Filmbiz blog

Gran Torino is a grand affair

by Hugh Slesinger | January 12, 2009 13:31

Clint Eastwood's latest and perhaps last has raised some eyebrows with its particularly racist subject matter

One of the last big US releases of 2008 was the highly anticipated action-thriller, Gran Torino, directed by the Oscar winning, mainstream outlaw Clint Eastwood. At first glance, the film's trailer hinted perhaps at giving us what appeared to be another Harry Calahan- style shoot ‘em up holiday pre-fab flick. In fact, it turns out that what may be Clint's final acting performance is more than just another high-calibre-red rider-BB gun under the Christmas tree, begging to be removed before the next administration takes office on January the 20th.

The film's hype of gratuitous violence and tough bravado buddy bomb seemed groomed to be a ringer for a target audience that longed for an updated version of a western from the good old days when good guys and bad guys were as two dimensional as high noon westerns shot in black and white. Gran Torino, it turns out, is not your predictable pro-violence blockbuster, and actually portrays a piece of filmmaking art which lies somewhere between Clint's dirty old self and his sensitive Bridges of Madison County persona. Eastwood's rumoured and quite possible acting ‘swan song,' about a 1972 two door  351 C.I. limited sports edition vehicle (the titular Gran Torino), hides a lot of power under its hood and has, if nothing else, elicited mixed emotional reviews from a wide variety of critics on a wide range of topics. Perhaps justly so, as Eastwood plays the role of Walt Kawolski, a recently widowed, retired auto-assembly-line worker,  Korean war veteran and unapologetic bigot  living in modern day suburban Detroit.

There is no post traumatic stress disorder over the number of "gooks" he begrudgingly confesses he shot to a neighbourhood kid, rather than confessing to his beloved deceased wife's fresh out of the seminary priest. Instead Eastwood's character is like many of today's senior citizens struggling to deal with a rapidly changing world, clinging to the familiar. Walt ("Don't call me Wally") Kowalski takes pride in his country, his flag and telling his neighbours to "stay off my lawn." Soon Kowalski has to deal with living next door to the immigrant Hmong family, whom he declares as "Barbarians" (among his kinder racial epithets). With time and the overt sweetness of the Hmong family (and in particular seventeen year old Sue Lor played by Ahney Her), Kowalski's overt prejudicial macho tendencies to some extent begrudgingly retreat, if only like glaciers melting due to some fortunate global multi-cultural warming.

Many politically correct ‘slur fearing' critics seem to take real offence at Eastwood's racist character and are missing the point. (It's called believable role-playing folks!) Clint Eastwood as Walter Kowalski is indeed scary, rude, and unappealing - if not all too real a character in places throughout America where gentrification, and integration, be it economic or social, are lacking.

The sad reality is that this ubiquitous topic requires more mainstream coverage not less and, running away from the film because it uses words that have always been in the vernacular is not going to erase what we would all like to forget. Has such language stopped the popularity of hip-hop, because it frequents the use of the "N" word? Also give Eastwood kudos and recognition for stepping out of bounds and beyond the limits of his past big gun box office successes, trying to put a sense of cultural conflict in the increasingly ethnically diverse modern world.

Gran Torino turns out to be an against the grain tragedy that evokes feelings as it evolves into a melancholy and touching film. Eastwood's script was at times a tad trite ("Ya know somethin'... you're okay kid") and his growly scowl faced dialogue was definitely ill-suited for singing. (Clint, now is not the time to start a new career.) But hey, who else is addressing these issues in the forum of an edge of your (bench) seat suspense action-thriller prime for Hollywood New Year's release? Perhaps Roger Ebert wrote it best when he observed, ‘What other figure in the history of the cinema has been an actor for 53 years, a director for 37, won two Oscars for direction, two more for best picture, plus the Thalberg Award, and at 78 can direct himself in his own film and look meaner than hell? None, that's how many.'

