Metro Feature Section
challenge to reigning aesthete discourses in the academy’.2
While stylistic excess in non-paracinematic forms adds an air of ‘artistic bravado’3 to the development of a film’s diegesis, in paracinema this excess transcends the diegesis, demanding the ‘profilmic and extratextual aspects of the filmic object itself’4 be employed in a reading of the text in question. The near-fetishistic fascination paracinematic audiences have with these non-diegetic surface elements (unconvincing sets and acting, shoddy scriptwriting, haphazard cinematography and editing) to some degree quarantines these features from the films’ diegetic core. The pleasure of paracinema lies in
an excess that often manifests itself in a film’s failure to conform to historically excess and absence in harlequin and beyond delimited codes of verisimilitude, call(ing) … attention to the text as a cultural and sociological document … thus dissolv(ing) In bringing the little-discussed Harlequin into the critical … the boundaries of the diegesis into spotlight, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas argues for the profilmic and extratextual realms.5 existence of an ‘excessive absence’ that is characteristic of Australian paracinema. It is precisely here that Sconce locates the vital deviation between paracinematic ‘reading protocols’ and those of traditional film scholarship. In orthodox Cinema Studies, formal and stylistic excesses are evaluated only in how they relate to the ILM HISTORIES – like any histories 1980) transcends fly-in-the-ointment themes and contexts contained diegetically – are written retrospectively, and analyses of Ozploitation by demonstrating within the text. In paracinema, however, Fseek to articulate the significance just how ingrained the paradoxical notion ‘attention to excess seeks to push the of that which risks being lost. This task of excessive absence is in the Australian viewer beyond the formal boundaries of the is subjective: how much reclamation context. text’.6 needs to be done? Of what, and by who, and for what purpose? These answers Rethinking excess Kristin Thompson’s essay ‘The Concept of are fundamentally political, and therefore Cinematic Excess’ (1986) provides Sconce the debates surrounding Australian film In his seminal 1995 article ‘“Trashing” with a comparative critical treatment of history are not like a history war – they the Academy: Taste, Excess, and an excess with which to frame his exploration are a history war. The re-establishment Emerging Politics of Cinematic Style’, of paracinema. For Thompson, neoformalist of Ozploitation as part of Australian film Jeffrey Sconce maintains that viewing excess is defined as follows: history in Not Quite Hollywood (Mark pleasure for paracinematic1 audiences Hartley, 2008) is a vital step towards the is attained through engagement with Films can be seen as a struggle of articulation of these questions in this non-diegetic, rather than diegetic, filmic opposing forces. Some of these forces national context. But its significance elements. Because paracinematic tastes strive to unify the work, to hold it together transcends film history: it allows the tight are by definition consciously opposed to sufficiently that we may perceive and follow weave of taste, cultural production and ‘mainstream’ Hollywood, paracinematic its structures. Outside any such structures reception, national identity, the notion of audiences are therefore required to be lie those aspects of the work which are ‘exploitation’ and broader cultural and just as familiar with this mainstream style, not contained by its unifying forces – the political discourse to be made explicit. In its if only to define their own aesthetic in ‘excess’.7 defining formal and thematic articulation of opposition to it. It is within this oppositional a uniquely Australian ‘excessive absence’, reading strategy that Sconce identifies the In the neoformalist sense, excess can Ozploitation has a greater significance key role of excess to paracinema. In short, therefore be mathematically deduced than its status as a missing piece in the ‘paracinema hinges on an aesthetic of – anything external to the unifying, jigsaw of the nation’s film history. Horror/ excess, and … this paracinematic interest organisational logic of a given text (the thriller hybrid Harlequin (Simon Wincer, in excess represents an explicitly political ‘dominant’) is, by definition, excessive.
98 • Metro Magazine 162 This definition of excess is therefore Altman’s search for ‘another language, Carol Laseur explicitly exposes in her solely dependent upon an identification of another logic’. discussion of excess as a quantitative the dominant. The problem paracinema ‘moreness’ in Australian exploitation raises for neoformalism hits at the heart Roland Barthes has provided both film.17 But in the case of Ozploitation of the latter’s scientific agenda: how can Thompson and Sconce with insight into horror, I argue that excess is frequently excess itself be the dominant? As Sconce the complexities of excess. Thompson’s marked instead by a sense of ‘something observes: analysis expands upon Barthes’ essay missing’, resulting in a paradoxical excess ‘The Third Meaning: Research Notes on of absence. Consequently, excess will the paracinematic audience is perhaps the Some Eisenstein Stills’ (1970), where, as be employed closer to the sense that one group of viewers that does concentrate the title of suggests, he identifies three Angela Ndalianis employs it in response to on these ‘non-diegetic aspects of the levels of meaning in a still image from Maitland McDonagh’s treatment of Dario image’ during the entire film, or at least Sergei Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible (1944). Argento: ‘Excess is not just ‘more’ but is attempts to do so.8
Paracinematic viewing is distinguished from other forms of spectatorship because it not +At the heart of paracinematic excess lies this very invitation to look beyond its assumed simply privileges excess, it also flagrantly oppositionality … in the spirit of Altman’s search flaunts its disinterest in the relationship for ‘another language, another logic’. between diegetic and non-diegetic + elements.
