Cinema Papers no. 126 August 1998 (2025)

OCR

INSIGHTS’

inbits 2

in anger 10

It's your ABC, and thats
why you won't be seeing the
Miéville-Godard episode of
the Centenary of Cinema.
SCOTT MURRAY

The French model for dealing
with moral rights. WENDY[...]GI titles and graphics;
Sydney's Fontana Studios; the
Museum of the Moving Image.
BARRIE SLVIITH

75
80

inproduction[...]production

contents

NUMBER 126

FOCUS

READING THE INTERVIEW ~ .

Guilt and truth—telling are at the heart of Craig Monal1an's '
provocative and affec[...]tigates.
16 Cannes, 1998

JAN EPSTEIN reveals the highs and lows
of the WOI‘ldIS leading film festival

Trawling the Net

Trash & Treasure
SCOTT MURRAY trawls for

long-lost treasures and ways to
beat the thought—police
22

Favourite URLS
MICH[...]ayas

Olivier Assayas was one of France's

amidst the gOI‘6 F01” fanzine

delights

leading film[...]ential Film Sites

From promotional sites to ones
the shape of world cinema. He talks to

IIELEN BANDIS[...]ailable .
I

High Level Sex Scenes,/4
Drug Use, Adult Themes

on munnur th[...]

also been instrumental in the Watch IN THEin whatever he opment, and this time it’s Tasmania[...]rns his hand to next. turn. A six-screen state-of-the-art com- announced, and a crappy bunch of F,~,,,,, COnd0rGmup
plex is being built at the Glenorchy films they are too. The Graveyard Distribution: Network Distribution
Cent[...]OPYRIGHT 1998 MTV PUBLISHING LIMITED
be completed in time for Christmas films of dubious quality and[...],::,,

with manuscripts and materials supplied to the magazine, neither
the editor nor the publisher can accept liability for any loss or
da[...]e. This magazine may not be reproduced

1998. All thethe Cinema City 7 in Hobart, which Mad Max-type in a lamé G-string bat- us/vgyie sI.Enzroy.vIc.Ausx[...]sindexed byFIAF.
also promises to be completed by the ties bloodsu-cking chickens to save the Ciwafl
year’s end. world (we think that's what[...]-—
BIGGER THAN EVEREST? NOT QUITE be presenting the 1998 Movie Conven- Winners and losers were screened on t - b t
T he latest IMAX screen for Australia tion at the Royal Pines Resort on the Arena’s Graveyard Shift on 15 May. u
Opened in May at Melbourne's Coast from 18-22 AUgLlSt. HELEN BANDIS is A MELBOURNE
new museum site, next to the Exhibition promises to be a big shindig, with SYD[...]IDEOS SCRIPTWRITER.
Buildings. It is, apparently, the largest many international executives attend- he Indie 2ooo Vidi-Digi Festival, JOHN CONOMOS TEACHES AT THE COLLEGE
3D screen in the world at 23 metres by ing, the launch of new distribution Sydney’s first shor[...]Buena Vista Australia, plenty event, will be held in October this year, J:‘"ME:VTE'xE'5 A MELBOURNE[...]ing for entries. To be eligi- R

MICHAEL HELMS IS THE EDITOR or FATAL
VISIONS.

FINCINA HOPGOOD is A RESIDENT TUTOR IN
ENGLISH AND CINEMA STUDIES AT ORMOND
COLLEGE.

KARL QUINN IS A FILM REvIEwER FOR AND
EDIToR or THE CITY WEEKLY.

ADRIAN MARTIN Is THE FILM REvIEwER FOR
THE AGE AND THE AUTHOR or FANTASMS
AND THE Iiisr-PUBLISHED BFI FILM CLAssIc
EDITioN ONCE UPONA TIME IN AMERICA.
BRIAN MCFARLANE Is AN AssocIATE PR0-

I=EssoR IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AT
MONASH UNIVERSITY.

ble, en[...]utes. Entry forms are available at
Dendy Cinemas in Sydney, or the
Coffee Roaster in Glebe, Surry Hills
or Pyrmont. For more info, cal[...]552
1740. Entries close 25 September.

FAST FILMS IN BRISBANE
ay TV station Arena can’t help
but ge[...]their films, as long as three
criteria are met: the film must be less
than five minutes long; it must
include theIN THE
DEPARTMENT or SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHRO-
POLOGY AT LA[...]NUTE DRAMA.

CATHERINE SIMPSON WAS CO-DIRECTOR or
THE FIRST AUsTRALIAN FILM FESTIVAL IN
ISTANBUL IN 1994 AND is DOING A PHD IN
AUSTRALIAN CINEMA.

BARRIE SMITH IS A SYDNEY WRIT[...]-
vERsITY.

JAEINTA THOMLER is A FREELANCE WRITER
IN SYDNEY.

ANIMAL LOGICAL FOX

5 the Fox Studios at Sydney’s Showgrounds continues t[...]Logic has announced that it will be relocating
to the new site. Animal Logic's credits are becoming inc[...]al film titles under its belt. It will be housed
in the erstwhile Arts and Crafts Pavilion ofthe S[...]

AND SCREEN CREATURES
IN ADELAIDE

he second annual Adelaide

Screen Creatures Film Festival
is set to go in October ofthis year.
With a programme that explores the
“peculiar, profound and exceptional”
through the sci-fi/fantasy/thriller/
horror/noir genres, it[...]what it calls creative
entertainment. This year, the festival
will also include the “Little Creatures”
national short film festi[...]e now being
sought. For further information, call
the festival office: (61.8) 8272 2332,
or email: creature@adelaide.on.net.

GATEWAY TO THE WEBSITE

creen Network Australia was

launched in May, and will prove to
be an indispensable websit[...]sts and profes-
sionals. Developed and managed by
the AFC, AFTRS, the National Film and
Sound Archive and the ABC, it’s envis-
aged that the site will improve access
to information about the Australian
film and television industry available
on the Internet. As well as a directory,
the site has access to other Internet
resources, indu[...]showcases memorable
film and television scenes. The address
is: www.sna.net.au

—e:‘:S'i’{x$u'.[...]sic French films touringthe country,
curated by the Ministry of French For-
eign Affairs and presented by Cinema
Nova and The Alliance Francaise.
including films from filmmakers such

After starring in some 30 films,
Ronald Reagan became the pres-
ident of the US in 1981 and served as
president for eight years.

The moment when Bill Clinton

appears as himselfthe o[...]ing
halt. Clinton, wooden and awkward
as ever, is the unwelcomed guest at
this party. The film delivers what
much speculative fiction pro[...]ings over
intelligent life-forms that, mostly for
the better, have found alternative
methods to deal with the essential
dilemmas ofthe human condition.
And here’s Bill, playing the king, and
spouting forth meaningless official
babble about matters that nobody
engrossed in this film is likely to give
a hoot about.

Bill Pullman in Independence

Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996)
Apart from 1996 being the year Bill
Pullman really should have asked
whethe[...]sservice (consider:
Independence Day and Mr Wrong in
the one year), one has to wonder
what was going through the minds of
the filmmakers when they cast Pull-
man to play the President ofthe US.
Pullman’s President is init[...]gun and realizes
that he no longer needs queue at the
sandwich bar like everyone else.

/nsignificance[...]g,

1985) from a screenplay by
Terry Johnson, had the good sense to
not cast the President, but his like-
ness in the form ofthe enigmatically
named The Senator (Tony Curtis), a

erable politician with[...]ill and Ted time-travel
through history, round up the usual
suspects and bring them back for a
live pre[...]Napoleon strutt their stuff
on stage, but it’s the President who
gets the best lines ofthe entire film
in BiIIAnd Ted’s ExcelientAdventure
(Stephen Herek,1989);“Be kind to
each other”, he implores the hor-

ruthless, soulless, ambitious but mis-

mon[...]ul chord forthe
actual president ofthe day.

With the furore over Clinton’s

alleged indiscretions, maybe this
is not the best time to reflect upon Rob
Reiner’s featherweight romance, The
American President (1995). Were the
President’s only misdeameanour to
have been his[...]d, liberal-Democrat president
with his finger on the pulse of most
feel-good, politically correct causes. As
a President he's totally lacking in cred-
ibility and plausibility; as a romantic
lead, Douglas is on automatic pilot for
most ofthe film. The shadowy aides
circulating around him fare much be[...]tty good
sitcom from this.

Gene Hackman plays ‘the big one’

in Absolute Power (Clint East-
wood, 1997). and again, he's up to his
eyeballs in sexual scandal. After going
home with a beautiful[...]n Rich-
mond’s well and truly implicated.
While the Prez isn't responsible for her
death, it’s tric[...]sual Hackman perfor-
mance, similarto his role as the
conservative senator Kevin Keeley in
The Birdcage (Mike Nichols, 1995), but
without the comic trappings. Judy
Davis as Hackman’s right-[...]oria Russell is wonderful though.

Jack Nicholson in MarsAttacks!

(Tim Burton, 1996) gets to send
up Bill Pullman’s presidential efforts
in Independence Day (Roland
Emmerich, 1996) with Glenn Close as
the First Lady, but to no great avail.
They all get zapped by the nasty-
minded computer-generated
Martians anyway.

In Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson,
9 1997), the president is never
seen clearly, but is once again
involved in scandal, this time involv-
ing a Girl Scout in the Oval Office.
Spin doctor Conrad Brean (Robert De[...]year,
which conveniently diverted attention
from the Lewinsky case, the parallels
are frighteningly close.
10 Harrison Ford plays Presi-

dentlames Marshall in Air

Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997),
and is hijacked in his own plane by
Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman), a[...]cialist turned
terrorist. |t’s almost ludicrous the
way the president is elevated to near-
immortality in this action flick: not
only does he run the country, but he’s
the perfect husband and father, and
can fight his wa[...]rists. With
Glenn Close playing second fiddle to
the prez again, this time as Vice Pres-
ident Kathryn Bennett on the ground,
god-like status for any man who rules
the United States is a given. The
same cannot be said for the actors
who play the president.

CINEMA PAPERS ° AUGUST 1998

Frameworks, first in non-linear in Australia, has once again taken the initiative in film
editing. We are the first facility providing a dedicated non—|inear[...]e lists,

picture and sound edl’s directly from the Avid. This avoids the need for trace back edl’s

for sound post produ[...]rther details, and a more complete explanation of the different )

“Knowledge, Experience, Ser[...]

TIM HUNTER looks an unexpected development in
the distributors—press relationship:
I n the past couple of months, two letters of com-

plain[...]cent reviews of Australians
films. _

It started in April with Adrian Martin’s review of
The Sound of One Hand Clapping (Richard Flanagan,
1998) for the Melbourne newspaper, The Age. The
reviewwas not positive, and Martin expressed quite
fully why he found the film lacking. The next day,
Antonio Zeccola, Managing Director of Palace Films,
the film’s distributor, sent a letter to'Arts Editor for
The Age, Robin Usher, protesting that Martin’s

,re[...]vicious and vitriolic”, a per-
sonal attack on the filmmaker, and that he used an
‘offensive, condescendingtone”, which “renders Mr
Martin blind to the film’s many virtues”. Zeccola then
asked Usher to “re—read the review in the light of our

comments, and ask yourself if you f[...]ieve that your read-
_ers would not be puzzled by the tone of this review?”
Zeccola then circulated the full letter to other distrib-
utors. the Melbourne Film Critics Forum, and the
Sydney Film Critics Circle.

Usher replied, showi[...]maintaining that Martin’s review “was
within the bounds of acceptable criticism”. He also
explained that the policy of The Age in having a
second reviewer writing for its E6 supplement
“ensured the public had a choice of opinions to
choose from” (Jim Scliiembri was very positive
about the film), and believed that to be “fair and
reasonable in the circumstances”.

But that wasn't all. The following week, Usher

Some ofthe films screenin[...]NEWS
E ven though they’re still some time
away, the 1998 AFI Awards are

received another letter of p[...]lack Hibberd, whose partner Evelyn Krape
appears in Thethe least open to this charge!
— and that Martin “watched the The Sound of One
Hand Clapping with one eye napping”.

And then Columbia—TriStar l-"rlms jumped on the
bandwagon with a letter from Managing Director
Stephen Basil-Jones the following week, complaining
about the way A Little Bit of Soul (Peter Duncan, 1998),
the first Australian film it has distributed, was repre-
sented in newspapers‘ review pages. “Matters
concerning the amount of promotion a film receives or
personal[...]ine a film’s

already beginning to take shape. In its
first year in Sydney since 1993, the
Awards will be held atthe Convention
and Exhibiti[...]-
duced bylohn Bayliss (former
National Executive in Charge of Pro-
duction for ABC Television Arts an[...]d telecast live on
SBS Television on 7 November.

The AFI is also reporting a 30 per-
cent increase in entries for this year's

awards, especially in short films and
documentaries. This may be due to the
recent changes in AFI Awards rules that
now make films shot on vid[...]esponses from distributors
are most telling about the current state of Australia's
film industry. We h[...](P.l. Hogan.
1994), Shine (Scott Hicks, 1996) and The Castle
(Robisitch, 1997), but, as is evident even[...]edies
withvbroad appeal that are most successful. The
Sound of One Hand Clapping is definitely nota
co[...]ms was understandably
unsure, even nervous, about the reception it would
receive from the general public. it was programmed
cautiously and[...]dy for negative reviews, and hence its
response. (The Sound of One Hand Clapping was

worth”, he wrote. Reviews from Vicky Roach (The D Ely” still screening five weeks later, as Ci[...]headlines (Daily Teiegraph.’x“Simple Soul”;
Thethe letter a
copy of Time Magazine's review of the same film, hold-
ing it up as unfavourable, but[...]e” and a “quality of journalism sadly
lacking in many. of the former articles”.

Basil.-Jones believes that these reviews in some
way contributed to the poor perfonnance ofA Littlei
Bitiofsoul at the box office. This letter was addressed
to Adrienn[...]cle, and forwarded on by Basil-Jones to Usher at The
Age. Usher replied, stating again his support of the
:reviewers;: and that “reviews generally remain unbi-
ased in their judgements”.

12/ went to press.)

A Litt[...]ery ‘aggressive’ marketing
argn leading up to the film’s release which
played up both Geoffrey Rush’s newfound kudos,
and the comedic nature ofthe film. it also had a
very wi[...]ying at independent and
arthouse cinemas. Perhaps the film’s lack of
success had more to do with Col[...]to be critical
and box-office triumphs? What is the role of film
reviewers and critics? Are they the[...]present a range of opinions and evalua-
tions for the general public to assist in the practice
ofinformed cinema-going? Do film review[...]ge bearing on a film’s box-office performance in
this age ofsaturated marketing and promotion?
Who actually reads the reviews; why and when?
Do film distributors have a right to complain about
reviews, or even dabble in getting film reviewers
on side to skew their rev[...]d around local product?

Are we so insecure about the maturing and
diversifying ofthe Australian film industry that
there will soon be no room for difference in either
content or opinion, and we will start churning out
safe, middle-path films in the hope that every Aus-

itralian film will be relatively successful at the ox

office? Surely this is the antithesis of our recent

_ , - our-*fear[...]

>>§

Introducing thethe concept of connectivity.
MediaLink incorporates a[...]5012
Berlin Tel +49 3317212930 Fax +49 3317212933 THE aewcnmmx m DIGITAL AUDIO
Tokyo Tel +81 354[...]

I, like many of my “baby[...]t song and
only to you.” That was a key part of
the Sinatra magic. He gave American
pop music a new existential direction
after Bing Crosby’s earlier influential
contribution. Sinatra epitomized
style: the cocked hat on his head; a
trench coat hanging ove[...]wise smile looking backwards
over his shoulder at the camera.
Sinatra had, in a word, gravitas. It
was reported that Sinatra’[...]to quote Gary Giddins,
“America’s vernacular art songs”. He

IT’$AQUERTO 5’ 5 .

sang with his heart, night and day,
sculpting the lyrics of his 1,400 odd
songs with the assurance ofa Brancusi,
phrasing his songs unlike[...]ok a hold ofa song
— inside a recording studio, in front of
an orchestra, swinging it like a musical[...]ither—or”
puritanism, Sinatra’s magisterial art
and voice will endure because it rightly
belongs alongside the voices of other
singers who matter— such as Bes[...]Dinah Washington, to
name a few—who arrest you in your
tracks wheneveryou encounter their
voices.

When Sinatra’s singing was at its
peak— the Capitol years ofthe 1950s
with the release ofsuch masterpieces
as the albums “Songs for Swingin’
Lovers” (featuring the sunny, swinging
arrangements ofNelson Riddle), “in the
Wee Small Hours" and, in 1958, “Only
the Lonely (said by some to be the

album ofthe crooner’s tough-guy
romantic music[...]capsulate America itself.

With Sinatra, there is the great
temptation to confuse his art with his
public image: the Rat Pack leader, with
his alleged Mafia affilia[...]g. This is just
one Sinatra amongst many others.

The Sinatra I would like to end up
with is Sinatra the accomplished
screen performer. We tend to overlook
this aspect ofSinatra’s art and life. I
can’t quite place whether I heard Sina-
tra sing or perform in a film when first
living in a milk-bar in a Sydney work-
ing-class suburb in the 19505. It seems
that since a very early stage in my life I
became familiar with Sinatra through
reading the newspapers and listening
to our brown bakelite ra[...]emory,
one of my earliest ones, of seeing
Sinatra in Lewis Allen’s minorfilm noir
Suddenly (1954) a[...]gs
Theatre. l can recall a skinny Sinatra
dressed in a pearly white shirt, sweat-
ing profusely, full ofdark and
ambivalent moods, getting ready to
shoot thein the ’6os and ’7os Sinatra’s

screen performance[...]netic, Oscar-winning role
(Best Supporting Actor) in From Here
to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953)
relaunched his ailing career in 1954.
And, I guess, we may have a favourite
Sinatra movie amongst the following:
the under—rated Young at Heart
(Gordon Douglas, 1954); The Man
with The Golden Arm (Otto Preminger,
1955), with Elmer Bernstein’s superla-
tive soundtrack; the musicals Guys
and Dolls (Joseph L. Mankiewicz
195[...]Walters,
1956) and Pal/oey (George Sidney,
1957); The /okeris Wild (Charles
Vidor, 1957); as the optimistic loser
in Capra’sA Hole in the Head (1959);
the Las Vegas heist romp, Ocean’s
Eleven (Lewis Milestone, 1960); and
the paranoiac classic, The Manchurian
Candidate (John Frankenheimer,
1962).

You can't sum up Sinatra’s legacy
to popular music in a neat phrase or
two. To do so would be su[...]

Cinema Pape s and save
up to 20% off the

newsstand price.

the winners, who all receive $2,500 in
prize money each, are:
DOCUMENTARY

A Breath (Chr[...]GENERAL CATEGORY

I, Eugenia (Gabrielle Finnane)

THE 1998 YORAM GROSS ANIMATION
AwARD

Feline (May Trubuhovich)

THE ETHNIC AFFAIRS COMMISSION OF
NSW AWARD

A Breath (Christopher Tuckfield)

THE ROUBEN MAMOULIAN AwARD
Denial (Phillip Crawford)[...]Ltd
(JCM) is now moving into producing
docos with the formation ofjennifer
Cornish Productions (JCP). With David
Noakes (ex-FFC) as general manager of
JCP, the company has development
and production funds avai[...]ojects both as
producers and executive producers. In
pre—production already is Ocean
Planet, a three[...]ogrammes.

