by Julian Wood
Anyone who knows the history of Australian film knows that Dutch-born filmmaker Paul Cox (1940-2016) has a special place in the canon. Over a career spanning the 1970s to 2010s, Cox made around 20+ features, most of which he wrote himself.
He produced a body of work that is unique in our industry. He was the most ‘European’ of Australian filmmakers in some ways, but his films were almost all made here, often on tiny budgets. He gathered a family of like-minded artists around him and nurtured the cream of Australian talent. Actors who worked on his films often became his close friends and they almost always recalled the passion he had for their craft and for filmmaking as a process. The love that they put into these films shines out from the work.
It is great news then to hear that Producer Mark Patterson (who worked with Cox on many of his later films) is collaborating with Paul Cox’s daughter Kyra [left] to restore some of these titles.
This will not only preserve them but make them available for renewed distribution. These are films that deserve to be seen, not just by aspiring filmmakers but by the general public, so that a new generation of viewers can be moved by these gentle and beguiling creations.
The project is starting with restoring the film Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent van Gogh (1987), a sort of artist-to-artist tribute to the great Dutch painter Van Gogh and one of the most visually lush and evocative of Cox’s films.
We spoke with Mark Patterson and Kyra Cox about the project and about Paul Cox’s cinematic legacy.
We started by talking about the state of the play. How many films are in scope for the project and what is the status of the available prints?
Mark: Most of his best films are no longer able to be distributed because of the change in distribution technology. Most were shot on 35mm and had standard delivery formats of the time, which are no longer accepted by distributors.
Kyra: We don’t have oodles of money to continue putting the films out there and Mark and I have been talking about this idea of restoration over the years. We talked about maybe even making one of the scripts that didn’t get made when dad was alive. So, how do you continue? We are close to him obviously, but also, we wanted to show his work widely so it seemed like something that was really important to see if we could make it happen.
Mark: Exactly, you can’t have a legacy for someone like Paul unless you can see his work.
His films have the special sensibility that he always brought somehow. They are so gentle and so warm. And he kept that going for so long didn’t he? And you always felt when you saw a film of his there was something real in there, something also about his passion for film and for whatever the project was. He kept the light going. So presumably you want people to be aware of that?
Kyra: Yes, they are films that are important and which touch people and mean something. But also – and I am going to sound like my father in a minute! – there is so much violence. In current cinema, we continue to show and watch and make films of people doing the most horrific things to each other. Instead, why not makes things that make you feel something and make you think? I have definitely inherited a bit of that attitude from him.
Mark: All of Paul’s films dealt with the human condition and his condition. I produced five of his films and he lived them and breathed them. I am thinking of films like Force of Destiny. He was sick at the time, but within three days, he was running harder than anyone and it was the most inspiring thing. His art fuelled him. All the films I was involved with were highly personal.
Another good example is a film like Innocence.
Those films were joyous. And it is so much to do with how he cast. Julia Blake and Bud Tingwell for example. It was as if they were cast thirty years before they did those roles. And he was able to do that because he had their trust. He was an actors’ director, and he took actors right to the edge. And that was a lot to do with the size of the films too. We had small crews. Small intimate films. And the locations, we didn’t build anything, we were in somebody’s house.
Kyra: Often our house!
He worked with a faithful crew and often the same actors that we associate with his whole oeuvre. Actors like the lovely Norman Kaye.
Kyra: And it was very much a family thing. I grew up with Normie too and you had these genuine relationships with those people. It wasn’t just about business or making films. It was about doing something beautifully collaborative with each other.
In terms of the technical processes of restoration, what are some of the techniques you are using?
Mark: We are just about to start the restoration – we’ve raised funds via Creative Australia’s Australian Cultural Fund and the support of generous donors. With the restoration itself, we are very lucky in Australia that we have the National Film and Sound Archive [NFSA]. When you made a film, you had to deposit an original copy back then. Often then, you would deposit maybe a print. But at the end of the day, you would also usually deposit the negative.
So, on Vincent we were very lucky that the NFSA had all the elements and so we can go right back to the negative. I think Paul would have been thrilled with that. Going back to a neg is like going into Alladin’s cave. We were lucky that these films were shot on 35mm. That was before we even went to digital. Ray Argall of Piccolo Films, who is extremely skilled in restoration, will scan that neg to a 4k high def version. And we work with the original sound mix too. Back then it was mono analogue tracks. We are very lucky to have James Currie – the sound recordist who actually designed and mixed Vincent back in the day – who will restore and update the sound to 5.1 Dolby. And he has his original mix notes still, so basically, he can revisit it. When we have a high-res digital version we have to try and match the colour grading, the old colour grading that Paul loved. Partly, this will be a matter of watching the old video tapes and maybe we will talk to a few DPs about the grading process. Paul was always very particular about how he shot and how he would like to see the film on the screen.
Then we can put the sound and vision elements together and make products which will have that very filmic quality to them and which we can offer to the world market.
Why did you decide to start with Vincent?
Mark: One of the reasons we are starting with Vincent is that it is one of the titles that is actually still selling in the old tech version in places like Eastern Europe, which means you still have a market presence. And that is the film that we think Hanway Films [the British company that owns the sales rights to the Paul Cox Collection, 18 films in total] can get out to market, and that will hopefully generate money to restore the next film and then the one after. And we think that is a very exciting prospect.
