The actor narrates a 40-screen immersive exhibition of Australian land and wildlife, shot by 25 cinematographers. ‘This environment is our heritage and our responsibility,’ he says
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Before he became one of Australia’s best-loved actors, Jack Thompson had already been many things. At the age of 15, he became a jackaroo in the Northern Territory, working on the remote cattle station of Elkedra. There, he says, he observed a life that no longer exists. At camp, he was the only white person among the adult Alyawarra men.
It was fine preparation for his cinematic work in the 1970s and early 80s when he became an icon of the Australian New Wave, taking leading and supporting roles in classics including Sunday Too Far Away (1975), The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), Breaker Morant (1980) and The Man from Snowy River (1982).
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Before he became one of Australia’s best-loved actors, Jack Thompson had already been many things. At the age of 15, he became a jackaroo in the Northern Territory, working on the remote cattle station of Elkedra. There, he says, he observed a life that no longer exists. At camp, he was the only white person among the adult Alyawarra men.
It was fine preparation for his cinematic work in the 1970s and early 80s when he became an icon of the Australian New Wave, taking leading and supporting roles in classics including Sunday Too Far Away (1975), The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), Breaker Morant (1980) and The Man from Snowy River (1982).
Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads,...
- 3/12/2023
- by Andrew Stafford
- The Guardian - Film News
In 1976, a young director set out to make a rock music take on the Wizard of Oz. John Safran speaks to those behind Oz: A Rock’n’Roll Road Movie about everything that went wrong
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Before the ABC ran commercials for Q&a and Bananas in Pyjamas between shows, they ran meditative interludes – waves crashing against rocks, hot air balloons drifting through the clouds, that sort of thing. This is how the director of Oz: A Rock’n’Roll Road Movie, Chris Löfvén, got his start. At 14 years old, he darted around Melbourne with his 16mm camera, licked a stamp and posted the footage to the television station. They liked it and ran it.
Chris’s first job out of high school was working for director Fred Schepisi (who’d go on to make The Devil’s Playground and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith...
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Before the ABC ran commercials for Q&a and Bananas in Pyjamas between shows, they ran meditative interludes – waves crashing against rocks, hot air balloons drifting through the clouds, that sort of thing. This is how the director of Oz: A Rock’n’Roll Road Movie, Chris Löfvén, got his start. At 14 years old, he darted around Melbourne with his 16mm camera, licked a stamp and posted the footage to the television station. They liked it and ran it.
Chris’s first job out of high school was working for director Fred Schepisi (who’d go on to make The Devil’s Playground and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith...
- 8/13/2022
- by John Safran
- The Guardian - Film News
If you’re looking to dive into the best of independent and foreign filmmaking, The Criterion Channel has announced their August 2020 lineup. The impressive slate includes retrospectives dedicated to Mia Hansen-Løve, Bill Gunn, Stephen Cone, Terry Gilliam, Wim Wenders, Alain Delon, Bill Plympton, Les Blank, and more.
In terms of new releases, they also have Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau, the fascinating documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, the Kenyan LGBTQ drama Rafiki, and more. There’s also a series on Australian New Wave with films by Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, David Gulpilil, and Peter Weir, as well as one on bad vacations with Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and more.
See the lineup below and explore more on their platform. One can also see our weekly streaming picks here.
25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Bill Plympton, 1989
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Roy Rowland,...
In terms of new releases, they also have Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau, the fascinating documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, the Kenyan LGBTQ drama Rafiki, and more. There’s also a series on Australian New Wave with films by Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, David Gulpilil, and Peter Weir, as well as one on bad vacations with Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and more.
See the lineup below and explore more on their platform. One can also see our weekly streaming picks here.
25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Bill Plympton, 1989
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Roy Rowland,...
- 7/24/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Fred Schepisi’s 1978 sophomore film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith holds a significant prominence in the Australian New Wave, which revitalized Australia’s film industry throughout the 1970s and 1980s, in that it was the first Australian film to compete in Cannes. A vibrant, eventually violent saga of an Indigenous man’s turn to bloody vengeance, Blacksmith’s saga is perhaps the most socially provocative figure outside of Ned Kelly (who’s mentioned in the film’s proceedings) to receive such cinematic reverence in Australian cinema. Schepisi, whose filmography runs a gamut of social issue topics, famed play adaptations, Hollywood rom-coms and even espionage thrillers, is perhaps best remembered for the 1988 Meryl Streep starrer A Cry in the Dark (which generated a rather infamous punchline about a dingo), but his recuperation of Jimmie Blacksmith arrives just in time for a resurgence of cinema dealing with Australia’s dark history.…
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- 10/1/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Sam Neill and Bryan Brown.
