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 | . ‘ V -xv’: ._ _ The Australian magazine 0! mm and Ialewsmn I[...] |
| [...]. . . . . . . . .3 FRONT LINES: A round—up of the local films and people partici- pating in the American Film Market, a background to the controversy about the Sydney Fillmmakers' Co—Op, and a report from the Film and History Confer- ence. Plus festival reports from London, Hyderabad, Havana and the Film Nouveau season; ourregularcolumnsfrom around the world; and profiles on writer/ director Jackie Mc[...]tion in Sydney to execute a record-breaking stunt for Dead- End Drive-In, Guy Norris talks to Nick Roddick about the stunt- man as scientist and the highs of jumping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[...]in Australia aftersixyears andthree features in the US, writer/ producer/director Fred Schepisi speaks to David Stratton about collaboration with David Hare, the magic of Meryl and the ones that got away . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[...]ES: With a track record that indicates a penchant for pace, Brian Trenchard-Smith has become one of Aus[...]is O'Rourke seems poised to explode two myths — the cir- cumstances of nuclear testing in the Pacific and the notion that independent documentaries should be confined to the art- house circuit. He talks to Nick Roddick abou[...]nd ac- tress Judy Morris talk to Debi Enker about The More Things Changenq drama aimed at a neglected s[...]8 contemporary . . . . , . ..3O CAPTAIN OF THE CLOUDS: One of Australia's most enduring actors,[...], camera cars, wind and smoke machines have taken the film industry by storm FILM REVIEWS: Fu|l—length re- views of Alamo Bay, The Color Purple, Half Life, Jenny Kissed Me, Letter to Brezhnev, Marie, The More Things Change..., Out of Africa, Plenty, Sky Pirates, Wrong World and Year of the Dragon. Plus shorter reviews of all the recent releases Bernardo Berto/ucci by Robert Phillip Kolker; Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe by An- thony Summers; The Australian Film Book, 1930-Today by Simon[...] |
| [...]EBRATING gyé/0/I/.3 OF TELEVISION ACHIEVEMENT The C ompany that introduced Australian Television to the World with such major productions as.‘- * PRI[...]‘k SONS AND DA UGHTERS ISLAND TRADER ‘A’ THE YOUNG DOCTORS DEMOLITION ‘Ir NEIGHBOURS GONE T[...]UAD MAMA’S GONE A—HUNTING ‘k SECRET VALLEY THE NEWMAN SHAME ‘A’ RUNAWAY ISLAND PLUNGE INTO DARKNESS ‘A’ THE RESTLESS YEARS ROSES BLOOM TWICE ‘A’ BELLAMY THE SCALP MERCHANT ‘K’ PUNISHMENT CASE FOR THE DEFENCE ‘A’ WAT ERLOO STATION THE FAMILY WAY ‘k TAURUS RISING WITHOUT CONSENT * ABBA — THE MOVIE THETHE ‘A’ THE DEATH TRAIN CONFESSIONS OF RONALD BIGGS ‘A’ THE NIGHTNURSE Head Office International Sal[...] |
| [...]McFar|ane, Tom Flyan. Signed articles represent the views of their author. and not necessarily those of the editor. While every care is taken with manuscripts and materials supplied to the magazine, neither the editor nor the pub- lishers can accept liability for any loss or damage which may arise. This magazine may; not be reproduced in whole or in part wittgput the express permission of the copyright owner. Cinema Papers is pub» . Iished every two months by MTV Publish-[...]Plenty. _$/in Comniitrioru cinema Papers is published with financial assistance from the AUSTRALIAN FILM COMMISSION and FILM VICTORIA. AAA A A Film Victoria “Is there anybody there . . .?” For no better reason than that this is the first issue of 1986 (the ‘January’ issue was actually published, as th[...]fore Christmas), here are a few anniversaries. It is 85 years and five months since the first film to be made in Australia, Soldiers of the Cross, was shown by the Salvos at the Melbourne Town Hall. It is just under 20 years since Michael Powell’s They[...]re Australian than most ‘Australian’ films of the sixties, had its Sydney premiere. It is just under fifteen years since Wake in Fright was shown at Cannes, and almost exactly seventeen since the Melbourne premiere of Tim Burstall’s Two Thousand Weeks, the first film of what David Stratton would later call ‘the last new wave’. Finally, at time of writing, it is just over 24 hours since an Australian director, Peter Weir, was nominated for Best Director in Hollywood. On another tack, it is sixteen and a half years since the first broadsheet issue of Cinema Papers came out of Carlton, and a little over twelve since the magazine began regular publication in October 1969. Honesty forces me to record that it is also three years since Cinema Papers was forced t[...]and just under two since it started up again. It is also thirteen months, almost to the day, since I took over the editorship. This, as regular readers will have n[...]as first-time readers may be interested to know), is the first issue to appear in the new, reduced format, breaking with twelve years o[...]ably offending one or two people. We’ve done it for a number of reasons — people couldn’t fit the old format on their bookshelves, newsagents didn’t like handling it. But the main one was so we could, at last, afford to prin[...]There are a few other breaks with tradition, too. The magazine has been extensively redesigned, the features I have introduced since I took over — the news from around the world, the regular location reports, the policy of reviewing every film, however bad, that[...]up, and a few extra ones have been added, notably the Production Barometer on pages 62-63, which will b[...]85 was, by almost universal consensus, a bad year for the Australian cinema. Leaving aside the third Mad Max, which did not make the earth move as much as expected, the only local film to do proportionally decent business at the Australian box office was Bliss, and that had to be four-walled by its producers. Certainly, none of the big movies did more than skate across the surface of the Great Australian Public — not the SAFC’s expensive Robbery Under Arms (which is out this month as a miniseries); not The Empty Beach (Bryan Brown may be a star in Hollywo[...]ard. A mid-year audience survey, commissioned by the Australian Film Commission, revealed that Austral[...]s than 5°70) could name any Australian film made the previous year. I doubt things would be much better if the survey were done again this April. But April 1987 might give a better result. We’re only into the second month of 1986 as I write this, but already two of the best Australian films for quite some time — The More Things Change . . . and Half Life — are on the verge of release. It is too soon to say how they will do. But they get a[...]em. All of which hints at something of a dilemma for Australian filmmaking. The days of automatic support for the sound of strine are long since gone, taking with them the quirky, low-budget films on which the renaissance was built, and we are still a long way off the brave New World of films that aim for — and squarely hit — their limited commercial targets. This is almost certainly a dilemma the industry is going to have to sort out for itself, because there is every sign that the government no longer believes in the notion of a tax-aided cultural and economic flagship. And the seductive options of television may not prove to be a salvation either. The simple economics of the matter are that, in order to make a miniseries that enough Australians will want to watch for the commercial channels to go on putting up the money, you have to spend around twice as much as the channels can afford (or are prepared) to pay. Whi[...]tralian life and culture. Cinema Papers supports the Australian film industry, and it supports Austral[...]t without either, nor should either exist without the other. But they are, increasingly, not the same thing. That doesn’t mean we have to choose, however. It is an article of faith at 644 Victoria Street that f[...]ave to make a living, and that commercial success is not some kind of cop-out. The film named most often in the AFC survey was The Man From Snowy River. The fact that over 10% of the respondents thought it was made last year indicates as much the film’s hold on their memories as it does their haphazard grasp of chronology. For what it’s worth, I thought Snowy River was terr[...]new how to, we can’t just make Snowy Rivers. As the experience of country after country has shown, a film industry built entirely on the notion of horses for courses — films aimed at specific audiences —[...]to grow, because that culture will feed back into the industry and replenish it, as the European new wave fed into the American industry, and the American industry’s B movies fed into the European new wave. The collapse of the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op, whether from natural or unnatural causes, seems to signal the end of an era. But something has to grow in its place. So, in addition to supporting the industry (which we will do in issues like this one, partly aimed at the American Film Market in Los Angeles, where two dozen Australian films are on sale), it is the job — the duty — of Cinema Papers to agitate for that something, to support the sort of films that will last. And part of that agitation is going to be to say to the government bodies that subsidize us, as they subsidize other areas of the industry, that it is their duty, too, to encourage that kind of filmmaking, not just on the fringes, but at the very centre of the industry. Increasingly, it seems, this nee[...] |
| [...]f ‘N g E_ ‘s Buoyant Australian presence at the Los Angeles market 20-plus Australian films for the AFM’s “banner year” With the disappointing results of last year fading away, the Australian film industry looks as though it will be approaching the American Film Market in Los Angeles (20-28 Fe- br[...], with around 150 features cur- rently slotted in for screenings in nineteen West Los Angeles theatres. The market itself is located at the Beverly Hilton hotel. There will, at time of goi[...]ales agencies. And there can be little doubt that the AFM has, by now, almost totally replaced Berlin a[...]f MIFED (Milan in November). Providing access to the all- important American independent film and ancillary circuit and to a large number of overseas markets, the 1986 AFM should help Austra- lian producers improve somewhat on last year, when New Zealand drew level on the American sales market. Although Varietylists elev[...]ilms and only four Kiwi ones as being released in the U. S. in 1985, the Australian total was swol- len by Satori's ‘I L[...]at four films each. Looked at from this side of the Pacific, probably the major change for this year's AFM — and one which will have considerable significance for overseas sales of Australian pic- tures in general — comes as a result of the announcement by New South Wales Film Corporation Chairman, Paul Riomfalvy, on 16 January, that the NSWF C's West Coast represent- ative, the Australian Films Office, would henceforth be known as Au- stralian Films international Inc. Headed by the energetic Bob Lewis, the renamed organization will act as a worldwide sales arm for all inte- rested Australian producers, not just those connected with the NS WFC. The announcement itself, which was turned into someth[...]th a journalists’ strike in Sydney, was made in the presence of Australian Film Commission Chief Exec[...]cate that NSW was not attempting to muscle in on the AFC‘s marketing territory. In fact, as Williams pointed out, the AFC has, since 1984, been backing out of direct involvement in the marketing of product, and now sees its role as pr[...]domestic liaison 4 — March CINEMA PAPERS What the change does cast into some doubt, though, is the con- tinued existence of the AFC‘s Los Angeles office, headed by North Ameri[...]ac- credited American marketing repre- sentative, the space left for Guardian hardly seems worthy of his talents, and there are rumours he may be on the lookout for another position. Of the new Australian films on show atthe AFM, the two biggest (in terms of budget) are the Hoyts Ed- gley Burke 8- Wills, and the YarramanlUAA production, The Right-Hand Man, which will be looked after in Los[...]rformed disappointingly in Au- stralia, but which is generally rec- koned to have a better chance overseas. According to one of the film’s two stars, Nigel Havers, who plays Wills[...]extremely well received at private screenings in the UK. The reason? Unlike Au- stralians, who were brought up on the tale of the two luckless explorers, overseas audiences don't know what’s going to happen at the end! The Right-Hand Man, on which we carried a location report in our Christmas issue, is one of the most eagerly-awaited of the 1986 films. A feature debut for Di Drew, with a strong cast headed by Rupert Everett and Hugo Weaving, it is a period drama that deals with the decidedly modern issue of sexual surrogacy. The New South Wales Film Corpo- ration’s crop inclu[...]overston/, of which a promo reel will be on show; The More Things change...featured on pages 35-37 of this issue; Short Changed, the Ross Matthewsl George Ogilvie film about a young[...]g Sane, a comedy about "a man ’s obsession with the passing of time”, directed by Michael Robertson[...]ill also be hoping to drum up advance interest in The Bee- Eater, another George Ogilvie film, now shooting on the New South Wales coast. The Ross Dimsey/Tim Burstall production of Kangaroo (see loca- tion report on page 42) is another major contender for world sales, given the presence of Judy Davis in the cast and the name of D. H. Lawr- ence on the credits. It will be repre- sented by Filmways' Lo[...]Collins), who will also be looking after Devil in the Flesh, a version of Raymond Radiguet‘s novel r[...]to World War II Australia, Australian movies to the world : the New South Wales Film Corporation’: Danny Colli[...]tralian Films International’: Bob Lewis. which is the feature debut of former Cinema Papers editor, Sco[...]produced and Brian Trenchard- Smith directed (see the interview with Trenchard-Smith on page 26); and I Own the Racecourse, the Barron Films feature abouta gullible teenage boy conned into believing he has bought the Harold Park race- course in Sydney. Cori Films International, headed by the omnipresent Marie Hoy, will be looking after this year's Yoram Gross crop (there is a possibility that Gross himself will be attending the AFM), which include the completed animation films, Dot and Keeto and Dot and the Koala, and promo reels of the two films which, as part of Gross's regular annua[...]urnaround, are cur- rently in production: Dot and the Bunyip and Dot and the Whale. Cori is also representing Malcolm (discussed by Colin Friels in the int- erview on page 14, where he also A ‘L -4 - é.,, «u. =, talks about his lead role in Kanga- roo), the David ParkerlNadia Tass film about an ingenuous t[...]on, who have a new Los Angeles general manager in the shape of David Armstrong, will be handling a couple of smaller films: Barbara Boyd-Anderson's The Still Point, about a deaf girl expe- riencing the traumas of adolesc- ence; and Bill Bennett’s A Street to Die, which won Chris Haywood the Best Actor prize at last Sep- tember's AFI Awards for his playing of a victim of Agent Orange. And producer Don Catchlove will be tak- Hugo Weaving in The Right-Hand Man. Judy Davis and Colin Frie[...]lfth Night. Other Australian product on offer at the AFM includes the economical soft-core movie, Leonora, which is being handled by Showcase Video; the fantasy film, Frog Dreaming, the third Trenchard-Smith movie in the market, starring E.T.’s Henry Thomas; Fa[...] |
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| [...]esolutions follow Christmas Eve liquidation. On the afternoon of 31 January, Mandy King of the Sydney Film- makers‘ Co-Op Action Group rang the liquidators of the Sydney Film- makers‘ Co-Operative to find out which of several bidders had suc- ceeded in acquiring the 400—odd in- dependent films distributed through the Co-Op. The liquidators, says King, de- clined to advise the name of the new distributor, suggesting that such an announce[...]y useless action among many that have accompanied the debate: throughoutJanuary, the Filmmakers‘ Co-Op and the Australian Film Com- mission have yelled at each other in print across the breakfast tables of a million homes in termsjust as empty. From what has appeared in the press, the public must assume that there are two sidesto the conflict. But careful reading of the stated objec- tives of these two sides would reveal that they share the same aspirations as farasindependentfilmmakers are concerned. The arguments about why the Co- Op has gotitselfintofinancial difficul- ties[...]nt. Thefirstindication ofpublictrouble came with the protest at the AFC‘s headquarters in North Sydney on 9 January. There is continuing argu- ment about just why this happened, since it is acknowledged that the Co— Op’s directors were forced to place the organization in the hands of a provisional liquidator in December. When the AFC failed to bail them out with an emergency grant, in the now accepted manner of other arts orga- nizations, the Co-Op was sud- denlyfaced with the prospect of clos- ing down for real. On 10 January trading ceased. That was the day after the staff went to the AFC offices in a bitter mood. Overthe next two weeks, statements and letters, public meetings and the formation of the Action Group gained general press coverage. But the first shot in the paper war was fired by AFC Chief Executive Kim Wi[...]ve been circulated in recentdays in rela- tion to the insolvency of the Sydney Filmmakers’ Co-Operative." Williams went on to “summarize the current position", saying the AFC had approved a grant of $221,500 in the 85/86 financial year, and that all monies due to the Co-Operative up until 31 December 1985 had been paid. He also stated that, back in July, the AFC had advised the Co-Op that it would notprovide any turtheremer/ g[...]General Meeting of members on 18 De- cember that the Co-Op voted to go into receivership. The AFC met with the liquidator on 9 January and agreed to provide funds to cover one month‘s rental and wages for several staff in orderto allow an orderly wind-do[...]ms said. He went on to say that when Sue Kaufman, the administra- tive co-ordinator, arrived for a meet- ing on 9 January, requested by the AFC, “she was accompanied by several interested members and staff of the Co-Operative, who staged a minor demonstration". On Monday, 13 January, the Co- Op issued its rejoinder Media Release, claiming that the AFC was kept fully aware of its financial situa-[...]ses, had in fact ac- celerated their problems. In the 17 January edition of The National Times, a full-page advertisement appeared, headed ‘Crisis for Inde- pendent Film‘. Most importantly, the ad promoted a public meeting on Sunday 19 January at Paddington Town Hall. The Action Group was formed at this meeting, and it p[...]ns, including resolution Number 4, which “urges the Federal Govern- ment to increase the level of funding to the AFC, and urges the AFC to increase its allocation to the inde- pendent film and video sector”. The thrust of these resolutions could well be summed up by none other than Kim Williams, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald on 21 January, when he stated three objec- tives the AFC believed must be achieved: "1. The maximum expo- sure of independent film and video product to Australian audiences. 2. The achievement of the maximum possible financial return to indepen- dent producers. 3. The provision of an effective voice for the indepen- dent film community." The Action Group used a larger numberof resolutions, but effectively said much the same thing. And,in another letter to the Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, Joy Toma of the Action Group agreed that Wil- |iams'out|ine of the future objectives were “quite compatible with the ob- jectives of the Co— Operative". By 24 January, events had taken a step forward: in the time-honoured tradition of bureaucracies the world over, a working party was set up to look into the state of subsidized film distribution. A telex announced that the Action Group would be ‘‘closely monitoring the deliberations of this working party, to ensure that it sup- ports the ongoing national distribu- tion and exhibition of these films in the spirit of the old Co-Op”. The spirit is obviously willing, but /the flesh has been weak: everyone it seems, is keen to see the continua- tion of efficient distribution of inde- pendent films. The films are, by consensus, a vital artistic and soc[...]nting them out has been financially unprofitable. The bill, in all senses, has now arrived. Andrew L.[...]nce turns into a History mellow get-together By the end of the first day of the Third History and Film Conference, held from 2-6[...]d an intro- duction to anyone else. It was enough for almost everyone to see almost everyone else again[...]ful conference, then. No jejeune polemics to stir the blood, no raging confrontations. with academics h[...]eakthroughs, not even any delectable scandal. By the same token, there was not much to complain about, either. Most of the papers were interesting (to other academics, at any rate), the amblence was great (the University of Western Australia does have the most beautiful campus in the country), Steve’s had Guinness on tap, the Conference dinner was held at the Yacht Club, and the wine tour was generously primed. Am I saying that the film-academic establishment has grown fat and laz[...]t so passionately held as once they were. Many of the certainties of just a few years ago now seem questionable, and academics (like the rest of us) are casting about for other approaches, are willing to listen, and are waiting for something worth listening to. The most exciting things worth listening to in Perth[...]short film — Floss Gibson's Camera Natura. This is not an easy movie to describe. It is about how the Austra- lian landscape has been imaged over the years, and it is an object lesson in history-on-film, which uses movies from the past as part of its data. What sets it apart from many other efforts in the same genre is its suspicion that there is no single explanation for events, no ‘true history‘ — in this case, no ‘true Aus- tralian landscape‘. The result is a densely-packed, ‘avant-garde‘, talky, didactic and imperfect work — definitely a must-see item. The original idea for these Confer- ences was to get historians and film academics together, presuming that the meeting could have some effect on those respectiv[...]shed cultural areas — like history ~ don't like the idea that there may be something to learn from upstart phenomena, like the movies. Thus, the visiting history types were fish doubly out of water, and the experience can't have been much fun — particularly not for Charles Geshekter of California State. whose film, The Parching Winds of Somalia, provoked the nastiest attacks of the week. Here, a lack of film background meant that Geshekter had almost no idea of what he wanted on the screen — and what he got from his crew was sim[...]eatly nullifying what sophistication there was in the ideas behind the film. The film people were not tolerant, but Geshekter, int[...]imulated rather than wounded by their vehemence. The conference had a theme: the thirties. You can see how the new German Nazi films might be squeezed into that theme, but it is harder to figure out how Camera Natura and The Parching Winds of Somalia fitted. Nobody came in period costume (more‘s the pity) and. as it turned out. very little was done with the thirties idea. Take the sessions dealing in detail with certain films. These were all Hollywood thirties product, which the paper-givers apparently‘ reckoned were a bit strange. But, although the strangeness was remarked on, it was mostly not ex[...]or it was explained in some off-hand way — that the early thirties pre-dated the ‘classic’ period in Hollywood was one of the ideas advanced. One of these papers was given by[...]f Cinema Papers. Martin can usually be counted on for provocative attacks on film theory, academics and[...]n that contained not one word of vituperation. At the end of the session, you could have cut the disappointment with a knife. More fun than Marti[...]n) movie words, "Me Jane, you Tarzan“, in which the La Trobe film academic set out to demon- strate, with high good humour and erudition, that Jane was more of a partner to the ape-man than a sub- ordinate. On the other hand, Kristen (The Classic Hollywood Cinema) Thomp- son's analysis of The Black Cat did_ not match up either to the film or to what she has done in print. It seemed designed to smooth out the peculiarities of this decidedly peculiar horror flick which, to this observer, was the wrong tack to take. Another chunk of the programme was devoted to John Grierson, the ‘father’ of the documentary. in these sessions, it was open seaso[...]anadian Peter Morris (Queen's University) got off the first round with an elegant, sophistical argument designed to prove that Grierson was not a true lefty, as is usually presumed, but a closet fascist (well, a n[...]ne Humphrey Jennings film, Spare Time, made under the old man's (disapproving) gaze. At this point your reporter left, thus missing a last-minute try for re-D CINEMA PAPERS March — 5 |
| [...]e papers I liked, and even one session I chaired. The paper most praised was delivered by John Hartley, and dealt with where the television set is located in Western Australian homes (it is reprinted in The Moving Image: The History of Film and Television in Western Aus- tralia, 7896 to 1985, to be reviewed in the next issue of Cinema Papers). But, in the end, it was all mellow. Terribly mellow. Bill Rout! Briefly . . . I Vicki Molloy has been appointed as the new executive director of the Australian Film Institute. Molloy joins the AFI after six years at the Aus- tralian Film Commission, which she joined as manager of the Women's Film Fund. For the past two years, Molloy has been the director of the Creative Development Branch, responsible for programmes of assistance to new and innovative fi[...]uate of Swinburne, who has spent time working at the ABC, the BBC and on numerous short films, Molloy takes up her new position on 17 March. I The Australian Film Commission, in association with the ABC, has announced the awarding of the 1986 National Documentary Fellow- ships to David[...]n) and John Hughes (Traps). 64 candidates applied for the Fellowships, valued at $125,000. The AFC also announced that Pat Fiske would be the recipient of a study fellowship. Recent AFC appo[...]position as a part-time Script Office consultant for three months, com- mencing in mid—January. And, in the Melbourne office, Claire Dobbin has been selected as the new senior project officer for the Creative Development Fund. FESTIVALS: the annual St Kilda Film Festival will be held in Mel- bourne from 17-20 April at the National Theatre. Presented by the St Kilda City Council, the festival aims to showcase Australian shorts, documentaries and features that might not be picked up for a wide commercial release. Nigel Buesst has been appointed part-time director of the festival and co-ordinator Lee Holmes has confirmed that the prizes of $300, $200 and $100 will again be award[...]es. Filmmakers interested in submit- ting works, for consideration can send them to Holmes on 1/2" VHS tape or 16mm film. Planning is also well under way for the Melbourne" and Sydney Film Festivals, both to be held in June. The Melbourne Festival recently appointed a new director, Santina Musumeci, who takes up the position after eleven years at 6 — March CINEM[...]International as an administrator and publicist. The Melbourne Festival will run from 19-29 June at the Forum Cinema Complex (which proved to be a popular venue in 1985), the State Film Centre and the Glass- house Cinema. At the time of going to press, negotiations were under way for a programme of new wave Super-8 shorts from New Y[...]was pending on Lizzie Borden’s Working Girls. The Sydney Festival will run from 6-20 June at the State and Dendy theatres. Although it is too early to confirm many films or guests for either festival, British filmmaker Ken McMullen w[...]have also been confirmed and there are hopes that the French director will attend. I Scripts for the Australian Child- ren's Television Foundations follow- up to the Winners series have been developed and the ACTF is once again assembling a diverse group of writers, producers and directors for the project. The nine-part series of hour-long fantasy programmes[...]ounced, a prospectus should be issued in May, and the ACTF hopes to go into production towards the end of the year. The Journey Writers: Ken Cameron and Jane Oehr. Director: Ken Cameron. Producer: Richard Mason. The Secret Life of Trees Writer: Paul Cox. Director:[...]el Cove. Director: TBA. Producer: Sue Milliken. The Clip Writer: Mac Gudgeon. Director: Bob Weis. Pro[...]ee deputy members have recently been appointed to the board of Film Victoria. Actress Sigrid Thornton,[...]ook up their two-year positions from 20 December. The new members join three other part- time members Graeme Hodges, Roger Le Mesurier and Ian Crawford. The members of the board are John Harrison (Chair- man), Gavin Ander[...]Brian Robinson, Charles Tingwell and Bob Weis. I Good news and not-so-good news on the international front. In the list of Top Foreign Rentals on video for 1985 published in Variety in early January, Careful, He Might Hear You ranged among the top ten, with Pauline a la Plage, Entre Nous, Local Hero, Diva and Carmen. On the other side of the Pacific, however, in a list of the most popular foreign features screened in Tokyo i[...]ighteenth. In a market that has been a stronghold for the Mad Max films, it is surprising to see the title coming in behind Police Academy 2, 2010, Lifeforce and The Karate Kid. I Following the negotiation of inter- national distribution deals for Bliss — with New World Pictures in the US and the Recorded Picture Company in the UK — international rights to Rebel have also recently been secured. Vestron Pictures have acquired the US and Canadian theatrical and home video rights to the film for a reported $USl.5-2 million. Vestron plan to release Rebel before the summer, as the first film in a new package of half a dozen titles to be screened over the next twelve months. I Tribe, a feature to be dir[...], will have a one-week workshop with Lawrence and the actors in March, to enable alterations to be made to the script. Production is scheduled for Sep- I Naoko Abe and Georgina Pope head the Tokyo-based sales agency, production and distribution company, Goanna Films. John Baxter is a film reviewer for The Australian and author of numerous books on the cinema. Rod Bishop teaches film at the Phillip Institute of Technology. Pat H. Broeske writes regularly about film for the Los Angeles Times and is Hollywood correspondent for the Washington Post and other publications. Rarfaele Caputo is a freelance writer on film. Rolando Caputo is a freelance writer on film. Lorenzo Codelli is a freelance ijurnalist based in Trieste, a contri- butor to Postif and Italian corre- spondent for the International Film Guide. ~ Mary Golbert is a freelance writer on film. Ray Comiskey is film critic for The Irish Times. Christine Gremen is a freelance writer on film. Patricia King Hanson is editor of the American Film Catalogue and a contributor to the Los Angeles Times, American Film and Stills. fired Harden is a film and television producer and has a regular column on technical information in The Video Age. Paul Harris is co-host of Film Buffs Forecast on SRRR and a regular contributor to The Age. Sheila tlohnston is a London- based writer and film critic for ' magazine. Brian Jones is an independent pro- ducer, director, sorigtwriter and journalist. tember. The film will be produced by Peter lmaru and the script has been written by Barry Klemm. It is about a family gathering over a weekend for a funeral in a small country town. I The Australian Film and Tele- vision School's Melbourne office has introduced a small pilot scheme called the Tryout Program aimed at assisting makers of film,[...]. According to Victorian manager, Jenny Sabine, the scheme aims to encourage people to test new ideas in a working situation without the high costs normally involved. Facilities availabl[...]to technical advice. I Despite reservations about the Australian Film Commissions Co- production scheme (see Cinema Papers No. 55), producer Brian Rosen was the successful applicant in the first batch of contenders His $2.4-million, four-hour miniseries, Not For Glory, Not For Gold is a co-production with Canada’s Telefilm and may begin shooting in May. Underwritten prior to the 19 September modifications to 10BA, the miniseries is co-produced and written by David Williamson and chronicles the quest for the four- minute mile. #- Paul Kalina teaches meia studies and photograghy at St. Eloseph College and is a freelance writer Q is Peter Krien is film ggritiefor Sunday Press. Geoff Mayer is a lecturer in studies at the Phillie Institute of "tie . . nology. Gail Mccrea is a postgraduate student at La Trobe University. Brian McFarlane is a lecturer in English at the Chisholm Institute and author of Words and Images. Belinda Meares is a New Zea|an‘c?l- born freelance writer working[...]aris. Tony Mitchell teaches film arid theatre at the University of New South Wales. Mike Nicolaifii is a freelance writer and contributor to Variety. Dieter Osswald is a journalist aria contributor to Eilmeoho. Dasha Ross is a r Close-Up, series on SB Bill and iane Routt ar[...]ures in media studies at Swinburne, oontriutes to The Video Age and reviews films for the; 3l;O Sunday show. I dim Sohembri is a journalist at The Age. : for the .: i. it Mark Spratt is a freelance writer on _ film. David Stratton is host of Movie of ii? the Week on SBS and reviews films for Variety. R.tJ. Thmpson is a freelance writer on film. Andrew Urban is Australian corre- and a regula pages of T straiian Michael Visontay is a journalist at? the Sydney Morning Herald kc spondent for Screen International ributor to the arts * |
| [...]DOWN UNDER Unless of course you're talking about the quality release prints produced by Colorfilm Laboratories of Australia for the Warner Bros movie, “Gremlins.” We were sent the negative and produced a quantity of prints Whose quality matched the finest in the world. We have also produced prints of films for U.I.P., Fox, Columbia, Disney and Thorn EMI. Col[...]itive too. So contact Murray Forrest now and get the Gremlins out of your system. Colorfilm[...] |
| [...]EBSE United States by Pat H. Broeske Last stop for two problem pictures Moviegoers in and around Sa[...]ees; a famous zoo and an aquarium — will decide the eventual fate of Where Are the Children? Based on a bestselling suspense novel by Mary Higgins Clark, the Columbia Pictures release will have four weeks of[...]release — if any — will follow. Problems with the film, which deals with a possible child murderer who may also, it is implied, be a child molester, could stem from the fact that Coca—Cola, which owns Columbia, does[...]such unsavoury subject matter. That, at any rate, is the claim of some of those involved with the production, including director Bruce Malmuth, who[...]version had too many allusions to child abuse by the Frederic Forrest character, who taunts Jill Clayb[...]. So Columbia did its version — “which wasn't the film we set out to do: it was diluted of all its impact," says Malmuth. He then did the tamer version (the one that will be test screened). Gone is a bathtub sequence in which a little girl bathes while Forrest, seated, plays with a rubber duck. The scene ends with a strong implication that Forrest gets in with her, after first holding out the duck and saying: “You're going to like Oscar." Also removed is a scene in which Forrest administers sleeping potions to the children with a hypo- dermic — “tastefully done," according to Malmuth. The director is still hoping for a national release: "What a filmmaker lives for," he says, “is to see his or 8 — March CINEMA PAPERS her film find an audience." By the looks of it, Big Trouble, also from Columbia, won't be doing that. The film re-unites the In-Laws team: Peter Falk, Alan Arkin and producer[...]urance salesman who turns to a life of crime with the help of a swindler (Falk), so as to be able to send his three kids to Yale. Directed by John Cassavetes in the summer of 1984, Big Trouble was to be released in the spring of Jill Clayburgh as the frantic mother in Where are the Children?, which has still to clear the hurdle of San Diego. 1985. Then it was the summer. When the film finally failed to show up on the fall schedule, the studio spokesman remained reassuring: “lt’s g[...]ust that we're not sure when. But probably before the end of the year.” But, aside from a disastrous test scree[...]ed it — San Diego, Big Trouble never made it to the big screen in 1985. According to Columbia marketing vice-president Bob Dingilian, it has since vanished from the studio's roster. "All the elements seemed so right," said Dingilian diploma[...]an be such a delicate matter . . Hopefully, all the elements will be right — that is, releasable ~ in the major productions now before the cameras. Miami Vice’s Michael Mann is directing Red Dragon at Dino De Laurentiis’s No[...]tars as a famed forensic pathologist called in by the FBI to track down a serial killer who murders entire families beneath the full moon's light, and who calls himself ‘the Red Dragon‘. Mann is also producing Band of before the shelf: San Diego try-outs the Hand, now shooting for Tri-Star in Miami. Directed by Paul Michael Glase[...]red), and has since done a couple of Miami Vices, the film is about a group of hard-core juvenile delinquents who are put through a life-or-death survival course in the Everglades, before being dis- patched onto the mean, drug-ridden streets of Miami. Now filming[...]viously teamed in Elvis, Escape from New York and The Thing. Fox tabs it "a mystical action-adventure—comedy-kung fu- monster-ghost story", about the imaginary world beneath Chinatown that is inhabited by ghosts. W.D. Richter scripted. Meanwhile, out in Splcewood, Texas, Willie Nelson is being directed by William Witliff (co-writer and[...]ger. Nelson co- produces — appropriately, since the film is based on his 1975 concept album about fictional p[...]ian Shay, who moved to Montana with his family in the eighteen- seventies. The tale of love, loss, revenge and salvation co-stars Morgan Fairchild and Katharine Ross. The film is being independently financed, largely through Nel[...]g — and coming — aboard Jumpin’ Jack Flash, the Fox film starring Whoopi Goldberg, which is currently shooting in LA. Looking through the names — ten to date 4 who've been through the project, one local scribe has called the film “the greatest boon to writers since the residual”. Among them: Charles Shyer and Nancy Myers (the originals), David Franzoni, Diane Hammond, M.J. Milworth, Richard Price and Steven De Souza. Penny Marshall is directing (she took over from Howard Zieff, who left in November because of “creative differences”). The story is about a secretary (Goldberg), who gets caught up in international intrigue. The seasonal story at the box office is about the near neck-to-neck battle between the prestigious and- of—year entries, Sydney Pol|ack’s Out of Africa and Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, both reviewed in this issue. Pollack's film claimed grosses, as of the first weekend in January, of more than $26 million. Spielberg's film, which is on fewer screens. had ticket sales of $13.9 milli[...]ike Us, which grossed $43.7 million, and Jewel of the Nile, with $39.7 million. And there appears to be no stopping the Italian stallion: grosses for Rocky IV, as of the same date, were a bell-ringing $101.5 millionnk by Belinda Meares Uproar as private TV falls to the Italians, while Cannon moves in almost unnoticed. Readers may have heard that France is at last taking the plunge and going in for private television. Committed to Iiberalizing the air waves since its election in 1981, the socialist government has, in doing so, stirred up[...]sponsorship. This long-awaited announcement sent the French and European audio- visual communities int[...]s were designed, and financial backers solicited. The race was on to get the new channels on the air by Christmas, a comfortable few months before the 17 March legis- lative elections (which the socialists are likely to lose). Prime candidates for the two national channels were Europe 1, a partially[...]n Luxembourgeoise), a peripheral TV station which is received in north- eastern France. As the autumn advanced, however, it became obvious that the dual-channel scheme was impractical. The frequency distribution envis- agedbyTDF(TelediffusiondeFrance) — 17,000,000 and 19,000,000 households for the respective channels — was obviously too One man is now clearly emerging as Germany's most successful[...]Eichinger of Neue Constantin. He was producer of the box-office hit, Christiane F. — wir Kinder vorn Bahnhof Zoo (Christiane F) and Das Boot (The Boat), both released in 1981, not to mention the most expensive German film ever, The Never- ending Story (1984). Eichinger’s latest[...]46 million marks ($27 million) has been earmarked for the filming of Umberto Eco‘s bestseller, The Name of the Rose. And there are stars in abundance: Sean Connery is playing the lead role of Brother William, with F. Murray Abraham as his adversary. Filming, under the direction of Jean-Jacques Annaud, has been under way since November in the monasteries at Eberbach and Maulbronn. Exteriors were filmed in Italy in January, and the world premiere is scheduled for October 1986. Eichinger’s erstwhile collaborator, Wolfgang Petersen, was on hand for the massive media spectacle of the December premiere of his Enemy |
| limited to attract the advertising funds necessary to finance a private channel, and the competition began to fall away. Europe 1 pulled o[...]n to believe an out- sider was about to appear on the horizon. The rumour was confirmed towards the end of October, sending shudders through the French cinema fraternity. Silvio Berlusconi, king of spaghetti television and the so-called ‘assassin’ of the Italian cinema, was girding his loins to cross the Alps like his forebear, Hannibal. Associated with two of the wealthiest men in France, Jerome Seydoux (whose company controls the airline, UTA) and Christophe Riboud (younger member of the Schlumberger-Riboud dynasty), Berlusconi swept the pool: the concession for France's fifth tele- vision channel was his, as w[...]re television satellite, TDF1, which he leased in the same week as British media magnate Robert Maxwell. An immediate outcry against the decision condemned the govern- ment for its “gross favouritism". The film fraternity was up in arms about the lenient ‘cahier de charges’ (programme condit[...]ow an inordinate number of foreign programmes and the inter- ruption of films by commercials. The prominent opposition leader, Jacques Chirac, is also out to suppress the decision if he comes to power in March. TV baron or media bogeyman? Silvio Berlusconi, grabbing the French TV franchises. He will do this either by imposing prohibitive revised conditions on the “socialists' channel", or by privatizing one or more of the public channels to create direct competition. CTL, for its part, has lodged an appeal with the Conseil d’Etat against the arbitrary manner in which the concession was granted. Mitterand himself has wisely agreed to review the controversial ‘cahier de charges’. As for the alleged villain of the piece, Silvio Berlusconi has just completed a pub[...]is, during which he gallantly promised to respect the high (7) standards of French television. With all these upheavals in the television world, developments on the French cinema scene have attracted less of the limelight than usual. The arrival in France of Cannon Films, for instance, has passed almost unnoticed. Headed by[...]l of $US65 million, some of which will go towards the production of Godard's grandiose King Lear, starring, it is hoped, Woody Allen and Lee Marvin (the latter replacing the originally touted Marlon Brando). Parafrance, the ailing fourth French cinema circuit (after Gaumon[...]ister of Culture Jack Lang's efforts on behalf of the production/distribution business could not save the company, after a 100-million-franc loan had already been extended to Gaumont. The SOFlCAs (investment companies for cinema and audio- visual production —— see my column in the January issue) are looking Germany by Dieter Oss[...]big-budget run; Petersen in excelsis. Mine. With The Boat and The Neverending Story to his credit, Petersen is already Germany's most successful director. With Enemy Mine, he has directed the first wholly Hollywood production to be made at Munich's Bavaria Studios. To mark the occasion, 20th Century-Fo><’s Jean-Louis Rubin and vice president Joel Coler flew in for the premiere. in the meantime, another German director was making his[...]an Paul and his film, Sera possible el sur, about the South American singer, Mercedes Sosa, were invited to the Rio de Janeiro and Havana festivals, and received a personal greeting from from Fidel Castro at the latter. While Otto — der Film, a staple of this[...]over eight million admissions, to become not only the most success- ful film of 1985, but also the most successful German film ever, the same kinds of superlatives have been garnered by the book, Ganz unten, by Gunter Wallraff, a piece of investigative reporting about immigrant labour. A film of the same name will be seen for the first time at the Berlin Film Festival. As Germany awaits its first Boris Becker film - which, to be fair, is still nowhere to be seen — a film about another[...]n boxer Max Schmeling. Another famous native son is at the centre of Wurlitzer, oder die Erfindung der Gegenwart, which is about Rudolf Wurlitzer, inventor of the eponymous music machine — and about the Bavarian village of the same name. Thanks to the box-office phenomena of Otto, Rambo and Back to the Future, film business was no worse in Germany than last year. But the smaller distributors and the smaller cinemas have had to struggle to survive, and a few mergers have resulted: Neue good, however. Ten have been set up so far, promising to release about 400 million francs for 1986 production. Cinema attendances. on the other hand, are still depressed — about 12% down on this time last year, and 5% lower over the whole of 1985. Especially disturbing news for French producers is the fact that 3.3% of 1985’s releases scooped 32% of the audiences. It comes as welcome but slim comfort that the years top-grossing film was a local production, C[...]s et un coutfin, which has outdistanced Rambo and is still going strong. Foreign successes have been predictable, including Year of the Dragon. Silverado and The Goonies. On the art-house circuit, mention must be made of an eng[...]ras, and Wim Wenders's Tokyo-Ga. Tim Burstall’s The Naked Country —— known here as Le chatiment de la pierre magique (The Curse of the Magic Stone) has come and gone without a ripple. Production distractions: Marco Ferreri is to direct Christophe Lambert in his next film, wh[...]in a film by Jacques Doillon, with Michel Piccoli for a partner. Robert Enrico is shooting Zone rouge, a social drama starring Sabi[...]plays a boxer (a startlingly original idea!) But the most interesting prospect on the horizon is Passage du sauvage, by Danish director Henning Carlsen. The film, depicting the life of Paul Gauguin, will star Donald Suther- la[...]i. #- Constantin with Tobis in February; then the Filmverlag and Futura (see my January column); an[...]ere will almost certainly be more names to add to the list. Box-office leaders are the three films mentioned above: Otto — der Film, closely followed by Back to the Future and Rambo. In fourth place comes the German action Britain by Sheila Johnston Bond (the real one) to the rescue on the British movie scene Following my last column's cliff- hanger conclusions as to the fate of Goldcrest (still too soon to tell, though Revolution has opened in the US to uniformly bad reviews). British Film Year now proudly presents: the Travails of TESE, a further instalment in the thrill-packed adventure that is the British film industry. TESE (Thorn EMI Screen Enter- tainment) is one of the country's — indeed, the worlds — largest film companies, with assets including 106 cinemas (the ABC chain), a library of 2,000 films, a studio (E[...]ncing, production and distribu- tion operations. The company has been on the skids for some years now, in the wake of a series of box-office disasters, headed[...]Chief executive Gary Dartnall had managed to turn theThe acquisitions department put up a feeble performance last year, with purchases like Wild Geese II and The Holcroft Covenant. And the in—house production record has been disappointi[...]Connery, Eichinger (centre) and Annaud announcing The Name of the Rose. thriller, Schimanski — der Film, with Goetz George (which, like Otto, is a TV spin-off). Alan Parker’s Birdy has beaten[...]But Cocoon, Legend, Roland Emmerich’s Joey and the first three AlDS movies have all flopped.[...] |
| [...]with a kitty of £1 75 million ($367 million), at the disposal of a select pool of independent producer[...]ressive roster of talent, some observers welcomed the deal as signalling a new flexi- bility; others saw it as signalling a long-term plan for TESE to get out of film production. Then, last O[...]alize its business portfolio". This meant putting the entertainment division up for grabs, in order to concentrate on its multifariou[...]als, music and microchips. Over 30 bidders joined the rush, including the ubiquitous Rupert Murdoch and fellow Aussie Robert Holmes a Court. But the two front-runners, the Rank Organization and the omni- vorous Cannon Group, each of which already[...]ritain, were greeted with a storm of protest from the film industry. Faced with the un- welcome attentions of the Mono- polies Commission Golan and Globus withdrew. The field looked clear forthe eleventh hour, a knight in shining armour arrived from down under in the form of Australian tycoon Alan Bond. Bond, who p[...]t has still not opened commer- cially. Abandoning the doomsday tone of E la nave va (And the Ship Sails On), the director this time goes for broad comedy, telling the story of the reunion of two once-popular dancing partners call[...]lookalikes, from Marcel Proust to Bette Davis and the inevitable Marilyn Monroe. But exposing the networks’ vulgar taste and absurd programming (with echoes of Paddy Chayefsky's Net- work) is just one of the aims of Ginger e Fred. Fellini also manages to find several more serious things to say via the paradoxical hotch-potch of gargantuan commercials and live speeches by political and religious leaders. The deafening chaos that surrounds them does not stop Ginger and Fred from reviving their old steps for a magic moment — even if it is interrupted by a pro- tracted blackout! Giulietta[...]deo library to feed these outlets, and also hopes for a tie-up between Australian productions and Brita[...]chain. But one of Dartnal|’s first moves after the buy-out was to sell off a cinema. Some say that, with Cannon and Rank upping the ante, Dartnall had paid an excessive price — £110 million ($231 million) — for TESE, and may well be forced to sell off further assets to repay his loans. Meanwhile, however, the British production boom continues, with no signs yet of the prophesied crisis in film investment. Dance with a Stranger is a hard act to follow, but director Mike Newell is having a try with The Good Father, a black comedy starring Anthony Hopkins. More comedy of the post-holo- caust kind mushrooms in the shape of Whoops, Apocalypsel, blown up from the TV show, and When the Wind Blows, an animated feature based on Raymond[...]wo nice pensioners trying cluelessly to cope with the fall-out, armed only with the British govern- ment manual, Protect and Survive.[...]rom Austra- lian banks and insurance com- panies, The Second Victory is a romantic drama set in England and Austria in 19[...]ikely producer-director, Gerald Thomas, father of the Carry On comedies. One of the most intriguing of this perfectly displays her diminutive timidity, guided by the superlative Marcello Mastroianni as the anarchic Fred. The issues raised by the film obvi- ously concern the limitations that should be imposed, by a much- awaited law, on the current uncon- trolled state of television. But the film is not simply about the private net- works: Fellini makes no distinction between them and RAI: the arro- gance remains the same on both sides. And the political parties now in government are still pro[...]er their decision, thanks to any number of behind-the-scenes deals. They have even left their beloved RAI without a managing board. On the movie front, Cinecitta blooms again, thanks to in[...]ed by Johannes Schaaf and starring John Huston as the Time- keeper. There is also Jean-Jacques Annaud’s The Name of the Rose (see Dieter Osswa|d’s German column on page 9), produced at the Italian end by Franco Cristaldi, together with Neue Constantin of Munich and Les Films Ariane of Paris. For it, Fellini's art director, Dante Ferretti, has built a giant octagonal abbey near the Tiberina road. Elsewhere. two long-awaited pro- autumn’s crop could be The Whistle Blower, a conspiracy thriller set in the British government spy centre at Cheltenham, which has recently been the location for several controversial real-life scenarios. Based[...]Le Carre adaptation, Smiley’s People), it stars the indefatigable Michael Caine and Nigel Havers, as his son who works at the centre and is killed under mysterious circumstances. Box-office[...]ant, with new records set in London's West End at the beginning of November. Prizzi’s Honor and The Emerald Forest continue to make it a great year for Rank, in the wake of such other hits as Crimes of Passion and[...]red suc- cesses, and Plenty took plenty, too. Of the Christmas releases, Santa Claus, The Movie got slammed by reviewers across the board, but the Salkinds’ latest caped crusader, blanket-released for the Yuletide trade, has been sleighing them in the aisles up and down the country. TESE's Gary Dartnall. jects are finally starting. Francesco Rosi is looking for locations in various South American countries for his adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chroni[...]lo and Vittorio Taviani are scouting locations in the United States for their as yet untitled film (from a story by Tonin[...]nco Zeffirelli from completing his Otello in time for Cannes. Still eligible for competition are Marco Bel|ochio's erotic remake o[...]endola, con- ceived in two parallel versions (one for cinema, one for TV), and starring newcomer Massimo Ghini. The Christmas season did not bring much cheer to local movies, with Rambo, Goonies and Back to the Future easily annihilating our customary run of feeble comedies. Perhaps it is time the panic-stricken industry reacted more intelligently to the problems: rather than call for state protection, it might consider deflating a f[...]emas and a mixed crop of New Year movies During the past twelve months, Japan has seen a 10°/o increase in its cinemagoers. The increase took place mainly in the first few months of the year, with blockbuster New Year titles like Ghost[...]y Gremlins (US$16 million). This year's answer to the above, Back to the Future, Goonies and Cocoon, are doing similar business. The Kadokawa production house has been knocked from its top posi- tion by Fuji Television, one of the largest national networks. Fuji's biggest production success story last year was Biruma no tategoto (The Burmese Harp), Kon lchi- kawa’s remake, shot with exactly the same script as his 1956 version. The film has grossed $US15 million. Unfazed by poor box-office reaction in the US and Britain to his Kiwi comedy, Came a Hot Friday (which proved a boomer on the home market last August), producer Larry Parr has a full kit of product for his second appearance at the American Film Market. Foreign sales of four features from Parr’s Mirage Films will be handled by the New York-based Challenge Film Corporation, of which Parr is president and New York entertain- ment industry i[...]wnes, chairman. Fownes was executive producer on the action movie, Shaker Run, shot entirely in New. Z[...]f Garrett and Lisa Harrow. It proved a big seller for Parr at Cannes last year, and begins an eleven-print release throughout New Zealand on 24 January. The AFM will see the first market screenings of the Mirage youth film, Bridge to Nowhere, directed by[...]ckland city loca- tions in early December. Rocker is directed by Bruce Morrison (Con- stance, Shaker R[...]and (from London) Bill Gavin in Los Angeles, says the team will be "mopping up" Shaker Run sales, and continuing to plug Friday. Davis praises the profile achieved for the latter film by its British distri- butor, Miracle Films, in December, and reports that the great majority of reviews were “outstandingly good". “But no box was achieved," laments Davis, “which is the same story for all other New Zealand feature films released to date in Britain. So, no breakthrough." Upbeat newsjor the industry here is that director Geoff Murphy appears to have[...] |
| The increasing success of foreign films at the box office last year is also worth mentioning, During 1984, only six fore[...]ne hundred cinemas closed their doors up and down the country during the year, leaving a national total of 2,000, compared with over 8,000 operating during the fifties. The closures, however, were pre- dominantly in the rural areas, with the larger cities seeing an increase in fancy cinema complexes and small independent houses, The biggest event during 1985 was the first Tokyo International Film "Festival, with attendances during the week-long event hitting the 150,000 mark. And an Australian Cinema Week. held in September, financed by the Australian Pavilion at the Tsukuba Expo, and organized by Tokyo-based Goanna[...]Peter Weir's ten-year-old Picnic at Hanging Rock The release is scheduled for July. Local product playing" around Tokyo is currently a mixed batch, attempting to cater to as many potential cinemagoers as possible during the peak New Year season. Yari no Gonza (Gonza the Beautiful), directed by Mashiro Shinoda, who gave[...]tenno amijima (Double Suicide) sixteen years ago, is definitely one of the best. Once again, Shinoda bases his story on the work of famed playwright Chikamatsu. This time, the film is set in Osaka in 1717, during the Genroku Era, when the culture of the common people was flourishing, but the lives of the privil- eged samurai were ruled by a num- ber of taboos, including the strict condemnation of illicit love affairs. The film's two main characters, Osai, the wife of an official tea cere- mony administrator, and Gonza, a handsome young student of the ceremony, are mistakenly accused of having an affair. Left with the choice of flight or ‘magataki-uchi', a custom whereby the husband kills both his wife and her supposed lover, they settle for the latter. But Osai figures that, now she has nothing to lose, she'll make the most of Gonza’s company. From two relatively n[...]s — Juzo ltami, who last year gave us Ososhiki (The Funeral: see New Zealand by Mike Nicolaidi Parr comes on strong at the American Film Market; Murphy returns, announces p[...]him away. After many months working on a project for Fox, with the tentative title of Hunter, Murphy is back. He recently received development finance from the New Zealand Film Commission for a new feature, with Angel of Death as its working[...]tul), Murphy has set up Tikanga Productions, with the duo proposing two features: the aforementioned Angel of Death and (another workin[...]In keeping with earlier films by both directors, the projects deal with the evolution of New Zealand, and the conflict between its colonial origins and the struggle to rise above them. Mauri is set in the sixties, and will be “intensely Maori" in conception and perspective. Angel, set in the eighteen-eighties, while predominantly Maori in c[...]al terms can become injustice in human terms. If the first Tikanga production goes in front of the cameras later this year, it will deepen the proven com- mitment of many of New Zealand’s be[...]award-winning novelist Soseki Natsume and set in the Meiji Era, when the west was beginning to take a firm hold on the life of the east, is a romance that falls rather flat, and is well short of the expectations it had generated, despite an excelle[...]th stars Alison Routledge and Bruno Law- rence in the Larry Parr/Ian Mune production, Bridge to Nowhere. January, Pacific Films, in association with the NZFC, started shooting Ngati on east-coast North Island locations. Set in the late forties, it tells of the friendship between two Maori boys and three families, two of them Maori, one pakeha, in a rural com- munity. The personal discoveries made by the central characters. will show the strength of the traditional lifestyles reinforced by the threaten- ing social events of the time. Ngati is the fourth in a line of new features that have begun[...]y Don Reynolds’s Auckland-based Cinepro make up the total: Monica, directed by Richard Riddiford; and[...]llar New Zealand-Canadian co- production based on the sinking of the Greenpeace ship, ‘Rainbow Warrior’, in Auckland harbour. The partners, Phillips Whitehouse Pro- ductions and F[...]to start work on his new feature, work- ing title The Navigator, on South Island mountain locations in mid- year. March-April is the possible start date for another Reynolds production, Illustrious Energy, directed by Leon Narbey. by Leon Narbey. The animated feature film, Foot- rot Flats, based on the Murray Bell cartoon strip, is due for completion and release at Christmas. A cool $NZ5[...]Matsua in Sorekara (And then . . .). meets and, for some inexplicable reason, is pursued by big, bad yakuza gangsters. An absurd p[...]ween reality and fantasy make this grim viewing. The bag of foreign product is equally mixed and, as with the local fare, it is just a matter of time before the usual post-New Year splatter and bash is with us again. Richard Attenboroughs A Chorus Line is doing very good business, as is Dance with a Stranger. And two Australian directo[...]ited Frances. 4 was snapped up in ten days, when the producers sought financial input from the public last year. Christmas and New Year summer holiday box-office winners this side of the Tasman have been Rocky IV, A View to a Kill, The Goonies, Cocoon and the Australian-made real-life adventure, World Safari[...]cation also had a strong impact, but Santa Claus, The Movie fell off sharply after opening well, Shaker Run and Murphy's The Quiet Earth, which has a big (for New Zealand) sixteen-print release in mid-February, are expected to pick up the slick pace set for locally-made features by Came a Hot Friday. The most significant event in broadcasting pre-Christmas (apart from the long-running Royal Com- mission, and the third television channel warrant hearings) was the appointment of ‘foreigners’ to two of the industry’s most powerful positions. Nigel Dick[...]ictoria, succeeds Ian Cross as chief executive of the Broadcasting Cor- poration of New Zealand. As dir[...]announced a strong package of drama produc- tion for the new year, which includes a miniseries based on the crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 into Mt Erebus in Antarctica in 1979. Also to be made is a series entitled Fire Raiser, to be produ[...] |
| The 1985 London Film Festival was an enormous popular success, smashing all previous box-office records for the event and, not incidentally, fuelling a row within the British Film Institute over who will run next year's festival. Until 1983, the event was directed by Ken Wlaschin, who was head of programming at the National Film Theatre, where the festival is centred. His successor is Sheila Whitaker, formerly of the Tyneside Film Theatre. who was told she would be in charge of LFF programming for 1985. Meanwhile, Derek Malcolm, film critic of The Guardian, was brought in to programme the 1984 festival, and did so to such good effect that he was invited to do it again in 1985. His broad-ranging approach, mixing the esoteric and the commercial, Third World cinema with production from east and west, and the policy of extending to other London venues, away from the South Bank, produced immediate results. Attendances have doubled, and the LFF‘s prestige has grown considerably in his tw[...]given a further promise that she would take over the festival in 1986, the BFI board was in a quandary. Audiences during the year at the NFT had slipped below the 51% break-even point, and the building of the new Museum of the Moving Image nearby was taking up time and staff resources. Should she be Squabbles at the top, but a bum on (almost) every seat London Fil[...]ice proves successful again After much behind-the-scenes tension, the Chairman of the BFI, Sir Richard Attenborough, arranged a comprom[...]ed festival director, and Whitaker has been given the title of ‘Executive Director‘. Malcolm has al[...]nue) that she will not interfere in programming. The festival itself provided more orthodox excitement on the screen, opening with Kurosawa‘s epic, Ran, and closing with Michael Cimino’s Year of the Dragon. in between came such American-produced blockbusters as Spielberg's Goonies and Back to the Future, directed by Richard Donner and Robert Zemeckis respectively, and the adaptation of David Hare’s stage play, Plenty,[...]Fireworks and films in Andra Pradesh Filmotsav, the alternating, non-com- petitive twin of the New Delhi Inter- national Film Festival (see Cine[...]6 location. it was an approp- riate choice, since the capital of Andra Pradesh is the most prolific regional producer of films (170 features last year) and the city with the largest number of cinemas in the Country. The festival literally took off with a bang at a glit[...]dances and a spectacular display of fireworks in the newly- constructed open-air auditorium. The only dampener on the evening was the choice of opening film, a small-scale Canadian pr[...]selected because that's how long it took to build the auditorium complex. Of the six sections on the pro- gramme, the Main international Section, though a highlight for local delegates and the public because of its glut of foreign films, offe[...]repertoire. A numerical domination of films from the UK and the US was evident, though Australia’s entry, My First Wife, generated considerable interest, accentuated by the presence of Paul Cox, one of the few foreign feature directors to attend. The Indian Panorama, a showcase of the 21 best Indian films of the previous year, is always a key 12 — March CINEMA PAPERS event for foreign delegates. For the local industry, too, since selection means wide exposure, the oppor- tunity to get invited to foreign festivals, distribution, and free sub- titling provided by the National Film Development Corporation. It opened with a Telugu film from Andra Pradesh, Mayuri, the true story of a dancer who overcomes family objec[...]ical handicap to pursue her chosen career. Though the year generally produced a mediocre crop, a few fi[...]out trade unionism; and political manipulation of the media, in Accident and New Delhi Times. Exploration of relationships, especially those outside the traditionally prescribed patterns, forms the thematic context for several other fine films: Benega|'s Trikal, set amidst thethe large selection of American productions, there were some fine surprises on the independent side. Among them was Volker Schlon- dorff's translation of the superb Broadway production of Death of a Salesman[...]neither as imaginative as A|tman’s Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmie Dean, Jimmie Dean, nor as stodgy as a filmed play, but the acting was magnificent. Another surprise was Henry Jaglom‘s Always, a comedy based on the break-up of his own marriage, with the director and his former wife, Patrice Townsend, taking the main roles as a couple who arrange a special divorce dinner. Wise, witty, sad and funny, it is Jaglom‘s best film yet. Elsewhere, four Australian movies featured in the programme, Ray Lawrence's Bliss looked better for the re-editing and shortening it got since it was shown in Cannes, and was the pick of the down-under presentation, which also included Stephen Wallace's decorative, over- wrought The Boy Who Had Every- thing, Bob Ellis's undoubtedly[...]ke‘s Half Life. There was even more variety in the New Zealand selection, though, starting with Bruc[...]th a too-seldom- seen Cliff Robertson back in in the glow of attention accorded the above sections, the Documedia programme suffered from some neglect. This was a pity, since the organizers — the Film Societies of India — had gone to a lot of trouble to assemble a very interesting pro- gramme. The Third World Women’s Pro- gramme, introduced for the first time this year, had no trouble attracting media interest and controversy, par- ticularly regarding the choice of films. Aimed at continuing the dialogue established at the Nairobi Women’s Conference, which marked the end of the Decade of Women, its focus was on the role of film for the’women of Asia, Africa, Latin America and other emerging countries, where women’s struggles for identity are greater, especially as regards break[...]rs on Film and Technology, and a great deal more. The hospitality in Hyderabad was very impressive: a city that is, by Indian standards, quite drab turned on an amazing display of welcome, the organization was generally efficient, and the lack of affectation of the Indian filmmakers striking. Although Filmotsav '86 may not rate high in the hierarchy of world festivals, it is certainly a worthwhile event. Mary Colbert business), Geoff Murphy's The Quiet Earth, Barry Barclay’s absorbing documentary on world plant resources, The Neglected Miracle, and John Reid's study of Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry, Leave All Fair. The sizeable British collection ranged over film and television, with most interest focussing on Defence of the Realm, an exceptionally good political thriller. Directed by David Drury and b[...]certain to thrust Irish actor Gabriel Byrne into the big time. He and the always reliable Denholm Elliott are marvel- lousl[...]fumo-like scandal. And Peter Greenaway, who made The Draughtsman’s Contract, came up with another au[...]some serious fun with Darwinism and evolution in the setting of a modern zoo. All that is just the surface, however: the festival contained over 160 films, and aimed at both general and specialized audiences. The festival director, Derek Malcolm, conceded that the event might have been too large by, perhaps, a do[...]few would argue with its success. Thus, provided the Atten- borough truce holds up, the next festival should be programmed along very much the same lines as this one. Ray Comiskey[...] |
