The Writers' Resource

OK.  So here are the things that ‘Good Luck Chuck’ has going for it … or not, according to your point of view.
1. The screenplay writer Josh Stolberg also wrote eps of ‘Parker Lewis  Can’t Lose’.
2. It has much nakedness.
3. It took me back to the old days of the ‘Porky’s’ series.
4. It had Jessica Alba.
5. The co-star is comic actor Dan Fogler, founding member of Stage 13 Theater Company which has, as its core cast, a heap of ‘lesser-known but talented’ actors.  His doctor father would, no doubt, have been proud to have inspired his son’s performance as a plastic surgeon.
6. Masturbation, oh, and that’s with a pink grapefruit, heated gently in a microwave.

‘Good Luck Chuck’ is a romp from start to finish, but maybe that finish could have come around 15 minutes earlier for me.  All too many times they made a point, which they then illustrated, then exemplified, then expounded, and then put in six or so more examples.  Cheeeeeeesh!  This is taking the ’60 minutes’ formula of telling the story thrice to an extreme.

However, let’s not over intellectualise what is a ‘Porky’s’ episode for the noughties.  It has more gratuitous sex than you can poke a stick at, and that stick will even get a lame line;  it has fart jokes galore, a fat chick, 2 pubic hair sight gags, look, I could list the elements all day but really, my cutlery drawer is calling for its Michaelmas Day therapeutic polishing (out of season).  Mark Helfrich (Director) has probably sentenced himself to a lifetime of cutting other people’s films by taking this one on.  I mean, the man’s a good editor!  Why, after all the good things he has worked on, would he choose this as his break-out film?

There’s good film making in here.  By that I do not mean this is a ‘good film’ but the crew and crafts-persons performed well with this and the shoot and edit would not have been easy.  There are nice clothes, good hair, makeup, settings, cinematography etc. etc. but the script is as subtle as…well, as one would deserve from a premise that involves a hex being put on a boy during a spin–the-bottle game.  Chuck, played by Dane Cook , is sentenced to a lifetime of setting up women for a relationship with the man they meet after he shags them.  For a time, he takes advantage of his growing reputation as having the power to assist women to find their soul-mate (by participating with them in a good rogering). But he soon grows tired of this when he meets Cam, the Jessica Alba character.

There will, I am sure be an audience for this film, and then, I am equally sure, the crowd can retire to a Karaoke Bar and pound out a monotone version of the collected works of Cold Chisel.

Enjoy!

Opens on General Release 25th October.

