Monthly Archives: June 2010

by Rachael

this week at FOMM: The Waiting City

Foreign Correspondence
Claire McCarthy and Jamie Hilton

Likened to Monsoon Wedding and City of Joy, The Waiting City (starring Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton) is an ambitious depiction of a couple’s growing intimacy with a city – and each other. I talk to writer/director Claire McCarthy (Cross Life, Sisters in Calcutta) and See Pictures producer Jamie Hilton about the performance and production challenges of bringing this relationship to the screen.

Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, July 2
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter

An inspiring AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.
The Waiting City

Free entry. All welcome.

by Rachael

Father of My Children

Writer/Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
Producers: Oliver Damian, Philippe Martin, David Thion

[In Australian cinemas August 26 through Palace]
Father of My Children

Serge: “Why do you work with Stig Jensen. Are you a masochist?”

Grégoire: “Did you see his retrospective?… Garden of Eden’s a masterpiece.”

Serge: “Never heard of it.”

This dialogue from Mia Hansen-Løve’s latest Cannes acclaimed feature is emblematic of both the film and a central plight at the core of modern cinema production: how to maintain integrity in an increasingly commercialised industry. That classic conundrum of art versus entertainment made all the more apparent by the GFC is the subject of this necessary and finely wrought film. Is film a commodity or cultural artefact? And who carries the debt of that decision?

Grégoire Canvel (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) is a film producer whose slate is crumbling under the pressures of blown out budgets, testing auteurs and uncompromising financiers. This is compounded by the demands of three active daughters and an increasingly dissatisfied wife (Chiara Caselli). All very relevant for the Cannes Film Festival setting where it won last year’s Special Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard.

The film abounds in subtle motifs such as the white sheep detailed in a church mosaic (“They’re the believers,” Canvel tells his daughters on a rare holiday outing) to Le Moutin Blanc bar outside the Canvel home; faith being one of its central themes. Also the marvel of creation, as witnessed through an impromptu play devised by Canvel’s youngest daughters one evening.

It is from the joyous performance Hansen-Løve evokes in these children – a talent she exemplified in her César nominated All Is Forgiven (2007) – that the film’s greatest success springs: combined with unfailingly realistic dialogue and considerable shooting in low-light conditions, the naturalism creates a sense of extreme intimacy with this man, his colleagues and his family; most of all an empathy with the juggle between all three. What happens to disciples when their guiding light goes out?

by Rachael

this week at FOMM: Making it in Music Television

Making It in Music Television
Jakub Jacko (MTV World Stage)

After working for over a decade with MTV, MCM and Channel [V] and making an AFTRS short with Angry Anderson, Jakub Jacko directed a one-hour launch special for MTV Classic, featuring rock legend Slash. Such was the reception that MTV requested additional shows, the most recent for MTV’s global series MTV World Stage that aired on June 11 in 550 million households across more than 160 countries.

He shares some short cuts on the long way to the top.

Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, June 25
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter

A free and inspiring AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.

Free entry. All welcome.

by Rachael

this week at FOMM: HBO a go-go?

The New Television
Kim Vecera and Peter Rose

In 2007, Foxtel and Austar launched showcase – the premium channel with
landmark Australian drama such as Love My Way, Satisfaction, Tangle and the soon to be
seen Cloudstreet.

With their strategy to attract subscribers with high end, high concept, high quality content, two of the industry’s most influential leaders Kim Vecera and Peter Rose talk about what they refer to as Australia’s “New Television”, about what makes “showcase material” and the ways in which the HBO model can or can’t be replicated here.

TV is definitely cool again.

Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, June 18
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter

A free and inspiring AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.

Free entry. All welcome.

by Rachael

this week at FOMM: Andrew Commis

Emotional landscapes
Andrew Commis

Recently named the ACS ‘Cinematographer of the Year’, DOP Andrew Commis, ACS talks about working with directors to create an evocative visual style, depicting landscapes both literal and figurative – from Cannes acclaimed shorts such as Nature’s Way and Blue Tongue to music videos to feature film Beautiful Kate.

– How does a cinematographer translate the emotional brief of a project?
– How do different techniques help create senses of memory, nostalgia or loss?
– What choices influence the evolution of a distinct visual style?

Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, June 11
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter

A free and thoroughly three dimensional AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.

Free entry. All welcome.

by Rachael

this week at FOMM: music to your eyes

Stories through Sound
Nick Wales and Benjamin Speed

In the leadup to the Song Summit 2010 (June 19-21), Benjamin Speed of experimental duo The New Pollutants and Nick Wales of electro-symphonic outfit Coda talk about the new narrative functions of music.

With specific reference to The New Pollutants’ rescoring of Fritz Lang’s 1927 Sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis and Coda’s performances such as Vivid Sydney and Riverbeats Live, we ask:

– How does the non-verbal power of music help communicate narrative ideas?
– How is new musical technology altering the way we interact with media, art and entertainment?
– How is the rescore/remaster changing the notion of authorship in music and motion picture? And
– How is the live and multi-disciplinary element evolving the cinematic experience?

Special guests:
• Nick Wales – the Coda Collective
Twice ARIA nominated, Nick Wales and his musical collective consistently incorporate projected video works and performances as part of their show. Wales’ work spans Vivid Sydney’s Fire Water to short films Scary Therapy, Jailbirds, Breathe and TV series Monster Auditions.

• Benjamin Speed – The New Pollutants
Benjamin Speed received the Best Original Score award at the 2006 St Kilda Film Festival for the animated short Carnivore Reflux, was nominated for Best Music for The Cat Piano at the 2009 AGSC Awards and Annecy Animation Festival, has composed for feature film The Tumbler and docos A Northern Town and The Snowman, in competition at the 2010 Sydney Film Festival.

Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, June 4
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter

A free and thoroughly three dimensional AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.

Free entry. All welcome.