Anitgone [interview]

Anyone familiar with Schvendes will not be surprised to see the Perth band’s frontwoman Rachel Dease involved with a Greek tragedy. No stranger to the darker side of art, she has carved a reputation for herself as a lady of torch songs and sweetly threatening vocals. In Matthew Lutton’s contemporary adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone, Dease seems at home, charting the play’s emotions through song – but these compositions are not quite as dark as could have been expected.

“I had to kind of leave all of my prejudice and my style, in a lot ways, behind,” Dease explains. “Even though melodically and harmonically and even lyrically to a certain degree they’re definitely the kind of songs I would write, they’re still different. I had to fill a role in that project.”

Dease’s songs with Schvendes have all been self-contained stories of misery, and their video clips have been sprinkled with gothic visions of smoky forests and deserted dolls. The minor, bluesy strains of these songs have on countless occasions been compared to Nick Cave and PJ Harvey, but Dease warns that the songs that she’s written for Antigone mark a departure from her usual style.

“I think that, because the play is really dark and powerful, I didn’t want to do the obvious and write really dark, gloomy, songs. I’ve really tried to play on my light side as much as I can, because it’s just too obvious and it’s just too much. I’ve noticed recently that there are a lot more major chords in Antigone than there in Schvendes – which I think I’ll probably stick with for a while. But I done it; I think I’ve nailed it.”

Dease also seems to have also extracted the positives from the story itself. As a classic tragedy, Antigone offers plenty of cause for despair. The play details Antigone’s unlawful attempts to respectfully bury dead brother after he has been declared a traitor, and her subsequent punishment. Dease argues, however, that even the play’s antagonist. Creon, can be seen positively.

“I think Antigone can a probably a role model for both males and females, in her strength and resolve, but I also think Creon is an unusual role model in many ways too, maybe more so than Antigone. Creon is someone battling with that timeless conflict between what we think is right for our society and what we truly believe, and that’s what Antigone is all about… Those base emotions make it so relevant to contemporary society and politics. They are the reason why it works to adapt this play, and to bring it into a contemporary context.”

In Lutton’s adaptation, traditional dialogue and story will meet modern set design, costume and music. Dease gushes enthusiastically about a stage covered in “blood, milk and snow,” but falters and stresses that the visual set-up can’t be adequately described without being seen.

“I’m very exciting about seeing it come together now, with the stage set-up,” she says. “I really love the mechanics of theatre and I’ve been loving watching [the set designer] bring it all together. I think if I wasn’t a musician I might want to do that - it’s like putting together a really intricate doll’s house… That’s a new thing for me, I didn’t think that before I got involved in this play.”

As Dease continues describing the backstage processes, she seems to become more and more enthusiastic. She paints a picture of idyllic collaboration and teamwork, with musician, director, set/costume designer and playwright gathering to discuss the characters and ideas, then to workshop the play repeatedly, until general consensus was reached.

“[Our opinions] always seemed to change, all the time!” she laughs. “Month after month we seemed to have different opinions on each character and who our favourite characters are. And I basically took several interpretations of the characters away and tried to get into the heads and the emotions and the thought processes of each of them.”

From there, Dease worked alone with the suggested ideas and overarching emotions to create appropriate songs. For her, such solitary composition was another first: “I felt quite isolated. I mean, in a band, we all bounce ideas off each other and we’re all musicians, and obviously we all have an idea of what she should sound like, whereas in this it became quite a solo process for a very long time. I’ve only just started working with the musicians quite recently.”

Dease expects that these experiences might influence her work with Schvendes: “I’ve definitely explored avenues that I probably wouldn’t have without doing this play, like the isolated writing, and I can’t see myself forgetting that. I think that might seep into the band.”

Despite these times of concentrated individual work though, Dease maintains that the intense period of brainstorming had an immeasurably large impact over her work. “I’ve never been involved in a project like this before,” she explains. “I was just really surprised that so many really different creative minds can work together and somehow produce a work that’s really quite unified. We haven’t had disagreements on how to approach it, it’s always been a very open discussion and everyone seems to have found a way to personally approach it that fits in with everyone else really well.”

Interestingly, the play is dominated by young people – Lutton himself only in his mid-20s. For Dease, this in itself carried a certain appeal: “It’s been a real blessing to work with so many young people and know that there is a really bright future in the arts in Australia,” she concludes. “In many ways I feel like the grown-up there…. I’m not like the parent, but I sort of feel like the weird older sister or something. And Matt’s the very practical younger brother who gets everyone together and keeps everyone in line.”

Out of a play about family tragedy then, a makeshift family emerges. And one of Perth’s soulfully dark musicians is somewhere in the middle of it.

WHAT: Antigone

WHEN & WHERE: Subiaco Arts Theatre, Saturday 21 Feb – Saturday 7 March.

