Two Australian films will feature in competition at the Sydney Film Festival, while five local features will get their world premieres.
Dead Europe, directed by Tony Krawitz, and Lore directed by Cate Shortland will compete In Competition, which carries a $60,000 prize.
For both films the festival will be their world premiere, along with other local features Not Suitable For Children, Mabo and Being Venice.
Krawitz’s Dead Europe is written by Louise Fox, adapted from a Christos Tsiolkas novel of the same name. It is produced by Liz Watts of Porchlight Films and Oscar-winner Emile Sherman of See Saw Films. The film is about an Australian photographer who visits his ancestral homeland of Greece after his father’s death. It will be Dead Europe’s world premiere.
Also in competition is Lore, Cate Shortland’s first film since debut Somersault. Again produced by Liz Watts, the film is an adaptation...
Dead Europe, directed by Tony Krawitz, and Lore directed by Cate Shortland will compete In Competition, which carries a $60,000 prize.
For both films the festival will be their world premiere, along with other local features Not Suitable For Children, Mabo and Being Venice.
Krawitz’s Dead Europe is written by Louise Fox, adapted from a Christos Tsiolkas novel of the same name. It is produced by Liz Watts of Porchlight Films and Oscar-winner Emile Sherman of See Saw Films. The film is about an Australian photographer who visits his ancestral homeland of Greece after his father’s death. It will be Dead Europe’s world premiere.
Also in competition is Lore, Cate Shortland’s first film since debut Somersault. Again produced by Liz Watts, the film is an adaptation...
- 5/9/2012
- by Colin Delaney
- Encore Magazine
The Silence
SYDNEY -- A single crime-scene snapshot paints 1,000 dreadful words, and The Silence expertly taps into the mysterious allure of a vintage photo collection to tell the story of a traumatized cop's redemption.
The enduring fascination with police procedurals guarantees this moody Australian mystery an audience, and an artful mounting by the team behind the coming-of-age drama Somersault broadens its appeal beyond the "Law & Order" fan club.
Originally made as a two-part TV drama for Australia's public broadcaster, the ABC, Toronto is screening a feature-length version that will air on pay TV in Australia this year.
As with the dreamy Somersault, director Cate Shortland uses textured visuals and a varied palette to articulate the characters' feelings for them -- particularly useful for Detective Richard Treloar, who is gagged by the twin traits of being male and a cop.
The female perspective -- the screenwriters and producer also are women -- means Silence is just as much about the trouble Richard has communicating his inner torment as it is about solving the 40-year-old murder that anchors the elaborate plot.
Richard Roxburgh is superb as the repressed detective, whose life started to unravel the moment he failed to stop the fatal shooting of a female informant. Suspended from active duty, he now is working at the police museum, curating an exhibition of crime scene photography from the 1960s.
He seems at ease with the mute, two-dimensional nature of the dead-eyed stares and blood-spattered corpses that surround him, and soon becomes intrigued by a dark-haired beauty who repeatedly crops up in the background of a series of crime scenes.
Curiosity turns to obsession when he comes across a picture of her murdered body laid out on a Sydney Harbor wharf and he launches his own investigation into the cold case.
As he begins to spend more time with the dead, he pushes the living away, particularly his girlfriend and fellow cop, Helen (Alice McConnell), and a clumsy but compassionate police psychologist named Juliet (Essie Davis), assigned to counsel him back to mental health.
When his No. 1 suspect -- a retired cop and boxer (Tony Barry) -- turns up dead and Richard is hauled before his former colleagues in the homicide squad, his quest to tie the past to the present takes on a new urgency.
Shortland and her Somersault cinematographer Robert Humphreys have created a fractured world that mirrors Richard's crumbling psyche. Black and white photos seem to watch from every corner, little noir dramas from the city's past. The banality of the details belies the horror of the crimes. So it is with the familiar streetscapes through which Richard wanders, visions of the mysterious woman in the blue silk dress haunting the edges of the frame.
The atmospheric visuals are grounded by naturalistic performances, including a standout turn by Emily Barclay (who stars in Suburban Mayhem, also in Toronto) as Richard's smart-mouthed young assistant.
