News

The directorial debut of the once revered action auteur John McTiernan comes to Blu-ray release, a little known cult favorite known as Nomads. Considering this predates his most lucrative and iconic trio of films, including Predator (1987), Die Hard (1988), and The Hunt for Red October (1990) should be reason enough to revisit the title, even if on the surface it promises to be like any number of forgettable genre titles churned out in the same period. Beyond McTiernan, the film is notable as presenting us with the first starring role of Pierce Brosnan, playing an improbable Frenchman, as well as featuring supporting turns from notable cult figures like Mary Woronov, Frank Doubleday, and Adam Ant. Ultimately, the title’s perplexing and often inexplicable narrative thwarts its overall effectiveness as a thriller, yet McTiernan manages to convey expert skills as a visual artist.

Flax (Lesley-Anne Down) is an emergency room doctor who gets bit by a rambling madman,...

Remington Steel era Pierce Brosnan and Anna Maria Monticelli play a French anthropologist and his wife who move into an apparently idyllic house in Los Angeles. However, nasty grafitti begins appearing on the walls, possibly the work of local itinerants, including Adam Ant Except they're not. They're nomadic demons who's attached themselves to Pierce and are intent on slowly driving him mad.

The last day of May might seem a little late to acknowledge the films of 2009, but the Film Critics Circle of Australia has announced Samson & Delilah as its winner for Best Film.

“We see the Fcca and our members continuing to play a vital role in providing informed criticism to stimulate interest in local films, empowering consumer choice and significantly contributing to the cultural currency and literacy in Australia,” said Fcca president Paul Remati.

All members of the Circle voted for the film categories, while a specialist jury took care of the documentary section.

These are the winners:

Best Fim – Samson & Delilah

Best Director – Warwick Thornton, Samson & Delilah

Best Actor – Anthony Lapaglia, Balibo

Best Actress – Frances O’Connor, Blessed

Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Rachel Griffiths, Beautiful Kate

Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Bryan Brown, Beautiful Kate

Best Screenplay – Anna-Maria Monticelli, Disgrace

Best Editing – Nick Meyers, Balibo

Best Score – Marcello De Francisci,...

Chicago – One of our best living actors, John Malkovich, drives the very good drama “Disgrace” with the subtlety of his decisions as an actor reflected back in a complicated script based on the acclaimed, Booker Prize-winning novel by J.M. Coatzee. This is a rare film willing to leave some questions unanswered and to be content with the knowledge that life is full of gray moral areas more often than black and white.

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0

Malkovich plays the supremely cocky David Lurie, a Professor at the University of Cape Town. We meet David sleeping with a prostitute and watch as he later beds a gorgeous student named Melanie (Antoinette Engel), a girl literally less than half his age. David is one of those men almost proud of the fact that he does as he chooses. He doesn’t literally rape Melanie, but her reaction to their sex together makes it...

This decent, extremely faithful adaptation of Nobel laureate Jm Coetzee's 1999 Booker-winning novel is the work of an Australian team led by director Steve Jacobs and screenwriter Anna Maria Monticelli. John Malkovich stars as the arrogant 52-year-old David Lurie, a lecturer in English literature at a Cape Town university, who loses his job after refusing to apologise sufficiently for an affair with a coloured student and then joins his lesbian daughter at a remote farm where she is raped by three young marauding black men. The contrasted ways father and daughter react to this terrible act define their responses to a radical social change.

Disgrace is both a compelling human fable and a complex, ambiguous allegory of post-apartheid South Africa, raising issues about white guilt, black vengeance, the shift in political power and the problems occasioned by the country's deeply divided past and problematically shared future. Malkovich invariably plays men apart...

