Images of USA

I’ve been travelling again. That’s why not many posts. Having too much fun… as usual.

Here is a visual diary of some things I’ve been doing. I’m back in AU next week, so posts, and thoughts, to resume here soon.

Meantime, enjoy these…

The Beautiful and Damned official trailer

Here is the official trailer to my adaptation of The Beautiful and Damned. My new feature just played at The 10th F.Scott Fitzgerald Conference in Baltimore. Enjoy the trailer!

My Father Died – RIP David Wolstencroft

My father died a week ago September 20 after his heart stopped for maybe up to half an hour a few days before. It’s been a terrible time. One of the worst things that can happen in life. I’m pretty inconsolable.

Family and friends have been looking after me. And I them…

Here is some pictures of David William Wolstencroft – 1942-2009, aka  The Aussie Auditor, “Woofer”, “Rain Man”, and my dear old Dad.

I’ll publish my speech from his Service, last Thursday, sometime soon.

See you Dad! If there is anything after this life, I’ll find you…

Meanwhile, I’m off to the US this week as a guest of The 10th F. Scott Fitzgerald Festival in Baltimore. I am throwing myself back into some work and travel  to help me move on. Normal posts will return here shortly.

Prayers for David Wolstencroft

My dad David Wolstencroft’s heart stopped last night. An ambulance was called, and he was resuscitated, but we don’t know how bad the oxygen loss was to his brain. If you are religious, say a little prayer for my dear old Dad, David “Woofer” Wolstencroft. He has been a great friend, supporter and buddy for my entire 4o years on this Earth. A sweet, loving and kind man who certainly liked a drink, a smoke and a lively social chat. But, I guess we never thought his drinking and smoking would catch up with him…he has been sick recently with a cold that was getting worse.

My father is a Christian, and after being asked, Father Bob was nice enough to visit my father today, and give a blessing and say some words. All our hopes and prayers are with him in his hour of need. Come back to us! Time is crucial for him to regain consciousness… and we do need a miracle.

Here is a recent photo of my old man in happier times. Times I would give anything to share with him again.

- His loyal son forever, “Rick”.

The MUFF awards on vimeo

The MUFF awards shot live by Mike Smith from Indie Film Nation! Thanks Mike!

Enjoy! See here.

For some reason I can’t embed Vimeo, when I cut and paste the code?

Bad Lit’s Beautiful and Damned review!

The first review of The Beautiful and Damned and its a goody.

From Bad Lit. See here.

“The key to Richard Wolstencroft’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s sophomore novel The Beautiful and Damned comes during one of the early, numerous party scenes. In the scene, one of the party-goers announces to Anthony Patch (Ross Ditcham) that he knows exactly what the lower classes need, a nice strong fascist hand to whip them into shape. Then he bends his head over for another snort of cocaine.

Of course, the “lower classes” don’t really show up in The Beautiful & Damned, so why they need whipping who knows. But it’s clear who really needs the sharp stick of fascism in the eye: The rich and degenerate. The idea of “transcendental fascism” is one that Wolstencroft explores much in his theoretical writing. Yet, the film clearly addresses his favored subject by making it practically completely absent from his screenplay.

The plot follows the carefree exploits of trust fund baby Anthony Patch, who gets by in life by living off of an extravagant allowance given to him by his grandfather, Adam Patch (Norman Yemm). In order to get his money, Anthony must provide weekly status updates proving that he’s a productive member of society. However, he ends up just bullshitting his way through a cockamamie plan to write a nonfiction book about the young heroes of WWII. Grandpa knows he’s being bullshitted, but he never cuts off the funnel of money, probably thinking his grandson’s wanton ways are just a youthful phase.

However, Anthony’s has much more sinister ideas. Oh, he’s too much of a coward to kill the old man and receive his inheritance. But, figuring the old dude doesn’t have much longer to live, Anthony plans to live as decadently as he wants with his slutty wife, Gloria Gilbert (Kristen Condon), and just wait until Grandpa croaks to get his mitts on the family fortune.

None of these motivations or assumptions about the characters’ behavior is ever explicitly discussed through the dialogue. Instead, the film barrels along from one debauched scene after another.  But the real genius of the film is how it’s themes and subtext pop up through the casually tossed off line or action, knitting together scenes that race from their abrupt beginnings to their equally abrupt endings. The hyper-kinetic pacing ingeniously hides the more serious contemplations of the subject matter.

Also interestingly, Wolstencroft has taken the Jazz Age setting of Fitzgerald’s novel, which also took place in NYC, and has successfully updated it to a modern day Melbourne, Australia — Wolstencroft’s hometown. This speaks to Fitzgerald’s universal truths about the upper class, but at the same time instead of making the film completely modern, through the set design and costuming, particularly of the Patches, Wolstencroft does retain a Fitzgerald sense of style. It’s clear by the Patches’ old homesteads that their money is old money and that grandpa is trying to hold his grip on the illusion that the world is still like his simpler, less morally bankrupt “good ol’ days.” If he only knew what his grandson was really up to.