Rick Altman’s 1989 essay ‘Dickens, Griffith It is the titular third meaning that is the concerned with a realm that lies outside and Film Theory Today’ shares an interest source of Barthes’ interest. Described whatever system the viewer has adopted in neoformalist notions of excess.9 Honing as ‘obtuse’, Barthes describes what has to make sense of the film.’18 Leading on in on the (neo)formalist dependence on the become familiarly recognised as excess from Ndalianis and Sconce, paracinematic dominant, he acknowledges its usefulness in terms of both its formal construction excess in Ozploitation must be conceived because not only does it identify that films and the emotional response it garners both literally and figuratively in the spatial are made up of a variety of components, it from the spectator. Analysing the different terms of a realm beyond. also emphasises a hierarchal relationship appearances of hair in the image, Barthes between those components and within says: ‘The whole of the obtuse meaning (its Absence in Ozploitation horror these structures.10 Altman summarises disruptive force) is staked on the excessive Thompson’s argument with the simple mass of the hair.’14 Barthes lays the This overwhelming sense of ‘something equation ‘Totality minus dominant equals foundations for Thompson’s identification missing’ is most readily identifiable in Night excess’.11 But he hastens to add that ‘the of excess as that which is peripheral to of Fear (Terry Bourke, 1972) and Patrick right to identify excess carries enormous the dominant. But he also argues that the (Richard Franklin, 1978), where horror is power, always in favour of the dominant. influence of this third meaning is so strong constructed through an excessive absence Totality minus excess equals dominant.’12 as to contain the vital essence of what can of sound. In Patrick this is diegetic, as Altman’s essay focuses primarily upon be deemed ‘filmic’: the title character (played by Robert classical Hollywood cinema, but as Sconce Thompson) unleashes his telekinetic demonstrates so forcefully in the case of it is at the level of the third meaning, and whirlwind of violence while lying comatose excess, it may function more independently at that level alone, that the ‘filmic’ finally and mute in a hospital bed. In Night of from the dominant than Thompson emerges. The filmic is that in the film which Fear, muteness is less a narrative element suggests: cannot be described, the representation than its most striking formal feature. The which cannot be represented.15 absence of spoken language in the film is However strong the dominant voice, arresting – there is no dialogue, and the excess bears witness to the existence of Thompson rejects Barthes’ phrasing of only human sounds are screams, pants, another language, another logic. Unless this ‘obtuse meaning’ predicated upon the and other prelingual utterances. There we recognize the possibility that excess ‘misleading’ nature of his use of the term are other strategies that demonstrate this – defined as such because of its refusal ‘meaning’: simply, she claims it cannot excess of absence: the protagonist in the to adhere to a system – may itself be be seen as a ‘third meaning’ precisely supernatural drama The Survivor (David organised as a system, then we will hear because it is defined as having no meaning Hemmings, 1980) is a pilot who suffers only the official language and miss the at all.16 The source of Altman’s ‘another from amnesia, and the story is predicated text’s dialect, and dialectic.13 logic, another language’ with which to upon his status as a present body that is critically engage with paracinematic excess bereft of the power to recollect the events At the heart of paracinematic excess therefore lies much closer to Barthes’ that led him to his surviving a plane crash. lies this very invitation to look beyond its ‘obtuse meaning’ than Thompson’s At the film’s conclusion it is revealed he assumed oppositionality (its conscious ‘excess’ primarily because it does have was never a ‘survivor’ at all: rather, he opposition to so-called mainstream tastes, the ability to contain meaning. Thompson’s a step away from ‘official’ culture and use of ‘excess’ – while commonly sanctioned predilections) in the spirit of accepted – problematically implies what Opposite Page: images from Harlequin
Metro Magazine 162 • 99 Metro Feature Section
existed purely in a neither-here-nor-there ‘nature’ is retaliating. Meanwhile the action- intrinsically relevant to broader cultural realm that parallels Australia’s own sense thriller The Chain Reaction (Ian Barry, 1980) issues surrounding the physical and of alienation from the rest of the world. That includes an amnesiac protagonist (absent cultural distance between Australia and these films hinge so intently upon absence of memory), and a mute assassin (absent of the European and American cultures reflects a deeper, broader cultural concern. voice). In all these examples, the voids are upon which its search for a coherent white Through its isolation from the rest of the all excessive. The diegetic and non-diegetic identity are so heavily based. Because of world, (white) Australia as a nation suffers dominance of absence demonstrates