Cinema Papers No.128 December 1998

rising

C I N E M A PAPERS

co te ts NUMBER

DE CE MBE R 1 9 9 8

1 N S 1C H T S m b its

F O C U S

SPAA SUPPLEMENT

2

fe stiv a ls POLYANNA SUTTON

Venice Film Festival

10

JE R R Y WHITE

Telluride Film Festival

14

J E N N I THORNLY

M um bai Film Festival

sh o rts

15

12

Creative Challenges

R oger Gonin, Festival du Court-M étrage, ClermontFerrand

P aul K alina interviews SP A A President N ick H erd about the crucial issues facing Australian financiers, producers and directors

PAUL KALINA, SCOTT MURRAY

inperform ance

17

28

Explore and heighten DEAN CAREY

inreview

Unfinished B u sin e ss

43

D avid C ourt looks at three key developments in movies, content and new media

MUSEUM OF THE RARE

30

W alenan Borow czyk was a critical darling of the early 1970s.

But when he started to explore sexual relationships, his films were ridiculed, then ignored. SCO TT M URRAY believes the unseen Borow zcyks constitute one of the cinema’s great hidden treasures

Not Just Government

18

Two new players in the Australian investment scene explam their rationals for financing and producm g Australian productions 33

Moral Rights FILMS: Anlz, Dance Me to

L isa F rench examines the issue that just won’t go away

M y Song, A Price above Rubier, Saving Private Ryan, Whatever VIDEO: Dark City

te ch n icalitie s

Playing Ball

Profiles

A ndrew L. U rban discovers what key graduates and players think of the first 25 Y ears of the Australian Film Television & Radio School

R adha Mitchell is one of A ustralia’s hotest acting exports and her new film, High Art, w as a critical hit at Cannes. Mitchell talks to J an E pstein

T im H unter and M ark S mith profile the key international guests at this year's SP A A Conference

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26

53

BARRIE SMITH e x a m in e s the g ro w th o f th e d u p lic a tio n in d u s tr y

inproduction

59

dirty dozen

64

34

Edge of the Known World

36

Direct from a sta nding ovation at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, Palace is proud to present one of the most extraordinary films you w ill ever seek

“ I get a lump in my throat just thinking

ME

about: this experience again and I feel

TO MY

humbled by Heather Rose’s spirit... be brave and go dancing with Julia” - A n dre w L Urban, URBAN CINEFILE

a film by H eather Rose directed bv R olf de Hccip

'

—

surfing HEATHER ROSE JOEY KENNEDY JOHN BRUMPTON & RENA 0VVÉN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BY HEATHER ROSE FREDERICK STAHL & ROLF DE HEER

NOW SHOW ING AROUND AUSTRALIA AT PALACE CINEM AS

N E W S , V I E W S , A N D MO R E N E W S , DISTRIBUTING PROFIT RESULTS illage Roadshow, the Australian-based international entertainment company, has announced a net profit for the year to June 1998 of A$70.i million, an increase of 16.4 percent over the previ­ ous year. Sales Revenue increased by 12.3 percent to A$442 million and Total Assets for the group rose 21 percent to A$ i ,793 million.

During the past financial period, Village has continued the global expansion of its cinema exhibition business, opening 209 new screens at 24 sites across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Greece, Italy, Argentina, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand.

Village Roadshow Chairman John Kirby said,

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In cinema exhibition, we have con­ tinued to concentrate on locking in future sites, lining up the required funding and minimizing our invest­ ment in freehold property. We have opened our first cinemas in Italy, Taiwan and Korea, and the patron­ age has been exceptional.

Kirby added that with its substantial cashflow growth, new debt facilities, property sales and leasebacks, no fur­ ther capital raising will be required for the next three to four years.

ETC.

canbox Australia Pacific Ltd, another local film production and distribution company, has announced a $5.7 million net profit. Over the past year, it has expanded in a number of directions, including low-budget fea­ ture film sales and production, entertainment software, and video dis­ tribution in the USA, having recently acquired the film libraries of Cannon and 21st Century. Look out for further moves from this new player. [See story P- 33-1 GLAM DOC ueer Screen presented the world’s first gay and lesbian documentary festival, queerDOC, in October of this year. Held at the Chauvel Cinema in Sydney from October 9-11, queerDOC screened a number of films not seen in Australia before.

Included in the programme were 1998 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award-winner Out of the Past-, Hallelu­ jah - The Ron Athey Story, the premiere of The Man in the Irony Mask; Shooting Pom; We’re Funny That Way and The Brandon Teena Story.

previous period.

2

cover:

Captain Miller (Tom Hanks).

Steven Spielberg’s

Saving Private Ryan.

OPENLY POSTING he ever-evolving Open Channel in Melbourne’s community-minded Fitzroy has recently acquired some very sexy non-linear editing and multimedia equipment, as well as some high-quality film, digital and analogue cameras. Thus, OC Post is the new post production/multimedia wing of Open Channel. With more staff and upto-the-minute equipment, OC Post should be attracting a whole lot of business from filmmakers of all shapes and sizes. For more information, ring Ade Djajamihardja at OC Post: (61.3) 9419 5111.

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MEGA ADVERTISERS inema advertising company Media Entertainment Group

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Editor: Scott Murray Deputy Editor: Paul Kalina Editorial Assistance: Ti m Hu nter Advertising: John Adler Subscriptions: Mina Carattoli Accounts: Peter Lademann Proofreading: Arthur Salton Office Cat: Oddspot Legal: Dan Pearce (Holding Redlich) MTV Board of Directors: Ross Dimsey (Chairman), Natalie Miller, Matthew Learmonth, Michael Dolphin

Limited (MEG) is going out of its way to gain as large a foothold in the market as it can. Recently, it announced that it is now managing the screen advertis­ ing in all Palace Cinemas around Australia, and that Palace will be taking a significant placement of shares in the company. It has also signed a four-year agreement with the Longford, Nova and Luna cinema groups to manage all their cinema advertising. This is in addition to MEG’s existing screen pres­ ence with Village Roadshow, IMAX and a number of other independent screens around Australia.

If that’s not enough, MEG has also purchased On Screen Advertising in New Zealand and Fiji, and 5 0 % of On Screen Advertising Limited in Argentina. There seems to be no end to its expansion at the moment.

INTERNET DOCO MAG o celebrate, facilitate and generally demystify the whole popularity surge documentary filmmaking is receiving, a new Internet magazine has been launched here in Australia. Docu­ menter spotlights critical issues ranging across the whole doco landscape. The mag is edited by Catherine GoughBrady and Carmela Baranowska, and they’re aiming to be controversial, provocative and humorous. Check it out on http://www.documenter.com

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ess profitable was Australian film and television production com­ pany Becker Group Limited, which announced an operating loss before tax and abnormals of A $ i .44 million for the twelve months to 30 June 1998.

Operating loss after tax was A$3-977 million. Sales revenue for the period was A$39_4 million, up from A$39.2 million in the previous financial year.

The Becker Group claims the result reflects the decline of the Asian mar­ ket, a softer international market for the distribution of film and television productions, and the poor box-office performance of three feature films during the year.

Managing Director Richard Becker said that the year had been tough, with an unprecedented level of exter­ nal difficulties, not the least being the decline in the Asian market. He com­ mented that the company would continue to expand and focus on tele­ vision production, explaining that it now has a larger portfolio of local tele­ vision productions compared with the

116 Argyle St, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia 3065 FO Box 2221, Fitzroy MDC, VIC 3065 Tel: (61.3) 9416 2644 Fax: (61.3) 9416 4088 email: s_murray@eis.net.au

Founding Publishers: Peter Beilby, Scott Murray, Philippe Mora

Design & Production: Parkhouse Pty Ltd Tel: (61.3) 9650 6211

Printing: Printgraphics Pty Ltd Film: Condor Group Distribution: Network Distribution © COPYRIGHT 1998 MTV PUBLISHING LIMITED Signed articles represent the view s of the authors and not neces­ sarily those of the editor and publisher. W hile eyery care is taken with manuscripts and m aterials supplied to the magazine, neither the editor nor the publisher can accept liability for any loss or damage which may arise. This magazine may not be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of the copyright owners. Cinema Papers is published by M TV Publishing Limited, 116 Argyle St, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia 3065, and is indexed by FIAf.

CINEMA PAPERS IS PUBLISHED WITH FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE AUSTRALIAN FILM COMMISSION AND CINEMEDIA

contributors Fr a n c e s C a l v e r t is an Australian film­ maker resident in Berlin D ean Ca r e y is Director of The Actors Centre in Sydney. He is the author of Th e A c t o r ’s A u d itio n Manu al and

Masterclass Da v id C o u r t is an economist and executive producer Jan E p s t e in is a

Melbourne film

REVIEWER

Lis a F r en ch is a Lecturer in Media Arts at Deakin University M ic h a e l He l m s is the editor of Fatal

Vis io n s Ka r l Q u in n is a film reviewer and

WOW WINNERS he 8th Women on Women Film Festival (WOW), presented by Women in Film & Television (WIFT) was held during September underthe auspices of new director, filmmaker Georgia Wallace-Crabbe. Running from 25-7 September, the Festival opened with Rachel Perkins’ Radiance, and featured Sally Potter’s The Tango Lesson, documentaries, seminars and multimedia works, as well as a short film competition. This year, there were 25 Australian shorts showcased, and the winner of a $20,000 prize package (including film stock, processing, on­ line editing and legal services) was Relative Strangers, directed by Rose-

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"writer for Who We e k l y Ba r r ie S m ith is a Sydney writer, DIRECTOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER

Ma r k S m ith is a student at Swinburne University Po lly a n n a S u tto n is a Melbourne FREELANCE WRITER

JENI THORNLEY IS A SYDNEY FILMMAKER AND WRITER (WWW.NECTAR.COM.AU/ANANDl)

A n d r e w L. U rb a n is a writer on film and A ustralian correspondent for M o v in g P ic t u r e s . His on-line ’zine u r b a n c in efile is located at www. urbanciefile.comvAu Je r r y W h it e is a graduate student in Comparative Literature at the Unive rs ity of Alb e rta, whe re he al-so teaches Fi lm Stu d 1es

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

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mary Hesp. Other winners were Echoes o f a Broken Promise (Eliza Johnson), Second Thoughts (Brigid Kitchin) and Sink or Swim (Gabby Hughes).

SCHOOL’S IN FOR SUMMER ancy a quick film course over summer? Melbourne University once again is running Summer School in Filmmaking: From Script to Screen.

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Industry professionals such as Nadia Tass, David Swann, Ellery Ryan, Mac Gudgeon, Peter Stubbs and Sue Maslin will be running classes in areas such as Screenwriting, Writing for Television and Comedy, Lighting, Cinematography, Producing and Production Management, Directing Actors, Editing, Screen Language and a whole lot more. The course runs from 11-29 January 1999, from 10:00-18:00.

For more information, call (61.3) 9347 5035 or fax (61.3) 9349 4443.

FILM FESTIVAL FURTHER AFIELD he Melbourne International Film Festival, with some help from the Victoria Association of Performing Arts

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Centres and Arts Victoria, has taken highlights of this year’s Festival and some recently-released arthouse films on tour around regional Victoria. The Travelling Film Festival stopped off at

Kyneton, Geelong and Warragul during

suburban Adelaide. Here they

October, and will continue to illuminate areas such as Ararat, Bairnsdale, Bal­ larat, Bendigo, Frankston and

must learn to come to terms with the burden of their recent experi­

Wangaratta during 1998 and early 1999.

Some of the films included in the Festi­ val are TwentyFour Seven (Shane

assimilate into this new yet unfa­ miliar environment.

• Men Not Talking (Jonathan Empson).

Meadows, 1998), Love is the Devil (John Maybury, 1998), The Garden of the FinziContinis (Vittorio De Sica, 1971), The Interview (Craig Monahan, 1998), Y’Aura T il de la Neige a Noel? (Will it Snow for

The story of four people who are

Christmas?, Sandrine Veysset, 1997), Western (Manuel Poirier, 1998), She’s So Lovely (Nick Cassavetes 1998), Mrs Dalloway (Marleen Gorris 1998), The Sound of One Hand Clapping (Richard Flanagan, 1998) and Afterglow (Alan Rudolph, 1998). For more information about programmes and tour dates, phone (61.3) 9417 2011.

NEW WRITERS, NEW PROJECTS he Australian Film Commission has announced newly-funded projects under the New Screenwriters Scheme. They are: • Twinkle, Twinkle (Lyn Chick). Based on the transcripts of the Woods Royal Commission, this script examines the world of an innercity brothel where sex workers are paid in drugs.

• Hope (Michael Dinic). Fleeing the horrors of the Bosnian war, 13-yearold Nada and her mother Gordana find refuge in the quiet streets of

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ences and their desperate need to

united by geographical circum­ stances and how their lives are utterly changed by their meeting: two young men in America, finding their lives at an impasse, decide to go surfing and eventually arrive in Australia in search of the perfect wave; a suicidal woman grieves about the death of her Japanese lover; and a brutish escaped convict is intent on revenge.

• Sam ’s Story (Joe Morley). Sam and his three adolescent friends are at a time in their lives when the deci­ sions they make will determine who they are and the direction in which their friendship will take them.

• Crazyland (Matt Kay). A drug dealer is shot dead by a cop. The dead man’s girlfriend and her young daughter attempt to flee; however, she is persuaded by an investiga­ tive journalist to go to the press.

• The First Question (Samantha Jen­ nings). A young girl struggles to escape artifice through love, but comes to realize that sincerity is not as simple an ideal as she had thought.

• Harmony o f the Seven Sentiments (Hagen Lunau). Set in the 1880s, a hard-working Chinese immigrant is wronged by racist Anglo-Australians and, forsaking his ethics, sets out on life as a bushranger.

• Kill Sophie (At Turello). When Sophie decides she wants to testify against a New York mob boss, the FBI is keen to protect her in as remote a location as possible.

That’s how an Australian detective becomes her guardian angel on a remote Queensland island. When the mob hitman arrives, the triangle is complete.

All of these new screenwriters receive funding and mentor support.

GOING TROPPO IN A NEW DOMAIN ropfest has announced that for 1999 the event will be moving from Rushcutters Bay park in Sydney to the Domain near the heart of Syd­ ney’s CBD. Festival Director John Poison believes that Tropfest wilt con­ tinue to go from strength to strength :

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Tropfest ’98 was a real milestone for us and has set the pace for future years. We are really excited about the move to the Domain and look forward to another great festival.

Tropfest ’99 will screen in the Domain on Sunday 21 February, and will con­ currently screen at a number of cafés around Australia.

AUSSIES POPULAR A T BERLIN ETHNOFILM FEST

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n the home town of the multi-fest BerUnale, there seems to be an insatiable appetite for festivals, all served up in addition to the 365 days of pleasure provided by the Arsenal Cinema, the outlet for Ger­ many’s great archive, the Deutsche Kinemathek.

One such festival, now in its third year, is the EthnoFilm Fest, a name which belies its wide range of docu­ mentaries showcasing far more than “scientific” films about other peoples “curious rituals”. Under the guidance of Wolfgang Davis, a scientist employed at the Berlin Museum of Ethnography, the Festival emanates

bia-depicting film, is also awarded. Although some films challenge the very guidelines of the Museum where they are screened, the resulting debate does justice to the curator’s response to demands for change.

from the Museum’s cinema to embrace wider questions of film style, genre, sociology and anthro­ pology. One of the last “shoestring” festivals, now well established within the festival circuit, it offers an enjoy­ able panorama of films from all over the world. Free admission to the fes­ tival means one can also revel in the Museum’s collection on the way to the cafeteria.

Students from the Berlin Free University’s Insti­ tute for Anthropology simultaneously serve as audience and jury with the best film being selected by a democratic ballot. Special interest is given to women directors and films about women in society.

A prize, called the “lychee”, for the worst xenopho­

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Because of Berlin’s enviable status, a good num­ ber of filmmakers make their way to the city and the Festival. They are fed, housed and watered by Davis’ network of supporters. In addition, they are often invited for an interview on the various radio stations in Berlin, one of which, Radio Brandenburg, involves a tour to the reconstructed studio complex where

Murnau, Pabst, Joe May and even Hitchcock directed.

Anne Pratton’s Terra Nullis and Chris Hilton’s Advertising Missionaries have both been featured.

Frances Calvert’s award-winning documentary, Cracks in the Mask, was screened in 1997 and unleashed a stream of debates on the role of museums in Western culture.

This year, Robert Wilkins and Paul Tan brought techno-aged Calling Young Hong Kong, which had the audience bopping at the same time as engaging with questions of style and genre. The Rough Shed served to dismantle some of the cliches held by Germans about outback lifestyles. Despite the warning on the cassette, “scarcely com­ prehensible English”, the irony of this film managed to reach its target.

Australian filmmakers are proving popular at this Festival because, it would seem, we are passionately concerned with so many issues of documentary including ethics and terms of negotiation as well as transparency in the filmmaking process.

The Fourth EthnoFilm Fest is scheduled for JuneJuly 1999 and wilt focus on the history of Australian documentary film. Entries on VHS PAL cassettes should be sent to: Dr Wolfgang Davis, Museum für Völkerkunde, Arnimallee 23, D-14195 Berlin, Germany. Tel: 001149 30 83011. Fax: 001149 30 84108469. Email: beckmann@zedat.fu-berlin.de

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

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fram ew ks@ ozem ail.com .au

mbits SHOWING SHORTS AT EUROPA ith the opening of its new arthouse cinema, Cinema Europa, at Melbourne’s Jam Factory complex in October, Village Cinemas is screening new Australian short films before the feature presen­ tations there. Rachel Griffiths’ Tulip-, Fetch, starring Matt Day; and Tropfest winner / Want You have all been screening, with more to follow. This follows the trend set by the Globe Film Company in its Stanmore Cinema, Sydney, where it has been requesting and screening short films for some months now.

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LETTER

PO BOX 2221 FITZROY MDC VIC 3065

email: s_murray@eis.net.au

HEAD FE V E R ON SA TU R D A Y NIGHT D e a r E d it o r

Head On (Ana Kokkinos, 1998) is the best Australian film I have seen in a long while. Here is a strongly emotional film with something to say, which does not rely on ‘crazy’ characters on the road or stereotypical Aus­ tralian landscapes, and which is

cast beautifully down to the

capture the youth culture of its

last bit player.

With its strong central performance by Alex Dimitriades, and the way it captures the

era. I’m thinking of Saturday.

Night Fever (John Badham, 1977) -t h e original R-rated version, not the tweeked-and-toned-down-for-

essence of the ’90s ‘grunge’ culture, I couldn’t help formulate some parallels with another movie which attempted to

the-kids M-rated version to cash in on the success of its sound­ track and star.

See what I mean ...

ONE AWARD AND AN INVITE ■ ^ Y e lli Simpson’s short film, Two Girls and a Baby, ■ ^ .re c e n tly won the Audience Favourite Award at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival. Starring Clau­ dia Karvan and Niky Wendt, it is about a lesbian couple who decide to have a baby with the help of a sperm bank. Two Girls and a Baby was also invited to the Feminale International Women’s Film Festival in Cologne, Germany.

FOXYTRACKDOWN eading Sydney audio facility Trackdown Digital is launching a new division, Trackdown Music Services, in the new year. Music editing and compo­ sition rooms are being built for its new studios in the Arthur Smith Pavilion at Fox Studios Australia (build­

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ing # 53»the old Showgrounds Arts and Crafts building), while Trackdown Digital will still be based in Camperdown, Sydney. Guy Gross will be its inhouse film composer, working alongside manager Geoff Watson, technical director and music editor Simon Leadley and Tim Ryan. Trackdown Music Services will provide music editing, production, com­ position and programming services for the film and television industry. Recent credits include In the Win­ ter Dark, Radiance, Praise, Dark City, Passion and Welcome to Woop Woop.

CRACKING IT A SECOND TIME ue to popular demand, David Swann’s familybased comedy Crackers is being re-released, at the suggestion of exhibitors, which are being pum­ melled by patrons for more opportunities to see the film. First released in July of this year, and earning $1.25 million in its first run, Crackers will hit our screens again from 19 November.

T r a v o lt a )

ARI (A lex D im iiriad e A )

• strong ethnic identity (Italian)

• strong ethnic identity (Greek)

• son of a disappointed Italian mother

• son of a disappointed Greek mother

• dead-end job in paint shop

• no job; dead-end lifestyle

19 years old */fw S m <\ • raging hormones cause inconsistent actions (like his attitude towards Annette and Stephanie)-

• 19 years old

• trying to escape his day to day life through sex,

• trying to escape his everyday Irie using sex,

• Italian Catholic presence: h

• Greek presence Greek musir and dancing

gBSH H ¡jjj

• raging hormones cause strange actions (like his attitude to Betty and Thoula)

good dancer

• champion dancer ' • thinks he looks like At Pacino in 5trpico

• thinks he looks like John Cusack in The Grifters

STEPHANIE (K a r e n Lynn G o r a e y )

SEAN (J u lia n G a m e r )

• the unattainable love object

• Ari may be initially unsure if Sean is attainable (is he straight or gay?)

• subject to Tony’s mood swings

• subject to Ari’s mood swings

• worst moment: Tony tries to rape her

• worst moment: Ari’s sexual humiliation/powerplay when they finally do go to bed together

• she becomes Tony’s new friend and potential saviour

• he becomes Ari’s potential saviour, if only Ari will allow it

ANNETTE(DoHM a Pcacow)

l l l i g ^ P o u l C apA n)

•possibly in love with Tony for real but can't show it

• possibly in loyVwit'h ArtT

• humiliates herself by getting stoned and

• humiliates himself by dressing in drag apd showing up to dance at the Greek Club

m sleeping with his friends • she’s over-the-top; can’t control herself • disappointed when Tony won’t dance with: Kef T in the competition-

• too gaudy, over-the-top ¡ ¡ ¡ j disappointed wtienAri won’t go out v t f t h S p ^

B O B B Y ( B a r r y M iller)

BETT Y (E le n a M a n d a li*)

• tragically trapped in Catholicism; gets his girlfriend pregnant and is trapped into marriage

• trapped in an unhappy life

ANIMATED LOCALS WIN

• tries to seek Tony’s attention but fails

• tries to seek Ari’s attention by making love to him

INTERNATIONAL CONTRACT ustralian company Garner MacLennan Design . has won the contract to design and produce the 3D animation and visual effects for a new 22-part USA science fiction series, Farscape, to be produced by the Jim Henson Company in association with Hallmark Entertainment. GMD will be responsible for the design, building and animation of 3D models, building textures and environments, and will be completing the final compositing and integration with live action.

• dies tragically in an accident on the bridge

o r JOE (D a m ie n F oHoh )

TURKISH DELIGHTS 1rand new to our shores is the 1998 Turkish •Film Festival, a collection ofTurkish films not seen before in Australia. Touring three cities, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, the Festival will screen seven films over three days in each city. Films included are

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TONY

• about to be trapped in an arranged marriage

CO N N IE (F raM D r e n c h e r )

*

•.outspoken,'fun character who comeson to. Tony Both Tony and Ari are trying to come to terms with their own identity including a strong sexuality.

They acknowledge the hypocrisy inherent in their ethnic identities. Tony says, “We dump on the Spiks and the Spiks dump on us”, as he acknowledges his big disco

BETTY (E le n a M a n d a li*) ' i ' outspoken,' fun character who c o ir r e s I l f l i^ ^ S

dancing win is yet another example of racism.

Ari simply yells out the car window to the Lebanese and Chinese to “Learn English. This is Australia!”

Tony achieves his goal at the end: he gives up the dance trophy in favour of honesty and maturity. He’s going to change:

move to Manhattan, grow up and have Stephanie as a friend - a ’70s happy ending?

Ari achieves a certain some­ thing at the conclusion of Head On by admitting that he’ll never change. He’ll always be a ‘whore’!

Oh, the cynical ’90s.

Beth Keehn bethk8@hotmail.com

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

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bits The Bandit, the highest-grossing Turk­ ish film ever; Karishik Pizza, a satirical comedy about betrayal and revenge in the Istanbul underworld; The Town, a generational epic; Istanbul Beneath M y Wings, the story of the first man to fly; Journey on the Hour Hand, an exis­ tential tale of a clock mender; Cholera Street-, and the whimsical parable, Sawdust Tales.

The Turkish Film Festival is a community-based, non-profit event organized by Bruce Jeffreys with the assistance of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, the AFI, the Turkish Consul-Generals in Sydney and Melbourne, the AFC and ScreenWest.

AFC GUIDELINES ON HOLD he Australian Film Commission has withdrawn its 1998 draft co-production guidelines until the Australian Broadcasting Authority has finalized the revised Australian content standard.

At its May 1998 commission meet­ ing, the AFC adopted a revised set of guidelines for use in approving official international co-productions and circulated them for industry comment in Australia and with overseas organi­ zations in the countries with which Australia has official co-production arrangements.

Taking into account the current ABA process and diversity of views expressed for the Australian content standard, the AFC resolved to with­ draw the draft co-production guidelines 1998 so that the July 1997 guidelines continue in force. The AFC will revisit the co-production guide­ lines when the ABA draft standard is available.

The July 1997 guidelines will be available on request from AFC offices and from the AFC’s webpage. The date on these guidelines reads March 1998 to reflect small changes to the earlier text which advised that treaties with Ireland and Israel had been signed.

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APPOINTMENTS he Australian Film Finance Corpo­ ration (FFC) has appointed Janine Pearce as its new Legal Manager in its Sydney head office, and Eva Orner as a Project Manager in its Melbourne office. Pearce has been working as Legal Counsel for Showtime Networks Inc in New York and replaces Sue Jonklaas, who left the FFC earlier this year. Orner has worked as a producer (Untold Desires, Secret Fears), and has worked as a production manager

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and film writer. She replaces Linda Klejus, who also left the FFC earlier this year.

TODD HAYNES

illage Roadshow Pictures announced recently that Michael Lake has been appointed Executive Vice President of World Wide Feature Production, based in Los Angeles, and will sit on the Board of Directors. He retains his current titles of President of Warner Roadshow Studios and Managing Director of Village Road­ show Pictures Australia. He will be splitting his time between Los Angeles and Australia.

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ayle Lake has been appointed Director of the Sydney Film Festival. Prominent in the local film industry, Lake began her career with the Sydney Filmmakers’ Co-op in 1979. While working as a freelance

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consultant in film marketing and distribution, representing Mrs Brown, The Sweet Hereafter and Head On, she has also, for the past two years, acted as Progamming Director for the Mardi Gras Film Festival. During this time, the Festival enjoyed significant growth and strong support from local film-goers and the media.

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wen Johnston has taken up the position of Queensland Repre­ sentative for the Australian Film Commission, for an initial period of nine months. A Swinburne Film School graduate, Johnson has lectured at Griffith University, directed commer­ cials and written and produced documentaries. Recently he produced Grace, one of the short films for the Australian Film Commission’s 1998 Indigenous drama Initiative, Shifting Sands: From Sand to Celluloid Continued....

EP Distribution has appointed Roxanne Melloway to the newlycreated role of National Publicity and Promotions Manager. Melloway was previously Publicity and Promo­ tions Manager for Queensland at 20th Century Fox Distribution. She began her career in the USA before relocating to a position as Marketing Manager at the Brisbane International Film Festival.

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arner MacLennan Design has appointed Gillian Samuels as Executive Producer - Broadcast.

Samuels has extensive industry experience, previously working for Conja and Extro Design. Some of her recent projects include Nickelodeon on-air branding, opening titles for the World Cup Soccer on SBS and an onair package for Network Ten’s Sports

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Tonight.

A

merican independent filmmaker Todd Haynes, the man respon­ sible for Poison (1991), Safe (1995) and, most recently, Velvet Goldmine, talks about early cinematic experi­ ences and influences on his own work: The films that influenced me as a kid were films that kids are taken to see when they’re my age. The first one was Mary Poppins [Robert Stevenson, 1964], my very first movie when I was three, and I almost had a psychotic obsession for Mary Poppins. There’s probably a lot about that film, and a lot about film in gen­ eral, that really deeply affected me, and made me respond by wanting to create things in response to it. I would draw pictures and play or per­ form the songs; relive the experience in all these different ways. It defi­ nitely inspired me creatively, and I guess that’s my point; something about seeing films at that age got my motors running. And that would con­ tinue; there’d be certain films that would just really penetrate me.

It’s funny, a lot of them were Eng­ lish in theme. The next one was Romeo and Juliet, Franco Zeffirelli’s film [1968]. I went through a mas­ sively romantic period; I was a little Shakespeare freak as a kid. I was probably so insufferable to be around, so pretentious.

Later, films that definitely hooked me were films that probably came out of the 1960s drug culture, experience movies like Performance [Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, 1970], Women in Love [Ken Russell, 1969], A Clockwork Orange [Stanley Kubrick, 1971] and 2001: A Space Odyssey [Stanley Kubrick, 1968].

They were films that 1thought a lot about in making Velvet Goldmine,

because they invited you to go some­ where you’d never been before. I think that was responding to a youth culture that wanted that and created that experience. They really wanted to be surprised and challenged, and, unfortunately, I don’t feel like those kinds of films are made so much today. I was hoping that Velvet Gold­ mine might rekindle some of those feelings of mystery, and excite the imaginations of young people that see it.

I loved Hollywood films like Citizen Kane [Orson Welles, 1941] and Fritz Lang, but, moving into college, I would discover Fassbinder’s work, who remains my most favourite film­ maker. His Angst essen Seele auf [Fears Eats the Soul, 1973] is my favourite of his films.

There are so many, and they’re so different and varied, and the whole body of work is so astounding. But I was still very much into Hitchcock and Douglas Sirk. I also saw Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles [Chantal Akerman, 1975] in college; that remains a real pivotal film for me, as well. I love Nashville [Robert Altman, 1975], Lola Montés [Max Ophiils, 1955] and also a lesser known film by Max Ophiils, The Reckless Moment [1949], with John Bennett and James Mason, an amazing internal melodrama that I particularly adore.

I have unintellectual passion fora film like Picnic [Joshua Logan, 1955], which has a profound effect on me; I start sobbing from the opening cred­ its through to the end. It definitely touches me in some bizarre way. I also love certain experimental films like Blow Job by Andy Warhol [1963] and Un Chant d ’Amour[A Song of Love, 1950] by Jean Genet.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

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55° Mostra Internazionale D’Atre Cinematografica, Venezia b y Polly anna Sutton here is a syndrome in Venice called mal de terra, where the pitch­ ing and tossing of the ferry boats can affect your equilibrium on dry land. Trying to embrace the expansive programme of the 55th Venice International Film Festival can have a similar effect, particularly when the city is choking with tourists and several major international events.

This year, the Festival seemed to have been designed for a rolling sequence of headlines. American directors and starlets were ushered in every two or three days, while the intervening slots were filled by their Italian and European contemporaries.

Major awards were given to people including Sofia Loren for her contribu­ tion to film. Then, the passing of Kurosawa was swiftly commemorated by a screening of his films.

When Warren Beatty’s new film, Bulworth, received a standing ovation, it seemed a fitting prelude to the glit­ tering award ceremony, where Beatty was honoured for his career in film, and Gianni Amelio’s Cosi Ridevano given the award for best picture.

The decision sparked a furious debate about the differences between the jury and public opinion, and whether perhaps the Golden Lions should have been given in the reverse order.

Throughout the Festival, there were mutterings that attempts to move Venice’s profile closer to the more commercial reputation of Cannes, with the introduction of a script and film market, were marred by the Italian style of management.

Flowever, there was a strong acknowledgment of the need to revi­ talize the Italian film industry’s international profile.

Venice offered a comprehensive programme of excellent films this year: Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, segued to the Taviani brothers’ Tu Ridi; Peter Weir’s The Truman Show to Alessandro D’Alatri’s In the Garden of Eden-, Spike Lee’s He Got Game to Francesca Archibugi’s L’albero delle pere (The Pear Tree)-, Anand Tucker’s Hilary and Jackie to Eric Rohmer’s Conte d’Automne-, Claudio Caligari’s L’odore dell notte {Odor of the Night) to Woody Allen’s Celebrity-, Kusturica’s

T

10

Black Cat White Cat to Warren Beatty’s Bulworth, to name just a few.

The American films, with their pre­ ponderance on politics, war, violence and voyeurism, gave way to the Eng­ lish and European films, a more subtle and emotional portrayal of the highs and lows of the human condition - the inner-life rather than a homogenized moral play.

One of the surprises of the Festival was Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbafs extraordinary film, Le Silence {The Silence). Exquisitely filmed, it traces the journey of a young blind boy

who returns to Tagikistan with a friend to discover what he has lost through the ringing tune of instruments.

Makhmalbaf said he went to Tagik­ istan because he wanted a coloured environment with a tint that he could no longer find in Iran since the Islamic Revolution.

The few days I spent in Venice allowed only a sample viewing of the programme and ultimately none of the films I saw were award-winners.

The Taviani brothers’ Tu Ridi (trans­ lated as You Laugh) captured both the darkness and the light in the two short

films presented under this title. Using the form established in their earlier film Chaos, the Tavianis’ Tu Ridi is about Felice, a former light-opera star, destined to work as an accountant in the back office of a theatre in Rome.

When he begins to spontaneously laugh in his sleep, it sets off a disturb­ ing chain of events that will lead to the demise of life as he knows it. Italian actor Alberto Albanese’s performance

as Felice is delightful.

Tu Ridi is highly comic and yet bitter­ sweet; even in death there is laughter, even in love there is sadness. The sec-

infancy and adolescence as it unfolds along the narrow streets of towns and the vast sandscapes of the desert.

Truly stunning cinematography carries the film.

Italy’s latest pin-up, Kim Rossi Stu­ art, plays a strong pensive Jesus from the ages of 18 to 30, as he travels out from his life in the temples and mar­ ket-places to the desert and the wisdom of the Essene community. To prepare for the role, Rossi Stuart went to Morocco before the filming to live with the Bedouins in the rural country and deserts behind Marrakesh.

D’Alatri’s film brings the humanity back to this historical figure. The direc­ tor said he proposed his film to be a modest instrument to re-open a dis­ cussion - a pebble in a pond. ©

ond short film, Due Sequestri (Two Kidnaps), is a disturbing portrait of a kidnapper and his victim, a young boy.

This is a journey into criminal mad­ ness. A man whose innocent, almost child-like character is capable of much darker things. When he takes the child to a mountain retreat, the event is

characters come together under the flickering neon signs of the girlie bars.

The humour is slapstick and largerthan-life at times, but extremely entertaining. This is East-meets-Westaround-the-jukebox with a twist.

Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth is a sump­ tuous film that gives life to the character

refuse, knowing that, if they are caught with the cheese, they will be killed.

Although this film has its share of death and violence, it is not a bloody horror show. Instead, it explores the conflicts within. To capture a collabo­ rator is not enough; when the group are in danger, do they have the

The American films, with their preponderance on politics, war, violence and voyeurism, gave way to the English and European films, a more subtle and emotional portrayal of the highs and lows of the human condition - the innerlife rather than a homogenized moral play. mirrored in the story of a doctor who was kidnapped in the same region 100 years before.

Anand Tucker’s Hilary and Jackie was a wonderful surprise. The film is a moving portrait of the lives of the du Pré sisters, both talented musicians spurred on by their mother to explore their full potential. Yet, in childhood, there is a turning point, where Jacque­ line, a cello player, moves beyond her flautist sister into the limelight.

Jacqueline du Pré’s career as a virtu­ oso concert cellist is well-known. But this film takes us to the underbelly of her story, the intricate family relation­ ships, the devastating effects of rivalry and the cruel toll of multiple sclerosis on a genius.

Jackie is played by Emily Watson, but it is Australian actor Rachel Grif­ fith’s performance as Hilary that leaves a strong resonance. The film is based on the book written by Hilary and her brother, Piers du Pré, A Genius in The Family.

Amon Miyamoto’s film, Beat, is a crazy comedy about life on Okinawa in war-time. A cast of eccentric wacky C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

of Elizabeth the First of England. A stun­ ning performance by Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth traces the maturation of a young woman from wide-eyed and inno­ cent to the self-professed Virgin Queen of England. In spirited fashion, we see the political allegiances of marriage, and the backroom dealings of the play­ ers at court, seemingly innocent yet ultimately perilous. Lavish costumes, an extraordinary cast which includes Geof­ frey Rush and Joseph Fiennes, and beautiful cinematography make this film a must for anyone who enjoys the pomp and circumstance of an historical drama.

Daniele Luchetti’s / Piccoli Maestri (The Young Masters) is the story of the young partisans who left university to fight in the mountains of the Veneto region in World War II. Against a stun­ ning backdrop, we see naive and fiercely-proud young men slowly learn­ ing about the perils of war. There is a hilarious moment in the early stages of the film, where the group are looking for acts of solidarity to perform. They rob a cheese factory and attempt to distribute it to nearby villagers who

courage to kill him? This film is also based on a book and, from the com­ ments of many Italians in the audience, is a realistic portrait of the war.

Alessandro d’Alatri’s / Giardini d’ell Eden (In the Garden of Eden) res­ onates with the mastery of Italian directors Zeffirelli and Bertolucci, and their ability to capture the essence of man against the landscape in broad panoramic shots. This is the story of Jesus of Nazareth’s early life, his

Awards for the 55th International Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Cosi Ridevano (Gianni Amelio)

S ilver Lion for Best Director Emir Kusturica, Black Cat White Cat

T he Grand Jury Award Lucian Pintile, Terminus Paradise

Golden Lion for his Career Warren Beatty Coppe Volpi

Best male actor Sean Penn in Hurly Burly

Best Female Actor Catherine Deneuve in Place Vendome

Golden Osella for THE BEST ORIGINAL SCRIPT Conte d’Automne (Eric Rohmer)

Golden Osella for THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHY Luca Bigazzi, L’albero delle pere

Golden Osella for THE BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC Gerardo Gardini, La Nube

Golden Medallion from the President of the S enate Mhosen Makhmalbaf, Le Silence

T he Marcello Mastroianni Award Niccolo Senni for L’albero delle pere

T he winner of International Critics Week Award Orphans (Peter Mullan)

Cinemavenire Award La Nube (Fernando Solanas) VivreAu Paradis (Bourdem Guerdjou) Le Silence (Mhosen Makhmalbaf)

Les Pierrot Award Peter Mullan for the direction of Orphans

Fedic Award Del Perduto Diamore (Michele Plácido)

Film Critics Award New Rose Hotel (Abel Ferrara) FI PRESCI Award Bure Burata (Goran Paskelievic)

11

sh o rts

Courting Success b y P au l K alin a and Sco tt M u rray

B

arely a week goes by without the arrival of another short film fes­ tival somewhere In

Australia. In addition to the well-established St Kilda Film Festival, Flickerfest and Tropicana, myriad regional centres, from Noosa to Hobart, are staging their own annual short film events. Airline companies, coffee manufacturers and local street traders are all getting in on the act.

