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Careless Love Opening Night + Q&A
With director John Duigan ('The Year My Voice Broke') and cast Nammi Le and Peter O’Brien. THU 17 MAY – 7pm RITZ CINEMA, 45 St Pauls Street, Randwick NSW 2031 TICKETS ON-SALE – book now www.ritzcinema.com.au “Careless Love” tells the story of...
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FROM DISGRACED TO DISGRACE - DAY 4 OF SYDNEY FILM FEST. A DAILY BLOG
Today, we checked out a new doco on recently jailed uber music producer Phil Spector and the adaptation of J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace.
A very timely film in this year’s lineup is The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector, an intriguing look into the bizarre mind (not to mention hairstyles) of the very eccentric music producer, found guilty of the 2003 shooting murder of the former actress Lana Clarkson, which he claims was in fact suicide. It’s basically a talking head intercut with footage of Spector’s many hits (including Imagine with John Lennon) and footage of his 2007 trial juxtaposed with review quotes of his work.
It’s not exactly an objective exploration of the saggy faced Spector from director Vikram Jayanti but more a documentary that gives Spector the opportunity to speak his mind. And boy does he ever. Amidst taking some spectacular swipes at the likes of Martin Scorsese, Tony Bennett, Paul McCartney, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and the judge presiding over his court case amongst others, Spector – who defines his music making as art – has the audacity to compare his work to that of Da Vinci. That’s not to deny his talent, a freakish ability to generate a hit. It’s demonstrated time and time again in the documentary, featuring clips of an astonishing cannon of work that has made an indelible mark on popular culture – ‘You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling’ by The Righteous Brothers a case in point. But it’s hard not to feel that he’s immersed in delusions of grandeur. He claims that he’s better than Lennon, Dylan and a list of other luminaries and has such a belief in himself that it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that Spector thinks that he’s “bigger than Jesus”. His hubris is perhaps most simply expressed by the number plate adorning his car which reads “I Love Phil”. For much of the film’s length this outrageous arrogance is funny but by the end, you feel as if you want to reach through the screen and throttle the man.
What is so jarring about the film is the contrast between Spector’s seemingly indifferent attitude to the outcome of the murder trial and his humorous take on it when interviewed by Jayanti – to paraphrase, Spector says “I’ll be in jail with Bubba. He’ll be my 6 foot 8 husband” – compared to his deer-in-the headlights disorientation seen in court footage.
There’s also a contextual poignancy to Spector, an obvious clue perhaps to his eccentricity and sadness which has filtered through to his music – his father committed suicide when he was 5. We’ll be speaking with director Vikram Jayanti about his very quirky subject, so look out for our interview in future posts.
One of the locally produced films in competition for the festival’s $60,000 prize is Disgrace, based on the novel by J.M Coetzee. It’s a searing and confronting look at the struggles faced in South Africa post Apartheid, with the film’s plot catalyst, the downfall of predatory professor David Lurie (brilliantly brought to life by John Malkovich) in Cape Town, who, in disgrace flees to the rural property of his lesbian daughter Lucy (a stunning performance from South African newcomer Jessica Haines). Both are the victims of a brutal attack.
The married filmmakers, Australians Steve Jacobs and Anna Maria Monticelli and their spiky-haired lead actress Haines walked the red carpet for the film’s Sydney premiere on Friday at the State Theatre. Recently, Filmink caught up with Jacobs and Monticelli who spoke about this ambitious sub $10 million project, the film rights for which were hotly contested.
Filmink: John’s character is not an easy character to like is he?
AMM: He’s not but many women when they read the book love him, that’s what’s so interesting. They fancy him in a funny way because he’s so daring. [He says] ‘I want you, I’m going to have you.’ There are elements in him that have elements of a fantasy. When they [women] see it on screen, I’ll be interested to see whether they still like him because he’s doing [on screen] exactly what he does in the book.”
Filmink: There seemed to be a lot of internet chatter amongst fans of the novel about who should play David. What do you feel John brought to the role?
SJ: A faithful, valid and unapologetic interpretation of the character.
Filmink: Jessica Haines is a real find. It’s hard to believe this is her first film role….
SJ: Jessica brought honesty, integrity and authenticity to Lucy. She did a tremendous job with a demanding role.
Filmink: It’s often a concern of authors that a film adaptation will debase their work but it seems like your script is quite faithful to the novel. How did you approach the complexity of the novel (in terms of issues, metaphors and characters) in the sense of tightening and focusing on them cinematically?
AMM: Cinematically the story has to work. Often good books don’t necessarily make good films. Then there are the decisions of what to leave out and what to leave in, in order to make it a good cinema experience. When you read a book, your imagination fills in the gaps and your personal prejudices or beliefs and state of mind come into the way you are reading and understanding the story. But when you make a movie, it’s there in your face. The film has chosen a path for you, decided what you are seeing and feeling and in a way it makes a lot of decisions for you. With the book I felt there was a story that was very cinematic.
Disgrace opens nationally June 18.
Red Carpet Watch – Supermodel Kristy Hinze, her new hubby, the Netscape billionaire Jim Clark and the director of dolphin expose The Cove, Louie Psihoyos at the documentary’s Australian premiere. Clarke is the film’s Executive Producer and backer. Later in the day, at the Australian premiere of the Aussie/Israeli claymation co-production $9.99, some of the voice cast walked the carpet at Dendy Opera Quays including Claudia Karvan, fellow Secret Life of Us cast mate Samuel Johnson and Tom Budge.
Tickets are selling quickly for films in the festival line up, so hop to it. Sold out titles include 44 Inch Chest, Winged Creatures, Bastardy, Coraline, The Limits of Control, Dead Snow and Stolen.
For more information on films and screening times head to www.sff.org.au
