Metro : Media & Education Magazine back issues from April 2006:
From the office of Dr Sigmund Jung, via John Catania
Apr 01, 2006; ... The following are diary entries written last year by an 'incomplete' Australian feature film screenplay. EVIDENTLY the screenplay is suffering from a psychological condition that manifests itself as a intermittent belief that it is from the 1970s. Most likely, the condition is due to the ...
Australasian Films Released in 1975
Apr 01, 2006; ... Ashes Barry Barclay Based on the poem Ash Wednesday by T.S. Eliot, starring Sam Neill as a priest concerned about losing his faith. 'Sam, always a good "worrier", gave one of his best performances. Many people believed he actually was a priest.' (John o'Shea) Australia ...
Mad Dog Morgan: An Unjustly Dismissed Bushranger Classic
Apr 01, 2006; ... On 27 october 1975, 26-year-old Philippe Mora, who had had recent international success with his two compilation documentaries Swastika (1974) and Brother Can You Spare a Dime (1975), began to film his first feature length dramatic film, Mad Dog Morgan, based on the life of the bushranger and ...
Dreams which wake the sleeper
Apr 01, 2006; ... PITY & THE POLITY IN MICHAEL HANEKE'S HIDDEN In the scene in Michael Haneke's Hidden (Caché, 2005) when Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteuil) tells his wife what befell his boyhood friend Majid's parents, Anne Laurent (Juliette Binoche) is dressed in black. Traditionally coded as the garb ...
In Search of the Good Stuff: Pure Shit
Apr 01, 2006; ... The week after the world premiere of Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock on 8 August 1975, Bert Deling's Pure Shit had its first public screening at the short-lived but markedly progressive Perth Film Festival. BOTH remain, of course, films of their times, each betraying the varied ...
1975: A Year of Dreams and Discovery
Apr 01, 2006; ... The ALP was in the ascendant, gough Whitlam was Prime minister and tertiary education was free. Students even got paid, courtesy of the tertiary education Allowance Scheme, to go to university. I was in my final year of a vocational writing course, which had just been transferred ...
'Those Who Fall Are Not the Stars': The Martial Arts Film at HKIFF 2006
Apr 01, 2006; ... This year the HKIFF was teeming with martial arts films and debate about their future.1 Festival organizers programmed a 'Tribute to Action Choreographers' to showcase the work of such martial arts luminaries as Yuen Woo-ping, Ching Siu-ting, Sammo Hung and Lau Kar-leung - all of whom were ...
The Man from Hong Kong
Apr 01, 2006; ... The man from Hong Kong, a groundbreaking Australia-hong kong co-production from 1975, is a watershed in the development of the kung-fu genre, writes STEPHEN TEO. THE Man from Hong Kong (Brian trenchard Smith, 1975) shares a certain generic experience with Michael Powell's They're a Weird ...
A Guerilla 'Bon Soir' from Cannes
Apr 01, 2006; ... Day 1 In filmmaking you're only as good as your next project. That's the deal. And that's why Duke (Hendrix - director, co-writer), myself (producer, co-writer), Sven (Jonnssen - actor) and Jed (Hendrix - actor) are sitting in a 747, twentythree hours from Cannes. The ...
Man, Woman and Death
Apr 01, 2006; ... RAY LAWRENCE ON 'JINDABYNE' Jindabyne is Ray Lawrence's third feature film, and is based on a short story by Raymond Carver. The film traces the consequences of four weekend fishermen finding the body of a murdered woman in a mountain river. Like Lawrence's previous films, it focuses on ...
Word of Mouse: Why New Media is the New Place for Writers
Apr 01, 2006; ... Any talk of new media and all things broadband needs to start narrow. AND I reckon my personal 'issues' with Harry Potter are (arguably) as good a place to start as any: I have not read any Harry Potter, not that there's anything wrong with it ... It's just that Harry Potter is a ...
Fighting Fit: The Hong Kong International Film Festival 2006
Apr 01, 2006; ... The Hong Kong International Film Festival celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with its resilience tested on several fronts. It has been privatized as a non-profit organization, resulting in its public subsidies decreasing each year; its outdoor venue is going to be sold out from under ...
