ©olin Wyatt, Mark ’Jeffries, Travis Ma*gbe' Mark Watson Onset .Grew 1st assistant director: Mark Turnbull -2nd assistanti.dire^^r:|(ane Griffin second 2nd Assistant director: Noni Roy .

3rd*assistant directmj|Greg Cobain 4th ,ass ista mpd ire ctoT:1|d d ie" ^ Thorn On Set PA: Marcus&Levy Continuity: Pam Willis Playback opyeratbrfStu'art Waller Boom operator: David Pearson Make - up"Sd pe rvi s'pr : Deborah Lansver Hair Supervisor: Martial Corneville^f'' Key make-up'artist: Ni’c’ole '§pifpCVMake-upraqti'strKylie O'Toole/ Key Hairdre'ss.er: Kerry-bfje/'; Jury Hairdresfeb r||Tina Go rd o h Special fxlfupervisor: Brian Cox ^ Special fx: Dave Hafdie, Walter Van Veenendaa|||| Angelo-SahinPauline Gerbent, David Goldie, /Special fx assistants? PaJrieljL iga rm iggelf, Aa ro n Cox' Choreographer: Vincent Patterson Assistant' G horeographeifg Traoie M o rle y'1 Stunts colordinator: EawrelndS Wood ward Unit nulls«: Ron Houghton.

-Still photographer: Carolyn Jonesjl1 Catering: Mighty Bites^.,, ’Caterihg' ResajMokhtar Art Department Art director: Nick McCallum .

Assistant art direetorSErhma Lawes.

Art department co-ordinator: Jen O'Gonnefl PA to Designer: Sally.-Ann Louisson Art d.epagtmenf.|lnner: Ke'nt , SherloqkJcT Set decorator: Suz.a Maybury Set dS igner: Prisaud g a lVL’ ^ Drafitsijian: Tim Kobin Drafting/Models: Jo|lje Frief^r piy|a phjcs: Ingrid W e irp l Aire raft cd;p rd inato r : Ralph Simpson PropsWe^pn: Lisa^Brennan fgrops buyej-^Mark BrimmgT" Props buyer/d|e sser'Mof^ Beikoff, James W atpr An dfee^Sn o It ® ptbndbvDrens:- Murray^ ; G ^ ^ n J<f • | p s ij||§ ia nd byrAd rieVi n e f|| Og le ^ ^ ^ p jW a ® r Arrqourer: KeWdonesaB MUiun ¿htale i-ordinatnr Paul Naylor 'A^ ist v e jh iG ^ ^ ^ ^ ff^ Navlbr

Thom son: Wardrobe buyer: NataJ'e'' ; '‘GandnerPT; S jp ridbywardro t^ lH ele n Ma|gsf A n d r® ¡jpo'd Wardrobe ^ lis ta n trlJ o h n PoweKf> K f u l e r : Juli^Erankham Construction ^partm ent t©o nstr ucti d h’m j pe p?i-so r : Geofif'How^H Igeemc artist Bteyjp j ¿ S a llyb a nf^! ^ q n ^ ructi o n::m an^ e r : ^Eugene band U p|ling hands: Warwick Miller, Steve^^zic, Michael .Rout (Set finishers- Frarfkf j a lconer,.

Richard Baldwin fereensman: Gregg ThomaS^^ Post production Assistam/editor: John l^ e Editing assfstant'^fiavid' ; Birrell Musical director: Paul Bogaev Music engineer: Jqe|Moss Recordinq^tudiqPStudio 301 ifejfst Glenn^ElosJ, Rade Sherbedizj^ Harry Conni c ^ ^ |S |R o b e rt Pastorelli, Lori Tan Chinn, JackiThompson Synopsis Remake of the Rodgers andr^ Ha rrim ersteinm usi calr^;u!$;.

Pacific’.

