by David Purdon
On Sunday 25/6/2023 in the Cool Room of the Northern Arts Hotel, Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia, Saidin Salkic’s 65-minute-long new film, had its first public screening. This film features the veteran Australian actor John Flaus as Mr Cripes Blimey, the titular (and only) character of the film. John Flaus was also the vital actor in two earlier films by Saidin Salkic, screened at the Northern Arts: The Last Days of Loneliness and The Compassion of the Undertaker. I have found these three works extraordinarily good. These substantial films have been shot by Saidin Salkic on his phone camera.
Apart from the artistic merit of these films, they have upended my understanding of Cinema. I have always regarded Cinema as an extremely expensive art form. A very few directors and producers backed by huge corporations make commercial films which must be shown to mass audiences to cover their costs. Such films are made only if they appear commercially viable to cinema moguls.
As an old white man of 74 years, I had an understanding of Cinema based on viewing the Hollywood westerns of the 1950s, and such blockbusters as Ben Hur, Cleopatra, and the films of David Lean. My love of Cinema was enhanced by belonging to the University of Queensland Cinema Society when I was a student there in the late 1960s. There, I got my introduction to the films of Eisenstein, Bergman etc. I also attended festivals of experimental films – underground films which were short because of the cost and difficulty for individuals of making them.
Along with these underground films I saw the new wave of Australian films of the late ‘60s to the ‘80s. Even Wake in Fright and Walkabout – among the least mainstream Australian films – needed big money; they were made by a Canadian and a German multi-national respectively.
The Cinema I grew up with was undemocratic, and inaccessible to aspiring artists as an avenue of self-expression or communication with small groups of followers. Video and the small, electronic screen have changed that.
I met John Flaus through a mutual friend, who thought I should paint John’s portrait for the Archibald prize, which I did, producing a large oil painting that many people love, including John and his partner Natalie who now own it. The painting did not make the short list for the Archibald. These days, I pursue art forms which I can pursue alone, and which do not depend on establishment approval and finance. Becoming friends with John Flaus was the great reward I got from painting his portrait.
Meeting with John Flaus also got me back into thinking about and discussing Cinema after years of neglecting it. Apart from having introduced Cinema Studies in Australian universities, John has appeared in many, many films and has contributed gratis his talent as an actor and a critic/consultant of film to the work of many student, emerging and independent film makers. For a couple of years, John has been presenting his selection of significant films from cinematic history to a small group of regulars at the Cool Room. We watch and discuss old monuments to the magnificence of the film industry.
Through attending John’s group, I encountered Saidin Salkic and his films. I think it is crucial that high quality art films such as Saidin’s are being produced virtually free from demands of budget. They show that anyone who really wants to, can make a film, and that anyone who has the necessary genius can make an extraordinary film. Saidin Salkic has the necessary genius.
These films do not depend on special effects, large casts and complex production, so they can explore psychology and existential issues for particular people. Such films can be made accessible as “Chamber Cinema”, in small independent venues, and in independent film festivals throughout the world. Of course, they should be downloadable online too, but I think we must preserve the community activity of experiencing films together, as we do at the Cool Room.
This latest film of Saidin’s is 65 minutes long – who ever heard of an underground film of the pre-digital era being that long? Mr Cripes Blimey is significant too, because it addresses an important existential issue that confronts us all – growing old and losing our powers. Old age is not for the faint hearted.
This film was written and directed by Saidin Salkic. He also did the cinematography and post production. The black and white cinematography is stunning; it presents the rugged landscape of John Flaus’s strong, ancient face as he portrays a crisis in the life of the hero Mr Cripes Blimey who is losing the plot and would dearly love to regain his youth.
The photography of the character’s face is contrasty, but loses no detail in any important highlights or shadows. It has vivid, high resolution. We see the wiry black hairs interlaced among white hairs of the old man’s moustache and beard, and the Lear-like majesty of his black and silver eyebrows along with the craterous spots, wrinkles and warts of the aged skin. The man is shown from a variety of confronting viewpoints as he awakes to find his world turned upside down by the disappearance of his TV and remote, and by the fact that his magic clock seem to be making time run backwards. The camera explores his face and his larger pyjama-clad form; the camera man has worked hard, and appears to have used the natural light of the setting, which is the old man’s light-filled bedroom in his house in the bush.
There are shots, too, of the Australian bush surrounding the house. These emphasise mostly the rough textures and evocative twists and angles of the trees near the house. These are shown close up and presenting a maze to thwart the passage of a man from his lair in the forest to the outside world of people where he can collect money that he has won to facilitate things he wants to do to ward off geriatric disintegration. There are gleaming filaments of spider web which suspend clots of old leaves inhabited by spiders, adding to the threat of the woods. There are also wide shots and drone shots presenting the haunting remnant of Australian bush which surrounds and hides the house.
The visuals are masterly. I had assumed that Saidin Salkic had shot in colour, then photo-shopped the footage to achieve the apparently very sophisticated black and white images. Saidin told me that he shot in black and white, so I am very impressed by the capability of his camera phone, and his ability to achieve his effects so directly.
Apart from the visuals, the sound is very impressive. John Flaus has a marvellous Australian-accented voice, and his varied presentation of rather unvarying, but compelling lines is an acting tour de force. I admire both John as the voice, and Saidin as the elicitor of this performance.
Much in the sight and sound of this film is emblematic of the warping and eddying of time experienced by Mr Cripes Blimey on his 89th birthday. The soundtrack marries repeated explosions with the noises of the forest, and at one point the mysterious, haunting screams of a woman in the woods. I found the loud explosions suggestive of sonic booms or cannon fire. For me, the sonic boom effect contributed to the sense of time distorted. The explosions also suggested to me Srebrenica where Saidin Salkic was born, or Sarajevo – its recent history and its association with world war one where lives were transfigured by violence as they are by time.
Mr Cripes Blimey belongs in the anti-tradition of Samuel Beckett’s plays, of which Waiting for Godot is the best known.
It was very exciting to see this film. And I think it is an important contribution to making Cinema as an art more flexible and able meet the expressive needs of people other than the big industrial film producers.