how the extreme specificity of this formal and from this constant, disorienting sense of excess can be emphasised through overt thematic motif to this issue of national ‘something missing’. Indeed, this sense of negation, resulting in the privileging of other identity, Ozploitation films are uniquely alienation may be claimed to be one of the elements to overcompensate. Patrick’s Australian. They could not be made in any most recurrent themes in Australian art. visual display of violence far outweighs other country in the world, and even more his inability to speak, while Night of Fear than their surface iconography (kangaroos The overwhelming and inescapable effectively replaces dialogue-fuelled plot and koalas, broad ocker accents, the Sydney absences that mark Ozploitation are not and character development by strapping Opera House) it is this hyperactive and specific to horror variants, but it is here that an abundance of gory body horror to its paradoxical excess of absence that marks it is most intensely articulated. Razorback bare-bones narrative framework. Therefore, Ozploitation as a distinctly Australian form. (Russell Mulcahy, 1984) follows the search this excess of absence in fact manifests for a missing American journalist, and a as a tension created by the paradoxical The patchwork anti-hero killer wild boar that cannot be found. The presence of absence. final girls in Nightmares (John Lamond, This configuration of national identity, 1980), Next of Kin (Tony Williams, 1982), There is no debate that there are many politics and the diegetic and non-diegetic Cassandra (Colin Eggleston, 1986) and non-Ozploitation (and non-Australian) manifestation of excess-through-absence Alison’s Birthday (Ian Coughlan, 1979) paracinematic (and non-paracinematic) in Ozploitation is effectively demonstrated are all orphans (and with her unkind and texts that feature a similar emphasis upon in Harlequin. Released in the US as Dark indifferent mother, Sigrid Thornton’s Angela a sense of ‘something missing’. There are Forces, it typifies Australian genre film in Simon Wincer’s 1979 film Snapshot movies from all around the world about created with an international market in may as well have been). Long Weekend final girls with missing mothers, about mind: because of the substantial reduction (Colin Eggleston, 1978) even lacks a readily people with amnesia, about people who of previously generous government identifiable malevolent entity, its suspense cannot speak. But it is in the Australian financial support, from 1975 onwards it stemming from a general sense that context that this excessive absence is so was clear that ‘new Australian films were
Focus on Asia Dangerous Kisses: The Stranded Changing in the War on (T)Error: Face of ‘The Road to Guantanamo’ Hindi “Where cruelty exists, laW does not” alBerto Mora, us navy General.1 Cinema By boris trbic
IcHAel Winterbottom is a prolific filmmaker whose Mike Walsh intervieWs the director rolf de heer and revieWs The face of aishwarya rai appears in Mcareer is characterized european fashion magazines and on by creative, stylistic and generic Monir (22), who travel to his neW Movie ten canoes The back of auTo-rickshaws in mumbai. diversity, passionate interest in Pakistan in 2001 to attend global issues, experimentation with Asif’s arranged marriage. The former miss world is india’s highesT- narrative stratagems and a general Following the cancellation he overwhelming Theme of Australian feature films This is important given the very self-conscious stress the film paid acTress and one of The few sTars To inconsistency and unevenness. The of their journey to the bride’s village, dealing with Aboriginal people has been the unhappy places on storytelling. ‘once upon a time, in a land far, far away sTraddle bollywood and hollywood. last four years have seen him moving they visit a mosque in Karachi, where Tfate they have suffered at the hands of the european …’ the voice-over begins before breaking up into laughter. The by alana rosenbaum. from 24 Hour Party People (2002), an imam calls for men to travel to Af- colonizer. There is something of a disjunction here with the entertainment traditions of western cinema are invoked so an exuberant film about the British ghanistan to give aid. The military inter- ways in which other arts such as painting and literature have that we can be distanced from them. This is not a film in which utside the sub-continent, she is best known music scene in the 1980s to In This vention against the Taliban following the been able to show us the rich mythological systems which storytelling is used as a means of entertaining us. it is explicitly as the face of L’Oreal cosmetics and Longines World (2003), a poignant road-movie 9/11 attacks is imminent and tensions have underpinned indigenous cultures. Film has perhaps been concerned with the uses of narration as a means of teaching. Owatches, and holds the distinction of being about the desperate attempts of two in Pakistan are high. The young men slow to sense the possibilities of moving beyond the emotional For the characters in the film, narrative provides a tangible the only indian film star to have been interviewed by Afghan refugees to reach Britain; from volunteer