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MAKING JASPER JONES Screenworks present special guest speaker, co-producer of Jasper Jones, Vincent Sheehan, at the screening of Jasper Jones at the Byron Community Centre on Thursday 23 March.
JASPER JONES SCREENING FOLLOWED BY A Q&A WITH THE PRODUCER AT THE BYRON COMMUNITY CENTRE ON THURSDAY 23 MARCH
cinema R eviews
JASPER JONES The film is hokey in parts, with an unpolished, ‘homemade’ feel, but beguiling performances from Levi Miller as Charlie, through whose eyes the events unfold, and Angourie Rice as Eliza, the girl he is sweet on, hold it together more tightly than the murder mystery. Jasper (Aaron L McGrath), an Indigenous boy, comes in desperation to Charlie’s window one night.
He has found the body of Eliza’s sister hanging from a tree and, it being 1965 in small-town Western Australia, Jasper is fearful that he will automatically be held responsible for her death. He persuades his little mate to help him dispose of the body and the girl’s disappearance consumes the community with fear and grief – or at least it should. But somehow that pall is dissipated by Perkins’s digressions and a supernova input from Toni Collette that tends to draw attention away from where the focus should be, while Dan Wyllie as her hubby barely gets out of first gear. And if we didn’t know that Aussie yokels were a bunch of racist hicks, Perkins
Quiet acts of defiance in a world that has found itself in the thrall of brutish populism – sounds like it might be a scenario applicable to our contemporary awfulness, doesn’t it? Instead, the true story of Otto and Anna Quangell is set in Hitler’s Germany shortly after the fall of France. The couple has lost their only child, son Hans, in the fighting and neither is willing to accept that their boy’s death was a glorious sacrifice to the Fatherland of which they should be proud. They are as embittered as any parents would be and, fed up with the Third Reich’s propaganda machine and their fellow countrymen’s zealous adoption of the party line, Otto (Brendan Gleeson) resolves to undermine it in his own way by leaving postcards with subversive handwritten messages at random locations
throughout Berlin. Anna (Emma Thompson) is his willing accomplice and though they understand that their campaign might be futile they are sustained by the conviction that someone must stand up and speak the truth – Hitler, they are telling anyone who might read their words, is ‘murdering our children’. The wonderful German actor Daniel Brühl (he always manages to elicit sympathy) is the police officer whose responsibility it is to find who is responsible for the distribution of the cards, but when he is unable to do so the heavies from the SS get involved. It is the casting in Vincent Perez’s film that lifts it above the ordinary; Gleeson is a generally dour character and here he is perfectly suited to the role of brooding fatalist, while Thompson gives to Anna individual courage as well as unquestioning loyalty. What they do is never reduced to game-playing,
Craig Silvey’s novel has been lauded and loved by Australian readers since it was first published in 2009. Rachel Perkins’s adaptation of it for the screen is bound to find an appreciative audience, but as I have not read the book I cannot pass comment on its fidelity to the written word.
ALONE IN BERLIN
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BY JOHN CAMPBELL goes out of her way to remind us with the episode of the Lu family’s treatment and their kid’s heroic effort when batting for the home side in a game of cricket. It is preachy when it need not be and an affair involving the local police sergeant (Matt Nable) also detracts from the intense drama of a child gone missing. Hugo Weaving, understanding best that the movie is not about him, is brilliantly grungy as Mad Jack Lionel, but the revelation at the end did not come as the surprise that it might have. It is miles better than The Dressmaker, but the narrative threads are stretched almost to breaking point.
for the stakes are too high for Perez to indulge in a ‘let’s outsmart the Nazis’ adventure and, with the despicable SS Officer Prall (Mikael Persbrandt is cliched but perfect) the tension mounts inexorably. The postscript, explaining what became of Otto and Anna, will stay in your head for a long, long time.
The film’s co-producer Vincent Sheehan is a film and television producer and co-founder of Porchlight Films an independent production company based in Sydney. His producing credits include the feature films Little Fish starring Cate Blanchett and The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe. Vincent was executive producer on the ABC TV series Laid, Cate Shortland’s Lore and David Michod’s feature films Animal Kingdom and The Rover starring Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce. Screenworks’ event screening of Jasper Jones followed by Q&A is a one-off opportunity to see this film and join in a conversation with the film’s co-producer producer Vincent Sheehan. For more information and tickets visit the website www.screenworks.com.au. Limited seats available. Starts at 7pm.
OLDER TO ELDER What’s the difference between an elder and a role model? What is an elder’s role in today’s society? We live in a culture where youth is idolised and age is shunned. Old people are ridiculed, satirised, required to retire from work and later consigned to retirement homes. This year Stephen Jenkinson returns, buoyed by
STEPHEN JENKINSON PRESENTS NIGHTS OF GRIEF AND MYSTERY – 2-DAY TEACHING IN ELDERHOOD – 25 & 26 MARCH WITH PRESENTATION ON FRIDAY 24 MARCH. the extraordinary welcome he received from Byron Shire and all who came to listen, to deepen and extend the conversation. And he plans to do that in the most unusual manner with… a concert about grief and death and dying! He invites you to A Night of Grief & Mystery. This year on Friday 24 March, 7pm at Bangalow A&I Hall, you are invited to A Night of Grief & Mystery. There are stories: delivered slowly, elegantly, with grace and humour, depth and honesty. There are songs: the melodies are memorable, haunting and beautiful. Stephen is accompanied by his ‘band’ in the person of singer/songwriter, troubadour and fellow conspirator Gregory Hoskins, also form Canada and touring Australia for the very first time. Together they weave magic around the twin subjects of death and grief, deepening the learning, and extending the conversation Stephen began last year. He will also be conducting Elderhood Teaching, a training for elder people of all ages. Coorabell Hall on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March. Tickets are available via the Orphan Wisdom website: orphanwisdom.com/event/ oceania-2017, or for more information contact Lelli Brown at lellib@gmail.com or phone 0410 327 401.
VIRGIN SACRIFICE As they say, laughter is the best medicine, and jokes aren’t sanctioned and sent onto the marketplace by Big Pharma. ‘Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infectionfighting antibodies. It’s the ultimate immune booster before the winter flu season!’ says local comedian and teacher Mandy Nolan. Nolan has just finished teaching her latest crop of immune boosters. With 16 pain-relieving endorphinreleasing protegés, ranging in age from 17 to 70, there is something for everyone. ‘It’s been such a treat teaching this class,’ says Mandy. ‘We have high-school students, a stayat-home mum, a professor, a nurse, a beer enthusiast and a whole lot more.’ After six weeks of learning the ropes through Byron Community College’s Standup Comedy class, this ribald crew will have their first comedy performance on Thursday March 23 at the Byron Services Club. The Virgin Sacrifice will showcase their new and outrageous talents with teacher Mandy Nolan as MC. Tickets are $10/15 and can be purchased online at mandynolan.com.au, at the door, or booked on 6619 0529.
Girls Night Out Preview Screening - Wednesday 22nd March - 6.30pm arrival for a 7pm screening. All Tickets $25. Pre-Show snacks and Complementary Glass of Champagne on arrival served by Wicked Waiters.
The Byron Shire Echo March 15, 2017 35