More people are making shorts, more people are flocking to see them and, it seems, the money is following close behind.

One person who is unsurprised at the resurgence of cinema’s oldest form is Roger Gonin, one ofthe directors of the Festival du Court-Métrage, Clermont-Ferrand. The Festival, now in its 21st year, is the most impor­ tant and largest short film festival in the world, supporting a market, and national and international competitions.

Gonin was in Aus­ tralia recently as a guest ofthe St Kilda Film Festival.

The resurgence in short filmmaking is not restricted to Aus­ tralia. According to Gonin, the Festival at Cler­ mont-Ferrand is receiving more and more entries from Latin American countries and European nations which in the past produced very few short films (such as Italy). He estimates that 200 short films are now made in Italy each year.1 Even ‘A-list’ international film festi­ vals are looking to incorporate shorts into their events. Gonin:

Cannes now wants to have a special section just to discover new talent.

The people at Sundance told me last year they are thinking of having an inter­ national short film festival as well. Even in the USA, where short films are not well appreci­ ated and there is

no venue, more and more people are interested in them.

Gonin believes that much ofthe inter­ est in shorts is a product of both filmmakers and audiences searching for new, alternative styles of filmmak­ ing: “What the independents were doing in feature films, now it’s more in the short film area where people are doing it.”

Gonin admits that the production values of shorts has increased overall, and signals concerns that, like the USA indie film, the qualities intrinsic to this mode of filmmaking may become sacrificed:

The problem will be if there isn’t still space for totally crazy films with no budgets. I’m very glad that there is funding for high-production short films. But if it is the only way to make short films, I’m afraid that short films will cease to be the alter­ native cinema we need. Until now it has been this [alternative]. It is still the place where we can find very astonishing movies.

These filmmakers, Gonin says, are vitally important to the mainstream feature film industry:

I like to think that the filmmakers making different sorts of short films want to make that sort of feature. I was in Cannes watching these short filmmakers making their first fea­ tures, like Erick Zonca [La Vie Rêvée des Anges] and Thomas Vinterberg [Festen, or The Celebration], bring­ ing the same spirit to a feature film.

What also pleased me is that there are young producers following the directors into features; just like the directors, they grow with them. That’s a good thing for me. That’s how a new generation will go into the industry and make something interesting, I hope.

Watching the latest batch of locally-made shorts, Gonin speaks cautiously of the balance between highproduction values and risk-taking in Aus­ tralian shorts. He is full of praise for Ivan Sen’s Tears, which was awarded Best Film by the Jury of the St Kilda Film Festival on which Gonin sat:

Tears is a very simple idea.

You ask, “What is it about?” Okay, a couple walking along a road in the desert, a car stops by them, they exchange

some words, go a bit further, wait for the bus, she goes into the bus, he stays. What is this about? You have to do something very impor­ tant to make this into a film.

If I were somebody having to make a decision about funding this, I wouldn’t know [what to say]. But it’s a marvellous film; because of the way it’s done, you understand everything, everything the charac­ ters have in their minds. And this is what we expect of films.

But maybe there’s a lack of films that are about this craziness we spoke of before, films made with nothing, which were made some years ago at the Swinburne school.

I miss this kind of film; sometimes very rough, but with energy, like Spaventapasseri [Luigi Acquisto, 1986] or Dance of Death [Dennis Tupicoff, 1977], the first of many films dealing with television enter­ tainment. It was amazing what it was about, the link between this sordid television play and death. It was marvellous because it said it in a very simple way.

The pity is when people want to look professional. That’s what makes me really concerned. What does professional mean? That peo­ ple are paid? In short films, a lot of people don’t get paid, so what does it mean to “look professional” ?

Plenty of films and television are professional, they are watchable, but that is all, and we expect more of short films.

When we began the international section, for us the Australian short films were totally crazy: Jane Cam­ pion’s films, this kind of thing. It was a different world, where people were obsessed with family prob­ lems. These films were outdated for us, but the way it was done was very impressive and enthusiastic.

It is not the problem if the films are not well done, because at least the characters are talking about their lives, their youth, important problems about their existence.

But if they want to be too smart, too professional, when the funding bodies ask them to do this, that is the pity, because they might want them to be professional too early; it takes time.

They don’t want to invest in the long term, they is- 51

12

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Telluride Film Festival b y J e r r y W hite

I

t had been expected that this year’s Telluride Film Festival would be a little different. It was the 25th anniversary and the rumours that an extravaganza was to unfold began right after the 24th edition, when it was announced that the 1998 Festival would have an extra day to commemorate the milestone. This in itself was exceptional, given that it is the only time that the great eccentric among American film festivals has altered its traditional four-day format. This extra 24 hours turned out to be the most minor of the com­ memorative elements, which included a reunion of all the Festival’s past guest directors (who include Errol Morris, B. Ruby Rich and Bertrand Tavernier), a huge bash on the top of a mountain and several pro­ grammes that celebrated cinema’s connection to silver (to commemorate the Festival’s Silver Anniver­ sary). Through all the hoopla, it was still possible to see one of the film world’s oddest combinations of the old and the new, the Hollywood and the obscure, the common and the unspeakably rare.

The Telluride Film Festival has become known as a film purist’s paradise (a reputation shored up by the simple difficulty of getting to the tiny, remote mountain town where it is held) and the intensity of this year’s commemorative version served as a

14

happy confirmation that the Festival deserves the reputation.

An Irish theme ran through this year’s event, led in part by John Boorman (who lives in Ireland).

He brought his newest film, The General, a biography of the Dublin gangster Martin Cahill, fresh from his win as Best Director at this year’s Cannes. Shot with devastating clarity in black and white by Irish cine­ matographer Seamus Deasy, the film’s raw visceral impact is enormous. Boorman pulls away in The Gen­ eral from much of the simple bloodshed that marks the gangster film, instead focusing on what an eccen­ tric character Cahill was: loyal, treacherous, violent and kind. It’s a complex film with a keen visual sense, and says a great deal about the minor betray­ als and hypocrisies that define Irish life.

by a moody, silent-era visual style that suits Liam O’Flaherty’s story of betrayal and Catholic guilt exquisitely well. The second half of the film, however, also features an utterly botched attempt to dub in voices, and this half-effort to take advantage of emerging but incomplete technology makes this, in Boorman’s words, the best of films and the worst of films. Clint Eastwood, tributed here in 1990, sat in the back row for this film and seemed quietly fascinated and confused.

Continuing the Irish theme was the glitziest event this year: a tribute to acting legend Meryl Streep and the American premiere of her new vehicle, Dancing atLughnasa. Streep attended (Telluride will tribute only those who come), speaking both at the aforemen­ tioned mountaintop bash and at a seminar on women and film acting (alongside Patricia Arquette, Katrin Cartlidge and Pascale Bussieres).

Streep held forth on the unreasonable expectations made of female actresses, noting at one point that she gave up her theatre career primarily for her family, so she wouldn’t always be working or on the road.

The film on display, Pat O’Connor’s adaptation of Brian Friel’s widely-pro­ duced play about rural Ireland, had a sense of loss and melancholy that recalled some of Streep’s musings at the seminar. Nevertheless, it over all felt like a very sentimental staging of a very complex piece of theatre. Streep came off magnificently as the matri­ arch of a clan of Donegal women in the ’30s, as did the very accomplished Irish actress Brid Brennan, who plays the youngest, slowest sister. Sadly, how­ ever, the ensemble never moved the film beyond a very simple kind of melancholy, one that leads one of Friel’s masterpieces from understated tragedy into the shadier realm of melodrama.

Avoiding just this kind of pitfall was Denis Villeneuve’s August32nd on Earth, possibly the best film of the Festival. It was Villeneuve’s first feature, although he participated in the widely-feted anthology film, Cosmos, which had a group of six young filmmakers from Québec directing short segments revolving around a Montréal cabbie. Villeneuve makes the jump to the longer format brilliantly, confidently telling a story about a young woman (Pas­

Shot with devastating clarity in black and white by Irish cinematographer Seamus Deasy. [The Generali’s raw visceral impact is enormous.

This wasn’t the only Irish contribution from Boor­ man, who was also at the Festival in the capacity of returning guest director (he served at that post in 1993). The Festival asked each of these guests to choose a film to bring, and Boorman’s choice was a very rare version of The Informer. This was not the famous John Ford 1934 version, but the unknown Arthur Robison 1929 version. Made just as sound was being introduced to motion pictures, the film is defined •

cale Bussieres) who, after a near-fatal car accident, decides that she wants to have a child. Shot partially in Utah’s white desert, the film’s middle 30 minutes, which move seamlessly from the dusty, barren brush to a surreal, spacepod-like hotel room at the Salt Lake City Airport, constitute some of the most visuallydynamic filmmaking of the year. Cinematographer André Turpin, a gifted cinéaste in his own right, deserves a special mention for making this es» 50 C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

5th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary. Short and Animation Film 1998 b y J e n i Thornley “In a world which has degraded all its notions of authenticity, the trauma of the documentary is to seek a new birth.

It has to find for itself a new body. ”

and Griersonian, and, like Grierson’s original EMB and GPO Film Units, Film Australia and Canada’s NFB, it is inspired by the notion of film as part Kumar S hahani1 of a democracy, education and social change. elebrating its fifth The Festival comprises: the main year, the Mumbai Film Competition and Film Information International Film Fes­ sections, open to both international tival for Documentary, and Indian filmmakers; the parallel Short and Animation Competition Video and Information Film (MIFF) is perhaps the most Videosignifi­ sections open to Indian filmmak­ cant Festival for documentary and short ers; Fifty Years of Indian Independence film and video in the Asian region. The through Documentaries; Retrospec­ Festival reflects India: vast (more than 400 films), diverse, political, generous, occasionally chaotic, yet organized with fine attention to detail. If documentary is being reborn, India may be the birth­ place.

At MIFF, documentary film is often referred back to ancient lineages.

Amrit Gangar, Curator of the Retro­ spective Programmes, calls forth the Jaina principle of anekantavada to talk about documentary as

C

doors amidst the fishing community with whom he made the film.

At Sophia Polytechnic Women’s College, fellow filmmaker Rinki Bhattacharya plunged me into a day of student documentaries with Jeroo Mulla, Flead of Social Communica­ tions, Media. Their mission: to make documentaries about social and human rights issues confronting the people of Mumbai. The titles reflect the students’ concerns and again show the strong legacy of both the Grierson model and pramana - correct knowl­ edge: Purdah; Teenage Alcoholism; Gutka: the Silent Killer; Gender Condi­

documentary, Zakir and His Friends (Lutz Leonhardt, Switzerland), on Indian tabla player Zakir, won Second Best Film in the non-fiction category.

John Edginton’s Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt (UK), a powerful investigative film on Black Panther Mumia’s struggle for justice, was recognized with two major awards. Sehjo’s Singh’s Kol Tales (India), which poignantly observed the life of the Kol people and their uppercaste masters, the Dadus, received the International Jury Award.

One of the most dynamic pro­ grammes is the Video Festival.

tioning; Tuberculosis; Vehicular Pollution; Solid Waste Management; and Mentally Challenged Children.

There was a visible Australian presence at MIFF. My diary film, To The Other Shore, was invited into Competi­ tion along with Fiona Cochrane’s Gorilla Girls, which received a Certificate of Merit; The Butler by Anna Kannava; Kay Rasool’s Temple on the Hill; and Tom Zubrycki’s Billal. Melanie Guiney, the Convenor of the 5th International Docu­ mentary Conference, Brisbane, 1997, was a Member of the Jury.

The main Competition tends to be dominated by films from the West.

Often, the selection reflects cultural diversity, human rights and Indian themes or subjects. The rhythmical

Restricted to Indian documentary mak­ ers, it provides a unique vision of Indian society through Indian eyes. It is a rich programme composed of social, political, historical, religious and ethnographic films, biographies, travel­ ogues, current affairs and animation.

The social-political documentaries, often made by film collectives in close collaboration with their communities, had a strong impact. These works document Indian society at a specific moment in history and also contribute to the diverse movements for social change so crucial to India.

a concept of reality which can accommodate both identity and dif­ ference, permanence and change.

Anekantavada is a mental eye which is open to all directions, all interpre­ tations.2 Bankim, the Director of the Festival, also invokes ancient Indian texts:

The documentary film provides us a testimony, panini. In principle, the documentary film is a means of get­ ting correct knowledge, pramana, and that is what the documentary film essentially strives to compre­ hend.3 These philosophical concepts underlie MIFF’s vision. They create a Festival where the spirit of documentary is thriving and polytheistic, especially in the range of documentary genres rep­ resented. As well, the Griersonian concept of documentary as part of a

tives/Special Screenings; Film School Screenings; Forums; and Press Confer­ ences.

Some films also show outside the Festival in spontaneous street screen­ ings. Well-known activist filmmaker

The documentary film provides us a testimony, panini.

In principle, the documentary film is a means of getting correct knowledge, pramana. and that is what the documentary film essentially strives to comprehend. movement for social change is living.

MIFF reflects the film society move­ ment, which isn’t surprising as Films Division, part of India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, is its organizer. Films Division is both Indian C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

Anand Partwardhan, honoured at MIFF 98 with a Retrospective of selected works - Bombay Our City; In Memory of Friends; In the Name of God-, Father, Son & Holy W a r -screened his new video, Fishing in the Sea of Greed, out­

When Women Unite: The Story of an Uprising, directed by Shabnam Virmani, chronicles an extraordinary movement by rural women 50

15

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Explore and Heighten b y D ean C arey

H

ow does a director find the level of a scene and the pitch the scene best works at? And how do actors remember what they did from their inspired rehearsal to the day of shooting?

Explore and Heighten aims to help both actor and director to zero in on the scene’s essence and also enable them to find it again. Originally created for improvization by Viola Spolin, I use this exercise whenever 1 direct because it rockets both you and the actors toward detailed investigation. I sometimes use the words Embrace and Amplify rather than Explore and Heighten; you may wish to replace them with your own.

The premise of the exercise is quite simple. After running or even reading a scene (for this exercise works bril­ liantly in an audition or screen test), you suggest to the actors that they explore and then heighten one aspect of the scene; the aggression, or the love, or the fear, or the indecision, or whatever element you feel the scene may be driven by.

Of course, the aspect you choose may not suit the entire scene. It may only fuel one beat and then another aspect will be chosen to fuel the next beat. This changing dynamic then helps to create strong atmospheric changes during the scene which in turn creates the journey.

To make the exercise fruitful, both actors need to commit to both parts of the process; to explore throughout every moment of the scene the particu­ lar element you have chosen, and then heighten it accordingly. This means if you have chosen ‘tension’, both actors explore as many ways as possible to contact and experience the tension moment by moment. Once the tension has been contacted and deeply felt, then heighten it as much as possible. In other words, reveal the consequences of the tension whenever you can, through looks, pauses, physical moves, psychological actions, defensiveness, aggression, word emphasis, etc.

The reason the exercise is called Explore and Heighten is that the word explore means to experience - experi­ ence on physical, psychological and emotional levels. But any scene requires you to do more than experi­ ence - you must make manifest the consequences of what you are experi­ encing. This then informs the scene and creates potent exchanges which C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

drive the story forward. So, when you heighten the chosen dynamic, this will occur. This second part of the process heightens and therefore releases what you are experiencing back into the scene.

Once you get used to using this exercise, you’ll begin to choose ele­ ments to explore and heighten which absolutely make the scene speak. The more you zero in on the unique dynamics which create the scene’s life and drama, the more the scene will spring to life.

Below are a list of some of the dynamics which I have found have rocketed a scene into the exact arena in which it needed to exist.

Explore and Heighten: the love the lack of love the need for love the distance between you the extreme familiarity between you the aggression the blatant deceit before you the tension the blame the tenderness the lack of tenderness the fun the camaraderie the sense of crossed purposes the baggage between you the sexual charge between you the sense of abandonment you feel the devil-may-care attitude the ego clash you are involved in the reserve and conservatism the radical maverick attitude the righteousness you feel the self-consciousness you feel the damage done the hope the hopelessness the burden you’re both carrying the inappropriateness of each moment the sting of truth the acute pain of imminent separation the aloof and distant regard for each other the shock of each discovery the unpredictability the utter predictability the potential for reconciliation the devastation of betrayal the gulf of ^reconciliation, etc.

As you see, each element would produce vastly different results and would set the actors on a precise investigation.

You can also explore and heighten other elements, such as: the tempera­ ture; time; and elements such as wind, rain, terrain. On location, these ele­

ments can connect actors immediately to their surroundings and produce a sharp and atmospheric reality.

Explore and Heighten: the driving rain the bitter almost numbing cold the unrelentless heat the desolate environment the harsh inhospitable terrain, etc.

If you want, you can explore and heighten characters’ physical states, such as: your exhaustion your pain your power and strength your utter weakness your inability to think clearly your razor-sharp mind, etc.

Just before your third take and after everything technical is finally in order, a simple direction like this can sud­ denly rekindle spontaneity by giving the actor a fresh focus and ‘in’ to the scene. It also can place them in a ‘being’ state where they physically con­ nect. As Stanislavsky said, if the body feels the soul will respond. A physical trigger such as this can initiate a very deep and rich emotional life indeed.

You can also explore and heighten practical and logistic elements in your rehearsal which could prove intriguing.

Try Exploring and Heightening: doing the entire scene without taking your eyes off the other person; never getting eye contact at all with the other person;

wanting to get close but not being able to; always being at least 12 feet apart; staying within 3 inches of each other at every second; whispering the entire scene; exploding irrationally at will; attempting to kiss the other person as often as possible; tickling the other person as often as possible; mimicking the other person’s intona­ tion patterns; finding as many ways as possible to melt their resolve.

All of these suggested elements, if chosen well for that part of the scene, can generate the exact meaning the scene requires. It’s also simple as it doesn’t take five minutes of discussion and debate. If you happen to choose something which doesn’t begin to yield fruit, simply stop the scene and change the element. It fast-tracks the rehearsal process and keeps the focus always on the scene and the relation­ ship between both players.

In auditions and screen tests, this exercise allows you very quickly to see if the actor can take direction and change accordingly. Once again, it doesn’t require a long audition to see all you need to see. Simply do any one page of dialogue four times, each time focusing on a totally different element.

You’ll see flexibility, range, depth, sense of atmosphere, connection and use of language, use of e^-51

17

“ Let us say that his work now belongs to the Museum of the Rare, where it will one day be exhibited. The dates will be merely given fof reference.”

- Robert Benayoun1

■HUM The Films of Walerian Borowczyk

Several directors have had spectacular falls from grace through no fault of their own. Most famous is Orson Welles, the accepted wisdom for decades being that he went seriously downhill after-f f S (1941). That was, of course, # criminal libel, and today more and more people see " of a magnificent career that includes many masterpieces.

Another spectacular decline has also 'J 'j ■ Been attributed to

By Scott Murray.

8

Borowczyk was born on 2 October 1932 in Kwilcz, Poland. His father : was a painter and Borowczyk fol- . lowed in his footsteps, studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow.

Borowczyk remains a painter to this day. However, another interest also blossomed, as Borowczyk explained to Sue Adler in Ctnema Papers: [W]hen I was 14 years-old, I saw a 16mm movie camera in a shop window.

It was open, revealing ail the internal m-'' hanisms I wa 3 spellbound As vw car iim n'it-. e-i rh goods were ram ■ n Pohno at that time [ 1 To this day, 1am fascinated by mov­ ing pirtures sculptures which are mprhciriical [ 1The fundamental thing tor me is the mirar It which Plows 2a frames a serond tc give the illusion of

movement. This is the truth of cinema3|| So began Borowczyk’s experiments. ’ with cinema: My first films were shapes or forms in motion.-Sometimes 1 used actors and ' , sometimes I would relate a little story; ! or make a documentary or simply show abstract forms moving in a universe of music. I did everything myself apd I i' experimented a great deal; I taught myself howto edit. [...J Forme it is nht,’ a question of film andxamera; it is the^ 1 miracle of how you can recreate and. _;j improve or change and deform nature/' After forging a celebrated career as

an animator and short-film director in Poland (working, on occasion, ^'' ? with Jan Lenica), Borowczyk moyelG§|f to Paris in 1958. There he crdftedh^ || the surreal and nightmarish Les Jewc desAnges (1964), one of the tine masterpieces- of/the form.

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In 1966, Borowczyk made his first feature, the animated Théâtre de Monsieur & Madame Kabal, which was critically applauded, if not widely seen. He then moved into acted fea­ tures with Goto, Tîle d’amour (Goto, Island of Love, 1968). Borowczyk was instantly hailed as a genius, and his next feature, Blanche (1971), seemed to seal forever his reputation as one the world’s greatest directors (the greatest, according to Phillip Adams at the time).

However, artists don’t always fol­ low the paths their devotees wish them to take. When Borowczyk made Contes Immoraux (Immoral Tales, 1974), a highly-successful compila­ tion of four stories about sexual taboos, the critics united in vocal protest. Never has a director been so quickly and emphatically abandoned.

Borowczyk then returned to Poland and perplexed the doubters by making the elegant and classical

Meaning w hat... ?

CREDITS The reproduced credits are taken directly from the films (or video copies) and follow the methodology of this author’s Australian Film 1978-1994: A Survey of Theatrical Features15, with variations to take into account foreign names and crew designations-.

CHARACTER NAMES it is highly unusual for films of the 1970s and early ’80s to give character names as part of the (usually very brief) credits. Those listed below have been deduced from various sources, including dialogue spoken in the films and such references as Monthly Film Bulletin, pressbooks and Borow­ czyk: Cinéaste Onirique: Le cas étrange du Drjekyll et Miss Osbourne16, an invaluable source.

Whilst MFB opts for Anglicized names and designations (“The King” and “Nero’s Widow”), Borowczyk mostly made French- and italian-language films and the original designations have been preferred here (“Le Roi” and “Vedova Nero”). Where an English translation is thought necessary, it appears after a differentiating virgule: for example, “Fernand Bercher[L’lnstiteur/Tutor]”.

KEY TO FRENCH TERMS Producteur délégué Producteurs associés Scénario Dialogues Assistant-réalisateur Premier assistant à la réalisation Prise de vues/Caméra Assistant operateur Décors Chef décorateur Montage Chef monteur Musique Ingénieur du son Son Mixage

Producer Associate producers Scriptwriter Dialogue Assistant director 1st assistant director DOP Camera operator Set designer/production designer Production designer Editor Supervising editor Music Sound engineer/sound designer Sound Mixer

Dzieje Grzechu (The Story of a Sin, 1975). The critics did an abrupt volte face and decided Contes Immoraux was just an aberration - the result perhaps of a Communist-raised director having enjoyed the freedoms of the West a little too enthusiasti­ cally - and applauded The Story of a Sin as a triumphant return to Borowczyk’s true artistic self.

Borowczyk had other intentions than pandering to reviewers, how­ ever, and made the film that finished him critically: La Bête (The Beast, 1975). It, too, was a box-office suc­ cess, audiences delighting in this witty and subversive masterpiece, but, except in France (Robert Benayoun, Ado Kyrou, et ah), was damned in print. Censors also took exception in many countries (including Aus­ tralia) and banned or cut it.

In reality, almost all the critics who panned La Bête only saw a butchered version of the original.

Journalist ethics should have stopped them writing anything. After all, would anyone seriously consider reviewing Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs if more than 20 percent had been snipped from it at random? Or would art critics have reviewed Leonardo’s La Giaconda (Mona Lisa ) if the head had been scissored out?

If La Bête finished Borowczyk with the critics, the ’70s films that followed ensured that they would never forgive him: La Marge (The Margin, 1976), Interno di un Convento (Behind Convent Walls, 1977), Les Héroïnes du Mal (Heroines of Evil, 1979). (That they made money didn’t help, either.) Even Tom Milne, one of the finest critics writ­ ing in English at the time, and a perceptive reviewer of Borowczyk’s early works, laboriously tore into each new Borowczyk, again on the

sole evidence of mutilated prints. It is hard to think of any director so shab­ bily treated.

The critical savaging had much to do with one thing: Borowczyk had exercised his right as an artist to dis­ cuss what interested him, in this case sex, and to show its representations.

Borowczyk’s motto had become that of La Rochefoucauld, who in Maximes writes: Love, totally agreeable that it is, pleases more by the manner by which it shows itself than by itself.5

The critics saw it another way, accus-

NOTE “Producteur délégué” is a uniquely French term and position with no exact equivalent in English.

The French tend to credit both the screenplay (“scénario”) and dialogue (“dialogues”). They are seen as quite separate tasks and skills, and are often undertaken by different writers.

“Assistant-réalisateur” and “Premier assistant à la réalisation” represent far more senior positions than “assistant director” and “1st assistant director” do in Australia. On Borowczyk’s films, they are often highlighted in the brief opening credits.

20

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

ing Borowczyk of sexploitation and “art-porn” . Some even bizarrely attacked him for making erotic films that weren’t erotic!

By the mid-1990s, Borowczyk had all but faded from critical conscious­ ness. In the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers - 2: Direc­ tors, the last entry for a magazine article on Borowczyk6 is Sue Adler’s 1985 interview in Cinema Papers.7 Books proved no better. Jill Forbes’ 1992 history of post-Nouvelle Vague French cinema8 doesn’t even mention him. Ania Witkowska, in the supposedly comprehensive Encyclo­ pedia of European Cinema (1995), ignores all his films after 1976 and states, without corroboration, that Borowczyk’s “subsequent features moved to sexploitation, using mater­ ial unworthy of his talents”9. One wonders how many of these later films Witkowska has actually seen: Lulu (1980), Dr. Jekyll et les Femmes (1981), Ars Amandi (1983) and Céré­ monie d’Amour (1988)10?

David Stratton would make the same charge after a recent SBS screening of Goto, Pile d’amour: “ [After Blanche,] his career concen­ trated on soft-core sex films of decreasing interest.”

This tide of critical dismissiveness began to turn when Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs devoted a chapter to Borowczyk in their fascinating Immoral Tales: European Sex and C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

Horror Movies 1956-1984.n (They also have a chapter on the equallymarginalized Aain Robbe-Grillet.)

On the Internet, too, there are now several Borowczyk sites, including www.vidmarc.demon.co.uk, which has a full filmography, with credits, stills and video slicks reproduced. The site’s founder, Marc Morris, states that there is an increasing number of articles by film students12 and has recently posted a fascinating one by Kerri Sharp13.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jekyll et les Femmes is quietly assuming the man­ tle of Borowczyk’s finest film (though equally good cases can be put for Ars Amandi and Les Héroïnes du Mal). Just as Orson Welles’ mid­ dle and late work is now seen as the crowning achievements of a dazzling and rich career, Borowczyk’s ‘miss­

ing’ features are gaining in reputation and status. As increasing numbers of people see these films, the accepted wisdom that critics successfully imposed for decades will be seen for the libel it always was. Public dis­ plays of contrition would be a healthy next step.

Welles and Borowczyk stand tall not only for the fineness of their work, but for the courage by which they stuck to their visions against often extraordinary financial and condemnatory pressures. They are models to all artists alive today.

One could argue that this article is another cog in the resurgent interest in Borowczyk’s work, but that wasn’t ever its motivation. Through the Internet, films cut, unreleased and/or banned have become obtainable (local censorship permitting). Unseen films can now be watched, others revisited after twenty years.14 The net effect for this writer has been a stun­ ning confirmation of a long-held belief in Borowczyk’s position as one of the cinema’s rarest treasures: a profound, disturbing, idiosyncratic filmmaker of extraordinary and indi­ vidual gifts. His vision is often unbearably dark; his despair at the way human beings befoul what is nat­ ural can be painful to experience; but there is humour, odd fragments of hope; and his sense of lighting, com­ position and editing are unparalleled.

This article is not an attempt to say, “Here is a great director.”

Borowczyk needs no one to champion or defend him, only voices to suggest to those who have not yet travelled down his imaginative roads that the journeys, whilst unsettling, are also unforgettable. One finishes a Borow­ czyk, as one so infrequently does a post-war American film, exalting in the enormous potential of cinema, and rejoicing that, in a universe of overwhelming cinematic blandness and cowardice, at least this Polish director has had the courage, often under enormous political and critical censure, to create his extraordinarily precious Museum of the Rare.

Shorts & Animations S h o rts: 8mm

and

16m m

1946: Mais d’Août.

1953: Glowa (The Head, animated).

1954: Photographies Vivantes (documentary); Atelier de Fernand Léger (documentary).

1955 : Jesien (Autumn, documentary).

Sho rts:

35 m m

1957: Byl Sobie Raz (There was a Time, co-director Jan Lenica, ani­ mated, 11 mins); Nagrodzone Uczucia (co-director Jan Lenica, animated, 10 mins); Strip-tease (co-director Jan Lenica, animated); Dni Oswiaty (School Days) co-director Jan Lenica, animated); Sztandar Mlodych (co­ director Jan Lenica, animated).

1958: Dorn (The House, co-director Jan Lenica, animated, 14 mins); Szkola (The School, animated).

1959: Les Astronautes (co-director Chris Marker, animated); Terre Incon­ nue (animated, 2 mins); Le Magicien (animated); La Tête (animated); La Foule (animated); La Boîte à Musique (animated).

1962: Théâtre de Monsieur et Madame Kabal: Concert, (animated).

1963: Encyclopédie de Grand-maman en 13 Volumes (animated); Holy Smoke (publicity short); Renais­ sance; Les Stroboscopes: Magasins du XIXe Siècle (publicity short); Les Bibliothèques (publicity short); Les Écoles (publicity short); La Fille Sage (publicity short); L’Écriture (publicity short); Gancia (publicity short).

1964: Les Jeux des Anges (animated, 14 mins); Le Petit Poucet (publicity short); Le Musée (publicity short).

1965: Le Dictionnaire de Joachim (animated); Théâtre de Monsieur et Madame Kabal: Un Été Torride (animated).

1966: Rosalie 1967: Diptyque; Gavotte.

1969: Le Phonographe (animated) 1973: Une Collection Particulière (14 mins) 1975: Brief von Paris (documentary, 45 mins) A n im a t e d F e a t u r e

1966: Théâtre de Monsieur & Madame Kabal (80 mins)

21

Goto, l’île d’amour (1968) Alternative titles: Goto, Island of Love (UK), Goto, l’isola dell’amore (Italy) Les Productions René Thévenet [et] Euro-Images présentent [...] GOTO [/] l’île d’amour. [© not given; atb 1968.]

France. 35mm. B&W and colour.17 Loca­ tion: studio (St-Cloud, Paris). Original running time: 93 mins. Video: 1:29:36.18 Produit par: René Thévenet and Louis Duchesne. Scénario original: Walerian Borowczyk. Dialogues: Walerian Borowczyk, in collaboration with Dominique Duvergé. 1er assistant-réalisateur: Patrick Saglio. Prise de vues: Guy Dur­ ban. Assistant-opérateur: Noël Véry.

[Décors: Walerian Borowczyk.] Montage: Charles Bretoneiche. Musique: Georg Friedrich Haendel (Concerto No. 11, opus 7); Walerian Borowczyk (L’hymn national de Goto). Son: Gérard de Lagarde.

Ingénieur du son: Gerard David. Mixage: Jacques-Clement Duval.

Cast: Pierre Brasseur [Goto III], Ligia Branice [Glossia], Jean-Pierre Andréani [Lieutenant Gono], Ginette Leclerc [Gonasta], Fernand BercherfL’Institeur/Tutor], Rudy Lenoir [Magistrate], Michel Charrel [Grymp]; Maritin, Pierre Collet; Colette Régis [Tenancière de Bordel/Head of Brothel], Raoul Darblay19 [Gwino], Michel Thomass [Gra], Ari Arcadi [Dog Executioner], Hubert Lassiat [Vieux Général aux Lunettes/General with Glasses]; Guy Bonnafoux, Allain

Marco, Canari; Noël Mickerly [Musicien Aveugle/Man with Musical Saw]; Robert Capia, Paul Pellard, André Cassan, Percival Russe; Pascale Brouillard [Gauda]; Alain-Noël; Steve Kalfa [Gilo], Guy SaintJean [Grozo], René Dary [Gomor], Synopsis: In 1887, an earthquake cut off the island of Goto from the rest of the world. Ruled now by Goto III (Pierre Brasseur), the island’s small population works in the quarry and the fortress. The worst criminals are sen­ tenced to on-stage combat, the loser being guillotined. Grozo (Guy SaintJean) flees his combat with Gra (Michel Thomass), into the lap of Goto’s wife, Glossia (Ligia Branice). Grozo is arbi­ trarily pardoned and Gra guillotined.

Grozo is then appointed assistant to Gomor (René Dary), Glossia’s father, who is in charge of catching flies, feed­ ing the dogs, and polishing Goto’s and Glossia’s shoes. Ever ambitious, Grozo kills Gomor and exposes to Goto his wife’s love affaire with Lieutenant Gono (jean-Pierre Andréani). Grozo kills Goto and frames Gono, who is killed in on-stage combat. Now elected governor, Grozo presses his attentions on Glossia, but she flees from him and commits suicide. Grozo lays her corpse on his bed. He is distraught with grief.

She opens her eyes.

ightly acclaimed as a master­ piece, Goto, Vîle d’amour is a terrifying look at the rapid rise of Grozo, a weak but

R

ambitious man who has learnt all manner of devious behaviour from the totalitarian system in which he lives.

It is no surprise that many ironcurtain countries are now controlled by mafias, because the communist system forced people to act in under­ ground ways (be it for political dissent or simply finding food).

These adaptive skills do not fade away with a tyranny’s demise, but find full force in black-marketeering and other criminal activity. Given Borowczyk had fled Poland for Paris, it is hard not to read Goto as a per­ sonal statement about his former communist homeland.

If Grozo represents the inevitable future, Goto stands as the archetypi­ cal cause, a despot whose unpredictable moments of kindness hopefully invite the suppressed to view him as a kindly father figure.

The easily-seduced Philip Strick describes Goto as “benevolent”20, despite Goto’s ruling over an inhu­ man world of repression, torture and death, where love is denied air and prostitution institutionalized as its alternative. Control the desire and one controls the person.21 A second theme, which Borow­ czyk tackles repeatedly in subsequent films, is the desire of men to control and possess women, and the ways they go about it. In Goto and the subsequent feature, Blanche, women

suffer cruel fates because they can see no way out of their predicaments. In later films, such as La Bête and Les Héroïnes du Mal, women fight back, often violently, and become true feminist heroines.

Grozo wants Glossia, who is mar­ ried to Goto and in love with Gono.

He will do anything to get his way.

The sequence where Glossia’s adultery with Gono is exposed to Goto is one of the film’s finest. Hav­ ing killed Gomor and assumed responsibility for his fly-traps, Grozo uses them as a means to spy on oth­ ers. He places traps where there are no flies. He removes his shoes so he cannot be heard approaching. He locates Goto in an attic. Through a brilliant piece of game-playing, he induces Goto into ordering him to use some binoculars (a crime for which Grozo was originally arrested). Grozo pretends to resist, but takes them and knowingly focuses on Gono and Glossia, who are making love behind a dangling blanket at the riding school (till a horse accidentally pulls it away).

Goto takes the binoculars and, natu­ rally, focuses where Grozo has been looking.

Grozo has brilliantly engineered a betrayal while appearing to have done only what he was ordered to do. He is the archetypal conniver (communist) or corporate back-stabber (capitalist). With Grono now

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exposed, Grozo has a prime candi­ date to frame for his subsequent murder of Goto. Not long after, he is leader of this small island, but Glossia will never be his. When he chases her through the castle, she throws herself from the metal steps.

The ending of Goto seeks not to punish Grozo in the Hollywood sense (i.e, have him killed), but reveals the hollowness at his core in two close-ups which rank amongst the most powerful delineations of grief in cinema. There is no desire on the audience’s part to wish Grozo physically eliminated, because he is already destroyed from within.

It is only then that Glossia opens her eyes. Many have seen this as a triumph of the pure over the impure, but Glossia closes them again, as if this is a world of which she wants no part.

Goto Vile d’amour is a clever, witty, piercing shriek of despair. isually, Goto is much in the style of Borowczyk’s shorts.

The cutting has an ‘ani­ mated’ feel22, and the interest in bizarre locations and sets creates a graphic feel. Masterly though it is, Borowczyk was only just beginning to explore montage and it is far less sophisticated than in his later works. That is not to suggest it is any less arresting; in fact, the sim­ plicity, the almost naif quality, gives Goto a tone unique in cinema though Tarkovski’s Stalker (1979) would conjure and play with not dissimilar terrains.

At the time, some critics suggested the actors were filmed and used like objects. While that criticism is based on a false presumption about what acting should be (Robert Bresson has suffered the same attacks), the perfor­ mances in Goto are extraordinarily expressive, much of it influenced by the dramatic styles of silent movies (Ligia Branice, in particular).

The acting, let alone Borowczyk’s stark industrial sets, owes much to the theatre of Samuel Beckett, Ionesco and others. Critics latched on to Franz Kafka’s In the Penal Colony as an obvious literary source, but failed to point out the absurdist nature of the theatrical spectacle (which Goto self-referentially com­ ments on via the stage show). They missed too, it seems, the black com­ edy; Goto is a very funny film. The scene where Grozo positions himself below Gra in the execution structure, hurling out insults at the condemned man, is as chilling a depiction of bestial spirit as one would ever wish to experience.

In this very black comedy, Borow­

V

24

czyk has all manner of fun at the expense of (then) iron-curtain coun­ tries and the quirkiness of some of their advances. The USA was very convincing at portraying the whole Soviet world as highly advanced tech­ nologically, but the reality was Russia and its satellite nations were often technologically backward. They also had all manner of inventions which bore little resemblance to the slicker developments in Western countries.

(One thinks of Billy Wilder’s 1961 One Two Three, where a Russian boast about the quality of their CocaCola rip-off brings the quip about it being sold to the Albanians, who “used it as sheep dip” !)

Goto is littered with pre-Dickensian machinery and bizarre inventions, most notably the complex fly-trap designed by Gomor. Brilliantly designed by Borowczyk, the objects are photographed with an obsessive’s eye, though never used for decorative effect. As Borowczyk explained to Carlos Clarens in Film Comment: Through objects you discover human nature. [...] It’s mostly indoors that we find objects, craftsmanship, the hand of man.23 Outdoors it is nature that dominates; rocks, grass, trees.

Indoors, one loses touch with nature; we’re in the presence of objects, mov­ able things that can be displaced. And the rapport with these objects is totally different from that with rocks. Because of this, I want each object to be some­ thing other than neutral, I want it to take part, because we choose objects in life and we live with them.24

Blanche (1971) Télépresse Films [et] Abel et Charton.

BLANCHE. [© not given.] France.

35mm. Colour. Location: France; Franstudio Saint Meurice. Original run­ ning time: 92 mins. Video: 1:29:52.

Producteur délégué: Jean-Claude Lefèvre. Producteurs associés: Dominique Duvergé, Philippe d’Argila.

