BLOOD WEDDING

Spain, 1981, 71 minutes, Colour.
Antonio Gades, Cristina Hoyos, Juan Antonio, Pilar Cardenas.
Directed by Carlos Saura.

Blood Wedding is a short feature by celebrated Spanish writer/director Carlos Saura. Saura is admired in Spain and internationally well known for such films as Anna and the Wolves, Ray's Ravens, Elissa My Love, Momma Turns 100 and Tender Hours.

This film is very much like a master class program. It is rehearsal for and dress rehearsal of a Flamenco-ballet based on Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding. It is choreographed by celebrated Flamenco dancer, Antonio Gades.

The structure of the film is basically the arrival of the cast for their rehearsal, an introduction to the performers as they put on their makeup, an example of Gades rehearsing steps with his troupe and the dress rehearsal of Lorca's drama.

The film shows the theatre, the dressing rooms, and the arrival of the players. The atmosphere of the theatre is well created by showing the room as well as the details of mirrors, costumes, makeup and its application. There is talk amongst the players and we see them as ordinary people. There is an introduction to Gades himself and he does a voiceover explaining his career - childhood, introduction to dance, professional experiences and final training and success.

The rehearsal sequence is very well done as a master class. Gades explains and demonstrates and makes his demands on the troupe. They perform a number of steps and this culminates in a movement of the group diagonally across the rehearsal floor. Gades is an example of a choreographer using modern dance styles with flamenco traditions.

The Lorca play is concerned with basic relationships - the bridegroom preparing for the ceremony with his adoring mother; the bride and her lover; the ceremony with the intervention of the lover; the clash when the bride flees with the lover and the two men confront each other; the death of both men and the bride left bereft. The dancing is in the flamenco style done with great expression and with a great sense of pride. There is a variety of dance style which culminates in a slow motion mime fight of the two protagonists. The music is by Emilio de Diego.

The opening credits has a tableau sequence from the wedding. We see this tableau in the middle of the performance and there is significance as this photo is used once again for the final credits after the experience of the dance and the melodrama. The film is an interesting example of a cinema director using his fluid styles to present characters, dance, the performance of dance.

BLOSSOMS IN THE DUST

US, 1941, 95 minutes, Colour.
Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Marsha Hunt.
Directed by Mervyn Le Roy.

Blossoms in the Dust is one of the classic Greer Garson- Walter Pidgeon films. It was made at the time of their greatest success, Mrs. Miniver. The film is full of emotion and sentiment. Those who dislike American sentiment might find Greer too noble and the film too sentimental.

However, it is a noble-minded film, with something to say about the plight of orphans and the stigma of illegitimacy. It is well worth discussing even though it is from the early 1940s and deals with a period thirty years before that.

1. What was the significance of the title?

2. How moving is this film decades after its release? Why?

3. What was the message of the film? Was it effectively communicated?

4. Was the film sentimental or genuinely moving?

5. How important was Greer Garson's 'typically noble' performance for the impact of the film?

6. How happy was the opening of the film? How was this achieved? Did the happiness and the audience interest in marriage make Charlotte's tragedy more moving? Why?

7. Why did Charlotte shoot herself? Is it possible for a modern audience to appreciate such feelings about illegitimacy? Which characters were to blame for the death?

8. What effects did Charlotte's death have on Edna and Sam?

9. How well did Edna and Sam love each other? Comment on the film's techniques for building up their relationship.

10. Were you expecting the death of their son? What effect did the death of the son have ? especially in relation to the difficulty of his birth and Edna's inability to have another child?

11. Did Sam and the doctor have the right to get Edna to come out of her superficial social life trying to forget?

12. How did Edna change because of her involvement with the children?

13. Was the effect of Edna's kindness convincingly drawn?

14. How moving was Sam's bankruptcy? How did Edna support him? Was she right in taking in the orphans? Why were people against her?

15. How did the particular episodes help the audience understand her work and its importance ? the couples who came to adopt children, the severe woman who wanted a child, the gangster?

16. How important was Tony, especially after Sam's death? How did her parting with him form a crisis and a victory for her selflessness?

17. Why did she campaign so vigorously about legal illegitimacy? What were her reasons and principles? Was she right? why was she so vigorously opposed? How important was her victory?

18. What kind of woman did Edna emerge as by the end of the film? How heroic, admirable, worthy of imitation? Why?

19. What did the film say about marriage and love and service for a woman apart from marriage?

20. What would be the lasting effects of a film like this?

BLOW OUT

US, 1981, 107 minutes, Colour.
John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz.
Directed by Brian de Palma.

