Cinema Papers no. 33 July-August 1981 (2025)

OCR

to see the

inreallife”

things you miss

“When an audience watches a
movie they generally see the expected.

lt’ 5 my aim to enable them to see
things they normally wouldn’t see in
real life.

A view that is possible only
through a camera. And then on film.

To create these shots you have to
achieve the impossible-to shoot when all
your experience tell[...]o this is very
much related to your understanding of
how a particular stock will act in a
particular situation.

And you not only have to
understand it but you have to keep up
with the improvements. Over the last
60 years these improvements have given
us the potential to make truly great
pictures.

With all the features l’ve shot, I’ve
calculated that 554 kilometres of film has
gone before my eye.

And the majority of that film has
been 35 mm Eastman Color Negative
film. I think that says something for my
attitude to the stock.”

Don McAlpine.

Cinematographer.[...]

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a es ax - at . reSidents add . 4 per boo ..........[...]tape once again snared your on 0 1
production in the abyss of permits and

other location unknowns?

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25 years and you’ve never seen athing he’s done.

Les, what led you into the
sound side of what is, after all,
a visual medium?

In fact I did start in the
visual side of the business — as
an ass1stant projectionist at the
Hoyts 6 ways Theatre, Bondi!
Very glamorous. And[...]Sitting through so many
mOVies I was intrigued by the
realism of the tracks; how the
director used sound to create
the illusion and build the right
atmosphere, and I wanted to
find out more.[...]ost
everybody who worked in this
industry through the 50s and
60's worked at Supreme. It was
our Film a[...]I was lucky enough to train
for four years under the finest
technician this country has

produced, Art[...]Skippy" for three years. I did
every episode - 91 of them and
one feature. Then to the States
for a while: then back to Aust-
ralia as sound supervisor at APA.

So what does it take to be a
good sound man?

I don’t know, I’m still
lear[...]things you listen for, that you
expect to hear on a track?

\Vell. you know I really
believe that the good tracks are
the ones where everything is put
together so well tha[...]s phone it in later. And
you can. But I feel that the
performance the artist gives on
the floor is so important you
should do your best to get it
on the day. It also saves the
producer money. A couple of
minutes on the set getting the
right atmosphere. effects and

performance can sa[...]now you’ve worked on
many features, but what is the
film you’re most proud of, as
far as your own contribution
is concerned?

O[...]fterI
came to Colorfilm in fact. I’m
very proud of ‘Tim’ because
there is not one looped line in
the picture. We had locations in
the surf, at Mascot Airport, in
and out of cars, and it’s all
original material on the day
I was also sound supervisor,
supervised the music score and
made the optical neg when it
was all over.

Any others?

Yes. I really think my best
achievement in the optical
transfer side of the business is
the very first neg that I made
on a picture called “Picnic at
Hanging Rock.” I do[...]mon knowledge, but
“Picnic” was nominated for a
British Academy Award for

sound.

Is there one movie you can
think of that particularly
impressed you because of its
sound?

\Vhen I was at Universal
they were dubbing the movie
Earthquake: and I enjoyed
gomg over to the theatre and
sitting with Ronny Pierce when
they were doing the earthquake
sequences. There were 59 cut
elements in those sequences — a
cut element is one complete reel
\vith elements o[...]eels in those
sequences. And to sit there and
see the Sensurround system
working. it was one of the most
spectacular things I can
remember. It stands out.

I understand Colorfilm
did all the release prints for
‘Elephant Man’ in this
cou[...]sound
expertise?

Yes. ‘Elephant Man‘ carried
a Dolby variable area sound
track, the first that has been

printed in this country. So we
had to do the research on the
configuration of the negative as
far as density, fog levels, cross
cancellation and that sort of
thing. Then print it and process
it and hold it to the control
parameters we’d set.

Do you expect to do more
of these?

Yes I do. I don’t really see us
in the near future producing
Dolby stereo negs in this
country, but we’ll certainly print
more from overseas. At the
moment there are only three
Dolby cameras in the world:
one in Los Angeles, one in
London and one in Munich.
The one in Munich is I
understand producing Dolby
Ste[...]arly
love to go and see that!

What can you offer the
film maker here at Colorfilm
that he won’t get[...]a?

Our optical transfer system.
I believe it’s the finest mono—

optical system in the world.
And so do RCA in America.

Why is that?

Because the cameras were
hand fitted by the man who
created the system in the first
place — Art Blayney When
I first went to APA I had the
opportunity to train with Art
for 6 months. He's 80 years old
now and he really is the doyen

of optical recording. In fact, he’s
just been awarded the SMPTE

Samuel L. W’arner Award for
outstanding[...]r
and started running track. I did
not have to do a thing. And now
RCA are using our parameters
for the cameras they’re making
today.

And what does that mean
to the film maker?

It means we can produce a
track for him at least as good as
any he’d get anywhere else in the
world. We tend to look upon

Hollywood and London as
being the centre of the industry,
but our negatives out of here
print as well as any of them.

You must be really busy
now, what’s curr[...]y for
printing now, and coming up
we’ve got: ‘The Best of Friends:
‘Partners,’ ‘Heat Wave’ and
‘Angel Street’ to name just a
few. My personal aim here at
Colorfilm is to build the best
sound department in the
southern hemisphere. I think
our sound negs are fine, we’re
supplying magnetic xfers of
dailies to producers, and I’m
currently building up a very
elaborate sound effects library
Plus, of course, our new preview
room which will be ready[...]n
35mm and 16mm projection,
full stereo sound — the lot.

Now Les, you’ve worked
in the States, at Universal.

Yes.

For Disney’s, Unit[...]in America,
what’s stopped you?

Because I’m a fifth
generation Australian and proud
of it. Look, I don’t want to work
anywhere else. The Australian
film industry is as old and
respected as any in the world.
And today it's producing some
of the best films in the world.

And Colorfilm?

Well, of course, the people
make this company My sound
crew is the finest I’ve ever had
and you don’t often get the
chance to work with technicians
like Arthur Cambridge, Maggie
Cardin, Bill Gooley and Roger
Cowland. We’re a team.

We respect each other, and we
love[...]

released a new color negative wide latitude that compensates[...]1 we can

camera film, available in 16mm and even the most severe exposure say is that if you’ve got the creative

35mm, that will positively enhance variations, but delivers such a fine know—how, and the will, we’ve got

the creation of any masterpiece. grain that every frame can be _ the way. New Gevacolor Type 682.
New Gevacolor 682 apprecrated as a work of art in itself. AG FA_G EVAE RT LIMITED

negative camera film. Better still, this new film Head Office, P. O. Box 48,
This film passes even the can be processed without any of the Nunawading, VIC. 3131.

toughest of tests with flying colours problems created by climatic Melbourne 878 8000,

(if you’ll forgive the pun), conditions. And it’s compatible with Sydn[...]e 3916833,

reproducing skin tones to perfection. the process employed by most major Adelaide 42[...]

Margot Pinkus

The New Tax Concessions
Ian Baillieu

Chris Noonan: I[...]Ansara

Edward Fox
Brian McFarlane

Some Aspects of Australia
Rod Bishop

John Duigan
Interviewed: 226

Features

The Quarter

Letters

Cannes Film Festival 1981
Scott[...]x-office Grosses

Television

News

Nick Herd

The Liberation of Skopje
Eric Fullilove
Production Survey

Edward Fox
Interviewed: 252

The Film and Television Interface

Reviews

Gallipoli
Brian McFarlane
Grendel, Grendel, Grendel
Geoff Mayer
The Long Good Friday
Steve Garton
Roadgames
Brian McF[...]ce only.

Articles and Interviews

Government and the Film Industry

Alienation and De-alienation

Octa[...]ducts and Processes

Broadcasting and Regulation

The Postman Always Rings Twice

ISSN 0311-3639

226
2[...]Laurence Olivier: Theatre and Cinema
Errol Flynn: The Untold Story

294

Stepping Out
Director intervie[...]Papers is produced with financial assistance from the Australian Film Commission.
Articles represent the views of their authors and not necessarily those of the editors. While every
care is taken with manuscripts and materials supplied for this magazine, neither the Editors nor
the Publishers accept any liability for loss or damag[...]may not be
reproduced in whole or in part without the permission of the copyright owner. Cinema Papers is
publishe[...]

Top Film Changes

W
W

It was only a few years ago that
inserters of film advertising in‘trade
periodicals started a[...]are not deemed to be
contractual." This arose out of litiga-
tions over cast members being re-
placed between the ads being printed
and the films starting production.

In Australia today, production lists
issued during shooting could well do
with a similar proviso. The two recent
examples are Wall to Wall and We of
the Never Never.

Keith Salvat, director of Private Col-
lection in 1972. was announced as the
director of Wall to Wall, for which he
wrote a screenplay. Salvat did in fact
begin directing the film, but early in the
shoot Mark Egerton took over as
director. Neither[...]oducer
Errol Sullivan have issued statements.

We of the Never Never, the first
feature of Adams Packer Films, started
shooting with John B. Murray as pro-
ducer. Murray was then chief of pro-
duction at Adams Packer. Not long into
the shooting, Murray left the film and
resigned from Adams Packer. His
position as producer was taken by
Greg Tepper, formerly of the Experi-
mental Film Fund and the Victorian
Film Corporation and now general
manage[...]Rosen was also brought in as associate
producer.

The $2.5 million film has only
recently completed sho[...]ecutive producer Phillip Adams has
claimed it has the lushness of Gone
With The Wind, though adding wryly it
is Australia's Heaven’s Gate, the film
allegedly had its budget lifted to $3
millio[...]Packer,
Murray has started Paul Cox’s Close to
the Heart, which he is producing inde—
pendently for Adams Packer.

Igor Auzins‘ We of the Never Never.
recently sub/er! to a change 0/ {op personnel.

Motion Picture Guarantors

W

Motion Picture Guarantors lnc., one
of the major international companies
providing completio[...]lia is about to

become an important factor on the
world film scene,” Leiterman said.
“Australian producers and directors
have already established a reputation
for skill, integrity and dedication to their
craft.”

Leiterman, who has been a producer
for 20 years, said producers here are to[...]n avoiding mistakes
being made in other countries of
turning out cheap, carbon-copies of
Hollywood formula films. Leiterman
said Motion Pi[...]Australian
corporation and is in negotiation with a
number of Australian and New Zealand
producers to provide c[...]ervice-oriented,“
Leiterman said. ”We believe the
interests of the producer and his
guarantor are identical, and we[...]help him come in on-time and
on-budget.”

Part of Motion Picture Guarantors’
service is to provide, at its own
expense, a guarantor’s representative
to closely monitor each film. “Pro-
ducers have found this a great help in
spotting difficulties before they become
problems,” Hinkson said.

A 11- time Aussie Champs

W
W

In the May 6 issue of Variety there is
a listing of the “All-time Aussie Rental
Champs". as of January 1, 1981. The

Top 10 gross film rental earners are:

1. Star Wars $6,200,000
2. Grease $5,100,000
3. Jaws $4,620,000
4. The Sound of Music $4,437,000
5. The Sting $4,327,000
6. The Towering inferno $4,017,000
7. Gone With the Wind $3,426,000
8. Superman $3,323,000
9. Kramer vs Kramer $2,746,000
10. Monty Python‘s
Life of Brian $2,587,000

The top Australian films in the list
are:
28. Picnic at

Hanging Rock $1,767,000[...]rm Boy $909,000
86. Caddie $906,000
94. They’re a Weird Mob $846,000
137. Alvin Rides Again $655,00[...]75,000
162. Stone $550,000
State Film Moves

W
W

The Victorian state government has
announced it will amalgamate the Vic-
torian Film Corporation, the State Film
Centre and the audio-visual branch of
the Education Department. In explain-
ing the move, the Minister of Educa-
tional Services, Mr Lacy, said,

“The South Australian Film Corpora-

tion provides much more effectively

through one organization the ser-
vices that we provide through three.”

The biggest upshot of the announce-
ment was the threatened strike by
some staff who are protestin[...]ublic Service status will change. This
is because the new body will be out-
side the Service. Monty Burgess,
assistant general secretary of the
Public Service Association, said,

“We recognize the need for people to

be able to come in from Chann[...]assist. We are

saying they don’t need to take the

whole lot out of the Public Service."

Union representatives are continu-
ing to have talks with the Minister in the
hope of avoiding a strike. Meanwhile,
the larger issue of whether amalgama-
tion will benefit film producti[...]ture in Victoria is still to be debated.
But such a debate rests on the legis—
lation. which will be introduced in the
spring session.

Gallipoli

W
W

Associated R & F[...]distribution by
Paramount Pictures. This will be the
first time an American major has dis-
tributed an Australian feature.

MIFED Announces Dates

W
W
The following dates have been set for
the 1981 Milan 44th Session of MIFED:
1. Indian Summer — October 19-25
2. East[...]3. Traditional MIFED — October 25-
30
MIFED is a concentrated market-
place for buyers and sellers of feature
films and television programs. Applica-
tion forms will be available from the
marketing and distribution branch of
the Australian Film Commission when
they are received from Milan.

Cannes Winners

W
W

The 1981 Cannes Film Festival prizes
were:
Palme d’or
Man of Iron (Wajda)
Jury Prize
Light Years Away (Tanner)[...]nd

Quartet)

Best Actor .

Ugo Tognazzi (Tragedy of a Ridicul-
ous Man) ”

Best Screenplay
lstvan Sza[...]nd Roger)

Best Supporting Actress
Elena Solovei (The Fact)

Camera d‘or
Desperado City (Glowna)

Cri[...]ers) Malou (Meerapfel)

Ecumenical Jury Prize
Man of Iron
The jury was Jacques Deray

(president), Ellen Bursty[...]).

Ettore Scola’s Passione d’amore.winner of
the Special Jury Tribute.

United Artists Sold

W
W

United Artists, a subsidiary of the
Transamerica Corporation, has been
sold to the MGM Film Company for
$380 million, of which $250 million was
paid in cash.

Accordi[...]films will be distributed by MGM.

Greater Union A wards

W
W
The 1981 Greater Union Awards
were announced at the 1981 Sydney
Film Festival. The winners are:
Rouben Mamoulian Award
Public Enemy[...]lverstein)

Tom Zubrycki's Waterloo, winner 0/ the
Documentary section at the Greater Union
A wards.

Comedy Week in Melbourne

W
W

Well-kn[...]writer Barry
Took will be visiting Melbourne for the
Open Program of the Australian Film
and Television School.

In a round-Australia series of
“pressure-cooker” screen-writing
seminars, Took will hold a five-night
workshop in Melbourne during August.

Took started with radio in the 19603,
when he wrote for the celebrated “Take
it From Here" series, and for television
with The Army Game and its sequel,
Bootsie and Snudge. In the mid-19605
he teamed with Marty Feldman and
script[...]as comedy consultant
for commercial stations and the BBC,
including work on shows such as
Father Dear[...]In and
Monty Python’s Flying Circus, he
joined the BBC in an advisory capacity
on literacy projects.

1981 AFI/A ustralian Film
A wards

m
WM

The Australian Film Institute has
announced that the 24th annual
presentation of the AFI/Australian Film
Awards will take place at the Regent
Theatre, Sydney, on September 16,
1981.

The Australian Film Awards, estab-
lished by the AFI in 1958, are designed

“to provide a stimulus to all Aus-
tralian filmmakers and to dr[...]hieve-
ments by individuals and teams
involved In the production of Aus-
tralian films".

The Awards presentation is funded

by a grant from the Australian Film
Commission, which also sponsors the
award for Best Feature Film.
Television viewers throughout Aus-
tralia will be able to see the presenta-
tion of the 1981 awards via an exclusive
live telecast of the event by the national
network (156 stations) of the ABC. The
executive producer will be Ric Birch,
and Jacqui Culliton will be directing the
show. A compere for the presentation
will be announced at a later date.
Screenings, for voting in the feature
film section, are being conducted in
Pert[...]in late August. '

Melbourne Film Festival

W
W

The 1981 Melbourne Film Festival
prizes for short films were announced
on the closing night, June 20, by
Festival director, Geoffrey Gardner.
The principal winners are:

Grand Prix

New York Stor[...]Laura Mulvey and Peter

Wollen)

Third Prize

Act of God (Peter Greenaway)
Erwin Rado Prize

Mallacoota Stampede (Peter Tam-

mer)

Special Awards

The Cat (Timor Hernadi)

Groping (Alexander Proyas and

Salik Silverstein)

House of Flame (Kawamoto

Kihachiro)

New Jersey Nights (V[...]r Lord)

(James

Overseas Interest in
Restoration of A ustralian
Films

W
W

According to Ray Edmondson,
director of the National Library of Aus-
tralia’s film section, there is consider-[...]tralia‘s film
restoration work, particularly on the
1927 silent epic For the Term of His
Natural Life. Edmondson claimed this
on his return from the 1981 Confer-
ence of the International Federation of
Film Archives in Rapallo, Italy.

