Little ambassador’s charm calls for Reunion

TRAVEL

The prelude to a full home exchange often comes in the form of a simple hosting or inexpensive homestay – both ideal ways to forge new friendships and for both parties to discreetly check out the people they might eventually trust their homes to. Carol Campbell reports.

Reunion Island, the jewel of the Indian Ocean, is pretty much an unknown destination to the average Australian, unless you are either a vulcanologist or an avid surfer.
An active volcano, rainforest walks and a magnificent surf beach, touted to be one of the world’s best, are some of the better known attributes of La Reunion, as it is generally known throughout the world.
The pretty little island, population 710,000, lies 200km west of its larger fellow French colony Mauritius, and 700km east of Madagascar.
All of the above facts we learnt, indirectly, through home exchange – hosting some delightful visitors from Reunion in recent weeks.
Justine and her engaging two-year-old son Corentin, who spoke no English other than a very cute “G’day mate”, spent a week with us as part of a very well thought-out 10-week trip to Australia – and all through the one home-exchange site that offers home-stay, hosting, home exchange and holiday home rentals around the world.
First stop was Fremantle, where Justine had a home stay for a week with a single mother and her two young children. Home-stay properties are usually family homes with a spare room or two set aside for paying guests.
And at under $200 per week, with all meals provided – and with the benefit of having someone to point you to the best tourist spots, public transport tips, etc – it is a bargain deal for the budget traveller.
Next on Justine;s schedule was Melbourne, where she and Corentin were hosted by a friendly couple living in one of the city’s outer suburbs. A week seeing the sights of the Victorian capital and its surrounds, with the help of her host family, meant Justine saw more than the average tourist.
Melbourne was followed by a five-week home exchange in Foster, on the mid-north coast of NSW. Justine and Corentin were met at the airport by her exchangers, a couple in their mid-50s with a grown-up family. They had a week to settle in and meet other members of the family before Justine drove the couple, in their own car, to the airport.
Four weeks later, after a month of exchanging not only house and cars but also family and friends at both destinations, Justine was there to collect them at the airport and hear all about their holiday in her home and stories about her friends and family on Reunion.
Justine and Corentin then continued their Aussie trek north by train and coach to us at Brunswick Heads in the Northern Rivers.
They were the perfect guests. We took in the sights of Byron Bay, the Mullumbimby markets, the Gold Coast beaches, Brisbane and Springbrook, and we even had a beer at Billinudgel, a fair-dinkum, old Aussie pub.
Justine was great company, although Corentin was the star attraction. Not only did he win our hearts but those of everyone he met, whether in restaurants, shopping or dancing to the band at the Brunnie on Sunday arvo. His friendly smile and engaging manner meant he was everyone’s friend – a great young ambassador for Reunion Island.
Justine insisted on contributing her share, taking us out for dinner, paying for petrol, and cooking us a fabulous spicy Creole meal – although she didn’t have to kill and pluck the chicken as she sometimes does at home. And she proved to be a dishwasher extraordinaire. My pots and pans have never been so clean.
We dropped Justine and Corentin at Coolangatta Airport, ready for their final stop in Australia – McMahons Point in Sydney, where they were being hosted for eight days before they made the long flight to Reunion.
Justine and Corentin are back home now, reflecting on their holiday of a lifetime. I’ve since heard from Justine, who says she is extremely grateful for the warm welcome she received everywhere. Now she is looking forward to repaying the favour and meeting all those Australians again on Reunion.
In her words, after a stopover on her way home at poverty-stricken Mauritius: “I realise once more how lucky we are and I am, to live the lives we live and to be able to choose our way of living.
“But that’s the way it goes. Or maybe I simply saw things like that because my mind was full of beautiful memories from Australia, who knows.
“Well, I hope you will still come this part of earth in 2010. We’re waiting for you, we’ll be very happy to welcome you as you welcomed both of us in your home and lives.
“I’m very happy to have met all of you – you are so lovely people.”