| - . -'.- -. 4Is._ -‘. I - The opening of the Seventh Festival of Latin American Cinema in Hava[...]a lines of musicians and dancers throbbed through the crowds gathered on the rolling lawns of the gloriously faded Nacional Hotel. Fifteen days later, Fidel Castro brought down the final curtain on the festival with a rousing discourse that exhalted the establishment of a new Latin American cinema in the face of US cultural dominance. The role of video was given particular promin- ence when Castro announced that, in future, the festival would be called the international Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Television and Video. The intervening two weeks, from 2-16 December, saw ov[...]- ous sessions in eight cinemas scattered through the city. Over 1000 participants from 40 countries took part in the festival, twice as many as last year and extended — at Castro's insistence — to double the length of time, thereby sharpen- ing Cuba's profile as the rising centre of Latin American culture. Sealing the festival with the Holly- wood imprimatur were a gaggle of celluloid[...]resenting his 1982 feature, Missing. Speaking to the press at a meet- ing with young Cuban artists, de[...]n starring in a Cuban Film institute production, For the second successive year, the ‘Film nouveau’ festival was held in five Aust[...]ber and December, at a time usually dominated by the summer block- buster and the general Christmas wind-down. Drawing large audi- ences, it offered, according to the programme, "a selection of high quality features from the best that contemporary French cinema has to offer”. A non-competitive event, it is also aimed at finding local distri- butors for its films. The widespread disappointment felt at the films screened this year is probably a reflection both of the cur- rent state of French cinema and of the conflict of interests inherent in the festlva|’s own purpose. Last year, France produced 160 features. And, plainly stated, the twelve films screened presented a clearer picture of a certain midd|e-of- the-road filmgoing audience than they did of a prodigious film culture. The range was broad, but most of the films, though technically com- petent, were bland and ordinary exercises in filmmaking. The festival opened with Rouge baiser, directed by Ve[...]at started off as a potentially worthwhile story (the daughter of poor Jewish emigrants growing up in the fifties under the influence of communism, American movies and the poet Apollinaire) evaporated into a fluffy, Dynasty-like love story — a role for which the lead actress, supposedly a fifteen-year-old, bega[...]stro — and Hollywood — give a major boost to the Havana Festival’s profile and word has it that[...]omas Gutierrez Alea has discussed a production of The Tempest with him. So, while the Reagan administration continues the blockade of Cuba, the boys from Tinsel Town are building the cultural bridges. While the Hollywood stars were a prize catch, none of the prominent features were making their premieres. The joint winners of the Grand Coral First Prize for Fiction have both been acclaimed at recent European festivals. They were the sumptuous Frida: Naturaleza Vita directed by the Mexican, Paul Leduc, and the mysterious Tangos — L’Exil De Gardel (Tangos[...]rgentinian Fernando Solanas. More impressive was the pre- dominance of over 200 film and video documen[...]ng a gamut of issues pressuring Latin America and the Caribbean. Mostly stark and brutal in their messages, they covered the foreign debt crisis, the repression in Chile, and new democratic openings in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The dominant thread through several documentaries was[...]Libertacao (Church of Liberation), examining the way in which the Catholic church has been one of the rare spaces in which opposition movements have found shelter during the 20 years of military dictatorship in Brazil. As the country reverts to democracy, the church must redefine its role in Brazilian society amid pressures from the community and con- demnation from the Vatican. Particularly poignant was Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo, made by two women from the United States calling themselves Cine Chicano (Susann Munoz and Lourdes Porfillo). Beautifully crafted, the film built a quiet sense of outrage as mother after mother detailed the impotent rage they suffered at having their children ‘disappeared’ The real face of French cinema Film nouveau steers firmly down the middle of the road Lambert Wilson, supposedly French cinema’[...]throb, was seen both in this and in Rende/z-vous, for which Andre Techine won the award for Best Director at Cannes last year. The film's real prize, though, should belong to lead actress Juliette Binoche in the role of Nina, a young girl who is both lauded and tor- mented by three men who mark her path to independence and a career in the theatre. Though it was pervaded by a haunting atmosphere, the fi|m’s handling of its narrative material was less assured, ranging from the inept — in the case of the dead actor, Quentin (Wilson), who literally haunts Nina — to the unconvincing (the appearance of Scrutzler [Jean-Louis Trintignant] more than half-way through the film). It was as if wewere expected to believe more than the filmmaker was actually willing to show or tell.[...]er and present girlfriend, so as to test her love for him. Acted with fist- clenching hysteria, stylish[...]cent of early Fassbinder. it was also very wordy, for which the subtitles were in- adequate. But, if for no other reason, it was worth seeing through for the editing and jump cuts in the final scenes. The other Karmitz-produced film was No Man’s Land. Written and directed by Alain Tanner, it was the official Swiss entry at the 1985 Venice festival, and its title refers to the physical and psychological situa- tion of four smugglers on the French border, each of whom dreams of being somewhere else. That much the film made clear early; for the rest, it plodded to its in- evitable conclusion.[...]y watchable — Bernard Zitzerman’s photography is superb — the film should have been more than it was. Tanner’[...]r, was sadly missing from its execution. Finally, the image and metaphor of the title was too slight to bear, andtperhaps under the former junta in Argentina. Another highlight of the festival was the week of Cuban film screen- ings and the film market, MECLA. Cuba turns out up to ten feat[...]a) attracted a lot of foreign buyers‘ interest. The Cubans claimed to have secured up to $US200,000 i[...]hile insiders claimed that market business was in the $US1-million range — with brisk trading on stan[...]l, Colombia, Venezuela, Britain and Africa — it is predicted that MECLA will become the Latin American market. Dasha Ross The church looks to the future: Leonardo Boff in Silvio Da-Rin’s lgreja[...]ao (Church of Liberation). .- /H‘/‘I’ the most lasting and poignant image was that of Jean (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey), the young, cow-herd, scurrying away on his bicycle.[...]satiric humour, and by Jean Poiret’s playing of the cop. The ‘poulet’ of the film's title is both a chicken dish and slang for police- man. For the rest, the films ranged from the noteworthy to the awful. L’amour en douce (Edouard Molin- arc) an[...]ked every frame a last- minute substitute, though the very act of screening a film as cheap and inept a[...]as Paroles et musique (Elie Chour_aqui), in which the talents of Catherine Deneuve were entirely wasted[...]h a rock singer whose music would bring a tear to the eye of even the most hardened Lionel Flitchie fan. Paul K[...] |
| [...]e had got her first feature, Australian Dream, in the can — or rather, had just watched its “birth and delivery" at a screening of the final mix. It may be her first feature, but Mc- Kimmie is no stranger to writing drama. She wrote plays in[...]ney University, and later specialized in drama at the West Australian Institute of Technology. She was already interested in film, but "just missed the boat": the course was introduced during her final year of study there. But the encounter was inevitable; and, when she began tea[...]uper-8 with her students. Enthusiasm ran high: at the alter- native school in Queensland where she taught, she and her charges even held dances to raise funds for their activities. Her real screen debut came in[...]d written was converted into a telemovie, Madness for Two, and shown on SBS. From that experi- ence, Mc[...]n Stations, starring Noni Hazle- hurst, which won the Greater Union Award for Best Short Film in 1983, she did just that: she wrote, pro- duced and directed. Set in the fifties, the film is based on a short story she had written about a gi[...]less wrote itself, because I stayed very close to the original.” She admits that the film was a turning point. And, through it, she wa[...]e; equal first in Florence); locally, it received the rare privilege (for a short) of a commercial release, backing up Careful, He Might Hear You. Buoyed up by the success, Mc- Kimmie aspired to write a longer pie[...]Dream was first submitted as a 50-minute drama to the Australian Film Commission's Creative Development[...]rs Flon Blair and James Ricketson (who appears in the film as an Orangeperson). She began the script in March 1983 and took it through seven dr[...]completed in August 1985, just prior to shooting. The $600,000 budget was provided under 10BA by the Queensland Film Corporation, with an AFC distribu[...]uips Mc- Kimmie. “And I have learned to work on the phone a lot! “The film is actually a bit of a family affair," she continues. “I wrote the script, co-produced it with Sue Wild, did all the casting, and directed. I needed to control the vision: talk about the auteur theory!" She laughs. "The title evolved from a song written by my husband, Chris, who wrote many of the lyrics and per- formed them with his band, The Lamingtons (now no longer together). He's an art[...]and clapper-loader. No wonder we could manage on the budget . . .! “Australian Dream integrates the reality and fantasy of suburban life in middle-cl[...]x- plains McKimmie. “Nonl plays Dorothy Stubbs, the unfulfilled but highly imaginative wife of Geoffrey (Graeme Blundell), who is Butcher of the Year. He is a man of consider- able political aspirations, just as she is a woman of considerable romantic inclinations. Sh[...]tic and erotic fantasy around their relationship. The film is very much about realizing one’s fan- tasies, with the characters’ expecta- tions reversed. It particu[...]an happen to a woman in this situation. "Much of the comedy is created by the fantasies, especially Dorothy’s erotic and roma[...]ills and Boonish. Noni and I really indulged. “The part was written with her in mind from the second draft on and, along the way, included numerous exchanges with her. She re[...]lems, working on her first feature? “Prob- ably the main challenge was the time factor: directing the four-week shoot and bringing it in on time. My only regret is that we didn't have another week. It was a matter of thinking on your feet all the time. Apart from the leads, for instance, there was no rehearsal time for the other actors. Two weeks of the shoot were nights, and we were working fourteen t[...]etimes we were getting seven minutes a day, which is remarkable. Yet we didn't compromise on quality.[...]out future projects. “Yes. there are several on the boil; but nothing definite yet." And what about s[...]wn? "These are superficial," she says. "It really is quite a different type of film. You'll see!” M[...]ar Colin Friels, actor If an actor's enthusiasm for a script and enjoyment of a shoot is an accurate measure of the quality of the finished product, Colin Frie|s‘s two recent fil[...]1981 debut in Hoodwink, Friels asserts that only the work on Mal- colm and Kangaroo have shown him tha[...]cause I didn't care: it's just that I didn't have the ability at the time, or I didn't understand what was actually required." For admirers of his performances in Monkey Grip (1982) and the spirited Buddies (1984), and for those who discerned that he, alone, may have emerged from the mire of Coolangatta Gold (1984) with some dignit[...]self exacting personal standards and respects the rigours and responsibilities that his craft deman[...]commitment, sustained concentration and a passion for the present project, he talks with animation about the comedy Malcolm and appears totally im- mersed in the pleasures of making Kangaroo (which is, at the time, in its final days of shooting in Mel- bourne). The adaptation of D.H. Law- rence's Australia-based n[...]bout drama — what interests any- one, I guess Y is the interaction of the characters. And, in Kangaroo, the characters are fantastic. It's great for an actor, because there is so much for everyone to get their teeth into.” Frie|s’s admiration for the script is apparent when he dis- cusses the difficulty of adapting the 425-page novel, written in a six- week burst when Lawrence visited Australia in the early twenties. “For Lawrence, a novel was an adven- ture of the unconscious. He wrote like spurts of lightning and there is nothing ordered about it. His mind was like a sponge." Among the other actors enjoying what appears to have been an extremely amiable shoot is Frie|s’s wife, Judy Davis, who is playing Somers‘s wife,‘ Harriet. The couple have workedtogether in the theatre and, though they had not actively |
| [...]sought a film to do together, Kanga- roo provided the perfect oppor- tunity. "lt’s been great, workin[...]enthuses. Given his previous screen roles — as the less-than-magnificent but highly charismatic obsession in Monkey Grip, the rumbustious miner in Buddies and the aspiring Iron Man in Coolangatta Gold — Friels[...]exude a restlessness and volatility that has been the foundation of Friels's con- siderable screen presence. By con- trast, Somers is described in the novel as “a queer little man” and could be seen as a significant depar- ture from the established mould for the actor. It is a variation that is consolidated by the title role in Malcolm. "Mal- colm isfor the tramways, builds his own tram and gets the sack. So he takes in two boarders — played by J[...]useless, but they work well as a team.” Though the two films differ con- siderably in period, style and sub- ject, Friels regards both as valuable, and is equally admiring of the two directors — Nadia Tass, making her debut with Malcolm and veteran Tim Burstall. “There's no ‘This is my film, you'll do it my way‘. They share.‘[...]lowing graduation in 1976, spent three years with the State Theatre Company of South Australia. In 1979, he moved to Sydney and worked with the Nimrod and the Sydney Theatre Company. And he is returning to the stage early in 1986, to co—star with Lauren Bacall in Sweet Bird of Youth. "Film is totally different to theatre," he explains. "You[...]gradually over five or six weeks — or whatever the rehearsal period is — and you work through a performance. It's a to[...]your job to take an audience through a story, but the process is completely different.” Friels repeatedly stresses that act- ing is a job, and one that requires a measure of perspective. “People put shit on me for doing Coolan- gatta Gold and that's fine: they're[...]work- ing since I left NIDA because, poss- ibly, the more you work, the better you get. You develop your taste, but you need to keep your work in per- spective. I mean, the world will keep going if I don't do Kangaroo or S[...]k Thompson, actor and director Jack Thompson and the Aussie film boom go almost hand in hand. That distinctive stride, that fierce gaze and the surprising gentleness which is often just beneath the surface have become a kind of Australian emblem. So, too, has the man. Born in 1940, Thompson first hit the big time in the 1971-72 TV season, with Spyforce. But 1972 was also the year of the Cleo centrefold, and his private life was rarely just that. Though he had been in movies for a couple of years by the time of Spy- force (as, for instance, that memor- ably unpleasant inhabitant of the Yabba, Dick, in Wake in Fright in 1971), it was P[...]le, too, since all three films did well overseas. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), Breaker Morant (1980) and The Man from Snowy River (1982) consolidated the position. As his face has become better known, however, the other bits of his anatomy have been less on show, and the public profile has become more a matter of reputa[...]at difficult transi- tion from star to actor, and the eighties have seen him go truly inter- national.[...]Christmas, Mr Lawrence (1983), in which he plays the manic army officer, Hicksley; and Paul Verhoeven’s Flesh and Blood (1985), in which he is the equally strange Sir John Hawk- wood, an actual sixteenth-century soldier of fortune who, in the film, retires from the battlefield to cultivate his veges and look after[...]you have a trio of manic individuals with whom it is initially hard to associate the affable, disgustingly tanned persona of the actor himself. Nevertheless, it has been that manic quality — the "crazy bugger" aspect, as he puts it — that has attracted him to the parts. “Those are the sorts of roles I find fascinating — difficult, but fascina- ting, in the same way I found the character of Stan Graham in Bad Blood fascinating[...]ra- dictory qualities in them. Burke's craziness, for instance, is the sort that Sir Edmund Hillary must have had — Co[...]ace at a time when no one knew anything about it. The parallel I make with Burke is: What if those men who went to the other side of the moon came back and discovered the shuttle wasn't there?” The approach to Hicksley in Mr Lawrence — Thompson[...]ts and dilapidated tennis shoes — was very much the actor's decision. Oshima, renowned for setting up the camera and letting things happen, would only comm[...]on san decided to play it like that." “I think the script demanded it," says Thompson. “What the man did, what he said, how he behaved, seemed to me, in my experience of human beings and my experience of the army" (in which he spent six years) “to be only explicable in that way. He's a man on the edge, and he's holding on to his human dignity as hard as he damn well can. Those are the characters that are interest- ing to play. They'r[...]en- sionalz people are not simply crazy." But it is the dignity that has re- curred most often, particularly dig- nity in the context of failure. ‘'I think that is something we share with other new-world and frontier societies. There’s bound to be a lot of failure, but the real quality that's admired is the ability, under the most awful circumstances, to maintain human digni[...]set out and don't come back. Because, if you do, the entire society collapses." Interviewed in Cinema[...]he had never considered anyone else but Thompson for the role of Burke, presumably because of his ability[...]lifford didn't say was how he got him. '‘It was the year before last," says Thompson, “and I'd just[...]about doing a film that never happened. I was in the lounge at LA airport, and Graeme came up to me an[...]ustralia very largely to see you: I have a script for you’. I read the script on the plane and said almost immedi- ately I wanted to do it. “Graeme made the making of the film an absolute delight: I have never enjoyed making a film more. It was just celebratory: every member of the crew seemed aware that we were involved in someth[...]very personal experience." Thompson doesn't feel the same way about Flesh and Blood. “I found that probably the worst film- making experience of my life," he says. “It was a polyglot crew, the weather was awful, and there isn't one scene in the film where anybody is having fun! In Burke & Wills, for all the story of the trail across the desert, there is also Burke's delicious love affair, and the sense of fun at Coopers Creek when they play cricket. Right up to the last minute, at least they think they're going to do it, whereas Verhoeven’s film is relentlessly morbid." Thompson's next project is far from morbid. It is a $2.5-million mini- series, Joe Wilson, for Filmat and Channel Seven, which will mark his deb[...]our first job as a director if you've come out of the Film and Television School. People in the business are inclined to think that every actor wants to direct, and every actor, when he's been around for a while, thinks he can! But l’ve always wanted[...]ome stage before I came Into films, so I leapt at the offer when Ray Beattie asked me." Is he apprehensive? “I'm apprehensive about how we[...]y Keith Dewhurst — in mid-January, and shooting is scheduled to start in and around Mudgee and Gulgo[...]week shoot," says Thomp- son, “then there's all the post-pro- duction, so I'm tied up from now until[...]how demanding and totally pre-occupying directing is . . . and just how much less money you get[...] |
| THE STUNT AGENCY 1986 CURRENT PROJECTS 6 FEA[...] |
| “Anybody:fcan do a stunt once . , . This is the story of a stunt: It was done , at dusk in a Sydn[...]far executed in Australia, it set a world record for a jump by a truck (162 feet), and it ended ' well. That last bit is important-. This is not one of those stories about a charis- matic da[...]age two, hits a brick wall and endsup’ spending the rest of his life in ‘a wheel- chair. Indeed, the fact that this story does end well makes its about more than just this stunt: it is about the coming-of-age of ‘ the Australian stunt‘ industry, which is by now the equal of any in the world, not just in truck'- jumping, but in fire-g[...]me stunt, in car stunt safety harnesses. Gone are the days of per- suading drunken hoons to fall off a O _ horse, a building or a train for ten ""’ bucks and; case of Four X. In the mid-eighties,stunts are an integral rt of the movie business. They have t ir own science and th[...]ionals. One of them, 25-year- old Guy Norris, did the stunt in this I’ - story. Norris is very successful: you can tell that by the BMW he drives (not new BMW,/it is true, but a BMW all the same). He also works a lot — his credits include Mad Max 2 (in which he doubled for Mel Gibson), BMX Bandits, Bliss and War Story — and, watching the stunt in this story, you can see why. The stunt was f,9_i;Dead;End Drive- .. In, it was pla[...]and almost everything in it was custom- built. It is the climax of the picture, in which the hero, played by Ned Lander, ' crashes out to fre[...]oup of other unemployed youths, has spent most of the film. Lander comandeers a police truck and, thanks to _a low-loader which the authorities have been using to unload cars, leaps over the box office, through the neon sign that says ‘Star Drive-In’, lands outside the com- . a pound and heads for the ‘hills. This, in -. .ei ce, is exactly what Guy Norris es 00. But he doesn’t head for the t the end: the specially built, ‘ reinforced Ford truck has .0[...]one has ’ tie, and hits of it are” rmafc from the boxfi “as finally come to;[...]\ ‘ yruclé, running at - ‘ nd (four .times the i ‘ ‘,a'"s'lo?w,-.nio_tion:§% - <one., running at 36 g"- » which pans with the is ._t.'goes up the ramp; one on b no o. clueivik PA-ba[...] |
| the neon sign, running at 120 f.p.s., to capture the moment when theis a must on most stunts -— close to where the truck is expected to land. In rushes next day, it looks terrific. Even the shots of Lander pretending to drive the truck are nail-biting stuff. Originally, though, the break-out at the end of the film was to have been rather less dramatic. “Ned was just going to burst through the gates,” says Norris. “It was Larry Eastwood, the production designer, who actually came up with the idea of him bursting out over the top. He’d built this incred- ible box office an[...]and they were just sitting there. We dis- cussed the jump one morning and he said, ‘Is it possible?’ I said, ‘Give me a week and I’ll tell you’.” The first thing Norris did was ring the States and talk to two American stuntman friends, Kerry Rossal and Mickey Gilberts, who is second-unit director on The Fall Guy. “What’s the go?” he asked. “What do you suggest?” Gilberts phoned him back with some suggestions for the ramp he’d need, and the one they finally built was to Gilberts’s precis[...]curve,” explains Norris, ‘‘which gives you the maximum amount of speed with the shortest distance of ramp, and without any chance[...]NEMA PAPERS ordinary ramp, you’d lose a lot of the impact as you hit the bottom, and you’d dig in: you’d slow right do[...]ld try to bounce off, and you’d probably be off the ramp before you got to the top of it. The reason why people haven’t done these jumps in the past is that you’d need a ramp about 20 feet high and 5[...]he worked it out from that. ‘‘If you look at the rushes, you’ll notice the truck squeezes up and, as soon as you go off the ramp, the wheels pop out. It actually brings it off the ramp and makes it jump!” “The advantage with the sine curve is that you can get so much speed on such a short ramp. This one is only 25 feet long and seven feet high and, by putting the curve on it, you can hit it really fast, and it’s actually forcing you onto the ramp all the way. If you look at the rushes, you notice the truck squeezes up and, as soon as you go off the ramp, the wheels pop out. It actually brings it off the ramp and makes it jump!” Tests had told Norris what sort of speed he could get the truck up to in the fairly limited space available, which was complicated by the fact that he had to follow the curve of the drive- in’s outer fence. By the end of the tests, Norris had worked out that he would hit the bottom of the ramp at between 55 and 60 mph. The ramp itself gave him three or four inches tolerance on either side of the truck’s front wheels. But that wasn’t really a problem: he had to be in exactly the right place any- way so, although more ramp might have been nice to see, it wouldn’t have affected the stunt one way or the other. “The main thing,” says Norris, “was getting through the sign in the right place. I said: ‘My left wheel will go through the ‘S’ of ‘Star’, and my right wheel will be above the ‘n’ of ‘Drive-in’.” The photographs show he hit it exactly. “It’s jus[...]you take your angles up higher and work it out on the slide- rule until you get it. The advantage of the sine curve is that you know exactly where you’re going to start flying.” The ramp itself was constructed out of six-millimetre, machine-stretched gridding, which gave the maximum traction at the base. Wood or sheet metal would have been no good, because the stunt was done at dusk (in the film, it’s supposed to be dawn), and the early-evening dew would have made it slippery. In actual fact, though, Norris reckons he hit the ramp at something over 60 mph. The result |
| was that, although his calculation of where he would hit the sign was spot on, he continued on upwards after h[...]nd seven- teen feet. Mine was, like, 25 feet, and the distance ended up being 162 feet, which was pretty good.” So good, in fact, that once he came down (and came down off the high), Norris immediately put a call through to Kerry Rossal. “It was 3.30 in thethe jump!’ And he says, ‘What did you do?’ I said ‘I62 feet’ and he said: ‘You bastard!’ ” The first time during the whole stunt that Norris had the chance to think was as he started up the ramp. Prior to that, all his attention had been taken up with hitting it at the right speed. “That all went superquick,” he remembers. “But, as soon as I hit the ramp, it was just as slow as that” — he makes a floating movement with his hands. “I remember all the bits of the sign going really vividly, and I remem- ber seeing sky and more sky. The thing the other guys said is: ‘Whenever you do the big one, remember the view!’ I remember looking over and seeing the lighting tower, and it was, like, ‘Wow!’ —[...]Fuck!’ — and then I was going down and I saw the ground coming up.” This, in fact, was the dangerous bit of the stunt. Anybody can jump off a building: it’s the landing that’s diffi- cult. In this case, the success of the stunt relied on two things: the angle of the ramp, and what happened to Norris when he landed. The truck itself had been specially modified, with a 500 lb weight to prevent it skewing in mid- air, because of the greater weight on the driver’s side. And it was specially reinforced. “Thethe car: it’s like having two great big hands aroun[...]- neath. It was very much like a racing- car pod: the whole car could have come totally apart, and I’[...]ontained.If I hadn’t had that, I would have had the engine on my lap.” But the real problem was to protect Norris from the impact. “The main injury you have with a jump is spinal compression,” he says. “They lost a couple of guys in the early days, and a lot of people got badly hurt. So, they Do you believe a truck can fly? Thethe car: it’s like having two great big hands around you. But a suspension harness is a really uncomfortable thing. “The biggest jump they’d ever done in The Fall Guy was around 150 feet, but the Stuntman fractured three ribs and wasn’t very well at the end of it. And the biggest jump anyone’s ever done was 186 feet, in the Dukes of Hazard Charger: a guy went over a train.[...]ge with jumps. A friend of mine who does a lot of the jumps on Knight Rider always seems to bang up his[...]extension cord, which he plugs in and walks round the house with for about a week, until he’s better.” Norris, who is reckoned to be one of Australia’s most innovati[...]developed his own fire gel —— illustrated on the title page of this article — which enables him to work open—faced for a startling amount of time), reckoned there had to be a better way. His solution to the problem was to suspend the whole seat, fitting it p CINEMA PAPERS[...] |
| [...]r bike lever ratio of between 9 and 13:1, pivoted the seat itself, so that the impact could be absorbed at the optimum angle. “The best thing for me about the whole jump,” he says, “apart from it working so well visually, was the fact that the seat worked.” The next day, he had a slightly stiff neck, and that[...]g down, I braced myself and was squeezing down in the seat: I actually bent the steering wheel! And then, bang, my head came Another record: Norris doing the ‘Cannonball’ stunt — riding a motor bike in[...]Mad Max 2. Norris flew 62 feet. up and I hit the roof. I kept waiting for more, but that was it. All I could hear was the churning of the camera: it sounded like a mincer, because it was going at 96 f.p.s. I thought: I’d better turn it off; but the control had broken when the film snapped as I landed. Then I was back to normal again: all the guys were running up, and I was trying to get out really quickly because it was so good.” Watching Norris do the stunt from the roof of a near-by building, it seemed as if it broke down into three stages: the roar of the truck accelera- ting towards the ramp, culminating in a hideous clang as the front end hit the ribbing; then silence (neon exploding is a very small sound compared with what had gone be[...]rsting); and finally, a massive rending sound, as the truck came down and started to disintegrate. Then there was another five seconds, until the stunt team reached the truck and helped Norris out. Against everybody’[...]or lean on some- body’s shoulder: he jumped in the air, waved his arms about and shouted. All of wh[...]e, and had gone almost exactly according to plan. The only problem was that, coming down 20 feet further on than anticipated, the truck had missed the Ned Kelly. Not surprisingly, Norris was happy about 20 — March CINEMA PAPERS the stunt. “I’m pretty hard on myself, and everything I’ve done is in competi- tion with myself. But, this time, I h[...]rris will certainly plan it just as carefully and for just as long — not just to prevent himself from[...]but because he, like most modern stuntmen, needs the profession to be respected for what it is. “The main thing now,” he says, “is to get people to see that we aren’t yahoos. In the old days it used to be, like: ‘We’ll do it and, whatever happens, happens’. Now, for a shot that’s taken $100,000, it’s got to be[...]razy!’ A stuntman prepares: Norris works on the truck. Well, there’s obviously a degree of[...]do it. But, mainly, it’s all worked out first. The whole trick is picking up your cheque, having a good time spending it, and being able to do it again the next day. Anybody can do a stunt once.”[...] |
| [...]'; B k’ MB Gaobazge 31% You can’t keep a ‘Good Man Down’ PE TROV .'/.a’f.:’.’é'[...] |
| Schepisi behind the camera during the shooting of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. ...,,I_ « , 5- ' ."[...]st: Schepisi with Willie Nelson during a break in the shooting of Barbarosa. Theatre on film: Schepisi on the Iceman set with Lindsay Crouse and (on the table) John Lone. Left, Schepision the Plenty set with Tracey Ullman and Meryl Streep. Top left, Schepisi during the shooting of The Devil's Playground. David Stratton catches up wi[...]ed new film, Plenty. Fred Schepisi has been away for six years. The last time I interviewed him was in mid-1979; still depressed at the commercial failure of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith the previous year, he had signed with 20th Century-Fo[...]our meeting, he sold his Melbourne house and left for Los Angeles with his family. I met up with him a few times during the intervening years. I had dinner at his home one e[...]an) had finally fallen through, mainly because of the alarming changes of direction at the top of the studio. We had dinner at a Beverly Hills restaurant soon after Iceman opened. And there’d been the odd meeting in between. But now, with his most success- ful film, Plenty, receiving good notices in Britain and the US and about to open in Australia, Schepisi was back at the Melbourne office of Film House, working on a TV commercial for an insurance company. “I stood there with Freddie Fields, then head of MGM, underlining the funny hits in the script to show him it was a comedy!” He’s ma[...]twice that many projects that have fallen through for a variety of reasons. There was Partners, a tap-dancing movie for Lorimar, and The Mandolin Man, scripted by Herman Raucher (Summer[...]n-John. There was Double Standards, also known as The Other Man, a screenplay by Judith Ross which, Schepisi says, “would have had an impact on this age like The Moon is Blue had in the fifties”. Even with three big names committed to the project (Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret), the film, a sophisticated sex comedy,was rejected by the majors as “too old”, and still didn’t get off the ground when re—cast with William Hurt and Karen[...]is frustration, “but they still wouldn’t make the bloody thing. I stood there with Freddie Fields, then head of MGM, underlining the funny bits in the script with a yellow pencil to show him it was a[...]it might have been.” There was also Meet Me at the Melba, an original screenplay by Schepisi set in Atlanta in the thirties, about a repressed man and a free-spirited woman. “Too soft,” said the people at Warners. “I don’t think they even read the bloody thing,” > CINEMA PAPERS March -- 23 |
| [...]There was a comedy about Robin I-lood,to be made for Mei Brooks’s company. There was a subject about the media people who get politicians elected, which w[...]es between her and Schepisi). “In Plenty, what is being said is greatly affected by where it’s being said. The ‘where’ is sometimes a comment, sometimes a counterpoint, but always an essential character in its own right” The only one of these films that eventually did get m[...]an, and tries living alone in a small Texas town; the year is 1940. Wittliff had seen Jimmie Blacksmith and, so[...]through, approached Schepisi to work with him on the project. Sally Field had been cast in the lead, but she had director approval, too, and it took an agonizingly long time for her to approve Schepisi. Eventually, she bowed out, and Sissy Spacek entered the picture, also with director approval. By this time, Schepisi had worked for months with Witliff, re- shaping the screenplay. In the end, however, the studio, Universal, bowed to Spacek’s wishes: he[...]ith no previous directorial experience, took over the film. Schepisi’s revisions were rejected. Iron[...]liff (who co- produced). This western saga, about the friendship of a Texas farmboy and a famous outlaw[...]company set up to handle ITC and EMI releases in the US. The leads were already cast. “They interviewed me,[...]d them," says Schepisi. He’d seen Gary Busey in The Buddy Holly Story, and was very excited about him[...]th Willie Nelson. Schepisi worked (uncredited) on the script, and shot the film “with a great crew” on locations in Texa[...]features. Union problems were avoided because of the Texas location, and Schepisi was relieved to be w[...]shoot both Iceman and Plenty and, says Schepisi, is unequalled for balancing the quality of his work with the demands of the budget. Sneak previews of Barbarosa revealed a few problems, exacerbated by the fact that the distributor, AFD (“Another Friggin’ Disaster”, says Schepisi) was collapsing at the time. Eventually, distribution of the film passed to Universal (where it had already be[...]positive reviews, it was virtually dumped. One of the elements in the film Schepisi looks back on with most pride was h[...]rs old, and a consummate professional.” Despite the commercial failure of Barbarosa, Schepisi was of[...]it fails, then they jump all over you.” One of the scripts was Iceman, written by Chip Proser and Jo[...]ith many commercial successes behind him, from In the Heat of the Night to Fiddler on the Roof. The intriguing story deals with the discovery of a prehistoric man frozen in the Arctic ice, then thawed out into the 20th century, and one of Schepisi’s first probl[...]to produce. Overall, there was agreement between the two men, though they did clash over the final cut. Chief problem, though, was to cast an actor for the central role. A French- Tunisian boxer was consid[...]hamp, then a French-Canadian from way up north in the Arctic. Finally, Schepisi settled on John Lone, whose training and experience had been remarkably varied (the Peking opera, method acting in New York). He was too slight for the part; but, after special training, he added weigh[...]Almost immediately, however, Schepisi was offered the opportunity to direct his next film, an adaptation of the very successful David Hare play, Plenty. The circum- “Meryl is clearly the premier actress of hfelr generation on I in” stances are unusually interesting. Hare himself had directed the original London and Broadway productions, which s[...]rd R. Pressman, wanted a British director to make the film. “They wanted someone not restricted by the very inhibitions the story was examining,” says Schepisi. The first idea was to have an American, then Hare sug[...]ans”), and several were considered. A screening for Hare of The Devil’s Playground led to a meeting, and Schepisi, who had seen the Broadway production of the play and much admired it, got the job (the final choice, he says, was between him and George Roy Hill). Kate Nelligan was seriously considered for the leading role of Susan Traherne, through whose eyes we see a Britain declining from the end of World War 11 until the Suez Crisis. The trouble, says Schepisi, was the budget: Hare and Pressman wanted to open out the play, to give it greater scope and scale. “Ther[...]hich was only hinted at on stage; but it pervades the atmosphere. What is being said is greatly affected by where it’s being said. The ‘where’ is some- times a comment, sometimes a counter- point[...]have been limited to a $6—7 million budget, if the budget could have been raised. Even with Meryl Streep, it was still terribly difficult to get the money. Also, Kate’s particular approach to the character could have been tempered and changed, but Meryl brings different qualities to the part. She’s clearly the premier actress of her generation on film, while Kate is becoming the premier actress of her generation on stage.” A[...]y insisting he put more and more dialogue back in the film. He kept saying, ‘Are you mad‘? Every director in the world wants to take the dialogue out!’ But I said, ‘Believe me, it’[...]express it all visually, we should concentrate on the language’. lt’s a beautiful language piece. But it doesn’t seem talky if you give it the kind of scale we did.” Nor was he worried, finally, at the casting of an American actress in such a very Eng[...]p had earlier been accepted in an English role in The French Lieutenant’s Woman. During the scripting, Tracey Ullman’s role of Alice[...] |
| (“she was smaller and spottier in the play”), as was that of the husband, played by Charles Dance. Ullman is known in America as a pop star, in Britain as a regular on TV variety shows; Sting, who plays Mick, is also still better known as a singer than an actor. Put them together with the 81-year-old John Gielgud, and you have some inter[...]as amused when one US critic wrote that, although the film was “exactly the same as the play” and “nothing major had been changed”,[...]ow it all seems new”. In fact, about a third of the material in the film is new, and the play has also been restructured. “The whole play was out of chronology,” says Schepis[...]deas in random time place- ments, so you accepted the time-jumps backwards and forwards. In the film, we always went forward, though sometimes with long time-jumps, until the very end, when we go back to the beginning again.” The fact that Hare had completed shooting Wetherby be[...]ore helpful as a writer. He never interfered with the direction; we had an extraordinary collaboration[...]ed that. Molly Haskell, in her review, listed all the things she liked about the film, and then said the only thing she really disliked was thethe Monthly Film Bulletin, reviews the film without even mentioning the director. “It’s a compliment in a way.” An[...]ans to film a “wonderful” Steve Tesich script for Fox about rich but emotionally under-privileged k[...]o: Barbarosa, trapped in a pointless family feud; the Iceman, trapped in a strange and hostile world; S[...]a stifling postwar Britain that offers little of the ‘plenty’ she craves. But one feels that Fred[...]oken free of his traps: he seems to be looking to the future with cheerful confidence. at The films of Fred Schepisi Camera Corner (I964-66) Series of shorts. Breaking the Language Barrier ([965) Short. The Shape of Quality (1965) Short. People Make Paper[...]966) Documentary. Switch On (I967) Documentary. The Plus Factor (1970) Docu- mentary. T0morrow’s Canberra Documentary. (1972) Libido (Episode ‘The Priest‘ 1973) Production company: Producers and[...]/Cast: Robyn Nevin, Arthur Dignam, Vivc-an Gray. The Devil's Playground (1976) Production company: The Feature Film House/Producer: Fred Schepisi/Script[...]thur Dignam, Nick Tate. Simon Burke/107 minutes. The Chant of Jimmie Black- smith (1978) Production company: The Film House/Producer: Fred Schepisi/Scriptwriter: Schepisi, from the novel by Thomas Kencally/Cast: Tommy Lewis, Fredd[...]ction com- pany: Edward R. Pressman Produc- tions for RKO/Producers: Edward R. Pressman and Joseph Papp[...]arles Dance/124 minutes. A woman not under the influence: Meryl Streep in Plenty with (left to r[...]e encounter dominates Susan’s postwar life. The war is over: Streep as Susan Traherne, finding none of the plenty she craves in postwar Britain. Sting as Mick and Tracey Ullman as Alice: in the play, Ullman’s part was “smaller and s[...] |
| Trenchard-Smith on the set of Dead-End Drive-In. He is a devout coward who has always wanted to be Errol[...]gone through a windscreen once, has climbed down the lift-shaft of the Greater Union Building and (scared shit- less) has climbed the Sydney Heads without a rope. Though he is considered a ‘hired gun’ both here and in Hollywood — the Red Adair of the Australian film industry —— he still believes it is a privilege just to be making films. Privilege o[...]ten theatrical features and seven telemovies. He is probably the only director in the world to be represented at February’s American[...]les by no less than three films, all completed in the past year: Frog Dreaming, Jenny Kissed Me and Dead-End Drive-In. The other remarkable thing about the director (in the context of Australian cinema) is that his films nearly always make money. But, at 39, after working for more than 20 years in films, Brian Trenchard-Smith believes he is only just beginning to get into his stride. “There is,” he says, “something you always get in a Trenchard-Smith movie: pace, a strong visual sense, and what the movie is actually about told to you very persuasively. Wha[...]be applying a sense of pace: trying to find where the joke is, and trying to make the film look a lot bigger than it cost.” In thefor cost-consciousness — something which he himself[...]hile at school there. “I was a leading light in the school Arts Society,” he says. “And, somehow, I was given the job of making a film, on 8mm, about a year in the life of the school. When I left, I put the film under my arm and showed it around until at last someone said: ‘We’ve got a job for you’.” That someone was the Central Electricity Generating Board, and they wa[...]a job with Channel Ten. I happened to walk in at the right time. They said: ‘Can you do news?’ I said: ‘Is the Pope catholic?’ and started straight away. Even[...]station promos, and that led into doing trailers for features." He did something like 80 of those and, in the meantime, worked up the nerve to ask the channel to give him a pro- ject to produce and direct. For them, he did several films, including For Valor and The Stuntman — his first real encounter with a prof[...]ighly successful, highly commercial pictures like The Kung Fu Killers (1974), The Love Epidemic (1975), The Man from Hong Kong (also 1975) and Deathcheaters (1976). There was also a fire safety film for Film Australia, Hospitals Don’! Burn Down (1977) — the title is, of course, ironic — to which he applied his usual principles. The result was a highly effective safety film that al[...]sales overseas. In 1978, Trenchard-Smith went to the US, where he spent some time at the Disney studios. “They gave me an office on the corner of Mickey Avenue and Dopey Drive, and I was instructed to write in the morn- ing, then go and look at a few shots of The D CINEMA PAPERS March — 27 |
| [...]pecial-effects picture. I’d hand my pages in at the end of the day, and they’d be returned to me in the morn- ing with pencilled comments from the story editor.” In the States, he encountered a wider range of filmmakin[...]Kissed Me, which he describes as “a tearjerker for men”. “I identified with the human tragedy,” he says: “a father could come home one day and find his partner and the girl who had called him daddy for the past six years suddenly gone. “One important element in the film is commitment to family and children, as opposed to individual selfishness and the fear of the loss of freedom. I was trying to show that the narcissism of the seventies can put a family into a private hell. The seventies had a trade-it-in, throw-it-away attitu[...]work out, move on. Well, there’s a price to pay for moving on when children are in- volved: you can i[...]n marriages, there has been a fairly flippant “The seventies had a trade-it-in, throw-it-away attitu[...]de that hasn’t really been thought through.” The original screenplay for Jenny was by Judith Colquhoun, but there was difficulty in getting it funded. “I wanted to give the story more style,” says Trenchard—Smith, “make the characters more sophisticated and the feeling more upmarket, more accessible to a wider[...]tly respect as a writer, was not prepared to make the changes, so I got Warwick Hind to do it to my spe[...]nor way, wrote two new scenes of my own, and made the neces- sary adjustments during shooting, when an actor was uncomfortable with this or that line.” The result, in other words, is very much a Brian Trenchard—Smith film. But the other two of his current crop have had rather less than ideal preparation periods for him — less than a day in the case of Frog Dreaming. “Everett De Roche, the writer, 28 — March CINEMA PAPERS Trenchard[...]Jenny Kissed Me — something of a new departure for him. He calls it a "male tearjerker’f and Barbi Taylor, the producer, tracked me down to a Japanese restauran[...]ing after finishing an episode of Five Mile Creek for television. They gave me a script and said, ‘Can you start tomorrow?’ “Frog Dreaming is about a ten-year-old kid who suspects there’s something at the bottom of a nearby pond. Everybody is afraid of it, including the local Aborigines. It’s a charming mystery adven[...]As well as being a very intelli- gent kid, he had the experience of four features behind him, so I trea[...]n each situation, because I don’t think through the mind of a fourteen-year-old. You can’t treat ki[...]h a child — Tamsin West, who plays Jenny — on the other feature, and ascribes his new interest in kids’ movies to having some of his own. “Children are the future of the planet,” he says, “and, unless we look after the future of the planet, we’re doomed. Even as filmmakers, we have to take a responsibility for that. I don’t want to do films that propagate an unwholesome point of view or do people damage.” For the record, he sees the violence and splatter of Turkey Shoot (1982) in terms of grotesque hilarity. “It’s over the top, a spoof. When one of the villains accidentally chops his henchman in half[...]utches his head and says, ‘Oh, shit! ’. There is a huge roar of laughter from the audience.” Dead-End Drive-In is a little over the top, too: based on a short story by Peter Carey called ‘Crabs’ (which is the central character’s name), it is a piece of future shock about a world rife with youth un- employment, in which the drive-ins have been turned into benevolent concentration camps. “It’s a situation that is within the bounds of possibility,” says Trenchard- Smith: “not as extreme as the Mad Max 2, post-holocaust situation — sort of Mad Max 1/2 to 3/4. To contain the unwanted elements of society, some bright spark says, ‘We won’t go with the guard dogs and the barbed wire and the machine guns: let’s be clever, let’s make it benevolent, let’s give the little bastards what they really want. You know:[...]ll, junk food, dusk-to-dawn movies, rock clips on the video machines in the cafeteria; then they’ll be happy, and they’ll do it all inside the fence. They won’t do it in the streets or steal our video machines.’ “The Drive—In is, of course, an allegory for the junk values of the eighties, which our hero sees as a prison. The last 20 minutes of the film — the escape — is the desperate, blazing climax, but the whole film has a feeling of high style, of height- ened or enhanced reality — a little bit over the top, but retaining a reality that the public will accept. This feeling of high style I[...]ngles, and I always cut fairly fast and tight. In the last couple of films, I’ve structured my style to have the camera movement of cinema and the coverage of television. “I don’t think a cin[...]objects to extreme close-ups, within reason. But, for a TV or video audience, after seven seconds, the brain will be saying: ‘I want to see that close[...]ned theatre with a big screen and stereo, some of the subtleties will be lost: put it on tele- vision, and it often looks like two bean- poles on either side of the screen. I don’t see this as a compromise, rather a conscious decision to please the maximum audience.” Given its ambitions, Dead-End Drive-In is a modestly budgeted film; and Trenchard—Smith h[...]as more overlap of job responsi- “children are the future of the planet and, unless we look after the future of the planet, we’re doomed” bility and people were a little more hungry, like in the old days. I fear that, if people don’t take a good, hard look at this problem, it is going to put our long-term survival as a film ind[...]ppeal to lovers of Giant Animal pictures all over the world. Why can’t we make a Giant Comedy picture[...]Melbourne: audiences would respond to it all over the world. “As for me, I’d like to keep on making films for ever. I’d love to be, at the age of 98, lining up the last shot of the movie, on my 70 mm camera, then keel over[...] |
| [...]ofessional advice sometimes. You can’t go past the Australian Film and Television School’s Open Program for courses and training material prepared and delive[...]and do yourself a favour. Contact us immediately for details on our resources and upcoming activities[...]ralian Film and Television School _ Open Program The Race is on to Tasmama... A trifling two hours from Sy[...]02) 286263 TELEX: AA57148 mm: was aycamssa THE NEW NAME IN IMPORTED AND AUSTRALIAN MADE M[...] |
| [...]tvliyofficizil US military maps from March 1951i. The one ‘above shows t e relative positions of Biki[...]r with@e patli of a str y Japanese fishing boat). The one o. tlfe right-hand pa‘ge_shows wher the Navy’s ships were when the bomb _ _....went off, and the expected fal|- ut area. According to the map, thethe Americans claimed, the wind direction had shifted at the last minut, the fall-out cloud in the direction of the atoll. But Rongelap 1 A a- :4 carryi 4 + it[...]bout Half Life, his widely-acclaimed study of how the us military used the inhabitants of a tiny Pacific atoll as nuclear guinea pigs. For most filmmakers, surviving in Aus- tralia has mea[...]t such a loaded word, ‘compromise’ would be a good name for the game: one person’s aspirations have had to be m[...]h CINEMA PAPERS s been conveniently omitted from the map. W0 7 ; :3 §) l commercial realities, am[...]had to be brought into line with resources. But, for those filmmakers who are willing — or have learned — to play the game, Australia remains a pretty good place in which to make films. Thanks to a tax system which, for all its recent dilutions, still compares favourably with anything anywhere else in the world, there are filmmaking oppor- tunities out of (most) proportion to what the ‘market’ — not to mention the popula- tion — could be expected to bear. Provided you make a certain kind of film. And provided you play the game. In this respect — in others, too — Dennis O’Rourke is something of an anomaly. Unlike most Australian directors, he is .3» better known abroad than he is in Aus- tralia: his films have been seen and won[...]in adapted versions which O’Rourke loathes) on the BBC and other overseas television stations. What is more, O’Rourke has made a living out of directing documentaries, has not ‘played the game’, and has produced some of the most distinctive film work to come out of Australia in the past decade. Finally, in a genre dominated by an[...]e has made aggressively untheoretical films about the South Pacific and its inhabitants — film[...] |
| [...]-;AmNc. 233° Guest worker: Dennis O’Rourke in the Marshall: with Rongelap magistrate, John Anjain. which show an overwhelming commitment to the lives and problems of the people they are about, yet bear the unmistakable stamp of their maker’s personality[...]are not easy to categorize. But, while integrity is a dangerous word in the field of documentary -— it has been used too often to justify distortions of reality which are true to the ‘spirit’ of a subject, or flights of self-serving fancy which are supposed to have the'integrity of art’—it applies well to O’Rourke’s work, which has integrity in the sense of wholeness as well as that of 3 BIKINI[...]honesty. Indeed, his films are a rare mixture of the two things: they treat their subjects with affect[...]but not reverence; and they do not shy away from the resources of cinema. Fellow documen- tarist and f[...]dea has called O’Rourke’s films ‘essays’. The word is a little misleading, implying the free-flowing editorializing of, say, Chris Marker’s Sans soleil (Sunless). But ‘essays’ is, finally, a good word for what O’Rourke does: with a camera and a Nagra rather than a pen, he discourses on a subject, using the images and sounds of that subject to tell its story. O’Rourke’s subjects have, to date, always been the natives of the Pacific basin :T and their rearguard action against thethe case of ' ,' i it with the other. A ' LsM>tUéi$ch appears in at least two of his films has a transistor radio in the fore- round broadcasting commercials for 6‘ mpori-gal delignbsl, with a circle of island huts orl Micqnesian beach in the back- grpunci. e s ot is almost a cipher to B'l€ourke’s work: he certainly placed the transistor in the shot, but he didn’t put it on C%enii§l§d.in the first place; and his visual {ion is designed to create a small irony which, however,[...](1976) and Ileksen (1978), O’Rourke chronicled the process whereby Papua New Guinea got its independ[...]a, part tragedy, which introduced television onto the tiny Micro- nesian island of Yap by means of tape[...]n Fernando valley TV station, still complete with the commercials for junk food and J.C. Penney. In The Sharkcallers of Kontu (1982), O’Rourke’s most ambitious film before Half Life, he examined the ancient ritual of sharkcalling — basically, going out in a boat and luring the sharks (thought to contain the spirits of dead ancestors) into a fishing noose w[...]ing it. In “. . . C0uIdn’t Be Fairer” -— the title is a quote from Sir Joh Bjelke—Petersen — O’Rourke moved ‘onshore’ to the northern part of his native Queensland, to look at Aboriginal land rights. The film (made in CINEMA PAPERS March — 31[...] |
| 1984) is his least successful, perhaps because it is dominated by a voice-over from Mick Miller, a land rights spokesman, who (inevitably) uses the kind of confronta- tional rhetoric O’Rourke himself has managed to avoid. But . . Couldn’t Be Fairer” is a far better film than the version of it the BBC (who commissioned it) decided to transmit, arguing that such background scenes as the small-town ‘Brown Eye Contest’ — a beery com- petition to establish the best anal sphincter in town — were“not very nice” and didn’t really belong in the film. O’Rourke, who didn’t much like the BBC changing the title of the Yap film to South Seas and Soft Soap, is now having similar problems with Half Life. “The issue,” he says, “ is rights of authorship, to which television tends t[...]e knows about television, since he started out at the ABC in 1970. After a couple of false starts in the sunny north (one of which was university), he arrived in Sydney looking for work, and ended up as an assistant gardener at the ABC’s Gore Hill studios. “All those gum trees you see there in the front yard, I planted,” he says. From the gum trees, he moved up — slightly —— to the job of assistant camera- man. “I always knew I[...]ys, “but not everyone else shared my certainty. The ABC was quite happy to let me stay there for ever in that so-called ‘technical’ role. It w[...]sed to put on a grey dust jacket when you arrived for work. According to the hierarchical system, if you came out of the camera department, you weren’t directorial material: for that, you were supposed to come out of management or from the journalistic side. That’s changing now. But,when I left the place in 1973, I thought: Well, maybe the most important thing I’ve done here is plant those gum trees.” He had, however, learned about cameras, which is why he went there in the first place; and, after leaving, he went free- lance as a cameraman. That is how he first got to Papua New Guinea, then still under the tutelage of Australia. It was to prove an ongoing love affair: O’Rourke spent most of the seventies there, learned to speak New Guinea pidgin, and married a New Guinea woman, Roseanne, who is now a regular collaborator on his films. The love affair with New Guinea has had one problemat[...]ed an ethnographic documentarist. Norman Douglas, for instance, in a percep- tive and enthusiastic account of The Shark- callers of Kontu for the Pacific History Association, had no doubt: “The new concern with visual ethnography in the Pacific,” he wrote, “has produced at least one outstanding talent. The Sharkcallers of Kontu is not only O’Rourke’s most compelling and mature work, but a film of considerable significance in the canon of Melanesian ethnography.” O’Rourke, who has kept the PHA’s newsletter, “presumably because I like it,” is not so sure about the categorization. “Because I went to Papua New Guinea, liked the place, and my films were about brown people, I wa[...]ethic was a forced one, and a blind alley: there is storytelling, and how you choose to do it should[...]interpretations. “I think you’ve got to make the distinc- tion, in a film, between the moments and the total statement — the construct of the film. You can have moments, and they are accident[...]car accident unless you hop in a car and drive on the road. The film — the intention to make it — is not accidental. Yumi Yet is a real ‘first film’ — a mixed bag of all so[...]ave basically been journeys of exper- ience: that is, me seeking to find out some- thing. You have two protagonists: all the people who represent the subject of the film; and me, the filmmaker. That energy is there in all the films, and the films work,not because they are about people who go out and catch sharks, but because, in the end, they’re cinema, and because of the way in which cinema can affect people.” The notion of the two protagonists isthe shape of Mick Miller, is the least successful). Their power comes, from the sense of a dynamic (as opposed to a one- way) relationship between the maker and the made. As O’Rourke puts it, “the nature ofthe film is: you go and stay in an isolated community. You are a guest.” His films repeatedly testify to the advan- tages of that method. In Yumi Yet, two groups of people — the men building the festive huts, and the women sarcastically watching them do it — interact through the camera, commenting on each other; in Sharkcallers, one of the fishermen berates the camera about not talking while the Box of tricks: a family watches TV in a scene from Yap: How Did They Know We’d Like TV?. magic isgood the magic is. Mostly, it was my fault, I was told”); in Yap, the US consular rep- resentative talks through the rationale for his support of the television—implant scheme with extraordinary ho[...]etray it. Before Half Life, though, which owes a good part of its power to the relationship between O’Rourke and the inhabitants of Rongelap Atoll, the clearest illustration of the dynamic at work comes near the end of The Sharkcallers of Kontu, where the fishermen have taken one (apparently knowing) step further towards the destruc- tion of the custom. Bundling up the shark fins and taking them into the nearest small 9 9 ill Mfllfillllfi § 1 f l‘ town, they sell them to Ah Chow, pro- prietor of the local Chinese store, who pays them in cash but warns them they will not get the “world market price” unless they can supply him with fins by the ton. The men accept the price, because they need Villain of the peace? AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss at a White House press conference in March 1954. The Rongelapese, said Strauss, had been "accidental! y” exposed to the fall-out. cash in the new, ‘mixed’ economy of New Ireland. And their first stop on the way home is a local bar. “Drink takes away our inhibitions caused by traditional customs,” they tell O’Rourke/the camera. “It’s the drink which gives us hope.” Without a real rela[...]ences’ would be unlikely to occur. They are, in the strictest sense, ‘provoked’: the sharkcallers wouldn’t have explained all that if the camera hadn’t been there. But they are no more provoked than the statements people make to one another in conversation; and their positioning within the film makes them more than mere asides. O’Rourke is proud of his role in bringing the information out. “IfI didn’t,” he says, “[...]re in documentary filmmaking, it’s almost as if the measure of their success is the degree to which they’ve failed. The more they fail in doing what cinema can do — sy[...]motion, this indescribable, dream-like energy — the happier they are. Some people object to it, but the best way I have to describe how I make films is this: I don’t make the films, the films make me. I put myself in a circumstance, in[...]then, as each new thing unfolds, I pursue it.” The pursuit of Half Life began some six years ago, when O’Rourke went to Micro- nesia for TV station WGBH, Boston, to make the Yap film. On that visit, he met some of the people he would work with on Half Life. Then, in 1983, while working for Film Australia (an experience about which he has[...]be quoted on), he was stranded on Rongelap Atoll for a couple of weeks when the only plane serving the island developed engine trouble. “We were sitting around, talking to people,” he says, “and the story, most of which I’d heard before, started to come out and coalesce. So, one day, I got up in the morning and thought: We’re here; we might as well make a film.” That was when the first interview with Midja Anjain (which appears late in the film and which, O’Rourke quietly points out, is at stylistic variance with the rest, in that it uses a zoom) was done. “I filmed all week, until the plane came back. Then ~I.processed the rushes on Bankcard, and set about raising the money. At that stage, it was still to be a |
| one—hour film, along the lines of the others. But I ended up making a film about some- thing much wider than the Marshall Islands: I worked out from there, into the heartland of America, into the Pentagon, the ABC and the wider issues the film encompasses.” The wider issues encompassed by Half Life (as Mark Spratt points out in his review on page 74) are those of the deliber- ate use of the Marshallese as guinea pigs for the effects of nuclear fall-out. By implica- tion, the issues extend to include the whole of the ‘first’ and ‘second’ world’s policy towards the Pacific, a region made up of small pockets of peo[...]s, and whose larger islands are now proving to be the ideal location for today’s fly-in-sun- bathe-and—fly-out holidays (which will be the subject of O’Rourke’s next, as yet untitled, film). The gradual realization of the degree of forethought that went into the supposedly accidental irradiation of Rongelap and Utirik is something that came as O’Rourke made Half Life.[...]ion — almost his reluctance — about accepting the evidence is one of the things that gives the film its persuasive power. “You have to go back to March 1954,” he says, “when the Bravo bomb was deto- nated on Bikini Atoll. These things were happening: the McCarthy hearings were in full swing; late in Mar[...]was opposed to developing thermonuclear weapons; the French were losing in Indo- China, and everybody still believed in the domino theory. Most crucially, the Russians had detonated their first thermo- nuclear weapon; and, from sampling they had done, the Americans knew the Russians had made an enormous, quantum leap in their nuclear technology. Today, with the threat of nuclear war hanging over us, everyone works on the principle that we must avoid it. But, in 1954, the feeling was that it was inevitable. The bomb was new, and the fall-out it created a completely unknown element. Bravo was perfect for testing it. The elements they used, the size they made it, the height above the ground — it was designed to suck all that stuff[...]ip after a three-day voyage and was controlled by the military, and the Americans there thought it was likely to stay that way. What they didn’t reckon was that, 30 years on, the debate would be in the United Nations, that these people would be hiring[...]isolated and would stay isolated. It’s only in the last few years that the Marshallese have taken control of their own immigration. In the mid—seventies, for example, a group of Japanese radiation experts arrived in the Marshalls to carry out a study. The Americans wouldn’t let them in: they turned them back at the airport. “The rumours have always been around. There were people telling me, before I made the film, that it was all deliberate. I found that rather hard to accept: I was inclined to think, in the early stages, that it was the normal ‘conspiracy theory’ idea. But this is what I think happened. To start with, I can’t imagine that there is a document anywhere from President Eisenhower to Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, that says: ‘We need[...]t’s like arguing a case before a court; and, in the film, I present the evidence. Questions have to be asked. For the previous Bikini tests, the people on this island were evacuated for their own safety. For this one, they were not. So, I don’t say the islanders were deliberately exposed, because that might suggest that I believe there is a document somewhere. What I say is: decisions were made, both before the test and during it, deliberately to allow them to be exposed. ‘‘In the film, you see American service- men coming ashore from a seaplane with geiger counters. Now, it’s OK for them to do that — to walk around in their protec- tive gear —— because they were only there for 20 minutes. It’s the cumulative dose ~ the dose per hour — that counts. It’s very much l[...]don’t want to burn it: you just want to give it the right amount, a semi-lethal dose. “On the weight of the evidence now, the historical circumstances, the lies about the wind direction, the position of the ships — the ability they had to take the people off, the nature of the studies since, you can Ellen Boos shows the scar from her thyroid tumour operation. All but one of the children who were on Rongelap when Bravo was exploded have undergone the same operation. come to only one conclusion: they knew what they were doing. That is what the American weatherman says at the end of the film. He’s a patriot, and he doesn’t want to[...]me no pleasure at all. But 1 now believe it to be the case.” Reluctant or not, O’Rourke makes the case convincingly in Half Life. Indeed, it is his reluctance to rush to judgement that makes the finished film so effective. The other thing which makes it work so well is the meticulous attention that has been paid to the filmic means whereby the case has been put over. The information is not simply presented: it is crafted with all the care of a Clarence Darrow, summing up for the defence (or the prosecution), and paying as much attention to the style of his speech as to theThe soundtrack makes brilliantly ironic use of Hawaii[...]ar, played by Bob Brozman, a New Yorker living in the Call- fornian redwoods, who has thethe music the way he wanted it: slow, insistent, putting the words ‘South Sea paradise’ between inverted commas. Like the music, the sound of the waves lapping on the shore has again been mixed in over the ‘direct’ sound of the interviews, testifying to O’Rourke’s interest in a precise control of the aural experience. “You might liken it to the ticking of a clock in a quiet room,” he says. “The sound of the sea was like the inevitability of a slow death by radiation poisoning, and the inevitability that the film is leading to a conclusion.” O’Rourke makes sim[...]mation, specifically subtitles and roller titles. The subtitles distil the words of the Marshallese, turning them from comments into statements, and they are set slightly further up the screen than normal subtitles, so that they become a part of the image, rather than something scribbled across the bottom. And the roller titles, which contain crucial information about the UN trusteeship agreement and the facts of the Bravo test, are similarly a part of the film, not a way to get in a lot of dense and awkward information. “They are, in fact, scenes in the film,” says O’Rourke, “just like any other scene. All the connections between a particular choice of word, the timing, the amount of space between when they exit and when the next scene comes on — the juxtaposition of all those elements that you’re[...]ith when you’re making a film, apply equally to the roller titles as they do to any other scene in the film.” It is the confidently emphatic framing, though, which is the most distinctive thing about Half Life as a film. “With the filming,” says O’Rourke, “the technique was to spend quite a bit of time getting the framing right, and then basically put the camera on autopilot. I think it’s only a camera[...]cameras round that you get a very healthy respect for the integrity of the locked-off frame. Also, I wanted to emphasize the gravity of this simple story. “Once I had the frame and was satisfied it would give me all the dynamic elements and composition I needed, I would close down the viewfinder, so that light wouldn’t come in at the bottom of the film, and probably not look through it again for the ten and a half minutes the magazine would run. I’d turn on the cameras and we’d talk — we’d have a conversation. Even though the film running through there is expensive — you’ve got to process it, work through it, sync it up — I would never turn the camera off, even when something was translated to me. You need only so many wonderful moments to make the whole thing, and if you get one wonderful moment[...]than a minute in a roll of ten, who cares?” It is this concern with ‘the whole thing’ — with the story to be told, and the way of telling it — that characterizes all of D[...]h Half Life demonstrates it most impressively. It is, of course, not a style of filmmaking entirely free of compromise: there is more evidence that might have been gathered for the film, if time and budget had allowed. Nor, for all its commitment, is O’Rourke’s filmmaking a transparent, selfless image of the issue at hand. O’Rourke is not obtrusively and physically present, like Martin Scorsese was in The Last Waltz. But the films are certainly his: there is an ego at work. Without it, the films would be passionless and powerless. But one thing they definitely do not do is ‘play the game’ — the game, or any game. 4 CINEMA PAPERS March — 33 |
