Comments on A Life In Film: Of mice and men (Three Blind Mice)

I've just seen Three Blind Mice at the AFI Member ...

2008-09-08T12:40:00.000+10:00

I've just seen Three Blind Mice at the AFI Member Screenings, and can now see why you were so excited by this film, Matt. I couldn't remember where I'd seen the Cassavetes reference. I was about 2/3 through the film when I saw the common aesthetic/style and it enhanced the experience markedly.

The film is very fresh, very current, very real. I was impressed by the sheer volume of credible support actors who only had small roles. This Newton fellow is definitely a talent to watch. I hope you're having some fun (and not too overloaded) in Toronto, you lucky bastard.

Many seemed to want them to fail

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2008-07-15T17:52:00.000+10:00

Many seemed to want them to fail

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It's jealousy, Matt.

Though in Oz we make it sound fancier by calling it "tall poppy syndrome".

But it's really plain old common garden and in French, "la jealousie".

Actually, it's not the latent or overt homosexuali...

2008-07-14T21:13:00.000+10:00

Actually, it's not the latent or overt homosexuality of those "unnamed" Australian films I find boring – though heaven knows, defining oneself by one's sexuality (and, by extension, living in Sydney) must rank as one of the dullest ways to choose to live one's life.

And for the record, I'm no homophobe: golly, some of my best friends are gay, etc. (And women!) In fact, I was called a poof for most of my adolescence, just for doing such unmanly things as reading and watching movies and, weirdly, talking to girls. But that's Australia for you.

Nor am I adverse to gay cinema per se - though I do think it gets an easier ride, in the festival world at least, than any other kind of film. (if it is gay, and it exists, it is perforce good - and an entire network of gay-themed, essentially uncurated festivals exists to support this contention.)

What I AM adverse to, and very much so, is bad filmmaking, shoddy storytelling. And specifically, films that substitute caricature for characterisation, spectacle for narrative complexity. Whether gay or straight or bi, male or female or trans-gendered, I tend to like my stories to be populated by people I care about, am engaged with and intriuged by. Not a bunch of shrill, shrieking cartoons. And that's what most of those Priscilla/Baz films did.

Oddly, many of my gay friends feel the same way. They're not happy to see their complexity reduced to one-note faggotry; nor would I be, in their place.

If I'm pleased by the Newton and Edgerton films, it's partly because they represent a re-emergence of diversity in Australian filmmaking, rather than a single defining style. This being the point of my original piece, which in your righteous outrage, you appear to have missed.

Oh, and finally, just to satisfy you two watchdogs of political correctness, some of my favourite working filmmakers: Claire Denis (chick), Lucrecia Martel (ditto), Gus Van Sant (gay), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Asian), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (hmm, Asian AND gay: a twofer), Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (coloured bloke) ... That sufficiently commited to diversity for you?

Paul, Newton was charged with battery against his ...

2008-06-19T17:39:00.000+10:00

Paul, Newton was charged with battery against his ex girlfriend (fiance?) Brooke Satchwell. I personally think that unease about Newton is what kept him from getting an AFI nod last year for The Bet. An average movie for sure, but in such a weak field Newton was quite deserving.

Many seemed to want them to fail

You...

2008-06-19T09:20:00.000+10:00

Many seemed to want them to fail

You know that Matthew Newton is the son of the iconic Bert? Recent indiscretions by the younger Newton landed him in court (I don't remember the charges). Maybe he's perceived as born into privelege and is spoilt. Maybe it's tall-poppy syndrome (though I rather think that is overstated in this country). I don't know, I'm just surmising.

Nope Glenn, you're not the only one. I hope.
<...

2008-06-19T08:24:00.000+10:00

Nope Glenn, you're not the only one. I hope.

It's especially irksome because it seems pretty far from the filmmakers' intentions.

Ugh indeed.

Am I the only one who thinks that Danielsen quote ...

2008-06-19T01:19:00.000+10:00

Am I the only one who thinks that Danielsen quote is absurdly homophobic and mysoginistic. Like, well - those gays and the women have had their fun, now let's get back to movies about true blue aussie heterosexual blokes. That's what real cinema is all about.

Ugh.