This is home exchange at its best. Now if only all our world leaders could embrace the same philosophies.

www.exchangezones.com• Home stay: accommodation in family homes, with meals (from $180pw)
 • Hosting: reciprocal visits, if timing is unsuitable to exchange (no costs)
• Home exchange: simultaneous or at mutually agreed times (no costs, can include use of car)
• Holiday rental: payment made direct to owners of properties

House swaps an entree to the world’s wonders

TRAVEL

By Carol Campbell

Sitting in the bubbling waters of the steaming hot tub beneath the pine trees in Alaska’s Matanuska Valley, our Brisbane home never seemed so far away – both in distance and in lifestyle.
We were staying in a typical North American barn-style house, in rural surrounds, and all around huge snow-covered mountains dominated the skyline. It was May, early summer in this part of the world, but still the icy white blanket lay thick in the high country.
And where at home we’d be cooling off by way of a late-evening dip under the twinkling lights of the Southern Cross, instead we were keeping warm under the bubbling waters in an eerie twilight, the long precursor to the few hours of darkness that constitutes summer nights in the Northern Hemisphere.
Alaska – North America’s last frontier – and we were there because of an email requesting a home exchange.
Only a few months earlier I had listed our beach house on a free website. The Alaskans were after a break from their snow-bound home and sought refuge in a beach holiday in sunny Oz.
Had we ever considered a swap in Alaska? Well, not until I received this request. We were already booked to go to Vancouver and, suddenly, the icy frontier at the ‘top’ of the world seemed an exciting addition to our itinerary, especially with two weeks free accommodation and transport awaiting us.
This is the thing about house swaps; you can end up visiting places you had only ever dreamed of. In the last 12 months, we’ve had offers from England, the United States, Norway, Reunion Island, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and southern France.
Our Alaskan exchange to rural Palmer went off without a hitch. The young couple loved our beach house, the long deserted stretches of coastline and the picturesque northern rivers hinterland. And they loved our February heat.
We, in exchange, were rapt in the beautiful Alaska scenery.
The quaint three-level house, set on two acres and surrounded by spruce trees, was very comfortable with all the trimmings, including broadband and the biggest fridge, washer and dryer I had ever seen.
We learned to drive on the “wrong side” of the road and visited the spectacular Hatcher Pass, the world-famous working-dog Iditarod Museum in Sarah Palin’s home town of Wasilla and the frontier city of Anchorage.
We feasted on Alaskan king crab legs and wild salmon, and sampled local produce from the valley that hosts the annual Alaskan State Fair.
And we got through quite a few bottles of champagne. A steaming hot tub late at night, under the pine trees and surrounded by snow-capped mountains, will do it every time.
Now for exchanges to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in the Fall.

• Log on to www.exchangezones.com to see where in the world you might like to go. Free with friendly, helpful service.
There are many on-line home exchange sites but only one that I can find that offers free listings and free inquiries. Go to www.exchangezones.com to register, and then the world is your oyster.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS?

Of course, there is an inheritant risk in exchanges: someone might trash your home, they might run up a huge phone bill, or, worse still, what if you get to the other side of the world and find that their house doesn't exist!!
But these seem highly unlikely scenarios, given the people we have read about - some have had up to 20 exchanges - and met through home exchange.
There are several obvious precautions to take: adding drivers to your car insurance, limiting your outgoing phone calls etc.
But what a way to make friends across the world, like our London mates. We ended up not exchanging because the dates were wrong but we have stayed with them several times and have even house sat their beautiful Victorian masion in Brixton for them while they holidayed in Ireland.

Hours cutback ‘will mean club closures’

NEWS

Significant licensed venue closures would follow any State Government decision to scale back opening hours, an industry leader warns.