| [...]C (USA West Coast/Asia) 1450 FIRST CLASS ROUND THE |
| '1 . . . . , The '* I115”/,:,_ 1 Victoria Langley (left). k1(ry_rr_g_) and Ju .) .44 The More Things Change is trying to lure back to the cinema a forgotten slice of the audience: adults. Debi Enker spoke to the three people most involved: Jill Robb, Robyn Nevi[...]ny of those involved would justifiably shudder at the suggestion, The More Things Change . . . is a prime target for the label ‘women’s picture’. Written, produced,[...]en, its narrative and its concerns — marriage; the growth and deterioration of relationships; parent[...]creative and administrative positions, how- ever, The More Things Change . . . fires two well-aimed bro[...]It show- cases a healthy crop of female talent in the production area; and it offers a sensitive, incisive and unusually subtle drama in which the male characters take on the supporting roles. However, the real sign of its significance as a groundbreaker is that none of this seems to matter. While the women involved in the project are clearly proud of the story’s female protagonists, they seem to regard questions about the preponderance of women involved in the film as a little odd. Actress Judy Morris, who plays the film’s central character, Connie, asserts that she didn’t notice anything unusual during the film’s production. “It didn’t occur to me w[...]ertainly didn’t feel ‘We’re striking a blow for women :39 here . Producer Jill Robb, who initiated the project late in 1984, affirms Morris’s view, and is keen to dispel any allegations of posi- tive discrimination. “I just pick people because they’re good at what they do or right for the job,” she says. “It just happened that the people who turned out to be interested and availa[...]and had recently signed as an associate director for the Sydney Theatre Company, her reaction to Robb’s request that she direct the film was disbelief. Main- taining that she had never wanted to direct films and that the technical operations of the process were a somewhat daunting mystery, Nevin found that it was primarily the incredulity of her peers at the STC — “they just looked at me aghast and said[...]rn that down!’ ” — that made her reconsider the offer. Convinced that the film was “a perform- ance film and not an action film”, Robb brought together the Nevin-Burstall team with the idea that Nevin would concentrate on the actors and Burstall would take care of the visuals. “I offered her a cameraman who unders[...]t here’.” Burstall became largely responsible for the framing and lighting of shots and Nevin concentra[...]ce and eventually designing some shots, including the film’s final scene. “lt’s just an illusion of hers that she can handle everything. The women’s movement has fallen pretty poorly on its face in many ways; it hasn’t turned out to he the dream that we all wanted. Women have ended up doing twice as much work, now they are running the home and the office” Robb’s acumen as a producer is evident in two formative functions: it convinced Nevin to accept, and it financed the project promptly. “She came up to Sydney and talked at me at length about the necessity of dropping my fears of the technical area,” Nevin recalls with a grin, “and I had con- fidence in theis associated with.” Built largely on the success of Careful, Robb’s reputation seems to be the product of several assets: a canny business sense, a high level of commitment and involvement in the creative aspect of a film, and an instinct for the right time to take a risk. The history of The More Things Change . . . is an ideal illustration of the producer as the architect of a film, participating from its incep[...]ast, crew, cutting, cash and creative input. From the outset, her priorities dictated the size and shape of the project. Deciding that she wanted a contemporary[...]a Wood, an old acquaintance whose introduction to the film industry had coincided with her own, both holding down secretarial positions for Chips Rafferty and Lee Robinson more than 20 years ago. “I was very interested in getting her to write for me,” Robb explains, “because I’d admired he[...]she has a very strong sense of structure. One of the greatest complaints about our movies over- seas is that they are too slow. I knew that Moya’s skills would enable her to move the story along pretty quickly.” While Wood worked on moving the story along, Robb raised the finance with a prag- matic eye to the needs of the investment market. “I’m afraid that we’re in a market- place where the deal and the way that the finance is structured are more important than the calibre of the script. I was deter- mined to make a film for around $2 million, and I had a clear understanding of how I could put the finance together before we started drafting the script. As we plotted the story, I considered each aspect in terms of what it would do to my budget.” The money was raised from around 70 investors, many of whom were satisfied customers from Careful, including the New South Wales Film Corporation, which in- vested and guaranteed the presale. “I’m afraid that investors are not angels or patrons of the film business," remarks Robb. “They’re people[...]constellation of stars and a hot-shot director at the money market will have minimal effect if pecuniary rewards do not look safe and sound. “I raised the money without nominating my stars or signing a di[...]iting agreement in place very quickly, then I got the 40% presale quickly because I kept the budget down — 40% of $2 million was not an un-[...]nce it’s under- written, you’re off.” With the finance organized, the script written and the key crew members signed, casting assumed prominence. Robb and Nevin agreed on the short list of actors for the three main roles, an accord which indi- cated to both women that they shared the 5 CINEMA PAPERS Marc/7 — 35 |
| [...], Nevin with Langley and Owen Johnson, Meng/et in the background). who plays Connie and Lex’s[...] |
| same vision for the film. For Robb, it also suggested that possible problems in the future could be minimized: “I think that if the director and the producer are not making the same film by the time the cameras start to roll,” she says, “you’re in trouble.” ‘Making the same film’ meant casting Judy Morris as Connie,[...]and,Lex,and newcomer Victoria Longley to complete the triangle as Geraldine. Nevin suggested Longley on the basis of theatre work that they had done together[...]actresses were auditioned. Judy Morris embraced the central role with enthusiasm. Describing her char[...]vin as “No, no, no, no”. All three women see the film’s aims in essentially the same way: to be a sensitive and realistic account of the gradual deterioration of a relationship that dism[...]t of humour and a bit of irony.” In discussing the examination of Connie and Lex’s failing marriage and the simul- taneous metamorphosis of Geraldine, all three agree that the script supplied a crucial balance: one that explored the complexity and ambivalence of the characters’ emotions. For Morris, it works because “it presents everybody’s viewpoints. You see the good and bad sides of all the characters, and it’s a very honest presentation of the way relationships work and break down.” Like Robb, Morris believes part of the suc- cess of The More Things Change . . ., and the power behind its considerable emotional clout, is the product of confid- ence in the truth ofthe emotions — a confid- ence that reli[...]ition through dialogue. “It’s lovely to have the chance to trust what’s happening emotionally wi[...]it fails to move people.” Interestingly, given the consensus of opinion on the film’s goals and strengths, the actress and the director have different interpretations of the rela- tionship’s resolution. While Nevin sees the film’s ending as ambiguous, Morris feels sure that it signals the final straw for the couple. The absence of dialogue allows both readings. Moving the emphasis away from the dialogue and often relying on close-ups — which Nevin jokes is her only claim to a directorial style — prompted Morris to observe that Theis really very vulnerable.” Morris believes that, to some extent, all female careerists encounter theThe women’s movement has fallen pretty poorly on its face in a lot of ways; it hasn’t turned out to be the dream we all wanted. Women have ended up doing twice as much work, now they are running the home and the office.” The subject of dreams — and particu- larly failed dreams — is one that introduces the question of Lex, the perpetual dreamer and self-confessed ratbag. According to Nevin, the development and definition of his character provi[...]s of her life, he has got to have something going for him. The audience have to understand why she has been with him.” Robb affirms the concern with his character — the need to balance him on the fine line between ratbag, wimp, and endearing lov[...]well because we worked hard on him. Quite late in the script development,we added the chocolate-eating scene, to give Lex a chance to e[...]ed him to virtually explain himself to Geraldine. The only other way to do it was to have the men chat- ting in the pub.” “The three central parts are all difficult lines to wa[...]unsympathetic. Robyn worked very hard on keeping the balance of the characters correct” Barry Otto’s performance[...]casionally reckless family man — does credit to the effort that went into fleshing out his role. But, as Judy Morris observes, the three central parts “are all difficult lines to[...]n- sympathetic. Robyn worked very hard on keeping the balance correct.” Though ‘actors’ director’ is regarded by Nevin as a somewhat nebulous cliche,[...]now, when I’m asking them to do something, what the problems inherent in that process will be. When I[...]ld do, because I can translate it in my mind.” For an actor, the relationship with an actor-cum-director has advan[...]byn concentrated basically on per- formance. That is her forte,” Morris says. “She brings things t[...]ces between directing film and theatre, even with the advantage of an un- usually long three-week rehearsal period with the three leads. “Three weeks is con- sidered a fair whack of time out of a budget,” she maintains, “but it's a good .3. investment because, finally, you’re going to do less takes. When you are rehearsing a play, you run the whole thing from begin- ning to end. Everybody involved has the opportunity to see the shape of it in their heads. But, when you’re doing a film, in tiny bits and often out of sequence, the actor has to have a graph of the emotional journey that the character makes and the director has to have a graph of the whole pace. Pace is so important.” It is with obvious pride that Nevin notes that some of the scenes in the film were the master takes — an indication that the pace worked. Morris attributes much of this pre- cision to the rehearsal period. “The nuances were all there in the script. But, to take those moments and make them come alive was quite a long process. For instance, the scene where we have the argument in the kitchen and I blow out the rubber gloves . . . that took a long time to work out. We had to work out exactly where the plate would fall, where the knife would fall, where the gloves would come in. It takes time and effort. This sort of script requires extraordinary sensitivity to the nuances and required rehearsal to work out timing for many scenes, long before we got onto the set.” The benefit of the rehearsal period was further enhanced by a trouble—free shoot (with the notable exception of Barry Otto breaking a bone in his foot on day two). “The weather was sublime,” Nevin recalls, “the location was beautiful and very quiet; we had terrific food and accommodation. Jill is very goodthe film getting shot on time and being a smooth experience.” Clearly, many of the problems that plague filmmaking — unsuitable ca[...]sult of Robb’s deter- mination and firm hold on the project from the outset. However, in spite of the justifi- able pride that the women feel about The More Things Change . . ., there is one risk that has yet to prove its benefits. The test of the box office is still to come, and The More Things Change . . . is not a film that immediately lays claim to the attention of the hordes currently enjoying the exploits of Rambo and Rocky. And one perhaps surprising decision, given the undoubtedly lucrative nature of this adolescent market, was to angle an early draft of the script away from Geraldine as the central charac- ter, with Connie and Lex as suppo[...]ly, according to Nevin, to function as a catalyst for Connie and Lex’s marriage. Robb regards the slant as a calculated risk. “I didn’t believe that doing the story entirely from Geraldine’s point of view would guarantee bringing the young audi- ence in,” she says. “I also belie[...]aldine’s story, it could have diminished appeal for what I like to call the forgotten slice of the market — the people who are not film buffs, but who are satisf[...]ment, Ordinary People or Kramer vs. Kramer. There is a market out there made up of people who want to go to the movies to be entertained, but also see something that is relevant to their lives.” Almost as a wistful afterthought, and one that betrays the final variable to be tested, she adds: “We shall see if the market is big enough.” it CINEMA.PAPERS March"- |
| With his starring role in the new Australian film, Sky Pirates, John Hargreaves is the latest local actor to take the plunge into action- adventure roles. But how does he feel about acting, movies and the prospect of stardom? Gail McCrea found out.[...]nce was in a play called Motel, which dealt with the dehumanization of the human soul. It was with an extraordinary group c[...]ad directors like George Ogilvie and Jim Sharman. The author chose the motel unit as the most sordid 38 — March CINEMA F.-EFERS Hargre[...]Bi/I Hunter in Sky Pirates. symbol of life, and the third segment of the play was done with eight-foot dolls. There was an[...]osed to be a man and a woman, and they arrived at the motel unit — huge, papier-maché things. There was another doll, the motel keeper, extolling beauty and the function of his motel, which was obviously meant for illicit procreation and nothing else. The man and woman dolls arrive and copulate. She writes graffiti, then they tear the place and the motel keeper apart; at the end, they lumber out through the audience. The soundtrack increases in volume until it is painful — real shock tactics that were current in the sixties. But it had its effect: people were stunn[...]were visited one night by detectives. They banned the play in every state except Tas- mania. So we threw together a satirical send-up of Eric Willis and the NSW government, called Hotel instead of Motel, and without the obscenity. There was this sort of extraordinary groundswell of support for the New Theatre, because it was the only theatre in Sydney that dealt with social pro[...]y, they were going to prosecute me, because I was the one in the female doll, and I wrote the graffiti. I was having an interview with the New Theatre’s director, and a buzzer sounded on his desk. He said I’d have to go, because the police were on their way up to arrest me. He said[...]ks like a cupboard, you’ll find a false door at the back and a little flight of stairs which leads down to the second-floor fire escape ...l” I think: This is not happening! This only happens in movies[...] |
| Nolan, Alan Marshall: all the leading figures in the Australian cultural scene, with the knights and dames first. They were saying, “We’re putting it on, we know it’s banned, and we’re the ones who want to be arrested!” So we went back for this free performance in the Teachers’ Federation Auditorium in Sussex Stree[...]like four or five thousand tried to get in, and the whole Hoodwink, in which Rex Reed dubbed Har-[...]e was riddled with plain clothes detec- tives. At the end, when we did Motel, they got up out of the audience to arrest us. But we had the support of the wharfies, and they just shouldered the police into the wall. We dived into a room and ripped our Zoe Ca[...]e, he loses half his power” costumes off; when the police kicked down the door, they found twelve men standing in their underpants. They didn’t know who’d been in the doll’s costume! Mean- while, the audience was going berserk. They streamed onto the stage and tore the set with the graffiti on it, so there would be no evidence. The police became frightened, took refuge in the stage manager’s box and wouldn’t leave. It be[...]rship was relaxed. Then came Hair, Oh, Calcuttal, The Boys in the Band and things like that. It was like a test case for censorship. On NIDA I went to NIDA in 1969. It[...]Homicide, but it was really difficult to get into the profession. Your career as an actor was going to[...]and, to get into theatre companies like the MTC or the Old Tote, which were the two main ones, you really had to have gone through NIDA. The late sixties and early seventies saw a great renaissance in the Australian theatre — the birth of it, really. Before that, we did American[...]ecome English, basically: I didn’t want to lose the Australian accent or the Australian rhythm. Zoe Caldwell said this extra-[...]” People like Wendy Hughes and I didn’t go to the voice classes at NIDA, which were designed to cha[...]u pick up: you have some sort of natural instinct for it — in much the same way as you can’t teach people to paint. You know: you can sort of teach them the basic skills, but then it’s up to them to develop those skills. I didn’t agree with quite a lot of the philosophy at NIDA, but I found the classes in the body very useful, because I had never trained my body. And what was really good was the fact that you were always doing a production. Eve[...]ons, and we did about one a month. It meant that, for two years, you were in a sort of rep system, wher[...]ce in public. John Meillon In Over There, I had the great good luck to be working with John Meillon, who was Australia’s only experienced film actor, and the only one of his generation who kept his Australia[...]me like a junior version of John Meillon! I mean, for years I spoke like him and everything: I used the same technique of breaking up a sentence to make[...]ost Aus- tralian directors, who have come up from the technical side of things. Their rapport with actors is not good: they don’t know how to get a performance. Some recognize that, like George Miller, when he did The Dismissal. He was used to special effects, and he was very good with visuals, but not with performers. So, he eng[...]director, to work alongside him. While Miller did the visuals and the camerawork, Ogilvie did the drama, directed the actors. He eventually did one of the episodes of The Dismissal, and he became fascinated with the technical side of things. Now, he’s a film dire[...]t Altman once said that 90% of a director’s job is done when he has cast properly. I would love to work with Altman, because he is able to get such great performances. But, in most[...]a lot of rewriting. We had a rehearsal every day for a week, where we sat down and said, “How do we[...], and eventually came up with a version which had the same information that the writer wanted to put across, but in a way that we[...]re was an English director called Claude Whatham. The crew hated him, but he was good at directing actors, and the actors liked working with him. Judy Davis and I g[...]o discuss what we were going to do. He would send the crew away — tell them to go and have a cup of tea for an hour! — while we worked through the scene and discussed it and worked out exactly wha[...]and miss, and you tend to direct yourself, which is not really good. I would much prefer to have the security of feeling confident in a director who w[...]Scripts One of my beefs about Australian scripts is that I don’t think we have many writers who hav[...]reading Patrick White, because he’s so close to the bone. And David Williamson became a huge suc- cess, because he could see and record the way we behave. I was having a chat with Bob Weis the other night, and we were both saying that we have[...]sort of lock it in, and you read and see this in the scripts so often. CINEMA PAPERS March —— 39 P |
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| You can see the thought patterns of the writer, and you think: “You’re not coming to grips with the central problem. You’re writing around it, and[...]scriptwriters artificially create what they think is drama. You must always go to the reality of the situation. In Truffaut and Godard — all those New Wave films -— what was so extraordinary was the detail, the tiny little things. You had directors and writers looking at and observing the way people behaved, and they could reproduce that pattern in all its details. Scales of Justice, for instance, was a terrific script. That’s why there was such a dreadful uproar over it. The police depart- ment went berserk, which gave it a[...]dy watched it. They should have just shut up, and the three old ladies from North Balwyn who watch the ABC would have been the only ones to have seen it. The writer had spent a couple of years doing his home- work. It is very easy to do that sort of part, because most of the work is done for you by the excellent writing. On the other hand, you get the Crawfords school of police acting — or police w[...]human beings at all. I used to really enjoy doing the early Homicides and Matlocks, though: the guest baddie was often a terrific role. I used to feel sorry for the police: they used to have the same lines every week. But the guest baddies were often scintillating roles to p[...]ld really let your hair down! You don't get many good scripts, so you hold out for as long as you can, hoping a good one will come along. But eventually you run out of money and you have to do something. The Dismissal, Careful, He Might Hear You, Scales of Justice and Present Laughter on the stage, all in a period of about two years, was fa[...]Thompson. They project a very strong image which is always there, underneath the character they play. I tend not to do that: I don[...]tyle. I prefer to forget about myself and present the character, not use myself. I think it gets in the way. But a sort of ‘star system’ is emerging here, with people like Judy Davis and We[...]essful overseas. They got a lot of attention from the Village Voice and the New York Times, which impressed the locals! Rex Reed, who’d seen me at Cannes, dubbed me ‘the new Steve McQueen’. McQueen had just died, so i[...]that character in Hoodwink. I’ve never enjoyed the sort of publicity that makes you a household name —— you know, the TV Week sort of thing. I’m absolutely bored by[...]l issues than plumbers. I mean, you don’t get a good plumber being asked his opinions on nuclear disar[...]to open fetes! Australia on film I’m waiting for Australia to throw up a Fellini -— its own Fellini. I think the most honestly accurate and bizarre film about Australia is Wake in Fright, directed by a Canadian who had spent two weeks in the country before he did it. He was able to see, in two weeks in Broken Hill, the whole incredible, bizarre culture. And he recorded it. Also, my theory is, we don’t have a cameraman who adores women. I[...]lians are reserved and Anglo-Saxon generally, and the way we treat women in our society is also reflected in our films. I’ve often seen films with people like Judy Davis and Wendy Hughes, and the camera- man hasn’t really looked at them. Wendy’s got the most extraordinarily photogenic face. But what the cameraman generally sees is a frame with a composition, not the detail in the composition. Not all are like that. Dean Semler isfor a double murder he didn’t do. Enough people wer[...]mmering away at it. Then David Yallop stumbled on the story, and he wrote this book exposing the frame-up. I spent a couple of weeks living with the guy and his family — a very large country famil[...]lk like him. He was very helpful. They all wanted the movie to be made so his name would be cleared, instead of him just being given a pardon. The authorities tried to circumvent the movie, by releasing him with a pardon but not an acquittal. But the movie was finally made, and the enquiry cleared his name. They gave him a million dollars, or about that: one hundred thousand for every year he had been in jail. It’s very hard, talking about reality. But, unless you convince the audience that what is happening is real, then you’ve lost. On Careful, He Might Hear You, I had this suit made for me. When I put it on, it was wrong for the character I was playing. It was the right style, the right cloth, every- thing, and the guy who had done the ward- robe won an AFI award, which he really dese[...]y. There was nothing he’d done which was wrong: the suit should have been perfect, and I just had to[...]t them a fortune to make it. I called Jill Robb, the producer, over, and she said, “Yeah, it’s wrong. I can’t tell why, but it is”. So, we went round the second-hand shops and got together a collection o[...]said, “That’s it!”. Being an actor One of the things I hate about being an actor is that you’re at the mercy of so many variables. It’s impossible to plan your life six months ahead, because of the state of the industry. You hold out and hold out for a script you really like, then it doesn’t happe[...]s, you sign a con- tract and get paid: I got paid for Breaker Morant, although I wasn’t in it. You b[...]ect, which fell through. Then there was a film in the Philippines for a London producer, which was supposed to be my fi[...]ed. Then, when I was in France, I got a,call from the National Theatre in London. David Hare had writte[...]y rang me and said they were having problems with the Home Office, getting a work permit for me. They couldn’t take the risk of finding out after rehearsals had begun th[...]dn’t have been any problem. But, because it was the National Theatre, which is the flagship of The Arts in England, everything had to be done by the letter of the law. That's quite typical in the life of an actor: you have three projects which you think you’re going to do, and they fold, one after the other. Eventually, you have to do the first thing that comes along. In a sense, you ne[...]w I should have played that scene in that movie! The awful thing is, you tend to become a little too much of an absor[...]of my brain says, “Remember that! That’s very good: you could use thatl” It’s really chilling. Y[...]yourself going through something. That’s one of the traps of the business you’re in: it’s all “I”,[...] |
| ‘L 6 c A T Love, marriage, life and the whoe damn thing Kangaroo: a new perspective on Au[...]ally hailed recently by Anthony Burgess as one of the greatest), Kangaroo was written in six weeks during the novelist‘s visit to Australia in 1922. It is a heady mixture of travel writing (including Lawr[...]story about a native fascist organization run by the sinister figure of ‘Kangaroo’. "The novel’s a real curiosity," says Ross Dimsey, producer of the $3.3-million feature version, which completed its[...]eally two novels, almost in alternation. And it's the only novel Lawrence never revised. it was sent to his publisher basically straight off the page, and published with spelling and factual errors intact. The first thing we had to do was‘ separate the alternating chapters, which are the chain of events, from the philosophy — Law- rence’s thoughts about love, marriage, life and the whole damn thing. That content is mostly carried by Somers and Harriet — who are effectively Lawrence and his wife, Frieda — and it is the major plot of the film. The political events are seen as an incident.” The[...]interest, focused on 42 — March CINEMA PAPERS the imposing figure of Hugh Keays- Byrne, resplendent in digger hat and plume, seated bolt upright in the back of a vintage Arrol-Johnston, as he draws up to review his private army. Kangaroo’s army is assembling for a swearing-in ceremony prior to a bit of union-bashing at the Sydney Police HQ — in reality. the old Board of Works sewage pumping station on the Geelong side of Melbourne's Westgate Bridge. The pumping stafion’s imposing courtyard has featured in a good many movies, in- cluding Mad Max, where it was the Halls of Justice. The secret army, with ‘Kangaroo’ badges on its hats, is a far from fanciful creation. ‘‘All the literary critics," says Kangaroo‘s director, Tim Burstall, “rubbished Lawrence for having invented this whole secret army bullshit b[...]Italian experiences with Mussolini. But Kangaroo is based on a man called General Rosenthal, who was[...]r- ested in bringing Draconian legis- lation into the New South Wales parliament in order to break the unions and so on. The Secret Army did exist. it was called, of all things, the King and Empire Alliance, and its front was a patriotic organization made up of disaffected diggers.” The Lawrence and Frieda charac- ters — Somers and Harriet in the novel and the film — are being played by Colin Friels and Jud[...]e Heatwave), with John Walton and Julie Nihill as the neighbours who bring them into contact with Kanga- roo. Yet, for all its star cast and period setting, Kangaroo has been made for a modest budget and with an eight-week shoot. “[...]ink there's a very real chance we can recoup. But the key is preparation. I traded off a very long preparation[...]r-prepared, because we'd been in pre-produc- tion for almost three months.” Tim Burstall has been involved with plans for a film version of the novel since the early seventies, when he began trying to set it up, initially with Gunnar Ruggheimer of the BBC, then with the New South Wales Film Corporation. The real key, says Burstall, is Lawrence’s perspective on this strange land in which he found himself. "He's about the only great modern writer who's bothered to come here and take an interest in the place." Part of this perspective has been maintained by the use of an English scriptwriter — who is, Burstall is Demonic digger: Hugh Keays-Byrne as the sinister Kangaroo. Inset, the Burstalls — director Tim (left) and DOP Dan (looking through eye- piece) shooting Kangaroo, the movie. quick to point out, a member of the AWG: Evan Jones, who wrote some of Losey's finest films (including The Damned and King and Country), and also scripted Wake in Fright. Jones was on hand throughout the rehearsal period. "Not only could he absorb the work of the rehearsals,” says Dimsey. “but also the scheduling input. Because, very often, a screenplay tends to get written in concrete: you know, ‘They meet the train’, or something, whereas in fact the scene is simply there to bridge a day scene and a night scene." But the perspective remains. And that, feels Burstall, is what counts. “A lot of the things Lawrence was on about —- mateship and that funny streak of violence underneath it; the amiability, plus that stuff about the ‘withheld self’ — were spot on. I'm damn su[...]anything Australian literature was turning out at the same time. In some ways it's even anti-Australian, but I think we've passed the nationalist phase where we couldn't take t[...] |
| “The bathroom is the strongest part,” says Donald Crombie, looking a[...]y studios. “it's all that plumbing. You look at the photographs of Darwin after Tracy, and sometimes all that was left was the bathroom.” Tracy, of course, was the cyclone that levelled huge areas of the North- ern Territory capital in the small hours ofChristmas Day, 1974, killing 64 peo[...]and thirties star Aileen Britton) are recreating the events in PBL’s $4,509,000_, six- hour miniseries, due to be shown on the Nine Network later this year. In the run-up to Christmas 1974, it seems that no one took the approaching disaster seriously. "There’d been a[...]e's minds were elsewhere, so they largely ignored the cyclone warn- ings.” The wind started going wild around midnight (gusts of 217 kilo- metres per hour were recorded before the recording equipment failed), wreaking havoc for three hours, then gave way to an eerie, misleading stillness, as the eye of the storm passed right through the town. “The eye went through around 3.30 in the morning," says Crombie. "But the worst part of the storm was after the eye, probably because the wind had been coming from one direction, so the buildings were weakened. Then it came back the other way and whammol" The whammo side of Tracy is mainly model work — a painstaking way of making a living in the film business — and the main models are exact recreations of actual Darwi[...]al dentist, in gleaming white shirt and trousers, is make-up artist Bob McGarron. McGarron is clearly in his element, demonstrating such favourites as a model new-born baby with an articu- lated arm (for the scene — taken from fact — in which a mother-to-be was blown through a window and gave birth in the street); a prosthetic twelve-year-o|d’s arm, co[...]n eye with a two-inch nail jutting out from under the lid, which can be worn like a contact lens. Cromb[...]oot it, but thinks it will probably be too grisly for primetime audiences. But, for all the crucial — and expensive — special effects, bo[...]and his co—director, Kathy Mueller, insist that the real focus of Tracy is not exploding bathrooms, flying debris and mutilated bodies. “What i like about it," says Crombie, “is that it's a story of how people change as a result of crisis.” ''If there is one thing this film has to do for us," echoes Mueller, “it’s represent the spirit of the nation. Being an American, I find that Aus- trali[...]in hotel, shaken but not fundamentally stirred by the cyclone — the owner, Connie (Tracy Mann), her two kids, and a .3‘'..‘ 4- ‘ life T acy: a real vision). The hotel’s occupants are now in the process of pushing it out. It is the end of six hours of viewing — a moment of uplift and affirmation — and it is going particularly well. So, too, is the co-direction. "Its like being an old married coup[...]disasterfor PBL ‘ Piano fort: the hotel’: occupants take cover as the Torana comes through. journalist going throug[...]ot taking things too seriously, as they improvize the final scene of the miniseries. ‘Things’, in this instance, is a battered Torana, which has been thrown through the wall by the cyclone (in reality, by a fork-lift truck going at full speed towards the outer wall of the set, hitting two chocks, and launching its load onto tele- 7'" ‘The voice and the - whisper’ are key elements in cyclone- based miniseries have a lot of laughs. it's also the closest thing to an ideal working relationship th[...]could happen in filmmaking." Crombie, as usual, is more prag- matic. “We call the system ‘The Voice and the Whisper'," he says. “The Voice is actually on, doing the directing, and The Whisper can come on and talk to The Voice — never to the actors or the camera crew, though. The only person who's found it difficult is the con- tinuity personage over there” — he points towards Ann Walton, set up Vivian Zink beside what is left of the bar. “She's got to make sure the bits all stick together." Holding the visual bits together has likewise been something of a problem for Andrew Lesnie, one of Australia's youngest DOPs, with an impressive list of credits in the past year: Fair Game, Unfinished Busi- ness, Aust[...]ends in with his own action scenes, and must hold the style together through a worry- ing number of different locations. “The circumstances of this job are that we're doing an[...]h doubles. We will do closer shots in Sydney" — the Botany Bay area is proving a remarkably suitable stand-in for the far north. “Then, the moment they walk in the door, we're on a set. When it's stormy, it's a model. And the close-ups for that would be on a set again. So there's a lot of[...]has been a key overall consideration with Tracy: the ghost of the disaster movie has never been far away. "We looke[...], "and they were very depressing: you never loved the people." For producers Timothy Read and John Edwards, fresh — if that is the word — from The Empty Beach and I Own the Racecourse, the answer was to aim for a high- quality melodrama. And melodrama —— a[...]dirty word in Australian film- making circles — is a notion they enthusiastically embrace. “The trick that had to be pulled off," says Read, "was[...]ut a public event of con- siderable importance to the whole of Australia. We reckon that there's no one in Australia — except perhaps the very, very young — who hasn't got either a pers[...]e at one remove, of Tracy. To put something up on the screen that didn't do that justice, and at the same time didn't work as television in melodramat[...]It's not a movie where it's more important to see the whole of Sydney swallowed up by an earth- quake, than it is to see the effect that has on the characters. In this case, it's more important to see the effect on the characters, than it is to see Darwin blown over.” His point is echoed by his co- producer, John Edwards. "You've got to carry it for six hours, and you don't go ‘Ooh-aah!’ for six hours. We've set ourselves on train tracks. B[...]e minutes a day of screen time, you can't get off the tracks once you're on. If our premise hold[...] |
| [...]asonal slowdown inlocal production CBS accounts for a lot of the action The tacit understanding that Aus- tralia closes down for a month after Christmas is, to some extent, reflected by the level of production in the film and television industries. However, the predictably quiet time in January may not have been entirely spent basking on the beaches, as many producers waited rather testily for news from the taxa- tion department regarding the eligi- bility of projects submitted in the July-to-September rush to qualify for the 133/30 deductions. Film industry activity, in particular. was quiet, though Australian of the Year Paul Hogan's determined pro- motion of the lucky country seems to have produced a novel hybrid. The Blue Lightning, a $4.5-million tele- movie that started shooting on 11 January, represents the first venture by a major US network (CBS) into Au[...]- ently, have been attributed at least in part to the fact that Australia has recently moved, on the list of places that Americans would like to holiday in, from an indifferent 48th to top of the pile. Filming in and around Broken Hill and at S[...]PERS ON were also shot, has not been delayed by the large number of stunts required by the script — an average of one a day. Production of the telemovie also involves the Seven Network, Roadshow, Coote & Carroll and Ross[...]becca Gilling, John Meillon and Robert Coleby. it is scheduled to screen in the US during the May ratings period. Elsewhere, Comrades, com- pleted shooting early in January, after the cast and crew battled through unseasonably sour w[...]schedules. And Bill Bennett's Backlash wrapped at the end of the month. in spite of the tax-break uncer- tainty, a number of features rolled in three states in February. On the New South Wales coast, The Bee-Eater, starring John Hargreaves and Tushka Ho[...]che McBride commenced production in Melbourne. On the same day, in Beaudesert, Queens- land, a seven—[...]by James Fishburn, whose previous credits include the Mavis Bramston Show. Early in March, the Burrowes- Dixon Group are set to roll on Back- stage, with Laura Branigan in the lead. Producer Frank Howson plans to go straight from that project to his next film (based on the life of boxer Les Darcy), Something Great. There was marginally more activity in the television industry, with three productions shoot[...]fore Christmas, while Alice to Nowhere wrapped at the end of January. The final project in the Crawtords package announced last September, My Brother Tom, is set to roll on 17 March forten weeks. The Melbourne-based production, In Between, co-direct[...]d its second production block on 25 February, and is scheduled for SBS- TV later this year. Samson Produc- tions’[...]on in Febru- ary were Roadshow, Coote & Carroll's The Challenge, which began a twelve-week shoot on 17[...]rov, which rolled in Melbourne on 3 February; and the six-part mini- series, The Harp in the South, an adaptation of a Ruth Park novel that st[...]bruary. ,4 Rebecca Gil/ing and Sam Elliot in The Blue Lightning. .fl53‘*é‘” 1 .[...] |
| Australia. FEATURES PRE-PRODUCTION AVENGERS OF THE CHINA SEAS Prod. company ..Nilsen Premiere[...]criptwrite .. ...... ..Patrick Edgeworth Based on the origina idea by... ..Patrick Edgeworth Editor ..[...]sis: A contemporary action-adventure story set on the South China Sea. THE CRICKETER Prod. company[...]stranger iii town whose skill with a cricket bat is almost unnatural . . . he's gotta have a secret.[...]............. ..F. G. Productions (Aust.) Pty Ltd for International Film Management Ltd Dist. company[...]ong Morphett. onla Borg, Stephen Cross Based on the novel by. .....Grahame Webb Exec. producers .....[...]tman Synopsis: A huge rogue crocodile terrorises the inhabitants of Darwin. DOT AND THE TREE Prod. company ........[...]..35 mm Synopsis. o olin-maker, |'l . find the spread of a big city threatens their lifestyles.[...].. ..35 mm Synopsis: Dot and her friends team up for a musical special which teatures a "live" star performer. 8341: THE PYJAMA GIRL MURDER (Working title) Prod. company[...]............... ..Sue Tate, John Rogers Based on the novel by.. .Robert Coleman Prod. designer... ...[...]udget _, $2.75 million Length .. ....120 minutes The Cinema Papers Production Survey A full listing of the features, telemovies, documentaries and shorts no[...]. . ..35 mm Shooting stock ..9247, 5294 Synopsis: The film is based on the true story of the Pyjama Girl Murder. A girl's body was found in Sy[...]University, on view to thousands of people, until the murder was solved in 1944. GREAT EXPECTATIONS — THE AUSTRALIAN STORY Prod. companies ...........[...].Tim Burstall Scriptwriter .Tim Burstall Based on the original idea by.. Tom Burstall Sound recordist .[...]Bridget Tankerton). Synopsis: Great Expectations: The Aus- tralian Story takes the character Abel Magwitch from Charles Dickens’ n[...]ctations and builds a story around his life, from the time he was exiled in Australia as a convict, unt[...]Synopsis: A pagan passion play set under and on the shores of Bondi beach, with bulk ratbaggery and m[...]Scriptwriter Peter Kenna Based on the original idea by .. Peter Kenna Photography David[...]ville Gifford), Steven Vidler (Sugar). Synopsis: The film tells the story of a woman who breaks with convention and delies the taboos of an era in the pursuit of self-know- ledge and sexual fulfilment[...]ance to be shot on locations in Sydney and Bali. THE ROBOT STORY Prod. company ..[...]5 minutes Gauge. ...... ..35 mm Synopsis: Set in the future, the film involves a group of young people and robots[...]nopsis: A female lawyer inadvertently dis- covers the brutal background to an attack on a young girl in[...]5.5 million Length. .... ..120 minutes Synopsis: The true story of the trials and triumphs of Australia's golden boy of[...]ied in Memphis, lonely, bewildered and reviled at the age of 21. TERRA AUSTRALIS Prod. comp[...]..35 mm Synopsis: Based on scientific findings, the film is set in prehistoric Australia. PRODUCTION BACKST[...]ry comedy/drama set in Melbourne and New York. It is the story of a female American singing star who has achieved worldwide success in the rock music field. but now wants success as a dram[...]nd struggles to rebuild her career and her life. THE BEE-EATER (Working title) Prod. company. .Daedalu[...]sweet comedy about love and sex and growing up in the sixties. DOT AND THE BUNYIP Prod. company ...... .. ....Yoram[...] |
| [...]ttempt to foil his plans. Dot soon discovers that the circus is merely a front for an international wildlife smuggling operation. DOT AND THE WHALE Prod. company .......................... .[...]John Palmer Producer .. Scriptwriter.. Based on the original idea ...Yoram Gros[...]scue a whale stranded on a beach, Dot and Neptune the dolphin hunt the ocean depths searching for a wise old octopus called The Oracle who knows how to save whales. Graphics ..[...]46 — March CINEMA PAPERS ON FOOTROT FLATS — THE MOVIE Prod. company... ...Magpie Productions Ltd[...]npIay.. ...... ..Murray Ball, Tom Scott Based on the characters created by.[...]9. Billy T. James. Synopsis: An aminated feature. The adven- tures of Dog and Wal, and the characters of Footrot Flats. FRENCHMAN’S FARM[...]ckie knew that she had witnessed a murder down on the farm. The others were not so sure. But when they opened that Pandora's box, the consequences were horrific for everyone.[...]on Glenn Scriptwriter .. ....Ted Roberts Based on the novel by ..Gabrielie Carey Photography ..... .. .[...]outh). Synopsis: A love story based on a book of the same name by Gabrielle Carey. RACING Prod. compa[...]d by ....................... ..Harry Williams and The Country Outcasts Prod. assistant ...............[...]auge... ....... ..16mm Synopsis: Sunny Bancroft, the Aboriginal manager of a cattle station in Northern NSW, decides to race one of the station’s stock- horses at the local picnic races. He and his family are drawn more and more into the picnic race circuit, sometimes winning, sometimes[...]ny .............. ..Ukiyo Films Australia Pty Ltd for International Film Management Limited[...]n McLennan Scriptwriter.. ..Don McLennan Based on the novel by Georgia Savage Phot raphy....... ....Dav[...]elling drama of abduction and obsession set along the Murray River in the late sixties. Two brothers, Slate and Wyn, kill a policeman while robbing the bank of a small country town. A young school teacher, Blanche McBride, witnesses the crime and is kidnapped by the brothers and taken across the state to a hideout. THE STEAM DRIVEN ADVENTURES OF RIVEFIBOAT BILL Prod.[...]Scriptwriter..... .C|iffGreen Based on the novel by .. .Cliff Green Photography ....... .. .[...]am Williams. Synopsis: Animated adventure set on the Murray River at the turn of the century. Riverboat Bill and his crew attempt to protect an illegal bunyip from the long arm of the law. 3 F.U.K. FM (106.3 ON YOUR DIAL) Prod. comp[...]riters... ..Martin Burke, Steve Evans Music .....The Pulse Length .. 90 minutes Gauge . uper 16 mm Sy[...]pirate radio station. POST-PRODUCTION AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 WAYS[...] |
| [...], John Howard (Dr Proctor). Synopsis: Mavis Davis is off around the world on a fast motion package trip. When Dad fin[...]ns begin to stir. Dad decides to chase her around the world — one problem, no money. So his sons Eddie and Wally assisted by the beautiful nurse Ophelia Cox, fabricate a convinci[...]l Bennett Scriptwriter..... Bill Bennett Based on the origina l ea y. Bill Bennett Photography .... ..[...]er (Kath), Brian Syron (Lyle). Synopsis: Backlash is a story about a policeman and a policewoman escor[...].. ...Paul Cox, Norman Kaye, Bob Ellis Based on the original idea by ....PaulCox Photography ..Yuri[...]iter .................... ..Blll Douglas Based on the original idea by.. ....Bill Douglas Photography .[...]hael Hordern (Mr Pitt). Synopsis: Comrades tells the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, a group of six Dorset farm workers who, in the early 1830s. formed one of the world's first trade unions and,in doing so, were convicted of sedition and transported to the penal colony of New South Wales. Their plight bec[...]ed to them being pardoned, largely as a result of the work of Mr Pitt. CROCODILE DUNDEE ...John Corne[...]kilton (Nugget). Synopsis: Crocodile Mick Dundee is a friendly larrikin crocodile hunter from the wilds of Australia. He becomes national news afte[...]by a giant crocodile; heroically,he drags himself for a week through croc-infested waters and survives to tell the tale. In fact the story gets better every time it's told. Especiall[...]-Smith Scriptwriter.... ...Peter Smalley Based on the s ...Peter Carey Photography..... ..Paul Murphy S[...]ssa Davis, Wilbur Wilde, Brett Clirno. Synopsis: The near future. a harsh world where only the cunning and the tough are free. A young man becomes pan of the cast-oft society and finds himself imprisoned in[...]Kavanagh Scriptwriter .. ..Michael Gurr Based on the play by ..Michael Gurr Photog[...]A drama of relationships under pressure. Based on the play ‘A Pair of Claws’. DOT AND KEETO Prod.[...]sive ants. Desperately, she and her friend, Keeto the Mosquito, hunt lorthe magic bark that will return[...]....John Dixon Scriptwriter. .John Dixon Based on the original idea by ....John Dixon Photograph[...] |
| [...]rd (Terry). Synopsis: An action/thriller/comedy. THE FRINGE DWELLERS Prod. company ....[...]Scriptwriter .. .Bruce Beresford Based on the novel by.. .... ..Nene Gare Photography .... .. .[...]A contemporary film about an Aboriginal family. GOOD MAN DOWN (Formerly Birdsville)[...].. . .John Haratzis .....Brenton Grear, Alan Good, John Kingston, Karl Brunken, Kevin Kilday, Geof[...]ence (Purdy), David Slingsby (Spence). synopsis: The story of Harry Walford, an unlikely hero who overcomes hardship, emerges triumphant and, in the process, pioneers the overland stock route from southern Queensland to[...]Tim Burstall Scriptwrite ...Evan Jones Based on the nove y. . .H. Lawrence Photography ...... .. ..Da[...]nuity .......... .. ..Judy Whitehead Assistant to the producer ...Kiki Dimsey Casting ........ .. ....[...]nd Harriet Somers leave exhausted post-war Europe for a new and freer world. In Australia they meet and become involved with Kangaroo, the awesome leader of a political group called the Diggers. The consequences are disastrous. Based on the novel by D.H. Lawrence,in which Lawrence explores his political past and the sources of power in individuals, marriage and soc[...]ll Perryman (Miss Dodge). Synopsis: Making Waves is a last—moving contemporary comedy/romance about[...]d love. A movie of music and action, includin all the colour and excitement of windsu ing’s most spec[...]Scriptwriters. Angus Caffrey, Ali Kayn Based on the original idea by .......... .. .Angus Caffrey Pho[...]............... ..A|i Kayn, Cam Lappin Catering ..The Director's Mum Budget .. .... ..$336,000 Length .[...]Andrew Bone (Christopher Columbus), Lee Harding (The Surgeon). Synopsis: The true story of the discovery of Australia. Sort of. THE RIGHT HAND MAN Prod. company .... .. ..Yarraman F[...]an Story developed by .....Steven Grives Based on the novel by .. Katherine Peyton Photo raphy..[...] |
| [...]0) are A Specialists in Wigmaking V for Film and Television [(6% including beards and mou[...]l! . , . 2 Z Film work includes: Five Mile Creek, The Sullivans, 35)II]}] ]6l}])}1 ,V€g(I[I‘L‘€ Cllfflflff Q E Annie’s Coming Out, The Pirate Movie, Cooper’s Crossing. cums HOWELL PR[...]CANON & ZEISS LENSES 0 0 CUSTOM MODIFICATIONS 0 For quality 35 mm sci-fi/adventure/war/car actioii/fe[...]Lens collimation and repair facilities for all film and video lenses. 1st FLOOR, 29 COLLEGE[...]plete sound mixing facility Credits Include: ‘The: Flying Doctors” 1983 r Series “Robbery Under[...]Butterfly lsland” 1985 .. .. ..ea=ies For fuzttli-iei: information phone liélelieniiaus[...]i \ g‘—§«' M I Q —: MADE IN AUSTRALIA THE CHOICE OF PROFESSIONALS. THE WORLD OVER MILLER FLUID HEADS 30 H[...] |
| [...]erine McCIements (Sarah). Synopsis: Ned Rowlands is the driver of Cobb & Cos seventy seat passenger coach, The Leviathan. His skills attract the attention of Lord lronminster's son, Harry, who before an accident was considered the best dragsman in the country. Harry is determined to race his rig to set a new record an[...]nd finds himself involved in a relationship which is more than a mere race against time. THE SURFER Prod. company ...................... ..Ni[...]inning (Murph), Steven Leeder (Slaney). WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE Prod. company ....M.W. Productions[...]Synopsis: David and Angela Burke are infertile. The film follows their story as they progress to usin[...]rs .. .......Yahoo Serious, David Roach Based on the original idea by.....Yahoo Serious Photography...[...]Creative asst to the .. Lulu Pinkus Casting consultants . . . . . . .[...]inslade Best boy .. ....Shaun Conway Publicity .. The Rea Francis Company Unit publicist. .Jan Batten[...]stein), Sue Cruikshank (Mrs Einstein). Synopsis: The incredible, untold story of a 26-year-old apple f[...]ew), Libby Wherrett (Renate Paul). Synopsis: This is the story of a 13-year-old girl, one of the thousands of children in Australia each year who are victims of incest. It is also the story of a family in crisis when disclosure of the secret causes disintegration, shatters the system of relationships and poses frightening questions for the future. It is hard-edged drama based firmly in fact, but its thrust is positive and it allows a safe conduct zone on the far side of the minefield. Its aim is to raise awareness of incest in the community, and to show that the result of breaking the silence surrounding it can be positive rather than a continuing victimization of the child. DESIDEHIUS ORBAN (Working title) Prod. co[...]d Length ............. .. ...50 minutes Synopsis: The origin of life and the controversial suggestion that life did not begin on earth but was seeded from the depths of space. MAKE WAY FOR THE MACHINE Prod. company .. ...lndependent Producti[...]. . . . . . . ..50 minutes Synopsis: Investigates the effect of new technology on work and leisure in[...]16 mm Shooting stock. Eastman Color Synopsis: The f the involvement and progress of four students with va[...]sts with their prospective mentors. SOMETHING OF THE TIMES Prod. company ....[...]minutes Gauge... .... ..16 mm Synopsl . e me of the remaining traces and memories of the buffalo shooting camps of the Northern Territory before WWII. White shooters relied upon local Aboriginal labor and the lives of certain Aboriginals came to revolve around the buffalo industry. VINCENT, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF VINCENT VAN GOGH Prod. company[...]......................... .. ...PauI Cox Based on the original idea by. ...Paul Cox Photography .... ..[...]ootin stock. ..... ..Fuji Synops s: A film about the life and work of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).[...]es Gauge.... .....16mm Synopsis ry of some of the 15,000 Australian women who married American servicemen during World War I[ Exiles by choice, the majority left Australia in the US Army's massive manoeuvre called ‘Operation Brideship’ to join their sweetheans on the other side of the world. Fony years later, they talk about their ex[...]. ..ECN Cast: George D . Synopsis: Witch Hunt is a story of trial and error, innocence and guilt. It was an attempt to find a crime — the so-called "Greek Conspiracy", but it turned into[...]Producers ...... .. ....Pante|is Roussakis, Kevin Shanely Director . . . . . . .[...]spite not having rlnet, and are unlikely to, but for synchronistic ows. NIGHTFIND[...]cobson Scriptwriter .....Steven Jacobson Based on the original idea by .Steven Jacobson Photogra[...] |
| Credits Include: “Taurus Rising" "The Little Fella" ’ "Outbreak of‘Hostilitie.<." i’;Seeon<‘:l ‘Time "The Flying Doctors" "Robbery Under Arms" "The Henderson Kids" "Butterfly Island" "Playing Beatie Bow" "I Live With Me Dad" "Coopers Crossing," "The Far Country" T V. Series Telefeature Telefeature[...]ergy Source Television Productions can help solve the problem. ESTV have the experience, with production of several documentaries, a forthcoming series for Network Television, and a weekly program for American Cable Network. ESTV have the people and the equipment for virtually any type of video production, large or small. Hire the Studio or hire the people. Whichever way, you will get more meat forTHE WHEATLEY ORGANISATION, MEGAN TUDOR PUBLICI[...] |
| [...]t de Rosario (Tom). 5 nopsis: An alien spaceship is the last thing C ris expects to find in his backyard. Even more unexpected are the exciting events which follow. A fantasy adventure featuring a teenage boy's encounter with a vicious alien. THE ROOM[...]cobson Scriptwriter.. ...Steven Jacobson Based on the original idea by ..Steven Jacobson Photography ..[...](Jenny). Chris Ward (Matt). Synopsis: At first, The Room seemed just like any other.But ,to four children left alone in the house one night, it would become a nightmare —[...]ningful Eye Contact Pty Ltd (with assistance from the Creative Development Branch of the Australian Film Commission) ....Alexander Proyas[...]Producer Director . Scriptwriters Based on the original idea by ............ .. .Alexan[...]s fanatically religious sister live in a shack in the middle of a vast desert. The man dreams of leaving in a flying machine of his own invention. A comedy of the ironic. THE WEDDING Prod. company .. .Matrimonial Production[...]ing stock.. ....ECN Synopsis: A positive look at the achievements of Australian innovation. presenting[...]..... ..16 mm Synopsis: Observational film about the journey through the rehabilitation process of alcoholic Aboriginals a[...]l and social life in Hong Kong. It centres around the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, observes the values which once made Britain a great colonial power, the clubs, the Taipans, the servants and the good life. Yet, for this world, the days are now numbered. DEMOCRACY Prod. company.[...]hase Gauge.. ........... ..16mm Synopsis: One of the Real Life series, the film follows a political candidate in a marginal seat through the seven weeks of the campaign to the numbers coming in and the gathering of the faithful for the election night party. DOCTORS .... ..Film Austr[...]minutes Gauge.. ..... ..16mm Synopsis; One of the Real Life series, the film follows Dr Bruce Shepherd through the aftermath of the Medicare dispute. Shepherd is committed to the privatization of health care and the film explores the personalities and the lifestyle of the surgeons and their relationships with the community. GETTING STRAIGHT Prod. company... ..[...]. . . . . . . . . . . . ..16 mm Synopsis: One of the Real Life series, the film follows a group of patients from a drug and alcohol treatment clinic during their last days in the clinic and the first few weeks of their return to the community as they struggle to cope with a world w[...]uge.... .....Betai:am Synopsis. Four short videos for the International Year of Shelter for the homeless. INTERIOR RESTORATION AND DECORATION[...]nutes Gauge... ....... ..16 mm Synopsis: This is the sixth in the Australian Heritage Commission's series, Artisans of Australia. It shows the work of Christine Cooke and Elizabeth Stevens who[...]phyry, stencilling and some investigation work on the walls of Villa Alba, an unrestored and unoccupied[...]rod. assistant. Length Gauge... Synopsis: One of the Real Life series, the film is about the criminal justice system and its treatment of juvenile offenders. The film includes, for the first time, footage shot in the Australian court while cases are being heard. LO[...].Katrlna Lee Length ..2O minutes Synopsis. I tes is very common among older people. This film shows o[...]ow they can manage their diabetes by proper diet, exercise, care of the feet, and consultation with their dieticians and[...]stant. .Jim Ward Gauge .....16mm Synopsis: One of the Real Life series, the film is an inside story of life at The Sydney Morning Herald. The film looks at the daily process from the editorial decision-making, the news gathering. the meetings, to the late night rolling of the presses. Production Survey continued RUNNING FROM THE GHOST Prod. company. ........ ..Film Australia D[...]auge. ...... ..16 mm Synopsis: A film set within the Chinese com- munity of Hong Kong. Here, people know little of the romantic social life generated by British presence. The film is about two hawkers, a squatter and their families as they struggle to make a home and living in the face of a well- organized bureaucracy. THE SCIENCE OF WINNING Prod. company.. Film Australi[...]: Aust p g vement has declined dramatically since the golden age of the sixties. The debacle at the Montreal Olympic Games prompted the government into action and there are now many nat[...]s science institutes. How effective are they? Are the commercial, scientific and national pressures too much for 2nd unit photography.. Gaffer an athlete? What are the ethics . . . is it still sport’? SINGLES Prod. company..... ..[...]Fraser Lengt . .90 minutes Gauge.. Synopsi . is a foray into the world of the unattached. Charles is recently divorced and struggling to get his life together. He is in love and trying to establish a relationship. At the same time, a small group of women vie for his attention. SOLID PLASTERING Prod. company..[...]minutes Gauge.. ........ ..16 mm Synopsis: This is the fifth in the Australian Heritage Commission's series, Artisans of Australia. It shows the work of Larry Harrigan, a third generation solid plasterer. He has been working on the exterior of the Collingwood Town Hall in Melbourne for the past seven years and has almost finished the massive restoration job. He demonstrates the various kinds of plastering including running mou[...]ebruary 1986 Synopsis: Uluru — An Anangu Story is a unique portrayal of Australian history. Rarely if ever before has the opponunity been available to present the entire history of an area, from the times before the white man to the present day through the perspective of Aboriginals whose lives have spanned such a period. The ogram is set against the backdrop of Uluru (Ayers Rock) and is a personal, human story. THE VISIT ....... ..Film Australia Film Austr[...] |
| [...]ards Gauge.... ........ ..16 mm Synopsis: One of the Real Life series, the film is about a Vietnamese refugee family and the visit to Australia of a son they haven't seen for four years. A moving film which witnesses the family's attempts to come to terms with their past and to share their present with their son. VOICES ON THE PAGE Prod. compa[...]16mm Shooting stock ...Eastmancolor Synopsis: The first in a series of films about Australian writers and their work, planned for use in secondary schools, TAFE colleges and tertiary institutions. The series is concerned with writers as interpreters of society, David Williamson is seen in various activities, such as a rehearsal of "The Club", writing at home, discussing his work with[...]at a Sydney Theatre Company board meeting, while the film gives an insight into his working methods and philosophy. WE ARE THE LANDOWNER Prod. company... .__Film Australia[...]e.... Shooting stock .ECN Synopsis: Today, one of the most positive aspects of traditional Aboriginal Australia is the outstation or clan homeland movement. After a gen[...]boriginal township in north-east Arnhem Land, and the Yirrkala Homeland Resource Centre, the film does to Baniyala, homeland settlement of the Madarrpa clan. The picture that emerges is of traditional Aboriginal people running their own affairs, and exploiting western technology in the process, with competence and joy. WHEN THE SNAKE BITES THE SUN Prod. company... ...Film Australia Dist. com[...]mplete as poss- ible. If you have something which is about to go into pre- production, let us know and we will make sure it is included. Call Debi Enker on (O3) 329 5983, or w[...]North Melbourne, Victoria 3051. RENOWNED FOR OUR RELIABILITY (9 PERSONAL SERVICE The leaders in specialised location fact"/itfes, tran[...]sis: Personal film about Mike Edols‘s return to the Mowayun Aboriginal community in north-west Austra[...]Gauge.... .35 mm Shooting stock. Kodak Synopsis: The beginning of civilisation. as we know it from the woman s point of view.[...]: A film a ut wome , industrial relations and the Australian economy. HENRY HANDEL RICHARDSON[...]Gauge. ...16 mm Synopsis. rama ize ocumen ary on the life and work of the Australian novelist Henry Handel Richardson. WOM[...]ynopsis. A series of Women s Studies Pro- grammes for junior, secondary and upper primary students in Australia. The series includes how women fought for the vote, the battle for access to universities, the struggle for equal pay, women politicians, women artists, women scientists, women lawyers, sportswomen and women writers. The pro grammes are being developed in conjunction with the Curriculum Development Centre of the Schools Commission and all State Educational Depa[...]inutes Gauge. .... ..16 mm Synopsis: A film made for the Department of Sport and Recreation and the Victorian Camping Association concerning the integration of disabled people into the Residential Camping Program. FREE CLIMBING ..Sa[...]film ck climbing and encourages others to try the sport. The film will feature experienced women climbers. THE FRENCH COLLECTION Prod. company. ......... ..MT P[...]Toussaint’s visit to Australia to study the Neville Scott Collection. NATIONAL HERBARIUM Sc[...]ease mber 1985 Synopsis: A film to delve behind the bland scientific walls of an herbarium. to reveal the rich matrix of history, scholarship and common un[...]Dunstan, Prue Acton. Synopsis: Tourist promotion for Victoria. YOU CAN'T BUY THAT IN[...]tes Gauge... .....Betacam Synopsis: A film about the role and function of the Industrial Supplies Office in relation to the manufacturing industry. YOU'VE GOT IT[...].... ..BVU EEIEOPSIS. Equal emp oyment poicies of the NEW SOUTH WALES FILM CORPORATION BUSH FIRE BASI[...]of eight ten-minute training programmes produced for the Bush Fire Council of New South Wales. Basic procedures are demonstrated for beginners and advanced bush fire fighters. TELEV[...]stone Scriplwriter. ...Geoffrey Atherden Based on the original idea by ...Geoffrey Atherden Pho[...] |
| [...]ia 3185 Phone: (03) 528 6188 10 p.m. till 6 p.m. For Incredible Quality and Early Delivery.[...]ting grid. Large three sided paintable fixed cyc. Good access to studio for cars and trucks. Dressing rooms, wardrobe, and make-up facilities. For hire Scorpion Dolly with Falchetto Crane including all accessories. FOR STUDIO BOOKINGS, PHONE: Alex Simpson I03][...] |
| [...]..JenniterAIlen Synopsis: An original halt-hour for television. BUTTERFLY ISLAND Prod. company. ..l[...]..22 x 30 minutes Synopsis: 22 episodes depicting the lifestyle and experiences of a family-run Queensl[...]out-of-work theatre troupe inadvertently prevent the piracy of Australia's underground power source by a most devious and deadly organisation. THE HOUR BEFORE MY BROTHER[...]James Clayden Scriptwriter. Daniel Keene Based on the play by.. Daniel Keene Photography ...... .. Chr[...]hompson Scriptwriter. ..Keith Dewhurst Based on the short stories[...]on), Kim Krejus (Mary Brand). Synopsis: Based on the Henry Lawson stories of Joe Wilson. THE LAST FRONTIER Prod. company . ......... _.Ayer P[...]Michael Laurence, Roger Dunn, John Misto Based on the original idea by ................................[...]..... ..16mm Synopsis: This four-hour miniseries is a contemporary love story about an American woman's struggle to carve out a new life for herself and her family in the Australian out- back,and of the two men who love her. LIVING FOREVER Prod. comp[...]Douglas Scriptwriter.. ...Brian Douglas Based on the original idea by ...Brian Douglas Photography Ba[...]rofessor Anhur Birch, Barbara McGregor. Synopsis: The control of Life, Tomorrow's people — Today! Aus[...]on, Lite Control. LONG TAN Prod. company.... ...The Long Tan Film Co. _ I _ (proposed) Scriptwriters[...]y, Bruce Horsfield, Julianne Horsfield Based on the original idea by ............. .. Exec. producer.[...]es Gauge ...... ..35 mm Synopsis: A recreation of the Battle of Long Tan, when an Australian patrol of[...]ff more than 1000 experienced Viet Cong. Based on the survivors’ own gripping accounts, the story illustrates the thesis that the war in Vietnam was won militarily, but lost politically. THE PACK OF WOMEN Prod. company.. ..Sideshow Alley L[...]Based on the play by .. .Robyn Archer Composers .......Various[...].50-60 minutes Cast: Robyn Archer. Synopsis: The programme is based on the successful cabaret produced in London and across[...]ew songs celebrate new women. PLEASE TO REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER Prod. company. ..ABC~TV Drama[...]...Peter Fisk Scriptwri r. l h Thompson Based on the original idea by .......... .. ...Keith Thompson[...]nifer Allen Synopsis: An original 50-minute play for tele- vision. A SHAFIK’S PARADISE Prod. compan[...]. . . . . . . . . . . . . ..9O minutes Synopsis: The story of three undercover cops working on the Gold Coast to keep Surfer's Paradise safe for the tourists. WILLING AND ABEL Prod. company ......[...]Willing and Abel Moore, advertise their services for any money—making operation. inept, if enthusi[...]etted by twelve-year-old Parra— matta Jones and the delightful Angela Reddy. PRODUCTION THE CHALLENGE Prod. company ........................[...]x 48 minutes Gauge ............ ..16 mm Synopsis: The Challenge is the dramatized story of the 1983 land and sea battle for the America's Cup. The miniseries looks beyond the final contest for the cup to the genius, talent and endeavour of those involved, w[...]uthers). Synopsis: A Royal Flying Doctor Service is located in the outback town of Coopers Crossing. The two doctors, Tom Callaghan and Chris Randall, not only contend with the medical challenges, but also with the small community in which they live. THE HARP IN THE SOUTH[...]haley Scriptwriter .. ..Eleanor Witcombe Based on the novel by .. ..Ruth Park Photography. .Paul Murphy[...]iseries based on Ruth Park's bestselling novel of the same name. CINEMA PAPERS March — 55 I |
| FOR THE SUPPLY OF ALL FILM PRODUCTION TRANSPORT CONTACT DAVID SUTTOR ON (02) 439 4590 THE JOURNEY Prod. company. ....ABC TV-Drama Producer[...]Synopsis: An original ha|f—hour for television. MY BROTHER TOM Prod. company ........[...]Amenta Scriptwriter.... ..Tony Morphett Based on the novel by. .James Aldridge Photography. Jamie Dool[...]inutes Gauge.. ............... ..16 mm Synopsis: The love affair of two youngsters lrom antagonistic Catholic and Protestant families alienates the population of a small country town. NEIGHBOURS[...]............................ ..Ray Kolle Based on the original idea by .. Reg Watson Sound ............[...]S has got ’em: Neighbours. Ramsay Street . . . the stage for an exciting drama serial drawing back the curtain to reveal the intrigue and the passions of Australian families. . . and their ne[...]ters ....... ..Clifl Green, Mac Gudgeon Based on the original idea by ....... ..Sam Lipski, Roben Man[...]m Gyngell (Stubbs). Wyn Roberts (Spry). Synopsis: The story of the detection of Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov in C[...]Whitney (Stephen Lockhart). Synopsis: Prime Time is a new concept in serial television: a behind-the-scenes look at an independent television company. It features the drama and action that goes into making a weekl current affairs programme. "Assign- ment' is the programme. David Lockhart owns the show, the company that makes it, and_is the new current affairs "star" — sharp and aggressive. We watch his team bring him the big stories each week. PRISONER Prod. company...[...]..... ..Nei| Luxmore, Pauline Clayton Based on the original idea by ...... ..Reg Watson[...]PPLYING: 0 Sword of Honour - Lancaster Miller 0 The More Things Change 0 Crocodile Dundee 0 Archer[...]sis: A powerful and unique drama series exploring the lives of women in prison. Prisoner is about the crimes they committed, their personal hell behind[...]Haddrick Story editor. .. een Ann Moran Based on the origina I ea by .Reg Watson Sound ...............[...]reen). Synopsis: Continuing drama centred around the Hamilton and Palmer families, their friend[...] |