MY HUSBAND, MY KILLER tSc-re^ntime/Columbia Tnistar Duration: 90min Prineip.al'.fefedits Director: Peter Andrikidis ProducAiaDayid Gould Supervising pgpTucer: Tony*^ Buckley Executive produeer: Des Monag.han/Fran McConnell .Scriptwriter: Greg" Had^rck Based on the book titled: My .Husband, M yK illef" " By: Sandra Harvey and Li ndsaySimpsbn Director of photography: J o e l Pickering" Production designer: Michael* Philips.

Planning and Development; ‘ Casting: Susie MaizfpF " Prod uctPd#Crlw Production manager: Saju Thomson Location manager: A nnelids^ Norland On^set feijew Rirst ass^tant director: Russell Whiteoak Marketing PublicitylTraeey Majr .

In pio^tpIdlu'G liin IHAKA Screeatime/.Suuth Pacjiw r Pic-tuires..

Distribution company: Colombia Internatiignar ' Pre-production FqoTn May 8,b 2000 ^ nci pa l Cr ed its Director: Peter FiskV PTfgucer: lan llM a lev-. 1 Line pred_uyeSMn*cla; McKec-hni.^^ Execu^re pro d„u^p: Monaghan pGriptwriJefe PAiMTM)rha s ^ reduction d> s ia im iMur’ijTAj :fic k t e ^ [DMggurMO ph^to^idUw Nirml Martir^ u i '. ; Planningand Development ^ K tin g M a m Maizels

r ny.

• /fSvnoKBr : /^^ ^ 'fW i^ M y iM c o D ^ riclrä t ^sqph® icated?^phey cop te a m g p tt^ o ly e a t h r ^ ^ H '^ e a r - o ld mund^Shfvsterv.

Palmer C ^ ü u ?on the''novelltltled-W.n ’■ 4 fi^^[tM a W h by: Törn Web ^ ^ ’l it ^ t o i l ofrplrofo q’”/ap’hy: ..Michael^eyyling * ^ o m p ^e r: Carto!Gi^ e q l I JRPi ealolie rs M öm L W e ^^H P r o d ^ t io r f ^ ^ / ' 'ifProBubtioh’ajecountahLlGDH ■^ ' h ä rte re d'A c^^i nta nt ^ J

ARIA ¿PASTA; , Pasqionfruit P roduclionJ^ ' ^BPdge^$1 .gmilliqn! -Principal Credits Di ric tq rllB ru ^fe p re sfo rd, .. iCanfferaftyre: D V -^ ^ " ^ Ilew js FitzJ.Gerald PbW pmduc|prii ‘ Line dro'di^ p j: John I pRosflp rod uQtiqn ^ u pej^/iMsr; Pro d ic e rs Bevei^ y B e rq e ^ M i|h a |l N e w lin g ^ Jane-D un^hö, Venice^Digital ’ ■u ^ e c u tiv y p re d iM e ^ ^ M ip ' un^ra' i f or: h jp lla b o j^ S •^usicajrairectpr: C ^ lo ^ a c e ö Gerlach, B ru c e t^ rg fo 'rd' Mu s ^ ^ r lb 'r m ^ l^ S ' r ple Ass'oeiatejproaucer 'Augustus Mixed at: H gllagalo^g Dulgare ‘J; Synopsis: Di^ b fo r of photography: Tom ’ 'Nelsdn M M o iP lM l l i i n , .Gje^s o g H Luther ^ in f ^ A l l j ^ Einstelli g E d ito r Denise Hunter a g l u n q Sanpjiu-Kyi h a ^ J p -Sound, ^ e p r f ist^ le q Su11ifa n -one thing|nMöuirhp^: they, .

Planning arfd Development were alltinspired b y i^ fc j visipn, d ^ iM tib n and i® au of ReseaV^ifr Kate Wild Ma|atma G a n d h iL H e ^ ^S Production Cnew ho^phold n^me?buMo fety " Production supeYvismf^.hilip G e r la S Weber hfP s Rreductidn manager: John Tiadjng.put anWnÖwual^gus^i Izza^i- ^ on a iou chev^tö^ ^ tw h w k Producer’s assis^mt: RenHO 5 GaWdhiSlill roojes.1 ,‘ fRedford 1B ^ o 'd uct io n~sW rM ary:, ^ t a In prQ'dLmtior^ Thomsiin Prod uction fe c-ouritafnt: aS T ^ I T H ^ h e r ^ e Meldnum; - .