Bryan Brown will receive this year’s Longford Lyell Award, the highest honour bestowed by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta).
Director Ian Dunlop was the first recipient of the honour named after film pioneers Raymond Longford and Lottie Lyell at the 1968 AFI Awards.
The roll call of honorees includes Peter Weir, Geoffrey Rush, Fred Schepisi, Jan Chapman, David Stratton, Don McAlpine, Al Clark, Jacki Weaver, Andrew Knight, Cate Blanchett and, last year, Phillip Noyce.
“In the 38 years since Bryan received his first AFI Award we have seen him firmly established as one of Australia’s most respected actors. As one of our earliest performance winners it is fitting that we honour Bryan this year as AFI | Aacta celebrates its 60th anniversary,” said AFI | Aacta CEO Damian Trewhella.
“We are full of admiration for Bryan’s commitment to his craft, his role...
Bryan Brown will receive this year’s Longford Lyell Award, the highest honour bestowed by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta).
Director Ian Dunlop was the first recipient of the honour named after film pioneers Raymond Longford and Lottie Lyell at the 1968 AFI Awards.
The roll call of honorees includes Peter Weir, Geoffrey Rush, Fred Schepisi, Jan Chapman, David Stratton, Don McAlpine, Al Clark, Jacki Weaver, Andrew Knight, Cate Blanchett and, last year, Phillip Noyce.
“In the 38 years since Bryan received his first AFI Award we have seen him firmly established as one of Australia’s most respected actors. As one of our earliest performance winners it is fitting that we honour Bryan this year as AFI | Aacta celebrates its 60th anniversary,” said AFI | Aacta CEO Damian Trewhella.
“We are full of admiration for Bryan’s commitment to his craft, his role...
- 11/27/2018
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Australian actor Peter Sumner, who portrayed Death Star security officer Lt. Pol Treidum in the original 1977 “Star Wars” film, died after battling a long illness, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. He was 74.
Sumner was best known for his scene in “A New Hope” when he notices two stormtroopers (Han Solo and Luke Skywalker) out of their assigned stations and says, “TK-421, why aren’t you at your post? TK-421, do you copy?” Later, he’s seen being taken out by Chewbacca.
According to the Herald, the actor was traveling in England with his family when “Star Wars” was being cast. He earned £60 a day for two days’ work on the film and forever cherished the experience. He was a regular at fan conventions and replied to fan letters over the years. He later reprised his role of Treidum in the 1999 “Star Wars” fan film “The Dark Redemption.”
Read More: ‘Game of Thrones...
Sumner was best known for his scene in “A New Hope” when he notices two stormtroopers (Han Solo and Luke Skywalker) out of their assigned stations and says, “TK-421, why aren’t you at your post? TK-421, do you copy?” Later, he’s seen being taken out by Chewbacca.
According to the Herald, the actor was traveling in England with his family when “Star Wars” was being cast. He earned £60 a day for two days’ work on the film and forever cherished the experience. He was a regular at fan conventions and replied to fan letters over the years. He later reprised his role of Treidum in the 1999 “Star Wars” fan film “The Dark Redemption.”
Read More: ‘Game of Thrones...
- 11/23/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
Rolf de Heer’s curious mixture of entertainment and anthropology represented the first full-length Australian feature spoken entirely in Indigenous language
Is it right for non-Indigenous film-makers to tell Indigenous stories? The question has generated some debate over the years, notably in the Australian film industry in the aftermath of director Fred Schepisi’s uncompromising racially-charged revenge drama The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith in 1978.
Related: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith rewatched – beautiful but savage
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Is it right for non-Indigenous film-makers to tell Indigenous stories? The question has generated some debate over the years, notably in the Australian film industry in the aftermath of director Fred Schepisi’s uncompromising racially-charged revenge drama The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith in 1978.
Related: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith rewatched – beautiful but savage
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- 1/2/2016
- by Luke Buckmaster
- The Guardian - Film News
Hail Caesar!