| [...]demetriou (Theo). Synopsis: A miniseries based on the true story of cyclone Tracy, which virtually dest[...]ohn Power Scriptwriter. ..David Boutland Based on the novel by ..Evan Green Photography ...... .. .Davi[...], 5294 Synopsis: Awom s murdered . . . atruck is hijacked . . . and terror comes to the loneliest road in the Australian outback. Alice to Nowhere is a story of desperate men and lonely people. It is an action-packed drama in which the characters act under the awesome influence of the vast emptiness that is the Australian outback. THE BEERWAH BOLT Prod. company ...ABC Dist.[...]........................ ..Lee Faulkner Based on the original idea by ............. .. .....The P.O.T.S. Photography .. ...JuIian Mather, Roger B[...]st. Alan Frost. Synopsis: A climber's eye view of the ascent of Mt Beerwah in S.E. Old. The climb incorporates an overnight ‘hanging bivouac‘, roof climbing, spectacular scenery and some of the more obscure problems encountered by rock climbers. THE BLUE LIGHTNING Prod. company ..... ..Roadshow, Co[...]Robert Culp (Mclnally). Synopsis: Harry Wingate is sent by San Francisco gem collector to retrieve the fabulously expensive opal, The Blue Light ning. Harry travels with Kate McQueen to pal Ridge where Lester Mclnally holds the opal in his fortified stronghold. It is these three determined individuals who cause conflict in the outback town. A DAY AT THE DOG SHOW Prod. company ......... ..Australian Br[...]....... ..Sony Synopsis: A light-hearted look at the seriousness of a dog day afternoon where dukes ru[...]ith princes; where bitches who make some noise in the world owe much to the personal dogma of their masters. its a dog's life, and these are some of the most dognified. A DAY AT THE RACES Prod. company ......... ..Australian[...]m Shooting stock astmancolor Synopsis: A look at the people hooked on horses who live at, and live off, the track, in pursuit of amusement or enterprise. DREAMTIME — THE EVIL ONE[...]Murphy Based on th thentic Aboriginal legends of the Dreamtime Photography ...... .. ....Brett Ramsey[...]in a series based on Aboriginal Dreamtime legend. The story is told imaginatively through strong poetic images and intimate narration. THE FAR COUNTRY Prod. company .Crawford Productions[...]rge Miller Scriptwriter ..Peter Yeldham Based on the novel by. .Nevil Shute Photography .... ._ .Ron H[...]kian migrant. During World War II, as a doctor in the German army, Carl Zlinter did things that he'd ra[...]...... ..7247 Eastmancolor Synopsis: A series for children based on the album "Feathers Fur or Fins". Each pro- gramme fe[...]s each animal through songs. This series includes the platypus, koala, sugar glider, black swan, wombat[...]riters ....Nadia Wheatly, Terry Larson Based on the original idea by .....Nadia Wheatly[...] |
| [...]Ray Meagher (Red Headed Person). Synopsis: When the going gets tough the kids get going and the world goes five times dizzy. FUNERAL GOING Prod[...]ian Pringle Scriptwriter.. ..Cory Taylor Based on the original idea by. Lighting ........... .. Sound r[...]Barbara Fasano. Synopsis: An original half-hour for television.[...].... .. ..Caroline Lette Music performed by . ....The Allniters Music supervisor Gary Haroman Video fac[...]imon eait, rett Thompson, Mark Wooder. Synopsis: The project is a series of eight television programmes designed to reflect the realities of being a young person in Australia in 1985. A HALO FOR ATHUAN Prod. company .. Dist. company.[...]Q6 Cast: Gwen Plumb (Mother Haddrick (The Abbot), Fiona Stewart (Sister Gabriel), Tim Elio[...]le (Cardinal ’Mbupo). Synopsis: Two nuns climb the wall of a rural monastery, turn its cherry liqueu[...]ving commercial enterprise, and set up a campaign for the canonization of its founder, the child convict, Athuan. Caretti THE HAUNTED SCHOOL ..ABC TV/Revcom ......... ..ABC ..[...]f alone and unemployed in Sydney Town. Her plight is brought to the attention of the local bishop's wife, who offers her a small grant[...]y). Synopsis: Hector, a handicapped boy, becomes the centre of international media attention when he is abducted by a bunyip. The bunyip, Hector's friend and an accepted member of[...]..... ..Maureen McCarthy, Shane Brennan Based on the original idea by ....[...]ya), Lupco Talevski (Tome). Synopsis: In Between is a four-part made-for- television miniseries about a group of four adol[...]- donian and Anglo-Australian backgrounds, facing the challenges and dilemmas of growing up in a multi-cultural society. It shows the pressures on them, the conflicts and difficulties they have to face, and the decisions they have to make as they are pushed into adulthood. THE LANCASTER MILLER AFFAIR Prod. company ..........[...]ice runner. ...Joanne Roth Publicity ........ .. .The Rea Francis Company Unit publicists .............[...]e, scandal and breathtaking adventure set against the epic days of pioneering long- distance avi[...] |
| [...]WING AIR CHARTER SERVICE MAKES FILMS. You choose the location, and we'll get you there, keep you there[...]y needs are in one tidy package. Rushes? We are the experts in fast, cost- effective movement of dail[...]eo Quinn), ichard Moir (Dominic Quinn). Synopsis: The saga of an Irish Catholic working—class family, set against the bitter- ness, successes and disappointments of the Australian labour movement through the years 1890-1972. THE LAST WARHORSE[...]in Free Story consultant .. Lynn Bayonas Based on the original idea by .. ...CoIin Free Photography Pe[...]ness- man, takes up residence in Sydney to direct the construction of a waterfront development. Unbeknown to him his employees, seeing the opportunity to make a quick quid, use his name to try to acquire the adjoining property. This is the home of Pop McKenzie, scrap merchant, his grandchildren and their beloved Clydesdale horse, Sam. THE LOCAL RAG Prod. com[...]Wilkes Scriptwriter.... ....CoraI Drouyn Based on the original treatment by . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[...]d casuals, transients and permanents, who make up the production crew of a suburban newspaper. MOTHER[...]mplete as poss- ible. If you have something which is about to go into pre- production, let us know and we will make sure it is included. Call Debi Enker on (03) 329 5983, or w[...]ther by air or road or both. Not only do you have the choice of the best aircraft to use—for transport, camera platform or character—you als[...]omething else you won’t find anywhere else. . .the spirit of Budget... Our commitment to excellence! ! Put us to the test. Call Budget Air Services, toll free from a[...]nry Szeps (Robert), Judy Morris (Liz). Synopsis: The continuing trials of Arthur as he faces the problem of looking after Maggie, his ageing mum.[...]five-part series dealing with various aspects of the Australian rock music industry and its relation t[...], Betty Quin, Rick Maier, Ken Saunders Based on the original idea by[...]s: A group of country children run a holiday camp for city children — there are horses and trail bike[...]ry little adult supervision. Professor Poopsnagle is searching for a long lost form of super steam power which requires various minerals. The names and locations of these minerals have been engraved on golden salamanders and hidden in the area around Secret Valley. With the help of Dr Garcia, Professor Poopsnagle’s nephew Peter and the children from Secret Valley, they set out to unravel the riddle of the salamanders. QUEST FOR HEALING Prod. company ....... ..|ndependen[...]Scriptwriter... .Richard Davis Based on the original idea by .. ..Danae Brook Photo raphy Ha[...]pril 1986 Synopsis: A worldwide investigation of the traditions and methods of alternative healers. The series shows there are methods of healing, used for thousands of years, developed through constantly changing societies but remaining essentially the same. They work on the root cause of illness and take the whole being into account: mind, body and spirit.[...]rs ...Judith Colquhoun, Peter Hepworth Based on the novel by ...Norman Lindsa Photography. ...[...] |
| [...]ard. assistant . udy Dymond Chong & Merkel which is about to go into pre- Production office runne .Ca[...]-Evans Budget .....$1.4 million wiii make Sure it is inciudedi Publicity .... ..Marian Page Standby pr[...].... ..Simon Caner, Synopsis: Saturdee focuses on the exploits of Cinema Papers, 54-4 V|C10r|<’i Lab.[...].. ..$5 million Graham Blackmore a guided tour of the development of a boy into Victoria 3051, Length .[...].. .. ....C0lin Burchail a young man. It explores the factors that Gauge... 16 mm Set construction. .Go[...]itor ........ .. ..Carmen Gallan factors, such as the concept of mateship. are Fuji Stunts co-ordinato[...]eland uniquely Australian, whilst others, such as the Scheduled release ...................... ..March[...]ence). Dialogue coach ..PeterTu||och adolescents. The series is set between the Casting ....Liz Mullinar Synopsis: A love story a[...]swick Casting consultants ....Lee Larner, against the turbulence and optimism of fifteen Ftunne-r._. .Simone North in Victoria, Jo Larner of the most significant years in Australia's Publicity.[...]y Art director ..... .. irginia Bieneman Based on the novel by .................. ..Colin Duck, Morrison)‘ Drew Fgrsythe (Bill Morrison), Based on the original idea Art dept secretary Maria Pannozzo M[...]ers Assoc. producer..... ..Michael Lake synopsis; The true story of two mothers who Exec. producer Flog[...]r.. ...Gina Black gave l_-iii-th to dau titers in the Kyneton Hospital Assoc. producer. Brian D. Burges[...]zzo Prod. manager Stewart Wright in 1945, one 0? the mothers, subsequently Prod. co-ordinato .. osslyn[...]ops buyer . rvey Mawson, 3rd assistantl believing the babies were switched, brought Location/unit manag[...]Healey Sue Maybury unit manager... ..Chris Odgers the matter to extensive litigation. The story Location assistant/Film Storyboard artist ....Sue Maybury Prod. aCC0Ur1l8rlf 30" Slnni follows the lives of the families as the Victorian attachment.... ..Tim Browning Props ass[...]Film Commission 4 — Research and Development The research and development of new technology and software intended to increase the technical or creative capacity of the Australian film and video community. TheAu.itralian Film Commission provides limited funds for special purpose grants, investment: and loan: to[...]e activities which are of significant benefit to the film and video community. The/IFC also expects that, where appropriate, complem[...]ng support will beprovidcd by smzegovernments and the private sector. TheAFC now invite: applicationsfor activities in the following categories scheduled to commence during the period 1 fuly-31 December, 1986. The form of funding, whether by way of grant, loan or[...]at rheAFC’s discretion. 1 — Publications 1 The research and writing of critical works on rubjects related to the cultural and aesthetic aspects of film and video. 2 Resource and reference publication: contributing to the wider dissemination of information within the Australian film and video community. Periodicals[...]tivals, awards, seminars, conferences, etc, with the following objectives: 1 The exploration of cultural, aesthetic and industrial matters. 2 Recognition of achievementi within the Auxtralian film and video community. Deadline for applications: 2 April, 1986 Please note: the deadline for applications for activities commencing during the period I fariuary-30 fune, 1987 is 30 September, I 986. For copies of application form: and further information please contact.- The Project Officer — Special Purpose Funding, (02)[...]VISION 3 — Travel And Study 1 Overseas travel for the purpose of obtaining information for dissemination to the Australian film community, or to undertake resear[...]rsonnel. Applications must be made in writing on the appropriate application form and addressed to: C[...]ions will be considered without discrimination on the basis of applicants’ iex, age, race or physical[...]xations in receipt of general purpose grants from the AFC are not eligible to apply for assistance under this scheme. |
| [...]Backup — we're ON CALL assured no matter where the location. All film rushes 24 hours seven days pe[...]arter e“S“’e were °1°5e by at an Pmes‘ is an accredited travel agent able to organise all P[...]d accommodation. team members will ensure you get the personalised All‘ Charters — we fly more kil[...]Charter team Courier and Airfreight Services — is assured to find you the right aircraft for the job. Austra1ia’s leading courier and airfreight company will provide the reliability and speed you need Australia- A DIVI[...]NNY KISSED ME ° BARRON F"—M3 o ARCHER FILMS 0 THE PRODUCERS CIRCLE 0 NORMAN FILMS TO HAVE YOUR PRO[...]phone (03) 347 8111 Telex AA 31185 M A MEMBER or THE NILSEN GROUP |
| [...]tor) Budget Start date million spent in in Around the World in so Ways (Palm Beach Entertainment/David[...]ralian Dream (Filmside Ltd/Susan Wild and Jackie The 1985 calendar year = McKimmieIJackie McKlmmie) 600,000 24 August i"a""a'V'°°.°°“"’°'i 53'” The Big Hurt (The Big Hurt Ltd/Chris Kiely/Barry Peak) 690,000 16 S[...]x) 1,500,000 19 September features go in front of the 0 Cool Change (Delatite Productions/Dennis Wright[...]neaust [One 1983]/Christine Suli and Brian since the A3; produced I: Kavanagh/Brian Kavanagh) 1,800,000 11 November SiX |'fli|iiS8|'i8S and three 3 Devil in the Flesh (Collins Murray Productions/John B. Murray/[...]600,000 11 March "0 doubt that me "em" w Dot and the Bunyip (Yoram Gross Film Studio/Yoram Gross/Yoram total was well over the Gross) N/A My $150-million mark. : . . . . . Dot and the Whale (Yoram Gross Film Studio/Yoram Gross/Yoram Figures given in the 1.0 Gross) N/A My tables opposite are those , _[...]000 January "1059 Willis? Pi'i’iii"cii‘°“5 For Love Alone (Waranta/Margaret Fink/Stephen Wallace) 3,800,000 25 March are marked "IA ’ for not F rt C f d P d t' /Ft cl M '/A h N" h I 400000 '| avaiiabieyi in the budget 0 ress ( raw or ro uc ions aymon enmuir rc ic oson) 4, , 4 Apri column — did not want 4222 — The Movie (Johnny LaFiue Enterprises/Johnny LaFiue/Jo[...]/John Dixon) 6,600,000 30 September supp y em 0 e The Fm . . . . ge Dwellers (Fringe Dweller Productio[...]o enable us to Bemsiordi N/A 16 September compute the overall _ , iiguies and ai,ei.ages_ Good Man Down (PBL Productions/Brian Flosen/Carl Schultz) 4,300,000 23 September Only two of the 81 pro- Going Sane (Sea-Change Films/Tom Jeffrey/[...]tall) 3,300,000 21 October theN::eri'I1::I'ded in the Leonora (Revolve/Geoff Brown and Derek Strahan/De[...]arker/Nadia Tass) 990,000 29 July ra es an pear" The More Things Change . . . (Syme International Prod[...]ns/Jock Blair/Donald Crombie) 4,400,000 15 April The Right-Hand Man (Yarraman Filmsl Steven Grives, To[...]s/Fioss Matthews/George Ogilvie) 1,250,000 April The Steam-Driven Adventures of Riverboat Bill (Phantascope Ltd/Paul Williams/Paul Williams) N/A August The Still Point (Rosa Colosimo Film ProductionsIFiosa[...]uctions/Bill Bennett/Bill Bennett) 340,000 March The Surfer (Night Flight Ltd/Frank Shields and James[...]nay/Philippe Mora) 3,000,000 30 January What’s the Difference? (MW Productions/Alan Madden an[...] |
| [...]ucerlDirector) Budget start date Australia during the year. Nor do the tables include Archer (Roadshow, Coote & Carroll[...]300,000 24 June extended series, such as . . . . the McElro s’ Ret Call Me Mr Brown (Kino Film Comp[...]2 December dollars were, of course! _ _ spent. The Last Warhorse (Filmrep Ltd/Helen Boyd/Bob Meillon) 530,000 4 November Across the board, the Natural Causes (ABC/Michael Carson/Michael Carson[...]a little over $2 million. Surprisingly, over half the features were in the under-$2-million bracket, with only three budgete[...]$8.8 million), Free Enterprise ($6.6 million) and The Right-Hand Man ($5,459,000). Most miniseries wer[...]two (Simpson- Le Mesurier’s Sword of Honour and the ABC’s co-production with the UK’s Portman Films, Tusitala) costing more. No telefeature cost more than $2 million. Per category, the detailed breakdown is as follows: The Perfectionist (Pavilion Pictures/Pat Lovell/Chris Thomson) 1,475,000 15 April The Quest for Love (Entertainment Media Ltd/Peter Beilby/Jeremy[...]/Brendan Lunney/John Power) 2,800,000 11 November The Body Business (PBL Productions/Stanley Walsh/Colin Eggleston) 2,900,000 18 July The Book of Athuan (ABC/Alan Burke/Alan Burke) — 9 August Colour in the Creek (PBL Productions/Mike Mldlam/Robert Stewart[...]Noel Price/Noel Price and Carl Zwicky) 9 October The Far Country (Crawford Productions/John Barmingham[...], Hugh Piper and James Bradley) 600,000 1 August The Great Bookie Robbery (PBL Productions/Ian Bradley/Marcus Cole and Mark Joffe) ‘ 4,200,000 26 August The Haunted School (ABC/Ray Alchin/Frank Arnold) —[...]ris Warner and Mandy Smith) 1,192,000 7 November The Lancaster Miller Affair (Lancaster Miller Product[...]aker/Cary Conway and Chris Adshed) 4,595,000 May The Local Rag (ABC/Keith Wilkes/Keith Wilkes) — 10[...]ard Rubie and Russell Webb) 2,400,000 July Quest for Healing (Independent Productions/Richard Davis/Bi[...]alllJohn Gauci) 1,400,000 30 September Shout — The Story of Johnny 0’Keete (View Pictures/B[...] |
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| TECHNI The ingenuity of the technicians in the Australian film industry has always been a source[...]know whether it comes from some unique aspect of the Australian character, but there is a wealth of stories about the bush mechanic who, with nothing but a billy lid a[...]repair some high-tech piece of equipment and save the day. Actually, this ability is probably a result of our isolation: we have often had to make our own parts to repair the equipment, rather than wait months for spares to come from overseas. It may be getting easier to get the spares nowadays, but there is still a tradition of building our own versions of[...]er because of cost or because of unavailability. The early years of sound film in Australia saw totally home-made equipment, often built from a description of the American hard- ware, rarely from first-hand know-[...]mported movies and working out how to do it here. The result was often cheaper — and better, because the person doing it didn't stop to think how complicated it was. The tradition is still alive today, nowhere more so than with Bria[...]or of cranes, camera mounts and smoke machines to the Australian film industry. Bosisto began his career in films as a stringer for Movietone in South Australia. He also worked as a news- paper photographer (for the Adelaide News); and it was that, together with the Movietone experience, that got him a job as a tel[...]when TV began in South Australia in 1957. Unlike the branch of electronic showbusiness that TV news is today, ,back in 1957, as Bosisto puts it, “ther[...]him to pursue his interest in equipment, even to the point of processing his own film on a hand-wound drum. The 16mm cameras he used were very new toys compared to what he had used at Movietone — a 35mm Cineflex ("the American Arri they made for World War II”), which Movietone supplied to its[...]osisto introduced a young country boy (working in thethe boy — called Dean Semler — took over his job.[...]act, Semler who suggested that Bosisto would be a good subject for a Cinema Papers interview. According to Semler,[...]tuck in his mind had been Bosisto‘s solution to the problem of obtaining exclusive news interviews for the station with visiting politicians or celebrities.[...]y mounted inside, CALITIES Fred Harden talks to the Australian film industry’s most famous and reso[...]it-yourself expert. “I want you to start up on the left-hand side of the road, and get up to 100 kilometres an hour as fast as you can.” just behind the drivers seat. We'd pull up, say at the airport, and get people to come in and sit down. We could only frame head and shoulders, and the interviewer sat off screen, asking questions. We[...]f curtains we could pull across behind them. with the different airline names. if they came TAA, you'd pull across the TAA background. "The lights were all permanently set and, because we o[...]himself over- taken by technology. “When I left the TV station,” he recalls, “most of the film work I was doing was for the South Australian Film Corp. After a few years, I began to find that I'd put in a quote for, say. $20,000 — as cheap as I could do it and s[...]e. I should have done it 20 years ago, but it was the Fire in the Stone feature that prompted it. I knew they wante[...]ilt a crane. “Ross Berryman and Ian Jones were the cameramen and, although I like Ian a lot, he used[...]sm he had, I'd rectify overnight, even rebuilding the thing at times, so it would be ready next day. During that film, I must have rebuilt the crane twice, just to please Ian. And I've done th[...]mpson, Ernie Clark and John Haddy all reckon it's the greatest crane they’ve ever been on!” Bosisto's crane was in the best tradition of bush technology. ‘‘I'd never seen a large crane, but I could see the logic behind it; so I started by looking at photos of American cranes. The first one I built had ball bearings in the turntable. That wasn't any good, so I rebuilt it with a steel-to-steel bearing. l don’t know how the others do it, so this could be unique! But it seems to work all right it is very smooth, being machined steel-to-steel surfac[...]u stop pushing, they keep going. Because mine has the friction, it starts to move slowly and comes to a stop by itself. "On Fire in the Stone, the crane was mounted on a Daihatsu, and a trailer towed the bits behind. The first complaint was that the focus puller had to sit on the opposite side of the platform to the operator, so he couldn't read the markings on the lens. I built a bigger platform, but that meant the structure wasn't good CINEMA PAPERS March — 65 |
| [...]I replaced that when I came back. and now it’s the only crane in Australia that you can sit on like[...]Ian Jones from having to put chinagraph marks on the other side of the lens! "Then I decided to put it on rails as well[...]up Cyclone and they deliver as much as you need. The base is Cyclone scaffolding, too, so every- thing is interchangeable. And the joiners are scaffolding joins, which makes,'it so[...]rain when it's rolling. But a tracking crane shot is almost never lip-sync, so it's no problem: it’s purely for the spectacle.” From making the crane for him- self, Bosisto began to look into marketing it. “I promoted it around the place," he says. ‘.‘In Sydney, Dean sawthe ph[...]see him with some more photos, and they booked me for the whole shoot. ‘‘I figured that there is nothing more reliable than a Holden motor, and th[...]in with a complete new jib. That was when I added the tracks, because Dean had asked, ‘Does it come o[...]nd I said, ‘Yeh, of coursel’, and built them. The crane sits on a platform which has a wheel on eac[...]aluminium but steel and weigh 92 kilos each! That is enough weight to balance it, and saved me packing the base with lead that I would then have had to cart[...]ade has always been overengineered — too strong for what’s required. For the design calculations, I use a guy in Adelaide call[...]ith a slide rule. I draw up what I want, and take the drawings round to him; he works out what the stress on each bolt should be, and so on. “The Department of Labour and Industry understand it; I dont. But they need those calculations to approve the crane. Everything that lifts a person has to have[...]somehow we seem to manage to get away with that. The centre bolt on the crane has a four- ton shearing strain on a one-inch bar. And, with my belief that it is better to be over-engineered, I found stronger st[...]n shearing strain, plus a 30% safety factor. It's the sort of pin you put in a cherry picker that goes 90 feet in the air and weighs three tons. It means that I sleep[...]Since then, I've taken it up to 50 feet by using the Hot Head. We used it for other things on Max, like suspending the dwarf in the train fight sequence by adding an out- rigger from the people platform, and hanging him on piano wires. We used it on rails in the Underworld sequence, when it didn't matter if we saw our own tracks: there was so much pig shit on the ground anyway." Camera Tracking Vehicle Bosisto branched out again when the Reunion people wanted a camera car that would do[...]hey wanted, so I asked people I know, ‘What was the fastest and smoothest car?’ And the answer was a Dodge Phoenix or a Chevy Impala or a[...]y made those American tanks that just float along the road when you drive them. You see them in the movies, when they hit a bump and the back rises up. The back springs are six foot four long, and there is a transfer spring as well. “I found this old D[...]y and been left sitting out in a vegetable garden for a couple of years. I offered the guy $200. took it home, and it took two of us a weekend to cut the body away, because the panels were all crushed and folded-. I've added air shockers all round as well, so everyone now says it's the smoothest thing they've ridden on. "When I start[...]ust a camera car that didn't do anything else. On the semi-trailer I use to cart the things around, I've got a wind machine, the camera car and a camera crane. On a shoot, when it just says ‘Bosisto required‘ on the call sheet without saying what equip- ment they w[...]get atthe one thing they wanted. 80, when I built the car, I built it to provide a base for the big crane. It has a square box-section frame, and it is angle-webbed so that, when you put a jack under one corner, it lifts the whole side, unlike a car. And I built a smaller crane for it to use while tracking. “The first time we used it on Reunion, the cameraman and Ernie Clark were sitting on the jib. and the director said, ‘I want you to start up on the left-hand side of the road, and get up to 100 kilometres an hour as fas[...]at was his first mistake. ‘Then,’ he says, ‘the black Torana with the young hoons will come up alongside and jeer at the camera, and then you take off and pull away.’ I[...]e Torana Driving and delivering: “We filled the whole valley with mist," says Bosisto of a memorablerday on Robbery Under Arms. All part of the service: Bosisto’s truck takes the difficult way out during the shooting of Fair Game. The Bosisto camera car towing — and shooting — the stagecoach on Robbery Under Arms. The road was rough, but the shofwas smooth. |
| The camera car: with two steering wheels, inree rhrurrles mm three brakes. it goes just as well backwards! The car with a full complement of cameras and crew on Robbery Under Arms. The exact specifica- tions tend to change after each[...]ake two. “Don’t take off quite so fast," said the director, “but still get to a hundred . “So," says Bosisto, “as the guys jeered at the camera, I took off. The Torana said he was doing about 140 to try and catch me, The shot was great, and Ernie Clark thought it was te[...]again at those speeds, because 80 or 90 ks gives the same effect. “The car can do it, though. The steering is right down low, and you drive from where the back seat would be. The driver sometimes has trouble seeing, when you stick all the people and stuff on it, so I added a second steering wheel on the left that lets you sit up a bit, but will still allow you enough control to swing the car into a drift if you want. But most of the car commercials and things I've done involve you driving dead straight down the tarmac or the beach. and the other cars are the ones that move around you.” Bosisto’s camera mount is not just used for filming other cars. "When I got Robbery Under Arm[...]s, “I started to rebuild again, because some of the horses, the quarter horses, for instance, can go from a standstill to a full gallop within the length of a room, I added another throttle, and a brake near one of the seats at the back. All the brakes are connected to three master cylinders, which is a bit complicated, but it works. The front two are stronger than the back cylinder, and there are power brakes overall. “The driver concentrates on the forward view, and watches out for cows crossing the road. He has enough power, with the 440-cubic- inch motor Ive got in it, so that the grip sitting in the back can hold the brake, plus the power of the throttle. and judge the speed of the horses exactly, The jib that goes out the side doesn't swing, but can be mounted on the left or the right. In the current configuration, it has the hydraulic legs out to level it like a cherry—picker, and these fold in when it is used as a camera car. The top can have boards on it, to make it a flat surface, and the crane drops through that if need be. "It is pretty versatile. On Robbery Under Arms, we were towing the stagecoach from an offset arm that can be put on either side, or from any position on the back. On Free Enterprise, we were towing the AC Cobra from the middle of the car, but using the crane at the back. That meant the cameraman was sitting looking in at the driver's window. and could see him as he threw a hammer at the windscreen of another car, and then crane up to look at the car as it went off the road. It was all done on Take One." Wind Machines If there is one thing Brian Bosisto has become famous for of late, it is his ability to fill the air with log, smoke and dust. It started — agai[...]hine," he says. ‘‘I remembered from Razorback the problems that Bernie, who was in charge of the wind machines on that. had. There were two separate aeroplane motors on trailers. The trailers were hard to back and, once they’d bee[...]they stayed there. So, when they'd say: ‘Start the wind, Berniel’, it would putter into life; and, when they’d say, ‘Stop the wind, Berniel, he’d kill it. But aeroplane motors are not meant to stop and start like that: they are made for flying long distances. And, when they are mounted upside down on the wind machines, they have trouble when the oil drains to the heads, and the plugs all oil up. When I saw how much time Bernie[...]d make mine another way. “I figured that there is nothing more reliable than a Holden motor, and th[...]a turntable that turns 180 degrees, and each one is itself on a turntable, and can be tilted up and d[...]how power- ful they were going to be: 3,000 revs is supposed to be their optimum capacity. The guy who made blades for me said that the 186 engine wouldn't be strong enough, and that I'd need the 220 engine, When I first started them up, I got 3,200 revs from them, so he took the blades back and changed the pitch, so that now we can get 2,900 revs, which really pushes out the wind — so much so that two are too powerful, an[...]o I’m going to mount one of them on a truck and the other on a trailer that you can walk around. ‘‘All the dust in the 747 scene in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome is mine, and that was from half a kilometre away.” “I made a hopper for the dust, but I dont like using it for dust storms. The difference between static fans and aeroplane propellers is that the aero blade blows straight; but, four feet from my blades, the air has turned 360 degrees, and it does it again[...], it just produces an even mass of dust. I prefer the effect you get with a bucket: you play it like mu[...]folds full of holes, I worked out where to inject the fog fluid to produce fantastic smoke: you just tu[...]e a motorbike petrol tank, and it lets you adjust the flow as accurately as the dust bucket. 30, now I can do dust, smoke, snow #[...]drops on an angle and looks most realistic. "All the dust in the 747 scene in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome is mine, and that was from a half a kilometre away.[...]was a bag of talcum powder on every take. I like the talcum powder we get in Adelaide better than the grey Fuller's Earth that you get here, because you can get the talcum from a fawn to a dark brown, and it looks like real dust. All the simulated travel dust on that picture was mine. It was: ‘Start rockersl Start the dust!’ “On Fair Game, the grip had a crane, so I was the mechanic and the armourer and had the tracking vehicle. Each day, we had to drive it through walls, and the next day it had to look like new. The art department and us would be working every night while the others were down the pub. The tyres were like grand prix racing tyres, with sid[...]e. They only had two spares and, four times a day the runner was taking them into Burra, about 30 or 40[...]hem. We found out how to patch them with PKs, and the tyres ended up all shiny, with all these PKs on the sides! “Andrew Lesnie, the DOP — he worked for Dean Semler on Bodyline — had this shot of the ratbag's car coming over this sand dune at night, We had all this light mist in the air and the lights were all at the back, so the car was preceded by this enormous shadow, and then all the quartz halogens and the headlights hit. It looks great.=.at. “There was no wind — there is no way you can beat God: you have to be on his si[...]then, they had trouble finding their way back to the kitchen!" Bosisto ’s gear (NB: Dimensions and specifications are correct for now, but may change at any time!) G88 Volvo low-loader. This holds the camera car/crane, wind machine and, in the chicken coop up the front, there is an arc welder, oxy welder, compressor, grinder, d[...]ance tools. “That‘s a service that people get for free when they employ me,” says Bosisto. 2 Win[...]rm. Engine: 440 cubic inch Chrysler, Full permits for each state. Mini l\/loke on the back. Bosisto Motion Picture Services, 2[...] |
| St Kilda Council is pleased to again be presenting their annual Film[...]THEATRE, BARKLY ST, 17-20 APRIL. A selection of the best of Australian films with an emphasis on 16mm[...]l. Filmmakers are invited to submit ‘ ' works for consideration on ’/2" VHS or 16mm, together with an application form, before the end of February. Nigel Buesst, Director St Kilda[...]MAVIS BRAMSTON PRODUCTIONS LTD. is . Feature Film ' In the Offer Document dated 26th July, 1985 in I respect of the film “Frenchma.n‘s Farm”, it is stated . that Mr. Keith Dewhurst is the Writer of the screen- ; play. This is not correct. Mr. Dewhurst was never contracted to write the screenplay. We apologise forTHE BRONTE SISTERS SECRET HONOR SECRET POLICEMANS BALL STRANGER THAN PARADISE Ask for free catalogue of these and other titles from: C[...]460 Tx: 30625/Me 782 \‘ TITLES =l.l EFFECTS for 110112 West Street. MOTION PICTURE [Comer Haybem[...]738 . and all AN FORMATS ACHTLER AHEAD FROM THE START \ Sachtler ENG/Film Fluid Head Systems take the gamble out of camera support. Lightweight, easy to set .. _’ up, quick to adjust for perfect balance —you get into action fast with Sachtler. The precise fluid movement gives you complete confident control over all camera movements, the wide pan and tilt ranges allowing you to follow y[...]you like —there are up to 7 precise adjustments for drag. . Sachtler fivirtuosity in design and performance is matched . _ with unrivalled / durability and rel[...]comprehensive range of accessories completes /E, the picture. The Sachtler range of fluid heads caters for all budgets and requirements- so if you wa[...] |
| .\ On dangerous ground Last February, Jo Kennedy won the Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival. This prestigious prize, from a European festival regarded as second only to Cannes, is the highest international honour so far bestowed on a[...]and Diane Keaton, was completely ignored later in the year by the voters in the Australian Film Institute awards, who chose not to include her among the nominations for Best Actress. it was a rejection which appeared all the more difficult to explain in a year which boasted a record output of feature films but, with few exceptions, is remembered only for the numbing mediocrity of the work. Perceived. perhaps, as a rene- gade film,[...]feature, Wrong World, got only one nomination — for Ray Argall's cinematography — while lesser film[...]ddle-class: accept- ably infused with a hearts-on-the sleeve liberalism, they successfully stroked the AFI voters with safe, comfortable narratives, imb[...]‘social conscience’. Anyway, who cares what the Germans think? After all, Wrong World was just to[...], its angst-ridden atmospherics recalling some of the recent West German cinema (Reinhard Hauff, Wim We[...]amounted only to a condescending concession that, for $640,000, Wrong World was indeed a well- made film. The plot certainly does not con- form to AFI-voter me[...]mitted medical doctor, having failed to become “the Albert Schweitzer of Bolivia”, dulls the pain with morphine. Addicted, he drifts through New York and the American mid-west, finally referring himself to a[...]Melbourne. While going cold turkey, David meets the streetwise junkie, Mary (Jo Kennedy). Their relationship, made necessary by a mutual desire to escape the institution, is instinctively testy and suspicious: they behave l[...]animals, despite their individually-felt desires for warmth and affection. They begin to drive in a s[...]town of Nhill, isolated on a desolate stretch of the Victoria/South Australia border. Their intimacy grows, but the affection is checked by one unstated condition: their eventual[...]y egocentric and strained by flowery literacy, it is nevertheless a structural link for the entire script. What is more, it serves to enrich David's character. “The problem," he declares, “is how to stop thinking. America has cracked it. if you start thinking in America, all you have to do is turn on the tele- vision or go for a drive. If rein- carnation is true, then I want to come back as an American.” Without the benefit of a voice-over, Left, Richard Moir in W[...]ce of a performance should also be judged against the masculine bias of the screenplay. Mary's relationship with David slowly thaws, but the delicate webs they build to connect their lives are still encircled by their transitory experiences. To hope for more would be unrealistic. Never promising more t[...]educe its audience by com- promising its realism. The slowly melting cores within its initially icy cha[...]a period of rare mutual warmth and compassion. It is a pleasurable hiatus in the futile, even cynical, melancholia of their lives. Apart from Kennedy’s remarkable performance, Pringle is well served by Ray Argall’s sumptuous cinema- t[...]a controlled performance from Richard Moir, given the task of creating a credible character out of an a[...]ut centre. Perhaps Wrong World simply threatened the Australian film community with its portrayal of i[...]demic only to Europe and North America. Whatever the reason, Wrong World's failure to perform at the AFI Awards probably cost it widespread local distribution. More than twelve months after Berlin, the film has finally found a limited release. Hope- f[...]vid’s personal despair, which permeates most of the film, may come ironically to reflect the fear being felt for the international future of our films during the second half of this decade: "The money's finished. It had to run out sometime Everything does. The blood, the passion, the fear everything except the loneliness. I decided to go back to Australia. What better place to see out the end of the world?" Rod Bishop Wrong World: Directed by Ian[...]South of Eden To entertain her guests after the evening meal, Karen Blixen would construct a fict[...]mise provided by one of them, Denys Finch Hatton. The story she devised would hold her listeners by means of the simplest, most effective narrative device: a line[...]icts and encounters, provide an appropriate model for Sydney Pollack’s film about her, Out of Africa. It is a visually breathtaking film, based on a series o[...]enyan resident Errol Trzebinski. And, although it is based on Blixen’s actual experi- ences in East Africa in the early part of this century, the film is reminiscent of the epic romances of David Lean (Dr Zhivago, Ftyan’s Daughter) in the way in which it subordinates both the locale and the social back- ground to the romantic problems of a larger-than-life couple. Pollack is one of the most com- mercially successful directors cur- rently working in Hollywood (of the thirteen films he directed priorto Out of Africa,[...]list of ‘All-Time Rental Champs’). And, since the failure of Castle Keep in 1969, he has con- sistently chosen films with strong commercial potential — The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, Absence of Malice, Tootsie — rooted in[...]ened by his recurring romantic lyricism. Perhaps the most revealing Pollack film is They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), in which the harsh existentialism of Horace McCoy's novel is subverted by Po|lack's determination to fore- ground the pathos and romanticize the depression dance marathon which is its setting. With Out of Africa, Pollack claims to have encountered the problem that ‘Dinesen’s‘ account of her lif[...]ll things." But, even if Dinesen had wallowed in the hardships, the disease and the misery of transplanted Europeans, it is reasonable to assume that Pollack p CINEM[...] |
| would have crafted a similar film to the present one. Despite all the attention to detail — the extensive location work at the Ngong Dairy in Karen (named after Blixen), at Masai Mara, the Kenyan extension of the Serengeti Plain, in the Rift Valley, the Ngorongoro Crater and at Lake Manyara in Tanzania; the detailed recreation of lamps, draperies and china to match Blixen’s originals; the acquisition of a good deal of her furniture; the careful use of vintage cars and planes; and the research into traditional African songs — the film is a love story which selectively uses these aspects[...]ll-established narrative conventions dealing with the cultural dislocation of Europeans attempting to duplicate their civilization in a totally alien environment. The emigration of Blixen (Meryl Streep) from Denmark[...]Brandauer), and establish a coffee plantation in the East African highlands establishes a strong narrative basis, given the obstacles she encounters, and her husband’s promiscuity and indol- ence. indeed, the scenes between Streep and Brandauer are marked by a particular tension which evaporates once the Austrian actor disappears from the film. During this early section, Karen’s curious relationship with her hus- band, coupled with the interest in the economic fragility of the coffee plantation and the attractiveness of Denys Finch Hatlon (Robert Red-[...]nterest. But, following Karen's bout of syphilis, the impossibility of child- ren and the departure of the Baron, these narrative strands are pushed into the background by the romantic overdetermination of Robert Red- ford‘[...]more cor- rectly, by Pol|ack's representation of the actor (who has now appeared in six of the directors films). It would be relatively easy to con- demn the films soft last half, when the apparent focus for the film — Karen's plaintive and repetitive cry that she once owned a farm in Africa — is reduced to a minor motif, while the lush romanticism of Pollack, rein- forced by his[...]RS score, creates an Edenic back- ground for the two lovers. There is, however, an innocent sincerity about the whole project. One immediately knows, for instance, that Redford washing Streep‘s hair will be filmed with the sun behind the star, visually magnifying the intentionally two- dimensional characterization. Every aspect is underlined; there are no surprises, and the audience is con- tinually reassured by a familiar narra- tive[...]her ability to master a foreign accent) occupies the screen for most of the time, it is Red- ford’s Finch Hatton who remains the figure of knowledge within the film. Unlike the other characters, he is aware of the consequences of World War l on East Africa. He also shares a special affinity with the Masai and, finally, with nature, represented by the lions at the end of the film. But Redford's character appears to owe more to the actor's previous roles, particularly Jay Gatsby and the mature Jeremiah Johnson (in what was also a Sydne[...]If audiences can still accept this conception of the male hero, how- ever, as well as share the director's ethereal conception of Love, then Pollack stands a good chance, with Out of Africa, of maintaining his sp[...]Hamilton (Felicity). Production company: Mirage, for Universal. Distributor: UlP. 35 mm. 150 minutes.[...]ep and Charles Dance in Plenty. Star’s war On the London stage, David Hare‘s Plenty was a neo-Eli[...]des, part of a fashion that also produced, on TV, the Richard Eyre/lan McEwan collaboration, The Imita- tion Game, and Hare’s own Lick- ing Hitler. The last two were both sour looks at the way in which sexual politics could screw up the secret war effort. Fred Schepisi’s film is not at all like this. “The heat of passion, the power of anger”, announces the attendant hype, while the presence of trans- atlantic megastar Meryl Streep in the linking role (played on stage by Kate Nelligan) guarantees the delivery of both. Chosen apparently to prevent an[...]ng Tory taste on Hare’s polemic, Schepisi gives the film as much of both the agony and the argument as his star will allow. The result is a glossy parable, marred on occasion by an exaspe[...]nt, but lifted to worth by an inspired mixture of the politically apt and the cinematically elegant. “There will be so many days like this," exults Susan Traherne (Streep) in the first scene, as the church bells of France chime and she looks out over the Gallic countryside she has, in a very minor capacity, helped to rid of the Hun. The irony is as thick as the accent of the usefully poly- phone farmer (John Serret), who politely omits to express his doubts that the world will change just because the British say it will: there are always more Huns. And Susan, in her way, has been part of the occupation, one minor pawn in the great game Britain has enjoyed play- ing with the lives and futures of other nations for centuries. Plenty charts Susan's fall, rise and[...]o acquire black- market spoons and cheese-graters for the Coronation, carries on a strained love affair wit[...]lomat Raymond Brock (Charles Dance), while pining for the arms of Lazar (Sam Neill), the spy who relieved the tedlum and tension of her stint underground in France. When they are reunited in the film's final scene,it is, a disappointment. So is the Coronation, even though it is spent on a couch with wide boy Sting, source of the royal cheese- graters. Marriage to Brock is no better: a dismal, cross-Chanel liaison, leading into a glum role as ambassador’s wife, sleeping through the Jordanian day while her husband huddles earnestly with oil sheiks. What remains of the king- dom, the power and the glory expires in the bad show of Suez, and Susan is back in the island rest home again. Schepisi’s taste for the mytho- logical and the epic is suppressed in Plenty, expiring under the inevitable transmutation of Hare’s play from political panorama into star vehicle. As in Silkwood, the mixture of rhetoric and romance is often uneasy, with Significance hurried by in the background while, in the downstage spotlight, the star fluoresces. Sensibly, Schepisi acquiesces, re- ducing the background to what are essentially painted flats,[...]against which Streep shines. After flashy starts, the roles of both Charles Dance and Tracey Ullman (as her bohemian pal, Alice) fade into the same vague brume ecossaise, while Sting's per- fo[...]kins, never gets started. Acting honours outside the lead performance are parcelled out between intern[...]ining diplomatic role like a cardinal explaining the essential rightness of the rhythm method. Understandably, there's little of Barbarosa’s cavalier flourish in Plenty, nor the earth magic of Iceman. This is frosty filmmaking, betraying an Australian's disl[...]n into turning Susan Traherne from what she truly is — an unbalanced, over-sexed adolescent, doomed to become the subject of sensational biography and, finally, a supporter of hunt saboteurs and committees to save the whale — into a passionate, self-willed, yea-sayer to life, a kind of Zorba, who falls foul of the Whitehall colonels and her own capacity for living. With a lesser star than streep, the result might have been a gross embarrassment. As it is, Plenty is a rich, ripe pudding of politics and roman[...] |
| [...]oduction company: Edward R. Pressman Productions, for RKO. Distributor: Greater Union. 35 mm. 124 minut[...]5. from outward appearances, making assumptions. The first time we meet the nineteen-year-old Geraldine, we are left to guess[...]fumbles out a story to Connie about how she wants the job of looking after Connie's four-year- old son,[...]can hide her pregnancy from her parents, and have the baby adopted out before proceeding with a tradi-[...]ng to her boy- friend, Barry (Lewis Fitz-Gerald). The country lifestyle, in a farm tucked away in stunn[...]ass out- look as, it soon appears, child- rearing is at odds with Connie's THE MORE HINGS CHANGE Cold comfort farm In a scene about half way through The More Things Change . . .va Telecom man (Alex Menglet), mis- takes the pregnant child-minder, Geraldine (Victoria Longley), for the wife of Lex (Barry Otto). Enter Lex s true wife,[...]ome from work, and shock registers on his face as the couple embraces. A beautifully-timed comic scene, it is also tinged with some- thing painfully poignant. For, in many ways, the camaraderie that exists between Geraldine and Lex (which explains the Telecom man's misunderstanding), directly under- mines the strained marriage. And,4if Lex isn't the father-to-be, where is he? _ But there is also a sense in which the Telecom man's position is identical to that of the ‘audience: a witless observer, gathering up clues I'— _ (1 - I’; " A “J Barry Otto as the in effectual Lex in The More Things Change . . . independent career drive. Geraldine is young, inexperi- enced, “let loose in the world with- out a feather to fly”, as Lex unflatter- ingly puts it, yet gaining for the first time in her life a sense of identity and co[...]prepares to bear a child. Connie slowly comes to the realization that her struggle as breadwinner (Lex’s ‘job‘ —— the result of yet’ another of his dream solutions — being to keep up the farm) is mismatched by her hus- band's ineptitude. “What," she finally asks, “are we breaking our backs for?” The drama and tension are meas- ured by the confrontation of the various characters over their common plight in surviving a very chilly winter. Geraldine is at first coolly received by Lex and, to an extent, by Connie. She eventually becomes a symbiotic partner for each, catalyzing essential — though discordant — realizations. And, by the time Connie and Lex face the im- possibility of maintaining their marriage, an[...]e and Barry, looms. Such ‘discordant harmony‘ is characteristic of the film, even to the extent that it can be described in a single image: Connie and Lex in the foreground, their communication floundering, star[...]ldine and their son, Nicholas, whose game-playing is a cause for exuber- ance and celebration. Yet, for all the precariousness and fragility on which the characters‘ lives hang, the film is also a testa- ment to growth and change. Thor- oughly contemporary, The More Things Change. . . is as much afilm forthe eighties as The Big Chill was about the eighties. it suggests, with intelligence, bravery[...]achievement. Robyn Nevin has come to direct- ing the film from a background in theatre direction and acting (she is associate director of the Sydney Theatre Company). She has brought to thethe unfolding drama — qualities that are all but absent from today's cinema. The cast delivers eloquent and subtle performances, p[...]similari- ties to a part she played last year in the ABC telemovie, Time's Raging. Working from a def[...], designed by Jo Ford and edited by Jill Bilcock, The More Things Change . . . is majestically modest in its design and scope. inverting the commonplace prin- ciple of what constitutes a film- worthy subject (it is a compliment to call this a ‘small‘ film), The More Thingschange. . .deservesawide audience. it is a reminder that the cinema is about experiences that are emotional, reflective[...]use it's real diffi- cult in life". Paul Kalina The More Things Change Directed by Robyn Nevin. Pro[...]company: Syme international, in association with the New South Wales Film Corporation. Distributor: Ho[...]e, has links with his previous work — a concern for family (Smash Palace), an absorption in the ten- sions that arise when personal loyal- ties come into conflict with moral responsibilities (The Bounty). How- ever, despite the thematic continui- ties, Marie seems less a ‘personal’ project than a job that had to be done. The intricate network of details and the measured pacing of Donald- son's previous American film, The Bounty, which has been generally underrated, gives way, in Marie, to a more fundamental commitment to the basics of story-telling. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with such an approach, of course; it is simply a question of the filmmaker's priorities for this project. In order for its protagonist, Marie Ragghianti (Sissy Spacek), to acquire the status of heroine, and to Framed? Sissy Spacek in the title role of Marie. CINEMA PAPERS March — 71 |
| FILM join the army of American individuals who have stood up against a corrupt system and won, she must undergo the customary audition. And it's a particularly tough one: Donaldson launches Marie into the midst of trauma in the opening sequence and doesn't release her until the end. Every event in the film is linked, in one way or another, with the ordeals, private and professional, that she has to undergo. Anything extraneous is ruthlessly gleaned away: everything is subservient to the details of Marie’s painful passage and Spacek’s nicely con- trolled performance. Based on the book, Marie: A True Story by Peter Maas, whose Serpico provided the basis for the film directed by Sidney Lumet, Donald- son's film[...]er children and manage her profes- sional career. The latter goal finds her, in her role as Chairperson of the Tennessee Board of Pardons and Paroles, at odds with those who appointed her in the first place. Both State Governor Blanton (Don Hoo[...]er way through university, are deeply involved in the corruption of the Board. Her attempt to deal with the situation produces a chain of events that put at risk her life and the lives of those around her. A title after the opening credits proudly proclaims that Marie Fiagghianti is “a real person”, and that this is “a true story". This seems to be intended to lend a certain credibility to the drama. Indeed, as we have just seen Marie brutall[...]er home, it does carry a dramatic punch. However, the telling of the story owes more to Way Down East, Orphans of the Storm and DW, Griffith, than it does to any detac[...]ass environ- ment to a position of State office. The method of Marie is very much that of a melodrama of protest: the lines of battle are clearly drawn and the characterization is born of familiar stereotypes. In fact, the direction of the performances is such that the State officials reek of sleaze and corruption from the moment they appear on the screen, and are divested of anything even vaguely resembling a redeem- ing virtue. Marie, on the other hand, is pure of heart There is a suggestion early on, as she approaches Sisk in[...]then conveni- ently ignores his hints about what is expected from her (‘Like you and me, that Board serves the Governor's pleasure"), that her .-‘n _ ' . ‘[...]TV actions are not altogether squeaky clean; but the implications of this are ignored as the drama returns to its pre-ordained direction. Like a number of others in the breed of heroines who have recently leapt on to our screens (in, for example, Silkwood, Country and Places in the Heart), Marie finds that the problem is not simply one of dealing with territory that tra[...]domestic one after she decides to go public with the knowledge that has the power to bring down the State government. And, since the film spends consider- able time establishing Marie’s rela- tionship with her children, the result is that the threat posed by the State officials challenges the security of The Family as much as it does the system of government which they have dishonoured.[...]ree of dramatic intensity. What it lacks, though, isfor honest govern- ment is asserted rather than shown. Sissy Spacek‘s perf[...]giving her character's growth conviction, but it is (arguably) less successful than Marsha Mason's in the telemovie, Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal (directed by Glenn Jordan, 1982), anot[...]h in common with Marie. in a similar fashion, it is never clear precisely what it is that the Governor and his cronies have done. Dona|dson’s film, clearly, is little concerned to propose any tangible insight into its drama about politics in the South. Rather, its focus is firmly on the plight of its protagonist, and on her battle against the _(as it happens. all-male) forces that line up against her. It is an efficient, occasionally affecting, but ultimat[...]Elliot Schick. Screenplay: John Briley, based on the book, Marie: A True Story by Peter Maas. Director[...]es USA. 1985. REVI EWS Living (and dying) with the bmb The poster for Dennis O'Fiourke’s Half Life is a Gauguin-style picture of an idyllic Pacific-island seashore, in the background of which is the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explo- sion. Just how this area — specific- ally, the Marshall Islands — has been irrevocably changed[...]cesspool of caesium and other radioactive wastes, isfor the nuclear age’, Half Life is also a story of the callous and racist exploitation of a Third World society by a superpower which is now in the process of absolving itself from its responsibilities. The film than utilizes archival foot- age (some of it[...]s and Ameri- can weather observers present during the test period, and film of recent hearings in Washington, where compensation for the islanders is being sought. The earliest footage recalls the paranoia and optimism with which the nuclear age was ushered in: Eisenhower and other government officials convince the American public of the need to stockpile nuclear weapons and keep an edge over the communists. The natives of Bikini Atoll, where the detonations actually took place, are seen being e[...]imple people‘ are happy to lose their homeland "for the benefit of mankind", Another staged piece of foo[...]nding somewhat like W.C. Fields, con- gratulating the Bikinians on being good fellows and leaving quietly. Animals are tethered on target ships, to stand in for humans “in the interests of science”. Science apparently wasn’t satis- fied. Lagging behind the Soviet Union, the US was hastening to develop the more powerful hydro- gen bomb. In March 1954, ‘Bravo’, the first American H-bomb, was detonated according to schedule on Bikini, in the full knowledge that the prevailing wind conditions would carry fall-out to the downwind atolls of Rongelap, Fiongerik and Uterik, Born to the USA. Tantra Jorju holds her grandson, Kimo. Kimo[...]1954. whose inhabitants had not been evacuated. The US government admitted that contamination of these atolls and their inhabitants (as well as of the crew of a Japanese trawler in the area) had taken place, but gave assurances that n[...], and that all were well and under medical care. The US, of course, now had a group of subjects for the study of the long-term effects of radiation exposure. These effects are revealed, in the course of the film, to include cancers and genetically deformed[...]ows islanders being brought to a Chicago hospital for tests, with a commentary describing how these ‘savages’ were safely delivered back home, none the worse for the experience. A later interview discloses the truth: the death of at least one of the group on the mainland. Half Life is a compact and smoothly edited film, which provide[...]o create a slow crescendo of disgust and outrage. The footage, new and old, speaks for itself, but the film uses the resources of cinema to make its impact. Music is important. The plaintive chords of a Hawaiian steel guitar are u[...]a- kovich's Fifth Symphony accom- panies shots of the H-bomb test, synthesizing awesome beauty and horror, and reminiscent of the Straub/Huillet film, Introduction to Schoenberg's Accompaniment for a cinematographic Scene, which juxtaposed this pi[...]cargo as an ultimate soundlimage of doom. There is only one lapse into mani- pulation, during a section showing the preparations for the ‘Bravo’ test. lntercut with the archive scenes are two new sequences, of peaceful[...]d children playing. Apart from venturing close to the complacent notion of happy natives spending their days in the sun, this is an unnecessary underlining of information we already have: that the islands were not evacuated. O'Rourke keeps his exclamation point of horror for the penultimate sequence. It is not shots of mal- formed babies or chronically sick adults, but a filmed address to the Marshall islanders by President Reagan, on the occasion of the termination of America's trusteeship. He speaks of the many good things that have been built and brought to the islands and the great gift of democracy bestowed, and wishes them well for the future. ‘Bravo’ apparently never happe[...] |
| Neverending story For a long time, Steven Spielberg has reportedly wanted to make a ‘serious’ film — one that will show the Hollywood snobs what a very good director he is. Spielberg is without doubt a good director. Un- fortunately, The Color Purple is not the movie to prove it. While he has created a visuall[...]cted film, Spielberg has become so bogged down in the ‘art’ of direction that what he has created is a series of very intense, very beautiful scenes which do not add up to a magnificent whole. Based on the Pulitzer Prize- winning novel by Alice Walker (wh[...]ics as a worthy successor to William Faulk- ner), The Color Purple is the story of Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), a black woman w[...]happiness and degradation imposed on her by men. The story takes place over a period of more than 40 years, and the book is composed entirely of letters — letters from Cel[...], Nettie, and from Nettie to Celie. Through them, the lives of the characters are revealed and dissected, so that what appears ambiguous at the begin- ning becomes exceedingly clear by the end. And Celie herself does something similar, go[...], ‘young’ and ‘happy’- , But, because of the confines of the narrative — or perhaps because, out of necessity, a movie has to show, rather than imply, things — Celie is more ambiguous at the end of the film than at the beginning, which is the opposite of the book. What we grasp from the book and see portrayed in the film is a young girl who is raped by her ‘Pa’, whose resultant children a[...]Celie calls her husband, beats and berates her to the point where she retreats into a shell. Not only d[...]o which he might easily have fallen — but, like the book, alludes to more than he shows. Unfortunate[...]es — particularly in Spielberg's downplaying of the lesbian relationship between Shug (Margaret Avery) and Celie, a major part of the novel — and too little in others, where he dwel[...]s preparations to shave a man she wants to kill. The character of Shug, beautifully played by Avery, is the woman whom Mister loves and who, by her encouragement and love of Celie, helps the latter to change from a piti- fully downtrodden ember into an inferno. Shug is a close-at-hand example of freedom and strength for Celie, whose life up until her marriage has been made happy only by the existence of her sister, Nettie (Akosua Busia). When Nettie is sent away by Mister, she vows to write, but Miste[...]Shug helps Celie find her sister's letters, Celie is able to muster her inner strength and prove that she is not ‘pore’, ‘black’, ‘ugly’ and ‘a woman’, but a.person. ‘ - - actors in the film, is perfect in her role. She ages gracefully in a placid way that displays the kind of inner strength which her character must evince near the end of the film. Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey (as Sofia) are also good in support- ing roles. Although much has been made of the sociological implications of the film in the US — many black groups have protested that its depiction of black men is universally negative w it is not so much against black men as against bullies[...]n). lf Spielberg can be faulted, it should be in the more specific instance of Mister, whose character does not change (as it does in the novel). In the book, Mister mellows, and regrets the way he has treated Celie. The film touches only very slightly on his attempts to make amends: what little transformation is evident is underplayed to the point of making the final shot of the film oblique and confusing. The period of the story — approxi- mately 1906 to 1947 — is beautifully realized. The art direction of Robert W. Welch, the cinematography of Allen Daviau and the music score by Quincy Jones are all evocative of the American South during those decades. Yet, with al[...]ce —— acting, visuals and a universal story V The Color Purple simply misses the mark. By the end of the film, the audience feels drained, because of the emotional intensity of many of the scenes; but there is no cathartic effect. Even if Celie is content and happy, it is now we who feel like shells. This aspect of the film is particu- larly evident in the last third, which is Whoopi Goldberg, like all the Rhythm and booze: Margaret Avery as Shug, cutting the rug at Harpo’s Juke Joint in The Color Purple. merely a series of endings, all eq[...]t as he had a climax in every scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark and far too many endings in E.T., Spielberg here cannot resist the temptation, even in this ‘serious’ context, to keep the audience wondering when the film is going to end. Two or three endings might have been excusable, but four or five try the patience. Meanwhile, though the film may do well at the box office and will probably be nominated for multiple Oscars, audiences who had been waiting for the ‘serious direction’ of Steven Spielberg should probably try to catch The Sugarland Express or Jaws on video, to remind themselves what a good director he can be. Patricia King Hanson The Color Purple: Directed by Steven Spielberg. Produ[...]d Peter Guber. Screenplay: Menno Meyjes, based on the novel, The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Director of photog[...]Entertainment, in association with Quincy Jones, for Warner Bros. Distributor: Roadshow. 35 mm.[...] |
| [...]lways had to do something, not just be: celebrate the dubious achieve- ments of some recently dead ruler, for instance, or carry a railway across a river. As a result, it has been an affair of compromises: the beauty of a railway bridge is second- ary to its ability not to collapse beneath the first express train. Films have always had a fun[...]g venal), they are about bread and circuses: that is to say, they have to entertain a lot of people an[...]ng so. Which makes it fairly amazing that, after the debacle of Heaven’s Gate, Michael Cimino has been able to make another multi-million dollar film. It is less surprising that it should have been under the aegis of Dino De Laurentiis. Unlike the UA execu- tives with whom Cimino came into conflict over Heaven’s Gate, De Laurentiis is no corporate accountant with both eyes on the balance sheet: he has always com- bined a sound commercial sense with the gamblers instinct of a true impresario. Cimino is a kind of maverick, too: for all his narrative arrogance and hit-and-miss thematics, he is firmly in the great tradition of American film- making. Like Fo[...]ls in myth first and psychology second. And, like The Deerhunter, Year of the Dragon is a stunning mixture of the extraordinarily brilliant and the staggeringly inept, the visu- ally sublime and the psychologically banal. It is also as much about Vietnam as The Deerhunter was — and in the same way, too, since the earlier film's war scenes were little more than counterpoints to the main, all- American story. “Fucking politics,” snails, the hero of Year of the Dragon, police captain Stanley White (Mickey Rourke), as he tries to get on with the job. "This is Vietnam all over again. Nobody wants to win this thing.” ‘This thing’ is Stanley’s campaign to clean up Chinatown, and he treats it as a crusade. His main adversary is Joey Tai (John Lone), a classic American success,[...]natown’s drug and pro- tection rackets. Stanley is a second- generation Polish immigrant, and his sense of Americanness is severely threatened by the closed world and traditional rules of Chinatown. But Joey, too, is an American, who has created an economic power-ba[...]sense — in many other senses, too — Year of the Dragon is an old-fashioned gangster film, far removed from the heist movies that dominated the genre in the sixties and seventies. Like Little Caesar and Scarface, the film is about two worlds in conflict. And, as in those early gangster movies, while what is legally right and wrong may be clear, the moral position is far more 74 — March CINEMA PAPERS ambiguous. This shared heritage is a more successful and credible link between the two protagonists than the Chinese-American newswoman, Tracy Tzu (Ariane), with whom Stanley has an improbable affair, and who is constantly trying to ‘expose’ Joey. Undermine[...]- ing) and by her distinctly Japanese appearance, the sub-plot is the repository for almost everything that is awful in the film, from its strained dialogue to its overblown[...]ion in an unexplained luxury hi- tech penthouse. The core of the film, though, can easily transcend such details. The thematic duel between Stanley and Joey, first acr[...]assembler of distinctive visual metaphors. Here, the metaphors are those of hell (or the underworld) — in, for example, the choreographed violence of the machine-gun attack on the restaurant base of Joey's main rival for Chinatown power; the attack on Stanley’s home, in which his wife, Connie (Caroline Kava), has her throat cut; or the discovery of two corpses in a dripping noodle fac[...]ll his previous films, Cimino has strung together the story (co-scripted by Midnight Express‘s Oliver Stone). Where the guiding visual motif in Heaven's Gate was the circle, here it is the overcrowded compositions through which Cimino tracks his main characters with a skill that is often awesome: however crowded the background, the foreground is never lost. And these scenes hold the film together, rendering the overall sloppiness of structure (always Cimino’s weakest point) and the grating obviousness of some of the dialogue more or less minor irritants. The parallel of John McEnroe some- how springs to mind: the irritating arrogance and the total lack of cool are overruled by a sheer and passionate skill. Like The Deerhunter and Heaven’s Gate, Year of the Dragon is a deeply conservative film, relying on the problematic frontier-society notion of the little guy needing the strength and violence of the big guy to save him. Stanley’s is an action-based philo- sophy, full of latent racism (as a European immigrant, he both resents and fears the new wave of Asian Americans), and Year of the Dragon illustrates it to the exclusion of all else. Liberty Valance must be el[...]friend, Bukowski [Hay Barry], here) may talk, but the hero (Tom Doni- phon/Stanley White) must act. Thus America exorcises its demons. And, though Cimino is as yet no John Ford, he has about him — and Year of the Dragon has about it — that Draganslayer: Mickey Rourke as Stanley White in Michael Cimino’s Year of the Dragon. disturbing aura of American great- ness. Perhaps, too, the experience of Heaven's Gate (or maybe it was Dino[...]and in hand with greatness. Nick Roddick Year of the Dragon: Directed by Michael Cimino. Produced by D[...]enplay: Oliver Stone and Michael Cimino, based on the novel by Robert Daley. Director of photogr[...] |