IfeHIG M S m Moneypenny Dii^tdr/Prddu^e'PiyAlahH % In^ r ei^Pi n'esu re Carter Wljompletion guarantor:||iliTi D.irbetqr of Phdtog“i?^hy:Jah.’, Fina ric e ^S PugWeV Editor. Reter Bril l q ard!

Legal s e rv id ^lT im Benja^nT T ravelrePA)rd in ä 1 ^A : Pfodu,G.Whl.Cbrnfehy: All'ey Kat ^ K u c t ^ ^ ® 1 Travelcorp Finance: ABC/FF8'lA W o ^ l) ir l l l i i f - o f f Synopsis Dulgaro Fdlldwijro^ yeteran bush¡Ip p P ^ tin g p lawyer as he prepares for a Publicity: Aüm.st ¿sJBu l*a r o';':. murder trial delencMin an iPefa Thomson at T o |^ Fi.lm & MQtb^l^tbwn -tlopeftlfe u ro fe ^ro n a lE nd the personaj television me rqe'afiilB 0 ^ ^ 'd'inMf ^ p to -Singere: BenlHqppUer,P i.f .an aIready 'expl^iyej^ e i^ ile l ThPmas Allen, Dgjek L ^ ^ g b f^ ^ M jl t o m ot jRagin, Dmitri Hvror^tovsky, ' ^Re,nata Scotto,,Manlyn Hor^re, ptR'ftRETHLOW’S FILMS Cecilia BarWlli, Bryn T e ife ® j | j n^ ® i J u . c t M [ Synopsis p^stribution connparm: TB®;.

Aria and (f ^ a fefan ...r j ^ d ge t ^ i s f i F C'AM’d l ^ /entertaining, in rw ra l^ M p t: Pri ncipa l Cred its pi^ptor? Hart Cjhen part life'stvle?.se'i^epwhich iRred uca p Ad r iaMpe r r i^ ^ B takes a look at thp l i, ^ ^ n d careers}of eight qf the wqMd’sl ^ erjptyyriter: Har a ^ l js h D ireE lP of pho|pgraaby-i^ny most popular o p e ra g ta r^ ^ Wilson • EaiMepisbde eliminates in Soiiinh r e f o ld i^ [[|B )i^ ltiv anr. the preparation of ihe s ta rjg ^ Editor: James Bradley favourite pasta; d i j| | l p IB(an riirrala^laap fo Researchers: H a n ^ Cohen/Ad rianyH ^ ^ i^ ^ K p h ootif®^ch e d |lf by: ^ @h;eh/l|e pri ng In ^p^produCTOn Budgeted by Herril u g i Pjgoau ct ANIM^llX - | eries |2' ‘SM es Documentary p r^T u c t^q manages M ^ n Storyteller P re |l|M o n s ^ ‘C o M k e ^ Principal Credits Tnsurer. HW W®ctAustralia;. J Executive Prbducera^Mike' M S|ea|]p:, " I ^ f mDletigmaUafantbp FAMB Jennifer W.iljpn | [ llg | M e ; r a ^ ^ ii i P ^ -Irre a l ce'M: MikfeSje'atle.^NigeT Swetehharp, ^n m fe ii Wilson.

M e ifp a A m b r o ^ l Linda;, A d o c l ^ e n t ^ a ^ufetnalife j ,|Garqli neiB e i^ a m ^ gn djwdr k^qflpS e m' ine j^ n d . Synopsis feqn t royei^ial^ ustrel i a ^ j A s-w ith g e ri^o h ,'e-./ANl MAL X BnthreDoloais^ nWArrMnte -^E R I E § ^ ina^ m a a t^ B -?anima~l^mieamom arounjä.'.

