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BACK TO SCHOOL Isabella Rossellini, Italian cinema icon, takes time out of her busy schedule to speak to Anthony Carew.
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sabella Rossellini had long ago cemented her status as an icon of cinema — daughter of Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, one-time muse/squeeze of David Lynch, modern-day partner-in-crime to Guy Maddin — when, in 2006, she found herself in a situation familiar for so many women. “I was over 50, children grown up, not really working as much as a model or as an actor,” recounts Rossellini, now 61. “I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands, so I went back to school.” Enrolling in New York’s Hunter College, Rossellini set out to study something she’d always been fascinated by: animals. At that point
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in her life, she had little to prove; so, it was for her own edification. But it turned into a radical change in her career. In 2007, Rossellini conceived of a series of two-minute shorts about peculiar mating habits, in which she’d dress up in home-sewn costumes and enact these rituals. Its title? The internetfriendly Green Porno. “IWe know that people are interested in sex. But they’re also interested in everything that comes with it, so, even though it’s called Green Porno, we do courtship, and motherhood too. The intent was to make funny films about science. I wanted to make people laugh, but make sure that everything I did and said was scientifically
correct.” Green Porno proved hugely successful: beginning just as a pilot, but soon growing into 40 short films. There’s a request for ten more, but its star/creator finds herself too busy, given she’s currently touring the world with a live stage-show for Green Porno. Along the way, she also made her directorial feature debut, Animals Distract Me, and is still studying: she’s now a grad student at work on a Masters in Animal Behaviour. It’s a turn in her career that’s taken her back to her childhood, growing up in Italy as cinema royalty. There, she first dreamed of making films for National Geographic, that initial impulse taking a backseat to when modelling (she was long the face of Lancôme) and acting (where her American break-out came in Lynch’s Blue Velvet) came along. “I was really very, very fond of both those jobs, but animals always remained a part of my life.” Now, she’s become an ambassador of animals; an activist, conservationist, philanthropist, and one-woman show. Touring Green Porno, she sees kids in the audience (“they love the costumes”), and loves having teenagers in the crowd (“you need only to say the word ‘penis’ and they giggle”). And she finds that the monologue form invites her to elaborate and philosophise upon smaller points from the series. Like homosexuality. “Homosexuality has been proven to exist amongst nature, with certain animals and insects. When humans condemn it, say it’s ‘against nature’, well, it isn’t. Sex isn’t just for reproduction, and it doesn’t just involve mothers and fathers. We make love to create intimacy, to create bonds, heredity, families. There’s more to mating than just procreating.” WHAT: Green Porno WHEN & WHERE: 22 Mar, City Recital Hall
AN IRISHMAN IN AUSTRALIA Damien Dempsey reflects upon the highlights of his career as Tyler McLoughlan comes to understand why he’s referred to as the voice of a generation.
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amien Dempsey is as Irish as they come; he has become a hero of the working class over six albums and 15 years. Last month he celebrated with the release of It’s All Good – The Best Of Damien Dempsey. ”We went about the best of like it was a gig, like we were writing a setlist. We just put on the songs that we felt meant most to people, the ones that really move people, but it was hard…” says Dempsey. “There’s a song called Colony that’s an anti-racism song and I think that’s important; racism causes so much pain and war and suffering in this world. Another song was about two of my friends who took their own lives, because lots of people have come to me and said that song actually saved their life. So when you can write a song that can save a few lives I s’pose you need to put it on the best of,” he says with a cheerless chuckle. For many down-and-out Dubliners circa 2009, Dempsey’s lyrics scattered randomly on the city’s walls by graffiti artist Maser brought hope as unemployment rates soared. His positivity has drawn the respect of fans and some of Ireland’s finest songwriters alike, a point that makes him feel proud as he reflects on his career to date. 24 • THE MUSIC • 12TH MARCH 2014
“There was a great band called The Dubliners, and one of the guys was dyin’ – Ronnie Drew, the singer. They brought him into the main late night TV show in Ireland, and we got a song [The Ballad Of Ronnie Drew] from myself, U2, Sinead O’Connor, Shane McGowan from The Pogues and The Corrs. I just looked across the stage at one time and saw all these famous Irish people and I was there singin’ the words with them…” he says with disbelief. Even though O’Connor features on the compilation’s title track and he counts her as a close
friend, it still blows Dempsey away that someone of her calibre is interested in what he’s doing. “I’ve never seen a singer like her. I toured Australia with Sinead and America and Europe and I’ve never seen a singer like her; to be able to hit you in the heart and send a shiver up your spine, it’s otherworldly, just otherworldly. She’s sang on a lot of my albums you know, so that’s a great moment for me as well to have a huge idol of mine think my stuff was good enough that she would sing on my albums.” WHAT: It’s All Good – The Best Of Damien Dempsey (ABC/Universal) WHEN & WHERE: 16 Mar, Metro Theatre; 11 Apr, The Gum Ball, Belford; 17 Apr, National Folk Festival, Canberra