Scénario, adaptation, dialogues: Walerian Borowczyk. Based on the novel, Mazepa (Paris, 1889), by Juliusz Slowacki. Premier assistant à la réali­ sation: André Heinrich.26 Prises de vues: Guy Durban. 1er assistant opéra­ teur: Noël Véry. Décors: Walerian Borowczyk. Chef décorateur: Jacques d’Ovidio. Costumes: Pîet Bolscher.

Montage: Walerian Borowczyk.

Chef monteur: Charles Bretoneiche.

Musique: musique originale du XIIle siècle jouée par le Groupe des Instru­ ments Anciens de Paris. Ingénieur du son: Jean-Pierre Ruh. Mixage: JacquesClément Duval.

Cast: Michel Simon [Le Seigneur], George Wilson [Le Roi], Jacques Perrin [Bartolomeo], Ligia Branice [Blanche], Denise Péronne [Le Châtelain d’Harcourt/Madame d’Harcourt], Jean Gras [Le Chef des Gardes/Captain of the Guard], Lawrence Trimble [Nicolas], Michel Delahaye [Un Moine], le nain Roberto [Le Nain/Dwarf]; Geneviève Graves, Stanley Barry, Guy Bonnafoux.

Le Seigneur’s request, Le Roi sends Bartolomeo away to deliver a letter.

When confronted by a jealous Nicolas in the forest, Bartolomeo suggests they be friends and return to the chateau. Bartolomeo reads the letter he was to deliver and realizes Le Roi is going to have Blanche kidnapped. In the many machinations that follow, Nicolas is killed in a duel; Blanche and Le Seigneur both commit suicide; and Bartolomeo’s mutilated corpse is dragged behind horses through the forest.

his is a film of terrifying bleakness, an excruciating tragedy set in motion by the desires of four men to pos­ sess the one woman.

Le Seigneur sees Blanche as his property and believes he has the right to kill anyone or -thing that trespasses in his domain (“If a stag wanders into my forest, it is mine”) or interferes with his goods (“Haven’t I the right to kill an adul­ terer?”) These are the views not only of a feudal lord, but of men who physically or mentally control their wives.

Le Roi believes he can possess anything in his realm, overriding the claims of the lesser Le Seigneur. He first tries to seduce Blanche with flat­ tery (“I heard [your] name sung by a nightingale in my sleep”), and even

T

All Borowczyk films are filled with objects, both familiar and strange.

They are generally seen in use, often by someone discovering the object for the first time. Their somewhat tentative exploration is invariably covered with many close-ups and quick cuts, giving life to the object and an exhilarating thrust forward to the narrative momentum. (These vignettes are a joy for all VCR-owners, as re-viewing can more fully reveal the inventiveness and intricacy behind the montage.)

In an interview with Reran's Max Tessier, Borowczyk states: An object is a revealer of a character: it dramatizes the relations with reality.

You will not find an object in my films which does not have its reasons to be where it is found. Sometimes it is the spectator who has an encounter with an object, sometimes it is me.

There exists also a certain “symbol­ ism” of objects, but I create them less than I use them: I don’t show a crucifix to symbolize religion. I find the signifi­ cation is already used, but I find the meaning has already been used, but only in its context.25

Synopsis: In 13th century France, Blanche (Ligia Branice), the young wife of the elderly Le Seigneur (Michel Simon), is in love with his son, Nicolas (Lawrence Trimble). They are visited at their remote chateau by Le Roi (George Wilson) and his handsome page, Bartolomeo (Jacques Perrin). At night, dressed in Bartolomeo’s robe, Le Roi tries to visit Blanche’s bedroom.

He is fought off by Nicolas. Bar­ tolomeo cuts his own hand to make it look as if he were the culprit, before pressing his attentions on Blanche. At

appeals to her sympathy, saying she looks like a girl he once loved (“The smell of roses always reminds me of her”). But when Blanche fails to fall for his wooing, he marshals his army by letter to come kill her husband and kidnap her.

The handsome, youthful Bar­ tolomeo has the arrogance of the sexual rogue who believes all women, including Blanche, will sub­ mit to his charm.

Nicolas is a romantic dreamer who believes purity of love tranC I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

scends all, but demands violent retri­ bution the instant he feels sexually betrayed. “Cut off your hair and hang yourself” , he screeches at Blanche. When she remains silent, he threatens, “I’ll crush your little hands unless you answer.” So much for the nobility and sanctity of romantic love.

Blanche, no doubt forced into marriage to Le Seigneur, is in love with Nicolas, but keeps the relation­ ship platonic. Everything she does, she does innocently, purely, but that only exacerbates the worst thoughts of men. For instance, Blanche does not know that Bartolomeo has slipped into her chamber and is hid­ ing in the alcove, so she has no hesitation swearing on a crucifix that no one is there.

Convinced of her infidelity, Le Seigneur orders the alcove to be bricked up. Ever the manipulative politician, he justifies his act by say­ ing he is ensuring his wife’s reputation: “We must protect her from any suspicion of perjury.”

When Le Roi later has the wall pulled down, a near-dead Bar­ tolomeo is dragged out, only to be flung immediately into a duel with Le Seigneur. Nicolas offers to take his father’s place and demands that Blanche bless Bartolomeo, saying “ If she is guilty, her blessing will be fatal.” But during the fight, Nicolas deliberately lowers his shield and is struck a fierce blow. Before dying, he reiterates his love for Blanche, say­ ing, “I wanted to die by the hand she blessed.” He has to die, because that proves Blanche’s blessing was not fatal and, therefore, she is innocent.

One could argue Nicolas has redeemed his love by a selfless act, but his fickle about-turns have noth­ ing to do with Blanche; they are a reaction to other men’s actions and views. The whole code of chivalrous behaviour enacted by men over the centuries, supposedly for the benefit of women, is totally independent of them. Women did not ask men to behave this way; men imposed it with the justification of its being for the woman’s benefit.

Borowczyk, here and in his other films, refuses to posit societyapproved forms of love as anything noble or meaningful. He is a true dis­ ciple of de Sade in believing in true exchanges between people as being natural, honest events, often outside the invented codes of human behav­ iour. Love is a concept, constructed by men, which inhibits rather than frees. There is no ecstasy in love, only defeat (and often death).

The one positive in the behaviour of these men is the extraordinary C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

m

» a ' . -'Z m i <r

-r j^ |

i

?wrertc.e T«jgble)

scene in the forest where Bartolomeo has been stopped by Nicolas and challenged to a duel. Bartolomeo tries to refuse, but is forced into fighting. He swiftly overcomes Nico­ las, but, instead of killing him, asks that they be friends. There is a ten­ derness in this scene that is extremely touching and unlike anything else in Borowczyk. It is as if Borowczyk sees within the absurd rules of human society a greater chance for men being truer amongst themselves than

in the more artificially-coded rela­ tionships with women.

One knows both men will die, though the tenderness is rekindled when Bartolomeo comforts the dying Nicolas. But the perversity of man’s rule on this planet has meant that what was so sweet between the men once led to them not fighting; now it is comfort in the aftermath of violence.

Borowczyk has one of the bleakest views in cinema, as i s • 48

How to see these Borowczyk Several of Borowczyk’s shorts, including Jeux des Anges, are avail­ able on a compilation tape from Luminous Film & Video Wurks, as is Théâtre de Monsieur and Madame Kabal. Goto, I 7 le d’am our\s shown on SBS, whereas the National Film & Sound Archive has a 16mm copy of Blanche. It has also been released on video in London, along with Goto.

25

One of the most eye-catching films at Cannes this year was High Art, Lisa Cholodenko’s aptly-named film about heroin chic ana photography which saw Australian actor Radna Mitchell win plaudits for her role opposite Ally Sheedy. Jan Epstein was on hand.

How does a Melburnian play a

get to

New Yorker ?

Well, the Melburnian packs her suit­ cases and goes to America in search of work! Something you have to consider is your accent. Adopting an American accent is actually not as easy as you might imagine, although you’re sur­ rounded by Americans and you’re mirroring that the whole time.

Y our accent even now has an Ameri­ can twang . Perhaps it ’ ll be different WHEN YOU GO BACK TO AUSTRALIA.

I don’t know. People have said that to me recently. I don’t know if it’s true. I can’t hear it.

What was it like having such an UPFRONT, FULL-ON ROLE IN THE MOVIE,

H ig h A r t ? You play next to Ally S heedy.

I’d gone to America and was promoting

Love and Other Catastrophes [EmmaKate Croghan, 1996] with the Sundance Film Festival, and I had this ambition to stay in America and pursue work. It took me a while to find an agent, but then i got this cool agent.

They gave me this script and 1sent a tape to LA to [director] Lisa Cholodenko, because they weren’t actually looking for actors outside of New York; they didn’t have the budget for that.

Lisa really responded to the tape and wanted me to come, and I met Ally at the audition. i guess at this point I wasn’t really considering what it would be like play­ ing a lead role opposite Ally Sheedy; I was thinking that Sidney was a charac­ ter I really understood, and I kind of felt I deserved it. [Laughs.]

What parts of S idney ’s personality DID YOU IDENTIFY WITH?

What I really liked about the character in the script, and the script in general, was that they respected the audience’s intel­ ligence and didn’t piece it all together for them. The character doesn’t explain a lot of the things that she does, and yet she’s - pretty much from the first scene -putting herself in an uncomfortable position. Everytime, she’s extending herself in the world and pursuing reality from a different place to her comfort zone. I really liked that. She’s learning about herself as we are. We don’t really know who she is, and she doesn’t really know who she is, but she’s constantly learning, and I think that’s what youth is about.

Do YOU

FEEL YOU’RE LEARNING ABOUT

YOURSELF THROUGH ACTING?

I’m learning about myself, because I haven’t sat still for the past seven months. I’ve been packing and unpack-

EXACTLY YOUR TRADITIONAL MIDDLECLASS KIDS GOING TO COLLEGE.

They probably were usual middle-class kids going to college; they just weren’t doing exactly what their parents would want them to do. That was a great film, and it broke a lot of ground in Aus­ tralian film, because it was a college flick. It was about young people, it was funky and, in many ways, like a lot of the American films we’ve seen - not your cheesy American films, but your independent American cinema.

Do YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH

S om eone

INDEPENDENT CINEMA ATTHE MOMENT?

EXPERIENCED ACTOR. WHAT HAVE YOU

What

w o u l d y o u do if y o u w e r e

OFFERED A KATE WlNSLET ROLE IN A BIG BLOCKBUSTER?

ing. When you see your reality - your surroundings change so rapidly all the time - you realize you’re not this and you’re not that. Playing different char­ acters and being different people, you see how much of your personality is just constructed from childhood, or from what other people are projecting onto you. I really like pushing that.

I n t h e f il m , y o u ’ r e e x p l o r in g a l t e r ­ n a te s e x u a l it y .

D id

y o u f in d t h is a

c h a l l e n g e , c o n f r o n t in g , f u n ?

Alternate sexuality! [Laughs.]

T h a t ’s

h o w it c o m e s o u t in t h e

PROMOTIONAL LITERATURE, AS A NICE

from it. In the same light as pushing who you are, pushing the idea of your sexuality is what Sidney’s doing. I don’t know if she necessarily likes it or wants to adopt it as a lifestyle, but I think she becomes conscious that the choices she’s made in the past, or just the whole heterosexual relationship that she’s in, is as much a choice as the choice to be with a woman. So, it’s not necessarily more natural or less natural, it’s just reflected from the expectations of other people saying, “This is the kind of thing you should be doing.”

WAY OF SAYING A LESBIAN MOVIE OR

L o v e a n d O t h e r Ca t a s t r o p h e s ,

A GAY FILM.

OWN WAY, WAS ALSO BREAKING A LOT OF

What I think is really interesting about the character, and about the film, is that it causes you to think about “alternate sexuality” in a way that doesn’t distance yourself too much C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

in it s

GROUND.

In that area, or in...?

IN ITS FILMMAKING TECHNIQUES, IN THE EXPLORATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES. THEY AREN’T

years now, without doing anything else. Before that I was a high-school student who did a bit of acting, and then I was a university student who paid my rent by doing guest rôles in different things. Then Love and Other Catastrophes came out, so I did the film circuit and decided that I wanted to do Neighbours to earn some money and then pursue film overseas. So I guess it was kind of conscious, but at the same time I was open to whatever would happen.

Just take it by the horns, baby!

[Laughs.] I’m interested in working with people, obviously, who are pas­ sionate about what they do, and I’ve been lucky recently. I’ve worked with a lot of writer-directors, or with directors who have been involved in their pro­ ject for years. In fact, everyone has been a first-time director, and when you work with first-time directors, yes, you’re working with people who don’t necessarily know, but that’s good.

They don’t have habits, they’re open to things; and, at the same time, it takes a lot of time to get your first film off the ground, and their passion for that is great.

Y o u ’re

m o v in g v e r y q u ic k l y in y o u r

ACTING CAREER YOURSELF. YOU’VE MOVED A LONG WAY FROM NEIGHBOURS. HOW DID YOU COME INTO ACTING?

Neighbours, for me, was just a thing to make some money. It was never my intention to be a soap star at all; it was uncomfortable to be doing the show.

For a while it was fun, and I met some cool people, but it’s not a genre that I love. I really don’t feel it’s happened rapidly at all; I feel like I’ve worked really hard and it’s taken a longtime.

D id

y o u g o t o f il m s c h o o l , o r w e r e

YOU IN THE THEATRE WHEN YOU WERE AT SCHOOL OR UNIVERSITY?

Being an actor is something that I’ve been doing consistently for about two

l ik e

A lly S h e e d y

is a v e r y

BEEN LEARNING FROM BEING OPPOSITE LEAD WITH HER?

It’s more like an appreciation; when you’re working with someone, whether they’re experienced or not, if they know what they’re doing and if they’re very present as actors in a situation, then it reflects in your own work. If s like playing ball or something; you want to play with someone who can play.

So obviously that was of benefit to me.

If it had been someone who didn’t know the character, then the film wouldn’t be the same. She’s a great actress.

W h a t ’s

it l ik e b e in g in

Ca n n e s ? Is

it

WHAT YOU IMAGINED IT MIGHT BE?

Yes! [Laughs.] I’ve been here before.

I got off the plane and I didn’t have a visa, that was a bit difficult. I realized on the plane that you needed a visa.

I had one before, and it was like, “Oh my god, they’re not going to let me in.”

And they didn’t; they took me into cus­ tody. It was like police custody. And I’m trying to explain my plight in French, “Excusez moi, m’sieur, j’em film festival, je fais publicité. Don’t send me back to London, because if you do, the embassy’s closed.” Any­ way, Mick Jagger took over. He was sitting in there waiting, not to be harassed by crowds, because he was going back to London. He was speak­ ing French for me. And I will just say that that’s typical. It wasn’t even sur­ prising. I mean, thafs kind of what Cannes is like, I guess. @

27

T he 13 t l i Screen P ro d u cers’ A ssociation of A u stralia Conference. B y espite a world­ wide economic meltdown, attempts to impeach the President of the USA and a movie that everybody said would never make it turning out to be the most financiallysuccessful film of all time, here, in Australia, the screen production sec­ tor has enjoyed a year of reasonable stability and embraced prospects of increasing growth.

However, as the industry gathers for the 13th annual Conference of the Screen Producers’ Associa­ tion of Australia, some cautionary signs are on the horizon. Concerns over a 25 percent decline in gov­ ernment funding over the past three years are rife, and the Gonski Report continues its long haul through the legislature. And, despite the wait, the probable end-result is likely to disappoint many.

FLICs While Gonski recommended a 120 percent tax deduction for private investments in Film Licensing Investment Companies (FLICs), the Government seems committed to a 100 percent deduction, as well as a treatment of capital gains tax different to Gonski’s proposal.

Admits Nick Herd, Executive Director of SPAA, who is undertaking his second Conference:

We’re yet to see whether the reforms which the Government is introducing through the FLICs scheme will pay off in terms of encouraging a greater level of private investment.

The legislation is before a Senate Committee. How­ ever, the Liberal Government, returned to office on October 3, appears unlikely to yield on the 100 per­ cent limit on deductibility.

SPAA, nonetheless, supports a trial of FLIC, and is

28

committed to the so-called many-doors approach advanced by Gonski. Herd believes that the FLIC model, albeit with the reservations above, has

the potential to form the basis for a reasonably capitalized entity that’s investing in production across a slate of both film and television. If there’s any prospect for encouraging private investment and broadening the base of funding in the industry then it has to be explored.

It will be trialled over two years, with a cap of $20 million. A selection panel, compromising individuals with production and financing expertise, will be con­ stituted. The trial will be reviewed at the end of the two-year period. The legislation carries a provision for more than one licence to be issued, and for the Minister for Communications and the Arts not to issue all of the licences at the one time.

If the FLIC model works as a way of raising tax investment in the film industry, it is expected that 10BA will be phased out. The Government, says Herd, would have to review this at the end of the two-year period.

Herd believes there is a future for films funded under 10BA. But, he cautions,

The difficulty is that film continues to be a highrisk investment and there is a lot of competition from other sources of investment. There are a lot more sophisticated options available for private investors to put their money. But I think there will continue to be a role for totally privatelyfunded films.

The sticking point on capital gains tax concerns the zero cost base treatment of the shares. Treasury is recommending the shares be treated like any other capital gains tax, but Gonski recommended the base price be the nominal cost of shares.

Feature Development These financing issues aside, another key issue for SPAA, according to Herd, is the funding of develop­ ment. Herd is concerned at the contraction in development funding at the AFC, though he adds that,

Paul Kalina.

It’s not just a matter of throwing some more money at development, but looking at the ways in which we undertake development - particularly from a producer’s perspective, to seek ways in which the producer can spend more time in devel­ opment. There’s always a lot of pressure on producers to move projects forward, to go into production, because in the development phase it’s often difficult, unless you’re highly capitalized, to afford development. You’re in the situation where you’re scraping together funds in order to continue development for as long as possible.

Herd believes that the recent decision of the FFC to engage script assessors for feature projects reflects the problems of contracting funds for development, as well as the poor performance of a number of films in the marketplace. It’s a decision that SPAA is highly critical of.

From SPAA’s point of view, we agree that develop­ ment is an issue, but have a problem with the solution the FFC has come up with in terms of it wanting to engage in script assessment at that point of the development process.

The FFC becomes involved in projects when they’ve gone through a development process.

They’ve gone to the marketplace, they’ve got the marketplace attachments and they’re coming for­ ward with the support of the marketplace, whether they be Australian-based sales agents or interna­ tional sales agents.

The concern we have is that the FFC is coming into this process late and possibly using script assessment as a way of declining to invest in pro­ jects. We’re concerned that it changes the nature of the organization and moves the FFC more closely to the role of the executive producer rather than an investment agency.

Herd and SPAA are advocating for an industry-wide solution:

We really need for the industry to sit down and look at how we’re doing development, and how we go about getting better scripts. That’s what SPAA, the Writers’ Guild and ASDA have endeavC I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

oured to do through some of the discussions we had earlier in the year - looking at different ways of approaching development, ways of foster­ ing teams of writer/director/producers. We’d like to see a more integrated approach to develop­ ment, as well of course as having enough money there to help people through the development process.

NZ and the High Court Two significant issues that have dominated SPAA’s work over the last year have been Moral Rights and the legal challenge to the Australian content rules.

Following the decision of the High Court that New Zealand production can count toward broadcasters’ Australian content quota, the ABA has been directed by the High Court to remake the Australian Content Standards so that it is consistent with the CER Treaty obligations.

We think that the Court has presented the AJBA with a difficult if not impossible task to try to make the obligations under the CER, which are about national treatment for New Zealand per­ sons in the provision of services and making programmes, consistent with the objects of the Broadcasting Services Act, which talks about reflecting Australian identity and character on Australia’s television screens.

The industry has argued and lobbied to have the Parliament resolve the issue for the ABA by changing the Broadcasting Services Act. We were successful to the extent that a resolution to that effect was considered by the Senate in June of this year, which resulted in a tied vote with a refer­ ence to a Senate Committee which is looking at the possibility of amending the Broadcasting Services Act at the same time as the ABA’s review­ ing the standard.

We will continue to push for that legislative and diplomatic solution. We see this as a really fundamental issue about how we approach the regulation of our cultural industries. We’re argu­ ing that essentially Australia should have the same C I N E MA PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

approach as the Canadians and the Europeans to not have issues of trade liberalization confused with measures designed to encourage the devel­ opment of cultural industries.

Herd stressed that it’s not about attacking New Zealand programmes and their makers, though SPAA does take issue with the possibility that New Zealand producers may be able to sell into the local television market at discounted rates.

For New Zealand producers, Australia is a secondary market, their main production costs covered in their own domestic markets. They therefore have the same access as Australian producers would have, except that Australian producers have to find the cost of production domestically. Herd maintains that this issue must be dealt with by the ABA. “Even if you accept that there is some obligation underthe CER, it has to be on the basis of fair competition.”

Moral Rights The moral rights issue has been on the table for some time. In June and July 1998, the Government took the moral rights legislation out of the Copyright Amendments that went through Parliament because there was still no resolution in relation to the issue of how waiver was to be treated in the legislation.

SPAA argued that there needs to be in the legislation an option over negotiation of waiver.

The Australian Writers’ Guild and Australian Screen Directors Association were opposed to any form of waiver, except in relation to people who were employees.

SPAA is continuing to talk to the Guild and ASDA about a compromise proposal, with a view to an agreement amongst all the players, which includes the Guild, SPAA, ASDA, broadcasters and distribu­ tors, that can be incorporated in the legislation.

From our point of view, we recognize that Aus­ tralia has a commitment to introduce a workable moral rights régime. We want to see it work for everybody, and we also want to get this issue of moral rights resolved and off the agenda, because

I think there are more pressing issues for the industry to confront.

Overseas Guests As usual, a number of high-profile guests will be attending this year’s Conference, including director, producer and writer George Lucas, Laura Ziskin (Fox 2000), Paul Webster (Channel Four Television), Eric Fellner (Working Title), producer Gayle Ann Hurd, Wendy Palmer (Goldwyn Films) and Tony Safford (20th Century Fox).

Herd says the Conference has moved away from being solely about business issues and who’s buying what to looking at more creative aspects of producing.

Last year we had Saul Zaentz as a keynote speaker, this year George Lucas, who was attracted to come because it isn’t a Conference just about the business. It isn’t a market, although people do come to SPAA because of the opportu­ nities it provides to network and to make contacts. The formal sessions of the Conference have this emphasis on creative issues and the experiences of a whole range of producers in film and television.

Herd believes that the experiences of producers like Zaentz are highly relevant to local producers.

At last year’s Conference, a lot people were inspired by his commitment and persistence to the vision of what he wanted to make, although perhaps on a scale larger than a lot of Australian producers are used to working with. They took from that the sense that if you believe in the pro­ ject and are willing to persist with it, you can see the vision that you, your directors and writers have on a project through to the end and not compromise on that vision. I think a lot of people found that to be very inspirational.

There are similarities in each of the markets producers work; the creative elements, the busi­ ness elements, getting ideas, listening to how others in the industry work. That is how you can make your own particular project work. ®

29

Unfinished Business M ovies, C ontent an d N ew M edia. By n political terms, there were four great, catalyzing events in the ‘renaissance’ of the film industry. The first was the 1956 regulation requiring all commercials shown on Australian television to be Australian-made, a decision commonly reckoned to have created the skills base necessary for the emergence of local movie production in the 1960s.

The second event was the creation of the Australian Rim Development Corporation in 1971 (the precursor to the Australian Rim Commission).

The third was the enactment of the 10BA tax legisla­ tion in May 1981; and the last, the establishment of the Australian Rim Rnance Corporation in August 1988.

The policy framework is wearing a little thin. It is 17 years since the definition of “Australian film” was last revisited. In the interim, there has been a wave of globalization, evidenced here by the continuing, relentless talent drain to Hollywood, and the arrival of two USA studios on our shores, Warner Bros, and Fox (with a third, Paramount, waiting in the wings).

Pay-Television has landed, with its vision of ubiqui­ tous, 500-channel programming. And now the World Wide Web has begun its wholesale reconstruction of the media universe.

Looking around this landscape, as a Martian might, there are several things that stand out, to say the least. Here are three, in no particular order.

Why does an industry that prides itself on its international standing, and ‘discovers’ and develops so many talented filmmakers, play such a limited rôle once they are launched successfully in the global movie market? Why don’t we get their repeat busi­ ness, their big pictures, to make, own and distribute to the world?

At a time of runaway media innovation, whose prospective impact on humanity has been compared, a little breathlessly but probably accurately, to the

30

David Court.

‘capture of fire’, why is there so little provision for the emerging new formats: the 90-second animation; the four-minute documentary; the n-second interac­ tive ‘work’? Why are we still stuck on the ‘feature film’ and the television hour and half-hour?

With so many movies made (more than a thou­ sand features since the late 1960s1) and so much talent, infrastructure and accumulated expertise, why do Australian movies still lose so much money?

To break it down, how much of the loss is a cultural deficit - the cost of localism - and how much a sys­ temic condition of the movie business?

These few questions, if we could answer them, might furnish us with intelligent policies for going forward.

The film industry is a puzzle, not only for Mar­ tians. On the one hand, there are the losses and the continuing need of subsidies, and, on the other, the evident success of Australian actors, designers, directors, DOPs, editors and writers in the global movie business - and their disproportionate repre­ sentation in Hollywood. There is also the evidence of efficiency. Frame for frame, Sydney movie production costs are reckoned to be 30 percent cheaper than Los Angeles’. So, if we fail, it is not for want of talent or efficiency.

Here, it is instructive to compare the average prof­ itability of Australian and American movies. In Australia, as noted, the average return to copyright owners is a loss of about 50 cents in the dollar (ignoring the opportunity costs). In America, for the Hollywood studios - wait for it - the average return on copyright is ‘break-even’: that is, a mere return of capital with no interest or dividend.2 For the studios, break-even equates to a capital loss of about 15 percent per annum, this being the minimum return on funds necessary for BBB corpo­ rate respectability. Multiplied by the normal economic lifespan of a movie, which is rarely less than three years, and commonly four or five, it sug­

gests an effective loss in the order of 50 to 100 per­ cent - not much better than the crude losses of Australian movies.

Of course, the idea that Hollywood is grinning and bearing its losses, while it undertakes what is possi­ bly the most successful cultural invasion in history, is plainly fatuous.3 Far from losing money, Hollywood has been one of the great engines of the American economy.

In the movie business, the normal distribution of the retail dollar is 90 cents to the middle-man and 10 cents to the creators and copyright owners — paid last, after everyone else has recouped their costs and made a profit. For their creators and copyright owners, movies are a lousy bet: first to commit and last to recoup. But they generate tremendous upstream profits for the middle-men, for every agent and distributor with some proprietary loch on the long river flowing from the source of creation to the mouth of consumption.4 The dilemma of the film industry is that despite its exemplary performance against almost every known industry measure - hits, awards, talent, skill-base, cost-efficiency-its return on investment to copyright investors is below investment grade, and propped up by subsidies. The movies may be jewels, but the copyright is junk.

The consequence of this one failure is a capital drought. There is no money to fund the big pictures, no money for the uncontemplated formats of the new media, and precious little for experimentation.

Addressing this failure is the key to the future of ‘Australian content’. We have to create a market in copyright instruments that is deeper, more transpar­ ent, more equitable and more efficient than the present market - or else resign ourselves to the colonizing power of the middle-men and the shrink­ ing viability of local culture.

Much of this reform can be achieved within the present policy framework. We have a

51

CI N E MA PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

BACK

SEE TEA R -O U T

Number 1 (January 1974) David Williamson, Ray Harryhausen, Peter-Weir, Antony Ginnane, Gillian Armstrong, Ken G. Hall, The Cars that Ate Paris Number 2 (April 1974) Censorship, Frank Moorhouse, Nicolas Roeg, Sandy Harbutt, Rim under Allende, Between the Wars, Alvin Purple Number 3 (July 1974) Richard Brennan, John Papadopolous, Willis O'Brien, William Friedkin, The True Story of Eskimo N ell Number 4 (December 1974) Bill Shepherd, Cliff Green, Werner Herzog, Between Wars, Petersen, A Salute to the Great MacArthy Number 5 (March-April 1975) Albie Thoms on surf movies, Charles Chauvel filmogra­ phy, Ross Wood, Byron Haskin, Brian Probyn, Inn of the Damned Number 6 SOLD OUT Number 7 SOLD OUT Number 8 (March-April 1976) Pat Lovell, Richard Zanuck, Sydney Pollack, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Phillip Adams, Don McAlpine, Don's Party Number 9 (June-July 1976) Milos Forman, Max

Lemon, Miklos Jancso, Luchino Visconti, Caddie, The Devil's Playground Number 10 (Sept-Oct 1976) Nagisa Oshima, Philippe Mora, Krzysztof Zanussi, Marco Ferreri, Marco Bellocchio, gay cinema Number 11 (January 1977) Emile De Antonio, Jill Robb, Samuel Z. Arkoff, Roman Polanski, Saul Bass, The Picture Show Man Number 12 (April 1977) Ken Loach, Tom Haydon, Donald Sutherland, Bert Deling, Piero Tosi, John Dankworth, John Scot, Days of Hope, The Getting of Wisdom Number 13 (July 1977) Louis Malle, Paul Cox, John Power, Jeanine Seawell, Peter Sykes, Bernardo Bertolucci, In Search ofAnna Number 14 (October 1977) Phil Noyce, Matt Carroll, Eric Rohmer, Terry Jackman, John Huston, Luke's Kingdom, The Last Wave, Blue Fire Lady Number 15 (January 1978) Tom Cowan, Truffaut, John Faulkner, Stephen Wallace, the Taviani brothers, Sri Lankan film, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith Number 16 (AprilJune 1978) Gunnel Lindblom, John Duigan, Steven Spielberg, Tom Jeffrey, The Africa Project, Swedish cinema. Dawn!, Patrick Number 17 (AugSept 1978) Bill Bain, Isabelle Huppert, Brian May, Polish cinema, Newsfront The Night the Prowler Number 18 (Oct-Nov 1978) John Lamond, Sonia Borg, Alain Tanner, Indian cinema, Dimboola, Cathy's Child Number 19 (Jan-Feb 1979) Antony Ginnane, Stanley Hawes, Jeremy Thomas, Andrew Sarris, sponsored documentaries, Blue Fin Number 20 (March-April 1979) Ken Cameron, Claude Lelouch, Jim Sharman, French film. My Brilliant Career Number 21 (May-June 1979) Vietnam on Film, the Cantrills, French cinema, Mad

Max, Snapshot The Odd Angry Shot, Franklin on Hitchcock Number 22 (July-Aug 1979) Bruce Petty, Luciana Arrighi, Albie Thoms, Stax, Alison's Birthday Number 23 SOLD OUT Number 24 (DecJan 1980) Brian Trenchard-Smith, Ian Holmes, Arthur Hiller, Jerzy Toeplitz, Brazilian cinema, Harlequin Number 25 (Feb-March 1980) David Puttnam, Janet Strickland, Everett de Roche, Peter Faiman, Chain Reaction, Stir Number 26 (AprilMay 1980) Charles H. Joffe, Jerome Heilman, Malcolm Smith, Australian nationalism, Japanese cinema, Peter W eir, Water Under the Bridge Number 27 (June-July 1980) Randal Kleiser, Peter Yeldham, Donald Richie, obituary of Hitchcock, NZ film industry, Grendel Grendel Grendel Number 28 (Aug-Sept 1980) Bob Godfrey, Diane Kurys, Tim Burns, John O'Shea, Bruce Beresford, Bad Timing, Roadgames Number 29 (Oct-Nov 1980) Bob Ellis, Uri Windt, Edward Woodward, Lino Brocka, Stephen Wallace, Philippine cinema. Cruising, The Last Outlaw Number 30 (Dec 1980-Jan 1981) Sam Fuller, 'Breaker" Morant rethought, Richard Lester, Canada supplement, The Chain Reaction, Blood Money Number 31 (March-April 1981) Bryan Brown, looking in on Dressed to Kill, The Last Outlaw, Fatty Finn, Windows', lesbian as villain, the new generation Number 32 (May-June 1981) Judy David, David Williamson, Richard Rush, Swinburne, Cuban cinema, Public Enemy Number One, The Alternative Number 33 (June-July 1976) John Duigan, the new tax concessions, Robert Altman, Tomas Gutierrez Alea, Edward Fox, Gallipoli, Roadgames Numbers 34 and 35 SOLD OUT Number 36 (February 1982) Kevin Dobson, Brian Kearney, Sonia Hofmann, Michael Rubbo, Blow

Out, ‘Breaker" Morant, Body Heat The Man from Snowy River Number 37 (April 1982) Stephen MacLean, Jacki Weaver, Carlos Saura, Peter Ustinov, women in drama, Monkey Grip Number 38 (June 1982) Geoff Burrowes, George Miller, James

C I N E M A PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

Ivory, Phil Noyce, Joan Fontaine, Tony Williams, law and insurance, Far East Number 39 (August 1982) Helen Morse, Richard Mason, Anja Breien, David Millilkan, Derek Granger, Norwegian cine­ ma, National Rim Archive, We of the Never Never Number 40 (October 1982) Henri Safran, Michael Ritchie, Pauline Kael, Wendy Hughes, Ray Barrett,

M y Dinner with Andre, The Return of Captain Invincible Number 41 (December 1982) Igor Auzins, Paul Schrader, Peter Tammer, Liliana Cavani, Colin Higgins, The Year of Living Dangerously Number 42 (March 1983) Mel Gibson, John Waters, Ian Pringle, Agnes Varda, copyright, Strikebound, The Man from Snowy River Number 43 (May-June 1983) Sydney Pollack, Denny Lawrence, Graeme Clifford, The Dism issal, Sumner Locke Elliott's Careful He Might Hear You Number 44-45 (April 1984) David Stevens, Simon Wincer, Susan Lambert, a personal history of Cinema Papers, Street Kids Number 46 (July 1984) Paul Cox, Russell Mulcahy, Alan J. Pakula, Robert Duvall, Jeremy Irons, Eureka Stockade, Waterfront The Boy in the Bush, A Woman Suffers, Street Hero Number 47 (August 1984) Richard Lowenstein, Wim Wenders, David Bradbury, Sophia Turkiewicz, Hugh Hudson, Robbery Under Arms Number 48 (Oct-Nov 1984) Ken Cameron, Michael Pattinson, Jan Sardi, Yoram Gross, Bodyline, The Slim Dusty Movie Number 49 (December 1984) Alain Resnais, Brian McKenzie, Angela Punch McGregor, Ennio Morricone, Jane Campion, horror films, Niel Lynne Number 50 (FebMarch 1985) Stephen Wallace, Ian Pringle,

Walerian Borowczyk, Peter Schreck, Bill Conti, Brian May, The Last Bastion, Bliss Number 51 (May 1985) Lino Brocka, Harrison Ford, Noni Hazlehurst, Dusan Makavejev, Emoh Ruo, Winners, Morris West's The Naked Country, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Robbery Under Arms Number 52 (July 1985) John Schlesinger, Gillian Armstrong, Alan Parker, soap operas, TV news, film advertising. Don't Call Me Girlie, For Love Alone, Double Sculls Number 53 (September 1985) Brian Brown, Nicolas Roeg, Vincent Ward, Hector Crawford, Emir Kusturica, NZ film and TV, Return to Eden Number 54 (November 1985) Graeme Clifford, Bob Weis, John Boorman, Menahem Golan, rock videos, Wills and Burke, The Great Bookie Robbery, The Lancaster M iller Affair Number 55 (January 1986) James Stewart, Debbie Byrne, Brian Thompson, Paul Verhoeven, Derek Meddings, tie-in marketing, The Right Hand Man, Birdsville Number 56 (March 1986) Fred Schepisi, Dennis O'Rourke, Brian Trenchard-Smith, John Hargreaves, Dead-end Drive-in, The More Things Change ..., Kangaroo, Tracy Number 57 SOLD OUT Number 58 (July 1986) Woody Allen, Reinhard Hauff, Orson Welles, the Cinémathèque Française, The Fringe Dwellers, Great Expectations: The Untold Story, The Last Frontier Number 59 (September 1986) Robert Altman, Paul Cox, Lino Brocka, Agnes Varda, the AFI Awards, The Movers Number 60 (November 1986) Australian television.