ANDY WARHOL: 'GIANT' SIZE
Apr 01, 2006; ... ANDY WARHOL: 'GIANT' SIZE PHAIDON PRESS, LONDON, 2006 GEE ... another book on Warhol, I hear you say. Well, in my best Philip Seymour Hoffman Capote-voice, don't entertain that notion, amigos, this is no ordinary book. I'll get to the substantive matter of its content in a minute. The ...
'A Magic Combination': Hal McElroy and Blue Heelers
Apr 01, 2006; ... Phillip Cenere looks back at the Aussie drama milestone that is Blue Heelers and speaks with co-creator and producer Hal McElroy. ON A WINDING COUNTRY ROAD seven miles from 'Mount thomas', Senior constable nick Schultz (william Mcinnes) conducts random breath tests on passing motorists ....
LOVE MY WAY
Apr 01, 2006; ... LOVE MY WAY DIRECTORS Shirley Barrett, Garth Davis, Geoff Bennett, Omar Madah. WRITERS Jacquelin Perske, Tony McNamara, Brendan Cowell, Louise Fox, Fiona Seres, Marissa Cooke. Australia, 2005, ten episodes of fifty minutes. Starring Claudia Karvan, Asher Keddie, Brendan Cowell, ...
L'Amour Japan: Recent Frissons in Japanese Cinema
Apr 01, 2006; ... Heart Beating in the Dark - New Version (shunichi nagasaki, 2005); The Volatile Woman (Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, 2004); Green Mind, Metal Bats (Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, 2006); The Lost Hum (Hiromasa Hirosue, 2006); Analife (Kenji Goda, 2005) The bittersweet tears of European arthouse ...
Rebelling Against Heroin Chic: A CONVERSATION WITH LUKE DAVIES AND NEIL ARMFIELD
Apr 01, 2006; ... ALMOST as soon as he begins to speak, it's obvious that Luke Davies talks like a writer. He's a man who loves language, constantly fishing for new words and metaphors to fuel his conversation. It's a style instantly recognizable from his debut novel Candy; a style that finds a way to describe ...
Is There a Doctor (or Lawyer or Cop) in the House?: The Sorry State of Australian TV Drama
Apr 01, 2006; ... Trawling through the recent history of Australian TV drama is akin to walking through a graveyard. It's a trail littered with the corpses of sometimes worthy but usually unpopular series. IN THE LAST YEAR much-heralded shows such as Last Man Standing, headLand, The Surgeon and The Alice ...
Finding the REALiTY: IN THE SHADOW OF THE PALMS
Apr 01, 2006; ... BOLDLY GOING WHERE NOT MANY FILMMAKERS DARE, WAYNE COLES-JANNES TELLS CYNTHIA KARENA ABOUT MAKING A DOCUMENTARY IN IRAQ. AMONGST ALL THE news reports and spins of the Iraq war, Wayne Coles-Janess has made a film, In the Shadow of the Palms (2006), that documents the personal views of ...
WAR OF THE WORLDS
Apr 01, 2006; ... WAR OF THE WORLDS DIRECTED BY Steven Spielberg. WRITTEN BY Josh Friedman and David Koepp (screenplay), H.G. Wells (novel). US, 2005, 116 minutes. STARRING Tom Cruise, Justin Chatwin, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins, Miranda Otto and a cast of hundreds and thousands running ...
Wasted Youth: 'Candy'
Apr 01, 2006; ... THE MOST DISAPPOINTING THING ABOUT 'CANDY' IS THAT EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE FILM IS IN THE PLOT SYNOPSIS: IT'S A STORY ABOUT TWO JUNKIES IN LOVE. NOW that you've read those last four words, I can guarantee that the film you just pictured in your head is exactly what director ...
CATALYST: THE POWER OF THE MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC TO MAKE CHANGE
Apr 01, 2006; ... CATALYST: THE POWER OF THE MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC TO MAKE CHANGE MADONNA KING, UQP, ST LUCIA, 2005 JOURNALIST MADONNA King has collected eleven stories about people who have struggled to change laws they believe are unjust, based on their experiences of traumatic events, such as the death ...
KUNG FU HUSTLE
Apr 01, 2006; ... KUNG FU HUSTLE DIRECTED BY Stephen Chow. WRITTEN BY Tsang Kan Cheong, Stephen Chow, Xin Huo, Chan Man Keung. China/Hong Kong, 2005, 95 minutes. STARRING Stephen Chow, Wah Yuen, Qiu Yuen, Siu-Lung Leung, Zhi Hua Dong. THE New York Times recently asked whether 'foreign film ...
