Bad box office not the same as bad films
Margaret Pomeranz delivered a powerful keynote speech at the opening of the SPAA Conference yesterday in Sydney, and Encore has the full transcript of her meditation on the state of Australian film and television – and why Government and audiences should appreciate the arts a little more.
I’m extremely grateful to SPAA for inviting me to give this keynote speech today. It is the Hector Crawford Memorial Lecture and I want to honour the man today. Hector put Australian television on the map, he made Australian accents acceptable in the media. Do you remember when we could only stomach New Zealanders reading our news because they sounded more English than us? Brian Henderson was a prime example. But more than that Hector validated Australian writers, Australian actors, directors, designers, a whole Australian infrastructure, Some of those people are still working today. In a very significant way Hector created an industry, he made us believe in ourselves., our dramas, our landscapes, our language, our difference. The miraculous thing was that despite American everything, and occasionally the BBC dominating the airwaves then, people wanted to watch Australian drama on television. He did create an industry.
As long as I’ve been around this flawed, halting, wonderful industry I’ve believed in exactly what Hector believed in. I love Australian films. Not all of them as some of you know, but at the very least there are my landscapes, my language, recognizable cultural references up there on screen that comfort me, nourish me. That experience is important to a lot of Australians I think, they embrace our films when they’re good and they watch our television drama in droves.
I first came back to Australia in 1971 after spending two years overseas. How lucky I was. I didn’t plan it, but I met up with my future husband Hans Pomeranz over a Viennese chocolate cake called a Sachertorte after the famous cake made by the Hotel Sacher in Vienna. I had to bring one back as a present from one of his relations there and I wasn’t aware that they weighed well over a kilo.
That Sachertorte has led me on a merry dance within the Australia film industry. Hans was soon to shoot a film adaptation of Ken Cook’s stage play Stockade. From a simple date I was immediately thrust into the vortex of what David Stratton has called the ‘New Wave’ of Australian filmmaking in the 1970’s. It was exciting. Tim Burstall had made Stork, times were changing and the fact that the Whitlam government came into power in 1972 seemed to signal that this country was turning around from what I thought was the incredibly stultifying era that I had wanted to escape from by going to Europe. Hopes were high for a new and confident Australia. A film school had been established, an investment body for film had been set up, Medicare was on the agenda, key parties were ok and pot was on the menu.
I remember going to all those early screenings of the AFI’s. Where every film ever shot in Australia that year was shown. Some were excruciating, but it was exhilarating nevertheless, providing my first encounter with Fred Schepisi, Paul Cox, with Fantasm come to think of it. They were heady days, full of hope, full of confidence in our own voice, in our own ability to create cinema. And as the decade progressed we had our Peter Weir, our Phillip Noyce, our Bruce Beresford, our Gillian Armstrong, and even our Brian Trenchard-Smith with his particular brand of genre. I love the fact that now Quentin Tarantino lists Turkey Shoot as one of his much-loved Australian films. I remember its reception at the AFI screening. As a director, you wouldn’t want to be there.
We have such a short history of film in the contemporary era, we’re talking only really about 40 years. I came back to this country just in time to see it evolve and to become involved with it and passionate about it.
Looking with awe our 177 medal total at the recent Commonwealth Games. We trumped England with a population in excess of 60 million. We trumped India with 1 billion population. It’s an indication of how much money this country is prepared to fork out to back winners.
But how much money goes into creating that degree of success with our top artists? Our top filmmakers? Just as a current reference, the Federal Government is investing an extra $195 million in elite athletes in the run-up to the London Olympics. Gee, our top filmmakers should be so lucky. And then when the sportspeople succeed and get multi-million dollar sponsorships does a HECS scheme kick in? Like it does for our poor young arts graduates paying back their tuition on a teacher’s salary?