and set off on a journey that and the melodramatic, in which white liberal filmmakers can model of how to live within the law; for the film’s non-indig- Oprah. Her blue eyes are arresting; Julia Roberts a poetic love story, 9 Songs (2004), to takes them to the frontline of the US’s find easily digestible roles of victim and dignified resister for enous audience, storytelling provides us with a readily acces- once described Rai as the most beautiful woman in a low-budget comedy, A Cock and Bull war on terror. Aboriginal Australians. sible lesson in indigenous culture. the world, an assertion that many indians take as fact. Story (2005). Winterbottom’s recent to get on a truck, Monir is not with the film, The Road to Guantanamo (2006), They reach Quetta in north-west Paki- others. He is never heard from again. This makes rolf de heer’s Ten Canoes (2005) such an impor- The storyteller quickly pulls story from within story. over Rai is a source of national pride and a vocal patriot. she co-directed with Matt Whitecross, stan, cross the border and proceed to The others surrender to the Northern tant addition to Australian cinema. For better or worse, De heer introductory images of the Arafura wetlands, we hear a rather lives in Mumbai, is a practising Hindu and appears at film examines the ordeal of four British Kandahar, at the time of the American Alliance troops led by General Dostum. has always been drawn to the genuinely innovative in a national abstract story of the cosmology of the people and their link to premieres dressed in designer saris. since launching her film Muslims stranded in a bitterly divided bombing campaign. Then they continue They are detained at Sheberghan pris- cinema which is too often conservatively theatrical. the water goanna. we are then promised an elaboration of this career in 1997 she has veered towards traditional roles – one Afghanistan, wrongly accused of further north, to Kabul. After two weeks, on, and soon transported to a US base story, with a story from the past in which an elder travels with of her most memorable performances was in Devdas (sanjay terrorism and transported to the US’s the fighting intensifies. Anxious to in Kandahar as Al Qaeda suspects. Ten Canoes is drawn from the storytelling traditions of the his younger brother (David gulpilil’s son, Jamie) on a journey Leela Bhansali, 2002), a Romeo and Juliet style-period prison camp for ‘unlawful combatants’ return to Pakistan, they hire a minibus There they are beaten and interrogated ramingining community in north-east Arnhem land. The film to build canoes and gather goose eggs. The younger man is romance. But recently she took a surprising career deviation. in Guantanamo Bay, cuba. that instead takes them to Konduz, one by American and British soldiers. was originally to have been co-directed by de heer and David said to have his eye on one of his elder’s three wives. This, in in last year’s action flick, Dhoom 2 (sanjay Gadhvi, 2006), Rai of the last strongholds of the Taliban in gulpilil, born of their previous collaboration on The Tracker turn, necessitates that the older man tell him yet another story, plays a seductive double agent who falls for a jewel thief. the The Road to Guantanamo tells the story the north. During the American bomb- In January 2002, Asif and Shafiq are (2002). while gulpilil dropped out of this role before filming from a period even further back in time, which illustrates the actress shed a significant amount of weight for the role and of four young men from Tipton, UK: ing of Konduz, foreigners are urged to taken to Guantanamo Bay where Ruhel commenced, his voice as narrator is still the central means by issues involved in the regulation of kinship obligations within showed off her new figure in a series of skimpy lycra outfits. Ruhel (19), Asif (19), Shafiq (23) and leave the city, but when they are told joins them a month later. They are which the narrative is elaborated. the social group. she also shared the first on-screen kiss of her career. days above: rahul bose and mallika sherawaT in Pyaar Ke Side effectS. inseT lefT: aishwarya rai • Metro Magazine 151 Metro Magazine 151 • • Metro Magazine 149 Metro Magazine 149 • • Metro Magazine 152 Metro Magazine 152 •
lypse as being sometime in 2008. Unable to convince federal politicians of the day STruggle with his mathematical formula, Plonk em- Though it all might barks on a scientific expedition to garner no More: “sound a bit grim, Dr hard evidence. With the aid of Mrs Plonk Plonk is a very funny (Magda Szubanski), his deaf-mute as- film. Taking inspiration sistant Paulus (Paul Blackwell) and nut- from Chaplin, de Heer ty dog Tiberius (Reg), Plonk constructs a An delivers his serious time machine that will transport him to the social message with an world of the future. after a few hiccups array of visual gags and along the way, he reaches his destination and sets out on his search for proof. daft plot turnarounds Interview that involve the audience It doesn’t take the doctor long to be con- in a pure and simple vinced of his theory’s validity. The aus- comic experience. tralia he observes in 2008 is rife with ev- Double with ” idence of imminent end. Heavily armed police swarm through the streets in