Samson & Delilah Wins Big in Australia

It was only five years ago when the Australian Film Institute Awards reached their most sad and pathetic moment. 2005, the year that will live in infamy for followers of Australian film, produced only one (ONE!) film that the AFI felt worthy enough to award. Cate Shortland's Somersault was nominated for and won every.single.category. The really sad thing is that it probably deserved to win them all, which says more about the slate of Aussie films that year than anything else.

Sidebar: Two of Somersault's wins were for Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington's performances. The former is on the cusp of Oscar and the latter on the cusp of global fame and worship. You could do worse than seeing where these two learnt the ropes.

This year's AFI awards, however, are a much different story. 2009 has been a stellar year for Australian cinema - perhaps the best ever - and my country's version of the Oscars (as they like to be called) certainly showed why.

Samson & Delilah's creator Warwick Thornton walked away with three of the AFI's glass statues winning for Best Cinematography (he has been a cinematographer for 25 years prior to directing S&D), Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay. The film also took hope Best Film for producer Kath Shelper (who I've seen loitering around the comment sections here at The Film Experience!) Australia's entry into the Best Foreign Language Film category at next year's Academy Awards also won for Best Sound and the film's two stars, Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson, took the Young Actor Award.

Robert Connelly's Balibo took the honours for Best Actor (Anthony LaPaglia), Best Supporting Actor (Oscar Isaac) and Best Adapted Screenplay. Rhonda Epinstalk herself, Rachel Griffiths, won a Best Supporting Actress gong for her role in Rachel Ward's directorial debut Beautiful Kate. Frances O'Connor, she of constant almost-fame in America, won her first AFI Award from five nominations for her role in Ana Kokkinos' Blessed. Kokkinos couldn't direct a good movie if it fell into her lap, and Blessed was no different, but O'Connor has a scene - and anyone who has seen it will know which one - that ranks as one of the most emotionally devastating scenes you're ever likely to see. She deserved the prize for that scene alone.

And what happened to Baz Luhrmann's Australia? Well, it was snubbed for nominations in the top categories, but took home trophies for Costume Design, Production Design and Visual Effects as well as a special AFI in honour of it's astronomical box office. All good for a night's work, I say.

What do these wins mean for Samson & Delilah's Oscar hopes? Not much at all, sadly. Three years ago Ten Canoes won the big prize, but wasn't able to make any headway in the Foreign Language league. Adam Elliot's Mary and Max, a shortlisted title for Best Animated Feature, was nominated for several awards, including Best Film, but failed to win any. Meanwhile The Cat Piano and Miracle Fish won Best Animated Short and Best Short Fiction Film respectively. Both are on Oscar's shortlist and shouldn't be ignored. Check out The Cat Piano below, I guarantee you'll love it!

Monday Monologue - Mariel's Lament

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JA from MNPP here. Over the weekend I went to a wedding and whenever I go to a wedding my brain becomes enveloped in thoughts of P.J. Hogan's brilliant 1994 tragicomedy Muriel's Wedding. 1994! It was released in Australia the last week of September that year meaning it just turned 15 years old. Happy Anniversary, Muriel! The appropriate gift for 15 years of wedded bliss is crystal, so what do you think? Maybe a chandelier? She's shown an affinity for wearing them on her head before...


Oh just look at him. You know, in the fifteen years that this film's been around I've watched it dozens of times and it still seems unnecessary to me that she abandons her green-card-husband David Van Arkle (Daniel Lapaine) at the end when she decides she needs to stop lying. What could one possibly be lying about, climbing into bed with this?

(more pics from this scene here)

I mean, really. But I'm becoming distracted! I really could spin off into a dozen different directions with this movie, but today I want to look at the "tragi" half of the film's "tragicomedy" because I think it's an aspect of the film that's often undervalued - I know that every time I sit down to watch the film I forget just how tremendously sad so much of the film is. This is a film saturated with loneliness and trauma. Just think of Muriel's mother, Betty (a wonderful Jeanie Drynan)...

... and you'll know I'm right. (Oh Betty!)

Or think of the moment when Muriel's friend Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths) discovers Muriel (who has moved to Sydney and hilariously changed her name to "Mariel") has been sneaking out and getting herself photographed in wedding dresses and confronts her...

Rhonda: What is going on, Mariel? I've seen your wedding album. You've tried on every dress in Syndey.

Mariel: That doesn't mean I'm getting married.

Rhonda: What else does it mean?

Mariel: I want to get married! I've always wanted to get married! If I can get married, it means I've changed, I'm a new person.


Rhonda: How?

Mariel: Because who would want to marry me?

Rhonda: Tim Simms...

Mariel: There is no Tim Simms. I made him up. In Porpoise Spit, no one would even look at me. But when I came to Sydney and became Mariel, Brice asked me out. That proves I'm already different than I was.

And if someone wants to marry me, I'm not her anymore. I'm me.

Rhonda: Her?

Mariel: Muriel! Muriel Heslop! Stupid, fat and useless, I hate her! I'm not going back to being her again!


Why can't it be me? Why can't I be the one?"