The Asia Pacific Screen Awards has announced the International Jury in the inaugural Awards. Jury President Shabana Azmi will be joined on the International Jury by legendary Pusan Festival Director Kim Dong-Ho of Korea, Iranian director Jafar Panahi, UK producer Nik Powell and Chinese filmmaker Tian Zhuangzhuang. The International Jury will meet on the Gold Coast, Australia, from 5 November to determine the winners in the inaugural Asia Pacific Screen Awards, to be announced at the Awards Ceremony on November 13. Thirty-four films from nineteen countries in the Asia-Pacific region are nominated in the Awards. “The Asia Pacific Screen Awards initiative is strongly committed to cinematic excellence and the promotion of the region’s respective cultures through film,” said APSA Chairman Des Power. “Under the presidency of India’s Shabana Azmi, we have the distinction of having a distinguished, highly credentialed jury. “The APSAs are the highest honour for filmmakers in the region. The calibre of this jury attests to the seriousness of the decision-making process. “Many outstanding films have been nominated so the task is not at easy one. I am deeply grateful to all the jury members,” said Mr Power. Jury President Shabana Azmi has acted in more than 140 films and is a luminary of Indian Parallel (or arthouse) Cinema. Ms Azmi is renowned for the sensitivity of her portrayals in films such as Deepa Mehta’s Fire, Shekhar Kapur’s Masoom (Innocent) and Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players). International film roles include John Schlesinger’s Madame Sousatzka, Nicholas Klotz’s Bengali Night, Roland Joffe’s City of Joy and Ismail Merchant’s In Custody. For her role in Fire, Ms Azmi won the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 32nd Chicago Film Festival. She has won five Indian National Awards as Best Actress and numerous other Indian film awards including the International Indian Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. She is the only Asian actor to have a retrospective of her films at the New York Film Festival (2002). Ms Azmi is a noted activist who has been involved in the rights of women, development, reproductive health, housing for the economically weaker sections, public health and HIV AIDS. In 1992, she was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund and, in 2006, she was awarded the Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award for her work with the slum dwellers of Mumbai. She is a member of the National Integration Council, headed by the Prime Minister of India, a member of the National AIDS Commission (of India) and was nominated in 1997 as a member of the upper house of the Indian parliament. Ms Azmi has fought relentlessly against religious fundamentalism of all hues and is highly respected as a moderate, liberal Muslim voice. She is a visiting Professor at Ann Arbour Michigan and, among many tributes, was acknowledged by President Mitterand of France, along with 15 others including Mother Theresa and Nobel Laureate, Rigoberta Menchu. Kim Dong-Ho is the founding Director of Korea’s world-renowned Pusan International Film Festival and is also currently the Vice Chairman of NETPAC, the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema. Mr Kim has been awarded many cultural medals in recognition of his achievements and efforts in the cultural development in South Korea as well as in the international society. In October 2007, he was conferred by the government of France with the honour of Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was previously named a Chevalier in 2000, before the designation of this new, higher title. In 2006, he received the Deauville City Medal from Deauville City in France and in 2000 he was awarded a Busan Culture Award. Since 1997, Kim Dong-Ho has served on the juries of many International Film Festivals including Rotterdam (as Jury Chairman), India, Buenos Aires, Las Palmas, Venice (as Jury Chairman for the NETPAC Award), Singapore, Seattle, Bangkok, Hawaii and Sochi in Russia. Prior to founding the Pusan International Film Festival, Mr Kim majored in Law at the Seoul National University and received MA in Administration at the Hanyang University. He had consecutively filled various government posts at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (formerly known as Ministry of Culture and Information) for 27 years. In addition, he served as the President at the Korean Motion Picture Promotion Corporation and at the Seoul Arts Center. He worked as the Vice-Minister at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. His recent book, ‘History of Korean Cinema Policy’ (written by Kim Dong-ho et al) was published in 2005. Jafar Panahi has received 52 prestigious international and national awards. Born in Mianeh in Iranian Azerbaijan, Jafar Panahi is a graduate of filmmaking from the IRIB College in Tehran. After directing 5 short films and acting as an assistant director for some acclaimed directors, like Abbas Kiarostami in Through the Olive Trees, Panahi made his debut feature, The White Balloon in 1995, which turned out to be the event of Cannes `95. The film won 3 awards, including the prestigious Camera d’Or and was sold widely to many international territories. His second film, The Mirror received 6 international awards. Jafar Panahi was decorated as Chevalier des Art et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1997. He directed his third feature film, The Circle in 2000, a controversial movie at home and a great success internationally. This film was shown in Venice 2000 and received 6 awards including the Golden Lion. The Circle is still banned in Iran although it has been shown in more than 40 countries and has collected 18 awards. Mr. Panahi’s Crimson Gold was shown in Cannes 2003 and it received the Jury Prize of Un Certain Regard. This film was also awarded the Golden