plague proportions while families sit si- lently in their living rooms, fixed motion- Costa lessly agape in front of the apocalyp- Trouble: tic images generated by their televisions. Gripped by fear, politicians have become Botes a protected species in the twenty-first New ZealaNd filmmaker Costa Botes’ diverse Career century and are vigilantly guarded from spaNs the moCkumeNtary Forgotten Silver (1995, Co- the public. Geniality within public spac- direCted with peter JaCksoN), the feature film Saving es is viewed with particular distrust, es- Like Minds# grace (1997) aNd the doCumeNtary the Making oF ‘the lord oF the ringS’ (2002), for whiCh he speNt moNths Silence pecially if you are funny looking. Everyone oN loCatioN filmiNg the oNly doCumeNtary aCCouNt of it seems has something to hide, wheth- 17-YEAR-OLD ALEX FORBES (EDDIE REDMAYNE) SITS IN A POLICE peter JaCksoN’s epiC produCtioN. By Stan Jones er they do or not. Suspecting the worst INTERVIEW ROOM CALMLY. HE RADIATES A SUBTLE INTELLIGENCE AND of people the order of the day in this fu- INDICATES THAT HE IS IN CONTROL OF THE SITUATION. NOT AT ALL THE ture nation. as Plonk’s message of admo- REACTION OF A BOY WHO HAS JUST BEEN ARRESTED FOR THE MURDER nition to his forebears becomes more and OF HIS BEST FRIEND. BY RJURIK DAVIDSON is latest film, Struggle No More, is a music iS a more desperate, he chooses to take ex- documentary focusing on New Zealand blues band treme measures and gives up his chances Hthe Windy City strugglers. four decades after of civic freedom in the process. hat could have driven this in- true love of one of the Knights templar. forming in Wellington, the strugglers are still playing and re- nocent-looking youth to mur- Before they could be married, she died cording. they have evolved from an old blues covers band Though it all might sound a bit grim, dr Wder, or is he, as he claims, in- tragically. Devastated, he dug up her dead into a unit of striking originality and depth, and could even P a s s i o Virtuea n d D r P l o n k Plonk is a very funny film. Taking inspira- nocent? this is the question that forensic body and made love to it. Nine months be described as New Zealand’s answer to the Buena Vista tion from Chaplin, de Heer delivers his se- psychologist Sally Rowe (toni Collette) later, the templar was summoned to the social Club. american singer–songwriter elliot murphy de- Among many other highlights, the 2007 Adelaide Film Festival rious social message with an array of vis- must answer. the interview process, to- grave and on opening the coffin found scribes them as: hosted the world premieres of two unusual and wildly diverse ual gags and daft plot turnarounds that in- gether with Rowe’s own investigation, that the body’s head had been moved Australian productions, both of which shared a common artistic volve the audience in a pure and simple forms the first storyline of Like Minds. the beneath its hips and its thigh bones One of the most intriguing and original bands I’ve heard in comic experience. denying his audience second storyline, which is the heart of crossed, (the origin of the sign of the skull ages. For me, it’s deep blues from way down under, as if value. By Tom Redwood sound and rapid cutting, he encourag- the narrative, is inter-cut with the first. It and crossbones, Nigel tells us). this myth the Mississippi River had gorged its way through the center es us to attend to the possibilities of each is alex’s retelling of the macabre and dis- becomes central to the Nigel’s gradual en- of the earth and come home in …New Zealand of all places. n Dr Plonk and Passio, filmmak- namics of visual storytelling, Cherchi Us- shot. Who will enter the frame? What side turbing events that led to the murder of trapment of alex, and a ghoulish replay of … Listen to ‘Snow on the Desert Road’ and tell me if you’ve ers Rolf de Heer and Paolo Cher- ai’s work acquiesces its narrative autono- of the frame will they enter from? Whose Nigel (tom Sturridge). the myth brings the story to a climax. ever heard anything sung like that before. Ichi Usai have assumed what might be my to the more refined structures of music feet are those sticking out of the bottom called a revisionist stance by taking their and text, exposing the illusion we attach right corner of the screen? Is Mrs Plonk In this story, Nigel arrives at a prestigious But it is more than a question of entrap- Struggle No More traces the ups and downs of the strug- craft back to the good old days of silent to the moving image. in the room or has she gone to the kitch- boarding school and becomes alex’s new ment, for it seems that alex himself has glers’ long career, focusing on their stubborn refusal to cinema. Relying solely on the interaction en? de Heer exploits these uncertainties roommate. Nigel is brooding and quiet. he awakened these dark fantasies in Nigel: conform to the rules of the music business. funny and sad of projected black and white images and The Slapstick Apocalypse: by setting up our expectations and then spends his time alone, dissecting animals they have entered into a Gestalt relation- by turns, Botes’ documentary explodes the convention- live music, de Heer and Cherchi Usai have Dr Plonk subverting them. Yes, he reveals, she