Edmondson said film archivists from
every nation represented at the con-
ference knew of the restoration of For
the Term and of the work being done
by the National Library to find, restore
and preserve early Australian films.

The restoration of the film, he said,
caught their imagination because not
only was the film the longest, most ex-
pensive and one of the most success-
ful made in Australia in the silent days,
it was also the biggest film restoration
project undertaken in this country.

The restoration was in part financed
by the Australian Film Commission.
Edmondson said,

”The AFC's investment of $68,030

enabled the Library to tint and tone

various sequences in the film as they

were originally, and to add a

soundtrack . . .

“The AFC funds are not a grant,
but definitely an investment. Our
view is that the investment was made
because the AFC believes the work
of the Library's National Film Archive
is important and should be
supported. We are hopeful that the
AFC will recoup its investment
through commercial screenings in
the capital cities and on television.“

Dominic Case, who with Glenn Eley
was responsible for preparing the new
print at Colorfi/m Film Laboratories,
reports on how if was done:

Many stages of editorial and labora-
tory work were involved in the recon-
struction of For the Term of His Natural
Life, beginning with the duplication of
nitrate prints onto safety stock, and
ending with a color release print with
optical soundtrack.

The incomplete Australian copy of
the film was supplemented by some
reels of a recently-discovered
American version, stills and[...]upe negatives
were made from this material, using a
contact printer specially suited to the
shrunken nitrate film. Curious discrep-
ancies were found between the two
versions of the film: variations in story-
line, as well as changed names in the
cast and titles.

Nevertheless, historian and fil[...]m Shirley was able to draw
one complete film from the various
elements. In some instances, opticals
wer[...]issing frames,
stills replaced missing scenes and a
number of new titles were inserted to
clarify the densely-woven story-line.
Generally the frame-speed was accept-
able, but in some scenes stretch-print-
ing brought the action down to a more
natural speed.

Black and white fine-grain positives
of the two basic versions were cut into
one, and a dupe negative was made
from this. Here, a slight optical reduc-
tion had to be made, to fit the full-width
silent frame image into academy frame.
With various sections of the film shrunk
by different amounts, framing each
scene correctly was far from straight-
forward.

The tinting and toning in the original
print had, by this time, been lost In
black and white duplication stages. The
original system — printing on dyed
stocks and p[...]ystem using
normal color positive stock. In this, the
stock was pre-flashed to simulate the
effect of various base tints, while
normal color grading methods were
used to put sepia, neutral or blue tones
into the black and white image.

The color scheme in the original print
seemed to be rather arbitrary and, for
the reconstructed version, it was used
only as a rough guide. Selection of
color was motivated by mood or emo-
tions (red for anger or confrontation);
by situations (green in the bush, sepia
for interior) or to aid continuity (rapid
cutting in a mutiny sequence is clari-
fied by sepia toning in the officers’
mess, a red tint as the mutineers seize
the captain’s wife, and blue tinting for
the fighting above decks at night).

Music was arranged by the Palm
Court Orchestra from film scores of the
period. After a live, fully-synchronized
performance at the Sydney Film
Festival, a track was recorded, a color
dupe negative made to preserve the

For the Term of His Natural Life, which
has been restored by the National Library of
Australia '5 film section.

The Quarter

tints and tones, and a composite print
was finally made in time for the closing
night of the Melbourne Film Festival.

Australian Film Commission

W
W

Betty Archer

Betty Archer, who for the past three
years has worked as European story
editor for Warner Bros in London, has
been employed as a consultant by the
Australian Film Commission to assist in
advising[...]Archer was story editor and personal
assistant to the European head of
production with United Artists (1972-
77), assist[...]m (1971), story analyst and personal
assistant to the managing director with
Avco Embassy Pictures (UK)[...]970), and story analyst and personal
assistant to the European head of
production with Twentieth Century-Fox
Productions[...]ustralia to join her family, will be
available to the industry in general, but
is specifically contracted to the AFC as
an adviser.

David Charles Field

The general manager of the AFC,
Joseph Skrzynski, has announced the
appointment of David Charles Field as
director — marketing and distribution.

An Australian, Field was managing
director of Collier Macmillan Pty Ltd.
Cassell Australia Ltd,[...]le experience, nationally
and internationally, in the field of
marketing and distribution. Previously,
he spent[...]East) for McGraw-Hill
Publishers.

Skrzynski said the AFC and the
industry looked forward to benefiting,
not only f[...]onal
marketing experience but also from his
depth of knowledge of the related field
of publishing rights, franchising,
development of story properties and
copyright.

Field took up hi[...]l 0 ’Connell Joins OCP

W

Michael O’Connell, a producer-
director from Ireland. joins OCP Ltd as[...].

O’Connell worked with Radio Telefis
Eireann, the Irish state-run television
organization, for eight years and his
experience includes a weekly arts
magazine, a comprehensive range of
documentary productions and current
affairs progr[...]and drama production.

Former executive producer of GOP,
Bob Weis, has left to produce Women
of the Sun, a series of films about
Aboriginal women.

Hoyts
W

Terry Jackman, managing director of
Hoyts Theatres Limited, recently
announced the appointment of Tony
Malone as general sales and market-
ing manager of Hoyts Distribution.

Malone has had extensive experi-
ence in all aspects of the film business.
He joined Columbia Pictures in 195[...]sed through bookings and
sales to become director of advertising
and publicity.

In 1977, Malon[...]

Cinema Papers is pleased to announce that the 198 1/ 82 edition of the
Australian Motion Picture Yearbook can now be ordered

The enlarged, updated 1981/ 82 edition contains many new features, including:

0 Comprehensive filmographies of feature film scriptwriters, directors of photography, composers,
designers, editors and sound recordists

0 Monographs on the work of director Bruce Beresford, producer Matt Carroll and scriptwriter
David Williamson

0 A round-up of films in production in 1981
0 Actor's, technicians and casting agencies
0 An expanded list of services and facilities, including equipme[...]

Director of A Town Like Alice, David Stevens, left, during location filming.
Director of photography, Russell Boyd, is at right.

Poor Man[...]humanism
and Christianity, coming down firmly on
the side of the former but allowing a
place for the latter, can be so airily
dismissed as “soap ope[...]h such
absolute authority, exclusive insight
into the late Nevil Shute‘s motives for
writing the original novel.

The review of this program read like
a sounding board for the prejudices
and preconceptions of the reviewer
about television in general, rather than
this program in particular, and ended
up as a vicious and unjustified attack
on the producer [Henry Crawford], a
man who has done more to improve the
standards of television drama in this
country than your elitist reviewer will
ever begin to comprehend.

Nor can i accept the argument that
you do not exercise editorial contr[...]recall you
would not print Bert Deling’s review of
Newstront because it did not conform
to your editorial policy.

Eventually, I suppose, the day must
come when you begin to understand
that television drama is a medium in its
own right, with its own traditions, con-
ventions and structures, and that it is
not some form of poor man‘s cinema.

Until that day does come, h[...]h which I am in-
volved.

David Stevens
Director, A Town Like Alice

Jil/ Kitson replies:

If it is e[...]ts, then i am
clearly elitist. And it was elitist of me to
praise these qualities in A Town Like
Alice.

Of course, in a medium that
measures success in terms of a mass
audience, “elitism“ is a dreaded slur.
But to avoid it, programmers tend to fall
into another trap — that of trying con—
stantly to please the mass audience
with the blandly predictable. This
essentially patronizing[...]cular, it seems to have been
responsible for some of the weak-
nesses of A Town Like Alice, though

not the chief weakness which, as I
argued in my review, sprang from the
structure of Nevil Shute’s novel.

i agree that television drama is not
“poor man’s cinema”. The point i was
making was that series and serials are
different forms of television drama, with
their own ”traditions, conventions and
structure” (aside from the common
structure imposed by two-minute
advertisin[...]id Stevens doesn’t see this distinc-
tion too.

The Editor replies:

As David Stevens implies a lack of
editorial control in printing Jill Kitson’s
review of A Town Like Alice as written,
several points need be made.

Kitson was asked to review Water
Under The Bridge, The Last Outlaw
and A Town Like Alice in October
1980, long before she or anyone at
Cinema Papers had seen the pro-
grams. She could hardly, therefore,
have been chosen to reflect the Editor’s
view.

Kitson was also asked to make com-
ments about television mini-series in
general. on the basis of the three pro-
grams under discussion.

Once the review was completed, it
went through the usual sub-editorial
process. This did not alter K[...]s-
agree over Jack’s motivations in up-
holding the status quo in Willstown, at

, Jean’s expense.[...]allegation that
Kitson’s review ”ended up as a vicious
and unjustified attack on the pro-
ducer", i can find no passage even
remotely supporting of such a view.
Kitson’s opinions are considered and, |
s[...]nd
Cinema Papers, sees television as
“some form of poor man’s cinema".
Firstly, a careful reading shows Kitson
maintains no such thing. Secondly,
Kitson’s views are not necessarily those
of the Editor.

Stevens ends by making a plea for
intelligent debate on television. 1 can
think of no publication in Australia that
has so regularly[...]front, it was not printed because it was
more in the form of a production report
than the review we required. Deling was
given the opportunity to rewrite it, but
declined. Keith Co[...]W
W

Dear Sir,

In his desire to be recognized as the
seer he sees himself to be, Bob Ellis, in
his article “The Medium of the Future”
(Cinema Papers, No. 32, p.115), des-
cends to the level of schoolboy debate:
presenting one side only of a somewhat
pointless polemic.

He even seems to sub[...]te, while color is
used for ‘trivia’. is this the age-old argu-
ment of ‘art’ versus ‘entertainment’?

Can Ellis really be serious about
color making the difference between
L’Avventura and Zabriskie Po[...]‘clinical', as
in Autumn Sonata or Scenes from a
Marriage (made for television, by the
way).

The inspired lunacy of Bringing up
Baby would work better in color than
the insipid imitation of Bogdanovich in
black and white. Anyway, if this
supremely eclectic filmmaker — a not
inconsiderable critic-historian — had
deemed black and white a necessary
element of the screwball comedy, he
would have used it, as he did in his For-
dian/Hawksian dramas.

By the way, there was one Road film
in color, and it was at least as good as
the others — and streets ahead (roads
ahead?) of the later black and white at-
tempt to re-live past glories.

Martin Scorsese has admitted that a
prime factor in his decision not to film
Raging Bull in color was the spate of
boxing pictures at the time. “We just
wanted to be different, to have a dif-
ferent look", he has said. Scorsese is
involved in a move by American film-
makers to preserve old color films.
With all but one of his films in color,
Scorsese — definitely one of the most
important of contemporary directors —
must believe you can m[...]there in black and white
one feels sure. This is a question of
style, not cinematography. Soggy senti-
ments and[...]plead his case.

Plummeting cinema attendances in
the 19605 can hardly be attributed to a
smaller screen and a black and white
image. Rather, it was the fact that it was
cheaper and more comfortable in one's
own living room. In any case, the
Americans were receiving color televi-
sion in the 19605.

As for A Man and a Woman, it hardly
qualifies as a black and white film. Nor
does If, into which the[...]ly because they couldn't
get enough light to film the abbey in
color. And you can’t really call
Newst[...]lack
and white.

Would Ellis honestly countenance
the loss of the Yellow Brick Road magic
of The Wizard of Oz (or does he count
that as a black and white film because
of the opening and closing bits)? Would
he deny us the ”sunless remembered
look of a surrealist painting" (as Farber
has it) of The Quiet Man? Does he truly
prefer the portentousness of High Noon
to the epic grandeur of The Searchers?
Would An American in Paris be the
same without the color, or Singin’ in the
Rain? (About silent films, they were as
seldom in[...]e as they were
completely ‘silent'.) What about the
colorful childlike fun of The Crimson
Pirate or Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood; the
comic-strip texture in Flash Gordon.
Superman or Popeye; the exquisite
beauty of Dersu Uzala (and so much of
Japanese cinema); the restrained
impressionist charm of the French
cinema; the sensual exciting heart of

Surely what matters about a film is
how well the cinematography serves
the script? Ellis, of all people, should
subscribe to that. It is good[...]ommercial con-
straints, but let us not fall into the trap
of supposing something superior to
something else by virtue of one ele-
ment alone. Are oils ‘better’ than w[...]I hope he is
more cautious with his enthusiasm in
the future.

Denny Lawrence

Ellis replies:

I detect[...]and creditor
Denny Lawrence an honest difference
of opinion. He has correctly pointed out
some of the several exceptions to my
contention that, as a rule,_ black and
white is a better narrative, dramatic,
tragic, expository, c[...]to
me), “I do not need all that informa-
tion." The contention I was arguing
against, however, is the prevailing one:
to wit, color is always the better
medium, and that, ergo, Citizen Kane,
Wild[...]uld have been better films in color.

I grant him the comic strip films
(Flash Gordon, Popeye, Superman,
The Crimson Pirate, Robin Hood and
The Wizard of Oz). It is certainly an
arguable contention that[...]adults remembering childhood, prefer
to do it in the vivid and joyful colors of
the original comics and storybooks. I
grant him two bob each way on the
musicals (which appeal to the same
childhood sense of joy), three to two on
the women’s films, like A Man and a
Woman, Gone With the Wind, An Un-
married Woman, Maybe This Time and
s[...]ion are very important to
women.

I think that on the statistics, how-
ever, comedy has always been mor[...]most
especially bad comedy (Abbott and
Costello, The Three Stooges, Martin
and Lewis, etc.). Tragedy h[...]ic, and those films most involved with
death, and the hugeness of life (Casa-
blanca, Wild Strawberries, Rashomon,
Jules and Jim, Citizen Kane, Julius
Caesar, the Russian Hamlet, the
Russian King Lear, and so on) look so
exactly rig[...]zes
what black and white makes noble.

There are, of course, honourable ex-
ceptions to every rule, and honourable
hybrids of every rule and its opposite
(like It, and Newsfront, and The Wizard
of Oz). But the prevailing rule of the
cinema that color is a must for every
subject and black and white has no
place in the cinema at all is demon-
strably destructive of the cinema, which
is now so like its trivial, free-lunch
cousin color television as to be on the
point of expiring altogether. Cinema
has to be again the special experience
it used to be or it has no future. Part of
that experience, what we call the silver
screen, is what people in their thou-
sands seek out nightly, in all the retro—
spective cinemas in the cities of the
world. And they are not disappointed.

Bob Ellis

Dear Sir,

Congratulations to Bob Ellis on a fine
article (“Perspective”, No. 32, p. 115)[...]n why it should be what one by
intuition feels is the case.

From my experience, though, most
people I know (outside of “cinemato-
graphic circles") would not agree wi[...]ondering it Bob might consider
whethe. it is also a cultural thing, of a
somewhat “elitist" nature, by which
people, lik[...]Dear Sir,

We are trying to complete our library
of back issues of Cinema Papers. We
are missing issues 4, 6,7 and 8[...]ishop’s letter (Cinema Papers,
No.31, p. 10) is a load of absolute gar-
bagel

ls Bishop asking for reform of the
Creative Development Branch's
method of allocating funds for specific
projects? Or is he perhaps looking for a
public venue to “hard knock" those
who, in his opinion, are the Celluloid
Gods (my expression) of the industry
we see developing before us?

Bishop obviously does not under—
stand the process by which funds are
allocated, nor does he understand the
responsibility, on both sides of the
fence, for making available/receiving
this financ[...]o play
school and building blocks for him!

While the success of Don McLen-
nan‘s Hard Knocks is admirable, the
end result by no means is justification
for the methods. In the light of what
happened, perhaps McLennan should
have sought his original finance
elsewhere.

To set the record straight about
Donald Crombie, I believe i was the one
who financed two of his early films (no
Creative Branch in those days[...]nows his ABC, so now take
him aside and teach him the rest of the
alphabet.”

Perhaps you might like to work on
my latest scripts: The Bermuda Circle
and 47 Interesting Things to Make With
Ear Wax?

I did indeed finance two of Don’s
earliest films by buying his first projec[...]till in first-class
working order.

