How to hook the eye

I'm working up to a piece on Australian film marketing - posters and trailers. In the meantime this superbly effective poster artwork for upcoming UK documentary, The End of the Line, has really caught my eye.

My initial guess that it must be the work of the locally based graphic artist Jeremy Saunders, whose poster design for the Australian release of Antichrist turned a lot of heads (see below). However my informant say the team at Australian pay channel Ovation is responsible.

Before screening on pay TV, the film - about the alarming rate of depletion of the world's fish stocks - is getting a limited cinema release on May 13.

My review will run in the May issue of Limelight magazine. In the meantime you can find more about the film at its official website.

Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch - making old sound new

DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE
A Friend of a Friend
Acony ACNY-0908/ Shock
Four stars

First published in Limelight, April 2010 issue:

"You may not recognise the name of acoustic guitarist and banjo player Dave Rawlings unless you’re a reader of fine print, in which case you may know him as the accompanist and song-writing partner of Gillian Welch.

"That US singer has given bluegrass and American folk a bracing new sensibility over the past decade and a half. Now come Rawlings’s first album as a leader, and it’s a cracker. Though Welch provides backing vocals and guitar, most of these tracks eschew her mournful intensity for a more relaxed and sprightly aesthetic, with an emphasis on group playing and fiddle.

"A version of Cortez the Killer, one of the few downbeat tracks, has led some critics to cite Neil Young as an influence but a more persuasive touchstone is The Band. Benmont’s Tench’s organ on opener Ruby is a dead ringer for Garth Hudson’s, while To be Young (Is to be Sad, is to be High) borrows the rollicking cajun rhythm of Rag Mama Rag.

"Rawlings is not a great a singer, but it hardly matters, for the mood he creates tends to the infectiously joyful, these tracks sounding like after hours sessions where the musicians are playing purely for fun. _ Lynden Barber "

Why the original always beats the remake - kinda, sorta

Top Image: Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Ulrich Thomsen in Brodre (Brothers).
Bottom image: Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brothers, the US remake. Note the wearing of woollen beanie to signify "I'm the 'bad' brother") in each film.

"A simple piece of advice regarding this film: don’t bother watching it until you have at least seen the excellent Danish original, also called Brothers (Brodre) and readily available in Australia on DVD. Even then I’d have to ask why you’d want to bother..."

That's the first paragraph of my review of the Jim Sheridan-directed Brothers, which went up at the SBS Film website yesterday (Thursday).

The final sentence: "This may be a remake with integrity, but really, what’s the point?"

I can't help wondering what I would have felt about the film had I not seen Brodre. Because our expectations of any film based on another source - be it a foreign film, novel, play, magazine article or comic book- are inescapably conditioned affected by our feelings about, and experience of, the original.

The first telling creates a sense of what it ought to be like, and that tends to stick, no matter how many times you tell yourself you're approaching the adaptation with an open mind. You might call this a prejudice - albeit a frequently benign one.

Those who haven't seen the first version will necessarily approach with a different set of expectations. It's impossible to say what I would have felt about Brothers had I not seen Brodre first- but it's certainly possible I might have liked it considerably more. What I can say with certainty is that my experience of it would have been quite different.

I recall seeing the original version, which its director Susanne Bier co-wrote with Anders Thomas Jensen, in a DVD viewing cubicle at the San Sebastian film festival in Spain six years ago (no, folks, it's not all galas and partying on the international glamour circuit!).

It impressed me enough to invite the film to screen at the Sydney Film Festival the following year, where it went on to win the inaugural audience prize - leading directly to an Australian distribution deal. So you might say I feel a small personal connection.

Of course it would be easier if US audiences simply went to see the original. The unwillingness of mass audiences to read subtitles reflects an appalling defecit in the education system. (I'm sure my comfort with reading subtitles springs from having been exposed as a young teen to foreign movies at my enlightened UK state school's teacher-run film society - Battleship Potemkin, Throne of Blood, et al).

US audiences for foreign movies may have declined by a staggering 40% in the US over the last five years, according to an article in yesterday's Los Angeles Times.

"Of the nearly 1,000 foreign-language films released in the US since 1980, only 22 have grossed more than $10 million, with more than 70% of them taking in less than $1 million, according to boxofficemojo.com."

So it should be no surprise that two other recent Swedish hits, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (released here next week) and Let the Right One In, are due for the Hollywood remake treatment.

I can hardly wait.

How to become a director: get creative

The notion of successful fashion designer Tom Ford as a revered film director might have struck people as surprising or odd, but I say only this - why not?

Still in Australian cinemas, Ford's directorial debut, A Single Man, proves conclusively that a lifelong concern with the surface of things, with style and all things supposedly superficial, is no barrier to a highly developed sense of cinematic style as the outward expression of a deeply felt concern for interior human emotion.

To anyone who has not seen the film, I say this: see it. To those who have, I use only two words: sleeping bag.