was and writing in voluminous notebooks. he ship, in which ‘the whole is more impor- al myth of the ‘struggling artist’ – something Botes himself, "One of the most intriguing and original bands I#ve heard in ages. forced themselves to explore to the foun- in the room, but not where you thought is, to the other boys, a freak. But he’s a tant than the sum of its parts’. Gestalt having spent years as an independent filmmaker, knows a dations of their medium without the safety Dr Plonk takes on a rather substantial she was. freak who slowly draws alex into his fan- psychology is the true and central subject thing or two about. net or diversions offered by new technolo- subject for a slapstick comedy – it is a film tasy world, a world dominated by the his- of Like Minds. alex cannot help being For me, it#s deep blues from way down under, as if the Mississippi gies. The discoveries that both have made about the end of the world. It tells the sto- at the film’s premiere on the festival’s tory of the Knights templar, the murder of dragged into Nigel’s fantasy world. he Stan Jones: Have you been having a weird conversation in this process point to contrasting but ry of one dr Plonk (nigel Martin), an em- closing night, this most primitive of com- the heretical Christians known as the Ca- finds himself agreeing to secret rendez- River had gorged its way through the center of the earth and about your film? equally important values in cinema. Where inent australian scientist who a centu- ic strategies generated a uniquely playful thars, and the templar myth of Maraclea. vous, reading Nigel’s histories of the tem- de Heer’s film bears the rudimentary dy- ry ago calculated the date of the apoca- and joyous response from the audience. a according to this myth, Maraclea was the plars and the Cathars, and taking on come home in.... New Zealand of all places" The Windy CiTy Not about my film, but about filmmaking generally.i ’ve had left: Paulus in dr STrugglerS (l-r): AndreW Plonk. right: dr delAhunTy, riCk BryAnT, Plonk. niCk Bollinger, geoff • Metro Magazine 152 Metro Magazine 152 • • Metro Magazine 151 Metro Magazine 151 • • Metro Magazine 151 rAShBrooke And Bill lAke. Metro Magazine 151 • www.metromagazine.com.au metrO magaZiNe > fiLm | teLeVisiON | raDiO | mULtimeDia
100 • Metro Magazine 162 unable to recoup their costs from domestic about his political status in light of Steele’s and Alexandra. Sandra begins an affair with screenings alone’.19 Producer Antony disappearance, drawing clear parallels Gregory, sparking the ire of Nick’s political I. Ginnane openly admitted the intent to one of the film’s major explicit themes mastermind, Doc Wheelan (American actor of accessing an international audience, – the illusory nature of politics. It is this Broderick Crawford). In short, the film follows stating, ‘we tried to present Harlequin as same kind of formal trickery that ‘turns’ a the battle between Gregory’s ‘hocus pocus’ not being set in Australia … This was part piece of Alex’s rejected birthday cake into magic and Wheelan’s own illusionary political of a deliberate strategy to help sell the film a dead magpie, the same bird that appears machinations. in foreign markets.’20 The film wears its at Alex’s window that night and turns into intent to woo foreign markets on its sleeve, Gregory (it is here that he then proceeds to Harlequin is layered heavily, both formally with its myriad accents, international cast, cure Alex of his leukaemia). and narratively, with excessive absences. American slang (‘the feds’ for police, ‘the It is of no small interest that after a dinner- slammer’ for gaol) and political system The choice of a magpie is far from date seduction (complete with flying plates (talk of ‘senators’ and ‘governors’), the irrelevant: its avian larrikinism is and emotionally shrill pleas of desperation), incongruous inclusion of right-hand drive synonymous with the Australian spirit and the central love affair between Sandra and cars, and even a Dixie band. Gregory unfolds through a short montage of still images and split screens. As But as much as these overt American Gregory, Sandra and Alex picnic, shop and aspects denote an absence of pure +through its isolation frolic, they are presented as the cohesive from the rest of ‘Australian-ism’ (whatever that may be), the the world, (white) family unit that strikes a bold contrast next film’s glaring local references simultaneously Australia as a nation to the earlier fragmented and dysfunctional highlight the fact that this is not America. suffers from this images of Nick, Sandra and Alex. Denying Most notable of these opens the film: the constant, disorienting the audience the pleasure of seeing moving pivotal disappearance of deputy governor sense of ‘something images of this important solidification of Eli Steele (Jack Ferrari) while diving off a missing’.