WINNING SCORES

nnounced recently were the win-
Aners ofthe screen composition
APRA Awards.[...]t Kilda Film Festival

was held from 27-31 May at the
George Cinemas in Fitzroy Street. As
well as the usual National Short Film
Competition, the Festival screened a
special programme ofaward—w[...]e Festival du Court-
Métrage, Clermont—Ferrand in France.
Roger Gonin, Co—Director ofthis presti-
gious short film festival, was in
Melbourne to introduce the pro-
gramme. Other special programmes
included: Melbourne in the ’5os, a
look at the city through newsreel
footage, advertisements, drama and
documentary short films from the
time; Confessions ofa Filmmaker, in
which Richard Lowenstein selected
and introduced[...]S 0 AUGUST 1998

forum, Selling Ourselves Short?, in
which filmmakers, funding bodies,
broadcasters and distributors dis-
cussed the here—and—now ofshort films
in Australia.

ST KILDA SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
AWARDS[...]MENTARY

Generation (Ruth Carr)

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN
CINEMATOGRAPHY

Allan Collins (Tears,/ourney)

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A LEADING ROLE
Kim Gyngell (Sunday Hungry)

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN

SOUND POST-PRODUCTION

Urszula Zareba-ldzikowska (Crouching
at the Door, The Two-Wheeled Time
Machine, The Birthday Present)

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTION
Ivan Sen (Tears)

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING
Denial (Phillip Crawford)

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN ORIGINAL
SCREENPLAY

Sunday Hungry (Lawson Bayly)

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SPECIAL EFFECTS
Slipped (Dir: Louise Curham)

BES[...]R

Lawson Bayly (Sunday Hungry)

BEST ACHIEVEMENT INThe Butler; Rachel
Bailey for Operation Dostoyevsky;[...]xecutive Officer, a position she has
been acting in for some time.

Announcements about the staffing
of Buena Vista lnternational’s

new distribution venture in Australia
and New Zealand have been made.
Vice Pr[...]nnounced that Andrew Taylor will be
Sales Manager in Australia, and
Robert Crockett will be Country Man-
ager in New Zealand. Taylor was
previously Programming an[...]rroll and Coyle, and Crockett has
previously held the position OfGeneral
Manager with Roadshow Distributors
in New Zealand.

oadshow has had some

Rmanagement c[...]and's first
private network channel, and set up

the production company lsambard to
supply TV3 with it[...]and Communications Manager. Rose

was previously the Marketing and
Sponsorship Manager forthe Out of
the Box Festival, initiated by the
Queensland Performing Arts Trust.

he Australian Screen Directors’

Association (ASDA) has also
announced the appointment of
Richard Harris as its new Executive
Director. Harris recently served as Pol-
icy Manager for the Screen Producers’
Association OfAustralia (SPAA[...]RS.

laire Jager has joined Artist Ser-

vices as the head ofa new
factual programming division. Jager
has served as the Commissioning Edi-
tor-Documentaries at SBS Television
prior to her new appointment, and will
be involved in producing natural his-
tory, archaeology, travel[...]olicy Man-
ager. Ward has been Policy Advisor for
the AFC since 1994, and was the head
ofthe Film and Television Institute of
Weste[...]at. Ward
replaces Sue Mccreadie, who is taking
up the position of Executive Director of
the Australian Writers’ Guild.

CORRIGENDUM

n Marg[...]this new print also contains a
scene not included in the original
release print (that ofthe surveyors),
but this is not true”. This is true and
false. The film's distributor did claim
that the surveyors scene was new,
which it is not. However, there is a
‘new’ Scene (where Black Boy goes to
the farmhouse), in that it had only been
previously seen in the laserdisc version.

cott Murray’s article on Radiance

(Cinema Papers, no. 125, p. 25)
claims that it is the first feature to be
directed by an Aborigine since BeDevil.
This is correct in the intended sense of
theatrical features. However, m[...]n-theatrical /indalee Lady.

T he photograph used in recent
issues on the Subscription card

was taken by Solrun Hoaas and[...]ng Diaries.
Cinema Papers apologizes to Hoaas
for the lack ofany credit and thanks
her for the kind use ofthe still.

ne thing which
immediately strikes
you roaming the
streets oflstanbul is
the sea ofyoung
faces cramming cafes, bars and walk-
ways in the central cultural district.
With forty percent ofthe population
(63 million) under 25, the Istanbul Film
Festival was packed to capacity wit[...]ction of 150 films from 40 coun-
tries showcased the best of
contemporary and classic art cinema
to a record 125,ooo filmgoers.

In budgetary terms, the Festival is
one ofthe largest in the world, with
this year’s event costing $1.2 mill[...]redominantly a middle-class, urban
preoccupation. The Festival’s focus on
European cinema follows the Western-
bound gaze of many middle-class
Turks. Although European cinema
made up thein its
recent failure to enter the European
Union, has been further exacerbated
by a parallel rise in Islamic fundamen-
talism.

The selection oftwo European
films, Udayan Prasad’s My Son the
Fanatic and Mehmoud Zemmouri's
100% Arabica, both thematically con-
cerning Islamic fundamentalism, albeit
in somewhat divergent styles, cap-
tured some ofthe contrasts that are
complicit in everyday life in Turkey.

Written by HanifKureishi and set in
England, My Son the Fanatic paints a
tragicomic picture ofthe effect[...]easingly isolated and misunder-
stood and ends up in the welcome
arms ofone of his clients; the prosti-
tute Bettina, brilliantly portrayed by
Ra[...]do-Muslim fundamentalists trying
to get a footing in a particular district
aided by the local mayor, who in turn
wants their help in bringing the com-

munity under control. They are, how-
ever, hindered by the popularity of
“Raporiental”, a local Rap band who
are the most active representatives of
the community. Dialogue is inter-
weaved with superb Rap-Arabesque
fusion music from the famous Algerian
artist Khaled, who is also very popular
in Turkey. The spontaneous atmos-
phere ofthis diverse ethnic community
living in a dilapidated district on the
outskirts of Paris is stylistically empha-
sized by the gritty visual texture of
100% Arabica. This is a[...]ten represented on screen.
Eleven films competed in the Inter-
national Competition for the Golden
Tulip Award, with this year‘s theme
being “Art and the Artist”. The extraor-
dinary diversity of films in this section
ranged from Renos Haralambidis’
di[...]ng Sang—Soo’s
laboriously pedantic production The
Day a Pig Fell Down the Well (South
Korea), Harry Sinclair’s riotously[...]yrical Dance ofthe Wind
(India). Jafar Panahi’s The Mirror (Iran),
which doesn’t live up to his remark-
able début feature, The White Balloon
(1995), unexpectedly took out the
Golden Tulip Award.
Following the trend of recent
films from Iran, especially Mohs[...]and Abbas Kiarostami’s And Life Goes
On (1992), The Mirror (Ayneh) ques-
tions the status of fiction and its
relation to reality. This film follows the
story ofa little girl, Mina, who is des-
perately[...]own way home
and subsequently finds herself lost in
bustling Tehran. After boarding a bus,
Mina looks straight into the camera
and in a woeful plea cries, “I don’t
want to act in this movie anymore!”
From here on, the film becomes a

pseudo-documentary as the camera
crew continues to ‘secretly’ follow
Mi[...]tly still
wearing her portable microphone!
Whilst the film compels the audience
to conclude it has unintentionally
become a documentary, Panahi, in his
press conference, stated he had actu-
ally proposed the idea of Mina’s
dissatisfaction with acting in the origi-
nal script. Mina, incidentally, is the
elder sister ofthe little girl with the
gratingly shrill voice in The White Bal-

loon, the winner ofthe Camera D’Or at
Cannes as best début in 1995.
Although Mina‘s voice in The Mirror is
an octave lower than her sister’s, the
whining trait must run in the family.
One film in the International Com-
petition to which audiences re[...]stically was Tony Gatlifs
captivating Gad/o Dilo (The Crazy
Stranger). This accomplished work,
which co[...]lms (Latcho Dram [1995] and Mondo
[1996D, follows the tale ofa young
Parisian on an obsessional quest to
find the real person behind a Romany
voice which his father recorded on a

tape years before. The majority ofthe
film takes place in a Romany shanty
village not far from Bucharest. Gadjo
Dilo is an all-consuming film which
instils the desire to dance, laugh, sing
and share the anguish the characters
face. As with Latcho Drom and Mondo,
the mesmerizing music in this film
functions as an integral part ofthe nar-
rative, providing insight into the
difficulties gypsies have encountered
over the centuries clashing with other
cultures. Given that we see the Roma-

nies through the eyes ofStephane, the
foreigner, Gadjo Dilo could have
resorted to pres[...]on. Even
though we are led to feel compassion
for the central characters, the harsh
realities ofgypsy life are not glossed
oven

Paul Cox is probably better known
in Turkey than in Australia and Istan-
bul festival-goers flock to[...]Iess—than-highly
regarded Exile, which featured in the
Australian Film Festival in Istanbul in

CINEMA PAPERS 0 AUGUST 1998

(The Voice ofBergman) and Lars

Von Trier (Tranceforme[...]n Trier).

Although Australia had no con-
tenders in the International
Competition, Stavros Andonis
Efthymiou’s True Love and Chaos
(1997), which featured in the “Youth is
Different” category, played to pack[...]'s Kiss or Kill (1997),
however, bears witness to the notion
of how films can dramatically trans-
form in different venues. Selected for
the “From the World of Festivals” sec-
tion, Kiss or Kill rec[...]rm reception which primarily
can be attributed to the careless trans-
lation and mis-timing ofthe Turkish
subtitling which in turn resulted in
much ofthe subtle humour and cul-
tural nuances being lost on the
audience.

End ofthe Long Drought...
A major aim[...]than a decade-long
drought, a number of releases in the
past few years, such as /stanbul Under
My Wings (Istanbul Kanatlarimin
Altinda, Mustafa Altioklar,1995) and
The Bandit (Eskiya , Yavuz Turgul,
1996), suddenly saw the return of
domestic audiences to Turkish cin-
ema. With a budget of$US1 million
(more than double the average for a
Turkish film), The Bandit played for
almost 10 months in Turkey to 2.5 mil-
lion viewers. Before its demise in the
19805, a thriving commercial cinema

CINEMA PAPERS - AUGUST I998

industry existed in Turkey known as
“Yesilcam” (the production houses
being on Yesilcam Street in Istanbul).
During the '50s and ’6os, production
boomed, peaking at over 250 films per
year by the 19705, known as the
golden decade of Turkish Cinema. By
the end ofthe 197os, however, televi-
sion and sociop[...]e
severely affecting this entertainment
industry; the streets were not safe
and the audience preferred to stay at
home to watch telev[...]on; 31 January 1968). Stars
quickly withdrew from the scene and,
in orderto attract lumpen crowds to
theatres, Yesilcam began producing
porno movies. With the military coup
in 1980 and the subsequent election
ofa free-market orientated govern-
ment, Yesilcam lost its privileged
place in Turkish public life to the tube
and the video cassette. Cinemas
closed down all over the country and
the lack of any coherent government
policy towards screen culture led
quickly to the cashed—up Hollywood
majors (especially Warner B[...]l
of exhibition.

As a reaction to these changes, the
emergence ofthe film director as indi-
vidual artist, akin to the European art
cinema tradition, began. Ofthe eight
Turkish films in the National Competi-
tion this year, the three notable ones —
The Turkish Bath (Hamam, 1997),
Mixed Pizza (Karisik Pizza, 1997) and
The Town (Kasaba,1997)— are all,
encouragingly, dir[...]ls worldwide.
Although nowhere near as popular as
The Bandit with Turkish audiences, it
is currently playing to sell-out crowds
in Europe. Its success in Italy has curi-
ously resulted in the number of Italian
tourists to Turkey doubling in the
space of6 months.

Hamam is an overt essay in exoti-
cism and captures Istanbul through
foreign eyes, bathingthe city in golden
hues and creating a nostalgic atmos-
phere[...]childhood

perhaps, given that Ozpertek has lived
in Italy since the late ’7os. The central
narrative revolves around an Italian
coup[...]ed that his aunt left
him a Turkish Bath or Hamam in her
will, Francesco travels to Istanbul to
oversee the disposition ofthe estate.
However, he soon becomes entangled
with the family who are the custodians
ofthe Hamam. When Marta eventually
follows Francesco to Istanbul for the

festivals

by a Hollywood major), Mixed Pizza is
a novelty in Turkish cinema. With the
largest Turkish brewery — Efes Pilsen —
and P[...]r Dogs (1992) and
has been severely criticized by the
Turkish press for its gratuitous vio-
lence and f[...]ence as
an American phenomenon would be a
fallacy in this context given Turkish
television’s thirst for sensational and

In budgetary terms, the Festival is one of the

largest in the world. with this year's event costing
$1.2 millio[...]finds him deeply transformed by his
experiences in exotic Istanbul and she
too becomes spellbound.

One film which doesn’t fall prey to
the lure of exoticism is Nuri Ceylan’s
The Town. Presented in four parts
(Winter, Spring, Evening and Morning)
and shot in black—and-white, this styl-
istically-striking film depicts the daily
life of a three-generation extended
family living in a typical Turkish town.
Told through the eyes ofthe eleven-
year-old daughter and heryounger
brother, we follow them from the
classroom in Winter to the countryside
in the Spring as they encounter the
mysteries of nature. In the Evening

sequence the children witness the
dark and tender side ofthe adult world
and we are privy to the complex family
interactions that unfold around a
campfire. Presented in an extraordi-
narily minimalistic style, akin to the
recent work ofAbbas Kiarostami and
lafar Panahi,[...]to
achieve remarkable depth ofcharac-
terization in The Town.

Finally, Umur Turgay’s Mixed Pizza
resembles nothing ever witnessed in
Turkish cinema before. Financed com-
pletely privately and picked up for
distribution in Turkey by Warner Bros.
(the first Turkish film ever distributed

explicitly[...]is a satirical comedy

about betrayal and revenge in the
Istanbul underworld, predominantly
presented from the point ofview of
Murat, a pizza delivery boy. Mura[...]s a
nightmare when one day he delivers a
pizza to the gorgeous but ruthless
Emel. In true film noir style, Emel
exploits Murat’s lu[...]esting

about Mixed Pizza is that, contrary to
the strong female leads offilm noir,
Emel ends up both alive and with all
the money! Shot on a budget ofjust
$US27o,ooo, Mixed[...]duction values betray Umur Turgay’s
background in television commercials
and music video clips.

Ifthe recent trends in Turkish cinema
continue, Istanbul may once again
become the focus of a large and diverse
film production centre. By the year 2020
Turkey’s population will be approaching
100 million, a major market straddling
Europe and the Middle East which
should not be overlooked. ®

11

in anger

Deux Fois Cinquante Ans du Cinéma Frangais

by Scott Murray

he title sequence of

the recent BFl series

on cinema’s supposed

centen[...]cans identified with texta’d gaffer
tape. Near the bottom is George
Miller’s film on Australian cinema,
which the ABC showed late last year.
Third from the top (under Scorsese
and Frears) is the French episode by
Anne-Marie Miéville and Jean-Luc
Godard. This the ABC has not shown —
the only one tossed into the “unus-
able” bin.

Having finally secured a tape
(Michael Campi, thanks again), the
ABC's decision is both incomprehensi-
ble and reprehensible. It is clearly the
most important segment ofthe series.
In comparison, the rest are fairly trivial
stuff (with the brilliant exception ofthe
Russian). Certainly, Miéville-Godard
make one have to think, and the
uncaptioned clips and stills will infuri-
ate those unfamiliar with French
cinema, but since when was the ABC
chartered with only screening the
predigested, homogenized and banal?
After all, it[...]d of an umpteenth repeat of
Open Learning and let the VCRs run
free.

The M—G opens with a burst ofon-
screen writing (in classic Godard
capitals), the subtitlers vainly trying to
catch both the epigrams and the brisk
conversation between Godard and
Michel Picc[...]sociation.

It is obvious early on that Godard is
in a bad mood and that he thinks cin-
ema is dead. H[...]ing to
celebrate and keeps Piccoli from
answering the questions that he poses
him. Godard is rude, if not downright
objectionable. But the questions he
poses are the only interesting ones to
have been heard during all the hoopla
over the supposed centenary. An
example:

Godard: Would yo[...]enough already? Or maybe
not any more?

Piccoli: The cinema has gone com-
pletely off course, so to sp[...]are you celebrating?
Piccoli: We’re celebrating the first
[...] century of cinema, going back to

1895: the date of the first projection
ofa film in public where the audience
paid to watch a film.

Godard: So that’s what it celebrates.
That is, the commercial exploitation
ofcinema, not its production.

Always the Marxist-Leninist!

Godard then goes on to question
the need for a celebratory festival.
Why isn’t cine[...]celebrating something, does that
not imply that, in a certain sense,
you’re putting an inflated value on
something, which has probably bee[...]py un-birthday” every day.
Throughout all this, the rarely-given—a-
chance-to-respond Piccoli retains a
most charming and tolerant stance. In
fact, despite the misery ofthe messen-
ger, he remains open to new[...]nly strengthen that regard, even if he

is a naif in a world whose exploitantist,
anti-human drive leaves Godard in
near permanent despair.

Not that anything can st[...]of words and wordplay: “bobine”
(reel) drops the “ine” and becomes
“bob”, which is supered[...]eat fun, and makes a key point, by
deconstructing the difference between
“old film” (from a forgot[...]And he has Piccoli read from Charles
Baudelaire, in a passage that predicts
poetically the invention of cinema:

We want to travel without steam or
rails. To escape the boredom ofour
prisons, project onto our minds your
memories held up by a canvas
framed by the horizon
After pointing out to Piccoli that the
young know almost nothing about the
early and mid years of French cinema
(only Jean G[...]hallenged to
ask every staff member he encounters
in the hotel where he is staying
whether they recall Robert Le Vigan,

Charlotte (Macha Méril) in Jean-Luc Godard's
. V Une Femme Mariée.

Les Da[...][...] is
only fiction, it’s make-believe”.) The
result is the same as asking anyone at
Circular Quay who was Ch[...]se and we should be
accepting its death.

Godard: The fact is, if cinema had
become what it should have, there
would be no need for any ofthis
[celebration].
in the midst ofhis despair, Godard is
not immune to putting in the odd bit of
self-justification. One lengthy, but[...]eans push-
ing things to their limit. Seeking out
the opposite view, thereby under-
standing others. Gr[...]enjoy paradox are amusing.
Paradox is looking for the opposite of
what appears obvious. People dislike
the notion of compromise but it’s the
most courageous intellectual stance.
The idea of compromise has a nega-
tive connotation. in spite of
everything, I will carry on thinking
tha[...]a sensible
synthesis. And I will keep saying
that the world is neither simple
nortotally absurd. Intell[...]g to find a way of
putting some rationality into the
absurd.
The film ends with a man sewing up
his own corpse-sack. This image is
then supered onto a cinema screen
where the sole audience member is
looking in the reverse direction,
towards a girl. The screen image
changes to the sack now fully sewn
up and the word FIN.
Miéville: The god groaned and
said sadly, “I will always weep[...]rows."

