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.
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!
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.
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 …
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?
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?
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!
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)
Thank you to Margaret for an engaging, insightful and very enjoyable speech.
Geoffrey Rush…stop it!
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.
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.