Andrew Rowan

The Making of Mawson
W
W
Dear Sir,

We are making a documentary on Sir
Douglas Mawson and hope one of your
readers may be able to help with
archival material.

We know of the Frank Hurley Ant-
arctic material in the National Film
Archive, Canberra, but are keen to get
hold of other material, particularly film,
on his life an[...]907, 1910-15, 1928—32;

his involvement with the University of
Adelaide and geological studies in the
Flinders Ranges; his wedding to
Paquita Delprat i[...]Sir,

I am moved to write so as to make
you aware of a feeling of disgust felt by
myself and others studying drama at
the University of New South Wales.

The past three issues of Cinema
Papers have ali used cheap, sexist and
myth-perpetuating cover photographs.
Since the public’s taxes assist you to
print such photographs (through the
Australian Film Commission’s con-
tributions), I feel justified in demanding
that a stop be put to this spate of
sickeningly sexist covers. Surely your
marketing ingenuity is not as low as the
gutter press. We believe you can cor-
rect the present trend of your covers
because past covers have been ad-
mirable.

Cinema Papers and the AFC evince a
desire to produce a magazine which
can be a medium for a continuing
national film culture. The effect of ydur
decisions to print the photographs in
Issues 30,31 and 32 is to imply th[...]ated as Hollywood’s.
Well, often this is indeed the case. But I
believe, on your past record that you,
as editor, are capable of taking a path
different from merely perpetuating sex-
ism, the myths of perfect screen idols
and cinema as superficial se[...]esley Stern reviewed
Paul Eddey’s tele-feature, The Alter-
native. The review was written in
November 1978, after the film was first
broadcast. An addenda, “A Dissenting
View/Viewing Reviewing”, was added
by Stern in April 1981 to coincide with a
repeat television screening and
Cinema Papers’ desire to review the
film, albeit somewhat tardily. This ad-
denda raised questions about the
preceding review and ended by inviting

Letters

readers of Cinema Papers to give their
opinions about the process of review—
ing films.

Dear Sir,

In response to “A Dissenting View/
Viewing Reviewing" (Cinema Papers,
Issue 32).

“Do I detect a stern tone of moral
righteousness? Why do I feel that this
article is setting up a discourse in which
only one view (that of the author) can
be expressed?“ Perhaps it is precisely
because the article asks questions
“about how to write a review” that can
be answered only if one accepts such
notions as: the existence of ‘scientific
objectivity’; the negativity of authorita-
tive writing and the possibility of
demarcation into clearly separate
areas, “the particularity of an individual
film” and “general considerations
about the cinematic apparatus”, with
regard to the theory.

To ask definitive questions “about
how to write a review" is to presuppose
the existence of some equally definitive
and universally accepted concept of
the function of the act of review. Cer—
tainly this article blithely steamrolls its
way over Lesley Stern’s review of The
Alternative, seemingly unaware that
the function of review might differ from
writer to writer, let alone reader to
reader.

By ignoring the question of ‘function’,
the article is then free to criticize the
review for such ‘sins’ as effacing the
personal identity of the reviewer and
minimizing the power of the viewer.

It is interesting to note that one of the
prime criticisms levelled at this review
is that of pedagogy. This stems from a
distaste for authoritative writing which
abounds in Australia and seems to
have its roots in the notion that to be
authoritative is to ‘teach’, and that ‘to be
taught’ is to be put in a position where
the ‘pupil’ is stripped of ‘individuality’,
enabled to act only in a fashion accept-
able to the teacher, in other words to be
oppressed.

If this is the case, why is The Alter-
native review so repugnant? For this
review is directed toward showing how
much such a film ‘puts into place’ and
directs the position from which the
viewer can perceive and respond, in
accord with the ‘dominant ideology’.
The review, also, makes no pretense
about formulating an illusory ‘open
ended’ discourse, yet The Alternative
apparently does.

Certainly there is one Marxist
theory, that states the ‘function’ of
criticism/review is, “to show the text
[film] as it cannot know itself, to
manifest those conditions of its making
about which it is necessarily silent".1

Given that ’functlon’, The Alter-
native review is valid insomuch as that
is precisely what it does: ‘shows the text
as it cannot know itself’. To ask a review
to examine how a film works, “in the
context of television drama or in the
context of contemporary Australian
Cinema”, is assuredly to ask questions
of style and/or approach, but to posit
such approach[...]hese ap-
proaches above others, other than
within a totally personal/subjective
value system that affords no access
and brooks no argument because of its
intensely private and closed nature.

“But rather than turn this into an
alternative review, a debate between
two writers, it might be more productive
to turn the broader questions of ‘func-
tion’ over to the readers. . "

There is one further point that ex-
cites my curiosity: why was a three
year-old review about a three year-old
film published and used to[...]

WNTER or OUR DREAMS

The award—winning director of Mouth to Mouth talks to Scott Murray
about the disappointments of Dimboola and the anticipated success of
his latest project, Winter of our Dreams, Starring Judy Da vis and Bryan

Brown[...]about
“Dimboola”?

Dimboola confirmed in me the
desire to work on projects that I
write, or over which I have ultimate
script control. A major problem
with the film was that Jack
Hibberd, the scriptwriter, and I had
different concepts. It wo[...]tter if someone had either
come in and taken over the
direction and stuck more to Jack’s
concept, or[...]d done it more to
mine. Understandably, as author of
the original play, he was loath to do
so and we ended up making
compromises.

However, I don’t share some of
the critics’ reservations about the
film. I feel they approached it with
inbuilt expectations and didn’t
allow themselves to accept the
conventions under which it
operated. For example,[...]i-
cality. Certainly, it was larger than
life, in the same way performances
are often larger than life[...]“Australia
resembles two geriatric buttocks, is
the ancient under-rump of the
world, so to speak —— hence the
Australian passion for steak”, you
can’t have them delivered natural-
istically. I was asking for a height-
ened performance level from the
cast to match the screenplay — the
actors weren’t to blame for any
excess. In fact, I thought there was
a number of excellent perfor-
mances.

Do you think this critical mis-
perception was shared by the
audience?

Audience reaction was extremely
positive during the screenings ofthe
film before its release. The
distributor, GUO, was optimistic
about its chances.

Did the critics, therefore, influence
an audience?

It is a matter of degree. Certain
films from overseas are given such
huge publicity build-ups that they
succeed irrespective of how the
critics react. Most Australian films,
on the other hand, are much more
influenced by the critical reaction.
Australian films which have g[...]radically different, you would do
well to air the film at overseas
festivals to try and amass a good
critical response before releasing
the film here. This would then point
some of the critics in the right
direction. Also, the public is
undoubtedly impressed by over-
seas acclaim.

Apart from a resolve to do your own
screenplays in the future, what else
did you take away from
“Dimboola”?

When you make a film that fails,
you need to try and separate your-
self as a person from the failure of
the film as a whole. As the film’s
director, I rightfully received much
of the blame. Certainly, I made a
number of mistakes and misjudg—
ments which contributed to its
failure. On the other hand, you

Lou (Judy Davis), 0 Kings C ross[...]t Rob's
trendy Sydney home. Jo/m Dutgan '3 Winter of our Dreams.

can’t take aa
film after “Dimboola”?

I tried a number of projects,

some ofthe scripts were about
political subjects. One of them was
about the ethics of violence as a
political weapon in advanced
Western democracies. It told the
story of a woman who had been
involved with a group like the Red
Army Fraction in Germany, and
who had come to Australia on a
false passport after her lover was
killed when a bomb he had been
planting exploded prematurely.

The woman was someone who no
longer believed in the usefulness or
ethical validity of that sort oftactic
in the particular circumstance of an
affluent Western democracy. Thus,
she was bur[...]ow regarded
as immoral, yet which had resulted
in the death of someone she loved.
However, despite this, she was still
searching for an alternative form of
political expression.

That was a project for which I
was unable to get money. I
submitted it to a number of film
bodies and did a great swag of
drafts.

Is there a resistance to making films
about political issue[...]icence by government bodies is
expressed in terms of saying the
film is not “commercially viable”.
But I had tailor—made the budget on

Cinema Papers, July-August — 227

the Mouth to Mouth scale. With
sales in Europe and a moderate
release and television sale in
Australia, I would have got the
money back. So, I didn’t accept
that argument as legitimate.

I had another script dealing with
a communal household fighting a
local council which wanted to
knock down a building in their
street. The building was being used
as a meeting place by a group of
pensioners and by the youth in the
area as a dance hall. That was
another low-budget film and also
unsuccessful in finding funds.

Then there was a screenplay
about uranium which was a more
overtly political film. That was also
unsuccessful. There was a period

I think there will be a tendency to
centralize in Sydney. In most
countries there is probably only one
large filmmaking centre. In the
US, most of it is in Los Angeles,
though there is a certain amount
done in New York.

Winter of our Dreams
___—__.

What is “Winter of our Dreams”
about?

It is about the relationship of a
prostitute and the owner of a
specialist bookshop, whose lives are
brought together by the suicide of
Lisa, a mutual friend. The book-

Above: The bride ( Natalie Bare) and bridegroom (Bruce Spenc[...]reception.
John Duigan's Dimboola. Right: Lou on the streets of Kings Cross. Winter of our Dreams.

when I was developing and
rewriting a number of scripts. In
all, I put up about 20 applications
to various bodies before I got The
Winter of our Dreams accepted.

During this period, you left
Melbourne for Sydney. Why the
move?

I felt I had been living in
Melbourne long enough. I wanted a
change and thought of Sydney
because I like the beach. There are
additional benefits, of course, like
the fact that the laboratories and
most of the equipment-hiring
services are in Sydney. The
locations are also varied and
Sydney is a much more photogenic
city than Melbourne.

You didn’t feel any pressure as a
filmmaker to move to Sydney
because it is more the centre of the

industry . . .

Yes, I probably did. The
Australian Film Commission is up
here, and the New South Wales
Film Corporation has a much
larger budget than the Victorian
Film Corporation. Those things
make a difference. There are also a
lot more actors and technicians up
here.

228 —[...], July-August

shop owner, Rob (Bryan Brown),
was a radical student leader in the
late 19605 and Lisa was his girl-
friend during those days.

At the start of the film, Rob
hears that Lisa has committed
suicide and he wonders about the
direction her life took in the past 10
years. During his investigations, he
meets Lou, a Kings Cross
prostitute, played by Judy Davis.
Lou had been sort of adopted by
Lisa in the last year of her life, Lisa
seeing in Lou someone who was
following in her footsteps.

The film then follows Rob and
Lou’s relationship and contrasts
their lifestyles. Lou has the diary
that Lisa kept on her relationship
with Rob 10 years before. The more
Lou reads it, the more she identifies
with Lisa and the more her
relationship with Rob begins to
parallel the earlier relationship.
Rob is thus confronted indirectly by
the memories of Lisa and the sort
of person he was 10 years ago.

Winter of our Dreams actually
derived from some of those earlier
scripts. The male character, for
example, is indirectly related to one
of the characters in the script about
terrorism. The whole thing came as
a breakthrough in another script I
was writing. I decided that the main
female character should die at the

beginning of the film and that her
presence, or rather her death, is the
trigger for events that then take
place.

There seems to be continuity of
characterization in your work.
Some people, for example, will view
Lou in “Winter of our Dreams” as
having a lot of similarities with
Carrie in “Mouth to Mouth”.[...]y intentional?

They are both outsiders living on
the edge of society, but otherwise
the similarity between them is

solely in terms of how they earn a
living. Carrie was starting to work
in massage parlors in Mouth to
Mouth — though that was a small

part of the film’s canvas — and Lou
is a prostitute. So, there is that
occupational connec[...]ers, I
think they are quite different.
Carrie had a much stronger sense of
self-preservation and self-
orientation. Lou is more a mosaic
of bits and pieces of behaviour she
has observed in people who have
imp[...]d end up very

different to Lou, just in terms of the
type of person she is.

In the screenplay of “Winter of our
Dreams”, the social, political and
economic forces have less influence
on the characters than in your other
films. You seem mor[...].

Political comment in films and
books can take a variety of forms.
The script I wrote about the
terrorist was obviously quite overt
in its politi[...]I
see as no less political, though it
operates in a different way.

What I am in part doing here is
attempting to examine representa-
tives of a generation who were once

allegedly radical, or w[...]here they have gone. In part,
it is an indictment of educated
middle-class people. Because of
their various advantages, they have
the greatest potential for generating
social change. So, while the ap-
proach is more indirect, it is no less
political.

There is a lot of discussion today as
to whether the radicals of the 19605
“sold out” or realized that much of
their energies had been misplaced,

either ideologically or pragmat-
ically. Your script does not appear
to take a strong line . . .

It is too easy to simply say the
people who attended the morator-
iums have sold out. The kind of
momentum that a society like ours
has is very difficult for peop[...]hard to detach oneself long enough
to take stock of what one is doing
with one’s life. In a way, the events
of the film cause Rob to do just
this: he is briefly dislocated from
the mainstream of his life and
glimpses its direction. There is a
great diversity of pressures
involved, and it would be too simple
to condemn him out of hand.

With Rob and Gretel, I have
attempted to draw people who
reflect some of the diversity of
influences and pressures that have
occurred in the past 10 years. It is
very important that the audience
likes them and is aware that these
peopl[...]own way. It is
just that their commitment has, in a
sense, become displaced.

If the film functions properly,
there should be a gradual change in
the audience’s sympathies towards
Lou. But ifit’s too great, the rest of
the film will collapse.

There is a scene that seems to me to
sum up the tone of the script, and
that is when the 18 year-old girl is
reading an expensive art book in
Rob’s bookshop and she complains
about the price in the hope that he
might reduce it; he doesn’t. Ten
y[...]girl’s position, he would have
probably thrown the book at the
bookshop owner . . .

I am hoping, in the way
characters have been drawn and the
way they are played, the irony of
this kind of behaviour will be
evident to the audience without it
being too heavily pointed out.
Likewise, the behaviour of Rob and
Gretel is full of ironies.

There are many films that have
been rather unsuccessful in making
really telling criticisms of the
middle class. It is very easy to send
up the middle class and make it
look ridiculous, but I t[...]ying with
sympathetic characters who exhibit
some of the contradictions and
ironies that we live. An audie[...]it to
engage itself with characters it
likes. At the same time, it can also
discover weaknesses.

Gret[...]t
affaires and are open about it. And,
except for a moment of dialogue,
this situation isn’t questioned. How[...]e work reasonably successfully.
It has become, in a sense, a pre-
occupation of theirs; it is, for
example, a more important part of
their mental life than anything
political. Elements ofjealousy and
unease still remain, however.

The big difference between Rob
and Gretel is that Gre[...]e has ambitions which are
being realized. Rob, on thethe same time, Rob’s rela-
tionship with Lou revives the
memories of the sort of direction
that he could have taken had he
made di[...]he was
involved with Lisa. Rob has n0w
opted for a different lifestyle, with
its cerebal and rational approach to
the world. But this rests rather
uneasily with the more emotional,
intuitive person he can still rem[...]m university days, and can
still feel inside. And the more Lou
identifies with Lisa, the more Rob

John Dakar:

is confronted by those elements of
his personality he has put in cold
storage.

Towards the end, after Rob has
backed out of his lunch with Lou,
Rob says to Gretel, “I thin[...]t get too close.” I
interpreted that as much as a
comment about the dangers of
Gretel and Rob’s relationship —
i.e., of cutting oneself off from
others — as much as it was about
Rob shutting a door on an uneasy
past . . .

It is both. Rob is very much
making a choice to opt for a
continuation of his present life-
style, and to opt for a drier way of
relating to the world. But. he is
obviously hit in the guts by seeing
Lou disintegrating in front of him.
One could equally speculate that he
might, after these events, choose to
go somewhere quite different.

The disintegration of Lou is so
strong that one continually expects
her end to be the same as Lisa’s. . .

Well, it may be. The departing
image of the film ties the general
and particular elements of a major
part ofthe film‘s theme. Lou is seen
allied, or together at any rate. with
this small group of people demon-
strating against uranium. She has

Concluded on p. 299

Cinema Papers, July-A ugust — 229

GOVERNMENT

230 — Cinema Papers, July-August

Film

ince the Gorton Liberal Government

first decided to fund a commercial

Australian film industry in 1970,

fe[...]been look-

ing for an elusive formula to foster a
profitable national film industry.

