by Stephen Vagg
One of the perks of the Australian High Commissioner being a South Australian –former premier Jay Weatherill – is that Adelaide culture has more of a chance of being showcased in London. This was the case when Australia House hosted a gala event on 1 October to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film Shine.
The event included a speech from Weatherill, a screening of the film, and a performance by pianist Martin Cousins (Noah Taylor’s hand double in the film) of ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ and some Rachmaninov. However, the highlight was a Q&A involving director Scott Hicks and stars Geoffrey Rush and Noah Taylor, moderated by Jane Crowther, editor of Hollywood Authentic magazine.
All the filmmakers were in fine form and having a good time. Noah Taylor admitted to having so many pre-production nerves that he asked a friend to break his arm to get out of doing the movie. Scott Hicks covered his struggle to raise finance with Rush attached, revealing that he could have secured the budget if he’d cast David Thewlis or Gary Oldman. Rush admitted that he told his wife early into filming, “I think they better call this film ‘Shite’,” but after he shot the wedding scene – which “went like magic” – everything went well. Hicks told a story how after the film’s rapturous reception at Sundance, a representative from New Line was so desperate to get the rights to Shine that he tore the phone out of the wall and said “that’s the final offer”.
Shine of course was a huge commercial and critical success, although Taylor cracked, “I got bupkis” when gongs were being handed out. Rush recalled that the film surprised people because at the time Australia was associated with the “fruit salad school of cinema” (he was quoting a journalist), meaning Strictly Ballroom, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Muriel’s Wedding. Rush also made a passing reference to his post-defamation suit career hiatus/period of reflection, asking Taylor “don’t you want to hear what I’ve been up to lately?” to which Noah replied “no comment”. But it was all good-natured. Tim Minchin was in the crowd, along with a lot of people who looked like they came from good families. There was a lot of canapes and security: the event must have cost a fortune.
We haven’t seen Shine since it originally came out and it was great to catch it again on the big screen. It remains a striking, passionate, moving piece of work, with astonishing acting (we totally forgot Sonia Todd is in the film) and a skilful script. It’s a tribute to the tenacity of Hicks, who we were lucky enough to briefly meet; we told him of the passing of Candy Raymond, who’d been in his 1982 film Freedom. We also had a chat with Noah Taylor about Neighbours (he’s a huge fan) and Geoffrey Rush about On Our Selection, during which time he impressed us with his knowledge of the Australian film boom of 1911-12.
