Kerry Packer Dis-Memorial

The eight folks arrested for protesting outside the Kerry Packer memorial should be very proud of themselves. Such good work. Nobody in the Australian media would risk their careers by saying publicly that they didn't approve of our taxes being used to send off the country's wealthiest man and proudest tax avoider, but the protesters at least got the issue into the news. And why did the police feel the need to arrest them? They behaved themselves and weren't actually guilty of anything except their unwillingness not to move on. I wouldn't have thought that the silencing of a group of people non-aggressively making their opinions known would be a good look for the farewell of a king of australian media.
I only saw snippets of the event, but my goodness what a freak show it must have been. The poor audience had to listen to drivel from Alan Jones, and then a poem delivered by Russell Crowe (ick!). Such a godawful song selection - Sinatra's My Way, Kenny Rogers' The Gambler, Waltzing Matilda, and a bizarre sing-a-long to C'mon Aussie C'mon. Only a family with either a sense of humour (which the Packers aren't famous for) or a whole load of ego could pick those songs. And in fact he was right to think of himself so biggishly, since even in death the most powerful people in Australia were desperate to kiss the collective Packer-family arse.
And why was Tom Cruise there? Simply his friendship for James Packer? Or was the deciding factor his position as the world's brightest-smiling Scientologist and James Packer's new position as the world's wealthiest (and I presume most powerful) one?
Will James' religion have any impact on how he handles dad's businesses? Presumably the Australian media will now be more wary of how they report on any Scientology-related stories that do crop up.
I have no idea whether Kerry's $10million mistress turned up. Was she invited?
I wouldn't have minded this so much if it had've been a private affair, but that our taxes paid for it is an insult to all of us. And the constant going's on about his Australianess truly irk. Kerry was not the kind of Australian I could ever be proud of. Nup.

Books & Film - Thank you Annie Proulx

I read Annie Proulx's short story Brokeback Mountain yesterday.
I got teary at the end - this is highly unusual. Sad endings in books generally just make me sad. They don't normally make me cry.
There are lots of sad gay novels & short stories written by gay folks (generic plot 1 guy gets AIDS; generic plot 2 guy gets gay-bashed; generic plot 3 guy is disowned by his uptight family; generic plot 4 guy can't accept his sexuality and throws away what would have been the love of his life etc etc). I've read them all! So it was quite surprising to read a story which (though still sad and with a basic plot which isn't anything new) was both as moving and emotionally believable as this one. And it wasn't even written by a gay guy. Go Annie!
Read the comments to this post for discussion on whether the film is HOT or simply luke warm (but not until after you've seen the picture).

Why Brokeback Mountain isn't a great first date movie.

I made this picture up to put on flickr.
That's Guy Madison and Robert Mitchum in the original photo.