Government pr[...]ing
an arts industry stems, in no small way, from the
relatively non-elitist character of film culture.
Films are also, of course, potential domestic and
export income earners. The preoccupation has
spawned the recommendations of the 1972
Tariff Board Enquiry, the creation of govern-
ment film bodies to administer government
grants and investment, the Peat Marwick
Mitchell Report in 1979, and private invest-
ment incentives through the Income Tax Assess-
ment Act.

Through all these measures — mooted,
promised, implemented or shelved — the
Government has attempted to saddle the prob-
lems of a high-risk industry, involving continu-
ally increasing film budgets, in a country of
small and dispersed population and with foreign-[...]ncome tax incentives have recently been
hailed as the panacea to the industry’s prob-
lems. But even more recently, controversy over
legislation to implement the federal election
promises in 1980 ofincreased incentives has also
shaken out simmering discontent over the tax
deduction as a method of assistance.

On September 30, 1980, the Prime Minister,
Mr Fraser, promised in his election policy
speech a one-year, 150 per cent income tax
write—off for[...]Australian films. He
also promised tax exemption of up to 50 per cent
of the original investment. The write-off was to
be allowed in the first year of expenditure. It was
estimated that the concessions would cost the
Federal Government $2 million a year.

In December, the Federal Treasurer, Mr
Howard, and the then Minister for Home
Affairs, Mr Ellicott, issued a joint statement
expanding on the Fraser election promise. They
reiterated that investors would “be eligible for
the write-off in the first year of expenditure”. As
if to allay fears about the risk of investing on the
strength of an election promise, the ministers
said,

“It is hoped that these details will provide a

sound base for investment decisions by

prospective investors . , . pending the enact-
ment of the necessary legislation . . .”

So, it was not surprising that the industry —
primed for the faithful implementation of the
original proposal, but increasingly jittery about[...]d to $130 million — should react so
bitterly to the actual legislation which was intro-
duced in fede[...]nt on May 27, 1981.

he legislation departed from the
original promise by stating that the
owners of the copyright would be
eligible for the 150 per cent write-off
in the year in which the film was
marketed. This about-face produced an industry
outcry about breach of faith and it was suggested

that some investors w[...]axes. It also prompted some
intensive lobbying by the Australian Film and
Television Production Association.

A compromise did appear to have been
reached on June 3, 1981. The original proposal
would now continue to apply to[...]ober 1, 1980, and May 27, 1981.
This amendment-to-the-amendment-to-the-
promise will apparently restore the original con-
cessions to investors in 52 films, involving a total
budget of $45 million.

But the question of’whether it is appropriate
for government to support the industry by giving
high income earners its blessi[...]viewed more critically
than ever before. In fact, the surprisingly
generous new tax incentives — which it seems
are now viewed as overly generous by the
Government — might have been unnecessary if
the Government had been more responsive to
industry lobbying when it introduced its first tax
concessions to the film industry in .1978.

Despite industry pressure at the time for a 100
per cent write-off over a 12-month period, the
1978 tax concessions introduced a two-year
write-off. This was an insufficient draw[...]ax
schemes for film investment which did not have
the government seal of approval. Such schemes
enabled investors to lever their investment to get
a deduction greater than the amount actually
expended. In some schemes, the investment was
artificially inflated to 10 times[...]act private investment it was necessary to
employ the more dubious tax schemes. At the
time, one tax lawyer commented that, “As
things stand, the only way to make film meaty
for investors is to abuse it slightly.”1

A trickle of such tax money found its way to
“legitimate” films, but the “meaty” schemes
also resulted in a proliferation of “Barrier Reef
box brownies”.

If genuine money was a little tight, Mr
Howard’s announcements in June[...]vate money
finding its way into film production. The
Treasurer’s subsequent attempts to reassure
pot[...]tment
would not be affected did little to clarify the
situation.

Shortly afterwards, the Federal Government
was facing an election. Add to this the
increasingly high media profile given the
industry, the unfavorable reaction by the
industry to Howard’s clampdown and an
extremely vocal lobbying group in the AFTPA,
it was not surprising that the AFTPA’s sugges-
tions were slipped into Fraser‘s election policy
speech.

In view of the Treasury’s $2 million cost
estimate of the original proposals, it seems that

I. Andrew Martin, as quoted in The Age, “Home Movies”,
by Jenny Byrne. Ma[...]

the proposal was hastily adopted without serious
consideration. When the estimate escalated from
$2 million to $130 million and Treasury
reportedly received 170 applications for the con-
cessions, the stage was set for some amendment
to the original proposal.

In justifying the change, Mr Howard said the
generosity of the concessions had led to their

“exploitation” in “unacceptable ways”. Of

major concern was that the concessions would be
used for tax deferral: an investor could commit
funds at the end of a financial year so that if the
film in which he invested was not made, he
would have effectively deferred paying tax.

learly, thethe future will be as effective as the original
proposals in drumming up private capital, due to
shaken confidence in government promises.

But the compromise reached on June 3, 1981,
was clearly a coup for the film industry and the
legislation, as it stands, will not drastically alter
the situation for most investors attracted by the
original proposals.

In most cases, the high income earners
attracted to the concessions will be provisional
rather than PAYE taxpayers; as such, they
would not have been able to claim the deduction
before March 1982 in any case, under the
original proposal allowing the write-off in the
year of expenditure. Neither will it affect
investors in[...]r productions that can be completed
in one year.

The year-of—marketing write-off will,
however, affect films[...]than two
years to reach release. In this respect, the
AFTPA’s complaint that the amendment will
discourage the making of quality films rings
true. So, to an extent, does the converse argu-
ment that the year of marketing deduction will
encourage “quickie” films of dubious merit.

But the fact remains that the film industry is
now the most heavily-subsidized local industry.
The 150 per cent write-off and the tax exemption
on profits offer far more protection than that of
the clothing, footwear and motor vehicle
industries. The concessions are certainly the
most generous under the Income Tax Act.

It is the very generosity of the incentives —— so
it is argued — that could kill the industry with
kindness. Except in such cases as Squizzy — in
which the Victorian Film Corporation’s backing
was desired as a matter of policy — there is now
little need for producers to seek financial
assistance from the government film bodies.
Thus a significant quality control on produc-
tions, through the involvement of the Austra-
lian Film Commission and the state film
corporations, has been lost.

Presumably some sort of control will exist in
the determination of films that qualify for the
tax concessions, but by whom in Home Affairs it
is not clear.

It is an irony of the incentives that they were

introduced to encourage a national industry and
yet large proportions of budgets may be spent in
procuring imported talent to ensure profitable
overseas sales and so secure the tax-exempt
profits.

ther issues are raised by the new tax

incentives. They provide high income

earners with the Government’s

virtual blessing to minimize their tax

and it is questionable whether this
gels with the much-vaunted intention ofcatching
tax avoiders with a draconian replacement to the
tax act’s section 260. It is also debatable whether
lower income earners should subsidize the higher
income bracket’s tax problems to the extent of
$130 million a year.

Such questions aside, if there is a need for
taxation incentives in the short term to stimulate
private investment in the industry, the 150 per
cent write-off is presumably a good com-
promise between the ineffective two-year write-
off and the more outrageous schemes with which
sections ofthe film industry had been associated.

But presumably the industry would prefer to
sever its ties with tax money in the long term.
The Federal Treasurer’s recent comments to
parliament, that he regarded the new incentives
as particularly generous, suggest that, in any
case, the incentives in their new form may be
shortlived. It was also suggested, before the
October 1980 elections, by the Labor Party’s
Shadow Arts Minister, Senator Susan Ryan,
that tax incentives may be necessary in the short
term, but “in the long term, the restructuring of
the distribution/exhibition system in Australia
may obviate the need for such measures . . .”

Senator Ryan’s suggestions hark back to the
Tariff Board’s Report in 1973 on Motion
Picture Films and Television Programs. The
Board’s principal recommendations were for:

l. The establishment of an independent statu-
tory body to administer grants and other
financial assistance, and to operate a dis-
tribution network in competition with
existing networks;

2. A scheme to reduce concentration of
control by the Hoyts and Greater
Union/Roadshow exhibition chains by
forcing them to sell a proportion of their
cinemas and to remove vertically-inte-
grated distribution and exhibition through
divestiture of shareholding; and

3. A single television program buying agency.

The theory behind such recommendations was
that by breaking down the foreign-dominated
distribution/exhibition system, Australian films
would be given an equal chance at the box-office.

Resurrecting this reasoning, Senator Ryan
argued that the distribution/exhibition nexus
had also led to res[...]ices such as
block booking. This not only lowered the
standard of films shown, she said, but it also put
Australian films — usually excluded from the
package — at a disadvantage.

To solve this problem, Senator Ryan sug-
gested that the states could co-operate in a
strategy for regulation of distribution/exhibi-
tion. She also pointed to va[...]might be
useful for such regulation.

Presumably, a Labor Government of the
19803 would have been more prepared to take on
the distribution majors than its predecessor
which shelved the more controversial recom-
mendations. Labor‘s former Minister for the
Media, Senator McClelland, recommended to
cabinet at the time that there be neither a divest-
ment scheme nor a single purchasing agency.
Instead, it was suggested that the Government
rely on the Trade Practices Act to break down
the distribution/exhibition tie—up. But the Trade
Practices Act has proved pretty much a tooth-
less tiger in this respect, apart from the Trade
Practices Commission’s refusal in 1976 to grant
the Motion Picture Distributors Association
clearance for a standard form film hire contract
between distributors and exhibitors.Z

he reasons supporting divestiture of

major theatres from chains and

divorcing exhibi[...]ead in practice to an overwhelming
preference for the Australian product, such films
could at least be[...]ance on their
merits before Australian audiences. The
pressure to sell the local product on overseas
markets could then be alleviated to some extent.
Accordingly, the need for big budgets and im-
ported talent would be reduced and so would the
need for financial assistance from the Govern-
ment.

However, it has been suggested that reducing
the bargaining power of the exhibition majors
may disproportionately strengthen the market
power of the distributors. They could achieve
this situation t[...]lm print
supply according to their own assessment of an
outlet’s revenue.‘

Perhaps the solution is for either government-
subsidized exh[...]specific
national cultural objectives or subsidy of local
films at the box-office. It has been argued before
that the alternative — tax—deductible private
investme[...]ave much appeal to
profit-conscious investors.‘ The legislation for
150 per cent tax write-off plus t[...]akes this argument largely
redundant. as shown by the amount of tax
money now available to the film industry. But in
terms of policy, the box—office subsidy may be
preferable to the new tax incentives because they
would not discriminate between different classes
of taxpayers — they would not enable the pro-
fessional tax bracket to minimize their tax prob-
lems.

An appropriate forum where alternative
methods of government assistance to the film
industry could be evaluated would have been a

Concluded on p. 305

2. June 29. I976. Decision by Dr Venturini.

3. Cinema Papers. January. 1974: “A view of the Tariff
Board Report on Motion Picture Films". Barrett
Hodson.

4. Cinema Papers. April. 1977: "The Case For Subsidy”,
Tom Stacey.

Cinema P[...]

Roses with

Thrfiyfféty

t has become fashionable to describe the
new film industry tax concessions as
generous, and the Treasurer, Mr Howard,
has done so publicly on several occasions.
However, the concessions as originally
proposed have been subj[...]limita-
tions, conditions and uncertainties that the
overall result is not nearly so generous as the
Treasurer would have the public suppose.

Following the election campaign announce-
ment of the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, of the
proposed concessions on September 30, 1980,
and thejoint announcement ofthe Treasurer and
the Minister for Home Affairs and Environ-
ment, Mr Ellicott, on December 18, 1980, out-
lining the details, it took the Government until
May 27, 1981, to prepare and introduce the
necessary legislation. With some last-minute
amendments this became law on June 24, 1981.

About a month earlier, in response to
enquiries by producers and investors who were
becoming increasingly nervous at the Govern-
ment’s tardiness, the Treasurer explained that
the matter was complex and that care was being
taken to frame the concessions so that they
would not be used for ta[...]ointing out that every tax deduc-
tion allowed by the Income Tax Assessment Act
enables the taxpayer to avoid tax that would
otherwise have been payable on the income off-
set by the deduction. Yet no one would argue
that all allowable deductions should be
scrapped. The issue surely is whether the
allowance of any particular deduction is con-
sistent with the scheme of the Act or with equity
or with Government policy.

So one did not have to be a cynic to interpret
the Treasurer’s explanation to mean that, while
going through the motions of fulfilling its
promises, the Government was seeking ways to
discourage reliance on the new concessions.

In this writer’s opinion, the Government has
achieved that objective to such an extent that
some investors may prefer to rely on the conces-
sions still available under Division 10B of the
Act, with which Australian film investors have
become familiar over the past two and a half

232 — Cinema Papers, July-August

Ian Baillieu

years, even though the Government has not
responded to requests to assist the film industry
by rectifying certain uncertainties[...]he latest amendments have left
largely untouched the scheme of
Division 10B, which permits the
capital cost of acquiring an interest
.. in the copyright in a certified Aus-
tralian film to be written off as a tax deduction
at the rate of 50 per cent per year, commencing
when the film has been completed (so that the
copyright has come into subsistence) and the
copyright interest has been used for the produc-
tion of assessable income.

The amendments to Division 103 (some
additions to Section 124K, and the insertion of
new Sections 124KA and 124WA) are technical
provisions designed to ensure that, particularly
in the case of investing partnerships, where a
deduction is taken under the new concessions it
is not also taken under Division 10B.

It remains uncertain (because of the require-
ment in Division 10B that the taxpayer must be
the one who uses his copyright interest to
produce assessable income) whether a unit trust
is an appropriate form of organization for
investors wishing to obtain deductions under
Division 10B. Since a trust, with the production
company acting as trustee of the film for the
investors, is (apart from tax considerations)
clearly the most convenient and efficient method
of organization, it is a pity that the Government
has not demonstrated its sincerity towards the
film industry by amending Division ICE to make
it[...]e used.

It also remains uncertain to what extent the
Commissioner may, under Section 124Z, reduce
the allowable deduction under Division 10B
where the taxpayer is obtaining from his copy-
right interest a benefit outside Australia — e.g.,
where the film is generating foreign income. (It
is fear of this section, not any wish to avoid tax-
able inc[...]monly excluded
investors from receiving any share of a film’s

foreign earnings.) It is a pity that the Govern-
ment did not agree to revoke or clarify Section
l24Z.

No change has been made to the eligibility of
films for certification as Australian films under
Division 103, nor to the procedure and criteria
for such certification.

I[...]vision
10B is separate from any certification for the
purpose of the new tax concessions, and must be
separately applied for.

The certification provisions of Division 103
are rudimentary and contain some illogicalities.
For instance, the Division clearly contemplates
that a certificate may be issued in relation to a
future production, yet the Minister is directed to
have regard to some matters — e.g., the owner-
ship of the copyright in the film, which may not
be known until the film has been made.

The former Minister for Home Affairs, Mr
Ellicott, overcame such difficulties with a blend
of liberality, commonsense and a sympathetic
attitude towards the practical needs of film pro-
ducers. It remains to be seen whether the current
Minister, Mr Wilson, will be as constructive.

Despite these uncertainties and the modest
rate of write-off that it offers, Division 10B has
some a[...]tors. There is no pro-
vision in Division 103 for a certificate to be
revoked. So if, as in the past, such a certificate
can be obtained before a film is made, the
investors at least know where they stand.

Division 10B is not subject to many of the
limitations and conditions attached to the new
concessions. Thus, there is no restriction on who
may apply for a Division 10B certificate;
Division 10B is not limited to certain categories
of films, nor is it limited to first owners ofcopy-
right; taxpayers obtaining deductions in respect
of capital expenditure under Division 10B are
not sp[...]xemption under Section
23(q) and 23(r) in respect of foreign source
income; and capital expenditure for the purpose
of Division 103 does not have to be “at risk” or
expended “directly” in producing a film in order
to qualify for deductibility.

Inve[...]g to rely on Division 10B
should however be aware of the amendments to
Division 3 which also became[...]

the expenditure recoupment provisions of
Division 3 to capital expenditure that would
otherwise be allowable as a deduction under
Division 10B. _

These amendments[...]trict film investors from obtaining leverage
for the purpose of Division 10B by financing
their investments with non-recourse or limited-
recourse loans.

