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One feature of our annual screening program involves bringing screen industry identities to town to showcase their work and in the process to give the audience the opportunity to ask questions and to dig deeper into the meaning and the creative process that goes into that work.
Our first guest was Paul Cox, who has been described as Australian film's greatest auteur as well as our most prolific independent filmmaker
He was both.
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In this edition we'll be taking a look back at some of our encounters with Paul Cox as well as the films we screened on the weekend he visited Townsville for the first and only time.
We hope our December eZine encourages you to seek out and watch.some of Paul's fabulous films as well as the films we screened when he visited back in 2014.
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Classic Independent Directors
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Paul Cox
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There were a number of key events that shaped Paul Cox's life.
He was born in Venlo in the Netherlands during the second world war and while his mother in particular tried to protect him from the horror going on around him he saw things that shaped him and his deep and lasting humanity. As a young child he recalled seeing a woman struck during a bombing raid and bleed to death in front of him. His childhood home was located near an attractive park and while he was told on one occasion not to look out the window and onto that park, he did. He never forgot the many dead bodies he saw lying there.
Those experiences shaped his love of life and his pre-occupation with death, themes that were repeated in many of his films.
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When the war ended Paul remembered two things happening that signalled to him that things had changed and the normalcy had returned, despite never knowing it during his young life.... the trains started running again and the birds started singing.
This imagery is something Paul used repeatedly in his films.
It was his life's experiences that Paul tapped into repeatedly for his film work.
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Before leaving Holland, Paul trained as a photographer and on arriving in Melbourne he set up a studio which was very successful until Paul found himself unwittingly the focus of a newspaper story. During a trip to the Mornington Peninsula, Paul took LSD which led to him approaching a local police officer naked and telling him he loved him.
This shouldn't have been scandalous in late 60's Melbourne, but it was.
Paul's photography business dried up immediately so Paul booked a ticket to South America where he planned to move. Paul literally missed the boat and was subsequently offered a job at Prahan TAFE where he initially taught photography. He was later asked to teach filmmaking, despite knowing next to nothing about it.
Paul learnt alongside his students, then didn't stop making films for the rest of his life.
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Paul was a great observer. When he arrived in Townsville he was very quiet but clearly taking in everything around him. The first thing he said as we were driving toward the city was 'Do you realise this place is called Town Town?'
Paul was intrigued by small details.
His films were closely observed also. We had asked David Stratton what was the best Australian film of 1984, and he nominated Paul's film... My First Wife. The film was inspired by the breakdown of Paul's first marriage. Paul had said he was first married relatively late in life because he had wanted to be sure he chose the right person and he wanted the marriage to survive.
The break up was devastating for him, but the best therapy was to make a movie about it.
He was careful not to make it about his ex-wife, but about the breakdown of a relationship. He was equally careful not to make the wife (Wendy Hughes) the villain nor to make the husband (John Hargreaves) blameless.
Paul's ex-wife subsequently sued for defamation... and lost, so we can only assume he succeeded.
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Paul Saw things differently.
I was visiting him in his cavernous Port Melbourne home when a framed letter from Australia Post caught my eye. The letter was a complaint that Paul's dog had bitten the postman and a request that the dog be restrained in future.
It struck me as unusual and I asked Paul about the letter. He said "Yes... I trained him well".
No further explanation was needed.
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And Paul was passionate... about art, about people, and about the world and the way he wanted it to be.
When asked about the hotel room he stayed in while in Townsville... he said it was nice, but the person who chose the artwork should be fired.
Paul lived in Port Melbourne, an old neighbourhood with some beautiful period architecture. Not far from his home someone had bought one of these old houses, demolished it and replaced it with what Paul described as a concrete box. Paul was so incensed that late one night he and actor Aden Young went to the house to leave a message. In spray paint Paul painted 'This is Ugly' in large letters on one of its concrete walls.
Paul described what happened next like this 'Aden was someone who showed great courage in front of a movie camera, but when I started painting my message he wet his pants and ran across the park like a frightened little girl.'
When Paul had something to say... he said it.
Before we screened Paul's film (My First Wife) we showed a short film by a young local filmmaker. During the Q&A one of the actors asked Paul what advice he would give someone starting out in the industry. With great earnestness he replied... 'Have your starting point be... the world is completely insane'.
I thought it was great advice even if the young actor didn't seem to appreciate the insight.
If Paul Cox had a catch phrase it was... 'This is madness!'.
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He thought it was madness that George Brandis was minister for the arts when his only qualification was that he'd been to the opera a few times. It was madness that people complained about the nudity in his films but thought the violence in other people's films was acceptable.
It was madness that there were more people needing transplants than there were donor organs available. Paul thought the answer lay in more politicians having a transplant. At a screening of his last film Force of Destiny he asked a full theatre 'Who would like to see Tony Abbott get a transplant?'
Paul never said this... but it was madness that his films were celebrated right around the world but only drew small audiences at arthouse cinemas in Australia. And it was madness thathe always struggled to finance his films.
Of all the guests we have brought to Townsville... Paul drew the biggest crowd by far. We only got to spend a small amount of time with him.. but it was a wonderful experience.
Despite his untimely passing we still have Paul's films, and that is some consolation. While his films can be hard to find we recommend tracking them down and watching as many as you can.
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While our current practice is to let our screen industry guests choose all the films we screen during their visit, that wasn't our practice when Paul agreed to be our first such guest back in 2014.