Blow Out is one of Brian De Palma's most enjoyable films. At the beginning of his career, he paid tribute to Hitchcock in such films as Sisters and Obsession. He was always interested in psychological drama - though from 1996 he was preoccupied with action themes such as Mission Impossible and Snake Eyes.

This film is also one of John Travolta's best. He plays a sound effects man who goes out into the woods to tape sounds and becomes involved in a conspiracy, the cover-up of a murder of a presidential candidate. The film's title pays tribute to Blow Up and is intended as a sound effect homage to that film about mysterious photography.

The film explores American paranoia, inherent violence in society - and presents all this with a complex plot and Hitchcockian suspense touches. It is a very entertaining thriller.

1 Satisfying thriller, murder mystery, view of society and politics, surveillance and technology, violence, failure and madness? A satisfying piece of '80s Americana?

2. The work of Brian de Palm : his interest in thrillers, horror techniques, suspense and shocks? His influence by Alfred Hitchcock? The influences in this film: Antonioni's Blow Up, Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, the conspiracy films?

3. Panavision photography, the use of Philadelphia locations? The emphasis on media technology? The uses of sound? Sounds and the visuals? Audience response to contrived works of technological art? Seeing how they work, are contrived, fail? The introduction of parody and its comparison with reality? The special effects, stunt work? The atmospheric score?

4. The impact of the opening: the parody on the multiple killing trend, sex satire? Mood? Bad movie? The audience being prurient and later comments on peeping toms? The build up to the false scream? The cut to the group laughing? Jack and his work, the motif of the screams throughout the film and the irony of Sally's final scream? The irony of Burke as the multiple murderer and his fulfilling in reality the ugliness of the initial poor movie? The parallels between cheap movies and reality? The ambiguities for the audience culminating in Sally's scream?

5. The film's focus on machinery, technology, sounds and the making of sounds in the laboratory? The credits sequences and the parallel of Jack's work with the television reporting? His recording the live sounds, his tapes? Matching sounds with visuals? Still photos being transformed into moving film? The reconstruction of events through sounds and photos? The interpretation of the reconstruction? Detective work? The contrast between the police approach and Jack's approach? The importance of Jack's past and his use of technology for the undercover policeman ? and the tragedy of his death? Repeating the mistake with Sally? Having the record of her final scream and his insane use of it at the end? Ultimate tragedy?

6. The political themes? Governor McRyan?, his hopes, people's response to his candidacy, his death, the real story, the police cover-up, Henry and his closing the case, warning off Jack and Sally? The extent of the cover-up? The motivation for it? The reflection on American politics in the '60s and '70s, the innuendo about Edward Kennedy's history?

7. McRyan's enemies, for example the man on the phone with Burke and his disowning him? Burke and his plan, shooting the car's tyre, eliminating McRyan?, his deal with Manny and Sally, the photos, his destroying the sound on all the tapes, replacing the tyre, the bizarre murder plan for the ultimate killing of Sally? His brutal execution of the women? The bizarre touch of the Liberty Bell and its political overtones? His madness? His phone tapping, meeting Sally at the station, the long walk and the train ride, the confrontation and his killing her? Jack's killing him? His final anonymity according to television reports? His construction of the conspiracy?

8. John Travolta's performance as Jack: his work, second rate films, our view of the film he was working on, his recollection of two years working on these films, relationship with his boss? His skill in sound work? His recording sounds? Enjoying his work? His recording the accident, rescuing Sally? His attention to detail and his replaying his sounds, skills in reconstructing the situation, getting the photos and matching the sound with them? The encounter with the police in the hospital and their questioning, Henry browbeating him to agree to silence? The talks with Sally? Showing Sally the photographs and making her hear the sounds? His being distracted from his work ? and from the girls screaming? His concern for Sally? Discovery of the truth about her? Confronting her? The TV commentator persuading him to act on television? The police and their disbelief, exasperation about his empty tape? Jack trying to persuade Sally to go on television? Burke and his interfering with the phones? The growing relationship with Sally, the importance of their reminiscing and Jack's flashbacks to his experience wiring the policeman, covering him, failure to realise that he would sweat, batteries burning, his death and Jack's sense of responsibility? His making the same mistake with Sally? Trying to rescue her, chasing her, the reckless driving through the Liberty Day procession, the crash, getting out of the ambulance? His running through the crowds ? desperation, the slow motion technique? Listening to her cries? His failure to save her from death? His killing Burke? His preserving her scream and his mad use of it in the film?