SIN CITY
Apr 01, 2006; ... SIN CITY DIRECTED BY Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. WRITTEN BY Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller. US, 2005, 112 minutes. STARRING Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Nick Stahl, Rutger Hauer, Michael Clarke Duncan, ...
METRO 149 TV EYE
Apr 01, 2006; ... 01 RE: ASIO RESPONSE TO SEDITIOUS MATERIAL IN THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING BY DAVE HOSKIN Dear [name censored], CONGRATULATIONS on your penetration of the ABC's comedy department. With the success of phase one behind us, consider these your orders for the ...
IRENE DOBSON
Apr 01, 2006; ... It is an exciting moment when a film writer is discovered. A highly regarded cinema programmer in the 1970s and '80s, Irene Dobson wrote on topics ranging from the Hollywood career girl to Martin Scorsese to the B movies of Val Lewton to Italian giallo horror cinema. Over thirty years, she has ...
SOUNDscape
Apr 01, 2006; ... SELLING THE SONGWRITER: THE MUSIC PUBLISHING TRADE This issue, Soundscape explores the business side of music publishing and the myriad ways songs impact on film, television and new media. AS I WRITE THIS, the song Forever Young is the highest-selling single on the ArIA charts ....
Secrets and Lies on the South Coast: 'The Caterpillar Wish'
Apr 01, 2006; ... For a while back in the later seventies and early eighties there was a tenacious stream of Australian films that chronicled rites of passage or coming of age. It was tempting to see them as collectively saying something about the state of the nation or at least about the state of its renascent ...
TEN CANOES
Apr 01, 2006; ... MIKE WALSH INTERVIEWS DIRECTOR ROLF DE HEER AND REVIEWS HIS NEW MOVIE TEN CANOES THE OVERWHELMING THEME of Australian feature films dealing with Aboriginal people has been the unhappy fate they have suffered at the hands of the european colonizer. There is something of a disjunction here ...
Making Words Become Flesh: John Jacobs DISCUSSES HIS ROLES AS ACTOR AND TEACHER
Apr 01, 2006; ... You may not know the name but the face could be familiar to you. John Jacobs and his high-standing Kramer-esque hair have been on the acting and dramateaching scene for over thirty years. As an actor he has appeared in multiple Australian television shows including The Flying Doctors, ...
An Interview with Matthew Horrocks (New Zealand Film Commission)
Apr 01, 2006; ... HOW DID YOU come to be interested in film and what path led you to this position at the New Zealand Film Commission? I got into movie-making because I was doing law and history at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and not particularly enjoying the law. And the main thing I was ...
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Apr 01, 2006; ... Along with The man From Snowy River (George Miller, 1982), The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the desert (Stephan Elliot, 1994), Rabbit Proof Fence (Phillip Noyce, 2001) and Beneath clouds (Ivan Sen, 2001), Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) is one of Australia's most visually ...
The Politics of Melodrama in Deepa Mehta's 'Water'
Apr 01, 2006; ... WATER (2005), the final instalment in Deepa Mehta's 'elemental trilogy', has had - in the director's own words - 'a tumultuous birth'. It has taken five years for this third film in the series, following Fire (1996) and earth (1998), to reach the screen, after what has been described as 'one of ...
The True Story of Eskimo Nell
Apr 01, 2006; ... Watching the DVD of Richard Franklin's first film, The True Story of Eskimo Nell (1975) took me back to my childhood.1 Now this may seem alarming, considering I was barely three years' old when this bawdy sex comedy, set in the Victorian goldfields, was released. My father Alan hopgood ...
Meeting Mehta: A Conversation with the Director of 'Water'
Apr 01, 2006; ... Canadian-based filmmaker Deepa Mehta was born and grew up in India. She received a degree in philosophy from the University of New Delhi, where she met Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman. They married shortly after and she immigrated to Canada. THE marriage did not last, but Mehta stayed ...
Trapped beneath the Surface: Hidden
Apr 01, 2006; ... A wasteland filled with lawlessness and looting. 10,000 refugees huddled in a dirty, crowded New Orleans stadium. ALL told, an estimated death toll exceeding 1500. Conditions that shocked the world, more akin to a third world country than the most powerful nation in the world. Hurricane ...