"Hail, Caesar!," the Coen brother's latest feature, will open the 66th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival next year on February 11th - six days after its U.S. premiere. The story follows a single day in the life of a studio fixer (Josh Brolin) who gets a call that star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) disappeared from the shooting of the studio's latest sand-and-sandles epic. [Source: THR]
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino has revealed he's planning a special screening event featuring 1970s Australian westerns "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" and "Mad Dog Morgan" during his visit to Australia next month to promote "The Hateful Eight" release. [Source: Smh]
Just Cause 3
Avalanche Studios has posted an update on the Steam page for the just released video game "Just Cause 3", the update apologising for the various bugs that have impacted primarily the game's frame-rate and server log-in issues. A patch is reportedly coming soon...
"Hail, Caesar!," the Coen brother's latest feature, will open the 66th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival next year on February 11th - six days after its U.S. premiere. The story follows a single day in the life of a studio fixer (Josh Brolin) who gets a call that star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) disappeared from the shooting of the studio's latest sand-and-sandles epic. [Source: THR]
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino has revealed he's planning a special screening event featuring 1970s Australian westerns "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" and "Mad Dog Morgan" during his visit to Australia next month to promote "The Hateful Eight" release. [Source: Smh]
Just Cause 3
Avalanche Studios has posted an update on the Steam page for the just released video game "Just Cause 3", the update apologising for the various bugs that have impacted primarily the game's frame-rate and server log-in issues. A patch is reportedly coming soon...
- 12/4/2015
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Quentin Tarantino is set host a live Q and A in Sydney before screening his two favourite Australian "Western-ish" films.
The newly established People.s Republic of Movies, will hold an exclusive one-night-only double bill of Australian cinema plus a live Q&A hosted by Oscar Award-winning writer/director, Tarantino, at The Star, Sydney on January 15.
Tarantino, who is in Australia promoting The Hateful Eight, will host the evening the evening which pays homage to Australian cinema.
Tarantino has chosen to show The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) and the wild Dennis Hopper outlaw classic, Mad Dog Morgan (1976).
The films will be screened in 35mm format, sourced from the National Film and Sound Archive.
Tarantino will be joined by award winning director Fred Schepisi (The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Six Degrees of Separation) and globally acclaimed writer Thomas Keneally (Schindler.s List) plus a few surprises.
P.R.O.M founder and curator,...
The newly established People.s Republic of Movies, will hold an exclusive one-night-only double bill of Australian cinema plus a live Q&A hosted by Oscar Award-winning writer/director, Tarantino, at The Star, Sydney on January 15.
Tarantino, who is in Australia promoting The Hateful Eight, will host the evening the evening which pays homage to Australian cinema.
Tarantino has chosen to show The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) and the wild Dennis Hopper outlaw classic, Mad Dog Morgan (1976).
The films will be screened in 35mm format, sourced from the National Film and Sound Archive.
Tarantino will be joined by award winning director Fred Schepisi (The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Six Degrees of Separation) and globally acclaimed writer Thomas Keneally (Schindler.s List) plus a few surprises.
P.R.O.M founder and curator,...
- 12/4/2015
- by Brian Karlovsky
- IF.com.au
Documentary filmmaker Sonya Pemberton and post production maven John Fleming are the latest recipients of the Film Victoria Screen Leader Awards.
The agency also announced the creation of two awards for a director and screenwriter in 2016, honouring Fred Schepisi and Jan Sardi.
The Film Victoria — Fred Schepisi Award for Achievement in Directing salutes the director, producer and screenwriter who made his name with The Devil.s Playground and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.
Among his stellar credits are Iceman, Barbarosa, Plenty, Roxanne, Six Degrees of Separation, Iq, Evil Angels, Last Orders, The Eye of the Storm and Words and Pictures.
The Film Victoria — Jan Sardi Award for Achievement in Screenwriting recognises the achievements of the screenwriter whose first feature was Moving Out in 1983, followed by such works as the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for Shine, Love.s Brother, Mao.s Last Dancer and, most recently, the ABC miniseries The Secret River,...
The agency also announced the creation of two awards for a director and screenwriter in 2016, honouring Fred Schepisi and Jan Sardi.
The Film Victoria — Fred Schepisi Award for Achievement in Directing salutes the director, producer and screenwriter who made his name with The Devil.s Playground and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.