9. The ugly effect of the ending with Sally's scream - highlighting Jack's failure?

10. Sally as a professional hooker, presence in the car with the Governor, her being saved, reactions in hospital, Henry's pay-off, in the motel with Jack and her not wanting to listen to the sounds, the meeting at the station and his telling his story to her, her character communicated by the discussion about make-up? Her going to see Manny and her believing him about the deal? The squalid background of the photography and the cases? Her listening to Jack, seeing the film, not wanting to go on TV, agreeing to see the commentator? Growing audience sympathy for her? The ugliness of Burke's murders in the railway station prior to his chasing Sally? Her talking to Jack, trying to give him the clues, her discovery of the truth, desperation during the fireworks? The pathos of her death? The visual impact of Jack holding her dead, with the fireworks behind, mood, significance?

11. The growing relationship between the two, audiences becoming involved in their plight, Jack's saving Sally and her dependence on him, his dependence on her? His wanting to atone for his past and his collapse in failure?

12. The grim ending, the contrast with an ordinary world and its beauty filled with the sinister and the brutal? The film continually dislocating audience responses? Jack as broken and unable to cope? The pessimism of our contemporary world being too much for the ordinary citizen?

BLOW UP

UK, 1967, 113 minutes, Colour.
David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Peter Bowles.
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.

Blow Up is a film by Michelangelo Antonioni. It was his first film in English. He subsequently made "Zabriskie Point and "The Passenger" in English. Antonioni is a respected Italian director. He had made such significant films as "L'Avventura", "The Night" and "The Eclipse". He moved into colour with "The Red Desert" in 1974. He is considered as a filmmaker studying the alienation of modern man. There is alienation of an individual from his or her environment. People are alienated from one another. This theme culminated in the presentation of modern Ravenna in The Red Desert and, in a parable form, an exploration of a woman lost in this environment.

In "Blow up", Antonioni studies the modern London environment of the mid sixties. He questions what is reality underlying appearances. How do appearances coincide with reality? He was later to do the same kind of thing for modern America in "Zabriskie Point" in the late sixties. He did it on a much wider scale and with more universal application in "The Passenger". David Hemmings was at the beginning of a successful career in this film. It was also one of the earliest films of Vanessa Redgrave. Over the years "Blow Up", from being a controversial film, has become something of a classic.

1. The meaning of the title: camera work, inflating things,, explosions? The implications and overtones for the themes of the film?

2. The focus on camera work and on the eye.. the eye as a lens? Eyes seeing, lens focusing? The significance of using the symbols of modern photography? A photo as the appearance of reality? The film and photos? Images and appearances and reality? People looking at appearances and being sure or unsure? The photographer and the artist as makers of images. encompassing appearances and reality? Their ability to note and to present clues for the interpretation of reality? The relationship of truth and reality.

3. The importance of colour, the blues and the greens of the credits, the Park? The details of the London locations, the atmosphere of London in the mid sixties? The world of poverty. the streets in the suburbs, the world of fashion, the world of drugs? The contrast with the atmosphere of the park? The mid sixties style of music? The modern song towards the end?

4. How interesting is this Italian look at England? An Italian, keen on studying the alienation of modern man in his modern environment, studying England and London in the sixties? The importance of the emphasis on the fashion world? (Fashionable appearances - what is reality?)

5. How helpful was the structure of the film in its various days and nights? The significance of the action happening over a Saturday and a Sunday? The relationship of the clowns to the structure: their appearance at beginning and end? Clowns as human beings covered by humorous appearances? The reality and unreality of clowns, human beings as clowns?

6. The film's focus on the hero as an ordinary young man, as a fallible young man? The importance of his social status: his emerging from the doss house. yet the contrast of his car with its intercom, etc.? The style of his work, his skill, his producing a book and his social concern? The strengths and weaknesses of his character? His arrogance, especially with the models? His relationship with the models, his interest in antiques? His relationship with his artist friend and the discussing of the various works of art, with the artist's wife? The relationship with the young girls curiously visiting him? Sexual and sensual emphases, in the photography of the model, the visit of the young girls, the woman trying to get the photographs back? The visual presentation of the orgy with the young girls? The transition to visiting the friend, the drug scene and its decadence.

7. The presentation of the hero as an observer of life, via his camera? A certain detachment from what he saw? Putting photographs in a book etc.? The difference with his becoming involved in the incidents in the park? A sensual involvement with the models at the session? His detachment from the models in bullying them?

8. Images versus words, e.g. in the book, the blowing-up of the stills? The looking at the stills blown up sending him back to reality?