Farwell 2008, the year that was

by Rhiannon Sawyer | December 31, 2008 11:26

Rhiannon Sawyer says goodbye to 2008 and looks toward the new year.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! went crazy around the world, raking in the big bucks and staying in the top ten box office rankings for weeks and weeks in a row. We also saw the release of big time blockbusters including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which could only receive a resounding, 'yeah, alright' from the world's fans and critics. Other big names busted out some fair with Robert Downey Jr and Will Smith taking to the screens as unlikely superheroes, only one being a super success.

Don't forget the screaming 15 year old girls who got more than their fair share this year with great comedy in Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging not to mention the hotly anticipated Twilight, the first in an epic series about love between the undead and the really quite pasty.

There was also a fantastic host of indie gems, including Lars and The Real Girl, Be Kind Rewind, Happy Go Lucky, In Bruges and The Wackness which brought a touch of class to the cinema, along with fantastic foreign flavour with The Counterfeiters, Roman de Gare, Mongol and The Orphanage.

Have you noticed a single Aussie film in this mix? I thought not. Neither have I. There were some stand-out performances from our collection of very talented Aussie actors but none of these films performed well in the box office stakes. Ok, so Australia didn't do too badly, but rewind back to January and let's ask who saw The Tender Hook, The Square, Bitter and Twisted, Cactus, Rats and Cats, Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger... the big earner for the year was The Black Balloon and congratulations to them on creating a beautiful, heart- felt story with a larger appeal. We won't mention how its earnings were about $43 million shy of Australia's big earner of the year, The Dark Knight.  I'm desperately trying not to fault Australian films, I would like to see our industry thrive with the best of them. I do sincerely wish that Australia would have more success than failures.  But if you look at 2008, we're not having the best of times.

Bring on 2009, new challenges, new releases, new blockbusters and big fun. Let's think optimistically about Australian film in 2009.

What IF?

by Yumi Stynes | December 09, 2008 13:18

Yumi Stynes gives us the rundown on the IF and AFI awards, and the event that was Australia.

Actors are a funny bunch. I've met enough of them now to be glad I'm not one. At the 2008 IF Awards I found myself surrounded by these strange creatures who mid-conversation would change accents and gesticulate wildly, as though on permanent audition. 

Musicians play a room differently. They have a posse - their band. A band is not unlike a professional football team (except less lucrative): there is camaraderie, loyalty, a certain level of alcohol abuse and, when it succeeds, many years of unique shared experiences. Actors, on the other hand, are all individuals who form short-term units for, say, a play, then disband to regroup with more strangers for a TV show or movie. They're team players with no fixed team. Maybe the actor's life is a never-ending hunt for a posse?

The IFs are one of my favourite awards because all these strangers and units and posses get together at a big hotel in the middle of nowhere and bunker in to party like it's 1999. It always gets to a point where everyone stops caring, or more succinctly; it gets LOOSE! For the past three years it's been held at the Royal Pines Resort in QLD and attracts everyone from Hugo Weaving and Bill Hunter to up-and-coming stars like Rhys Wakefield and hot director Nash Edgerton. Representing music were Tex Perkins and Kate Miller-Heidke and all manner of interesting short film and music video makers were in attendance. Because all guests stay the night, the politics level-out and the after-party is one of the most genuinely bonding industry gigs I've ever experienced.

My highlight was waking up fresh as a daisy for a 6:30am breakfast and coming down from my room to find the palatial grounds of the Royal Pines looking like a zombie movie. There were party stragglers staggering around in dishevelled tuxedos and broken high heeled shoes, slurring conversations and slumping over on sun lounges. Barry Otto - looking fresh - waved us off as we got a ride to the airport and told us the bar didn't close til 5am. Rock on, IF Awards!

Actors get stranger the further you travel up the food chain and it was interesting to go to the press conference for Australia where Nicole Kidman, David Gulpilil, Baz Lurhmann, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham, child actor Brandon Walters and every other important person from the film faced off against an obedient but thick-with-scoundrels pack of press, photographers and crew. You always see the glamour end of entertainment reporting at these dos - James Tobin from Sunrise or Margaret Pomeranz from At The Movies, but next to Nicole Kidman, I think every last one of us felt scruffy, ugly and deeply, profoundly poor.