10 8 ) k s !-tI ^ k K^etveipsi1 ^Ith^ Worlci.I l r d r ® h o ^ ^ ^ Ktreh loWM tf q r hi n ^ m ^ g g ^ h e norn^ a t¿jla K^hbhsteTsJ K ntffirjobq^Wi ^ anMjg and m vsteriqi^p^m :m o^ito.il filmmaker, and the work un(^uwnWreatug^ ^ M Eu^rently undfrw a y ff^ ^ repatriate his Collection to K |S ^ B |^ r a r a |i THE SALT OF THE EARTH: Central Australia.

M ^ T M ^ M N p ’H l Glass Box . Distal m ionForiTpamMG tasslM Production company: Box Met¥BeslP/L B u d ^ ^ ^ ^ M tO j],; I Budget: $275,000 Principal Credits i^ in jE i^ ^ ^ cI i ^ ^ Director J.Frmifefeau^ Si^ m Producer: Don Palmer Producer: Jessica Douglas-

Documentaries

pxecutive producer: Courtney Gibson S criptw riter: Justine Flynn Director of photographe|Jr , Chris Thorburn Sounlfrecordistrllieo Sullivan Production Crew Production manager: Chri§*'£ Thorburn ¡[Production accoutant: ASTI MS Insurer: HW Woods Completion guarantor: FACB Legal services: Nina ptevenson & Associates Post<productibn p d ito r: Liz Doran Synopsis^ Follows an Anglo-Saxon :?couple;going through the process of adopting a Korean baby.

MALPA Production Company Caama Productions PTY LTD |l4istribUtion;pompany: TBC Budget: $225,000 Principal Credits Director: Erica' Glynn -Produceji Priscilla lolU ns^ Executive producer: Priscilla Collins Scriptwriter: Kate Gillick Director of photography; Helen Barrow Sound recordist: Flavia

Abdurahman

Planning and development Researchers: Kate'Gillick Budgeted by: Priscilla Collin's Production Crew Production manager: Jacqui Bethel Producer’s assistant: Dena Curtis^ Financial controller: CAAMA Production accountant: CAAMA Insurer: HW Holland Completion guarantor: FACB Leg a l'services:'Roth Warren GameraCrew Camera operator: Helen Barrow Camera type- Digital Betacam Still-photographer: Priscilla R o llins Post production; Editogl Denise Haslem Offline facilities: CAAMA Government Agency Investment Production: AFFC MarketingflfBC Synopsis This unique documentary features the special working relationships between indigenous and-non indigenous women who work out on remote 'cpmmunitie's.

SMALL STEPS, GIANT STEPS Network: SBS Production Company: : Emerald Films Producer: Browning AssociateProducer:*Paola Gambiali DOP: Roman Baska Editoi|iEmma-Hay ■Director: Sally Browning Script w riter: Sally Browning Format: DVCam & DVC Pho Synopsis AutismTs-aJdisorder that .affects one in every 1000 children born in Australia.

Most children suffering autism are initially catagorisjed as “ unrtfehable’iri and untilipecently institutionalisation was the favoured cure.

It has only beeffin recent years that alternative therapies have been explored, and/startling breakthroughs made by the chirdremwho respond to these therapies. ~‘ The film w ill follow several « children who are attending Giant SteosJafsoecialschool 3f holistic one-on-one therapy fo r affected children in Sydney, whose progress to communication has defied

their initial diagnoses.' RETURN TO EDEN Network: ABC Production Company: Artemis International ^Producéis:, B rian^Beato n, Celia Tait Executive ¡¡reducers: Briair Beatbn^Peter Beilby, Dione Gílmóur Director: Celia Tait Script w rite r Celia Tait Format:-S.uperl 6mm film S y n o ^ |^ ;-: I n f f l pristine landscape of the NorthWesf of Australia a battle for territory is being waged between two opposing forces : feral versus native ‘’animals.