To the extent that the investor is unlikely to be
called upon to repay such a loan, the Commis-
sioner may treat the investor as having obtained
an “additional benefit”. If the sum of such
additional benefit and the tax that would be
saved by allowance of the deductions exceeds the
amount invested (i.e., in the case of an investor
who is in the 60 per cent tax bracket, if more
than 40 per cent of the investment is financed by
non-repayable loan moneys), the investor is not
allowed a deduction in respect of any part ofthe
investment. There is provision for the Commis-
sioner to amend the investor’s assessment so as
to allow the deduction if the Commissioner later
becomes satisfied that the investor will in fact be
called upon to repay the relevant loan moneys.

Investors wishing to rely on Division lOB
should also be aware of the new Section
124ZAE, which provides for a taxpayer to elect
that the new concessions shall not apply. It
appears from the new Section 124K(2)(b) that
an investor intending to claim deductions under
Division 10B must take the precaution of
making such an election, even where no applica-
tion has been made to certify the film for the
purpose of the new concessions, because the
investor has no means of preventing such a
certificate from being applied for and issuing
later, in which case the certificate will have
retrospective application[...]4) and may
operate to exclude Division 10B unless the
election has been made. The election should be
made in writing lodged with the Commissioner
on or before the date the investor lodges his tax
return for the year for which a Division 108
deduction is first available.

The New Concessions
W

he general scheme of the new tax
concessions has received wide
publicity: a 150 per cent deduction
(under a new Division lOBA) for
capital invested in the production of
a certified Australian film, plus tax exemption
on the investor’s income from the film up to an
amount equal to 50 per cent of such investment.
The limitations on these concessions have not
been so well publicized.

How severe the limitations will prove in
practice cannot yet be judged. Answers are still
needed to the questions raised below.

Under Division lOBA, an irrevocable certi-
ficate for a film — i.e., a final certificate under
Section 124ZAC —- cannot be obtained until
after the film is made.

In the meantime, a provisional certificate can
be obtained for the reassurance of investors.
However, a provisional certificate may be
revoked at any time if the Minister is no longer
satisfied that the film is or will be a qualifying
Australian film. What protection does an
investor have against the Minister simply
changing his mind or his policy, and deciding
that he is no longer satisfied?

The same question arises in relation to the
availability of a final certificate. The pre-
condition of obtaining a final certificate is the
same as that for a provisional certificate — i.e.,
the Minister has to be satisfied that the film is a

qualifying Australian film — but it appears that
a separate application must be made for a final
certificate, and as there will inevitably be further
facts for the Minister to consider (e.g,, the
manner in which the production moneys have
actually been spent, as di[...]geted), what assurance does an investor
have that a final certificate will issue as a matter
of course whenever the Minister has granted
(and not revoked) a provisional certificate?

Although the matters that the Minister is
directed to take into account in determining, for
the purpose of certification, whether a film has
or will have significant Australian content are
(save for the addition of “details of the produc-
tion expenditure incurred . . . or . . . budgeted in
respect of the film”) substantially the same
under Division lOBA as under Division 10B,
only certain kinds of film are eligible for cer-
tification for the purpose of the new tax con-
cessions.

Excluded is any film that is wholly or to a sub-
stantial extent

(a) a film for exhibition as an advertising
program or a commercial;

(b) a film for exhibition as a discussion pro-

gram, a panel program, a variety pro-
gram or a program of like nature;
a film of a public event (which includes a
sporting activity, a theatrical per-
formance, an artistic performance or any
other activity, performance or event, to
which the public is normally admitted —
whether free of charge or on payment of a
charge);

(d) a film forming part of a drama program
series that is, or is intended to be, of a con-
tinuing nature; or

(e) a training film.

Subject to those exclusions, to be eligible the
film must be “a film produced wholly or prin-
cipally for exhibition to the public in cinemas or
by way of television broadcasting, being a
feature film or a film of like nature produced for
exhibition by way of television broadcasting, a
documentary or a mini-series of television
drama”. (Section 123ZAA[4].) “Tele[...]ing” includes transmission by cable.

Note that a film produced principally for dis—
tribution in the form of Videocassettes would not
be eligible.

Will the Minister interpret “the public” in
Section 124ZAA(4) as including thethe Australian market.

What is meant by a mini-series of television
drama? How many episodes may a series have,
and still be “mini”?

Will a certificate be obtainable for a pilot film
made for the purpose of obtaining a production
order for a continuing drama series? If so, will
the certificate (if provisional) be revoked if the
pilot is incorporated in the series?

Does the exclusion of a “drama program
series . . . of a continuing nature” disqualify a
continuing documentary series? It appears not.

The conditions on which the new 150 per cent
deduction for film investment is available are set
out in Section 124ZAF.

The first condition is that the taxpayer has,
under a contract entered into on or after October
1, 1980, “expended capital moneys in pro-
ducing, or by way of contribution to the cost of
producing” a certified film.

Section l24ZAA(6) provides that a reference
in Division lOBA to moneys expended in pro-
ducing a film is a reference to moneys expended
“to the extent to which those moneys are
expended directly in producing a film”.

What is meant by “directly”? The Treasurer’s
explanatory memorandum says that th[...]s such as brokerage

(C)

fees for arranging that a group of people join
together to produce a film”. But there is no
logical distinction between the cost to a pro-
ducer ofassembling the finance needed for a film
and the cost of assembling the men and the
materials. Would the Treasurer argue that the
costs of transporting cameras and crew to a
location are not direct costs? A practice state-
ment is needed from the Commissioner to make
it clear to what extent the following categories of
costs will be regarded as direct costs of produc-
tion:

0 The Costs of acquiring underlying rights;

0 The script development costs;

0 Other pre-production[...];
Completion guarantee fees; and

Legal fees.

If the Commissioner takes a hard line on such
costs, it is clear that a substantial percentage of
the typical film budget will be excluded from the
new concessions.

A further question concerns the common
practice of a film producer getting a production
underway by financing the costs until the
investors have been signed up. Will the Com-
missioner contend that the investors’ re-
imbursement of such costs does not constitute
direct expenditure in producing the film?

Another worrying provision is Section
124ZAH(1) which provides as follows:

“Where —

(a) a taxpayer has expended capital moneys

y way of contribution to the cost of pro-
ducing a film; and

(b) an amount of moneys has been expended

in producing the film out of moneys that
include the moneys expended by the tax-
payer,

then, for the purposes of this Division (lOBA),
so much of the moneys expended by the tax-
payer as the Commissioner determines shall
be taken to be included in the amount referred
to in paragraph (b) that has been expended in
producing the film.”

The Treasurer’s explanatory memorandum
says that this provision is to enable the Com-
missioner, in circumstances where taxpayers
have contributed towards the production of a
film, to attribute actual expenditure out of the
production account to the contributions ofa par-
ticular taxpayer. It is not explained why such a
power is needed. The wording of the section,
however, goes far beyond that intention. On its
face, it empowers the Commissioner to reduce
the deduction available to an investor under
Division lOBA whenever the investor has
invested by means of contribution to a produc-
tion account from which the film production
expenses are to be paid (the normal case). What
use will the Commissioner make of Section
123ZAH?

Section 1242A] empowers the Commis-
sioner, in a case where a producer pays for goods
or services supplied by someone with whom the
producer is not dealing at arm’s length a higher
price than the producer would have paid in an
arm’s length dealing, to recognize as expended
only such portion of the payment as the Com—
missioner regards as reasonable. A similar pro-
vision is in Division 108. Fo[...]

Scott Murray

Unquestionabiy the majortalking point
at this year‘s Cannes Festival was
whether the Los Angeles Film Market
would, if not kill off Ca[...]. Founded
by Americans reportedly discontent with
the confusions and expenses of Cannes,
the LA. Market premiered this year in
April. Attracting mostly American
producers and distributors, it proved a
considerable success — so much so that
it looked as if many of its delegates
would bypass Cannes. If this happen[...]and Mifed as an in-
ternational marketplace.

As a result, the usual Cannes ap-
prehension about the changeable
Mediterranean weather was this year
replaced by concern about the size and
importance of the crowd on the Carlton
terrace, a favored meeting place. As the
Festival opened quietly, many did
wonder if the crowds would ever appear.
They didn’t. Fortunately, among those
that did turn up were the U.S. majors, as
well as many of the bigger foreign
buyers.

Summarizing the Festival, market
director, Robert Chabert, pointed out
that the number of films shown in the
market was 326 -— the same as in 1980.

And while the number of registered
buyers and sellers was down from 2548
to 2100, the amount of business done
seemed comparable with recent years.

it is worth remembering, also, that
Cannes is still a very large festival. This
year, for example, the daily attendance at
screenings in the Palais theatre averaged
8300. included in that is[...]o other festival comes
remotely close to so dense a concentra-
tion of world press. A successful main
event screening can result in extra-
ordinarily-wide media coverage. The
French have long known the value of this,
opening many of the major Festival films
throughout France, during or immediate-
ly after the Festival. Overseas distribu-
tors tend to let a lot of this publicity
dissipate with long lead-ups. but this is
often inevitable as many films are only

seen for the first time at Cannes.
Another oft overlooked point is that

Cannes is primarily a festival, and only
secondarily a market. This year, with a
lower market profile, the critical func-
tions of the Festival gained a renewed
prominence. So while L.A. may under-
mine Cannes’ value as a market, its posi-
tion as the world's major film event looks
unlikely to be seriously challenged.

on
"n .

The III/lablffllilb 11ml mum/up (ifslt‘t-‘t’li[...]s Heaven '3 Gare.

234 — Cinema Papers, July-A ugust

The Films
—

As there are up to 30 films screening at
any one time, selecting what to see is the
major dilemma confronting the
reviewer/journalist. And if one comes
away from the Festival liking only five or
so out of 48 seen, as i did this year, one
inevitably wonde[...]e’s selec-
tion process was at fault or whether the
range of films was just poor.

A. Competition
_

Michael Cimino’s epic account of the
Johnson County wars, Heaven’s Gate. is
clearly a mess. Brutally cut from 219 to
149 minutes, what remains is a shambles
of a reconstruction. Despite that, parts
are brilliant and the film still ranks as a
major American film of recent years.

Cimino is nothing if not a brilliantly-
talented, visceral filmmaker. Even put-
ting aside his themes — and he is one of
few Americans to discuss their society
with any vigour or individuality — he is a
consummate technician. The opening

three shots of The Deer Hunter, for ex-
ample, with the truck sweeping into town,
under the bridge that stands as a
metaphorical curtain between the values
and ideals of an isolated American
perspective and those of an outside
world, are riveting. And if Cimino doe[...]Coppola and Martin Scorsese, slip
too easily into the overwrought, at least
he is prepared to confront or arouse
emotions.

Equally, Cimino is not attracted by the
clearly delineated — his characters can
be on the ‘wrong’ and ‘right’ sides
simultaneously — and he resists
caricature, even when dealing in a
codified genre, like a Western. The ob-
vious examples in Heaven’s Gate are
Averill (Kris Kristofferson), the Harvard
graduate-come-backwater sheriff, and
lrvine (John Hurt), Kristofferson's class-
mate who has taken the path of least
resistance, siding with his class against
the immigrant settlers;

Best of all, though, is Champion
(Christopher Walken), the killer paid by
the landowners to track down and
eliminate cattle thi[...]oor
settlers. He sees himself as being clearly
in the right, but as the landowners press
claim for the settled land, he finds
himself unintentionally sided with the op-
pressors.

The ambiguity of his position, and of
the times, is reflected in his resignation
to a changing moral code that will engulf
him. And in the film’s best scene, he in-
vites the local brothel madame, Ella
(lsabelle Huppert), to lunch with a couple
of local hunters at his modest timber hut.
The complexities of the scene — Cham-
pion's tentativeness in expressing his
feelings for Ella; the quiet that
frighteningly pre-figures a carnage; the
simple purity of the life of the hunters
compared to prostitution of sex by Ella
and killing by Champion — are beaut[...]es and silence.
Inexpressibly touching, it is not the least
sentimental or contrived, Few film-
makers[...]well.

But there are many other excellent
scenes: the final battle, with its echoes of
all battles ever fought; the roller-skating
dance; the waltz between Averill and Ella;
the dance at Yale.

Equally, there are many unsatisfactory
moments (Ella’s charge into the battle;
the overly-pointed scenes of the land-
owners‘ fiendish scheming) and the
casting is not always appropriate. Hup-
pert is largely unconvincing as the
madame, and Kristofferson is, at times,
at odds w[...]t is hard to
know how much has been unbalanced by
the cutting.

John Hurt, for one, gets second billing
on the credits but is rarely seen, and at
one point (the Harvard graduation) is cut
short just as he is about to deliver a long
oratory. Given the quotes listed on the
end credits, this speech was clearly vital
in verbally enunciating the ideals of the
wealthy, educated Americans, ideals that
would decay into the alcoholism of the
conscious-pained lrvine or the racial,
class-motivated sadism of Canton
(brilliantly played by Sam Waterson).

Above: Joseph Cotton, as the Reverend Doctor, during the Harvard graduation ceremony.
Heaven’s Gate. Top[...]Visconti‘s butchered
Ludwig, Heaven’s Gate is a film in
tatters. it is no small achievement, then[...]nn‘s Violent Streets (Thief in
some countries). A film noir, it is about
the journey one man (James Caan)
makes through the crime world, as he
tears away the veneer of those profiting
from it. Almost Bressonian in its stark-
ness, the film is a triumph of technique.
ignoring the ”neo-realistic” conven-
tions of the genre (as Mann put it), he has
concentrated on those aspects that,
when highly formalized, give voice to the
psychological state of his character.

Visually, this sparsity works well, the
camera making much out of neon lights
reflected on greasy road surfaces or run-
ning along the distorting curves of a
chrome fender. Aurally, Mann relies on
an electronic score by Tangerine Dream,
which helps unify the totality as well
as heighten the concentration on the par-
ticular, such as Mann‘s extraordinarily
detailed depiction of a safe robbery.

Another excellent film is Bertrand
Blier‘s Beau pere, the story of sexual
attraction between a thirtyish man and
his 14 year-old step-daughter.

The film opens with Ftemi (Patrick
Dewaere) playing the piano in some
soulless nightclub. Abruptly, he turns to
the camera and recounts his story. His
live-in companion (“We sailed together in
the same boat for eight years without
anyone parachuting provisions down to

us‘”) is killed in a car accident. He is thus
left to look after her d[...]ice
Ronet), but returns to live with Remi.
There, a drama of illicit desire begins:

“She was 14. That‘s the age when a

mirror never stops sending back im-

ages of the most bewitchlng, dazzling

and amazing sort. She[...]o
use my eyes as her mirror. She had
decided that a step-father, after all, is
still a man, like any other, and there
was nothing to sto[...]ule over my downfall.

“Personally, i never had the luck to be

born a hero. I've always been riddled

with fine little cracks and the least jolt
makes me cave in.

“80, think of me what you like. Yes,

it’s true, | caved in.”

Clearly, a difficult and delicate subject.
Blier handles it[...]to seduce is
matched by Remi's to succumb. It is a
romantic, sensual and, in a sense, in-
evitable attraction. When their moment
of first sexual contact comes, a delicate
kiss after an agonizing build-up so
masterfully prolonged by Blier, it is a
triumphant moment of sensuality. Rarely,
if ever, have l experienced so erotic a se-
quence in cinema.

Flemi and Marion's subsequent atfaire
is the consummation of a desire as valid

1 All quotes written by Blier, from Flemi’s point
of view, and printed in the Beau pere press
book.

as that between people of any age;
it is not the seduction of a minor.
Moralists have continually attacked the
attraction felt by couples widely
separated in ye[...]merican and British feminist
writers have decried the 13 year gap be-
tween Prince Charles and Lady Di)[...]nd that is emotional rather than visual),
but not the ounce more that commer-
cialism may crave. His boldness high-
lights a sexual issue that too many wish
never existed, bu[...]ways
will.

Andrzej Wajda's L’homme de fer (Man
of Iron), predictable winner of the Palme
d’Or, is a disappointing film. Like several
Polish filmmaker[...]derations for
political expediency.

Taking up the threads of his earlier
Man of Marble, Wajda tells of many
Poles affected by the birth of Solidarity,
from dock workers at Gdansk to jour-
nalists and filmmakers searching for the
values of the new movement and the
political corruption that necessitated its
growth. But instead of devising a
narrative where action determines not
only charac[...]as (lazily, i believe) opted
for little more than a Four Corners—style
reportage. Endlessly, he shows people
discussing the problems of Poland and
the possible solutions. it is fictionalized
documenta[...]pointing, however,
is Wajda’s unashamed support of
Solidarity. History may, as they say,
forgive him, but a total lack of objectivity
makes for a toneless film. This is doubly
surprising as Wajda is one filmmaker
who has seen the contradictions behind
the ideals of the noble, and highlighted
the virtues of the damned. This lack of
balance has also led to the film having a
slightly out of date look, like that of a six-
month old Nationwide. Although only
complete[...]n it, with
Solidarity already adopting techniques of
its opposition (like suppressing alternate
trade unionism) — just the sort of savage
irony Wajda has delighted in showing up
in films like The Promised Land.

