So what was Roman Polanski thinking when he wandered into Zurich to pick up an award and the only thing shiny he gets are  matching and linked bracelets.

Last year I saw three documentaries of note at the Melbourne Film Festival: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Trumbo and Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. The subject of each documentary were (and in the case of Polanski still are) remarkably talented but flawed individuals; Trumbo, a brilliant script writer and author who was remarkably naive and child like in matters of every day life, Hunter S Thompson, a brilliantly evocative journalist who invented gonzo journalist but who quickly became a drug  abusing utterly self indulgent caricature of his early promise.  The HBO documentary on Roman Polanski is a very professional piece of work.  It covers his troubled early life, his creative genius, his fairytale romance with Sharon Tate, his compulsive cheating, her death and the effect on him and…. of course.. his agreement to plead guilty to the statutory rape of a thirteen year old.

Where Wanted and Desired fell down badly was in moving from a serious documentary which empathised with its subject to becoming a propaganda piece attacking the court process and plea bargain he entered into.  There was a concerted effort to somehow show corruption in that process.  The obvious inference is that there was every good reason for Polanski to skip the jurisdiction in the face a possible/probable railroading. Even at its highest all of the documentary showed is that Polanski drew a venal, publicity loving judge who was probably not very good company after hours.  On one view that was misconduct, on another it was a judge takes a different view to a proposed plea agreement and deciding the accused should spend time indoors, in the teeth of opposition from both prosecution and defence.  Hardly groundbreaking law. IMDB summarises the plot neatly by saying:

In 1977, Roman Polanski was arrested in Los Angeles on charges he gave drugs and had sex with a 13-year-old girl he was photographing for Vogue. Eleven months later, having pled guilty to one count, he fled to Europe before sentencing. This film examines that year-long period, using archival footage of the media frenzy and of Polanski’s life before the charges, clips from his films, and contemporary interviews with many of the principles – attorneys, the victim, and Polanski’s friends and associates. Polanski remains enigmatic, but portraits emerge of the machinations of justice and of a judge more interested in his image than his word or the law.

While a Los Angeles judge agreed there may have been misconduct Polanski still had to return.   What remains undisputed is:

• Polanski had penetrative sex with a 13 year old.  The documentary suggests she was a worldly wise 13 year old whose mother “knew the score”.
• He voluntarily opted out of the process.  That a warrant would be issued is hardly surprising.  Courts the world over hate their authority being challenged (except by appeal and even then..

If the US seeks extradition Polanski will have a fight on his hands. It is hardly controversial that sex with a 13 year old is an illegal act recognised by both the Swiss and US authorities.  That he agreed to the underlying facts and pleaded guilty in 1978 will count against him.  The real problem he will have is facing any sentence.  If the process stands the light sentence of incarceration proposed in 1978 and which caused him to bolt, is nothing compared to the heavy hand of the law these days.  Sentences for sex with minors, even in the most benign circumstances (as was drawn in Wanted and Desired), are heavy.  The usual arguments about him doing good for the last 30 odd years, being a creative type (whatever that means) and being in a marriage for the last 20 years usually cuts little ice.  An interesting dilemma for the Swiss and the US.

The 22 Australian feature films and eleven documentaries released in 2008 represented 11 per cent of the 301 films released theatrically last year.

American films accounted for an 84.2 per cent share of Australian receipts, an increase from 2007’s 77.7 per cent, with British films taking 8.0 per cent of the Australian box office.

The second-highest-grossing local film was The Black Balloon, which earned $2.3 million, followed by Australia’s first-ever official co-production with China, Children of the Silk Road, which grossed $1.2 million.

Peter Duncan’s Unfinished Sky earned $1 million and tween comedy Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger earned $0.8 million.

The article ends on a postive note:

Expectations are higher for Australian films this year, with a number of commercially appealing films slated for release including the adaptation of Li Cunxin’s memoir Mao’s Last Dancer, Balibo, Scott Hicks’ The Boys Are Back, Disgrace, Charlie and Boots starring Paul Hogan and Shane Jacobsen.

I hope so but I am not holding my breath.

Kidman was not the only target of snipers this year. The best Australian film of 2008, Elissa Down’s The Black Balloon, was so harshly attacked in some quarters that Down and her writer, the eccentrically named Jimmy “The Exploder” Jack, felt they had to use their moment in the spotlight at the AFI Awards to respond in a heartfelt, if misguided, manner.

It may not have been a vintage year for Australian films, but 2008 saw the release of Peter Duncan’s generally moving Unfinished Sky, Nash Edgerton’s sleek neo-noir The Square, Cathy Randall’s edgy teen comedy Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueberger and Benjamin Gilmour’s astonishing Pakistan-set Son of a Lion, plus the no-budget family drama Bitter & Twisted by Christopher Weekes and the inventive crocodile thriller Black Water by Andrew Traucki and David Nerlich.