By all reports money was no object during the making of Australia but there are quite a few careers resting on the success of the film. People working in film, TV, or music who've been around for more than a week will have had at least a couple of friends employed by the juggernaut that was the production of Australia. It was with great relief, then, that commentators noted the film didn't suck and was actually rather entertaining. Whew!

Entertaining enough for a live public broadcast on Channel 9 was this year's AFI Awards, which have managed to remain relevant by celebrating great TV as well as film - this year it was the awesome Underbelly and Summer Heights High taking top honours. A hot line-up of stars arrived in Melbourne to the Princess Theatre on Spring Street - with the men, notably Vince Colosimo, Eric Bana and Guy Pearce oozing style and class.

The usual problem with the AFI Awards happened again - call it ‘Japanese Story Syndrome' - where a minor success sweeps all the categories at the expense of more deserving nominees. In this case it was The Black Balloon - a not bad film with some interesting ideas but certainly no better than The Square and a lot less fun. At least the win for Best Supporting Actor by Luke Ford for his portrayal of an autistic teenager in Balloon, felt deserved and unanimously celebrated. We'll be watching his career with great interest.

Online filming

by Rhiannon Sawyer | December 02, 2008 12:49

FILMINK has a look at what the internet can do for the industry.

It really doesn't need to be said again but here we go: the internet is going to take over the world. This is already true in most elements of the business world, most elements of the dating world and 99% of the porn world.

But what does this mean for film?

The film industry is certainly heavily reliant on the internet as a marketing tool- every big distributor logged onto that a long time ago when ‘viral' became the latest buzz word. Since then so many elements of the industry have moved online: including casting, job advertisements and now even production. One organisation, manageyourfilm.com has created a comprehensive online portal in which producers can coordinate all aspects of a film's production- send out call sheets, contact cast and crew, share and distribute files according to departments, manage schedules and storyboards- the list goes on. With such an all inclusive website, the production side of putting a film together has become much easier with the help of these types of database sites.

The Australian film industry could really learn a lot by using the internet as a tool. The biggest problem that most Australian films suffer is not having enough buzz created about the film. Anyone with dreamweaver and preferably a designer friend could put together a pretty neat website and online campaign to get the word out about their latest thriller. Have a look at what Warner did with The Dark Knight, it doesn't take a huge budget to get that off the ground. Think global Australian filmmakers: now that you have all of these websites to help you put the film together, advertise jobs etc, put a bit of effort into putting your own site together. It will be worth your while.

Red carpet, great food and a bit of a song...

by Rhiannon Sawyer | November 20, 2008 10:45

FILMINK was lucky enough to attend the Australia premiere. This is what we saw...

Last night, about three and a half thousand people were lucky enough to go along to the premiere of Baz Luhrmann's hotly anticipated film Australia. We were treated to red carpet glamour, champagne and lamingtons. Not to mention the film...

I won't go into detail about the film (check out our review, which is online now), but it well and truly delivers on every spectacular promise that Baz and the gang had made.

Instead I will give you a bit of an insight into the most exciting premiere of the year. For the first time in ages, George Street, the main drag in Sydney's CBD, had been shut down to make room for live broadcast vans, hundreds of excited fans, and a red carpet that went for miles. There were barriers set up around the red carpet to cordon off the fans, TV crews and snap-happy paparazzi from all around the world.

A host of television, film and sporting stars attended to catch the first glimpse of the film, as well as press, crew and a huge assortment of industry personnel. For the crew that worked on the film, the night offered a catharsis: an opportunity to finally sit down and breathe, knowing that it was just up to the punters now to reward them for their efforts. That was the general feeling on the night: that it was a time of celebration for the efforts of the cast and crew, not to mention a celebration of the Australian film industry itself.