9. The visual presentation of the park, audience involvement with the photographer, curiosity, the autumnal atmosphere of the park with the wind, the silence? Audience identification with the hero taking the photos and pursuing the couple?

10. The contrast with the girl pursuing him, her pleading, her anxiety? The encounter in the park? Her arrival at the house? The emotive tensions between the two, within the girl herself? Her nervous listening to the music? Her trying to manoeuvre the hero into giving the photos back? The appeal to sexuality? The famous contrast of the two torsos?

11. How did the film present the details of photography, cameras, developments of photo, the processes of blowing up the stills? The detailed realism? Audience involvement in the puzzle about what happened in the park via the details of photography? The importance of the examination of the photos, detail, the retracing of the narrative by images rather than words?

12. The intrusion of the two girls at the beginning, the revelation of the kind of world of the photographer? The irony of their later intrusion? Their silliness and giggles, trying on the dresses, sexuality and their disappointment at not getting photographed? Observation and moral comment?

13. The hero being made alone and isolated by his awareness of what happened in the park? The importance of the visit of the artist's wife and the discussion about what had happened? Her support? His testing the reality of what happened by talking to someone else? The question of evidence? The importance of the glimpse of the woman in the street? The irony of the noise of the music and the dancers? The song, the incident with the guitar, the crowding in on the isolated photographer and his trying to break free back into the street? The irony of the guitar and passers by picking it up?

14. The hero trying to get some support from Ron? Audience interest in him because of the book and the photos? His immersion in the world of drugs? His failure to respond? Ron and his opting out of helping?

15. The significance of the hero's return to the park, the contrast of darkness with the light of day, the questions of true or false? The significance of his return the following morning? After he himself had opted out in the drug world? How had the night affected him? Why did he return to the park? Conscience, integrity, involvement? Detachment?

16. The intrusion of the clowns on his isolation? Their inviting him to be involved rather than opting out? The technical presentation of the miming of the tennis? The gradual invitation to involvement, watching the ball, his being invited to participate by throwing the imaginary ball? The ball which did not appear but which seemed real? How ironic then was it that the hero himself disappeared at the end of the film leaving the park alone?

17. What was the view of the world of the director? of its superficialities, depths? Man's ability to cope? The importance of the individual, his place in society and the effect of society on him? Man and his relationship to truth? Involvement, sensitivity, conscience? The importance of being true to self? How pessimistic was the film, how optimistic?

18. Why has the film become something of a classic in its time? The quality of content, style and technique? The blend of both?

THE BLUE ANGEL

Germany, 1930, 98 minutes, Black and White.
Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich.
Directed by Josef von Sternberg.

The Blue Angel is a German classic of early sound. It brought Marlene Dietrich to great fame. She made several films in Germany but then went to America where here career flourished over many decades. In this film she was directed by Josef von Stenberg. He had worked in America and then moulded her career as a sex symbol of the 30s. Further, The Blue Angel is notable for its fitting into the German cinema between the wars. It was a surrealist and impressionist cinema ranging from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to Fritz Lang's Metropolis. It was sinister, evocative of the mood and unreality of Germany between wars.

The film tells the archetypal story of the intellectual professor protesting against nightclubs, infatuated by the dancer, giving up everything to follow her and being humiliated even to death. Famous German actor Emil Jannings plays the part of the professor convincingly. Dietrich is the nightclub singer Lola Lola and her famous song, "Falling In Love Again" was imitated for the decades following e.g. by Helmut Berger in The Damned and satirised by Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles. The film was made in an English version and a German version and the endings differ. Books on German cinema would indicate the differences.

There was a re-make of the film in the 50s with Mai Britt and Curt Jurgens directed by Edward Dmytryk but it was an ordinary entertainment.

1. The classic status of this film as part of German cinema, initial 'talkie' films? In the career of the director, the main stars? Impact of the film then, now? The German version, the English version? Influence in Germany and reflecting Germany? Influence overseas?

2. The influence of the film on other films, on fashions, on Marlene Dietrich and imitations over the decades? Her clothes, style. singing? Her reflection of the 20s into the 30s?

3. The black and white photography and its atmosphere of the town, the professor’s house, the school and the schoolrooms, the Blue Angel itself, the rooms. backstage, the stage and the audience? The particular compositions in terms of realism, surrealism?

4. The quality of early sound, the music, the songs, especially Lola Lola's song to the professor?

5. The film seen as a fable about the complementary aspects of the mind and the body? The mutual attraction. complementarity, slavery and potential for destruction?