Hugo (Best Film) Chicago Film Festival in October 2003. As yet the film has not been granted a screening permit in Iran. His latest film, Offside was shown at Berlin 2006 and was awarded the Silver Bear (Grand Jury Prize). Nik Powell is a multi-award winning producer and currently the Director of the National Film and Television School in Britain. In the early 1970’s Powell set up Virgin Records with Richard Branson and in the space of ten years created a multi-million pound conglomerate. In 1982, Powell went into partnership with Stephen Woolley, proprietor of the Scala Cinema to form Palace Video, followed by Palace Pictures, and then Palace Productions, soon establishing each as highly regarded entities within the film distribution and production industry. Powell has acted as Executive Producer on all of Palace’s productions including Neil Jordan’s Company Of Wolves, the Oscar-nominated and award-winning Mona Lisa which introduced Neil Jordan and Bob Hoskins to the international market and Michael Caton-Jones’ Scandal. Powell was sole executive producer on Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game, one of the biggest British independent films at the box office taking over $65 million at the US box-office alone. The Crying Game was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and won the Best Screenplay Oscar for Neil Jordan. Nik and Stephen Woolley’s new company Scala produced Backbeat and Terence Davies’ The Neon Bible. Together Nik and Stephen executive produced Fever Pitch starring Colin Firth and other productions include Michael Radford’s B Monkey, Stephan Elliott’s Welcome To Woop Woop and Shane Meadows’ Twentyfour: Seven, which won both the Fipresci prize and a Pierrot Award at the Venice Film Festival and Best Actor for Bob Hoskins at the European Film Awards. Little Voice, directed by Mark Herman, won the Best Actor Golden Globe for Michael Caine and was also nominated for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Brenda Blethyn received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Oscars for her role and Mark Herman won the Alexander Korda prize for Best British film at the British BAFTA awards. The film went on to become the highest grossing British film of 1999 in the UK. Powell’s other productions include Last Orders with the award-winning Fred Schepisi directing which world premiered at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival and Scala’s first animated feature, Christmas Carol - The Movie, from the classic Charles Dickens novel, directed by the Oscar winning Jimmy Murakami. Powell’s last production was Charles Dance’s directorial debut Ladies In Lavender and he also executive produced Calendar Girls starring Helen Mirren, and Stoned based on the Rolling Stone Brian Jones’ life and death written with Stephen Woolley directing. Powell was appointed Director of the National Film and Television School in 2005, although he remains as non-executive chairman of Scala Productions. He currently also holds positions as Vice Chairman of the board of the European Film Academy, Vice Chairman of the BAFTA Film board and member of the BAFTA Board of Trustees, Member of the US academy: AMPAS, Director of the board of the Northern Ireland Film and TV Commission and Chairman of its Film Investment Fund Committee 2003 to 2007, Council Member of BAFTA and member of BAFTA Film Committee, Member of the council of PACT, Member of British Screen Advisory Council and Member of European Producers Club and Vice Chairman of the GEECT Board. Tian Zhuangzhuang is one of the leading figures of the so-called ‘Fifth Generation’ and his third feature film Horse Thief (1985) won large audiences in Europe and North America, and is now seen as one of the cornerstones of ‘Fifth Generation’ film-making: a modern classic. He has been in and out of trouble with the authorities for most of his career (not least for being the only film industry signatory to a 1989 open letter to the government, calling for the release of political prisoners) and he was ‘black-listed’ for a year after his film The Blue Kite won the Grand Prix at the 1992 Tokyo International Film Festival. The son of well-known film actors, he was born in Beijing and at age 14 when Mao launched the Cultural Revolution, he was active as a young ‘Red Guard’ before being sent to Jilin Province for ‘re-education’ at the hands of the local peasantry. He escaped from Jilin by joining the army, and served as a trainee cinematographer on several agricultural documentaries. When the Beijing Film Academy re-opened in 1978, he passed the exam to enter its Directing Department – and co-directed the student tape Our Corner (1980), the first sign of the coming ‘new wave’ in Chinese cinema. On graduating in 1982, he co-directed a feature for children. Between 1994 and 1997 he ran the company Pegase within Beijing Film Studio and produced four features by young directors; he also acted in one of them, How Steel is Forged, directed by Lu Xuechang. In 2002, his film Springtime in a Small Town won San Marco Prize at the 59th Venice International Film Festival. In 2003, he set up BDI Films Inc. in Beijing majoring on HD films for young generation of directors. Also in 2003 he directed his first documentary film – Delamu and in 2006 he finished his new feature – The Go Master. The Asia Pacific Screen Awards engages CNN International, UNESCO and FIAPF, the International Federation of Film Producers Associations, in a unique partnership to acclaim films that best reflect their cultural origins and cinematic excellence. The International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) has endorsed the Asia Pacific Screen Awards Charter. The Director General of UNESCO has given his formal endorsement for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards to be conducted under the auspices of UNESCO. www.asiapacificscreenawards.com