| FILM Modern crimes Towards the end of Jenny Kissed Me, there is an image that neatly, if unintentionally, illustrates one of the film's major flaws. Lindsay Fenton (Ivar Kants) a[...]ughter, Jenny (Tamsin West), are being pursued by the police, who aim to apprehend Lindsay for kid- napping, and return Jenny to custody as a ward of the state. Jenny is in an institution because her mother, Carol (Deborra-Lee Furness), has left the home in the hills that she shared with Lindsay for the faster times of Melbourne. Unfor- tunate choices there have landed Carol in the midst of the cocaine and massage-parlour trades; and, as a result, the police have taken Jenny from her. Tormented by the loss of the child and her mother, Lindsay has snatched Jenny back. While the pair are on the run, the camera rests briefly on two news- paper headlines that proclaim their predicament. The Age announces that they are the focus of ‘Victoria's largest manhunt’, while[...]s Lindsay's motives as ‘Love or lust?‘. Like The Age, Jenny Kissed Me aims to present a story that is authoritative, probing, confronting and even illu[...]late or add a bit of oomph. And, in succumbing to the temptation of the latter, the film surrenders any semblance of the former. Though an exploration of the problems faced by the trio indicates some potentially involving raw material — the pre- carious state of the family, the legal limbo of de facto relationships, the difficulties faced by women who are unsuitable mothers, the trauma that besets children when adult relation- AND TV ships are severed — the execution eclipses much of it. What might have been a sensitive, perceptive account of the fragile and complex relation- ships between adults and children is reduced to an overblown and fairly vacuous tearjerker. Following somewhat belatedly in the wake of a cycle of films that portray men as devoted parents (Kramer vs. Kramer, Smash Palace, Table for Five, Author, Author, Ordinary People), Jenny Kissed Me contrasts the troubled relationship between Carol and Lindsay with the rapport shared by Lindsay and Jenny. It even (unnecessarily) accentuates the bond between man and child with heavy—handed references to the fact that Lindsay is not Jenny’s natural or legal father. This infor[...]hat Carol needs any more suspicion cast upon her, for her character supplies another of the film's flaws, and one that is disturbing in its implications rather than simply problematic as a con- sequence of indecision. For most of the film, Carol exists as a catalyst — an erratic variable who indicates the importance of the other stable and caring adult in Jenny's life. With the goal of depicting the male as a worthy parent, Warwick Hind‘s script sacrifices the female pro- tagonist, crucifying Carol in order to canonize Lindsay. Spouting much half-baked jargon about the irrelevance of marriage and virtually rejecting h[...]’s fairly uncharitable perceptions of feminism. The only things that she is liberated from, however, are any redeeming features. As both lover and mother, she is portrayed as a villain: a woman who is selfish, stupid, sexually deceitful and, worst of[...]he resents it when her child's cries of pain from the neighbouring room interrupt her sex life. She dis- passionately puffs on her hash pipe at home while the child is rushed to hospital with acute appendicitis. She pouts when Lindsay spends their scarce resources on a bike for Jenny's birthday rather than additions to her own wardrobe. And she alleviates the boredom of country life by succumbing to the advances of a neighbour. Meanwhile, Lindsay teaches Jenny about the local fauna, visits her in hospital when she is sick and brings home the bacon. Finally, Carol packs up and leaves the love- able Lindsay. Ignoring Jenny’s dismay, she separates the child from her single caring parent and re- locates in Melbourne, traumatizing both of the people she allegedly loves. What more? She works in a massage parlour, has friends who live on the profits of drug-dealing, and is oblivious to Jenny’s anguish and deterioration from sweet little girl to Problem Child. In short, the woman is a monster, a caricature masquerading as a character, who destroys any argument for reading the film as a genuine effort to deal with the complexities of modern relationships. It is primarily the depiction of Carol that lends the film its final and most ironic defect. Offering itself as a tale “which could only have happened in the present ', Jenny Kissed Me purports to examine the problems and pressures of contemporary relationsh[...]faces (and, thanks to Bob Kohler’s photography, the film looks lustrous), it applauds the most conservative elements of highly traditional[...]rol in Jenny Kissed Me. consists of Carol seeing the error of her ways, marrying Lindsay (thereby establishing his legal tie to Jenny), confessing her love for the child and swapping her night job for a post behind the supermarket cash register. This miraculous transformation — just in the nick of time, as Lindsay is about to expire from a terminal disease — seems to contradict the film's claim to modernity. Marriage and fidelity are restored to their pedestals, responsible parenthood is shown to be within the grasp of even this reprobate, and the film ends with mother and daughter back in the idyllic hills, apparently smiled upon by a benevolent rein- carnation of the clearly departed. The saddest thing about Jenny Kissed Me is that it is incapable of presenting a sympathetic male charac[...]were somehow mutually exclusive. And, when Carol is finally ‘redeemed’, it is in the most patronizing way possible. so that she can st[...]nt shoes. Finally, however, one ceases to lament the missed opportunities that litter the film and simply surrenders to disbelief at[...] |
| ""1 in; leaving of Liverpool January is, of course, early in the year; but I shall be surprised if 1986 offers a m[...]m than Chris Bernard’s A Letter to Brezhnev. It is much more than merely likeable, however: it is an important film in the much-touted, never-quite-safely- arrived British[...]genous, cutting loose from stereotypes, rooted in the actuality of casual, messy living. It also shows itself aware of the capacity for romance and excite- ment in the most straitened circum- stances, but does not sentimentalize either. It's attitude to lower-class life is far removed from the gentilities of, say, This Happy Breed or Millions Like Us, let alone the patronage accorded the lower orders in other- wise distinguished films s[...]c working-class types providing light relief from the more serious matters that preoccupy their social[...]s sentiment- alized them in pseudo-poetic ways in the likes of A Taste of Honey, or depicted them with[...]other films of that short-lived ‘new wave’ of the early sixties. A Letter to Brezhnev, by contrast,[...]eri- ously, but without being solemn about them. The two girls in the film ~ Teresa (Margi Clarke) and Elaine (Alex- andra Pigg), the former a chicken processor, the other on the dole — both want more out of life than the daily grind of their Liverpool lives has to offer. Teresa seems to have more go, but only in the direction of vodka and sex, and the men are both scarce and inadequate. Elaine, nicel[...]as"“a straight Kirby girl short on adventure". The film wittily observes their reversal when two Russian sailors — the bear-like Sergei (Alfred Molina) and the more sensitive Peter (Peter Firth) — hove into view in the pub to which the girls have fled from a man whose wallet Teresa lifted when he tried to pick them up. It is, in fact, the quieter Elaine who has the adven- ture: while Teresa and Sergei achieve inst[...]ant) sexual compatibility, Elaine and Peter spend the night in talk. Elaine, having fallen in love, writes the eponymous letter, is invited to Russia and, despite being told that Peter is married, heads off in the film's last scene. Opposed by most of those around her, she is urged on by Teresa, who sees her own chances thinning, and is “afraid of what’s round the corner". Throughout, it is the girls who take the initiative. They want men, but aren’t about to be pushed around by them; they pay the hotel bill for the Russian sailors; and, while men is what they want, they will set the terms. The most touching relation- ship in the film is that between Teresa and.Elaine: their final airport scene is written and played with a fine regard for mutual feeling and disparate degrees of resignati[...]on- signs herself to Kirby and Elaine to Russia. The film's attitude toward the Soviet Union is fresh and funny. A girl in a take-away shop, whose boy- friend comes off second best in a set-to with the Russians, hurls after them “Fuckin’ communist[...]fice official (Neil Cunningham) warns her against the constrictions of Russian life. But the anti-communist feeling at all levels is satirically played off against the way in which, for Elaine, Russia comes to stand for romance and adventure. As she points out, in leav[...]thing to give up". “FROM KIRBY TO KREMLIN" (as the tabloid headline screams) looks like a desirable[...]— or Liverpool at large — are pre- sented in the tradition of poetic squalor: in a series of graceful long shots and beautifully composed overhead shots, the old city is allowed its vestiges of Victorian dignity, which are as much a part of it as the vibrant, youthful life refusing to be subdued by poverty and un- employment. A Letter to Brezhnev is one of the few British films that gives any sense of the life of a prov- vincial city in its sheer various[...]es with dreariness, insularity with vitality, and the effect in terms of the film’s concerns lS dramatic rather than merely[...]ears ago, Lindsay Anderson berated British cinema for being “an English cinema (and Southern English[...]igent, emotionally inhibited, wil- fully blind to the conditions and problems of the present, dedicated to an out-of-date, exhausted national ideal." A Letter to Brezhnev is too un pretentious a film to make solemn claims a[...]utes which Anderson rightly complained of. it has the authentic look and sound (Frank C|arke’s script is full of great one- LETTER TO BREZHNEV East meet[...](1953), a community of Cajun shrimp fishermen on the Gulf of Mexico combat James Stewart's oil- drilli[...]in their fishing grounds. A crescendo of violence is resolved when the first well brings in a gusher of foot-long king p[...]bout a small red- neck community's intolerance of the Vietnamese who settle there and compete in the floundering shrimp industry. At the outset, the film shows us the daily rhythms of people beached in a stultifying[...]hermen working their boats, popping Lone Stars at the Zanadew [sic] Lounge, and driving muscle pick-ups with .30-06s in the window racks down highways empty save for the occa- sional ‘Drive friendly’ sign. Malle wa[...]icts. Tri-Star Pictures probably wanted a product for the Tender Merciesl Places in the Heart market. Stars Amy Madigan and Ed Harris seem to have wanted the story of an incan- descent, destructive amour fou. The upshot: an epic battle between Phantom India and Ruby Gentry. Ruby Gentry wins. The first half unreels issues, pack- ing the elements for a social analysis into a traditional movie structure. Dinh (pronounced ‘Dean’ Warmed by more than the GuIfStream: Ed Harris and/lmy Madigan in A[...] |
| "NAMA' ‘Jllli ” 'I‘lllE SCREEI I PLAY. I THETHE l*‘0LLOWlNG AGllNClES:- ABORIGINAL LEGAL SERVI[...]ARTMENT OF? NORTHERN TERRITORY Ab0II9In0I AIIOIIS THE WAR MEMORIAL, Canberra Corrective Services, N.T.[...]NIIING lNSl’lEC'I‘l0N ANII Al’l’l{0VAL BY THE AUS'l‘ GOI’IZl{NMlEN'l‘ F0]! l{El.IE1ISl<][...]g comtemporary record film.’ - David Robinson, The Times (London) ‘Intelligent, moving and unmani[...]ine excitement and surprise.’ - Derek Malcolm, The Guardian (London). ‘Shocking and powerf[...] |
| [...]to join fellow Viet- namese refugees sardined by the dozen into an aluminium mobile home which glows in the moonlight like a television tube. Glory (Amy Madigan) returns from the big city to help her father keep the family fish business from going belly-up in the wake of a red-neck boycott caused by his chumming up with the Viet- namese. Unhappily married Shang Pierce (Ed[...]ets and hauls in his nets in a losing battle with the loan sharks. He is sucked into the undertow of an old romance with Glory as he becomes the de facto leader of the disgruntled red- neck fishermen. The penumbra of the Vietnam war hangs heavily over the film for a time. Shang, whipped into action by outside military advisers — the Klan — and wearing his ‘Nam Vets of Texas’ tee-shirt, leads the defence of local waters against foreign invasion at the helm of the Klan vessel, ‘Amatuer‘ (they love to kill), The in- vading Vietnamese are Vietcong to the locals. The war has been brought home. But thats the one that got away: the second half of the film jettisons all that social analysis. Most novelistic films start out by plopping themselves into the midst of ‘reality’, then rippling out to take in the whole ocean. But Alamo Bay works like a whirlpool, contracting rather than expanding its focus. The narrowing of the social scope is visually paralleled by the contrac- tion of the broad Texan landscape and the expansive seascape of the opening scenes into progressively smaller spaces in the town, con- cluding in the final shoot-out in the shrimp-processing plant. The rivalry between Shang and Dinh, which is not fully developed in either the romantic or the political story, is at least expressed in a last visual con- traction[...]bulance. In a traditional structure, one expects the social plot and the romantic plot to intertwine, as the lovers represent, in their personal story, the dynamics of the social or political story. But, in this case, they are not interlinked. We are tossed from the social story to the romantic one, but not back again. The line snaps, and the film's drift into the hot stuff involves marooning the politics rather than cross-representing them. There's a Bermuda Triangle for films,'too. What is discarded when a fish is cleaned is what is missing in Alamo Bay, too. But Malle fills in wit[...]utions: never a chance of choking on a bone, with the deft constructions under-played to take advantage of the progressively TVish visual style of the film. An example: the first day Dinh goes out on the Vietnamese boat. the nets are emptied onto the deck and everyone including the helmsman crowds excitedly round. One of them sorts the various sea-things into piles, using a brand- new[...]e wondering: where did that come from? Meanwhile, the un- attended boat nearly collides with Shang Pierce’s boat. The diverging forces of the entire movie can be seen here. its instinct for moment and detail its specificity — is there in the close-up of the fish-sorting and the blithe enigma of the licence plate. But there, too, clearly separated, is its determinism, literally forcing it off one course and onto another: the one intended to destroy Shang. The event in the film which chooses the latter and scuttles the former stands out not only for the acting — it’s the dance scene, with Madigan and Harris radiating sex — but also for Malle’s method: flickers of detail, understatem[...]n and Harris their energy, their desire — steal the show, slow-dancing, crab-wise, into the vacuum left as the social theme weighs anchor and sinks slowly in the west, a plucky Ry Cooder score accompanying. Dia[...]be. . . " John Hargreaves, Meredith Phillip: and the Easter Island gods in Sky Pirates. Plumbing the heights Tales of swashbuckling heroes and plucky heroines are, of course, almost as old as the cinema itself. Recently, however, the remarkable Steven Spielberg has claimed the territory as his own, with Harrison Ford as the archaeologist, Indiana Jones, in Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The pheno- menal success of these two slick productio[...]nst which subse- ia'.I5:fe S quent entries in the lucrative field of exotic adventure films will be[...]his should be so may not be entirely fair, but it is certainly inevit- able, particularly when filmmakers appear to be guided by the maxim that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Which brings us direc[...]$4-million-plus pro- duction that rarely soars to the heights to which it aspires. An episodic film th[...]ccept too great an amount on faith, buckles under the strain of trying to do too much, labours under the burden of a script that lacks the sparkle so vital to this type of entertainment, a[...]s too heavily on other recent films — primarily the aforementioned Indiana Jones sagas —— for its inspiration. To be sure, Spielberg, too, owed a debt of gratitude to the past, notably to those cliffhanger serials that held so many of us enthralled at the Saturday afternoon pictures. But Spielberg elevated the formula several levels. Produced by John Lamond (whose credits include Australia After Dark, The ABC of Love and Sex, Felicity, Pacific Banana and[...]ed in such dis- parate locations as Melbourne and the skies above Ballarat, the outback and the Great Barrier Reef, and as far afield as Bora Bora and Easter island, the home of those mysterious, Fraser-like stone heads. Directed by Colin Eggleston (who made the excellent featurette, The Long Weekend), Sky Pirates is set in the forties, and stars the versatile John Hargreaves in the unaccus- tomed role of an Aussie Biggles — a de[...]thodox flying leathers, as he arrives at a misty (the fog machine is working overtime in Sky Pirates) airfield to pilot a secret USlAustralian air force flight across the Pacific. Among those on board are co-pilot and senior Australian officer Savage (Max Phipps), who, for reasons that are never made clear, harbours a deep-seated hatred of the insubordinate Harris; the hard-drinking US general, Hackert (Alex Scott), and his aide, Logan (Wayne Cull); and the Reverend Kenneth Mitchell (Simon Chilvers), who also appears to be a scientist with an unclerical penchant for the occult and the supernatural. Not aboard, to Harris‘s chagrin, is the reverend’s attractive daughter, Melanie (Meredi[...]knowing glances assure a subsequent reunion. in the cargo bay of the vintage Dakota C-47 is a packing case con- taining no, not the Ark of the Covenant, but a third of a sacred stone tablet in[...]sland and known as Moai (as in “He who disturbs the secret Moai meets death“). The flight takes off with an escort that includes two[...]iding director of photography Garry Wapshott with the first of several engaging aerial sequences. But, when the curious Logan begins tampering with the cargo, all hell breaks loose, and a mysterious force takes control of the aircraft in a well- staged, descent into a time w[...]more mist; back to Melbourne and a court martial for Harris, who is some- what inexplicably sentenced to several years in the brig, but escapes in the nick of time to save Melanie from Savage; and to[...]f Mad Max extras and a barkeep (Bill Hunter) whom the ever- optimistic Harris engages in a game of Russ[...]aking it hard,” says Harris. “Sleep on it,” is her response. There are also wing-tip heroics an[...]it may, Sky Pirates comes nowhere near generating the kind of suspense and surprise that got Raiders off to such a stirring start. And the film works up to a fairly pre- dictable finish, a[...]rian Wright),get their just desserts, Harris gets the girl, and the gods that rule Easter Island are reunited with a chunk of rock that glows in the dark. Substantial production,work obvi- ously went into the making of Sky Pirates, and the aerial sequences are first-rate. Hargreaves makes a surprisingly good swashbuckler, and the rest of the cast isn't exactly made up of slouches, either.[...]work with, in a plot that has too many holes even for an adventure fantasy, and a script singularly lacking in zest. One cant help thinking that the project might have been better served in structur[...]s a miniseries rather than a feature film. As it is, one is reminded, not so much of the adventures of Indiana Jones, as of that home and travel loan commercial that precedes the feature in most cinemas these days. |t’s[...] |
| [...], while it never lapses into surface gloss, leads the audience a little too confi- dently through all the intricacies. In this case, the subject is that of a young English-speaking nun in French-sp[...]as ever had intercourse, claims not to re- member the birth, and IS subse- quently put on trial for murder. Throughout, she manifests only spiri- tuality (occasionally in the form of stigmata), and the film definitely flirts with the idea that it was a virgin birth. Jewison, working from the ex- tremely successful stage play by John Pielmei[...]sychiatris (Jane Fonda), conflict between her and the Mother Supe- rior (Ann Bancroft) and some skele- tons in the convent's closet. The resu t is a film that impresses more as a tour de force than a serious think-piece. The main problem is that it never brdges the gap between imagesofspirituality—which abound in the film, thanks to Sven Nykvist‘s (remarkaby prote[...]aint, part spaced- out hippy, ‘s impressive, as is Ann Bancroft as a fairly worldly Mother Miriam Ruth. But, to my mind, the film’s best performance comes from Jane Fonda in the far less flashy role of the psychiatrist, coming to terms with herown lapsed catholicism, and put in a position where it is she, not the convent, who is obliged to be convinced of the miracle. In Fonda, one can see the clashes of ideas, which tend to become more fire- works elsewhere in the film. It is a great and restrained piece of film acting. Nick Roddick Usually, it is the merchandizing which follows the film. But, in the case of The Care Bears Movie, it has been the other way round: this animated film features the wide range of ‘Care Bears‘, which, in real (7) life, are cute little dolls currently enjoying the popularity of the Cabbage Patch Kids and a few of the minor saints. The film, despite the unpromising preconceptions which a slightly cynic[...]RS (Blatant Exploitation! Commercial Drossl), is surprisingly stomachable, even with the billions of heart- shaped objects (from elephants’ trunks to door hinges) which pepper the film. A typical good-versus-evil premise forms the core of the film, with the Care Bears Crew battling an evil force that is trying to turn a friendless kid into a major-league nasty. And this keeps the film from dragging, or the schmaltz from breaching adult tolerance levels. Technically, the single-frame ani- mation is pedestrian, and the colours are neither as rich nor as iridescent as the Disney philosophy might suggest. But it works: after all, you can't really knock a film that espouses the virtues of loving and caring and being nice. And there is a warm glow to be had from the heartfelt laughter of all those three- and four- year-olds. Jim Schembri Catholic Boys is another mediocre ‘sensitive comedy’ about tee[...]e schoolmates through a Brooklyn Catholic school, the film suffers from an obsessive focus on brutality. As a result, the boys‘ friendships grow by superficial and predi[...]of violence, intimidation and sexual awakening. The two main characters are Michael Dunn (Andrew McCarthy), a new boy at the school, and Ed Rooney (Kevin Dillon, brother of Matt), the lazy, cool head of the gang. Dunn is sensitive and independent, and Rooney is im- pressed by his strength in the face of teacher victimization. There is early humour and pathos as friendships develop, b[...]asturbation (one boy never talks, he just wanks). The films best moments are devoted to Dunn's romance with the corner- shop girl, Danni (Mary Stuart Master- son[...]her father was stricken by melancholia. Despite the cameo presence of Donald Sutherland, as the sage but stern headmaster, Masterson alone evokes sincerity amid the chaos of adolescent pranks and problems. In the end, however, nothing is resolved, only contrived, leaving one with the feeling that, if the writers had developed the characters instead of going for a violent-heroic .climax, Catholic Boys might have been a satisfying movie. Instead, it is only occasionally engaging. Michael Visontay[...]view of Eureka to mark its fleeting appearance on the Australian reper- tory circuit nearly three years after its initial release, is a matter of some considerable injustice. Shelved in the US, buried in Britain (see Cinema Papers, 53), Eureka is, for all its ‘invisibility', one of the towering achievements of eighties cinema — a fi[...]ter what form. But, without wanting to denigrate the outlets the film has found — that it can still be seen at all is reason enough to be thankful — the colours and compositions of Nicolas Roeg’s visi[...]lex Thomson, deserve bigger screens and state-of- the-art equipment. A sort of metaphysical whodunnit, Eureka traces the life, times and death of gold miner, then million[...]eresa Russell) and her husband (Rutger Hauer). It is not a straightforward film, going the furthest that Roeg has yet gone into layered time[...]cking patterns of memory and storytelling. But it is immensely rewarding, dealing with ‘big’ sub- jects like power, passion and possession, and bringing off the challenge more completely than anything since the days of Lang and von Sternberg — a true piece o[...]movies seem- ingly strung out permanently between the twin poles of sexual awakening and outer space, it is good to be able to welcome — albeit with reservation[...]m one of Sesame Street's more inept regulars into the equally inept, if supersonically air- born, Super-Grover. But this is only so the scraggly mutt can try and rescue Big Bird, lured from the off- beat homeliness of the Street to a ‘real home with his own kind’, personified (or ornitholified) by the Dodos, a splendidly daffy brood of mid-western feathered loonies. The other inhabitants of the Street, human and manipulated, set out to bring back the Bird. Opening with a shot of the Warner Bros logo and the familiar promise that “this movie is brought to you by the letters ‘W’ and ‘B’ Follow That B/rd preserves Sesame Street's (and the Muppets’) almost unique skill of talking to kids and adults at the same time and in the same language. Boasting guest appearances by[...], and Waylon Jennings (as a singing truckdriver), the film is good-natured funny and well-paced. Directed by Ken Kwapis, it is, astonishingly, pro- duced by Ken Loach’s erstw[...]. Nick Roddick Very much an ‘art film‘ from the direc- tor of last month's medieval epic, Flesh and Blood, The Fourth Man (De vierde man) is not a film about which it is easy to be indifferent. The story of a gay Dutch writer (Jeroen Krabbe) who, on a poetry- reading visit to the seaside, gets drawn into the web of a mysterious beautician (Renee Soutendijk), and who looks set to become the fourth man to marry her and die, it is told by director Paul Verhoeven, his regular scri[...]scissors, fellatio takes place in a mausoleum and the hero, having gasped “Through Mary to Jesus!" as he comes (his real reason for sleeping with Soutendijk — or so he thinks — is to get to her boyfriend, |
| [...]icularly messy road accident, and takes refuge in the arms of a nurse he takes for the Virgin Mary. Designed (rather too obviously) to shockeverybody—catholicsthrough the blasphemy, straights because of the explicitly homosexual scenes, gays because of the melodramatic tone — The Fourth Man is neverthe- less a strikingly energetic piece of filmmaking, confirming, for anyone who still doubts it, Verhoeven's ability t[...]an (Julie Hagerty)quitting her job, find- ing her good-for-nothing, cocaine- sniffing husband in bed with another woman, and leaving for a promising new life in Paris. Worse than being shot out of the sky or hijacked, she falls asleep on the plane and ends up in Tel Aviv. In the style of The Out-of-Towners, she is stuck there without baggage or money. In part a guided tour of lsrael, the films other intentions are summed up in the final reprise: "if at first she says no, try agai[...]ially disposed to this philosophy. Occasionally, the good—bad taste of a Porky‘s or an Animal House sur[...]all predictable drudge. if you don't make it to the end, here is what happens: she gets to Paris and he gets laid[...]rywhere an audi- ence spontaneously react to what is happening on the screen with hoots and guffaws. It would appear that that is the audience that co-star Kol- lek had in mind when he produced, directed and scripted the film. Paul Kalina Throughout his 30-year care[...]-style filmmaking. From Pather Panchali (1955) to The Chess Players (1977), he has made a series of films that have ‘opened up’ lndia with the aid of Western psychology and, to a certain extent, dramaturgy, but which, for all their opening up, have never been hybrids. In this context, The Home and the World (Ghare-Baire) comes as something of a disap[...]nced debate between traditional Indian values and the intelligentsia's desire for progress) and its setting (East Bengal during the anti-partition riots of 1908) are resolutely Indi[...]nath Tagore, makes few concessions. At its centre is a triangle whose points are more ideo- logical than personal: Nikhil (Victor Banerji), the educated landowner who wants personal before political progress; Sandip (Soumitra Chatterji), the hypocritical middle- class radical; and Bimala (Swati- lekha Chatterji), who is coaxed out of purdah by Nikhil, only to fall briefly to the superficial charms of Sandip. Rather than open t[...]prevail, and exteriors are reduced to a minimum. The result is a film of great beauty and intelligence, but one[...]glamorous romance and taut thriller, Jagged Edge is a fluid reworking of a familiar Hollywood formul[...]e, and leavens it with a dash of social message. The film traces the relationship between Barnes and Forrester from the time that he is accused of his wife’s.grisly murder and she agrees to emerge from the safety of corporate law to defend him, primarily against the onslaught of a ruthless district attorney. It is keen to identify its social concern as The Law A an arena where justice is seen to depend pre- cariously on sexual attraction, professional ambition and power plays. There is also a cursory examination of the moral dilemmas facing those who endeavour to administer the law in good conscience. However, questions of issue effec- tively take a back seat to the romance, the sparring between Barnes and the D.A (played with elegant menace by Peter Coyote), and the red herrings and revelations required to fuel the whodunit. Crisply shot by Matthew F. Leon- etti and smoothly directed by Richard Marquand, Jagged Edge is consistently involving viewing, but perhaps a little too faithful to the formula, once again reducing a con- fident and co[...]m blinded by her own passions in order to resolve the narrative. Debi Enker As with his previous films, A//en and Blade Runner. Ridley Scott's Legend is a depiction of the struggle between good and evil dis- tinguished by a potent evocation of atmosphere. This time Scott trades the high- tech flights of fantasy for a full-blown fairytale, with production design (by Assheton Gorton) that creates a landscape befitting the Brothers Grimm. The lush but mysterious forest harbours the traditional assortment of inhabitants: mischievou[...]h by Tim Curry) and two pubescent protagonists on the road from innocence to maturity. As Jack (Tom Cruise) and the Princess Lili (Mia Sara) act out their fairly static functions in the narrative ~ depicting friendship under threat, loss of innocence, the fight with the forces of darkness, salvation and eventual reunion — director Scott's interest seems to lie more in the Pandora's box of the forest than with the characters. His consistent strength is the capacity to lead the viewer on a trail of visual surprises. The combination of wonder and trepidation produced by[...]and enhanced by Jerry Goldsmith’s moody score, is a fitting companion to a fairytale that is part adventure, part moral quest and part symboli[...]akening. Debi Enker A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the great pitfalls of Shake- speare's work: easy enou[...]h of Renaissance yuppies wander aimlessly through the forest spouting stilted verse. In Celestino Coro[...]ish mime and theatrical innovator, Lindsay Kemp), the problem is all but solved in the most unlikely of ways: by focussing on the masque side of the show, and leaving the other themes to emerge as they may (instead of the usual procedure of underlining the ‘serious’ side — after all, it is Shake- speare — and trying somehow to Freudianize the fairies). The result is a magnificent piece of ‘total cinema’ — all[...]ovement, dominated by Kemp’s own campy Puck. it is also the best piece of filmed Shakespeare since Kozintsev’s King Lear, restoring the real magic (or magick) to the play — not the dreary ‘white’ magic of the modern conjuror, but the dark gods who linger in the background of many a Shakespeare play (most notably Macbeth), and whose emergence into the 20th century is generally a source of embarrass- ment. Not so with Kemp: his Dream is a triumph — of Shakespeare pro- duction, of cinema and of audio- visual magic. Nick Roddick The two most disappointing things about National Lampoon‘s Euro- pean Vacation are that it is not very funny and that it is directed by Amy Heckerling, whose Fast Times at Ridgemont High stands out as the most substantial of the eighties teen movies. in her second film, Johnny Dangerous/y, Heckerling's feel for comedy, sharp eye for milieu and grasp of film history and language were apparent. And, while the opening and closing sequences of Vacation do display an appealing touch of irony and a hint of the director's perception of American culture, the intervening time is marred by uninspired lunges at comedy based around the subject of the American tourist. As the Griswalds weave their way from London to Rome —[...]lly clothes — two minor sub-plots are inserted: the family's unwitting involvement in a kidnapping, a[...]An uncharacteristically sanitized offering from the National Lampoon team, Vacation seems designed as a vehicle for Chevy Chase, who labours through a portrait of the middle-class American male as boorish schlemiel.[...]ing children (Jason Lively and Dana Hill) through the high points of Europe, one is tempted to echo the wit of his son, Rusty: "Aw, c‘mon Daayd, this is really rank.” DebiEnker CINEMA PAPERS[...] |
| The production team responsible for Return to Oz, first-time director Walter Murch, f[...]Academy) Maslansky, emphasize that their project is not a remake of the fondly- remembered 1939 screen version of the O2 stories. The screenplay, by Murch and Gill Dennis, is based on L. Frank Baum‘s second and third books, The Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz. Thus, unlike the MGM version, there are no cute Munchklns on view; and, though the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man are still present, their physical appear- ance is totally different, being based on original drawin[...]ik-Tok, a clockwork soldier, Jack Pumpkinhead and the Gump, who resembles a flying moose head. The baddies are Prin- cess Mombi (Jean Marsh), who keeps a different head for every day of the month, and the Nome King, a stone-faced grouch who looks like a[...]as this, and boosted by a $24-million budget, why is Return to Oz so relentlessly downbeat and grim? The land of Oz itself is a dime-a-bunch alien land- scape, and the mechanical charac- ters are clumsy rather than awe- some. Poor old Nicol Williamson is once again typecast in his Zardoz/Exca/i bur mode as the Nome King (also doubling as a dubious doctor. The direction is as perfunctory as the creatures themselves and, at 110 minutes, audiences may be excused for feeling that the legend of this emerald forest is truly a neverending story. Paul Harris The main question which hangs over Hugh Hudson’s Revolution is whetheritisamagnificentfolly,orjust a folly What seems beyond doubt, barring box-oftice miracles, is that it will turn outto be afolly ofsome kind: a[...]e are going to want to watch. Admirably avoiding the personali- zation of history, Hudson (working fro[...]his two central characters, Tom Dobb (Al Pacino), the (supposedly) Scott- 82 — March CINEMA PAPERS[...]trapper, and Daisy Mcconnahay (Natassja Kinski), the young fire- brand who abandons a comfortable home to join the rebels, against a constant background of collecti[...]ewing, there seem to be no more than ten shots in the whole film that contain less than three peo- ple, and the nearest thing to an in- timate scene — an encounter between Tom and Daisy, three years into the war— has background action so busy it must cons[...]s determination, forever losing his principals in the noisy swirl of street protests, field hospitals, society par- ties and battle scenes. it is almost as though a radical theatre director from the sixties had got hold of a huge budget, and had been determined not to let itcloud his vision. The result, sadly, is lessa revo- lutionary fresco,a|ong the lines of, say, Wajda’s Danton, than a film that[...]sian boxer called Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who has the build and personality of a stone wall. The hordes of Rocky fans have naturally flocked to ch[...]direc- tor/star Sylvester Stallone’s con- cerns for his latest creation go beyond providing mere momentary thrills. What makes the film the most successful sequel (yet) is the reson- ance of the feel and spirit of the original Rocky. Of course, Balboa has come a long way, and he is richer and far more vain. But several good sequences show that, deep down — and whether he likes it or not — he is still a fighter. Because Rocky’s adversary hails from the Soviet Union, critics have again focussed on Stallone‘s poli- tics. And there is, of course, a political strand in Rocky IV. But it takes second place to the story of the individual. And, even so, it is sounder and presented in a more palatable fashion[...]embri Gradually honing down his casts from the sprawling canvas of Nash- ville, viathe six principals and limited sets of Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Robert Altman reaches what must presu- mably be the reductio ad absurdum of intimate feature film-mak[...]oom with a tape- recorder. Secret Honor, though, is unmis- takably Altman, with all the usual dis- locations, the usual one—off syntax, in which idiosyncractic verbal and visual rhymes replace the links of classic film—making and, above all, space for a single magnificent per- formance: Philip Baker Hall as the man. The man, of course, is Richard Mil- house Nixon, and the film is a kind of personal history, in which Hall is both Nixon, and Nixon commenting on Nixon from the outside. It is these changes, signalled by shifts in the rhythm and tone of the actors voice, that keep the film continuously alive. They also provide what is perhaps the most complete portrait yet of the American politician upon whom his- tory is most likely to dump. As in Arthur Adamov’s French absurdist play, Professeur Taranne, there is the sense of a man disintegrating as he comes to realize that the rules by which he has led his life are a con- tri[...]bythe real power- brokers. Not that Altman makes the mistake of presenting Nixon as a hapless vic- tim: Hall's president is nasty, brutish and extremely long—winded. But he is also a figure of great fascination. And Secret Honor has, forfor some frolicking on the holi- day road (Where the Boys Are, Summer Camp, Spring Break etc). Sex and sexual mores are the perennial pivots of the teen vacation; but, with Summer Rental geared to- wards the family unit, the issues are tamer, though no less complicated. if[...]and television promoted Momism, this film gives a good example of Popism (art movements aside) in the eighties — or, as Ray- mond Durgnat would call[...]nging up Father tradition,” which harks back to the fifties. Yet Summer Rental is "Momism in the Bringing up Father tradition" only insofar as Dad (John Candy) is idiotic to the point of embarrassment, and clearlyaloser, especlallywhen pitted against the seven—times winner of the Orange Cove regatta. The credo of the fifties tradition is that it is Dad who believes himself to be in control, while Mom is actually in charge. Here, though, Mom is no wlserthan Dad. This is where the film departsfrom thetradition, for it is Dad who realizes that “you can't win ‘em all, but one would be nice”, and sets out to take the trophy away from the reigning champion of the regatta, thereby regaining some of his self- esteem. According to Summer Rental, Popism in the eighties is the asser- tion of Dad's place at the head of the family, but only after Dad's sad reali- zation that he is a loser. Raffaeie Caputo in one sense, Teen Wolf follows the line of most teenage sex comedies, where the main character is caught in the web of distinguishing true love from false. But, while this remains a consistent thread in the film, ourteen hero is beset by a different, more urgent, but not unconnected problem. Scott Howard (Michael J. Fox) is a teenager dissatisfied with being an average, unassuming lad — until he discovers he is a werewolf and, to his own surprise, manages to become the basketball team's star player, to be the top pupil in his class, and to win over the girl of his dreams (albeit the wrong girl). His real dilemma, however, is one of identity: Scott battles between his ‘true being‘ (which remains, even in his changed state) and the theatrics expected of him as ‘the wolf’. But the curious point of Teen Wolf is the way in which Scott's identity — who he wants to be — actually gets worked out: curious, because there is an un- easy undercurrent to it all. The fear and violence are deeply felt, and they emerge on the face of one of Scott’s closest friends, Lewis (Matt Adler) when, at a heated moment, Scott, as the wolf, lashes out at his persistent rival. For Scott, recognition of this fear resolves his identity crisis. Who wins. i shall not disclose; but here is some Looney Tunes advice, which may give a hint, and which encapsulates Teen Wolf quite well: “The big bad wolf/He learnt the rule:/You gotta get hot/To play real cool." (From The Three Little Bops) Raffaele Caputo It seems that the only relief from the crass teenage sex comedy is to be found in the screen adaptations of novels by S.E. Hinton, of which That Was Then...This is Now is the fourth (after Tex, The Outsiders and Rumb/efish). Ms Hinton's world is of- ten a despairing one, and this film is no exception. The screenplay, by lead actor Emilio Estevez. emphasizes the downbeat atmosphere of the story, which is set in Minneapolis and in- volves two inseparablefriends, Byron (Craig Sheffer)and Mark(Estevez). In fact. the young men have lived in the same house ever since Mark's mother was murdered by his father. Mark is wild,.immature and sullen, forever pulling[...] |
| [...]getting Cathy's younger brother hooked on drugs, the friends’ relationship undergoes a violentdisrup[...]n directs with more solemnity than necessary, and is not above adding such preten- tious touches as having a tearful con- fession by Mark played ‘with the reflection of a rain—streaked window on his face. On the plus side, Sheffer and Dela- ney are promising ne[...]wer as an actor. His sullen teenager in this film is as con- vincing as his frustrated yuppie role in St. Elmos Fire. David Stratton During the retrospective of Daniel Schmid’s films in the AF!/Pro Helvetia Swiss Film Season of mid-1985, o[...]better director of opera than movies. This view is supported by Tosca’s Kiss (ll bacio di Tosca). his documentary feature about the inhabitants of the Giuseppe Verdi Rest Home in Milan. Focussing on a handful of Italian opera stars of the thirties, the film self-effacingly allows them to take centre s[...]which never lapse into sentimen- tality, because the protagonists are so wildly comic in their competitive self—awareness. The octogenarian soprano, Sara Scuderi, is the star of the show, cheekily hamming up her self-per- formance. But she is given ample support by others, such as the stitfly dignified Giuseppe Manacchini, movingly re-enacting his perform- and of Rigo/etto in the cellar where his old costumes are stored, and the extraordinary Sardinian composer- conductor, Giovanni Puligheddu, who wanders through the film like a refugee from Fel|ini’s And the Ship Sails On. This delicate, touching and ex- t[...]s “a dignity and great- ness which are unique". The final curtain calls, performed to canned applause from La Scala, are a joy, as is the entire film — and not just for opera buffs, either. Tony Mitchell Transylvania 6-5000 is a horror spoof in which a group of reputable acto[...]back- wards in their profession by trying to make the best of clumsy comedy. The story concerns a latter-day Abbott and Costello-s[...]ho are sent to Transylvania to discover or invent the true story of Frankenstein for a trashy tabloid. When they discover their quarr[...]sex-crazed female Dra- cula, a crooked Mayor and the man- datory mad scientist.Theresultistwo hours of[...]se, which worked betterwith Bud and Lou play- ing the same game in the forties. Written and directed by Rudy DeLuca and produced by Mace Neufeld and Thomas H. Brodek for New World Pictures, Transylvania 6-5000 suggests that the overuse of some stereotypes can produce a weary f[...]to use his talented cast to some advantage. As it is, what might have been afresh approach to the territory traversed by Bud and Lou is simply a tiresome journey. Linda Malcolm Almost[...]American Style. Al- though it paid lip-service to the happy ending. it also looked in pass- ing at the economics involved in divorce. In Twice in a Lifetime, Yorkin re- examines the theme, pulling no pun- ches. Thanks to Colin Welland's perceptive screenplay, the film is refreshingly free from mawkish senti- ment and ho[...]effortlessly, An n-Margret again proves that she is not just a pretty face and Amy Madigan as Sunny displays the freckled feisti- ness of a young Doris Day. Best of all, there is Ellen Burstyn as Kate. With hersweet, crumpled little- girl face and soft, hesitant voice, she plays the kind of role we might have seen if Scorsese's Ali[...]"But he’s 50l” says his daughter Sunny. “So is Clint East- wood," replies her brother compla- ce[...]esn't Live Here Anymore, however, we suspect that the loss of her husband will not mean another crack at life for Kate. This time. there will be no deus ex machina waiting in the wings. Christine Cremen There are two movies more or less at war within Where the Buffalo Roam. The first is a kind of hagio— graphy of the semi—mythical father of ‘gonzo’ journalism: the overrated Hunter S. Thompson, long-time Rolling Stone contributor, author of the memorable Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and writer of many other, lesser works. The second film is a comic vehicle for Bill Murray, the best and most consistently innovative of the comedians to have survived (sic) Saturday Night Live, and Peter Boyle, who plays Karl Lazlo, the sometime lawyer, occasional revolu- tionary and fu|l—time weirdo created by Thompson. The second film is worth seeing Where the Buffalo Roam for. But, since Murray plays Thompson, it is rather hard to disentangle the first film from the second. Playing together, however, Murray and Boy[...]like a cross between a Sandinista and a member of the Grateful Dead. The ‘real’ subject of Where the Buffalo Roam, we are told, is “those weird years between the sixties and the seventies — the Nixon years”. Bullshit. Nixon may make an appearance, trapped in an airport urinal by Thompson. But the real subject of the film is Thompson and his brand of sixties radicalism, finally having to face up to the fact that being far out isn’t a form of existen- tial tourism. And, for all the skills of Murray and Boyle, Thompson's sexist. sl[...]philo- sophy, committed to anything so long as it is vaguely connected with self-expression, becomes more than a little tiresome. Nick Roddick The amusing conceit at the heart of Young Sherlock Holmes is the whimsical speculation that, contrary to existing Holmesiana, the initial meeting between the sleuth and Watson took place when they were both[...]constructed a traditional narrative, which allows the producers to show off some expen- sive studio rec[...]h films will be only too familiar with them, from the likes of The Wrong Box. Oliver! and, more recently, another Ho[...]rder by Decree. This story. however, centring on the pair’s first criminological investi- gation, is compromised by a heavy reliance on elaborate spec[...]eak- neck pace which seems rather gratuitous. By the time Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) and Watson (Alan Cox) have traced their way to the headquarters of a secret cult, deja vu has set in (could this be Sherlock Holmes and the Temple of Doom?) Behind all the bluster and clutter, the in-jokes for Holmes aficionados and the hallucinatory set-pieces, there is not much truly to excite the imagination. And why hire a writer/directo[...] |
| ETHH THEH |‘.’ll]|}lTH!!! For the first time, now available: at STAR TREK Original TV soundtrack recordings from the pilots "The Cage” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before". Rec[...]HlLE, BHEH Ei|}l EHHTH . . . 0 A CHORUS LINE — THE MOVIE available on record & cassette $13.99, CD $[...]E US (Elmer Bernstein) record $16.99 - TRUE GRIT/THE COMANCHEROS music composed and conducted by Elme[...]ecordings available from our stock. Write or call for a free copy. READINGS — SOUTH YARRA 153 Toora[...]collections of recordings. Getting it taped The problems of film-to-tape transfer The first cinema Papers cinematographers seminar,spon[...]epresentatives of labs and film stock companies. For further details contact: A Nick Boddic[...] |
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| -s In the name of the fathers BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI by Robert Phillip K[...]0 85170 167 1). Although Robert Kolker’s book is clearly a post-structuralist auteur study, a fict[...]go like this: A young and very talented filmmaker is born under the sign of two cinematic fathers. His first feature, La commare secca (The Grim Reaper, 1962), bears the sig- nature of Pier Paolo Pasolini, and also serves to exorcize that influence. The third feature, Partner (1968), is made under the sign of Jean-Luc Godard, and ends up as an anguished, modernist dead-end (“Partner is too Godardian to be good Godard, not to mention truly good Bertolucci imitating Godard," writes Kolker). Be[...]two films stands Prima della rivoluzione (Before the Revolution, 1964), which, on aesthetic and formal grounds. claims some autonomy for its author, and points forward to the refinement of style to come in Strategia del ragno (The Spider’s Stratagem, 1970), ll conformista (The Conformist, 1970) and Last Tango in-Paris (1972). But, the scenario goes on, an aesthetic (not to mention political) autonomy can only be gained at the expense of the father, hence the allegory of Godard’s murder in The Conformist (“|’m Marcello and I make fascist[...]and who was my teacher“). To reject one father is to embrace another. So Novecento (1900, 1976) is offered to the American cinema, but Hollywood proves to be a real castrating father, mutilating the film in the editing. The filmmaker regresses to the ‘security’ of the maternal womb (La Iuna, 1979), only to re-emerge and re—approach the image of the father through a contemporary social discourse (([...]), rather than a strictly psychoanalytic one. it is, of course, a slightly grotesque parody of Bertolucci’s career. But, given the density of psychoanalytic reference and structure[...]s in inter- views and texts, one can well imagine the kind of field-day a blind form of auteurism could have with Bertolucci. This is not to say that Kolker's auteurism is blind. His introduction provides a thumb-nail ske[...]is cue from Peter Wollen’s Signs and Meaning in the Cinema and Michel Foucault’s article, ‘What is an Author?'. Kolker notes what is, by now, a mandatory difference between the ‘author’ as biographical subject, and the ‘author’ as an effect of the text. But, even though he is using are- furbished auteurism (which makes use o[...]suspects that, in some cases, he has appropriated the terminology without fully thinking through its methodology. The study IS sprinkled with the terms ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’, but of[...]ne just as well. Often, one suspects that Kolker is using the terminology to re-package certain standard interp[...]ccusation, and I certainly do not wish to condemn the book as a whole. But there sometimes seems to be less substance to the ideas than the critical language implies. Take, for example, this passage on the ‘film within a film’ in Last Tango in Paris. For a moment, the film Tom (Jean- Pierre Leaud) is making is explicitly the film we see, just as the film Bertolucci is making is implicitly the film we see. if the apparatus were not present — and, more important, if the intel- ligence that uses it to create the cinematic narrative of these fictional characters[...]ing. There would be no Last Tango in Paris, which is not reality but film. But, of course, the cinematic apparatus is present. Does Kolker really believe that a conte[...]with reality? Detailed film criticism often runs the risk of over-interpretation, and this is especially true of Bertolucci, given his stylisti[...]an excellent, almost frame—by-frame analysis of the ‘myth of the cave’ scene in The Conformist. At the same time, though, in discussing in detail the use of compositions in the opening sequence of Last Tango in Paris, he can exaggerate its effect: The camera has intruded upon an agonized figure, att[...], as Bacon might one of his tortured figures. But the figure resists the composition. We are yet unable to know anything but his despair. Through composition and its refusal, the film’s two subjects — the character and the viewer — are left uncomposed. But the desire for composition cannot be denied; without it, cinema (and painting) would not be able to survive the anarchy that exists outside the frame. To create meaning, signifiers must be ordered, given form, held in place. Only from the point of view of classical codes of composition can the opening shots of the film be seen as uncomposed. Anti-compositional- ism is itself a code of composition; and, given that Kolker elsewhere in his study places Bertolucci within the tradition of modernist cinema (the apparent influence of Magritte, Bacon and others[...]rhaps lingered a little too long on what i see as the limitations of Kolker's study, and it would be wrong to give the impression that the book as a whole is flawed, for there are many good things in it. Especially good is the first chapter, ‘Versus Godard’, in which Kolker discusses the profound influence of the Godardian cinema on Berto- lucci’s early career, and his need both to embrace and to challenge Godard. The second chapter, ‘The Search Below, facing up to fascism: Bernardo Bertolucci on the 1900 set, with Donald Sutherland. for Form’, concentrates on Before the Revolution, demonstrating Bertolucci’s experime[...]h film form, and quite rightly placing him within the tradition of cine- modernism. Also discussed with real insight is the use of Verdi's operas as a means of doubling a narrative’s commentary about the world rep- resented. ln fact, one of the best things about the study is the way in which Kolker makes us understand the real importance of Verdi as a consistent point of reference for Bertolucci. The third chapter — the longest in- the book — is given over to discussing the major works of the seventies, from The Spider's Stratagem to 1900. Here, the quality of analysis varies from the very good (Spider’s Stratagem and Conformist) to poor and fair (on Last Tango and 1900). The fourth chapter, on La Iuna and Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man, is entitled ‘Collapse and Renewal’, and that in itself gives one an indication of Kolker's position on the last of Bertolucci’s films to date. It looks at[...]cho- analytic, Marxist and also feminist. Most of the discussion is concen- trated around 1900, a film Kolker sees as profoundly flawed but none the less most important, because it is the director's most ambitious work. Rolando Caputo Brand X THE AUSTRALIAN FILM BOOK, 1930- TODAY by Simon Brand (Dreamweaver Books, 1985, $25). ISBN 0 949825 10 7. With the publication of “this superb reference book”, as the dust jacket modestly calls it, the recent glut of reference books on Australian cine[...]Australian-made and made-in-Australia films since the advent of sound in 1930", the book is noteworthy for the paucity of its background information and its total lack of critical analysis. Clearly, the author is interested solely in mainstream feature film- making (which surely disqualifies the listings’ claim to be comprehensive), and there is no source material which is not already available in the more precise context of Australian Film (1900-797[...](Oxford University Press, 1980). Indeed, most of the comments, especially in the earlier section, appear at times to be reworded from that book. The publishers’ claims that the book "also provides an insight into the rises and falls of the Australian film industry" are laughable: apart from a three-page introduction, the only continuous prose in the book is in the synopses, which are brief enough to be rejected by TV Week. When the Kellys Rode (1934) is dismissed as “the Ned Kelly legend retold yet again"; Molly (1982) is p CINEMA PAPERS March — 85 |
| BOOK Some confusion? A bove, Dr George Miller on location for Thunder- dome. Be/ow, Mr George Miller on location for Snowy River. 86 — March CINEMA PAPERS n E v "I-"EN 7 “the story of Molly, the talking dog"; and, most ludicrous of all, Haydn Keenan's Going Down (1982) is en- capsulated as “the exploits and adventures of three girls out on the town”. Even the factual information, on which the credibility of any reference book rests, leaves a great deal to be desired. The alphabetical index of directors (which includes, without acknowledging the fact, foreign directors temporarily working in Au[...]Ken Annakin, Anthony Kimmins and Claude Whatham) is riddled with inaccuracies and omis- sions. John L[...]c pro- ducer-director by anyone’s esti- mation, is listed with only one credit. Pacific Banana. Other omissions from the list in- clude Brian Trenchard-Smith's The Love Epidemic (1975), Brian Kavanagh's Double Deal and Bert Deling‘s Dead Easy (both 1982), and the two Fantasm films, directed respectively by ‘Ri[...]ic Ram’ (Colin Eggleston) in 1976 and 1977. Nor is there any mention of the Essendon Airport version of Don Quixote (1973), co-directed by Robert Helpmann and Rudolf Nureyev. The worst howler in the listings, though, is the attribution of the director credit for both the Mad Max series and The Man from Snowy River to the same George Miller! Misspellings of prominent in[...]nalities are frequent, e.g. ‘Anthony Ginnane’ for Antony I. Ginnane, ‘Bob Weiss’ for Bob Weis, ‘John Pinkey' for John Pinkney, and ‘Frank Moorehouse' for Frank Moor- house. And the writers’ index is not a lot better. Jim Sharman is denied a co-writing credit for Shirley Thomp- son versus the Aliens (1972), and the fictitious ‘Richard lmrie' is listed as screenwriter for They’re a Weird Mob (1966) (Imrie is actually Michael Powell's erstwhile collaborator,[...]e still many Australian filmmakers dedi- cated to the production of high quality innovative films. It is in the hands of this band of perfectionists that the future of the industry lies." However, it is precisely this area of activity that Brand neglec[...]ther an historical or a contem- porary overview. The reader will search in vain for any mention of Third Person Plural (James Ricket-[...]Sympathy in Summer (1971) or Weis’s Children of the Moon (1975) — early, if embarrassing, features[...]viously unpublished) stills, particu- larly from the thirties, have been in- cluded, and due acknowledgment is made to the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra Oddly, for a book of this kind, there is no biographical note about the author, merely a copyright insignia bearing the names of S. and L. Brodie. Under the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the author should wish to maintain a low profile. Paul Harris The president andthe showgirl GODDESS: THE SECRET LIVES OF MARILYN MONROE by Anthony Summer[...]utchinson, 1985, ISBN 0-575-03641-9, $29.95). In the mid-seventies, Leon Russell wrote a plaintive lit[...]y have got together. Anthony Summers’s Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe goes much further, establishing, beyond the shadow of a doubt, a liaison between Marilyn and,[...]even more public, even more memorable than Elvis: the Kennedy brothers, John and Robert. Through the kind of painstaking research that journalists do better than biographers (and Summers is primarily a journalist), he has built up an overw[...]well as before, and that Robert visited her house the night she died. Quite apart from the mythical im- plications of all this — it tends to make the Rainier/Kelly marriage seem insignificant — it is a tale of extraordinary intrigue and com- plexit[...], lovers, security men and phone records. And, on the build-up to his revelations, which begin a little over half way through the book, he touches on quite a few other interest- ing sidelines as well. Such as the fact that the aforementioned Rainier/ Kelly marriage was less a romance than a piece of tourist PR: noting that the smart set were drifting away from Monaco, Rainier[...]to find a glamorous Hollywood bride who would put the place back on the map. Marilyn herself was an early candidate: she[...]inier, but dubbed him ‘Reindeer’. Then there is Frank Sinatra, in- volved in something known as the ‘Wrong Door Raid’. '01 blue eyes (who was little more than middle- aged at the time) called in a few favours to help his buddy,[...]she was being unfaith- ful to him. Unfortunately, the gallant defenders of the ballplayer's honour burst into the wrong apartment. No knee-caps were broken, no con[...]was not a pretty incident. All this, of course, is only of interest because the people involved are famous. Try as he may, Summers is unable to sustain much interest in, for example, Marilyn’s relationship with her longes[...]is- fied me his ‘documentation’ was forged"), is not.the stuff that best- selling biographies are made of. |
| Indeed, it is by the Kennedy revelations that Summers’s book stands or falls (it stands). Marilyn's early life is built up from secondary sources, quite a few of t[...]evertheless, he comes up with some gems that make the first bit worth reading, too. Like Marilyn's comment about using the casting couch to get work in the early days: “it wasn't any big dramatic tragedy[...]that they were expected of her. Memorable, too, is Billy Wilder‘s comments on Marilyn’s habitual[...]nt in Vienna, also an actress. Her name, I think, is Mildred Lachenfarber. She always comes to the set on time. She knows her lines perfectly. She never gives anyone the slightest trouble. At the box office she is worth fourteen cents. Do you get my point?” Ma[...]Let’s Make Love and who was briefly drawn into the whirlpool of her love life, is quoted as pacing up and down the set, muttering: “Where is she? I can’t wait and wait. I am not an automob[...]le like cars, expecting them to be always waiting for her at the kerb until, finally, she decided to trade them in for a new model. Summers’s book is not perfect. The sense of chronology is a little blurred in the early part (we will suddenly find Marilyn five years older on one page than she was on the page before); he is rather too much given to sentences beginning: “The telephone rang in the home of . . “ and the need to establish his credentials during the Kennedy section makes parts of it read like a con[...]s a much better book than many recent forays into the tragic fall of stars — notably Wired, Bob Woodw[...]even-worse-informed biography of John Belushi — is its combination of objectivity and sym- pathy. Un[...]ers doesn’t build any huge cultural theories on the basis of a life gone wrong (though he does, briefly, try out a distinction between ‘Norma Jean‘, the person, and ‘Marilyn’, the star). But he does take into account both Marilyn[...]ew other star biographies have done, a comment on the image and an understanding of the person.-He has recognized a truth that can easily elude Hollywood chroniclersz that Marilyn is of interest, not just because she slept with the President of the United States, and not just because she made films, but because of both. And he has held the two parts together in a way that is intelligent, readable and supremely informative.[...]Picture Book, nicely, it erratically illustrated (the picture for Jaws, for instance, is a piece of poster art for Jaws 3-D). BURTON: THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH by Penny Junor (Sidgwick & Jackson/Century H[...]ed Margaret Thatcher and Princess Di. DARK STAR: THE METEORIC RISE AND ECLIPSE OF JOHN GILBERT by Leat[...]llently researched, ground- breaking biography of the star whom the talkies are supposed to have killed. THE INTERNATIONAL FILM POSTER by Gregory J. Edwards ([...]1.95). More art-book than coffee-table tome, with the unusual (from Edwards’s private collection) far outnumbering the pre- dictable. A welcome addition in an overcrowded field. THE MOVING IMAGE: THE HIS- TORY OF FILM AND TELEVISION IN WESTERN AUSTR[...]$13.00 incl. postage). Published to coincide with the Perth conference (see page 5 of this issue), and[...]Faber/Penguin, 1985, ISBN 0-571-13714-8, $10.85). The screenplay of the British film, directed by Michael Brody, yet to b[...]ber and Faber/Penguin, 1985, ISBN 0-571-13489-0). The screenplay of David Hare’s directorial debut, on the top-ten lists of most US and British critics, and due for release here soon through Roadshow. THE WORLD OF 02: AN HISTOR- ICAL EXPEDITION OVER THE RAINBOW, 1900-1985 by Allen Eyles (Viking/Penguin[...]-7, $19.95). Not so much a tie-in as a history of the L.Franl< Baum books and the films based on them. done with Eyles's usual meticulous care. 4 ' the free copies. Be sure to include your name and address! The answer and the winners will be announced in the May issue. Special ofier for attentive readers of Cinema Papers Win a copy of the most controversial new book about Hollywood since[...]e — Steven Bach’s Final Cut, which chronicles the making of Heaven’s Gate. It is published in Australia by Jonathan Cape at $43.95. Cinema Papers is giving away five free copies to the first five correct answers to this question: Which (non-American, non-Australian) film is mentioned in every issue of Cinema Papers, May to[...]eet, North Melbourne, Victoria 3051. Closing date is 31 March. All entries received by that date will be put into a hat, and the first five correct entries will get |
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| [...]CAPTAIN OF THE CLOUDS: the local films and people partici[...]One of Australia's most enduring pating in the American Film[...]rs, John Hargreaves, dis Market, a background to the[...]es his career in theatre, film controversy about the Sydney[...].......38 Fillmmakers' Co-Op, and a report from the Film and Flistory Confer ence. Plus festival reports from London, Hyderabad, Havana and the Film Nouveau season; our regular columns from around the world; and profiles on writer/ director Jackie M[...]to explode two myths - the cir record-breaking stunt for Dead- cumstances[...]Guy Norris talks to the Pacific and the notion that Nick Roddick about the stunt independent documentaries man as scientist and the highs of should be confined to the art- jumping....................................[...]sive round-up of what's in pro features in the US, w riter/[...]ing feature film and televi the magic of Meryl and the ones[...]n With a track record that indicates a penchant for pace, Brian[...]taken the film industry by s to rm ...........65 ful and s[...]in and ac views of Alamo Bay, The Color[...]Enker about The More Things Me, Letter to Bre[...]Change..., a contemporary The More Things Change...,[...]slice of the market.................... of the Dragon. Plus shorter[...]reviews of all the recent releases ......... 79[...]Kolker; Goddess: The Secret[...]thony Summers; The Australian[...] |
| [...]NY CELEBRATING OF TELEVISION ACHIEVEMENT The Company that introduced Australian Television to the World with such major productions as:- PRI[...]S AND DAUGHTERS ISLAND TRADER THE YOUNG DOCTORS DEMOLITION N[...]A-HUNTING SECRET VALLEY THE NEWMAN SHAME RUNAWAYISLAND THE RESTLESS YEARS PLUNGE INTO DARK[...]LOOM TWICE BELLAMY THE SCALP MERCHANT PUNISHMENT[...]HE DEFENCE WATERLOO STATION THE FAMIDT WAY TAURUS RISING WITHOUT CONSENT ABBA-THEMOVIE THE ALTERNATIVE BARRYMcKENZIE HOLDS HIS OWN[...]7 MILLION DOLLAR FUGITIVE-THE THE DEATH TRAIN THE NIGHT NURSE CONFES[...] |
| "Is there anybody there . . .?" Editor: Nick Roddick. Assistant editor: For no better reason than that this is the first issue of 1986 (the `January' issue was actually published, Debi E[...]fore Christmas), here are a few anniversaries. It is 85 years and five manager: Patricia Amad. Art director: months since the first film to be made in Australia, Soldiers of the Cross, was shown by the Salvos at Debra Symons. Editorial assistant/ the Melbourne Town Hall. It is just under 20 years since Michael Powell's They'r[...]s more Australian than most `Australian' films of the sixties, had its Sydney premiere. It is just reading: Arthur Salton.[...]own at Cannes, and almost exactly seventeen since the Typesetting by B-P Typesetting Pty. Ltd. Melbourne premiere of Tim Burstall's Two Thousand Weeks, the first film of what David Stratton Colour separations by Colourscan Pte would later call `the last new wave'. Finally, at time of writing, it is just over 24 hours since an Ltd. Negative-maki[...]Australian director, Peter Weir, was nominated for Best Director in Hollywood. York Press! Ltd. D[...]y, 54 Park Street, On another tack, it is sixteen and a half years since the first broadsheet issue of Cinema Papers came -[...]out of Carlton, and a little over twelve since the magazine began regular publication in October 196[...], Honesty forces me to record that it is also three years since Cinema Papers was forced t[...]and just under two since it started up again. It is also thirteen months, almost to the day, Editorial consultants: Fred Harden, since I took over the editorship. Brian McFarlane, Tom Ryan. Signed articles represent the views of their This, as regular readers will[...]as first-time readers may be interested to know), is the author, and not necessarily those of the first issue to appear in the new, reduced format, breaking with twelve years of tradition and probably editor. While every care is taken with offending one or two people. We've done it for a number of reasons -- people couldn't fit the old manuscripts and materials supplied to the format on their bookshelves, newsagents didn't like handling it. But the main one was so we could, at magazine, neither the editor nor the pub last, afford to print on decent paper. lishers can accept liability for any loss or damage which may arise. This magaz[...]There are a few other breaks with tradition, too. The magazine has been extensively redesigned, the ma^not be reproduced in whole or in part features I have introduced since I took over -- the news from around the world, the regular location without the express permission of the reports, the policy of reviewing every film, however bad, that[...]e been revamped copyright owner. Cinema Papers is pub- and tightened up, and a few extra ones have been added, notably the Production Barometer on pages . lished every tw[...]5983. Telex: consensus, a bad year for the Australian cinema. Leaving aside the third Mad Max, which did not make AA30625 Reference ME 230. the earth move as much as expected, the only local film to do proportionally decent business at the |