Film - 2005 Movie Wrap-Up

Here's my End Of 2005 Movie Wrap-Up.
Movie of the Year
KING KONG. This seemed to divide audiences who were new to the story, but for long-time fans of the previous movies, the new Kong was a beautiful tribute to the 1933 original, and dumped all over the silly 70's version.
Escapist movies that were fun and worthy
Wallace & Gromit; Harry Potter 4; War of the Worlds;
with lesser nods to Madagascar; Corpse Bride; Revenge of the Sith; and Batman Begins
Big Budget Theme of the Year
Dark endings, and the deflation of human egotism.
Tom Cruise was powerless against an alien invasion. Hayden Christensen got burnt to a crisp and turned into Lord Vader. We killed Kong.
Biggest piece of crap
I walked out of a piece of french garbage at the Sydney Film Festival, but nothing came close to being as stunningly stupid and funny as Alexander.
Best Non-Hollywood films
The docos Inside Deep Throat (pornography, censorship & the mob); The Parrots of Telegraph Hill (simple and sweet story of one guy and a couple of parrots); Enron: Smartest Guys In The Room (big business and extreme greed).
Me, You and Everyone We Know (quirky/funny little drama with great dialogue and characters)
The House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou's martial arts spectacle)
Mysterious Skin (two teenagers not coping with the lasting effects of childhood molestation)
Pride & Prejudice (beautiful adaptation of the novel)
Best opportunity for a good cry
King Kong (I saw the film alone and got to a cry in private, but then I saw it again with Cade who had to borrow a tissue)
Song of the Year
The crazy little dolphin song in Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Here's a sample:
"Despite those nets of tuna fleets
We thought that most of you were sweet
Especially tiny tots and your
pregnant women".
Best use of nudity
Gael Garcia Marquez in Bad Education (less nudity than the documentary Inside Deep Throat, but saucy all the way)
Most inappropriate use of nudity
Alexander was full of guys giving each other the eye (lots of lusting, lots of yearning), but the one sex scene involved Colin Farrell getting it on with a woman who hardly featured in the rest of the film. Weird.
Worst performances (or miscasting if you're being kind)
Colin Farrell, hilarious as a bisexual (more in thought than in deed) greek warrior (make that a very wimpy and non-greek looking warrior) with blonde curls, little white skirt and Irish accent (Alexander)
Val Kilmer, over-acting AND bad make-up (Alexander)
Jessica Alba, showing all the personality of a Stepford Wife (Fantastic Four)
Memorable performances
Andy Serkis (digitally transformed into King Kong)
Naomi Watts, who managed to give a great Fay Wray scream as well as create a believable relationship with the big ape (King Kong)
Cate Blanchett (As Kate Hepburn in The Aviator)
Monica Bellucci and Tilda Swinton as queens of the beautiful and evil kind (The Brothers Grimm and Narnia)
Johnny Depp (very odd in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
Jake Gyllenhaal (actually, I haven't seen him in anything this year, but he's lovely)
Worst dialogue
"Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!" (Revenge of the Sith)

Art - Pissarro Pissarro

I spent an hour at the NSW Art Gallery's Pissarro exhibition today. They had gathered quite a lot of his paintings. Only a few were really excellent, but still I was pleased that they were all his and they hadn't done that cheating thing where they show 5 pictures by the main artist then fill in the walls with other people's stuff. One particular picture of Paris made me wish I was back there.
I briefly strolled downstairs amongst the modern stuff. One room had a few hundred small red clay figures standing on the ground in a circle. They were figures of little people (maybe 10cm high). But they were pretty dodgy. They just looked like lumps to me. The artists could do with going back to Playing With Pottery 1 for a refresher course. Really, you'd think they could have given them cardigans and pipes and walking sticks and stuff, but no.
I so wanted to be godzilla and stomp through them. Of course I'd never do such a thing, but as I was walking towards them I noticed I wasn't the only person in the room, and when I looked at the art gallery guy sitting on a chair I suspect he noticed the bent-on-gleefull-destruction-gleam in my eye. I quickly departed.
There is a new little room in the northwest corner on the main floor. A very nice airy room for some of their Australia pictures. Unfortunately, that Australian Beach Scene picture is in there hiding round the corner. It deserves to be somewhere more prominent.
And why does the art gallery offer free Herald's to everyone? Can the Herald really afford to be giving papers away these days?

Film - Crying At The Cinematheque

Last weekend I went to a cinema to see a showing of Blonde Venus - the old flick where Marlene Dietrich starts one of her nightclub songs dressed as a gorilla, with Cary Grant in the audience. Marlene the gorilla has a chorus line of black dancers with big afros. She then does a gorilla-suit strip-tease, and dons a blonde afro wig to sing Hot Voodoo, one of her dodgier songs (singing it she sounds like a rather bad drag queen), but great entrance.
Before the main film, they also showed Jean Renoir's amusingly kooky silent short Charleston.
It was put on by this new thing called the 'Queensland Gallery of Modern Art Cinémathèque'.
They were showing a series of wild animal-themed flicks (King Kong, Island of Lost Souls, Creature from the Black Lagoon etc).
One of their future programs is a series of Andy Warhol films (including that one of the Empire State Building which goes on and on for 9 boring hours). And I say, why doesn't Sydney have a cinematheque at the moment! What are these bloody uncultured QLDers doing having one before us! I'm very annoyed. Sydney should get one, quick. But we should call it something else. Calling it a cinematheque would attract too many pimply art students wanting to talk about their latest video instalment projects (and there's enough of them around already!).