Accompanying the critical essays in this volume are more than one hundred and fifty new film reviews, complemented by film stills and significantly expanded references for further study. From The Piano to Crocodile Dundee, Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand 2 completes this comprehensive treatment of a consistently fascinating national cinema.
Accompanying the critical essays in this volume are more than one hundred and fifty new film reviews, complemented by film stills and significantly expanded references for further study. From The Piano to Crocodile Dundee, Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand 2 completes this comprehensive treatment of a consistently fascinating national cinema.
Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand 2
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Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand 2
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Overview
Accompanying the critical essays in this volume are more than one hundred and fifty new film reviews, complemented by film stills and significantly expanded references for further study. From The Piano to Crocodile Dundee, Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand 2 completes this comprehensive treatment of a consistently fascinating national cinema.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781841506340 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Intellect, Limited |
| Publication date: | 05/15/2015 |
| Series: | Directory of World Cinema |
| Pages: | 320 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Directory of World Cinema Australia & New Zealand 2 Volume 19
By Ben Goldsmith, Mark David Ryan, Geoff Lealand
Intellect Ltd
Copyright © 2015 Intellect LtdAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84150-634-0
CHAPTER 1
RED DOG
Country Of Origin:
Australia
Studio/Distributor:
Endymion Films
The Woss Group
Director:
Kriv Stenders
Producers:
Julie Ryan
Nelson Woss
Screenwriter:
Daniel Taplitz, based on the 2001 novel Red Dog by Louis de Bernières
Director of Photography:
Geoffrey Hall
Production Designer:
Ian Gracie
Composer:
Cezary Skubiszewski
Editor:
Jill Bilcock
Duration:
92 minutes
Genres:
Comedy Drama
Cast:
Koko
Rachael Taylor
Josh Lucas
Noah Taylor
Luke Ford
Rohan Nichol
John Batchelor
Arthur Angel
Radek Jonak
Costa Ronin
Format:
35mm
Year:
2011
Synopsis
Truck driver Thomas enters a roadhouse in Western Australia as the locals and workers from a nearby mine debate how to euthanize a dog. Seizing on the diversion, publican Jack Collins tells Thomas the story of Red Dog, who has brought the disparate people of the mining town of Dampier together as a community. In flashback, Red Dog befriends many locals, including the mining company's immigrant employees, but stays with no single master – he is a 'dog for everyone'. This changes when American traveller, John Grant, takes a job as the mine's bus driver. Red Dog develops a strong bond with Grant, who becomes his 'true master'. Grant develops a romance with sassy secretary Nancy Grey, but after proposing to Nancy, Grant is killed in a road accident. Red Dog is left to pine and wander all over the Pilbara desert and beyond in search of his absent master. Some time later, he returns to the town where he fights his arch enemy, Red Cat. After eating poisoned meat left by Red Cat's owners, Red Dog is taken to the roadhouse, where he lies when Thomas arrives. One of the miners proposes that they erect a statue of Red Dog. As they celebrate the idea, Red Dog leaves unnoticed. He is later found lying dead on John Grant's grave. A year later, Thomas returns with a puppy, as the statue of the original Red Dog is unveiled.
Critique
Red Dog is based on the many stories of a real life red kelpie dog that lived in northern Western Australia in the 1970s. Red Dog was renowned for his loyalty to his master and his habit of roaming the desert. In 2001, British author Louis de Bernières visited Dampier, heard the story and published a novella based on the legend, also called Red Dog. It was from this book that Daniel Taplitz adapted his screenplay. The film's producer, Nelson Woss, bought a red kelpie named Koko from a dog breeder two years before filming began and trained him to star as Red Dog. Australian rising star, Rachael Taylor (Transformers [Michael Bay, 2007]) plays Nancy and American, Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama [Andy Tennant, 2002]) is John Grant. Director, Kriv Stenders, previously directed little-known, hard-hitting, urban drama Boxing Day (2007) and heritage thriller Lucky Country (2009) among other titles. Other collaborators were cinematographer, Geoffrey Hall (Chopper [Andrew Dominik, 2000] and Dirty Deeds [David Caesar, 2002]) and Baz Luhrmann's long-time editor Jill Bilcock (Strictly Ballroom [1992], Moulin Rouge! [2001]). Prolific screen composer Cezary Skubiszewski (Two Hands [Gregor Jordan, 1999], Bran Nue Dae [Rachel Perkins, 2009] and The Sapphires [Wayne Blair, 2012]), provided the score after the original choice, Martin Armiger, left the project. The film won seven Inside Film (IF) Awards from nine nominations, and two Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards (formerly the AFI Awards) including Best Film, from eight nominations in 2011.
Red Dog had an estimated AU$8.5 million production budget and on release in 2011 made AU$21.3 million at the Australian box office (Screen Australia 2012), rendering the film a massive commercial success. It was the highest grossing domestic film of that year, and currently sits eighth on the list of top Australian films at the Australian box office (Screen Australia 2012). Red Dog is also the first Australian film not backed by a Hollywood studio to pass AU$20 million gross since Strictly Ballroom in 1992. It has since sold millions of copies on DVD, and is the third biggest selling DVD of all time in Australia behind only Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) and Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, 2003) (Bodey 2012).