Rather than that cathartic feeling you get from winning at sport, art or culture works in a rather different way. I remember when I first started working at SBS. I’d get in a cab and there would be a surly, resentful attitude from the cab driver about government money being put into that ‘wog’ station. Barely five years later the cab driver couldn’t wait to tell me about the Turkish movie he’d seen the night before. Slowly from the edge the understanding of other worlds, other lives was seeping into the national consciousness. I remember one of my colleagues who was Greek saying that when she went to the supermarket and her mother would talk to her in Greek she would try to hush her, saying ‘Shhhh, they’ll hear you.’ They will hear you. How times have changed. These days in the supermarket it’s a united nations of languages. And how much healthier we are as a society because of it. That window to the world of other people’s lives that SBS offered through its acquisition of films, its programming in general actually, had a profound impact on Australian society. The power of film to convey the common experience of humanity is never to be underestimated. Hey, people in Mongolia care about their kids just like we do, those African people from Guinea Bissau experience powerful love despite their very different customs and wow the French are unfaithful too!
I’m talking about film because that is the medium that I experience most. But television also plays an important part, mainly about understanding American culture and getting to understand the workings of the British police force. But how heartening it is that Hector’s legacy lingers in the fact that Australians do want to watch Australian television drama. It’s heartening to see the ratings of productions like All Saints, Packed to the Rafters, Hawke, Underbelly, Offspring and now Rake. It’s great to see Home and Away and Neighbours hanging in there after all these years. It’s great to see the diversity of our lives offered by SBS with East West 101, The Circuit and RAN. The most important element of our television is the work that is produced here, by us, about us, reflecting our values, our foibles, our weaknesses, our history. Australian television drama is fundamental to our culture. And it’s a fragile creature. It doesn’t happen because of free market money, it happens because of government regulation and funding support. Those regulations and that funding support are vital.
At its best both film and television is inspirational, it reflects the sort of people we would want to be and the people we would not want to be. It is in itself a moral narrative of the times.
How much money is put into our film industry to actually keep the talent that we keep on producing? It’s hard getting a film up. It’s hard making it. It’s hard marketing it as so many disaffected filmmakers know. It’s hard to stop thinking I want to make a film that impresses Hollywood so I can get out of here and make a living for a change. I always remember the producer Ben Gannon saying to me that until he made Heartbreak High for television his bank account had been permanently in the red. The feature film industry in this country is, in the vernacular, a ‘mug’s game’. As a director it’s a ‘mug’s game’. If you are passionate about your project then you sacrifice everything to get it up, to get it made. We cannot expect our top filmmakers to exist on one film every five years. But how do we ensure continuity of work for our talented people? How do we ensure that our industry is adventurous and daring?
How do we keep our top filmmakers here in Australia? I have an idea. Up to four successful filmmakers a year – and maybe there will be only one – are given $100,000 to develop their next project with a guarantee that there will be government funding of at least $2 million. You have to give them a head start, you have to give them a reason to stay here. What is David Michod going to do next? Animal Kingdom will take a large chunk out of his year as he promotes it around the world. I think we ought to encourage a talent like that to stay here, make his next film here, give him a major incentive to hone his skills in this country. We have to commit to rewarding success, investing in our talent, just like we do with sportspeople.
Where is the role of television in the development of filmmaking skills? Hats off to Channel 7 for their continued commitment to Australian drama, Plaudits too to Channel 9 for Underbelly, to Channel 10 for Offspring and to SBS for their fine series. The ABC, traditionally home for adventurous Australian drama, has been decimated over the years by successive governments. It’s only recently that the scenario there has changed and what happens – Rake happens. Wonderfully entertaining, clever drama. Having the chance to work on quality television drama is part of the natural progression of a filmmaker. How important was that experience in developing the careers of people like Rachel Ward, Jessica Hobbes, Matt Saville, Stuart McDonald?
The BBC and Channel 4 have been the backbone of British film production. Where are our current features for television? Well, finally there’s the ABC with their investment in Samson and Delilah and Bran Nue Dae, and currently they have put money into Bec Cole’s Here I Am and into Fred Schepisi’s The Eye of the Storm. This is a good sign. Because it offers filmmakers not only a significant start to their production, it ultimately offers the chance of a significant audience.
The fact that the ABC has been absent from feature film production has been a problem and it’s one not faced in the UK or elsewhere in Europe. It’s great to see that situation changing.
