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Not at all. I think the problem with Australian film is that there was a shining period in the '70s and '80s when we produced some great, weird stuff like Picnic At Hanging Rock or Don's Party (I choose to slide away from Stone). There was a feeling that that generation of filmmakers could produce anything, and I think the film industry is still looking over its shoulder at those days, wondering when it'll get great again.
Funnily, I think there's some good commercial TV made, and some of the better directors - Rowan Woods, director of The Boys, which I believe is one of the greatest Australian movies ever made, for example - are honing their craft in that medium before making films. Perhaps the fact that one has to cram so much into a TV miniseries or episode or whatever helps you approach movies a bit more pragmatically? I don't know - but I think it's something that's worth looking into. Movie people look down on TV as a sort of low art, occasionally, but there is some rather nice work being done there, perhaps in an attempt to compete.
(I must admit that the success of Baz Lurhmann is something that still chafes me and others here. Style over substance? You betcha.)
Lantana was impractical, yeah - but aren't most movies filled with a bit of the impractical? Mostly - Mike Leigh or docudrama aside - they rely on something that probably wouldn't have happened in real life to get things rolling. I thought it was shot pretty well - though this could be because it was local - but also that the cast worked well together. It didn't bother me so much about the improbability. I knew it was improbable, but the performances and look won me over. Something that never happened with Police Rescue: The Movie.
One thought, though, given that the initial post refers to the "edginess" of the three films mentioned. All Aussie film - like all UK film, or all US film - doesn't have to be hard-hitting or po-faced. What's wrong with not being thus? I thought Gettin' Square, Idiot Box, Muriel's Wedding and The Castle to be great, dumb comedies, which managed to insert some really pithy observations about local life. I don't see that the film industry has to release iterations on The Boys continually, but I do agree that we seem to make (or rather, to promote the shit out of) a lot of fairly average comedy.
The film industry isn't dying a slow death really, but my partner's ex-workmates (she used to work at the Film Commission) are all lamenting the state of the business. Unless there's some sort of upswing in government interest in the arts - which doesn't seem likely - then there'll be less "Australian" films released, while O/S productions set up here in order to make films more cheaply. (Witness: that godawful Stealth.) I don't know - people have been forecasting doom and gloom since before the FTA went through, and maybe it's right that it'll be the last indignity for our local industry. But I certainly hope not.
I think it is budget considerations, while also being coupled to the general Aussie "Aw, it's all right" habit of dumping on our own cultural achievements. People are still scrabbling around for funding, which generally is given to projects that'll guarantee some kind of return. Often, the concept of a film's worth in creative or cultural terms is left 'til the end in the calculations, sadly.
We can, if pushed, produce greatness, but until you have a government that recognises that (or, alternately, attempts to stifle it), you're not going to get a great deal of effort put in. People are, indeed, keen to make good films, and there's lots of under the radar stuff that's worth looking at (like Jewboy, for example, a short film about a member of the Sydney Hassidim who wants to break out of his life), but there's a lot of pressure to produce another Lantana or Shine - something that'll play well overseas.
Loomis: I thought Somersault was pissweak. It's very in keeping with the director's short films, visually, but the problem with it was that the script seemed underdone. I didn't buy Sam Worthington's character, as the conflict between he and his dad was left hanging, with no real exposition. Additionally, Abbie Cornish's character seemed to be completely neutral - there wasn't much that made me care for her, and though I logically could understand why she did some of the things she did, by the end of the movie, I just didn't care.
In terms of evoking the feeling of a holiday town, it did well. It's just a shame I didn't believe any of the leads, except for Lynette Curran. (Mind you, she's always superb.)
Maybe that explains, too, why a lot of Oz film is a bit lacking. Generally, I find that scripts could use more tightening, more work. Or that the cast could've rehearsed more to bring out their characters a bit more fully. I don't know if it's because we have perhaps a more approachable film culture. ("Hey! You got an idea? Great! Let's make it, maybe?") But I honestly think that a lot of films that're produced - particularly the comedies that're put together by bands of the usual suspects - don't get the sort of arsekicking that other film development processes hand out as standard.
But hell, look at some of the TV that the ABC puts together. It's all a bit Arts Revue in terms of quality.
Lots of Australian culture is interested in examining the concept of exactly what an Australian is, especially in the face of native/white culture interactions. But I don't think it's necessarily tied to the idea of what's "dinkum". If anything, there's a move away from that, as remember, our national identity was fairly cemented with Dame Edna, Les Patterson, Paul Hogan and Kylie Minogue - at least overseas. I guess we're trying to discover something more relevant, partially because of our increasing realisation that we're more of an Asian nation, not an English one, and partially because of the whole terrorism/national identity examinations going on around the world these days.
That said, there is a certain stream of production that wants to play up that angle. I despair about that...
There's a not-quite-breathing thread about The Proposition here. |
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