What is it that struck a chord with Australian audiences? The backdrop for the story is the vast, red Pilbara desert with its immense iron-ore mines, and the beaches and turquoise ocean off the attractive Western Australian coast. The film showcases the natural beauty of the region which serves as a scenic background for the representation of close friendship in rural, working communities. The familiar theme of mateship, loyalty and respect between man and dog – a staple element of Australian working life – is highlighted, as is the central romance between John and Nancy and its bittersweet conclusion. Another emotional subplot involves one of the miners, Jocko, who experiences depression brought on by bereavement. Jocko attempts suicide by swimming with 'Lord Nelson', the resident shark off Dampier beach, and is saved by a heroic Red Dog. There is plenty of light relief in the form of broad, physical comedy provided by both Red Dog and the eclectic locals, and canine flatulence jokes. There is a distinct element of nostalgia for the 1970s exemplified by the 'Oz Rock' music on the soundtrack, the type of 'utes' the characters drive and the beer they drink in the pub. The theme of belonging is also explored via the only real villains in the film, a cantankerous, dog-hating couple, the Cribbages, who deny the existence of any kind of community in Dampier. In Mr Cribbage's words, 'there's just a bunch of dirty miners working, drinking and whoring.' This provides an opportunity for the townsfolk to rally in solidarity against the couple in support of Red Dog.
Red Dog has an inter-generational appeal, with animal action for young people (including the cartoon-like scraps between Red Cat and Red Dog), and nostalgic elements for older audiences that lived through the 1970s. Comedy generally has wide and broad appeal; the number one run-away Australian film-success of all time, Crocodile Dundee (Peter Faiman, 1986), was also a comedy about 'Australianness' set partly in stunning outback locations. The similar irreverent humour of the 'ocker' working-men is certainly one of Red Dog's attractions, along with the romance and pathos.
Red Dog can be viewed as a much lighter version of Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971), a cult, outback-set film that both Red Dog's producer, Nelson Woss, and director, Kriv Stenders, have referenced as an influence (Barkham 2012). This homage is most recognizable in a gambling scene in the pub. At first glance it evokes the game of 'two-up', that features so ominously in Wake in Fright, but is comically revealed to be the men of Dampier betting on how quickly Red can eat a bowl of dog food.
The supporting cast are mostly mining company employees ranging from good old 'ocker Aussie', Peeto (John Batchelor), and depressive Jocko (Rohan Nichol) to Italian immigrant Vanno (Arthur Angel) and Chuposki and Dzambaski (the Eastern European 'ski patrol', played by Radek Jonak and Costa Ronin). It is these characters that provide representations of nationalities that some audiences may see as affectionately comic, but others may view as shallow stereotypes. Peeto, the burly, bearded bloke from Melbourne, is exposed as having a penchant for relaxing with some knitting in his donga (a portable housing unit, typically for rural workers), while listening to jaunty jazz records – a comedic subversion of the tough, masculine working-class Australian stereotype. The supporting cast also features prolific character-actor Noah Taylor as the town publican, and a memorable cameo from Australian national treasure Bill Hunter as a Quint-from-Jaws type, in the last role he filmed before his death in 2011. New Zealand's Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider [Niki Caro, 2002]) also makes an appearance in a small role as a veterinary assistant and love-interest for the Italian romantic, Vanno.
Red Dog was released the same year as Steven Spielberg's War Horse, a similar tale that centred on an animal's heroic loyalty to its master, but manages to avoid that film's overt sentimentality and earnest tone. Red Dog received mostly positive reviews, exemplified by the declaration by a critic from The Age that it was an 'instant Aussie classic' (Schembri 2011). Other critics denounced its lack of Indigenous characters and its sentimentalizing of the mining industry (Burnside 2011). Defending the film, director Stenders argues that Red Dog is not a documentary and is instead intended as a feel-good 'celebration' of the birth of the modern mining boom, upon which Australia's latter-day economic success is based (Barkham 2012).
Red Dog can be viewed as a popular new outback legend that Australia has welcomed to its canon, alongside Waltzing Matilda, Ned Kelly and Crocodile Dundee. It features the universal narrative theme of a dog's loyalty for its master, in the style of Scotland's Greyfriars Bobby or Japan's Hachiko. It also has a postcolonial theme of 'damn the British' as exemplified in the key motivational speech that Jocko delivers to the community in the pub at the film's conclusion. He denounces the town's namesake, seventeenth-century English explorer William Dampier, whose written account of their part of the country amounts to 'too many flies'. A statue of William Dampier is about to be erected in the town and Jocko exclaims, 'Well I say, to hell with all that! Why should we have a statue honouring a poncey, pommie, fly-hating aristocrat? Or for that matter a fat general or, god help us, a stinking politician?' The Australian distrust of authority is also made clear here. Jocko instead suggests that they erect a statue to 'somebody who lives and breathes this vastness and desolation. Somebody that has red dust stuck up their nose, and in their eyes and in their ears and up their arses!' He goes on to highlight the Australian notion of mateship, delineating it from a British militaristic camaraderie; 'mates who are loyal by nature not design'. Jocko concludes by suggesting to unanimous approval that they should be honouring 'somebody that represents the Pilbara in all of us and I say that somebody, dammit, IS A DOG!'