Valley Liquor Accord chairman Danny Blair told The Independent: “If it comes back to a 2am or 3am closure, you will see half the clubs in the Valley close down over the next 12 months.
“The young kids don’t come out to 1am. It’s a lot different from when I was young.” It would be a cultural shift for them if they had to come out earlier, said Mr Blair, who added that research had shown that it took two years before such a shift in behaviour became the norm.
Venues would not be able to survive until that happened. Mr Blair said: “We are waiting with bated breath for the parliamentary inquiry recommendations to come down on March 18.”
Asked to comment on recent mainstream media reports suggesting not only that the parliamentary inquiry recommendations would be for scaled-back hours and the compulsory introduction of tempered glass and patron scanners but that the government would adopt those measures, Mr Blair said: “I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion.”
Industry insiders say that Premier Anna Bligh’s decision last year to let the existing 5am rules remain in force until mid-2010 had everything to do with the government not wishing to refund any of the millions of dollars paid by venues for staying open late, and nothing to do with her views on the matter.
Mr Blair said: “We would be opposed to any hours reduction.” He said there was no hard evidence to suggest that venues had more troubles with antisocial behaviour at 4am rather than at 3am. To the contrary, available evidence suggested that between 10pm and 1am was a more troublesome period and a 2am or 3am closure would do nothing to resolve that.
Mr Blair said an early closing would simply mean “we’ll flood the area with people” earlier in the night. “I have said repeatedly that the safest place in the Valley is to be inside a licensed venue with security.”
Mr Blair’s comments come as a separate lobby group Queensland Locked Out (QLO) has organised a protest rally outside Parliament House on March 11 against what it calls the Premier’s “temporary political fix of an earlier shut down of entertainment precincts”.
Rally organiser Zach Salar said it was time for the people “to stand up for their rights and stop being bullied by a government looking for the populace (sic) vote”.
“There are solutions to the issues confronting alcohol-related violence and it’s not taking away the rights of the majority and also reducing employment,” he said. “Harsher penalties, increasing police numbers in entertainment precincts and working with the licensees on the introduction of ID scanners is how the Bligh Government should be looking at rectifying these issues.
“Too often we have people like Anna Bligh who are short on statistics and other relevant data, who look for the emotional vote from mum and dad as a cheap way of staying in power.
“The QLO will show Bligh people’s power is alive and well when they rally outside the gates of Parliament against proposed plans to reduce licensees trading hours which cost the economy and many students and entertainment industry workers their livelihoods.”
The QLO is also organising a petition aimed at maximising the vote against the government at the next election if trading hours are reduced.

• For more information about the rally and petition, go to www.queenslandlockedout.com

It’s a mall speedway

NEWS

Rat-running motorists are using the new Chinatown Mall as a shortcut to the city, putting the lives of mall visitors at risk.

One local worker told The Independent that over a relatively short period last week, he saw four cars illegally drive up through the mall to turn citybound on Ann Street. Law-abiding drivers who are leaving Forwin’s Chinatown carpark exit on the western side of the mall (pictured above) and do the right thing by going down to the end and turning right onto one-way Wickham Street.
If they are heading up to the city, they then turn right on Warner Street behind McWhirters or on other streets to the north.
The illegal drivers, to save just a few minutes, turn right at the carpark exit, drive under the grand arch, the centrepiece of the new $8 million-plus mall makeover, and then turn right onto Ann Street. The Independent has been told that some of these drivers are reaching dangerous speeds in this manoeuvre as they clearly want to minimise the time taken for the illegal shortcut.
Local councillor David Hinchliffe (Central Ward) says barriers need to be erected immediately before someone gets hurt.
“My office has already counted more than 30 cars driving up and down the mall - and that’s just in one week. One of the cars even crashed into a seat. The most basic part of any mall design ought to be to make sure it is pedestrian-friendly.
"Pedestrians are being honked by motorists to get out of the way as they drive up the mall."
Cr Hinchliffe said he had raised the issue with Councillor Jane Prentice who oversaw the mall design. Her response had been: “Council’s malls section is reviewing arrangements that will maximise use of the mall and minimise unnecessary vehicle movements. In addition, the Feng Shui characteristics of the mall must be considered.”
Cr Hinchliffe told The Independent: “I can tell you now the pedestrians who are diving for cover as motorists tear up the mall aren’t impressed with its current Feng Shui!”

Many changes in decade ahead

NEWS


The next decade will hold many changes for the real estate industry, according to a survey of PRDnationwide agents.

Most PRDnationwide agents polled said there will be less face-to-face contact with agents, more reliance on technology and more international buyers thanks to travel times to Australia reducing.
PRDnationwide New Farm director Adam Gray said he believes the day of the small corner agency is dead. “I do believe agencies will get bigger and service larger areas,” he said. Mr Gray said video will play a much bigger part in the selling process.
"We will be putting a cinema in our building to showcase off-the-plan projects. We already have the room designed and are waiting for the price of technology of creating the programs to drop - they are nearly affordable now,” he said.
“By 2020 we are likely to have planes that can fly from around the world to Australia within five hours. Richard Branson is suggesting this could happen in five years.
“When this happens, Australia will be the flavour of the world. Instead of having 20 million people buying property in Australia we will have the potential of seven billion. I have seen what happened in Turkey when the Germans and English decided they wanted to holiday there. Watch what happens here,” he said.
PRDnationwide Ballina/Lennox Head sales consultant Brett Jones said during the next ten years the roles of agents will change in a massive way.
“With search engines and social networking controlling the buyers, the agent’s role will be to control and manage the listings in more intense way,” he said. “There will be fewer agents with larger areas to cover,” he said.
Mr Jones believes instead of town based agents it will be region-based agents. There would also be much less face-to-face time with buyers.
“Generation Y will look to get more out of an agent with less face to face communication. Social networking and instant communication will be a key in the industry,” he said.
“We are seeing currently business on Facebook or Twitter - this is just the beginning of a huge change of things ahead.”
PRDnationwide Mudgeeraba agent Karl Grossman said while real estate will always be a people business, agents will need to become more specialised.
“Buyers will have more information available to them through the internet so they will expect an agent to be more knowledgeable about the product they are selling,” he said.
“Online social networking tools will be very important in some markets for prospecting, but not all.”

