FILM ... with Tim Milfull
Beneath Hill 60 (M)
Director: Jeremy Sims
Stars: Brendan Cowell, Steve Le Marquand, Gyton Grantley
Rating: 3.5/5 122 minutes, opening April 15
Executive producer Ross Thomas found the inspiration for his film Beneath Hill 60 in an unusual place – not far from where he worked in the north Queensland mining industry.
In fact, Oliver Woodward – the main character of a film that grew out of an original desire to create a simple war memorial – worked in an office in the same building as Thomas, only decades before. When he uncovered the story of Woodward’s involvement in one of the most dramatic events in the First World War, Thomas felt duty bound to revive the public profile of Woodward and his fellow miners as true heroes of the Australian armed forces.
Until the middle of the Great War, Woodward (Brendan Cowell) had been playing a vital role managing mineral and ore supplies to the war effort. After a sudden secondment to his home in the Far North, and a disgraceful flutter of white feathers impugning his reputation, Woodward found himself finally on the Western Front, but in very different circumstances to his fellow Diggers – the young man had been commissioned to command a team of ex-miners who regularly tunnelled under enemy lines to plant explosive charges.
With this new film, actor-turned director, Jeremy Sims (of Chances fames all those years ago) has consolidated his reputation as a filmmaker after the impressive Last Train to Freo.
Basing his production in Townsville, and with the support and sponsorship of an entire community, Sims and his crew fashioned an entirely believable version of the ruined fields of Flanders for his beleaguered cast to slog through. The result is a slick juxtaposition of two battles, one global conflict that threatens humankind, and a deeply personal discord that threatens one’s humanity.
A cruel, ruthless masterpiece
Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky
Director: Jan Kounen
Stars: Anna Mouglalis, Mads Mikkelsen
Rating: 4.5/5 120 minutes, opening April 15
While I missed last year’s Coco avant Chanel from Anne and Camille Fontaine, I reassured myself with the news that the film tried too hard to encompass Chanel's entire life, and yet avoided key moments like her activities during the Second World War.
In Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky, Dutch director, Jan Kounen and first-time screenwriter, Chris Greenhalgh rather neatly sidestep these kinds of issues by concentrating on a discrete period in the life of the legendary designer – the time between Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) stepping into and out of the life of an equally legendary twentieth-century figure, Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen). Almost a decade after witnessing the composer’s dramatic Parisian debut with the Ballets Russes, Chanel steps forward to rescue the family, who are now refugees from the Bolshevik Revolution. But Chanel has an ulterior motive, and Stravinsky is only too willing to participate in the destruction of his family.
Kounen and Greenhalgh offer a deliberately cruel ruthlessness in Chanel and Stravinsky as a counterpoint to the subtle elegance of their surroundings. The mansion – immaculately appointed with Chanel’s own flair – plays mute witness to the selfish desires of these lovers.
All else is ignored, from the refugee family to the designer’s empire. And when either eventually come up for air, the creative accomplishments are extraordinary. Mougalalis and Mikkelsen are excellent in their portrayals of these megalomaniacs, and the production design and costume work of Marie-Helene Sulmoni and Chatoune & Fab is faultless.
With Gabriel Yared’s original score more than ably complementing the Russian’s original strident work, Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky is a masterpiece.
THE BINGE
German festival boasts rich and varied program of riches
Audi Festival of German Film - screening from April 28 to May 4
Cold Souls (MA15+)
Cure (MA15+)
Eden is West (M)
DVDs now available through Madman Entertainment
Space doesn't permit enough reflection this week on the richness of the 2010 Audi Festival of German Film (April 28 to May 4), but I have had a chance to preview a few films, and check out a comprehensive program.
Amid the work of directors like Sönke Wortmann (Pope Joan & Maybe, Maybe Not) and Fatih Akin (Soul Kitchen & Short Sharp Shock) are a number of films that exploit European predilections for drama and comedy and food. There are also a few children's films (The Crocodiles & The Crocodiles Strike Back & The Treasure of the White Falcons), but I’m specifically looking forward to seeing Michael Haneke’s Golden Palm-winning The White Ribbon. For more details, visit www.goethe.de/australia
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The month of March saw the release of a number of exciting films on DVD. Cold Souls sees Paul Giamatti stars as himself in a battle to regain control of his own soul after losing it in a storage accident. Sophie Barthes offers an intriguing psychological and existential premise here that echoes the work of Charlie Kaufman and Woody Allen.
In Cure – finally on DVD after a theatrical release more than a decade ago – Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to the great Akira) directs a nasty serial killer-thriller that predates the current reign of J-horror transfixing audiences.
And the haunting Eden is West is the ever controversial Costa-Gavras’s (Missing) contribution to a mounting cinematic discourse about the immigration and people-smuggling that is dividing Europe and the rest of the world.
