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Reviews
Die Unerzogenen (2007)
Astounding first feature
What at first could be seen as an exercise in visceral coming of age style/form -- transcends its usual structure and overarching style with extreme wit, scenes of truthful observation, fine and natural performance and occasional bursts of unexpected fantasy.
An average director could have made this story less than riveting, but in the hands of talented newcomer Pia Marais, we are left with something brutally hilarious, alienating and tender. Never sentimental.
The casting is superb. Textured faces and unexpected choices. They drift across the kinetic editing style like ghostly apparitions unaware of the camera's close proximity.
Best German feature I have seen in the last few years.
Fran (1985)
soap opera drama
This director really is like a low rent ken Loach/mike Leigh. Unfortunately, FRAN, has none of the cinematic prowess or complex politics that make the English masters rise above the kitchen sink.
The film is nothing more than TELEVISION drama. Turgid script, stolid story arc, overwrought drama. The characters speak their truth in a way that is unrealistic and terribly daytime television.
The writer aims so hard to invest complex stakes in the story that the characters are forced (like puppets) to react dramatically to the events. Because of this reliance on the motivating stakes of the story, the characters have no internal world. And certainly the cinematic world created is nothing short of ordinary.
Unfortunate that the creators of this stinker are now at the helm of deciding the future of Australian cinema. Perhaps therein lies the problem with the sort of scripts and directors being encouraged by Australian funding bodies.
The Proposition (2005)
exhilarating artistry, wonderful and idiosyncratic genre
This film was really excellent.
It's been such a while since we've had such cinematic Australian cinema...with dreary efforts such as Suburban Mayhem, Look Both Ways, Somersault and Lantana feeling both derivative and middle class in sentiment.
This film shakes the political history of our country, examining what makes a man good or bad -- passive or active to corruption. It's also just a wonderful fable, told with stunning art direction, mise-en-scene and suitable performance style.
Nick Cave's personality oozes all of this droll laconic murderous ballad.... and it's a wonderful crossover from auteur musician to writer. Goes to show that Australia does best when supporting the one who is a bit left of center -- rather than searching for average talent short filmmakers fresh from Bondi.
Look Both Ways (2005)
problematic
The film had some likable aspects. Perhaps too many for my taste. It felt as though the writer/director was desperately trying to get us to feel the inner conflict of ALL of its characters. Not once, a few times...but all of the time.
This is the job of television, not cinema.
The location of the train station was well chosen and I enjoyed Sascha Horler's performance as the pregnant friend.
I felt as though Justine Clarke's performance was wan. Her reactions to things felt forced, as though the director were trying to vocalise the themes of the film through her protagonist's expressions. I also can't believe that a director can make the wonderful Daniela Farinacci into an unbelievable presence.
I cannot understand the choice of pop music slapped over entire sequences. This is a lazy device, especially where the pop music comes from no place diagetic to the film and/or where the lyrics of the song feel embarrassingly earnest.
That said, there is a breezy quality about the film that evokes the Australian heat and local attitude with originality. It does create an atmosphere of heat and sunshine. Especially with the usage of wonderful animation sequences that rescue the film from complete mediocrity, infusing it with passion and hand-crafted charm.
I am curious why the dialogue feels so overworked. "Who knows if there's a god? Like some guy sitting there up in the sky telling us what to do" or whatever the line was.
Perhaps one of the more embarrassing moments was the friend returning home from cricket with a bunch of flowers to declare to his wife "I'm giving up smoking."
An anti-smoking commercial? A TAC ad with some tasteful animation? I had to leave the cinema at the 50 minute mark -- it was all too much.