Teneriffe festival on way

NEWS

The recent awarding of “suburb” status to leafy Teneriffe is to be celebrated soon with the inaugural Teneriffe Festival.

Some vigorous and enthusiastic local steering committee meetings have begun planning for the celebrations – after all, it took a very long time and a lot of local agitation before the suburban status was finally given.
The Indie is told the committee membership is collectively very representative and impressive. And although it’s still very early days, July 3 has been earmarked for the inaugural Teneriffe Festival. We’ll keep readers informed as plans for the big event unfold. But in the meantime, keep Saturday July 3 free!

This grand old dame continues to radiate class

Radiance by Louis Nowra
Directed by Jo Peirce
Brisbane Arts Theatre SEASON OVER

Brisbane Arts Theatre looks good for a 74 year old. As Brisbane’s longest running independent theatre BAT has “re-invigoration” as its overriding theme for 2010. With an impressive program of Australian and international plays, BAT is focused and forging ahead with artistic director John Boyce at the helm.
And Radiance is a wonderful mix of mystery, anticipation and pathos. Already a hit on film, Radiance is a series of interconnected stories, focused on three sisters. Each sister gradually reveals their shadows selves or ghosts in the midst of grieving their recently deceased mother.
Radiance is beautifully translated to stage by director Jo Pierce. The opening scene was superb. Georgia McBride-Levi entered the performance space with slow reverent steps while completely focused on the empty chair where her mother had died.
The vision of ghostly presence was conjured so thoroughly by her constant gaze and slow prowling that I felt as though I was at a séance about to meet the departed. McBride-Levi as Mae was the strong constant presence for me throughout the play.
She was the linchpin that held the play together. Her thorough immersion in character was balanced beautifully by the irrepressible Louvel Yapali-Purcival as Nona.
Yapali-Purcival provided the kinetic energy that motivated and at times pushed for a more connected narrative. There were some silences that required quick dialogue to cover and Nona was the life line. She was perfectly cast by Jo Peirce who spent months researching before choosing her three actors.
Josifini Hawkins as Cressy was the most “elusive” sister who had the motherload of secrets to eventually reveal.
What a theatre! I love the age and patina of the place, truly a Brisbane icon. It is both proudly vintage and hopefully youthful.
BAT continues to breathe still more life and inspiration into the Brisbane theatre landscape. And BAT does harbour ghosts of the most gentle kind that do not require fire to exorcise them.

Lynette Shanahan

Some big names, some lesser ones, shine in Sydney

WINE ... with David Bray

Some well-known names triumphed in the 2010 Sydney International Wine Competition, and so did some lesser-known ones. Regular and attentive readers will be aware of this reporter’s admiration for the competition, which is unique in that the final round of judging is run with appropriate food.
Competition director Warren Mason says this “offers a realistic consumer guide for matching appropriate wines to diverse food dishes”.
“The competition’s main aim is to encourage consumers to make up their own minds about which wines to choose. It’s built around helping consumers make considered choices, to take full advantage of the vast array of wine styles that are available and to choose what to drink with a given dish with a purpose in mind. We aim to help them become their own, informed sommelier.”
We don’t usually give much mention to show results, but reckon this one is different enough to give space to.
Some of the highlights of this year’s results: First, a couple of trophies of special significance to me and no doubt many among you, the best value: d’Arenberg The Dry Dam riesling 2008 was judged best value dry white and Fox Creek Red Baron shiraz 2008 (pictured above) best value dry red.
The trophy for most successful winery or brand went to Westend Estate Wines, Griffith. Westend took out nine awards from 20 wines entered. Considering only 15 per cent of all entries receive any award, this was a remarkable achievement.
Three red wine trophies went to the Young area in the Hilltops region, Central NSW. Considering Hilltops has only three boutique wineries plus about another five growers, this was a remarkable achievement.
Look for Grove Estate and Moppity Vineyards. Peter and Margaret Lehmann’s Margaret Barossa Semillon 2004 took out the Joy Lake Memorial championship trophy for best wine of competition for the second time in three years. A wood matured semillon from the Barossa! (Please note that your traditionally trained reporter does not use the exclamation mark, ever!)