I remember the days when Bridget Ikin headed up SBSi and we had The Quiet Room, Floating Life, Radiance, The Boys, and then together with the Adelaide Festival there was The Tracker, Australian Rules, Walking on Water. I understand television stations are impatient to put their productions to air and the window that has to be allowed for cinema distribution is a bit of a turn-off. That’s why the public broadcasters are important in this area.
The constant cry out there is that we don’t have the writers. Does anyone? Have you seen the abysmally written stuff from America that I’ve had to sit through over the years? It is a universal problem. Great writing for film is hard to find. And I just have to say here that David Michod’s Animal Kingdom is one helluva well-written film. It’s so well structured, it’s got immediately gripping characters, but for me the main thing about that film is that it delivers an emotional thump. Something I don’t think Australians or Canadians do very well. Now this is my theory. We inherited all that stuff from England about stiff upper lips and not showing emotions but we didn’t inherit the Oxbridge fraternity of exalting the written word. How many of Britain’s top writers, comics come from that tradition.
The point that I have tried to make at many a dinner party and often been asked to defend is that we Australians and those Canadians have a hard time accessing the emotional core of our cinema. We have splendid cinematographers, musicians, production designers, the works, but I think both directors and writers fall down in this one area. And it’s the area that audiences respond to. If you create central unlikeable characters you have to in some way give them a chance, a hint of redemption – for goodness sake Hugo Weaving’s character Kev in Last Ride was a despicable character – but ultimately he did care about his son more than he did about himself. But did the audience leave the cinema with a strong cathartic sense of that. I don’t think so, and I’m not really criticizing director Glendyn Ivin or the writer Mac Gudgeon, because so much of that film was fabulous, but the punchline failed to deliver the catharsis that we needed after that tough last ride. Just give audiences a bit more and I think that film would have much greater success at the box office.
And I don’t think Australian films deal with sex or intimacy very well either. Jonathan Teplisky did move some way towards that in Better Than Sex. He got it. That if it’s going to be interesting then it isn’t just about the act, it’s something that takes place during it.
How many great sex scenes can you think of in Australian movies. I can’t think of many. As a matter of fact I can’t think of any? How many great loving relationships? Not many? It’s as if we’re frightened of exposing ourselves on screen, that rawness of emotion. We’re shy about delving into true emotion, we’re shy about celebrating our heroes, we’re embarrassed about exposing anything. I blame the Brits. We got all their uptightness with very little of their daring literary culture.
I’m not contending that our filmmakers resort to cheap emotionalism or sentimentality. But how do you create the significance of that smile on Delilah’s face at the end of Samson and Delilah. That was one tough film, the pay-off was so miniscule, but compared to what we’d had to go through to get to it, it was a stupendous, powerful miniscule moment. I was so glad that audiences responded to that film, I was afraid they wouldn’t but somewhere along the way you have to trust their intelligence, their sensitivity, their ability to actually ‘get it’.
Warwick Thornton trusted us, he believed in us. This is Indigenous Australia trusting us to get what they’re on about. How important is that in our development as a nation?
How cinema about our Aboriginal people has established its place in our consciousness. How important an art form for reconciliation it is. Just think about The Tracker, Rolf de Heer’s bold revisiting of our attitudes and history – with Gulpilil’s final riposte to the question of who did kill that woman? ‘Probably a white fella boss. They are murderers, shifty, thieving, dishonest mob. Can’t trust ‘em one bit.’ How we laughed at the end of that quite violent film, how we rejoiced at the black man having the final say. A sense of humour can reconcile different cultures as we’ve seen recently with Rachel Perkins’ Bran Nue Dae and with Richard Frankland’s stoner road movie Stone Bros. Philip Noyce’s Rabbit Proof Fence celebrated the indomitable spirit of the importance of family and place, Ten Canoes made us delve deep into the reality of Aboriginal culture and history. Bran Nue Dae was a celebration of Aboriginal origins and connections and music, Beneath Clouds explored the disenfranchisement of a young couple and Samson and Delilah did something special. It not only made us believe in the power of love, it told the truth and made us weep for our neglect and root for the neglected. That was something else again.