Franco Zeffirelli, Nadia Tass, Bill Bennett, Dutch cinema, movies by microchip, Otello Number 61 (January 1987) Alex Cox, Roman Polanski, Philippe Mora, Martin Arminger, film in South Australia, Dogs in Space, Howling III Number 62 (March 1987) Screen violence, David Lynch, Cary Grant, ASSA conference, production barometer, film finance. The Story of the Kelly Gang Number 63 (May 1987) Gillian Armstrong, Antony Ginnane, Chris Haywood, Elmore Leonard, Troy Kennedy Martin, The Sacrifice, Landslides, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Jilted Number 64 (July 1987) Nostalgia, Dennis Hopper, Mel Gibson, Vladimir Osherov, Brian Trenchard Smith, chartbusters, Insatiable Number 65 (September 1987) Angela Carter, Wim Wenders, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Derek Jarman, Gerald L'Ecuyer, Gustav Hasford, AFI Awards, Poor Man's Orange Number 66 (November 1987) Australian screenwriters, cinema and China, James Bond: part 1, James Clayden, Video, De Laurentiis, New World, The Navigator, Who's That Girl Number 67 (January 1988) John Duigan, James Bond: part 2, George Miller, Jim Jarmusch, Soviet cinema, women in film, 70mm, filmmaking in Ghana, The Year M y Voice Broke, Send A Gorilla Number 68 (March 1988) Martha Ansara, Channel 4, Soviet cinema: part 2, Jim McBride, Glamour,

Ghosts Of The Civil Dead, Feathers, Ocean, Ocean Number 69 (May 1988) Sex, death and family films,

A Guide to What’s in Stock TO ORDER Cannes '88, film composers, Vincent Ward, David Parker, Ian Bradley, Pleasure Domes Number 70 (November 1988) Rim Australia, Gillian Armstrong, Fred Schepisi, Wes Craven, John Waters, Al Clark, Shame screenplay part 1 Number 71 (January 1989) Yahoo Serious, David Cronenberg, 1988 in retrospect, film sound. Last Temptation of Christ, Philip Brophy Number 72 (March 1989) Little Dorrit, Australian sci-fi movies, 1988 mini-series, Aromarama, Celia, La dolce Vita, women and Westerns Number 73 (May 1989) Cannes '89, Dead

Calm, Franco Nero, Jane Campion, The Prisoner of St. Petersburg, Frank Pierson, Pay TV Number 74 (July 1989) The Delinquents, Australians in Hollywood, Chinese cinema, Philippe Mora, Yuri Sokol, Twins, Ghosts... of the Civil Dead, Shame screenplay Number 75 (September 1989) Sally Bongers, the teen movie, animated, Edens Lost, Pet Sematary, Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader, Ed Pressman Number 76 (November 1989) Simon Wincer, Quigley Down Under, Kennedy Miller, Terry Hayes, Bangkok Hilton, John Duigan, Flirting, Romero, Dennis Hopper, Frank Howson, Ron Cobb Number 77 (January 1990) John Farrow mono­ graph, Blood Oath, Dennis Whitburn, Brian Williams, Don McLennan, Breakaway, "Crocodile " Dundee overseas Number 78 (March 1990) The Crossing, Ray Argali, Return Home, Peter Greenaway and The Cook ..., Michel Ciment, Bangkok Hilton, Barlow and Chambers Number 79 SOLD OUT Number 80 (August 1990) Cannes report, Fred Schepisi career interview, Peter Weir and Greencard, Pauline Chan, Gus Van Sant and Drugstore Cowboy, German stories Number 81 (December 1990) Ian Pringle Isabelle Eberhardt, Jane Campion, An Angel At M y Table, Martin Scorsese and Goodfellas, Presumed Innocent Number 82 (March 1991) The Godfather Part III, Barbet Schroeder, Reversal of Fortune, Black Robe, Raymond Hollis Longford, Backsliding Number 83 (May 1991) Australia at Cannes, Gillian Armstrong, The Last Days at Chez Nous, The Silence of the Lambs, Flynn, Dead to the World, Anthony Hopkins, Spotswood Number 84 (August 1991) James Cameron and Terminator2: Judgement Day, Dennis O'Rourke, Good Woman of Bangkok, Susan Dermody, Breathing Under Water, Cannes report, FFC Number 85 (November 1991) Jocelyn Moorhouse, Proof, Blake Edwards,

Switctr, Callie Khouri: Thelma & Louise; indepen­ dent exhibition and distribution, FFC part 2 Number 86 (January 1992) Romper Stamper, The Nostradamus Kid, Greenkeeping, Eightball, Kathryn Bigelow, HDTV and Super 16 Number 87 (March 1992) Multi-cultural cinema, Steven Spielberg, Hook, George Negus and The Red Unknown, Richard Lowenstein, Say a Little Prayer, Jewish cinema Number 88 (May-June 1992) Strictly Ballroom, Hammers Over the Anvil, Daydream Believer, Wim Wender's Until The End of the World, Satyajit Ray Number 89 (August 1992) Cannes '92, David Lynch, Vitali Kanievski, Gianni Amelio, Fortress, film-literature connections, teen movies debate Number 90 (October 1992) The Last Days of Chez Nous, Ridley Scott: 1492, Stephen Elliott: Frauds, Giorgio Mangiamele, Cultural Differences and Ethnicity in Australian Cinema, John Frankenheimer's Year of the Gun Number 91 (January 1993) Clint Eastwood and Unforgiven; Raul Ruiz, George Miller and Gross Misconduct, David Elfick's Love in Limbo, On the Beach, Australia's first films: part 1 Number 92 (April 1993) Reckless Kelly, George Miller and Lorenzo's Oil, Megan Simpson, Alex, The Lover, women in film and television, Australia's first films: part 2 Number 93 (May 1993) Jane Campion and The Piano, Laurie Mclnnes and Broken Highway, Tracey Moffatt and Bedevil, Lightworks and Avid, Australia's first films: part 3 Number 94 (August 1993) Cannes '94, Steve Buscemi and Reservoir Dogs, Paul Cox, Michael Jenkin's The Heartbreak Kid, 'Coming of Age' films, Australia's first films: part 4 Number 95 (October I993) Lynn-Marie Milbum's Memories & Dreams, Franklin on the science of previews. The Custodian, documentary supple­ ment, Tom Zubricki, John Hughes, Australia's first films: part 5 Number 96 (December 1993) Queensland issue: overview of film in Queensland, early Queensland cinema, Jason Donovan and Donald Crombie, Rough Diamonds, Australia's first films: part 6 Number 97-8 (April 1994) 20th Anniversary double issue with New Zealand sup­

plement, Simon Wincer and Lightning Jack, Richard Franklin on leaving America, Australia's first films: part 7 Number 99 (June 1994) Krzysztof Kieslowski, Ken G. Hall Tribute, cinematography supplement, Geoffrey Burton, Pauline Chan and Traps, Australia's first films: Part 8 Number 100 (August 1994) Cannes '94, NSW supplement, Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddah, The Sum of Us, Spider & Rose, film and the digital world, Australia's first films: part 9 Number 101 (October 1994) Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Victorian sup­ plement, P. J. Hogan and M uriel's Wedding, Ben Lewin and Lucky Break, Australia's first films: Part 9 Number 102 (December 1994) Once Were Warriors, films we love. Back of Beyond, Cecil Holmes, Lindsay Anderson, Body M elt AFC supple­ ment, Spider & Rose, Australia's Rrst Rims: Part 10 Number 103 (March 1995) Little Women, Gillian Armstrong, Queensland supplement, Geoffrey Simpson, Heavenly Creatures, Eternity, Australia's First Rims Number 104 (June 1995) Cannes Mania,

Billy's Holiday, Angel Baby, Epsilon, Vacant Possession, Richard Franklin, Australia's Rrst Films: Part 12 Number 105 (August 1995) Mark Joffe's Cosi, Jacqueline McKenzie, Slawomir Idziak, Cannes Review, Gaumont Retrospective, Marie Craven, Dad & Dave Number 106 (October 1995) Gerard Lee and John Maynard on A ll Men Are Liars, Sam Neil, The Small Man, Under the Gun, AFC low budget seminar Number 107 (December 1995) George Miller and Chris Noonan talk about Babe, New trends in criticism, The rise of boutique cinema Number 108 (February 1996) Conjuring John Hughes' What I Have Written, Cthulu, The Top 100 Australian Rims, Nicole Kidman in To Die For Number 109 (April 1996) Rachel Griffiths runs the gamut, Toni Collette and Cosi, Sundance Rim Festival, Michael Tolkin, Morals and the Mutoscope Number 110 (June 1996) Rolf de Heer travels to Cannes, Clara Law's new home, Shirley Barrett's Love Serenade, Richard Franklin Number 111 (August 1996) Scott Hicks and Shine, The Three Chinas, Trusting Christopher Doyle, Love and Other Catastrophes Number 112 (October 1996) Lawrence Johnston's Life, Return of the Mavericks, Queensland Supplement Part 1, Sighting the Unseen, Richard Lowenstein Number 113 (December 1996) Peter Jackson's The Frighteners, SPAA-AFI supplement, Lee Robinson, Sunday Too Far Away, Hotel de Love, Children of the Revolution Number 114 (February 1997) Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Dean Cundey, SPAA: The Aftermath, Idiot Box, Zone 39 Number 115 (April 1997) John Seale and The English Patient, Newsfront, The Castle, Ian Baker, Robert Krasker Number 116 (May 1997) Cannes '97 Preview, Samantha Lang's The Well, Kiss or Kill, Phillip Noyce and The Saint, Heaven's Burning.

Number 117 (June 1997) Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz talk to James Sherlock, Monica Pellizzari, Aleka dosen't live here anymore, The Man from Kangaroo Number 118 (July 1997) Terry Rawlings, Frans Vandenburg and Ken Sallows, Low-budget independent filmmaking, Stephen Amis' Alive Tribe, SMPTE '97 Number 119 (August 1997) Ben Mendelsohn: Home Town Boy, Cannes 50th International du Rim asks Is Cinema Dead?, Gregor Nicholas' Broken English Number 120 (October 1997) Miranda Otto, Frank Moorhouse, Two Studios and a World of Difference Inbetween, Hawks and Ford Retrospective Number 121 (November 1997) LA Confidential's Demon Dogs, Stephan Elliot at Cannes, Exile in Sarajevo, Japanese independent film Number 122 (December 1997) Score! Cezary Skubiszewski, David Hirshfelder and Eric Serra, Mandy W alker All in a Days Work, New Zealand film Number 123 (March 1998) Matt Day, A Six-Pack of Talent Michael Winterbottom's Exile in Sarajevo, Young filmmakers get Loud Number 124 (May 1998) Alex Proyas' Dark City, Peter Jackson's nightmare, Kerry Fox, Festival of Australian Rim Number 125 (June 1998) Cannes '98 Preview, Head On, Rolf de Heer's Dance Me to M y Song, John Ruane's senti­ mental comedies, SBSI, Crakers Number 126 (August 1998) Craig Monahan's The Interview, Trawling the Net, Olivier Assayas, Cannes '98 Number 127 (October 1998) Peter Weir and The Truman Show, Louis Nowra: Images on a Wall, G aumont British retrospe ctive

31

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Market Review In an ever-ad ap tin g m ark etplace, two new com panies detail their respective philosophies: Entertain m en t Fin an ce G roup (financing the in dustry): Scant)ox A u stralia P acific (production an d distribution). he formation of the Enter­ tainment Finance Group earlier this year signalled the arrival of an alternative funding source for the local entertainment industry.

The Entertainment Finance Group (EFG) is a Melbourne-based company acting as the local represen­ tative of Imperial Bank.

Imperial Bank, which has its head office in Los Ange­ les, is a world leader in entertainment finance. In 1997, Imperial Bank financed more films than any other private financing organization in the world.

According to Justin Pearce, Executive Director of EFG,

the distributor. In doing so, EFG will tap into Imperi­ al’s extensive historical database which details the previous payments histories of distributors.

There is no upper limit on the dollarvalue of pre­ sale agreements that will be considered. Producers are not required to provide collateral security, such as the family home, in order to finance against a bankable pre-sale agreement.

able will depend upon such things as cast, storyline, director, producer and budget.”

Other Products

Pre-sale finance is debt finance secured against pre-sale agreements (also known as minimum guar­ antees or distribution guarantees) struck with territorial distributors. EFG assesses the wording of the pre-sale contract and the financial standing of

Gap Finance From the perspective of the local industry, the most interesting type of finance offered is gap finance.

Gap finance enables producers and distributors to secure debt finance against a project’s potential rev­ enue. This form of finance is currently only available for film and television projects.

Typically, some territorial rights to a film or televi­ sion project (e.g., Germany, Australia, etc.) would be pre-sold in order to attract funding. The remaining/unsold territories are kept for exploitation at a later date when a more complete product is available. Those unsold territories are security for a gap finance loan. Revenues from those territories will be used to repay the loan. In a standard structure, once the gap finance loan is repaid, further revenues revert to the distributor/sales agent, the producer and equity investors in the ordinary course.

EFG looks to place a value upon unsold territories as security for gap finance by reviewing the elements of the particular project and the parties involved.

Pearce explains, “The amount of gap finance avail­

Equity investors in any project can make use of the Bank’s revenue collection service. The Bank uses its industry presence to assist in the collection of con­ tractual payments from territorial distributors.

Larger companies can use film, television and multimedia receivables as a borrowing base for a line of credit. Those companies looking to expand via acquisi­ tion can also secure acquisition finance against the film, television and multimedia assets of target companies.

EFG has projects currently in the works in each of the film, television and multimedia industries.

Some publicly-known examples of projects that have secured pre-sales and/or gap finance through alternative sources are: • What Becomes of the Broken Hearted, sequel to Once Were Warriors, produced by Sequel Produc­ tions and starring Temuera Morrison as Jake; • Komodo, produced by Scanbox Asia Pacific Ltd, with special effects by the team who created MouseHunt; • Muggers, starring Matt Day and Jason Barry, produced by David Redman and distributed by Winchester Films; and • 5 LC Punk, produced by Sam Maydew and Peter Ward, and distributed by Beyond Films Ltd. The Entertainment Finance Group can be contacted on (61.3) 9614 4121.

perating out of its Collins Street, Melbourne, office, Scanbox Asia Pacific Limited (SAPL) a subsidiary of Scanbox Danm ark- has quickly established itself in the business of producing low-cost commercial films with a clear action, adventure/thriller focus with budgets under US$10 million.

Scanbox films are designed primarily, but not exclusively, for release directly to international Pay Television, video and free-to-air television. General manager, Devesh Chetty, is 30 years old. With a strong line-up of films on the slate, he is confident of a profitable and exciting future for the company.

In September 1998, SAPL announced an end of financial year net profit of A$5.8 million. Following twelve months of rapid expansion, SAPL is the second most profitable entertainment software company operating in Australia.

At the same time, SAPL announced it is handling the international distribution of Sample People, a feature starring Kylie Minogue, which begins princi­ pal photography in Adelaide in early November.

SAPL is 51 percent owned by Scanbox Danmark.

Recent developments within the Scanbox group has led to SAPL undertaking some of the higher-budget film production activities with no risk to SAPL beyond US$3 million.

The companies also recently restructured their dis­ tribution activities and now Scanbox owns 50 percent of Scanbox International, a global film distributor. In November 1997, SAPL also acquired the Cannon and 21st Century film libraries, giving the company access to and total copyright of 132 feature films. Earlier this year, SAPL established a new USA-based home enter­ tainment company, Sterling Entertainment. This is an equal joint venture with the Canadian listed company, Lion’s Gate Films Inc. Sterling Entertainment is one of only four video distributors operating across the entire USA. This move vertically integrates SAPL’s business down to retail level in the world’s largest rental market, valued at US$6.5 billion per year.

Generally SAPL films are not destined for largescale cinema release. The company, therefore, does not compete in the high-risk box-office film business dominated by large Hollywood studios. SAPL’s strat­ egy is to produce profitable films and retain total copyright ownership.

In the past twelve months, SAPL has delivered four feature films: Sanctuary, Post Mortem, Late Last Night

and Foreign Fields. Over the next year, the company has plans to increase its output to twelve films, having confirmed: Komodo: The Living Terror, to be directed

by Academy Award-winner Michael Lanteri; New Blood, to be directed by Michael Hurst and filmed in Canada; and Sample People. Additionally, the com­ pany recently acquired the international distribution rights to the Australian police thriller, Redball.

With increased production output, strengthened distribution and a lean management team, SAPL looks forward to extending its involvement in the Australian film industry in the future. Scanbox can be contacted on (61.3) 9614 6111. ©

Our mandate is to provide Australian and New Zealand producers and distributors of film, televi­ sion and multimedia product with an alternative source of funding and access to a large knowledge base.

The two main forms of finance available are Pre-sale Finance and Gap Finance.

Pre-sale Finance

C I N E MA PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

33

Moral Rights T h e story so fa r an d where to from here? By L is a French. ustralian writers recently took to the streets for the first time in 70 years.

The issue was moral rights without a waiver.

Moral rights are a hotly-debated topic within the film industry and else­ where in the arts in Australia (although it would be true to say that other sections of the arts have been strangely inert in their protest). Personally, I’ve recently participated in a battle to save the largest glass ceiling in the world, the hand-made Leonard French ceiling at the National Gallery of Victoria. I was appalled to discover last year that the Gallery was not only proposing dismantling it to flip the orientation, to place it in a glass galleria similar to the Chadstone shopping complex (where the impact of the ceiling, which relies on a vault-like space, would be lost), but it had not even consulted with the artist prior to mak­ ing the announcement. The National Trust and fans of the ceiling won this battle to preserve it in-situ; this was a battle which might not have been necessary if moral rights legislation existed.

In a joint media release on 2 July 1998, Senator Alston and the Attorney-General Daryl Williams announced that provisions to establish moral rights (in the Copyright Amendment Bill) would be with­ drawn from the Bill before the Senate to establish moral rights. They also gave an undertaking that a Bill on moral rights will be reintroduced before the end of 1998, “following further consultations with interested parties to resolve differences on the waiver of the rights”. The withdrawal (and the rethink it implies) is good news for pro-moral rights campaigners, given that Senator Alston was quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald as saying, “moral rights in film were inappropriate in a commercial, collaborative art form such as film”1.

To waiver or not to waiver is not the question according to the Australian Writers’ Guild, Australian Screen Directors Association (ASDA) and the Labor Government. Bob McMullan, the then-Shadow Minis­ ter for Industrial Relations, Finance and the Arts, released a statement stating that, “On balance, we have concluded that the loss of rights to artists is too great a price to pay against the uncertain risk to industry investment.”2 At the Moral Rights forum held at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), screenwriter Jan Sardi said that there was no value in legislation which

34

does not safeguard artistic and cultural integrity, and that the idea of a waiver offered ‘Claytons’ legislation which betrays the community at large.

The legal foundation for the protection of moral rights is the Berne Convention. In 1886, a gathering of artists, bureaucrats and legislators convened in Berne, Switzerland. This meeting resulted in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, a raft of rights which was to be written into the laws of the participating nations. Australia has been a signatory to the Berne convention since 1928. Moral rights specifically give the artist the right to recogni­ tion (paternity) and the right to integrity in a work (although other rights are sometimes claimed).

In his Cinema Papers article on moral rights3, Aus­ tralian producer-director John B. Murray said that:

The essence of moral rights is a reflection of the Declaration of Human Rights; Article 27 (2): Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interest resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.4 At the Sydney Film Festival, Ian David quoted the Copyright Council, saying that it provides,

a recognition that a work is an extension of the creator’s personality, and as such both the work and the creator’s relationship to the work must be acknowledged and respected.

Moral rights recognize that there is more than a causal link between the author or artist and the work s/he creates. Whilst Australian copyright law recognizes and protects the author’s economic rights (in relation to reproduction, publication, performance, broadcast, etc.), it does not recognize the author’s intentions and his/her relationship to the work. The spirit behind moral rights is to protect the artist’s work so that it is seen as it was intended, and that it is not mutilated or used inappropriately. Ian Collie, Executive Director of ASDA, has said that,

Art has always compromised itself with commerce.

But there are limits - in particular where a work is released into the marketplace which misleads con­ sumers into thinking that the altered work is the actual work or that it has been endorsed by the director.5 Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has described the impor­ tance of moral rights in the following way:

With moral rights protection, when an audience sees a film that I’ve written, whether it is today or in 5 0 years, they will know they are seeing the work as I want them to see it.6 At the MIFF forum, Jan Sardi gave an example of an inappropriate use, quoted by Geoffrey Atherden, the writer of Mother and Son. If someone wanted to edit it to promote euthanasia, moral rights legislation

would allow Atherden to stop it. This is a basic tenet of moral rights: that the work can’t be altered without the artist’s approval. In this way, the artist is able to act as a protector of cultural integrity or, in fact, as a trustee for the public.

A film called The Iron Curtain was made in the USA and the producers used music by Shostakovich, Prokofieff and others without permission - USSR citi­ zens didn’t have copyright protection in the U S A but acknowledged them in the credits. The musicians sought an injunction (which was unsuccessful in the USA), because they felt libelled given that the film’s theme was objectionable and unsympathetic to their political ideology.7 Another American example was the playing of Fred Schepisi’s Evil Angels at a faster speed by a television network to fit a particular time slot.

The complexity of moral rights creates great prob­ lems for all involved, especially on collective works such as films. Sixty-seven countries grant moral rights to writers and directors. The Screen Producers’ Association of Australia has had quite a win in that Australia is the only country out of the 67 (except Canada) where the producer has been put into legis­ lation as author. Phillip Adams describes this as being like suggesting that, “Sotheby’s should be deemed the painter of van Gogh’s Irises and Christies’ of Monet’s Waterlilies.”8Although SPAA claims to support moral rights9, it has also argued for a waiver which would, in effect, be a step back from the rights a producer currently has under common law (where an author may be able to bring actions for defamation or breach of contract when his/her integrity is damaged). Australian Writers Guild Presi­ dent Mac Gudgeon has said that a waiver is contrary to the spirit of moral rights and that:

A waiver means that the writer and director get moral rights but then waive them, effectively leav­ ing the producer holding the rights. This is akin to granting free speech, then prosecuting anyone who exercises that right.10 Just who should be regarded as the author has been the subject of some dispute. Writers have had to bat­ tle to be included as authors. Previously in Cinema Papers, John B. Murray offered a useful discussion on who the author is and describes him/her as the creator, as the “one who conceptualizes, implements and governs the execution of his or her idea in a cho­ sen medium” and “predominantly determines the content, nature and style of the expression to be realized in physical/material form”11.

The industry has worked this year on a consent framework for cinematograph films (a kind of self­ regulation), where within Australia, on a case-by-case basis, authors may consent to changes in the work for time-slot requirements, advertisements, to C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

accommodate broadcasting law and avoid breaches of it, and to make foreign-language, in-flight or pro­ motional versions. Other alterations would require the author’s consent. This was not seen as ideal, but as a compromise position for all parties. However, after months of negotiation, this agreement fell through following further lobbying by SPAA, FACTS, television networks (commercial, pay and govern­ ment) and a new player, Fox Studios Australia, which, according to Gudgeon, “ha[s] been instrumental in the campaign to return to the waiver”12. In the USA, writers don’t have moral rights and American studios could be seen to have a vested interest in applying pressure to ensure Australian writers don’t get moral rights, because ultimately American writers might go after them. In fact, The Canberra Times reported that the Writers Guild of America West has supported Aus­ tralian writers.13 The problem now is that agreement has to be nutted out again so that the Bill can go before the Senate.

At the MIFF forum, Chris Lovell, a senior commer­ cial partner of Holding Redlich, made a useful attempt to summarize the current positions on moral rights. He said that what was in dispute was whether the entity that actually produces the film can seek a waiver of moral rights from the people who own them.

At the same forum, writer Michael Brindley put it that the producer’s view is that s/he has paid for it and, therefore, they should be able to do what they see fit, despite the fact that it is the writer and direc­ tor whose work is misrepresented to the world.

Writer Jan Sardi described it in the following terms: the writer may spend years writing the production, the government funds it in the recognition of the cultural significance of Australian stories, the production might also get government funding on the same basis and Australians spend twelve months making it. The producer takes it to markets and festivals (frequently also with government money) and a foreign buyer can take it and do anything with it without consultation with the author nor regard for the time, effort, govern­ ment money and cultural content. Ian David illustrated this at the Sydney Film Festival, saying that without moral rights owners might do whatever they liked, and gave the following example of intellectual chauvinism: a Japanese billionaire recently bought an impression­ ist master so he could have it buried with him.

At MIFF, Lovell summarized the two sides of the debate. He said the producers have argued that film production is an industry where the creative team are but one link in the food chain and that they are beholden to the market (television networks, film distributors, etc.). According to SPAA, that market won’t accept programmes where moral rights are attached. While Lovell described this as the current

position, he agreed with Brindley’s argument that this isn’t going to be SPAA’s final position and it will generally wear what it has to and may well come around to a different view.

This can perhaps be illustrated by the fact that, in April 1998, the Nine Network allowed a moral rights clause for writer Mary Morris on Misery Guts. Lovell stated that in a very competitive industry, where around 85 percent of English-speaking product is produced by one country, the USA (which does not have moral rights), the Australian industry will be put at a competitive disadvantage. Lovell stated that the UK, Canada and New Zealand have waiver provisions and the USA has no moral rights whatsoever. He said that producers say the rights in a work, such as in the script, are negotiable and why shouldn’t moral rights be in the same position? They say the waiver does no more than allow negotiation.

This final point is all made more complex by the fact that moral rights may extend across the entire film and television spectrum, and a director or writer of a television commercial might claim rights. The AWG has claimed this is a smokescreen to induce unrealistic panic, but it does illustrate how wide the issue is. However, it should be noted that the con­ sent clauses which were worked out only applied to a cinematograph film and not to all the other areas.

In addition, performers have made claims for moral rights and this adds a further complexity.

Lovell summarized the writers’ view, saying that moral rights have existed for years in most countries and the market has learned to live with them; that moral rights are rarely enforced (he stated that, as far as he was aware, this had only occurred twice in French history in relation to film14 and this is in a country with basically taking away with one hand what is given by the other (and producers may not engage writers who refuse to waive); that moral rights are needed to protect only extreme abuses of creativity; and, finally, the consent clause only covers features, documentaries and mini-series or features and not series and serials, advertisements, corpo­ rates and, most important, multimedia. Brindley pointed out that the argument regarding the fear of production being brought to a halt by writers demanding control is unfounded given that moral rights cannot be claimed if a work does not exist; therefore, production can’t be held up. The writers have been at pains to illustrate that examples of problems caused by granting moral rights have not been forthcoming.

The position (at the time of writing this) is that the industry organizations, guilds and unions, broadcast­ ers, etc., are currently trying to come to agreement.

The original consent clause, it seems, will still be

used, but a new approach is being negotiated and is likely to be in draft form shortly. This new approach brings the legislation back to consider the idea of authorship as central and so far it has wide provi­ sional support. The proposal, which I understand was put up by writer Ian David, is for “Joint Authorship”.

Under a “Joint Authorship” agreement, a need for waiver is removed. It means if authors have this agreement, they cannot take a moral rights action without the other author’s agreement (obviously this does not apply to single authors who would use a con­ tractual agreement such as the Consent Clause, although it is not inconceivable that a single author be asked to sign “Joint Authorship” agreement). “Joint Authorship” provides some certainty, especially, say, in serials where there is a creator and various authors, and it is likely to cover problem areas such as adver­ tising. If agreement is reached, it is likely that this will be accepted and put up by the government. This means that, so far, both certainty and moral rights are elusive, but all parties seem to be optimistic and are negotiating in good faith. © 1 Peter Cochrane, “Moral rights soon for artists”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 March, 1998, p.13.

2 Media Release, 26 June 1998.

3 John B. Murray, “Getting Moral Rights Right”, Cinema Papers, No. 113, December 1996, p. 18.

4 Ibid.

5 Ian Collie, “Whose rights are they anyway?”, Cinema Papers, no. 119, August 1997, p. 14.

6 Baz Luhrmann, “Moral rights legislation a threat to our storytellers”, The Australian, 7 November 1997, p. 16.

7 Copyright Law Review Committee, Discussion Paper Moral Rights, September 1984, p. 15.

8 Phillip Adams, “Rights for our writers”, Weekend Aus­ tralian, 16 May 1998, p. 33.

9 Nick Herd at the Melbourne International Film Festival forum.

10 Mac Gudgeon, “How Horatio held the bridge”, Writer, Writer, Vol. 1, No. 5, June 1998, p. 1.

11 John B. Murray, op. cit., pp. 17.

12 Mac Gudgeon, op. cit., p. 2.

13 AAP, “US writers offer support”, The Canberra Times, 25 August 1997, p. 3.

14 Editor: This is hard to believe. Two documented cases spring instantly to mind without even researching the situation. Producer John B. Murray took action under French moral rights legislation in 1986 to stop the French distributor of Devil in the Flesh (Scott Murray) releasing an altered version done without the writerdirector’s permission; the court ruled in favour of Murray. In 1972, Alain Fleischer successfully took action against producer Anatole Dauman for trying to alter the end of the film they were making.

Profiles

Mark Smith

an d

Tim Hunter look at key in tern ation al quests

M

a t t b r o d l ie

Director of Acquisitions for Miramax Rims, Matt Brodlie is responsible for covering film festivals and screenings, tracking independent projects, and looking for pre-buy and co-production packages for both Miramax and Dimension Rims.

Brodlie is responsible for two yet-to-be-released Ger­ man films, Beyond Silence and Comedian Harmonists, also overseeing the feature-film development of the Aus­ tralian short, Titsianna Booberini. He worked on Maya Angelou’s Down in the Delta and recently help to bring in Guinevere, which is currently in post-production.

Before joining Miramax four years ago, Brodlie worked for independent producer Todd Harris at Davis Entertainment.

■

OHN COPELAND John Copeland, Executive Vice-President of Netter Digital Entertainment Inc. (NDE Inc.) and producer of Babylon 5 , was recently declared “the producer’s producer” by Millimeter magazine.

iking has been an all-consuming passion for Copeland since his first student film as a sophomore at Chapman University, from where he graduated in 1973 with a degree in Film and Theatre.

In 1974, Copeland was ‘taken under the wing’ of Eng­ lish producer Euan Lloyd. As a production assistant at London’s Twiggenham Studios, he met and was influ­ enced by directors Blake Edwards and Richard Lester, and the stunt co-ordinators Kit West and Bob Simmons.

During this two-year period, Copeland was elevated to 1st Assistant Director and worked as a 2nd Unit Direc­ tor on The Paper Tiger (1975).

Since 1976, Copeland has worked with NDE Inc., rising

36

through the ranks, from production assistant to producer.

He has served as producer on: the Emmy-awarded Babylon 5; the documentary The Wild West; and two state-of-the-art corporate films, Black Wing and Spirit of Flight, which were used to obtain Congressional funding for the F-22 fighter aircraft.

AUL FEDERBUSH

Paul Federbush, Vice President of Acqui­ sitions and Production, has been with Rne Line Features since 1995.

An alumnus of New York University graduate School in film, Federbush was instrumental in the acquisition of the Academy Awardnominated The Sweet Hereafter (1998) and All Over Me. (i997)Federbush also served as the Creative Executive in charge of production on Love/Valour/Compassion (1997).

ULES BURNS

Joining Granada in 1976 as Manager of Regional Progammes, Jules Burns has worked as Head of Programme Services and Director of Business Affairs. In December 1993, he was A W appointed to the Board of Granada Television asdirector of Programme and Management Services and Managing Director of Granada Enterprises, remaining in this role until his appointment as Joint Managing Director of Granada Television in late 1994.

Following the restructure of Granada Media Group in August 1996, Bums-became Joint Managing Director of Granada Productions alongside Andrea Wonfor.

This umbrella group is responsible for the develop­ ment of all the programme-making and distribution operations. It includes Granada, London Weekend and Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Productions, Granada Rim, the Lon­ don and Manchester Studios, Granada Entertainment USA and International Drama, The Animation, Media Products and Learning divisions and the international distributor.

Becoming Chairman of Granada Sky Broadcasting in 1998, Burns is also on the boards of the Manchester United Television channel and the Home Shopping Chan­ nel. He is a member of the Royal Exchange Theatre Board and the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games Board.

I

at SP A A 98.

E

r ic felln e r

Eric Fellner is the co-Chairman of Work­ ing Title Rims, alongside Tim Bevan, a partnership that began in 1992 with the full backing of Polygram.

Fellner’s roots are in low-budget British films, his first as a producer being Alex Cox’s con­ troversial Sid and Nancy (1985). He produced more than ten films before joining Bevan, including Pascali’s Island (1988) and Hidden Agenda (1990).

Working Title Films produced the successful Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and has a full slate of films including The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), French Kiss (1995), Dead Man Walking (1995) and Mr. Bean (1997).

S

USAN GLATZER

Susan Glatzer is the Vice President of Acquisitions and Production for October Rims, joining in 1995 to head acquisitions in the New York headquarters before relocating in 1996 to run the acquisitions department from October’s newly-created Los Angeles office.

Glazter has assisted in acquiring in finished or in script form: Robert Duvall’s The Apostle-, (1998); Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art (1998); Pupi Avati’s The Best Man (1998); Todd Solondz’s Happiness (1998); and Mike Leigh’s Career Girls (1997).

Formerly working in acquisitions at Northern Arts Entertainment and Rrst Run Features, Glatzer also served as Program Director for the 1992 Independent Feature Film Market. She was a member of the Program­ ming Committee for Thirteen/WNET and a founding member of the Board of Directors of the New York Women’s Rim Festival.

G

e o r g e lu c a s

George Lucas, creator of the phenomenally-successful Star Wars trilogy and Indiana Jones series, is Chairman of the Board of Lucasfilm Ltd, LucasArts Entertainment Company and Lucas Digital Ltd. Lucas’ first major film, American Graffiti (1973), won

the Golden Globe, The New York Rim Critics’ and National Society of Film Critics’ awards, and received five Academy Award nominations.

His best-known directorial work is Star Wars (1977), after which he relinquished the director’s chair to pro­ duce and write The Empire Strikes Back (1980), also co-authoring the final screenplay of the trilogy, Return of the Jedi (1983).

Lucas’ company, Lucasfilm Ltd, produced Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Lucas created the story for, and was Executive Producer on, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and again served as Executive Producer on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

Lucas was Executive Producer of Tucker: The Man and his Dream (1988). The adventure-fantasy, Willow (1988), is based on one of his original stories.

In 1992, Lucas was honoured with the Irving G. Thalberg Award, presented by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Star Wars in 1997, Lucas released the updated Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition. Digitally-remastered soundtracks, restored prints, enhanced visual effects and newlyadded footage brought it closer to his original vision.

Lucasfilm Ltd., established in 1971, has evolved into three companies. Lucas Digital Ltd. encompasses Indus­ trial Light and Magic (ILM) and Skywalker Sound; visual effects, television commercial production and audio post-production businesses that have won a combined total of 24 Academy Awards.

LucasArts Entertainment Company, an international developer and publisher of entertainment software, reports to have sold more than 1.5 million copies of its CD-ROM game, Rebel Assault.

Lucasfilm Ltd. includes all of Lucas’ feature film and television production and the business activities of licensing and the THX Group. Lucasfilm’s next project is the Star Wars prequels, scheduled for release in 1999.

Lucas is the Chairman of the Board of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, and serves on the boards of the: National Geographic Society Education Founda­ tion; Artists Rights Foundation; The Joseph Campbell Foundation, and The Film Foundation. He is also a mem­ ber of the USC School of Cinema-Television’s Board of Councillors.

ARY LEViNSOHN

Gary Levinsohn is a founding Partner of Mutual Rim Company and is responsible for the production, financing, acquisition and distribution of a number of films in the USA and international markets. Recently, he founded Mutual Rim International with international partners BBC, TeleMunchen, Toho-Towa/Marubeni and UGC-PH. Levinsohn has extensive feature film experience, including roles as Executive Producer of The Real McCoy (1993). Twelve Monkeys (1995), The Relic (1997), The Jackal (1997) and Primary Colors (1998). He produced and assisted in the development of Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Previously a consultant and sales agent with Dino De C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

Laurentiis Communications (DDLC), Levinsohn was responsible for the distribution of all DDLC product in all media.

He was retained by DDLC to oversee the solicitation and sale of the De Laurentiis library.

Classico Asia Inc., a company formed by Levinsohn, acquires and distributes television rights to all territories in South East Asia, excluding japan, having acquired in excess of 400 hours of programmes to date.

OHN MANULIS

J

John Manulis has served as Head of Worldwide Production & Acquisition, Samuel Goldwyn Films, since 1994. He began his career direct­ ing Off-Broadway theatre before moving into the production of television and film.

Jwyn he has supervised the production or acquisition of such films as: The Madness of King George, Lolita, The Chambermaid on the Titanic, I Shot Andy Warhol, Bent, The Preacher’s Wife, Big Night, Kissed and the recently-released Welcome to Woop Woop.

In his role as an independent producer, Manulis was responsible for The Basketball Diaries for Palm Pictures and New Line, Swing Kids for Hollywood Pictures, Foxfire for Rysher Entertainment, Daybreak for HBO and Three Ways Home at New York’s Astor Place Theatre. Projects that he has executive-produced include his own creation, the CBS series, Comedy Zone, Hollywood Pictures’ V.l.

Warshawski and HBO’s Blind Side.

Manulis is a Harvard University graduate, a member of the Writer’s Guild of America and serves on the Board of Director’s of The Liberty Hill Foundation. ^ M H

RAEME MASON

\

Graeme Mason is Vice President in charge of World Wide Acquisitions for Polygram Filmed Entertainment based H in its London office.

Sydney-born, Mason worked in Australian television and film production for numerous years. Moving to London, he worked for Sky Television before joining Polygram in 1991.

Prior to his current position, Mason was Head of Sales for Polygram’s sales and distribution company, Polygram Film International.

R

i ck m c c a l l u m

Rick McCallum began his career as a producer on the esteemed British screenwriter Dennis Potter’s Pennies from Heaven. The pair were conse­ quently reunited on the BBC series The Singing Detective.

McCallum’s film credits include producing two Nico­ las Roeg films, Castaway (1987) and Track 29 (1988), Dennis Potter’s Blackeyes and Dreamchild (1985), Neil Simon’s / Ought To Be In Pictures (1982), and Heading Home (1990) starring Gary Oldman.

The Rolling Stones’ music video, Undercover, pro­ duced by McCallum, won the MTV Award for Best Video of the Decade.

McCallum has only worked with writer-director George Lucas since 1990, collaborating on the feature film Radioland Murders, and the award-winning televi­ sion series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

McCallum produced the restoration of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition and the new Star Wars, which has C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

recently completed filming in England. Currently, he is preparing for the next instalment of the Star Wars saga.

V

ENDY PALMER

Wendy Palmer is the Chief Executive Officer of Goldwyn Films, a company recently formed by MGM to comple­ ment its MGM and United

Artists production labels.

Palmer began her film career in 1982, after graduating in marketing and finance. Arriving in London from her native New Zealand, Palmer joined George Harrison’s HandMade Films. In 1987, she worked as Director of Acquisitions for Sky Television (now BSkyB), leaving in 1989 to found Manifesto Film Sales (now Polygram Inter­ national) for Polygram. It was here that Palmer established her long-standing relationships with David Lynch and Pedro Almodovar.

Palmer was recruited in 1992 to launch and establish CiBy 2000, a production and sales company representing the successful Muriel’s Wedding (1994), Secrets and Lies (1996) and The Piano (1993).

During 15 years in film investment sales, Palmer has represented more than 200 films. Goldwyn Films also represents the early catalogues of David Lynch, Pedro Almodovar, Gus Van Sant and Jocelyn Moorhouse.

Currently participating in the Film Policy Review Com­ mittee on future strategy for British film, Palmer is also chairing the sub-committee on Exports.

T

ONYSAFFORD Tony Safford is the Senior Vice Presi­ dent of Acquisitions for 20th Century Fox. Previously he worked for Miramax as Executive Vice President of Acquisi­ tions, West Coast Productions, acquiring the Australian films Strictly Ballroom (1992), The Piano (1993) and Muriel’s Wedding (1994). He was also Director of The Sundance Film Festival. “ ■ --------- LAINE SPERBER

* Elaine Sperber, Head of Drama for Buena Vista Productions, leads the j development and production of I comedy and drama series for the burgeoning number of Disney Channels worldwide.

Educated at the University of California Berkley, Sper­ ber began her career as an executive at the San Fransico International Film Festival. After developing and produc­ ing children’s drama for the Learning Corporation of America, she continued producing a number of Emmyaward winning ‘After-School Specials’ for the ABC Network.

Re-locating to Los Angeles to develop projects for London Films, Sperber later moved to HBO. As Vice President of Production for HBO Pictures, she was the executive in charge on many films, including The Josephine Baker Story (1991), Stalin (1992) and Citizen Cohn (1992).

While at HBO, Sperber produced the films, Perfect Witness and Framed. At Walt Disney Pictures, she produced A Far Off Place (1993).

In 1995, Sperber moved to London to consult for the Disney Channels, helping to establish their original pro­ gramming division. She is an active member of the RTS and BAFTA.

NDREA WONFOR

Andrea Wonfor has been joint Manag­ ing Director of Granada Television since 1994. Joining Granada Television in late 1993 as a director of pro­ grammes, she was responsible for all programme output including Coronation Street, Prime Suspect, Cracker, This Morning, World in Action, You’ve Been Framed, Stars In Their Eyes, The Krypton Factor and Children’s Ward.