6. The film as a presentation of Germany in the 20s and the 30s in the light of subsequent history? The professor, German tradition and prim and properness, the infatuation with Lola Lola, his degrading himself? His possibilities for success, selling out. betraying his abilities? Lola Lola as an ordinary kind of person. cheap. sincere? But her hold over the professor, her destructive power? His madness, being straitjacketed, humiliated, death? What happened to Germany in those decades?

7. The initial picture of the professor and his pedantic style, his breakfast, the bird and its death (throwing it into the furnace?).

8. The professor at school, the boys fooling around with the picture of Lola, his presence, attitude toward the boys, authoritarian, pedantic, Shakespeare? His reaction to the picture and his disciplinary action?

9. The motivation for his visit to the Blue Angel? His authoritarian attitude, wishing to reprimand the boys and Lola? Chasing the boys. their hiding? The irony of later attacking him and calling him 'garbage'. their attack on him?

10. How well did the film visualise and Emil Jannings portray the subtlety of the professor's reaction, his attraction and yet his not wanting to be there? His embodying it in the rebuke that he gave to the boys and to the management and to Lola? The boy hiding? The underwear in his pocket? His complicated response, especially to Lola's charm, sensuality? The presentation of the body to the nun of the mind? His being flustered and confused?

11. The motivation for his return, his fight with the Captain? His decision to stay, his being a guest, listening to the song and being infatuated? His staying the night and his reaction, drinking, love for Lola?

12. The build up to his arrival at the school. the attitude of the boys, the drawing on the blackboard? His hostility. the encounter with the headmaster? The boys' talent according to the headmaster and his severe attitude? The professor's reaction about marriage? How foolish was the decision to marry, how wise? Lola and her reaction? As a character, her kindness? But her being a wanderer? The atmosphere of show, status of show people? The professor giving up everything and going into this world? His becoming Lola's servant over so many years, his doing the menial work? His becoming the clown? (And the preparation in the presence of the clown in the early Blue Angel sequences?)

14. The passing of the years and their effect on him,, the taunts, his giving up of his career. the possibility of a career as a clown? His dressing Lola and kneeling before her? Her mocking him? His fear of return to his town, of being mocked? Lola and her persuading him, her fickleness and her taunts? The gathering of this together as he went on stage as the clown and was humiliated, Lola and her guest, taunting him and rebuking him? The madness and collapse. the audience reaction of laughing and pathos, the straitjacket, his decline and the irony of his dying at the school desk?

15. The irony of Lola, in black, in mourning, going on and singing the same things?

16. The success of the film as melodrama, insight into human nature, symbol of good and evil. mind and body? The historic influence of the film?

THREE IN ONE

Australia, 1957, 89 minutes, Black and white.
John Mc Callum.
Joe Wilson’s Mate: Edmond Allison, Alexander Archdale, Reg Lye, Kenneth J. Warren.
Load of Wood: Leonard Thiele, Jock Levy.
City: Joan Lander, Brian Vicary, Betty Lucas, Gordon Glenwright.
Directed by Cecil Holmes.

Three in One is a trio of stories about the Australian spirit. Produced and directed by Cecil Holmes in the mid-'50s, it was hoped that the film would move towards a development of local production. The British Monthly Film Bulletin of 1957 (p.57) ended its review 'An honest and determined attempt to create a national style, it may well be a landmark in the development of the Australian cinema'. This was not to be. The film received little release except for the second story, The Load of Wood, which went out as a supporting short.

Cecil Holmes had a long career in the Australian file industry, a career marked by disappointments. His strength was in documentaries, especially concerning aboriginal issues including I, the Aboriginal.

The three stories range over a period of time. The first is Joe Wilson's Mates from Henry Lawson's story The Union Buries its Dead. The second story is of the Depression, Frank Hardy's The Load of Wood. The third story, the slightest and one which has dated considerably, is The City.

A number of actors, later known as character actors in films, appear in the various stories including in the first, Alexander Archdale and Ben Gabriel, in the second Leonard Teale (under the name Leonard Thiele), and in the third Gordon Glenwright and Betty Lucas. John Mc Callum introduces each of the stories and provides a link, focusing especially on mateship.

The first two stories have not dated and are enjoyable examples of Australian storytelling. The third story is a reminder of the '50s.

1. The impact of the file? The quality of the stories? Entertainment value?

2. The hopes for the Australian industry in the 1950s? Cecil Holmes' contribution, his disappointments? The quality of his direction in these three stories? His artistic style? Social concern?

3. The introduction by John Mc Callum, the homely talk by Mc Callum, his Australian experience and background, talking to the audience, giving the settings, the theme of mateship? Situating the stories in their time?