| Buoyant Australian presence at the Los Angeles market 20-plus Australian films for the AFM's "banner year" With the disappointing results of What the change does cast into Australian movies to the world: the New Hugo Weaving in The Right-Hand last year fading away, the Australian some doubt, though, is the con South Wales Film Corporation's Dann[...]y looks as though it will be tinued existence of the AFC's Los Collins (left) and Australian Films approaching the American Film Angeles office, headed[...]Guardian. which is the feature debut of former should be an important m[...]ector Tim Kittelson, be a "banner sentative, the space left for Guardian Melbourne-based producer Tom[...]e, of Nilsen Premiere, atthe AFM includes the economical rently slotted in for screenings in and there are rumours he may[...]couple of soft-core movie, Leonora, which is nineteen WestLos Angeles theatres. the lookout for another position. films: Jenny Kissed Me, which he being handled by Showcase Video; The market itself is located at the produced and Brian Trenchard- the fantasy film, Frog Dreaming,' Beverly Hilton hotel. Of the new Australian films on Smith directed (see the interview the third Trenchard-Srhiih movie in show at the AFM, the two biggest (in with Trenchard-Smith on page 26); the market, starring E .T .'s Henry There will, at time of going to terms of budget) are the Hoyts Ed- and I Own the Racecourse, the Thomas; Fair Gam e and, possibly, pre[...]0 Australian gley B u rk e & W ills , and the Barron Films feature about a gullible[...]-Hand Man, which will be he has bought the Harold Park race mie, appears on page 14.[...]geles by course in Sydney. doubt that the AFM has, by now, UAA's Californian affi[...]Floyd Rappaport. Hoyts general by the omnipresent Marie Hoy, will tional market outlet[...]ing Burke & Wills, which Gross crop (there is a possibility that (Milan in November).[...]ly in Au Gross himself will be attending the stralia, but which is generally rec AFM), which include the completed Providing access to the all- koned to have a better chance[...]pendent overseas. According to one of the and Dot and the Koala, and film and ancillary circuit and to a[...]two stars, Nigel Havers, who promo reels of the two films which, large number of overseas market[...]xtremely as part of Gross's regular annual the 1986 AFM should help Austra well recei[...]ur lian producers improve somewhat in the UK. The reason? Unlike Au rently in production: Dot and the on last year, when New Zealand stralians, who were brought up on Bunyip and Dot and the Whale. drew level on the American sales the tale of the two luckless explorers, Cori is also representing M alcolm market. Although Vari[...]n't know (discussed by Colin Friels in the int Australian films and only four Kiwi what's going to happen at the end! erview on page 14, where he also ones as being released in the U.S. in 1985, the Australian total was swol T h e R ig h t[...]which we carried a location report in roo,), the David Parker/Nadia Tass Films' festival in New York in Fe our Christmas issue, is one of the film about an ingenuous tramways bruary, which included brief show most eagerly-awaited of the 1986 employee who builds his own tram. i[...]eviously unreleased films. A feature debut for Di Drew, titles, some of them nearly ten years[...]t, Australia and Everett and Hugo Weaving, it is a Los Angeles general manager in the New Zealand would have tied at four period drama that deals with the shape of David Armstrong, will be films[...]-Anderson's T h e Looked at from this side of the Still Point, about a deaf girl expe Pacific, probably the major change The New South Wales Film Corpo riencing the traumas of adolesc for this year's AFM - and one which ration's c[...], of which a to Die, which won Chris Haywood for overseas sales of Australian pic promo reel will be on show; The the Best Actor prize at last Sep tures in general -[...]C hange...featured tember's AFI Awards for his playing of the announcement by New South on pages 35-3[...]es Film Corporation Chairman, C hanged, the Ross Matthews/ producer Don Catchlove[...]Aboriginal shearer fighting to be ative, the Australian Films Office, united with his p[...]ternational Inc. "a man's obsession with the passing Headed by the energetic Bob Lewis, of tim e", directed by Michael the renamed organization will act as Robertson, and starring John a worldwide sales arm for all inte Wafers and Judy Morris. Lewis an[...]marketing chief, Danny Col those connected with the NSWFC. lins, will also be hoping to dr[...]advance interest in T h e B ee- The announcement itself, which Eater, anothe[...]d into something of a now shooting on the New South damp squib by its coincidence with[...]t. a journalists' strike in Sydney, was made in the presence of Australian The Ross Dimsey/Tim Burstall Film Commission Chief E[...]arly on hand to indi tion report on page 42) is another cate that NSW was not attempting to major contender for world sales, muscle in on the AFC's marketing given the presence of Judy Davis in territory. In fact, as Williams pointed the cast and the name of D. H. Lawr out, the AFC has, since 1984, been ence on the credits. It will be repre backing out of direct involvement in sented by Film w ays' London the marketing of product, and now aff[...] |
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| [...]By the end of the first day of the and what he got from his crew was On the afternoon of 31 January, 9 January and agreed to[...]tly nullifying what sophistication Mandy King of the Sydney Film funds to cover one month's rental[...]t no one was wearing an there was in the ideas behind the[...]identity badge. This was because film. The film people were not makers' Co-Op Action Group rang and wages for several staff in order to almost no one n[...]was afterwards, claimed to have been the liquidators of the Sydney Film allow an orderly wind-down, Wil enough for almost everyone to see stimulated rather[...]papers and to chat between The conference had a theme: the which of several bidders had suc when Sue Kaufman, the administra sessions. thirties. You can see how the new[...]German Nazi films might be ceeded in acquiring the 400-odd in tive co-ordinator, arrived for a meet An uneventful conference, then. squeezed into that theme, but it is No jejeune polemics to stir the harder to figure out how Camera depend[...]istributed through ing on 9 January, requested by the blood, no raging confrontations, with Natura and The Parching Winds[...]of Somalia fitted. Nobody came in the Co-Op. AFC, "she was a[...]lectual breakthroughs, period costume (more's the pity)[...]and, as it turned out, very little was The liquidators, says King, de several interested mem[...]done with the thirties idea. By the same token, there was not clined to advise the name of the new staff of the Co-Operative, who much to complain about, either. Take the sessions dealing in detail[...]Most of the papers were interesting with certain films.[...]". (to other academics, at any rate), the Hollywood thirties product, which[...]ambience was great (the University the paper-givers apparently' announcement was up to that party. On Monday, 13 January, the Co- of Western Australia does have the reckoned were a bit strange. But,[...]most beautiful campus in the although the strangeness was It was another symbolic and sing[...]tap, the Conference dinner was held plained, or it w[...]useless action among many Release, claiming that the AFC was at the Yacht Club, and the wine tour off-hand way -- that the early thirties[...]s generously primed. pre-dated the `classic' period in that have accompanied the debate: kept fully aware of its financial situa[...]Hollywood was one of the ideas Am I saying that the film-academic advanced. throughout January, the Filmmakers' tion and that some AFC recommen[...]t One of these papers was given by Co-Op and the Australian Film Com dations, like an earlier move[...]held as once they were. Many of the be familiar to readers of Cinema mission h[...]seem questionable, and counted on for provocative attacks print across the breakfast tables of a celerated their problems. In the 17 academics (like the rest of us) are on film theory, academics a[...]casting about for other approaches, worthy targets; but, this[...]homes in terms just as empty. January edition of The National are willing to listen, and are[...]for something worth listening to. self in a long, obsessive analysis of From what has appeared in the Times, a full-page advertisement[...]The most exciting things worth one word of vituperation. At the end press, the public must assume that appeared, headed `Crisis for Inde listening to in Perth came, not from of the session, you could have cut[...]an academic paper, but from a short the disappointment with a knife. there are two sides to the conflict. But pendent Film'.[...]Natura. This is not an easy movie to More fun than Martin was Barbara careful reading of the stated objec Most importantly, the ad promoted describe. It is about how the Austra Creed's inversion of some famous[...]al a public meeting on Sunday 19 over the years, and it is an object you Tarzan'', in which the La Trobe[...]film academic set out to demon that they share the same aspirations January at Paddington Town Hall. movies from the past as part of its strate, with high good humour and[...]ne was more of a asfarasindependentfilmmakersare The Action Group was formed at this partner to the ape-man than a sub[...]ting, and it passed several reso efforts in the same genre is its suspicion that there is no single On the other hand, Kristen (The The arguments about why the Co- lutions, including resolution Number explanation for events, no `true Classic Hollywood Cinem[...]- in this case, no 'true Aus son's analysis of The Black Cat did. Op has got itself into financial difficul 4, which "urges the Federal Govern tralian landscape'. The result is a not match up either to the film or to[...]are more or less irrelevant. ment to increase the level of funding talky, didactic and imperfect work -- seemed designed to smooth out the[...]m. peculiarities of this decidedly The first indication of public trouble to the AFC, and urges the AFC to peculiar horror flick which, to this came with the protest at the AFC's increase its allocation to the inde The original idea for these Confer observer, was the wrong tack to headquarters in North Sydney on 9[...]et historians and film take. January. There is continuing argu[...]uming that The thrust of these resolutions the meeting could have some effect Another chunk of the programme ment about just why this happened, cou[...]rlds. That aim was devoted to John Grierson, the since it is acknowledged that the Co- other than Kim Williams, writing in was not fully realized this year, `father' of the documentary. In these Op's directors were forced[...]ians stayed sessions, it was open season on the organization in the hands of a The Sydney Morning Herald on 21 away in dro[...]-- like history -- (Queen's University) got off the first When the AFC failed to bail them out tives the AFC believed must be don't like the idea that there may be round with an elegant, sophistical with an emergency grant, in the now achieved: "1. The maximum expo something to learn from u[...]independent film and video phenomena, like the movies.. Grierson was not a true lefty, as is accepted manner of other arts orga product to Au[...]usually presumed, but a closet nizations, the Co-Op was sud The achievement of the maximum Thus, the visiting history types fascist (well, a neo[...]sympathizer, at least). denly faced with the prospect of clos possible financial return to indepen the experience can't have been[...]much fun -- particularly not for Mick Eaton, who makes docu ing down for real. dent producers. 3. The provision of Charles Geshekter of Californi[...]State, whose film, The Parching his Oedipal relation to Grierson, and, On 10 January trading ceased. an effective voice for the indepen Winds of Somalia, provoked the showed a fine Humphrey Jennings[...]nastiest attacks of the week. Here, a film, Spare Time, made under the That was the day after the staff went dent film community."[...]this point your reporter left, thus to the AFC offices in a bitter mood. The Action Group used a larger what he wanted on the screen -- missing a last-minute try for re- Over the next two weeks, statements number of resolutions, but effectively and letters, public meetings and the said much the same thing. And, in formation of the Action Group gained another letter to the Editor of The general press coverage. Sydney Morning Herald, Joy Toma But the first shot in the paper war of the Action Group agreed that Wil- was fired by AFC Chief Executive liams'outline of the future objectives Kim Williams at 11am on Friday, 10 were "quite compatible with the ob January. His statement began: "A jectives of the Co- Operative". number of damaging, mischievou[...]nd inaccurate media reports have step forward: in the time-honoured been circulated in recent days in rela tradition of bureaucracies the world tion to the insolvency of the Sydney over, a working party was set up to Filmmakers' Co-Operative." look into the state of subsidized film Williams went on to "summarize distribution. A telex announced that the current position", saying the AFC the Action Group would be "closely had approved a grant of $221,500 in monitoring the deliberations of this the 85/86 financial year, and that all working party, to ensure that it sup monies due to the Co-Operative up ports the ongoing national distribu until 31 December 19[...]films in paid. the spirit of the old Co-Op". He also stated that, back in July, The spirit is obviously willing, but the AFC had advised the Co-Op that The flesh has been weak: everyone it itwould not provide anyfurtheremec-^ seems, is keen to see the continua gency funding - having by then pro ti[...]vided extra cashflow assistance of pendent films. The films are, by over $52,000 - and pointing out[...]however, renting them out has been cember that the Co-Op voted to go financially unprofitable. The bill, in all into receivership. senses, has now arrived. The AFC met with the liquidator on Andrew[...] |
| [...]dgley International as an You ranged among the top ten, with tember. The film will be produced by Jones-- which, he told[...]Hero, Diva and Carmen. Peter Imaru and the script has been The Melbourne Festival will run There was more, of course. Lots of from 19-29 June at the Forum On the other side of the Pacific, written by Barry Klemm. It is about a sessions I did not attend, a couple[...](which proved to however, in a list of the most popular more papers I liked, and even one be a popular venue in 1985), the foreign features screened in Tokyo family gathering over a weekend for session I chaired. The paper most State Film Centre and the Glass in 1985, Mad Max: Beyond praised[...]by John house Cinema. At the time of going Thunderdome finished a dis[...]mall country town. Hartley, and dealt with where the to press, negotiations were u[...]ppointing eighteenth. In a market television set is located in Western way for a programme of new wave that has been a stronghold for the The Australian Film and Tele Australian homes (it is reprinted in Super-8 shorts from New York, and Mad Max films, it is surprising to see The Moving Image: The History of confirmation was pending on Lizzie the title coming in behind Police vision School[...]The Karate Kid. introduced a small pilot scheme in the next issue of Cinema Papers). The Sydney Festival will run from But, in the end, it was all mellow. 6-20 June at the State and Dendy Following the negotiation of inter called the Tryout Program aimed at Terribly mellow. theatres. Although it is too early to national distribution deals for Bliss confirm many films or guests for -- with New World Pictures in the US assisting makers of film, television[...]tt either festival, British filmmaker Ken and the Recorded Picture Company[...]McMullen will be attending Sydney in the UK -- international rights to and radio progra[...]Je vous salue, Marie (Hail, Mary) as the new executive director of the and Detective -- have also been[...]confirmed and there are hopes that the US and Canadian theatrical and the AFI after six years at the Aus the French director will attend. home video rights to the film for a Jenny Sabine, the scheme aims to tralian Film Commission, which s[...]$US1.5-2 million. Vestron joined as manager of the Women's Scripts for the Australian Child plan to release Rebel before the encourage people to test new ideas Film[...]'s Television Foundation's follow summer, as the first film in a new up to the Winners series have been package of half a dozen titles to be in a working situation without the For the past two years, Molloy has developed and the ACTF is once screened over the next twelve been the director of the Creative again assembling a di[...]writers, producers and directors for months. for programmes of assistance to the project. The nine-part series of Tribe, a feature to be[...]should be issued in May, and the and the actors in March, to enable special events and p[...]nto production alterations to be made to the script. access to technical advice. towards the end of the year. Production is scheduled for Sep- A graduate of Swinburne, who The Journey Writers: Ken Cameron Despite reservations about the has spent time working at the ABC, and Jane Oehr. Director: Ken the BBC and on numerous short[...]ition on 17 March. The Secret Life of Trees Writer:[...]production scheme (see Cinema The Australian Film Commission, Paul Cox. Director: Paul Cox. Pro in association with the ABC, has ducer: Tony Llewelly[...]Papers No. 55), producer Brian announced the awarding of the Sky High Writer: Michael C[...]Rosen was the successful applicant ships to David Bradbury (F[...]aragua No Pasaran) and John The Clip Writer: Mac Gudgeon. in the first batch of contenders Hughes (Traps). 64 ca[...]Director: Bob Weis. Producer: applied for the Fellowships,, valued Margot McDon[...]miniseries, Not For Glory, Not For The AFC also announced that Pat Buckley. Fiske would be the recipient of a Christopher's F[...]Gold is a co-production with study fellowship.[...]acchio. Producer: South Australian consultant for three months, com Film Corpo[...]to the 19 September modifications to mencing in mid-January. And, in the Scared of Heights Writer: Roger[...]10BA, the miniseries is co-produced been selected as the new senior project officer for the Creative Jill Robb.[...]Montsalvat Horrors Writer: Roger FESTIVALS: the annual St Kilda Simpson. Di[...]chronicles the quest for the four- Film Festival will be held in Mel[...]d Productions (under bourne from 17-20 April at the negotiation).[...] |
| [...]Unless of course you're talking about the quality release prints produced by Colorfilm Laboratories of Australia for the Warner Bros movie, "Gremlins." We were sent the negative and produced a quantity of prints whose quality matched the finest in the world. We have also produced prints of films for U.I.P., Fox, Columbia, Disney and[...]act Murray Forrest now and get the Gremlins out of[...] |
| [...]TV baron or media bogeyman? good, however. Ten have been set Britain[...]Silvio Berlusconi, grabbing the French[...]400 million francs for 1986[...]production. Bond (the real one) prohibitive revised conditions on the to the rescue on the " socia[...]el' ' , or by Cinema attendances, on the other British movie scene privatizing one or more of the public hand, are still depressed -- about[...]competition. CTL, for its part, has 12% down on this time last year, hanger conclusions as to the fate of lodged an appeal with the Conseil and 5% lower over the whole of Goldcrest (still too soon to tell, d'Etat against the arbitrary manner[...]ough Revolution has opened in limited to attract the advertising in which the concession was 1985. Especially disturbing news for the US to uniformly bad reviews), funds necessary to[...]French producers is the fact that British Film Year now proudly channel, and the competition began[...]presents: the Travails of TESE, a to fall away. Europe 1 pulle[...]5's releases scooped further instalment in the thrill-packed and CTL, still tenacious, was cold- agreed to review the controversial adventure that is the British film shouldered by President Mitterand, `cahier de charges'. As for the 32% of the audiences. It comes as industry. who had reason to believe an out alleged villain of the piece, Silvio welcome but slim comfort that the sider was about to appear on the Berlusconi has just completed a[...]tainment) is one of the country's --[...]production, Coline Serreau's Trois indeed, the world's -- largest film The rumour was confirmed respect the high (?) standards of hommes et un couf[...]companies, with assets including towards the end of October, sending French television.[...]106 cinemas (the ABC chain), a shudders through the French outdistanced Rambo and is still library of 2,000 films, a studio ci[...]vio Berlusconi, With all these upheavals in the going strong. ([...]ther with Thorn king of spaghetti television and the television world, developments on[...]production and distribu so-called `assassin' of the Italian the French cinema scene have Foreign s[...]as girding his loins to attracted less of the limelight than cross the Alps like his forebear, usual. The arrival in France of predictable, including Year of the The company has been on the Hannibal. Cannon Films, for instance, has Dragon, Silverado and The skids for some years now, in the passed[...]a series of box-office Associated with two of the by Jean-Luc Defait, Cannon's Goonies. On the art-house circuit, disasters, headed by John[...]comedy by Nikita Honky Tonk Freeway. Chief the airline, UTA) and Christophe which will go towards the production[...]tive Gary Dartnall had Riboud (younger member of the of Godard's grandiose King Lear,[...]lkov, released here as La managed to turn the tide, since his Schlumberger-Riboud dynasty), starring, it is hoped, Woody Allen Parent |
| [...]ests in radio and TV. autumn's crop could be The Jafpan earlier this ye[...] |
| The increasing success of foreign attempting to[...]A Meiji Era romance: Miwako films at the box office last year is also potential cinemagoers as possible m[...]worth mentioning. During 1984, only during the peak New Year season. -- come two rather[...]rison with six local Yari no Gonza (Gonza the swollen budgets and well-known[...]lion) opened in eight Tokyo meets and, for some inexplicable Japanese ones.[...]sixteen years ago, is definitely one of Morita's Sorekara (And then . . .), reason, is pursued by big, bad One hundred cinemas closed the best. Once again, Shinoda based on a book by award-winning their doors up and down the country bases his story on the work of famed novelist Soseki Natsume and set in yakuza gangsters. An absurd plot, during the year, leaving a national playwright Chikamatsu. This time, the Meiji Era, when the west was total of 2,000, compared with over the film is set in Osaka in 1717, beginning to take a firm hold on the dreadful performances and Kawa- 8,000 operating during the fifties. during the Genroku Era, when the life of the east, is a romance that falls The closures, however, were pre culture of the common people was rather fiat, and is well short of the shima's confusion between reality dominantly in the rural areas, with flourishing, but the lives of the privil expectations it had generated, the larger cities seeing an increase eged samur[...]mplexes and ber of taboos, including the strict Miwako Fujiya. small independent ho[...]The bag of foreign product is[...]Director Toru Kawashima, who The biggest event during 1985 The film's two main characters, recently had successes with Ryuji equally mixed and, as with the local was the first Tokyo International Film Osai, the wife of an official tea cere and Chinpila (Street Gang), has a 'Festival, with attendances during the mony administrator, and Gonza, a new picture out on a major release fare, it is just a matter of time before week-long event hitting the 150,000 handsome young student of the pattern. A cutsie-pie teenybopper ma[...]the usual post-New Year splatter Week, held in September, financed of having an affair. Left with the by the Australian Pavilion at the choice of flight or 'magataki-uchi', a and bash is with us again. Richard Tsukuba Expo, and organized by custom whereby the husband kills Tokyo-based Goanna Films,[...]Attenborough's A Chorus Line is attracted capacity houses; it resulted lover, they settle for the latter. But in a major distributor, Shochiku-Fuj[...]doing very good business, as is purchasing Peter Weir's ten-year-old nothing to lose, she'll make the most Picnic at Hanging Rock The of Gonza's company.[...]Dance with a Stranger. And two release is scheduled for July. From two relatively new dire[...]Ososhiki (The Funeral: see[...]made product opening in January: Tokyo is currently a mixed batch,[...]the producers sought financial input Parr comes on strong at the American Film Alison Routledge and Bruno Law from the public last year. Market; Murphy returns, a[...]rence in the Larry Parr/Ian M une productio[...]side by Hollywood to lure him away. After the conflict between its colonial of the Tasman have been Rocky IV, many months working on a project origins and the struggle to rise January, Pacific Films, in association A View to a Kill, The Goonies, for Fox, with the tentative title of above them. Mauri is set in the with the NZFC, started shooting Cocoon and the Australian-made Hunter, Murphy is back. He sixties, and will be ``i[...]National Lampoon's European finance from the New Zealand Film Angel, set in the eighteen-eighties,[...]Vacation also had a strong impact, Commission for a new feature, with while predominantly Maori in con Set in the late forties, it tells of the but Santa Claus, The Movie fell off Angel of Death as its working tit[...]milies, two of them Run and Murphy's The Quiet Merata Mita (Patu!), Murphy has set[...]in a rural com Earth, which has a big (for New up Tikanga Productions, with the munity. The personal discoveries Zealand) sixteen-print release in duo proposing two features: the story of land-grabbing, it will show made by the central characters, will mid-February, ar[...]how justice in legal terms can show the strength of the traditional up the slick pace set for locally-made and (another working title) Mauri,[...]in human terms. lifestyles reinforced by the threaten features by Came a Hot Friday. w[...]ing social events of the time. If the first Tikanga production The most significant event in In keeping with earlier films by goes in front of the cameras later this Ngati is the fourth in a line of new broadcasting pre-Christmas (apart both directors, the projects deal with year, it will deepen the proven com features that have begun shooting from the long-running Royal Com the evolution of New Zealand, and mitment of[...]st October. Queen City mission, snd the third television[...]uced by channel warrant hearings) was the no le[...]Cinepro make up the total: Monica, the industry's most powerful[...]production based on the sinking of executive of the Broadcasting Cor the Greenpeace ship, `Rainbow poration[...]Warrior', in Auckland harbour. The director-general of Television New[...]ing title The Navigator, on South[...]year. March-April is the possible a strong package of drama pro[...]start date for another Reynolds tion for the new year, which includes[...]trious Energy, a miniseries based on the crash of[...]be made is a series entitled Fire[...]The animated feature film, Foot- Raiser, to[...]rot Flats, based on the Murray Bell[...]cartoon strip, is due for completion ton actress and produce[...] |
| The 1985 London Film Festival was Squabbles[...]business), Geoff Murphy's The an enormous popular success, the top, but a[...]bum on In the large selection of American absorbing documentary on world records for the event and, not (alm o st)[...]ions, there were some fine plant resources, The Neglected incidentally, fuelling a row within the every seat surprises on the independent side. Miracle, and John Reid's s[...]field and John next year's festival. Until 1983, the London Film dorff's translation of the superb Middleton Murry, Leave All Fair. ev[...]Salesman, starring Dustin Hoffman, The sizeable British collection programming at the National Film wide choice proves[...]ed over film and television, with Theatre, where the festival is successful again[...]of turning theatre into film, it was of the Realm, an exceptionally After much behind-the-scenes neither as imaginative as Altman's good political thriller. Directed by His successor is Sheila Whitaker, tension, the Chairman of the BFI, Sir Come Back to the 5 and Dime, David Drury and beautifully shot by formerly of the Tyneside Film Richard Attenborough,[...]s more like a as stodgy as a filmed play, but the thrust Irish actor Gabriel Byrne into In cha[...]acting was magnificent. the big time. He and the always for 1985. Meanwhile, Derek reappointe[...]nholm Elliott are marvel Malcolm, film critic of The Guardian, Whitaker has been given the title of Another surprise was Henry[...]as a pair of cynical was brought in to programme the `Executive Director'. Malcolm has[...]also been given private assurances on the break-up of his own marriage, daily, who become involved with a good effect that he was invited to do (without which he would not have with the director and his former wife, Profumo-like scand[...]inue) that she will not Patrice Townsend, taking the main[...]special divorce dinner. Wise, witty, The Draughtsman's Contract, mixing the esoteric and the The festival itself provided more sad and funny, it is Jaglom's best came up with another audience-[...]d World cinema orthodox excitement on the screen, film yet.[...]Noughts, in which he had some and the policy of extending to other and closing wi[...]fun with Darwinism and London venues, away from the Year of the Dragon. In between featured in the programme. Ray evolution in the setting of a modern South Bank, produced immedia[...]roduced Lawrence's Bliss looked better for zoo. results. Attendances have doubled, b lockbusters as S p ie lb e rg ' s the re-editing and shortening it got and the LFF's prestige has grown Goonies and Back to the Future, since it was shown in Cannes, and All that is just the surface, considerably in his two years in directed by Richard Donner and was the pick of the down-under however: the festival contained over charge.[...]neral the adaptation of David Hare's stage Stephen Wallace's decorative, over and specialized audiences. The With Whitaker being given a play, Plenty, directed by Fred wrought The Boy Who Had Every festival director, De[...]g, Bob Ellis's undoubtedly conceded that the event might have over the festival in 1986, the BFI[...]s, but few would argue with its Audiences during the year at the[...]success. Thus, provided the Atten NFT had slipped below the 51%[...]borough truce holds up, the next break-even point, and the building[...]riety in festival should be programmed of the new Museum of the Moving the New Zealand selection, though, along very much the same lines as Image nearby was taking up time[...]In the glow of attention accorded[...]the above sections, the Documedia Andra Pradesh[...]neglect. This was a pity, since the Filmotsav, the alternating, non-com event for foreign delegates. For the organizers -- the Film Societies of petitive twin of the New Delhi Inter local industry, too, since[...]Festival (see Cinema means wide exposure, the oppor[...]tunity to get invited to foreign The Third World Women's Pro its 1986 location. It wa[...]s, distribution, and free sub gramme, introduced for the first time riate choice, since the capital of titling provided by the National Film this year, had no trouble attracting Andra Pradesh is the most prolific Development Corporation.[...]ticularly regarding the choice of features last year) and the city with It opened with a Telugu film from films. Aimed at continuing the Andra Pradesh, Mayuri, the true dialogue established at the Nairobi the largest number of cinemas in the story of a dancer who overcomes W om[...]family objections and a physical marked the end of the Decade of[...]ursue her chosen Women, its focus was on the role of The festival literally took off with a career. Though the year generally film for the'women of Asia, Africa, bang at a glittering inau[...]genre, but with certain display of fireworks in the newly- constructed open-air auditorium. The only dampener on the evening was the choice of opening Filmotsav includes foreign show[...]ed because that's how long it took to build the auditorium complex. recurring themes: Chatterjee's for identity are greater, especially as Of the six sections on the pro Chopper, about unemployment and regards breaking down stereotypes gramme, the Main International political exploitation; Nihala[...]anging traditions. Section, though a highlight for local Aghaat, about trade unionism; and There was also a Film Market, delegates and the public because of political manipulation of the media, seminars on Film and Technology, its gl[...]ident and New Delhi Times. and a great deal more. The wide but lustreless repertoire. A Exploration[...]domination of films from especially those outside the impressive: a city that is, by Indian the UK and the US was evident, traditionally prescribed patterns[...]on an though Australia's entry, My First forms the thematic context for amazing display of welcome, the Wife, generated considerable several other fin[...]generally efficient, interest, accentuated by the Trikal, set amidst the political and the lack of affectation of the presence of Paul Cox, one of the few upheavals in Portuguese Goa, Indian filmmaker[...]ambaram and Filmotsav '86 may not rate high in The In d ia n P a n o ra m a , a Aparna Sen's Parama, which the hierarchy of world festivals, it is From top: Juliette Binoche, showcase of the 21 best Indian films recently opened to much con[...]Lambert of the previous year, is always a key troversy in Calcutta.[...] |
| The opening of the Seventh Festival Stars rush in[...]under the former junta in Argentina. of Latin American Cin[...]Another highlight of the festival erupted with a shower of multi[...]oloured fireworks, while conga boost to the Havana Festival's profile was the week of Cuban film screen lines of musicians and[...]ings and the film market, MECLA. throbbed through the crowds and word has it that noted Cu[...]Cuba turns out up to ten features a gathered on the rolling lawns of the director Tomas Gutierrez Alea has the way in which the Catholic church year and dozens of document[...]Nacional Hotel. discussed a production of The has been one of the rare spaces in and shorts. A slick and fu[...]Tempest with him. So, while the which opposition movements have[...]Fidel Castro Reagan administration continues the found shelter during the 20 years of Vampiros en La Habana brought down the final curtain on the blockade of Cuba, the boys from military dictatorship in Brazil. As the (Vampires in Havana) attracted a festival with a rousing discourse that Tinsel Town are building the cultural country reverts to democracy, the lot of foreign buyers' interest. The exhalted the establishment of a new bridges.[...]imed to have secured up Latin American cinema in the face of[...]00,000 in sales and numer US cultural dominance. The role of While the Hollywood stars were a from the community and con ous internation[...]ven particular promin prize catch, none of the prominent demnation from the Vatican. deals. While insiders cla[...]market business was in the in future, the festival would be called premieres. The joint winners of the P articularly poignant was $US1-million range -- with brisk the International Festival of New Grand Coral First Prize for Fiction Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo, trading on stands rep[...]acclaimed at recent made by two women from the Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colomb[...]European festivals. They were the United States calling themselves Venezuela, Britain and Africa -- it is sumptuo[...]d predicted that MECLA will become The intervening two weeks, from directed by the Mexican, Paul Lourdes Porfillo). Beautifully crafted, the Latin American market. 2-16 December, saw over 400 films Leduc, and the mysterious Tangos the film built a quiet sense of outrage and videos s[...]ngos -- as mother after mother detailed the Dash[...]impotent rage they suffered at scattered through the city. Over Fernando Solanas. having their children `disappeared' The church looks to the future: 1000 participants from 40 countries[...]eonardo B o ff in Silvio D a-R in's took part in the festival, twice as More impressive was the pre many as last year and extended -- dom[...]Liberation). the length of time, thereby sharpen gamut of issues pressuring Latin ing Cuba's profile as the rising America and the Caribbean. Mostly centre of Latin American cultu[...]they covered the foreign debt crisis, Sealing the festival with the Holly the repression in Chile, and new wood imprimatur wer[...]ams, Harry Belafonte and Jack Lemmon, The dominant thread through presenting his 1982 feat[...]sented a powerful 80-minute film Speaking to the press at a meet called Igreja De Libertacao[...]tarring in a Cuban Film Institute production, For the second successive year, the The real face of the most lasting and poignant image 'Film nouveau' f[...]Ecoffey), the young, cow-herd, ber and December, at a time usually Film nouveau steers firm ly down the middle scurrying away on his bicycle. dominated by the summer block of the road buster and the general Christmas[...]cted more -- was ences, it offered, according to the French cinema's latest heart-throb, test her love for him. Acted with fist- Chabrol's Poulet au vina[...]policier, it was neverthe quality features from the best that Rendez-vous, for which Andre theatrical, it was[...] |
| [...]an oppor If an actor's enthusiasm for a script[...]from a very and enjoyment of a shoot is an Jackie McKimmie, Tyn[...]a web of accurate measure of the quality of locally, it received the rare privilege romantic and erotic fantasy around the finished product, Colin Friels's writer and director (for a short) of a commercial release, their relationship. The film is very two recent films should be ear[...]tasies, with the characters' expecta 1981 debut in Hoodwink, Friels Australian Dream, in the can -- or Buoyed up by the success, Mc- tions reversed. It particularly focuses asserts that only the work on Mal rather, had just watched its " birth[...]garoo have shown and delivery" at a screening of the piece. Australian Dream was first th[...]says. the Australian Film Commission's " Much of the comedy is created " It's not because I didn'[...]Mc Creative Development Fund, then by the fantasies, especially just that I didn't have the ability at the Kimmie is no stranger to writing later extended to[...]on. These were wonderful specialized in drama at the West James Ricketson (who appears in to create and shoot. We really had For admirers of his performances Australian Institute of Technology. the film as an Orangeperson). great fun wi[...]se they in Monkey Grip (1982) and the She was already interested in film,[...]xcessive spirited Buddies (1984), and for but " just missed the boat" : the She began the script in March -- sort of Mills and Boon[...]may have emerged from the mire of final year of study there.[...]1985, just prior to shooting. The " The part was written with her in some dignity intact, his critical self But the encounter was inevitable; $600,000 budget was provided mind from the second draft on and, appraisal see[...]hen she began teaching, she under 10BA by the Queensland Film along the way, included numerous Friels se[...]ovie. standards and respects the rigours Enthusiasm ran high: at the alter presale. " There are advantages to[...]tment, sustained even held dances to raise funds for work on the phone a lot! enhance it, too." concentration and a passion for the their activities.[...]h " The film is actually a bit of a But weren't there any problems, animation about the comedy Her real screen debut came in[...]1982, however, when a play she wrote the script, co-produced it with ably the main challenge was the time mersed in the pleasures of making had written was converted into a Sue Wild, did all the casting, and factor: directing the four-week shoot Kangaroo (which is, at the time, in telemovie, Madness for Two, and directed. I needed to control the and bringing it in on time. My only[...]S. From that experi vision: talk about the auteur theory!" regret is that we didn't have another bourne).[...]your feet all the time. Apart from the The adaptation of D.H. Law more creative control. " The title evolved from a song leads, for instance, there was no rence's A[...]n by my husband, Chris, who rehearsal time for the other actors. Evan Jones has, accor[...]Stations, starring Noni Hazle- wrote many of the lyrics and per Two weeks of the shoot were nights, produced a fine screenplay. " It's hurst, which won the Greater Union formed them with his band, The and we were working fourteen to six very wordy, but there's nothing Award for Best Short Film in 1983, Lam ingtons (now[...]-- what interests any duced and directed. Set in the fifties, also doubled as art director, produc[...]n minutes a day, one, I guess -- is the interaction of the film is based on a short story she tion designer and clapper-loader. which is remarkable. Yet we didn't the characters. And, in Kangaroo, had written about a girl whose No wonder we could manage on the compromise on quality. We'd go the characters are fantastic. It's romantic illusion[...]till we got it right. But it was great for an actor, because there is shattered, when she gets pregnant.[...]y draining." so much for everyone to get their " It was easy to turn into[...]teeth into." Friels's admiration for recalls McKimmie. " It only took the reality and fantasy of suburban McKimmie smiles evasively when the script is apparent when he dis three days. Really, it more[...]out future projects. " Yes, cusses the difficulty of adapting the wrote itself, because I stayed very plains McKimmie. " Noni plays there are several on the boil; but 425-page novel, written in a six- close to the original." She admits Dorothy Stubbs, the unfulfilled but nothing definite yet." And w[...]week burst when Lawrence visited that the film was a turning point. highly imaginati[...]ties between Austra Australia in the early twenties. " For And, through it, she was introduced (Graeme Blundell), who is Butcher of lian Dream and Emoh Ruo, with[...]adven to Hazlehurst (who also stars In Aus the Year. He is a man of consider which paraltels have been drawn? ture of the unconscious. He wrote tralian Dream), with whom[...]like spurts of lightning and there is struck up an immediate rapport. is a woman of considerable romantic " It really is quite a different type of nothing order[...]Mary Colbert Among the other actors enjoying[...]extremely amiable shoot is Friels's[...]wife, Judy Davis, who is playing[...]Somers's wifeT Harriet. The couple[...]have worked'together in the theatre[...] |
| [...]do, the entire society collapses." roo provided the perfect oppor tunity. "It's been great, working[...]aid he Given his previous screen roles -- as the less-than-magnificent but[...]se highly charismatic obsession in Monkey Grip, the rumbustious[...]but Thompson for the role of Burke, miner in Buddies and the aspiring Iron Man in Cooiangatta Gold -- Jack Thompson and the Aussie film "crazy bugger" aspect, as he[...]hand. That -- that has attracted him to the parts. has its foundations in physical,[...]athletic, even macho characteristics. and the surprising gentleness which " Those are the sorts of roles I find Javo, Mike and Adam are doers not is often just beneath the surface fascinating -- difficult, but fa[...]ve become a kind of Australian ting, in the same way I found the restlessness and volatility that has emblem. So, too, has the man. Born character of Stan Graham in Bad him. "It was the year before last," been the foundation of Friels's con in 1940, Thompson first hit the big Blood fascinating. They are all real- siderable screen presence. By con time in the 1971-72 TV season, with life human beings,[...]says Thompson, "and I'd just been trast, Somers is described in the Spyforce. But 1972 was also the human beings do have these contra novel as " a queer little man'' and year of the Cleo centrefold, and his dictory qualities[...]ate life was rarely just that. craziness, for instance, is the sort ture from the established mould for[...]st have Friedkin about doing a film that the actor. Though he had been in movies for had -- Cortez and Columbus, too, a couple of years by the time of Spy- and perhaps Cook: any of those never happened. I was in the lounge It is a variation that is consolidated force (as, for instance, that memor people who willingly put themselves by the title role in Malcolm. "Mal ably unpleasant inhabitant of the into outer space at a time when no at LA airport, and Graeme came up colm is not remotely physical." says Yabba, Dick, in Wake in Fright in one knew anything about it. The Friels. "Fle's somewhat retarded -- 19[...]en (1974), parallel I make with Burke is: What if to me and said, `You don't know me,[...]Away (1975) and those men who went to the other up. Fie works for the tramways, Caddie (1976) that established side of the moon came back and but I know you're Jack Thompson, builds his own tram and gets the Thompson as a star -- and pretty discovered the shuttle wasn't sack. So he takes in two boarders[...]and three films did well overseas. The Lindy Davies -- who are small-time Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith The approach to Hicksley in Mr Frances, and[...]saying hello to another. Then he Though the two films differ con siderably in period, style[...]alia ject, Friels regards both as valuable, and is equally admiring of the two[...]script for you'. I read the script on Tim Burstall. "There's no This is my film, you'll do it my way'. They share."[...]the plane and said almost immedi Friels began[...]wing graduation in 1976, spent three years with the[...]"Graeme made the making of the State Theatre Company of South Australia. In 19[...]ute delight: I have never Sydney and worked with the Nimrod and the Sydney Theatre Company.[...]enjoyed making a film more. It was And he is returning to the stage early in 1986, to co-star with Lauren[...]the crew seemed aware that we "Film is totally different to theatre," he explains. "You[...]gradually over five or six weeks -- or whatever the[...]personal experience." rehearsal period is -- and you work through a performance. It's a to[...]Thompson doesn't feel the same different rhythm. You don't act any differ[...]esh and Blood. " I audience through a story, but the process is completely different."[...]found that probably the worst film- Friels repeatedly stresses tha[...]making experience of my life," he ing is a job, and one that requires a measure of persp[...]says. " It was a polyglot crew, the put shit on me for doing Cooian gatta Gold and that's fine: they'r[...]one scene in the film where anybody feel ashamed of anything I'v[...]is having fun! In Burke & Wills, for factory; but I haven't stopped work ing since[...]all the story of the trail across the ibly, the more you work, the better you get. You develop your taste, but[...]desert, there is also Burke's you need to keep your work in per spective. I mean, the world will keep[...]delicious love affair, and the sense of going if I don't do Kangaroo or Sweet[...]play cricket. Right up to the last point in doing a film or a play that you'r[...]film is relentlessly morbid."[...]Thompson's next project is far[...]from morbid. It is a $2.5-million mini[...]series, Joe Wilson, for Filmat and[...]r. The Man from Snowy River (1982) ram-rod st[...]consolidated the position. dilapidated tennis shoe[...]much the actor's decision. Oshima,[...]As his face has become better renowned for setting up the camera get your first job as a director if[...]known, however, the other bits of his and letting things happen,[...]t: "Thompson san you've come out of the Film and and the public profile has become decided to pla[...]Television School. People in the son has achieved that difficult transi "I think the script demanded it," tion from star to actor, and the says Thompson. "What the man did, business are inclined to think t[...]Lawrence (1983), in which he plays the army" (in which he spent six every actor[...]nd the manic army officer, Hicksley; years) "to[...]hoeven's Flesh and way. He's a man on the edge, and for a while, thinks he can! But I've Blood (1985), in which he is the he's holding on to his human dignity[...]wood, an actual sixteenth-century are the characters that are interest soldier of fortune who, in the film, ing to play. They're not one-dimen[...]retires from the battlefield to cultivate sional: people are not[...]leapt at the offer when Ray Beattie[...]aged woman who has been a But it is the dignity that has re[...]red most often, particularly dig asked me." Is he apprehensive?[...]nity in the context of failure. "I think[...]Put these two roles together with that is something we share with "I'm apprehensi[...]and you have a trio of of failure, but the real quality that's manic individuals with whom it is admired is the ability, under the most not I can." initially hard to associate the affable, awful circumstances, to maintain[...]disgustingly tanned persona of the human dignity -- not to write off as[...]been that manic quality -- the don't come back. Because, if you[...]shooting is scheduled to start in and[...]son, "then there's all the post-pro[...]pre-occupying directing is . . . and[...] |
| THE STUNT AGENCY 1986 CUR[...] |
| ``Anybodycan do a stunt once.... This is the story of a stunt; It was done at dusk i[...] |
| the neon sign, running at 120 f.p.s., to ordinary ramp, you'd lose a lot of the speed he could get the truck up to m capture the moment when the sign impact as you hit the bottom, and the fairly limited space available, shatters in exag[...]ou'd slow right down, it which was complicated by the fact that tective steel casing, which is a must on most stunts -- close to where the truck would kick you down, your front he had to follow the curve of the drive- is expected to land. In rushes next day, it looks terrific. Even the shots of suspension would try to bounce off, in's outer fence. By the end of the tests, Lander pretending to drive the truck are nail-biting stuff. and you'd probably be off the ramp Norris had worked out that he would Originally, though, the break-out at before you got to the top of it. The hit the bottom of the ramp at between the end of the film was to have been rather less dramatic. " Ne[...]ason why people haven't done these 55 and 60 mph. The ramp itself gave going to burst through the gates," says Norris. " It was Larry Eastwood, the jumps in the past is that you'd need a him three or four inches tolerance on production designer, who actually came up with the idea of him bursting ramp about 20 feet high and 50-100 either side of the truck's front wheels. out over the top. He'd built this incred ible box office and[...]and they were just sitting there. We dis cussed the jump one morning and he to fall. Mickey had done jumps off had to be in exactly the right place any said, `Is it possible?' I said, `Give me a earth mounds, a[...]have been nice to see, it wouldn't have The first thing Norris did was ring the States and talk to two American affected the stunt one way or the other. stuntman friends, Kerry Rossal and Mickey Gilberts, who is second-unit " The main thing," says Norris, director on The Fall Guy. " W hat's the " If you look at the rushes, you'll " was getting through the sign in the go?" he asked. " What do you suggest?" Gilberts phoned him back notice the truck squeezes up right place. I said: `My left wheel will with some suggestions for the ramp and, as soon as you go off the go through the `S' of `Star', and my he'd need, and the one they finally ramp, the wheels pop out. It built was to Gilberts's precise design. actually brings it off the ramp right wheel will be above the `n' of `Drive-in'." The photographs show he " It's a sine curve," exp[...]actly. " It's just like a hypo " which gives you the maximum amount of speed with the shortest[...]up higher and work it out on the slide-[...]rule until you get it. The advantage of " The advantage with the sine curve the sine curve is that you know exactly is that you can get so much speed on where you're go[...]such a short ramp. This one is only 25 The ramp itself was constructed out[...]putting the curve on it, you can hit it gridding, which gave the maximum[...]y fast, and it's actually forcing you traction at the base. Wood or sheet onto the ramp all the way. If you look metal would have been no good, at the rushes, you notice the truck because the stunt was done at dusk (in[...]squeezes up and, as soon as you go off the film, it's supposed to be dawn), the ramp, the wheels pop out. It and the early-evening dew would have actually brings it off the ramp and made it slippery. In actual fact,[...]p!" though, Norris reckons he hit the ramp[...]old Norris what sort of at something over 60 mph. The result |
| [...]n and I saw Do you believe a truck can fly? The various where he would hit the sign was spot the ground coming up." on, he continued on upwards a[...]g both higher and This, in fact, was the dangerous bit further than he anticipated. " How it of the stunt. Anybody can jump off a tured by m oto[...]d out was: to go 130 feet, building: it's the landing that's diffi Forsythe. you hit it at 55 mph, and your apex cult. In this case, the success of the would be between fifteen and seven stunt relied on two things: the angle of worked out this really ingenious system teen feet. Mine was, like, 25 feet, and the ramp, and what happened to of having a vest and a bunjie cord. the distance ended up being 162 feet, Norris when he landed. The truck itself You're an egg between two rubber which was pretty good." had been specially modified, with a 500 bands, suspended in the car: it's like[...]n mid having two great big hands around So good, in fact, that once he came air, because of the greater weight on you. But a suspension harness is a down (and came down off the high), the driver's side. And it was specially really unco[...]mmediately put a call through reinforced. " The engine and trans to Kerry Rossal. " It was 3.30 in the mission moved back a foot as I landed, " The biggest jump they'd ever done morning there," he[...]in The Fall Guy was around 150 feet, all" -- Norris mak[...]" You're an egg between two but the stuntman fractured three ribs sleeping noises. " I said, `G 'day, g'day, rubber bands, suspended in the and wasn't very well at the end of it. I've just done the jum p!' And he says, car: it's like having two great big And the biggest jump anyone's ever `What did you do?' I[...]done was 186 feet, in the Dukes of and he said: `You bastard!' "[...]train. But he was just wiped out. You The first time during the whole stunt but they couldn't go any further,[...]a lot of rib and internal damage that Norris had the chance to think was because I had my own litt[...]umps. A friend of mine who does as he started up the ramp. Prior to inside, and they were pushed under a lot of the jumps on Knight Rider that, all his attention ha[...]ms to bang up his kidneys. up with hitting it at the right speed. car pod: the whole car could have come He's got an electric[...]elf. He's got remembers. " But, as soon as I hit the self-contained.If I hadn't had that, I a[...]was just as slow as that" -- he would have had the engine on my lap." plugs in and walks round the house makes a floating movement with his with for about a week, until he's hands. " I remember all the bits of the But the real problem was to protect better." sign going really vividly, and I remem Norris from the impact. " The main ber seeing sky and more sky. The thing injury you have with a jump is spinal Norris, who is reckoned to be one of the other guys said is: `Whenever you compression," he says. " They lost a Australia's most innovative stuntmen do the big one, remember the view!' I couple of guys in the early days, and a (he has developed his own fire gel -- remember looking over and seeing the lot of people got badly hurt. So, they illustrated on the title page of this lighting tower, and it was, l[...]open-faced for a startling amount of[...]way. His solution to the problem was[...]to suspend the whole seat, fitting it >[...] |
| [...]bike lever ratio of between 9 and 13:1, pivoted the seat itself, so that the impact could be absorbed at the optimum angle. " The best thing for me about the whole jum p," he says, " apart from it working so well visually, was the fact that the seat worked." The next day, he had a slightly stiff neck, and that[...]down, I braced myself and was squeezing down in the seat: I actually bent the steering wheel! And then, bang, my head came A nother record: Norris doing the `Cannonball' stunt -- riding a m otor bike int[...]ad Max 2. Norris flew 62 feet. up and I hit the roof. I kept waiting for the stunt. " I'm pretty hard on myself, A stuntman prepares: Norris works on the truck. more, but that was it. All I could hear and everything I've done is in competi was the churning of the camera: it tion with myself. But,[...]. Now we mainly, it's all worked out first. The turn it off; but the control had broken know we can jump a three-ton vehicle whole trick is picking up your cheque, when the film snapped as I landed. that sort of distance, walk away and having a good time spending it, and Then I was back to normal[...]shots. So, I can say being able to do it again the next day. the guys were running up, and I was nex[...]time, we can jump over something it was so good." else.'[...] |
| [...]Robbeiy You can't keep a `Good Man Down'[...] |
| [...]much-praised new film, Plenty. Schepisi behind the camera during the shooting Fred Schepisi has been away for six years. The last time I interviewed him was in o f The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. mid-1979; still depressed at the commercial failure of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith the previous year, he had signed with 20th[...]Melbourne house and left for Los Angeles[...]times during the intervening years. I had[...]of the alarming changes of direction at the top of the studio. We had dinner at a[...]opened. And there'd been the odd meeting[...]ful film, Plenty, receiving good notices in Britain and the US and about to open in Australia, Schepisi was back at the[...]on a TV commercial for an insurance[...]underlining the funny bits in the script to show him it[...], and there have been more than twice a break in the shooting o f Barbarosa. that many pro[...]for a variety of reasons. There was Theatre on film : Schepisi on the Iceman set with Partners, a tap-dancing movie for Lorimar, and The Mandolin Man, scripted by Lindsay Crouse and (on the table) John Lone.[...]ucher (Summer of '42), to have Left, Schepisi on the Plenty set with Tracey been' set in Sydney[...]Standards, also known as The Other Man,[...]h Ross which, Schepisi Top left, Schepisi during the shooting o f The says, " would have had an impact on this Devil's Playground. age like The Moon is Blue had in the[...]committed to the project (Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret), the film, a[...]the majors as " too old" , and still didn't get off the ground when re-cast with William[...]the bloody thing. I stood there with Freddie[...]Fields, then head of MGM, underlining the funny bits in the script with a yellow pencil[...]There was also Meet Me at the Melba, an[...]Atlanta in the thirties, about a repressed[...]soft," said the people at Warners. " I don't think they even read the bloody thing,"[...] |
| [...]as a comedy about Schepisi worked (uncredited) on the script, journalists, a kind of modern Tracy- and shot the film " with a great crew" on Hepburn subject. Th[...]" Meryl is clearly the premier about Robin Hood, to be made for Mel included Australian Ian Baker, who'd shot Br[...]actress of her generation on about the media people who get politicians problems were avoided because of the elected, which was to have starred Texas locatio[...]there were Iceman and Plenty and, says Schepisi, is himself had directed the original London unequalled for balancing the quality of his and[...]work with the demands of the budget. to d[...]make the film. " They wanted someone not " In Plenty,[...]eDrba(t"eAd nboyththeer fact that restricted by the very inhibitions the story[...]Friggin' was examining," says Schepisi. The first[...]idea was to have an American, then Hare said is greatly affected by Disaster" , say[...]alian (" They're sort of w here it's being said. The the time. Eventually, distribution of the like Americans" )[...]considered. A screening for Hare of The[...]Devil's Playground led to a meeting, and `where' is sometimes a already been rejec[...]Schepisi, who had seen the Broadway comment, sometimes a[...]production of the play and much admired[...]virtually it, got the job (the final choice, he says, was dumped. One of the elements in the film between hi[...]an actor Gilbert for the leading role of Susan Traherne, essential charac[...]declining from the end of World War II own right"[...]until the Suez Crisis. The trouble, says[...]Schepisi, was the budget: Hare and Despite the commercial failure of Pressman wanted to open out the play, to[...]stage; but it pervades the atmosphere. The only one of these films that scripts. " In Hollyw[...]What is being said is greatly affected by eventually did get made, but[...]where it's being said. The `where' is some Schepisi, was Raggedy Man. Written by they[...]ate, we'd she Sees him cheating her with another the scripts was Iceman, written by Chip[...]i f the budget could have been raised. Even woman, and t[...]Meryl Streep, it was still terribly Texas town; the year is 1940. Wittliff had by producer-director Norman Jewison, a difficult to get the money. Also, Kate's seen Jimmie Blacksmith and,[...]particular approach to the character could Bittersweet Love fell through, approached behind him, from In the Heat of the Night have been tempered and changed, but Schepisi to work with him on the project. to Fiddler on the Roof. Meryl brings different qualities to the part. Sally Field had been cast in the lead, but The intriguing story deals with the She's clearly the premier actress of her she had director approval, too, and it took discovery of a prehistoric man frozen in the generation on film, while Kate is becoming an agonizingly long time for her to approve Arctic ice, then thawed out into the 20th the premier actress of her generation on: Schepisi.[...]stage." Sissy Spacek entered the picture, also with problems was to discover what[...]usual, Schepisi collaborated (without had worked for months with Witliff, re it himself) wanted to pro[...]redit) on Hare's screenplay. " I shocked shaping the screenplay. In the end, there was agreement between the two men, David by insisting he put more and more however, the studio, Universal, bowed to though they did clash over the final cut. dialogue back in the film. He kept saying,[...]`Are you mad? Every director in the world Spacek's wishes: her husband,Jack Fisk, an[...]wants to take the dialogue out!' But I said, art director with no previous directorial actor for the central role. A French-[...]'ll work this way because, experience, took over the film. Schepisi's Tunisian boxer was considered, t[...]visually, we should concentrate on the revisions were rejected.[...]hough, it was this major dis from way up north in the Arctic. Finally, But it doesn't seem talky if you give it the[...]finally, at the casting of an American[...]accepted in an English raLe in The French (1982), also scripted by Witliff (who co- remarkably varied (the Peking opera, Lieutenant's Woman. During the scripting, produced). This western saga, about the method acting in New York). He was too[...]ged friendship of a Texas farmboy and a slight for the part; but, after special famous outlaw, had be[...]Russell's Altered States), but its releases in the US. The leads were already release, in mid-1984, through[...]y so far, not played in Britain. Almost Busey in The Buddy Holly Story, and was immediately, however,[...]ery excited about him. " I'd heard he was offered the opportunity to direct his next difficult, but I didn't know he'd be quite as film, an adaptation of the very successful difficult as he turned out to be." But there David Hare play, Plenty. The eircum- 24 -- March CINEMA PAPERS |
| (" she was smaller and spottier in the changed his life. He has a new, American A woman not under the influence: Meryl Streep play" ), as was that of the husband, played by Charles Dance.[...]th (left to right) Nicholas Frankau, Ullman is known in America as a pop and even prospe[...]ular on TV variety shows; Sting, who plays Mick, is also still He's as cynical as ever, but maybe[...]minates Susan's postwar life. them together with the 81-year-old John less naive. I wrote once[...]The war is over: Streep as Susan Traherne, interreactions.[...]apped in a situation from finding none o f the plenty she craves in postwar ordinary/' says Sch[...]Sting as M ick and Tracey Ullman as Alice: in the h[...]says Schepisi. wrote that, although the film was " exactly been true of his three American films too: the same as the play" and " nothing major had been changed" , ye[...]ss family seems new" . In fact, about a third of the material in the film is new, and the play has feud; the Iceman, trapped in a strange and also been restructured. " The whole play was out of chronology," says Schepisi[...]eas in random time place ments, so yotr accepted the time-jumps stifling postwar Britain that offers little of backwards and forwards. In the film, we always went forward, though sometimes the `plenty' she craves. But one feels that with long time-jumps, until the very end, when we go back to the beginning again." Fred Schepisi himself has broken free of his The fact that Hare had completed traps: he seems to be looking to the future shooting Wetherby before Plenty started[...]m much more helpful as a writer. He never The films of Fred Schepisi interfered with the direction; we had an extraordinary collaboration[...]mes he changed my ideas, sometimes Breaking the Language Barrier I changed his."[...]" David and I had excellent The Shape of Quality (1965) Short. communicatio[...]d that. Molly Haskell, in her review, listed all the The Plus F a c to r (1970) Docu things she liked about the film, and then mentary. said the only thing she really disliked was the blunt, overly physical direction. " But Tom or[...]ed when a reviewer, like Libido (Episode `The Priest' 1973) Pam Cook in the Monthly Film Bulletin, Production company: Producers and reviews the film without even mentioning Directors Guild of Australia/Pro- the director. " It's a compliment in a way." ducers[...]n Nevin, Arthur " wonderful" Steve Tesich script for Fox Dignam, Vivean Gray. about rich but em[...]d kids in Boston, and would also like to make The D e v il's Playground (1976) another film in Australia. He might Production company: The Feature produce in Australia too, but his plans[...]The Chant of Jimmie Black[...]: The Film House/Producer: Fred[...]m the novel by Thomas Keneally/Cast:[...]tions for RKO/Producers: Edward R.[...] |
| [...]Trenchard-Smith on the set o f Dead-End Drive-In. He is a devout coward who has always Acti[...]kids' pictures, walk in at the right time. They said: `Can on fire eight times,[...]you do news?' I said: `Is the Pope three times, gone through a windscreen[...]nd started straight away. once, has climbed down the lift-shaft of the Brian Trenchard-Smith has made[...]promos, and that led into doing trailers for less) has climbed the Sydney Heads without them all. Brian Jone[...]." He did something like 80 of a rope. Though he is considered a `hired Australia's most prolific those and, in the meantime, worked up the gun' both here and in Hollywood -- the nerve to ask the channel to give him a pro Red Adair of the Australian film industry filmmaker -- an[...]ject to produce and direct. For them, he did -- he still believes it is a privilege just to be most commercially successful. several films, including For Valor and The[...]industry, he indeed has a reputation for profession that was to come to fascinat[...]s Leaving TV, Trenchard-Smith was is probably the only director in the world to long and extremely varied career b[...]successful, highly three films, all completed in the past year: Trenchard-Smith was brought up in Eng commercial pictures like The Kung Fu Frog Dreaming, Jenny Kissed Me and[...]s first film while at school Killers (1974), The Love Epidemic (1975), Dead-End Drive-In. The other remarkable there. " I was a leading light in the school The Man from Hong Kong (also 1975) and thing about the director (in the context of Arts Society," he says. " And,[...]was given the job of making a film, on Deathcheaters (1976). There was also a fire Australian cinema) is that his films nearly 8mm, about a year in the life of the school. safety film for Film Australia, Hospitals always make money. But, at 39, after When I left, I put the film under my arm Don't Burn Down (1977) -- the title is, of working for more than 20 years in films, and showed[...]he applied his Brian Trenchard-Smith believes he is only said: `We've got a job for you'." That usual principles. The result was a highly someone was the Central Electricity just beginning to get into h[...]ive safety film that also, unusually, " There is," he says, " something you about pylons[...]In 1978, Trenchard-Smith went to the pace, a strong visual sense, and what the movie is actually about told to you very " Te[...]says, " I US, where he spent some time at the Disney persuasively. Whatever I do, I'll still b[...]studios. " They gave me an office on the[...]and I was instructed to write in the morn where the joke is, and trying to make the ing, then go and look at a few shots of The film look a lot bigger than it cost." In the[...] |