+ Sandra and Gregory’s relationship has an beach. Australian audiences would have important formal function: the snapshot- been unable to separate this from the 1967 like aesthetic of the stills actively removes disappearance of prime minister Harold Holt their experiences from the same realm while swimming at a beach in Victoria. The has rendered it a familiar and loved cultural as the less pleasant aspects of the story conspiracy theories attached to the real-life icon. Gregory’s ability to shapeshift into as a whole. The sequence is excessive disappearance of Holt would have directly a magpie implies a distinctly Australian because it is so formally glaring (absence of enhanced the central themes of political aspect to his character. While variants of movement): by so conspicuously deviating corruption within the film. the pica pica species can be found around from the rest of the film, it effectively the world, the Australian magpie and its quashes the whole importance of any idea Just as notable in relation to the idea of presence in Harlequin renders its symbolic of love or romance despite it providing the presence of excessive absences within value as distinct from more internationally Sandra, at least, such an unambiguous the film are the shapeshifting abilities of recognised and ubiquitous aerial symbols glimpse of happiness. the Harlequin himself. In the scenes at of horror (such as crows, ravens and a birthday party for young Alex (Mark vultures). Gregory may be British (played Again, in one of the film’s most dramatic Spain), the Harlequin Gregory Wolfe as he is by an English actor) in a world not sequences, Gregory holds Alex over a (Richard Powell) appears as a circus clown, wholly American or wholly Australian, but cliff by the scruff of his neck. While Rast’s performing tricks to entertain the sick his ability to shapeshift into a magpie in security guard, Mr Bergier (Gus Mecurio) boy and his friends. Clearly ill, Alex finds particular demonstrates just how fluidly is clearly panicked and distressed, he it difficult to participate in the spirit of the these international aspects can morph does not manage to distract Gregory, who proceedings, but Gregory wins a smile by into something so iconically local. That the focuses intensely on the boy and urges performing a series of tricks for Alex alone: foreign can ‘shapeshift’ into the distinctly him to tell him what he feels: ‘Death!’ Alex vanishing tricks with eggs and chicks, card Australian thematically permeates the declares. Gregory victoriously utilises tricks (the appearance of the Joker card film both diegetically and in its broader the moment to explain to Alex the lesson and the Ace of Spades foreshadowing attempts at making a local genre film. contained within his extreme stunt, as he Gregory’s own death at the end of the film) impresses upon the boy the overwhelming and an invisible balloon that makes thunder In its flamboyant melange of political thriller and important presence of death amongst appear when it is popped. and horror, Harlequin brings Gregory into the living: the lives of ambitious politician Rast and Aside from Gregory’s stage-magic his wife, Sandra (Carmen Duncan), after he [Points to Alex’s shoulder] Death sits here, emphasising the importance of invisibility cures Alex of leukaemia. As a contemporary perched like a vulture, waiting for you to (presence/absence) to the story as a whole, retelling of the Rasputin story, the parallels forget him. Always remember the feel of there are significant moments of cinematic are obvious: aside from Gregory’s visible death, Alex, and he’ll never be able to take ‘magic’ as well: the film cuts between the decadence and enigmatic (supernaturally you by surprise. party and an impromptu press conference tinged) abilities, Rast is Tsar spelt where Alex’s father, politician Nick Rast backwards, and Nick and Sandra’s Christian Dressed in a flowing, white, kaftan-like (David Hemmings), deflects questions names are updated versions of Nicholas robe, the image of Gregory in this sequence
Metro Magazine 162 • 101 Metro Feature Section
consciously recalls the performance that dominates the film’s final moments, and Alexandra-Heller Nicholas is a PhD candidate had bought Powell to fame only a few provides the thematic clout of the film as in Media and Cinema Studies at La Trobe years beforehand as the title role in Franco a whole. When three young boys discover University. She teaches Cinema Studies at La Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth (1977). Just the body of Gregory in a lake, the profile Trobe University and Swinburne University. • as Christ himself so symbolically engages of his dead face morphs into a similar shot Christian faith to reconsider notions of life/ of Nick, listening to a news broadcast Endnotes death and absence/presence, a claim can announcing both the discovery of Gregory’s 1 Rather a ‘particular reading protocol’ be made that this intertextually enriches body and Nick’s own ‘shock resignation’ than a generic field, for Sconce, the tensions in this film between ‘here’ and from politics. Gregory’s death overpowers paracinema embraces a range of ‘not here’ that permeate Harlequin on so exposition regarding Nick’s career, and ‘historical manifestation(s) of exploitation many levels. dramatic force is shifted onto the last cinema from juvenile delinquency scene. Relaxing on a riverbank with his documentaries to soft-core pornography’ The film’s climax occurs in the Rast mother, Alex turns in slow motion to the (‘“Trashing” the Academy: Taste, Excess, mansion as Gregory confronts Nick with camera