New fantastic crime drama

A big hit at Sundance Festival. Finally the feature trailer has been released. However I wonder if we'll ever get a chance to see this film in Poland. *sigh*

Here is a short blurb from Sundance Guide:

"Wielding a formidable cinematic lexicon, writer/director David Michôd shows complete command of every frame as he shifts between simmering intensity and gut-wrenching drama. There isn't a false note in the film as it follows through on the tantalizing promise displayed in his shorts and unleashes a fierce new voice in Australian cinema."

Ned Kelly painting sets Australian auction record

By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Sydney

The painting shows Ned Kelly in stylised body armour

A painting of the notorious Australian outlaw Ned Kelly has become the country's most expensive work of art ever bought at auction.

The work by Australian artist Sidney Nolan went for $4.8m (A$5.4m; £3.2m), smashing previous records. The buyer has not been named.

First Class Marksman shows the 19th Century bandit walking through the Australian bush with rifle raised.

He is wearing his trademark body armour with iron helmet and narrow eye slit.

In a country that likes to pride itself on its anti-authoritarianism, it is perhaps fitting that its most expensive piece of artwork should feature its most celebrated anti-hero, Ned Kelly - a rogue who regularly defied the colonial authorities.

Sidney Nolan (1917-1992) is one of Australia's most celebrated and internationally recognised artists.

It is believed that he completed 27 paintings of Ned Kelly and this is the only one that is not on display at the National Gallery in Canberra.

Suffice to say, the Kelly collection is its most popular Australian attraction.

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8588377.stm)

The Letter "O"

The bulk of our time will have to be devoted to famous OUTLAWS. Australia sports names of many brave men who chose to stand against their opressors, but the two which are the most important, and have become part of Aussie culture and mentality, are Ned Kelly and Ben Hall.


More reading on these two characters from my most beloved website (click on the pictures)
































CLICK ME

Since bushrangers chose OUTBACK as their real home, we'll have a closer look at just how it is portrayed in modern culture.

Those of you who caught Not Quite Hollywood in our Film Club will undoubtedly be relieved to learn that we'll revisit such golden nuggets of Aussie cinema as Razorback and The Long Weekend... Yes, I know you're happy ;-)
And those of you who haven't the slightest idea what we're talking about here, just follow the links ;-)







If we have time, we'll celebrate Australian OSCAR winners and nominees.

(I'll be adding more links tomorrow)

Film Club update

On Thursday I would like to screen Two Hands.

I already introduced you to this flick when we were talking about Kings Cross. Below you will find a wonderful outline written by one of the Curators over at Australian Screen.

Two Hands 1999

Synopsis

Jimmy (Heath Ledger), a small-time wannabe criminal, loses $10,000 on Bondi Beach. The money belongs to Pando (Bryan Brown), the toughest criminal in Kings Cross, who sends his killer deputy Acko (David Field) to find him. Jimmy’s sister-in-law Deirdre (Susie Porter) agrees to set up an armed robbery, so Jimmy can repay the money. Meanwhile the two street kids who took the money (Mariel McClorey and Evan Sheaves) go on a shopping spree. The ghost of Jimmy’s dead brother (Steve Vidler) frequently appears, attempting to keep watch over him, but Jimmy can’t stay out of trouble. When he meets up with Alex (Rose Byrne), a sweet country girl he has just met, Pando’s men grab him, intending to kill him.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

Two Hands was a refreshing and confident debut from Gregor Jordan, one of the first winners of Tropfest – an annual short film competition – to make a feature. It’s a clever mix of genre elements, heavily influenced by US and British comic crime films of the 1990s, but with a strongly Australian vernacular tone. Indeed, the characterisations of Australian criminal types are one of the film’s main assets, as is the way that Jordan insists on showing them in domestic situations. Pando, the Bryan Brown character, talks lovingly to his small son on the phone; we see him helping the boy with his origami, just seconds before he sets out to kill Jimmy. One of the film’s funniest scenes has Jimmy getting ready for an armed robbery in the lounge room of a suburban house. The experienced criminal Wozza (Steve Le Marquand) talks about the benefits of shotguns as his children crawl around on the floor.

These scenes link to a speech given at the film’s outset by the ghost (Steve Vidler), who says that no one is all good or all bad. Pando is a murderer who also loves his kids, crime is his profession, not who he is. At the same time, the film has a few moments of shocking violence that are completely unexpected, and one character (Acko, played by David Field) that really does personify great evil. In a sense, it’s a film about the transition from child to adult, innocence to corruption, with Acko as the worst case scenario. Jimmy is on the road to perdition until he meets Alex (Rose Byrne). He has always wanted to work with his hands, he tells her, and she suggests a way out of the life he’s leading. The movie is partly an accusation about inequality of opportunity in modern Australia, though the message is well hidden behind layers of confident comedy.

The film features characters played by actors you've come to know already (or will see very soon in other Aussie films I have lined up for you):
- Bryan Brown (Dirty Deeds)
- Susie Porter (Bootmen)
- David Field (Gettin' Square)

The director - Gregor Jordan - debuted with Two Hands to go on and film such brilliant films as Buffalo Soldiers (with Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris and Anna Paquin) and Ned Kelly (with Heath Ledger, Geoffery Rush, Naomi Watts and Orlando Bloom).

If you are still not convinced then watch this behind-the-scenes clip in which Heath Ledger talks about the film and his take on the character.

The Letter "N"

A short update.

Tomorrow we'll have to spend some time talking about the Open Days in out Institute. Therefore I don't think we'll be able to cover all topics. So for now please skip NSW and NT, and just concentrate on national parks and the Nobel Prize. We are already familiar with most national holidays in Oz, so you may just want to have a quick look at the list, but you don't have to do any extensive reading.

See you tomorrow!