Prior to Granada, Wonfor worked as Deputy Director of Programmes and Controller of Arts and Entertainment at Channel Four. A founding Managing Director at Zenith North, her early training was at Tyne Tees.

■

AURAZISKIN

Laura Ziskin is President of Fox 2000 and one of Hollywood’s leading inde­ pendent producers.

J After graduating from the USC School of Cinema, Ziskin worked with Jon Peters on A Star is Born (1976) and was Associate Producer on The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), before going on to partner Sally Field in producing Murphy’s Romance (1985)She produced No Way Out (1987), followed by D.O.A. (1988) and Everybody’s All American (1988). She was Executive Producer on Pretty Woman (1990).

With Alvin Sargent, Ziskin wrote the stories on which What About Bob (1991) and Hero (1992) were based. In 1991, she also produced The Doctor (1991).

Nicole Kidman won a Golden Globe Award for the Ziskin production, To Die For (1994). jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt both received Academy Awards for their roles in As Good as it Gets (1998), a film developed and execu­ tive produced by Ziskin.

In October 1994, Ziskin was named President of Fox 2000 Pictures, a feature film division of 20th Century Fox. Ziskin has been actively involved in issues concerning the environment and families, serving on the boards of: Americans’ for a Safe Future; the National Council of Jewish Women; and Education First.

Recently, Ziskin was honoured by Senator Barbara Boxer as a Woman Making History and received Premiere magazine’s First Women in Hollywood Award.

Also Attending LI MILLARD

Acquisitions & Production Development, Winchester Film & TV (UK) ZAKIYA POWELL

Plaza Film Company (UK) TOM STRUDWICK

Vice President, Acquisitions & Production, Goldwyn Films (UK) ERIC WEISSMANN

Partner, Weissmann, Wolff, Bergman, Coleman & Silverman (USA)

37

i 1 a 1

Barry Jones AO first received national RECOGNITION WHEN, DURING THE EARLY DAYS OF TELEVISION, HE BECAME A QUIZ CHAMPION ON BOB Dyer ’s P ic k a B o x (1960-68). He was deputy CHAIR OF THE AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS, 1969-73, and chair of the Australian Film Institute , 1974-80. In 1977, he was elected to federal parliament and was Minister for S cience , 1983-90. S ince 1992, he has been National President of the A ustralian Labor Party .

that, in creating a film and television school, you’d have the opportunity for a tremendous diversity of experience.

Barry Jones

How DO YOU SEE YOUR ROLE? To WHAT

Film Committee, 1969; Foundation Chair of Council, 1973-75 Your association with the S chool

CRITICAL TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE

GOES BACK TO ITS VERY BEGINNINGS, TO THE SEEDS OF ITS INCEPTION. Do YOU REMEMBER HOW THAT CAME ABOUT?

I think it’s important not to see the School in isolation. The School was part of the development of a film culture in Australia, and I suppose it’s fair to say that a lot of the original thinking came from Melbourne, because Melbourne had a very strong film festival directed

by Erwin Rado and a good tradition of

EXTENT DO YOU FEEL WHAT YOU DID WAS

School?

I wouldn’t identify myself in isolation as being absolutely critical, but it’s clear that there was a ring of people who were close to each other. I was close to Erwin Rado. I was close to Colin Ben­ nett. I was close to Phillip Adams. We knew, incidentally, that there was a Syd­ ney push which went along somewhat parallel lines. There’d been a UNESCO conference which had taken place in Sydney about film culture and film

Holt, who’d had a fairly close associa­ tion with theatre.

G illian Armstrong AM was the

first woman

A ustralia for MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS WHEN SHE DIRECTED to direct a feature film in

OF THE ARGUMENTS, THE CONFLICTS

M y B r il l ia n t Ca r e e r in 1979. It received the

AROUND THE SCHOOL IN WHICH YOU

Best Film and Best Director awards from AFI and B est First Feature award from the British Film C ritics . Her feature credits INCLUDE HlGHTIDE, THE LAST DAYS OF CHEZ NOUS,

WERE INVOLVED, IS THERE ANYTHING THAT STANDS OUT?

Oh, of course. One very early issue was the actual location of the School because a number of us - Phillip and myself-were very keen that the School should be in Melbourne. We saw the danger- a danger which I think has been underlined by subsequent events -that with the location of the Australian Council for the Arts as it then was, the Australia Council now, in Sydney and a lot of the other associated organiza­ tions being in Sydney, that you’d have such a degree of concentration of patronage in the one city that what was taking place in the other major cities, let alone Melbourne - Sydney’s great rival - was going to find it difficult to com­ pete. And we thought that because Melbourne did have this strong film cul­ ture, that there was a good case for putting the School in Melbourne - that was one issue that Phillip and I lost.

the

M r s . S o f f e l , S tar S t r u c k , F ir e s Wit h in , L it t l e Wo m e n and Os c a r a n d L u c in d a .

Phillip Noyce, now

based in the

USA, has

DIRECTED MANY FILMS INCLUDING BACKROADS, D e a d C a l m , P a t r io t Ga m e s , S l iv e r , C l e a r a n d P r e s e n t D a n g e r and Th e S a in t . He was direc ­

AND CO-WRITER FOR NEWSFRONT, HEATWAVE AND THE MINI-SERIES THE COWRA BREAKOUT, AND CO-DIRECTED THE MINI-SERIES THE DISMISSAL. tor

was $2000. And the third was a film of our choice; I think the budget went up to $4000, but it might have been less.

This was a hell of a lot of money to me, to all of us. But there were some restric­ tions: we had to employ professionals to do everything other than directing or writing, unless we could prove that we were professionally competent our­ selves. And, in addition, we could own the pictures and exploit them in any way that we wanted to at the end of it all.

INTERVIEWS BY ANDREW L. URBAN (EXTRACTED FROM THE film criticism, I think. Colin Bennett of The Age played a particularly important role in that Phillip Adams, at that stage, was a Melbourne person, as was I, and I think we were terribly intoxicated by what we’d seen of European films. Our knowledge of the world was to a very large extent shaped by what we saw in films. We took it for granted that if you’re thinking of a representative Canadian or a representative Swede, it was very likely that what he understood of Australia would come from television or from film. Therefore, it was impor­ tant, we thought, for Australia to develop its own film culture and we saw the Film School as being an essential element in that.

And did that notion of a film school COME OUT OF THE FACT THAT THERE WASN’T A VERY LARGE INDUSTRY, SO THERE WASN’T AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PEOPLE WHO WANTED TO GET INTO THE FILM INDUSTRY TO FIND A WAY OF TRAINING?

There was de facto training in the pro­ duction of film commercials and also in, for example, what Hector Crawford was doing. Nevertheless, our hope was

38

tuition, and Ted Willis, Lord Willis as he became, the film writer, came out and he was also pushing. There were a num­ ber of politicians with Sydney links who were going along much the same line.

I think perhaps my critical rôle was that I was close, personally, both to Whitlam and to Gorton, who was the then Prime Minister. Phillip was close to Whitlam but not close to Gorton. So I suppose where I played a critical rôle was that I was close to both the leaders, which meant that, when we persuaded John Gorton to go along with the idea of promoting a film culture, that was really very important. There wasn’t much diffi­ culty with Whitlam. Whitlam was already open to persuasion, deeply committed to the arts. But Gorton’s rôle was tremendously important.

What was very interesting about Gor­ ton was that he became Prime Minister unexpectedly, after Harold Holt’s dis­ appearance, and he was conscious of the fact that, because he’d grown up as a kid in the country, what he knew of the outside world had come almost entirely from film culture, unlike Harold

Phillip N o yce Interim Training Scheme, 1973; Member of Council, 1987-88 In that first year , what were some OF THE THINGS THAT YOU DID?

Two people ran the School. There was Professor Toeplitz, who had been brought over from Poland. He’d run the Lodz Film School there rather success­ fully. He was a renowned author on film, and had written several books on film theory and history. A very, very shy man. I mean, we hardly ever had much to do with him, but those ways that he did interact with us were very crucial in what happened.

Storry Walton really ran the course and it was a marvellous course. They only had enough money to run the School for a year, so they decided that, during that year, we would make three films and, in order to accelerate the learning process, we would be given specific budgets.

For the first film, which was to be a drama, we had a $3000 budget. For the second film, a documentary, I think it

They changed that after what hap­ pened on this first year, and they shouldn’t have, because part of learning to be a filmmaker is learning how to sell your pictures, what to do with them. It’s essential; you don’t make films in a vac­ uum: they’re for an audience.

They employed some of the more experienced film people in the Aus­ tralian community to be producers and so the first block of short dramas was produced by Fred Schepisi, who came in and talked to us about his approach to storytelling, his approach to narrative filmmaking, and helped us to select our scripts. I selected a short story by the South Australian writer, John Emery, which I then adapted myself. Fred sort of advised us on casting, disappeared, and came back and watched the fin­ ished films with us.

The second producer was Tom Mainfield, noted for his ABC documentary series Chequerboard and, later, for many documentaries with Film Australia.

And for the third film, which was a film of our choice, we had Joseph Strick, who had made Ulysses [1967] and a CI NE MA PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

BOOK EDITED BY MEREDITH QUINN AND ANDREW L. URBAN1) number of other independent, but rather striking, films in America. [...]

Professor Toeplitz would speak to us after we’d completed each of our movies, and he’d look at them and then he’d talk to us about them. He didn’t say a lot, but the things that he said were very succinct. I can still remember them to this day. Then, when it was all over, he called me into his office and he said, “You know how to make movies now.

You can get them in focus and you know what acting is and how to start and fin­ ish a movie, but you’ll never make a good movie until you know about life and the world. And you won’t make a good movie for at least another five years.” And he also called Gillian Arm­ strong in and said the same thing to her, and to both of us he said, “Here is an airline ticket to this film festival in France and here is - 1forget how much a thousand or two thousand dollars, and I want you to go and not come back for at least six months. I want you to go and I want you to study the world. I want you to look at people in other countries and I want you to see how they live. I want CI N E MA PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

you to look at alt the greatest art that’s in the world and I want you to study it and I want you to draw some conclu­ sions about the commonality of the human experience and, when you’ve processed those, then you’ll be ready to make a movie that will be really, truly worthwhile. Until you do that, you won’t and you never will.”

So, Gillian and I set out; it was insane really. I don’t know whether they just found some money that they had left over and, as is often the case with pub­ lic service situations, if you don’t spend it you won’t get it again in the reallocation next year, or whether it was just an inspired benevolence. But we set off and did exactly what he told us. We went to art galleries, every art gallery: the Pravda, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum in New York and so on. We met film students. We vis­ ited sets. We watched movies and from this journey we both realized one really important asset that we had, as Australians, and that was, with hardly any cultural history, we had nothing to be afraid of. I realized what fear a

French film student lived in. It was fear of being as good as the greatest that the world has ever known. The great­ est painters, the greatest writers, the greatest filmmakers. We had no such fear because there were hardly any cel­ ebrated artists in Australia, certainly not celebrated on a world level.

Suddenly I realized that we could do anything without fear and that this was a huge advantage. I came back and, sure enough, exactly five years later, started work on Newsfront[ 1979], which was my first real feature film.

Five years and six months later, Gillian started work on My Brilliant Career [1979], which was her first real feature film. So Professor Toeplitz was right in several ways. [...]

What

o f t h e r e s t o f t h e p e r io d a f t e r

YOU LEFT THE SCHOOL? DlD YOU STAY IN TOUCH WITH THE SCHOOL?

Yes, I went back to the School, for mer­ cenary reasons. I got a grant from the experimental film fund of about $25,000 to make a film called Backroads [1976]. I’d spent the $25,000, but the film was incomplete so I took a

job working as a producer, just like Fred Schepisi had done when I was there, and produced some short films for the second-year students. I guess this was in 1977. The truth is that it was a chance to earn double the salary I was earning as a production assistant at Film Australia and I did spend some time advising the students. But my major preoccupation was earning enough money to pay David Huggett, who was editing Backroads, and his assistant, Frans Vandenberg, and just trying to finish that movie, so I was a bad teacher. But maybe not, because I guess if the students thought about what I was doing, they’d realize what you had to do in order to truly make movies. So maybe I wasn’t such a bad teacher after all, because by example maybe you can teach the best.

Do YOU SEE A ROLE FOR PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF TO GO BACK TO THE SCHOOL NOW?

Oh yes, absolutely, although I some­ times wonder, you know. I did go back also and teach a directing class at one point during Jane Campion’s year. I

39

think I remember advising her group that, if you’re in doubt about what to do, just take a wide shot and a closeup of everyone in the scene and you can’t go wrong.

Gillian A rm stro n g Interim Training Scheme, 1973; Member of Council, 1989-91 IN THE YEAR THAT YOU HAD AT THE SCHOOL, WHAT WERE THE THINGS THAT YOU DID? Well, basically, we were meant to make three films in the year, although a couple of people said, “Well, can I combine my budgets and only make two films and make them longer” or whatever. To get the ball rolling, Storry Walton approached a number of Aus­ tralian authors and said, “Do you have a short story that you’d be happy to let the students make into a little film.”

There was Hal Porter, Alan Marshall, quite a group of esteemed authors, and we were given them all and asked to choose, to see if there was anything we wanted to do. But they were pretty flexible, you didn’t have to do this.

I think Ron Saunders decided he’d go back to Adelaide and do a film where he cut off chicken’s heads - Ron was in his Adelaide hippy phase. I chose an Alan Marshall story from a book called How Beautiful are thy Feet and the film was called One Hundred a Day{ 1973]. it was a chapter from the book that was written during Alan’s time at a shoe factory. It was the first thing that I did and even I’m amazed when 1 see that compared to my final film at Swin­ burne - admittedly there was a year in between where 1 was learning to synch rushes for commercials - but it was such a wonderful piece of writing. If you read the story, it’s almost written

in a filmic rhythm and I decided to shoot in black and white. I tried out various actors - for the first time in my life I had a professional cast - and I had a crew from Film Australia who shot it and I think they did an extraor­ dinary job. Well, everyone thinks they did; in the end it won the Kodak best black-and-white photography award and it also won a best editing award for David Stiven, who went on to do the Mad Max films.

After that, we were meant to do a documentary and I decided to do a drama-documentary because I’d always wanted to learn about drama.

So I chose a real person and we recre­ ated a story from his life. The film was called Satdee Night [1973] and the set­ up was this build-up to the great Satdee night, going out to meet some­ one -th e sting was, in the end he went to a gay dance. That film was actually taken up as one of the very first films that was ever made in Australia that had a gay subject. I’m quite proud of that, because it’s been run in gay film festivals around the world. The whole idea was to underplay the fact that he was looking for a man, not a girl.

And then the final film I made was from a Hal Porter short story called Crete/[1973], which David Stratton very kindly selected for the Sydney Film Festival. [...] That was shot by Tom Cowan - and that was the film that was then selected for the Grenoble Film Festival, with one of Phillip Noyce’s films. [...]

All Phil and I cared about was meet­ ing other student filmmakers, getting their addresses, because then we went backpacking for six months and it was great to have somewhere we could bed down in Munich and in Vienna and so

though women have made big strides in the film industry and there are a number of very commercial, very suc­ cessful women directors, the American film industry lacks women who have a particular vision and an individual

P .J. Hogan

h a s d ir e c t e d

M a n , M u r ie l ’s We d d in g

Th e H u m p t y D u m p t y

and

We d d in g (USA). H e w a s

M y B e s t Fr ie n d ’s

c o - w r it e r o f

Proof

(jOCELYN MOORHOUSE).

on. It was a wonderful experience to have done that and to have met these filmmakers from all around the world.

What about now, looking at the S chool with your perspective today?

I really think that the School has done an incredible job. There’s wonderful talent that’s come out, not only in the directing area but in design, sound and camera. Probably my only regret is that the building is so far away from the city. They have such a fantastic library and so much is going on here, I just think there would have been always more of the film community- people like myself- able to pop by and talk about film and go to screenings. I think it’s a pity that it was isolated out there.

A film school shouldn’t be in university land, it should be near an urban envi­ ronment. When 1was at Swinburne, half the films were shot in the train sta­ tion and the main street in Hawthorn.

Somethingthat I’ve been asked con­ tinually in the last fifteen years is why do we have so many wonderful women filmmakers coming out of Australia.

And I think we really should give the School credit for a lot of that. I know when it was first set up, certainly there was a lot of lobbying from the Sydney women’s film group to make sure that they would choose an equal number of women to men. Obviously, it was a very strong feminist time. There was political pressure, but I think that pres­ sure has really paid off and it’s interesting to see now how we’re actu­ ally spoken about with amazement all around the world. They say, “Why does Australia have Jane Campion, Jocelyn Moorhouse, Samantha Lang?” ... the list goes on and on. In America, even S in c e

l e a v in g t h e

S c h o o l , S torry Walton

AM

WAS, AMONG OTHER THINGS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR o f I n t e r n a t io n a l

A u s t r a l ia , a n d

C u l t u r a l C o r p o r a t io n

a f f a ir s s t r a t e g y f o r t h e

S e r v ic e t r a l ia n

of

A u s t r a l ia . H e

R o y a l Fl y in g D o c t o r is

C h a ir

of the

Au s­

In t e r n a t io n a l C o n s e r v a t o r iu m

M u s ic , C h a ir

of

in s t it u t e d a n a t io n a l p u b l ic

of the

Board

of

S t u d ie s ,

b e r o f t h e g o v e r n in g b o a r d o f co n su ltan t to th e

of

m em ­

NIDAa n d

S o u t h A u s t r a l ia n M u s e u m

ON ITS NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CULTURES GALLERY Pr o je c t . He (A u s t r a l ia

h a s w o r k e d in r a d io , t e l e v is io n

and the

UK)

a n d f il m , v a r io u s l y a s

p r o d u c e r , d ir e c t o r , j u r is t , s t o r y e d it o r ,

COURSE ASSESSOR AND POLICY-MAKER.

voice. I think that’s something that the School should be proud of, that there are so many women who had the chance to learn in a protected environ­ ment. That’s what was needed in the beginning - in those old days, when it was still a man’s world.

S to rry W a lto n Executive Director, Interim Training Scheme, 1972-73; Deputy Director, 1974-80; Director, 1980-85 You need a full-time course also to let the students’ ideas be challenged at every possible level: their stylistic approach, their intellectual approach, and so forth. You need a full-time course in order to allow students to experiment.

TO MAKE M IS T A K E S , P E R H A P S ?

To make mistakes, but there is no point in making mistakes if that’s not part of a critical atmosphere in which students feel secure to make their mis­ takes and, after the mistakes have been made, to come away saying, “I have a better critical appreciation of my craft.” The three-year course was the only place where you had time to experiment. That’s a word which I would write down in gold. It’s a dirty word in many places, but a good threeyear course represents the only opportunity that you have to go to the very limits of your imagination. Why that’s practical in the end is that, odds on, ten or fifteen years after you’ve graduated, some producer is going to come along with a blazingly difficult idea and say, “Look no one’s going to be able to do this” and you’re going to be able to say, “1can, because I’ve been into that imaginative territory before. I tried this idea out at the film school”, “I worked with Joe Strick” or “I worked with Bill Fitzwater”, and they were as mad as snakes and they gave me the confidence to trust my ability and to experiment.

As I said when I left the School, I saw no purpose for the full-time programme unless its role was conceptual and artis­ tic, unless it created an environment that honoured and taught our traditions but, above everything else, also encour­ aged experimentation, innovation and the widest range of expressive uses of film and video - this opposed to the sin­ gular concentration on technique and craft.

In our industry, some people per­ ceived good, tough professionalism to be threatened by the dreamer, the poet and the experimenter. This was just the C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

Andrew Lesnie

r e c e iv e d t h e

AFI

best

Cl NEMATOGRAPHY AWARD FOR DOING TIME fo r

Pa t s y C l in e . H is

You S e n g

c r e d it s in c l u d e

Ba b e ,

(H o n g Ko n g ) , Th e G ir l Wh o C a m e

La t e , M o r e Win n e r s :M r E d m u n d (t e l e v is io n ), Th e S a in t in A u s t r a l ia (t e l e - f e a t u r e ), Th e D e l in q u e n t s , A u s t r a l ia n D r ea m , E m o h R u o , Un f in is h e d B u s in e s s

and

S t a t io n s .

did feel like a bit of a fraud. All the other students had made films and I never had. Jocelyn, for example, had a library of Super 8 movies. We formed this clique and I think I learned as much from these people as I did from the lecturers.

Do YOU REMEMBER THE FILM THAT YOU MADE THERE, HOW YOU FELT IN THE PROCESS OF MAKING IT.

damp cloud that often darkened Aus­ tralian intellectual and artistic life.

I have always believed that the vital­ ity of the mainstream of film and television is dependent on the vigour of the radical fringe. The movement is always from the edge to the centre. A healthy industry embraces both. No step forward in any art has been taken by endlessly repeating the past. I believed that our School, full of young people, should be an active contribu­ tor to innovation and fresh ideas.

T h is

e m p h a s is on t h e c o n c e p t u a l a n d

EXPERIMENTAL, ON THE THOUGHTFUL

and so on. It would have been very easy for those pressures of the produc­ tion slate to overwhelm all the contemplative aspects of the curricu­ lum. But if the course was to be only about making the film, without exami­ nation, you didn’t need the elaborate structure of a school. You could have achieved that through a grant system with some training weekends added.

There was an obligation, we felt, through a three-year course, to incul­ cate a much broader understanding of the arts and craft, of history and so on, and that takes time - lots of it.

reading any positive press about an Australian film and so I avoided them.

The general feeling was that Australian movies were boring and dull, and American movies were much better; and I went to the School and I discov­ ered that Australians had stories to tell. They were interesting stories; that we’d already made some magnificent movies, but Australians weren’t going to see them and I just fell in love with Australian cinema. I fell in love with European cinema. I’d never seen a for­ eign film, a film in another language, so really, it wised me up. [...]

DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS RATHER THAN ON THE TECHNICAL: HOW EASY WAS THAT TO IMPLEMENT?

Decidedly not easy. It seemed to be the biggest challenge facing all film schools in the world. The dilemma was: if you chose the right students, those with energy, conviction and pas­ sion, they would always be champing at the bit to be producing: filmmaking rather than exploring and researching

Rachel Perkins

is a d ir e c t o r a n d p r o d u c e r

WHOSE CREDITS, PRIOR TO STUDYING AT THE

AFTRS, INCLUDE THE DOCUMENTARY SERIES, S p ir it t o S p ir it

and

B l o o d B r o t h e r s . S in c e

GRADUATING SHE HAS DIRECTED AND PRODUCED THE DOCUMENTARY TRIM TV, THE TELEVISION .

SERIES SONGLINES AND DIRECTED HER DÉBUT fea tu r e

Ra d ia n c e . W h il e

s t u d y in g , s h e

WAS CONSULTANT TO THE AFC IN DEVELOPING A PACKAGE OF SIX SHORT FILMS BY INDIGENOUS FILMMAKERS, FROM SAND TO CELLULOID.

IN 1996,

SHE WAS APPOINTED EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TO the

ABC’s In d ig e n o u s P r o g r a m U n it .

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

P. J. H ogan Scriptwriting, 1981-83

Oh, it was just wonderful. It is called Getting Wet[ 1983] and it is a story from my childhood, which I exagger­ ated and made end as I would have liked the experience to end but didn’t.

We shot it in Kiama, outside of Sydney, over two weeks and it was a fabulous two weeks. The film came together quite well and was a big lesson to me because it went on to win the AFI Award for Best Short Fiction the next year. I thought, “Well, that’s it, I’m a star. I’m going to be feted by every­ body” and I waited for the phone to ring and it didn’t ring. So, I didn’t really need the School to wise me up. It came pretty swiftly.

My next film wasn’t until 1986 [The Humpty Dumpty Man], so I loved every minute of making that film. I’m very thankful that my first short film was a blessed experience.

TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU THINK THE

W o u ld

S cho o l

LECTURER? WOULD YOU WANT TO DO

p r ep a r ed yo u fo r w hat

SOMETHING LIKE THAT AT THE SCHOOL?

HAPPENS IN THE REAL WORLD WITH PRODUCERS AND OTHERS IN THE FILM INDUSTRY?

I don’t think anything can prepare you for the real world. Everybody’s experi­ ence is different. I don’t think that anyone can give you a course in the film industry reality. For example, in my year there was Jane Campion, and Jane was virtually famous on gradua­ tion. Then there were other students who were unemployed for years and made their breakthrough films years later- for example, me.

So, I was glad that it didn’t prepare me for reality because I think that’s something you have to experience for yourself.

What

d id it g iv e y o u a s a f il m m a k e r ?

It gave me a love of film and a love of Australian film which was very impor­ tant, because when I went to the School I had not seen an Australian movie. I was surprised that there had been Australian movies. This sounds disgraceful, doesn’t it? But, you know, I came from a small town and every­ thing I read about Australian movies was negative. I don’t remember ever

y o u go b a c k a n d be a g u e s t

P i p Ka r m e l ’s d ir e c t o r is

f ir s t f e a t u r e f ilm a s a w r it e r -

M e M y s e l f I,

G a u m o n t F il m s (F r a n c e )

f u l l y f in a n c e d b y a n d p r o d u c e d in

th e sec o n d half o f

Ot h e r

th a n

19 9 8 .

Jo c e ly n M o o r h o u s e ,

WHOM I IMAGINE YOU WOULD ACCEPT AS HAVING HAD SOME INFLUENCE ON YOU AS A FILMMAKER...

Oh yes, most definitely. ... WAS THERE ANYONE ELSE AT THE S ch o o l

t h a t had a n y s ig n if ic a n t

INFLUENCE ON YOU?

The other person is Jane Campion. I was very young and ridiculously naive when I went to the School, and, even before Jane became a world-known filmmaker, you knew she was going to become a world-known filmmaker. She was very caring of me, which was won­ derful, because I think I really needed other people’s validation at that time, because when I went to the School I

I would, but I’d be very nervous because I remember how horrible I was as a student. I remember when John Frankenheimer came to the School and we all hated him. We all thought he was a big Flollywood hack; he’d just fin­ ished directing Prophecy [1979], which several of us had gone off to see, and that buried him for us. We just thought “Flack, total hack” and we were horri­ ble with this man. Then afterwards I saw The Manchurian Candidate [1962] and realized that I’d been in the pres­ ence of a genius, and was too stupid to have read up on him or understand that everybody’s career has its ups and downs. Right now, Frankenheimer is on an up. I mean, I’ve been in the States and John Frankenheimer is the televi­ sion director de jour.

So,

y o u ’ d g o b a c k w it h s o m e

TREPIDATION?

I would go back with some trepidation because I know they’d all hate me [laughs]. But, you know, I think that’s what students are meant to do. You’re meant to be arrogant. It’s the only thing that gets you through. ^49

41

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Mental mind-fuck Alex Proyas’ Dark City m ay w ell be the best A ustralian film o f 1998, but m any m issed its cinem a release. N ow there is the chance to see on video what M ic h a e l H elm s describes as a brilliantly stylish film noir

47

Yeah, whatever Susan Skoog revisits high school and M ark S m ith finds hope in this striking debut

46

vie

Film SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Directed by S teven S pielberg . Producers : S teven S pielberg & Ian Bruce, Mark Gordon & Gary Levinsohn. S criptwriter : Robert Rodat . Director of photography: Janusz Kaminski. Production designer : Tom S anders . Costume designer : Joanna Johnston. Editor: Michael Kahn.

Composer : John Williams . Cast : Tom Hanks (Captain Miller ), Tom S izemore (S ergeant

Horvath), Edward Burns (Private Reiben ), Barry Pepper (Private Jackson), Adam Goldberg (Private Melush ), Vin Diesel (Private Caparzo ), Giovanni Ribisi (T/4 Medic Wade), Matt Damon (Private Ryan).

Australian distributor : UIP. Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks. USA. 1998.

167 MINS.

n elderly and slightly infirm man (Harrison Young) walks along the picturesque Normandy coast to a place of great calm: an Allies war cemetery. Anyone who has visited such sites in France would be aware of their extraordi­ nary presence, how they feel in

A

C I N E M A PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

indescribable ways the most pre­ cious and beautiful places on earth. Director Steven Spielberg has succeeded to a notable degree in capturing the essential essence of the place.

Visibly distressed, the man kneels on the immaculately-kept grass running between the myriad white crosses. As the camera tracks forward to an extreme close-up of his harrowed eyes, he remembers back.

The film cuts to Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) leading his men ashore

ANTZ K arl Q uin n gets down amongst the bugs

on Omaha Beach, D-Day, 6 June 1944. What follows cinematically has already been secured a place in the pantheon of great battle scenes, a 30-minute tour de force of bravura filmmaking- its sole intent being to make the audience feel it is there, amongst the slaughter, hunkered down by German gunfire.

It is a terrifying, visceral sequence and its virtues have been deservedly praised. It is hard to think of a more claustrophobic sequence, where the arbitrariness of death is so strongly felt.

It is not just a visual assault (Spielberg uses 1940s cameras and lenses to recreate the look of the war as photographers, still and motion, recorded it at the time) but aural (never have so many bullets whizzed so perilously close). The only puzzling aspect of this striking display is the varying of camera shutter and speed, rendering some action staccato and other bits speeded-up. Everything is insanely hectic, with soldiers having no time to assess the hell they are in.

Sometimes, however, the tech-

43

ti review Films continued nique is too intrusive and some snippets of battle action have an almost comic effect. But Spielberg never intended this to be the purist realism most critics have praised it for: the sequence is totally abstract and graphic, which contributes measurably to its power.

Once Miller and his men blast

the Germans from their bunkered position, killing without qualm those who surrender (the first hint of a post-Vietnam perspective), the film takes an extended breather - one from which it not always recovers.

There is a powerful and surpris­ ing scene back in the States, where women hastily type out letters of condolence to the parents of the dead, then a very awkwardly-per­ formed sequence with military brass trying to stop General Marshall (Harve Presnell) ordering a search party to locate and excuse from duty a Private Ryan, whose three broth­ ers have just been killed in separate arenas of war. (Having the General leisurely quote from memory a letter

by Abraham Lincoln, during the fiercest period of the war, is stagy and unconvincing. He looks more like someone who has lost his mar­ bles than a soldier with a heart.)

This scene is crucial, though, because it sets up a key theme of the film: of the one and the many, of putting at risk several men to save one, of trying to find some meaning or purpose in the arbitrari­ ness of death. Miller tells himself that every death results in the sav­ ing often or more, but even he knows that is nothing more than a salve to the questioning mind, and his body begins its revolt against deeply-buried pain.

Miller and his protesting men then begin their seemingly-absurd journey behind enemy lines to find Ryan, who was airdropped kilome­ tres from his intended target.

These scenes of moving forward are some of the film’s least suc­ cessful. The soldiers’ talk and behaviour feel out of time and place, as If from a Vietnam movie.

The Irish landscape is also a poor substitute for France, intensifying the feeling of artificiality the film is starting to fall prone to. The actors, too, fail to convince that they are actually soldiers at war, or that they have been through hell together. Spielberg has gone for an ad-lib feel but falls well short, the worst moment coming when Private Reiben (Edward Burns) recounts a memory to his fellow soldiers in the bombed out village of Ramelle, Itself an unconvincing and plastic­ looking set.

One exception is the extremely tense sequence when Private Caparzo (Vin Diesel) lies bleeding on the ground, pinned there by a German sniper in a church tower, who is ultimately taken out by an American sniper, Private Jackson (Barry Pepper). Jackson himself dies while sniping from a church tower, in one of the film’s far-tooneat moments of storytelling.

A pivotal scene in the debate between the one and the many occurs when Miller, instead of safely circling with his men around a Ger­ man machine-gun nest, decides to take it out. At the loss of one man, the Americans rout the nest and prepare to kill the sole surviving German, despite his having surren­ dered. It is then that the squad’s newest recruit, Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies), a translator from a map unit with no battle experience, protests.

In the debate that follows, which descends into one American threatening to kill another for insub­ ordination, Miller realizes the only way to still his men is to reveal a part of what lies behind his military per­ sona: that he is a schoolteacher from Pennsylvania. A crack in the game­ playing of war has appeared and the audience knows instinctively Miller

is doomed. They are even more sure of it when he lets the German go, because the inevitable irony, indeed cliché, of such war stories is that the spared man will return to kill those who showed mercy (cf Erich Maria Remarque’s A Time to Live, A Time to Die).

The final act begins with the arrival at the village of Ramelle, where the newly-found Ryan refuses to be relieved of duty, and Miller’s company, opting to create some victory out of their mission (i.e., to save Private Ryan), stay to fight a probably suicidal battle.

This sequence, too, has been much praised as a superb action set-piece, but it has little of the dra­ matic impact of Omaha Beach, and the failures of the script to engage one more in the ethical/decency dramas at stake leave one in the absurd position, created by so many war movies, of wondering which men will die and which will not. In this case, whether it is Miller or Ryan Is never at issue, the audience hav­ ing resolved that hours ago.

Perhaps this was intended, because Miller’s fate (felled by the spared German in surprising, but effective, long-shot) is touching in its patheticness. Quiet deaths are often the most moving and Miller’s is no exception. One feels the loss strongly, and for his wife back home, who so happily tendered the roses in his presence.

Of course, there is an argument that no death in cinema should not be afforded meaning, be not made felt, but that is rarely the case and any filmmaker who can make an audience treasure a soul, and pow­ erfully regret its deprivation, is a filmmaker to be noted.

It is a pity, then, that Spielberg, one of the cinema’s most naturallygifted filmmakers, should resort to trickery.

Throughout the film, one thinks back to the start and the old man remembering back to Omaha Beach ... but that man is Ryan and he was never at Omaha. This fake ‘flash-back’ is a stupid and trans­ parent gimmick to make one think Miller survived the war; it cheap­ ens the whole enterprise.

Prior to Miller’s death, he tells Ryan, whom everyone has man­ aged to keep out of harm’s way, to “Earn it”, to make his salvation from death a reason, an impetus, for living a good life.

Corporal Upham then rounds up the remaining Germans, sees the one whom he had demanded

be spared and shoots him in cold blood.

In one sense, Spielberg does in this moment manage to rise above the cliché of the pardoned-manreturned-as-killer through Miller’s “Earn it.” The German had been spared death, given a second chance of life, but he abused the blessing by going back to kill those very Americans he had professed to like. He represents an opportu­ nity abused, a lesson Ryan will no doubt take with him as he attempts to live up to Miller’s exhortation.

Spielberg seems here to be directly addressing his American public, by telling them to “earn” their time on this planet by living good lives. Others have died for them and they shouldn’t abuse that sacrifice. He closes with an American flag flapping darkly in the sky, a decision non-Americans may find singularly inappropriate.

Spielberg has made several films about, or touching on, World War II: from the light-hearted Indi­ ana Jones series to the uncertain comedy of 2941 (1979), from the monumental triumph of Empire of the Sun (1987) to the anguished personal statement of Schindler’s List (1993).

The latter two, with Saving Pri­ vate Ryan, form a sort of unofficial trilogy. The first is a brilliant, evoca­ tive, cold-hard look at a child’s battle to survive in a Japaneseoccupied China (based on the part-autobiographical book by J. G. Ballard). Spielberg eschews all sen­ timentality, sidesteps all cliché and conjures up one of cinema’s great­ est war films, and one of the true post-war American masterpieces.

Schindler’s List, too, is a daz­ zling piece of craft, a harrowing descent into the banality of evil.

Whereas in Empire of the Sun, however, Spielberg understands and makes believable the cultural background to Japanese action, and even has his lead character empathize with aspects of it (to the outrage of many critics and veter­ ans), in Schindler’s List Spielberg occasionally drifts into caricature.

At the flamboyantly-noirish restau­ rant scene, where Schindler (Liam Neeson) starts his seduction of high-ranking Germans, Spielberg portrays them as fat, stupid, sexist, indulgent, degenerate, greedy, uncouth, vile, loud-mouthed, et al.

He even has them eat with their fingers! His understandable hatred of Nazis has let his art suffer (only momentarily, though).

For two-and-a-half hours, Saving Private Ryan makes no such misjudgment. With only one key character being Jewish, Private Mellish (Adam Goldberg), there is sense of Spielberg’s standing back, objectively. But then he crushes that promise with a scene where a German knifes Mellish with a sadis­ tic relish that outdoes the worst racist caricatures of B-grade propa­ ganda movies. And this 54 years after the events which the film portrays; rage lives long.

This five-decade gap raises other questions about the film Itself.

Apart from the pyrotechnics at Omaha Beach, which reveal a mod­ ern aesthetic, the film is narratively and thematically old-fashioned. It posits no telling relevance to the world in which one lives, offers no lessons for handling a Kosovo or Iraq, arguing only for decency and deserving one’s existence.

Also puzzling is the portrayal of Upham. He is the only American who speaks German and French, the only one who has made an effort, who has a desire, to under­ stand another culture and its people. Yet he is the harbinger of death; his demand that a German life be not wasted results in the death of several of his fellow Ameri­ cans, including Miller. Spielberg may not have thought this through, but the film, by its very narrative construct, can be argued to be advocating against the crossing of racial divides.

There will be many such issues and debates raised by Saving Pri­ vate Ryan, and it may well be one of those films where analysis is long revisited and discussed.

On one viewing, and with only a few hours in which to digest its intricacies, Saving Private Ryan does not appear to be the great film so loudly proclaimed by the American press, or even of the same significance as other, better, Spielberg war films. But it does have some extraordinary moments, does raise important issues (if in a somewhat muddied way) and does represent a real return to form after last year’s Amistad.

Spielberg has already given us a masterpiece on war, and one might both remember that and be grateful for this necessary, if flawed, reminder of great sacrifices made.

They may not have been asked for by everyone, but hopefully they will be felt and appreciated by all. © SCOTT MURRAY

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A PRICE ABOVE RUBIES Directed by Boaz Yakin . Producers: Lawrence Bender, John Penotti. CoProducer: JoAnn Jansen . S criptwriter : Boaz Yakin . Director of photography: Adam Holender. Editor: Arthur Coburn.

Production designer : Dan Leigh. Costume designer : Ellen Lutter. Cast : Renée Z ellweger (S onia), Christopher Eccleston (S ender), Glenn Fitzgerald (Mendel), Allen Payne (Ramon), Julianna Margulies (Rachel), Kathleen Chalfant (Beggar Woman). Australian distributor : Columbia T ristar . USA. 1998.116 mins.

riter-director Boaz Yakin won critical acclaim for his direc­ torial début, Fresh (1994), the tragic and disturbing story of a black youth growing up in ghet­ toized New York. Like Fresh, Yakin’s second feature focuses on a disenfranchized member of a specific New York cultural group.

A Price Above Rubies, set within New York’s Orthodox Jewish community, is the rites-of-passage tale of Sonia (Renée Zellweger), a married Jewish woman haunted by the ghosts of deeply-buried passions.