Despite M-G’s best efforts, how-

ever, the programme does invite

hope (one can’t experience that

many references to Bresson with-

out thinking the world a better

place), and the final montage of

great French writers on specta[...]ally taken
cinema seriously and discussed it with
the philosophical weight it deserves. ®

CINE[...]

issues

On the right trail

by Wendy Nye

ACD stands for Société des Auteurs et
Compositeurs Dramatiques. By law,
the Paris—based organization collects
and distribut[...]works on its
books — all 28,000 ofthem, working in the perform-
ing arts such as mime, opera and choreography,
through to the audiovisual areas such as features,
television mo[...]television and television networks.
According to the SACD, in France, by law, there is clear
definition ofwho are the co-authors ofaudiovisual
works. They are the Director, Scriptwriter, Adaptor of
text (if any), the Writer of the dialogue, the Composer.

According to
the Australian

\ ScreenDirectors’
‘ Association

newsletter, ASDA and the Australian Writers’ Guild
are lobbying for “the removal ofany waiver provision
in the moral rights section ofthe Copyright Amend-
ment Bill and favourthe use ofan industry consent
clause to deal with any changes or alterations to the
film once it is released.” SPAA, the Screen Producers’
Association ofAustralia, and FACTS, the Federation of
Australian Commercial Television Stations, want the
waiver kept: a blanket waiver generally appears in
most directors’ contracts. ASDA reckons moral rights
should, at least, require the producer, or authorized
third party, to consult w[...]e any
changes or alterations are made to a film. The Bill is
still before the Senate.

SACD’s Director of|nternationalAffairs, Janine
Lorente, says that in France a film’s producer is pre-
sumed to have the right to exploit a work, except if
otherwise stipulated in a contract with that producer.
Authors reserve certain rights, such as the right to
approach the SACD. Defending moral rights has
always been a pr[...]ays Lorente. An SACD
pamphlet, collected while at the impressive SACD
headquarters building just down the road from the
shabby Moulin Rouge, reads:

By recognizing authors’ rights the law protects the

name, the authorship and the integrity of the
work of creative artists. This is the s0—called
‘moral right’. Besides being prot[...]authors also enjoy an economic right giving
them the power to authorize or prohibit in return
for payment their work from being performe[...]e are happy that you are having this ‘fight’ in
Australia,” says Lorente.
Under French law, [which has been] copied by
Spain, for audiovisual work the final version — or
cut — shall be shared by the producer and direc-
tor. Nothing can be done to the work without the
consent of the director and writer. It is a system
that is worki[...]not-well-known John
Huston movie was to be shown in France, against the
wishes ofthe estate ofjohn Huston, SACD went to
c[...]mpany
Canal Plus to court when it tried to oppose the SACD
system of royalty collection on its cable ne[...]is
Lorente’s job to tell writers and directors in countries
other than France about the SACD system, a system
which includes extracting r[...].

Second, and most important, and it only exists in
France, Italy, Spain and Belgium, any author should
get remuneration in proportion to incomes gener-
ated by the exploitation of the work. Any contract
that provides for a one—time[...]to pro-
vide for a percentage that will show that the authors
will be paid throughout the life of the movie.
Membership with SACD, according to Lorente, doesn’t
replace the role ofthe producer. lfa producer has a
contract with the SACD, whenever a film is sold to a
broadcaster which has a general agreement with the
SACD, the producer doesn’t have to pay the writer or
director. instead, the SACD will substitute as the pro-
ducer to pay the writer or director according to the
receipts of all broadcasters. “For example,”[...]o France’s largest
television broadcaster, TF1, the TF1 price fetched
by the producer for that film doesn’t include the
cost of royalties to the film’s writer and director.
Members of SACD and TF1 know there is a gen-
eral agreement in place, where they pay, say,
one—and—a—half[...]hich SACD distributes accordingly.
She adds:
When the movie is sold and broadcast, we know
we have to pay the writer and director. A movie
made for television of 90 minutes, for this the
writer and director will get — if it broadcasts[...]francs [$750] per
minute. If you multiply by 90, the writer and
director share 270,000 French francs [$67,500].
This is apart from what the writer was paid
when he/she was commissioned by the producer
for the telemovie, say about 200,000 French
francs [$50,000]. They get what SACD pays, and
then royalties each time the movie is screened
in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec,
which have agreements with SACD.
The SACD thinks authors make more money over
time thi[...]ctor on a feature with a
French producer, I could use the SACD system of
royalty collection, as long as the contract I sign with
the producer enables the SACD to represent my
interests for collection of royalties on the work I
‘authored’. Lorente says it would cost[...]udiovisual piece of
work of mine. For playwrights in Paris, the SACD fee
is 9 percent, and 14 percent for playwrights living in
the French provinces, to cover the cost ofdelegates,
while 7 percent is collected from other countries.
According to the SACD pamphlet, the SACD is a
non-profit organization, and “pays b[...]s’ royalties and not
used for operations during the course ofthe year.”

In 1985, when copyright law was under review in
France, the SACD sought the right to collect from the-
atrical receipts, but were prevented by a powerf[...]levision
(either free-to-air or pay).

From 1985, the SACD has also been distributing
royalties from sa[...]nch or foreign)
broadcast on television, they are in effect avoiding the
normal cost of hiring the film or buying a cinema ticket
for the audiovisual work. Therefore, by law, one-third
of[...]epaid to
Australian authors through ASDA and AWG. The SACD
website is http://www.sacd.fr. Janine[...]

I With 100% offset, the more money
in your bank account the more you
save on home loan interest - until
you w[...]available on application.

Bank of Melbourne cuts the cost of banking

A.C.N. 007 270 448 Bank 47401

In developing the script, Monahan expressly set out to
challenge the conventions of cinematic narrative: to
expose audiences to the disorienting effects of what he
terms “a contin[...]ther than empower them
with an omniscient view of the action. He achieves this by
giving the audience only the same (limited) degree of
knowledge as one of his[...](Hugo Weaving).

Eddie unexpectedly finds himself in police custody,
‘interviewed’ by Detectives S[...]. Thus, Eddie begins to construct for Steele
(and the audience) a narrative built upon questions and
an[...]s about his ‘real’ character.

What, then, is the film’s agenda? Did Eddie really do
it? Does it matter?

In this way, Monahan further undermines orthodox
cinematic narration by blurring the distinction between
good and bad characters, the fundamental dichotomy of
police drama.

In Monahan’s view,

It is both a simple tale, and[...]ill see Eddie as a completely innocent man
caught in a nightmare situation. Others will look deeper at
the layers and the conflict between the characters, [thus] tak-
ing a different journey.[...]behaviour and cases like O. J. Simpson’s, where the
accused stubbornly denies everything in the face of over-
whelming evidence to the contrary. The issue of guilt and

Mai/ua1Ul alll ‘Walla?[...]ders extremely relevant
to current legal disputes in Australia.

How important is the Co-writer-director’s own View
of Eddie’s guilt or innocence? Originally, the script was
conceived with a particular view. But Hugo Weaving’s
performance proved the key to developing the ambiguity
inherent in Eddie’s character. Monahan believes,

There is a strong element of the film that will tell you more
about yourselfthan the director will. How you view this ques-
tion [of Eddie's guilt] will depend on your upbringing and
influences, your own life experience.
Monahan concedes that, with most films, a viewer’s
reading is influenced by personal history. “But ultimately
t[...]hat these
questions be explicitly confronted.”

The final shot of the film embodies all the contradic-
tions developed and explored in the preceding 100
minutes. While this was the original ending in the script,
Monahan developed the narrative further in response to
requests for more detail, greater res[...]e shot, and Monahan is still happy with
them, but in his opinion they signalled the beginning of
another film.

As Eddie’s character develops and takes on new, unex-
pected traits, the audience may find itself ‘switching sides’
and following Steele’s journey through the interview.
Steele goes through his own ordeal in the film, both inside
and outside the interrogation room. His methods are the
subject of scrutiny by the Ethics Committee; his superior

is leaking information to the press for his own publicity;
and his maverick sid[...]be
considered loyal.

These factors combine with the pressure-cooker
atmosphere of the interview itself to produce a momen-
tary loss of control, when Steele breaks down in the
bathroom. As Monahan describes it, it is a moment

of aggressive filmmaking [...] because I wanted the audience
to be confronted with a completel[...]

duct[...]actors,
simply talking with police and read-
ing the script, with no plotting as
such. The actors returned for the last
two weeks of pre-production, for
storyboarding and shot listing, and
the shoot was five weeks. The inter-
rogation scenes were shot in the final
week; by this time, the actors had
been living with the characters for
about 10 weeks. The end result is the

low the dictates of realist drama with
regard to producti[...]veloped a
distinctive visual style that acts like
the ‘fourth character’ in this psycho-
logical drama. The film’s “Gothic
industrial look” was, according to
Monahan, inspired by the buildings

on columns staring down at the
action below to reinforce the sense of
surveillance which is a key theme
throughout the film. Monahan con-
siders the film’s look “part and
parcel of the story.”
Whether you call this stylizing, surrea[...]u to take his side. It
works to distance you from the police
as an organization and it plays upon
the perception ofthat organization as
something to be wary of, because you
read the papers. 1
The role of Detective Inspector Jack-
son (Paul Sonkkila), Steele’s superior,
is “to remind the audience that the
police force is an institution, where
people’s agendas are not necessarily
based in law and order”. Jackson is a
career policeman, who will use what-
ever he can for self—promotion. A
sub-plot of the film is this exploration
of the effects of institutionalization.
The Intervz'eLv’s highly visual style
is clearly influenced by Monahan’s
background in art direction, but he is
adamant that it not be seen[...]i-
catessen? Taxi Driver?” He does
concede that art direction has been
an advantage,

Hugo is a tour-de-force; Tony is equal in his realization.

You cannot have one without the other.

and performance. Hugo is a tour-de-
force; Tony is equal in his realization.
You cannot have one without the
other.
The rehearsal process was another
convention of filmm[...]heduled two weeks before pre-pro-

integration of the relationship
between Eddie and Steele with the
pressures outside the interrogation
room; the development of the char-
acters’ personal histories so that the
audience knows exactly what’s at
stake with eve[...]and laneways of Melbourne’s CBD.
Conversations in stairwells and on
rooftops were shot at the old Post
Office, and police headquarters was
a set built at Channel 10’s old studios
in Nunawading. The set’s cold, harsh
feeling is created through fl[...]velop a visual sense. [This
was] very relevant to the evolution of
The Interview.
Monahan feels that there are not
enough filmmakers who think in pic-
tures, while others neglect the story:
“It is the marriage of content and
form that makes film an experience.”
Monahan’s next project involves
the adaptation of the john Frederick
Hayes book The Last of the Square-
Heads by David Hickie, about a
relationship between a man and a
woman, set in Sydney in the 1930s,
’40s and ’5 Os. He says it shares some
of the moral questions underpinning
The Interview, that these are themes
he will continue to explore. Mona-
han’s explorations result in
challenging journeys for his actors
and audiences. The Interview will
take different viewers on differen[...]s-
sive achievement. ®

1 This is a reference to the media focus on
accidental deaths from poli[...]

(June 1982) Geoff B[...]Wendy Hughes, Ray Barrett,
My Dinner with Andre, The Return of Captain
Invincible Number 41 (December[...]der, Peter Tammer, Liliana
Cavani, Colin Higgins, The Year of Living
Dangerously Number 42 (March 1983)[...]lan Pringle, Agnes Varda, copyright,
Strikebound, The Man from Snowy River Number
43 (May-June 1983) Sydney Pollack, Denny
Lawrence, Graeme Clifford, The Dismissal, Sumner
Locke Elliott's Careful He Mi'g[...]uvall, Jeremy Irons, Eureka Stockade,
Waterfront, The Boy in the Bush, A Woman
Suffers, Street Hero Number 47 (Aug[...]hael Pattinson, Jan Sardi, Yoram
Gross, Bodyline, The Slim Dusty Movie Number 49
(December1984) Alain R[...]Borowczyk, Peter Schreck, Bill Conti,
Brian May, The LastBastion, Bliss Number 51
(May 1985) Lino Broc[...]Dusan Makavejev, Emoh Ruo, Winners,
Morris West's The Naked Country, Mad Max
Beyond Thunderdome, Robber[...]man, Menahem Golan, rock
videos, Wills and Burke, The Great Bookie
Robbery, The Lancaster Miller Affair Number 55
(January 1986)[...]n Thompson, Paul Verhoeven, Derek
Meddings, tie—in marketing, The Right Hand Man,
Birdsville Number 56 (March 1986)[...]ard-Smith, John
Hargreaves, Dead-end Drive—i'n, The More Things
Change Kangaroo, Tracy Number 57 SOLD[...]1986) Woody Allen, Reinhard
Hauff, Orson Welles, the Cinémathegue Francaise,
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 telev[...]an Polanski, Philippe
Mora, Martin Arminger, film in South Australia,
Dogs in Space, Howling Ill Number 62 (March
1997) Screen[...]A conference, production barometer, film
finance, The Story of the Kelly Gang Number 63
(May 1987) Gillian Armstrong[...]ris Haywood, Elmore Leonard, Troy Kennedy
Martin, The Sacrifice, Landslides, Pee Wee’s Big
Adventure,[...], James Clayden, Video, De
Laurentiis, New World, The Navigator, Who's That
Girl Number 67 (January 198[...]George Miller, Jim Jarmusch,
Soviet cinema, women in film, 70mm, filmmaking in
Ghana, The Year My Voice Broke, SendA Gorilla
Number 68 (Mar[...], Glamour,

to W'l1§_1:’s Stool}-

Ghosts Of The Civil Dead, Feathers, Ocean, Ocean
Number 69 (May[...]nuary
1989) Yahoo Serious, David Cronenberg, 1988 in
retrospect, film sound, Last Temptation of Christ[...]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
So[...]eenplay Number 75 (September 1989) Sally
Bongers, the teen movie, animated, Edens Lost,
PetSematary, Ma[...]Crocodile"
Dundee overseas Number 78 (March 1990) The
Crossing, Ray Argall, Return Home, Peter
Greenaway and The Cook Michel Ciment,
Bangkok Hilton, Barlow and Ch[...]dfellas, Presumed innocent
Number 82 (March 1991) The Godfather Part III,
Barbet Schroeder, Reversal of[...]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 (Augu[...]FC part2 Number
86 (January 1992) Romper Stamper, The
Nostradamus Kid, Greenkeeplng, Eightball, Kathryn[...]cinema, Steven Spielberg,
Hook, George Negus and The Red Unknown,
Richard Lowenstein, Say a Little Pra[...]8(May—June1992) Strictly
Ballroom, Hammers Over the Anvil, Daydream
Believer, Wim Wender’s Until The End ofthe
World, Satyajit Ray Number 89 (August 1[...]ions, teen
movies debate Number 90 (October 1992) The Last
Days ofChez Nous, Ridley Scott: 1492, Stephe[...]io Mangiamele, Cultural
Differences and Ethnicity in Australian Cinema,
John Frankenheimer's Year of the Gun Number 91
(January 1993) Clint Eastwood and U[...]Miller and Gross Misconduct,
David E|fick's Love in Limbo, On the Beach,
Australia's first films: part 1 Number 92[...]ge Miller and Lorenzo's
Oil, Megan Simpson, Alert The Lover, women in
film and television, Australia's first films: part 2
Number93 (May1993) Jane Campion and The
Piano, Laurie Mclnnes and Broken Highway,
Tracey[...]mi and Reservoir
Dogs, Paul Cox, Michael Jenkin's The Heartbreak
Kid, Coming of Age’ films, Australia[...]—Marie Milburn's
Memories & Dreams, Franklin on the science of
previews, The Custodian, documentary supple.-
ment, Tom Zubrick[...]ecember 1993)

Oueensland issue: overview of film in llueensland,

early Queensland cinema, Jason Don[...]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, Oueen of the Desert, Victorian sup-
plement, P. J. Hogan and M[...]and John Maynard on All Men
Are Liars, Sam Neil, The Small Man, Under the
Gun, AFC low budget seminar Number 107
(December[...]ller and Chris Noonan
talk about Babe, New trends in criticism, The rise
of boutique cinema Number 108 (February 1996)
Conjuring John Hughes’ WhatIHave Written,
Cthulu, The Top 100 Australian Films, Nicole
Kidman in To Die For Number 109 (April 1995)
Rachel Griffiths runs the gamut, Toni Collette and
Cosi, Sundance Film Festival, Michael Tolkin,
Morals and the Mutoscope Number 110(June
1996) Rolf de Heertrave[...]n Number 111 (August 1996) Scott
Hicks and Shine, The Three Chinas, Trusting
Christopher Doyle, Love an[...]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—AFl supplement,
Lee Robinson,[...]hakespeare'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, lan 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) R[...]nica
Pellizzari, Aleka dosen't live here anymore, The
Man from Kangaroo Number 118 (July 1997) Terry
Ra[...]tlals Demon Dogs,
Stephan Elliot at Cannes, Exile in Sarajevo,
Japanese independent film Number 122
(D[...]vid Hirshfelder and Eric Serra, Mandy Walker:
All in a Days Work. New Zealand film Number
123 (March 1[...]Six-Pack of Talent,
Michael Winterbottom's Exile;-in Sara/evo, Young
filmmakers get Loud Numbe[...]

television and the then-burgeoning VCR market for
comfort. The midnight-to-dawn graveyard shift had
long been a source of, in particular, American stu-
dio films of the 40s and 50s, and VCR timers
opened the way for time-lifting these movies for

CINEMA PAPERS - AUGUST 1998

first—time or repeat viewings. As the video market
expanded, so too did the range of titles available to
rent and buy. Before the huge media shake-up of
the mid-1980s, Australia supported a vast range of
vi[...]suppliers. Own—your—own titles
trickled into the market too, often grouped around
niche—market g[...]-fi).

For those with multi-system video players, the
enormous range of videos available in the USA (on
the inferior NTSC format) was another source for
watching films that were not doing the rounds of
the festival circuit, television, video libraries and[...]cumentaries have long been a
welcome respite from the parochialism of
Australian television, not to mention a filler for the
massive gaps that had begun to show.

It can no longer be denied that viewers in Aus-
tralia are missing a wealth of films that are, and
always have been, available in other English—lan—
guage countries. Just look at the programmes of

New York’s Lincoln Centre, Museum of Modern
Art, Film Forum; it’s rare for a month to go by
wit[...]Non—availability of subtitled prints
cannot be the reason we are missing such events.
The list of films and filmmakers whose work is

no longer on the menu of what we get to see
amounts to a sad lament. The arrival of pay-TV
and the burgeoning sites of the Internet, however,
mark significant and highly encouraging changes.
The articles in this and following issues of Cin-
ema Papers signal, hopefully, the re-emergence of a
fresh, exciting and invigourate[...]Introduction by Paul Kalina

film—watching and the discussion of those films, a
discussion t[...]