to reveal that he has painted his and an Emerging Politics of Style’, the truth of his status as a political pawn. eyes with Gregory-like make-up. Using the Screen, vol. 36, no. 4, 1995, p.372). Trumpeting the crowning moment in what mud from the riverbank, he has shadowed Paracinema functions most clearly as an has been an increasingly outrageous range his eyes and facilitated his morphing oppositional category, defined against of anachronistic costumes, Gregory is into a ‘harlequin’ himself through a literal the mainstream; ‘In short, the explicit dressed as the Italian Commedia dell’Arte engagement with the land itself. Alex manifesto of paracinematic culture is to character of the film’s title. He explains symbolically melds himself and the land valorize all forms of cinematic “trash”, whether such films have been explicitly rejected or simply ignored by mainstream +It is in gregory’s death film culture.’ (ibid., p.372). (his absence) that the scope of his symbolic 2 ibid., p.380. force becomes most powerful.+ 3 ibid., p.387. 4 ibid. 5 ibid. the role of Harlequin to Rast: ‘In old Italian together to regenerate (resurrect?) Gregory: 6 ibid. comedies, the harlequin couldn’t be seen his shifting identity is marked through an 7 Kristin Thompson, ‘The Concept of by other characters, only by members of explicit and physical engagement with the Cinematic Excess’, in Philip Rosen (ed.), the audience.’ More correctly, in Commedia very soil that literally constructs Australia. Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: A Film dell’Arte, Harlequin can partake in the action With the end credits rolling over a mark on Theory Reader, Columbia UP, New York, of the story (he is in love with Colombina), the Rast family kitchen floor of Alex’s face 1986, p.130. but both the traditional harlequin and in its harlequin-like make-up, it is clear that 8 Sconce, op. cit., p.387. Gregory share a role of servitude, and both Gregory’s spirit lives on in the boy. The 9 Rick Altman, ‘Dickens, Griffith, and Film are positioned both within and outside of the film aggressively packs its driving thematic Theory Today’, South Atlantic Quarterly, diegesis in regard to their ability to engage punch here most explicitly: inconvenient vol. 88, no. 2, 1989, pp.321–359. directly with spectators. This dual positioning or unwanted histories and people will not 10 ibid., p.340. is most explicit when the image of Gregory disappear without leaving a trace … 11 ibid., p.345. levitating in front of Nick is intercut with the 12 ibid., p.346. aab caa same footage on the surveillance screens, Powerfully articulating this refusal to let 13 ibid., pp.346–7. where Gregory is shown to be standing firmly politics bury ambiguous or undesirable 14 Roland Barthes, ‘The Third Meaning: on the ground. At this moment, Gregory histories, Gregory’s symbolic return through Research Notes on Some Eisenstein 15, 18, 24 and 25 October 2009 exposes the differences in perception that a younger generation is reflected by later Stills’, in Image, Music, Text, Fontana/ govern attention to diegetic and the non- attempts to politically determine the re/ Collins, London, 1977, p.58. diegetic screen spaces. writing of Australia’s (post)colonial history. 15 ibid., p.64. the state library Of new sOuth wales Ozploitation’s particularly excessive 16 Thompson, op. cit., p.131. But it is in Gregory’s death (his absence) representation of a looming yet hazy past, 17 Carol Laseur, ‘Australian Exploitation Macquarie Street, Sydney that the scope of his symbolic force and the cultural paradox of wanting to be Film: The Politics of Bad Taste’, becomes most powerful. When Nick asks a part of the world but physically being so Continuum, vol. 5, no. 2, 1992, p.370. Presented by Silent Film Australia Ltd Wheelan how Gregory’s death is to be isolated from it demonstrates that these 18 Angela Ndalianis, Neo-Baroque explained, he is told, ‘Explain what? No ideas were already on the mind of the Aesthetics and Contemporary www.oz silent film festival.com.au corpse is going to be found and no one is (white) Australian national (sub)conscious, Entertainment, MIT Press, going to miss Gregory Wolfe.’ Questioned even before the history wars officially Massachusetts, 2004, p.74. again about Gregory’s disappearance, began. Ozploitation pivots around these 19 Graham Shirley & Brian Adams, The Festival acknowledges the invaluable and Wheelan answers, ‘Gregory who?’ thus contradictions both formally and thematically: Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, generous support of the marking the continuing obliteration of in Australia, absence and presence are not Sydney, Currency Press, 1989, p.286. National Film and Sound Gregory from the film’s internal narrative. necessarily mutually exclusive. 20 Paul Harris, Not Quite Hollywood: Archive and its staff. The Official Handbook, Madman It is this absent-present Gregory that This article was refereed. Entertainment, Melbourne, 2008, p.36.
Chaplin $ Keaton $ Murnau $ Méliès $ laurel & hardy $ Borzage $ lang $ paBst $ garBo $ griffith $ deMille $ longford $ feyder 102 • Metro Magazine 162 pudovKin $ hitChCoCK $ luBitsCh $ ganCe $ fairBanKs $ piCKford $ vertov $ eisenstein $ ozu $ dryer $ renoir $ von stroheiM