Whereas the young Fresh (Sean Nelson), in Yakin’s earlier film, is forced to confront and overcome physical oppressors, Sonia strug­ gles against the unacknowledged, but obvious, oppression of her sexuality and independence by her religion and her marriage.

Married to Mendel (Glenn Fitzgerald), a young scholar and holy man, Sonia’s life has evolved according to her parents plans. She has married, given birth to a baby boy and settled into a respectable, though unfulfilling, spiritual life.

Sonia is painfully repressed, sexually and emotionally. Her sex­ ual union is shown to be an unsatisfactory physical coupling

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ANTZ Directed by Eric Darnell and T im Johnson.

Producers: Brad Lewis , Aron Warner , Patty Wooton. Executive producers : Penney Finkelman Cox, S andra Rabins , Carl Rosendahl. S criptwriters : Todd Alcott, Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz .

Production designer : John Bell . Character design : Raman Hui. S upervising technical director: George Bruder . Editor : S tan Webb . Composers : Harry Gregson WlLLIAMS AND JOHN POWELL. VOICES: WOODY Allen (Z), Dan Aykroyd (Chip), Anne Bancroft (Queen), Jane Curtin (Muffy), Danny Glover (Barbatus), Gene Hackman (Mandible), Jennifer Lopez (Azteca), John Mahoney (Drunk S cout), Paul Mazursky (Psychologist ). Australian distributor : UIP. Dreamworks and PDI. USA. 1998.

82 MINS.

ong after its technical achieve­ ments have been forgotten, taken for granted or dismissed as primitive experiments in digital animation, Antz just might be remembered as the film that rehabilitated Woody Alien.

As most of the English-speak­ ing world knows, Woody Alien long the cinema’s favourite self-obsessed neurotic-fell spectacularly from grace in 1992 when his affaire with Soon-Yi Previn (not, technically speaking, his step-daughter, but somebody awfully close) became public.

The heat may have gone out of the affaire as far as outrage is con­ cerned, but the more intimately involved participants are still fum­ ing. Quoted in a recent issue of Vanity Fair, André Previn - the com­ poser-conductor who adopted Korean orphan Soon-Yi with actor Mia Farrow in 1977 - described Woody Allen thus: “I’ll tell you what I think of Woody Allen. I think he is the worst human-being on the planet. I think he is the worst human-being I have ever heard of, read of, or been able to imagine.”

The upshot of all this is that, since 1992, we have been robbed of the sheer pleasure of witnessing Allen’s work at its best. Allen has, naturally, continued to make films.

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Some of them have even won awards. But there has been some­ thing stilted about them; not an attempt at self-justification, exactly, more a refusal to make such an attempt, which almost amounts to a sort of self-justifica­ tion (along the lines of, “ I’ve done nothing wrong, so why should I have to justify myself?”).

The Soon-Yi thing has tainted everything. That is not a moral judgement, simply an aesthetic one.

And that’s where Antz comes to the rescue. By giving us a Woody Allen film without making us look into Woody Allen’s eyes - without forc­ ing us to ask, “Can I trust, believe or even like him any more?”- it allows us to slip back to that inno­ cent time when you either found the guy funny or you didn’t. Simple.

In Antz, Allen provides the voice for Z-4195 (Z, for short), a neurotic, self-obsessed worker ant struggling to come to terms with the apparent meaninglessness of his existence.

He falls in love with a beautiful, seemingly-unattainable girl, he embarks upon a quest which he really should fail, but, thanks to a combination of luck, guts and intel­ ligence, he emerges triumphant.

The opening scene harks back, ironically, to what many consider the golden age of Allen’s career, the late 1970s. Over a soundtrack of Z’s recounting his woes to his psychologist, we are treated to a tilt shot in which the camera moves down from the familiar Manhattan skyline (actually composed of blades of haphazardly-cut grass) to the world below. Talking to his shrink, Z rails against having to do everything for the sake of the ant colony, rather than himself. He ends his ant rant with the line, “I feel so insignificant”, to which his analyst replies, “That’s great; you’re really making some progress.”

CI NEMA PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

But Antz has grander ambitions than merely to parody the Allen oeuvre. It may appear to be yet another kids’ film tricked up in adult-friendly packaging, but this is, in fact, a serious-minded com­ edy with nothing less than the future of Western civilization as Its topic. Its three acts effectively argue the case for and against the collective, for and against the unfettered reign of individual will, and for- and only for- a hybrid socio-political system in which there is room for individualism, but not to the detriment of society at large. Antz could be a manifesto for Tony Blair’s much-trumpeted “third way”, arguing as it does that communism is dead, laissez faire capitalism is killing us and the future lies somewhere in between.

Full credit should go to the film­ makers for paying almost as much attention to the story as to the means of telling it. Compared to Toy Story, the first fully-digitallyanimated feature to be released, Antz Is a masterpiece of characteri­ zation, cameos and complex plot developments. There are even a few genuine surprises, including a magnificent scene in the world beyond the colony when Z and his unwitting travelling companion, Princess Bala (Sharon Stone), nearly drown in a single droplet of water.

On a purely technical level, Antz Is magnificent. Novelty no doubt contributes greatly to the enjoyment factor, but there is some­ thing magical about a room of ants dancing that a room full of humans could not inspire. Another year or two, a few more digitally-animated features, and we’ll probably all take this sort of stuff for granted. That will be a shame, because, as Woody Allen well knows, once the magic is gone, it takes an awful lot to bring It back. ©KARL QUINN

with purely religious and reproduc­ tive Implications. Mendel refuses to allow Sonia any experience of pleasure or sexual gratification.

Emotionally, the pair are distant and Mendel openly admits that God is his first-love and commitment.

Offered employment by Sender (Christopher Eccleston), her amoral brother-in-law, Sonia sees an opportunity to improve her situa­ tion. But, apart from the frequent trips downtown as a jewellery buyer for Sender’s tax-free busi­ ness, there is little relief from the monotonous cycle of her days. The additional burden of joyless, rape­ like fornication with Sender does little to appease her feelings of guilt and entrapment.

Assisting in her quest for self discovery is a deceased and ghostly ally, Yossi (Shelton Dane), a childhood friend who drowns in the opening scene, and a mysteri­ ous beggar-woman (Kathleen Chalfant). These phantasms occa­ sionally appear to guide Sonia and act as a possible metaphors for less rigid forms of belief and spirituality.

Ramon (Allen Payne), a Puerto Rican jewellery shop-assistant and part-time artist, also abets Sonia’s tour of self.

Ramon’s art studio in the base­ ment of his mother’s house, complete with semi-naked models, neatly opposes the rigidity of struc­ tured religions. The studio - its subterranean setting evoking a Hades symbolism - contrasts his mother’s Catholic zeal, illustrated by numerous candle lit altars and crucifix. A close shot of a statue depicting Christ’s pain and suffer­ ing reinforces the pain Sonia

45

in review Films continued experiences in her passionless marriage and the formal structure of Mendel’s Judaism.

Ramon’s initial friendship and subsequent romantic interest enables Sonia to express her blos­ soming sexuality and independence, after she is wrongly accused of adultery and exiled by her husband and family.

But, however tenable Ramon’s role in assisting Sonia on her journey of self-realization is, the premise that it would take a jewellery buyer to make Ramon aware of his artistic talent is a little far-fetched.

In Fresh, the combination of drugs and violence controls the life of Fresh and his heroin-addicted sister. Sonia is similarly controlled by the repressive influences of her religion and its overt patriarchal hierarchy, the repressed and ordered life of the Jews becoming a direct and obvious contrast to the candid sexuality of Ramon and his multicultural friends.

The high religious morals of Sonia’s family are shown to be superficial, through their preoccu­ pation with the pursuit of wealth and material gain, and through their inability to accept her individuality. Furniture covered in protective plastic, a soft furnish­ ings saleswoman and the pursuit of possessions are juxtaposed against Ramon’s and Sonia’s love of jewellery and sculpture for its artistic merit.

A strong and recognizable cast helps make the film’s experience enjoyable, with Zellweger, bestknown for her role opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry MaGuire (Cameron Crowe, 1996), giving a solid perfor­ mance as Sonia, while Christopher Eccleston, as the obdurate Sender, is truly memorable.

But, those going to see this film on the strength of Fresh, or expect­ ing a similar emotional roller-coaster ride, will be disappointed. A Price Above Rubies, while essentially entertaining, is less confronting, and lacks the vibrancy and intensity of emotion that Yakin’s earlier piece captured and conveyed so well. © MARK SMITH

46

I DANCE ME TO MY SONG Directed by Rolf de Heer . Producers : Rolf de Heer , Giuseppe Pedersoli, Domenico Procacci. Co-producers : David WolfeBarry , Paola Corvino . S criptwriters : : Heather Rose , Frederick S tahl, Rolf de Heer . Director of photography: Tony Clark. Editor: Tania Nehme. Composer : Graham Tardif . Cast : Heather Rose (Julia), Joey Kennedy (Madelaine), John Brumpton (Eddie), Rena Owen (Rix). Australian DISTRIBUTOR: PALACE FILMS. AUSTRALIA. 1998.

102 MINS.

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ven before this film is seen, the assumption that Dance Me to My Song is a ‘remarkable’ film will already have become part of the viewer’s expectations. That is because it deals with cerebral palsy and, more specifically, because the script was co-written

by Heather Rose, a woman born with the disability and who also plays the lead role of Julia in the film. So, the cards are on the table before the film starts, and that will be enough to turn some people away, to intrigue others, and generally prepare the audience for what it is about to see.

Julia (Rose) lives on her own, but has a full-time carer, Madelaine (Joey Kennedy), who feeds and bathes Julia, and does her shopping. Madelaine doesn’t seem too enamoured with her job; at the start of the film, she is running late for work, and obviously resents Julia as she assists her in her morning ablutions. Julia, on the other hand, is obviously frustrated that she is so reliant on this woman, but completely helpless to do anything about it.

The establishing of this rather spiky rapport is lengthy, and uncomfortable to watch, especially since Julia is completely vulnerable and exposed, and treated in a lessthan-sympathetic way by Madelaine. It certainly makes the viewer acutely aware of Julia’s situation, and therefore makes sense of the arrival, or acquisition, of Eddie (John Brumpton) in her life.

I say acquisition, because Julia does acquire him, and rather aggressively, too. Madelaine has left her alone, without her speech computer and with the phone disconnected. So when Julia sees Eddie walking down the street, she literally accosts him, while in her wheelchair, and persuades him to enter the house and reconnect the phone. Madelaine returns while

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Eddie is still in the house, tar­ gets him in her manhunting sights, and the battle for Eddie’s attention and affec­ tion begins.

So, is this a remarkable film, beyond the obvious rea­ sons? That’s a difficult question to answer. In many ways, it’s hard to divorce the disability from the script and the direction itself. Everything is there to service the telling of Julia’s story - even the other characters - but none of it feels contrived. Julia is at the core ofthe film, and she is such an admirable, vulnerable and human character that she carries with her the film’s power, thanks to Rose’s brave and committed performance.

That’s not to say that the script, the direction or the other actors are weak. They too are remarkable. The film does not preach; it presents instead a collection of characters, all with their own flaws and agen­ das, and shows how they all deal with the presence of disability in their lives. Kennedy is completely contemptible and pitiable as Made­ laine, and Brumpton is quite impressive as your average Joe, forced to deal with a side of life he’d initially rather not have to. It is through Eddie that the audience is also able to come to terms with Juli­ a’s life. The only suspect link, and it’s a petty complaint, is the charac­ ter of Rix (Rena Owen), Julia’s carefree ex-carer. Her treatment of Julia is so completely different to Madelaine’s that it smacks of con­ trivance. Her acceptance and genuine affection is, nevertheless, a welcome relief and counterpoint to Madelaine’s meanness.

Dance Me to My Song is not an easy viewing experience. Even now, it’s difficult to talk about, which says more about society’s percep­ tion and treatment of those with disabilities than it does about the film. It is, because of that, an impor­ tant film (that sounds so pompous, but there’s no other way of saying it), and one that both Rose and de Heer, who was sensitive enough to allow Rose to shine through as scriptwriter and performer, should be applauded for making. © T IM HUNTER Fu r t h e r r e a d in g : see Andrew L. Urban’s interview with Rolf de Heer and Heather Rose (1Cinema Papers, no. 125, June 1998, pp. 20-1).

WHATEVER Directed by S usan S koog. Producers : S usan S koog, Ellin Baumel, Michele Yahn, K evin S egalla. Executive Producers : Irwin Y oung and Circle Films . S criptwriter : S usan S koog. Directors of photography: Michael Barrow, Michael Mayers . Editor : S andi Guthrie . Cast : Liza Weil (Anna S tockard), Chad Morgan (Brenda Talbot), Fredric Forrest (Mr. Chaminsky), Gary Wolf (Eddie), Kathryn Rossetter (Anna’s Mother), Dan Montano (Zak), John G. Connolly (Woods) Australian Distributor : Colombia Tristar . USA. 1998.

113 mins .

eminist Susan Sontagonce told a Yale Graduate class that the most important experiences of their lives were their high-school years. Susan Skoog, in her début feature film, Whatever, concurs wholeheartedly with this sentiment Skoog believes, “High school is where we become who we are going to be. it’s the end of our childhood and the eve of adult­ hood.” Fier aim in Whatever \s to create a vista “as colourful and vivid, as funny, complex and gen­ uine as life itself’.

A graduate of New York’s Tisch School of the Arts, Skoog has worked in the entertainment indus­ try for eight years as a television and documentary writer, director and producer. Her first narrative short film, A Dry Heat, was accepted at the Cannes Rim Festival and screened at various other festivals*., including those in Avignon, Boston, Vancouver and Seattle.

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Whatever, which Skoog wrote, directed and co-produced, is a coming-of-age film seen from a female perspective. While the sub­ ject matter-the transition from adolescence to adulthood - is not new, the female viewpoint is one that is not often seen in contempo­ rary cinema. Although Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Doll­ house (1996) also offers a female perspective and a similar New Jersey setting, the prospects for Solondz’s heroine, Dawn (Heather Matarazzo), are grim and bleak.

Skoog’s Anna manages to escape with a little more hope and her optimistic outlook intact.

It’s the early 1980s and Anna Stockard (Liza Weil), a young painter in her final year of high school, has her sights set on the prestigious Cooper Union Art school in New York. But she is soon to learn life doesn’t always deliver the expected. As Anna’s mother (Kathryn Rossetter) tells her, “Don’t set your expectations too high, that way it hurts less.”

Anna and her friend, Brenda Talbot (Chad Morgan), illustrate the polarities of youth? the former, cautious and sensitive; the latter,; impulsive and darings, Zak (Dan Montano) and Woods (John G. Connolly) are recent^ refqriin-school graduates who offer Anna and Brenda excitement an.d .f escape from New Jersey. It is the

CI NEMA PAPERS

DECEMBER 1998

girlfriend’s experiences with this pair that ultimately, and unexpect­ edly, assist Anna in deciding her future.

Torn between emulating Brenda in abandoning herself to life’s experiences, or utilizing her talent and ambition to become a painter, Anna’s choice is made all the harder by the dysfunctional adults surrounding her.

Anna’s mother, a possible glimpse of Brenda’s future, has pinned her ever-diminishing hopes on marrying a wealthy meal-ticket, her own youthful aspirations of Paris design school dashed by an unplanned pregnancy. Brenda’s family, replete with violent and incestuous stepfather, offers no respite from the despair and medi­ ocrity that Skoog’s adults offer.

Anna’s art teacher, mentor and failed New York artist, Mr Chaminsky (Fredric Forrest), contrasts these depictions of social malaise by offering a positive role-model and reinforcing the idea that life is what one makes of it. The world, he believes, is full of those who have given up.

Whatever tackles its subject in a subtle, thought-provoking man­ ner and though, at times, it seems stereotypical, it is less so than many films of this high-school genre. Skoog’s characters are well-written and constructed and, although Anna’s literature teacher borders on the comical, one can’t help but notice that, while he lec­ tures on the universal themes of Julius Caesar and Moby Dick, his students are learning more about life outside the classroom.

Eddie (Gary Wolf), Anna’s pothead friend, speculates at the film’s close that a freshly-lit Marlboro cigarette smells, for an instant, like marijuana, but quickly returns to the aroma of a plain old cigarette. “The first little bit is the best”, he says, encapsulating Skoog’s sentiment that adolescence is when life burns its most brilliant and brightest.

Adolescence, as depicted by Skoog, is a time of experimentation with drugs and alcohol, and of los­ ing your virginity in less-than-ideal situations, but it is also a time of hope for the future. It is this opti­ mism, coupled with strong performances and a great sound­ track, including The Pretenders, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and Blondie, that makes Whatever, like one of Anna’s mint cigarettes, both “cool and refreshing”. @ MARK SMITH

Video PARKCITY Directed by Alex Proyas . Producer: Andrew Mason . S criptwriters : Lem Dobbs , David S. Goyer , Alex Proyas . Director of PHOTOGRAPHY: DARIUSZ WOLSKI. PRODUCTION designers : George Liddle , Patrick Tatopoulos . Costume designer : Liz Keogh.

Editor: Dav Hoenig . Composer : T revor Jones . Ca st : Rufus S ewell (John Murdoch), Keifer S utherland (Dr S chreber), William Hurt (Bumstead), Jennifer Connelly (Emma Murdoch), Richard O’Brien (Mr Hand), Ian Richardson (Mr Book), Bruce S pence (Mr Wall), Colin Friels (Eddie Walenski), Melissa George (May ). Australia . 1998.

100 MINS.

and narrative dri­ A sves,thematic alienation has probably informed more films than there are, or ever will be - large flat reflective surfaces with projectors pointing at them. Two film types, science fic­ tion and film noir, hold a virtual mortgage on the use of this human condition, both embedding estrangement in their structures to the point that it’s difficult to imag­ ine the successful operation of either without alienating yourself from the process.

From the relationship of the workers with the industrial com­ plex in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1926) to Alien Nation (Graham Baker, 1988), a thoroughly-modern movie that wears its workings in its title, it doesn’t matter whether weird science, sour-milk drinking humanoids, bio-mechanical aliens or oversize lizards are standing over humanity ready to usurp daily life, wage biological warfare or sim­ ply crush us into non-existence.

Science-fiction movies love to threaten our connections to the world; ditto film noir, but usually in a much less grand, more personal and realistic way. To show what motivates the theft, corruption, property destruction and murder it pictures, film noir thrives on throw­ ing up a more readily-explained array of human excuses like greed, lust, stupidity, paranoia, envy and despair.

Dark City is drenched in alien­ ation and desperation. When we first meet John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell, a soft-focus Ray Liotta), he is partially submerged in chalky, red bath-water. With a trickle of blood on his forehead, Sewell awakens a little more than daunted by his hotel-room surroundings.

Things just aren’t right. Disorien­ tated, he knocks over a goldfish bowl and comes across hand luggage bearing the initials KH.

CI NEMA PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

A sunny postcard from a place called Shell Beach momentarily spear­ heads scraps of a flashback. Then the phone rings. A dazed Murdoch answers. A classic noir scenario.

Prior to meeting Murdoch, a lisping voice-over from a Dr Schre­ ber (Keifer Sutherland, who’s developed a penchant for playing characters with mouth damage: check out Freeway') provides a confession that he has betrayed the world by performing work for The Strangers, a dying race of ancient beings. Not so classic film noir.

As the camera descends from a black-ink sky, the pre-credit sequence surrounds us in the basic aesthetics of Dark City: an anony­ mous metropolis of brown concrete skyscrapers bound by roads and highways in full automotive swing.

It’s drab but clean, worn but sharp.

Light sources are all practical but minimal. We’re then dropped straight into the annoyingly-familiar stasis of a peak-hour traffic crawl.

The period could be the mid-’4os, but, when a VW comes into view, the precise location blurs. Another feature of the overall design here: recognizable but alien.

A cinema marquee promises Book of Dreams. At the stroke of a clock, and for no immediatelyapparent reason, everything comes to a complete standstill. Citizens drop like flies, lying slumped over steering wheels and footpaths as the opening titles spin toward us.

Back at the hotel, Murdoch’s disorientation continues with Schreber’s agitated voice coming down the phone line urging him to run for his life. An experiment has gone wrong, he breathlessly explains to the confused Murdoch, who finds his motivation when he discovers that he’s shacked up with a blood-splattered female corpse. Did he commit the crime?

Murdoch narrowly misses the appearance of a team of The Strangers, wide-brimmed-hat wearing mystery figures in dark, floor-length coats who burst out of a lift. Downstairs, the desk clerk greets Murdoch with the news that his three-week room-booking has expired and the bill must be paid.

He stumbles into the street awash with uncertainty and oblivious to The Strangers, room raid.

Elsewhere, Emma Murdoch (Jen­ nifer Connelly), John’s estranged wife, stands before a microphone in a bar, torch-singing to a largelybored audience. Posing as Murdoch’s psychiatrist, Schreber

lures her to his office. She enters while he’s playing with a rat in a maze. Schreber claims something has happened to her husband, and Emma must let him know as soon as he makes contact with her.

William Hurt next appears as staid and correct Inspector Bumstead. We learn Bumstead’s the new man on the case because the previous detective, Walenski (Colin Friels), got the “heebie geebies”.

For the moment that’s all, as Dark City continues to pass out its plot in discrete information pack­ ets. We have to go down to the Automat, a coffee shop by any other name, to glean from a news­ paper headline that six hookers have been killed. The city’s running scared, as is Murdoch, who gets his formal ID back in just enough time to be saved from police investiga­ tion. Aided by a prostitute (Melissa George), he finds himself in another hotel room. Again, time stands still, but Murdoch remains mobile as another assault group of Strangers chase him onto a rooftop directly beneath a Shell Beach billboard.

An instant urban facelift shears the skull off the unfortunately named Stranger, Mr Quick (who isn’t).

A luminous insect-like creature emerges from his empty skull.

Dark City then hurtles forward in several ways, some unexpected, some not. Murdoch’s resolve to understand his own situation is naturally strengthened when he discovers the telekinetic ability he mutually shares with The Strangers.

More than a little illumination occurs when we’re taken beneath the city streets for a conference of several hundred bald and leatherclad Strangers. In an infinitely-black hole that’s a cross between a burntout Elizabethan theatre and an electronic Church to the God of timekeeping, it seems The Strangers have seriously underestimated Mur­ doch. As a group, they engage in a ritual focusing of energy called “tuning”, which is responsible for the shifting reality Murdoch rapidly becomes aware of.

Like its opening credit sequence, Dark City is a swirl of narrative threads, some of which become neatly tied off while just as many aren’t. For some viewers, the narrative gaps will alienate as much as the main character, who spends his time in manufactured ignorance. But that’s all right, and more befitting of the strange, fan­ tastic dream nature of this almost supernatural piece of celluloid.

It also aligns itself with the maker’s intention to make Dark City as appealing to the emotions as to the intellect. A tall order by any standards, but an ambition it often meets just as it pinballs between high art and graphic-novel action.

Sometimes the imagery overwhelms the story, but then the scenery often becomes the story.

While the list of serious science fiction films is long, and many have previously utilized noir conventions - fromAlphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) to Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973) and Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982), to name but three examples from the past three decades) - it’s fair to say, with no recourse to simply feeding the hype machine, that Dark City has fused genres to create something that stands alone. There’s no getting around the fact that Dark City is both innovative and enervative. In many ways, it indexes the limits of fantas­ tic film production past to offer in the present what film production in the future could perform. Like film noir, its development came about with the aid of new technologies, but new film tools are not the sole reason for its existence. Sure, the manipulation and creation of CGI that wasn’t possible a couple of years ago is on display, but so too is as much model work, simple and ingenious production design of both the aural and audio kind, and basic in-camera invention. Dark City is both a consolidation and develop­ ment of all the previous work of Proyas, but especially The Crow (1994). Hey, after years of crafting the slickest commercials, no one smashes a fish-tank like Proyas.

With Dark City, he’s headed a team that’s created a complete filmic world unto itself, and it’s as credible and seductive as the viewer wants it to be. Sophisticated fantasy hasn’t been this good since the pilot for David Lynch’s Twin Peaks momen­ tarily had audiences pinned to their cinema seats. Dark City does it bet­ ter.

In the words of Richard O’Brien, who plays Mr Hand, “A mental mindfuck can be nice.” If you didn’t catch it at your multiplex, catch it now with repetitions. © MICHAEL helms F u r t h e r r e a d in g : see Michael Helms’ interviews with Alex Proyas and Andrew Mason (Cinema Papers, no. 125, May 1998, pp. 18-21,45).

1 Freeway (Matthew Bright, 1996).

47

i 25 b orow czyk

anyone who has sat through the final moments of this film can attest, the body of Bartolomeo torn between four horses, and dragged mutilated through a darkening forest. It is the supreme example of Borowczykian montage, with a horrifying crescendo of sound and an intensifying rhythm of cuts.

As well as its extraordinary craftsmanship, Blanche is a further riposte to those who have accused Borowczyk of caring too little for performance. This is a beautifullyacted film, not the least of its virtues being the performance of Michel Simon as Le Seigneur.

During the opening scene of festivities, Le Seigneur seems almost an incidental character and actor, almost undirected and out of place.

Only very subtly does he begin to exercise his w ill... and the audience become aware of it.

This is a riveting portrayal of a conniving, wily old man, so used to his machinations that he can’t stop himself from a path he knows will lead to total destruction. Or can he?

Perhaps his desire for getting his own way is so great that he prefers annihi­ lation to loss of control. In many ways, he is a soul brother to Grozo in Goto, Vile d’amour.

Much of the acting, in fact, continues Borowczyk’s long-held fascination with silent movie tradi­ tions, especially the shots of Blanche, cloak half across her face, watching as men debate her fate.

There is a theatricality, too, in the staging of action against the onewalled sets (for example, the stairs to Blanche’s bedroom, with the secret entrance below). This technique becomes much more complex in later films.

Blanche is Borowczyk’s first fea­ ture fully in colour; it is a glorious visual feast that should be experi­ enced in a cinema. Not only are the colours so dazzlingly contrasted and balanced, but the light changes and mutates through the film, from an over-lit sunniness to the everencroaching darkness, seemingly fading forever in the forest, the sound of galloping hooves echoing into an eternally-piercing scream of anguish.

B

lanche is the first of Borow­ czyk’s many recreations of the past.27 They range from Ancient Rome (Ars

48

Amandi), 13th {Blanche) and 17th century France {La Bête) to the late 19th and early 20th centuries {The Story of a Sin, Dr. Jekyll et les Femmes, et al). Borowczyk: [l]t is fascinating to recreate periods of history. That is the magnificent thing about filmmaking for me: to relive things that may or may not have existed. If you want, you can have blue apples or strangely-coloured trees.

What is also fascinating is recon­ structing the material culture, objects from an era that is close but at the same time distant. This is magic.28

Though not always credited, Borow­ czyk oversees the design of his films, including the sets. Hence the pre­ dominance of wooden walls and staircases, glass cabinets (containing symbolic objects) and strange con­ traptions. He is influenced not only by the surrealists but the theatre of the absurd. He believes in an absolute attention to detail, whether the texture of parchment or the lace edging on a dress.

Some have argued that this preoc­ cupation with the past (albeit a part-imagined one) is an evasion of the present. But any film, by its very nature and production, deals with the issues of the day, consciously or otherwise.29 Blanche is clearly as much about today, or 1966, as it is about medieval French life.

When Max Tessier in Ecran sug­ gested to Borowczyk that “none of your films has a direct relationship with the present, with an actual reality”, the director replied: [l]t isn’t the rôle of the cinema to repro­ duce reality in all its details. On the contrary, true creation is exaggeration, a generalization through fragments.

I consider that to speak of “serious contemporary problems” is not spe­ cific in itself: everyone is evidently contemporary in what he says. Anec­ dotally, 1 appear to return in reverse, but in reality what I’m saying concerns us, today like yesterday. Like always, it is a question of a parabola, of a metaphor, one that crosses fragments of reality.

It is not an obsession of the past, but moreover a predilection. We have the privilege of seeing the past when we are imagining only the future, and, what we understand of the present (that is to say, we ourselves), it is thanks to this past, to this tradition.30

Blanche is a stunning testament to this tradition. There is no question of its permanent status. It is indisputably a masterpiece.

Impossibly, though, finer films were to follow. ® Future instalments will examine Contes Immoraux (1974), Dzieje Grzechu (1975), La Bête (1975), La Marge (1976), Interno di un Convento (1977), Les Héroïnes du Mal (1979), Collections Privée (1979), Lulù (1980), Dr. Jekyll et les Femmes (1981), Ars Amandi (1983), Emmanuelle 5 (1987) and Cérémonie d Amour (1988).

Many thanks to Rolando Caputo for his encourage­ ment and incisive comments.

Ackn o w led gm en t:

1 Quoted in English in Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs, Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies 1956-1984, St Martin’s Griffin, New York, 1995, p. 228. The Primitive Press, Great Britain, edition of 1994 actually precedes it, but is extremely rare.

2 It is intriguing how Borowcyzk’s intro­ duction to film so parallels Jacques Demy’s. As a boy, Demy saw a self­ wind camera in a shop window in the arcade he so lovingly iconizes with sweeping tracking shots in Lola (1961) and Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1964). Agnès Varda recreates Demy’s first seeing the camera in Jacquot de Nantes (1991).

3 Sue Adler, “Enticements to Voyeurism”, Cinema Papers, February-March 1985, p. 23. Borowczyk was interviewed in French and the interview translated

by Adler.

4 Sue Adler, op. cit., p. 23. Again there is a parallel with Demy, as shown in Jacquot de Nantes.

5 “L’amour, tout agréable qu’il est, plait encore plus par les manières dont il se montre que par lui-même.” Quoted at the beginning of Contes Immoraux.

Translated by this author.

6 Nicholas Thomas (Ed.), International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers - 2: Directors: Second Edition, St James Press, Chicago and London, 1991, p. 84.

7 Sue Adler, op. cit., pp. 22-7.

8 Jill Forbes, The French Cinema After the New Wave, BFI-Macmillan, London, 1992.

9 In Ginette Vincendeau (Ed.), Encyclo­ pedia of European Cinema, Cassell and BFI, London, 1995, p. 53.

10 Borowczyk also directed an episode of Collections Privée (1979) and a few minutes of Emmanuelle 5 (1987).

11 See footnote 1.

12 E-mail correspondence with author.

13 Kerri Sharp, “Hairy Hands Make Light Work”, originally printed in Headpress, No. 18,1988.

14 Most of the films cited in this article

came from Luminous Film & Video Wurks.

15 Scott Murray, Australian Film 19781994: A Survey of Theatrical Features, Oxford University Press in association with The Australian Film Commission and Cinema Papers, Melbourne, 1995.

See description of methodology, pp. 511. Anything in [] is not from the credits but other sources; it should be (mis)trusted accordingly.

16 Borowczyk: Cinéaste Onirique: Le cas étrange du Dr Jekyll et Miss Osbourne, with a preface by André Pieyre de Man­ diargues, Collection La Vue, B. Diffusion, Paris, 1981.

17 Some copies of the film have the few colour shots printed in black and white. As with Zelig (Woody Allen, 1983), the colour shots were originally spliced into each print, rather than the whole film printed on colour stock (to the visual detriment of the black-andwhite sequences). Regrettably, the version shown on SBS has no colour.

18 This is the reading on the author’s VCR. 19 Sometimes rendered “d’Arblay”.

20 Philip Strick, “The Theatre of Walerian Borowczyk”, Sight and Sound, p. 170.

21 There is an entire essay (if not book) to be written on the parallels between the social analysis of de Sade and the films of Borowczyk.

22 The jumpy cutting of planes; unusual and off-centred compositions; bizarre sound effects complementing or con­ trasting with the sudden shifts in perspective; little interest in structuring a scene according to standard chronolo­ gies or placements; and so on.

23 The interviews with Borowczyk repro­ duced here have been translated into English and were published before the feminist debate on “man” rendered its use near obsolete.

24 Carlos Clarens, “The Artistic Pornographer”, Film Comment, January-February 1976, p. 47. Translated by Clarens.

25 Max Tessier, “Entretien avec Walerian Borowczyk”, Ecran, 15 September 1975, pp. 64. Translation by Paul Kalina.

26 This credit is given major prominence, it is also perhaps worth noting that Patrice Leconte is one of the three “2e assistants réalisateurs”.

27 Goto, I 7le d’amour is set in an unspeci­ fied and imaginary time and place which mimics the present. Some critics call it a period film, but there seems no basis for such a view.

28 Sue Adler, op. cit., p. 26 29 Borges’ short story, “Pierre Ménard: author of the Quixote”, remains the most profound demonstration of this fundamental truth.

30 Max Tessier, op. cit., p. 64.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

41

e d g e o f t h e k n o w n w o r ld

Rachel Perkins Producing, 1995 You HAD A LOT OF EXPER IEN CE A S A F IL M M A K E R BEFO RE YO U CAM E TO THE S chool. W hat b ro u g h t yo u h ere a n d W H Y D ID YO U W AN T TO DO THE C O U R SE ?

A lot of the experience I’d had was in documentary and current-affairs pro­ gramming, and I wanted to get into drama; it seemed like the School was the way to get there quickly.

HAVE CONTINUED BEYOND THE SCHOOL?

Absolutely; I met many people whom I’ve subsequently worked with. I’m developing a feature with a fellow producing student, Robyn Kershaw.

Another producing student was production manager on my feature, Radiance, and cinematographer, Warwick Thornton, shot it.

A ndrew Lesnie

H O W D ID Y O U ACTUALLY GET TO THE

Cinematography, 1976-78 What was the difference in you, both

S chool?

A S A P E R SO N A N D A S A F ILM M A KER ,

There’d never been any indigenous stu­ dents in the producing sector in the whole of the School’s history. So the School put up these indigenous schol­ arships, and I applied for the producing extension and got it. Previously, there’d been Anne Pratten who’d done editing and Warwick Thornton who’d done cinematography. So I was the third full-time indigenous student.

A n d d id y o u h a v e a n id e a o f w h a t y o u

WANTED THE SCHOOL TO GIVE YOU PRO­ FESSIONALLY?

I wanted to learn about drama and I wanted to learn the right words for things; everyone was always talking about genre and adaptation and cin­ ema vérité and film noir, and I didn’t know what anyone was talking about. I thought, “If I want to get ahead, I have to learn the industry norms and stan­ dards and the words, and polish what skills I have.” I thought the School was the way to do that.

Originally, I would have liked to do directing, but they were only offering a three-year course then, and I was defi­ nitely not going to stick around for three years. So I did the producing course, instead. I’m a producer-direc­ tor, so that worked okay for me. I produced drama while I was here and then, the year after I left, I directed a feature, so I think you get what you need to get out of the School. In that sense, I suppose it worked well for me.

W

a s

e n c e

t h e r e

a n y a s p e c t

o f t h e

e x p e r i

­

T H A T W A S N EG A TIV E FOR Y O U ?

I think the only aspect that would have been negative was the inflexibility of the curriculum, that it didn’t acknowl­ edge, to the degree that I wanted it to, external projects that I wanted to get accreditation for. I was curating a film festival in Berlin. I was making a short film for Channel 4 and that was seen as being not the right thing to do. You come to the School, you have to do the course and not make outside films.

D id y o u m a k e a n y p r o f e s s io n a l

ASSOCIATIONS AT THE SCHOOL THAT

C I N E M A PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

BETW EEN W HEN YO U CAME TO THE SCHOOL AND W H EN YO U LEFT TH E SC H O O L?

As a person, I just wasn’t as naive. It was a huge personal growth experi­ ence, and technically it was a grounding experience because the dream of being a filmmaker didn’t go away. I headed into cinematography. I did direct at the School, but there are certain things that you get out of your system, which is ter­ rific. Then you decide whether your interests are keener in particular areas, and for me it was cinematography.

H O W Q U IC K L Y D ID Y O U FIN D E M P L O Y M E N T AFTER Y O U LEFT TH E SCHO O L?

Immediately, as a camera assistant at the ABC; I had worked briefly at the ABC before I went to the School. Then I went freelance as a stringer after that.

What do you regard as your first BIG B R E A K ?

Probably as second unit director of photography on Bodyline [1984], with Dean Semler as the main unit DOP. I had met George Miller making a docu­ mentary on Mad Max 2 [1981] and then a couple of years later I’d shot a short film called Stations [1983] which was directed by jackie McKimmie; they saw it at the Greater Union awards when Bodyline was about to commence pro­ duction and they rang me.

Later , you were DOP on Chris

Noonan’s B a b e [1995]. Were there things you were still learning on T H A T FILM , FOR E X A M P L E ?

Oh, I’ve concluded that if you’re not learning on anything you’re doing at the time then it’s pointless. I regard the whole thing as an ongoing experience.

Every film is like a new challenge. I start every film like I’ve never shot a frame of film in my life.

Any especially memorable lessons the S chool gave you professionally ?

I was introduced to probably the biggest connection I had - Don McAlpine, who was tutoring occasion­ ally at the School - and ended up being attached to The Getting of Wisdom [1977] as a runner. I clapper-loaded for

him on Patrick [1978] and I focused for him on Nowand Forever[1983]. He’s not only an amazing man but he’s a ter­

D E G R E E B E FO R E D IS C O V E R IN G FILM , A N D TH EN W E N T TO TH E S C H O O L T O DO AN E D ITIN G C O U R S E , R A TH ER TH A N D IR EC TIN G .

rific educator. He’s very giving with information, always happy if you keep throwing questions at him and inquiring about what’s going on.

My original intention was not necessar­ ily to be a director; I wanted to study editing because I thought that was a more sensible way into understanding how film works. When I was at the School, I didn’t quite understand how students could go into the School say­ ing, “I want to be a director” without any background in film.

Y ou’ve been back to the S chool, LEC TU R IN G .

Yes. We did an exercise with the cine­ matography and the sound departments so that they develop an appreciation of each other’s skills and requirements.

We also did a collaboration between the cinematography and the design depart­ ments called “Perfecting the Picture”.

Do Y O U

H O W D ID T H E E X P E R IE N C E A T T H E S C H O O L A FFECT Y O U R FILM M A KIN G A M B IT IO N S AND O PTIO N S ?

I guess the opportunity the School gave me was to provide a bulk of experience editing other people’s films and then, of course, I had the opportunity to direct my own film [Hit and Miss], and that is an opportunity you don’t get outside the School. When I was there everybody had a chance to make a film, and some­ times that shows up talent in people who didn’t set out to do directing.

N O T I C E A N Y D I F F E R E N C E S IN T H E

S chool culture since you left?

Well, apart from the fact that it’s a dif­ ferent building and apart from the fact that I’m older, so I’m probably viewing it from a slightly different perspective, I thinkthere are a number of amazing similarities, actually. There seems to be an ongoing struggle within the organi­ zation, partly based on the fact that you’ve got an incredibly idealistic stu­ dent body housed within a government department - which was exactly the same when I was at the School. It was like the bureaucrats upstairs and the student body downstairs. There was always this unofficial war going on; in a way, I felt that should that struggle ever cease then you may as well close the place down because I think it’s a kind of maturing process in itself.