Almost transcendental levels of humiliation await John Malkovich in a faithful adaptation of Jm Coetzee's award-winning novel

Jm Coetzee's 1999 Booker prizewinner, set in post-apartheid South Africa, has been respectfully transformed into a heartfelt, intelligent film with two very good performances at its centre. John Malkovich is the white Cape Town academic David Lurie, whose seduction of a mixed-race student initiates the first phase of a catastrophic personal downfall. Jessica Haines plays his grownup daughter Lucy, the intimate witness-participant in his ruin.

In its opening act, Professor Lurie's story runs along lines familiar from Philip Roth novels such as The Human Stain and A Dying Animal – both translated into movies of varying quality. Liberal academic males of a certain age defy the approaching chill of death and professional obsolescence, clinging fiercely to their passionate rapture for women's bodies and a refusal to concede culpability in the face of political correctness. Added to all this,...

Theo Tait on the transition from page to screen of Coetzee's novel

It's often said that good novels make bad films: they're too nuanced, too complex, too long to fit into a slot two hours long. Readers don't thank film-makers for trampling on their treasured mental visions of a book – for making Sebastian Flyte shout "All you ever wanted was to fuck my sister!" at Charles Ryder, as in last year's film of Brideshead Revisited, or for casting Demi Moore as Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter or Nicolas Cage as Captain Corelli. The resulting adaptations tend to be, at worst, a travesty (Bonfire of the Vanities, Love in the Time of Cholera) and, at best, faithful and bloodless (Atonement, Revolutionary Road) – weighed down by the desire to do justice to a big reputation.

Few contemporary novels have a bigger reputation than Disgrace, Jm Coetzee's chilly, shocking 1999 tale of post-apartheid South Africa,...

It’s easy to talk about why adaptations don’t work when they distort their source material, but it’s harder when they stay faithful, yet still fall short. Disgrace brings J.M. Coetzee’s post-apartheid novel to the screen with all the weighty themes and difficult characters intact, and it features a remarkable lead performance from John Malkovich. And yet, after a compelling opening act and some shocking late-film developments, the film feels disengaged from the action at hand and the issues raised. It’s as if director Steve Jacobs and his screenwriting partner Anna Maria Monticelli set out ...

Steve Jacobs’ Disgrace stars John Malkovich as a college professor in Cape Town, South Africa who is forced out of his job when he has an affair with a student. The book Disgrace was written by J.M. Coetzee and won the Booker Prize in 1999; it was adapted into a screenplay by producer Anna Maria Monticelli. Jacobs took the time to answer some of MovieMaker’s questions about adapting a beloved work of literature and getting funding for a film that tackles difficult and important themes such as race and sexuality.

Translating great works of literature to the screen is a daunting task; filmmakers open themselves up to comparison, and do not usually measure up to readers' standards. (Notable exceptions: The Remains of the Day, To Kill a Mockingbird, and a few others come to mind.) In the case of Disgrace, however, the elegant and chilling film opening this week is a testament to the care and respect paid to the novel by producer Julio DePietro, director Steve Jacobs, writer Anna Maria Monticelli, and stars John Malkovich and Jessica Haines. J.M. Coetzee's novel Disgrace caused quite a stir upon its publication in 1999. On the surface, the story is of a snobbish Cape Town literature professor who falls from grace after an affair with a student, visits his daughter on her farm in the country, and suffers as the victim of a horrible crime. Readers who dug a little deeper, however,...

Gary Seeger is enjoying the highlight of his 25 year music career this month with the release of Disgrace, a film which saw him chosen as music supervisor. The film, starring John Malkovich, was a coup for director Steve Jacobs and writer Anna Maria Monticelli, two Australians who snatched the film rights to the J.M. Coetzee's Man Booker prize winning novel over more prominent overseas filmmakers.

In case you haven't noticed, I tend to gravitate towards cinema that isn't necessarily perfect but rather is flawed, fascinating and enigmatic; movies that reflect upon the mysteries of the human condition by shielding their truths in a thin sheen of bloody mess and abstract fantasy. I like films that are hazy, a bit out of focus, out of reach; pictures that you keep revisiting in order to unravel their secrets, even if they originally set out to offer very few . John McTiernan's 1986 head scratcher Nomads is one such feature. This film is very close to my heart and baby...I aint even sure why.