METRO 149 WIRES UP
Apr 01, 2006; ... Artists and Vandals DOES equipment empower the elite? It's hard to remain neutral on the question if you live or work near a university, where thousands of students and tutors alike are linked by twin white umbilical cords to a portable hard-drive, or academics synch up their iPod, their ...
(Re)discovering Stanislavsky FOR ACTORS AND SCREENWRITERS
Apr 01, 2006; ... The work of Konstantin Stanislavsky is frequently misunderstood by actors, argues Anthony Mullins. Here, he calls for a rediscovery of the Russian master by Australian actors and suggests ways that screenwriters can use his techniques to heighten the dramatic impact of their stories. IN ...
Empathy and Humour in Look Both Ways
Apr 01, 2006; ... AN EXTENSION OF DELEUZIAN CINEMA Abstract THIS paper explores director sarah Watt's innovative technique in the 2005 Australian film Look Both Ways. In this film Watt explores the inner thoughts and the mostly death-related fears of her characters, but with humour. She directs ...
1975: The Unease of Passing Milestones
Apr 01, 2006; ... By any measurement 1975 was a watershed year for the Australian media. IT was a time of significant beginnings (colour TV, the AFC and the SAFC, triple j, Norman Gunston) and endings (the last cinema newsreel, the final curtain for Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock). It's easy to ...
SHORTCUTS
Apr 01, 2006; ... More Changes to the Classification System IN February the Attorney-General, Phillip Ruddock, announced the abolition of the Office of Film and Literature Classification; its policy and administrative functions will become part of the Attorney-General's Department, and, while the ...
Don't Fence Me In: Australian TV Comedy - The Next Wave
Apr 01, 2006; ... There is a tendency when dissecting the state of Australian TV comedy to lump it alongside its ailing sister, drama. This is unfair, as comedy here has never been healthier. While it is true that traditional sitcoms, with the exception of Kath And Kim, are virtually non-existent, other ...
100 BOLLYWOOD FILMS
Apr 01, 2006; ... 100 BOLLYWOOD FILMS RACHEL DWYER, BFI SCREEN GUIDES, LONDON, 2005 RACHEL DWYER is probably the foremost writer in english on Hindi cinema. She has published a number of books on this fascinating national cinema, including Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film (Rutgers University ...
'Black': Bollywood Comes of Age
Apr 01, 2006; ... 'What modern movies lack is the wind in the trees.' D.W. Griffith I TAKE THE ABOVE TO MEAN that D.W. Griffith believed cinema in his day lacked a poetic quality, that sense of wonder and of the sublime that can stir emotions grand, rare and refined - emotions so overwhelming they are ...
METRO 149 TECHNICAL SECTION
Apr 01, 2006; ... SHAKE 4 FULL VERSION * $4199 (Upgrade $1499) * Mac / Linux * System Requirements: * MAC OSX 10.3.9 * 1GHz or faster PowerPC G4 processor * 512MB of RAM * 1GB of available disk space * http://www.apple.com Shake is ...
dis.a.bi.li.ty...dis.a.bled...dis.cov.er.y...
Apr 01, 2006; ... Anitra Nelson [inset below] reports on the 5th annual 'Picture This ... Film Festival', 6-10 February 2006, Calgary (Canada), which she attended - thanks to an Australian Film Commission travel grant - to receive an honourable mention for her short film, Mercury Stole My Fire (2005) [pictured ...
J.P. MCGOWAN: BIOGRAPHY OF A HOLLYWOOD PIONEER
Apr 01, 2006; ... J.P. MCGOWAN: BIOGRAPHY OF A HOLLYWOOD PIONEER JOHN J. MCGOWAN, MACFARLAND & COMPANY, NORTH CAROLINA, 2005 THESE DAYS there are more successful antipodeans in hollywood than you can shake a stick at. But hands up who knows the name of the very first Australian to establish himself in ...
THE AUDIENCE AS AURATOR AGAIN?: SOUND AND ROLF DE HEER'S 'TEN CANOES'
Apr 01, 2006; ... BY INSISTING TEN CANOES (ROLF DE HEER, 2006) HAVE ALL ITS DIEGETIC DIALOGUE IN THE ABORIGINAL DIALECT OF GANALBINGU, WRITER AND CO-DIRECTOR ROLF DE HEER HAS MADE A SUBTLE STATEMENT ABOUT INDIGENOUS PRIDE AND THE SITUATION OF CONTEMPORARY ABORIGINES IN AUSTRALIA. BY D. BRUNO STARRS IN TEN ...
