Sydney Film Festival 2017 - Film Review - Australia Day

Jenny Wu and Bryan Brown - Australia Day

Touted as having 'much to say about the present state and potential future of the nation', Australia Day flails around helplessly due to being fragmented, unstructured and somewhat muddled with a narrative with no core focus. Director Kriv Stenders and screenwriter Stephen M Irwin have certainly delivered  a film which has much movement and action - all the characters seems to spend most of their time running - down suburban streets, alleyways, across bridges, out of police stations, hospitals, warehouses and so it goes.

The film is intended to have a series of intertwined stories which touch on a range of social issues, possibly. But just when the viewer may be forgiven for seeing what appears to be some form of a story, it dissipates like a mirage. The intertwined stories, so termed, involve various characters - an Aboriginal girl on the run after a fatal vehicle accident (but it could be an issue of domestic violence and/or murder), an escaped sex slave running to a bankrupt farmer who in turn is planning to commit suicide at a media conference, some Anglo Australian youth assaulting a Muslim youth whom was dating one of their sisters. This young man's brother then assaults the same Anglo youth and so on. Yet nothing is this film actually travels anywhere. 

The production values are high with excellent photography, aerial shots, camera angles supported by a highly effective music score and sound. The acting however is very so so. Bryan Brown (as the farmer) is, as usual, only acting as Bryan Brown with the other cast members appearing to spend most of their time shouting or screaming at each other. If this is the social observation which the film makers wish to convey about modern Australia, it's not very convincing.

Sydney Film Festival 2017 - Film Review - The Party

Patricia Clarkson and Bruno Ganz - The Party

A fancy dinner party which goes horribly wrong is a familiar theme, but it is extremely well executed in this black comedy film by director and screenwriter Sally Potter. With an exceptional, experienced cast of Patricia Clarkson, Cillian Murphy, Timothy Spall, Cherry Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas and Bruno Ganz there are a range of cringe-worthy, farcical moments which will leave the viewer chuckling non stop throughout. Filmed in monochrome and at only 71 minutes, this is a well-paced story with various  revelations coming to light in perfect timing in the dinner party from hell.

The storyline centres on career politician, Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) who has just been elevated to being a Government Cabinet Minister (the Minister for Health as it transpires). Her dreadful dinner guests arrive including Janet's super cynical best friend April (Patricia Clarkson) to help her celebrate but events soon travel downward as each guest shows they conceal many secrets. Janet's husband, Bill reveals he is terminally ill and thereafter announces he is leaving Janet for another woman, being the estranged wife of one of the other guests. Martha (Cherry Jones) and Jinny (Emily Mortimer) a lesbian couple announce they are expecting triplets (all boys) but Martha has reservations. April drops one liner observations on all the disclosures which further scandalise the proceedings.

This is a film for baby boomers and Generation X rather than Millenials with many references to the political perspectives of older age groups and new age hippies. The film could easily be transferred to a live on-stage theatre production but is equally successful on screen.

Sydney Film Festival 2017 - Film Review - The Untamed

Veronica (Simone Bucio) and Alejandra (Ruth Ramos) in The Untamed

Mexican film director and producer Amat Escalante, won a Venice Silver Lion as best director for this film which he describes as a meld of social realism and erotic science fiction. The film contains equal measure of domestic violence and unworldly lust. Escalante is no Peter Greenaway (The Pillow Book, Prospero's Books) hence his eroticism is closer to soft edge porn than sensuality. The film is also one of the twelve in the official competition at the Sydney Film Festival.

The storyline follows mother-of-two, Alejandra who endures a joyless marriage with her  bogan husband, Angel. Unbeknown to her, Angel is also having an affair with her brother who works in a hospital. Into  her life comes the mysterious Veronica who, having been injured by an unknown animal, is treated by her brother in hospital and is attracted to him. The two women form a closer friendship following a violent assault by an unknown force on Alejandra's brother, the arrest of Angel and the breakdown of the marriage. Veronica introduces Alejandra to her source of eroticism - an alien lifeform living in a cottage in the woods with a scientist. The lifeform is capable of both extreme pleasure and pain and both women enjoy sexual pleasures with the alien (which resembles a large octopus with roving tentacles). 