And a big thank you to all who attended Film Club :-)


1. New South Wales
2. Northern Territory
3. national parks
4. Nobel Laureates
5. national holidays

Click me

Film Club update

This Thursday (18 March) we'll be watching NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD - one of the best documentaries released in 2008.

Sneak preview below.




Welcome to NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD" - the wild, wonderful, untold story of OZPLOITATION cinema a time when Australian cinema got its gear off and showed the world a full-frontal explosion of sex, violence, horror and foot-to-the-floor, full bore action!

This is not your usual documentary full of boring anecdotes by dull historians, instead these are the real stories from the people who were there - wild, trail-blazing cinematic mavericks who snubbed their nose at authority, made their own rules and in the process introduced the car chase, karate kick, BMX bikes and water-bed to Oz cinema.

Jam packed full of outrageous anecdotes, lessons in guerrilla-style filmmaking, a smattering of International names (including Ozploitation devotee Quentin Tarantino) and a genuine, infectious love of Australian cinema, NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD is a pacy, entertaining, journey through a forgotten cinematic era unashamedly packed full of boobs, pubes, tubes and a little kung fu.



The film is divided into three distinct parts, and I think we'll watch just two of them.

I am against censhorship in any shape and form, but please bear in mind that this film is not for the faint-hearted or easily offended ;-) So if you want to have a look, consider yourselves warned ;-)


The screening will begin at 12:15. (ROOM 207)



It will be right after St. Patrick's Day so you are all welcome to bring in Irish Stew, Shepherd's Pie, (non-alcohol) beer or whatever else your heart desires :-)

New teams

PORT

Anna Franiak
Jolanta Szkaradek
Łukasz Strzelczyk
Jakub Żak


SHERRY

Anna Hononcik
Olga Stolarczyk
Grzegorz Małojło
Łukasz Trybuś


BURGUNDY

Judyta Dekier
Katarzyna Gryzło
Izabela Stroka
Bogusław Górski


CHABLIS

Anna Szczepanek
Dorota Szymusiak
Donata Topór
Marcin Bieniek



GOOD LUCK TO ALL TEAMS! :-)

Listening

A very subjective list of contemporary Australian music.

(or in other words I'm not downloading anything but intend to keep fingers crossed that everything works just fine tomorrow)
;-)

1. Kylie Minogue - Locomotion
2. INXS - Suicide Blonde , These Are The Times
3. Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over
4. Men At Work - Down Under
5. Powderfinger - These Days
6. MGF - Unsent Letter
7. Nick Cave - Weeping Song , Into Your Arms
8. Midnight Juggernauts - Into the Galaxy

The letter "M"

Tomorrow we are going to cover the following topics:

- Melbourne



- mateship / larrikinism
- marsupials
- music (contemporary) from MGF, Powderfinger, Crowded House, INXS, AC/DC, Nick Cave to Kylie Minogue


In a moment I'll post some links that you can look up, but I'll be doing the presentation tomorrow myself.


Once I get you in new teams we can start with earning points for real ;-)


A good way to get you started - Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue in an iconic duet.





We have quite a number of films lined up for the Film Club already, and there comes yet another one ;-)


For many reasons Thunderstruck is the most apt a film to illustrate some of our topics:

- the title of the film is adopted from the title of a famous song by a very famous Aussie metal/hard rock band. Do you know the name of the band?

- it's one of the most "bogan" comedies around - pure joy to watch :-) Do you remember what "bogan" means?

- it is not a musical, but some characters break into a song especially at the beginning of the film (see the two clips below)

- you should be able to recognise some of the actors whom we've seen already in other Aussie films. Do you remember them?



clip 1 (the little number which the boys are singing is "Turn Around" by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler)


(Hint: the red-haired actor in the back seat. We saw him in The Castle and Rogue)


clip 2
Unfortunatelly embedding is disabled for this clip, so you have to go here.

(Hint: the red-haired actress in black. We saw her playing love interest in Dirty Deeds)

The letter "L" - cont.

As promised some clips we didn't have a chance to see properly last week:

1. Stephen Fry talks about Australian Question Intonation (AQI)



(trivia time: Stephen is the voice of Cheshire Cat in the new Alice in Wonderland - but hold your horses for a moment! Most copies in Poland right now are dubbed. :-( I was assured though that there will be some copies with subtitles shown after March 17th)



2. "Meet 'Blue' An Australian Alpine Dingo" - that's a real life example of AQI :-)




3. Gettin' Square courtroom scene - part 1.

Listen to the brilliant David Wenham :-D The man is a genius! Those of you who remember him as Faramir - would you recognise him if I didn't tell you that was him? ;-)




4. Gettin' Square - "crime" voices. Listen to this clip and pay attention to the variety of Australian and British accents these characters are using. Read the Curator's Notes on this clip to get a better understanding of director's intention.

(trivia time: Timothy Spall plays the Bloodhound in Alice in Wonderland. He quite literally steals the show! :-) )


5. "Low culture" - Not Quite Hollywood.



I LOVE this documentary. This is what real filmmaking is all about. ;-)


6. Variety of languages spoken in Australia - look it up here.

A short guide to Aussie Slang


7. The food and language quizzes you can find here.

8. Read this text on Language and Identity. It's trully brilliant. (click the picture)

Here we go again... the letter "L"

I think it's a good way to begin new semester - with one of my most beloved topics: the language :-)

So surely you know English, right? And you've been exposed to Aussie accent long enough to understand everything, correct?

Let's check ;-)



Start off with a clip from our old friend Yakovich. It's a simple conversation between two lovable critters, somewhere in the outback. If you can - make a list of uniquely Aussie words and phrases that you can hear in this clip.


Then have a look here, and see if you can find their meanings.


GOOD LUCK and have fun :-)