The white wine winners: Delatite riesling 2008 was best aromatic wine (One judge’s comment: “Pale straw colour. Honeysuckle and tropical fruit salad on the nose. Spicy tropical fruit on the palate. A nice refined palate which was not overblown. It had good cleansing acidity. Those riper tropical notes seemed more obvious with the food.’) Continuing the winning list: Vavasour Awatere Valley sauvignon blanc 2009 best savvy, Saddlers Creek classic Hunter semillon 2005 best lighter bodied dry white, that Peter Lehmann Margaret Barossa semillon best medium bodied dry white, Sacred Hill Rifleman’s chardonnay 2007 and Serafino reserve chardonnay 2009 equal best fuller bodied dry white.

The red winners: Angove Nine Vines grenache shiraz rose 2009 was best still rose, Gibbston Valley reserve pinot noir 2008 best pinot noir, Grove Estate Cellar Block shiraz viognier 2008 best lighter bodied dry red, Moppity Vineyards reserve shiraz 2008 best medium bodied dry red, Sticks No 29 shiraz 2008 best fuller bodied red.(One judge’s comment: “Very deep cherry purple colour. Very clean fruit aromas. Some liquorice and vanilla oak. A warm, generous palate. Quite savoury. Balanced acid and very tight, ripe tannin. Good length. The food highlights the finesse, the length, the sleekness and the smoothness.”)

Sparkling and sweet: Konrad Sigrun Noble Two riesling 2007 best dessert wine, Morris Wines Old Premium liqueur tokay best fortified, Jacob’s Creek sparkling moscato nv best Australian sparkling wine aperitif style. All 2010 results have been published on the competition’s website – www.top100wines.com – with individual judges’ comments for each award winner and recipes of all the food dishes presented. Well worth a visit.

STAR SIGNS .. with Horace Cope

PISCES (Feb 20 to Mar 20)
You are aghast to discover some so-called friends have posted a string of anecdotes about your outrageous drinking exploits on the social networking site, Offyourfacebook.

ARIES (Mar 21 to Apr 20)
A sudden power blackout has you and your partner looking at your own reflections in your TV screen while watching an episode of The Biggest Loser: Couples.

TAURUS (Apr 21 to May 20)
You and your spouse are rushed to hospital in an awful tangle after foolishly trying to spice up your sex life by attempting a juxtaposition.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 21)
You hadn’t realised just how on the nose Kevin Rudd was until you read the news pages of a couple of editions of The Australian.

CANCER (June 22 to July 23)
It didn't work in the long run for Peter Beattie, so you wonder why Kevin Rudd is trying the media tart's old "I've been a naughty boy and deserve to be spanked really, really hard for a really, really long time" routine.

LEO (July 24 to Aug 23)
You wonder how Channel 9 can promote Top Gear as Australia's No 1 TV show when it hasn't started yet.

VIRGO (Aug 24 to Sept 23)
You go to your local library to see whether this week’s book written by James Patterson has come in yet.

LIBRA (Sept 24 to Oct 23)
You fully support Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's belief that through a mixture of climate change and the city's emergence via the Clem 7 tunnel opening as one of the world's truly exciting cosmopolitan centres, Brisbane one day will host the Winter Olympics.

SCORPIO (Oct 24 to Nov 22)
Your stable and happy home life is shattered after a surprise weekend visit by the team from Domestic Pitz.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 to Dec 22)
Now that they have an extra digital channel to play with you can't help but notice how the free-to-air TV channels have jumped at the opportunity to promote oft-repeated shows with lines such as “First time on Seven2”.

CAPRICORN (Dec 23 to Jan 20)
On that note you are really grateful that federal communications minister Stephen Conroy gave the networks a $250 million cut in licence fees because it will allow them to invest in more cutting-edge shows like I Dream of Jeannie, The Flintstones and Bewitched.

AQUARIUS (Jan 21 to Feb 19)
It was a good idea for the BCC to throw an pen day and allow people to walk through the Clem7 tunnel, but you do think the council was being a bit tough by requiring you to carry an electronic toll tag.