Actually, eventually grandpa does find out, which instigates the most dramatic portion of the film when the young Anthony faces the possibility of being cut out of the family will. With no skills to be of any use to society, Anthony becomes a very desperate man to regain his unearned fortune.

As a main character, Anthony goes beyond being a cipher and is a bit of a bland blank. Typically, this would work as a detriment to a film, but here the characterization works in his favor because we keep wishing he will eventually grow a pair and fight for something in his pathetically tragic life. There’s a brief glimmer of Anthony having a reasonable moral center during a hilarious and frightening scene where he encounters the director and star of rape videos, played by a terrifically menacing Wolstencroft himself. A life of fun and games is perfectly fine as long as nobody gets hurt, right?

But plenty of people get hurt in The Beautiful and Damned. Yes, physically, but mostly emotionally. However, the characters’ psychic scars and open wounds run so deep, they accept them as an everyday normalcy. To Anthony, he feels his “damnation” comes when he’s forced to live like an average commoner, yet he’s completely oblivious to the hell on Earth he aimlessly wanders through and, if he used his inheritance wisely, could have easily escaped from.

Without having read the original source material, as I have not, it’s impossible to tell how much Wolstencroft has changed and updated, except for the obvious, of course. For example, I doubt Fitzgerald wrote about rape videos. Yet, using that source material for his own vision of The Beautiful and Damned, Richard Wolstencroft has crafted an originally terrifying vision of rampant amorality among the so-called “upper” class.”

MUFF X Winners

The 10^th Melbourne Underground Film Festival came to a close last night with an awards ceremony and after-party packed to the rafters with local and international filmmakers and screen representatives.

The prestigious award for Best Australian Film was a tie, the honour being shared by ‘Into the Shadows’, Andrew Scarano and Phil Hignett’s opening night documentary on the state of the Australian film industry, and ‘Eraser Children’, Nathan Christoffel’s astonishing feature debut which is set in a futuristic dystopia. ‘Eraser Children’ also received an award for Best Supporting Male Actor (Shane Nagle).

Marc Gracie’s ‘The Tumbler’, which closed MUFF X, picked up a series of awards for Best Director, Runner-up Best Australian Film, Best Cinematography and Best Lead Male Actor (Gary Sweet).

Dominic Deacon’s ‘Bad Habits’ – the Nunsploitation feature debut from Melbourne production company Dank Films – was awarded Best Screenplay as well as Best Lead Female Actor (Sandra Casa).

The award for Best Guerilla Film (previously won by James Wan of ‘Saw’) went to Dave de Vries’ ‘Carmilla Hyde’, a full length Jekyll and Hyde feature made on a $15,000 budget which sold out its high-profile MUFF X premiere last week.

MUFF X’s diverse selection of shorts also received attention, with the top award for Best Short being tied between Marina Lutz’s ‘The Marina Experiment’ – a confronting autobiographical documentary about child abuse, and Jennifer Lyon Bell’s ‘Matinee’, which was controversially banned from screening by the OFLC last week.

International films also garnered praise at this year’s awards; Dan Schneidkraut’s disturbing ‘Seeking Wellness’ took out the Special Jury Prize, while Alex Ross Perry’s ‘Impolex’, a surreal WWII picture shot on 16mm, received the award for Best International Film. The award for Best Foreign Director went to Zach Clark for his cult comedy ‘Modern Love is Automatic’.

Here is the full list of winners:
Lifetime Achievement – Frank Howson & John La Monde

Best Australian Film – ‘Into the Shadows’ & ‘Eraser Children’
Runner Up Best Australian Film – ‘The Tumbler’
Best Australian Director – Marc Gracie (The Tumbler)
Best Australian Male Actor – Gary Sweet (The Tumbler)
Best Australian Female Actor – Sandra Casa (Bad Habits) & Kristen Condon (The Beautiful & Damned)
Best Supporting Male Actor – Shane Nagle (Eraser Children)
Best Supporting Female Actor – Georgii Speakman (Carmilla Hyde)

Special Jury Prize – ‘Seeking Wellness – Suffering in Four Movements’
Special Jury Prize (Short) – ‘Herman: Am I Proud’
Best Guerrilla Film – ‘Carmilla Hyde’

MUFF Producers award – Prey –  Robert Galinsky & Elizabeth Howatt-Jackman
Best Documentary – ‘The Nigel Diaries’ & ‘Burn City’
Best Cinematography – Justin Brickle (The Tumbler)
Best Screenplay – Jack Ketchum (Offspring) & Dominic Deacon (Bad Habits)
Best Short – ‘The Marina Experiment’ & ‘Matinee’
Runner Up Best Short – ‘Higher Plane’

Best Foreign Film – ‘Impolex’
Best Foreign Director – Zach Clark (Modern Love Is Automatic)
Best Foreign Male Actor – Riley O’Brien (Impolex)
Best Foreign Female Actor – Melodie Sisk (Modern Love Is Automatic)

A Bad Seed at MUFF

Mick Harvey with Marina Lutz from The Marina Experiment and I at MUFF this week.

Jake Wilson refuses to eat MUFF

Here is a link to Jake Wilson’s review of MUFF. See here.

