WEIR'S FIRST TIME
is the film critic for L ’Humanité (Paris), direc tor of La Semaine de la Critique (Critics’ Week) and, since seeing an unnamed Australian film at Cannes, car ries a hip-flask full o f whisky.
Jean R o V
... and Cinema Papers’. This gjjfotograph of director Peter Weir (filmmg The Cars that Ate Paris in Sofala, N S ® ! in late 1973) featured in Cinemajmfi^ r s ’ f i r s t « ever "Production Report§HK|||pe. tim eil Weir made his eleventh feature, The Truman Show, Cinema Papers had published 129 issues.
So, Cinema Papers is celebrating its 25th anniversary issue and would like to have a few words from a dedi cated friend living so far away. What do you really want to know? My favourite 25 Australian movies of all time? No way. I would make too many enemies. The complete list of the sixty or so Australian feature films released in France in the past 25 years? Sobering. An anniversary is not the proper time to be serious. It’s a love letter you send to a friend. i don’t remember the first Australian movie I ever saw but I still remember, within these 25 years, the first one I fell in love with. It was Sunday Too Far Away, by Ken Hannam. I saw it in the spring of 1975 and I still feel the smell of the sheep while the workers are taking off their wool. I also remember the first time I attended an Australian Film Week. It was in Paris in April 1979 and we had Caddie, The Devil’s Playground, The Getting of Wisdom, The Last Wave, The Picture Show Man, Storm Boy and Summerfield.1 What a glorious year. It was also in 1979 that I had a chance to read Scott Murray for the first time. He was interviewing John Lamond about Felicity and he had published these beautiful pictures of Glory Annen and Jody Hansen in the nude playing with each other under the shower in their convent dormitory (Cinema Papers, Cannes Special, p. 88). On the spot, I was convinced that Scott was one of the best film critics of all time and I still believe it, even if the pictures are not so attractive these days. (By the way, I still not have seen Felicity. Could you send me a cassette?) Last but not least, it was in 1979 that I was elected as a member of the selection committee of the Critics’ Week in Cannes. I can’t remem ber if there was any Australian money in the first film which was ever submitted to me, but I do remember it was Skin Deep, from New Zealander Geoff Steven. We had this screening in the most elegant club one can imagine, followed by a lavish dinner by the pool, all of that one block from the Champs Elysees on 12 January, and it was just the first of a series of one hundred movies we had to watch for Cannes. I loved it. Twenty years and a couple of thousand films later, it’s still the last time I’ve been to this club and the last time I’ve been invited to lunch or dinner after a screening. Beginner’s tuck, as they say. Since that day, a lot of water has been passing under the bridge and a lot of ice cubes in my whiskies. I remember really learning about Australian cinema, seeing everything from the turn of the twentieth century in a series at the Australian Embassy (great lunches, too, with the most fantastic view on the Eiffel Tower one can have), to the most contemporary stuff. We had Devil in the Flesh at the Semaine in 1986, with the director’s cut that Scott Murray was pushing to impose while some foolish French distributor wanted to mild it.2 What a fight... Then, in 1993, the divine surprise showed up. After having already been in one hundred countries or so, I was invited for the first time in my life to Australia. I had a chance to check that people there don’t live with their feet above their head, even if they drive on the left, and, as a matter of consequence, female kangaroos don’t need a zipper on their pocket to protect their babies from falling down. I met wonderful movie reviewers (hi Paul, this one for you), great girls (hi, Vicky, give me a call some day), great female movie reviewers (hi Mary, give Paul a call some day). That’s where i definitely fell in love with you. Happy 25th, Cinema Papers.
IT STARTED WITH ... The photo that sparked Jean Roy’s interest in Cinema Papers and Aus tralian film (see article, left). Jenny (Jody Hansen) and Felicity Robinson (Glory Annen) in John D. Lamond’s Felicity (1978).
... A PHOTO OF JACK THOMPSON The cover of the first Cinema Papers (in its magazine format). The images are frame enlargements of Jack Thompson and Debbie Nankervis from David Baker’s “The Family Man” episode of Libido (1973).
CINEMA PAPERS DAVID WILLIAMSON INTERVIEWED/ PRODUCTION PROFILE— THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS/ FRANCIS B1RTLES— KODAKER/ TARIFF BOARD REPORT/ PERFORMANCE SCRIPT EXTRACTS/ RAY HARRYHAUSEN- CREATOR OF SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS/ DIRECTED BY KEN G. HALL/ GILLIAN ARMSTRONG— ONE HUNDRED A DAY.
1 Caddie (Don Crombie, 1976), The D evil’s Playground (Fred Schepisi, 1976), The Get ting o f Wisdom (Bruce Beresford, 1977), The Last Wave (Peter Weir, 1977), The Picture Show M an Oohn Power, 1977), Storm B oy (Henri Safran, 1976) and Summerfield (Ken Hannam, 1977). 2 Ed.: When the French distributor recut the film, producer John B. Murray and director Scott Murray sought protection under France’s Moral Rights legisla tion. The distributor intending releasing the film prior to Cannes, which by the rules of the Festival should have meant it was ineligible for screening in Critics’ Week (or any. other section of the event). However, Roy and Critics’ Week took a bold stand and pub licly announced they would show the original film (billed as a “director’s cut”) if the case were tost and the recut film commercially released. This is just another example of the magnificent respect Cannes has shown for Australian film.
C I N E M A P A P E R S • J A N U A R Y 1999