After the film, everyone was herded into waiting coaches and taken to Ivy for the after party. And it was quite the after party. Champagne flowed, nay, gushed around the room, as everyone discussed the film with a sense of relief. Food came pouring out of the kitchens (including steak sandwiches, perhaps an unfortunate choice since some of the stars of the film was a herd of cattle) and the music was turned up a notch. One of the highlights of the evening, however, was an impromptu performance by the Man from Oz, Hugh Jackman. In front of a crowd that was counting their lucky stars, Hugh got up on stage and, after thanking all the cast and crew for their efforts, belted out a rousing rendition of "I Still Call Australia Home". Never have I felt the patriotism ooze out of a room as I did when we all joined in and sang along, rejoicing in the atmosphere and the wine. Never before, as far as I know, has the star of the film jumped up at an after party and roused the crowd with a show tune. Lucky John Foreman was handy to provide the perfect musical accompaniment.

After all the dancing, wine and ice-cream-on-sticks, it was time to hang up the heels and head home. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been present at this spectacular event, knowing that it would go down in the history books as one of the most amazing premieres held in Sydney. And as for the film, well, with a leading man that can sing like that straight off the cuff, I don't think Baz has anything to be worried about...

Will Australia see Australia fall?

by Rhiannon Sawyer | November 11, 2008 17:39

All of our industry hopes, it seems, are riding on the success of Baz's new film.

It's been debated in film circles ad infinitum: what will the fate of the Australian film industry be in the wake of Baz Luhrmann's Australia?

"For me and Nicole and Baz, and perhaps even the industry here, it's definitely something that we're counting on working," said leading man Hugh Jackman in FILMINK'S November issue. Never before in our turbulent film history have so many tongues been wagging about what one film could mean. Perhaps never before has a film had this much sway.

Talk among industry players is that if the film doesn't make the profit that we are all expecting, the hopes of other studios investing in our great Australian drawl will be quashed. Baz Luhrmann is even rumoured to have changed the film's original ending in order to improve the film's chances in foreign markets. Could this, however, just be a publicity stunt? After all, Baz didn't care much about killing off Nic in Moulin Rouge or Leo and Claire in Romeo & Juliet (although he had little choice with that one).

Since so many Australian films have been released of late with little more than a whimper, surely if Australia is an outstanding success, or a terrific failure, then it will at least have made enough noise to put our country well and truly back on the cinematic map.

Climate change rears its head

by Rhiannon Sawyer | October 22, 2008 16:09

The Australian weather and filmmaking. Part one.

Today is October 22^nd and it is 15 degrees in Sydney. Last night it snowed in the Blue Mountains. It is pouring rain and hail has even been spotted on the horizon. It is not a perfect day for shooting a trailer on Bondi Beach. Yet the show must go on. No doubt the cost of all the equipment and crew for a shoot plays most of the role in ensuring that things go ahead, but certainly today we knew that come rain, hail or shine, the Flickerfest trailer was going to be shot.

This year's trailer has been inspired by Jean Luc Godard's film Breathless and it couldn't have been more suited to the weather. I am told by sources that Godard himself didn't write the script for the film until the morning before the shoot. Well, the script for this trailer had to be thrown out the window when the rain came pouring in this morning. Being shot in black and white also helps when the whole thing is being filmed in this miserable weather. However, the cast looked great, the French poodle held up beautifully and even the pigeons were obliging enough to give the whole set a very Parisian feel.

Starring Gracie Otto and Toby Schmitz, and directed by Gracie Otto and Samantha ReBillet, this year's trailer carries on the Bondi Flickerfest tradition of inspiring visitors to the festival through cinema classics. There will be far more on this year's Flickerfest in the pages of FILMINK Magazine and on this website, but today all I can say is good luck to the crew and hope that the rest of the shoot went off without any more hail. Let's hope no berets were lost in the ocean or cigarettes blown out before they were smoked.

Dungog Film Fest Launch

by Oliver Torr | October 17, 2008 15:47

The launch of the Dungog Film Fest may have been a small affair, but it has big ambitions.

