Australian film
Last night my husband and I were discussing Australian film and cinema. I cannot name 5 Australian movies or even two Australian actors that I like. I think my top three would have to be1. Bangkok Hilton - not even a movie but a telemovie
2. Blue Murder (as above)
3. Muriel's wedding (up to a point)
I can't abide Jack Thompson or Bryan Brown.
To me it always seems like Australian film is thin on quality acting and dialogue and there seems to be a lot of gratuitous swearing and sex scenes. Often times the sex seems to add nothing to the movie (see Alexandra's Project with Garry Sweet) except for shock value. It always seems like they are trying to draw your attention away from the fact that nothing much else is happening in the movie.
My sister raves about Mel Gibson but I think he is an embarrassment. I wonder what overseas moviegoers make of our film industry or if we even rate a mention?
I had this discussion with a friend yesterday who pointed out that a lot of Australian stuff is based in rural settings that are not familiar to many who have lived all their life in an urban context. I guess that maybe the outback etc just does not interest me.
Quite frankly I am surprised that Russell Crowe has been feted as such a great actor overseas. He's good but he's not brilliant.
Give me Clive Owen, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Spacey, Michael Caine, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Nicolas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert de Niro ANYDAY.
posted by Fiona McNally @ 8/28/2005 02:47:00 pm
1 Comments:
Couldn't agree with you more on Australian film in general, though there is the odd good one (Muriel's Wedding no on my list though). Sam Neil is about the best we can claim and he's a New Zealander.
Mel Gibson doesn't have much range and hasn't shown much in the way of acting talent since his role in Tim, which was good.
Don't forget Cate Blanchett though. She seems to me to be quite exceptional and a real screen presence, unlike Toni Collette.
The worst film I've seen in a long time was Ned Kelly with Heath Ledger (who has done nothing decent since '11 things I hate about you') who has fallen into the ego trap - thinking too much of himself.
As for Jack and Bryan, I think Thompson is quite a good actor. Much better than Bryan Brown in terms of range - Brown can do the broad Australian accent well - Dirty Deeds for example. Thompson can do much more - be both hard and subtle - opposite Crowe in 'The Sum of US' for example).
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