James Ivory’s Quartet, from the Jean
Flhys novel, though not without the oc-
casional charms, is a disappointment.
Casting is the major problem, unbalanc-

ing what is in essence a fragile tale about
the games played between the powerful
and the subjugated. As Isabelle Adjani is
particularly unconvincing as the victim,
never looking down on her luck or in dire
need of support, her knowing accep-
tance of social and sexual tyranny, in
return for financia[...]in almost all his films, shows
us, as he puts it. the “moral shading” of
characters. He criticizes aspects of per-
sonalities but never damns outright,
challen[...]n particular,
Maggie Smith’s Lois Heidler, wife of the
boorish “H.J.“ (Alan Bates), is particular-
ly sympathetic, one recognizing much of

Cinema Papers, July-August — 235

oneself and others in her[...]eserve her position through
childish game-playing of the type H.P,
demands,

Unfortunately, Smith’s nice[...]particularly mannered, let alone
ill—suited, in the role (based, one is told,
on Ford Maddox Ford). H[...]leasantness and Adjani’s inap-
propriateness as the girl, Marya, counter
all Ivory's attempts to liven this drama.
And as is the habit in most period films
(this is set among the chic foreigners of
19305 Paris), the set and costume
designers seem determined to swamp
the action in gratuitous demonstrations
of their crafts.

Bernardo Bertolucci’s La tragedia di
un uomo ridicolo (Tragedy of a
Ridiculous Man) is, in the director’s
words. the first film of his “mature
period".

Returning to the much-used Po valley,
Bertolucci tells of a peasant (Ugo
Tognazzi) who has become a wealthy

cheese manufacturer and owner of a
hideous villa which apes the local

architecture One day, he sees his son
being kidnapped (laboriously set up with
Tognazzi scanning the horizon, ostens-
ibly to test out his new binoculars —
given to him by his son, of course). But,
the kidnapping is not all it seems: did, for
example, the son plan it?

While frantically trying to regain his
son (who shares those Italian cinematic
characteristics of being affected, un-
likeable and ungrateful; a son who rebels
against bourgeois values as much out of
boredom as anything else), he also
wonders if he can trick the kidnappers.
This way he might be able to bolster[...]y.

There are several predictable twists
(instead of being ahead of his audiences,

236 — Cinema Papers, July-Augus[...]ils them), before
everything is ‘resolved‘ in a spate of
Borges-like ambiguities of the kind that
hampered The Spiker’s Strategy.

All this narrative misjudgment
wouldn't matter as much if the film had

the visual boldness of his best films. But
one product of this ”mature period” is a
strangely hesitant camera. Instead of his
usually spectacular cranes and tracking
shots[...]ot
with utter simplicity but doesn’t quite
have the nerve to do so. The result is
highly irritating.

Dusan Makavejev’s Montenegro or
Pigs and Pearls is a virtual re-make of his
preceding Sweet Movie. Again it is the
story of a girl/woman who drifts acci-
dentally into a counter—cultural under-
world, and who, by expe[...]o
re-evaluate her beliefs before returning
to her previous life, albeit changed.

Instead of a hippie theatre group in
Amsterdam, in Montenegro it is a
Stockholm nightclub for immigrant
Yugoslavians. T[...]married life has let her
experience. So great is the shock, that
she returns home an anarchist, poison[...]psy-
chiatrist — as if they were her problems.

The film ends with a statement that the
story was based on actual events, as if

this somehow validates the badly mis-
judged satire of the preceding 97
minutes. Makavejev’s films have often
been saved by his sense of outrage and
the absurd; here, his presentation is as
flaccid as his narrative is repetitious of
earlier, better works.

lstvan Gaal’s Cserepek (Quarantine) is
yet another Hungarian tale of middle-life
crisis. Here, the central character has
stagnated; his feeling for[...]e
drifts, seemingly irreconcilably, into
despair. The various solutions — advice
from friends; profes[...]c-
tors and psychiatrists; even an encounter
with a dying man (often a spiritual salve)
— do nothing to avert his malaise.

This dreary film plods through its
catalogue of failed exterior solutions
before hitting on the supposedly reveal—
ing one: only by himself can[...]ring her pot plants out from inside her
home into the rain. The ironic corollary
that seems to have eluded Gaal is: Can

Marina Lind/1a]. Per Oscarsson (psychiatrist) and Erland[...]

B. Divers
_

Mauro Bolognini‘s La dame aux
camelias, already a critical and financial
failure in Europe, is a minor but pleasant
work from the Italian director.

The film is based on the novel by Alex-
andre Dumas jun. as well as Dumas’ ac-
tual fascination for the courtesan,
Alphonsine Plessis, on whom he based
his heroine. The resultant narrative,
which is set in parenthetical codes of the
beginning and closing of Dumas’ play,
works rather well, particularly in the cut
from the death of Alphonsine to its
representation on stage.

The major problem with the film, and it
near ruins it, is the casting of Isabelle
Huppert as Alphonsine. Huppert, an
actre[...]ggest Alphonsine‘s beguiling
sexuality. This is a major handicap as
Bolognini has Alphonsine using[...]power to subjugate men, in her drive
to rise out of the poverty in which she was
born.

Despite this weakness, the film is
memorable for the exquisiteness of Piero
Tosi’s costumes and the excellent
photography by Ennio Guarnieri. These,
with the odd breathtaking sequence,
such as the harrowing scene where a
priest finds himself unable to control his
desire and commits suicide, make the
film an interesting addition to Bolognini's
fine[...]r Jekyll
et les Iemmes is his best film in years.
The subject of a rave critique by French
novelist Andre Pieyre de[...]ered

reputation”

In this umpteenth adaptation of the
Robert Louis Stevenson novel, Borow-
czyk has nat[...]o his particular eye. He is
clearly at home among the medical bric-
a-brac of the era, and the sets, again
designed by himself, make good use of
period styles while also creating a dark
labyrinth of unknown chambers that
mirrors the human mind.

The transformation scenes, as Dr
Jekyll (Udo Kier) assumes the per-
sonification of Mr Hyde, are cleverly

done. After pouring the magic potion into
a large bath, Jekyll lowers himself into it,
still clothed. As the charmed water takes
its effect, Jekyll writhes uncontrollably,
the water splashing about violently and
the light playing on its discordant surface
contrasting with the blank dimness of the
surrounding room. After a prolonged
submergence, Hyde emerges, aflare with
his demonic passion.

Eroticism plays a lesser part than In
almost all Borowczyk’s other films —
despite the presence of Marina Pierro,
seen in his Heroines of Evil. The film‘s
tone is also less off-hand than many,
reminding one most of Story of Sin in its

Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill in A[...]llon’s La tille prodigue is
an incisive look at a 30 year-old woman’s
collapse, signalled by her abrupt leave-
taking of her husband and retreat to the
family home. There, she regresses into a
second childhood, seeing in her love for
her father the possibility of a new, truer
kind of relationship with men.

Unfortunately, the film Is a little too
measured and intense to be dramaticall[...]as Sir Stephen. and concubme in Shit/l Terayama's The Fruits of Passion.

with known actors before and he seem[...]bmerge their
off-screen personas.

Incest is also the theme of Christian
Braad Thomsen’s documentary, The
One You Love, which looks at the sexual
feelings between parents and their small
children. Thomsen argues that suppres-
sion of this natural desire leads to
fascist aggression. The proposition is
fascinating, but Thomsen brushes o[...]one to be convinced.

Luc Berard’s Plein sud is a mildly
amusing French comedy. though hardly
the film Berard’s reputation would lead
one to expect.

Patrick Dewaere is Serge, a university
lecturer who goes to Barcelona to give
several classes at the university. Bored
by marriage and the stifling nature of
academia. he turns a chance meeting at
a station into an escape. But the escape
proves its own trap, a pennlless and
sexually—spent Serge finding himself
enmeshed in a criminal complicity he
fails to comprehend. Abandoning the
rationality by which he made his career,
he opts for adventure, for the unknown.

The film is a little long but Dewaere is
most engaging when Serge loses grip of
his senses. And Clio Goldsmith. as the
girl he meets, shows fine comic flair and
enough vitality to carry the story through
its lesser moments.

David Hamilton’s Tendres cousins is
the least interesting of his three features
— despite a screenplay by Pascale
Laine, who wrote The Lacemaker.

Going beyond his publicized fascina-
tion with adolescent sexuality, particular-
ly of girls, Hamilton has attempted to
make a provincial French farce in the
style of C/ochemer/e. But the result is
resolutely unfunny, a tedious parade
of mistimed slapstick and crude
characterization. Only in the last part,
when the film focuses on a 14 year-old
boy‘s sexual initiation, does the film merit
attention.

Other films seen include Shuji
Terayama's The Fruits of Passion, an
adaptation of Pauline Reage’s Return to
the Chateau, Eric Rohmer's delightful but
seemingly f[...]Volker Schlondorff’s sur-
prisingly uninventive The Moral of Ruth
Halbfass, Shohei Imamura’s disap-
p[...]

The groundwork for Stepping Out was laid more than two years before an y. film was shot. Aldo
Gennaro — a Chilean therapist/teacher/theatre director — was employed by the Lorna
Hodgkinson Sunshine Home in Sydney to run its Activity Therapy Centre. Gennaro had also set
up a nightly drama workshop, and out of those workshops came “Life — Images and
Reflections”, a season of mime and dance performances staged at the Sydney Opera House in
November I 979. _ _

Stepping Out is a record of that theatrical event. I t is also a glimpse of the lives and aspirations

of the people who took part.

One of the things that emerges most clearly from the film is that the residents love Gennaro and
their expressions of affection for him are some of the most moving scenes in the film. Seven
months after the Opera House performances, and shortly after some board members saw an early
cut of Stepping Out, Gennaro was dismissed. No official reason was given.

Two Sunshine residents[...]er; and Romayne Grace, 21 years old, who provides thea director at Film Australia.

‘\‘._

CA

Did you have a project ready when
you left Film Australia?

There was only the possibility of
making Stepping Out. but it was by
no means certain. I had to raise the
money first. The idea came to me
because I had a friend who was
working with Aldo. and knew the
play would be performed at the
Opera House. I had been invited up

238 — Cinema Papers, July-A ugust

to the home a number of times and
had always refused. Finally. I

accepted an invitation to a
Christmas play the residents were
staging. The performer-viewer role
seemed distant enough for m[...]at
performance and he really got me
interested in the residents as the
subject for a film.

Direclor Chris Noonan (rig/i!) talks with
Chris Dobbin.

Was Aldo Gennaro receptive to the
performance being filmed?

To a certain extent he was non-

committal. He was worried about
what the presence ofthe crew would
do to the event and to the
performers. But on balance he felt

ChrisNoomm

that, because they had never
performed for a mass audience, it
would probably be good to
accustom them to lights and all the
paraphernalia of a shoot. That way
they would not be awed by thethe
board of the home and get their
permission. It took a lot of
convincing.

Did you have any problems working
wi[...]rded people?

I think every member ofthe crew
had a problem coming to terms
with spending time with the
residents. Most people who see
themselves as “normal” are afraid
of coming in contact with the
mentally handicapped: we were no
exception.

When[...]nd emotional people they
unconsciously challenged the
barriers we put up. We all had a
very hard time until we surrendered
to the experience. Everything
became a total high after that. It
involved conquering something in
ourselves, and that was one of the
major rewards of the whole
exercise.

Were there technical problems in
filming the residents? In “Best
Boy”, for example, all Philly wants
to do is look at the camera?

At the beginning, the camera
caused quite a stir and we did have
problems with a couple of people
when we set up the lights. One girl
in particular became terribly upset
by the effect ofthe light on her eyes
and thought it was affecting her
health. But that was overcome after
a few days.

The main shoot was three weeks,
but before that we had come in one
day a week for three successive
weeks, set up the lights and did a bit
of filming. This was to capture
some of the early rehearsals, and
also to get the cast used to the
equipment.

Another problem we ran against
at the start was when we tried using
radio mics to captu[...]wo main characters, Chris and
Romayne. They hated the mics.

feeling they were an invasion of
their privacy. Romayne
particularly resented the intrusion
and it put a great distance between
her and us until we realized what
was happening and discarded the
mics.

Why did you select Romayne Grace
as narrator?

She suggested herself: she was
the most articulate of the residents
I met. When I first went to the
home, I was interested mainly in
Chris, since it was he who had
really affected me during the
Christmas play. But coming in
contact with Chris[...]“mentally
retarded” . . .

Exactly. There are a number of
people I felt should not have been in
the home. They are there only
because they have been deprived of
the normal training we receive,
which enables us to live in the
outside world.

Did you want people to come away
from the film feeling that some
people in the home should not be
there?

That is one of a number of
themes which are implicit in the
film. But Stepping Out is really
about how these[...]eings, even though they would
never say it. It is a commonly-
shared feeling that the value of a
mentally-handicapped person is one
of a living thing, but not ofa human
being.

Gennaro was sacked after the Opera
House performance, yet you didn’t
mention this in the film. Did it
happen after the film was
completed?

No, it happened while we wer[...]ioned
it. But we didn’t, because my
approach to the film was a non-
intellectual one and I had decided
against a commentary. I wanted the
audience to experience the players’
reality, rather than have it
translated into a digestible form.
To have inserted the information

1

,-

Out

— Barbara Alysen

Above: Aldo Gennaro (centre) supervises a

rehearsal at the Hodgkinson Sunshine Home.

Stepping Out. Left: from the performance of

5Li/e — Images and Reflections”. Stepping
II[...]Aldo would have created an
intellectual focus at the end of the
film. The film leaves the audience
on a very high emotional level and
to have then put up an institutional
issue would have directed the
audience’s positive energy towards
that issue.

To what extent were you cashing in
on the International Year of

Disabled Persons in making the
film?

To the extent that it became a
commercial possibility to make a
film about a taboo subject, The film
would not have had much
commercial potential otherwise.

Did you find it hard to raise the
budget?

Incredibly hard, except for the
initial contribution from the
Department of Social Security. It
put in $30,000 and for that has the
right to an unlimited number of
prints at cost price and full non-
commercial rights. There were
different deals for the other
contributors.

Cinema Papers, July-A[...]

Presumably the companies that
contributed money — Boots,

Unilever and GMH — did not want
rights to the film . . .

No. Those companies donated

The feedback I have had from
people in the film has been very
positive. From the parents, I’ve had
a mixed reaction. Romayne’s
parents, for example, were very
disappointed with the film. I think

they reject a lot of things she says.
Certainly, some members of the
home’s administration felt the

thoughts Romayne presents in the
film were' not really her own. In
discussing it, they referred to her

words as “the script”, with the
assumption that I had written what
she had to say and asked her to read
it, which was not true.

On the other hand, Chris’ parents
think it is a wonderful film.

after a lot ofhassling. I approached
70 companies with a' two-page
typed letter. Those three were the

only successes, and they put in
about $1000 each.

Did any of the financial contributors
want to see a script?

I gave them a very erudite
proposal explaining that there was
no possibility of having a script in
advance, because it was an event
and we[...]happen. I agreed to show
all sponsors, including the board of
the home, the film just before we
approved it for printing.

Na[...]their
comments and to consider them
before making the final cut. That
turned out to be acceptable.

Did they try to influence you?

The sponsors tried very little; the
home tried quite a lot.

On what issues?

The board of the home was very
worried about the amount of
affection shown among residents,
and between the residents and
Aldo. One of the board members
commented that the relationship
shown between Aldo and the
residents was an unnatural one.

Essentially, I think, it embar-
rassed them and they put a lot of
pressure on me to delete those
scenes.

Some of the board's comments
were incorporated in the final cut,
but only because we had to cut 10
minutes out of the film.

How do audiences react to the film?

I have only seen it in two cinema
scre[...]extraordinary response.
People are very moved by the film.
Apparently at the Sydney Opera

Gennaro and residents during rehear[...]s Noonan — now in his late twenties — has had a classic progression as a

House, the film had standing . ’ . _ . .
ovations. It is really a dream filmmaker. He made his first/71m at school[...]lled Could It
FCSPOHSCA Happen Here?, it portrays the school as a prison camp from which several inmates attempt an

escape.