What an incredible scene; what a terrific example of how to turn what might seem inescapably depressing material (man mourning the loss of his partner in an accident becomes suicidal) into a rivetingly complex viewing experience. Wicked black comedy and deeply moving pathos are all wrapped up inside Colin Firth's sleeping bag and fighting for domination.
I confess to a nagging feeling that the usually estimable Julianne Moore was auditioning for the lead role in the first Austine Powers at times. That mixture of groovy-baby '60s couture and frustratingly almost spot-on middle class English accent was enough to jolt me just a tad out of the film's reality in her scenes.

I didn't say the film was perfect, then. But as a debut it's impressive.

All of which is by way of linking to a piece I wrote for The Australian and published at the weekend. My theme: the extreme diversity of professional backgrounds that can lead someone to becoming an outstanding film director.

The only thing that can be said about a suitable preparation for great directors is that it needs to have allowed them to nurture their creativity. The exact nature of that creative field may not be a deciding factor.

Extract:
"Since cinema is a medium combining many practices - sound, visual design, storytelling, costumes, photography, drama, acting - artists with visual and story sense and strong leadership qualities have a better than average chance of rising to the directorial occasion.

"A great example is Italy's Federico Fellini. Revered as one of cinema's greats, he never studied film formally, instead establishing his reputation as a satirical columnist and caricaturist before spending a decade writing screenplays and being an occasional assistant director. Only then did he become a director. Fellini's unconventional training may well have informed his flamboyant approach to film, though who's to say? Perhaps his flair was innate; something he transferred to whichever media he was working in..."

Image: Tom Ford on set.

Generic Oscar Winning Movie

I've yet to see The Blind Side, but having seen the trailer for Academy Award Winning Movie below I suspect I probably now have no need:

Hurt Locker and that direct-to-DVD decision

Been checking out some old emails. Here's one from 9.02.09 from Roadshow Films' PR.

"ROADSHOW'S UPCOMING RELEASES - DATE CHANGES AS AT 2.9.09

CHANGES THIS WEEK ARE AS FOLLOWS:
THE REBOUND was releasing October 22 2009, now March 18 2010
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN was releasing May 6 2010, now October 22 2009
THE HURT LOCKER was releasing October 22 2009, and is now straight to DVD
BRAN NUE DAE is the new January 14 2010 "

My reply:

"Dear Claudia,
Is Hurt Locker really going straight to DVD, or was this a typo?
Hear it's doing well at US art house and is a possible Oscar best pic nomination -
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-word6-2009aug06,0,2706666.story "

Roadshow PR's reply:

"Hi LyndenI know, it’s a shame! Not a typo unfortunately – the notice just came through yesterday afternoon. This is DVD’s domain now. It’s a great film!"

My final reply:
Meanwhile the LA Times ran an interesting story today under the headline, "Many theatres refuse to book Hurt Locker despite Oscar win." The problem being that, in the US, it's already on DVD.

The French aren't arrogant. It's you

Below you will find the key to life in France (and probably anywhere, for that matter). Read, memorise, learn.

The advice comes in an interview with UK horror novelist and film critic Anne Billson, who's based in Paris these days.

"...what British visitors to Paris often fail to note is that the French are INCREDIBLY polite (strange but true) and so you MUST preface every interaction and transaction with a “bonjour” (or “bonsoir” if it’s the evening). You say bonjour to the waiter or barman as you go into a bar, before you give your order. You say bonjour to shop assistants before you ask them for something, you say it in banks and post offices, and you say bonjour to people in the street when you stop them to ask for directions.

"Thing is, if you DON’T say bonjour, and launch straight into your demands without preamble, you come across as rude and boorish, and the French will then treat you as such. It sounds rude and boorish even to me now. So remember – bonjour! I swear it’s like the Open Sesame to life in France."

Interestingly I've found the same. My first few visits to Paris as a young man merely confirmed the stereotype that Parisians are brusque and snobbish. Well, the waiters, anyway.

In more recent visits I've been struck by how friendly everyone is; the way every barman or woman greets you as you waltz into their establishment. Lets' say it out loud, folks. Be nice to them and the French are fabulous.

Why Cameron strangled Bigelow

COMMENTS SUSPENDED ON THIS POST. PLEASE POST ON THE ABC SITE - SEE LINK

Anyone wondering why I've been a bit quiet on the Oscars - all is revealed at ABC's The Drum today, which has published my take on the awards and why The Hurt Locker beat Avatar.

Extract:
"The Academy Awards are a great example of the brilliance of the United States' use of "soft power" to prop up its global influence. The Oscars are partly about giving Hollywood the chance to feel good about itself, but also, even more importantly, about marketing the American movie industry to the world. The Hurt Locker ticks both these boxes with aplomb.

"After films heavily critical of US policy and conduct in the Middle East such as Rendition, In the Valley of Elah, Body of Lies and Redacted, Bigelow delivered a safer option - an avowedly apolitical movie focused on the existential dilemmas of a bomb disposal unit in Iraq..."