The French and
American versions
of Le Mépris.

The 177-minute
The Adventurers.

.. 1NTfER_\'!\TTON.~\l_C(')l.l.lI[...]DCUYBI FMIKHHTDIBF

n_(-Hen. lshlllld In sngnm ‘, “ ,
\\ S '
nmpuas rum.-nd,-I1] E-zl[...]A lot of film purchasing is happening via the Internet, in either VHS, laserdisc or DVD format.
The net is a trove of lost treasures, but trying to f[...]be extremely careful about
whether it is actually the film you want. The version on sale may be censored, unletterboxed,
dubbed or recut. It may also be only available in a non-Australian standard such as NTSC,
Secam or Mesecam. Its censorship status, too, may be in doubt. There are many things to be

careful of. Here are a few tips. By Scott Murray.

LENGTH

The quoted running-time may be
either that of the original film
(before being transferred to tape) or
of the Videocassette. There is a differ-
ence. PAL VHS r[...]ilm’s 24
frames. That means a 100—minute
film in a cinema will only last 96
minutes on video. (The faster run-
ning speed of video also slightly
distorts the music track by altering
the tone.)

As for NTSC, it runs at a slightly
different speed to PAL.

In the main, though, quoted run-
ning times usually appear to be those
of the film, not the video.

STU DIO-CUT

Many films are released in versions
other than the director intended.
Here are a few examples:
I Toom LESS
Roman Polanski’s The Fearless

Vampire Killers or Pardon Me hat
Your Teeth are in the Back o/‘My
Neck (1967) was released ‘uncut’
in Australia, but in the 97-minute
version prepared against Polan-
ski’s protests by the studio,
MGM. This shortened version
was later released in Australia on
video, and was not letterboxed,
destroying much of the film’s
striking visual appeal.

A longer version of 108 minutes
can now be obtained in letter-
boxed format from the UK. But
one will have to wait for Polanski
to prepare a Director’s Cut at the
original two hours plus — that is,
if he is so inclined and the missing
footage still exists. Often it is lost
or destroyed (cf Orson Welles’
The Magnificent Arnhersons), the
key participants are dead or there
is no desire on the part of the
copyright holder to expend the
considerable cash needed.

It EVEN MORE BEKIM FEH[...]n-dazzling
adaptation of Harold Robbins’
trashy The Adventurers was
banned in Australia, then recon-
structed several times before
finally getting through in a drasti-
cally shortened and somewhat
garbled version.

When finally released on video,
the film was ‘uncut’ at 171 min-
utes. The cable copy now
screening on the Encore channel
is the same, as is the Video on sale
in the UK and through most com-
panies in the US.

However, the 171—minute ver-
sion is the one cut by the studio to
receive an American PG rating.
The original film actually runs 191
minutes and was rated R in the
States, the only place it appears to
have been shown complete.

The full version is advertised
as being available thr[...]om (see break-
out box) as a 2-VHS set.

However, the tape itself states
177 minutes and that is the length
it runs. The missing minutes
remain a mystery (to the two or
three people who carel).

Ill HOLMES AT scHooL?

One of the most brutally studio-
chopped films is The Private Life
of Sherlock Holmes (Billy Wilder,
19[...]riginally
filmed as four-separate-Holmes-
stories-in-one. However, the
studio threw out the “Holmes at
Eton” segment, and cut much
else.[...]um-
bled together and ran 125
minutes, instead of the intended
210. There have been rumours for
decades about an uncut copy hid-
den away in London, but this may
well be a myth. Fortunately, the
laserdisc contains a brilliant 12-
minute sequence (“The Dreadful

CINEMA PAPERS - AUGUST 1998

The 162—minute
“version |ongue"
land the only one
that makes sense)
of The Big Blue.

IlAK£D!lA.$'.5'A6)?1;' (1975): Twisted sex fiend kidnaps eight sexy young nurses and keeps them in
bondage, subjecting them to rape, humiliation and[...]ontroversial, imaginative and daring sado film of the
decade I! Dario Argenufs newest shock fest is his[...]rampage after capturing,

I torturing and raping the female detective assigned to track him down. This[...]isturbing study of madness and demonic possession in modern society». Includes an underground
torture[...]ilm will he discussed for years to come. Starring the director's
daughter, Asia Argento in the lead role; music by Ennio Morricone. WARNING: YOU[...]NT THIS INCREDIBLY ‘VIOLENT AND DISTURBIHG FILM IN THIS PULL UNCUT
YERSIOH IN ‘VIDEO STORES! You will only be able to see a severely cur version in video stores I
You must he 21 to orde We o[...]

Business of the Naked Honey-
mooners”) cut from the film.
Now to find the other missing
70-odd minutes!

CENSORED

So many films have been cut and

banned by the Australian censors that

it is difficult to select key examples.

I ONcE cur

At one end of the critical scale is
Nagisa Oshima’s masterpiece, Ai
N0 Corrida (In the Realm ofthe
Senses, 1976), which was cut for
comm[...]pass today as X, if someone
were interested.

At the other end is Roger
Vadim’s unloved Pretty Maids All
in a Row (1971), with Rock Hud-
son as a ladies man on the loose at
a university campus. Banned in
Australia (presumably for nudity),
several ‘reconstructions’ had to be
done by the distributor before the
film was finally passed in a brief
and dazzlingly-incoherent version.
The uncut film has never made it
to Australian shores[...]ate no more than M.

ll ONcE BANNED
What, too, of the many films

‘g’, «. ;'l'I-IREE ICONS:

,9 u[...]ofAlain Robbe-Grillet were greatly
» "applauded in the early 1970s, but hardly
seen since. (The demise of the Australian
National film Theatre, which once showcased
such films, has not helped.) Could the net pro-
videaccess to his films on video?
A qui[...].

_ Entering titles otRol_1be-Grillet’s films did
- ntytghelp, either, other than toss up the poster

neétive review of it by ]onathan.Rosen-[...]several Robbe-Grillet videos
European Trash Video in the USA. How-
ver, ércheck revealed E_uropean Trash[...]decades back that were
never resubmitted, such as The
Magic Garden of Stanley Sweet-
heart (Leonard Horn, 1970; sex),
Wes Craven’s Last House on theThe Magic Garden o/‘Stanley
Sweetheart appears to be no
longer available. The Australian
Censor will never pass Last House
on the Left, but it is obtainable
from the US, if you have the
stomach for it. Tendres Cozisines
is not available, other than on the
secondhand market where, like
other Hamilton vide[...]l ONCE PASSED, BUT TODAY AT RISK
Of course, given the tightening of
censorship in some areas, several
films passed previously might be
banned today. One is Lewis
Gilbert’s Friends. The film was
classified NRC in 1971 (after a
few frames were deleted), and was
a huge hit. It was also shown on
television in the same version,
despite there being nudity and sev-[...]pean Trash Video had last '

year stopped selling the Robbe-Grillets. This_

fan urged all concerned in[...]Weeks of intermittent checking finally
revealed in late April a listing for Un Bruit Qui
Rend Fau (bizarrely retitled as The Blue Villa)
at http://movie.reel.com, but pleasure
turned to disappointment when the small
print revealed Reel could not yet make the
video available.

Even more disappointing was the news
(on halfaya.org/robbegrillet) that all the

Robbe-Grillet films had just been screened at V

Chapman University in Orange, California,
with Robbe-Grillet in person. An email to the
event coordinator arrived-too late for Robbe-
Gri[...]ar-old Paul Har-
rison (Sean Bury).

According to the Censorship
Office’s latest Annual Report, that
would no longer be permissible.
The Censor ruled (in the Aus-
tralian Hustler case) that 18 was
the minimum acceptable age for
the depiction of nudity. If the
Censor is serious about this (and
it did once unban Christiane F.
only after the distributor removed
a shot of a birthday cake which
revealed the girl to be 15; image is
everything), the unavoidable con-
clusion is that Friends would be[...]can
arrange for thetranslation and publication of
the second and third instalments of his auto-
biograp[...]great Australian director is well sup-
Tponed by the web. Videoflicks alone has
seven films on offer[...]land (1942; US$14.99),
China (1943; it has one of the most brilliant
opening sequences in cinema; forget the
rest; US$11.99). The Big Clock (1948;
US$10.99), Copper Canyon (1950; US$11.99

_ and $17.99), Honda (1953; US$17.99) and

The Sea Chase (1955; US$11.99).

As well, the Web's great joy for
booklovers, Bibliofind (http[...]vor), which links
1,500 secondhand dealers around the world,
has many Farrow books on offer, including
his Damien the Leper (Paul Cox is about to
film the same story), his obscure text on
shorthand and the limited-edition Seven

terrorist holds a gun to the head of

a 12-year-old girl and threatens to
blow[...]retelling of Longus’ Daph-
nis and Chloe, with the girl
swimming naked in a river for a
second, would be banned. The
Australian Censor has lost the plot.

DUBBED

I GOBBLEDYGOOK

Many foreign films are only available
in dubbed versions. This can be
worse than it sounds. When the
Americans prepared their version of
]ean—Luc Godard’s Le Mépris (Con-
tempt, 1967), they had the problem
of what to do with the mouth move-
ments of the assistant (Georgia
Moll), who originally translated the
spoken French into English for the
producer (iack Palance). The Ameri-
cans ‘solved’ this by giving her the

Poems In Pattern (US$150).

Another site
(http://wvvw.pardo.ch/1997/filmprg/ro42.ht
ml) has the following interesting information:

The International Locarno Film Festival
invited twent[...]to choose an American film
from 1946 to 1996 —the fifty years the
Locarno Festival has existed, which we are
celebrating this year. We asked the direc-
tors to give us their thoughts on the films
they had chosen. Their statements have
been collected in a book called Serious
Pleasure, published in French by Actes/Sud
(Montpellier 1997) and in Italian by Olivari
(Milan, 1997). They were asked to rewrite
the history of American cinema in their own
way. Their selections and statem[...]

Not only the French face the
insidious dubber Australians as
well. When Mad Max (1979) was
released in the USA, it was entirely
redubbed into American. The tape
on sale at mainstream outlets there is
not the film made by George Miller.
In fact, some alternative web sites
pride themselves on selling the origi-
nal-language version.

CINEMA PAPERS - AUGUST 1998

Equally, the American version of
Mad Max 2 (Miller, 1982), retitled
The Road Warrior, has Mike Preston
dubbed but the rest of the cast get-
ting through unscathed. The one plus
of this version is that it is uncut. In
Australia, the distributor cut the film
a few days before release to obtain an
M cer[...]their
films be released on video and televi-
sion in the original screen ratio.

In France, every non-Academy
format film is letterboxed as a matter
of course, but they use the Secam
system which is unshowable (except
in black and white) on most VCRs
and televisions in Australia. Equally,
English—language French tapes will
have French subtitles.

In the UK, tapes are usually “pan-
and—scan”, but[...]s to be careful. For example,
Le Mépris was shot in super-wide
Franscope and was released letter-
boxed on French video. The
American tape is pan—and—scan and
dubbed. But it is longer, having two
brief montages that the French ver-
sion doesn’t.

The Version shown by SBS in
1997 was the fuller American cut,
but letterboxed and in French with
English subtitles. The Australian
cable station Arena also showed in
1998 a film advertised as Le Mépris,
but it was the dubbed version,
though letterboxed. It should hav[...]four different versions
already (or five counting the heavily-
censored version shown in Australian
cinemas until this year). Who knows
ho[...]ng around.

RETITLED

Don’t expect knowledge of the
original title to be necessarily helpful
in locating a copy of a film on the
web.
When Alain ]essua’s jeu de Mas-

sacre (1967) was commercially
released in Australia it was as Comic

aw-.; .-.-p-an as am.[...]. But don’t try and find it
under either title. The only version
currently available is The Killing
Game, from America.

Retitling isr1’t r[...]ther. Many
Australian films have had name
changes in the US, from Turkey
Shoot (US: Escape 2000) to Evil
Angels (US: A Cry in the Dark).
This is why web sites which include
director and actor fields in their
search engines are a real plus.

SUMMARY

I[...]gal copies of

some films dubbed into Italian at the
odd Italian video shops.

25

An insatiable appetite for crazed[...]made—for—television/video and
backyard stuff, the arthouse, oddball
movies made by all sorts of des[...]foreign language
cinema. No film type is bypassed in
this entirely eclectic enterprise. Print
reviews are also featured. The U.S.
video company is also often noted,
and a sources list always provided.

At the no—frills Shock Cinema
homepage, you’ll find[...]s and links along with reviews
a’plenty written in the inimitable
Puchalski style. The site also provides
ordering information for the equally
essential Slimetime book, which was
the title of the ’zine Puchalski pro-
duced from 1986 to 1989.
h[...].aol.com/shockcin/ind

ex.html

~. ’ it .:rtit='art “~‘«1‘!tt.=‘s=1‘35 ‘

.$...a‘...:[...]_'_‘_.
VIIIGBR

Like Shock Cinema’s site, the web
pages for Video Watchdog magazine
are simply advertising space for the
print mag it represents, with little
recourse to[...]ou’re

after, whether it be a lost episode
from the Sleepy Eyes ofDeath series,
the ‘continental’ version of Beat Girl,
Jess Franco’s Tender Flesh, the DVD
release of Babe, Son ofFlabber or the
deluxe laser disc edition of Cannibal
Ferox, if i[...]astic cinema and commercially
available somewhere in the world,
then VW will track the most com-
plete version, provide a thorough
criti[...]ross film titles that you’ll
need to discover.

The comprehensive nature of
Video Watchdog is only one facet of
the mag that places it head and
shoulders above its n[...]tors. Besides company listings and

§yEBALL

OR IN WORLD ClNEhh\
. I$UENO.-I 1 8.95 ’

VIIIITMII I'\TI’K’.'|I@
4‘ I17 IN‘! I.\l1|‘!\ <01 Act‘! ~Ifl\llEK RV INl.Ih5[...]y restored and ini-
tially released only on DVD.

The Video Watchdog web—site
contains current/back i[...]s of Video Watchdog, and
ordering information for the Video
Watchdog book and other Video
Watchdog prod[...]om/videowd/

Video Search of Miami isn’t one of
the original video dealers from the
dawn of the video age, but it’s
aggressively marketed itself through
and to the cult film enthusiast and
may very well be the best. Operating
as a club which involves the payment
of a one—off membership fee, VSOM
caters directly for the USA market in
dealing solely with titles unavailable
elsewhere in America. This allows it
to sidestep copyright considerations
and gives it the ability to supply the
most obscure titles. Most titles are
$25 each (or[...]n
of Emanuelle, Video Search of
Miami touches all the exploitation
bases but also carries a line of

obscure (mainly European) music
titles. VSOM always uses the best
material available which isn’t always
up t[...]pgraded version if and when it
becomes available. The digital home
of VSOM is user friendly all the way,
made more so with a worldwide toll-
free pho[...]888 279 9773.
Like its print media counterpart,

the VSOM website only lists its titles
with little or no other information.
Instead, it recommends the use of the
best fanzines to fill in the details.
Video Search of Miami’s Tom
Weisser ha[...]Cinema:
Essential Handbook, Asian Cult Cin-
ema: The Book and the ongoing
publication ofAsian Cult Cinema[...]

DATABA[...]every film poster recently has a web address at the bottom.
You go there, learn what the promoters want you to know and get the
opportunity to win something if you live in the USA. Yawn. Point your
browser to these sites inst[...]but what it suggested
looked great. With a login, the site remem-
bers who you are and what you have ra[...]ns. Finally, no more wander-
ing aimlessly around the video store.

FILM.COM

http://www.film.com

Wit[...]to film. What you get is
close, but doesn't hit the mark. The site has
reviews, interviews, sound files, and a release
schedule (USA only). It also has a home the-
atre section, where amongst other things is a
30,000 movie database. finally, there is the
store where you can buy movie merchandise,
books,[...], and its titles for sections are
obscure. Whilst the information is there to be
found, finding it is a difficult proposition.

THE INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE
http://www.imdb.com/
The Internet Movie Database has an amazing
1§o,ooo movies in its database, all cross-ref-
ereneed. You can find out about the plot, the
actors, the director or any crew member who
iwpgrked on the film (with this site you can fol-
;low the career of a makeup artist if you
want). There are[...]MA PAPERS - AUGUST 1998

Blood Red, Psycho Lover, The Sinful
Dwarf, Blonde on a Bum Trip, etc.,
SWV als[...]ers, Twisted Sex,
605 Go Go Chicks and many more.
The SWV website lists over 2,000
titles, dozens of which even the most
obscure movie enthusiast hasn’t
heard of,[...]print catalogue alone is worth own-
ing just for the assemblage of ad
material that you won’t find a[...]10 differ-
ent ways to find just what you want. The site
is very well put together and easy to use.
This has to be one ofthe best general film
sites on the web.

CINEMA FREENET
http://www.link.cs.cmu.edu/cinfn/

Justin case you thought that the IMDb didn't
have enough search options, this site comes
up with one more. Using the IMDb, the site
can find connections between any two
actors, movie names, directors, producers, or
any category the IMDb has. it also has a spell
check so if you don’t know how Leonardo
spells his last name the spell check can help.
Cinema FreeNet is a very simple and useful
site with clear instructions and examples.

THE NITPICKERS SITE
http://www.nitpickers.com

The urge to nitpick about the way the site
looks is almost overwhelming, but I'll refra[...]database of mistakes,
anomalies and small details in movies. These
are searchable by movie title, cate[...]of course submit a
nitpick yourself about any of the films
already listed, or start up a new film to nit-
pick. The only problem is that you have to be
certain of the title. By the way, the winner of
the largest-number-of-problems award is
/urassic Par[...]Unlike most USA dealers,
SWV presents its videos in full colour
slicks that utilize the often brainsnap-
ping original ad art.
http://wWw.somethingweird.com/

Another USA site[...]specialist mail—order
video companies, has been in busi-
ness for the longest. Like SWV,
Sinister deals in U.S. prints (often
from 16mm) and although it doe[...]full-length scripts by screenwrit-
ers yet to be in print. This site has both
transcripts [where some[...]l scripts. Link pages are great at
taking out all the hard work of finding stuff
on the net, and Drew’s Script-O-Rama is a
great one.[...]NEMANIA
http://cinemania.msn.com/

Microsoft gets in everywhere, and when it
does you would expect a good showing
but this site lets the Microsoft side down.
This is a news and general information data-
base site. The news updates daily and has a
number of features and interviews. The site's
database is good, but it doesn't offer the
number of different search options that the
IMDb does. Cinemania has an awards page
(where yo[...]out upcoming fes-
tivals). It also has gossip and the times
movies are showing (but only in the USA).
Altogether it's an ordinary site.