Its his usual part hostile approach to it. But, its better than Adrian Martin’s purely hostile approach, I suppose…

He says our Open Letter doesn’t hold water but can’t really say why. His objections are clearly dealt with in the document itself. He also hardly gives us credit for being one of the few people who has the guts to say anything about the state of the OZ film industry. He’s too busy busy sipping latte’s with the likes of Michelle Carey, dullard, MIFF programmer and Senses of Cinema cultural gate keeper.

Here is my Facebook post on the matter currently stirring up debate. Will post some choice responses later…

“Jake Wilson being a semi cunt (again) as he continues in his eternal quest to be Adrian Martin. But, at least he covers the festival and he did program a MUFF section in the past, so he can’t be all bad! Haha. He also attempted to engage with th e Open Letter this year, which was nice, though he dismissed it. Last year’s Manifesto on Ontological cinema had him bamboozled… as he knows zero of Heidegger. Funny that!”

You put Jake Wilson into Google images and you get these two hits. That speaks louder than words…

Banned film at MUFF!

Yesterday, the Melbourne Underground Film Festival received knowledge that the OFLC has placed a ban upon the screening of Jennifer Lyon Bell’s ‘Matinee’ as part of the ‘Mini Muff’ shorts session. MUFF wishes to oppose this decision on two grounds.

Firstly, the decision negates the artistic merits of the film. While graphically sexual, ‘Matinee’ is a picture which embodies many of the qualities which should be sought after in high quality artistic filmmaking. The lead performances are strong and memorable, and the direction and production design work twofold, both ensuring a subtle, entirely naturalistic feel, and a highly stylized, enigmatic and atmospheric world, the likes of which is often attempted in independent cinema but rarely so deftly achieved.

Secondly, and most importantly, MUFF opposes the OFLC’s decision on the grounds that it represents a hypocritical and troubling suppression of transgressive female-centric sexuality on film. The modus operandi of Blue Artichoke Films, Bell’s production company, is to create films which portray realistic sexual intimacy, depict empowered female characters, possess artistic merit and strong narratives, and do not fall back upon the damaging and often dangerous stereotypes of female sexuality that the Western media is accustomed to. In other words, Bell is looking to produce films about sexuality which women can enjoy, free of masculine control.

It is outrageous that the OFLC has sought fit to ban ‘Matinee’ for the sole reason that it depicts actual sex. The sex depicted in the film, while real, is set within a relationship based on love and mutual desire. What we see in ‘Matinee’ is two consenting adults (characters, not porn clichés, with a deep and complex established relationship) making love. That is all. Nowhere in this film do we see any violence, sexual abuse, cruelty or malice; we merely see the intimacy which occurs between loving partners every day in real life. The fact that this depiction is considered to be too disturbing for an adult audience, and yet films which depict shocking and graphic violence and/or sexual abuse (yes, simulated, but made to look and feel real) are passed by the OFLC, is unacceptable.

Lars Von Trier’s ‘Antichrist’ was recently passed by the OFLC for the Melbourne International Film Festival. This film depicts extremely high levels of sexual violence and genital mutilation, and encourages a phallocentric vision in its audience that touches on the idea that women are inherently evil. ‘Matinee’ depicts actual sex between two adults in a loving and consenting partnership, and significantly it focuses on the importance of women’s pleasure in sexual intimacy, and presents a remarkably strong female lead. Passing ‘Antichrist’ but banning ‘Matinee’ reveals a tendency in the OFLC to suppress films which strengthen female sexuality on screen and to allow films which encourage view that female sexuality is damaged, fractured or violent.

There have been cases in the recent past wherein films depicting graphic actual sex within realistic, emotionally-toned and non-violent settings have been granted passage by the OFLC (MUFF points to ‘Shortbus’ as one example), and MUFF asks only that the same considerations are granted to Bell’s ‘Matinee’, as not repealing their decision will brand the OFLC hypocritical, suppressive, and worryingly anti-women.

A Letter from the Filmmaker Jennifer Lyon Bell:

To the OFLC:

I’m disappointed and puzzled by your decision not to allow my film Matinée to screen at this year’s Melbourne Underground Film Festival.

The sexual relationship portrayed by the characters Mariah and Daniel in Matinée is not only a consensual, emotional and nuanced relationship, but their sex plays an important role in the story of the film.  The story is not tacked on to the sex; rather, the story has everything to do with the way the characters continue to communicate nonverbally throughout the entire sex scene. This nonverbal sexual communication is, at least according to the feedback on the film so far, an important part of why Matinée is seen by festival programmers as different from most of the other films they’ve seen this year.

I’d also like to point out that certain elements of the sex in Matinée —such as the inclusion of safer-sex techniques made crucial to the storyline —create a more responsible depiction of sex than one frequently sees in either mainstream or art films, in which characters usually throw sexual caution to the wind under the guise of romance.

I hope this letter addresses whatever concerns you may have had about my film, but of course if you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me through the Festival.

With respectful regards

Jennifer Lyon Bell

Director, “Matinée”

Blue Artichoke Films

That’s all for now…

As you can tell MUFF starts tomorrow!