Back in 1970 the film became quite a curiosity. It was screened on television, and its[...]ewed for television and written up in newspapers. The Sunday Telegraph, for one,
reflected.“

“It is a sad commentary on the Australian film industry that half a dozen schoolboys, using an

old—fashioned borrowed camera and a budget of $18 7. 35 can pick up third prize at the Sydney

Film Festival. ”

The success of Could it Happen Here? turned Noonan’s aspirations towards film as a career.
He had planned to become an art teacher but, at the suggestiOn of producer Joan Long, he
applied for, and got, a job at Film Australia as a production assistant. During two years at Film
Au[...]started work on another film, Garbo, financed by the old Experimental
Film Fund, then administered by the Arts Council.

in 1973, Noonan became one oft/refirst intake at the Australian Film and Television School,
joining Ph[...]l Armstrong and Graham Shirley, among others, for the one-year
“interim ” course.

To what extent is the film likely to
change people’s attitudes to
in[...]u might think your film is
going to revolutionize the world
while you are making it, but you
come down to a much more
realistic assessment of its influence
once it is finished. From the
feedback I’ve had, I think the film
has changed a lot of people’s
perceptions of the mentally
handicapped,

Have you had much reaction to the
film from parents and residents?

240 —[...]

What was the AFTS looking for in
that first year?

For people[...]t
is exactly what it provided. I was
quite scared of direction, because I
didn’t have enough experience to
know whether the decision I had
made off the top of my head, to
work in film, was going to turn out
to be the right one.

But the course was excellent, in
that it was a very intense year, with
each of us making three films and a
number of studio, video programs.

If you had been offered the three-
year full-time course, would you still
have been interested?

No. At the time I thought one
year was a long time to spend
outside the mainstream of the
industry. As it turned out it was
excellent, because I never would
have had the opportunity to make
three films anywhere else. But if the
course had involved three years of
commitment, I am sure I would not
have been interested. On the other
hand, the film school is looking for
different types of people now, with
less emphasis on would-be
direct[...]m Australia react when
you said you were going to the
AFTS?

I was very fortunate, in that
when I put in my resignation the
producer-in-chief at Film Australia
said he would[...]year’s leave without pay. They also
offered me a project to direct once I
graduated from the school. It
wasn’t as exciting as I had imagined
—— it was a series on secondary

school libraries — but I threw
myself into it and convinced the
sponsors that they wanted

something totally diff[...]hought they wanted,

Looking back, I am surprised the
sponsors, the Schools Commission,
gave me the respect they did. I had
really long hair and must have
made a strange impression. It was a
bit of a surprise to be treated as
someone who knew what h[...]hen I was really
only guessing at what I felt was the
best approach.

At any rate, while we were
shooting part of the library series at
Sunshine North Tech I had the
chance to make another film at the
same time [The School is not an
Island]. It’s about three girls from
the school who try to set up a coffee

shop in the area.

What other films stand out of those
you directed at Film Australia?

There was one about Cyclone

Tracy. The day after the cyclone
hit, Film Australia flew me and a
cameraman up to Darwin. We had
two days in which to shoot a cinema
short, and that had to be released
by the end of the week. In an
extraordinary show of efficiency at
Film Australia, that schedule was
observed. Tony Buckley cut it and I
recorded a personal commentary
for it.

The film was very successful. It
was screened all over the world
within a couple of weeks of release,
mainly because Film Australia gave
it away to everyone.

You also made one of the TCN-9
Film Australia co-productions,
“Cass”. How did that go?

That was the only drama I made
at Film Australia, and it received
very mixed crits. It has a lot offans
and I still have people saying how
much they liked it, but a lot of the
reviews were bad.

I have been quite affected by the
mixed reaction to Cass as most of
my films have had very good press
reaction and I was not used to being
criticized. I still feel‘ a certain
nervousness about the film, even
though I really liked it at the time.

Why did you finally leave Film
Australia?

I was very lucky at Film
Australia and I owe the place a
great deal. Up until I made Cass,
every project was a new challenge
and further extended my abilities.

Cass, the only dramatic film Noonan made at Film Australia.

But after Cass I became involved in
a number of projects in the
developmental stage which fell
through. Slowly, f[...]s as far as I
would go at Film Australia.

It was a very hard decision. I had
spent most of my life working in
institutions and it was a very secure
existence, with the money coming

Chris Noonan (left) directs Michele[...]week. By contrast, I could
not see myself making a decent
living out of independent pro-
duction; the precedents were not
good.

But I was in a situation of being
frustrated and not making films —
and the films I could have been
making were not exciting[...]ly overseas, mostly to television. Its success in the
marketplace has been helped by the fact that it won the competition for "Best TV Program in the
Spirit of International Year of Disabled Persons” at MIFED last year, a bronze award at the New
York International Film and Television Festival, First Prize in the 6th Annual Dance Film
Festival of New York and a Jury Prize at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival Germany.

At the time of this interview, the film looked like returning a small profit, some of which will go
to the Lorna Hodgkinson Sunshine Home. at

Cinema[...]

At this point, however, a number of things
happened which are revealing of the Australian
film scene. Most of the famous titles and the
work of celebrity stars were found to be lost,
worn-out or diverted. The 19305 horror films,
the Jeanette MacDonald musicals and the Oscar
winners were missing from the list. The last of
the Greta Garbo films went off to New Zealand
at the start of this year. That meant that what
was left was not the material circulated by even
the more intrepid repertory cinemas and film
societies. In particular, several hundred ofthese
were the program films of the pre-1935 period
which are virtually unknown for a variety of
reasons.

Film scholarship tends to dismiss these films
as stage—bound and clumsy by comparison to the
better known silent classics which precede them,
or the films of the so-called Golden Years of
Hollywood which follow. Season programming,
to wh[...]so
wholeheartedly, also encourages this neglect.
The stars and major filmmakers of this period
are not known and no programmer will play to
empty seats a season of the work of, say, Lee
Tracy 0r Sam Hardy, or of a director like
George Hill or Wesley Ruggles.

The result of all this was that when Neil Mac-
Donald and I approached Amalgamated
Distributors in the Hoyts Centre, which now
holds the two collections, they were on the point
of destroying the copies to make space. Several
hundred had not had a booking in the years they
had been on offer.

Now, assuming the duplicating materials are
still available and in as good condition as they
had been 20 years ago when many of the copies
were made, it would cost more than $1000 to
order, print, ship and acquire a new copy of
one of these vintage titles. Such material would
never return that amount in the commercial
market in Australia. That means, ifthese prints
are destroyed, one of, if not, the largest collec-
tions ofthis rare material outside the US. would
go and such material would never again be
available in Australia.

The management of Amalgamated treated us
sympathetically — not on[...]hey could
see that it seemed bad business to turn a few
hundred thousand dollars worth of film into $42

242 — Cinema Papers, July-August

An ecstatic Ramon Nova/7'0 in
Laughing Bo y.

worth of silver, but also from a genuine interest
inthe past of the film industry. We were allowed
to look at anything we wanted and the destruc-
tion order was cancelled - temporarily at least.

Noel Cislawski, of the NSW Education
Department, took the project seriously and
found us a corner in which to screen. We then
began publicizing our activities among the peo-
ple who one might have expected to be in-
terested. Some of the reactions were amazing,
including astonishment th[...]terested in American films which didn’t expose
the infamies of the CIA.

A repeated response was that we should tell
them when we were running Public Enemy and
Camille. Only a handful were able to appreciate
that these films were a different and possibly
more important part of thejigsaw to the known
and respected titles. Certainly one of the things
which makes these films interesting is that they
provide an insight into the way Hollywood
retained its grip on world markets in a transition
period.

So, on the copies went — sometimes five and
six a day for two months — more films than the
National Film Theatre gets through a year. The
faint-hearted fell away and the determined sat
there muttering, “Not Franchot Tone and
Madge Evans again!” The survivors had the uni-
que experience of seeing a substantial cross-
section of the program films 0fthe early years of
sound, in quantity, not unlike the way the
habitual filmgoers of the period first saw them
and many of the same reactions were noticed.

One of the most fascinating opportunities was
the discovery of the voices of many people
thought of as silent film stars. Erich von
Stroheim regular Dale Fuller does an “Indispen-
sable Lisa” secretary in the remarkably modern
Office Wife (Lloyd Bacon, 1930). Betty
Compson, star of many of her husband, James
Cruze’s films like Pony Express, provides a nice
line in self-satire in On With the Show (Alan
Crosland, 1929). Back stage, Sam Hardy[...]ing up.” Ernest Torrence from
Tolable David and The Covered Wagon proves to
have a ringing delivery in The Great Lover

Beaumont, 1931) or the curious

(Harry
Somerset Maugham adaptation Stric[...]on, 1929). Charles
Farrel romances Bette Davis in The Big
Shakedown (John Francis Dillon, 1933) as he
had Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven.

The discovery is Ramon Novarro, star of the
1926 Ben Hur and usually heard only as the
weak romantic interest in the Garbo Marta
Hari. A remarkably full collection of his work
remains, including his first talkie, Dev[...]s
off his Speedy Gonzales accent as “Gascon”.
The film challenges the limits of the studio’s
sound technique, recording speech and music at
the same time and running two cameras on some
scenes.[...]adaptation flawed only in an evasive
ending; and The Barbarian (Wood, 1933), with
remarkably torrid sc[...]press in all
these characters, Novarro is clearly a major,
neglected talent.

Even more interesting are two legendary
casualties of the early sound period who emerge
in a new perspective. John Gilbert was said to
have a voice unsuitable for sound film. However,
in Woods 1929 Way for a Sailor, he is victim
more of awful material written, in part, by
Gilbert’s r[...]an exceptional film
which strikingly pre-figures The Godfather,
Gilbert’s voice can be seen to be the element
needed to turn a matinee idol into a major screen
actor.

Director Mervyn Le Roy, who did Little
Caesar the same year, has given Gentleman’s
Fate the look and much ofthe pace ofthe best of
the Warner films he was then doing. It also has
the Italian-American setting, the sleazy hotel
decors and mannerisms like the two-shot with
the profile at frame edge. Gilbert and Louis
W[...]

It is also possible to see the last of Buster
Keaton’s work as a star in the MGM sound
films and it is true that these are only a shad0w
of his great silents. A few of the old routines are
restaged on a smaller scale in What, No Beer
(Edward Sedgwick, 1933). However, here, as in
The Passionate Plumber (Sedgwick, 1932), he
gets less[...]aight actors like
Gilbert Roland and John Miljan. The story that
he was undermined in favor of the studio’s new
comic, Jimmy Durante, seems unlike[...]both films.

Keaton’s delivery and agility have the
qualities needed to make him a successful sound
film comic. The other films available suggest
another plausible reason for his decline. These
titles include the extraordinarily rare The Chief
(Charles Reisner, 1933), an attempt to put on
film the then famous radio star, Ed Wynne. This
film seems[...]rst release. There is also an extensive
selection of the work of round-faced, wise-guy
comedian William Haines, now forgotten,
though he was star of the studio’s first talkie.

All these films, like the Keaton comedies, are
in an unappealing, clumsy st[...]s and talented collaborators.
This house style is a long way from that of
Paramount which served so well at that studio in
the contemporary films of the Marx Brothers,
Mae West, WC. Fields or Maurice Ch[...]cir-
culated. One team did manage to springboard a
career out of the cycle where Keaton faltered —
the Three Stooges.

Also available is the 1935 Baby Face
Harrington, made by Raoul Walsh, where the
beginning of a faster, more modern style is
becoming evident. This was to develop in the Red
Skelton and, later, Marx Brothers comedies.

The work of the directors is similarly intrigu-
ing. Few celebrity filmmakers are represented in
the collection. There are no films by John Ford
or Al[...]. De Mille: his re-made cowboy, mother-love
weepy The Squaw Man (1931).

William Wellman, however, is revealed in six
virtually unknown films which give a new
perspective on the range of the programmers
with which he spaced his major works. Purchase
Price (1932), with Barbara Stanwyck, recalls
The Wind. Other Men’s Women (Steel Highway,
1931) i[...]n with its
triangle plot. Midnight Mary (1933) is a faster
prototype of the MGM woman’s film. College
Coach (1933) surprisingly extends the Warner
social cycle into an attack on football in[...]l-
ly misjudged, has some amazing scenes, like
“The Red Squad” dragging left-wingers from
the dinner table and running them out of town.
And, of course, Public Enemy has survived.

Warner staffe[...]n Le Roy and William Dieterle, are
represented by the lively, earlier co-features and
also by the major works by which they are
remembered, like Dieterle’s Emile Zola and
Curtiz’ Sea Wolf.

However, the discoveries of the batch are by
two little known and misrepresented film-
makers. One is George Hill. Despite his brilliant
The Big House (with All Quiet the out-
standing film of the era), he has not become a
celebrity.

In the collection are two other remarkable
films which he made. The Secret Six (1931) has
Big House star Wallace Beery as a gangster,

Concluded on p. 305

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I am surprised the Melbourne
Film Festival even got a print ofit:
I am in a fight with Fox over
distribution. They found the film
hard to sell. They didn’t think it
would[...]it is that it would be much more
commercial than a number of films
that have been released recently . . .

Most people are of that opinion,
including ourselves. When I made
the film, Norman Levy was at
Columbia. Then, when I was off
making Popeye, Fox had a whole
management change. He came in as

The above interview was first published in
the Melbourne Film Festival Program.

Paul Newman, Bi[...]y-August

Robert Altman has made I 7 films in the past
13 years and has developed a cult following
rivalled by few modern directors. But since his
smash success with M *A *S*H, Altman ’5 films
have mostly proved to be the bane of the major
production and distribution companies which[...]al
praise, have generally failed to measure up at
the box-office.

As a result of wariness about the commercial
prospects of two of his most recent films, the
decision was made not to release them publicly
in Australia. The films, Health and Quintet,
have had their only Australian screenings at the
1981 Melbourne Film Festival.

In view of this situation ‘Cinema Papers’
arranged for R[...]'Hl

Robert Altman directs Nina van Pailandt on the set of The
Long Goodbye.

A

head of distribution and he simply
said he didn’t think the film was
going to work and it was his
judgment no[...]you think it’s political? Are they
objecting to the film’s view of
American politics?

I think it’s political within the
company. The same man, when he
was at Columbia, did the same
thing to a film I produced called
Remember My Name. The
executive who had okayed the film
was fired; Norman Levy had moved
up and he[...], wham, I ran into
him two years later at Fox — the
same thing. So it really is personal.

Did Frank Barhydt come to you
with a full screenplay for “Health”

No, he came to me with an idea,
a full treatment, but it had more to
do with the background elements.
None of the internal story was
there. Prior to that, he had edited a
health food magazine, so that’s
where his information came from. I

Robin Williams as the lead in A ltman's latest film. Popeye.

This is the second time you have
done that. It reminded me of the
campaign in “Nashville” . . .

It’s like that, although Nashville
involves a presidential candidate,
and that was a campaign as the
public sees it. In Health, we
parodied the two political
conventions and the way our system
is run. The idea was that the film
would be released in 1980, when the
political conventions were on. I felt
that would have been a good time
for it, but they didn’t agree with
me[...]developing “Quin-
tet", you reportedly invented the

There is a point in the film, right at
the end, when Grigor says: “Life
can only be felt w[...]what you are really saying in
that film?

That is the basis of the film. I
think it ties in with gambling and
game-p[...]rdy, or else you
just become like those people in the

film the dogs ate; theyjust sat down
and died.

Given that you create a totally
artificial world in “Quintet”, why
do you go to all the trouble of
filming on location, with the
extraordinary climatic problems
you had in Canada[...]Spacek and Shelley Du val! in Three Women.

game of the same name. There are
actually rules and one can play it

Oh yes, it’s quite a good game.
There are quintet clubs in the US.
and they are now having
tournaments.

What came first — the idea for the
game or the idea for the film?

The film first, but I always had
the idea that there was a game of
the culture, like backgammon,
chess, mahjong, dominoes. I
wanted a game that represented the
culture and that eventually became
the end of the culture. The game
survived longer than the culture.

What do you see as the American
game?

I don’t think there is an

Amer[...]verse;
there are too many cultures.

have cost us a fortune to go on
stages and do that. This set — the
ruins of Expo ’67 — was already
there; so was the weather. It was
always below zero, so wejust froz[...]leased rather
broadly. Fox promoted it, mainly
on the basis of Paul Newman, and
the film was not accepted by the
public or the critics at all. There
were very few critics who liked it,
although those who did really liked
it. Most of the public found it tire-
some and dreary; it would h[...]do that by
preventing too much advance
discussion of the film . . .