| [...]inside the fence. They won't do it in the I'd hand my pages in at the end of the day, something o f a new departure fo r him. H[...]video machines.' and they'd be returned to me in the morn ing with pencilled comments from the story it a "male tearjerker". " The Drive-In is, of course, an allegory editor." In the States, he encountered a for the junk values of the eighties, which wider range of filmmaking experiences than and Barbi Taylor, the producer, tracked me our hero sees as a prison. The last 20 what he had had as a filmmaker in Aus[...]apanese restaurant, where I was minutes of the film -- the escape -- is the tralia, " sweating blood and tears to get a e[...]de of Five desperate, blazing climax, but the whole film financed every eighteen months, then Mile Creek for television. They gave me a film has a fee[...]the top, but retaining a reality that the Back in Australia, he worked with pro "Frog Dreaming is about a ten-year-old public will accept.[...]most kid who suspects there's something at the style I try to bring to a greater or less[...]MX bottom of a nearby pond. Everybody is degree to all my films. I generally a[...]ecame interested in a afraid of it, including the local Aborigines. by using a very mobile came[...]tion cut fairly fast and tight. In the last couple which he describes as " a tearjerker for picture like BMX Bandits. Also, I was[...]ured my style to have men" . " I identified with the human interested in working with Henry Thomas, the camera movement of cinema and the tragedy," he says: " a father could come o[...]elevision. home one day and find his partner and the gent kid, he had the experience of four girl who had called him daddy for the past features behind him, so I treated him as[...]fourteen'. I asked him how he'd react in for a TV or video audience, after seven " One important element in the film is each situation, because I don't think seconds, the brain will be saying: `I want to commitment to family and children, as through the mind of a fourteen-year-old. see that cl[...]a darkened opposed to individual selfishness and the You can't treat kids like robots and just tell theatre with a big screen and stereo, some fear of the loss of freedom. I was trying to them what to do: it's far better to create a of the subtleties will be lost: put it on tele show that the narcissism of the seventies situation in their minds so they'r[...]e two bean can put a family into a private hell. The acting it, they're being it. That applies to all poles on either side of the screen. I don't seventies had a trade-it-in, thr[...]ily than adults. Aiid it's decision to please the maximum audience." work out, move on. Well, there's a price to rather fun watching it happen." pay for moving on when children are in[...]Trenchard-Smith also worked with a is a modestly budgeted film; and lives. And I'm sug[...]where there has been a 40% failure rate in on the other feature, and ascribes his new budget[...]his own. " Children are the future of the there was more overlap of job responsi- " The seventies had a trade-it-in, planet,"[...]hrow-it-away attitude towards after the future of the planet, we're " Children are the future of the relationships: if they didn't work, d[...]take a responsibility for that. I don't want the future of the planet, w e're move on"[...]point of view or do people damage." For doomed" attitude that hasn't really been thought the record, he sees the violence and splatter through."[...]grotesque hilarity. " It's over the top, a like in the old days. I fear that, if people The original screenplay for Jenny was by spoof. When one of the villains accidentally don't take a good, hard look at this Judith Colquhoun, but there w[...]nchman in half with a bull problem, it is going to put our long-term in getting it funded. " I wanted to give the dozer while trying to kill someone else with[...]he just clutches his head and says, `Oh, " make the characters more sophisticated shit!'. There is a huge roar of laughter from " I'd love to do a big-budget picture, and the feeling more upmarket, more the audience." tho[...]pect as a writer, was not Dead-End Drive-In is a little over the had a distinctly Australian flavour, yet it prepared to make the changes, so I got top, too: based on a sh[...]my specifications, Carey called `Crabs' (which is the central intended to appeal to lovers of Gi[...]x pages, rewrote a couple character's name), it is a piece of future Animal pictures all over the world. Why of scenes in a very minor way, wrote[...]Comedy picture? I new scenes of my own, and made the neces employment, in which the drive-ins have think we could easily do[...]this or that camps. " It's a situation that is within the we couldn't put David Argue and Wilbur line[...]Smith: " not as extreme as the Mad Max 2, Melbourne: audiences would respond to it The result, in other words, is very much a post-holocaust situation -- sort of Mad all over the world. Brian Trenchard-Smith film. But the other Max 1/2 to 3/4. To contain the unwanted two of his current crop have had rather[...]of society, some bright spark says, " As for me, I'd like to keep on making than ideal preparation periods for him -- `We won't go with the guard dogs and the films for ever. I'd love to be, at the age of less than a day in the case of Frog barbed wire and the machine guns: let's be 98, lining up the last shot of the movie, on Dreaming. " Everett De Roche, the writer, clever, let's make it benevolent, le[...]r the little bastards what they really want. I'd[...]clips on the video machines in the cafeteria; 28 -- March CINEMA PAPERS |
| [...]"' next? The Race is on to[...]lass studio facility; film and You can't go past the Australian Film and Television School's Open Program for courses and training material prepared[...]ers, directors and production crews. immediately for details on our resources and upcoming act[...] |
| [...]March 195^ P27 ON TR 4 The one^ab'pve shows tlfe relative positions of Bikin[...]with4|e patif of a straiy Japanese fishing boat). The one R E T U R N S TO) tne right-hand pageshows wher^ the Navy's ships were when the be mb off, and the expected fall-gut area. According to the map, the USS `Gypsy' was ideally placed to evacuate Rongelap if, as the Americans claimed, the wind direction had shifted at the last minute carrying the fall-out cloud in the direction of the atoll. But Rongela|] its e lf |
| [...]d r i ft 1984) is his least successful, perhaps graphic/ve[...]town, they sell them to Ah Chow, pro because it is dominated by a voice-over a blind alley: there is storytelling, and how prietor of the local Chinese store, who pays from Mick Miller,[...]t warns them they will not who (inevitably) uses the kind of confronta confined by somebody's theoretical get the " world market price" unless they tional rhetori[...]can supply him with fins by the ton. The managed to avoid. But . . Couldn't Be[...]men accept the price, because they need Fairer" is a far better film than the version " I think you've got to make the distinc of it the BBC (who commissioned it) tion, in a film, between the moments and Villain o f the peace? A E C Chairman Lewis decided to transmit, arguing that such the total statement -- the construct of the Strauss at a White House press conference in background scenes as the small-town film. You can have moments, and they are March 1954. The Rongelapese, said Strauss, had `Brown Eye Contes[...]tal like you been "accidentally" exposed to the fall-out. petition to establish the best anal sphincter don't have a car accident u[...]ot very nice" and didn't a car and drive on the road. The film -- the cash in the new, `mixed' economy of New really belong in the film. O'Rourke, who intention to make it -- is not accidental. Ireland. And their first stop on the way didn't much like the BBC changing the title Yumi Yet is a real `first film' -- a mixed home is a local bar. " Drink takes away our[...]inhibitions caused by traditional customs," of the Yap film to South Seas and Soft ideas. B[...]eksen onwards, all my they tell O'Rourke/the camera. " It's the Soap, is now having similar problems with films have[...]hich gives us hope." Without a real Half Life. " The issue," he says, " is rights ience: that is, me seeking to find out some relationship b[...]ends to thing. You have two protagonists: all the subject, such `confidences' would be tak[...]ier approach, especially people who represent the subject of the unlikely to occur. They are, in the strictest film; and me, the filmmaker. That energy is sense, `provoked': the sharkcallers if you're a long way away." there in all the films, and the films work,not wouldn't have explained all that if the O'Rourke knows about television, since[...]and catch sharks, but because, in the end, more provoked than the statements people he started out at the ABC in 1970. After a they're cinema, and because of the way in make to one another in conversation; and couple of false starts in the sunny north which cinema can affect people." their positioning within the film makes (one of which was university), he arr[...]The notion of the two protagonists is Sydney looking for work, and ended up as clearly crucial to O'Rourke's films (and it O'Rourke is proud of his role in bringing an assistant gardener at the ABC's Gore may well be why . . Couldn't Be the information out. " If I didn't," he says, Hill s[...]'d consider myself to have failed. And, there in the front yard, I planted," he says. the shape of Mick Miller, is the least with people who are more doctrinaire in From the gum trees, he moved up -- successful). Their power comes, from the documentary filmmaking, it's almost as i[...]sense of a dynamic (as opposed to a one the measure of their success is the degree to slightly -- to the job of assistant camera way) relationship between the maker and which they've failed. The more they fail in man. " I always knew I was going to make the made. As O'Rourke puts it, " the nature doing what cinema can do -- synthesize this films," he says, " but not everyone else of the film is: you go and stay in an isolated wonderful emotion, this indescribable, shared my certainty. The ABC was quite community. You are a guest." dream-like energy -- the happier they are. happy to let me stay there for ever in that Some people object to it, but the best way I so-called `technical' role. It was almost like His films repeatedly testify to the advan have to describe how I make films is this: I you were supposed to put on a grey dust[...]at method. In Yumi Yet, two don't make the films, the films make me. I jacket when you arrived for work. groups of people -- the men building the put myself in a circumstance, in a situation; According to the hierarchical system, if you festive huts, and the women sarcastically then, as each new thing unfolds, I pursue came out of the camera department, you watching them do it -- interact through the it." weren't directorial material: for that, you camera, commenting on each other; i[...]me out of management Sharkcallers, one of the fishermen berates The pursuit of Half Life began some six or from the journalistic side. That's the camera about not talking while the years ago, when O'Rourke went to Micro changing now. But,when I left the place in nesia for TV station WGBH, Boston, to 1973, I thought: Well, maybe the most Box o f tricks: a fam ily watches T V in a scene make the Yap film. On that visit, he met important thing I've done here is plant some of the people he would work with on those gum trees."[...]?. Half Life. Then, in 1983, while working for[...]e had, however, learned about magic is taking place (" Like any other form he has plenty to say, but prefers not to be cameras, which is why he went there in the of fishing," remembers O'Rourke, " you[...]always catch a fish, no matter how Atoll for a couple of weeks when the only lance as a cameraman. That is how he first good the magic is. Mostly, it was my fault, plane serving the island developed engine got to Papua New Guinea, then still under I was told" ); in Yap, the US consular rep trouble. " We were sitting around, talking the tutelage of Australia. It was to prove an resentative talks through the rationale for to people," he says, " and the story, most ongoing love affair: O'Rourke spent most his support of the television-implant of which I'd heard before, started to come of the seventies there, learned to speak New scheme w[...]O'Rourke has clearly gained his confidence the morning and thought: We're here; we woman, Roseanne, who is now a regular and, more importantly, do[...]the first interview with Midja Anjain[...]ough, which owes a (which appears late in the film and which, The love affair with New Guinea has had good part of its power to the relationship O'Rourke quietly points out, is at stylistic one problematic side-effect, however: in a between O'Rourke and the inhabitants of variance with the rest, in that it uses a genre more beset with pigeon-holing than Rongelap Atoll, the clearest illustration of zoom) was done. " I[...]any other, O'Rourke has come to be the dynamic at work comes near the end of the plane came back. Then -Lprocessed the labelled an ethnographic documentarist. The Sharkcallers of Kontu, where the rushes on Bankcard, and set about raising Norman Douglas, for instance, in a percep fishermen have taken one (apparently the money. At that stage, it was still to be a tive and enthusiastic account of The Shark- knowing) step further towards the destruc callers of Kontu for the Pacific History tion of the custom. Bundling up the shark Association, had no doubt: " The new fins and taking them into the nearest small concern with visual ethnography in the Pacific," he wrote, " has produced at least one outstanding talent. The Sharkcallers of Kontu is not only O'Rourke's most compelling and mature work, but a film of considerable significance in the canon of Melanesian ethnography." O'Rourke, who has kept the PHA's newsletter, " presumably because I like it," is not so sure about the categorization. " Because I went to Papua New Guinea, liked the place, and my films were about brown peop[...] |
| one-hour film, along the lines of the others. Energy Commission, that says: `We need to mixed in over the `direct' sound of the But I ended up making a film about some[...]le'. But it's like arguing thing much wider than the Marshall a case before a court; and, in the film, I interviews, testifying to O'Rourke's interest Islands: I worked out from there, into the present the evidence. Questions have to be in a precise control of the aural experience. heartland of America, into the Pentagon, asked. For the previous Bikini tests, the " You might liken it to the ticking of a clock people on this island were evacuated for in a quiet room," he says. " The sound of the AEC and the wider issues the film their own safety. For this one, they were the sea was like the inevitability of a slow encompasses." not. So, I don't say the islanders were[...]t might death by radiation poisoning, and the The wider issues encompassed by Half suggest that I believe there is a document Life (as Mark Spratt points out in his somewhere. What I say is: decisions were inevitability that the film is leading to a review on page 74) are those of the deliber made, both before the test and during it,[...]em to be exposed. conclusion." ate use of the Marshallese as guinea pigs for O'Rourke makes similarly careful use of the effects of nuclear fall-out. By implica " In the film, you see American service tion, the issues extend to include the whole men coming ashore from a seaplane with written information, specifically subtitles of the `first' and `second' world's policy geiger counters. Now, it's OK for them to towards the Pacific, a region made up of do that -- to walk around in their protec and roller titles. The subtitles distil the tive gear -- because they were only there words of the Marshallese, turning them small pockets of people who are unlikely to for 20 minutes. It's the cumulative dose -- from comments into statem[...]put up much organized resistance to the dose per hour -- that counts. It's very are set slightly further up the screen than nuclear tests on or near their homes[...]tting in a chicken and dialling it up. You of the image, rather than something the ideal location for today's fly-in-sun- don't want to burn it: you just want to give scribbled across the bottom. And the roller it the right amount, a semi-lethal dose. titles,[...]about the UN trusteeship agreement and the subject of O'Rourke's next, as yet " On the weight of the evidence now, the the facts of the Bravo test, are similarly a untitled, film). historical circumstances, the lies about the wind direction, the position of the ships -- part of the film, not a way to get in a lot of The gradual realization of the degree of the ability they had to take the people off, dense and awkward information. " They forethought that went into the supposedly the nature of the studies since, you can are, in fact, scenes in the film," says[...]diation of Rongelap and Ellen Boos shows the scar fro m her thyroid the connections between a particular choice Utirik is something that came as O'Rourke tumour operation. A ll but one o f the children of word, the timing, the amount of space made Half Life. And, in an area[...]was exploded between when they exit and when the next understandable hysteria often prevails, his have undergone the same operation. scene comes on -- the juxtaposition of all caution -- almost his reluc[...]with when you're making a film, apply accepting the evidence is one of the things what they were doing. That is what the that gives the film its persuasive power. American weatherman says at the end of equally to the roller titles as they do to any the film. He's a patriot, and he doesn't other scene in the film." " You have to go back to March 1954,"[...]it. I don't want to believe it, he says, " when the Bravo bomb was deto either: it gives me no pleasure at all. But I It is the confidently emphatic framing, nated on Bikini Atoll. These things were now believe it to be the case." though, which is the most distinctive thing[...]about Half Life as a film. " With the happening: the McCarthy hearings were in Reluctant or not, O'Rourke makes the full swing; late in March, Oppenheimer lost case convincingly in Half Life. Indeed, it is filming," says O'Rourke, " the technique his security clearance, mainly because[...]was to spend quite a bit of time getting the was opposed to developing thermonuclear makes the finished film so effective. The framing right, and then basically put the weapons; the French were losing in Indo- other thing which makes it work so well is camera on autopilot. I think it's only a the meticulous attention that has been paid came[...]iberties: China, and everybody still believed in the to the filmic means whereby the case has you spend so much time moving cameras domino theory. Most crucially, the been put over. The information is not round that you get a very healthy[...]ted their first thermo simply presented: it is crafted with all the for the integrity of the locked-off frame. nuclear weapon; and, from sampling they care of a Clarence Darrow, summing up for Also, I wanted to emphasize the gravity of had done, the Americans knew the the defence (or the prosecution), and paying as much attention to the style of his this simple story. Russians had made an enormous, quantum speech as to the content. leap in their nuclear technology. Today[...]" Once I had the frame and was satisfied with the threat of nuclear war hanging over Three techniques stand out: O'Rourke's it would give me all the dynamic elements us, everyone works on the principle that we reliance on static composit[...]eded, I would close must avoid it. But, in 1954, the feeling was track; and his use of written information. down the viewfinder, so that light wouldn't that it was inevitable. The bomb was new, The soundtrack makes brilliantly ironic use come in at the bottom of the film, and and the fall-out it created a completely of Hawaii[...]y Bob probably not look through it again for the unknown element. Bravo was perfect for Brozman, a New Yorker living in the Cali ten and a half minutes the magazine would testing it. The elements they used, the size fornian redwoods, who has the world's run. I'd turn on the cameras and we'd talk they made it, the height above the ground largest collection of Hawaiian 78s.[...]Hawaii itself, O'Rourke could find no one the film running through there is expensive -- it was designed to suck all that stuff up. willing or able to play the music the way he " They had this tiny outpost, Rongelap, wanted it: slow, insistent, putting the words -- you've got to process it, work throug[...]erted sync it up -- I would never turn the camera which could only be reached by ship after a commas. Like the music, the sound of the off, even when something was translated to three-day voyage and was controlled by the waves lapping on the shore has again been me. You need only so many wonderful military, and the Americans there thought moments to make the whole thing, and if it was likely to stay that[...]lasting no didn't reckon was that, 30 years on, the[...]minute in a roll of ten, who debate would be in the United Nations, that[...]It is this concern with `the whole thing' like me out there making films abou[...]-- with the story to be told, and the way of isolated. It's only in the last few years that the Marshallese have taken control of their[...]characterizes all of Dennis own immigration. In the mid-seventies, for[...]a group of Japanese radiation experts arrived in the Marshalls to carry out[...]demonstrates it most impressively. It is, of a study. The Americans wouldn't let them in: they turned them back at the airport.[...]ourse, not a style of filmmaking entirely " The rumours have always been around.[...]free of compromise: there is more evidence There were people telling me, before I made the film, that it was all deliberate. I found[...]that might have been gathered for the film, that rather hard to accept: I was inclined to think, in the early stages, that it was the if time and budget had allowed. Nor, for all normal `conspiracy theory' idea. But this is[...]its commitment, is O'Rourke's filmmaking what I think happened. To start with, I can't imagine that there is a document a transparent, selfless image of the issue at anywhere from President Eisenhower to Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the Atomic hand. O'Rourke is not obtrusively and[...]in The Last Waltz. But the films are[...]certainly his: there is an ego at work.[...]Without it, the films would be passionless[...]do not do is `play the game' -- the game, or[...] |
| [...]st C oast/Asia) FIRST CLASS ROUND 3690 THE WORLD[...] |
| The More Things Change is trying to lure back to the cinema a forgotten slice of the audience: adults. Debi Enker spoke to the three people most involved: Jill Robb, Robyn[...]`You can't turn that down!' " -- that made the project. Deciding that she wanted a justifiably shudder at the suggestion, The her reconsider the offer. contemporary film with " a universal More Things Change . . . is a prime target for the label `women's picture'. Written, Convinced that the film was " a perform theme" , she approache[...]omen, its narrative and its brought together the Nevin-Burstall team old acquaintance whose introduction to the concerns -- marriage; the growth and with the idea that Nevin would concentrate film ind[...]deterioration of relationships; parenting; on the actors and Burstall would take care career versus homemaking -- are those of the visuals. " I offered her a cameraman both holding down secretarial positions for popularly (and often patronizingly) associ w[...]o for the framing and lighting of shots and write for me," Robb explains, " because I'd creative and a[...]and particularly her method of dialogue ever, The More Things Change . . . fires eventually d[...]g two well-aimed broadsides at some vener the film's final scene. writ[...]of Aus cases a healthy crop of female talent in the " It's just an illusion of hers that producti[...]fers a sensitive, she can handle everything. The tralia's best (Love Letters from[...]Road, Newsfront, Monkey Grip) -- she has which the male characters take on the pretty poorly on its face in many a very strong sense of structure. One of the supporting roles.[...]the dream that we all wanted. seas is that they are too slow. I knew that However, the real sign of its significance[...]Moya's skills would enable her to move the as a groundbreaker is that none of this Women have ended up d[...]ry along pretty quickly." seems to matter. While the women involved twice as much work, now they in the project are clearly proud of the are running the home and the While Wood worked on moving the story story's female protagonists, they seem to[...]along, Robb raised the finance with a prag regard questions about the preponderance office" matic eye to the needs of the investment of women involved in the film as a little[...]in a market odd. Actress Judy Morris, who plays the Robb's acumen as a producer is evident place where the deal and the way that the film's central character, Connie, asserts i[...]g unusual Nevin to accept, and it financed the project finance is structured are more important during the film's production. " It didn't promptly. " She came up to Sydney and than the calibre of the script. I was deter occur to me when we were making it," she talked at me at length about the necessity of mined to make a film for around $2 says. " It was absolutely no different from dropping my fears of the technical area," working on a movie where there[...]those positions. I certainly didn't fidence in the project because it was a Jill feel `We're striking a blow for women Robb production. I had been an actor in how I could put the finance together before[...]ear You, and 1 knew we started drafting the script. As we plotted here'."[...]honesty and Producer Jill Robb, who initiated the dependability. If she commits herself to the story, I considered each aspect in terms[...]nothing shonky about Jill or anything that and is keen to dispel any allegations of posi she is associated with." The money was raised from around 70 tive discriminat[...]ors, many of whom were satisfied because they're good at what they do or Built largely on the success of Careful, customers from Careful, including the New right for the job," she says. " It just Robb's reputation seems to be the product South Wales Film Corporation, which in happened that the people who turned out to of several assets: a canny business sense, a vested and guaranteed the presale. " I'm[...]be interested and available were women." in the creative aspect of a film, and an afraid[...]rucial component of Robb's blue instinct for the right time to take a risk. The patrons of the film business," remarks history of The More Things Change . . . is print, however, was director of photo an ideal illustration of the producer as the Robb. " They're people who are interested gr[...]nabled actress cash and creative input. From the outset, waving a wonderful script, a const[...]er debut as a screen her priorities dictated the size and shape of of stars and a hot-shot director at the director. Though Nevin had directed[...]rewards do not look safe and associate director for the Sydney Theatre sound. " I raised the money without Company, her reaction to Robb's re[...]my stars or signing a director," that she direct the film was disbelief. Main[...]in place very quickly, then I got the 40% films and that the technical operations of the process were a somewhat daunting[...]presale quickly because I kept the budget mystery, Nevin found that it was primarily the incredulity of her peers at the STC --[...]With the finance organized, the script[...]written and the key crew members signed,[...]Nevin agreed on the short list of actors for the three main roles, an accord which indi[...]cated to both women that they shared the[...] |
| [...]Longley, Morris and Lewis Fitz-Gerald. Menglet in the background). who plays Connie and Lex's s[...] |
| same vision for the film. For Robb, it also very vulnerable." Morris believ[...]'re going to suggested that possible problems in the some extent, all female careerists encounter future could be minimized: " I think that if the dilemmas and frustrations faced by do less takes. When you are rehearsing a the director and the producer are not Connie. " It's just an[...]she can handle everything. The women's play, you run the whole thing from begin making the same film by the time the movement has fallen pretty poorly on i[...]urned out to ning to end. Everybody involved has the trouble." `Making the same film' meant be the dream we all wanted. Women have casting Judy Mor[...]ice as much work, now opportunity to see the shape of it in their as her husband,Lex,and newcomer Victoria they are running the home and the office." Longley to complete the triangle as[...]a film, in Geraldine. Nevin suggested Longley on the The subject of dreams -- and particu basis of theatre work that they had done larly failed dreams -- is one that introduces tiny bits and often out of sequence, the together; and Robb agreed because she the question of Lex, the perpetual dreamer wanted a fresh face and a happ[...]According to actor has to have a graph of the emotional No other actresses were auditioned. Nevin, the development and definition of[...]er provided some headaches. journey that the character makes and the Judy Morris embraced the central role " Because Connie has given hi[...]omething going director has to have a graph of the whole as " independent, strong, but not as inde for him. The audience have to understand pendent as she would[...]as been with him." Robb affirms pace. Pace is so important." the concern with his character -- the need claims that " any actress would want that to balance him on the fine line between It is with obvious pride that Nevin notes part" -- an[...]asserts that " he works well that some of the scenes in the film were the as an actress and considered playing it her[...]elf. Robb's response to this suggestion in the script development, we added the master takes -- an indication that the pace from her rookie director was laughingly[...]elf in words, because men All three women see the film's aims in don't do that. And she's right: many of cision to the rehearsal period. " The essentially the same way: to be a sensitive them don't. But we felt that, although men and realistic account of the gradual are much less open about their emotions nuances were all there in the script. But, to deterioration of a relationship[...]to make a film explain himself to Geraldine. The only take those moments and make them co[...]ips from a other way to do it was to have the men chat woman's point of view," Robb explains: ting in the pub." alive was quite a long process. For instance, " not a feminist film or a message film, but a film about people and about role " The three central parts are all the scene where we have the argument in reversals, and we set out to do it w[...]them have parts in which they the kitchen and I blow out the rubber In discussing the examination of Connie might become unsympa[...]long time to work and Lex's failing marriage and the simul Robyn worked very hard on taneous metamorphosis of Geraldine, all keeping the balance of the out. We had to work out exactly where the three agree that the script supplied a crucial characters correct" balance: one that explored the complexity plate would fall, where the knife would fall, and ambivalence of the characters' Barry Otto's performance -- part emotions. For Morris, it works because " it exasperating child, part endearing dreamer where the gloves would come in. It takes presents everybod[...]and part devoted, if occasionally reckless the good and bad sides of all the characters, family man -- does credit to the effort that time and effort. This sort of script requires and it's a very honest presentation of the went into fleshing out his role. But, as Judy extraordinary sensitivity to the nuances and way relationships work and break down." Morris observes, the three central parts Like Robb, Morris believes part of the suc " are all difficult lines to walk. All of them required rehearsal to work out timing cess of The More Things Change . . ., and have parts in which they might become un the power behind its considerable sympathetic. Robyn worked very hard on for many scenes, long before we got onto emotional clout, is the product of confid keeping the balance correct." ence in the truth of the emotions -- a confid the set." ence that relies on images, nuances, fleeting Though `actors' director' is regarded by moments and spatial composition rather Nevin as a somewhat nebulous cliche, she The benefit of the rehearsal period was than exposition through dia[...]by a trouble-free shoot " It's lovely to have the chance to trust I'm asking them to do something, what the what's happening emotionally without problems inherent in that process will be. (with the notable exception of Barry Otto always having to[...]" The weather was sublime," Nevin recalls, everybody has done their jobs well; but it For an actor, the relationship with fails to move people." Interes[...]an actor-cum-director has advantages. " the location was beautiful and very quiet; the consensus of opinion on the film's goals " Robyn concentrated basically on[...]terrific food and accommodation. and strengths, the actress and the director formance. That is her forte," Morris says. have different interpretations of the rela " She brings things to it that are incredibly Jill is very good at looking after her people. tionship's resolution. While Nevin sees the valuable from an actor's point of view: a fi[...]e that they have everything sure that it signals the final straw for the on emotional responses." couple. The absence of dialogue allows[...]differences between directing film and Moving the emphasis away from the theatre, even with the advantage of an un the film getting shot on time and being a[...]logue and often relying on close-ups -- with the three leads. " Three weeks is con smooth experience." which Nevin jokes is her only claim to a sidered a fair whack o[...]s to budget," she maintains, " but it's a good Clearly, many of the problems that observe that The More Things Change . . . was very much an actor'[...]super-efficient, but she disappoints herself and is really mination and firm hold on the project from[...]the outset. Flowever, in spite of the justifi[...]able pride that the women feel about The |[...]More Things Change . . ., there is one risk[...]that has yet to prove its benefits. The test of the box office is still to come, and The[...]More Things Change . . . is not a film that[...]immediately lays claim to the attention of[...]the hordes currently enjoying the exploits[...]surprising decision, given the undoubtedly[...]was to angle an early draft of the script[...]away from Geraldine as the central charac[...]as a catalyst for Connie and Lex's[...]Robb regards the slant as a calculated[...]risk. " I didn't believe that doing the story[...]would guarantee bringing the young audi[...]have diminished appeal for what I like to[...]call the forgotten slice of the market -- the[...]There is a market out there made up of[...]people who want to go to the movies to be[...]entertained, but also see something that is[...]afterthought, and one that betrays the final[...]see if the market is big enough." S |
| With his starring role in the new Australian film, Sky Pirates, John There was another doll, the motel[...]keeper, extolling beauty and the function of Hargreaves is the latest local actor to take the plunge into action- his motel, which was obviously meant for adventure roles. But how does he feel about acting, movies and the illicit procreation and nothing else. The prospect of stardom? Gail McCrea found out.[...](foreground) She writes graffiti, then they tear the place and the motel keeper apart; at the end, they My first theatre performance was in a[...]y Pirates. lumber out through the audience. The called Motel, which dealt with the soundtrack increases in volume until it is dehumanization of the human soul. It was symbol of life, and the third segment of the painful -- real shock tactics that were with[...]tor inside each doll. They were current in the sixties. But it had its effect: Ogilvie and Jim Sharman. The author supposed to be a man and a woman, and people were stunned and shocked by it. chose the motel unit as the most sordid they arrived at the motel unit -- huge,[...]banned the play in every state except Tas[...]send-up of Eric Willis and the NSW[...]and without the obscenity. There was this[...]support for the New Theatre, because it[...]was the only theatre in Sydney that dealt[...]going to prosecute me, because I was the one in the female doll, and I wrote the[...]graffiti. I was having an interview with the[...]go, because the police were on their way up[...]find a false door at the back and a little[...]flight of stairs which leads down to the[...]This is not happening! This only happens in[...] |
| ., Alan Marshall: all the leading theatre companies like the MTC or the Old Ogilvie, who was Australia's leading figures in the Australian cultural scene, Tote, which were the two main ones, you theatre director, to work alongside him. with the knights and dames first. They were really had to have gone through NIDA. While Miller did the visuals and the saying, " We're putting it on, we know it's[...]camerawork, Ogilvie did the drama, banned, and we're the ones who want to be The late sixties and early seventies saw a directed the actors. He eventually did one arrested!" So we went back for this free great renaissance in the Australian theatre of the episodes of The Dismissal, and he performance in the Teachers' Federation -- the birth of it, really. Before that, we did became fascinated with the technical side of Auditorium in Sussex Street, w[...]Thunderdome. five thousand tried to get in, and the whole English accent. I didn't want to become[...]English, basically: I didn't want to lose the working together, because their egos are Hood[...]Rex Reed dubbed Har Australian accent or the Australian usually much larger even[...]method of speech, his own director's job is done when he has cast place was riddled with pla[...]properly. I would love to work with tives. At the end, when we did Motel, they or I call it another language -- " he loses Altman, because he is able to get such great got up out of the audience to arrest us. half his power." Pe[...]and I didn't go to the voice classes at in Australian film and television, you sort But we had the support of the wharfies, NIDA, which were designed to chan[...]ect yourself. On Double and they just shouldered the police into the voices into English-speaking people.[...]don't think you can teach acting -- it's day for a week, where we sat down and Zoe Caldwell said:[...]wn method of natural instinct for it -- in much the scene?" We talked and worked it through,[...]u know: you can sort of teach which had the same information that the another language, he loses them the basic skills, but then it's up to writer wa[...]ower" with quite a lot of the philosophy at NIDA, but I found the classes in the body very Australians a r e passionate, costumes off; when the police kicked down useful, because I had never trained my the door, they found twelve men standing body. And what was really good was the but we don't know how to in their un[...]fact that you were always doing a who'd been in the doll's costume! Mean production. Every a[...]ted talk about it, so we pretend while, the audience was going berserk. to rehearsal[...]we're not They streamed onto the stage and tore the about one a month. It meant that, for two set with the graffiti on it, so there would be years, you wer[...]On Hoodwink, there was an English no evidence. The police became frightened, where you could ex[...]out director called Claude Whatham. The crew took refuge in the stage manager's box and having to fall flat on your face in public. hated him, but he was good at directing wouldn't leave. It became a big iss[...]actors, and the actors liked working with from that point on, ce[...]on terribly well Then came Hair, Oh, Calcutta!, The Boys with him. He loved to discuss what we were in the Band and things like that. It was like In Over There, I had the great good luck to going to do. He would send the crew away a test case for censorship. be working with J[...]-- tell them to go and have a cup of tea for[...]ctor, an hour! -- while we worked through the On NIDA and the only one of his generation who kept scene an[...]pre-tele version of John Meillon! I mean, for years vision: Crawfords were doing Homicide, I spoke like him and everything: I used the Normally, that doesn't happen: it's very but it was really difficult to get into the same technique of breaking up a sentence[...]more like real speech. His yourself, which is not really good. I would going to be on stage and, to get into[...]made it sound natural. much prefer to have the security of feeling[...]One of my beefs about Australian scripts is[...]the technical side of things. Their rapport unco[...]with actors is not good: they don't know White, because he's so close to the bone.[...]that, like George Miller, when he did The cess, because he could see and record the[...]and he was very good with visuals, but not[...]ge I was having a chat with Bob Weis the[...]you read and see this in the scripts so often.[...] |
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| You can see the thought patterns of the I've never enjoyed the sort of publicity Robb, the producer, over, and she said, writer, and you th[...]'s wrong. I can't tell why, but it to grips with the central problem. You're know, the T V Week sort of thing. I'm is". So, we went round the second-hand writing around it, and it's all bull[...]them to Jill, she sail, " That's what they think is drama. You must always should have any more authority to speak it!" . go to the reality of the situation. In about social issues than p[...]odard -- all those New you don't get a good plumber being asked Being an actor Wave[...]his opinions on nuclear disarmament. was the detail, the tiny little things. You Anyway, I 've never really enjoyed One of the things I hate about being an had directors and w[...]city. I 'm a publicist's nightmare: I run actor is that you're at the mercy of so many observing the way people behaved, and a mile if you w[...]six months ahead, because of the state of details. Australia on film the industry. You hold out and hold out for[...]ally like, then it doesn't Scales of Justice, for instance, was a I'm waiting for Australia to throw up a happen. Just som[...]was such a Fellini -- its own Fellini. I think the most tract and get paid: I got paid for Breaker dreadful uproar over it. The police depart honestly accurate and bizarre[...]t berserk, which gave it a lot of Australia is Wake in Fright, directed by a publicity and ensu[...]dy Canadian who had spent two weeks in the You become a bit of an watched it. T[...]able to see, emotional parasite: you tend and the three old ladies from North Balwyn in two weeks in Broken Hill, the whole who watch the ABC would have been the incredible, bizarre culture. And he rec[...]everything. You look only ones to have seen it. The writer had it. spent a couple of years doi[...]at people and say, " I must work. It is very easy to do that sort of part, Also, my theory is, we don't have a use that somewhere, that's because most of the work is done for you cameraman who adores women. I mean, by the excellent writing. On the other hand, Australians are reserved and Anglo-Saxon a fantastic walk!" you get the Crawfords school of police generally, and the way we treat women in acting -- or police writing: everybody our society is also reflected in our films. After Sky Pirat[...]man beings at all. Davis and Wendy Hughes, and the camera which fell through. Then there was a film in I used to really enjoy doing the early man hasn't really looked at them. Wendy's Homicides and Matlocks, though: the guest got the most extraordinarily photogenic the Philippines for a London producer, baddie was often a terrific role. I used to face. But what the cameraman generally feel sorry for the police: they used to have sees is a frame with a composition, not the which was supposed to be my first inter the same lines every week. But the guest detail in the composition. Not all are like baddies were often scintillating roles to that. Dean Semler is arguably Australia's national film, with M[...]that sort of started to : You don't get many good scripts, so you hold out for as long as you can, hoping a Two films[...]be postponed. Then, when I was in France, good one will come along. But eventually you run out[...]Doubt, which I did in I got a,call from the National Theatre in something. The Dismissal, Careful, He New Zealand, was[...]of Justice and spent nine years in jail for a double murder London. David Hare had written a new Present Laughter on the stage, all in a he didn't do. Enough peop[...]way, especially if you want to concentrate the story, and he wrote this book exposing tral[...]on film. the frame-up.[...]I spent a couple of weeks living with the[...]le to look like him -- having problems with the Home Office, Jack Thompson. They project a very[...]k like him and talk like him. He was image which is always there, underneath very helpful. They all wanted the movie to getting a work permit for me. They the character they play. I tend not to do be ma[...]m just being given a pardon. couldn't take the risk of finding out after prefer to forget about myself and present The authorities tried to circumvent the the character, not use myself. I think it gets movie[...]rehearsals had begun that I wasn't allowed in the way. not an acquittal. But the movie was finally made, and the enquiry cleared his name. to be in it. I[...]film, apparently But a sort of `star system' is emerging They gave him a million dollars, or[...]dy Davis and that: one hundred thousand for every year there wouldn't have been any pr[...]But, because it was the National Theatre, been successful overseas. They[...]hard, talking about reality. But, attention from the Village Voice and the unless you convince the audience that what which is the flagship of The Arts in New York Times, which impressed the is happening is real, then you've lost. On locals![...]s England, everything had to be done by the suit made for me. When I put it on, it was Rex Reed, who'd seen me at Cannes, wrong for the character I was playing. It letter of the law. That's quite typical in the dubbed me `the new Steve McQueen'. was the right style, the right cloth, every McQueen had just died, so it was really thing, and the guy who had done the ward life of an actor: you have three pro[...]'d done which was they fold, one after the other. Eventually, wrong: the suit should have been perfect,[...]to say, " It's not, it's not!" A you have to do the first thing that comes[...]The awful thing is, you tend to become a[...]that! That's very good: you could use[...]That's one of the traps of the business[...] |
| [...]. i ; <,. i m m hhhi Love, marriage, life and the whole damn thing Kangaroo; a new perspe[...]lia Dismissed by most contemporary the imposing figure of Hugh Keays- ters -- Somers and Harriet in the Demonic digger: Hugh Keays-Byrne Vla[...]rne, resplendent in digger hat and novel and the film -- are being as the sinister Kangaroo. Inset, the lesser works (though paradoxically plume, seated bolt upright in the played by Colin Friels and Judy B[...]John Walton and piece) shooting Kangaroo, the as one of the greatest), Kangaroo Julie Nihill as the neighbours who movie. was written in six weeks during the army.[...]isit to Australia in 1922. It Kangaroo's army is assembling roo. Yet, for all its star cast and quick to point out, a member of the is a heady mixture of travel writing[...]been (including Lawrence's observations for a swearing-in ceremony prior to a made for a modest budget and with AWG: Evan Jones, w[...]Australiana), philo bit of union-bashing at the Sydney an eight-week shoot. " I wouldn't[...]about a native Police HQ -- in reality, the old Board want to spend any more on a picture of Losey's finest films (including The fascist organization run by the of Works sewage pumping station[...]at sinister figure of `Kangaroo'. on the Geelong side of Melbourne's budget, I thin[...]Westgate Bridge. The pumping " The novel's a real curiosity,'' station's imposing courtyard has chance we can recoup. But the key and also scripted Wake in Fright. says Ross Dimsey, producer of the featured in a good many movies, in is preparation. I traded off a very $3.3-million feature version, which cluding Mad Max, where it was the long preparation time against that Jones was on hand throughout the completed its shoot in Melbourne Halls[...]he novels, almost in alternation. And it's The secret army, with `Kangaroo' because we'd been in pre-produc the only novel Lawrence never badges on its hats, is a far from tion for almost three months." absorb the work of the rehearsals," revised. It was sent to his publisher fanciful creation. " All the literary basically straight off the page, and critics," says Kangaroo's directo[...]has been involved says Dimsey, "b u t also the published with spelling and factual Tim Burstall, " rubbished Lawrence with plans for a film version of the errors intact. The first thing we had for having invented this whole secret novel since the early seventies, scheduling input. Because, very to do was' separate the alternating army bullshit because of his I[...]e began trying to set it up, chapters, which are the chain of experiences with Mussolini. Bu[...]often, a screenplay tends to get events, from the philosophy -- Law Kangaroo is based on a man called the BBC, then with the New South rence's thoughts about love,[...]l, who was a Wales Film Corporation. The real written in concrete: you know, `They[...]tect, and a man inter key, says Burstall, is Lawrence's marriage, life and the whole damn ested in bringing Draconian legis perspective on this strange land in meet the train', or something, thing. That content is mostly carried lation into the New South Wales which he found himself.[...]-- who are parliament in order to break the the only great modern writer who's whereas in fact the scene is simply effectively Lawrence and his wife, unions and so on. The Secret Army bothered to come here and take an Frieda -- and it is the major plot of did exist. It was called, of all things, interest in the place." there to bridge a day scene and a the film. The political events are seen the King and Empire Alliance, and as an incident."[...]maintained by the use of an English But the perspective remains. And considerable interest, focused on The Lawrence and Frieda charac scriptwriter -- who is, Burstall is[...]that, feels Burstall, is what counts.[...]" A lot of the things Lawrence was on[...]streak of violence underneath it; the[...]amiability, plus that stuff about the[...]turning out at the same time. In[...]but I think we've passed the[...] |
| " The bathroom is the strongest " If there is one thing this film has vision). The hotel's occupants are beside what is left of the bar. " She's part," says Donald Crombie, looking to do for us," echoes Mueller, " it's now in the process of pushing it out. at a quarter-scale model of a Darwin represent the spirit of the nation. It is the end of six hours of viewing -- got to make sure the bits all stick house at Sydney's Mort Bay studio[...]tralian spirit -- people not taking and it is going particularly well. together." the photographs of Darwin after themselves[...]ir -- very special and very So, too, is th |
| [...]delayed by the large number of stunts required by the script -- an U[...]the telemovie also involves the N[...]Robert Coleby. It is scheduled to P screen in the US during the May[...]seasonal after the cast and crew battled slowdown[...]Bennett's Backlash wrapped at the production end of the month. CBS accou nts In spite of the tax-break uncer fo r a lo t o f the a ctio n tainty, a number of featur[...]three states in February. On the New The tacit understanding that Aus South Wales coast, The Bee-Eater, tralia closes down for a month after starring John Hargreaves and Christmas is, to some extent, Tushka Hose, and directed by reflected by the level of production George Ogilvie, started on 3 in the film and television industries. February. On 16 February, Enter However, the predictably quiet time tainment Media's Ju[...]rielle Carey and entirely spent basking on the directed by Gordon Glenn, started[...]ng. And, a day later, Ukiyo rather testily for news from the taxa Films' production of Slate, Wyn tion department regarding the eligi and Blanche McBride commenced bility of projects submitted in the production in Melbourne. On the July-to-September rush to qualify for same day, in Beaudesert, Queens the 133/30 deductions. land, a se[...]Fishburn, was quiet, though Australian of the whose previous credits include the Year Paul Hogan's determined pro Mavis Bramston Show. motion of the lucky country seems to have produced a novel hybrid. The Early in March, the Burrowes- Blue Lightning, a $4.5-million t[...]ting on 11 stage, with Laura Branigan in the January, represents the first venture lead. Producer Frank Howson[...]l could, appar to his next film (based on the life of ently, have been attributed at least in boxer Les Darcy), Something part to the fact that Australia has Great. recently moved, on the list of places that Americans would like to[...]om an indifferent 48th to top of activity in the television industry, with the pile. three pro[...]Alice to Nowhere wrapped at the end of January. The final project in the Crawfords package announced[...]last September, My Brother Tom, is set to roll on 17 March for ten weeks. The Melbourne-based production,[...]February, and is scheduled for SBS-[...]Carroll's The Challenge, which[...]February; and the six-part mini series, The Harp in the South, an[...] |
| [...]taboos of an era in the pursuit of self-know Stand-by props..............[...]r........................... /...Krystine Porter The Cinema Papers[...]THE ROBOT STORY[...]Synopsis: The film is based on the true story of[...]........ SandraGrosisn Melbourne and New York. It is the story of a the Pyjama Girl Murder. A girl's body was[...]............. 35 mm achieved worldwide success in the rock music[...]Synopsis: Set in the future, the film involves a field, but now wants success as a[...]thousands of people, until the murder was[...]..tr.sc.Tn.nn..n.h..h..........gv.ety.h..e.e.t....is.n.o.......T..k..s.t....c..ySuy.yh..H..ea.o[...] |
| [...].oithprpoi.i.sg.BruE..hu.....yp..krgkas...evuerh..iS.tr.ec...rk..o.S.t..i.rcnit...e.rr...bA.ayia..n..n[...]Productions Pty Ltd Based on the novel by............................GeorgiaSavaLg[...]Francis Co. stranded on a beach, Dot and Neptune the Laboratory.......................................[...]Christopher Norman, dolphin hunt the ocean depths searching for a Budget.........................................[...]David Scott, wise old octopus called The Oracle who knows Length...................[...] |
| [...].......................... MaxwellWorrBalalsed on the original idea by..........Bill Douglas Transport[...].... BridgitWilsoSnynopsis: Crocodile Mick Dundee is a friendly 2nd asst director.....................[...]......RedmondMorrliasrrikin crocodile hunter from the wilds of 3rd asst director.......................[...]arneyReiczcrocodile; heroically, he drags himself for a Focus puller...................................[...]............. Forecast(Austsruarlviai)ves to tell the tale. In fact the story gets Key grip..............................[...]............................. MichaelGurrBased on the original idea by...........John Dixon Co-produce[...]............................... IanFreemBansed on the play by............................... Mic[...] |
| [...]Based on the novel by...................................D.H.La[...]GOOD MAN DOWN TCCTFPGATWWKESAMWHMGSMASPPBSASSTFFSPCSG[...].s.g.io..r.t...e.i...e..d...noc)t...Bsi.rpo....i..is..n......ry..t.n.e.o.t.s..,.r.koi.....yr.rs....rn.[...].....ne....H...e)...,d..H.a...dl....g.....r.......is..ys6.....r....o.goi...K(l..e.,nuDl....J....nrB.M.[...]David Young, THE FRINGE DWELLERS[...]...a..v. eLTohuoismeCsoanrrispgoiaounntheeerrns the overland stock route from[...] |
| [...]Kerr Cast: Debra Lawrence, Richard Healy, Robert the secret causes disintegration, shatters the Camera operator..................................[...]questions for the future. It is hard-edged drama Key grip........... t...........[...]la Burke are based firmly in fact, but its thrust is positive and Costume designer....................[...].........................Josy Knowland infertile. The film follows their story as they it allows a safe conduct zone on the far side of Mixed a t ...........................[...]ation. the minefield. Its aim is to raise awareness of Laboratory.................[...]incest in the community, and to show that the Gauge............................................[...]result of breaking the silence surrounding it Shooting stock............[...]l.S..r.............Hs.............................is...a.........s.l.i.......a...ln...................[...]....................Kay Alty Aboriginal labor and the lives of certain[...]......PeterCassAboriginals came to revolve around the buffalo Prod, company......................[...]...................52 minutes VINCENT, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF Scriptwriter...[...]VINCENT VAN GOGH Based on the original idea Prod, manager.....................[...]Cody (Joanne), Noreen Le Nottee (Kath Based on the original idea b y ..............Paul Cox Editors.[...]................... Trevor Quigley Synopsis: This is the story of a 13-year-old girl, Prod, designer......[...]............................... 70 minutes one of the thousands of children in Australia Exec, producer[...]... 16 mm each year who are victims of incest. It is also Prod, accountant..................... Santha[...]stock.................................. 7291,7294 the story of a family in crisis when disclosur[...] |
| [...]i.ooa.qse.s.rmi....rscn.t..ur:.s.:..yi.e..hti..tp.is...c...r...tAoit..A...a...e..n..e.....c.T..n......[...].u.......kmi.t....Ia.v...m..to...N.....n...e......is.....o.E.n.nd.p.G.a.......n....Ct.lo.....t....ai..[...]....................................FilmAustralia THE SCIENCE OF WINNING G auge.......................[...]haw Rosario (Tom). Synopsis: An alien spaceship is the last thing FILM[...]........... Don Featherstone more unexpected are the exciting events which[...]..e.a.s..I.....e...R.a....O....C......b..v........is.............C...........i...........t.d..e..c...a[...].M.i.o..y.1..K.es.....f..K0o.0KmIr.c.t.an.....ne..is...la...ad..t.ie.h..A.a.d5..a.i..E.c.s.t.....l.lie[...].huf..i.........y.oy..ti.L..eyee.s..e.lirsi.g.a...is,s..................sr...M..aeo.s.r...o.tm......n.[...]tc.t.....n......t.w....t.n..D.n....a...tH.s.....a.is........h.o..A....e.o...f...a.ihi.a.t.l....e....o.[...].....h.....m'A..l..o..o....t....n.......v.........is......ron..u.......N...p.w......e..r..........s...[...]...... Cinefilm follows Dr Bruce Shepherd through the Synopsis: One of the Real Life series, the film Budget..................................................... $73,000 aftermath of the Medicare dispute. Shepherd is is an inside story of life at The Sydney Morning THE VISIT Length............................................................... 50minuctoems mitted to the privatization of health care Herald. The film looks at the daily process from G auge........................................................16 mm and the film explores the personalities and the the editorialdecision-making, the news Prod, company..................[...]............................... 7291 lifestyle of the surgeons and their relationships gathering, the meetings, to the late night rolling Dist. company................[...]ease................................Mid-1986 with the community. of the presses.[...] |
| [...]RENOWNED FOR OUR RELIABILITY & PERSONAL SERVICE The leaders in specialised location facilities, trans[...]............................ LeoSullivraenturn to the Mowayun Aboriginal community in Shooting stock...[...]relations and the Australian economy. Synopsis: A film to delve behind the bland G auge....................................[...]scientific walls of an herbarium, to reveal the Synopsis: One of the Real Life series, the film is about a Vietnamese refugee family and the WORLD HERIT[...]on visit to Australia of a son they haven't seen for Prod, company................[...]there. four years. A moving film which witnesses the Dist. company............[...]......................... Ray Wagstaff VOICES ON THE PAGE[...]Synopsis: A dramatized documentary on the Composers................[...]reas. (South life and work of the Australian novelist Henry Exec[...]gacoown.stcrte.o.edrr.mia.sig.erOfce.F.s.a.omr.rv.is...re.r.'.pst..o:np.s.s..i..Inee.pt.M..m..his..a..[...]er..in..Lm...cy..o..ys.e.s...i.e...ys..wu....ybm..is..Lane..M....s...i..j.sn...tl......en...su.r...o..[...]'Donnell township in north-east Arnhem Land, and the[...]Sally Semmens Yirrkala Homeland Resource Centre, the film Dist. company.....[...]ASICS goes to Baniyala, homeland settlement of the[...].......... AVES Creative Services Madarrpa clan. The picture that emerges is of Producer..............[...].................................... Dick Jarvis the process, with competence and joy.[...]Claudia Vidal Synopsis: A film made for the Department of Exec, producer.....................[...]and encourages others to try the sport. The film PRODUCERS[...].............................. Daniela Torsh THE FRENCH COLLECTION Help us make this Production[...]plete as poss ible. If you have something which is about to go into pre- production, let us know and we will make sure it is included. Call Debi Enker on (03) 329 59[...] |
| [...]............ ,............. Ray Winslade Based on the play b y ....................Robyn Archer Art dep[...]iolette Fontaine Synopsis: An original half-hour for television. Length...............................[...]Productions Synopsis: Based on the Henry Lawson stories Stu[...]................Hugh Stuckey THE LAST FRONTIER[...].......Ayer Productions Synopsis: The programme is based on the Length..........[...]gs, prose and Synopsis: The Challenge is the dramatized Script editor........................[...]p a mosaic of story of the 1983 land and sea battle for the Prod, manager............................. Terry[...]es are America's Cup. The miniseries looks beyond Length..................[...]ics, layers of Irony and the final contest for the cup to the genius, Synopsis: 22 episodes depicting the lifestyle[...]Based on the original Idea CC2EPESLPPPB1DwCSSSD2PPCSctoPWWRC2[...]oe..eh..nr..he.h.l.y.ped.h.uiH.ad...ri.Tr...tJg.o.is..S.lLt.riai...eerd.nrC.eey.cg.rnJRR.PPr.syn..tW..[...]..................................... StewartWay THE PACK OF WOMEN[...].Rob Robinson best-selling novel of the same name.[...] |
| [...]tor......................Michael Faranda Based on the original idea[...]................................................. The P.O.T.S. Length..................................[...]...LeeFaulkSnyenr op sis: A light-hearted look at the Ross Ch[...]Sutton (Brisbane) bitches who make some noise in the world owe Armourer...............................[...]...............................BruceRedmmaunch to the personal dogma of their masters. Best boy........[...]Mather It's a dog's life, and these are some of the most Runner......................................[...]......Chris Frost, A DAY AT THE RACES Boom operator...........................[...]aaaasikkrtrdeeud--rmruuoeppbesessadeurserutps.iep.is.gr.te.v.n.r...i.ve.s...rio...s...r..o.........r..[...].......... TimWilsoWn orld War II, as a doctor in the German army, Props standby......................[...]Jo Johanson Synopsis: A climber's eye view of the ascent Lighting cameram an.......................[...]......... Chris Murray, of Mt Beerwah in S.E.Qld. The climb Camera assistant.................... Roger[...]Martin Bruveris of the more obscure problems encountered by Mixers......[...]Her.C..ev.e.To.e...tCoeen...aye...nr.hPt..dre.R.p.is...acneCW..ocThr..ath.rDmoeBe.osa.aktrtoaldtDyaisa[...]Greg Coote, DREAMTIME -- THE EVIL ONE[...].............Edwina Nicolls Based on the authentic Aboriginal legends of Mixer............[...], accountant....................... Tony Hulstrom the Dreamtime[...]....QuentinBlack Synopsis: A miniseries based on the true story 3rd asst director.....................[...]..................... LenBausSkyanopsis: A series for children based on the[...]................... Quentin Black series includes the platypus, koala, sugar Producer.................[...]..............ABC TV Brisbane kangaroo. Based on the novel b y .................................EvanGr[...]/a.cmsistodsir..x..ae...rdevlsom..yolltcp.nii..o..is:.oead.oi..tn...elr..rge.rerrip..cto..r.nT.h...e.h[...]................................ StephenChampion THE BEERWAH BOLT[...] |
| [...]David Nichols Synopsis: When the going gets tough the kids Haddrick (The Abbot), Fiona Stewart (Sister Studios......................Filmcentre, North Sydney get going and the world goes five times dizzy. Gabriel), Tim Eliott[...]............JulianPrinSglyenopsis: Two nuns climb the wall of a rural Stephens (Irene Bailey), Gordon P[...]ner.................... Bruce Finlayson Based on the original idea by...........Cory Taylor for the canonization of its founder, the child Slater), Joan Sydney (Maud Tremball), Max[...]........................... PaulPandBoualsiesd on the original idea[...]ayward Music performed b y ......................The Allniters[...].............. JanHingPublicity.................. The Rea Francis Company Post-production facilities..[...]e.......................... March 1986 Synopsis: The project is a series of eight herself alone and unemployed in[...]cholas television programmes designed to reflect the Town. Her plight is brought to the attention of Lab. liaison........................[...]realities of being a young person in Australia in the local bishop's wife, who offers her a small Budge[...]estro (Marian), Bud Tingwell (Sam A HALO FOR ATHUAN[...]against the epic days of pioneering long Director...........[...]Synopsis: In Between is a four-part made-for-[...]facing the challenges and dilemmas of growing[...]up in a multi-cultural society. It shows the[...]pressures on them, the conflicts and difficulties[...]they have to face, and the decisions they have[...]THE LANCASTER MILLER AFFAIR[...] |
| [...]CHARTER SERVICE M AKES FLM S. You choose the location, and we'll get[...]Not only do you have the choice of[...]anywhere else...the spirit of Budget... you home.[...]the best aircraft to use-for transport,[...]Put us to the test. NotonlythatlAllyouraccommodatio[...] |
| [...]erkel which is about to go into pre- Production of[...].............1 0 x 3 0 minutes will make sure it is included. Catering.................[...]ase on 1-inch tape Synopsis: Saturdee focuses on the exploits of Ci[...]....$5million Graham Blackmore a guided tour of the development of a boy into[...]........ Colin Burchall a young man. It explores the factors that[...]..................Carmen Gallan factors, such as the concept of mateshlp, are[...]land uniquely Australian, whilst others, such as the[...].......................PeterTulloch adolescents. The series is set between the Casting............................ .............[...].....Lee Larner, against the turbulence and optimism of fifteen Runner........[...]Jo Larner of the most significant years in Australia's Publicity..[...]a Bieneman Based on the novel by .....................Colin Duck,[...]rrison), Drew Forsythe (Bill Morrison), Based on the original idea[...]........... Michael Lake Synopsis: The true story of two mothers who Exec, producer....[...]........... Gina Black gave birth to daughters in the Kyneton Hospital Assoc, producer.........[...] |
| [...]ts and $150 m illio n s p e n t in Around the World in 80 Ways (Palm Beach Entertainment/David[...]600,000 24 August The 1985 calendar year Australian Dream (Films[...]18 February m iniseries and te le The Big Hurt (The Big Hurt Ltd/Chris Kiely/Barry Peak) 8,800,000 15 July features go in front of the cameras, with (not count Cactus (Dotine Ltd[...]9 September ing ABC drama produc tions, for which figures Cool Change (Delatite Producti[...]Faiman) 1,600,000 11, March Since the ABC produced six miniseries and three Dead-[...]mien jlarer/Brian Trenchard-Smith) no doubt that the overall[...]N/A July total was well over the Departure (Cineaust [One 1983]/Christine Su[...]1 ,2 6 0 , 0 0 0 January Figures given in the Devil in the Flesh (Collins Murray Productions/John B. Murray/[...]4 April supplied to Cinema Dot and the Bunyip (Yoram Gross Film Studio/Yoram Gross/Yoram[...]eptember number of producers -- Dot and the Whale (Yoram Gross Film Studio/Yoram Gross/Yoram[...]4,300,000 23 September are marked `N/A', for `not[...]2 ,100,000 15 July available', in the budget Emma's War (Belinon/Clytie Jessop and[...]Saunders/Mario Andreacchio) supply them off the[...]0 11 March record, to enable us to For Love Alone (Waranta/Margaret Fink/Stephen Wallace) 3,300,000 21 October i compute the overall[...]500,000 16 September Only two of the 81 pro[...]29 July ductions, E m m a 's W a r 4ZZZ -- The Movie (Johnny LaRue Enterprises/Johnny LaRue/John[...]0,000 L o v e , declined to supply any figures; for these, we Free Enterprise (B & D Productions/G[...]00 October believe to be accurate The Fringe Dwellers (Fringe Dweller Productions/Sue Milliken/Bruce 15 April guesses for purposes of Beresford) 4,400,000 the overview. Good Man Down (PBL Productions/Brian Rosen/Carl Schultz) Not included in the tables are such overseas Going Sane (Sea-Ch[...]u g h te r, 1Own the Racecourse (Barron Films/John Edwards and Timothy[...]April The More Things Change . . . (Syme International Prod[...]_ _ 23 September The Right-Hand Man (Yarraman Films/ Steven Grives, To[...]/George Ogilvie) The Steam-Driven Adventures of Riverboat Bill (Phanta[...]s/Paul Williams) The Still Point (Rosa Colosimo Film Productions/Rosa[...]tt/Bill Bennett) The Surfer (Night Flight Ltd/Frank Shields and James[...]ppe Mora) What's the Difference? (MW Productions/Alan Madden an[...] |
| [...]00,000 24 June 0 Australia during the year. Archer (Roadshow, Coote & Carroll/Moya I[...]1 ,0 0 0 , 0 0 0 October m Nor do the tables include[...]t Hicks) 5 August c the McElroys' R e t u r n[...]N/A 22 July 3 The Last Warhorse (Filmrep Ltd/Helen Boyd/Bob Meillon[...]1 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 25 February Across the board, the[...]21 October 0 million. Surprisingly, over The Perfectionist (Pavilion Pictures/Pat Lovell/Chris Thomson) half the features were in[...]600,000 11 November S' the u nd er-$2-m illio n The Quest for Love (Entertainment Media Ltd/Peter Beilby[...] |
| [...]CONSTRUCTION FOR have in common?[...]dvertising. Created in London by Peter Schmideg. The Peter Schmideg Company has now[...]io and television campaigns can be created under the one roof. Call us to discuss your next project. Film projects include:- Flying High II (The Sequel), An Officer and a Gentleman, The Bostonians, Brainstorm, The Dark Crystal, The Essential Hitchcock, The Hunger, Octopussy, Rumblefish, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Scarface, Terms of Endearment, Top Secret, Trading Places, War Games, The Year of Living Dangerously. The |
