Sunday, 10 February 2002

The Matrix Has My TV Set. One of the emblematic movies of our time—The Matrix—is playing on the TV right now. No rented videos needed tonight. The Matrix DVD cover. 9:27:39 PM    Add a comment.

Wise Men From The East To The Rescue. A branch of JB Hi-Fi recently opened in the Hay Street Mall, with a store specializing in DVDs and CDs.       They have a pretty big selection, although they certainly don’t have everything you could wish for. But their selection is without question bigger than any other store in Perth, and their prices are much cheaper as well. JB Hi-Fi should provide a bit of a shake-up to the local retailers.       The locals need to understand that choice is good. So are prices on a parity with the rest of Australia. 9:11:53 PM    Add a comment.

Kieslowski Lives! When Krzysztof Kieslowski suddenly died he had almost finished the scripts for his next trilogy—Heaven, Hell and Purgatory—in collaboration with his writing partner Krzysztof Piesiewicz.       German director Tom Tykwer took over the directing, and has made Heaven, starring Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi. Interesting choice of director, whose previous movies have been less about deep emotions and the essential questions than Kieslowski’s. Tykwer is a philosopher of a different kind. This movie may be the challenge that causes him to go deeper.       Upcomingmovies.com seems to think that the US release date for Heaven is now October 2002, although February 2002 is the German release month. Newsflash: I just saw a video grab of Tom Tykwer and Cate Blanchett onstage at the Berlin Film Festival to present Heaven, on the SBS German language news program. 5:42:34 PM    Add a comment.

Awake In The Midst Of Life. Whoo-hoo! I’d never thought that Waking Life, the wildly innovative live action/rotoscoped pop philosophy movie by Austin, Texas, independent filmmaker Richard Linklater, would ever make it to Oz. Too non-mainstream, too challenging in its methodology and content.       But amongst a sheaf of handbills I gathered up from a table in the Luna cinema in Leederville I discovered one for the movie. It’s going to be showing in that cinema here, one in Carlton and one in Paddington, Sydney, in March. Better than nothing!       I visited the Waking Life website, and noted that Richard Linklater still lives in Austin, and still makes his movies there for the most part. I wonder how much movie-making infrastructure Austin has? Probably as much, or as little, as Perth. Poster for Waking Life. 3:54:53 PM    Add a comment.

New Order Pop-picks For You. The three guys in New Order—Barnie, Peter and Steven—are on the TV right now as guest programmers for the ABC’s Rage music video program. Gillian, Steven’s wife, was not on the Australian tour as she has been looking after their seriously ill child.       I’ll try to list the videos they have chosen, as they play, below. I missed the titles of two tracks by Soul Wax and Marion as I just had a good old Internet Exploder crash in Mac OS 9.2.2. Primal Scream: Come Together Pulp: Common People Soul Wax: ? Marion: ? Ash: A Life Less Ordinary Chemical Brothers: Out Of Control Joy Division: Atmosphere Goldfrapp: Utopia Mazzy Star: Halah Rolling Stones: 2000 Light Years From Home Eels: Novocaine for the Soul [Missed the title of this next one.] Marion: Time Feeder: Buck Rogers Adam Ant: Stand And Deliver Sex Pistols: Anarchy In The UK The Clash: Rock The Casbah Transvision Vamp: I Want Your Love Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Relax Kraftwerk: Telephone Call The Avalanches: Since I left You Lionel Ritchie: Hello Finley Quaye: Spiritualized Lion Rock: Rude Boy Rock Bob Marley vs Funk Star Deluxe: Sun Is Shining The All Seeing I: The Beat Goes On Snoop Doggy Dogg: What’s My Name? Missy Elliott: Get Ur Freak On The Offspring: Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) Smashing Pumpkins: 1979 Beck: The New Pollution       And then a number of other videos followed throughout the night, but I don’t think New Order actually chose them. 1:44:42 AM    Add a comment.

The Australian Invasion Of Hollywood Continues. So I went and saw Mulholland Drive. Not only is lead actress Naomi Watts—whose performance is a real breakthrough, quite brilliant—an Australian but so are two others in the movie.       Marcus Graham (from Perth like Heath Ledger) and Melissa George (also from Perth) both have supporting roles.       Here are a few other people from Perth listed in the Internet Movie Database: Judy Davis: actress Gigi Edgley: actress, Chiana from Farscape Jon Farriss: member of INXS Tim Farriss: member of INXS Rove McManus: Host of variety show Rove Live Jeremy Sims: actor Michael Willesee: TV journalist Terry Willesee: TV journalist Dorothy Hewitt: actress, novelist, playwright Lisa McCune: actress Judy Nunn: actress Andrew Bovell: screenwriter, wrote Lantana Alison Moir: actress       Actors who studied at the WA Academy of Performing Arts but were not born in Perth include Hugh Jackman and Frances O’Connor—who did a BA in Literature first at my old alma mater and former employer the Curtin Institute of Technology. There’s bound to be more with a Perth connection, who neither studied here nor were born here but lived here for some time, like Paul Mercurio.       Feature films tend not to be made in Perth, although I worked on a couple of German telemovies by the writer/director Rainer Erler a long time ago. Movies set here, such as Shine and Phillip Noyce’s Rabbit-Proof Fence, are usually made in other states and especially South Australia. The reason most often cited is the lack of filmmaking infrastructure in Western Australia. Poster for Shine, a film set in Perth but made in South Australia. My friend Neil the Snow Bunny lived in the same halfway house in Highgate as David Helfgott. 1:26:57 AM    Add a comment.