Yes. But they treat all the films

the same. The next film I did, A
Perfect Couple, was released, again
by Fox, within two or three months
of Quintet, and it had no names in
it. It was a perfectly lovely,
accessible, delightful film, but it
didn’t do business in the first four
days, and they pulled it out.

Health was next, and I think it
was on the basis of the failure of
Quintet and A Perfect Couple that
when it came along they were just
glad to get rid ofthe impressions one
gets from the media, which are

RobertAltman

Feiffer’s scrip[...]back and forth to each
other. But I produced all the films
and had control of them.

You are known as a director actors
like to work with, so that often the
same people reappear in a number of
your films . . .

That’s true, and it’s not by design
or contract or anything else. I get to
know what the actor’s full range is,
and I can see how he can[...]Blak/ey in Nashville.

basically concentrated on the two
coasts . . .

I have spent most of my adult life
in Los Angeles or New York, but I
t[...]d they
certainly form your opinions and
your view of things. I am definitely
a midwestern person, although I
haven’t actually lived in that area
since World War 2.

For the past 12 years, when you have
been making films,[...]ed as producer, director and
writer on almost all of them. I don’t
know of any films you have made
since “M*A*S*H”, in which you
weren’t involved in the writing . . .

I am always in the credits. I
didn’t have a writing credit on
California Split, and on Nashville I
think Joan Tewksbury had the sole
screen credit, but a film is so
collaborative that everybody
crosses over. Popeye was Jules

have no idea of being like John
Boorman who carried the Arthur
legend until he finally got to make
Excalibur.

What attracts you to a project? I
have been looking for a common
ingredient in your films and I think
it’s stretching things to find one . . .

l have aof challenge. I do
two kinds of films: what I call essay
films, which Health, Nashville and
A Wedding are; and what I call
interior films — Three Women,
Images and, in a way, Quintet.

Except “Quintet” is an allegory; so
is “Popeye” . . .

It’s a little more than an allegory.
Quintet, McCabe and Mrs Miller
and Popeye would fall in the same
category. The films fall into those

Cinema Papers, July[...]

two general categories, but Ican’t
find a common keystone.

When you start a film, do you know
how it’s going to turn out?

Yes, but I never know that I
know. The usual procedure is that I
start a film and I have a vague idea
of how it’s going to be. Then we do
the screenplay and we start and, I
think, God, this i[...]ent. So, I make an entirely differ-
ent film than the one I started with.
Then it’s finished and I look at the
end results. I realize that this is the
film we started out to make.

Do you have any fa[...]sful. But they are all

3C? .4 g '55- ‘5
' = f :a‘
r . /
. . i,

small, than I am in a mass
audience. I don’t think I’d be very
pleased ifI had a film that went out
like Grease and made $200 million,
and yet everybody I ran into said,
“That’s the worst film I’ve ever
seen.” I think that would depress
me more.

The experience I have with most
of my films is that commercially
they are not very successful, but I
can always find a little pocket of
cult people who seem to like them.

Does lack of commercial success
make it difficult to make fi[...]nything he
wants. He doesn’t even have to go
to a banker any more; he can do it
himself. If you hav[...]gain about them. Ifthere are
flaws, that is part of their nature.

Quintet is now starting to surface
in revival areas more, and I think
it’ll probably follow the same
pattern as McCabe and Mrs Miller.
That was a[...]ased and now
everybody talks about it like it was
a great big hit. Even the critics who
really crucified it when it came out
now refer to it as a masterpiece;
they have short memories.

Most of my films seem to do
that, which pleases me more than
having a big commercial hit. People
rediscover them, and t[...]ally, to find an audience.

Does it worry you if the critics pan a
film?

It depresses me, but I can’t do
much ab[...]viable my work
would be. I think there has to be a
certain amount of struggle in it to
keep you awake, to keep the
adrenalin going. You are fighting
for your life all the time, your
artistic life.

You are playing quite a major role
now as a producer, not only for your
own films but for other people’s as
well. Is that a role you see yourself
continuing?

I will ifI can; I like it. There are
a lot of films, and there are a lot of
filmmakers, a- lot of material I see
that I think should work. Mainly
it’s the artist, and if I can help that
happen, it’s helping the whole
industry; plus, it’s acceptance for
my films.

Do you see people like yourself, who
work outside the major studios and
put together films that are outside

Fernando Rey and Viltorio Gassman in Quintet.

the distribution mainstream, being
able to survive?[...]lcer,
but not only will we survive, we are
really the basis of what eventually
becomes the establishment.
Without us there wouldn’t be much
seasoning in the films that came
out. The examples are your
Australian films that come here[...]everybody
is discovering. They are different
from the films made by the majors
here, which are just pure pap,
directed to the lowest common
denominator. The films I make and
the ones made by most independent
filmmakers aren’t that way. They
ultimately become the most
successful films.

Do you watch a lot of films?

No.

The obvious question, I suppose, is

who are your fav[...]afraid I have learned so that it’ll
sound like a bad performance, is I
don’t know. When I was a
youngster, I’d go to films as often
as I could,[...]e
things just happened. I didn’t know
there was a director; I don’t even
know the names of the ones who
really influenced me.

What would you do[...]an
artistic arena, because that’s where
I have the most fun.

Do you have plans for other films?

I am about to do a film in
Canada called An Easter Egg Hunt,
which is set in England in 1915, in a
girls’ finishing school. We are going
t[...]

Have you ever considered shooting a
film in Australia?

We talked about shooting
Popeye in Australia, but the
production designer, Wolf Kruger,
who had worked in Australia for a
long time, felt we were logistically
better off in Malta. I hadn’t been in
Australia, except during the War,
although I had a big love affair with
Australia — when I was 13[...]Popeye and Blulo (Paul Smilh} in Popeye.

think the lowest it could have been
brought in for would have been
about $16 million. We had an
enormous amount of people to
move halfway around the world.
The set alone was $2 million to
build. We took a long time, we were
at sea and we had boats; every[...]ve.

Going back to “Health” and its
parodying of American politics, do
you think of yourself as a political
director, or of your films as
political?

No, but I certainly have the right
to use my political opinions or
observation[...]ng when I

supposed to be subtle in any way.

One of the complaints about
Health was that there was so much
going on all the time. These very
complicated soundtracks are
marvellous in a good cinema, but
you put them in a place where the
sound system or the acoustics
aren’t very good, and it’ll drive
people crazy.

In a number of your films,
particularly “Nashville”, the music
is more than something that’s just
added at the end . . .

It always is. One of the first
things I try to determine is where I
am goi[...]c to
me is different from words, sound

It’s a pity for the Australian film
industry that you didn’t . . .

I’d probably be running a shoe-
repair shop.

One of the things that hits someone
coming from Australia is the sheer
expense of making American films.
“Popeye” cost about $20 million,
and in a country where feature films
are being made for about $1 million
each, that seems an awful lot of
money. Is there some way of
breaking out of that and making
good films?

In the first place you have the
unions and in the second place you

have the basic cost. It’s escalating
everywhere in the world and it will
in Australia, too. The more films
you make, the more expensrve they
are going to be; it’s a shame.
Films don’t have to cost that
much and most of myfilms don’t. I
really didn’t have control of the
purse strings on Popeye, although I

make a film is trying to show my
view of a certain subject or genre. I
try to express my view of politics
and, by politics I mean
government, our social laws,
structures, thethe technique a lot of people
associate with you, where you have a
large number of overlapping
conversations and a soundtrack that
is very complex. That doesn’t seem
to be the case in these two . . .

Health is quite complicated, but
not Quintet. Quintet to me was like
a fairytale and it was very stylized
in its language. All the actors had a
different base language. Fernando
Rey is Spanish,[...]that; it wasn’t

effects and noise. It attacks a
different sense. So even if I am
going to do a conventional score
like in Quintet, where we had a
symphonic score, I have to decide
beforehand what that’s going to be.
I always keep it in mind so that the
film is shot with the idea ofthe kind
of rhythms going to accompany it.

In the case of A Perfect Couple
and Nashville, where we used music
that was performed during the film,
it is part of a plot. It is part of the
behaviour of the characters. It is
part of what the film is about, and
yet it also calls for an additional
emotional response from the
audience.

Where did you find the Steinettes
for “Health”?

I found them busking on the
streets of New York. It’s very
exciting to see somebody that
everybody overlooks. Most of the
casting offices in Hollywood are

closed doors; you can’t even get.

RobertA ltman

into the studios because there is an
armed guard. And there is just a
whole world of buskers and street
performers out there. We found[...]tage ofthose people? I am not
interested in doing a film where
everybody looks like a cheerleader
or a Hollywood starlet.

That is one of the most striking
things about your films compared
with mainstream Hollywood films
— the lack of pretty people in the
conventional sense . . .

Casting is what it is all about.
The actors are the artists; they are
the people you see. They are the
ones that ultimately put the thing
together and deliver the message or
emotion or whatever it is, and I
consider that most of my creative
work is finished by the time I finish
casting.

What would you like your[...]red for?

Just what they are. I don’t think
any of them are important, and I
think it’s minor art, if it is art. I
don’t think any of them will mean
much in 20 years.

Do you think that’s the nature of
film?

Our technology is such that ‘1
don’t think they will last. Art has
a life to it. If you look at our
classics, the great artists like
Rembrandt, we are talking abou[...]erent reasons today than
they were admired for at the time,
and even so that’s a short period of
time. We are talking about 400 or
500 years. I th[...]it’s
like building sand castles. You go
down to the beach and get a lot of
friends and you build a sand castle.
You know that eventually the tide
is going to take it away, so you try
and finish it. Then you remember
it, and you remember the
experiences you had with the people
who helped you build it. That’s the
real reward or wealth of filmmak-
ing. *

Filmography

955
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968
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1974
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The Delinquents

The James Dean Story
Countdown

That (‘old Dav in the Park
NI*A*S*H

Brewster .VlcCloud
.\lc(‘abe and .Vlrs Miller
Images

The Long Goodbye

Thieves Like Us

California Split

Nashville

Buffalo Bill and the Indians
Three Women

A Wedding

Quintet

A Perfect Couple

Health

Popeye

Cinema[...]

What mattered to both was the advancement
of an audience armed with reason, so they each
pursued an immediate goal: to contribute
through their works to the transformation of
mankind, accelerating its development. To meet
this objective, they strived for the greatest ef-
ficacy in their respective arts and confronted
aesthetic problems with a commitment to scien-
tific rigor and militancy.[...]titudes, all that could con-
tribute to new means of expression, all that
could be assimilated. Thus,[...]d to Joyce, through Chinese and
Japanese theatre, the circus, the music-hall,
Freud and Einstein.

But above all — or, better yet, underlying it
all as a foundation and a guide —— was Karl
Marx. Both, rooted their se[...]goals,
like their discoveries, were nourished by a com-
mon worldview.

However, Eisenstein on the one hand main-
tains that,

“In wishing to get a maximum departure from

oneself in the spectator, we are obliged in the work

to suggest to him a corresponding ‘guide’. Follow-

ing this guide. he will enter into the desired condi-
tion."

He proceeds to state, even more precisely, that,

“the simplest “prototype of such imitative
behaviour will be of course, that of a. person ec-
statically following on the screen, a personage grip-
ped by pathos a personage who, in one way or
another. goes out of himself’.

Brecht, on the other hand. declares almost by
way of involuntary reply that,

“This magical operatio[...]ything that tries to provoke
an ecstatic state or a clouding of vision."2

It thus becomes evident that in
spite of not merely incidental points
of contact but an ent1re philosoph—

1. Sergei Eis[...]st glance, we find that while one exalts
passion, the other chooses the path of reason;
while one wants the audience to surrender
emotionally to the spectacle, the other wants
them to remain separate, distant, ana[...]g to Eisenstein,

“Pathos shows its effect when the spectator is com-

pelled tojump from his seat. W[...]lled

to shine with delight, before gushing tears of delight

In brief, when the spectator is forced to go ‘out
of himself
“To use a prettier term, we might say that the effect
ofa work of pathos consists in whatever “sends the
spectator into ecstasy. Actually, there is nothing to
be added to such a formulation, for the symptoms
above say exactly this: ec— —stasts, literally standing
out of oneself‘ which is to say ‘going out of himself‘
or “departing from his ordinary condition’. ”‘

Of course, this “emotional surrender” (a state
which one attains through identification with the
character represented in the spectacle), this “dif-
ferent mode of being”, also implies a separation
from oneself. If, in one sense, it determines a
“different” way of seeing daily reality, then it
also represents an alteration or an alienation
from the self. Eisenstein is hasty to justify such a
“magical” operation.

“ ‘To go out of oneself is not to go into nothing. To

go out of oneself inevitably implies a transition to

something else. to something diffe[...]something different” is
thus nothing other than a moment in the process
of transformation of the viewer, a negative mo-
ment which has no reason to extend beyond its
own limits; the limits of the spectacle itself. For
Eisenstein, that moment when the viewers
become alienated from themselves, and cease to
be themselves to live in the other — in the
character — was invested with particular in-
terest inasmuch as it constitutes the premise ofa
desired change. And this change, for Eisenstein,
is produced — or at least originates —- in the
realm of feelings and emotions. In a state of ec-
stasy.

“We understand a moment of culmination to mean,

those points in a process, those instants in which
water becomes a new substance — steam or ice-
water — 0r pig-iron becomes steel. Here we see the
same going out ofa transforma-
tion within the viewer, a change which will lead
to a greater understanding of him or herself and
thethe theatre entirely.
These changes must not reach only the text, actor,
and the whole staged representation, but the spec-
tator must also enter into the process. His attitude
must be modified.”6

Brecht appeals more to the viewers’ reason
than to their feelings and calls attention to the
fact that “the spectator should not identify with
the characters but argue about them.”7 To
achieve this, he proposes a mechanism of aliena-
tion in the relationship between the viewer and
the character, but in the opposite sense of what
Eisenstein proposed with his “pathetic str[...]cht at-
tempts to estrange, separate and alienate the
viewers, not from themselves, but from the
character (or in a broader sense, from the whole
dramatic development unfolding before them:
the scenario, the fantasy. .).

The viewer, says Brecht,

“Must not be yanked from his world in order to be
transported to the world of art. There is no need to
abduct him. Rather, he m[...]into his
own real world with his senses alert.”a

Brecht appeals to the viewers’ reason: the idea
is to trigger their critical attitude so tha[...]more than an alienation device, could
be seen as a form of genuine de-alienation, since
it attempts to bring the viewers back into the
reality of their own world (with a new perspec-

tive) and, ultimately, to[...]

Marie Seton’s testimony of this point is elo-
quent enough:

“Equally curious and even a bit repulsive was the

dry and bloodless energy that one felt in Bertoi[...]cutting lines and satiric pieces bit

coldly into the heart of social hypocrisy. Sergei Mi-

jailovich thought of Brecht as a tenacious professor

armed with an air-powered political drill to bore

away at the rock wall ofconsciousness that couldn’t
be melted by the sheer heat of his passion.”"

Aside from their personal idios[...]I0 while directing
plays, he was already thinking of film. In 1928,
when‘ he staged Ostrovsky’s Wisemen Are Too
Simple, he included a short comic film in his
staging plan. From that point on, film filled his
life, not merely as a means of artistic expression,
but as an object of intense theoretical pursuit as
well.

Brecht, on the other hand, was wholly a man
of theA. A. Wyn, New
York, p. 132.

10. “My inclinations toward film being three years earlier
with the mise en scene ofThe Mexican (1920).” Eisens-

t[...]eject bitterly.‘I Because he failed to consider the
specificity of cinematic language, because he
was unaware ofthe unique devices which film of-
fered, he saw in film only a technical means to
simplify the reproduction of a work. Thus
Brecht ran up against narrow limits of expres-
sion which prevented him from fully realizing
the possibilities of an “epic” cinema (in the sense
in which he used the term) — a non-Aristotelian
cinema, a kind which, in short, is not a dream, a
substitute for reality, but one that mobilizes the
consciousness of the viewer.

in the theatre, the actor’s interpretation ofthe
role is the most effective distancing device; hence
Brecht’[...]position”, as
Eisenstein understood it, made up of different
elements (framing, narration, music — in a
phrase, audiovisual montage). its effectiveness is
based on the manner in which these elements are
structured.