Our man at MIFF…

Oscar Hillerstrom, Popcorn Taxi’s recent addition to the fold (and regular Q&A host) has been appointed a judge at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
He decided to keep us up to date with the ‘goings on’ via letter (he does wear a tie after all)… best make a coffee, and get relaxed.

Dear Popcorn Taxi lover,

Hello from MIFF! I’m down here in Melbourne for the duration and thought you might like some updates on what’s going on. Sure, it’s not quite like being here, but I want you to get some of the flavour of what it’s like to fully embrace film in what’s grudgingly accepted as the cultural heart of Australia.

Celebrating 60 years in 2011, the Melbourne International Film Festival is one of the oldest in the world, behind Venice, Locarno, Korlovy Vary, Edinburgh and Cannes.

In a happy coincidence, festival patron Geoffrey Rush, is also celebrating his 60th year, and was a big part of the opening night’s festivities, which featured French film ‘The Fairy’.

Rush appears in a series of brilliant commercials for MIFF 2011, opposite Children of Men and Moulin Rouge’s Jacek Koman. Sitting on the side of a bleak road, Jacek must endure the knowledge that he is peeling potatoes in a boring film. His partner must be replaced with a better actor – jump cut – and it’s ‘Australia’s favourite pirate’ Geoffrey Rush. There are several different versions of the ad, making for excellent viewing for fans attending the films at MIFF and sitting through the pre-roll.

Now, getting back to opening night. Had a chat to Mr Bob Connolly (who, among other things, is judging the short film section) at the after party at Melbourne’s Town Hall (swanky, had some photo booths with props for guests to capture that special drunken moment, decent champagne, terrible, awful, horrible DJ, giant sequin-encrusted cross-dressers, the usual) who seemed in fine form, celebrating The Fairy with stars and co-creators Dominique Abel and ex-Melbournian Fiona Gordon. The film brought to mind the classic comedies of Jacques Tati and Charlie Chaplin with a very physical, low dialogue take on absurdest comedy. Lots of complicity wicked humour and some true genius made this gentle comedy a true crowd-pleaser.

Chatting with Michelle Carey, MIFF Artistic Director and MIFF Programmer, Al Crossar, it seemed to them a gamble that paid off, going ‘broad’ and going ‘comedy’. Crossar was very excited by the closing night film, Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive, which is going to be at the complete opposite end of the filmic spectrum. If you’ve seen the Pusher trilogy, or even Valhalla Rising (do!) you know what I’m talking about. Definitely going to try to get Drive for Popcorn Taxi!

In between these bookends there’s hundreds of sessions in a geographically central part of Melbourne, which makes MIFF very much a communal experience. You walk the few blocks or the few steps from screenings, and see familiar faces. While it is winter, the rain isn’t anything like the brutal lashing that Sydney’s endured these past weeks.

I’m judging this year in ‘The Telescope’ section, and I’ll tell you more about that later. Whilst I can’t go into too much detail, it’s a) a bit of pressure and b) a fascinating journey into films I may not have seen. Choosing films at film festivals is a bit of a random affair. Everyone wants to see Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia (starring Kirsten Dunst) but after that, it’s a spaghetti bowl of randomness. Fingers crossed Hobo with a Shotgun will be as awesome as it looks.

So, getting back to opening night. Geoffrey Rush had a bit of speech, introduced by Artistic Director Michelle Carey, who’s just absolutely sweet and lovely and doesn’t look to have that fearsome film snobbery you’d expect in a film festival head honcho. Tim Balieu, who some of you may have heard of – he’s the Premiere of Victoria, had a chat, and managed to drag down what was a delightful series of speeches into the rut of ‘boring’ – he tried manfully, but the man on the dais had all the charisma of a grey penguin with a lung disease. One can only surmise (and hope) that in real life he’s a sparkling galaxy of charisma.

For that kind of effect – leave it to ‘Australia’s favourite pirate’ (really?) Geoffrey Rush, who peppered the mention of the usual list of dignities with an apt film quote, finally saying hello to the ‘Soylent Green is people’ audience. Rush expounded on his MIFF experiences and shared the realisation that when asked about his favourite films by journalists (shudder) it was the memories of festivals like MIFF that bring forward his top five. Which is nice.

The festival this year brings together a great selection of new and old, and has a particularly strong Australian contingent.

Aussie Craig Lahiff (you may remember his Heaven’s Burning, which featured a younger Russell Crowe and Yukio Kudoh) has a new film, Swerve, as does Michael Rymer (yes, Battlestar Galactica fans, THAT Michael Rymer, the man who, with Ron Moore, redefined modern TV Sci Fi) – Face to Face, starring Vince Colosimo.

Aussie film legend Fred Schepisi has come back, all guns blazing, with The Eye of the Storm. Not only is it based on Nobel Laureate Patrick’s acclaimed 1973 novel, but it stars (drum roll please) Judy Davis, Geoffrey Rush and Charlotte Rampling. Tickets sold out in a nanosecond. In fact, 52 sessions in the film festival had sold out – before opening night. Kriv Stender’s Red Dog will also be screened and Jon Hewitt’s X, another step in his dark film-making journey, are standouts. If you saw Acolytes, then you won’t be surprised by the ‘night from hell with hookers’ storyline.

Fred Schepisi had a chat with a panel this weekend, discussing his film, and is pretty straightforward with his opinions on the current state of Australian film: “it’s hard to get intelligent cinema made anywhere nowadays.” Sadly, I couldn’t attend, as I was at actor/director Abe Forsythe’s 30th birthday party, which came complete with a galaxy of local film and TV stars, and an unsavoury interruption from a little person, drunk, abusive and touching up his gorgeous wife, Helen Dallimore.

Happily, it all turned out to be a prank in what was very convincing turn of black humour. Not surprising, really. This was the man who (on film) ran over my dog, Muffin, in retaliation for Empire reviews of his film Ned. You remember Ned, right?

Anyway, back to MIFF. This year has some surprises.

LennonNYC, which chronicles the decade that John Lennon spent in New York (basically, the last years of his life) is a blockbuster of a documentary that grabs you by the throat. Senna, about the life of the champion Brazilian Formula One driver, the same. Life in a Day chronicled July 24, 2010, using thousands of volunteers across the globe all recording what they were doing at exactly the same time, had 25 minutes of eye-opening Koyaniqaatsi style footage and screened exactly a year later at MIFF this past weekend. The Big Sleep is going to be played this week, and fans of Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (which screened at the very first MIFF) will also get to see that strange filmic odyssey on the big screen. There are so many cinematic adventures to be had – Werner Herzog heading down caves in 3D to explore the nature of humanity in Cave of Forgotten Dreams to Fire in Babylon a documentary about West Indies cricket in the 70’s. There’s even a documentary about Irish bare-knuckle boxing Knuckle that took twelve years to make.

Anyway, I think that’s probably enough to get you started. I’ll report back in the coming weeks and give you the heads up on the strange and wonderful world of MIFF and some of the incredible films that excite the imagination and may, one day, end up at Popcorn Taxi.

Oscar.