The entire film pivots on this moment - her friendship with Rhonda, which until now had been her saving grace, is fractured by the revelation, leading Mariel to marry the speedo-clad David Van Arckle and abandon her friend, only to finally have all that fantasy come crashing down around her with her mother Betty's tragedy.

But what I find most striking about this scene is the fracturing it shows has already happened within Muriel. "Muriel" versus "Mariel" and all the "her" versus "me" talk; the way her entire sense of self has had to split apart in order to even continue functioning, and how that emptiness has opened up a vacuum inside of her that only the approval of others seems to fill. Only she thinks this will make her someone else, a beautiful girl in a crystal crown, a life as good as "Dancing Queen." But it's not until she stops running and faces the demons making her think she's not good enough - it's telling that in this scene she calls herself "useless," which her father calls her and her siblings and mother several times through the film - and realizes that Muriel Heslop is good enough, doggone it, that she's able to really leave Porpoise Spit and all the horrors ("And you three. What a bunch of cocksuckers.") behind for real.

"Goodbye, Porpoise Spit!"

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TV and Me

Many of you know that I am suspicious of the small screen. It is true that I don't watch much of it and far prefer heading to the multiplex. But I've been sick again. (My nurse friend thinks I have asthma! yikes. Meanwhile, my best friend thinks I have indoor allergies but he is a skin-cancer-be-damned sun worshipper so that probably plays into his "you spend too much time in your apartment" advice.) This has been like "summer of sick" for me. Never been so frequently sick in my life. So I'm super glad it's Fall. Oh but the point: Sick = TV for me. Very brief thoughts on a few things I've watched this past week:

Grey's Anatomy
Other than the undebatable talents and charm of the ex Mrs. Alexander Payne (Sandra Oh) I can't understand why anybody watches this show. I am forced to "listen" to it regularly and its writing grates on my very last nerve. Perhaps its the delivery by the extremely annoying "sad blonde girl" --that's what my friends call her (they watch it religiously). I think they mean Ellen Pompeo who is just like Renee Zellweger minus the comic gift (so...you can imagine my loathing). I am also sick to death of TV shows that rely on overly precious life lessons learned narration. These shows are not difficult to understand. Do they really need to tell us their obvious metaphors and lessons while showing them?

Six Degrees
I watched this out of curiousity at what they'd do with the concept but I'm not sure they even understand the concept. For instance: Jay Hernandez (me love) meets Erika Christensen (me hate) and falls instantly in love. He spends the rest of the episode trying to find her and at the end he does --they see each other on the subway. That's no degrees of separation. Both times they meet they are face to face and nobody they're connected to is serving as a connection between them. It would have been smarter to call this Six People because essentially all of the characters are connected but in different ways. But that's not what the concept of six degrees of separation is. Plus: boring and obvious. I love about half the actors but I probably wouldn't watch this again.

Desperate Housewives
So. Um. I guess they listened to all the complaints about the second season. The Housewives did slapstick, ate lunch together, had sex (not together. sorry), and seemed a lot more like the season one girls. I "get" the appeal of this show but I'm not a regular viewer and I thought what I saw of last season was almost unforgiveably shoddy in terms of writing. I love Alfre Woodard but that Emmy nomination she received had to be among the worst choices they've made recently (which is saying a lot given that the Emmys are often the most laughable of the big ticket awards shows)

Survivor and The Amazing Race
Other than Project Runway (excellent. genius. addictive) and America's Next Top Model (hilarious, carcrash fascinating) I generally have to wear crosses and cloves of garlic when approaching reality television as it always saps my will to live. I hate the constant redundancy. Scene A: we show you something Scene B: We talk about what we just showed you, Scene C:(after commercial) we talk about what we were just talking about. Scene D: we show you something (and repeat). All the while the editing is so frantic that if you are anything like a discerning viewer you realize that you should never ever ever ever view this genre as anything other than a fascinating case study in film editing as mind control. No conclusion you could ever draw is your own. You haven't seen enough. You've been shown a tiny snippet. Then you've heard several minutes of commentary on that tiny snippet.

But all that said: Yul (on Survivor) is my new imaginary boyfriend. And every single person on Amazing Race I hate because this show somehow beats Runway to the Emmy every year even though it sucks by comparison.

Design Star
An interior design contest. I watched a marathon and I only mention it because it stars my other new imaginary boyfriend (pictured right). Yum.

Brothers & Sisters
I watched this primarily for the return of Calista Flockhart, freed from both Ally McBeal and Harrison Ford apparently. I was surprised to find a whole boatload of watchable actors including double Oscar winner Sally Field and Tom Skerritt, reprising their Steel Magnolias marital act which was somewhat fitting since the other characters called theirs an "iconic romance." I was super happy to see a glimpse of the great Patricia Wettig (of thirtysomething fame) back on television. Sadly, Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under, Hilary & Jackie), another superb talent was saddled with the clunkiest exposition heavy subplot. B&S is basically a family drama. We haven't seen much of that genre on television lately given the ubiquity of hospitals, crime scenes, and reality programming. It's about a large wealthy and politically split family (half liberal blue / half right-wing red) and it was pretty intense. Some of it felt a bit forced but I was left with the overall feeling that this has a lot of potential as a dramatic series if it finds its groove quickly enough. I'll definitely give it a few weeks to find out.