Dungog Film Festival had its official call for entries at the AFTRS at Fox Studios. We had Allanah Zitserman, Pete Castaldi, Peter Duncan and Dr Someone or other from NSW Mining make a few speeches.

It was a small turnout, packed into a little room, but the general theme seemed to be, we won't be in the little room for much longer.

The 2009 call for entries marks the third year of the small Dungog Film Festival which is starting to be seen by a number of directors, producers and other film types as one of the most enjoyable festivals in Australia.

Peter Duncan said that among other things it was due to the non-competitive nature of the festival. He went on to say that he actually spoke to other filmmakers about films, I guess alluding to the stand offishness of other fests. But he is one of the nice guys in Australian film, and one is not surprised by that.

Pete Castaldi being on board as festival programmer is a real coup, his work as a critic being still well known, giving the fest a media boost, and his work with various government departments to do with film and film exhibition an added bonus.

As it turns out Dungog Film Fest is looking to make inroads in regional theatre exhibition. Another great addition if it works.

Personally I see no reason to doubt their ambitions in that regard. There was also talk of later adding a film market to the fest, another great idea, though with so many industry types suggesting the end of a viable revenue stream from theatrical releases here and around the world, I would be interested to follow that particular development.

Having attended both 2007 and 2008 DFFs, I'm impressed and delighted that it now has ongoing support from Events NSW and the Mining Council.

Can't wait to see the launch in April of the festival programme.

In Good Company

by Barbara Karpinski | October 08, 2008 14:59

Australian Directors Guild Conference, September 25 – 28, 2008.

In Good Company was an excellent and illuminating conference, though perhaps less intimate and more nepotistic than the same festival held in Melbourne in 2006. A variety of sessions included sidebar networking and speed dating (although perhaps they should do speed divorcing next time). Other controversial moments included the keynote session with Rowan Woods speaking on Winged Creatures, in which he apparently revealed ‘too much'. The day after the conference, all us journos got a call saying that Rowan was not aware the press would be attending and though I, unfortunately, did not attend this session, I spoke to others who had and there was indeed a lot revealed about the behind the scenes dramas on Winged Creatures (this gossip you will, alas, have to read elsewhere).

My personal favourite session was "Rehearsal - Dramaturgy" chaired by AFTRS teacher Karen Pearlman, with speakers Nicos Lathouris and Lindy Davies representing the dramaturgs. In a nutshell, Lindy Davies is an amazing woman. She taught me at the Victorian College of the Arts in the late eighties and her classes even then were quite profound. She then went on to be Head of Acting at the school from 1995 to 2007. During the address, Davies recounted a story where "someone called Julie" kept leaving messages on her answer phone and when she finally got back to her, it turned out to be a very humble Julie Christie: "She had great fear and was terrified," Davies said. Lindy has since gone on to work as a performer's consultant and dramaturg with high profile actors like Julie Christie and Cate Blanchett. She also worked with directors and writers as a dramaturg, instructing directors "to protect the actor because they are raw and open," and allowing the actor "to play the moment, a mercurial luminous quality happening in performance."  Davies also remarked that an actor alters their state to play a part and is immersed in the ‘subjective' so a director needs to be conscious of this when communicating their more ‘objective' needs, so as not to break the actor's magical spell. It's all about communicating in an actor's language, says Davies. It is different for each actor and you know when you haven't got the language right when the actor's eyes "glaze over."

Another festival highlight was: "Putting it out there - the Director and the Distributor." This session included distributor Gil Scrine and producer Carolyn Johnson speaking about Son of a Lion and Paul Wiegard speaking about Not Quite Hollywood. The session was chaired by savvy and smart journalist, Sandy George, who put to shame some of the other less quick witted chairs. Carolyn Johnson, when speaking about the pressures to make a film for a cheaper and cheaper price, noted that "even a low budget shoot needs to be high budget in post" and that "to make a film cheaper and cheaper is like shooting yourself in the foot." She also remarked that there is "nothing wrong with the director's vision but let's not put it on a pedestal."