BUNDY’S LAST GREAT ADVENTURE Production company: Gulliver Media Australia Pty Ltd Distribution company: Beyond Budget: $300,000 Principal Credits Director: Larry Zetlin, Producer: Larry Zetlin Executive producer: Larry Zetlin Seriptwriter: Frank Chalmers Director of photography: Craig Lucas Sound recordist: Trevor Chalmers Production Crew Production manager: Trevor Chalmers /Financial controller: Andrew McSweeney, BJ Grace and Co Production accountant: Andrew McSweeney InsurerclCinesure Legal services: Goss Crane 3and. Herd Camera Crew Camera operator: Craig Lucas Camera type: Sony Hi M Definition Post production Narrator: Peter Wear Animation: Procam Studios ;Film/Video gauge: Hi Definition ' f Screen ratio: 16:9 Shooting.stock: Hi Definition Marketing International sales agent: Beyond Distribution International fjjstributor:: Beyond Distribution Synopsis This is a story oba final';, journey through stunningly beautifSl country, in a small, cantankerous train called Bundy.

It is also about fulfilling the personal drea ms of a dedicated band of drivers, who drove Bundy and loved it. (No matter how often it leapt off the tracks and forced them to jump for their lives).

In post-production TALES ¡[ROM A SUITCASE |Look Television Production P/L Distribution company: JCM Budget: $355,000 iirib |m a l Credits Series Director: Andrea Dal Bosco Series Producer: Will Davies Directors: Peter Hegedus, Debra Beattie,’ David Vadivaloo, Veronica Iccono Commissioning Editor: Courtney Gibson (SBS I] Production ManagerlSimone Uhlhorn Director of photography: 'Roman Baskápditor: Bernard Ashby p o m p o s lf: Chopiñí 4 ,§ound designer: ||§rek Allen ¿ig^Zag Lane [i^oductibn Crew Productio.rffcojordin§to|: Triny Roe Synopsis^ Athirteen part oral history series which looks at the

migrant experience in Australia during the 1950s.

13x30 minutes

obstacles to triumph over the bad guys, and a lot of laughs are had on the way.

PAINTING COUNTRY

GAUGUIN Stella Productions Pty Ltd Producers: Mario Andreacchio, Georges Campana Director: Mario Andreacchio Writer: John Goldsmith Presale: Studio Canal Plus Distribution: REP Set in Paris and Tahiti in the late 19th century, Gauguin examines a slice in the life of French painter, Paul Gauguin, in his attempt to create a revolution in painting and thinking, and his obsession with the questions of “Where Do We Gome From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?”

Network: NHK Japan/SBS Australia; ’ Production Company: Electric Pictures Pty Ltd/Robm Eastwood Productions Pty Ltd Producers: Andrew Ogilvie/Robin Eastwood Executive Producers: Andrew Ogilvie/Robin Eastwood Director: Sally Ingleton Script writer: Sally Ingleton Format: HDTV (16:9) Synopsis  High Definition documentary whicH,investigates the origins of the art of internationally acclaimed artists from Balgo Hills, coimmunity in the Great Sandy Desert.

AUSTRALIANS AT WAR Series documentary Beyond Productions Pty Ltd in association with Mullion Creek Productions Supervising Producer: Ste pheri Amezd ra 8 || Series producer: Michael Caulfield Directors: Geoff Burton, David Goldie, Steve Best, Tim Clark Writers: Geoff Burton, David Goldie, Steve Best, Tim Clark Synopsis Australians at War exarmines the effects of warort the lives of Australians and how this nation has.been shaped by those experiences. ' 8 x 55 minutes STRESS 4 part series Network: ABC TV Production company: Ramsey iÇilms Producersf-tlane Ramsey, John Merson Executive producer: Stephen Ramsey Directors: Stephen Ramsey, DaVidIRoberts \ Format: Digital Betacam Synopsis Bne scientific evidence for a how stress is killing us and what is happening in ourZ society to turn stress related diseases into epidemics. ÎFORE IT’S TOO LATE 10: THE FORGOTTEN SPECIES Short Documentary Storyteller Productions Executive Producer: Mike Searle Producers: Mike Searle, ¡Bill Clough, Sam McDonaugh, Linda Searle Director: Mike Searle Writer: Mike Searle .