Among his stellar credits are Iceman, Barbarosa, Plenty, Roxanne, Six Degrees of Separation, Iq, Evil Angels, Last Orders, The Eye of the Storm and Words and Pictures.
The Film Victoria — Jan Sardi Award for Achievement in Screenwriting recognises the achievements of the screenwriter whose first feature was Moving Out in 1983, followed by such works as the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for Shine, Love.s Brother, Mao.s Last Dancer and, most recently, the ABC miniseries The Secret River,...
- 10/5/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Fred Schepisi is attached to direct Andorra, an adaptation of American author Peter Cameron.s thriller/dark comic novel.
The protagonist is Alexander Fox, a 40-year-old Yank who ends up in the tiny nation of Andorra where he befriends an Australian couple who had moved there. Complications arise when Fox falls in love with the wife and a dead body is found floating in the harbour.
Jamie Bialkower.s Melbourne-based Jump Street Films optioned the novel in 2013 and he subsequently teamed up with Lizzette Atkins. Unicorn Films, who produced Sue Brooks. Looking for Grace. He wrote the screenplay with Cameron.
James Ivory and Natalie Miller are the executive producers. Miller.s Sharmill Films and Jump Street Films will distribute in Australia.
Bialkower tells If that filming is due to start in Europe in the first half of next year, probably in either Italy or the Czech Republic. He plans to partner with a European producer,...
The protagonist is Alexander Fox, a 40-year-old Yank who ends up in the tiny nation of Andorra where he befriends an Australian couple who had moved there. Complications arise when Fox falls in love with the wife and a dead body is found floating in the harbour.
Jamie Bialkower.s Melbourne-based Jump Street Films optioned the novel in 2013 and he subsequently teamed up with Lizzette Atkins. Unicorn Films, who produced Sue Brooks. Looking for Grace. He wrote the screenplay with Cameron.
James Ivory and Natalie Miller are the executive producers. Miller.s Sharmill Films and Jump Street Films will distribute in Australia.
Bialkower tells If that filming is due to start in Europe in the first half of next year, probably in either Italy or the Czech Republic. He plans to partner with a European producer,...
- 8/13/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
A host of Australian talent has descended on Winton, Queensland, as production for the contemporary Western thriller Goldstone commences.
Starring Aaron Pedersen (The Fear of Darkness, Mystery Road), Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook, Animal Kingdom), Alex Russell (Unbroken, Carrie), David Gulpilil (Charlies Country, The Proposition), David Wenham (Paper Planes, Oranges and Sunshine) and Tom E. Lewis (The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Red Hill), Goldstone is the latest film from acclaimed writer/director Ivan Sen (Mystery Road, Beneath Clouds) and long-term producing partner David Jowsey (Mystery Road, Satellite Boy).
.We are proud to be supporting and investing in Queensland.s award-winning writer and director Ivan Sen and his producing partner David Jowsey of Bunya Productions,. said Screen Queensland CEO Tracey Vieira, in a statement issued to the media.
Queensland Premier and Arts Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said Screen Queensland was investing $530,000 in Goldstone, which is expected to reap direct returns of $2.15 million...
Starring Aaron Pedersen (The Fear of Darkness, Mystery Road), Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook, Animal Kingdom), Alex Russell (Unbroken, Carrie), David Gulpilil (Charlies Country, The Proposition), David Wenham (Paper Planes, Oranges and Sunshine) and Tom E. Lewis (The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Red Hill), Goldstone is the latest film from acclaimed writer/director Ivan Sen (Mystery Road, Beneath Clouds) and long-term producing partner David Jowsey (Mystery Road, Satellite Boy).
.We are proud to be supporting and investing in Queensland.s award-winning writer and director Ivan Sen and his producing partner David Jowsey of Bunya Productions,. said Screen Queensland CEO Tracey Vieira, in a statement issued to the media.
Queensland Premier and Arts Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said Screen Queensland was investing $530,000 in Goldstone, which is expected to reap direct returns of $2.15 million...
- 5/4/2015
- by Emily Blatchford
- IF.com.au
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Sept. 9, 2014
Price: DVD $19.98, Blu-ray $24.99
Studio: Lionsgate
Juliette Binoche and Clive Owen in Words and Pictures.
Juliette Binoche (Summer Hours) and Clive Owen (Trust) star in the 2013 romantic comedy Words and Pictures, directed by Australia’s great Fred Schepisi (The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Roxanne, A Cry in the Dark).