We can all take pride in these films. Sadly, very few people went to see them, perhaps because they were badly marketed or because some of the reviews were negative, or maybe just because, in the eyes of many people, Australian films carry with them low expectations. It should be remembered that some of the screen’s most enduring works – Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, for one – were poorly reviewed and did no business initially, yet over the years have become acknowledged classics. I’m not suggesting the above titles are in that class, but they deserved better treatment than they received.

Get it, its our fault.  The last comment says it all about the myopic, self indulgent and forever blaming the public approach of the Australian Film industry.  Stratton seems to suggest that many of our films are diamonds in the rough or masterpieces which are hidden from view because of this or that mishap, incompetence or conspiracy by third parties.  But one day we foolish public will realise our mistake.

What tosh!  Just look at the product.  Most of it almost dares the viewer to sit and watch.  Black Balloon and Unfinished Sky, grim depressing pieces, are written for empty theatres.  Neither will be a Night of the Hunter.  Nor would we want them to be. Night of the Hunter is an acquired taste that won’t pack them in.  It is cineastes fair.  Perhaps a Juno, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Sting or a Pretty in Pink or some other funny, quirky, intelligent, and, heres a thought, entertaining movie might be a better template than the grim noir, fight against the odds in a suburban wasteland with characters who have all the emotional depth of sociopaths who have just jumped the fence of a major correctional facility that is served up with depressing regularity. Looks like Australia, which Stratton gave a qualified thumbs up is going to be a bomb, money wise at least.  Will someone tell me what is the magic of Luhrman and Kidman?  Luhrman’s first two outings were fun but since then he just annoys.  Kidman just plain annoys with only one decent outing, with To Die For.

While on the subject of films Salon has done its list of the best 10 indie movies of this year. Alas (or not) I didn’t see most of those films. Perhaps because most were not released in Australia. I am however happy to see Waltz with Bashir got a nod. It was a terrific piece of animation and a great story. The SMH, courtesy of Paul Byrne, has produced a very sloppy piece titled Our pick of the flicks and flops. I agree with his thesis that super hero films clog up the screen but he is just way too indy obsessed and anti hollywood. His top five best and worst are:

Best and worst

Five best

1. WALL-E

2. Hunger

3. In Bruges

4. Charlie Wilson’s War

5. My Winnipeg

Five worst

1. Disaster Movie

2. The Love Guru

3. Fool’s Gold

4. Rambo: To Hell And Back

5. The Forbidden Kingdom

Three of the top 5 are fair nuff I guess. WALL E was a terrific movie as was Charlie Wilson’s War. In Bruges is a good and in part great movie. My Winnipeg is just too off the scale of normality to justify being a top five anything. A little self indulgent. Hunger was grim, depressing self important dross. A good story badly structured and drearily told. Why no Dark Night, Iron Man or Waltz with Bashir?

Jim Shembri has another run at the films of 2008. Shembri’s individual reviews are fairly off key to my mind, preferring the quirky to the mainstream (but he is completely mainstream compared to the weirdness that Tom Ryan searches out and praises).  Paradoxically he calls for Australian movies to be, well, less quirky and more mainstream.  And fair enough.  Never a truer word is said when he wrote:

Unfortunately, it was another bad year for local cinema as Australian films appeared determined to demonstrate their irrelevance to Australian audiences. Of the 29 films released, about half took less than $100,000 (according to figures compiled by Inside FilmChildren of the Silk Road ($1.16 million); The Black Balloon ($2.26 million) and the epic Australia ($22.5 million and counting) (from Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia data). And only three films hit a million:

It is crucial to note that, as was the case with Happy Feet in 2006, the epic romance by Baz Luhrmann is a freakish anomaly in the local film firmament. A well-marketed, plot-driven, mainstream film designed to please big audiences, Australia is precisely the opposite of what has become the norm for our industry — and an exaggerated example of what we need more of.

But will our home grown industry step out of the black clad ghetto they inhabit. Don’t hold your breath.

Now that I have a blog I can go all misty from time to time. And Christmas day is the time to do it. Here it is:

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

It is written in in the 19th century style, it was written in 1897, so appears a little stilted to our eyes. I love that slight formality. It remembers a time when people love working language for its own sake, for the cadence and rhythm. For more information about this wonderful story and the author of the piece have a look here.

A Merry Christmas to all who read this. May you have a happy and holy festive season!