You should know by now that Melbourne has the 3rd largest Greek population in the world and that the stellar community who came from that gorgeous land and chose our city for their new home features some of our greatest architects, artists, singers, writers and poets.  And did I mention the food? No need to do that.

There’s a thing with Greek films.  Their settings seem to have the knack of making up for any plot deficiencies and poor acting.  You can just drink in the view and let the rest wash over.  And occasionally you will get something amazing.  It is not for nothing that festival directors have come up with the slogan ‘Celebrate the unique cultural vision of Greece’.  Palace Cinemas, great supporters of the film community as consumers as well as producers, has continued its festival tradition this year by offering a range of films that epitomise this view.  As a taster, I had a peek at a couple yesterday, one (The Guardian’s Son – Dir: Dimitris Koutsiabasakos, 2006) which mourns and analyses the death of Greece’s small mountain villages and the other (Dying in Athens – Dir: Nikos Panayotopoulos, 2006) a strange musical with Chunky Moves style hip swivelling dance movements on rooftops, in elevators and streets.  They couldn’t have been more different in style and subject, though, in essence, they were Greek to the core.  Each film had almost too much going on for a cohesive narrative, but hey, isn’t that such a European thing?  Every visual and nuance had some mythic meaning in the wider context of the spiritual world of Olympus dominated Greece.   It is this tie-in with the gods, myths and spirituality of the Greek people, tantamount to a kind of superstition demonstrated in ceremony and ritual, that makes Greek films so vastly different from the shallow offerings of Hollywood.

It IS a unique cultural vision.

At this year’s festival some of the highlights include a new print of the magical Michael Cacoyannis 1955 film ‘Stella’ starring Melina Mercouri, which I saw as a child at a drive-in theatre with my parents.  They, of course, would occasionally talk loudly and steam up the windows claiming that the film was ‘getting boring’ and even then I recognised first-hand the depth of the passion unfolding on the screen.  A truly great array of love scenes and of course, being shot in Athens, something wonderful to behold!   ‘Blood on the Land’ (Dir: Vasilis Georgiadis, 1964) – one of Greece’s last uncensored films and an Oscar nominated ‘Best Foreign Films – will also be showing.  The comedy ‘Straight Story’ (Dir: Efi Mouriki & Vladimiros Kiriakidis) takes the piss out of the gay scene by switching the roles.

You will see Greece’s latest box office smash hits and stories from city and country.  For a complete rundown of all films on offer and dates, go to www.greekfilmfestival.com.au.

And then hoe into the Greek food, dance a bit, Zorba style and smash some plates.

Trust me you will feel fabulous!

WR
19/10/07

+ BOMB HARVEST: MEET THE FILMMAKER EVENT
——————————————————

Meet the Filmmaker event for the exclusive Cinema Nova release of BOMB
HARVEST - a vivid depiction of the legacy of war & bravery of those
cleaning up the mess.

Join director Kim Mordaunt, producer Sylvia Wilczynski and Q&A host Peter
George for an intimate discussion following the premiere screening of BOMB
HARVEST this Thursday 18 October, 7.15pm

A hit at the Sydney Film Festival with a standing ovation, BOMB HARVEST is
Australian director Kim Mordaunt‚s depiction of the chaos left 35 years
after the Vietnam War, when American bombs rained down on Laos in the
ŒSecret War‚ leaving it the most bombed country in history. The deadly
legacy of this destruction continues, with the country still scattered
with unexploded ordnance. The shoot for BOMB HARVEST is the first time a
film crew has been granted such extended access on the ground in Laos with
bomb disposal teams and live bombs.

THE FILMMAKERS:

Kim Mordaunt and Sylvia Wilczynski have made award-winning dramas and
documentaries for ABC TV, SBS TV, and Discovery, funded by the Australian
Film Commission (AFC), NSW Film & TV Office (NSWFTO), Film Finance
Corporation and the Soros Foundation (now the Sundance Fund). Kim is
currently developing the drama features Hitting the Bricks, as director,
in association with the AFC, and Mount Warning, as writer/director, to be
produced by Sylvia, with funding from the NSWFTO.

TO WIN:

For your chance to win a double pass to the special screening of BOMB
HARVEST please email with BOMB in the
subject header and your FULL NAME in the body of the email by WEDNESDAY 17
OCTOBER (only winners will be notified).