Here's the sanguinary skinny...

During a long, graveyard shift in the ER, pretty young Doctor Flax (Lesley-Anne Down) encounters a beaten, bloody man (Pierce Brosnan) who initially appears to be a stark raving- mad transient. When the run down, sleep deprived MD leans in to check his pupils,...

“The biggest problem with a lot of Australian films is there are no ideas in them, no great heroic gestures,” screenwriter Anna Maria Monticelli said before the announcement last night of the AWGIEs, the Australian Writers’ Guild prizes for excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing.

“This is partly because, once you’re working in Australia, you’re restricted to Australian novels. The big agencies buy the rights to everything that comes out.”

Monticelli...

(more...)...

• It's the Toronto International Film Festival that have got dibs on Spike Lee's war drama which was set (and shot!) in Tuscany. I would have thought that because of its geographic proximity, that Miracle at St. Anna would have preemed in Venice, but Tiff will give the WWII pic a spot in the Special Presentations sidebar, a good three weeks before its September 26th theatrical release. Also, in the Special Presentations sidebar we find, Peter Sollett (the filmmaker behind the brilliant, slice of life, indie film Raising Victor Vargas) comes along with Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. Based on the novel, the story revolves around two bridge-and-tunnel teenagers, nursing broken hearts, who fall in love during one sleepless night in New York while searching for their favorite band's unannounced show. With Michael Cera on board this might be seen as a second serving of Juno. Steve Jacobs'

...

SYDNEY -- John Malkovich starrer Disgrace, an adaptation of South African-born author J.M. Coetzee's 1999 Booker Prize-winning novel, is among three features and five TV drama projects marked for funding Thursday by the Film Finance Corporation of Australia. Described as an unflinching look at the ethical complexities of modern South Africa, Disgrace features Malkovich as disgraced Cape Town University professor David Lurie, who is forced to confront the irrevocable changes in his country. The screenplay was adapted by Australian writer-producer Anna Maria Monticelli, and her filmmaking partner Steve Jacobs is set to direct. Monticelli will co-produce with Emile Sherman, with Fortissimo Films handling international sales and Dendy Films distributing in Australia.

"La Spagnola" is one of the first films to emerge from the Australian Film Commission and public broadcaster SBS Independent's Million Dollar Movies initiative, which plans to release a number of quality film projects at a cut-rate price. With its richly textured imagery and vibrant, colorful cinematography, "Spagnola" is the perfect film to lead the charge. It has the tone and feel of a film made on a much higher budget than the small outlay of a million Australian dollars.

A boxoffice success in Australia, "Spagnola" also is a true rarity in terms of the local industry: Set within the Spanish and Italian communities, it's one of the few Australian films (along with Clara Law's "Floating Life") whose principal language is not English. In fact, the film has been entered for consideration in the foreign language film category of the Academy Awards.

These aren't the only things, however, that make "Spagnola" such a rare beast. Despite a highly visual palette, this is a film with a scathing, almost misanthropic worldview that seems to hold a feverish hatred for all of its characters. A film doesn't necessarily have to be upbeat to be successful (particularly in art house territory), but "La Spagnola" steams and froths with the kind of negativity that could prove a major turnoff.

Giving no quarter to filmgoers, writer Anna Maria Monticelli and director Steve Jacobs uncover the miserable qualities in all of their characters and provide no point of empathy or anything to hang on to.

Lola (a sexy, fiery turn from Lola Marceli), a Spanish woman living in Australia, hits a downward spiral when her husband (Simon Palomares) dumps her for a local girl and leaves her saddled with their teenage daughter (a headstrong performance from Alice Ansara).