It’s art that is making us come to terms with the contradictions in our culture. It’s art that’s shaking us up and moving us and making us change. It’s art that is bloody important to this country’s responsibilities and history.
So much of our investment in film is skewed it seems to me. It’s about a business model, about the market, it’s not about the talent. Even the word investment has connotations. It implies a monetary return for a cash outlay. We ought to be thinking in much broader terms about return. We ought to be thinking about the cultural nourishment of investing in talent. I remember there were a few years when Australian films didn’t do so well at the box office and it was assumed we hadn’t made good films. We did make good films but either they were marketed badly or they were just a bit too challenging for audiences to engage with. You only have to think about The Boys 1998, Praise 1999. Suburban Mayhem 2006. No-one in their right mind could think they were anything less than brave, excellent pieces of cinema. No-one would regard them as mistakes.
We must ensure that the people making decisions about funding are able to recognize talent and are prepared to back it. The hoops that have to be jumped through to attain funding these days seem excessive. No wonder we’re seeing more and more films bypassing traditional funding bodies and going it alone. It’s not the answer. Something else is.
One of the most successful funding models has been through the Indigenous unit at Screen Australia. The focus there was on development of projects through workshops tailored to each individual project and to the individual needs of the filmmaker. Sally Riley, former head of that unit and now heading up the Indigenous unit at the ABC, says that it is crucial to have that focused development and a production outcome with a broadcaster attached. There has to be an audience in mind and in reality.
I started in this business as a writer, way back when. Went to NIDA, did the Playwright’s Studio, wrote for Certain Women and then branched out into documentaries, a radio play and a feature film. I always regarded myself as an escapee from screenwriting because I never felt then that I was getting anywhere. I was writing, people were just taking the guff that I wrote, there was never any criticism, I had to fight to get into the control room at ABC to see the production of one of the episodes of Certain Women I’d written, just to learn how it was done. Just so I could understand more of the process, see the mistakes I’d made. I felt powerless, inept. And I most probably was. I don’t know that I could have ever have been a good writer but at least now there are processes for the development of writing. Like Aurora in NSW and FilmLab in Adelaide.
Someone said to me recently writers in the United States are treated badly and paid well, in Britain they’re paid well and treated well and here they’re paid badly and treated badly. Because of that writers are so desperate to make something stick they spread themselves over a number of projects. It’s difficult to move one project forward so that in the end maybe none comes to fruition. Maybe we ought to pay our writers better money.
Another thing about this industry is that we produce stars in droves and then we can’t afford them. If you think about the talent that this industry has nurtured over the years it’s incredible, in all areas of film. From a population as small as ours. To me it’s always been extraordinary that no sooner are our top actors seduced overseas, our top cinematographers, our top directors, our top anyone, we just keep producing another generation of talented people. How do we keep them? Attract them back here? Good scripts I guess, more good directors, meaty roles. We are so unfair to ourselves. We don’t have a real film industry. We have a cottage industry. You can’t have filmmakers waiting around five, seven years after they’ve made a splendid film. They need to hone their skills, repair their mistakes. Quickly. Jump on that horse again.
Maybe it was the way Andrew Dominic wanted it after Chopper, but it was seven years between that film and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. He didn’t look as if he needed the practice in between I admit, but even so, it’s a long time between drinks. Notably he didn’t make his second film in Australia. How come we don’t throw money at talent like that? Development money, real money. Keep that amazing talent in our own backyard.
Actually keep any talent in our own backyard. I’ve been up close and personal with this industry for nearly forty years. I married into it. In fact I feel I didn’t marry Hans, I married Spectrum. And there have been tough times, really tough times as I imagine there have been for many of us in this area of film and television production. I just wish someone would get it right occasionally. We now have a Producer Offset that isn’t working for many filmmakers, even though it was, and I’m quoting, ‘introduced to increase production and help the Australian industry grow by developing sustainable business’, 10BA has gone, the Australian dollar is now crippling, any thought of any film from overseas taking advantage of our cheapness is a thing of the past. Fox Studios lie empty, have done for some time now, the studios on the Gold Coast and Melbourne are housing television.