A

f te r

y o u

le ft t h e

S

c h o o l

,

y o u

a g a in

W O R K E D W ITH S C O T T H lC K S , E D ITIN G

S h i n e [ 1986].

W

“M

”?

a d a m

La

s h

h y

d o e s

h e

c a ll y o u

[Laughs.] Scott and I have a working relationship that’s very... healthy. I think the quality he likes in me when we work together is that I’m really ruthless in my approach to the mater­ ial and I’m not backward in coming forward in saying what I think.

Y O U O N C E T O L D M E IN A N O T H E R I N T E R ­ V IE W T H A T Y O U O N LY REALLY ED IT FOR H

Pip K arm el Editing, 1985-87 You

IN TER R U P TE D

y o u r

c o u r s e

a t t h e

S chool to answer S cott Hicks ’ call T O E D IT H IS FILM ,

SEBASTIAN AND THE

S p a r r o w [1989]; how did the

S chool

RESPOND TO THAT?

I took off several months in the middle of my second year and the School gave me credit for the editing, so when I came back I had nearly fulfilled all my editing requirements.

H O W D ID T H A T E X P E R IE N C E A D V A N C E Y O U R F IL M M A K IN G S K ILLS ?

Enormously. At the School, I had the opportunity to edit student films. So the experience of going back into the industry - because I had come from the industry as an assistant editorwas like taking the next step up, I sup­ pose, and gave me a level of creative freedom and authority as well, which was priceless at that time in my career.

It gave me confidence to say, okay, I’ve had that experience in edjting and now I want to concentrate on directing.

Y O U S P E N T FIVE Y E A R S D O IN G A N A R T S

ic k s

;

is t h a t

s til l t h e

c a s e

.

Well, now my directing career is start­ ing to move, I don’t edit. I haven’t been doing any editing.

H O W W O U LD Y O U S U M M A R IZ E Y O U R EX P E R IE N C E O F T H E S C H O O L ?

The School for me was a very impor­ tant bridge from being an assistant in the industry, where the chance of going much further looked like taking a very long time. It was my aim in going there to cross that gap. That’s exactly what it helped me do. I got the experi­ ence, the confidence and the entrée to the film industry. And then, because I won the Graduate Filmmaker Award [Hit and Miss], I was able to go straight into employment with Film Australia as a writer-director. So the School was invaluable. 0 1 Edge of the Known World: Impressions of the First 25 Years of the Australian Film Television & Radio School, Aus­ tralian Rim Television & Radio School, North Ryde, 1998. The extracts have been slightly edited to conform to Cin­ ema Papers house style.

49

^ 3 1 4 festivals: telluride section of the film incredibly distinctive without being show-offy. Observers of Québec cinema have been writing about the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers for a few years now, and hopefully August 32nd on Earth will be the work that brings this group of artists to wider international attention.

The Festival has long been commit­ ted to nurturing American independent film, and this year’s crop was a pre­ dictably mixed one. On one end of the extreme was Lodge Kerrigan’s cool, upsetting new film, Clare Dolan. Star­ ring Katrin Cartlidge as a high-priced prostitute, Colm Meany as her sleazy but well-dressed pimp, and Vincent d’Onofrio as a would-be suitor, Kerrig­ an’s second feature is notable not only for its very solid performances, but also for its meticulous composition and intense, brooding feel. D’Onofrio certainly does the best work of his career here, and Kerrigan’s narrative avoids Pretty Woman-esque simplifica­ tion, providing very little in the way of completion or closure. On the other end of the extreme was Todd Solondz’s third (not, as many think, his second) feature, Happiness. Fresh from the success of Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Solondz here moves into much darker, creepier material, weaving an extremely complex narra­ tive that involves (among other things) paedophilia, rape, decapitation and computer programmers. It is far more than he can coherently pull together and the film is scarred by a smarmy, look-how-hip-and-ironic-l-am sense of the absurd. Although it has the mak­ ings of a major statement about American isolation, Solondz never seems to take his material seriously enough to make any of it worth con­ templating. This seems odd, given how in introductions he awkwardly insisted that this was a serious film, seeming rather taken with how disturbing it all was. If only...

One of the most accessible, enjoy­ able films of the Festival was Leslie Woodhead’s Endurance, a biography of the great Ethiopian distance runner, Haile Gebrselassie. Formally, the film is an odd combination of a leap for­ ward and backwards, featuring a great number of staged sequences that move away from the simple obsession with realism that has plagued most modern documentary and which hear­ ken back to the films of Robert Flaherty (a debt which the Festival’s programme notes mentioned). The film is ostensibly a narrative, starting

50

when Gebrselassie was a young boy and ending with his victory at the 1996 Olympics. This description is really quite deceptive, however, given the visceral, lyrical sensibility that clearly drives Woodhead, and which is evi­ dent in the lush, kinetic imagery of the film. Although Endurance goes into some detail about the difficulty that Gebrselassie endured as a young child, these elements pale in compari­ son to the raw force of his athletic ability, which Woodhead has the good sense to evoke with a spare simplicity.

Dutch-born Rolfde Heerwas at Tel­ luride to show his new feature, Dance Me to My Song, which is credited as “A Heather Rose Film”. De Heer directed, but said he felt that this was obviously a film about Heather (she wrote it and stars). Rose has cerebral palsy, and the film is primarily concerned with the dayto-day battles she wages to simply maintain her independence. While there are occasional lapses into emotional manipulation, some of de Heer’s images of handicapped people are quite unprecedented, both in terms of gentle lyricism and simple, painful brutality.

Oceania also put in a solid showing in the shorts department, with one from Australia and two from New Zealand.

The most visually-adventurous of these was certainly Kiwi Ellroy Elkayem’s ’50s horror movie spoof, Larger than Life, which featured crisp black-and-white photography and a spine-tinglingly ren­ dered giant bug. Elkayem’s countryman, Peter Salmon, illustrated a similarlyimaginative nature with his pixilated Playing Possum, which suggests that there are little monsters out there fight­ ing over the roadkill on New Zealand’s highways.

Australian Lynne-Maree Danzey’s short, Fetch, seemed to be an absurd tale of a blind date gone bad, but in the last 15 seconds or so takes a truly startling turn into the appalling. It pro­ vided the shortest, although also the loudest, laugh ofthe Festival.

Midway through the weekend, the great Japanese master, Akira Kuro­ sawa, died, and Festival co-director Tom Luddy insisted on a moment of silence for him at the beginning of a tribute to Susumu Hani, a key figure in the Japanese new wave ofthe 1960s and now a prominent wildlife photog­ rapher. It was a sad moment, but also an odd microcosm ofthe Telluride experience. In the midst of frenzy, we paused, to remember what had come before, and to try to understand how, through that past, we might move forward. ©

1 15 festivals: mumbai against liquor in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The filmmakers worked with the women via village literacy pro­ grammes to dramatize their struggle against institutionalized bootlegging.

The women take to the streets in a mass movement of 50,000 to achieve total prohibition.

Lesser Humans, on the manual human excreta scavengers in Gujarat, directed by Stalin K., demonstrates the ability to be both polemical and humanistic as it investigates the slavery suffered by the Bhangi (scav­ enger) caste group.4 Lesser Humans won second place in the Video Awards.

In Y C P 1997, by K.P. Jayasankar and Anjali Monteiro, six poets and artists in Yerwada Central Prison, Pune, share how they creatively cope with the pain and stigma of incarceration. The video received a Certificate of Merit.

Lifting the Veil by Shonali Bose uses polemics to passionately analyze the impact of globalization and the reality of today’s ‘new’ and ‘old’ India.

A look at film curator Amrit Gangar’s work with the MIFF Retrospectives over the years is to witness an erudite and sophisticated vision of documentary as an art form as well as educational, political, social expression. In MIFF ’98, films from India’s Mani Kaul, Pramod Pati and Anand Partwardhan screened along with Patricio Guzman’s early doc­ umentaries. Guzman presented his new film, Chile, Obstinate Memory, which takes the tale of his historic Bat­ tle of Chile (1973-9) further by three decades as he returns to Santiago.

Both Mani Kaul and Pramod Pati show a film craft which pushes experi­ mentation and the line between fiction and documentary to the inner recesses of creative inspiration. So, too, does French film poet and experimental video artist Robert Cahen, who presented 12 films in his Retrospective. When asked about the harmony and beauty ofthe world depicted in his films, he replied:

What really counts for me is trans­ lating emotions into images and meanings. Deep emotions that, while beautiful, are dreadful, and are the foundations of existence.5 The Retrospective programme also included: 39 short films from the Archive ofthe International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, presented by Angela Haardt, former Director ofthe Festival; a tribute to Studio D: the Women’s Studio ofthe National Film Board of Canada and its director, Kathleen Shannon; films from the Sam Speigel Film and Television School,

Israel; the Film and Television Institute of India, and a homage to Bert Haanstra, Holland.

“Fifty Years of Indian Independence through Documentaries” was another inspiring programme. Here was a chance to see rare gems, such as Satyajit Ray’s elegiac documentary, Inner Eye (1972), about the famous blind painter, Shri Binode Behari Mukherjee, Ray’s teacher, as well as Ray’s wonderful 1962 biographical documentary, Rabindrath Tagore.

Some of India’s most significant political and social documentaries made up this programme: Bhopal: Beyond Genocide (1985) by Mulay and Bose; Meera Deewan’s film on dowry deaths, Gift of Love (1982); and Fali Bilimoria’s House ThatAnanda Built (1967).

There’s no doubt that documentary film in India suffers a marginalization next to the feature film industry. Rais­ ing budgets, distribution and exhibition are as difficult for documentary makers in India as anywhere. However, a vic­ tory was achieved in 1997 by the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA), when it successfully negotiated, with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, a reserved weekly docu­ mentary half-hour on Doordarshan National Network.

Australian documentary filmmmakers might shift our Euro-centred film festival focus and turn more to the Asian region. MIFF is a dynamic docu­ mentary film festival, perhaps not yet as a marketplace for Australian film­ makers, but as a rich cultural event where passion, love and respect for documentary exists. MIFF’s generous and inclusive concept of “what is documentary” permits a creative environment for documentary film­ makers of many persuasions. © Jeni Thorn ley’s visit to M IFF was sponsored by the Australian Film Commission.

1 Kumar Shahani is an Indian documen­ tary and feature director.

2 Amrit Gangar, “Debating the Documen­ tary”, Retrospectives catalogue, MIFF ’96, R-6.

3 Bankim, Foreword, MIFF catalogue ’98, F-i.

4 Amrit Gangar refers to “this ability to polemicize and humanize” as a unique quality that filmmakers Anand Part­ wardhan and Patricio Guzman share.

MIFF Festival News, Vol V, No. 1,1998, P-3 5 Robert Cahen, “Seven Fleeting Visions”, MIFF catalogue ’98, R-22.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 199.8

17 inperform ance imagery, ability to listen and yield, development of relationship, etc.

Know, too, you can also give each actor something different to explore and heighten: • Player A explores total non-compli­ ance, whilst Player B explores the utter determination and courage it will take to change his will; • Player A explores his total desire for intimacy and seduction, whilst Player B explores a total distance, aloofness and disinterest; • Player A explores the rage he feels at not getting his own way, whilst Player B explores her delight and relish at Player A’s suffering.

These combinations obviously rocket the scene and both actors toward a total involvement in each other and in the adventure of the scene.

ABCs Wildside often succeeds bril­ liantly in creating and maintaining psychological atmosphere by one major element being explored and heightened by every cast member in the scene. Ele­ ments like: explore and heighten everyone doing everything they can to stay in control when all you want to do is explode; or explore holding nothing back as you drive relentlessly toward your ultimate goal; or explore no one giving anything away at any second; or everyone in the scene explore making sure everyone else in the scene knows you’re boss and what you say goes.

These elements can bring a scene to an absolutely recognizable level for an audience. For a scene can be quite simply plotted as a journey between the states of: I’m okay, you’re okay, to; I’m okay, you’re not okay, to; You’re okay, but I’m not okay, to; We’re both not okay.

These transactional analysis models show the life games we are involved in at any given second. And the game changes depending on circumstances.

This is a great way to plot the journey in a story or scene. A scene could start with both not being okay, then end with one person convincing the other that they are both okay: Or the reverse; or both people starting out in one state then ending in the opposite. © Next column, let’s explore these games and how simple it is to actually nail the game the scene is built around. I’ll include sample scenes from film and television so we can see these games in action. We’ll also look at further exer­ cises to reveal the game. See you then.

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

30 unfinished business structure for private capital forma­ tion, the 10B and 10BA concessions, and a sophisticated network of public investment agencies including the AFC, FFC, ABC, SBS-I and Film Aus­ tralia. If we could fit these tools to the new task, we could have some hope of its accomplishment. ©

^3

1 Editor: From 1969 to 1997, there were 519 theatrically-released features.

From 1970 to 1994, there were 450 unreleased features and tele-features.

Research is incomplete on the 1995-7 period, but assume at least another 50, given the recent rush of selffunded features.

2 See Harold Vogel, Entertainment Industry Economics, Cambridge Uni­ versity Press, Cambridge, 1986, pp.

86-87. While noting the difficulty of statistical extrapolation - the fact that people can drown in a river with an average depth of six inches - Vogel cal­ culates that on average the movies produced by the Hollywood studios yield negative returns at the copyright level. He offers two explanations: the first, a non-sequitur, is that “the occa­ sional winners pay for the many losers”; the second, and more com­ pelling, is that the core business of the Hollywood studios is movie distribu­ tion, the upstream profit centre of the movie industry.

3 Examples of Hollywood’s extraordinary parsimony in the matter of movie prof­ its are legion. In a recent case, Winston Groom, the writer of Forrest Gump, sued the movie’s distributor, Para­ mount, for the three percent share of net profits he was due under his writ­ ing agreement. According to Paramount, despite grossing more than US$400 million at the box-office, the film was still in the red. To settle, Paramount offered Groom a US$250,000 ‘advance’ on future prof­ its. For writers and other creators of copyright, it was a gloomy but familiar outcome.

4 Observing all this, our Martian inter­ locutor might be tempted to a few conclusions. One might be that there are always individuals and institutions willing to subsidize entry, their own or someone else’s, into the market for ‘content’; another, that there are always counterposed individuals and organizations willing to take them up on this; and the third, that consumers fully expect this kind of subsidy, hav­ ing become accustomed, by a century of advertising, to low and even zeropriced media.

12 shorts

want results very shortly, and that is a problem everywhere.

Gonln, too, has concerns about the “calling-card” syndrome, the tendency of eager new filmmakers to use their short film as a way of cynically selling themselves to the feature industry.

Indeed, says Gonin, the problem is that it works; indeed, sometimes works too well. Fie sees this more as a problem of film financing, a problem that relates not only to shorts.

There’s a lack of ideas, of criticism, of how to speak about films. At Clermont-Ferrand, we invite people to comment on the films they have seen, a witness. We need to develop this: directors, producers and peo­ ple who are able to talk about short films.

Today, if a film is a blockbuster, you can’t say anything [against it] or you’re thought of as being an elitist.

People don’t talk about cinema and that’s a real problem. Cinema maga­ zines are disappearing, even in France, where there are a lot.

You know, with features you get your presskits, production notes and often a lot more, but with short films it can be very hard: there are no stars; people don’t know how to speak about it, and there’s a lot to be done in this area. Because people are watching films, they are watch­ ing images all the time, but they don’t know how to speak about them.

Most of the money for short film pro­ duction in France comes from the national government, but increasingly regional governments are becoming involved.

I don’t think Giscard D’Estaing [President of the Auvergne region2] is crazy about film, but he just real­ ized that there is good exposure in promoting the region through film.

Short filmmakers come, they learn about the region and maybe they will shoot a feature there later on.

I think this is an investment, a pro­ motion.

Short films are mainly made by young people, so when you have plenty of young people wanting to make films in your region, that means the region is quite alright.

In other countries, it’s a bit the same. Now in England, there are regional arts councils wanting to work with regional television; they’ve realized that this is a not too costly way to promote the region.

Short films now have exposure

throughout the world.

In turn, the market for short films has commensurately increased.

Up until five years ago, the market was mainly French television, but now people are coming [to the short film market at Clermont-Fer­ rand] from all over Europe, mainly.

French cable networks, such as Arte and Canal Plus, are important pur­ chasers and programmers of shorts Him.

They think that it’s good to show short films to keep a young audi­ ence, because they are made by young people - and the community is looking at these films thinking they are made by young people who are going into features.

In France, a few years ago people didn’t know the meaning of courtmétrage, because it doesn’t have the meaning that “short film” has in English. Even in the media they are saying, “he did some courtmétrage”. The public is following these people; they know Jean-Pierre Jeunet did Foutaises.

It’s part of national identity: short films really are about cultural and national identity, it’s where people can relate to their own cinema. And plenty of people want to have a dif­ ferent kind of cinema, they want to have this simple cinema that relates to them, that’s not too far from their own lives - even if it’s totally different, like Jeunet, who makes these fantasy films. They have this identity, they know where he’s coming from.

In Brazil, they did this short film festival in Sao Paolo; now there are plenty of short filmmakers and we are waiting. Jorge Furtado was awarded many times at ClermontFerrand3 and everywhere people are expecting a new cinema - because there were good films from there a long time ago. These really inde­ pendent minds that make short films and go into features, I think that’s the future. © 1 When Gonin refers to short films he is referring only to works originated and finished on film; Clermont-Ferrand does not accept video.

2 For example, the Region Centre (ARCA) with the help of APCVL, Atelier de Pro­ duction Centre Val de Loire and Region Haute-Normandie, has already made several short films, most notably Erick Zonca’s and those of several others.

3 llha das Flores (Public Prize, 1991), Esta Nao e a sua vida (Grand Prix, 1992)

51

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Dub, Dub, Dub

The current medium is VHS, but advanced distribution technologies such as DVD may well have a major impact on the business as it calls for massive set-up costs. We took a look at some typical organizations.

b y B arrie Sm ith

Silver Trak

f you thought all the high activ­ ity In film and video production began and ended at the pro­ duction phase, prepare to be surprised at the size of the duplication industry.

While the Atlab film laboratory in Sydney goes hell for leather in its 35mm retease-print division, propelling out vast quantities of fea­ ture-film copies to feed the hunger of simultaneous release patterns in mul­ tiplex cinemas across the country, other companies of varying size in the main capitals are supplying consumer demand in a more direct fashion by briskly engaging in tape duplication of all types of titles - movies, ‘how-tos’, music videos, corporate messagesfor all sorts of clients, running to all sorts of lengths.

Sited in the heart of Sydney’s video­ post industry, Ron Anderson’s Artarmon company has been in tape assembly and dubbing for 16 years.

Silver Trak considers itself to be the second-largest audio cassette duplica­ tor in Australia, but it was only in 1993 that it began to become a serious video duplicator as well.

The company is able to play out from most formats - Digital Betacam, SX DVCPRO, DVCAM, SP, etc., while the dub format is mostly V H S -to the order of around three million cassettes annually. Duplication machines are mostly Panasonic and Sharp HiFi VHS VCRs. CD-ROM burning and extendedrelease runs of CDs is a new service, relying on a Windows NT-controlled robotic duplicating system. Ron Ander­ son has found this popular with

I

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

independent filmmakers wanting a CD of their production.

Anderson states the average release length of his company’s dupli­ cation efforts

would be in the order of 65 to 70 minutes, which would be slightly different to some of the larger duplicators like Southern Star and AAV, which do more movie features.

And, due to the nature of titles Silver Trak handles, “a lot of 10-, 15-, 30- and 60-minute videos” pass through the company’s tape decks. International standards are sometimes handled NTSC and SECAM - but Anderson “can only recall doing two SECAM jobs in the past two years”.

We don’t have high-speed equip­ ment, simply because our business is

53

te c h n ic a litie s

dominated by shorter runs, so 100 to 2,000 copies is a very typical part of our business. There’s not a great deal of benefit to us in high-speed duplication. If you look at the world market for video duplication, between 60 to 65 percent of the VHS duplicates are still made in real-time.

In the main, the variety of material runs from corporate titles, instruc­ tional tapes and ‘sell-through’ tapes, the latter ranging from public domain material to budget and semi-budget titles, including children’s product, like old Benji movies.

And will DVD have an effect?

We’ve been watching its rise - if you can call it a rise, or, more cor­ rectly, its development - for several years. Like many other people, per­ haps 4 to 5 years ago we were concerned about our future, being a tape-based future. But, as each year has progressed, we’ve become more comfortable with the fact that the VHS system will certainly be here perhaps forever. The ‘population’ [of VCR decks] is so high. DVD, as wonderful as it is as a technological development, really hasn’t been handled very well by its proponents, from the complication point of view and from the timing, zoning of regions, etc.

Silver Ira k ’s Anderson feels there’s confusion within the DVD industry amongst those who should know better, let alone the disquiet and ignorance in the consumer market­ place itself.

Anderson feels he can foresee seven years of actual growth for VHS from now:

What happens after that I haven’t got a clue. Somewhere between 4 and 7 years from now there will definitely be a plateau in VHS and it will then co-exist for a period of time - then there will be a sorting out and obviously a decline in tapebased product. But exactly when that decline will level or bottom out, who knows.

Clear ownership Copyright is a touchy subject with any­ one involved in copying videotape.

Anderson is not greatly concerned as most of the company’s duplicates are made for corporate clients, who can demonstrate clear ownership of all rights, adding,

It’s only in the rarer situations where we scratch our heads and think, “We should have got a

54

person to sign our copyright document.”

From our observations, I believe the piracy of VHS cassettes has always been a fairly small problem in Australia, compared to other countries.

But Anderson has noticed the stage of piracy has “appeared to move towards CDV or Video CD”. This has been visi­ ble as individuals, in metro minority communities, copy both ethnic and Western movies as well as CD-ROM computer software.

Because CD-R is such an available medium, it is very easy to make copies and they’re always very good copies. It’s such a simple thing to do in the back of the shop or the house.

Currently, Silver Trak operates nearly 400 VCR duplicating decks in Sydney.

This is augmented by 50 recently installed in the Melbourne office and another 230 in Auckland.

Silver Trak. Tel: (61.2) 9439 5355.

Video 8 Only a few blocks away is Video 8, a 30-year-old veteran of the duplicating business. Company head Kevin Hurley was away in Europe at the time of the interview - checking out DVD at IBC! According to staffer Pip Hurley, the company is “very interested” in the technology and has had “very positive feedback” from the marketplace. She feels the move is “just a matter of when”, adding that Kevin Hurley believes, “It’s not whether you’re going to do it, it’s when you’re going to do it!”

Video 8 has already put much time and energy into R&D on its implemen­ tation of the medium, with some discussion on whetherto build a pressing plant or get involved in the glass mastering that is the crucial beginning of the process.

Hurley feels that,

With all the existing programme material that will have to be trans­

ferred to High Def format, maybe our telecines will play a part in that.

These can already handle the 16:9 aspect ratio, but there are other matters such as interactivity and AC-3 sound to be considered.

The company’s bulk duplication department operates a 24-hour workcycle using real-time VCR decks. The output Hurley describes services the high-end corporate end ofthe market -trainingvideos, commercial announcements, documentaries and many ofthe release movies you see in hotel rooms - but not the ‘entertain­ ment’ end.

This throughput constitutes many short runs, varying from five-minute corporates right up to three-hour loops for trade shows.

In terms of equipment levels, the company can handle virtually all for­ mats, “anything from VHS all the way up to Di, Digital Betacam, Betacam SP, etc.” And all the varying standards: PAL, NTSC, SECAM.

Standards conversion Video 8 has a highly-regarded stan­ dards conversion operation, set up, according to Hurley, “to the point where even our competition have to use us”. Video 8 has the only Alchemist CleanCut in Australia, which dramati­ cally elevates the quality of NTSCto-PAL conversions. This machine is often employed by companies such as Channel Seven to convert incoming high-level programming, such as the Nagano Winter Games material.

Other conversion work is performed for such companies as Southern Star, C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

NEGTHINK

Pty Ltd is proud to be POS conforming and/or NEG matching

the following Australian feature films: • 15 Amore m t x m f i l m s (completed) • Praise e m c e e f i l m s (completed) • Kick THE J AMES GANG PTY LTD • Fresh Air r . b . f i l m s • A Change of Heart a c h a n g e o f h e a r t p r o d u c t i o n s • The Game Room k y k o f i l m p r o d u c t i o n s • Savage Land s a v a g e l a n d p r o d u c t i o n s • Strange Planet s t r a n g e p l a n e t f i l m s We have the team, the technology and the temperament.

Contact Greg Chapman

Ph: (02) 9439 3988 Fax: (02) 9437 5074 email: negthink@ozemail.com.au

105/6 Clarke Steet Crows Nest NSW 2065

Head Office 434 Clarendon St., South Melbourne Victoria, Australia 3205 Tel: (03) 9699 3922 Fax: (03) 9696 2564

16 Conyngham St., Glenside South Australia 5065 Tel: (08) 8338 2811 Fax: (08) 8338 3090

82 Berwick St., Fortitude Valley Queensland, Australia 4006 Tel: (07) 3854 1919 Fax: (07) 3852 1814

340 King Georges Ave. Singapore 0820 Tel: (65) 291 7291 Fax: (65) 293 2141

The Finest Motion Picture Rental Equipment

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Telecine Video 8 operates three telecine chains, with two of them very heavily involved in the telecine rushes service used by feature filmmakers. Hurley:

Currently we’re doing six features, including The Matrix, Babe in the City, Jane Campion’s Holy Smoke, Bill Bennett’s Savage Land.

Transfers are mostly made to Avid drives or, if the client wants, a tape backup.

Alarm bells In copyright matters, Hurley states the company is

very cautious. We get calls in here all the time, consumers who say they’ve just got back from LA and they can’t play this copy of the lat­ est movie and I say, “Find the distributor, go and see them and they will swap the tape.”

If someone walks in with the latest release of Titanic and orders 10,000 copies, the alarm bells would be sounding.

Quite often, people walk in off the street with stuff that we know origi­ nates from one of our other clients.

A client may send off a Digital Betacam and make 10,000 copies of it.

Then someone walks in with a VHS and wants us to make 5 00 copies from the VHS, so we get straight on the phone to the client to protect their interests. Half the time, we’ve encoded the tape with MacroVision, which prevents a copy anyway.

Video 8. Tel: (61.2) 9439 4144.

CI NEMA PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

m

AAV

DVD variants

The company that could justifiably be labelled the Big Daddy of the Dubbers is AAV Duplication Services. With a mass of one-inch, D2, analog and Digi­ tal Betacam playback units feeding around 6,000 Panasonic pro duplica­ tion machines in the Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland plants, the com­ pany’s Ted Gregory describes the unit as “the dominant duplicator in Aus­ tralia by far”.

The range of output falls into two streams: duplication for major corpo­ rate clients, and home video entertainment duplication work of motion-picture titles for companies such 20th Century Fox, Columbia TriStar and Walt Disney. Naturally, the majority of business is VHS dubs, pri­ marily for the home video market; two sub-divisions concentrate on the lowvolume, corporate duplication and standards conversion work.

At the time of the interview, the company was in the last days of an order for VHS duplicates of Titanic.

The next major hurdle in the company’s operation is naturally the challenge of DVD. Gregory:

Gregory rates it as,

The largest number of units we have duplicated for one title. Bear in mind, the duration of the pro­ gramme [more than three hours], but we will have used something like 275,000 kilometres of video tape to produce the million-plus units that we’re doing.

Gregory is unconcerned about copy­ right issues:

It is never an issue with us, because we only deal with the major studios, and they really own the copyright to the product.

We have had a business plan on DVD in place for many years, but the main difficulty is that the format has changed in that time and there have been many variants of it. Cur­ rently, the one that seems to be the one that will survive is DVD9 but, in the main, DVD’s primary function initially will be in DVD-ROM rather than an entertainment format.

Although well aware that all the major studios are already releasing pro­ grammes on DVD, Gregory said,

If DVD is as successful as VHS has been, then it will take 10 years to get a 40 percent market penetration; if it was as successful as, say, CD audio, it will take eight years. So, it’s not as if VHS is going to disappear overnight; it will be a phased transition.

Supporting this estimate is the inescapable situation that currently estimates there are 610 million VHS machines in the world. Gregory:

The installed base is pretty big: 87 percent of all US households have at least one machine. So it will take its time.

Gregory takes the attitude that,

You can’t have a plant ready for production until such time as there is reasonable volume throughput.

And, at the moment, there is not.

But we have talked to various part­ ners about how we will provide our clients with that service.

AAV Duplication Services. Tel: (61.3) 9562 8077.

PRESS RELEASE In response to the increasing use of the new professional digital format, Film and Tape Sales (FATS), an inde­ pendent duplication facilities and professional tape provider, has recently invested in Panasonic DVC PRO VTRs. These top-of-the-line AjD 750 machines have been commis­ sioned to transfer tape from any format on site at FATS facilities, but are also available for hire.

FATS’ director, Robert Angelí, says:

The lightweight, high-quality and well-priced DVC PRO cameras are being used more and more by pro­ fessional crews for corporate videos.

However, because it’s new, not many post-production facilities have the VTRs to edit it. They usually need the DVC format transferred to Betacam, and that’s where our service comes in.

The demand for DVC PRO has been very strong, says Angelí:

But this is understandable, consider­ ing that smaller edit facilities don’t want to outlay the money on a DVC PRO VTR at this early stage in the adoption of the format.

Being digital, there is no loss of quality in the transfer to Betacam.

With three-hour playtime, Angelí claims that DVC PRO is set to grow especially as it has now been adopted by a number of TCV broadcasters.

FATS has recently streamlined its duplication packing facility and materi­ als handling, resulting in faster job turn-arounds and cost savings to the customer.

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Features in Pre-Production

F u n d in g D ecisio n s Feature Film He died with a Felafel in his Hand

59

Television Drama Tribe

59

Close Contact

59

Bored Olives

59

Change of Hearts

59

Demons in my Head

59

Passion

60

Selkie

60

Features In Production

Documentaries

The Drover’s Boy

60

Maverick or Madman

59

Looking for Alibrandi

60

Russian Brides - Caught in the Net

59

Sample People

60

Second Drill

60

Strange Planet

60

P rod u ction S u rv e y

Features in Post-Production

Features in Planning

60

Holy Smoke

60

The Last Film Olympics

62

In a Savage Land

60

The Makers

62

Komodo - the Living Terror

60

Once were Monks

62

The Missing

60

Our Town

62

The Matrix

61

The Post

62

Muggers

61

Sadness

62

Paperback Hero

61

Pitch Black

61

Siam Sunset

61

Strange Fits of Passion

61

FILM AUSTRALIA PROJECTS - IN P O S T - P R O D U C T IO N

Man of Strings

62

Our Century

62

Documentaries

FILM AUSTRALIA PROJECTS

Malangan

62

- IN P R O D U C T IO N

Australian Biography Series 7

62

Television

Auto Stories

62

The Adventures of Lano & Woodley - Series 2 62

A Wreck, a Tangle

59

The Craie

The Magic Pudding

59

Dear Claudia

60

Christmas Island - Australia’s Ugly Duckling 62

Paradise Lost, Paradise Found

59

Fresh Air

60

The Diplomat

62

Short Films The Chicken and the Egg

62

inproduction ■

S A M P L E PEOPLE U N D E R W A Y • SUN SETS ON S I A M ♦ P A S S I O N IN FI TS A N D STARTS

FFC Funding Decisions -fFollowing a Board meeting held in August 1998, the FF C - has. entered into contract negotiations with the produc­ ers of the following projects:

Feature Film HE DIED WITH A FELAFEL IN HIS HAND (1 0 0

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N o t o r io u s P ty Ltd D: R ichard Lowenstein Ps: D omenico P rocacci, A ndrew M c P hail W: R ichard Lowenstein Dist: V illage Roadshow , Fandango , I ntra seemingly-unresolvable love triangle between three people doomed to chase each other through shared accommodation hell in a neverending, unrequited daisy-chain of desire.

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D: S cott H artford D avis P: Ian B radley EP: D es M onaghan W s: Ian B radley, A nne Lucas Pre-sale: S even N etwork i Dist: Chrysalis T elevision I nternational

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iz Price, a young, divorced financial consultant, turns over in bed and goes back to sleep after her married lover and business partner, Dave Wyatt, gets up to go home to his wife, But Wyatt never makes it home. He is gunned down outside his door, blown away by a sawn-off shotgun fired at close range in classic gangland style, and Liz finds herself plunged into a web of intrigue and murder.

L

|

i | i | | j small group of tourists board an old i sailing boat, the Sea Tramp, for a i tropical island-hopping cruise through a i largely overlooked corner of | Micronesia. It should have been the j holiday of a lifetime, but five days out i i from port they rescue Minh-Tam, a young Vietnamese woman, from her sinking fishing trawler. As they attempt to outrun Minh-Tam's attackers, who have reappeared at the prospect of fresh booty, a fire breaks out below deck of the Sea Tramp, and the ship i burns to the waterline and sinks. Only a handful of the crew and passengers survive the twin perils of pirates and a fire to reach an uninhabited island that is too dangerous to live on, and too dangerous to leave.

A

i

J

RUSSIAN BRIDES CAUGHT IN THE NET (50- minute

accord documentary )

O rana Film s P ty Ltd D: R ichard D ennison P: R ichard D ennison W: Richard D ennison Pre-sale: S even N etwork

wo Australian males searching the internet for potential marriage | partners discover women in Russia i doing the same thing. Mark is an

T

CI NEMA PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

ey

BP Executive Producer P Producer Co-P Co-Producer AS Associate Producer LP Line Producer D Director SW Scriptwriter C Cast PC Principal Cast S E Story Editor WD Writer-director D IST Distributor

ABC accord

ohn Walmsley is a man with a mission: to become Australia's biggest private landowner and rid the nation of feral animals. The concept is simple: fence offf an area of bush, kill all the feral cats and foxes, release a range of native mammals and watch them multiply. He says It Is the only way to save our wildlife, but many coservationists disagree, and there are those that see him as a right wing madman more intent on building his own empire than saving endangered species.

Director: SCOTT PATTERSON Producer: N ikki Roller

K

D: David B radbury P: D avid B radbury W: D avid B radbury Pre-sale: ABC

m in i - series )

P: J ock B lair W: J ock B lair Pre-sale: S even N etwork Dist: Paramount P ictures

A WRECK, A TANGLE

F r o n t l in e F il m s P ty Ltd

TRIBE C r a w fo r d P r o d u c t io n s P ty Ltd

Features in Planning

do cum entary )

Adult Television Drama

Scriptwriter: J ohn O 'B rien Finance: A M illion S M ovies project, a JOINT INITIATIVE OF THE AFC, SBS I ndependent , B eyond Films and PM P.

!

N O TE : Production ¡Survey form s now adhere to a revised form at. Cinema Papers v i regrets it. cannot accept inform ation received in a ;; differentfo rm a ts Cinema Papers dtj&f riot ‘ ; accept responsibility fo r the accuracy o f any inform ation j Suppl&dlrypSd&iidnfCorrir panics. T his,is particularly t \ the casffwhen inform ation .J i ^changes but the production com pany nitikes ns atteriip t to T ^ r^ t^ h a P h cffh lria id yb een

M arketing Distribution: PMP, Beyond Films S ynopsis bittersweet comedy about one night in the lives of six younf people working in a Brisbane Pizza parlour as they confront questions of love, identity and the meaning of life.

A THE MAGIC PUDDING Production company: Energee Entertainment P rincipal C redits Director: KARL ZwiCKY Executive producer: Gerry T ravers Scriptwriter: MORRIS GLEITZMAN Based on the novel titled: T he M agic P ud ­

A CHANGE OF HEART P rincipal Credits Director: Rod Hay Producers: M urray Fahey , R od H ay

ding

Cast

By: N orman Lindsay Director of animation: Robert S mit

Chris Haywood , G rant B owler , Roxanne W ilson , T ony Barry

M arketing

MAVERICK OR MADMAN (5 5 - m in u te

English-born actor living in Sydney, and John is a farmer brom Boorowa, NSW. Mark travels to Siberia and John to St Petersburg to witness everyday Russian life. They share in the women's lives, at work and at home, and discover something about the character of Russian women, and the difficulties they face. When the women come to Australia, final decisions must be made regarding their future relationships.

| Production Survey

Documentaries

A

( 2 X 2 HOUR

i j | i | j l

International sales agent: B eyond Films Cast T he voices of: G eoffrey Rush (B unyip B luegum ), H ugo W eaving (B ill B arnacle ), J ohn Law s (R umpus B u m pus ), S am N eill, J ack T hompson

S ynopsis

n Change ofHeart\s the story of / n J a s o n , the advertising guru and heartless material man who has to rediscover his morals when he meets a nine-year-old girl who needs a heart transplant.

S ynopsis

DEMONS IN MY HEAD

orman Lindsay’s classic tale, written to settle an argument over whether children preferred stories about food over those of fantasy, is coming to life in a feature-length animated film.

Production company: Empire M otion P ictures Budget: $500,000

N

PARADISE LOST, PARADISE FOUND Production company: A ustralian I nternational P ictures Production: M id -1999 P rincipal credits Producers: J ohn Emery , W ayne G room Scriptwriter: JOHN Emery S ynopsis

P rincipal Credits Director: NEIL JOHNSON Producers: J ane Row land , N eil J ohnson Line producer: JANE ROWLAND Executive producer: G eorge B rook Scriptwriter: NEIL JOHNSON Director of photography: GRANT Hoi Production designers: J ames D o bbin , J ason J urd Costume designer: A ureole M cA lpine Editor: NEIL JOHNSON Sound designer: N eil J ohnson P lanning and D evelopment

at what happened after the Mutiny on the Bounty.

Casting: J ane Rowland , N eil J ohnson Dialogue coach: NlKKI PRICE Shooting schedule by: N eil J ohnson Budgeted by: NEIL JOHNSON

Features in Pre Production

Insurer: R oyal & S un A lliance

P

aradise Lost, Paradise Found looks

BORED OLIVES Pre-production: OCTOBER 1998 Locations: B risbane

P roduction Crew Camera Crew Camera operator: G rant Hoi Focus puller: D uncan B arrett Clapper-loader: D uncan Barrett Camera assistant: D uncan Barrett Camera type: D igital B etacam

P rincipal credits

O n - set Crew

Director: B elinda C hayko Producer: B ruce Redman Scriptwriter: S tephen Davis

1st assistant director: V elvet Eldred Script assistant: N ikki P rice Continuity: Lisa B reheny Make-up: Star FX - Lisa J acob Make-up assistants: Lisa M c M aho n , J acinta M iller Special fx make-up: Star FX - Lisa J acob Hairdresser: STAR FX - Lisa JACOB

P roduction crew Casting: P rototype Casting Finance Government funding: AFC, SBS M illion D ollar M ovie I nitiative Other: PMP

A rt Department Propspeople: JAMES DOBBIN, JASON J u r d

59

"production ProductionSurvey W ardrobe

Chris H aywood , Ray B arrett, J ustine S aunders

Wardrobe supervisor: AUREOLE McALPiNE

Synopsis

Post- production Post-production supervisor: N eil JOHNSON

^ u s t r a lia 's first western.