ALL-MOVIE GUIDE
http://205.186.189.2/amg/movie_root.html
The All-Movie Guide is a general database of
films ranging from the first films ever made
up to the latest ones out. You can search
through the normal title of the film, cast and
crew, but also through the plot, genre, time
that it was made, country that it was made in
and the mood of the film. Once on the actual
film, you can get an outline of the plot, lots of
information on how the film was made, any
flags (nudity, etc.), links to cast and crew,
what awards the film has received, and a rat-

, ing form for yo[...]many options as other general databases,

THEWE

in Fury; Women’s Camp 119; Baha
Yaga — Devil Witch; Devil in the
Flesh (from Joe D’Arnato, described
as the Master of Sexual Cinema);
The Devil Came from Akasava; Dirty
H o and Mad Dog Mu[...]ozen
or so of its mainly European titles
released in Oz. However, much of its
remaining catalogue hasn[...]o subsidiary labels called Jezebel
and Purgatory. The first label is
designed for soft-core U.K. titles
from the ’60s and 705, like Cool It
Carol.’ and School for Sex. Purgatory
is devoted to more modern material
from the adult film industry, includ-
ing Black Orchid and[...]des noveliza-
tions of Hammer films and many
from the Skinhead series of the 70s.
http://wvvw.red.jez.demon.co.uk/

the specifics it has chosen to deal In are very
well covered.

MOVIE CLICHES LIST
http:/[...]long
list of movie clichés by subject. There are the
obvious; “In situations like the Vietnam war,
and violent inner city neighbourhoods, the
person with the most plans, prospects, and
hopes will die.” Oth[...]just accepted; no one ever runs out of gas
(even in long car chases). Corollary: every
stolen car has[...]. He
updates his site weekly so it’s a bit slow in
lnternet tenns, but the amount updated each
week makes it well worthwhile[...]it's remarkably free of pictures and gad-
gets so the site is fast to load into a browser.
When I checked out the site the chat room had
only two other people in it, but it was 2am
(EST) in the USA, so I wouldn’t expect more.
Pete’s Movie Page shows that professional
sites are not always the way to go. JT

URBANC INEF I LE
www.urbancinefil[...]SBS' Front Up, Urban has an
open mind and doesn't use his site to push
one view of cinema over another. His gossip
is-positive, his news up-to-date and the
reviews fresh. Great site. SM

27

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The 51st Cannes Film Festival began in perfect
weather, with planes disgorging into brilliant
sunshine at Nice all the usual suspects (roughly
9,000 movers and shakers of the global film
industry and members of the international press),
who each year make the pilgrimage to Cannes.

Expectations were high, as there
was good word of mouth about films
in the main Competition, and in the
parallel sections: Un Certain Regard,
Le Quinzain[...]la
Critique (Critics’ Week). Unlike
some years, the Official Selection,
which includes films out of Competi-
tion, wasn’t swamped with
Hollywood movies, and thethe Riviera)
all its customary razzamatazz, with-
out selling its soul to the American
majors. Pushing their personas as
Bill a[...]pson, as always, shined with
wit and cleverness.

The Cannes Jury, which decides
the Palme d’Or for films in Competi-
tion, also took a bow. With Martin
Scorsese as President, the Jury
seemed easily the most articulate and
intelligent in years. Composed of
actors Chiara Mastroanni, Lena[...]erennial questions such
as: “How do you balance the busi-
ness of film with the art of cinema?”
Scorsese replied that he was opti-
mistic about the future of cinema.
“Cinema is a resilient art form”, he
said. “Without artin the past 20 years, along
with Germany, the two Chinas and
Ireland. Comments by the Jury mem-
bers as to what each would be
looking for in the films they were
judging were thoughtful and revealed
much about their personalities.

But the business of the Cannes
Festival is, of course, the films them-
selves, and by day five there was the
sense that this year the Festival was
pulling away from blockbusters and
F[...]noir’ by director Gyorgy Feher,
is adapted from The Postman Always
Rings Twice by James M. Cain. Shot
in black and white, it places the story
in Hungary in the 19305. Feher
heightens the noir atmosphere by
using a processing method which
makes the film look as if it has been
locked away in a vault for years. Pas-
sion moves slowly and obl[...]’s most interesting
films.

Quite different was the Colom-
bian film La Vendedora de Rosas (The
Rose Seller), written and directed by
Victor Gavi[...]dersen’s “Little Match
Girl”, it focuses on the plight of the
street children of Medellin, locked
into a spiral[...]lar concerns to Babenco’s
Pixote (1985).

Among the 170 Australians at
Cannes, hopes were high for the suc-
cess of two Australian features that
unspooled early in the Festival. Nei-
ther won prizes, but Rolf de Heer’s
Dance Me to My Song, which
screened in Competition, was a tri-
umph in filmmaking for himself and
Heather Rose, a cerebral palsy suf-
ferer who both co-wrote the script
and stars in the film alongside Joey
Kennedy, John Brumpton and Rena
Owen.

Brave, powerful and confronting
in every way, Dance Me to My Song
is cutting-[...]

I 1,.

(Kennedy) for the love of a good ‘ ‘'JohnTmvona and Emma fhgmps[...]’

that only Rolf de I-leer could make ' 2

E .
the film work. The first—rate cast ‘

shows that character is not deter-
mined by physical appearance, and
the film richly deserves success at the
box-office.

Ana Kokkinos’ Head On (Quin[...]

Whatever the reasons for this, it
was certainly a trend. Gay love fea-
tured in many of the Festival’s most
eye-catching films: Lisa Cholo—
denko’s High Art (USA), in which
Australia’s Rahda Mitchell stars as an
am[...]nt prendront le Train (Those
Who Love Me Can Take the Train),
about the ties that bind the friends,
lovers and family members of a
recently-[...]rannical painter;
Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine, the
director’s much—anticipated homage
to Glam Ro[...]ng; and Benoit ]acquot’s
L’Ecole de la Chair (The School of
Flesh), about the obsessive love of an
older woman (Isabelle Hupper[...]Happiness, Claude
Miller’s La Classe De Neige (The
Class Trip), and Thomas Vinterberg’s
Festen (The Celebration) all peel back
the layers of family life to reveal the
festering sore of paedophilia and
incest.

Tsai Ming-Liang’s lugubrious,

minimalist The Hole, set in a rain-
drenched, disease—ridden Taiwan on
the eve of the 21st century, and Don
McKellar’s engaging Last Night
(Canada) were both sophisticated
takes on the ‘Millennium blues’. (In
contrast, the 50 minutes of footage
shown from Jerry Bruckheime[...]ding Armageddon was trite and
populist.)

Despite the thematic gloom and
doom, Cannes ’98 was proving a
solid if not spectacular Festival,
although up to almost the last day
there was speculation among the
press about the lack of serious con-

Saul Williams). ~ .[...]e’

M.M:BalI|. Thg

- :l:HllV/P

tenders for the Palme d’Or. No Pulp
Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1995),
Underground (Emir Kustarica, 1994)
or The Piano (lane Campion, 1993)
had emerged from the pack, but
there were enough good films to
convince most critics that it was
probably premature to lament the
death of cinema, and pointless to
mourn the lack of grand masters.

Several films from establ[...]is joe is about a
37-year-old reformed alcoholic in
Glasgow, who hopes to rebuild his
life when he falls in love with a

, é Cfiereaufs Céuxnui
r(t'aIn1'[...]uMmqa)a3 atu) ua1_saM_.;
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— laiuaas Na aslw V1 in xlud
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M "(Ana D pup/f1_IuJa;_=]) M
M maw U_IW a)[...]T snqi a.Mqabjl;na_<l,'
annulus v1 an auivwsls V1 in sninivai .
—.Lsaa' ago; au'v__Mv zN;a-sa[...]

mance, and wore a kilt to the closing
ceremony, which both delighted the
audience and bemused Scorsese.
Mullan’s other triumph was his
debut as a director, with the pre-
miere screening in the marketplace
of Orphans, a strong statement
against guns provoked by the Dun-
blane Massacre.

The General, a handsome black-
and-white, widescreen[...]and
inventive as well as assured and mas-
terly, The General begins with the
assassination of Cahill (Brendan
Gleeson), then rewinds to narrate
episodes in the life of this fascinating
man that led to his murder. Jon
Voigt excels in the role of the Police
Chief dogging Cahill’s career, but the
true star of the film is Gleeson, who
brings the ambiguous Cahill to life
with ease.

One of thethe Festival’s Grand Prix.
Benigni, who co—wrote, directed and
acts in La Vita, has done the seem-
ingly impossible and made a
‘comedy’ out of Auschwitz. Outra-
geously funny in the first part,
Benigni plays a Chaplinesque charac-
ter who in 1938 falls in love (with

real-life wife Nicoletta Braschi), ma[...]ation camp, where he persuades his
young son that the nightmare situa-
tion is simply an elaborate game.
The entire premise of La Vita e
Bella is risky, but B[...]to his comedic genius, some
inspired writing, and the trust and
utter believability of Giorgio Can-

ta[...]e: Erick Zonca’s La Vie Re‘:/e’e des
Anges (The Dream Life of Angels),
starring Elodie Bouchez and Natacha
Regnier, who together won the Best
Actress award; Siegfried’s Louise
(Take 2)[...]ez; Marc Levin’s vérité style
Slam, which won the Camera d’Or
(for first feature by a new director);
and the films of thethe manifesto of a
collective of four Danish directors,
who came together in 1995 to liber-

K L

ate cinema by the imposition of con-
straints. Both Von Trier’s Idioterne
(The Idiots) and Vinterberg’s Festen
come certified that they are, amongst
other specifications, in colour, made
on location without external props,
use only hand—held cameras, have no
music that is external to the location,
and no special lighting or technical
ef[...]und them

wildly arresting, or pretentious
(even, in Von Trier’s case, offensive,
given his film’s[...]obert Duvall’s portrait of a flawed
man of God, The Apostle, and
Alexei Guerman’s impenetrable
satire, Khroustaliov, Ma Voiture.’
(Kroustalioz/, My Car!).

The most disappointing films were

Terry Gilliam’s execrable dud, Fear
and Loathing in New York, based on
Hunter S. Thompson’s classic[...]ita Ke Mia Mera (Eternity and
a Day) unspooled on the last day
before the Awards, there was a col-
lective sigh of relief.[...]er-
nity and a Day stars Bruno Ganz as
Alexandre, the director’s alter ego, a
famous writer who, the day before he
goes into hospital to die, revisits the
past with the help of a little Albanian
boy whom he helps get past the bor-
der between the two countries.

Angelopolous is widely seen as the
last of the great European filmmak-
ers, but, although the Greek director .
has received many film awards, the
Palme d’Or had always eluded him.
In 1995, his magisterial epic, Ulysses’
Gaze, was[...]m as Eternity.

More than anything else, perhaps,
the Cannes Film Festival reminds the
world that not only Americans make
films. The Palme d’Or has been won
by the Americans 13 times, Italy 9
times, Britain 8, Fra[...]handful of
other countries, including Australia
(The Piano), have won it once.

This year, Australia was well rep-
resented in the Festival with two
features and two short films (G[...]this year was a strong year for
Australian films in the market.

Films that reported sales and
strong int[...]-
functional family; Craig Monahan’s
impressive The Interview, starring
Hugo Weaving and Tony Martin;[...]ne’s
Dead Letter Office. Richard Flana-
gan’s The Sound of One Hand
Clapping reported sales to Canada,
Spain, Poland, Brazil, and Russia,
while Rowan Woods’ The Boys was
praised highly by those who saw it.

Oth[...]al Hartley’s
Henry Fool, which is his best film in
years, and Nanni Moretti’s Aprile, a
whimsical tribute to the birth of
Moretti’s son. ®

1980 1982

Rectangle - short La/‘ssé /nachevé d Tokyo — short

Calviers du Cinéma in the late 1970s.
For a period of five years, he wrote[...]Tarkovsky, Bresson), on
American genre cinema, on the ‘spe-
cial effects revolution’, and much
else. He was heavily involved in two

special issues of Ca/oiers, “Made in

USA” (1982) and “Made in Hong
Kong” (1984).

This was a fertile period in the
history of Ca/aiers: under the inspired
direction of Serge Daney, the maga-
zine endeavoured to move away
from its political and theoretical
excesses of the ’60s and ’70s by
renewing its interests in aesthetics
and popular cinema. Yet Calaiers held[...]spirit by opposing a
burgeoning ‘middlebrow’ art cinema

1985

on one hand, and a formulaeic main-
stream ‘hipness’ on the other.
Assayas’ opinions still evoke the
polemics of this period — now as
then, he champ[...]ate, rigorous, risk—taking and truly
innovative in cinema, whether this
innovation emerges in a huge main-
stream blockbuster or a lowly avant
garde short.

Assayas’ feature work began in
1986 with Désordre (aka Confusion),
a dark, lively film about a rock band
in crisis that has screened on SBS.
His Career and critical reputation
were cemented in Europe by his
third feature, Paris s’ez/eille ([...]Water, 1994) — Assayas’
vivid contribution to the “Boys and
Girls of Their Time” series[...]

L’Enfant de I’Hiver

some attention on the international
Film Festival circuit, none of his
films until Irma Vep has been distrib-
uted in English-speaking countries.
This is a pity because — as Louis Sko-
recki recently suggested in Liberation
— Assayas is “the great Marinerist of
modern cinema”, someone who[...]ical expressivity that is truly
breathtaking.

At the time of this interview
Assayas was in pre—production on a
new film called L’An Demier, about
the death of a man in his 40s and its
effect on his friends. It feature[...]is Cluzet and
Nathalie Richard, and is to be shot in
Cinemascope by his regular cine-
matographer, Den[...]iIle

1993

Une Nouvelle Vie

beginnings

BANDIS: DID YOU START YOUR CAREER As

A SCREENWRITER BY GHOSTWRITING FOR

YOUR FATHER?
Yes, I did. I was 20, 21. My father was a
screenwriter, and he also directed
films in the 19405. When he was older
he worked a lot for TV. In his later
days, he was ill, and gradually it
beca[...]e used me and my
younger brother— who was 16 at the
time — as a kind of secretary.

It was interest[...]nd ofhis,
Yves Allégret, hired to direct some of
the segments. Allégret was a very
interesting filmmaker who made some
pretty good films from the 19305 to the

1994

L’Eau Froide (Cold Water)

1996

/rma[...]ve pace, about how to eliminate
dialogue and move the story forward. It
felt really weird to come on the set-
you would have all these boring TV
technicia[...]thing I wanted to do
as a filmmaker, so far from the ideal
had offilmmaking. I was so
angry with my fa[...]akes a cringing

’5os, such as Les Orgueilleux [The
Proud Ones, 1953]. I got along very
well with him[...]s from him,

gesture]
MARTIN: You COLLABORATED
on THE SCRIPTS or TWO
ANDRE TECHINE FILMS,

René[...]

RENDEZ-VOUS [1985] AND LE LIEU DU
CRIME [THE SCENE OF THE CRIME, 1986],
JUST PRIOR TO BECOMING A DIRECTOR
Y[...]TWEEN YOUR WORK WITH TECHINE
AND YOUR OWN WORK IS IN THE WAY
YOU DRAW CHARACTERS. THERE’S OFTEN
A ZONE O[...]THINGS THAT
PEOPLE CAN DO UNEXPECTEDLY.
Obviously the experience ofworking
with Téchiné was important for me —
specifically in terms of working on
characters, and also in connecting
characters and actors. When I was
work[...]work with actors. Before
working with him, I had the firm idea
that the main thing was the Story, and
how you tell it.

But working with André, at some
point I understood that the story is not
the important thing. What is important
is the part that you create. How you
create believable i[...]and evil things, and
they have to deal with that in their
everyday life, with things that are mys-
te[...]eir
own life and personality. I don’t like
much the notion of evil, but I would
say everyone has some destructive
aspects. I think that simply belongs to
the whole idea ofa character: they’re
believable if[...]’VE
HEARD DIRECTORS WORRY ABOUT HOW
To PRESERVE THE ELEMENT OF MYSTERY
IN THAT WORKING SITUATION. HOW, IN
YOUR COLLABORATIONS WITH ACTORS,
DO You PRESERVE[...]A MYSTERY OR AMBIGUITY
INSIDE CHARACTERS?
I think the main issue is casting the
right people — people that you get

along wi[...]you think are
creative and can have an input into the
character; people who Understand
what you’re do[...]art ofthe
process. It is Very much about trusting
the actors.

I just feel that when I am writing a
cha[...]ticular charac-
ter, |’m essentially givingthem the
character. From that moment on, I
assume that they know more than I do
about the character. What I’m not
interested in is having the actors
merely repeat what is written in the
screenplay. What I’m interested in is
what they’re going to give that is com-
plet[...]t from what I wrote.

At some point, just showing the face
ofa person means so much more than
whatever[...].

You have to respect that, not try to
impose on the actors the idea that you
have ofthe character. Ifyou think that
person is close enough to the charac-
ter, smart enough to understand the
character, then you have to just follow
the actor and help him if he gets really
off-track at any stage. If he's in com-
plete contradiction with what the
scene means, or if something escapes
him, I would put him back on thethe actual motivation ofthe character
is. The character is driven by many
contradictions, many[...]implify motiva-
tions with words it just destroys the
Whole thing, it destroys the whole
truth ofit.

I thinkthat actors should let them-
selves be carried by the character, in
the same way I let myself be carried by
the meeting between the actor and the
character. When I’m shooting a scene,
I’m inc[...]t is goingto sound like. Only
then do I know what the scene really
means. I have a rough idea when I
write it, but not until I have shot the
Scene do I exactly know what’s
involved in it.

|t’s for the same reason that I would
never say to an actor, “You should say
the line this way”, because all ofa sud-

den he he[...]rds and when he says them he
hears my Voice again in his head, and
then he's tryingto imitate me! This[...]ted by somebody
that you know and, when you watch
the actor, you feel they’re imitating the
mannerisms ofthe director!

style
MARTIN: ONE THING THAT’S STRIKING IN
ALL OF YOUR FILMS, IN TERMS BOTH OF
NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTION AND VISUAL
CONSTRUCTION, Is THE WAY YOU USE A
ZIG-ZAG FORM. You STAY VERY CLOSE TO
PEOPLE VIS[...]E’S A DIVER-
SION AND You FOLLOW SOMEBODY ELSE.
THE SPACE AROUND THE CHARACTERS IS
ALWAYS A MYSTERY; YOU WONDER WHO
IS GOING TO ENTER THE FRAME AND
WHERE WE ARE GOING TO BE LED NEXT.
AND IN THE NARRATIVE, ALSO: IT SEEMS
LIKE, EVERY 10 MINUTES, THERE’S A
NEW zIG-zAG IN THE STORY, SUCH AS
THE ABRUPT INTRODUCTION OF A NEW,
UNEXPECTED CHARACTE[...]gradually dis-
cover space and what’s happening in
it. This a basic device of suspense in
cinema, but it’s more than that, too.
The concept that, at every moment,
suddenly something can change inside
the frame stimulates the viewer’s
attention.

When you have a system bas[...]s only
about acting and writing, and it ren-
ders the shots predictable.

What I’m interested in, inside the
scene or inside the shot, is what’s
changing: the process by which the
world changes and transforms. Isimply
like the idea that a scene starts some-
where and ends somewhere else.

It's the same with the shots: you
expect that they’re heading some-
wh[...]hing else happens. It creates an
interaction with the viewer, a way of
making the viewer involved in the way
the film is happening, or the way it was
made — especially in a film like Irma
Vep, which plays so much on the
reflexes or habits ofviewers.

