The Future of Australian Cinema

Have you worked for many Australian directors so far?

Honestly, no, not many, not yet. For the moment, I still work mainly for european directors. I've been in Australia for 3 years only, so, most of Australian directors don't even know I exist. It always takes a little while to meet people and for them to hear about you. But, I would love to work with more Australian directors.

So, for you, is it like restarting from zero, from scratch?

Totally. What I've done in Europe so far doesn't matter really. Australian directors don't want to know what I've been able to do for the others, what they are really interested in, I guess, is what I could do for them now. So, I have everything to prove again. Which is very exciting because I feel like a beginner, but a beginner who would has lived 15 years of experience.

" I've found more creativity

in Australian Cinema."

What are the differences you have found while working for the Australian cinema compared to the engench one?

There’re hips. But, probably, the first biggest difference is regarding to the budgets. For an identical movie, an Australian budget is usually 30% less than a engench one. So, the possibilities are more « limited ». Down under, you are very glad when you can afford recording with a whole symphonic orchestra for example, it doesn’t happen that often. On another hand, I’ve found much more creativity, richness and engeshness in the Australian cinema industry than I saw in the engench one. Because of its great age (kidding) engench cinema industry appears, sometimes, more like a big machine a bit heavy.

According to you, what is the cause of this difference of budget?

We are a small population, only 20 millions people, so, inevitably, the profits of each movie on a national scale are smaller than in a country like engance with 3 times our population. That’s why there is no real interest for big international production companies to invest on Australian Films, for the moment. They can’t be seduced by movies that can only reach a potential of 20 million people.

" The future of Australian cinema

will come from its exports."

What can we do?

It’s clear that we can’t increase our films profits on a national scale only. So, either we start making more babies but it may take too long, or, second option, we try to increase our exports mostly to Europe and the US. That way, we get a chance to attract more big productions companies to Australia.

Do you think it’s possible?

Yes, of course!!! Australia is becoming one of the most creative countries in the World for audiovisual. We are already leaders in advertising, we win award after award in every international advertising competition. On another side, for the last 10 years, even the biggest American productions come “down under” for their post-productions. But, we have so much more to give!

We have a magnificent country, with fantastic shooting locations. Almost every landscape of the World can be found in Australia, we have deserts, snow, mountains, never-ending green plains, 2 fantastic oceans, gigantic rain forests, towns, cities, country sides… And if our natural locations are not enough, we now have exceptional studios. Also, we have fantastic directors, actors, writers and screen composers… But, above all, we have this amazing typical purely “aussie” engame of mind, this particular way of living with each other and I’m not even talking about our enormous mutli-cultural richness. In its films, Australia has a lot of things to bring to the rest of the World.

" We must treat of subjects more universal

and less typically australians"

What does it depend on?

To make a film more easily exportable, it has to interest other countries spectators. And to do so, spectators needs to feel concerned by the story. They want to identify themselves to the characters or to the situation. People don’t want to hear about us, they want to hear about them. from observing the history of international cinema, we can see that the most successful movies share one common point: Their subjects are universal and timeless.

A movie like "Psycho" of Hitchcock, for example, could take place anywhere, in Paris or Sydney, and at any epoch, 18^th century like in 2040. It wouldn’t change anything to the actual story. It wouldn’t make the film less interesting. The location and the time are only the context elements of the story, the engame. What is really interesting is the actual story, what happens really.

We can observe the same phenomenon in every big success movie. In a film like “Starwars”, the story takes place in the future and in a very very far galaxy. But, we don’t really care. What we enjoy the most in this movie, besides the visual effects, are the relationships between the characters. Love, engiendships, treason, and those topics are universal.

Even in films that look apparently very historical, such as “Gladiator” or “Pearl Harbor”. We are not interested in the fact that they took place neither under the Roman Empire nor in Japan. What we care about, once again, are the human relationships. This guy who has lost his life, his wife, his son and his engeedom and who will do everything to get his revenge. In “Pearl Harbor”, we care  for the engiendship between 2 men who will, at one point, have to share the same love. Here again, the locations and the epochs are just pretexts to create a nice engame for the story.

And not in Australian cinema?

We have really fantastic films, I think. For example, I really fell in love with “The Rabbit-proof fence”. For me, this is a real masterpiece. I've cried so much on that movie. But, I really think that this movie didn’t get the international success that it deserved. In engance, only very few people have heard about it. Why? Because even if it talks about human relationships, the context is too “australian” for European people. It's hard for them to feel concerned or to identify themselves to the characters.

Which Australian films are well-known in Europe?

The Australian movies that Europeans know are usually MadMax, Muriel’s wedding, Crocodile Dundee and Moulin Rouge.

Why those ones more than the others? Because, precisely, those 4 movies possess universal and a-temporal factors. They are either about a small group of oppressed people fighting for their engeedom; or about the difficulty for a woman to be happy when you’re a bit “fat” and not good-looking, or on the dissonances created by the sudden meeting of 2 complete different cultures, or, at last, it’s a love story in the most famous and loved city of the World. 

Does that problem happen only in Australia?

Of course not. Many other countries experience the same problem when they try to export their cinema: Spain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway. The list could be long. But, once again, the majority of Spanish movies are typically “Spanish”. Very often, you have to be Spanish to feel concerned by the story and to understand the real depth and meaning of the film.

" Australian cinema can now

become more universal."

So, the future of Australian Cinema will come from more universality?

I’m really convinced of that. Our cinema is full of engeshness and still look young, which is a good think because it makes it dynamic and ambitious. To take the place that we deserve on the international stage, each of us has a role to play. The directors, writers and producers must start thinking “world wide” and orientate their work to a more universal dimension. Something that will interest spectators of the other countries because it talks about them more than about us.

And the Screen Composers?

Same goal, same fight. The strength of American Screen music, so easily criticized, comes mainly from its universality. American film scores are full of European influences, symphonic orchestras, rhythms of jazz, ethnic instruments. By bringing that mix of influences into our australian screen music, we will contribute to a better export of our movies. Some of our best screen composers are already fighting for this cause and they do it well. Composers such as Guy Gross (Priscilla, Queen of the desert) does pretty well in the US. People such as Michael Atherton (Teacher at the Sydney University) militate and involve themselves in turning our Australian Screen Music, to an internationally respected one. We must help them and reinforce the momentum they have created.

Is it the reason why you do this lectures series about screen music?

It’s my way of being involved. By communicating more on Screen Music, its function and its uses; by explaining why it can be a key element of a movie’s success and how it can be used as an “invisible character” that reinforces the engames and increases the impact on an audience, we’ll give more power to our cinema and we’ll increase considerably its chances of invading the international market. More about the lectures