In the film, prep school English teacher Jack Marcus (Owen) meets his match in Dina Delsanto (Binoche) — an abstract painter, and new teacher on campus — and challenges her to a war between words and pictures…and, in the process, sparks an unlikely romance.
Uninspired plot synopsis that we gleaned from the equally uninspired press release aside, Words and Pictures received some solid press upon its limited theatrical release in May, 2014, with Entertainment Weekly proclaiming that the two stars had “a great Hepburn/Tracy rapport.”
The Blu-ray and DVD contain the following special features:
· Audio commentary with director...
Price: DVD $19.98, Blu-ray $24.99
Studio: Lionsgate
Juliette Binoche and Clive Owen in Words and Pictures.
Juliette Binoche (Summer Hours) and Clive Owen (Trust) star in the 2013 romantic comedy Words and Pictures, directed by Australia’s great Fred Schepisi (The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Roxanne, A Cry in the Dark).
In the film, prep school English teacher Jack Marcus (Owen) meets his match in Dina Delsanto (Binoche) — an abstract painter, and new teacher on campus — and challenges her to a war between words and pictures…and, in the process, sparks an unlikely romance.
Uninspired plot synopsis that we gleaned from the equally uninspired press release aside, Words and Pictures received some solid press upon its limited theatrical release in May, 2014, with Entertainment Weekly proclaiming that the two stars had “a great Hepburn/Tracy rapport.”
The Blu-ray and DVD contain the following special features:
· Audio commentary with director...
- 8/1/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
.
The rhetorical question addressed by a panel at the Australian Directors Guild conference in Sydney on Thursday was: Do We Really Need Directors?
Aside from the obvious affirmation of the directors. pivotal role in the creative process, there were some telling observations from the panellists.
Veteran filmmaker Fred Schepisi asserted the director.s power is at its peak from the first day of the shoot until the last day, but after that the producers or Us studio can assert control. The director can fire any cast member in the first three weeks, he said, but any attempt to do so after that would probably result in the director getting the bullet.
He recalled that half the $US9 million budget for Last Orders, his 2001 drama about a bunch of guys mourning the death of their mate of 50 years, promised from a German film fund never materialised.
In the final week of...
The rhetorical question addressed by a panel at the Australian Directors Guild conference in Sydney on Thursday was: Do We Really Need Directors?
Aside from the obvious affirmation of the directors. pivotal role in the creative process, there were some telling observations from the panellists.
Veteran filmmaker Fred Schepisi asserted the director.s power is at its peak from the first day of the shoot until the last day, but after that the producers or Us studio can assert control. The director can fire any cast member in the first three weeks, he said, but any attempt to do so after that would probably result in the director getting the bullet.
He recalled that half the $US9 million budget for Last Orders, his 2001 drama about a bunch of guys mourning the death of their mate of 50 years, promised from a German film fund never materialised.
In the final week of...
- 11/7/2013
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Umbrella Entertainment is renewing its relationship with Fred Schepisi after releasing the director.s first two movies, The Devil.s Playground (1976) and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), on DVD.
At the Toronto International Film Festival Umbrella MD Jeff Harrison went to the world premiere of Words and Pictures, Schepisi.s Us-set romantic comedy/drama starring Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche.
Harrison made an offer for the Australian rights and a deal was negotiated with the international sales rep, Nicolas Chartier.s Voltage Pictures. Roadside Attractions subsequently bought the Us rights.
Owen plays Jack Marcus, an English teacher at a New England prep school. Jack is a former literary star who hasn.t had a book published in years. Estranged from his son, he takes refuge in booze, which gets him banned from the local pub.
His life changes when he meets art instructor Dina Delsanto (Binoche), who.s been forced...
At the Toronto International Film Festival Umbrella MD Jeff Harrison went to the world premiere of Words and Pictures, Schepisi.s Us-set romantic comedy/drama starring Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche.
Harrison made an offer for the Australian rights and a deal was negotiated with the international sales rep, Nicolas Chartier.s Voltage Pictures. Roadside Attractions subsequently bought the Us rights.
Owen plays Jack Marcus, an English teacher at a New England prep school. Jack is a former literary star who hasn.t had a book published in years. Estranged from his son, he takes refuge in booze, which gets him banned from the local pub.
His life changes when he meets art instructor Dina Delsanto (Binoche), who.s been forced...