Synopsis!; Episode ten in the Before its too late series looks at the forgotten species; India's lions, elephants, crocodiles and rhinos - allVpritically endangered and over­ shadowed by their African cousins/^ 54 minutes'

Recent funding A ^ s io n s Feature Films LET’S GET S K A s lji Media World Features Pty Ltd Producers: John Tatoulis, Colin South Director: Matthew George Writers: Matthew Georg'é, Lachy Hulme Distribution: Village Roadshow, Trident Releasing Anti-hero Peter Dellasandro' and his pojsse of boys become men in the process of bringing §kase back from Majorca.’T he forces of good overcome all

ADULT TÉLÉVISION DRAMA HOPE FLIES (100 x minute telemovie) Liberty and Beyond Pty Ltd Producers: Simone North, Tony Cavanaugh Director: Geoff Nottage Writer: Tony Cavanaugh Presale: Ten Network Distribution: Beyond Distribution Hope returns to her hometown in response to her father's cry for help; horses are dying and nobody knows why. Box Tree hasn’t changed much ... but all the;peoplé have.; Her arrival brings about an extraordinary journey of rekindled friendships and a professional challenge she hadn’t expected.

THE ROAD FROM COORAIN (‘112 x minute telemovie) Chapman Pictures Pty Ltd ¿Producer: Penny Chapman Writer: Sue Smith Presales: ABC, WGBH; Distribution: Pearson Television International Based On Jill Ker-Conway’s celebrated autobiography, this islthe story of a childhood.

Set mainly in of the western . plains of NSW, The Road From Coorain is a witness to the relationship between two extraordinary women over a lifetime of adversity.

CHILDREN’S TELEVISION DRAMA CYBERGIRL (26 x 24 minute children's . miniseries) Jonathan M Shiff Productions Pty Ltd and Daniel Scharf Productions Pty Ltd ExecÊitive^Producers: Jonathan M Shiff, Kay BenM’Rad Producers: Daniel Scharf, Jonathan M 'Shiff Di rectors : Mark DeFri est, Michael Carson Writers: David Phillips, Helen MacWhirter, Barbara Bishop, Peter Kinloch, Everett De Roche, Annie Fox, Charlie Strachan Presale: Network Ten, Disney Channel (Australia), ZDF Distribution: France Animation When Cybergirl prototype 6000 plunges from space into the world of young Jackson Campbell she changes his life, and the fate of River City forever. Unable to resist using her superpowers whenever there is a crisis, she soon becomes the obsession of Rhyss, a sinister young software mogul who is determined to find and exploit her.

Documentaries DEATH IN A SMALL ROOM (55 x minute Accord documentary) The Helpful Eye Pty Ltd Producers: Mike Rubbo, Penny McDonald Director/Writer: Mike Rubbo Presale: ABC For over 200 years, there have been doubts as to whether Shakespeare actually wrote the works attributed to him.

One of the rival Elizabethan playwrights, Christopher Marlowe, considered to be best qualified to be the true author, has never been seriously considered because he died in a knife fight at the age of 29. Death In A Small Room is a literary detective story where the events to be delved, and the murder to be solved, happened more than 400 years ago.

ROBERT FORTUNE THE TEA THIEF (90 & 52 x minute documentary) Diane Perelsztejn & Company Pty Ltd in co-production with Les Films De La Memoire and La Huit Productions Producers: Diane Perelsztejn, Willy Perelsztejn, Gilles Le Mao Director: Diane Perelsztejn Writers: Diane Perelsztejn, Willy Perelsztejn, Joelle Kilimnik Presales: La Sept Arte, AVRO, RTBF, SBSI In 1848, Robert Fortune, a Scottish botanist, was commissioned by the Tea Committee of the British East India Company, to travel to China to unravel the mystery of tea cultivation and manufacture. Masquerading as a Mongol Mandarin, Fortune visited the best tea gardens and processing plants in China. He stole the secret of tea cultivation and processing from the Chinese.

With the help of present day tea experts, tea tasters and connoisseurs, the film w ill follow Fortune’s picturesque and audacious journey to rediscover the originality and significance of his/*'; achievements.

