Writer/Director/Magician
Aye, it’s been too long. Months ago I saw Mister Robert Connolly who brought you the stellar Balibo, which if you haven’t seen you should see it now or we’ll have a situation similar to this.
Not only did I manage to scab entry into a charity screening of the drama, my school AFTRS, had him come down for Friday On My Mind. After this talk I have made a small change to my list of idols which now includes Connolly.
Connolly is also now on board with my dear friends Screen Australia, where he hopes to rattle the cage. Connolly says that we can no longer afford to create the sort of films we have become used to, there needs to be more ‘bold and innovative’ cinema. Cinema that pushes the limits and not your idea of a sexually ailed housewife or a drug addict exiled by society.
Not naming names...
Connolly says that there are independent films and there are Hollywood films and then there are Australian films, the most expensive arthouse films ever. Believing that $4 million for such suburban productions is way too much, especially considering the return they garner. Connolly does realise the small hypocrisy in his words, looking at Balibo’s $5 million budget, but he hopes that people will understand and see that it’s different. Really different.
Yet at the time of writing Balibo has only garnered a little over half a million at the box office (citation). It’s dissapointing that something so different is underperforming, also considering Beautiful Kate aswell. This is where another argument comes into play: advertising. What is it that’s really sinking a film locally? Just advertising? It’s naive to believe that. It’s a combination of all elements and if some arthouse film about a lesbian drug addict who is forced to look after their crippled immigrant grandmother whilst coming to terms with her sexuality in Melbourne’s northern subrubs is a bomb, and the director, producer and backer go “oh it was our advertising that let us down” then that’s stupid. Also the film has to be good, and this country has no sense of nationalistic pride for it’s own art product unless it’s music so don’t expect that to be an allure. Shit, you should’ve learnt that by now.
People love cinema, it’s only your fault if you can’t remind them of that.
To reiterate what I’ve been spouting for the last few months: What Connolly has done is something amazing, it will hopefully be a reminder and a change for what will happen now. With performance this bad, we can only go up.