| TECHNICALITIES The ingenuity of the technicians in Fred Harden talks to the Australian film industry's just behind the driver's seat. We'd the Australian film industry has[...]pull up, say at the airport, and get always been a source of fascin[...]only frame head and from some unique aspect of the shoulders, and the interviewer sat off Australian character, but there is a tsbnearkee's[...]sking questions. We had wealth of stories about the bush[...]across behind them, with the billy lid and a length of fencing wire,[...]high-tech " I want you to start up on the left-hand TAA, you'd pull across the TAA piece of equipment and save the side o f the road, and get up to 100 background. day. Actually, this ability is probably a result of our isolation: we have[...]an hour as fast as you can," " The lights were all permanently often had to make o[...]set and, because we operated off repair the equipment, rather than[...]battery current, we had this big wait months for spares to come from[...]kept it in one of those big, padded get the spares nowadays, but there[...]ice-cream containers as a barney." is still a tradition of building our own[...]the TV station," he recalls, " most of[...]the film work I was doing was for the The early years of sound film in[...]in a quote for, say, $20,000 -- as description of the American hard[...]self -- and that working out how to do it here. The[...]-- or try something else. better, because the person doing it didn't stop to think how compli[...]"I'd always wanted a camera crane, The tradition is still alive today,[...]the Fire in the Stone feature that mounts and smoke machines to the[...]Years ago, I used to be a fitter and stringer for Movietone in South[...]myself. So I built a crane. paper photographer (for the Adelaide News)] and it was that,[...]" Ross Berryman and Ian Jones together with the Movietone were the cameramen and, although experience, that got him[...]had, I'd rectify overnight, even Unlike the branch of electronic rebuilding the thing at times, so it showbusiness that TV news is today,[...]that film, I must have rebuilt the " there was just me, an editor and a[...]obably rebuilt it interest in equipment, even to the[...]resent state. Dean Semler, Ross hacd-wound drum. The 16mm[...]Haddy all reckon it's the greatest (" the American Arri they made for[...]Bosisto's crane was in the best around Australia.[...]see the logic behind it; so I started Bosisto introduced[...]by looking at photos of American boy (working in the station props cranes. The first one I built had ball bay) to news camerawo[...]bearings in the turntable. That[...]wasn't any good, so I rebuilt it with a when Bosisto left to do[...]how the others do it, so this could be money in it" ), the boy -- called Dean[...]it is very smooth, being machined then, Bosisto has wo[...]going. Because mine has the good subject for a Cinema Papers[...]" On Fire in the Stone, the crane that had really stuck in his mind had[...]on a Daihatsu, and a been Bosisto's solution to the trailer towed the bits behind. The first problem of obtaining exclusive news[...]complaint was that the focus puller interviews for the station with visiting had to sit on the opposite side of the politicians or celebrities. How had he[...]platform to the operator, so he done it? " Well," explains Bosis[...]couldn't read the markings on the " we got this old Thames van, and[...]that meant the structure wasn't good Auricon" -- a sound-on-film camera --[...] |
| [...]" When I was going to do Mad and now it's the only crane in[...]marks on make a crane?' So I went to Don the other side of the lens! Bishop, and he worked out an[...]red feet of track. It's heavy- feet by using the Hot Head. We duty Cyclone 2-inch tubing, which used it for other things on Max, like means that, if you want it longer, you suspending the dwarf in the train just ring up Cyclone and they deliver fight sequence by adding an out as much as you need. The base is rigger from the people platform, and Cyclone scaffolding, too, so every hanging him on piano wires. We thing is interchangeable. And the used it on rails in the Underworld joiners are scaffolding joins,[...] |
| [...]St Kilda Council is pleased to SACHTLER[...]Systems take the gamble[...]A selection of the best of up, quick to adjust for[...]ms screened to be The precise[...]works for consideration on[...]r 16mm, together with an application form, before the[...]movements, the wide pan and tilt[...] |
| [...]Raining in her heart? M eryl Streep in the background while, in the[...]nce in Plenty. downstage spotlight, the star would have crafted a similar film to score,[...]Star's war the present one. Despite all the ground for the two lovers.[...]On the London stage, David Hare's ducing the background to what are attention to detail -- the extensive There is, however, an innocent Plenty was a[...]and featureless, against which location work at the Ngong Dairy in sincerity about the whole project. part of a fashion that also produced, Streep shines. After flashy starts, the on TV, the Richard Eyre/lan roles of both Cha[...]after Blixen), at Masai One im m ediately knows, for McEwan collaboration, The imita Tracey Ullman (as her bohemian[...]are's own Lick pal, Alice) fade into the same vague Mara, the Kenyan extension of the instance, that Redford washing ing Hitler. The last two were both brume ecossaise, while[...]sour looks at the way in which sexual formance, latest in a series of one- Serengeti Plain, in the Rift Valley, the Streep's hair will be filmed with the politics could screw up the secret note larrikins, never gets started[...]effort, Ngorongoro Crater and at Lake sun behind the star, visually Acting honours outside the lead[...]Fred Schepisi's film is not at all like performance are parcelled out Manyara in Tanzania; the detailed magnifying the intentionally two- this. " The heat of passion, the power between international hired head[...]of anger" , announces the attendant John Gielgud, as a testy but de[...]al characterization. Every hype, while the presence of trans ambassador, and Ian M[...]atlantic megastar Meryl Streep in the who plays Brock's Foreign Office china to match Blixen's originals; the aspect is underlined; there are no linking role (pl[...]Nelligan) guarantees the delivery of acquisition of a good deal of her surprises, and the audience is con both. Chosen apparently to preve[...]diplomatic role like a cardinal furniture; the careful use of vintage tinually reassured by a fa[...]ing Tory taste on Hare's explaining the essential rightness of[...]polemic, Schepisi gives the film as the rhythm method. cars and planes; and the research tive form. much of both the agony and the[...]argument as his star will allow. The Understandably, there's little of into traditional African songs -- the Whilst Streep's Blixen (demonstra result is a glossy parable, marred on Barbarosa's cav[...]on by an exasperating Plenty, nor the earth magic of film is a love story which selectively ting once again he[...]ent, but lifted to worth by an Iceman. This is frosty filmmaking,[...]inspired mixture of the politically apt betraying an Australian's dis[...]ects to foreground its a foreign accent) occupies the and the cinematically elegant. cold and damp[...]y inherent romanticism. screen for most of the time, it is Red- " There will be so many days like[...]herne (Streep) Traherne from what she truly is -- an Out of Africa opens impressively ford's Finch Hatton who remains the in the first scene, as the church bells unbalanced, over-sexed adolescen[...]hime and she looks out doomed to become the subject of and progresses rapidly, following a figure of knowledge within the film. over the Gallic countryside she has, sensational bi[...]and number of well-established narrative Unlike the other characters, he is rid of the Hun. The irony is as thick committees to save the whale -- into as the accent of the usefully poly a passionate, self-willed, yea-sayer conventions dealing with the cultural aware of the consequences of World phone farmer (John[...]politely omits to express his doubts of the Whitehall colonels and her dislocation of Europe[...]ar I on East Africa. He also shares that the world will change just own capacity for living. With a lesser[...]because the British say it will: there star than Streep, the result might to duplicate their civilization in a a special affinity with the Masai and, are always more Huns. And Susan,[...]in her way, has been part of the As it is, Plenty is a rich, ripe pudding totally alien environment. The finally, with nature, represented by occupation, one minor pawn in the of politics and romance, worth a[...]ody-s thumb. emigration of Blixen (Meryl Streep) the lions at the end of the film. ing with the lives and futures of other[...]ford's character appears nations for centuries. marry her cousin, Baron Bror von to owe more to the actor's previous Plenty charts Su[...]ar Britain. She establish a coffee plantation in the the mature Jeremiah Johnson (in battles[...]es a what was also a Sydney Pollack for the Coronation, carries on a[...]air with low-level strong narrative basis, given the film), than to any semblance of actu d[...]Dance), while pining for the arms of obstacles she encounters, and her ality.[...]es can still accept this Lazar (Sam Neill), the spy who relieved the tedium and tension of husband's promiscuity and indol conception of the male hero, how her stint undergr[...]When they are reunited in the film's ence. Indeed, the scenes between ever, as well as share the director's final scene.it is, a disappointment. Streep and Brandauer are ma[...]al conception of Love, then So is the Coronation, even though[...]it is spent on a couch with wide boy by a particular tension which Pollack stands a good chance, with Sting, source of the royal cheese-[...]graters. Marriage to Brock is no evaporates once the Austrian actor Out o f Africa, of maintaining his[...]son, leading into a glum role as disappears from the film. spectacular run of commercial[...]through the Jordanian day while her During this early sectio[...]sheiks. What remains of the king curious relationship with her hus dom, the power and the glory expires in the bad show of Suez, and band, coupled with the interest in the Out of Africa: Directed and produced Susan is back in the island rest economic fragility of the coffee by Sydney Pollack. Executive pro home again. plantation and the attractiveness of ducer: Kim Jorgensen. Co-produc[...]iate producers: Schepisi's taste for the mytho logical and the epic is suppressed in ford), provides sufficient dramati[...]Anna Cataldi. Plenty, expiring under the inevitable[...]As in Silkwood, the mixture of of syphilis, the impossibility of child writings by Isak Dinesen, Judith Thur rhetoric and romance is often[...]uneasy, with Significance hurried by ren and the departure of the Baron, man and Errol Trzebinski. Director of the[...]re pushed photography: David Watkin. Produc into the background by the romantic tion design: Stephen Grimes. Editors:[...]ion of ford. Cast: Meryl Streep (Karen Blixen), the actor (who has now appeared in six of the director's films). Robert Redford (Deny[...]y to con Blixen), Michael Kitchen (Berkeley demn the film's soft last half, when Cole), Malick Bowens (Farah Aden), the apparent focus for the film -- Joseph Thiaka (Kamante), Mike Karen's[...]farm in Africa Delamere), Suzanna Hamilton -- is reduced to a minor motif, while (Felicity). Production company: Mirage, the lush romanticism of Pollack, rein for Universal. Distributor: UIP. 35 mm. force[...] |
| [...]ducers: Edward R. Pressman and assumptions. The first time we meet the time Connie and Lex face the im Joseph Papp. Executive producer: the nineteen-year-old Geraldine, we possibilit[...]play. Director of Connie about how she wants the job harmony' is characteristic of the film, photography: Ian Baker. Production of looking after Connie's four-year- even to the extent that it can be designer: Richard MacDonal[...]remote country farm, so that she and Lex in the foreground, their Peter Honess. Music: Bruce Sme[...]cordist: John Mitchell. Cast: parents, and have the baby adopted out of a closed window at Ge[...]white wedding to her boy game-playing is a cause for exuber Brock), John Gielgud (Sir Leonard f[...]ark), Sting (Mick), Ian McKellen (Sir Andrew The country lifestyle, in a farm Yet, for all the precariousness and Charleson). Production compan[...]in stunning mountain fragility on which the characters' Edward R. Pressman Productions, for scenery, turns out to be as remote lives hang, the film is also a testa RKO. Distributor: Greater Union.[...]on appears, child- oughly contemporary, The More rearing is at odds with Connie's Things Change.. . is as much a film for the eighties as The Big Chill was THE MORE THINGS about the eighties. It suggests, with MARIE[...]comfort Barry Otto as the ineffectual Lex relationships are not fo[...]film, in The More Things Change . . . their own sen[...]work -- a concern for family (Smash The More Things Change . . . a independent c[...]Palace), an absorption jn ` the ten Telecom man (Alex Menglet), mis[...]sions that arise when personal loyal-, takes the pregnant child-minder, Geraldine is young, inexperi ing the film from a background in ties[...]flict with moral ; Geraldine (Victoria Longley), for the enced, " let loose in the world with theatre direction and acting (she is responsibilities (The Bounty). How wife of Lex (Barry Otto). Enter Lex[...]o fly" , as Lex unflatter- associate director of the Sydney ever, despite the thematic continui true wife, Connie (Judy Morris), just ingly puts it, yet gaining for the first Theatre Company). She has brought[...]time in her life a sense of identity and to the task a command and a faith project than a job that had to be registers on his face as the couple confidence as she prepares to bear[...]refreshing -- and masterful. done; The intricate network of details embraces. A beautifully-timed comic a child. Connie slowly comes to the Like a latter-day Renoir, she shows a and the measured pacing of Donald scene, it is also tinged with some realization that her s[...]respect son's previous American film, The thing painfully poignant. For, in breadwinner (Lex's `job' -- the and resignation in her handling of[...]Bounty, which has been generally many ways, the camaraderie that result of yet' another of his dream the unfolding drama -- qualities that[...]dine and Lex solutions -- being to keep up the are all but absent from today's[...]a more fundamental commitment to (which explains the Telecom man's farm) is mismatched by her hus cinema. the basics of story-telling. There is ... misunderstanding), directly under band's ineptitude. " What," she The cast delivers eloquent and nothing intrinsically wrong with such - mines the strained marriage. And, if finally asks, " are[...]ly an approach, of course; it is simply a Lex isn't the father-to-be, where is new[...]a Longley and question of the filmmaker's priorities ;' backs for?" established actress Judy Morris, for this .project. he? The drama and tension are meas whose role here bears many similari But there is also a sense in which[...]he played last year in In order for its protagonist, Marie ured by the confrontation of the the ABC telemovie, Time's Raging. Ragghianti (Sissy Spacek), to the Telecom man's position is various characters over their[...]acquire the;status of heroine, and to identical to that of the audience: a common plight in surviving a very[...]r, gathering up clues chilly winter. Geraldine is at first written script by Moya Wood, pro Framed? Sissy Spacek in the title co[...]becomes a symbiotic partner for stall in glowing widescreen format,[...]Jill Bilcock, The More Things Change . . . is majestically modest[...]Inverting the commonplace prin[...]worthy subject (it is a compliment to[...]call this a 'small' film), The More[...]audience. It is a reminder that the cinema is about experiences that are[...]The More Things Change[...]International, in association with the[...] |
| FILMAN D TV REV IEWS join the army of American individuals actions are not alto[...]. who have stood up against a corrupt clean; but the implications of this are the bomb[...]The US government admitted that system and won] she must undergo ignored as the drama returns to its The poster for Dennis O'Rourke's contamination o[...] |
| THE COLOR PURPLE Neverending film than at the beginning, which is Whoopi Goldberg, like all the Rhythm and booze: Margaret Avery story the opposite of the book. actors in the film, is perfect in her as Shug, cutting the rug at H arpo's[...]role. She ages gracefully in a placid For a long time, Steven Spielberg What we grasp from the book and way that displays the kind of inner Juke Joint in The Color Purple. has reportedly wanted to make a see portrayed in the film is a young strength which her character must `serious' film -- one that will show girl who is raped by her `Pa', whose evince near the end of the film. merely a series of endings, all the Hollywood snobs what a very resultant ch[...]equally dramatic, which close doors good director he is. Spielberg is must then face a miserable exist (as Sofia) are also good in support and chapters over and over again. without doubt a good director. Un ence as drudge to a bullying[...]Just as he had a climax in every fortunately, The Color Purple is not widower with several bratty children.[...]scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark the movie to prove it. While he has Mister (Dann[...]well- her husband, beats and berates her the sociological implications of the Spielberg here cannot resist the acted film, Spielberg has become so to the point where she retreats into a film in the US -- many black groups temptation, even in this `serious' bogged down in the `art' of direction shell. Not only does she not[...]sted that its depiction of context, to keep the audience that what he has created is a series somehow she pathetically thinks black men is universally negative -- wondering when the film is going to of very intense, very beautiful that she deserves Mister's contempt. it is not so much against black men end. Two or[...]re, happen to be mostly black five try the patience.[...]- a pit into which he might men). Based on the Pulitzer Prize easily have fallen -- but, like the Meanwhile, though the film may winning novel by Alice Walker (who[...]f Spielberg can be faulted, it do well at the box office and will has been hailed by some crit[...]s. should be in the more specific probably be nominated for multiple worthy successor to William Faulk[...]cter Oscars, audiences who had been ner), The Color Purple is the story Unfortunately, this happens too does not change (as it does in the waiting for the `serious direction' of of Celie (Whoopi Goldberg[...]ch in some places -- particularly novel). In the book, Mister mellows, Steven Spielberg shou[...]life filled with in Spielberg's downplaying of the and regrets the way he has treated try to catch The Sugarland unhappiness and degradation lesbian relationship between Shug Celie. The film touches only very Express or Jaws o[...]tempts to make remind themselves what a good part of the novel -- and too little in director he can be. The story takes place over a others, where he[...]length on amends: what little transformation is period of more than 40 years, and Celie's preparations to shave a man evident is underplayed to the point Patricia King Hanson the book is composed entirely of she wants to kill. of making the final shot of the film letters -- letters from Celie to God,[...]oblique and confusing. The Color Purple: Directed by Steven from Celie to her sister, Nettie, and The character of Shug, beautifully[...]ttie to Celie. Through them, played by Avery, is the woman The period of the story -- approxi berg, Kathleeen Kennedy, Frank Mar the lives of the characters are whom Mister loves and who, by her mately 1906 to 1947 -- is beautifully shall and Quincy Jones. Executiv[...]couragement and love of Celie, realized. The art direction of Robert ducers: Jon Peters and Peter Guber. appears ambiguous at the begin helps the latter to change from a piti W. Welch, the cinematography of Screenplay: Menno Me[...]ntrodden ember into an Allen Daviau and the music score by the novel, The Color Purple, by Alice the end. And Celie herself does inferno. Shug is a close-at-hand Quincy Jones are all evocative of the Walker. Director of photography: Allen some[...]ng through a example of freedom and strength for American South during those[...]becomes whole, `young' and only by the existence of her sister, universal story -- The Color Purple Guerard Rodgers. Cast: Whoopi[...]simply misses the mark. By the end berg (Celie), Danny Glover (Mister),[...]Nettie (Akosua Busia). When Nettie of the film, the audience feels Margaret Avery (Shug), Oprah Winfrey But, because of the confines of the is sent away by Mister, she vows to drained, because of the emotional (Sofia), Willard Pugh (Harpo),[...]ster hides all her letters. intensity of many of the scenes; but Busia (Nettie). Production comp[...]Eventually, when Shug helps Celie there is no cathartic effect. Even if Amblin Entertainment, in association rather than imply, things -- Celie is find her sister's letters, Celie is able Celie is content and happy, it is now with Quincy Jones, for Warner Bros. more ambiguous at the end of the to muster her inner strength and[...]prove that she is not `pore', `black',[...]`a woman', but a,person. This aspect of the film is particu larly evident in the last third, which is[...] |
| [...]s. YEAR OF THE Laurentiis. Execut[...]This shared heritage is a more DRAGON[...]Oliver Stone and Michael Cimino, be: celebrate the dubious achieve between the two protagonists than Stanley White in Michael C im ino's based on the novel by Robert Daley. ments of some recently dead ruler, the Chinese-American newswoman,[...]Director of photography: Alex Thom for instance, or carry a railway Tracy Tzu (Ariane), with whom Year of the Dragon. across a river. As a result, it has[...]gn: Wolf Kroeger. been an affair of compromises: the and who is constantly trying to disturbing[...] |
| [...]BANKCARD AND MASTERCARD ACCEPTED THE FILM SERVICES GROUP DESIGN STUDIO SET[...] |
| [...]ships are severed -- the execution terrible mother. consists of Carol seeing the error of crim es[...]establishing his legal tie to Jenny), Towards the end of Jenny Kissed of the fragile and complex relation cries of pain from the neighbouring confessing her love for the child and Me, there is an image that neatly, if ships between adults and children is room interrupt her sex life. She dis swapping her night job for a post unintentionally, illustrates one of the reduced to an overblown and fairly passionately puffs on her hash pipe behind the supermarket cash film's major flaws. Lindsay Fen[...]us tearjerker. at home while the child is rushed to register. (Ivar Kants) and his s[...]is miraculous transformation -- being pursued by the police, who the wake of a cycle of films that scarce resources on a bike for just in the nick of time, as Lindsay is aim to apprehend Lindsay for kid portray men as devoted parents[...]drobe. And disease -- seems to contradict the custody as a ward of the state. Palace, Table for Five, Author, she alleviates the boredom of film's claim to modernity. Marriage Jenny is in an institution because her Author, Ordinary People), Jenny country life by succumbing to the and fidelity are restored to their moth[...]stals, responsible parenthood Furness), has left the home in the Kissed Me contrasts the troubled is shown to be within the grasp of hills that she shared with Lindsay for relationship between Carol and Me[...]say teaches even this reprobate, and the film the faster times of Melbourne. Unfor Lindsay with the rapport shared by Jenny about the local fauna, visits ends with mother and d[...]y. It even her in hospital when she is sick and back in the idyllic hills, apparently Carol in the midst of the cocaine and (unnecessarily) accentuates the brings home the bacon. Finally, smiled upon by a benev[...]and child with Carol packs up and leaves the love carnation of the dearly departed. result, the police have taken Jenny heavy-handed references to the fact able Lindsay. Ignoring Jenny's from her. Tormented by the loss of that Lindsay is not Jenny's natural or dismay, she separates the child from The saddest thing about Jenny the child and her mother, Lindsay legal fathe[...]single caring parent and re Kissed Me is that it is incapable of has snatched Jenny back.[...]casts some suspicion on Carol's both of the people she allegedly character without damning his While the pair are on the run, the chequered past. love[...]Not that Carol needs any more live on the profits of drug-dealing, when Carol is finally `redeemed', it is predicament. The Age announces suspicion cast upon her, for her and is oblivious to Jenny's anguish in the most patronizing way that they are the focus of `Victoria's character supplies another of the and deterioration from sweet little girl[...]hile Truth lewdly film's flaws, and one that is to Problem Child. In short, the his vacant shoes. ponders Lindsay's m[...]disturbing in its implications rather woman is a monster, a caricature or lust?'.[...]sequence of indecision. For most of destroys any argument for reading lament the missed opportunities that Like The Age, Jenny Kissed Me the film, Carol exists as a catalyst -- the film as a genuine effort to deal litter the film and simply surrenders aims to present a story that is an erratic variable who indicates the with the complexities of modern to disbelief at[...]itative, probing, confronting importance of the other stable and relationships. and even i[...]like caring adult in Jenny's life. With the[...]lso wantsaspicyangleonthe' goal of depicting the male as a It is primarily the depiction of Carol subject: one that might shock[...]rthy parent, Warwick Hind's that lends the film its final and most Jenny Kissed Me: Dire[...]it of oomph. And, in script sacrifices the female pro ironic defect. Offering itself as a tale Trenchard-Smith. Producer: Tom succumbing to the temptation of the tagonist, crucifying Carol in order to "w[...]Broadbridge. Screenplay: Warwick latter, the film surrenders any in the present ", Jenny Kissed Me Hind, based on an original screenplay semblance of the former. Though an canonize Lindsay. purports to examine the problems by Judith Colquhoun. Director of exploration of the problems faced by Spouting much half-bake[...]photography: Bob Kohler. Editor: Alan the trio indicates some potentially[...]director: Jon Dowding. involving raw material -- the pre about the irrelevance of marriage surfaces (and, tha[...]ound recordist: Paul Clark. Com carious state of the family, the legal and virtually rejecting her role as a Kohler's photography, the film looks posers: Trevor Lucas and Ian Mason. limbo of de facto relationships, the mother, Carol seems to embody lustrous), it applauds the most Cast: Ivar Kants (Lindsay Fenton)[...]ra-Lee Furness (Carol Grey), unsuitable mothers, the trauma that perceptions of feminism. The only traditional values. Its resolution[...]hildren when adult relation things that she is liberated from,[...]r: she is portrayed as a villain: a[...]woman who is selfish, stupid, Carol in Jenny Kissed[...]itful and, worst of all, a JEN.N....Y.......K. IS. SED ME |
| The leaving[...]shrimps January is, of course, early in the fine regard for mutual feeling and E a st m eets w est: A[...]rg i C la rke a s T eresa in shrimp fishermen on the Gulf of Bernard's A Letter to Brezhnev. It[...]Mexico combat James Stewart's oil is much more than merely likeable, Russia.[...]drilling company in its attempts to however: it is an important film in the[...]g much-touted, never-quite-safely- The film's attitude toward the liners but, overall, has a still more grounds. A crescendo of violence is arrived British cinema renaissance Soviet Union is fresh and funny. A impressive idiomatic fluency) of resolved when the first well brings in -- utterly indigenous, cutt[...]ot-long king prawns. from stereotypes, rooted in the friend comes off second best in a[...]ity of casual, messy living. It set-to with the Russians, hurls after British cinema than Ri[...]on this because Louis also shows itself aware of the them " Fuckin' communist aggres[...]Malle's Alamo Bay comes on like capacity for romance and excite sors!" Elaine's fo[...]Thunder Bay inside out. Based o n . ment in the most straitened circum mum (Mandy Walsh)[...]neck community's intolerance of the huma[...]le there and It's attitude to lower-class life is meaning Foreign Office official (Neil Chris Bernard. Producer: Janet compete in the floundering shrimp far removed from the gentilities of, Cunningham) warns her against the Goddard. Co-producer: Caroline industry. At the outset, the film say, This Happy Breed or Millions[...]ssociate producer: Paul shows us the daily rhythms of Like Us, let alone the patronage[...]people beached in a stultifying accorded the lower orders in other But the anti-communist feeling at Director of photo[...]distinguished films such as all levels is satirically played off McGowan. Production[...]ief Encounter. British cinema against the way in which, for Elaine, Brotherston, Nick Englefield, Jonathan Stars at the Zanadew [sic] Lounge, has, traditionally, been full of comic Russia comes to stand for romance Swain. Music arranger: Wolfgang[...]tor: Lesley Walker. Sound ,30-06s in the window racks down relief from the more serious matters leaving Kirby, "I hav[...]ett. Cast: Alfred highways empty save for the occa that preoccupy their social betters.[...]tiresomely, it has sentiment KREMLIN" (as the tabloid headline Margi Clarke (Teresa Ki[...]Malle wanted Alamo Bay to be an in the likes of A Taste of Honey, or to her.[...]mo Bay to be a social- short-lived `new wave' of the early -- or Liverpool at large -- are pre[...]ies. A Letter to Brezhnev, by sented in the tradition of poetic minutes. Britain. 19[...]product for the Tender Mercies/ about them. overhead shots, the old city is Places in the Heart market. Stars[...]Amy Madigan and Ed Harris seem The two girls in the film -- Teresa dignity, which are as much a[...]to have wanted the story of an incan (Margi Clarke) and Elaine (Alex it as the vibrant, youthful life refusing[...]descent, destructive amour fou. The andra Pigg), the former a chicken to be subdued by pover[...]upshot: an epic battle between processor, the other on the dole -- employment. A Letter to Brezhnev[...]and Ruby Gentry. both want more out of life than the is one of the few British films that[...]f their Liverpool lives gives any sense of the life of a prov- has to offer. Teresa seems to ha[...]The first half unreels issues, pack more go, but only in the direction of dignity jostles with drearines[...]ing the elements for a social analysis vodka and sex, and the men are insularity with vitality, and the effect[...]carce and inadequate. Elaine, in terms of the film's concerns is[...]W arm ed by m ore than the G u lf Strea m : self as^'a straight Kirby girl[...]Anderson berated British cinema for Bay. The film wittily observes their being "an En[...]ilors -- Southern English at that), metro the bear-like Sergei (Alfred Molina) politan in attitude, and entirely and the more sensitive Peter (Peter middle-class . . . snobbish, anti- Firth) -- hove into view in the pub to intelligent, emotionally inhibited, wil which the girls have fled from a man fully blind to the conditions and whose wallet Teresa lifted when he problems of the present, dedicated tried to pick them up. It is, in fact, the to an out-of-date, exhausted national quieter Elaine who has the adven ideal." ture: while Teresa and[...]nd constant) A Letter to Brezhnev is too un sexual compatibility, Elaine and pretentious a film to make solemn Peter spend the night in talk. Elaine, claims about. Nevertheless, it seems having fallen in love, writes the to me to make a real assault on eponymous letter, is invited to those attributes which And[...]g told that rightly complained of. It has the Peter is married, heads off in the authentic look and sound (Frank film's last scene. Opposed by most Clarke's script is full of great one- of those around her, she is urged on by Teresa, who sees her own chances thinning, and is "afraid of what's round the corner". Throughout, it is the girls who take the initiative. They want men, but aren't about to be pushed around by them; they pay the hotel bill for the Russian sailors; and, while men is what they want, they will set the terms. The most touching relation ship in the film is that between Teresa and. Elaine: their final airport scene is written and played with a[...] |
| [...]NOW IN RELEASE! THE SCREEN PLAY.[...]evastating investigation... astonishing THE AUTHOR[...]- David Robinson, The Times (London) ACKNOWLEDGES THE ASSISTANCE,[...]ificent.' CO-OPERATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE[...].N.U, - Derek Malcolm, The Guardian (London)[...]RRITORY ABORIGINAL STUDIES THE WAR MEMORIAL, C a n b e r ra CENTRAL LANDS COU[...]a film by AYAILARILITY OF THE[...]HALF LIFE APPROVAL RY THE AUST[...]o to g ra p h y DENNIS O'ROURKE GOVERNMENT FOR[...] |
| [...]arly collides with quent entries in the lucrative field of But, when the curious Logan begins through Texas to join fello[...]enture films will be namese refugees sardined by the[...]tarTipering with the cargo, all hell dozen into an aluminium mobile The diverging forces of the entire[...]oose, and a mysterious force home which glows in the moonlight movie can be seen here. Its i[...]is should be so may not be takes control of the aircraft in a well- like a television tube. Glory (Amy for moment and detail -- its entirely fair, but it is certainly inevit staged, descent into a time warp. Madigan) returns from the big city to specificity -- is there in the close-up able, particularly when filmmakers help her father keep the family fish of the fish-sorting and the blithe appear to be guided by the maxim Subsequent adventures take business from going belly-up in the enigma of the licence plate. But that imitation is the sincerest form of Harris, Savage, Mitchell and[...]t caused there, too, clearly separated, is its flattery. Which brings us directly[...]nge, becalmed sea filled by his chumming up with the Viet determinism, literally forcing it[...]ed Shang one course and onto another: the duction that rarely soars to the ghostly ships, not to mention a lot Pi[...]court martial for Harris, who is some with the loan sharks. He is sucked The event in the film which An episodic film that appears what inexplicably sentenced to into the undertow of an old romance chooses the latter and scuttles the stitched together rather than seam several years in the brig, but with Glory as he becomes the de former stands out not only for the less, Sky Pirates regularly expects escapes in the nick of time to save facto leader of the disgruntled red acting -- it's the dance scene, with its audience to acc[...]ex -- amount on faith, buckles under the Island, via a remote outback outpost but also for Malle's method: flickers strain of try[...]much, full of Mad Max extras and a The penumbra of the Vietnam war of detail, understatement, everything labours under the burden of a script barkeep (Bill Hunter) whom the ever- hangs heavily over the film for a as little as possible. that lacks the sparkle so vital to this optimlstic Harris eng[...]roulette a la Deer outside military advisers -- the Klan Madigan and Harris -- their[...]Vets of energy, their desire -- steal the films -- primarily the aforementioned Texas' tee-shirt, leads the defence of show, slow-dancing, crab-wise, into Indiana Jones sagas -- for its There are some flat rejoinders local waters against foreign invasion the vacuum left as the social theme inspiration.[...](``You really do fight dirty," declares at the helm of the Klan vessel, weighs anchor and sinks[...]anie. ``Only some `Amatuer' (they love to kill), The in the west, a plucky Ry Cooder score T[...]debt of gratitude to the past, notably double entendre: after a brief, the locals. The war has been[...]. Thompson so many of us enthralled at the they need to get some rest. " You're[...]ing it hard," says Harris. " Sleep But that's the one that got away: Alamo Bay: Directed by Louis Malle. Spielberg elevated the formula on it," is her response. the second half of the film jettisons all Producers: Louis Malle and V[...]may, Sky Pirates comes plopping themselves into the midst designer: Trevor Williams. Editor: After Dark, The ABC of Love and nowhere near generating the kind of of `reality', then rippling out to take[...]nana and suspense and surprise that got the whole ocean. But Alamo Bay Sound: Da[...]Sky Pirates was filmed in such dis And the film works up to a fairly pre rather than expand[...]Moffat (Wally), Truyen V. Tran (Ben), the skies above Ballarat, the outback right-hand villain, Valentine (Adrian The narrowing of the social scope Rudy Young (Skinner), Cynthia Carle and the Great Barrier Reef, and as Wright)7get their just desserts, Harris is visually paralleled by the contrac (Honey), Martino Lasalle (Luis).[...]far afield as Bora Bora and Easter gets the girl, and the gods that rule tion of the broad Texan landscape Production company: Tri-Star Pic- Island, the home of those Easter Island are reunited with a and the expansive seascape of the tures/Delphi III. Distributor: Fox-[...]ke stone heads. chunk of rock that glows in the dark. opening scenes into progressively Columbia. 35 mm. USA. 98 minutes. smaller spaces in the town, con 1985.[...]Substantial production.work obvi cluding in the final shoot-out in the made the excellent featurette, The ously went into the making of Sky shrimp-processing plant. The rivalry "W h a tfo o ls these m o rta ls b e ..." John Long Weekend), Sky Pirates is set Pirates, and the aerial sequences between Shang and Dinh, which Is H argreaves, M eredith P h illip s a n d the in the forties, and stars the versatile are first-rate. Hargreaves makes a not fully developed in either the John Hargreaves in the unaccus surprisingly good swashbuckler, romantic or the political story, is at E a s te r Is la n d g o d s in Sky Pirates. tomed role of an Aussie Biggies -- a and the rest of the cast isn't exactly least expressed in a last vis[...]ction, as their bodies are carried Plumbing the out on identical stretchers, and each heig[...]heroes and he arrives at a misty (the fog that has too many holes even for an plucky heroines are, of course, machine is working overtime in Sky adventure fantasy[...]ditional structure, one almost as old as the cinema itself. Pirates) airfield to[...]singularly lacking in zest. One can't expects the social plot and the Recently, however, the remarkable US/Australian air force flight across help thinking that the project might romantic plot to intertwine, as the Steven Spielberg has claimed the the Pacific. Among those on board have been[...]n and development as a miniseries story, the dynamics of the social or Ford as the archaeologist, Indiana officer Sava[...]. But, in this case, they Jones, in Raiders of the Lost Ark for reasons that are never made are not interlinked.[...]ear, harbours a deep-seated As it is, one is reminded, not so from the social story to the romantic the Temple of Doom. The pheno hatred of the insubordinate Harris; much of the adventures of Indiana one, but not back again. The line menal success of these two slick the hard-drinking US general, Jones, as of that home and travel snaps, and the film's drift into the hot productions makes them an inevit[...]nd his aide, loan commercial that precedes the stuff involves marooning the politics able yardstick against which subse- Logan (Wayne Cull); and the feature in most cinemas these days[...]orse and, blissfully, There's a Bermuda Triangle for[...]for the occult and the supernatural. Peter Krien What is discarded when a fish is Not aboard, to Harris's chagrin, is cleaned is what is missing in Alamo the reverend's attractive daughter, Sky Pirate[...]Lamond. Director of photography: bone, with the deft constructions[...]In the cargo bay of the vintage Kristian Frederickson. Special visual the progressively TVish visual style Dakota C-47 is a packing case con effects: Dennis Nicholson. Sound of the film. taining . . . no, not the Ark of the recordist: Gary Wilkins. Editors: John[...]ond and Michael Hirsh. Cast: John An example: the first day Dinh[...]rgreaves (Harris), Meredith Phillips goes out on the Vietnamese boat,[...]and (Melanie), Max Phipps (Savage), Bill the nets are emptied onto the deck[...]eilly), Simon Chilvers and everyone -- including the disturbs the secret Moai meets (Reverend Mitchell)[...]Hackett), David Parker round. One of them sorts the various[...]The flight takes off with an escort duction compa[...]mm. Running time: 95 that come from? Meanwhile, the un- Garry Wapshott with the first of minutes. Australia. 198[...] |
| [...]itation! Commercial had developed the characters beat homeliness of the Street to a Dross!), is surprisingly stomachable, instead of going for a violent-heroic `real home with his[...]es of God treats a serious (in even with the billions of heart- |
| Herman), is finally driven mad by Her a series[...]articularly messy up' India with the aid of Western tively take a back seat to the Freudianize the fairies). road accident, and takes refuge in[...]y and, to a certain extent, romance, the sparring between the arms of a nurse he takes for the dramaturgy, but which, for all their Barnes and the D.A (played with The result is a magnificent piece of Virgin Mary.[...]rids. and the red herrings and revelations moveme[...]required to fuel the whodunit. own campy Puck. It is also the best shock everybody-catholics through In this context, The Home and[...]piece of filmed Shakespeare since the blasphemy, straights because of the World (Ghare-Baire) comes as C[...]- Kozintsev's King Lear, restoring the the explicitly homosexual scenes,[...]by real magic (or magick) to the play -- gays because of the melodramatic concern (an almo[...]Richard Marquand, Jagged Edge is not the dreary 'white' magic of the tone - The Fourth Man is neverthe balanced debate betwe[...]viewing, but modern conjuror, but the dark gods less a strikingly energetic piece of Indian values and the intelligentsia's perhaps a little too faithful to the who linger in the background of filmmaking, confirming, for anyone desire for progress) and its setting formula, on[...]rhoeven's ability (East Bengal during the anti-partition fident and competent car[...]ded by her own emergence into the 20th century is and his equally frequent uncertainty[...]ay him passions in order to resolve the generally a source of embarrass[...]is a triumph -- of Shakespeare pro[...]Nick Roddick concessions. At its centre is a[...]Nancy Callahan Banerji), the educated landowner Blade Runner,[...]ts oersonal before political Legend is a depiction of the ing her good-for-nothing, cocaine progress; Sandip (Soum itra struggle between good and evil dis The two most disappointing things sniffing husband in bed with another Chatterji), the hypocritical middle- tinguished by a[...]about National Lampoon's Euro woman, and leaving for a promising class radical; and[...]pean Vacation are that it is not very new life in Paris. lekha Chatterji), who is coaxed out of funny and that it is directed by Amy[...]fall briefly to This time Scott trades the high- Heckerling, whose Fast Times at Worse than being shot out of the the superficial charms of Sandip. tech flights of fantasy for a full-blown Ridgemont High stands out as the sky or hijacked, she falls asleep on[...]ction design (by most substantial of the eighties teen the plane and ends up in Tel Aviv. In[...]orton) that creates a movies. the style of The Out-of-Towners, she submits it to a rigorously formal landscape befitting the Brothers is stuck there without baggage or[...]Dangerously, Heckerling's feel for compositions prevail, and exteriors The lush but mysterious forest comedy, sharp eye for milieu and In part a guided tour of Israel, the are reduced to a minimum. The harbours the traditional assortment grasp of fi[...]er intentions are summed result is a film of great beauty and of inhabit[...]goblins, were apparent. And, while the up in the final reprise: "if at first she intell[...]touch of irony and a hint of the hustlers are congenially disposed to[...]pubescent protagonists on the road culture, the intervening time is[...]marred by uninspired lunges at Occasionally, the good-bad taste[...]comedy based around the subject of of a Porky's or an Animal Fiouse sur[...]As Jack (Tom Cruise) and the the American tourist. faces - like when Nancy[...] |
| [...]Z The production team responsible for ish trapper, and Daisy McConnaha[...]me director (Natassja Kinski), the young fire from the sprawling canvas of Nash zation that he is a loser. Walter Murch, formerly a highly-[...]bandons a comfortable ville, via the six principals and limited respected sound editor, and pro home to join the rebels, against a sets of Come Back to the 5 and Dime,[...]In one sense, Teen Wolf follows the project is not a remake of the fondly- mably be the reductio ad absurdum line of most[...]imate feature film-making: one where the main character is caught the Oz stories. no more than ten shots in the whole man, alone in a room with a tape- in the web of distinguishing true love[...]from false. But, while this remains a The screenplay, by Murch and Gill ple, and the nearest thing to an in consistent thread in the film, our teen Dennis, is based on L. Frank tim ate[...]ter Secret Honor, though, is unmis hero is beset by a different, more Baum's second and thi[...]ree years takably Altman, with all the usual dis urgent, but not unconnected The Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz. into the w a r- has background action locations, the usual one-off syntax, in problem. Thus, unlike the MGM version, there so busy it mu[...]their privacy. visual rhymes replace the links of Scott Howard (Michael J. Fox) is a and, though the Scarecrow, the[...]ger dissatisfied with being an Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man are As in both his previous films, Hud space for a single magnificent per average,[...]relent formance: Philip Baker Hall as the discovers he is a werewolf and, to ance is totally different, being based less[...]ngs in Baum's principals in the noisy swirl of street become the basketball team's star books.[...]tests, field hospitals, society par The man, of course, is Richard Mil- player, to be the top pupil in his[...]cenes. house Nixon, and the film is a kind of class, and to win over the girl of his On this trip, Dorothy (Fairuza Ba[...]personal history, in which Hall is both dreams (albeit the wrong girl). leaves Toto at home, and journeys It is almost as though a radical Nixon, a[...]n. Other side- theatre director from the sixties had Nixon from the outside. It is these His real dilemma, however, is one kicks like Tik-Tok, a clockwork[...]ad changes, signalled by shifts in the of identity: Scott battles between his soldier, Jack Pumpkinhead and the been determined not to let it cloud his rhythm and tone of the actor's voice, 'true being' (which re[...]esembles a flying vision. The result, sadly, is less a revo that keep the film continuously alive. his changed state) and the theatrics moose head. The baddies are Prin lutionary fresco,along the lines of, expected of him as `the wolf'. But the cess Mombi (Jean Marsh), who[...]a film that They also provide what is perhaps curious point of Teen Wolf] s the way keeps a different head for every day looks as though It has been shot by a the most complete portrait yet of the in which Scott's identity -- who he of the month, and the Nome King, a second unit direct[...]cenes, meticulously planned, tory is most likely to dump. As in out: curious, because there is an un bit of Mount Rushmore.[...]play, Professeur Taranne, there is the So, with a cast of characters as in[...]se of a man disintegrating as he The fear and violence are deeply geniously conceived[...]comes to realize that the rules by felt, and they emerge on the face of boosted by a $24-million budget,[...]one of Scott's closest friends, Lewis why is Return to Oz so relentlessly[...]trick played on him by the real power- (Matt Adler) when, at a heated downbeat and grim? The land of Oz This time around, i[...]moment, Scott, as the wolf, lashes itself is a dime-a-bunch alien land there[...]out at his persistent rival. scape, and the mechanical charac faces an ev[...]llenge Not that Altman makes the mistake ters are clumsy rather than awe[...]presenting Nixon as a hapless vic For Scott, recognition of this fear some.[...]xer called tim: Hall's president is nasty, brutish resolves his identity cr[...]and extremely long-winded. But he is I shall not disclose; but here is some Poor old Nicol Williamson is once the build and personality of a stone als[...]Secret Honor has, for all its confines, give a hint, and which encapsulates bur mode as the Nome King (also[...]nema- Teen Wolf quite well: " The big bad doubling as a dubious doctor. The The hordes of Rocky fans have than all of last year's action films com wolf/He learnt the rule:/You gotta get direction is as perfunctory as the naturally flocked to cheer loudl[...]hot/To play real cool." (From The creatures themselves and, at 110[...]Nick Roddick for feeling that the legend of this cerns for his latest creation go[...]Raffaele Caputo emerald forest is truly a neverending beyond providin[...]ted to a teen movie It seems that the only relief from the[...]bound for some frolicking on the holi crass teenage sex comedy is to be Paul Harris What makes the film the most day road (Where the Boys Are, found in the screen adaptations of successful sequel (yet) is the reson Summer Camp, Spring Break etc). novels by S.E. Hinton, of which That The main question which hangs over ance of the feel and spirit of the Was Then...This is Now is the Hugh H udson's Revolution is original Rocky. Of course, Balboa Sex and sexual mores are the fourth (after Tex, The Outsiders and whetheritisamagnificentfolly.orjust has come a long way, and he is perennial pivots of the teen vacation; Rumblefish). Ms Hinton's world is of a folly. What seems beyond doubt,[...]ten a despairing one, and this film is barring box-office miracles, is that it good sequences show that, deep wards the family unit, the issues are no exception. will turn[...], $50-million epic that not -- he is still a fighter. The screenplay, by lead actor very few people are g[...]ies American Emilio Estevez, emphasizes the watch.[...]downbeat atmosphere of the story, from the Soviet Union, critics have cinema and television promoted which is set in Minneapolis and in Admirably avoiding the personali again focussed on Stallone's poli Momism, this film gives a good volves two inseparable friend[...]Hudson (working tics. And there is, of course, a example of Popism[...]strand in Rocky IV. But it aside) in the eighties - or, as Ray fact, the young men have lived in the his two central characters, Tom Dobb takes second place to the story of mond D urgnat w ould call[...]same house ever since Mark's (Al Pacino), the (supposedly) Scott the individual. And, even so, it is "Momism, with its Bringing up Fathe[...]tradition,'' which harks back to the[...]Mark is wild,immature and sullen,[...]Yet Summer Rental is "Momism in[...]Jim Schembri the Bringing up Father tradition" only[...]insofar as Dad (John Candy) is idiotic[...]to the point of embarrassment, and[...]against the seven-times winner of[...]the Orange Cove regatta.[...]The credo of the fifties tradition is[...]that it is Dad who believes himself to[...]be in control, while Mom is actually in[...]charge. Here, though, Mom is no[...]wiser than Dad. This is where the film[...]departs from the tradition, for it is Dad[...]out to take the trophy away from the[...]reigning champion of the regatta,[...]Popism in the eighties is the asser[...]tion of Dad's place at the head of the. 82 -- March CINEMA PAPERS |
| [...]ron remains loyal Transylvania 6-5000 is a horror divorce. The `real' subject of Where the to his friend until he meets and falls in[...]e, Yorkin re Buffalo Roam, we are told, is "those love with Cathy (Kim Delaney), who[...]weird years between the sixties and returns his affection.[...]ologna, Ed Begley Jnr, Carol Kane, examines the theme, pulling no pun the seventies -- the Nixon years" .[...]profession by trying to perceptive screenplay, the film is appearance, trapped in an airport each other, Mark can barely conceal make the best of clumsy comedy. refreshingly free from mawkish senti urinal by Thompson. But the real his frustration and jealousy, and[...]hollow sensationalism. subject of the film is Thompson and when he reacts by getting Cathy's The story concerns a latter-day[...]s usual, ap having to face up to the fact that the friends' relationship undergoes a bl[...]Transylvania to discover or invent the again proves that she is not just a tial tourism.[...]true story of Frankenstein for a trashy pretty face and Amy Madigan as Dir[...]d. Sunny displays the freckled feisti And, for all the skills of Murray and with more solemnity than ne[...]Boyle, Thompson's sexist, slobbish and is not above adding such preten When[...]Best of all, there is Ellen Burstyn as sophy, committed to anything so fession by Mark played-with the they also stumble across a col[...]h her sweet, crumpled little- long as it is vaguely connected with reflection of a rain-stre[...]of his mythical mates: a werewolf, a plays the kind of role we might have a little ti[...]seen if Scorsese's Alice has never On the plus side, Sheffer and Dela mummy, a[...]ates cula, a crooked Mayor and the man Hackman's Harry keeps old age at The amusing conceit at the heart of his range and power as an actor. His[...]life by changing Young Sherlock Holmes is the sullen teenager in this film is as con datory mad scientist. The result is two partners. ("But he's 50!" says his[...]daughter Sunny. "So is Clint East- to existing Holmesiana, the initial in St. Elmos Fire.[...]her brother compla meeting between the sleuth and[...]however, we suspect that the loss of During the retrospective of Daniel ing the same game in the forties. her husband will not mean another[...]en Spielberg's `house' writer, Schmid's films in the AFI/Pro crack at life for Kate. This time, there Chris (Gremlins, Go[...]the wings. traditional narrative, which allows the that Schmid, a close associate of[...]a Neufeld and Thomas H. Brodek for[...]d Pictures, Transylvania war within Where the Buffalo too familiar with them, from the likes This view is supported by Roam. The first is a kind of hagio of The Wrong Box, Oliver! and, more Tosca's Kiss (II bacio di Tosca), 6-5000 suggests that the overuse of graphy of the semi-mythical father of recently, anoth[...]'gonzo' journalism: the overrated homage, Murpler by Decree. his documentary feature about the some stereotypes can produce a Hunter S. Thompson, long-time inhabitants of the Giuseppe Verdi[...]weary feeling of de ja vu: if you've the memorable Fear and Loathing in the pair's first criminological investi handful of Italian opera stars of the[...]gas, and writer of many other, gation, is compromised by a heavy thirties, the film self-effacingly allows seen one mad[...]'em all. The second film is a comic vehicle Amblin entertainments,[...]for Bill Murray, the best and most neck pace which seems rather tality, because the protagonists are With a bit of wit or imagination, consistently innovative of the gratuitous. so wildly comic in[...]rday Night Live, and Peter By the time Holmes (Nicholas[...]Boyle, who plays Karl Lazio, the Rowe) and Watson (Alan Cox) have The octogenarian soprano, Sara his t[...]ccasional revolu traced their way to the headquarters Scuderi, is the star of the show,[...]y hamming up her self-per As it is, what might have been a fresh by Thompson.[...]ld this be Sherlock Holmes and formance. But she is given ample[...]the Temple of Doom?). support by others, such as the stiffly approach to the territory traversed by The second film is worth seeing dignified Giuseppe Manacchini,[...]Where the Buffalo Roam for. But, Behind all the bluster and clutter, movingly re-enacting his perform- Bud and Lou is simply a tiresome since Murray plays Thompson, it is the in-jokes for Holmes aficionados and of Rigoletto in the cellar where rather hard to disentangle the first and the hallucinatory set-pieces, his old costumes are stored, and the journey. film from the second. Playing there is not much truly to excite the extraordinary Sardinian composer-[...]ector of Barry (Diner) Levi- who wanders through the film like a[...]racter and ability to refugee from Fellini's And the Ship Almost twenty years ago, Bud[...]though it paid lip-service to the in a Nixon mask, Boyle in full radical[...]funny film betrays a grotes ing at the economics involved in Sandinista and a member of the queness in its subjects that would no[...]s " a dignity and great ness which are unique" . The final curtain calls, performed to canned applause from La Scala, are a joy, as is the entire film -- and not just for opera buffs, either.[...] |
| STAR TREK M T R H ! For the first time, now available: STAR TREK Original TV soundtrack recordings from the pilots "The Cage'' and "Where No Man Has Gone Before"[...] |
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| BOOK REVIEWS In the name uomo ridicolo,[...]really believe that a contemporary for Form', concentrates on Before of the fathers culous Man, 198[...]audience would confuse a film the Revolution, demonstrating[...]g BERTOLUCCI by Robert It is, of course, a slightly grotesque Detailed film criticism often runs him within the tradition of cine- parody of Bertolucci's career. But, the risk of over-interpretation, and modernism. A[...]l Phillip Kolker (BFI given the density of psychoanalytic this is especially true of Bertolucci, insight is the use of Verdi's operas as Publishing, 1985. $25.0[...]this regard, Kolker offers an commentary about the world rep[...]frame-by-frame resented. In fact, one of the best Although Robert Kolker's book is imagine the kind of field-day a blind analysis of the `myth of the cave' things about the study is the way in clearly a post-structuralist auteur form of auteurism could have with scene in The Conformist. At the which Kolker makes us understand study,[...]same time, though, in discussing in the real importance of Verdi as a easily be read out[...]detail the use of compositions in the consistent point of reference for like this: A young and very talented This is not to say that Kolker's opening sequence of Last Tango Bertolucci. filmmaker is born under the sign of auteurism is blind. His introduction in Paris, he can ex[...]effect: The third chapter -- the longest in feature, La commare secca (The notions of authorship, taking his cue the book -- is given over to Grim Reaper, 1962), bears the sig from Peter Wollen's Signs and The camera has intruded upon an discussing the major works of the nature of Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Meaning in the Cinema and Michel agonized figure, attempted to seventies, from The Spider's also serves to exorcize that Foucault's article, `What is an compose him, to set him before Stratagem to 1900. Here, the influence. The third feature, Partner Author?'. Kolker notes what is, by our gaze, as Bacon might one of quality of analysis varies from the (1968), is made under the sign of now, a mandatory difference his tortured figures. But the figure very good (Spider's Stratagem Jean-Luc Godard, and ends up as between the `author' as biographical resists the composition. We are and Conformist) to poor[...]anguished, modernist dead-end subject, and the `author' as an effect yet unable to know anything but (on Last Tango and 1900). The ("Partner is too Godardian to be of the text. his despai[...]composition fourth chapter, on La luna and good Godard, not to mention truly and its refusal, the film's two Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man, is good Bertolucci imitating Godard," But, even though he is using a re subjects -- the character and the entitled `Collapse and Renewal', and writes[...]of Kolker's position on the last of Between these two films stands criteria), one suspects that, in some But the desire for composition Bertolucci's films to date. It lo[...]uzione (Before cases, he has appropriated the cannot be denied; without it, father/son configurations and a the Revolution, 1964), which, on terminology w[...]ormal grounds, through its methodology. The study be able to survive the anarchy that various perspectives -- psycho claims some autonomy for its author, is sprinkled with the terms `signifier' exists outside the frame. To create analytic, Marxist and also feminist. and points forward to the refinement and `signified', but often used in a meaning, signifiers must be Most of the discussion is concen of style to come in Strategia del[...]ace. trated around 1900, a film Kolker ragno (The Spider's Stratagem, `referent' would have done just as Only from the point of view of sees as profoundly flawed but none 1970), II co n fo rm ista (The classical codes of composition can the less most important, because it is Conformist, 1970) and Last Tango well. the opening shots of the film be seen the director's most ambitious work. in-Paris (1972)[...]Often, one suspects that Kolker is ism is itself a code of composition; Rolando Caputo But, the scenario goes on, an using the terminology to re-package and, given that[...]ions of his study places Bertolucci within the Brand X autonomy can only be gained at the Bertolucci's films. That may be an tradition of modernist cinema (the expense of the father, hence the unfair accusation, and I certainly do apparent influence of Magritte, THE AUSTRALIAN allegory of Godard's murder in The not wish to condemn the book as a Bacon and others in his film),[...]ovies, and I want to to be less substance to the ideas lucci throws classicism into question. kill Godard who's a revolutionary, than the critical language implies. I have perha[...]long on what I see as the limitations 1985, $25). ISBN 0 949825 and who was my teacher" ). Take, for example, this passage of Kolker's study,[...]0 7. on the 'film within a film' in Last wrong to give the impression that the To reject one father is to embrace Tango in Paris. book as a whole is flawed, for there With the publication of " this superb another. So Novece[...]are many good things in it. reference book" , as the dust jacket 1976) is offered to the American For a moment, the film Tom (Jean- Especially good is the first chapter, modestly calls it, the recent glut of cinema, but Hollywood proves to be Pierre Leaud) is making is `Versus Godard', in which Kolker[...]al castrating father, mutilating explicitly the film we see, just as discusses the profound influence of cinema may well have reached a the film in the editing. The filmmaker the film Bertolucci is making is the Godardian cinema on Berto nadir. Described as " a comprehen regresses to the `security' of the implicitly the film we see. If the lucci's early career, and his need siv[...]and re-approach and, more important, if the intel Godard. the advent of sound in 1930" , the the image of the father through a ligence that uses it to create the The second chapter, The Search book is noteworthy for the paucity of contemporary social discourse[...]ing. There would be Bernardo Bertolucci on the 1900 set, Clearly, the author is interested no Last Tango in Paris, which is s[...]making (which surely disqualifies the But, of course, the cinematic[...]apparatus is present. Does Kolker and there is no source material[...]which is not already available in the[...]Press, 1980). Indeed, most of the[...]comments, especially in the earlier[...]The publishers' claims that the[...]the rises and falls of the Australian[...]from a three-page introduction, the[...]only continuous prose in the book is[...]in the synopses, which are brief[...]When the Kellys Rode (1934) is[...]dismissed as " the Ned Kelly legend[...]retold yet again" ; Molly (1982) is p[...] |
| Some confusion? Above, D r George "the story of Molly, the talking dog" ; The president plexity, wh[...]cation fo r Thunder- Keenan's Going Down (1982) is en and the policemen, FBI[...]ome. Below, M r George Miller on capsulated as ``the exploits and showgirl[...]y River. adventures of three girls out on the records. And, on the build-up to his[...]GODDESS: THE revelations, which b[...]VES OF half way through the book, he Even the factual information, on MARILYN[...]ing sidelines as well. Such as the fact which the credibility of any reference Anthony Summers (Victor that the aforementioned Rainier/[...]ance desired. The alphabetical index of Hutchinso[...]0-575-03641-9, $29.95). the smart set were drifting away from acknowledging the fact, foreign[...]ors temporarily working in Aus In the mid-seventies, Leon Russell find a glamoro[...]a plaintive little song called who would put the place back on the Kimmins and Claude Whatham) is 'Elvis and Marilyn', about[...]eople mation, is listed with only one credit, whose lives were lived so much in Then there is Frank Sinatra, in[...]y have got volved in something known as the[...]Other omissions from the list in Goddess: The Secret Lives of (who was little more[...]clude Brian Trenchard-Smith's The Marilyn Monroe goes much further, aged at the time) called In a few[...]ian establishing, beyond the shadow of favours to help his buddy, Joe[...]g unfaith and the two Fantasm films, directed more[...]ore memorable ful to him. Unfortunately, the gallant respectively by `Richard Bruce' than Elvis: the Kennedy brothers, defenders of the ballplayer's honour[...]n and Robert. burst into the wrong apartment. No[...]n, no con Nor is there any mention of the Through the kind of painstaking crete shoes fitted, bu[...]than biographers (and Summers is Robert Helpma[...]rnalist), he has built up All this, of course, is only of Nureyev. The worst howler in the an overwhelming amount of circum interest because the people involved listings, though, is the attribution of stantial evidence tha[...]ry as he may, the director credit for both the Mad Monroe had sexual affairs with both, Summers is unable to sustain much Max series and The Man from while JFK was president as well as interest in, for example, Marilyn's Snowy River to the same George before, and tha[...]house the night she died. standing fan, Jam[...]inent industry Quite apart from the mythical im him. Likewise, his research int[...]`Anthony Ginnane' for Antony I. make the Rainier/Kelly marriage bizarre incident[...]Ginnane, `Bob Weiss' for Bob Weis, seem insignificant -- it is a tale of of authorial balloon-pricking ("a visit `John Pinkey' for John Pinkney, and extraordinary[...]`Frank Moorehouse' for Frank Moor-[...]is house. And the writers' index is not a[...]lot better. Jim Sharman is denied a forged" ), is not_the stuff that best co-writing credit for Shirley Thomp[...]f. son versus the Aliens (1972), and the fictitious `Richard Imrie' is listed as screenwriter for They're a Weird Mob (1966) (Imrie is actually Michael[...]dedi cated to the production of high quality innovative films. It is in the hands of this[...]tionists that the future of the industry lies." However, it is precisely this area of[...]porary overview. The reader will search in vain for any mention of[...]Weis's Children of the Moon (1975) -[...]cu larly from the thirties, have been in cluded, and due acknowledgment is made to the National Film and[...]a Oddly, for a book of this kind, there is no biographical note about the author, merely a copyright insignia bearing the names of S. and L. Brodie. Under the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the author[...] |
| Indeed, it is by the Kennedy them in for a new model. Books[...]collection) far outnumbering the pre revelations that Summers's book Summers's book is not perfect. received[...]overcrowded field. early life is built up from secondary The sense of chronology is a little NB. Inclusion of a title i[...]ources, quite a few of them pub blurred in the early part (we will not preclude a future review. THE MOVING IMAGE: THE HIS lished. And Summers clearly recog sudd[...]RN AUSTRALIA -- 1896 up with some gems that make the the page before); he is rather too Joel Finler (Columbus B[...]smith (History and Marilyn's comment about using the ``The telephone rang in the home of $29.95). Another Big Pictur[...]tion of Western Aus casting couch to get work in the . . and the need to establish his nicely, if erratically illustrated (the tralia, 1985, available from Brian early days: ``It wasn't any big credentials during the Kennedy picture for Jaws, for instance, is a Shoesmith, Dept of Media Studies, drama[...]of it read like a piece of poster art for Jaws 3-D). WACAE, P.O. Box 217, Doublevi[...]me. BURTON: THE MAN BEHIND THE $13.00 incl. postage). Published[...]Penny Junor (Sidgwick & coincide with the Perth conference account, to have been almost in[...]rs. through encounter after encounter into the tragic fall of stars -- notably `reveali[...]biography of John Belushi -- is its Thatcher and Princess Di.[...]and Faber/Penguin, 1985, ISBN Memorable, too, is Billy Wilder's combination of objectivity and[...]0-571-13714-8, $10.85). The comments on Marilyn's habitual late pathy. Unlike Albert Goldman in his DARK STAR: THE METEORIC RISE screenplay of the British film, ness: " I have an aunt in Vienna,[...]Brody, yet to be an actress. Her name, I think, is huge cultural theories on the basis of by Leatrice Gilbert Fountain,[...]John R. Maxim (Sidgwick & Jack comes to the set on time. She knows briefly, try out a dis[...]lines perfectly. She never gives 'Norma Jean', the person, and ISBN 0-283-99260-[...]and Faber/Penguin, 1985, ISBN anyone the slightest trouble. At the `Marilyn', the star). But he does take excellently researched, ground 0-571-13489-0). The screenplay of box office she is worth fourteen into account both Marilyn's private breaking biography of the star David Hare's directorial debut,[...]ublic life, providing, in a way whom the talkies are supposed to the top-ten lists of most US and[...]British critics, and due for release Marilyn's lateness got worse after done, a comment on the image and[...]It Hot. Yves Montand, an understanding of the person.-He THE INTERNATIONAL FILM with whom she starred in Let'[...]POSTER by Gregory J. Edwards THE WORLD OF OZ: AN HISTOR Make Love and who was bri[...](Columbus Books/J.M. Dent, 1985, drawn into the whirlpool of her love that Marilyn is of interest, not just ISBN 0-86287-254-5, $31.95). More ICAL EXPEDITION OVER THE life, is quoted as pacing up and because she slept with the President art-book than coffee-table tome, with down the set, muttering: ``Where is of the United States, and not just the unusual (from Edwards's private RAINBOW,[...]85, ISBN have spent most of her life treating the two parts together in a way that people like cars, expecting them to is in te llig e n t, re a d a b le and[...]0-670-80871-7, $19.95). Not so be always waiting for her at the kerb supremely informative. until, finally, sh[...]much a tie-in as a history of the[...]L.Frank Baum books and the films[...]Win a copy of the most controversial new book about Hollywood[...]chronicles the making of Heaven's G ate. It is published in Australia by Jonathan Cape at $43.95. Cinem a Papers is giving away five free copies to the first five correct[...]Which (non-American, non-Australian) film is mentioned in[...]Closing date is 31 March. All entries received by that date[...]will be put into a hat, and the first five correct entries will get the free copies.[...]address! The answer and the winners will be announced in the May issue. |
| Getting it taped The problems of film-to-tape transfer The first Cinema Papers cinematographers se[...]film stock companies. AGFA For further details contact:[...] |
MD | |
| The author retains Copyright of this material. You may download one copy of this item for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy,[...] | |
| Issues digitised from original copies in the collection of Ray Edmondson | |
| Reproduced with permission of one of the founding editors, Philippe Mora | |
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Cinema Papers Pty Ltd, Richmond, Cinema Papers no. 56 March 1986 (March 1986). University of Wollongong Archives, accessed 04/04/2026, https://archivesonline.uow.edu.au/nodes/view/5065