Cast M atthew M ariconte (T ravis B row n ), G reg B o w m a n - M iles (R egis ), A mber A llum (Larissa ), J ane Rowland (M arcia ), J ames D obbin (B ill), David V allon (W isest M an in the U niverse )

LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI

STRANGE PLANET

Production company: B elle Ragazze Distribution: B eyond Film s , V illage Roadshow , S howtime

Production company: IStrange P lanet Films Production: A ugust 1998 Budget: $4 m

Synopsis A meteorite crashes into the back garden of Travis Brown. Upon opening it, he discovers a headset that allows the wearer to bring strange objects across from another dimension.

PASSION Production company: MATT CARROLL FILMS Distribution company: BEYOND FILMS

Principal credits Director: Kate W oods Producer: R obyn Kershaw Executive producer: T ristram M iall Scriptwriter: M elina M archetta Director of photography: TOBY OLIVER Editor: M artin Connor Production designer: S tephen Curtis Costume designer: MICHAEL WILKINSON Composer: A lan JONES

Synopsis

P rincipal Credits Director: PETER DUNCAN Producer: M att Carroll Scriptwriters: P eter G oldsworthy , Rob G eorge Based on the stageplay: P ercy and Rose By: Rob G eorge

who pays two estranged army recruits to kidnap his only son's gay lover, in an attempt to lure his son Evan into a cat and mouse game fuelled by a hidden agenda of suicide and self-retribution.

It is the cruel story of a military man so guilt-ridden that he forces his only son into killing him. A suicide drama that demonstrates the raw facts of a life spent living by a code. A lesson in expectancy. A drill we will all have to encounter.

osie Alibrandi, 17, searches for identity through a confusing maze of Australian and bi-cultural influences.Jt's a voyage around her mother, grandmother, girlfriends, her first boyfriend and an estranged father.

J

Principal credits Director: Em m a -K ate Croghan Producer: Stavros Kazantzidis Line producer: MAGGIE Lake Scriptwriters: Em m a -K ate CROGHAN, Stavros Kazantzidis Director of photography: J ustin B rickle Editor: K en S allows Production designer: A nnie B eauchamp Art director: MICHAEL lACONO Music: Festival R ecords

Finance Government funding: FFC, NSWFTO

M arketing Distribution: BEYOND

Cast A lice Garner , T om Long , Felix W illiamson , C laudia Karvan , N aomi W atts , H ugo W eaving

Government A gency I nvestment

SAMPLE PEOPLE

Development: FFC

M arketing International sales agent: BEYOND Films International distributor: HOLLYWOOD Partners , B eyond Film s , REP

Cast R ichard R oxburgh (P ercy G rainger ) Barbara H ersey

P

assion is the story of acclaimed

pianist, composer and eccentric, Percy Grainger, and the intense relationship with his mother Rose, which dominated his life. The film charts Percy's rise from child prodigy to the toast of Edwardian London, revered and celebrated throughout the world.

Production company: Living M otion P ictures Budget: $2 m Pre-production: 21/9/98 - 31/10/98 Production: From 2 N ovember , 1998

P rincipal Credits Director: Clinton S mith Producers: Emile S herman , Barton S mith Executive producer: JONATHAN S hteinman Scriptwriters: C linton S m ith , P eter B uckmaster Director of photogrpahy: David Foreman Production designer: JOHN SANTUCCI Editor: Frans V andenberg

Finance Development: PRIVATE, SAFC

Cast

SELKIE

Kyue M inogue , B en M endelsohn , S imon Lyndon , D avid Field

Production company: BLUEST0NE PICTURES Production: J anuary - M arch , 1999

P rincipal credits Director: DONALD CROMBIE Producers: J ane Ballantyne , Rob G eorge W riter: R ob GEORGE

M arketing International sales agent: DARO D istribution

Finance AFC, DARO D istribution , S w a n M usic P ublishing , SAFC

Synopsis n upbeat drama set during a sweltering weekend, Sample People follows four close-knit groups seeling to escape the tensions of inner-urban life. Fast-paced and hard­ hitting, the film introduces an array of alluring and glamorous characters, gangsters and homeboys caught in a pressure cooker where illusion breaks into reality with shattering results.

A

Synopsis

A

feature film aimed at the 6-13 year old audience.

Feature*) in Production

SECOND DRILL Production company: S econd D rill P roductions Pre-production: AUGUST 1998 Production: October - D ecember 1998

P rincipal Credits Director: CHARLES "B ud " TlNGWELL Producer: CAMERON JAMES MILLER Co-producer: PEITA CRAWFORD Executive producers: OSCAR SCHER1, J ames P odaridis , J ohn M orrow Scriptwriters: A nthony Langone , Roger D unn Director of photography: I an JONES

THE DROVER S BOY Production company: YlRANDl PRODUCTIONS Production: AUGUST - OCTOBER 1998 Budget: $7 m Length: 100 MIN Gauge: 35 m m

Principal

credits

Production manager: R on B uch 1st assistant director: T im M iller

Cast Paul M ercurio (Evan ), Bill H unter (S unny ) S ynopsis

Finance Cast N ingali, W illiam I cI nnes, Ernie D ingo,

60

he disturbing and violent portrayal of Sunny Clinsman, 55 and terminally ill with weeks left to live,

T

Cast B ryan B row n , A leksandra V ujcic

Synopsis ear Claudia is a romantic comedy about a lonely postman, a desperate hitchhiker, a gifted sculptor, an infatuated pilot a blind sailor, a street kid, a mistress, a miner, a butcher, two thieves and a dead man.

Walter and Claudia crash into the story by plane. The others arrive in a bag of mail.

D

Principal Credits Director: N eil M ansfield Producer: Rosemary B light Associate producer: Kyue du Fresne Scriptwriter: N eil M ansfield Production designer: Gavin B arbey Editor: D any COOPER Underwriter: FACB

P ost- production Length 92 MINS Gauge: SUPER 16 m m

M arketing

even typically funny/sad days in the lives of three aspiring artists - a filmmaker, a painter and a musician who are almost 30 and live, work and rock under the flightpath in the multicultural inner-western suburbs of Sydney.

Production company: J an Chapman P roductions Production: J uly , AUGUST, 1998 Location: FUNDERS RANGES, S outh A ustralia , S ydney , I ndia

Principal

T

wo Irish lads find themselves caught up in a bungled IRA mission. Fearing fortheir lives, they flee to Australia, and end up being chased across the country by the Immigration Department, the SAS, and an Irish "super grass".

DEAR CLAUDIA Production company: J. M cElroy HOLDINGS Budget: $3.53 million Production: M arch 1998 Locations: BRAMPTON ISLAND,

Ravenswood, Gold Coast, Queensland P rincipal credits Director: CupLIPP Producers: Des POWER, JlM McELROY

credits

Director: JANE CAMPION Producer: J ane Chapman Scriptwriters: A nna Ca m pio n , J ane Campio n

Finance M iramax Films

Cast Kate W inslet , Harvey K eitel, T im R ogers

P rincipal Credits

Cast

KOMODO THE LIVING TERROR Production company: SCANBOX A sia PACIFIC Budget: $25 M Pre-production: AUGUST Production: AUGUST - 18 SEPTEMBER Locations: W arner R oadshow M ovie S tudios , south - east Q ueensland

P rincipal Credits Director: M ichael Lantieri Producers: T ony Ludw ig , A lan R iche Co-producer: C hris B rown Line producer: TOM H offie Scriptwriters: Hans B raur , C raig M itchell Production manager: VANESSA BROWN Location manager: J a m ie M cC lennan

Synopsis n adventure thriller about a young boy who suffers the insufferable losing his fam ily-w h ile on holidays on what was always their favourite island getaway. As a result of this, the boy becomes catatonic until a young doctor takes him back to the scene of his terror - and the real living and breathing dragons that exist todaythe Komodo Dragon.

A

THE MISSING

HOLY SMOKE

Production company: Foster-G racie Distribution company: V illage Roadshow Ltd Budget: $1.2 m Production: 27 J anuary - M arch 1998 Locations: MELBOURNE, WENTWORTH, B roken H ill, S ydney , G old C oast

J imeoin (F ergus ), A lan M cKee (W esley), R obert M organ (C olin ), Colin Hay (B arry ), J ane H all (A lice), Catherine A rena (E rica ), N icholas B ell, G reg Evans , Kate Gorm an , G eoff Pa in e , A nita Cerdic , A nne P helan

Finance

S

THE CRAIC

Production manager: J odie Crawford Fish

and

Network presale: SBS, Channel 4 (UK), S how time Distribution guarantor: B eyond Films Finance: A ustralian Film C o m m is s io n , SB SI, S how time

Featured in Podt-Production

Production Crew

group in New Guinea to study the sexual mores of a group of villagers.

Their relationship begins to break down when the woman realises her husband is wrongly interpreting the research to further his own academic ambitions. She enlists the help of a pearl traderto travel to another island where she intends to research a village of headhunters, and begins to fall in love with him. By the time she returns to her husband, war has broken out in the Pacific and the Japanese are poised to invade their island.

FRESH AIR Production company: RB Films Production office: SYDNEY Production: M ay/ J une 1998

O that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Director: T ed Emery Producers: M arc G racie , David Foster Line producer: S teve Luby Executive producers: B runo Charslesworth , A lan Finney Scriptwriter: JlMEOlN Director of photography: JOHN WHEELER Production designer: PENNY SOUTHGATE Costume designer: M ichael Chisolm Editor: M ichael C ollins

romantic comedy about a couple marooned on an island.

A

Q trange Planet explores the notion

Production Crew

Director: CHRIS LANGMAN Producers: Stuart M enzies , T ed Egan Executive producer: T ed Egan Scriptwriter: NERYS EVANS Director of photography: BRETT ANDERSON Production designer: Robert P erkins Funding: PRIVATE

Synopsis

Scriptwriter: CHRID CuDLIPP

Synopsis n experienced American cult buster finds himself in a damaging position when he falls hopelessly in love with his young client

A

IN A SAVAGE LAND Production company: B ill B ennett P roductions Production: JULY - SEPTEMBER 1998 Locations: TROBRIAND ISLANDS, PAPUA N ew G uinea , S outh A ustralia Distribution company: B eyond Films

P rincipal credits Director: B ill B ennett Producers: BILL BENNETT, J ennifer B ennett Writers: B ill B ennett , J ennifer Cluff

M arketing International sales agent: B eyond I nternational International distributor: H ollywood P artners , B eyond Films

Finance FFC, H ollywood Partners , PM P (S how time A ustralia ), S trand / N ew O z P roductions , B eyond I nternational , SAFC

Cast R ufus S ewell, M artin D onovan , M aya Stange

Synopsis et in the late 1930s, a newly O m a rrie d husband and wife anthropologist team travel to an island

Production company: UPSIDE DOWN Films Pty Ltd Distribution company: ROADSHOW Film D istributors Production: 21/4/98 -1 7 /6 /9 8 Locations: M elbourne , P arachilna SA, B roken H ill NSW , and R ome , Italy

P rincipal Credits Director: M anuel A lberti Producers: Lynda H ouse , J im S tark Line producer:YvONNE COLLINS Scriptwriter: M anuel A lberti Director of photography: G eoffrey H all Production designer: C hristopher Kennedy Costume designer: K erri M azzocco Editor: Ken S allows Sound Recordist:LLOYD Carrick

P u n n in g

and

D evelopment

Script editor: D uncan T hompson Casting: A lison B arrett , D ina M ann (A ustralia ), B eatrice Kruger, F.B.I. Casting (I taly ) Extras casting: INESE VOGLER Cultural attache: K en S aunders Storyboard artist: HUGH MARCHANT

Production Crew Production co-ordinator: S erena Gattuso Production secretary: LOUISE STIRLING Location managers: S tephen B rett (M elbourne ), M ason C urtis (C ountry ) Locations assistant (Broken Hill): P hil H enderson -W ilson Unit manager: RlCK KORNAAT Unit assistant: BRITT Kornaat Production runner: B en Lowe Production accountant: M andy CARTER insurer: AON Risk S ervices Completion guarantor: Film Finances I nc .

Legal services: R oth W arren , B ryce M enzies Travel co-ordinator: TRAVELTOO Vehicles: S tage & S creen

Camera Crew Focus puller: T erry H owells Clapper-loader: J ude LOVATT Key grip: R ob Hansford Grip: G lenn A rrow smith Gaffer: C olin W illiams

On - set Crew 1st assistant director: M onica P earce 2nd assistant director: M im R eady 3rd assistant director: LlSA Ferri Continuity: A n nie W est

C I NE M A PAPERS â&#x20AC;˘ DECEMBER 19S8

production Production Survey continued Boom operator:MAL H ughes Make-up: A m a n d a R ow bottom Hairdresser: Z eljka S ta nin Stunts co-ordinator: Z ev Eleftheriou David Ngoombujarra’s right hand: J ohn M oore Personal trainer (for Fabrizio): A nthony D i C ecco Chaperone (for Duane Moore): P eter D ocker Production house (Rome): P a no ram a P roductions Safety officer: T om C oltraine Unit nurse: T ed G reen Still photography: A n n a B ertalli, M ari V endrame A gency Unit publicist: Fran Lanigan Catering: "T w o Can D o ", S a m B athurst ( M elbourne ), S teve M arcus (B roken H ill ) Assistant caterer: TlM ORMAN Travel (flights): T raveltoo

A rt D epartment Art director: A lison Pye Art department co-ordinator: Lucy S parke Art department runner: A dam M c G oldrick Set dresser: C olin R obertson Props buyer: M arita M ussett Standby props: D ean S ullivan Vehicle co-ordinator: Laurence H umphries "T ruck "

W ardrobe Costume assistant: D enise ( nee ) PETROVIC Costume standby: K elly Foreman

P ost- production Assistant editor: Caroline S cott Editing rooms: T he J oinery Sound post production: S oundfirm Sound editor: G lenn N ew nham Laboratory: ClNEVEX Telecine/rushes transfer: AAV D igital P ictures Camera equipment: SAMMYS Shooting stock: Kodak

Cast K eanu R eeves (T homas " N eo" A nderson ), Laurence Fishburne (M orpheus ), Carrie -A nne M oss , H ugo W eaving , J oe Pantoliano

T

he Matrix tells of a computer

Production companies: C lock E nd Films & R edman Entertainments Production office: M elbourne Distribution: W inchester Film s , P olyG ram Budget: $4 m Production: 31 A ugust - 16 O ctober 1998 Locations: M elbourne

P rincipal

Production

On - set Crew 1st assistant director: C olin Fletcher Make-up supervisor: N ikki G ooley Unit publicist: Fiona S earson , DDA

Construction D epartment Construction manager: A ndrew G ardiner Set finisher: B ob D aley

P ost- production Mixed at: S pectrum Films Laboratory: A tlab

Government A gency I nvestment Production: FFC & Pacific Film and T elevision C o m m is s io n (PFTC)

M arketing International distributor: B eyond Films Ltd

Finance

M arketing Local distributor: REP Internationals sales agent: W inchester Films

Cast M att D ay , J ason B arry

Synopsis medical students become involved in an illicit organ transplant scam.

T

wo

Cast C laudia Karvan (R uby ), H ugh J ackman (J ack ), J eanie D rynan (S uzie ), B ruce V enables (A rtie ), R itchie S inger (R alph ), C harlie Little (E rrol), A ngie M illiken , A ndrew S.G ilbert ack, an outback road-train truckie moonlights as a romance novellist.

When the book becomes a best-seller, he must do some fast-talking to convince his long-time friend, Ruby, to pretend to be the writer.

J

PITCH BLACK

A

Unit production manager: Carol H ughes

Wardrobe supervisor: G raham P urcell Standby wardrobe: H elen M aggs

crew

FFC, W inchester Film s , REP Completion bond: First A ustralian C ompletion B ond C ompany

Cast

P roduction Crew

W ardrobe

On - set crew

International sales agent: G oldwyn Films I nternational

Directors: Larry and A ndy W achowski Producers: J oel S ilver , A ndrew M ason Executive producer: B arrie Osborne Scriptwriters: A ndy and Larry W achowski Director of photography: B ill P ope Production designer: Ow en Paterson Costume designer: Kym B arrett Editor: Z ach S taenberg

A rt D epartment Art director: A dam H ead Art department co-ordinator: Katie N ott Art department runner: D ean M c Gwyer Art department assistant: C hristine Feld Draftsman: A ndrew H ays Props buyers: P aul H urrell & M ichelle S otheren Standby props: HARRY ZETTLE Action vehicle co-ordinator: M ark "H arry " W ard

1st assistant director: R ichard M cG rath Unit publicist: Fiona S earson , DDA

M arketing

Principal Credits

On - set Crew 1st assistant director: C harles R otherham 3rd assistant director: MARC ASHTON Continuity: JENNY QUIGLEY Boom operator: Gary D ixon Make-up: M argaret STEVENSON Make-up assistant: M aree M c D onald Stunts co-ordinator: D anny B aldw in Unit nurse: C onnie W ebber -R udd Catering: Eleets Catering

Production manager: Yvonne C ollins

International financing: H ollywood P artners

THE MATRIX

credits

Director: D ean M urphy Producers: N igel O dell, D avid R edman Executive producers: J ohn W olstenholme , Gary S m it h , C hris C raib Line producer: D aniel S charf Scriptwriter: R obert B T aylor Director of photography: R oger Lanser Production designer: Paddy R eardon Editor: P eter Carrodus Composer: STEPHEN W PARSONS Sound designer: M ike S later Sound recordist: J ohn W ilkinson

Other Finance

Production company: M atrix F ilms Pty Ltd Distribution company: W arner B ros .

Production: 14/3/98 - 24/7/98 Location: S ydney

Focus puller: J ohn W areham Key grip: Lester B ishop Gaffer: G raham R utherford

MUGGERS

Development: A ustralian Film Finance C orporation (FFC)

haunting thriller which tells the story of Tommaso, a high-ranking Vatican priest, who is forced by circumstances to question his faith and values.

Camera Crew

hacker in the 22nd century who joins a band of freedom fighters struggling against evil computers that control the Earth. The machines keep their human slaves passive by literally plugging them into The M atrix- a virtual reality universe that appears as the 20th century world we know.

Government A gency I nvestment

Fabrizio B entivoglio (T o m m a s o ), J ohn M oore (S utherland ), D avid N go ombu jarra (W illie ), D avid Franklin (F ather O 'B r ien ), R ebecca Frith (S u sa n )

Production secretary: LOUISA K ors Location manager: C hris S trewe Unit manager: D ave S uttor Production runner: A n jii BRYERS Production accountant: N adeen K ingshott Completion guarantor: FACB Legal services: T ress C ocks & M addox Travel co-ordinator: SHOWTRAVEL

PAPERBACK HERO Production company: P aperback Films P ty Ltd Distribution company: BEYOND FILMS & P olygram Filmed E n tertainment Pre-production: 5/1/98...

Production: 20/2/98...

Post-production: 6/4/98...

P rincipal Credits Director: A ntony B o w m an Producers: Lance Reynolds & J ohn W inter Co-producer: D a n i Rogers Scriptwriter: A ntony B o w m an Director of photography: D avid B urr Production designer: J on D ow ding Costume designer: LOUISE WAKEFIELD Editor: VERONIKA JENET Sound designer: A udio Loc Sound recordist: G reg B urgm ann

P lanning

and

D evelopment

Production company: Intrepid Pictures Pty Ltd Distribution company: PolyGram Production: 13/7 - 23/9/98 Locations: Coober Pedy, W arner Roadshow Studios, Gold Coast

P rincipal Credits Director: David Twohy Producers: Tom Engelman, A nthony W inley Executive producers: Ted Field, Scott Kroopf Scriptwriter: David Twohy Director of photography: David Eggby Production designer: Graham 'Grace' W alker Costume designer: A n na B orghesi Editor: RlCK SHAIN

P roduction Crew Production manager: S ue M ackay

On - set Crew 1st assistant director: J a m ie C rooks Make-up/hair: M argaret S tevenson Unit publicist: Fiona S earson , DDA

Casting: Faith M artin & A ssociates Extras casting: Lydiard & Rossi Budgeted by: J ohn W inter

P rincipal Credits

Post- production

Director: J ohn P olson Producer: A l C lark Executive producers: A ndrew K nig ht , P eter B eilby Scriptwriters: M ax D a n n , A ndrew K night Director of photography: B rian B reheny Production designer: S teven J ones -E vans Costume designer:LouiSE W akefield Editor: NICHOLAS BEAUMAN Composer: Paul G rabowsky Sound recordist: JOHN SCHIEFELBEIN

Assistant editor: N icolas C ole 2nd assistant editor (Sydney): M egan H arding Mixer: P hil J udd Laboratory: A tlab A ustralia Video facility: OMNICON Film gauge: 35 m m Shooting stock: K odak

P lanning

and

Government A gency I nvestment Finance: FFC, S how tim e /P M P , S outhern Star Film S ales , UIP, C hannel 4, NSWFTO, SAFC

D evelopment

Casting: A nn R o binso n : M ullinars (A ustralia ), A ndy P ryor, CDG (UK) Extras casting: J an K illen Storyboard artist: J ohn Forrest

M arketing International sales agent: S outhern S tar Film S ales

Cast

P roduction Crew Production supervisor: ELIZABETH S ymes Production co-ordinator: H eather M urihead Production secretary: Katie G ordon Location manager: MASON CURTIS Location scouts: P hil M c P herson , R uth M unro , N adine S choen Unit manager: M ichael G ill Assistant unit manager: Gary B uss Unit assistants: D uncan A nderson , M ichael A itken , A lan G ill Production office attachment: M elissa D unston Production runner: J ennifer D rake Production accountant: J ohn M ay Accounts assistant: Rachel H iggins Insurer: H .W .W ood A ustralia Pty Ltd Completion guarantor: Film Finance Travel co-ordinator: S howgroup P ty Ltd Freight co-ordinator: S tage & S creen

Linus Roache (P erry), D anielle C ormack (G race ), I an B uss (M a r t in ), R oy B illing (B ill ), A lan B rough (S tuart ), R ebecca H obbs (J a n e ), T erry K enwrick (A rthur ), D eidre R ubenstein (C elia ), P eter H osking (R oy ), V ictoria Eagger (R o w ena ), R obert M enzies (E ric ), Eliza Lovell ( M ichelle )

S ynopsis erry's perfect life creating colours for an English paint company becomes a world of pain after the tragically bizarre death of his wife.

When he wins a bus trip across Central Australia, it is an odyssey in search of an elusive colour - 'Siam Sunset' - and some relief from the natural disasters that mysteriously pursue him.

P

Camera Crew

STRANGE FITS OF PASSION

Focus puller: J ohn Foster Clapper-loader: R enee H a nn a Camera equipment: Pana visio n Key grip: Pat N ash Grip: M aurice M ckay Assistant grip: T im D uggan Gaffer: G raeme S helton Best boy: D avid S m ith Assistant electrics: J ames H opw ood , T rent S kipper Generator: D avid S m ith

Production company: M eridian Films Pre-production: 1 7 /8 /9 8 -2 7 /9 /9 8 Production: 28/9/98 - 30/10/98 Post-production: 2/11/98 - 19/2/99

P rincipal Credits Director: Elise M c C redie Producer: Lucy M aclaren Executive producers: T im W hite , Carole S klan (ABC), B ryce M enzies , Ian Fairweather ( arena ), Ros W alker (F ilm V ictoria ) Scriptwriter: E lise M c C redie Director of photography: J aems G rant Production designer: MACGREGOR K nox Costume designer: Kerri M azzocco Editor: C hris B ranagan

On - set Crew 1st assistant director: P hil J ones 2nd assistant director: T oni Raynes 3rd assistant director: C lair Parker Continuity: K ristin V oumard Boom operator: D ean Ryan Hair/make-up supervisor: S ue T aylor Flair/make-up artist: N icole S piro Make-up assistant: J odee Lenaine -S mith Hair assistant: P eta D unstall Prosthetics: M ark A. N ichols Visual effects: R ising S un P ictures Special fx: P eter S tubbs , J eff Little Stunts co-ordinators: G len B oswell , J ohnny H alliday Safety report: S otiri SOTIROTOULOS Safety supervisor: B ernadette V an Gyen Unit nurse: M ichelle M c G owan Tutor: C hristine M ason Motorolas: H irecom A ustralia Vehicles: Excel R ent A Car Pty Ltd Unit equipment: M ichael G ill Make-up vehicle: Tic Carroll Wardrobe bus/greenroom: M ason C urtis Lightworks hire: I sland F ilms Still photography: PHILLIP Le MESURIER, Lisa T omasetti Unit publicist: Fran Lanigan Catering: Food N oir (A delaide ), S teve M arcus Film Catering (C oober P edy ) Assistant caterer: M ark J ohnaon

A rt D epartment

Synopsis

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

Construction D epartment Scenic artist: J ohn H aratzsis Construction manager: J ohn M oore Carpenters: Ian Baxter , M ark H en ­ nessey , D avid G ilbert Set finisher: S teve W arren Brush Hand: NlCK MOORE

Art director: RICHARD H obbs Art department runner: D avid S w anso n Art department assistant: P hilip "S unday " H opkins Props buyers: SOPHIE TARNEY, Lisa " B litz " B rennan

crippled passenger ship crashes onto an unknown planet. The

W ardrobe Wardrobe supervisor: G raham P urcell Wardrobe buyer: J enny Ramos Standby wardrobe: A ndrea H ood

Production company: A rtist S ervices P roductions Distribution company: S outhern S tar , UIP Location: A delaide , C oober P edy, S outh A ustralia Production: 7 /9 /9 8 -2 4 /1 0 /9 8

Cast

P roduction Crew

Standby props: D ean S ullivan Action vehicle co-ordinator: M ark M c K inley

SIAM SUNSET

C ole H auser , V in D eisel, Radha M itchell

Production manager: Rosslyn A bernethy Production co-ordinator: S tottie

A

marooned space travellers struggle for survival on this seemingly lifeless sunscorched world. When a titanic eclipse throws the planet into darkness, the world erupts with nocturnal life...and the real battle begins.

P lanning

and

D evelopment

Casting: A lison T elford

Production Crew Production manager: AlDEEN S tevenson

On - set Crew 1st assistant director: A li A li

I nvestment Development: AFC, ABC Production: Film V ictoria , ABC, arena

Cast M ichela N oonan (S he ), M itchell B utel (J im m y )

S ynopsis n the heart of a wet Melbourne winter, She, an awkward young woman, begins a crusade to excavate her sexuality.

I

See Ladt Iddue BABE: PIG IN THE CITY CATS TALES FEELING SEXY

61

production I

^ ■

Production Survey

EP: Franco di C hiera W: T ony A yres , based on an original work by W illiam Y ang DOP: J ackie Farkas E: R iva C hilds

continued SNOWDROP

peace laureate and exiled roving ambassador for East Timor's independence movement.

SOMEWHERE IN THE DARKNESS

THE LAST FILM OLYMPICS (60 MINUTES)

TWO HANDS

F ilm A ustralia n a tio n a l I nterest P rogram

WASTE

D: P eter B utt P: Rob M c A uley EP: M ark Hamlyn W: P eter B utt

Film Australia Projects

THE MAKERS

AUTRAUAN BIOGRAPHY SERIES 7

( 1 0 X 1 5 MINUTE EPISODES)

( 7 X 2 6 MINUTE EPISODES)

D: D on F eatherstone P: W endy M artin EP: S tefan M oore DOP: Daniel F eatherstone

F ilm A ustralia na tio n a l I nterest P rogram D: R obin Hughes P: Robin Hughes EP: M ark Hamlyn W: R obin H ughes series which profiles influential Australians of the twentieth century.

A

he Makers is a ten-part series for secondary school students designed to profile the vision, talent and creative process of a number of artists.

T

ONCE WERE MONKS ( 5 X 2 6 MINUTE EPISODES)

( 4 X 2 6 MINUTE EPISODES)

F ilm A ustralia n a tio n a l I nterest P rogram w it h A bracadabra F ilm s

Ds: H elen G aynor, S teve W esth , Catherine M arciniak , F iona H ergstrom Ps: T ony W right, S tuart M enzies EP: Franco di C hiera Ws: Helen Gaynor , S teve W esth , C atherine M arciniak , F iona Hergstrom DOPs: E rika A ddis , C atherine M arciniak Es: T ony S tevens , K im M oodie character-driven series which explores themes of vanity, responsibility, deception, pride, obsession and love through our relationship to the car.

Ds: Luigi A cquisto , A ndrew S ully Ps: Luigi A cquisto , S tella Z ammataro EP: F ranco di C hiera W: Luigi A cquisto DOPs: J aems G rant , V aleriu C ampan he lives of a group of men in a religious order are turned upside down when they are forced to move from their monastery into a pub.

T

OUR TOWN

A

(85 MINUTES) Film A ustralia n a tio n a l I nterest P rogram w it h Ca m era w o rk P ty Ltd D: D ennis O'R ourke P: D ennis O'Rourke EP: S tefan M oore DOP: D ennis O'Rourke

CHRISTMAS ISLANDAUSTRALIA'S UGLY DUCKLING (55 MINUTES) Film A ustralia n a tio n a l I nterest P rogram w it h W ildfilm A ustralia P ty Ltd

documentary about Cunnamulla an isolated community in far outback Queensland where more than half the population is Aboriginal.

A

D: M atthew Kelley Ps: P eter D u C ane , S amantha K elley EP: F ranco di C hiera Ws: P eter D u Cane , M atthew K elley DOP: Ian P ugsley E: David F osdick

THE POST

(52 MINUTES) Film A ustralia n a tio n a l I nterest P rogram w it h E m erald F ilm s D: T om Z ubrycki P: S ally B rowning EP: S tefan M oore W: W ilson Da S ilva DOP: J oel P eterson he Diplomat will document a year in the life of Jose Ramos Horta, Nobel

D: G ary K ildea P: A ndrew P ike EP: S tefan M oore portrait of the life and work of Czech-born musician Jan Sedivka, one of the foremost violinists and string teachers in Australia.

A

OUR CENTURY ( 2 6 X 2 2 MINUTE EPISODES) F ilm A ustralia n a tio n a l I nterest P rogram w it h Look T ele vis io n , the NFSA & the N in e N etwork Ds: A lec M organ, B en Ulm P: W ill Davies EP: M ark Hamlyn Ws: A lec M organ, L isa M atthews , M ark Hamlyn ur Century is an entertaining, ambitious television tribute to the last hundred years of Australia. It looks at the social movements, critical events and people who have shaped our nation.

O

Documentaries MALANGAN Production company: W ritten in the Landscape P roductions Pty Ltd Pre-production: 26/8/98 - 8/9/98 Production: 5 /1 0 /9 8 -2 2 /1 0 /9 8 Post-production: FROM 1/11/98

P rincipal Credits Director: N eil M c Leod Producer: N eil M c Leod Co-producer: P hillip Harris Scriptwriter: JlM Howes Director of photography: P hillip Harris Editor: P hillip Harris Sound recordist: M aree CATIONS

P roduction Crew Location manager: N oah LuRANG Transport manager: J ohn K ing 2nd unit DOP: D onna Overton Camera type: S ony DVCAM

Synopsis

Still photography: G reg N oakes, J ames P enlidis , D rew Ryan Unit publicists: M arian Page , Lisa W heildon Catering: B ackdoor catering

alangan is the way of life for the people on Tabar Island off the coast from New Ireland PNG. This film takes us on a mystical life-long journey from from the birth and celebration of a new baby through to the death of an elder in this tropical paradise.

Art director: ROSS JONES Assistant designer: P eter D e J ong Set dresser: M ark R eynolds Props buyer: KRIS KOZLOVIC Standby props: David N orman Armourer: A aron B eaucaire

A rt D epartment

M

W ardrobe

Television

Wardrobe supervisor: S hauna Lovisetto Standby wardrobe: SEAN GUNDLACH Wardrobe assistant: B ev Farnell

A nimals

THE ADVENTURES OF LANO & W O O DLEY-SERIES 2 Production company: A W orking T itle T elevision P roduction in association WITH THE ABC AND POLYGRAM FILMED E ntertainment Pre-production: 6/7/98 - 31/7/98 Production: 3/8/98 - 9/10/98 Post-production: 1 2 /1 0 - 12/98

P rincipal Credits Director: JON Olb Producers: M ark R use, C olin Lane , Frank W oodley Co-producer: A nalisa B arreto Line producers: Jo C asaneua , M adeline G etson Executive producer: S imon W right, G eoff P ortman Associate producer: M ichelle W ild Scriptwriters: C olin Lane , Frank W oodley Director of photography: ANDREW T opp Production designer: PENNY SOUTHGATE Editor: A lan Ryan Composer: M al W ebb Sound recordists: C olin J ones, P eter M ills

P lanning

and

D evelopment

Casting: Cameron Harris

Animal handler: Luke Hura

M arketing International distributor: P olyG ran I nternational T elevision P/L

Cast C olin Lane (C ol), Frank W oodley (Frank )

Synopsis ano & Woodley are back again, coming perilously close to killing each other oe killing innocent civilians through idiotic yet endearing escapades. From accidentally kidnapping a baby, to re-enacting the story of Christ; from giving away a trip of a lifetime to skiing across an Olympic pool dressed as a penguin; from exposing a corrupt Prime Ministerial candidate to a self discovery weekend, Lano and Woodley run the gamut of high stakes, low responsibility fiascoes.

L

Short Films THE CHICKEN AND THE EGG Production company: F eudin ' F ilms Pre-production: 8/98 - 9/98 Production: 1 6 /9 /9 8 -2 0 /9 /9 8 Post-production: 10/98

P roduction Crew Production managers: Jo CASANELIA, M ary P emberton Production co-ordinator: MADELINE GETSON Location manager: J ennifer Harrison Unit manager: Ian Rawunson Production asssitant/secretary: M elissa T hurgood Production accountant: T ony M c M ahon

P rincipal credits Director: S imon J. C hapman Supervising producer: A nne S mallwood Scriptwriter: S imon J. C hapman Director of photography: SlMON SMITH Production designer: A yesha M uthaub Sound: PHILIP LuKATELA Editor: SAM Gay Script editors: S am G ay, S imon S mith 1st assistant director: ALICE A ddison Production manager: A lice A ddison Unit manager: S usan CASSIDY Clapper loader: DOROTTYA HEGEDUS Gaffer: CHRIS GILLETTE Grip: S imon J effares Boom operator: A lenka Henry Continuity: S am Gay Still photography: DOROTTYA HEGEDUS

Camera Crew Camera operator: R oger M cA lpine Camera assistants: PATRICK ÛELEO, A dam W hannell Camera type: DIGITAL B etacam Key grips: P eter D e Hahn , M ax Gaffney Grip: G raham M c Kechnie Gaffer: A ntony T ulloch Best boy: R ob JOLICOUER Electrician: A ndrew J epson

On - set Crew 1st assistant director: Darrin Oakley 2nd assistant director:TlM Dryue 3rd assistant director: E dwina Fowler C ontinuity M aria B urchell Boom operator: COLIN SOUTH Make-up: G lenda M ann Special fx supervisor: A aron B eaucaire Stunts co-ordinator: CHRIS PETERS Stunts assistants: WALLY DALTON, M ark C ampbell Safety officer: RAINEY CARAH Technical producer: M ike B ramley

Cast Luke Hanlon (G us ), G raeme fellowes (Ra t ), K ridtina A nderson (W aitress ), Ryan S mith (Young Rat )

Synopsis

I

t's 4am at a truck-stop somewhere in the middle of Australia. Gus and Rat are big-rig truck drivers who discover their most intimate feelings over a j couple of runny yokes,

(55 MINUTES) Film A ustralia n a tio n a l I nterest P rogram

he story of Gordon Bennett and the Christmas islanders who took on the Australian government to dismantle the archaic and racist institutions on the island.

THE DIPLOMAT

F ilm A ustralia n a tio n a l I nterest P rogram w it h R o n in F ilm s

Camera Crew

T

62

ABC

AUTO STORIES F ilm A ustralia n a tio n a l I nterest P rogram w it h D ecember Film s P ty Ltd

T

w it h the

IN POST-PRODUCTION (55 MINUTES)

T

Film A ustralia

A

MAN OF STRINGS

he Last Film Olympics compares the 1956 Melbourne Olympics with the high-tech 2000 Sydney Olympics.

IN PRODUCTION

screen adaptation of William Yang's successful stage show, exploring his Chinese-Australian identity and his experience of loss during the AIDS epidemic.

On - set Crew 1st assistant director: J ohn K ing 2nd assistant director: S elina Pawut Still photography: N eil M c Leod

D: Hugh P iper P: Helen B arrow EP: S tefan M oore DOP: H elen B arrow one-hour documentary looking at life in present-day Cambodia from the perspective of journalists working on an English-language newspaper in Cambodia, The Phnom Penh Post.

A

SADNESS (55 MINUTES) F ilm A ustralia n a tio n a l I nterest P rogram D: T ony A yres Ps: M ichael M c M ahon , M egan M c M urchy

C I N E M A P A P E R S • DECEMBER 1998

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A panel of 12 film reviewers haj rated a selection of the later t relearer on a rcale of 0 to 10, the latter being the optimum rating (a dark me a no not oeen).

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O th e rw o rld ly V ìaìom a ■ p here's been a fair bit of visionary work in cinema I of late, and much of it coming from Australian and New Zealand directors. Earlier this year, Alex Proyas presented an astounding vision of a constructed cityscape in Dark City. At times Orwellian, at other times echoing Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985), Proyas’ city is full of shifting skylines, impenetrable shadows and elusive memories. In a similar way, Peter Weir con­ structs a completely separate reality for his hero (Jim Carrey) in The Truman Show. Truman’s world is one

64

more akin to 1960s American sitcom world, where everything is bright and new, and is, like Dark City, an environment created and controlled by outside forces.

On the other hand, Vincent Ward treads the inner landscapes in What Dreams M ay Come. When Chris (Robin Williams) dies, he discovers that his vision of the afterlife is one created from his own memories - in his case, his wife’s paintings. Other dreamscapes he encounters past death are also constructs from peo­ ple’s memories, but the landscape of hell seems to be

a universally recognized Dante-esque interpretation.

Perhaps those who go ‘down to the other place’ have no real imagination of their own.

Interesting questions about the nature of truth and reality are raised in all of these films, but, in a very 1990s way, they are not answered fully, because that would defeat the purpose. After all, isn’t this the age where everyone has their own truth and their own real­ ity, and doesn’t each person need to find that for themselves? Well, that’s my truth anyway. TH

C I N E M A PAPERS • DECEMBER 1998

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