I have two sons in this industry. Felix, the younger, cut his teeth in the visual effects department on Star Wars: Episode II, went on to Stealth, both shot in Australia. Then it was New Zealand for the first Chronicles of Narnia, back here for Superman Returns, Vancouver for Night at the Museum, London for The Golden Compass. That was 2007. Since then he has only returned to Australia once, for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He would like to work in Australia. He would have liked to work on The Green Lantern, on Justice League of America, on Battleship or on Triple X. But they just fell away as the dollar went up or as the government got toey about qualifying Australian production expenditure. Export industries must be hurting badly, except if you have iron ore or coal or something that other’s wealth depends on. But the fact is that someone who has gained skills in this country is forced to work overseas for much of his life and his mother doesn’t get to see him very much at all. And she doesn’t like that. I wish he’d become a motor mechanic. He could have earned as much and he’d be based here!
I don’t think it’s particularly healthy thinking that overseas productions are the be-all and end-all of our industry. I don’t think, as governments do, that getting all that cash spend is the aim. However those productions offered chances for some sort of continuity of employment for workers in film, given the stop/start nature of our industry, they offered the opportunity for the gaining of skills – Felix is a perfect example – and they offered the opportunity for the expansion of skills, setting new challenges for our talented people. And yes, they offered all those other ancillary benefits that governments tend to like so much. The spend spend thing.
Something has to give. We need a passionate supporter of our industry in the Arts Ministry and in Treasury. You only have to see the benefits when you get a passionate supporter in a position of power like Mike Rann in South Australia, like Peter Collins here in NSW all those years ago, like Virginia Judge now. I’m not so familiar with other states but I’m sure it has happened, is happening there as well. Or not as the case may be.
Because our industry is faltering, not enough is happening. There’s no sense of dynamism, of exhilaration. There is a great sense of satisfaction knowing that we’re able to produce truly excellent films like Animal Kingdom and Samson and Delilah. But talking to people there is a sense of unease in the industry. It’s harder than ever to interest overseas investors and even then their money is worth much less now. It’s hard getting projects through Screen Australia, let’s hope they don’t drop the bundle with their support of local television drama or we’d really be in a dark place.
But I have another son, Josh, who is optimistic about this industry. Optimistic about the opportunities offered by the 40% rebate, by co-production deals with countries like Singapore – Kimble Rendall is directing Bait 3D in Queensland because of such a paradigm. Apparently we’re moving towards a co-production deal with India. That could be interesting.
I know I ought to end this on an up note, and I can very easily. Whatever happens I know the film and television industry in this country will survive. Since we began The Movie Show way back in 1986 there has been an explosion of interest in film culture, in short film festivals, in independent feature production. There’s a growing confidence in what we can achieve. It’s going to happen one way or another so that I know my grandchildren – if ever my children decide to breed – will be able to see their culture, their language, their actors, landscapes up there on the big screen and small so they can have discourse about their country and the issues that it faces, the personal issues, the political issues and the funny ones. I’m an optimist, I believe in our talent, I believe in our ability to regenerate despite setbacks. So it’s over to you, producers!
I really liked and agree with what Margaret says, even though I don’t agree with some of the films she mentions and praises, Animal Kingdom was too long, and melodramatic at times, Suburban Mayhem?? please.
What about films like, Beautiful Kate, Cedar Boys and Clubland?
However, we do need to support our first time directors from heading overseas. I suppose there just isn’t enough money to keep them here!
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I love Margaret but she applauds some shows that aren’t necessarily deserving. Too many TV shows don’t don’t treat females with equal value to men, and until that changes nothing will improve – the audience and the international market will continue to shy away if our producers don’t get a clue.
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Was Animal Kingdom a ‘good’ film? Despite all the hype AK was average,
compared to, say, French crime dramas such ‘A Prophet’ or ‘Carlos’.