4. Joe Wilson's Mates: the Henry Lawson story, the quality of Lawson's writing, his delineation of characters, his irony? The importance of the 19th century unions? Mateship? A man's world? The story about the stranger found drowned in the creek, his means of identification his trade union card? The men at the pub? The style of the pub, the tall stories being told The local shearers deciding to give him a burial? The preparations, the coach driver ( and his drinking)? Getting the horses, the heat; the mishaps with the carriage? The procession out to the hillside? The priest, his words and prayers, the hot day? The moving tribute to the unknown man? !he example of mateship? The echoes of the 19th century, the sale bonding in the Outback? The origins of mateship?

5. The Load of Wood: The atmosphere of the Depression, the early 1930s and the people without jobs, the hardships in the country town, the severity of the winter? Darkie and his unpopularity? His relationship with his mates? The shortage of fuel? Paddy Shea and his greed? The decision to join in stealing the logs? The dark night? The men going, Ernie helping? The character of Ernie? The truck, the danger in going onto the property, the cutting down of the tall tree? The escape? Difficulties with the the truck? Darkie distributing the wood? His insisting that he had plenty for himself? The dramatic impact of his going into his own house and his woodshed being empty? Ihe understatement about mateship? The generosity of the Australian Tale - but not wanting it to appear?

6. The City: Sydney in the mid-'50s? Suburban life? The attention to domestic detail? Going to work, transport, the pace of life? Work with the cars? The detailed look at the workplace? The girl and her working in the dress shop, her attention to customers, her friend? Their talk? Their going out, life in Sydney, enjoying themselves? The problems about accommodation? Living with family? The quarrel? The reconciliation? The fellow workers and their decision to raise the money to build the home? A modern variation on the mateship theme? The mid-1950s and the mateship between men? The bonds between women? The transition to a world in which men and women begin to have equal status?

7. The overall impact of the film? Entertainment value? Insight into the Australian spirit?

TWELFTH NIGHT

Australia, 1987, 118 minutes, Colour.
Gillian Jones, Ivar Kants, Peter Cummins, Geoffrey Rush, Jacquy Philips, Kerry Walker.
Directed by Neil Armfeld.

Twelfth Night is a modern dress version of Shakespeare's comedy. It is a film version of a stage presentation by the Lighthouse Theatre of South Australia. It was filmed in the Bijou Theatre Balmain, using stylised sets with a touch of realism. As an attempt to present Shakespeare in modern day dress, it works well. However, it would not be to
everyone's taste. One must remember, however, that Twelfth Night and, Shakespeare's comedies were presented in the contemporary dress of the 16th and early 17th centuries.

This version pays great respect to the text. The poetry is presented, the comic prose. The music is also a feature with specially composed versions of the songs by Alan John. They are played by a small contemporary band.

The acting is good. Ivar Kants has to open the play with the melancholy Duke Orsino's speech and the transition to a contemporary party and into a Shakespearian play. He is suitably sad and romantic as Orsino. However, Gillian Jones has to carry the play as both Viola and Sebastian. Whi1e this is not quite realistically credible, it is credible in the presentation of the play and audience accepting the dual role - and the actress interpreting the masculine part. Peter Cummins is very good as Malvoleo. John Wood is quite bumptious as Sir Toby Belch and Geoffrey Rush, a young Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Kerry Walker is good as Feste the Fool (and has to carry the songs). Tracey Harvey (from The Gillies Report and other comedies) is Maria.

The film highlights Shakespeare's Illyrian setting, a fantasy world - with the romance of past centuries and the style of the present day.

The film shows romantic love, falling in love, eccentric love (especially with the comic characters). The coincidences are rife, the possibility of Orsino falling, in love with Viola in the guise of a man and Olivia falling in love with a man who is actually a woman makes for the interpretation of the sexual roles and stereotypes.

The film works quite cinematically with close-ups, long sequences of speech blended with action and movement on the stage sets. Where it tends to bog down is in the 16th century, raucous comedy of Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek.

However, as a way of interpreting Shakespeare's play and presenting it in a contemporary context, the film is a very interesting experiment.

THEY'RE A WEIRD MOB

Australia, 1966, 112 minutes, Colour.
Walter Chiari, Chips Rafferty, Claire Dunne, Alida Chelli, Ed Devereaux, Slim de Grey, John Meillon, Jeanie Drynan, Tony Bonner, Anne Haddy, Muriel Steinbeck, Gloria Dawn, Doreen Warburton, Barry Creyton, Graham Kennedy.
Directed by Michael Powell.