- 9/12/2013
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
The Great Gatsby 2013 movie box office: Way overperforming? (Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby) The Great Gatsby 2013 movie adaptation directed by Baz Luhrmann, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan will not top the North American box office this weekend. That’s the not-so-good news. But then again, no one was expecting The Great Gatsby to soar past Robert Downey Jr’s special-effects-laden Iron Man 3. True, both movies are in 3D, but … maybe if Jay Gatsby’s hair gel were capable of blowing up all of New England or something, then it’d have had a chance. (Updated The Great Gatsby weekend box office estimate.) Now, the (really) good news: The Great Gatsby, with the assistance of 3D surcharges and a large percentage of female ticket-buyers, may open north of $50m at 3,525 North American locations, according to early, rough estimates found at Deadline.com. As per Deadline’s "sources,...
- 5/11/2013
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
“The organizers of the International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk) have decided to have Australians serving as chairperson of the main jury for two years in succession – Bruce Beresford last year and Paul Cox this year. It is instructive to note that while there was some space for aborigines in Beresford’s films, there has been practically none in Cox’s body of work.”
Year – 1987. Even as ‘white’ Australia was preparing to celebrate 200 years of white settlement, the oppression of aborigines – the original inhabitants of the continent – continued apace. The oppression is naked and heartless in outback settlements, but exists in subtler forms in Australian towns and cities. I have in one of my scrapbooks an agency report dating back to that year which speaks of a high court judge who wept as he listened to harrowing accounts of racism and denial of justice to aborigines in a remote New South Wales community.
Year – 1987. Even as ‘white’ Australia was preparing to celebrate 200 years of white settlement, the oppression of aborigines – the original inhabitants of the continent – continued apace. The oppression is naked and heartless in outback settlements, but exists in subtler forms in Australian towns and cities. I have in one of my scrapbooks an agency report dating back to that year which speaks of a high court judge who wept as he listened to harrowing accounts of racism and denial of justice to aborigines in a remote New South Wales community.
- 12/6/2012
- by Vidyarthy Chatterjee
- DearCinema.com
Veteran filmmaker Fred Schepisi is set to direct romantic drama Words and Pictures, starring Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche.
It will mark the 72 year-old director's first feature film since 2011 Australian drama The Eye of the Storm, which was nominated for three Aacta Awards. In October, he also signed on to direct Australian film The Drowner although it appears that Words and Pictures, which is due to shoot from March 2013, will take precedence.
Words and Pictures is set in a New England prep school where a charismatic English teacher (Owen) and an intensely private art teacher (Binoche) form an improbable relationship. The film is being produced by Curtis Burch and his company, Latitude Productions, with Gary Cogill (Lascaux Films), and screenwriter Gerald Dipego.
.When I first read this uniquely romantic screenplay by Gerald Dipego, based on his original concept, I knew I had to acquire it as Latitude.s first project,...
It will mark the 72 year-old director's first feature film since 2011 Australian drama The Eye of the Storm, which was nominated for three Aacta Awards. In October, he also signed on to direct Australian film The Drowner although it appears that Words and Pictures, which is due to shoot from March 2013, will take precedence.
Words and Pictures is set in a New England prep school where a charismatic English teacher (Owen) and an intensely private art teacher (Binoche) form an improbable relationship. The film is being produced by Curtis Burch and his company, Latitude Productions, with Gary Cogill (Lascaux Films), and screenwriter Gerald Dipego.
.When I first read this uniquely romantic screenplay by Gerald Dipego, based on his original concept, I knew I had to acquire it as Latitude.s first project,...
- 11/8/2012
- by Brendan Swift
- IF.com.au
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
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- 3/20/2012
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On the run for 40 years, Wright's tale has what it takes for screen success. But such storytelling needs a conscientious approach
If the story of George Wright, the convicted murderer captured this week in Portugal after 40 years on the run, has not yet been optioned by an enterprising producer, then the film industry has really missed a trick. From a cinematic storytelling perspective, this tale has everything. Wright, who had participated in a spree of armed robberies, was imprisoned for the murder of the service station owner Walter Patterson in 1962, only to escape from the Bayside state prison farm in Leesburg, New Jersey, in 1970. Already you've got the heist movie and the prison break-out movie covered. That's a big market: expressed in mathematical terms the potential audience would be (fans of Bonnie and Clyde) + (fans of The Shawshank Redemption). And only a fool would rule out defenders of Buster.