It is one ofthe gr[...]ows, conven-

tionally, how one scene leads to the
next and What that next scene will be,
let’s just skip to that next scene
quickly. Then the viewer has the time
and opportunity to understand what is
going on in the interval, in the moment
ofthe cut.
MARTIN: JEAN—PIERRE LEAUD HAS
APPEARED IN TWO OF YOUR FILMS. THE
FIRST, PARIS s’EvE/LLE, HAS BEEN CRED-
ITED WITH RE-LAUNCHING HIS CAREER IN
THE ‘9OS. HE’S A VERY STRANGE AND
ECCENTRIC ACTOR IN MANY WAYS. HOW
CLOSELY DO YOU DIRECT HIM? FOR
INSTANCE, THERE’S A MOMENT IN IRMA
VEP WHERE HE’S TALKING TO MAGGIE
[MAGGIE CHEUNG]AND WALKING UP AND
DOWN WITH A COKE BOTTLE IN HIS HAND.
HE PERFORMS A GESTURE WHERE HE
TAKES A SWIG AND HIS EYES ROLL UP TO
THEthe screenplay two months
before shooting and he hires some-
body to repeat the lines with him. He
just repeats the lines like a mad man.
Meanwhile, he's trying to find the right
pace, and imagining how it’s going to
be shot.

So he’s truly the worst kind of actor
imaginable for a director, es[...]you want to improvise a little bit,
and organize the scene at the last
minute, which is my Way ofworking. In
comes Jean-Pierre and he has this com-
pletely st[...]tely poetic actor, somehow he
manages to adapt to the situation.
Something clicks and then all of a sud[...]tes and influences

MARTIN: You WROTE A PIECE FOR THE
IIOOTH ISSUE OF PoSITIF[TRANsLATED IN
PROJECTIONS 4 AND A HALF] ABOUT ANDY
WARHOL’s LONESOME COWBOYS [1968].
IN THAT ARTICLE You SAY THAT, FOR YOU,
THERE[...]

I still consider Bresson the greatest
filmmaker ever. I have complete admi-
r[...]single frame of his
films, every single moment. The films
of Bresson give one the confidence to
make great films — by allowing us to
believe that cinema is a medium in
which something important can be
achieved. I thin[...]fthis century.

Debord has that importance for me in

terms of my vision ofthe world, my
politics or p[...]on on me. They’re complete
collages, especially the last one, In
Girum /mus Nocte et Consumimur /gm’
[1981], whi[...]outh disap-
pearing, ideals ofyouth fading, about
the world changing. It’s very hard to
describe. It[...]rdinary film.

For different reasons, I would put the
films ofAndy Warhol on the same
level. They’re also — at least his best[...]his most brilliant work— films
that deal with the present. They cap-
ture the moment ofthe present;
they’re like documentarie[...]ms and say,
“Wow, these films look exactly how the
mid '60s were.”

Finally, I think that, for me, these
three artists are all very much at the
core of what I love in filmmaking.

CINEMA PAPERS ' AUGUST 1998

They’re really into the absolutely
abstract, poetic core ofwhat interests
me in cinema. Since I wrote this piece,
I would have to add the films of Ken-
neth Anger, because, seeing them
a[...]k is amazing.
BANDIS: THERE’s A STAND-oUT ScENE IN
IRMA VEP WHERE A PUSHY JOURNALIST
[ANTOINE BASLER] MAKES A SPEECH To
MAGGIE CHEUNG ABOUT THE sUPERIoR-
ITY OF WHAT HE CALLS "STRONG AcTIoN
FILMMAKING” ovER THE “BANKRUPT”
LEGACY oF THE NOUVELLE VAGUE GENER-
ATION. WHAT DoEs THIS SPEECH
REPRESENT FOR You?
It is connected with the situation ofthe
French mainstream cinema press. O[...]ing films that is very present, every-

where: the idea that films shouldn't be
intellectual, that you shouldn't use

your brain to make film, you should
use your guts, whatever that means.

Now, John Woo ma[...]t thought or reflection are much
more lively than the simple brutality or
violence of action filmmaking.

When you’re a filmmaker in France,
this is a vision of filmmaking that
you'r[...]g Kong filmmaking. I’ve writ-
ten about it and, in 1984, I did the first
complete survey of Hong Kong cinema
published in Europe. Now, all ofa sud-
den, there are all thes[...]absolutely no idea what Chi-
nese filmmaking is. In fact, they

completely despise Chinese culture.
And why are they interested in Woo?
Why are they interested in these films
now? Because they’re using Western[...]hinese cin-
ema, is completely fading for exactly
the same reason that national cinemas
are fading all over the world — because
ofthe fire power of Hollywood movies.

So the Hong Kong film industry is try-
ing to survive us[...]ll to their audiences who
are now only interested in Western
films — exaggerated Western films in
disguise, which is basically the formula
for Woo’s films. Then, all ofa sudden,
people see these films in the States
and think they understand everything
about[...]aspects oftheir own films. They
have no idea what the martial arts rep-
resent in China and Chinese culture;
they have no idea even[...]it’s just people fighting, people
with one gun in each hand, slow-
motion shots of people getting shot
down. The reason I wanted to pinpoint
that way ofseeing film in Irma Vep —
that post-Quentin Tarantino way of
S[...]se it’s
really annoying and very powerful
today in French cinema.

MARTIN: IT’s A PERvERsIoN OF WHAT
wAS INTERESTING To CRITICS LIKE YOUR-
sELF IN HONG KoNG CINEMA WHEN YOU
wERE WRITING IN THE EARLY ’80s: THEIN ART CINEMA AND AvANT
GARDE CINEMA. BUT THIS WAY OF SPEAK-
ING THAT THE IouRNALIsT REPRESENTS
BLANKLY OPPOSES THE Two TRADITIONS
oF POPULAR AND EXPERIMENTAL cINEMA.
That is why for me the whole point of
the scene is to use Maggie, who has
worked with these people. She says
the same thing that Hark and Woo
would say: that ther[...]ent
kinds of filmmaking. Action filmmaking
is not the only genre. But whatever
was innovative or experimental in mid-
’80s Hong Kong cinema has now been
complet[...]y American
films — because ofthe fast editing, the
use ofabstract shots that Chinese cin-
ema has always used. It was really very
new and exciting at the time, but now
it’s everywhere in American main-
stream cinema. That's why, when yo[...]RANCH OF cINEMA
THAT You WROTE A GREAT DEAL ABOUT
IN THE ’80s wAs THE HORROR GENRE,
CRONENBERG, CARPENTER — THE WHOLE
“cINEMA oF THE FANTASTIC". WouLD
You EVER MAKE A FILM IN THAT vEIN
YOURSELF?

Well, why not? I’m not sur[...]nteresting.

What we’re really talking about is the
early ’80s. At that time, horror films
were really the most innovative thing
that was happening in American film-
making. All of a sudden, there we[...]budgets and
making something that was very new.

In the late ’7os, punk music made an
enormous impression on me — much
stronger than whatever I was seeing at
the movies at the time. I was looking in
cinema for Something that would have
the same energy, the same feeling,
something as new, different and radi-
cal. I felt that in new, abstract horror
movies there was something s[...]again now, I wouldn’t like them as
much. But at the time I rememberthat
The Fog [1980] made a very big impres-
sion on me, al[...]y, They
Live [1988], Prince ofDarkness [1987]
and In Thethe films that
he writes himself, because I think he[...]dy like Wes Craven. I
think these are people who, in a small
Scale way, invented a great deal in
terms of aesthetics and form. They
have never been completely swallowed
by the Hollywood mainstream system.
Interestingly enough, they're all writ-
ers — the only writer-directors allowed
to work within the system of Holly-
wood filmmaking. Carpenter has
consistently been involved in the writ-
ing of his films — under his own[...]

Lorraine Mortimer finds

Cinematic
un-chche

The Interview begins
with a simple premise —[...]hell.

an innocent man

much to applaud in Pedro
Almodéz/ar’s latest outing,

Live Flesh
4 0

44

wrongly accused — before
challenging the audience
with fundamental
questions of storytelli[...]s
Tis that they become bench-
marks at least, and the source of
much imitation, parody and refer-
encin[...]mediately likens it to another
film. Crackers is in danger of
becoming known as the next The
Castle (Rob Sitch, 1997), and that
would be a sha[...]RALIA. 1998. 35MM.

that such-and-such a film is the really not similar at all.

Sure, they’re both[...]2) or Muriel’s Wed-
ding (P. J. Hogan, 1994) or The
Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of
the Desert (Stefan Elliott, 1994]?

CINEMA[...]

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I
that the four ofthem are goingto l
holiday with her parent[...]y rubs up :
Jack (Terry Gill), Hilary’s father, the I
wrong way. Jack’s a bloody Aus- l
tralian all the way: an aggressive J
and intolerant redneck. His wife, l
Vi (Maggie King), manages to keep E
him in line — most ofthe time; and :
hersister, Dotty[...]'s an
ex-crim, so Joey isn’t real keen to
share the back shed with him. But,
somehow, Albert wins him over,
and offers to teach Joey how to
defend himselfif he in turn will
help him restore Jack’s forgotten
sai[...]im.

That’s one ofthe threads run-
ning through the film. There’s
plenty else going on — mostly[...]says a lot very succinctly
about men, fathers and the display
of affection and closeness.

In contrast to the Dredge dys-

function is Bruno and Angus, who
hav[...]hip as father and son, and we see
Joey looking on in envy. Unfortu-
nately, we don’t get the same
depth with the female characters.
Fair enough, its a story about
fathers and sons, but at times the
women Just seem to be there to
give the male characters some-
thing else to bounce off.

Therein lies the fllm’s basic
problem: everything seems to be
t[...]s. Reality is cranked
up a few notches (as it was in
director David Swann’s short film
Bonza) to give the film a crazy,
hilarious atmosphere from the
word go, but that leaves it very
little room to g[...]o far,
so that it lets its structure show
through the gaps.

Crackers should not be com-
pared to The Castle too much.

It is a film in its own right and
deserves to be seen as such, bu[...]alone
is enough to recommend it.

(5 TIM HUNTER

THE INTERVIEW

DIRECTED BY CRAIG MoNAHAN. PRoDuc£R:[...]ken into custody for ques-
tioning about a crime. The police
are convinced they have their man;
he protests both his innocence and
ignorance. What are the issues that
arise from this situation and how
do they affect the parties involved?

The Interview begins with this
basic premise and revels in the
complexities that unfold.

Eddie Fleming (Hugo We[...]of cops banging down his
door, throwing him onto the floor
and ransacking his flat. Shell-
shocked, he[...]olice
headquarters, a cold, harsh interior
bathed in blue light with Gothic
headpieces staring down fr[...]ony Martin) and Prior

(Aaron Jeffery). who plays the men-
acingthug to the cool, calculating
Steele. The audience knows no

more than Eddie does about why he
is there, and this remains the key to
the film’s suspense, the writer's
‘continuous reveal’: we learn the
nature ofthe crime alleged as it is
revealed to Eddie through the ques-
tions he is asked, questions he
(initially) has no answers for.

The Interview begins with the
cinematic cliché ofthe innocent
man wrongly accused, then turns
this upside down as Eddie begins
to learn the rules ofthe game and
proceeds to alter the power rela-
tionship between suspect and
interrog[...]shift,
so do our sympathies. Steele is not
simply the ‘bad guy’ in the good-
bad character dichotomy. We learn
ofthe pow[...]it. We
also learn ofthe cosy relationship
between the media (Michael Caton
as press reporter Barry Walls) and
the police top-brass, which under-
mines the delicate work of men like
Steele, who are not interested in

CINEMA PAPERS 0 AUGUST 1998

The script’s psychological
game-play is intensified by the
Gothic industrial design of police
headquarters.[...]surfaces dominate, with light
glimpsed only from the barred win-
dow at the top ofthe interrogation
room, which in turn accentuates
the shadows into which Eddie fre-
quently disappears. States of
emotional distress are heightened
by the use ofslow-motion photog-
raphy and exaggerated sound,
techniques that are employed to
great effect in the opening scene
when the police raid Eddie’s flat,
and again in a private moment
where Steele’s calm exterior
t[...]and original scriptwriter
Craig Monahan employed the expe-
rience oftwo veterans ofthe police
drama fo[...]o—writer Gordon Davie
(Phoenix, Janus, Corelli, The Bite,
Mercury, Secrets, Good Guys Bad
Guys), former member ofthe Victo-
rian crime squad. The result is a
privileged insight into the ethics
and politics behind police interro-
gations, and a close examination of
the point at which the two become
blurred.

The search for truth bristles
against the issue of civil rights,
and the tools ofsurveillance are
turned against those who normally
use them. Steele’s interrogation
is being monitored by the Ethics
Committee, led by Detective
Inspector Huds[...]alpably as Eddie’s humiliation
and desperation. The film demon-
strates that any sense of objective
truth is an impossibility in this situ-
ation: it comes down to what you
can get away with, on both sides of
the interrogation table.

The Interview problematizes

CINEMA PAPERS 0 AUGUST 1998

the notion of confession, suggest-
ing that it is mer[...]he draws
upon his vast knowledge ofcrimes
related in the press to construct his
narrative. The interrogation is por-
trayed as an act of psychological
seduction, with the role ofseducer
constantly switching sides. In thethe smorgasbord of food
brought before him. Eddie con-
cludes his tale and smugly accepts
the ‘post-coital’ cigarette proffered
by Steele.[...]I
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Hugo Weaving excels in the
slippery character of Eddie: his
chameleon-like p[...]from helpless victim with a speech
impediment to the articulate,
remorseless criminal and back
again.[...]rsimply mad? Is he guilty
or innocent?

Steele is the foil against whom
these questions are played out.
The gradual erosion of what, for
Steele, seemed a certain conviction
parallels the audience’s growing
uncertainty about Eddie. Ton[...]ical tactics ifthey
produce a result. He relishes the
challenge posed by Eddie, but
reveals his own hum[...]It is testi-
mony to Martin’s performance that
the subtleties of Steele’s own
humanity shine through his cool
exterior.

The /nterviewis a highly-
stylized psychological drama, its
emotional undercurrents accentu-
ated by the hyper-reality ofits
sound, photography and produc[...]hollow shell withoutthe riveting
performances of the two leads
and a script that revels in the
slippery nature ofits characters.
The effect is to beg the question:
“Just who is interviewing whom?”
As with all thought-provoking
films, The Interview asks more
question than it answers.

®[...]GLOBE. U.K. 35MM.
1998. 95 MINs.

desire to live in a stately home

Ais the motivation for a young
trio to pull offa series offinancial
scams in the romantic comedy,
Shooting Fish. Thethe socially-awkward technical
whiz, Jez (Stuart Town[...]unaware ofthe unlawful-
ness oftheir activities.

The developing romance
between Georgie and Iez is one[...]ubplots and episodes
which leave few dull moments in
this likeable and energetically-
paced film. Eventually, Dylan and
Jez’s illegal dealings land them in
gaol, thus finding themselves in
the predicament ofhaving to tell
Georgie about their secretly stock-
piled millions, and the fact that the
orphans forwhom they steal
money are only two — themselves.

The UK success ofStefan
Schwartz’s Shooting fish has,
perhaps inevitably, resulted in com-
parisons between this film and The
Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1997).
But Sch[...]

co/2 [Z/med

from revealing the superficiality of
Dylan and Jez’s worthy intentions.
They take glee in ripping off mem-
bers ofthe affluent middle-clas[...]rmance.

Despite its UK origins, Shooting
Fish is in many ways reminiscent of
American independent youth films,
such as the recent Bandwagon (John
Schultz) and Amy Heckerling’s Clue-
less (1995). The social dimension of
Schwartz’s film takes the form of
comic references to social rituals
and attitudes, like the image of a
dozen people pulling out personal
electronic organizers to record a
vehicle registration number.

The satire in Shooting Fish is
less incisive than that of Clueless-
a mobile phone ringing in a theatre
while audience members reach for
their bags is not wildly original —

40

review

but the latter film’s combination of
humour and generosity ofspirit is
echoed in Shooting Fish. Charac-
teristic ofthis generosity[...]ess resolved.
Schwartz's film is set not so
much in a physical locale as in a
sphere of popular culture which
reaches across the Atlantic. Dylan’s
nationality provides opportun[...]rence,
which also end up drawing our
attention to the film’s hybrid ele-
ments. Indicative of this diversity
of references is the soundtrack's
inclusion ofBritpop bands such as
Space and the Bluetones alongside
Burt Bacharach, the latter echoing
romantic comedy’s recent revivals
of past hits (as in My Best Friend’s
Wedding [P. J. Hogan, 1997]).
Shooting Fish’s enthusiasm for

the signs and rituals of popular cul-
ture is also vividly apparent in
striking images, such as a small
house surrounded by fortress-like
battlements, and three inflatable
sex dolls standing as “mourners”

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in a funeral parlour, having been
put there by Dylan[...]heir escape from incarceration.

But, most ofall, the disused
gasometer in which Jez and Dylan
reside is a shrine to theirvarious
enthusiasms: one interior wall is in
the style of a stately home, another
space is devoted to a jukebox that
plays only Burt Bacharach songs,
and the rest ofthe place is strewn
with technical gadgets. The offbeat
settings in Shooting Fish are cen-
tral to the film’s visual and comic
appeal, with Schwartz[...]cle to add interest to stock
romantic scenarios.

The film’s lightly comic stabs at
social observation are little more
than a distraction from the basic
allegiance to romantic comedy.
Given the proliferation of romantic
comedies, particularly American, in
the past decade, the quirky
imagery ofshooting Fish has the
positive effect ofembellishing and
delaying the resolution ofwhat is,
for some, an overworked and pre-
dictable genre.

The offbeat subplots and trans-
Atlantic references inject the film
with a youthful spirit which
eschews the darker concerns of
recent British successes such[...]PHOTOGRAPHY: Arronso BEATO. EDITOR: lost
SALcEDo. ART DIRECTOR: ANTXON GOMEZ.
MUSIC: ALsEIz1o IGLESIAS.[...]OBE. 35MM. SPAIN-FRANCE. 1997. 100 MINS.

cessful in disengaging romantic
comedy from cliché, through the
use of lightly self-conscious
humour and comic situations that
are peripheral to the inevitable
romantic union. For example, the
subplots concerning Georgie’s
devious fiancé,[...]brimful of quirky subplots that,
were it not for the implication that

Fm interested in what it is to be
human, in what it is to be alive,
in what it is to be natural.
And that’s my point oft/iew —

humanity. The message is
we should not take the story too

seriously, Shooting Fish would be
weig[...]horse run faster? — and at prison, goes home to the suburban
ruin that he shared with his prosti-

tute mother, who died of cancer

times one might tire of the empha-

sis on funky camera angles over

characte[...]woman,
Clara (Angela Molina), tells him.
embraces the lighter side ofcon- But theirvitality defies the hope-
temporary UK youth culture, and lessness.
presents an upbeat international In the condemned neighbor-
hood, a Mediterranean-[...]

in L’Homme et la Man‘ (Man
and Death), Edgar Morin talks
about destructuring and restructur-
ing the categories of adolescence
and age so that people might try to
combine the secrets ofadoles-
cence and maturity, instead ofone
stage chasing away the other, leav-
ing us with the model
‘techno-bourgeois’ adult. In Live
Flesh, Almodovar has created a
mature work which holds onto
these secrets.