Beyond the densely plotted whodunit, Silence plays as an empathetic look at the way men construct layers of barricades to hide emotional pain. Even as the strands of the murder mystery are tied together in a too-neat bow, thanks to Roxburgh's raw vulnerability the final moments are heart-breaking.
THE SILENCE
ABC Enterprises
The Australian Broadcasting Corp. and Film Finance Corporation Australia present a Jan Chapman Films production
Credits:
Director: Cate Shortland
Screenwriters: Alice Addison, Mary Walsh
Producer: Jan Chapman
Executive producers: Miranda Dear, Scott Meek
Director of photography: Robert Humphreys
Production designer: Melinda Doring
Music: Anthony Partos
Co-producer: Anthony Anderson
Costume designer: Emily Seresin
Editor: Scott Gray
Cast:
Richard: Richard Roxburgh
Juliet: Essie Davis
Helen: Alice McConnell
Evelyn: Emily Barclay
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 104 minutes...
The enduring fascination with police procedurals guarantees this moody Australian mystery an audience, and an artful mounting by the team behind the coming-of-age drama Somersault broadens its appeal beyond the "Law & Order" fan club.
Originally made as a two-part TV drama for Australia's public broadcaster, the ABC, Toronto is screening a feature-length version that will air on pay TV in Australia this year.
As with the dreamy Somersault, director Cate Shortland uses textured visuals and a varied palette to articulate the characters' feelings for them -- particularly useful for Detective Richard Treloar, who is gagged by the twin traits of being male and a cop.
The female perspective -- the screenwriters and producer also are women -- means Silence is just as much about the trouble Richard has communicating his inner torment as it is about solving the 40-year-old murder that anchors the elaborate plot.
Richard Roxburgh is superb as the repressed detective, whose life started to unravel the moment he failed to stop the fatal shooting of a female informant. Suspended from active duty, he now is working at the police museum, curating an exhibition of crime scene photography from the 1960s.
He seems at ease with the mute, two-dimensional nature of the dead-eyed stares and blood-spattered corpses that surround him, and soon becomes intrigued by a dark-haired beauty who repeatedly crops up in the background of a series of crime scenes.
Curiosity turns to obsession when he comes across a picture of her murdered body laid out on a Sydney Harbor wharf and he launches his own investigation into the cold case.
As he begins to spend more time with the dead, he pushes the living away, particularly his girlfriend and fellow cop, Helen (Alice McConnell), and a clumsy but compassionate police psychologist named Juliet (Essie Davis), assigned to counsel him back to mental health.
When his No. 1 suspect -- a retired cop and boxer (Tony Barry) -- turns up dead and Richard is hauled before his former colleagues in the homicide squad, his quest to tie the past to the present takes on a new urgency.
Shortland and her Somersault cinematographer Robert Humphreys have created a fractured world that mirrors Richard's crumbling psyche. Black and white photos seem to watch from every corner, little noir dramas from the city's past. The banality of the details belies the horror of the crimes. So it is with the familiar streetscapes through which Richard wanders, visions of the mysterious woman in the blue silk dress haunting the edges of the frame.
The atmospheric visuals are grounded by naturalistic performances, including a standout turn by Emily Barclay (who stars in Suburban Mayhem, also in Toronto) as Richard's smart-mouthed young assistant.
Beyond the densely plotted whodunit, Silence plays as an empathetic look at the way men construct layers of barricades to hide emotional pain. Even as the strands of the murder mystery are tied together in a too-neat bow, thanks to Roxburgh's raw vulnerability the final moments are heart-breaking.
THE SILENCE
ABC Enterprises
The Australian Broadcasting Corp. and Film Finance Corporation Australia present a Jan Chapman Films production
Credits:
Director: Cate Shortland
Screenwriters: Alice Addison, Mary Walsh
Producer: Jan Chapman
Executive producers: Miranda Dear, Scott Meek
Director of photography: Robert Humphreys
Production designer: Melinda Doring
Music: Anthony Partos
Co-producer: Anthony Anderson
Costume designer: Emily Seresin
Editor: Scott Gray
Cast:
Richard: Richard Roxburgh
Juliet: Essie Davis
Helen: Alice McConnell
Evelyn: Emily Barclay
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 104 minutes...
- 9/9/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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