Opening eyes at the Oscars

I havent seen The Secret in Their Eyes, the Argentinian film that beat Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon to the best foreign film Oscar yesterday.

That didn't stop me being a little sceptical from watching the clips on the TV broadcast, and from knowing just how sentimental and conservative the Academy can be when voting in this category (think - if you can bear it - of Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful).

However I was intrigued by a brief glimpse of the great actor Ricardo Darin (star of Nine Queens and its terrific, greatly under-rated follow-up, The Aura, the latter tragically the final film of the late Fabián Bielinsky.

Then this passionate defence of Eyes from a Guardian reader - buried in a long post-Oscars comments thread - set my antennae all a-twitching:

"Those indirectly derogatory comments on (director Juan Jose) Campanella´s films -both in this (Peter) Bradshaw piece and in Oscar 2010: the winners in pictures- make no sense and are a disservice to the Guardian readers. Campanella´s oeuvre - Peter, watch the whole of it - is one of the most coherent of today´s world cinema -not simply of Latin America.

"He´s in the league of Rodríguez Iñárritu, Cuarón o Del Toro with a great difference - he´s making his films in Argentina and making television only (House, Ally MCbeal) in the US so he doesn´t have to spoil his career by making Hollywood blockbusters for the young.

"Even more, Campanella is working with one of the greatest living actors: Ricardo Darín, revered in the whole Spanish-speaking world.

"Darín could be better known internationally had he taken years ago the expected roles he was offered in American films as Colombian drug dealer, etc. Unlike Banderas, Darín chose to remain a great actor instead of a becoming a Hollywood star.

"Someone should be writing on them rather than displaying a piece of boastful European ignorance -and I´m a European and occasionally ignorant too. Something´s not working when the Oscar academics are teaching a lesson to Guardian writers.

"To say the least, The Secret of His Eyes is as good as Haneke´s and Audiard´s films. And it is a great film for at least three reasons: it uses a criminal plot and is able to get rid of it halfway in order to go for heart-wrenching tragedy; it is the strangest yet most fascinating metaphor of Argentinian life and politics in the last 35 years without being a political film, and it is a love story without being a melodrama -bitter enough.

"Campanella does something that American films can´t do these days. His is a painful, humorous, sorrowful, troubled, redeeming, superb film.

"Watch it, and be surprised, stunned...."

Blimey. Not aware of this having Australian distribution, but if any reader knows of any deal, please let us know.

Stories you don't see much - very boring man does nothing much

Before this year's Oscar winners are announced - in which A Serious Man somehow finds itself competing for best original screenplay - I thought I'd get in first with my counter-reading of this supposed work of shattering genius.

Forget this is by the Coen brothers (untouchable icons in the eyes of many film critics) and ask this:

What are the basic rules of drama? (1) Active protagonist/s with a problem. (2) Conflict that produces (either immediately or ultimately) change.

I'm not talking about the Hero's Journey, I'm talking about all drama, whether highbrow, low or middle, whether cinematic or theatrical.

Measured against this yardstick it's not surprising that some viewers find the film's protagonist boring (when I saw the film at least 20% of the audience left the cinema before the end). He appears to have been deliberately engineered by the Coens to make viewers tear out their hair.

Certainly he has a problem - many. The trouble is he does mostly nothing about them. As a result the narrative remains inert, episodic, flat. There's no spark, except for those too few scenes where he takes matters into his hands (demanding to see the rabbi who he's been told is too busy and marching right in to his office).

More typical of his behaviour is that when he sleeps with his neighbour he has little say in the matter - she pulls him in, makes all the moves and he goes along with it.

Nearly everything happens TO our Serious Man. He does nothing in return. You can call this many things, but you can't call it drama. Compared to Hamlet, who some folks like to cite (incorrectly) as a successful instance of a passive protagonist, Larry Gopnick is about as interesting as a bag of cement.

Mock poster by Tom Phillips, taken from Hollywood Elsewhere, where you can also find the above in the comments thread.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland - review

My review of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is up at SBS Film:

Extract:
"...I spent at least half of the film regretting the decision to see it in 3D. Where the poster is bright and colourful, those dark specs cast everything in a muted pall. The 3D effects are often distracting, with objects flying towards the screen at regular intervals. Every time you see the March Hare approaching, duck. But even in 2D the film will suffer from an over-riding problem: despite its fabulous cast and often wonderful production design, it just isn’t much fun."

Separation City - review

My review of the refreshing Kiwi comedy Separation City, starring Joel Edgerton and directed by Paul Middleditch (whose last film was the utterly brilliant Sydney no-budgeter A Cold Summer), is up at the SBS film website:

Intro:
"There’s something very limiting and unimaginative about the way romantic comedy has come to be seen as an essentially female sub-genre. Some of the most memorable rom-coms have been told from the male point of view – think of When Harry Met Sally (although scripted by Norah Ephron, a male-centred story) or Woody Allen’s Annie Hall and Manhattan.

"The idea that only women are interested in relationships is bogus nonsense – most men are either in relationships or want to be..."