I am an Academy Award winning feature film professional and a resident
of Melbourne, Australia. My suggestion to serious Australian filmmakers is:
Buy an international air fare and get out of this backward country as soon
as possible, perhaps with a stopover in Wellywood, New Zealand.
Australian funding for the arts is an embarrassment rife with nepotism.
How many Australian nationals have I met overseas on government arts
study funding who spend the majority of their time partying and shootin’
drugs with the locals. Honestly, a disgrace.
My suggestion would be NOT to give Australian filmmakers more funding.
It generally goes into the wrong hands anyway. Let the local free market
sort itself out.
They’d love to think they do, but the Australian public are generally ignorant
to arts culture and give local product zero support. The Australian film industry
is filled with undeservedly arrogant egos. Perhaps the reality actually is,
Australian filmmakers just aren’t that good at their craft …
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Ouch!
While there is some truth in what you say, can I ask why you’re sticking it out in Melbourne if the film scene is so grim here?
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Great piece Margaret!! I think Australia’s biggest excuse for not making better films is its lack of finance. So why haven’t we had any successful micro budget films like Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, El mariachi, or Clerks? Or did I miss them?
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Dear Slam
(the Academy Award Winning feature film professional now a resident of Melbourne)- you must be good at your craft, or did you just do the right drugs with the right people and fail upwards? Old Hollywood its a funny old town, especially when you decide to take aim and do what every other expat does and take a piss in your old “craftless” backyard, maybe you and Germain Greer can go and score an eight ball together and hit the party circuit?
All this nonsense aside, we are a culture with our special issues, our own well crafted sense of Nepotism etc..but what we aren’t or I hope we never slip into is a bunch of self congratulatory-nihilistic-hill-sitting-all-knowing-all-seeing navel gazing tossers who feel that the future is so bleak we might as well all say a collective ” OH JUST F@$K IT !”.
If we do become that, well we should just shut up shop and sit back and all watch “Dancing with the Morons” and see what happens when you let a sophisticated culture fall into the hands of Cashed Up Bogans.
Which brings me to The Animal Kingdom (love the Bogan Segue..don’t you?), whilst it isn’t Chinatown or Apocalypse Now, The Animal Kingdom is a very good study of the sociopathic mind by a first time feature film maker, who I feel might have some very interesting writing years ahead of him. Imagine what David might be writing in ten years time? So why not sow the seeds of encouragement now and give Mister Michod and his team a well deserved pat on the back and see what might come in a few years from now. (lets face it Slam if we left it up to you to hand out awards, it’d be death by Flame Thrower, simply for trying) The Prophet was a brilliant piece of filmmaking, but the creative act “SLAM” isn’t a pissing contest, so to compare two films of the same genre from different cultures is like comparing Tip Top Bread with a Parisian croissant…why bother…or is that you couldn’t writer something remotely similar to AK and therefore are doomed to staring in a mirror every morning like Scottie (Philip Seymour Hoffman from Boogie Nights) saying repeatedly “I’m a F@3King Idiot”…don’t worry Slam we’ve all been there…maybe flex that Oscar and make your own AK or a Prophet, but please if you’re going to take a swipe at least offer an alternative….now get back to that eight ball with Miss Greer, god knows she could do with it…How many smug Australian nationals have I met overseas and here with massive chips on their shoulders? Too many to even care…have a nice day Slam and don’t forget to polish that mirror!
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Interesting read. I’m an Australian working in the film industry here in Sydney. Like Margaret’s son I work in VFX, but unlike her son I and have had contionued, high paying, work for the last five years. I have been offered work in NZ, UK and the US, but have always turned it down because the work is here, especially in the VFX field.
Unfortunately though most of the time I am working on big Hollywood films, only now am I working on Aussie films with Legend of the Guardians and Happy Feet 2 (yes US dollars are paying for it, but the talent behind them are all Australian).