However he did approve of our choices, and he did think (like we do) that the originals were far better than the remakes. He went so far as to say that there was no need to remake 1984, it would've been better to re-release the 1956 original.
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Brief Encounter (1945)
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Our first screening that weekend was Brief Encounter.
Set in 1938 the film begins with the two protagonists Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) and housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) meeting at a railway station café. Alec rushes to Laura's aid when soot from a passing train gets in her eye. The mutual attraction is almost immediate, despite them both already being married. They meet regularly and gradually fall in love. They continue to meet every Thursday in the small café, despite knowing their love is impossible and despite the growing dread that it must all end soon.
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This is a British film... British to its bootstraps, with its restrained emotions and its impeccable manners. Still it is far from stuffy. Emotions are not far from the surface and the love these two characters feel for each other runs deep. It is a selfless love that is heart-warming and inspiring.
The film was shot during the final months of the war at Carnforth Station which was chosen partly because it was so far from the southeast of England. This would allow the filmmakers sufficient warning in the event of an air-raid attack to turn out the filming lights and to comply with wartime blackout restrictions.
It is also a fabulous location that creates an incredible backdrop to the film.
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This was Trevor Howard's third film (in a career that included 97 films), but perhaps the one he is best remembered for. Even after Howard had made many more films, this was the film people always remembered him for, to his immense frustration.
Howard went on to appear in Ghandi, Ryan’s Daughter (another David Lean film), Battle of Britain, Von Ryan’s Express, Father Goose, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Third man, and They made me a fugitive, All fabulous films, but given how good he is in Brief Encounter you can understand why this was his most remembered role among the general public
Cecelia Johnston worked with a number of great directors... David Lean (Brief Encounter and This Happy Breed), Noel Coward (In which we serve, The astonished heart) and Carol Reed (A kid for 2 farthings). Of all these appearances, Brief Encounter is by far her best performance. A performance which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
As mentioned the director was the great David Lean who was also known for Lawrrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, and Dr Zhivago. In our opinion... this film was perhaps his best.
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Why watch (or re-watch) this film?
It is beautifully photographed especially in and around the train station, the story maintains genuine tension as you hope against hope that things will turn out well for both Alec and Laura, and while divorce is common place today (while it wasn't in 1945) and infidelity is far less scandalous we still feel it is wrong. We still inhabit the same moral universe as Alec and Laura and the audience at the time of the film's initial release.
It is also an influential film.
As a 21 year old, director Robert Altman had nothing to do one afternoon so he went to a theater to watch: a British movie he knew little about. He said the main character was not glamorous, not a babe. And at first he wondered why he was even watching it. But twenty minutes later he was in tears, and had fallen in love with her. And it made him feel that it wasn't just a movie.
Writer/Director Billy Wilder saw the film and inspired by the scenes where Alec and Laura rendezvous at his flat, he began developing the idea that eventually became the academy award winning film 'The Apartment'.
The film won the Grand Prize at the Cannes film festival, and earned nominations for best actress, best director and best screenplay at the Academy awards.
So many reasons to sit down and watch this wonderful film.
You can watch Brief Encounter in full here.
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Nineteen Eighty Four (1956)
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Our last screening of the weekend of Paul Cox's visit was the 1956 (original) version of Nineteen Eighty Four.
Despite having an American actor in the leading role, this is a British production. Two years earlier director Michael Anderson had made the same film for TV. It had been a popular success and many believe that is why a version with a planned cinema release had been bankrolled.
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Based on the 1948 novel by George Orwell, the story needs no introduction, An alarmingly prophetic writer, many of Orwell's concepts have become reality and many references to the book are used in modern everyday ;language.
By the time of the film's production Orwell had died, so we'll never know his reaction, but he was survived by his wife who was not impressed with this adaptation.
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The film stars Edmund O’Brien a journeyman actor who has appeared in Westerns (The Man who shot Liberty Valance, The Wild Bunch), War films (The Longest Day) and Crime films (White Heat, The Hitchhiker, The Barefoot Contessa). But O'Brien was at his best in Film Noir appearing in films like DOA and Two of a Kind with the wonderful Lizabeth Scott. It was surely his Film Noir performances that caught the eye of the producers and landed him the role in this film.
The film's director Michael Anderson also made The Dam Busters, Logan’s Run and Around the world in 80 days, among other lesser known films. This film was close to, if not the best film he ever made.
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Why watch this film?
Nineteen Eighty Four is one of the most important and influential stories of the 20th century and it has maintained its power and its relevance in the 21st century.
Unlike the 1984 remake which is filled with gaunt, demoralised characters, living in a degraded and dystopian landscape, this film is filled with everyday people living in a world that apart from the presence of Big Brother on posters and TV screens, looks very much like an average 1950's location. This is in many ways more disturbing as it underlines the pernicious and pervasive nature of surveillance in a totalitarian (or at least a controlling and manipulative) state.
Watching this film, it is easy to see the parallels with contemporary China, but with a little imagination it is also possible to see the parallels with our nation and our ever eroding civil liberties and right to privacy.
This film also leaves more to the imagination than contemporary films. In many ways torture scenes that we don't witness first hand are more terrifying as our imagination can take us to very dark places. Equally, in a totalitarian state acts of control and torture go intentionally unseen.
We think its a wonderful film, but don't take our word for it... check it out for yourself
You can watch the original 1984 in full here.
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