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September 21st 2009 03:07
Unless you've been living under a cliff sized rock for the last year, the word 'Twilight' will have a special meaning for you. For some, it is a romance saga to rival the classics. For others, it induces a strong desire to plant their head in setting cement. Whichever you are, the facts are clear- Twilight is bigger than Kanye West's ego. But my question is, will it be able to stand the test of time in the way that other film franchise giants have?
I will go out on a limb and admit I did enjoy Twilight when it came out. However, I also have my doubts as to whether or not it has the longevity of other sagas to have graced our screens. Lord of The Rings, for example, continues to be very popular, having well and truly gained iconic status, and other franchises, such as Harry Potter and James Bond, have also gained their place in the halls of film lore.
While it's true that many such franchises might attribute much of their popularity to a pre-exisiting fan base from the books, this is rarely enough for longevity. A film has to be genuinely well made and excel in many respects in order to gain classic status. It must continue to resonate with audiences long after the hype surrounding it has died down. So, my question is, do you think we will see the Twilight movies rise to the challenge? Or will they eventually disappear into the annals of film history? I want to know what you think....
I knew this film wasn’t going to be like many I’d seen, and I was right!
Mary and Max is the latest offering from Australian film maker Adam Elliott, creator of the Academy Award Winning animated short, Harvey Krumpet (2003). It is the story of a twenty year pen-pal relationship between a lonely eight year old girl named Mary, and a 42 year old Jewish man in New York named Max, who has Asperger’s Syndrome.
The film features many Australians, including Toni Colette, Eric Bana and Barry Humphries. Furthermore, Elliott designed, directed and wrote the film, and it shows. It’s highly individualistic, very Australian, and wholly uninterrupted in comedic and narrative vision.
The plot takes a great many twists and turns, and the characters are at times both cringingly raw, and highly amusing. Jokes frequently spring up from where you least expect, and the Claymation animation lends it a distinctly child-like edge.
The film contemplates many different issues through the letters of the pair, and it is a work with meaning, and deep originality. Mary and Max is funny, clever and very moving- centering on the way that certain friendships in one’s life can cause it to change course irrevocably.
3 ½
The women of Australian cinema are a complex and emotional lot. As the subject of this week’s readings, they are an important impetus in the plot of many an Aussie flick. One of the more famous suburban-set offerings is ‘Looking For Alibrandi’ (2000, Dir. Kate Woods). \
Some of the more prominent filmic incarnations of the fairer sex include the classic archetypal ‘fallen woman’ and ‘the spectator’. This film’s drama uses both, relying almost entirely upon the lives of three generations of Italian women, the Alibrandis, to drive the plot.
Firstly, the fallen woman, or she who has fallen from grace, features prevalently in the film. According to Nona, all three Alibrandi women are cursed, and all three have had connections to men that have left them unhappy and in some cases, shamed. This isolates them from their culture, as Josie observes during ‘tomato day’, and has resulted in them living unfulfilled lives. The curse is a symbolic tool used to represent how, as ‘fallen women’ they are suffering the consequences of social incorrectness, i.e. Josie punching Carlie, Nona’s affair.
Secondly, the spectator woman, or she who can’t take control, is used to much effect through characterisation in the film. Nona is perhaps the best example, having lived a lifetime married to a man who ‘treated her like a farm animal’, and being in love with another. She exemplifies the end result of the stereotype, alone and bitter. Christina Alibrandi seems to be heading the same way, clearly still in love with Josie’s father, but refusing to do anything about it. Josie is their antithesis, though, proclaiming that she will be ‘the first Alibrandi woman to have a say in how her life turns out’. She receives a personal saint from school, a symbolic hint that she may indeed rise above her present circumstance and reject mundanity. These characters move us and give the plot fuel for development and suspense.
Looking for Alibrandi is an excellent movie, and doesn’t just make use of only the aforementioned female images. It does well in showing viewers that there is a wide spectrum of female characters to be found in Aussie film.
The mockumentaries churned out by the ABC never fail to provide fodder for endless cultural reference, and are well known for pushing the boundaries to crank up the ‘crack up factor’. However the ABC is also known for producing work with real substance, and the apple never falls far from the tree. It’s my hypothesis that mockumentaries like ‘Summer Heights High’ (Lilley, 2007) are often also intended to convey some sort of meaning at the same time.
Comedy has long been used in creative works to break the ice between performer and respondent, and Summer Heights High, the wildly popular comedic offering by ABC, is definitely no exception. Satire in its very nature is a genre that searches for and attempts to expose truth through the ridiculous. Indeed, the series is absolutely hilarious, but one could argue that the ratio of humour to substance is almost if not quite equal. To exemplify this point I offer Jonah, the break dancing Polynesian rebel who is one of the trio of main characters featured on Summer Heights High, and shall discuss the way in which the characters and their interactions are used to create a sharp sense of satirical meaning
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So here it is, Instalment Number Two in my studious pile of MEFT2201 Concept notes! Yay!
This one dwells on how Peter Weir's 1981 film Gallipoli manages to be so unerringly Aussie, and considers what makes a film truly "Australian"...
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Hi! I'm doing a new subject at uni that's all about Australian Cinema and Television, and every week we must, on fear of death, or worse, expulsion, write 'concept notes', or around 300 words on something that particularly interested us about that week's topic. So, I shall share with you my weekly words of wisdom, in the hope that it may entertain, and hopefully provoke thought about the nature and condition of Australian cinema...
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Every now and then, a film comes along that is so genuinely astounding, so perfectly interwoven with equal parts skill and magic, that one requires no assistance whatsoever to suspend reality whilst in the theatre. Your hands grip your seat, and your attention has been thoroughly taken hostage.
For 2008, Chris Nolan’s 'The Dark Knight' can stand firmly in that position
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Apple CEO Steve Jobs seems, to me, to harbour a pathological need for excessive facelifts.
Every Apple IPod, while enjoying a few brief months in the limelight, is quickly dethroned by the release or even the rumour of release of their successor. It’s like the technological embodiment of Channels Nine and Seven. The company trusts that as long as they constantly reinvent it, their product will keep them on top. Which is, I grant, a reasonably profitable logical idea
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“So much in life reminds me of a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
Meg Ryan- You’ve Got Mail
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