HUNT
ANGELS
SUNDAY, 21ST OCTOBER, 10.00 A.M.
TUESDAY, 23RD OCTOBER, 8.30 P.M.
RUNNING TIME 85 MINUTES
RATED M
SYNOPSIS:
A dramatized documentary about the life of Australian filmmaker
Rupert Kathner (Ben Mendelsohn) who together with Alma Brooks
(Victoria Hill) forged checks, stole equipment and bent rules
to get their films made in 1930s Australia, all the while desperately
hunting 'angels' with cash to finance their productions. Using
archival footage and stills, the film reconstructs the era
and the environment in which 'Rupe' tried single handedly but
with the help of the good woman Alma, to kick start a film
industry while lacking money, opportunity and facing overwhelming
competition from America.
Review by Andrew L. Urban:
The world premiere of Alec Morgan's
iconoclastic treatment of a documentary about 1930s Aussie filmmakers
Rupert Kathner and Alma Brooks was the perfect choice to re-open
Sydney's Chauvel, the city's last arthouse cinema, now operated
by Palace Cinemas after smartly re-furbishing the old Paddington
Town Hall venue.
It was the perfect choice partly because Kathner and Charles
Chauvel were contemporaries - Chauvel is briefly seen in archival
footage - partly because the subject is indie filmmaking, and
mostly because it is the kind of quality arthouse fare that is
typical of what the Chauvel is programming.
Innovative and entertaining, Hunt Angels plays with cinematic
tools to bring the 1930s mood alive by clever use of digital
technology. Archival stills and footage is seamlessly integrated
and enhanced; for example, a still shot of the pipe smoking police
commissioner of the time has smoke spiralling out of the still
pipe. Other tricks put the film's re-enactment stars into the
1930s picture.
Well told story of pioneering (and buccaneering) filmmakers
Rupe and Alma is absorbing and a salutary lesson to filmmakers
today. Nothing's changed, and if you want to make films, you
might need to be unusually inventive - although Rupe's practice
of rubber checks is not romanticised. He gets caught.
But the larrikin spirit of the man - and woman - is well captured
in the film's stylish production, and the little known filmmaker
finally gets to be a hero in an industry he was so passionate
about he could even con a judge.
Review by Louise Keller:
They were the Bonnie and Clyde of the
Australian film industry in the 30s, two creative innovators
whose extraordinary story has never been told. Shot in black
and white with integrated documentary footage and innovative
but simple special effects, writer director Alex Morgan has created
a striking and fascinating film about guerrilla filmmaking at
its wildest. This is a story about passion, and it is clear that
everyone concerned with the project was imbued with plenty. Reinforcing
the notion that truth is stranger than fiction, the result is
something special.
Filmmaker Rupert Kathner's philosophy was to always think big.
He wanted to tell Australian stories and dreamed his films would
be projected on a giant screen in the sky, viewed by the whole
world. His golden rules for filmmaking comprised four steps,
beginning with a script. Then came a pilot, followed by the search
for an 'angel' or investor. Finally, and if all else failed,
it was time to get a partner. All else did fail, and Alma Brooks,
a former barmaid and rodeo rider, became not only his business
partner, but cinematographer and lover. Impossible was a word
over which Kathner simply leap-frogged. Making things happen
by his own rules was his forte. If the lead actor wanted the
impossible (ie to be paid), kill the character. No access to
the body of a murder victim? Find another body. If things are
going badly? Head out of town.
Ben Mendelsohn brings attitude and verve to Kathner, whose colourful
life spooled out like a B movie. Alma, in the assured hands of
Victoria Hill, is a plucky and no-nonsense kinda dame, while
Kathner's long-suffering wife is sympathetically portrayed by
Eloise Oxer. Morgan's adept script cleverly grounds us in reality
with its interviews from historians, participants and even Kathner's
son, whose voice gives the story emotional resilience. With a
wink to us, the audience, Mendelsohn's Kathner provides the bridge
in time, enabling us to appreciate the audaciousness, the context
and relevance of a pioneer who deserves his place in history.
Source:
www.urbancinefile.com.au
to top
|