It’s simple as to why athletes get the funding versus filmmakers. Everyone will watch a sporting event, barely anyone goes to see Aussie films. And why? Because they’re fucking downers! Seriously, 8 out of 10 Australian films end with the main character, or someone close to them, being killed. I can’t remember the last time I walked out of cinema after seeing an Australian film thinking, “Man that was fun. What a great time.” (I never saw Tomorrow When The War Began, but it looks as though it may have been fun). Here’s hoping Red Hill will be.
My girlfriend avoids Aussie films now because the majority of them lack a happy ending.
The sooner we start entertaining audiences the sooner we’ll start doing better.
(btw I didn’t mind Animal Kingdom, but certainly don’t think it was as great as the critics. And that too suffered from the downer ending.
And Bran Nue Dae had possibly the worst trailer I have ever had to sit through so I have avoided seeing the film)
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Thank you to Margaret for an engaging, insightful and very enjoyable speech.
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Geoffrey Rush…stop it!
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I think Les has really hit the nail on the head.
About 15 years ago we made films that were entertaining.
Then our governement agencies started focusing on making films that could run the festival circuit and “win awards”.
That was about the time all our films became wishy washy downers.
(interestingly enough – not unlike French festival cinema films).
As for The Prophet – what a terrible terrible TERRIBLE film !!!!
The truth is, that festival awards rarely translate into box office dollars – it’s not the same audience that will go and see one, as the other.
I’m very conscious of what the non-film people around me are watching, and while there was a wave of people who really loved and enjoyed Bran Nu Dae …
Sommersault and Bright Star were a terrible yawn fest.
The first: I’m sorry … a girl who goes to Jindabyne and comes back again – and doesnt really do anything while she’s there except be annoying.
It’s saving grace – stunning sound design and beautiful cinematography.
Not that the performance were bad – but the story just wasnt there.
The second: OMG – static camera, reading poetry passionatelessly, nothing in the sound design could sell it to us that the couple had any chemistry.
Regarding working OS – then coming home … it’s not a real surprise, it’s even admirable. While the work is OS, would you want to raise your kids in LA ??
But LA is a training ground for professionalism, and there is a tier in Australia that lacks this sorely (I’m not directing this to that terrific tier of guys that do outstanding work).
When you’ve worked on studio films, or other larger scale international films, and understand you’re expected to deliver on time and up to standard, come hell or high water, ….then come back to that other tier of Aussie crew who just do things half arsed, it’s incredibly frustrating.
Having those bigger studio films pass through our shores provides the avenue for crew to master their craft on films they wouldnt necessarily have access to within Australia.
The shame of it is that we arent making films in that middle $10-25M budget range which allows the latitude to afford an experienced skill set, along with the money needed to create something great, and a little spare to recruit new blood and allow them to gain experience on set under the guidance of our top crew.
Sanctum is the exception. But when one considers that Bait is trying to do a similar scaled film, using new technology, on half the budget … those guys are doing it very very tough.
I was recently involved with crewing top AU crew for a big project due to come to our shores. There was one single resounding truth in all the crew I spoke with – “they all – without exception – wanted to come work back home”. Whether it was to be with or near their families, or simply because they were fed up with living out of suitcases, it was a bit like speaking to soldiers who wanted to come home from a war.
I dont think its fair to label any of these crew or cast ‘snobs’ or ‘unpatriotic’ because they have been working overseas, because we all know in this industry “you’re only as good as your last film”, and nobody wants their next film to be their last.
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I have watched Margaret’s tv movie review show and do not see the level of support for Australiam movies coming across in the reviews. I will buy and watch Australian films in preference to other countries. We have a lot of movies to be very proud of.
Perhaps the best way for some of our movies to have world wide appeal would be to be able to borrow back some of our big name actors like Russell Crowe or Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts Cate Blanchett Eric Banna or Mel Gibson and have them in some of our Australian films…or are they are too many millions to pay.
For movies showing great emotion,
Samson and Delilah -great emotion- so depressing..but a very real portrayal. Well done to Warwick Thornton and team.
And Shadows of the Past, the Australian made bull riding movie now released in USA as A Hell of A Ride is great. Laughed, cried, just beautiful.
With American movies-I count the number of time “f’….” in them these days. Hope Australian movies don’t go this way.
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