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‘scape perspective

Ten things you didn’t know about What we’re reading... Mental Health Week co-organiser and project coordinator Community Connections Nancy Thomas THE VARNISHED UNTRUTH: MY STORY Pamela Stephenson Q Simon & Schuster, rrp $29.99 10 T 62, Pamela AStephenson has decided it’s time for an autobiography — even if she sounds somewhat reluctant about it. New you wish for? Who inspires you? Zealand-born Australian- 1 Plato. His philosophies Ascension of the raised Stephenson is are timeless and wise. consciousness of perhaps best known for humanity. being the lone female What are you reading cast member on Not the 2 and how do you like to Do you have a Nine O’Clock News,a relax and wind down at the 7 favourite place? classic British comedy weekend? sketch series from three decades ago. Others may Home — it’s safe, warm Understand and connect with know her better as Billy Connolly’s wife. Stephenson the medicine and healing of and filled with those I reveals why she left home at a young age and the crystals. Long baths and love. guilt she felt following a fatal car crash that, she music. says, her parents blamed her for. The book is Most written, somewhat unusually, in question and answer What thing couldn’t you embarrassing 8 form, but the answers often extend for several 3 live without and what moment? are your three favourite pages. Stephenson acknowledges that nobody things? LOL, too many to list. reveals everything of themselves to anyone, but she reveals about as much as can be expected. Love. Family, friends, What has been sunshine. ANDREW BOTH 9 a defining If you could invite moment in your MELBOURNE BY MENU anyone to dinner, 4 life? Rita Erlich who would it be and Becoming a mother what would you eat? Slattery Media Group rrp $34.95 to son Jett — it has Buddha. Something given me much more vegan. ITA Erlich began writing purpose and love in Rfor The Age Good Food What do you life. Guide in 1980 and traipsed 5know now that you all over Melbourne and wish you had known What do you regional Victoria to write before? 10 daydream about food, wine, Apple is better than about? restaurants and the service Microsoft. Romantic getaways they provided. In Melbourne If you had a magic with hubby — and by Menu, she recounts the 6 wand, what would food. evolution of the city as a food capital through the menus she collected, reprinted reviews, recipes and stories about the characters and family dynasties of the restaurant industry. Erlich explains how visits to Florentino’s on Thursdays (lasagne day) with her mother in the ’60s were the likely source of her interest in restaurants. Erlich regards Florentino’s (now in the hands of Guy Grossi) as having always been the face of Italian- Melbourne cooking. Florentino’s chocolate souffle is Violence and villains among a dozen recipes included by Erlich; others include Flower Drum’s minced quail in lettuce leaf and Fleurie’s Chicken. On a nostalgic note, Erlich recalls when King Island crayfish was affordable and LAWLESS brute of a man who when dishes didn’t come with the frippery of foams, Director: John Hillcoat communicates mainly through soils and dusts. If you are a fan of Melbourne’s food Stars: Guy Pearce, Mia intense stares, grunts, fist scene, past or present, this book is an interesting Wasikowska, Noah Taylor, fights, and the occasional history of how it all came to be. Jason Clarke. mumbled word, but boy, does Rating: MA he command a presence. JUDY HERBERT N LAWLESS, a gritty His quiet intensity is at times LOCKDOWN: INSIDE BRAZIL’S MOST American story about foreboding, but also quite IProhibition-era bootleggers funny, particularly around DANGEROUS PRISON is brought to life by a couple of Jessica Chastain’s city gal Dr Drauzio Varella Aussies. Maggie. The two actors are the Simon & Schuster, rrp $29.99 movie’s standouts. Screenwriter Nick Cave (who also worked on the excellent Hillcoat and Cave don’t shy RAZILLIAN prisons are away from violence. A man is score) and director John Rises) and Shia LaBeouf, as as damn creepy. Bnot the most appealing Hillcoat — long-time threatened at knifepoint and places at the best of times, the three Bondurant Brothers. It feels like the Bondurants are another is bashed with brass collaborators who made In 1930s Virginia, these fighting a losing battle, or that but Carandiru Prison was a another outlaw film, The knuckles, blood bubbling from seemingly invincible they should be, except there his mouth as he lies on the particularly grim place. Proposition, back in 2005 — bootleggers were the stuff of appears to never be any Completely closed to the have created a bloody, pulsing ground. And that’s just in the legend, with their potent repercussions from the law. first 10 minutes. outside world, it was a film, gorgeously shot, moonshine and contempt for The story mainly focuses on The gruesome gore isn’t squalid prison run almost peppered frequently with brutal the law. the youngest Bondurant, Jack violence and upheld by some unnecessary though. It fits in entirely by the prisoners Based on a book by the (LaBeouf) — the runt of the of the greatest current actors with the gritty, dangerous feel themselves, who created outlaws’ descendant Matt litter, so to speak. He’s got of the time. their own system of justice in cinema. Bondurant (The Wettest County brains, but no brawn, and is all and law and order. In 1989, only a handful of Probably thanks to the film- in the World), Lawless focuses swagger and talk until Also in play in the story are the doctors were employed to treat the more than 7000 makers’ pedigree, the cast on the arrival of Special Deputy confronted with actual danger. two women who appear to features a lot of Australian Charlie Rakes (Pearce) from Jack is a vastly annoying and shake up the Bondurants’ life prisoners, many of whom had HIV. But a guardian talent, including The Chicago who, along with other frustrating character, but — Chastain’s aforementioned angel arrived in the form of Dr Drauzio Varella, who Proposition actor Guy Pearce authorities, wants a cut of the necessary because it’s his Maggie and naive, religious girl spent 13 years volunteering at the prison. Gradually, as vain villain Charlie Rakes, as profits the Bondurants are overconfidence that pushes Bertha (Mia Wasikowska). he gained the trust of the inmates and became well as Mia Wasikowska, Noah pulling in. the story onward. Lawless is compelling stuff. overwhelmed by their humanity, which he has Taylor and Jason Clarke. Pearce is chilling. He comes Hardy, meanwhile, is a force to Hillcoat and Cave have weaved documented in his book. A bestseller in Brazil, the Clarke, while not well-known close to playing Rakes as a be reckoned with. As Forrest together a movie that while not book has finally been translated into English. It’s not here or overseas, notably holds caricature, but the severely Bondurant, he certainly always believable, captures the a read for the faint-hearted but for anyone interested his own alongside British slicked hair, high chuckle and doesn’t suffer from middle dangerous cut-throat world of in learning what it’s like to live on the inside, it’s a powerhouse Tom Hardy (hot off pompous attitude have the child syndrome. the time. compelling piece of work. the back of The Dark Knight desired effect of coming across The leader of the group, he’s a CARIS BIZZACA ANDREW BOTH

36 - The Advocate, Saturday, October 13, 2012 www.theadvocate.com.au