Burton’s wonderfully wacky land

FILMS ... with Tim Milfull

Alice in Wonderland (PG)
Director: Tim Burton Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway
Rating: 4.5/5
109-minutes, screening from March 4

The only surprising thing about Tim Burton directing a version of Alice in Wonderland is that it has taken so long to come to fruition – but given the wondrous result, many will agree that it was well worth the wait.
Collaborating with Linda Woolverton – whose most famous credit to this point was a little film called The Lion King – Burton brings an interesting new twist to the Lewis Carroll tales Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, introducing us to a nineteen-year-old Alice (the latest Aussie to assault Hollywood, Mia Wasikowska), who is dreading the prospect of fulfilling her mother’s wishes to marry well.
After narrowly avoiding a marriage proposal, Alice tumbles down a rabbit-hole and promptly decides that since subsequent bizarre events must be a dream, she will maintain the firmest grip on what unfolds. And as all fans of the novels will appreciate, these are most bizarre and curious events indeed: diminutive but very wide twins (played by Little Britain’s Matt Lucas); a randomly appearing Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) mellifluous in voice, attitude, and manoeuvre; a curmudgeonly caterpillar (Alan Rickman); an insanely jealous and self-interested Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and her absent-minded sister, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway); and finally, the delightfully unpredictable Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp).
The preview I saw was in Real-3D, and made Avatar look almost primitive, which says much considering how much I enjoyed James Cameron’s film. If I had any complaint, it would be to slam Danny Elfman’s choice of Avril Lavigne to sing over the closing credits; then again, Alice in Wonderland wasn’t really made for me but for tweens and teens – I won’t hold it against him.





Director’s debut proves firth-class

A Single Man (M)
Director: Tom Ford Stars: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore
Rating: 4/5
99-minutes, now screening

Tom Ford might be more recognisable to some people as a fashion photographer and designer of clothing and fragrances, but this very successful creative recently branched out into cinema, adapting, directing, and producing a film version of Christopher Isherwood’s seminal sixties novel, A Single Man.
Ignoring some not so quiet whispers mentioning the words “vanity project”, Ford chose to finance the entire project himself, and the aesthetics of his quite beautiful film hint at the influence of two very influential art-house directors: Hong Kong’s Wong Kar Wai and Pedro Almodovar from Spain.
In his film, Ford slots Colin Firth firmly into the role of George, a forty-something college professor quietly mourning the death of his long-term lover, Jim (Matthew Goode). As the movie opens, George is going methodically through the motions of preparing for his last day on Earth, and all the while, friends, acquaintances, and new temptations skip in and out of his life.
This simple premise – the novel was less than two-hundred pages – unfolds into a fascinating examination of one man’s grief and the single-minded remedy that he thinks will offer relief, or at least oblivion. Ford’s visual aesthetic echoes those of Wong Kar Wai – with delicate slo-mo and grainy flashbacks – and Almodovar’s vivid palette, but Ford stamps his own mark on the film, with impeccable fashion and architecture complementing excellent performances from Firth, Moore and others.
This lush, achingly tragic story presses all the right buttons, and has me hoping that Ford found the experience of making A Single Man rewarding enough to step behind the camera again.



France flavour of the month at Palace

Alliance Française French Film Festival 2010 – March 17 to 31
More details at www.palacecinemas.com.au

Some festival news this week, with the Alliance Française French Film Festival touring through Brisbane in the latter half of March. Before the traditional after-party at Palace Centro on James St, the AFFFF will screen Micmacs, the latest film from magic realist director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and from all reports this new effort is a melange of his earlier works, Delicatessen and Amelie, which really says a great deal.
I managed to catch several previews, including Army of Crime – a dramatic true story about Jewish members of the Resistance wreaking havoc on the Nazi occupation of France. There’s also a raft of romantic films, from Sophie Marceau as a mother struggling with her hormonal teenager daughter in LOL, and some very satisfying personal growth in Queen to Play, featuring chess manoeuvres by Sandrine Bonnaire as Helene, a cleaning lady working for misanthropic expat, Dr Kroger (Kevin Kline).
Lovers of family drama will lap up the dynamics of The First Day of the Rest of Your Life, while those who like thrillers will appreciate the tense Skirt Day, an impressively cast hostage drama set in a classroom. Finally, I could barely contain myself when I heard that the impossibly handsome Jean Dujardin would be stepping back into the shoes of French superspy, OSS 117 – aka Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath – as he heads off on the hunt for Nazis on the run around Brazil in the very silly OSS 117, Lost in Brazil.(pictured)
There are many more films on offer – check out the festival’s program on www.palacecinemas.com.au