Tag Archives: film

Gem of a film shines in Cairns, sorry, Cannes

Wayne Blair was at the Cannes Film Festival two years ago trying to raise money to
make a film about a 1960s Aboriginal girl group who entertain the allied troops in
Vietnam.The film would be Australia’s answer to the Supremes, with girls doing the
Pony, frocks and a potentially dazzling soundtrack. But it was still difficult to make
the money stack up.

Now, the film director is back in Cannes with The Sapphires, 200 auditions and a
couple of investors later, having been given a plum slot in the biggest film festival in
the world. The Weinstein Company has already picked up the film and is selling it to
the world.

“The last 12 months have been a roller-coaster,” Blair said, “and it started in a
rehearsal room in Melbourne Theatre Company!”

The Sapphires is based on a hit play by Tony Briggs, who discovered the story when
his mother mentioned in passing that she had once gone to Saigon to sing with a
group made up of her sisters and cousins. When told the movie of the story was being
shown in Cannes, she thought they meant Cairns, rather closer to home.

Blair was in the original production at Melbourne Theatre Company and the Belvoir
theatre company as an actor; he had also made several successful short films, one of

which – The Djarn Djarns – recently won a Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. “I
was in the right place at the right time,” he said.

Both play and film amalgamate nine or 10 members of the Briggs family and friends
into four composites; most of their dramatic travails and romances are imaginary,
but the core of the story is true. What became clear as they worked on the original
script, he said, was that it was not just about four individuals. It was also the story of
its times.

Mailman in The Sapphires with Jessica Mauboy, Miranda Tapsell and Shari Sebbens.

In 1968, Blair points out, Aboriginal people had only just won the right to vote in
several states. “Before that, [they] counted as flora and fauna,” Blair said. “But these
young Koori women had the same wants and needs as other women in Australia at
that time, you know. Just simple things. We all want love. They wanted respect in
their country town, to be seen as citizens and not as plants or animals. And they
wanted to achieve things. It’s a film that shows that Aboriginal people did participate
in the world in 1968.”

The four singers are played by Deborah Mailman and Jessica Mauboy – both well-
known faces – with newcomers Miranda Tapsell and Shari Sebbens. Even the famous
contenders did half a dozen auditions. “Deb said she wanted to audition,” Blair said.
The band’s manager is played by Chris O’Dowd, who had just had a huge Hollywood
hit with Bridesmaids. “But Chris is so down-to-earth, it’s not funny. They all looked
after each other.”

The real Sapphires are now in their 60s; three of the Briggs aunts came back to work
at the frontline at a Redfern medical centre. “So they achieved things, but what they
chose to do was come back and serve their community rather than be famous,” Blair
said. “They trust Tony implicitly, but I think they still don’t know the ramifications of
being in Cannes; it’s like my mum thought I meant Cairns and a short trip to
Queensland.”

When the film has its premiere in Melbourne on August 9, he said, he thinks the
crowds will bring home how far their story has gone. For them now, it probably all
feels a very long time ago. “They’re very worldly women and they have a sense of
wisdom about them,” Blair said. They only sing at family occasions now, he adds.
“But they love a tune.”

Stephanie Bunbury – SMH – May 20, 2012

Werner Herzog on death, danger and the end of the world

He’s risked his life to make films, been shot at, and his latest film investigates a
triple homicide. So is Werner Herzog fascinated by death? No, he tells Steve Rose,
he’s just not afraid of it.

Werner Herzog: ‘If we perish I want to see what’s coming at me, and if we survive, I
want to see it as well.’

Some years ago, Werner Herzog was on an internal flight somewhere in Colorado
and the plane’s landing gear wouldn’t come down. They would have to make an
emergency landing. The runway was covered in foam and flanked by scores of fire
engines. “We were ordered to crouch down with our faces on our knees and hold our
legs,” says Herzog, “and I refused to do it.” The stewardess was very upset, the co-
pilot came out from the cabin and ordered him to do as he was told. “I said, ‘If we
perish I want to see what’s coming at me, and if we survive, I want to see it as well.
I’m not posing a danger to anyone by not being in this shitty, undignified position.'”
In the end, the plane landed normally. Herzog was banned from the airline for life
but, he laughs, it went bust two years later anyway.Herzog tells this story to illustrate
how he’ll face anything that’s thrown at him, as if that was ever in any doubt.

Now approaching his 70th birthday, the German film-maker has assumed legendary
status for facing things others wouldn’t. He’s lived a life packed with intrepid movie
shoots, far-flung locations and general high-stakes film-making. He has a biography
too dense to summarise. But his tale also confirms the suspicion that he’s helplessly
drawn to danger and death. Or vice versa.