Included in this session was a video link up from Los Angeles with director Phil Noyce, who gave sage advice to ingénue directors: "Don't tell them (cast and crew) what you want, because you only get your own thoughts back, but expose them to the ethos of the film." He spoke of the visceral power of the soundtrack in stating that, "through music you can change how an audience perceives a film...Sound goes directly from the ear to the central nervous system. It goes straight to the guts." Noyce also joked that it's important to have a really good temp track as half a million people in Russia and China will be viewing pirated copies derived from test screenings."

Other highlights included the conference dinner held at the salubrious Reception Centre of the University of New South Wales. There were many prizes awarded on the night, (detailed on the website at http://www.adg.org.au/awards) however, one of the most memorable awards given was the Award For Excellence, awarded to Mark Turnball for his work as First Assistant Director. Gillian Armstrong gave an inspired speech about Turnball when handing out the award: "It's his obsessive attention to detail. He thinks on his feet without panic...always calm, no tantrums or sharp words, maybe satiric words...maybe a glass of red but not red in the face." Armstrong then went on to say how Mark would excel at "scheduling around the drinking problem or the marriage break up," and most importantly, he would remind this trailblazing chick and role-model director "to put on lipstick" if the press were on set that day.

The other notable award was the Cecil Holmes Award to veteran documentary filmmaker, Tom Zubrycki, maker of The Diplomat (2000), Molly and Mobarek (2003) and most recently Temple of Dreams (2008) about the struggle of a group of young Muslim Australians in Sydney's west.  In accepting his award he spoke about the unswerving support of his partner, Julia Overton and he quoted from George Orwell: "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

For more info on the Australian Director's Guild, head to http://www.adg.org.au

And the canape goes to

by Rhiannon Sawyer | October 02, 2008 09:56

The Aria Fine Arts Awards were held earlier this week and FILMINK got dressed up for the occasion.

I finally received my first invitation to a major awards ceremony and the dress code was "cocktail". Cocktail?! Not fair, I was hanging out for my first opportunity to call Collette Dinnigan and ask for my freebie gown to wear down the red carpet. The Aria Fine Arts Awards was a simple affair, however, with few gowns in sight and fewer canapés to soothe the injustice of the dress code. Yet, though it was a simple night, it was enjoyable - if only more award ceremonies had only four awards and five performances! The Academy Awards would be far more watchable...

Established as a stand-alone event five years ago with the intention of offering musicians of more "refined" genres the recognition they deserve without their thunder being stolen by whichever travelling pop sensation attended the main ceremony, the awards are intended for the more reserved, "cultured" bunch who rather enjoyed Bach sonatas - performed by Aria Award winners for Best Classical Album, from Richard Tognetti's esteemed ensemble, Neal Peres De Costa and Daniel Yeadon (who confessed to their undying love for each other on stage) - and I was right there with them, transported back to 18^th century Germany by the dulcet tones of the harpsichord and the viola de gamba. A more sprightly performance came from the cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical, fresh from a triumphant run in London. Unfortunately we were left wanting when it came to the award for Best Soundtrack as, although congratulations are due to Chris Lilley (for Summer Heights High), if he'd been there, we could have had Ja`ime...

Jack Thompson hosted the evening in his typical Aussie bloke style, (including the odd wry dig at Bill Hunter), with other presenters including Bruce Beresford, Paul Dyer and opera stars Emma Matthews and Phillip Langridge.  It was an interesting choice for host, although if you believed Jack it seems he was close personal friends with most of the award winners so perhaps that's why they got him along.

Further congratulations must go to other award winners: Andrea Keller for Best Jazz Album and Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu for Best World Music Album.  Geoffrey may receive more awards at the main ceremony on October 19 as he has also been nominated for Best Album, Best Male Artist and Best Independent Release and, all up, I was pleased that I was able to attend the awards, although next time I'm invited along, I want it to be something I need a SERIOUS dress for...