There are various elements of gratuitous nudity and sex throughout the film including a non too subtle scene involving Angel attempting to urinate while drunk. The principal photography and atmospherics are contextual but often ineffectual and appear overtly contrived. The acting of the cast is acceptable but not exceptional with most attention focused on the two female lead. Overall this film is more for the voyeur.

64th Sydney Film Festival 7-18 June 2017

The 64th Sydney Film Festival has opened with 11 days of screenings (excluding the Opening Night) over 9 venues with films from across the world and many drawn from the other key film festivals of Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. This year there are 12 films submitted for the official competition which is now in its tenth year and provides a cash prize of $60,000. In most years, the selection of the winner by the jury has left most of the audience and other festival attendees more than a little mystified: The award is meant to recognise a film as being 'audacious, cutting-edge and courageous' however some winners have been productions where it's difficult to deduce where this criteria can be applied. It remains to be seen whether the 2017 festival is any different.

National Parks in the United States - visits increase but not for millenials

Yosemite National Park with Bridalveil waterfall - Shutterstock

In both the United States and Australia, visits to National Parks have shown a consistent and in some cases, dramatic increase in visitors over the past few years. But the increased interest although impressive disguises another aspect - the actual composition of the visitors. While Millenials constitute 21% of the US population, they only contribute 14% to the visitor cohort to the National Parks. Baby boomers in contrast are 24% of the US population but are 39% of the park visitors.  Despite a high level of environmental awareness amongst Millenials, there is not a corresponding level of practical engagement with nature. In the table below, the visitor data from the 15 most popular parks are listed. For ongoing public support for the parks in future decades, a high level of commitment will be needed from today's Millenial generation.

Major US National Parks

	National Park	2015	2016	Change %
1.	Great Smokey Mountains	10,712,642	11,312,786	5.6 increase
2.	Grand Canyon	5,520,736	5,969,811	8.1 increase
3.	Rocky Mountain	4,155,916	4,517,585	8.7 increase
4.	Yosemite	4,150,217	5,028,868	21.2 increase
5.	Yellowstone	4,097,710	4,257,177	3.8  increase
6.	Zion	3,648,846	4,295,127	17.7 increase
7.	Olympic	3,263,761	3,390,221	3.8 increase
8.	Grand Teton	3,149,921	3,270,076	3.8 increase
9.	Acadia	2,811,184	3,303,393	17.5 increase
10.	Glacier	2,366,056	2,946,681	24.5 increase
11.	Cuyahoga	2,284,612	2,423,390	6.0 increase
12.	Joshua Tree	2,025,756	2,505,286	19.1 increase
13.	Hawai’i Volcanoes	1,832,660	1,887,580	2.9 increase
14.	Bryce Canyon	1,745,804	2,365,110	35.4 increase
15.	Hot Springs	1,418,162	1,544,300	0.8 increase

Source: National Park Service Visitor Use Statistics https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/Reports/Park/GRSM

ANZAC Day 2017

While the focus of ANZAC Day remains firmly planted on the Gallipoli peninsula with the Dawn service commemorating the landings on 25 April 1915, increasingly over the years, greater attention has been paid to the Australian National Memorial,  located outside of the village of Villers-Bretonneux in France and the Menin Gate in Belgium which commemorate losses and sacrifice on the Western Front of World War 1. This will be even more important next year.

ANZAC Day in Belgium honours the almost 13,000 ANZACs who fought and gave their lives in the battles of the Ypres Salient during World War One.  In effect there were four actual battles in the Ypres salient but for Australians, the Third Battle is of most significance and 2017 marks the 100th anniversary. Of note, most Australian soldiers buried in Belgium died during the Third Battle of Ypres (comprising of the Battle of Menin Road, Battle of Polygon Wood, Battle of Broodseinde, Battle of Poelcapelle and the Battle of Passchendaele).

In 2018, there will be commemorations to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice which ended World War 1. At that time of the Armistice, the Australians were part of the 100 Day Offensive and for the first time were in a single formation, the Australian Army Corps with Australian officers and commanded by an Australian General, Lieutenant General Sir John Monash.

Lest we forget.

General Sir John Monash with Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes, 1918