Continue reading Werner Herzog on death, danger and the end of the world

Hike in U.K. tax incentive targets film finance

LONDON — Films are about to get a boost in Britain — and perhaps Hollywood as
well — as the U.K. considers changes in the tax structure that would double the
amount individual backers can write off, and increase the coin that companies can
invest in tax-free projects by 150%.

The modifications will be part of the revisions to the Enterprise Investment Scheme,
which provides tax breaks to boost economic activity for smaller businesses in the
U.K., with qualifying investors receiving an upfront tax break.

“The interesting thing about EIS is that you no longer have to be carrying on your
activity in the U.K.,” says Olswang tax lawyer Cliona Kirby. “Now, you can trade
internationally. So you can actually fund an American film with British money and
make your movie in the U.S. or wherever you like, and still access the incentive.”

Pending approval from the European Union, the annual amount companies will be
eligible to invest in an EIS scheme is set to increase from £2 million ($3.2 million) to
£5 million ($7.9 million), while the amount an individual will be able to invest will
double from $792,977 to $1.59 million.

Continue reading Hike in U.K. tax incentive targets film finance

Global Box Office Hit $32.6 Bil in 2011, Fueled by Exploding International Growth

While the domestic box office was down a sobering 4 percent, the foreign take grew
by 7 percent to $22.4 billion; China now second-biggest international market after
Japan.

The foreign box office rescued Hollywood in 2011, with international ticket sales
reaching $22.4 billion, a healthy 7 percent increase over 2010, according to the
MPAA’s annual Theatrical Market Statistics report.

Globally, ticket sales reached $32.6 billion in 2011, only a 3 percent gain. That’s due
to a marked downturn at the North American box office, where revenue reached
$10.2 billion, down 4 percent over 2010. International reveneus made up nearly 69
percent of the pie.

“The figures on box office reflect only one indicator of an extremely complex and
evolving movie industry,” MPAA chairman and CEO Chris Dodd said. “We’re
working harder and smarter to keep moviegoers coming back for more, whether at
the cinema, at home or on the go.”

Continue reading Global Box Office Hit $32.6 Bil in 2011, Fueled by Exploding International Growth

Screen Australia invests in new features

Screen Australia today announced nearly $5 million investment in four new feature
film projects, triggering close to $20 million in production.

“I’m thrilled to be able to announce production investment for such a unique mix of
feature films,” said Screen Australia’s Chief Executive, Ruth Harley. “These projects
combine iconic Australian stories and compelling genre films from both first time
and established filmmaking teams.”

The Oscar®-winning duo Emile Sherman and Iain Canning (The King’s Speech) will
produce Tracks, the true story of Robyn Davidson’s solitary trek across the
Australian desert, with co-producer Julie Ryan (Red Dog). A quintessentially
Australian story, Tracks is adapted for the screen by writer/director John Curran
(Praise, The Painted Veil).

Seventeen Australian directors including Cate Blanchett, Robert Connolly, Justin
Kurzel, Mia Wasikowska and David Wenham will respond to Tim Winton’s
hauntingly beautiful short stories in The Turning, a cleverly structured omnibus film
from acclaimed producer Robert Connolly. Other directors on board The Turning
include Benedict Andrews, Jonathan auf der Heide, Tony Ayres, Shaun Gladwell,
Rhys Graham, Ian Meadows, Yaron Lifschitz, Claire McCarthy, Ashlee Page and
Stephen Page.

Continue reading Screen Australia invests in new features

Whatever happened to non-linear films?

A decade ago, a caper like Contraband might have been in line for a fashionably
fragmentary narrative treatment – so why not now?

Straight and narrow … Contraband tells its story in a convenational narrative.

It’s a berth on the USS Contemporary all the way for Mark Wahlberg in his new
thriller Contraband, with its story about the counterfeit-money supply lines between
Panama and the United States. In fact, the film is a testament to the glories of (above
board) free trade: once known as 2008 Icelandic production Reykjavik-Rotterdam,
this piece of intellectual property has crossed the Atlantic with star Baltasar
Kormákur, who, as the new film’s director, ushered it smoothly into the Hollywood
warehouse.

Contraband is a solid enough 110 minutes, a bit like a lengthy episode of the Crystal
Maze set in a sweating central American metropolis overseen by some crazed UPS
official. But its feverish overplotting made me think it had missed a trick. It might
have benefitted from stringing together some elegant non-linear connections, like Traffic and Syriana, with whom it shares a fascination with international
logistics.

Continue reading Whatever happened to non-linear films?

Schepisi to Receive Vanguard Award

Director Fred Schepisi will be honored with the Vail Film Festival’s Vanguard Award,
while Krysten Ritter, who plays a lead role in the Starz series Gravity, has been
chosen to receive the festival’s Excellence in Acting Award.

The festival, which runs from March 29 to April 1 in Vail, Colorado, will present the
honores at its awards ceremony on its closing night.