LOSING LAYLA (55 x minute Accord documentary) Hatchling Productions , Producer: Cathy Henkel Director: Vanessa Gorman Presale: ABC Losing Layla began as an intimate video diary about the film m akers fear of losing her partner by her choice to become a mother. Instead, it became the story of losing their daughter EQUUS¡¡THE STORY OF A HORSE (Large Format documentary) Mullion Creek Productions Pty Ltd and Beyond International Producers: Liz Butler, Michael Caulfield Director: Michael Caulfield Distribution: Imax Ltd This film is a docu-drama about three young thoroughbreds who are born on a Victorian horse stud on the same night. The story follows their lives - one of a successful racehorse, one as an eventing horse turned film stunt horse and one who . escapes to the wild to join the brumbies of the Snowy Mountain high country.

CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000 [57]

The sum of us

JUDAS KISS

MUGGERS M:l-2

THEPERFECTSTORM PITCH BLACK

"ME, MYSELF& IRENE”

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C IN EM A PAPERS, THE M ELB O U R NE W EEKLY

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M egan S p encer J TR IPLE

THE A G P /C IN E M A PAPERS

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Erratum issue 133 • Stephan Elliott, Al Clark, Richard Wolstencroft and Paul Caulter's names were spelt incorrectly.

• Sharmill Films purchased Paul Cox's Innocence at Cannes (not Serenades as reported], • In The Sum of Us Adrian Martin's and Megan Spencer's scores were severely infected.

Madeleine Swain somehow inherited David Stratton's scores in toto - Cinema Papers apologies to all concerned parties. Measures have been taken to ensure the problem does not recur.

OUR REVIEW GURUS HAVE RATED A SELECTION OF THE LATEST RELEASES ON A SCALE OF 0 TO 10, THE LATTER BEING THE OPTIMUM RATING - A DOT MEANS NOT SEEN .

The Road Home

[ 5 8] CINEMA PAPERS. AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2000

The Perfect Storm

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Cinem edia is an Australian culturel encourages and assists the develop!, exhibition and know ledge o f film ,

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Cinemedia @ Federation Square

The Cinem edia A ccess Cm

In 2001, Australia will see its first cultural institution solely dedicated to screen culture.

Provides public access to A u s tra lia ^ collection of film, video and d ocum |H

Cinemedia @ Federation Square, in the heart of Melbourne, will showcase the moving image in all its wondrous forms. Cinem edia @ Federation Square is a new cultural institution devoted to screen culture events, educational programs, digital m edia exhibitions and new screen technologies.

Cinem edia @ Treasury Thi

Cinemedia @ Federation Square celebrates thé ait and culture of cinema, television and the interactive screen in w

an interactive environment.

Film Victoria Supports the film and television industry through script development, production investment and industry development.

Provides a state of the art c in e m lp film and documentary screening!!

Screen Education Invites discussion and understa! of our screen culture.

Digital Media Fund Offers the opportunity for oractitior i f ^ M their projects in a multimedia e n v iro n m ^ ^ p ^ stimulate ndw and innovative contend

For more inform ation check out our web site a t www.cinemedia.net

Melbourne Film O ffice Markets the Victorian film and television industry nationally and internationally -¡including locations, facilities and services.

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Screen Culture Supports major festivals including the Melbourne International Film Festival and industry conferences.

^

Cinematography in HDCAM High-Definition Digital Motion Pictures that crosses boundaries

Truly high-resolution imaging for Digital Motion Picture creation. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;saS ony Selectable frame rate 24, 25 or 30 frames per second Stop-motion recording

In-camera creative flexibility - grading, film gamma control, skin detail correction etc

Australian and world-wide High-Definition TV capable

High Definition recording in HDCAM

Up to 50 minutes recording

2.2 Million pixel High Definition CCD Imaging

Phone yo u r local Sony office to find o u t the advantages o f shooting in High Definition.

Sydney (02) 9887 6672 Brisbane (07) 3334 4017 Perth (08) 9202 2555 v

Melbourne (03) 9264 0221

Adelaide (08) 9238 1777

Sony Australia Limited incorporated in NSW ACN 001 215 354

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Auckland (09) 488

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Box 377, North Ryde,

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1670, Australia