For some, the adjective
‘mature’ might be the kiss ofdeath,
signallingthe end ofthe kinky,
tawdry-chic, over-the-top, outra-
geous and farcical Almodovar. But
his[...]‘because it’s a disequilibrium’,
though for the individual ‘it is
undeniably the only motor that
gives sense to life’.

Even before the souring of his
relationship with some American
critics, over the ‘endorsement’ of

bondage in Tie Me Up! Tie Me
Down! (Atame.l1989), and the
‘making light of’ rape in Kika
(1993), the filmmaker suggested
that the confusion between desire
and public policy was greater in the
United States than back home in
Spain:
Not that Spain is so wonderful,
but even the people on the
right are closer to human
weakness, temptation, e[...]of life, it’s all mixed up
together, and thats the way
people really are. Here you
pretend people do[...]ser
to those ofthe great Russian direc-
tors and, in America, to Capra. He
has, however, taken Hitchcocl<’s
‘cheap psychology’ on board and,
from the elderly Billy Wilder, he got
some excellent advic[...]Ruth Rendell’s novel, was to
have been filmed in English, but
this did not eventuate.
Almodévar has continued as a
Medi[...]ST 1998

realism and surrealism, and draw-
ing on the Hollywood melodramas
ofhis adolescence, using the[...]Cukor,
Minnelli, Ray and Kazan are all evi-
dent influences. In 1991, High Heels
(Tacones Lejanos, which actually[...]ething of a quirky, sex-and-
death romp, reworked the
maternal melodrama. Live Flesh,
like High Heels, The Flower ofMy
Secret (La Flor de rn/'Secreto,1995)
and the earlier Law 0fDesire (La
Ley del Deseo, 1986), is[...]Flesh starts with a breath-
taking black sky back in 1970 in a
deserted Madrid where a State of
Emergency has been declared. A
young woman in the pain of labour
on a bus that circles the city sees
an angel on one ofthe beautiful
buildings. To her it looks perched
as if ready to kill itself. But the
baby is born and there’s elation.
“Look", she says to baby Victor,
“Madrid!” The title Came Tremula
comes onto the screen in bold red
and, for the rest ofthe film, it's as
ifwe could drown in the warmth of
Almodovar’s colours.

Twenty years la[...]t offa chain
ofevents that will fatally cross-cut
the other characters’ lives,
because, as the director says, “he
is alive, healthy, free (and hot) like
the sun”. Liberto Rabal is the
grandson ofveteran actor Fran-
cisco Rabal, who played the
wheel-chair bound director
obsessed by his drug-addicted
leading lady in Tie Me Up! Tie Me

Down! Victortoo becomes
obsess[...]a Neri) after ineptly losing
his virginity to her in the toilet ofan
after-hours club. Blonde-wigged,
scor[...]a pale bourgeoise when
she crosses back over from the
“savage side of life”. Almodovar
notes that she is probably the sad-
dest female character he has
written. When a[...]id
(Javier Bardem) and Sancho (Jose
Sancho) enter the tangle. Middle-
aged Sancho is fired by suspicio[...]David. When a
scuffle ensues between Victor and
the policemen, Sancho shoots part-
ner David in the spine and young
Victor goes to gaol for the crime.
Out of prison, and visiting his
mother’s grave at the cemetery, by
coincidence, so necessary to melo-
d[...]a funeral is
taking place. Elena, now married to
the paraplegic David, is burying her
father. Victor lines up with the ele-
gantly clad mourners to shake her
hand. And[...]he '
meets Sancho’s wife, Clara, who
will fall in love with him, nurture
him and teach him to becom[...]ng her back to life.
Clara, along with Victor, is the point
of radiance in the film. The mature
Angela Molina, years ago Bur'ruel’s
‘O[...]ully human woman. Clara is as
alive and tragic as the flamenco
music and Chavela Vargas‘ raspy
vibrato that infuses the film. She
eventually saves Victor and she
and Sancho die in a guns-and-
blood, Duel in the Sun scene that
enables new life to go on.

Death being at the kernel of
life, Morin notes that a philosopher
li[...]ted by
death but refused a philosophy of
despair. The artists, more than the
scholars, held onto the “scent of
life”, loving the things ofthis
world. The philosophy of knowl-
edge he envisaged was allied to
the arts of movement. The return of
the biological and the animal, the
resensualization of life, would cul-
minate in a kind of “dancing truth”,
a truth which migh[...]television as David triumphs,
winning a medal at the 1992 Para-
lympics, and is embraced by Elena,
the team celebrating with wheel-
chair dancing. We later see David,
"1oo% animal” on his T-shirt, play
with the paraplegic team, on a rich
green floor to vibran[...]ant expression of
activity for its own sake, like the
dance in the prison yard in High
Heels, or the one in the café in
Godard’s Bande a Part (1964).
When David strugg[...]hreaten him to stay
out oftheir lives, he punches the
young man in the groin, then they
both get excited by a soccer goal
scored on television. A moment of
communion and then the threat is
back. But, in thethe
paralyzed David.

Victor comes back into Elena’s
life as Mr Wolf in a game at the chil-
dren’s shelter she has set up. The
setting allows for naive design,
loads ofcolour and all the little
artefacts Almodovar associates
with kids and with the children in
his adults. Butthe atmosphere’s
subdued: there[...]s. Live Flesh
ends with a scream and a new
birth, in a car in a Christmas traffic-
jam. But Victor tells the baby that
it’s different this time. The streets
are packed with drunken, cheerful
people. There's freedom in Madrid.
Against the black sky there's a
giant star full of lig[...]

lost in space‘
—— citro'e'n saxo. devil
i V-titanic —

mortal kombat repeatable. scalable camera moves in stop—motion or real time for seamless, precisio[...]able next morning on any capital city location or in any studio. one hour of set-up time required.

the fifth element

— guiness.chain
gulliver's travels. I | I V
the odyssey ‘
ford. menage slimline head with mitch[...]e's peak
my favourite martian
saab. unique s
babe in metropolis
the governess. for a mile reel and full spec call: ph[...]412 261 322
‘ad_idas.bthe difference

’ Ff V _the city ‘of lost children

max len[...]

Films

co//zti/2LL69
KUNU UN

DIRECTED av[...]still keeping

to his famous schedule — one
for the studios and one for himself
— his recent output must surely
stand as an indication ofiust how
much the shape ofAmerican cin-
ema has changed in the past
decade. Kundun is a biopic of
Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the
Dalai Lama. |t’s a modestly-bud-
geted (US$28 million) but
lavish-looking production, starring
non-actors in most ofthe roles and
little that we would convent[...]action. One for him? You’d say

so, except that the Tibetan cause

(and has some weird permutations,[...]nuclear tests because
they’re likely to get up the nose
of the Chinese) and the film was
made for a major studio. Scors-
ese’s[...]hat: “A
Martin Scorsese Picture”. So, one
for the studios? Before that was
The Age of/nnocence (1993), so
radical a departure from the

The five-year-old Dalai Lama IKunga J. Teniin
is intr[...]n.

Scorsese standard that one might cinema since the late 1980s — an market(s). Scorsese, the godfather
assume it was a journeyman

assignment[...]and pas-

explosion which, not coinciden- ofsoul in American film, has

tally, owes much to the work of become a kind of flagbearer for the
Scorsese — has led to the belated
realization on the part of Holly-
wood that there is not one market
for films, but many markets. So the
big studios have bought into
smaller production a[...]ts, and shored up deals with
producers from afar, in a bid to

broaden their share ofthe

new mood, in which smaller, intelli-
gent films target those audiences
disenfranchized by the main game,
the ‘event’ picture.

There's just one problem: Kun-
dun has also inadvertently drawn
attention to the flaws in this hybrid
system of production and distribu-
tion, in which the major studios

sion (restrained on the part ofthe
characters, amply evident on thein short, is

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is tres fashionable in Hollywood :
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that the explosion of Independent I

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I[...]e both David and
Goliath. Scorsese made Kundun as
the first movie in a two-picture deal
with Touchstone Pictures, part of
the Disney family. The film was to
be distributed by Buena Vista, also
part ofthe Disney family. Depict-
ing, as it does, the Chinese
invasion ofTibet in 1950 — and
making it seem, strangely enough,
so[...]I
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eration — the film has not exactly I

been welcomed by the Chinese.
(China is not yet part ofthe Disney
family, but the adoption forms are
in. Mickey and Co. reportedly have
plans for a theme park in Shang-
hai.) The conspiracy theorists
claimed Buena Vista deliberately
botched the film’s release in the
USA, burying it in small cinemas
with little advertising. After a few
weeks of poor business, the film
disappeared.

43

Films

co/zti/21169

In Australia, the film attracted
heat before it had even been pick[...]b-
utors, which generally releases
Disney product in Australia, chose
not to distribute Kundun because it
didn’t want to jeopardize its cinema
interests in Asia.

The company claims that’s not
true: as Buena Vista only had the
rights for Europe and the USA, the
film was offered on the open mar-
ket in Australia and, at $1 million, it
was just too exp[...]l to independent distributor
NewVision to release the film. Pre-
sumably, we should be thankful
that NewVision has no plans to
open a chain ofcinemas in China.

Like The Last Temptation of
Christ (1988), Kundun is a sto[...]a long and far—reaching
search, a posse finds the boy
who is believed to be the 14th
reincarnation of the Buddha of
Compassion, aka the Dalai Lama,
in a remote Tibetan village near the

Director Martin Scorsese withia
Tenzin Th[...]s parents have little trouble
accepting he is who the wisemen
say he is. He is taken away,
immersed in the teachings of
Tibetan Buddhism and, overthe
course ofthe next 15 years, pre-
pared to take on the mantle of

44

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I[...]politi-
cal — leadership of his people.
Unlike The Last Temptation of
Christ, Kundun plays it pretty[...]ational-
ist, and quite possibly a
schizophrenic, the Dalai Lama
(played at two by Tenzin Yeshi
Paichan[...]crucial moment, “Do you ever
wonder ifyou found the right boy?”
It is impossible not to be

impressed by the scale of Scors-
ese’s film, covering as it doe[...]lly impressive, especially
when one realizes that the Tibetan
scenes were, in fact, shot in
Morocco. Melissa Mathison’s script
is remarkable in its ability to con-
vey a sense ofthe individual in a
community which does not encour-
age egoism; a sense oftime
marching on in a community which
has long been “timeless"; and a
sense ofspiritual minutiae in a
landscape of harsh grandeur. But
the scale does occasionally
work against Scorsese. The
sense of ordinary experi-
ences forgone in becoming
the Dalai Lama is touched on
in a scene ofsuch brevity
thatone could miss it
entirely. The Philip Glass
score, while entrancing and
appealing in its way,
inevitably puts one in mind
ofsound-and-image
montage films such as
Koy[...]e doubt with which
he approached his own religion in
The Last Temptation offhrist. But
these are, in the end, minor quib-
bles. While far from what one mi[...]ndun is a film ofquiet
magnificence — despite the best
efforts ofthe studios and the
Chinese. ® KARL QUINN

0/2 [/96 S/yelf

DUGBUYS[...]DISTRIBUTOR: RDCVALE.
u.s. 1993. 92 MINS.
espite the certain marquee

D value of its cast and creative[...]is
less than good. A perfunctory and
minor entry in every way, Dog Boys
lacks bite, wit and, worse, is almost
entirely devoid oftension.

Subtext is even in short supply,
the naming of Bryan Brown's char-
acter as Captain Brown being the
most (non-)creative example. Dog
Boys only gets h[...]fast-
tracked to nowhere. But hey, let's
face it, in Dog Boys the only good

angles are supplied by Tia Carrere
who gets to swan around all she
can with swarthy Dean Cain in the

overstuffed hero role.

Dog Boys goes like this: Ex-
marine (Cain) finds himselfdoing
time in the care ofattitude correc-
tion sadist Brown. For a sideline
and in cahoots with several others,
Brown runs a lucrati[...]ice. Brown attempts to
force Cain to participate. The body-
count mounts. Carrere arrives,
official investigations begin. The
double-cross goes down. Brown is
thwarted. A dog joins the body-
count. Tia and Dean walk away.

Maybe Ken Russell found him-
self stranded in the U.S. one day
and signed on to helm this non-epic
in order to get backto England? On
the other hand, he just might’ve
wanted to hang aro[...]ddy, Bob
Guccione. Whatever, he had to step
on to the Canadian set of Dog Boys
at some stage, in order to earn
directorial credit, although at most

times his bombastic hand is rarely
in evidence.

Bryan Brown's impulse to take
the bad-ass lead in this Showtime
(straight to video in Oz) feature is
almost curious. Like an up-market
john Cassavetes, he’s putting in
time between Hollywood roles pro-
ducing his own[...]s current U.S., three-episodes-
per-tape release. In Dog Boys,
he’s barely effective as the resident
sadist, smart-arse and trader in
human lives. Imagine Cocktail
(Roger Donal[...]

‘‘ he child is father of the

Tman”, as Wordsworth has
famously told us, and[...]autobiogra-
phies (or biographies) really
succeed in imbuing childhood rec-
ollections with a clear se[...]s to understand a little
more how they went about the
business ofliving in such a way as
to bring them to the kind of atten-
tion that has warranted writing
about their lives at length. The
introductory chapters of Cox’s
book re-imagine[...]ut how
“German soldiers
marched into our house
[in Holland)”; about the
filmmaker father, of
whom we heartoo little;
about the mother "who
was a great human being
who gave to anyone who
needed it”; about the odd
vignettes ofexperience
which decades later fil-
tered their way into his
films; about the school-
days in which “Everything
that awakened in me was
crushed.”

And so on. It is sin-
cerely enough presented
but it is hard to share the
sense ofimmediacy which
Cox seems to want to con-
jure up by these
remembrances oftimes
past — or the sense of
their connectedness to
the mature filmmaker.
Further, the vividness of
individual images tends
to be undercut by the way
Cox is irresistibly drawn
to the sententious. He
tells us ofa cruel aunt

I
I
I
I[...]I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I

with whom he was fascinated:
The urge to smell her close by
became unbearable. Fin[...]to be severely smacked
to come back to my senses.
The flashbacks in Man ofF[ow-
ers (1983) are largely based
upon the[...]we
are told, “Flashbacks are memo-
ries, frozen in an eternal solid form,
so concentrated that no di[...]ook. It is often so intensely
personal, so gnomic in its percep-
tions, that it sets up barriers to the
relatively detached reader.
“Music,” he claims,

has much more to do with film
than literature or the theatre.
Music, dance, painting — in
that order — are more related
to film than theatre and
literature.
That may well be the case, but,
though this formulation is pre-
ceded[...]k, his creative
processes. There is not much help
in such sub—aphorisms as:
The only thing that was clear to
me was the fact that through
film I could explore the remote
horizons of my dreams. Dreams
would become reality in the
absolute. That vast emptiness
that surrounded and threatened
me became habitable.
Whatever that means, it is in my
view simply too personal, too
inward-looking t[...]h.

However, there is still a good
deal to admire in Reflections. The
generosity of spirit, the willingness
to take artistic risks, the reaching
out to the unusual: these are all
elements ofCox’s films which find
parallels in the experiences
described here. He is responsive to
the non-materialistic and enigmatic
qualities he finds in travelling In
India: “One can only write about
India when one[...]unds — or from noting
wryly that “Most things in India
don’t function.”

Predictably, perhaps,[...]arthouse filmmaker, he
is (ofcourse) appalled by the com-
mercial realities ofHollywood, and
this leads him into the simplistic
dismissiveness of

The studio needs to feel safe
and would much rather s[...]ets.

Cox writes with graceful discre-
tion about the women he has
loved, disdaining the kiss-and-tell
approach ofso much cinema auto-
bio[...]I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I

respect for the mothers ofthe three j

children, whom he
plainly[...]tingly, been
close to.

He is also generous
about the friends who
have helped him, such as
actor Norman[...]often commer-
cially unpromising
ventures, and to the col-
laborators who have
stuck with him through
film after film. He is espe-
cially vivid about the
making ofA W0man’s
Tale (1991) in which the
star, the elderly actress
Sheila Florance, was
actually dyi[...]simultaneously at a hundred multi-

plexes across the land.

® BRIAN MCFARLANE

Booka Received

BFI MO[...]X, ILLus., £7.99

BFI MODERN CLASSICS
LAST TANGO IN PARIS

DAVID THOMPSON, BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE,
Lo[...]us., £7.99

BFI MODERN CLASSICS
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA

ADRIAN MARTIN, BRITISH FILM INstItutE,
L[...]6 FP., INDEX, ILLus., £7.99

BFI MODERN CLASSICS
THE ‘THREE COLOURS’ TRILOGY

GEOFF ANDREW, BRITIS[...]TUTE,
LoNDoN, 1998,96 PP., INDEX, ILLus., £7.99

THE CHAPLIN
ENCYCLOPEDIA

GLENN MITCHELL, B.T. BATSFO[...]1997, 288 PP., INDEx, lLLUS., 539.95

PLAYING TO THE CAMERA
FILM ACTORS DISCUSS THEIR CRAFT

BERT CARD[...]2 PP., INDEx, ILLus., £1h.99

SIGNS AND MEANING

IN THE CINEMA
EXPANDED EDITION

PETER WoLLEN, BRI[...]

C

3 fWVVW. SC IT EX]V

.C OM

THE KEY TO UNLEASHING YOUR CREATIVE
POTENTIAL IS WITHIN REACH.
EXPERIENCE REALTIME CREATIVITY

IN THE FAST LANE.

CALL US NOW TO SET UP A TEST D[...]

by Barrie Smith

n important cog in
the post-produc-
tion chain — titling
and graphics — is a
growing sector

in the industry.

The title and graphics content oftelevi—
sion broad[...]ocessing, ini-
tially with analog methods such as the
Chyron titling hardware and digital
effects ‘black boxes’. In recent years,
even feature films have allowed digital
processing to intrude into the creation
of head titles.

A number of Sydney companies are
now able to specialize inthe CGI portion ofa production
with little or no interest in tendering
for the main body ofthe work; others
see digital title/graphics creation as an
end in itself. Most ofthese CGI houses
employ high-end S[...]dedicated software;
however, there are signs that the NT
platform is about to rock the boat.

Garner Maclennan

A digital design house of long standing
and repute, Garner MacLennan has the
resources, talent and will to take on
virtually a[...]iver is MD ofGarner MacLen-
nan Design and states the company
has

always done a hell of a lot of 3D
wo[...]station imagery — and that
always involves 3D.
In his view, the company has a big
design department, strong in 3D pro-
duction, “which fits in with the whole
network that the company has.”