Schepisi, whose credits include Six Degrees of Separation and The Chant of Jimmie
Blacksmith, most recently directed The Eye of the Storm, starring Geoffrey Rush,
Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis. The film, which will be released in the United
States by Sycamore Entertainment, will have its U.S. premiere as the festival’s
opening night film.

Ritter’s film credits include She’s Out of My League, Confessions of a Shopaholic,
What Happens in Vegas, 27 Dresses and Vamps. She stars in Kat Coiro’s L!fe
Happens, which will screen as the festival’s closing night film.

3/20/2012 by Gregg Kilday – THR

Promoting your film online – Hunger Games

Selling a movie used to be a snap. You printed a poster,
ran trailers in theaters and carpet-bombed NBC’s Thursday night lineup with ads.

Today, that kind of campaign would get a movie marketer fired. The dark art of
movie promotion increasingly lives on the Web, where studios are playing a wilier
game, using social media and a blizzard of other inexpensive yet effective online
techniques to pull off what may be the marketer’s ultimate trick: persuading fans to
persuade each other.

The art lies in allowing fans to feel as if they are discovering a film, but in truth
Hollywood’s new promotional paradigm involves a digital hard sell in which little is
left to chance — as becomes apparent in a rare step-by-step tour through the
timetable and techniques used by Lionsgate to assure that “The Hunger Games”
becomes a box office phenomenon when it opens on Friday.

Continue reading Promoting your film online – Hunger Games

Jim Schembri departs The Melbourne Age after 28 years

AFTER a number of Twitter indiscretions, The Age’s long-serving entertainment writer Jim Schembri negotiates an exit.

In a memo sent to staff last night, editor-in-chief Paul Ramadge wrote: “After 28 years of dedicated service and hard work bringing a distinctive voice to The Age’s entertainment coverage as a film and TV critic and feature writer, Jim has decided to embrace other challenges.”

Last week, website Crikey erroneously reported Schembri had been “sacked from his position following revelations he had reportedly dobbed on the employers of his Twitter critics and hinted at taking legal action under the auspices of Fairfax Media”.

In fact, management only asked Schembri to take early leave after Crikey broke news of his Twitter transgressions. It is understood Schembri had a substantial amount of time owing and Fairfax Media did not comment on Schembri’s misdemeanours.

Schembri has since negotiated his departure. It is believed he will continue writing  on pop cultural matters elsewhere.

He is the published author of more than 40 books, including the memoir Room For One and eight novels for young children.

Schembri was one of the best-loved and contentious writers at The Age, with his Modern Fable series in the 1990s a particular favourite with readers. He cultivated a strong film blog, Cinetopia, for the newspaper and occasionally attracted the opprobrium of the film industry for his strident views on the industry despite his championing of comedy and certain filmmakers.

While presenting at this year’s AACTA Awards, A Few Best Men’s director Stephan Elliott asked Schembri to “stop the poison pen” and “hate” after the journalist wrote his film was “unreleasable”. It went on to earn $5 million.

At the 2008 AFI Awards, The Black Balloon’s co-writer, Jimmy Jack, responded to Schembri’s criticism of his film by reading the review before saying “Jim Schembri. F*** you.”

And last year, The Chaser’s Hamster Wheel program named its segment on internet discretions ‘The Schembris’ after the journalist revealed a major plot twist in his review of Scream 4 before retracting it and writing it was merely a ruse to fool the “Twittersphere.”

In the memo to staff, Ramadge thanked Schembri for his contribution and wished him well. He added Schembri “has chosen to forego farewell drinks and will arrange an informal gathering soon.”

Michael Bodey – The Australian, 16/3/12

Cameraman kills earless bunny

An earless baby bunny that was a rising star on Germany’s celebrity animal scene had his 15 minutes of fame brought to an abrupt end when he was accidentally stepped on by a television cameraman.

The fate of 17-day-old Til, a rabbit with a genetic defect, was plastered across German newspapers on Thursday, the same day a small zoo in Saxony was to have presented him to the world at a press conference.

The cameraman told Bild newspaper he had not seen Til, who had buried himself in hay, when he took the fateful step backwards on Wednesday.

Til was reportedly hidden under hay when he was stepped on.Til was reportedly hidden under hay when he was stepped on. Photo: AP

Zoo director Uwe Dempewolf told Spiegel magazine that Til did not suffer.

“We are all shocked. During the filming, the cameraman took a step back and trod on the bunny.

“He was immediately dead, he didn’t suffer. It was a direct hit. No one could have foreseen this. Everyone here is upset. The cameraman was distraught.”

Spiegel Online reported that the rabbit’s body would be frozen while zoo officials decided if it would be stuffed.

Germany has been home to several global animal celebrities in recent years, including polar bear Knut and Paul the prognosticating octopus.

AP and smh.com.au