They're A Weird Mob was a very popular book by John O' Grady. It told the story of Nino Culotta, an Italian migrant, arriving in Sydney and trying to make his way with the difficulties of language, idiom, Australian customs. After making his way around King's Cross, he finds friends and works in the western suburbs, eventually marrying into an Australian family and settling. The comic ingredients captured a lot of the attitudes of Australia in the '50s and '60s. They were put together in this quite entertaining film version with Italian actor Walter Chiari very persuasive as Nino. A competent Australian cast, headed by Chips Rafferty inevitably, do their best with the comic situations. The film was slightly ahead of its time and was one of the few successful Australian films of the '60s. It was directed by Michael Powell, the

1. The significance and tone of the title? Indications of comedy? The impact of the comedy and its qualities?

2, Interest in the film as an Australian production of the sixties? The style of Australian filming? The contrast with later styles and techniques?

3. Its impact on the Australian audience of the 1960s? How intelligible and enjoyable for overseas audiences?

4. The contribution of colour photography of Sydney and its atmosphere, songs and light-hearted approach?

5. The importance of the comedy about language games? situations of work, home life, city life? How true to life were the incidents? How heightened and exaggerated for comic effect? For effective comment on the Australian way of life?

6. How engaging a presence waa Nino? Would audiences identify with him? How attractive a character? His arrival and naivete? The feel for the plight of migrants arriving in Sydney? The difficulties of a new culture? How did he learn? The humour of the initial encounters? going to the pub?

7. The importance of the financial trials, the effects on him and his prospects in Australia? The clash with Key Kelly? The harshness in finding himself in Sydney? Squatting, the office?

8. The importance of his getting a job? The comedy of his adaptation to the work way of life? The portrayal of Australian mateship? The heavy-handedness yet the helping hand? the families? The pleasant attitudes in the suburban way of life?

9. Nino and his ‘old world’ style, difficulties of adapting to the new: the pub, the beach, the outings?

10. How important was this characterisation of Nino for Joe, Pat, Danny, Jimmy? Their wives? The life savers?

11. Audience response to Kay? Her tendency to be aristocratic and snobbish? Her growing to understand Nino and love for him? Her parents and the importance of the interview? The prejudice inherent in Mr Kelly? The humour about the Italians, and the Pope an an Italian?

12. What had Nino achieved as he made plans for his house and took Kay to the site?

13. The film was slight yet optimistic and nice? How important is it to have this kind of film for Australian audiences? overseas?

14. What were the main Australian characteristics of this film? Strengths and weaknesses? The importance of humour and geniality?

TANGO & CASH

US, 1989, 98 minutes, Colour.
Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Jack Palance, Teri Hatcher, Brion James.
Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky.

Tango and Cash is one of the many police buddy movies of the '80s - a variation on the Lethal Weapon theme. It provides a star vehicle for Sylvester Stallone and an opportunity for him to play against type, with three-piece suit, spectacles, a policeman with stock market skills. He also has a humorous at Rambo. By contrast, Kurt Russell is the police slob. Jack Palance, echoing his villain from Batman, is the drug chief.

There are the predictable actions, violence, friendships, escapes.

The film was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, the Russian emigre director who made such serious films as Maria's Lovers, The Runaway Train, Shy People, Duet for One.

1. The popularity of the police buddy film? The odd couple? Combating drug empires?

2. Los Angeles locations, the precincts, the two different lifestyles, the world of the drug empire? Prisons? Musical score?

3. The status of the stars? Stallone playing against type?

4. 1980s police films, police as lethal weapons, drugs, violence, police corruption? Buddies, flip and comic style?

5. Tango and his pursuit of the truck, the arrest, all done neatly? Stock market interests? Relationship with his sister? Headlines -in the papers?

6. The contrast with Cash as a slob, his arrests, rough style, the newspapers?

7. Perrett and his henchmen, the drug busts, the threat to his empire? His personal manner and style, anger, the dialogue with the mice? Setting up Tango and Cash? His English henchman? The plan, buying off the police, the tape recording expert, the witnesses? His enjoying playing gaines? The visit to the jail and the threats? His headquarters, elaborate precautions, security? The attacks, the siege, confrontation and destructlon? His associates and their advice, ears, his dominance? Their deaths?

8. The set-up for Tango and Cash, the messages to lure them, getting them together, following the Englishman, the tape recording, the money, the arrest? The treatment, in prison, the lawyers, the case, the witnesses? The deals and Tango's restrained speech, Cash's outburst? The sentence? Going to the wrong jail, the rough guards, the entry into the prison, the shower sequence, the ugly cells, the big man with Cash, the eccentric with Tango? The tough prison guards, prisoners? The night and their being roughed up, the electric shocks? Perrett and his threats?