The legacy of the film's success is already in evidence, as demonstrated by reports that a stage musical of Red Dog is in development – aligning Red Dog with The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliot, 1994), another Australian film-comedy success that was adapted into a stage musical to great acclaim.
Anna Blagrove
CHAPTER 2FESTIVAL FOCUS
BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
In 2012, the Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) officially came of age, celebrating its twenty-first birthday. The festival has emerged from a tumultuous adolescence and redefined its position on the Australian festival circuit as an advocate of locally made films and documentary film-making. BIFF was first held in 1992 and has since been attended by more than 400,000 filmgoers. The festival is held annually and showcases a diverse range of feature films, documentaries, short films, animation and experimental work, children's films and retrospectives.
Since the proliferation of film festivals in the 1980s and 1990s, local city-based festivals have emerged as a growing and integral component of the international film festival circuit (Stringer 2001). Local film-makers are increasingly taking advantage of these festivals to make industry connections, garner critical appraisal and showcase their films to audiences. Although local film festivals like BIFF are typically located on the periphery of the global festival circuit – with the 'centre' comprising larger and more prestigious festivals such as Cannes or Toronto (Stringer 2001: 138) – they play a significant role in showcasing international films to local audiences, especially those which are not usually accessible through commercial film outlets. Moreover, festivals such as the BIFF are arguably designed to appeal to a specific city's film culture and community. BIFF is the largest international film festival within the state of Queensland in terms of the audience numbers it attracts and the amount and variety of films screened. Other film festivals currently held in Queensland include the West End Film Festival, the Gold Coast Film Festival, the Brisbane Queer Film Festival, and a range of travelling film festivals including the Spanish Film Festival, the Lavazza Italian Film Festival and the Alliance Française French Film Festival.
During 2009/10, BIFF underwent a period of major change. In 2010, the festival changed dates to coincide with the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), held annually on the Gold Coast in November. According to the BIFF Festival Director and Screen Queensland's Head of Screen Culture, Richard Moore, the change in dates was an attempt to strengthen the links between the community importance of BIFF and the prestige of the awards (personal communication, 2012). The shift in festival dates from July to November, the introduction of a new Festival Director and the loss of the Regent Cinema – the festival's home since inception – have been the most significant changes BIFF has experienced throughout its history as a film festival. Understandably, these changes had a profound impact on BIFF's structure, agenda and festival image. Richard Moore moved to Brisbane in 2010 after four successful years at the helm of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). Moore was the Executive Director of MIFF from 2007 to 2010 and in that time was responsible for fostering the implementation of the MIFF Premiere Fund, the festival's film investment fund, and 37º South Market, MIFF's co-financing market. During this period, he also upheld MIFF's reputation as a festival for exciting programming and negotiated MIFF's dual image as both a community festival and industry event.
BIFF has been quite clearly positioned by Moore and Screen Queensland as a showcase for both international and local film-making. Each year the festival draws direct inspiration for its programming choices from national film festivals (Sydney and Melbourne) and international film festivals (such as Berlin, Venice and Cannes). It is also clearly defined as a city-based festival, with strong links to specific venues within the centre of the city, including Tribal Theatre, Palace Barracks and Palace Centro. In 2012, the festival also featured Fulldome screenings (movie projection within a dome-shaped environment) at the Brisbane Planetarium, in partnership with the Brisbane Open-air Cinema. BIFF's links to other key film events on Brisbane's industry calendar, such as the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the Queensland New Filmmakers Awards, were also strengthened in 2012, with the prestigious APSA ceremony held in Brisbane for the first time at the end of the festival.
The festival's programme must appeal to the city's diverse demographics, and must bring the 'best' of world cinema to Brisbane. However, the personal preferences and politics of any festival's programmers are, (arguably) always, embedded in the design and choice of films. Previous festival director Anne Demy-Geroe carved out a distinct identity for BIFF, with a focus on Asian and Pacific cinema and retrospectives paying tribute to internationally acclaimed auteurs such as Dennis Hopper, Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick and Luis Buñuel. BIFF was also responsible for launching films such as The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995), Gettin' Square (Jonathan Teplitzky, 2003), A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman, 2006) and An Education (Lone Scherfig, 2009) onto the national and international festival circuit. The current director, Richard Moore, had a specific vision to make the festival attractive to a younger audience and refocus the festivities within the cultural hub of the city. Moore also implemented significant changes in the agenda and structure of the festival's programme. He felt that it was particularly important to put a focus back on local film-making in his first year of programming, stating that, 'I think it's important that you really connect with the film-makers in the local community [...] Whether it's a doco, or whether its shorts or whether they're features [...] BIFF should be a platform for launching Queensland films' (personal communication, 2012).
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Directory of World Cinema Australia & New Zealand 2 Volume 19 by Ben Goldsmith, Mark David Ryan, Geoff Lealand. Copyright © 2015 Intellect Ltd. Excerpted by permission of Intellect Ltd.
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