But there's more.
If the story of George Wright, the convicted murderer captured this week in Portugal after 40 years on the run, has not yet been optioned by an enterprising producer, then the film industry has really missed a trick. From a cinematic storytelling perspective, this tale has everything. Wright, who had participated in a spree of armed robberies, was imprisoned for the murder of the service station owner Walter Patterson in 1962, only to escape from the Bayside state prison farm in Leesburg, New Jersey, in 1970. Already you've got the heist movie and the prison break-out movie covered. That's a big market: expressed in mathematical terms the potential audience would be (fans of Bonnie and Clyde) + (fans of The Shawshank Redemption). And only a fool would rule out defenders of Buster.
But there's more.
- 9/28/2011
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Just Go With It, The Dilemma, Love and Other Drugs, Conviction, Red Hill, Ride Rise Roar
What the hell has happened to romantic comedies? Once upon a time we had Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman co-starring in Cactus Flower from a screenplay by Ial Diamond. Now we get Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in a barely recognisable remake, the very title of which makes me want to stick pins in my eyes and pour glue in my ears.
In Just Go With It (2011, Sony, 12), Sandler plays an allegedly lovable plastic surgeon who discovers that he can bed more women by wearing a wedding ring. Having duly deceived the girl of his dreams (Brooklyn Decker, playing a life-size Barbie doll), he must enlist amenable assistant (Jennifer Aniston) to pretend to be his estranged wife in order to further the romantic ruse.
Next thing, they've all gone on holiday to Hawaii with...
What the hell has happened to romantic comedies? Once upon a time we had Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman co-starring in Cactus Flower from a screenplay by Ial Diamond. Now we get Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in a barely recognisable remake, the very title of which makes me want to stick pins in my eyes and pour glue in my ears.
In Just Go With It (2011, Sony, 12), Sandler plays an allegedly lovable plastic surgeon who discovers that he can bed more women by wearing a wedding ring. Having duly deceived the girl of his dreams (Brooklyn Decker, playing a life-size Barbie doll), he must enlist amenable assistant (Jennifer Aniston) to pretend to be his estranged wife in order to further the romantic ruse.
Next thing, they've all gone on holiday to Hawaii with...
- 5/28/2011
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Guy Pearce is an honest cop fighting to save a teenager from his violent family in this striking Australian crime story
Film-making started early on in Australia, and some claim that Soldier of the Cross, made in Melbourne in 1900, was the world's first full-length feature. But what we now think of as Australian cinema began in the early 70s with "the last new wave", the title of an important 1980 book by the Australian critic and broadcaster David Stratton. The movies that initially made an international impact dealt with the shaping of national identity, cultural exchanges with the aboriginal population and the mystical relationship with the country and its vast, empty interior. One thinks especially of movies with period settings such as Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock, Fred Schepisi's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Bruce Beresford's The Getting of Wisdom and Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career,...
Film-making started early on in Australia, and some claim that Soldier of the Cross, made in Melbourne in 1900, was the world's first full-length feature. But what we now think of as Australian cinema began in the early 70s with "the last new wave", the title of an important 1980 book by the Australian critic and broadcaster David Stratton. The movies that initially made an international impact dealt with the shaping of national identity, cultural exchanges with the aboriginal population and the mystical relationship with the country and its vast, empty interior. One thinks especially of movies with period settings such as Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock, Fred Schepisi's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Bruce Beresford's The Getting of Wisdom and Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career,...
- 2/27/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
There are two essential books that celebrate region-specific horror films both well-known and obscure. One is Stephen Thrower’s Nightmare USA (with a companion volume planned). The other is They Came From Within, Caelum Vatnsdal’s history of Canadian horror movies. What these two books suggest is that the best of the cinema’s independent horror films are really regional works. Three of the most famous horror films of all time, Night of the Living Dead, Carnival of Souls, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are really regional films, independently financed and shot far from Hollywood with local actors and crew members. Thus they have a flavor not found in mainstream genre movies, spices of quirkiness, unpredictability, and rigorous bleakness that mainstream movies can’t or won’t allow themselves.
As far as I know there isn’t a book about Australian genre cinema yet, but now there is a film:...
As far as I know there isn’t a book about Australian genre cinema yet, but now there is a film:...
- 10/7/2009
- by dkholm
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