Don't Blink Too Often: ARE OUR DRAMA SCHOOLS PREPARING ACTORS FOR THE SCREEN?
Apr 01, 2006; ... In every corner of Australia, hopeful performers dream of being the next Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe or Guy Pearce, combining charisma, talent and stardom to craft an awesome career. For many, the first step towards achieving this goal is training. But are Australia?s acting ...
In the Words of the Artist: Kerry Armstrong
Apr 01, 2006; ... In this insightful article, renowned Australian actor Kerry Armstrong reflects on her career. she reveals her passion for the craft, the shifts and trends in the local industry and the journey that has brought her to prominence on Australia's stage and screen. she was talking to Brenda ...
'That Kid had One Hell of a Day': 'Little Terrorist'
Apr 01, 2006; ... Amongst the colour and commotion of the Mumbai International film Festival, Cynthia Karena talks to writer and director Ashvin Kumar about his film Little Terrorist. INDIA is like no other country, and their MIFF is certainly different to our MIFF. The Mumbai International Film Festival ...
Reel Life - Real Life: What Happened in 1975
Apr 01, 2006; ... From cineaste, critic and director of a trailblazing black and white indie feature to legendary antipodean producer, executive producer, film financier and distributor; from Australia and New Zealand to the Philippines, Hong Kong, Yugoslavia, Canada and the USA, Antony I. Ginnane's 35-year ...
Acting Different: A FOCUS ON SCREEN PERFORMANCE
Apr 01, 2006; ... Metro's Special Feature Section for this issue, 'Acting Different: A Focus on Screen Performance', is at once a critical dissection and a provocative re-evaluation. Screen performance has long been recognized as having made a major contribution to film production and many contemporary film ...
BATMAN BEGINS
Apr 01, 2006; ... BATMAN BEGINS DIRECTED BY Christopher Nolan. WRITTEN BY Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer (screenplay), Bob Kane (characters). US, 2005, 140 minutes. STARRING Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Ken ...
ROLF DE HEER AND TEN CANOES: CROCODILES, LEECHES, MOSQUITOES AND PASSION
Apr 01, 2006; ... Ten Canoes (2005) is Adelaide- based Rolf de Heer's eleventh feature film since 1984. From Miles Davis in the Australian bush (Dingo, 1991) to the bizarre fantasy of Bad Boy Bubby (1993) to the story of Heather Rose in 1997's Dance Me to My Song, de Heer has amassed a body of work which is ...
A Matter of Translation
Apr 01, 2006; ... THE LAUNCH OF AL JAZEERA INTERNATIONAL RECENTLY I was invited to participate in the Second International Al Jazeera Film Festival in Doha, Qatar, as a member of its non-Arabic judging panel. I have been part of film juries and media conferences before, both in and out of Australia ....
Killing Homicide: The Demise of a Cultural Icon
Apr 01, 2006; ... Although I didn't realize it at the time, in 1975 I was effectively the last script editor on the classic Aussie cop show, Homicide. AROUND May news filtered down that the network, unhappy with the way things were going, had just cancelled the last eight scripts I'd released for ...
Drama QUEEN?
Apr 01, 2006; ... THE TROUBLE AND STRIFE OF VINCENT WARD'S RIVER QUEEN. WELL, IT'S BEEN RELEASED. After all the hiccups, malicious gossip, backstabbing, character assassination, sickness, tantrums, and a makutu (curse) by local Maori activists, River Queen (Vincent Ward, 2006) has finally made it to ...
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Apr 01, 2006; ... The renowned writer, producer and director of many fine films including The Man From Hong Kong (1975) and BMX Bandits (1983), has strong views on the Australian film industry pre- and post-1975. He talks to PENNY BECCHIO at his home in Los Angeles. PB: It has been said that 1975 was a ...
The Film of the Book: ADAPTATION AND THE AUSTRALIAN CINEMA
Apr 01, 2006; ... WHEN MICHAEL POWELL, one of the most flamboyantly 'cinematic' of British film directors, came to Australia in the 1960s, when local cinema was still in the doldrums, he made two films both based on novels: They're a Weird Mob (1966) and Age of Consent (1969). Powell famously didn't belong to the ...