His  top 10 movies of the year, and honourable mentions are:

1. Caramel , Nadine Labaki, Lebanon
2. Lust, Caution , Ang Lee, China
3. Flight of the Red Balloon , Hou Hsiao-hsien, France
4. Happy-Go-Lucky , Mike Leigh, UK
5. The Dark Knight , Christopher Nolan, US
6. Australia , Baz Luhrmann, Australia
7. Burn after Reading , Joel & Ethan Coen, US
8. Waltz with Bashir , Ari Folman, Israel
9. The Edge of Heaven , Fatih Akin, Germany
10. Wall-E , Andrew Stanton, US

Honourable mentions

■ The Band’s Visit (Israel)
■ Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (US)
■ The Black Balloon (Australia)
■ The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (US)
■ Frost/Nixon (US)
■ Juno (US)
■ Lemon Tree (Israel)
■ Persepolis (France)
■ Salute (Australia)
■ The Visitor (US)
■ You, the Living (Sweden)

Most are of the seriuos, sombre, worthy variety.  Interestingly, and relevantly, very little in the way of US product.  I have seen most of those movies and agree with some of his views.  Dark Knight is the stand out for the year.  Lust, Caution was great as was Wall – E. Waltz with Bashir is also a top tenner.  After that it is a bit of a self indulgent list drawn up by someone addicted to wearing black.  In the honourable mentions while I liked The Bands visit and the Lemon Tree they were definitely in the Indy class of worthies.  Happy Go Lucky was self indulgent nonsense.  The Black Balloon should be on no list.  It was dreary story that defied the viewer to watch it.  Juno was cute.  A bit like a sugar fix.  Instant gratification courtesy of a witty script.  But the characters lacked depth.  They were essentially the sum of their super witty wise cracking.  Let’s see how the second effort of the script writer pans out.  I got the feeling that her all went into this effort.  As for Burn After Reading, I am in the anti camp (much to my extreme disappointment). It was awful, plain and simple.

What Ryan omits is really illuminating.  For example Tropic Thunder?  It was biting, subversive and funny into the bargain. Forgetting Sarah Marshall was the stand out comedy.  Interesting to see virtually no comedy in Ryan’s selections.  Typical.  Worthy is only what matters.  OK, on the worthy monitor what about There will be Blood.  Mongol was breathtaking.  Iron Man was the sleeper hit.  It was by far the best super hero film since Batman Begins and was only half a peg below Dark Knight. 

On the worthy list The Savages was excellent.  On the Indy Scale what about The Wackness. 

The bottom line is that Tom Ryan is never so happy as when he is glum and seems to feel that a film isn’t a film unless it is screened in a Independent cinema. 

Australian Movies

Tom Ryan is part of the problem with Australian movie industry demise when he peddles this drivel:

WHILE bean counters might deploy box-office returns for locally produced films as their measure for how well the Australian film industry is doing, there are other ways of assessing films’ worth. And from where I sit in the stalls, it’s been a solid but unremarkable year.

Gee Tom, how silly for some to regard returns as being relevant in considering the state of the industry.  Poor box office means poor attendance.  Poor attendance means people are staying away in droves.  If people don’t want to see Australian Movies the problem isn’t in the lap of the punters.  It is fairly and squarely the fault of producers, directors and scriptwriters.  Tell a good story and make it interesting and………..they will come. 

But Ryan gives the industry a pat on the shoulder, rather than the well deserved kick in the ass, with this sanctimonious sludge:

And, while it’s more intimate in approach, Elissa Down’s The Black Balloon is equally affecting. An irresistible family drama with a tough mind and a gentle heart, it creates a world full of vibrant life: a wonderful collection of characters, a lived-in suburban Australia and a home that’s alive with meaningful clutter and bustle.

Also worth noting are the animated feature Global Haywire (directed by Bruce Petty), Rats and Cats, written by and starring Jason Gann and Adam Zwar (previously collaborators on Wilfred), and Nash Edgerton’s The Square. None did a jot of serious business, but they are all, in their different ways, worth seeing.

I love Film Noir but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that The Square was going to play to empty houses.  Australian Noir is unremittingly bleak and grim, usually set in the wilderness of outer suburbia involving characters who should be on anti psychotic or anti depressant medication (or both).  Novice directors and screen writers are addcited to this type of film.  At least with the superior product neo noir out of US and France can excite and at times amuse.  As for the Black Balloon who cares whether it is affecting.  Affecting only gets you a hard core audience who want to be put through the ringer for an hour and a half and feel they have done something………..yes………worthy.  Not exactly the demoagraphic of the average viewer. 

An interesting article in today’s SMH, Rule of three can’t explain our flops which is a reasonable analysis of why the Australian Film Industry is in such a woeful state.  It would be nice if in 2009 the word went out to anyone involved in the movie industry that for every “worthy” film there must be 10 comedy/dramas or caper movies or screwball comedies.  And perhaps also that every film should have at least one character which the audience could somehow empathise with.  Oh, and a story that can’t be summarised on the back of a stamp.   Maybe there should be more than one draft of a script (or at least it would appear so). That isn’t too much of a Christmas wish is it?