Cinema Nova - Australia‚s home of quality arthouse cinema

Out of left field came the 2007 winner of the Cannes ‘Palme D’Or’, Rumanian film, ‘4 Months,3 Weeks and 2 Days’. Who’d have thought the Rumanians had it in them? But what the very young Cristian Mungiu has done is tell a personal story in the wider context of social unfairness in a communist country. The core of the film is that of a girl trying to secure a late-term, illegal abortion and offcourse, money and betrayal are crucial components. Action is sparse and settings are shabby, down–at-heel reflecting the disarray of the Rumanian infrastructure. Poverty has a different complexion in a country that has severe winters and corruption as deep as this one. Everyone is on the take with a breed of brutality that sickens. All this personal and national angst is deftly embodied in the improvised script and you could be forgiven for thinking this was a documentary. Only the staged cutaways reveal that it is in fact, a fiction and you can forgive the occasional clichés in its presentation. You will weep for the main character, but its more of frustration than sorrow. The scenes relating to the abortion are very confronting and it seems that the agenda may be for the right-to-lifers in this regard! You will need to see it to make up your own minds as this is certainly a ‘conscience vote’ film. In terms of film-making and scripting, Muniu has worked as a journalist and there is a kind of tabloid feel in the revelation of the goodies versus the baddies (the black leather jacket, for instance, that is a motif). But it is rare to see films from this region except at festivals, so I would urge you to catch its short season (Palace Como) and keep an eye out for the DVD. WR

An extremely stylised film as you would expect, ‘Fur: An imaginary portrait of Diane Arbus’ stars that totally stylised human being (or IS she?), Nicole Kidman, simpering her lines as usual in that strang, fabricated accent, and outlining aspects of the life of American photographer, Diane Arbus.

Arbus, beautiful and perfect, (a Stepford wife, perhaps?) was born into money, her father being a wealthy fur merchant. Marrying far too early and then regretting it, Diane learnt the craft of taking pictures initially from her husband’s photography business for which she was a stylist but gradually, her pictures became more and more marginal and decidedly freaky.  Her photo of Twins in New Jersey sold for around half a million dollars and is one of the world’s most recognisable images.

Steven Shainberg’s film, also starring Robert Downey Jr. as Lionel, the hypertrichi. takes us on another journey entirely, focusing more on the ‘freaks’ in her life.  It is clearly titled ‘imaginary’ and there is a disclaimer stating which of the characters have been created just for the film.  It is as if the life and works of Arbus have created their own story, an effect that Shainberg strives for.  It is not a normal biopic and it is good to see the mould being broken.  Attention to detail in recreation of photographs or themes seems to be more of a priority than the storyline, not that this is a problem.  It makes you want to dust off your Arbus photo references and have another peek at those people to see how and if they fitted into her life story.

Special note must be made of Carter Burwell’s brilliant jazz and classical score (he’s in the Spike Jonze camp) and the Production Design (Amy Danger)  – wardrobe, makeup and settings are all stunning and this is such a New York story that credit must also be given to that fabulous city.

This is exclusively at the Nova and is certainly one that will freshen up your film-viewing palate.

WR

Out of left field came the 2007 winner of the Cannes ‘Palme D’Or’, Rumanian film, ‘4 Months,3 Weeks and 2 Days’. Who’d have thought the Rumanians had it in them? But what the very young Cristian Mungiu has done is tell a personal story in the wider context of social unfairness in a communist country. The core of the film is that of a girl trying to secure a late-term, illegal abortion and offcourse, money and betrayal are crucial components. Action is sparse and settings are shabby, down–at-heel reflecting the disarray of the Rumanian infrastructure. Poverty has a different complexion in a country that has severe winters and corruption as deep as this one. Everyone is on the take with a breed of brutality that sickens. All this personal and national angst is deftly embodied in the improvised script and you could be forgiven for thinking this was a documentary. Only the staged cutaways reveal that it is in fact, a fiction and you can forgive the occasional clichés in its presentation. You will weep for the main character, but its more of frustration than sorrow. The scenes relating to the abortion are very confronting and it seems that the agenda may be for the right-to-lifers in this regard! You will need to see it to make up your own minds as this is certainly a ‘conscience vote’ film. In terms of film-making and scripting, Muniu has worked as a journalist and there is a kind of tabloid feel in the revelation of the goodies versus the baddies (the black leather jacket, for instance, that is a motif). But it is rare to see films from this region except at festivals, so I would urge you to catch its short season (Palace Como) and keep an eye out for the DVD. WR