Lola has to struggle to make ends meet, and ends up feuding with her daughter and getting into bed with the aggressive, sexually predatory Stefano (firebrand Alex Dimitriades, doing his best with an awkward and underwritten role), who doesn't just have eyes for her.

Though shot with a hot, sexy swagger and filled with ribald humor, "Spagnola" ultimately becomes a prisoner of its own unpleasantness. Though films that represent real life are to be celebrated and admired, the kind of real life represented in this film is one that's just too ugly and off-putting to be involving.

LA SPAGNOLA

New Vision Films presents

a Wild Strawberries production in association with the Australian Film Commission

and SBS Independent

Credits:

Producer: Anna Maria Monticelli

Director: Steve Jacobs

Screenwriter: Anna Maria Monticelli

Director of photography: Steve Arnold

Production designer: Dee Molineaux

Music: Cezary Skubiszewski

Co-producer: Philip Hearnshaw

Costume designer: Margot Wilson

Editor: Alexandre De Franceschi

Cast:

Lola: Lola Marceli

Stefano: Alex Dimitriades

Lucia: Alice Ansara

Ricardo: Simon Palomares

Doctor: Tony Barry

No MPAA rating

Color/stereo

Running time -- 87 minutes...

"La Spagnola" is one of the first films to emerge from the Australian Film Commission and public broadcaster SBS Independent's Million Dollar Movies initiative, which plans to release a number of quality film projects at a cut-rate price. With its richly textured imagery and vibrant, colorful cinematography, "Spagnola" is the perfect film to lead the charge. It has the tone and feel of a film made on a much higher budget than the small outlay of a million Australian dollars.

A boxoffice success in Australia, "Spagnola" also is a true rarity in terms of the local industry: Set within the Spanish and Italian communities, it's one of the few Australian films (along with Clara Law's "Floating Life") whose principal language is not English. In fact, the film has been entered for consideration in the foreign language film category of the Academy Awards.

These aren't the only things, however, that make "Spagnola" such a rare beast. Despite a highly visual palette, this is a film with a scathing, almost misanthropic worldview that seems to hold a feverish hatred for all of its characters. A film doesn't necessarily have to be upbeat to be successful (particularly in art house territory), but "La Spagnola" steams and froths with the kind of negativity that could prove a major turnoff.

Giving no quarter to filmgoers, writer Anna Maria Monticelli and director Steve Jacobs uncover the miserable qualities in all of their characters and provide no point of empathy or anything to hang on to.

Lola (a sexy, fiery turn from Lola Marceli), a Spanish woman living in Australia, hits a downward spiral when her husband (Simon Palomares) dumps her for a local girl and leaves her saddled with their teenage daughter (a headstrong performance from Alice Ansara).

Lola has to struggle to make ends meet, and ends up feuding with her daughter and getting into bed with the aggressive, sexually predatory Stefano (firebrand Alex Dimitriades, doing his best with an awkward and underwritten role), who doesn't just have eyes for her.

Though shot with a hot, sexy swagger and filled with ribald humor, "Spagnola" ultimately becomes a prisoner of its own unpleasantness. Though films that represent real life are to be celebrated and admired, the kind of real life represented in this film is one that's just too ugly and off-putting to be involving.

LA SPAGNOLA

New Vision Films presents

a Wild Strawberries production in association with the Australian Film Commission

and SBS Independent

Credits:

Producer: Anna Maria Monticelli

Director: Steve Jacobs

Screenwriter: Anna Maria Monticelli

Director of photography: Steve Arnold

Production designer: Dee Molineaux

Music: Cezary Skubiszewski

Co-producer: Philip Hearnshaw

Costume designer: Margot Wilson

Editor: Alexandre De Franceschi

Cast:

Lola: Lola Marceli

Stefano: Alex Dimitriades

Lucia: Alice Ansara

Ricardo: Simon Palomares

Doctor: Tony Barry

No MPAA rating

Color/stereo

Running time -- 87 minutes...