Oliver:

We’re design-based fi[...]t to a point, so

we’re a design—based house. In the
broadcast titles area we are a full
service produ[...]we’ve
written and developed ourselves.”
With the capability to output at
both broadcast and film resolutions,
the company took on the title work for
the feature joey (Ian Barry, 1998). The
requirements? Oliver:
They [Village Roadshow/MGM] just
basically gave us the brief and we
came up with the design. The brief
was a narrative brief. How that was
visuali[...]of what they were looking for and
we came up with the whole concept,
which we ended up producing. It’[...]ns? Oliver is confident there
are no limitations in CGI work, neither
in terms of hardware or software, but

technicalities

adds, “The biggest limitation is
money, of course; money and time.”
In working on the title, he declared
Village Roadshow/MGM:
An absol[...]b, but I
think that they are pretty thrilled
with the result. And they really
stuck by us. It was great working
with those guys. One of the things
that made the job so successful and
so pleasurable was that the[...]They hung out for our idea.
They really embraced the idea and
the design and supported us
through it, because it took a couple
of months to do. And the job is
really beautiful.
Oliver agrees that contr[...]component to a feature film can
attract clients. In his opinion, “When
the work is that good it can help pull
work”, by the fact that people get to
see it and they can see Garner’s work
in an environment other than a
television—commercial kind of
environment. The work on /oey has
also been applauded in festivals
worldwide, Oliver remarks: “Ev[...]

He feels the “broad base of
equipment, software and experien[...]s.” Some recent
credits include head titles for the
mini-series House Gang, produced
by Film Australia and soon to be
shown on SBS. In this case, Williamson
states the company was “given a
rough brief, which we then[...]nued
on with that.”

An interesting project was the
titling for a documentary made by
Rosemary Blight, Boy in the Bubble,
for R8 Films in Sydney. Williamson
claims, “We were given a pre[...]ign and asked to come up with a
concept, which we did. And this was
subsequently followed.”

Another was Doom Runners, a
35mm feature produced in 1997 for
which Conja designed a head title
sequence intended to set the tone of
the drama; a post-apocalyptic adven-
ture. An upcomin[...]tling to
match an existing concept yet still
work in with the opening live action.

Recent commercial work included
NRL promos for Channel 9 and the
Sports Tonight opener for Channel 10.
The family doggie drama, Paws (Karl
Zwicky, 1997), wa[...]k Conja on a route away from
CGI — at least for the main title
sequence.

Williamson:
Initially, with Paws we looked at a
number of options and in the end it
was dictated to a point by budget
because of the length of head titles
for a motion picture film.[...]e sequence
and, if you’re looking at doing this
in a sort of total digital solution,
then it can bec[...]xpensive.
A number ofoptions was put forward.
But in the end, the choice came down
to the use of cel animation. Williamson
feels,
It works both creatively for the film
and as well as for the budget.
Because of the broad spread of tal-
ent here we were able to pro[...]igital, film
optieals — or animation.
He feels,
The producers really did quite well
when you think about it, because
they come to one house and they’re
able to have a look at all the varia-
tions and settle on which one would

.[...]Robyn Burke‘

work creatively — and within the
budget. In the end, that was how it
boiled down to with the Paws titles.
They simply just looked at it and
said, “This is great.” The animation
works well. It’s a comedy film. lt’s a
family film. It just provided the
right feel and look for it all.
In his opinion,
lr was the best answer to the ques-
tion, whereas, on the other hand,
the title sequences that were struck
for House Gang h[...]computer
technology was used quite exten-
sively.
The design house runs three SGl Onyx
machines plus five 3D work stations.
Software? Williamson: “In 2D we use
Flame or illusion. For 3D we use Maya
or Softlmage.”

The Conja producer remarks that
the company was “one ofthe first ones
to use Maya in Australia. We were one
ofthe test-beds here. We've had Maya
since the beginning ofthe year.” One
ofthe first jobs Conja handled with
Maya was the Rugby League promo for
Channel Nine.

Extro

Spea[...]hael Murray, MD of
Extro, it became apparent that the
total output ofthe design house was
centred on “broadcast work for the
TV networks”.

Murray:

We do station idents, o[...]mmercials as

such.
He enlarged on Extro’s role in the
industry by saying that one of its spe-
cialities is combining live action with
2D and 3D graphics. The company
uses two SGI 3D work stations — an O2
and a High Impact. Software? Houdini.
The company’s “top—end work” is sta-
tion ide[...]d
merging shapes, as well as movie
opening titles in the vein of Saturday
Night at the Movies.

Other clients have included virtu-
ally “all the networks in Australia and
New Zealand.” Murray:

We recently did a big package for
the movie network on Optus
Vision, and we’ve[...]

Priscilla, Queen of the.Desert; Love 8 Other
Catastrophes; Blackrock; Dat[...]Jada’
. “Hungry Eyes", P50 Cmises’ "We Had the ‘lime of my
Life" NS\N Tourist Commission‘s "[...]Uncle Toby's "Keep on Running” are just some of the A

ones we tend to call our own (justified or not[...]oz 9207 0585 or fax on 02 9252 o5o3
for help with the music for your message.

MUSl'C'PUBL_lSHlNG _
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FI[...]Dead Calm

Strictly Ballroom / Crocodile Dundee / The Navigator
Dating the Enemy / Love & Other Catastrophes

From one day shoots to big budget features, Cinesure welcomes enquiries in the
early stages and are always there to help with friendly advice on the risks involved
in film and television production and how best to insure them.

When, “Lines to insurance, come to the name you know.

CINESURE Underwriting Agen[...]

technicalities

large job for Sky in New Zealand —

a whole movie package for its

movie network.
The Extro MD is quick to point out that
the company’s output is not so much
inthe
company’s 3D Animation section,
notices that in Videolab’s mainly TV
commercial work “more of[...]text and give it a very 3D look
without having to use 3D”.

There is currently great demand for
titling with a “difference”, so Wilcox
agrees that “the gear has to keep up
with all ofthe current graphi[...]ferno, which
will play 2K film resolution images in
real time. This works in with the only
SGI Onyx 2 in Australia. Wilcox: ‘‘I work
in the 3D animation area and so all the
work I do is passed on to Flame and
Inferno.”[...]performing somersaults on a
piece of cheese. From the single fig-
ure, the camera pulls back to reveal
that there’s millions ofpizza girls all
over the biscuit. Wilcox explains that,

The biscuit is computer-generated
and broken into par[...]c of a piece of cheese was
created which bends at the centre in
time with the person’s actions. All
of these elements were then com-
bined to create the end — making
one great big camera move.
It becomes tricky to handle the resolu-
tion levels needed: the Arnotts bickie
was created in 3D at a 4K resolution
a film resolution with steroids. This
enabled the Inferno operator to get
close for the start ofthe shot, then be
able to pull back and still hold quality.
The one big 4K graphic ofthe biscuit
was cut up into[...]a similar effect
for transferto film resolution, the sys-
tem can work at an oversize resolution
level — even up to 4K. Wilcox:
In terms of 3D you can dial in
exactly how many pixels across and
down you want. And that’s always
been the case: most of the editing
suites like Flame and Inferno are

now ge[...]D Brett Hell
and Marketing Director Chris Harris.
The main activity over the last two-
and-a-half years has been computer
animation and multimedia produc-
tions, in the nature of3D
“walk-throughs” for property and
architectural clients. The platform of
choice is Windows NT; the reason is
obvious — cost. DP foresees that within
12 months its investment in NT hard-
ware would have reached a figure
approaching $250,000; to have gone
the SGI route would have seen, as
Harris estimates it, an expenditure

nearing “triple or quadruple the price”.

Findingthatthe company has
developed and succeeded in the niche
that architecture has become, Heil and

Har[...]offer a ser-

vice that is comparable to some of

the top-end providers — but at a

much more reasonable price.
With the tightness 0f’9os budgets inin and offerthem larger
margins by providing the same prod-
uct”, their position in the marketplace
is assured.

Heil sees it as a factor[...]rce focused” with “cre-
ativity that will win the jobs in the long
run. As the work builds, we will also be
investing in the hardware.” A factor
which helps the NT-based company
take aim at the SGI end ofthe market is
the constant rise in processor speeds.
Harris is confident “in the very near
future we‘ll be looking at 1,oooMHz
chips. Although the expense may be
there, the speed will be along with it.”

DP’s 3D animat[...]ly regarded as a "good special
effects product at the NT level",
accordingto Harris. In the longerterm,
the company is keen

to be involved in the programme
market. Our ideal thing is entertain-
ment. We’re going down the
entertainment path in the long run.
Certainly in terms of films and TV
series, we’rc keen[...]

KOOKCIBURRCZ club

Become a member

of the Kookaburra Club and help tlic National
Film and S[...]Australia’:
audimvisual l1eritagc.Bctter still. the Kookaburra
Club will save you dollars in cinema
entertainment around Australia.

Youlll re[...]t
new projects related to screen
culture activity in Australia. Support
will be provided to projects which
are not in receipt of regular funding
from the AFC and fulfil the aims of
the ICD program. Funding is for one-
off project acti[...]diliiiuiilmil

Assistance is available to support
the touring exhibition of film, video
and multimedia[...]ent curators, exhibitors
and festivals to provide the public
with a select range of programs for
tourin[...]Lucy Hall, Industry and Cultural
Development or the AFC web site:
http1/Www.afc.gov.au.

AFC S[...]

MOMI — or so

it seems. In spite of

severe growing pains,

this finely-con[...]lar tourist attractions.

It was bound to happen: the acronyms
finally spat the dummy and shot them-
selves in the foot! Or so it appears to
have happened in dear old London
town, where that archive of the deep
and dark mysteries ofthe moving
image, MOM], is confronted with two
grim realities.

MOMI, the commonly-used term for
the museum, had to go: few knew
what it referred to and, besides, it con-
flicted with MOMA (Museum of
Modern Art). And after nine years of
operation, the Museum ofthe Moving
Image had run out ofspace on[...]prepares to launch its
own Australian version of the London
establishment, there may be some
lessons t[...]f
departmental representatives, respon-
sible for the marketing ofthe museum,
its curatorial activities and technical
aspects.

Mind you, getting to talk with the
appropriate bods was another matter!
But finally[...]ia email, I consider I finally got a han-
dle on the museum!

Chronological
jammed under Waterloo Bridge, the
museum’s 3,000 square metre
domain, is far from ideally placed.
Today, the place is literally crammed
to the ceiling with cinematic artefacts
from the earliest days (and before!)
right up to 1958. Tha[...]8. As
educational curator Jane McCarthy
explains, the museum is arranged in
“a chronological order, so it starts with
pre-c[...]nds around 1958”.
So what does it have? Mostly, the
odd and the expected: Marilyn Mon-
roe’s shimmy dress from Some Like it
Hot; Chaplin’s hat and cane (did he
really have only one of each?); some
cameras from the Samuelson collec-
tion; Phenakistoscopes and Zoetropes
galore; a mini-stage ortwo where the
kiddies can chroma-key themselves
over precarious[...]om Dr Who; plus
lots of other bric-a-brac.

While the venue boasts 70 laser-
disc players running conti[...]ts house a pro-
jector ofsome sort, 16 and 35 mm. Inthe ’9os buzz technology, multimedia
interactivity, CD-ROM, the World Wide
Web —you know, all those new-fan-
gl[...]special effects.
True, there are touches ofthese in the
exhibition areas, but when you think of
Britain's special contributions to the
technology of cinema over the last cen-
tury, it could be argued there should
b[...]-
signal processing ofvideo and film
images? And the acknowledged exper-
tise developed by British spe[...]ople and their facilities,
its level so high that the Lucases and
Spielbergs have returned year after
y[...]heir tricky epics?

Easy to be critical — after the event.
But perhaps in hindsight, MOMI would
have been better served ifit had been
firmly rooted onto a studio locale to
give it the rancid aroma ofthe real
thing. Movie- and video-m[...]e or lock into a specific
time zone.

After all, the whole thing was com-
pleted and opened by HRH the Prince of
Wales in September 1988—at a cost of
£12 million all up[...]purse (remember, it was
Thatchertimel).

Charge!

in many ways, the staff and executive
have done well to get as far as they
have. MOMi’s main funding is sourced
from the British Film Institute, supple-
mented by fees from workshops and
special functions. And the pounds do
roll in from the shop; whatever you do,
don’t miss the shop for your Wallace &
Gromit T—shirts, flip[...]ica Zoetropes. But

‘Gloria Swanson dress: Used
in the film Male & Female
(Cecile B. De Mille. I919)

t[...]ely bloody nothing — spilling
myself forth onto the retail area after a
heady three hours strolling through
cinema-land.
As the marketing department’s
Anna Butler admitted, the shop and
cafe are “the big money earners”. Any
plans to enlarge the museum would
take this into account, with an inten-
tion to “make the shop much more
exciting and much more at the front of
the experience”. She acknowledges,
however, planning has to remain sensi-
tive to “pester power”, the expression
for parents having to navigate through
the shop at the end ofthe “experi—
ence”, as is the case with most
galleries and museums worldwide:
We have to be a bit sensitive about
how much we put in reach of the
small children. But, it is still very
important t[...]e of
earned income.

According to Butler, MOM! is in the top

15 most-visited attractions in London,

adding that,
The name isn’t that well—kn0wn.
We actually don’t use the name
MOMI any more, because we
found out from res[...]didn’t understand what MOMI was.
So we tend to use the full Museum
Of the Moving Image.

She admitted that the museum does

not have “the kind of marketing-spend
to achieve the public profile of places
like the British Museum or the Victoria
and Albert”, but was happy that “we[...]year.”
Butler explained that MOMI falls
between thein the nine
years, while a figure of30 percent can
be a[...]with MOMI. For
her a large and unexpected part of the
appeal was the presence ofthe ‘interac-
tors’, characters co[...]using convincing accents
and dialogue to explain the item on dis-
play. Of great appeal was the charming
Southern belle who ran Reynaud’s
Theat[...]utlined,
things like actor interpreters, a lot
of the ideas we had and the interac-
tors, were Very new. Now a lot of
our museums are doing them, and
nationally, not just in London. Now
we need to think: What’s the next

CINEMA PAPERS ° AUGUST 1998

And exclusive to Atlab.

He's in demand.

Be sure to book your studio time.[...]

The W stgfifsal ‘ ent set,
complete with Mit amera[...]grade

A museum based upon a moving tech-
nology (in the mechanical sense) will
naturally have high elements ofwear
and tear.

Richard Boyd from the engineering
section admits that, with the number
offilm projectors continually in use,
wear “is a problem”. He adds:

We are replac[...]each year, but we do have prob-
lems, and I think the technology
that has gone into the museum is
actually getting older now. Wheii
we come to update on a full scale,
we will use different systems than
were originally put in.
When asked ifthe old projectors
would be dumped,[...]tion of getting rid of them.
Projectors have been the same for
many years. In fact, the major
change in projection really has been
with the sound formats that are now
used and with the lamp houses and
the lenses. But the actual mechanism
itself has changed very little in the
past 50-odd years. So we would be
keeping the film projectors.
However, Boyd’s main challenge is to
supervise the construction ofa new
IMAX theatre, virtually right next door
to the current under-bridge MOMI
complex.

This theatre[...]X cinema, Boyd
explained:

We hope to have one of the largest,
if not the largest, screen in Europe;
approximately 20 metres high and
30 metre[...]Are we ever to get a
museum ofthe moving image?

The ambivalent answer to this
question may be Sydney’s Cinémath-
eque, currently in planning as a
component ofthe Museum of Contem-
porary Art on the Western shore of
Circular Quay, aiming for comple[...]9-

Project Co-ordinator David Watson
admits that the Cinématheque will
never be a MOMI, but concedes that
components ofthe latter could appear
at the Quayside venue over time and
be comparable with Britain’s National
Film Theatre. Within the MCA will be
three cinemas and exhibition galleries.
The latter will house changing displays
and new media exhibitions. As he says:

We’re particularly building the new
galleries to have the ability to show
computer—based digital works,
t[...]fthe early MOMI team, David
Watson explained that the London
museum
was on the pulse, had the latest clips
and was very timely. But, within
two or three years, it got rather old-
fashioned. The idea was that it be

up-dated, but money prevented that.

Watson views the MCA Cinématheque
as “a different enterprise”. It will have
“a whole wing devoted to the history
offilm, but it will not be in a sense ofa
walk-through, 3-D story.”

In the foyer ofthe Cinématheque,
Watson explains, there[...]poster displays, for
technology such as cameras, the latest
digital equipment and image hardware.”

Crazily ambitious
it is planned that the two main cine-

mas will show an expansive diet o[...]show a thousand
or two thousand films a year like
the NFT does. It will be more of
the nature of 200-300 a year to
start with.
Also to be included is a small, 70—seat
preview theatre on the building's sixth
floor, with easy access to the Cine-
matheque wing.

Current funding

in just nine months, $10,000,000 has
already been raised in a capital
appeal, but another $20,000,000 is
needed. However, this funding is the
total MCA target, as the Cinémathéque
is included in that cost.

There is optimism within the MCA
that the total will be reached, hope-
fully with help from[...]and
adds, “We feel that we have been
exemplary in raising this money on
our own, and that really it[...]Future funding

Much ‘leverage’ is placed on the
unique site as a natural magnet for
visitors. Currently the museum
receives its largest income from the
Power Bequest of Sydney University
and from shop rental on four sites
backing onto the George Street facade.
This unusually-sourced cash[...]hat
“substantial” shop space will be
included in the new wing, leading to
initial estimates that the MCA will
receive $3,000,000 per annum from
this s[...]ie Smith

ore stages for
feature and series
work; the Sydney
scene is rewing up
as an ‘old-new’
studio complex follows Fox.

While the bobcats wrenched soil from
the Sydney Showground’s surface to
ready the seven or more stages in the
Fox Studio development for its May
1998 opening, across town another
complex was in the early planning and
construction stages.

To explo[...]mpse a piece ofits
future, you may like to invest in a
ticket, hop on a train at Sydney’s Cen-
tral Station and prepare yourself for a
trip along the lesser-known East Hills
train line. After a ride[...]or so stations,
you hop off at Turrella — deep in the
heart of southern Sydney suburbia.
Across the road from the station is a
film studio that has been an important
part of our feature industry since the
1940s — surely the only such facility in
this country served by a suburban
train service![...]Wynne-Avondale and more
recently Fontana Studios, the complex
has had a number ofowners during its
5o—odd years of life. The present
owner, Rick Kabriel, has been in the
chair since the early 1960s and has
himself been a very visible part of the
Sydney film production environment
duringthattime.

Over the years, many have won-
dered at the endurance ofthe Turrella
haunt, as the Sydney industry has pro-
gressed through various
boom-and-bust cycles. The ‘trick’ was
that Rick managed to feed the facility
with a continuous stream of (mostly)
television commercial productions
mingled with the odd feature and tele-
vision series.

The day ofthe old-time studio has
well and truly passed: Supreme, with
its 14o—plus staff, closed in the 19705;

CINEMA PAPERS ' AUGUST 1998

wh[...]

The studio facility company is
known as Filmspace.

S[...].5 hectares of land, an 8km
crow’s flight from the Sydney CBD. You
can drive there from the CBD in around
20-30 minutes, or perform a 10-15
minute scamper from the airport. Well
located? Sure. The only downside is
that Turrella is the other side of town
from the film labs and video post-
houses, as well as the ad agencies
which currently ‘feed’ the machine.