Cinema Reborn Melbourne Season 14 – 17 October 2021 A Celebration of Cinema’s Grand Heritage 1 Cinema Reborn The Films Aimless Bullet 5 Le Corbeau 8 Criss Cross 12 Filibus 20 Vintage Ads Four flms from CAAMA 23 Vintage Ads Le amiche 28 NFSA ONLINE EXHIBITION NFSA ONLINE EXHIBITION The Juniper Tree 36 Discover the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia’s collection of vintage The Leopard 41 Discover the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia’s collection of vintage Australian cinema, radio and television advertisements, which spans six decades, Australian cinema, radio and television advertisements, which spans six decades, Shadow Panic 45 two world wars and thirteen prime ministers. two world wars and thirteen prime ministers. Sons of Matthew 46 In these ads – dating from 1914 to 1969 – you’ll see iconic brands, hear familiar In these ads – datingjingles from and 1914 possibly to 1969 recognise – you’ll a few see famous iconic brands,faces. hear familiar jingles and possibly recognise a few famous faces. Cover photo: Te Leopard, courtesy Park Circus 2 NFSA.GOV.AU 3 NFSA.GOV.AU Tis page: Te Juniper Tree, courtesy Arbelos Films Cinema Reborn CINEMA Aimless Bullet Introduction by Tony Rayns restored the flm in 2014/15, the major challenge was to digitally erase those REBORN Te flm culture of South Korea was intrusive subtitles while returning the a virtual closed book until the end images to something like their original of military dictatorships and the sharpness and grading. Tey were not A message from the Organising Committee introduction of democratic reforms in able to mitigate all the damage or restore the early 1990s. When the Busan Film all the missing frames, but their overall Cinema Reborn is delighted to present its programme, Festival was launched in 1996, one of its success is spectacular. A remarkable flm assembled and presented in a standalone, living, movie top priorities was to document and study has truly been brought back to life. house where the flms can be seen as intended by their Korea’s own flm history – and to honour flmmakers. surviving directors from the fraught Aimless Bullet (the Korean title Obaltan decades afer the Korean War. literally means ‘Stray Bullet’) ofers a Te festival is a result of the work of a community of Te dramatic relaxation of censorship discursive panorama of life in the rubble volunteers and generous supporters and our catalogue afer the change to non-military of Seoul in the immediate afermath lists all of those who have given their time and their government in 1993 made it possible to of the Korean War through the stories of two brothers: Song Cheolho (played experience on behalf of this four day exploration of key examine that period with new candour and clarity, even if the continuing tensions by Kim Jinkyu) is an impoverished moments in cinema history. with North Korea lef many critics and accountant with a pregnant wife, an As important as the work of those selecting and presenting commentators unable or unwilling elderly mother lef demented by the war to think entirely freely. But the new and agonising dental problems of his the flms may be, of equal importance is the commitment initiatives to rethink Korean flm history own, while his younger brother Yeongho of those prepared, in these difcult and fraught times, immediately ran into a major blockage: so (Choi Mooryong) is an embittered army to venture once again into a darkened room where the much work from the late 1950s onwards veteran, jobless, who spends much magical mysterious experience of seeing a movie in the was irretrievably damaged or lost. of his time hanging out with other veterans, some of them disabled. Teir company of others takes place. Probably no other flm ever screened sister Myeongsuk (Seo Aeja) prostitutes in this festival more deserves the herself to American GIs. Tey all live Long may it survive. word ‘reborn’ than Yu Hyunmok’s in a roofop shed shared with another Aimless Bullet from 1961. Te flm was family. Te flm’s narrative is linear, but recognised as an important achievement it’s not at all plot-driven: Yu cuts freely Cinema Reborn Melbourne is proudly hosted by the when it was made, and a number of between events which have few causal damaged 35mm copies (plus one 16mm Classic Cinemas, Elsternwick classiccinemas.com.au links, carefully building a bigger picture copy) survived into the 1980s, when a of life in the city’s slums. Te one thing dupe negative from 1975 was brought that non-Korean viewers need to know into the Korean Film Archive. But the is that these characters are all displaced surviving copies all came from that dupe refugees from the North – disadvantaged negative, all of the original materials newcomers to Seoul. having been lost, and all had mediocre, hand-written English subtitles disfguring Yu Hyunmok (1925–2009; his name is many of the images. (Te subtitles were nowadays transliterated ‘Yu Hyeonmok’) evidently made for a screening in San was a less prolifc director than many of Francisco in 1964.) When the KFA his contemporaries, partly because he 4 5 Cinema Reborn Cinema Reborn interference – though Rainy Days trauma and her frequent refrain of ‘Let’s (Jangma, 1979) demonstrates his ability get out of here’ serves only to remind to create strong cinema even under the other family members that there is such constraints. From the mid-70s, Yu nowhere to go. taught at Seoul’s Dongguk University Yu was a dedicated Christian. His later where he also continued his forays into flms, Martyr (Sungyoja 1965) and Son experimental flm. In the early days of of Man (Salamui Adeul, 1980) directly the Busan International Film Festival, explore issues of faith, but Aimless Bullet Yu, a dedicated chain-smoker, could be ofers mere fashes of Christian imagery easily spotted because he was always such as marching citizens carrying accompanied by a large halo of swirling placards about Jesus during the flm’s tobacco smoke. Yu died, aged 83, in 2009. noirish bank robbery. However, Yu The Film doesn’t minimise the post-war trauma of Aimless Bullet, Yu Hyun-mok’s most living in an impoverished environment acclaimed flm, was born as the with pat spiritual philosophy. Afer window of democracy was opening playing with neo-realism, expressionism, in impoverished, post-civil war South melodrama, theatricality, and noir, the Korea, and before Park Chung-hee’s flm’s fnal images border on the abstract. dictatorship slammed the window Yu’s narrative leaves the audience to resisted censorship and the pressures interpreted the mother’s repeated cry shut in 1961. Te flm portrays South refect on its own choices on what to to make anti-communist propaganda ‘Let’s go!’ as a call to return to North Korea in the microcosmic form of an believe in, and what to do next. but also because he spent a lot of time Korea, and Yu faced a long battle with impoverished family. Like Yu who Te shoot went on for over a year. and efort on flm education and on them to get the flm widely released in was born in the northern province of According to a 1999 interview with nurturing a Korean flm culture. He 1963. His other surviving flms reveal Hwanghae, the family are cut of from the director, Yu and most of the crew was a cinephile, and acknowledged disparate ambitions, an abiding interest their ancestral home by the division of worked for minimum wages and the infuence of such flms as De Sica’s in flm-form and montage, and skilful the peninsula which was a by-product sometimes for free. ‘As we got money, Bicycle Tieves on Aimless Bullet – which approaches to staging. But Aimless Bullet, of the Korean War (1950–53). Chol- we would get some rolls of flm and was flmed on location as much as his eighth feature, stands as his fnest and ho is an honest and poorly paid public shoot for a couple of days and stop for possible. Te flm was banned soon afer most provocative movie. accountant who not only struggles to a while until the money came in.’ Te its premiere in 1961, because the censors *** support his pregnant wife and daughter, fnancial difculties and the resultant but lives with his extended clan. Chol- extended breaks between bursts of Yu Hyun-mok ho’s brother Yong-ho is an angry and shooting account for stylistic diferences Beginning his flm career as an assistant Commonly, if misleadingly described rebellious army veteran who feels within the flm. Tere was also the director in 1946, Yu Hyun-mok was as a realist, some of Yu’s flms, such as abandoned by the freedom for which added interruption of a popular student in the vanguard of Korean cinema as An Empty Dream (Chunmong, 1965) he fought. To make ends meet their uprising which was partially welcome as the peninsula emerged from Japanese have a strong experimental streak sister, Myong-suk fraternises with the Yu explained: [the] ‘Resulting freedom Occupation and was ready to forge its which demonstrate his passion for new occupiers – the American soldiers of expression was applied in a broader place as a creative nation. Directing his breaking barriers: social, political and – much to the shame of both her sense making possible for the flm to be frst flm Te Crossroad (Gyocharo) in artistic. He didn’t always come through brothers. In a society that treasures the more charged with social issues. At any 1956, Yu completed 42 commercially unscathed. Yu was arrested on obscenity worth of education, the very youngest rate it was a hard labour giving birth to released features of which the most charges over An Empty Dream and brother, drops out of high school to that flm.’ Unfortunately, those freedoms renowned and most widely seen much of his work in the 1970s and sell newspapers on the street.