9. The possibility of escape, the plans, Cash's friend, his death, Cash being caught, Tango rescuing him? The escape along the electric wires? Ingenuity and danger?

10. The trackdowns, the corrupt policeman, his death? The recording expert? The nightclub, the strippers, Tango's sister, Cash disguised as a woman? The pursuit? With the Englishmen, their treatment of him, the grenade? The meeting with the sister, Cash's relationship with her, Tango's suspicions?

11. The sister, her relationships, contact, her work, her being abducted?

12. The build-up to the climax, the siege, the shoot-out, the explosions?

13. The sketch of the various police officers and personnel? Relationships with £ango and Cash? Lawyers?

14. The quality of the relationship between the two policemen, serious, humorous, rivalry?

15. The '80s and the popularity of these police stories, combating drugs, the public image of the police?

TAP

US, 1988, 111 minutes, Colour.
Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr, Suzanne Douglass, Savion Glover, Joe Morton, Dick Anthony Williams, Harold Nicholas.
Directed by Nick Castle.

Tap is a star vehicle for Gregory Hines who danced to such effect in The Cotton Club and with Mikhail Baryshnikov in White Nights. Hines is a big man and rather than a light tapdancer, he is what is called a 'hoofer'. This does not prevent him from dancing also with the light touch.

There are several set pieces in the film which are highly enjoyable: the opening credits with Hines dancing in Sing Sing, the challenge by the old. tap dancers, a version of Irving Berlin's 'Cheek to Cheek,' a Fame-like jam session in Times Square and a grand finale.

There is a predictable enough plot about Hines as a thief getting out of Sing Sing, deciding whether to take up hi-;old life again or settle down to dancing, which had sustained him during his imprisonment. While the outcome can be foreseen, it is how the outcome occurs that retains some interest.

A bonus for viewers is the presence of Sammy Davis Jnr who does some dancing and offers an engaging performance. The film was written and directed by Nick Castle (The Last Starfighter, The Boy Who Could Fly).

1. An appealing dance film, drama, fable?

2. The New York locations, the streets, the dance classes, the hotels? The choreography and staging of the dance sequences?

3. The score, songs old and new? Styles of dance, tap, rhythms, visual presentation of energy? Solos, duos, group dancing? Editing and angles?

4. The set pieces: Sing Sing, the challenge from the ol& men, the rooftop version of 'Cheek to Cheek', the jam session in Times Square with the noises of New York, the shorter segments of Hines dancing, the grand finale?

5. The American traditions of tap, Broadway, hoofers? Hines and his personal style? The collage of the final credits and the tribute to the tap dancers?

6. Max in jail, the water dripping, the sounds, his starting to dance, keeping his sanity in solitude, the complaints of the other prisoners? Getting out, the prospects of jobs? Going to Sonny's side of the street? His attitude towards his father as a failure? His being taunted? The job in the kitchen? The room in the hotel? Going to dance as exercise, watching Amy, his love for Louis? Friendship with MO? The challenge of the old men and the competitive dancing? The contact with the thieves, the meetings and the social? His surveying the possible robbery? Friendship with Louis and the promise to take him to the ball-game? The tapdancing and the old men? Dancing for MO? The Times Square dance? The bargain and the evening with Amy, the rooftop, 'Cheek to Cheek', their love for each other? The question of whether to do the robbery or not? Amy taking him to the audition, his dancing, the humiliation by the director? Leaving, doing the job, the water and the tap, his decision to put back the diamonds? His punching his fellow criminals? The return to Amy and to Louis? To Mo and the job? The finale and his personal dancing? Achievement?

7. Mo and his age, his memories, his love for Amy and Louis, dancing, the challenge, hopes, the straight talk with Max? The other old men, Sandman and his perpetual groaning? Mo explaining Max's father to him?

8. Amy and her resenting Max's walking out on her, her being a teacher, Louis answering the phone, not wanting to dance, persuading the little boy to dance and his demonstratIon? Mo and the dancing, Amy and her meal with Max, hearing the truth, taking him to the audit.ion and his humiliation, the happy ending? Louis running after the car against Max, throwing the cards at him? The happy ending?

9. The sketch of the thieves, their relationships, pressure on Max, doing the job, putting the diamonds back?

10. The blend of tap and drama? Predictable? The finale - and a sense of uplift?