Giselle, feature [theatre]

If the title “Giselle” speaks to you of pointed toes, of full white tutus and of a traditional tale of romance and heartbreak, then you’re on the wrong track. The heartbreak is all still here, but in this modernised, Irish interpretation of the classic ballet, tutus have been swapped for cowboy boots, pointed toes for foot-stomping and romance for sex, violence and testosterone.

Although the original, 1841 ballet was not without its own element of despair, Irish director Michael Keegan-Dolan has turned everything up a notch. The story is now set in Ballyfenny, a fictional Irish town rife with barely-hidden violence. Giselle is a mute outsider, rejected by the largely-male society. Her suitor, Albrecht, is a Bratislavan line-dancer, and the only source of joy to be found in the entire narrative. For Daphne Strothmann, who plays Giselle, the key to embracing this new version was to avoid exploring the older one in any great depth.

“I didn’t know much of the original Giselle really,” she confesses. “Even as a classically trained dancer I did not really know the whole story, just little bits that I had read up or heard of, but I did not research any more than that because I did want to be clouded by what the original things was. I’ve tried to stay away from the original where possible because I’m somebody who prefers to just throw themselves into it. I preferred to just see what would come out of what Michael [Keegan-Dolan] wanted, really.”

Working closely with Keegan-Dolan was no new experience for Strothmann, who previously worked with the director on four other ballets through the same production company, Fabulous Beast. While these productions bear similarity to one another in that they all fuse theatre and dance, Strothmann feels that Giselle is particularly unique.

“The other productions are really closer to pure dance, where there is a story but you work on building physical material first of all, and on exploring the movements from beginning to end. You don’t really explore your emotions as much, or your feelings towards other characters.” On the contrary, Giselle is guided by a strong narrative, and a lot of dialogue. It veers quite far from the boundary of classical ballet.

“There are a lot of challenges in that, of course,” Strothmann stresses. “Like, how to not do the same thing twice is difficult. You want to make sure you don’t repeat words through movement. It’s very challenging and takes a while to understand, but I think the company is starting to do that much better now. It just takes a while to learn a process and to work it – some of us have been together for five years and some for eight or nine, and that certainly helps us work with this challenging material.”

The company, which was founded in 1997, also aims to make controversial Irish issues accessible and relatable. To prepare for the fictional realm of Ballyfenny, the cast of Giselle spent a period of time in a small, secluded Irish town. Strothmann remembers, “At first it was a little strange; I could not really understand what they were saying, especially into the deeper parts of Ireland where I couldn’t understand even if they were speaking English. There are characters to be found that town that are just like those in the piece, sitting around at the bar drinking or dancing. We went to this kind of bar to try to get a feel for these people and how dark they can be, but to also see how in amongst that darkness there’s a wonderful side to them. They’re very humorous and very sarcastic and every second word is ‘fuck’ and if you’re not used to it’s strange, but if you’re drawn in it becomes very humorous.”

“It’s been interesting to take these ‘Irish’ issues overseas and see how other countries react to them,” Strothmann points out. Having toured such diverse locations as Poland, New Zealand and America, Strothmann has been able to compare and contrast the differing reactions. “The Polish loved it; it was so very well received there. It was a translation obviously but it worked very well, but also if just the pictures do something, and even if you don’t understand the words or you don’t want to read the subtitles, I think it works very well. In New Zealand as well, it was quite positively received.

“It did not go down very well in the States – I think maybe because of the swearing and the abuse of this Giselle character. We were actually supposed to do a greater tour but they had second thoughts. I think it was just too confrontational.” If the Americans hated it then there’s a fair chance we’ll love it, but Strothmann admits that in many ways the play really is a difficult one to stomach. It doesn’t hold back in its representation of sex or of violence. For the dancer, an immersion in this world can take its toll.

“It really took over me for a couple of weeks afterwards to get back to myself, because I could not get out of the character, which I suppose is a good thing. But there were some really tough times for while… I became very quiet and did not really want to talk very much. Also, the other characters were all so rude and shouting at the character and wanting to exclude her from the community. So I just became very internal. And plus with the training that we did everyday, doing yogo before rehearsals, I just became very inward-looking and just tried to interpret myself, as Giselle, from within.”

Additionally, until very recently, Strothmann was the only female cast member. “It was probably one of the other reasons why I pulled myself back, because there was a lot of strong male energy and just as the only woman it was not always very easy. Sometimes you just wanted a female to talk to. I admit it was a little easier for me, because my partner who plays my brother was there, but still it’s a very strange energy.”

Strothmann recalls one of the most challenging scenes, the opener, which has her scrubbing the stage floor patiently and diligently, only for a group of townsmen to enter and spitefully throw dirt over her and her work. Keegan-Dolan has shortened this scene since, but originally Strothmann was the stage for up to half an hour, just cleaning that floor as audience members entered to take their seats.

“Sometimes doing that scene I just really want to cry. Seeing that dirt being thrown at the floor was just – oh. I think once you click into the character and you’re in the piece, it’s so hard to see outside it. I was just thinking about this poor thing who had been cleaning stage and now it’s been dirtied and there’s no reason why, and she doesn’t quite understand. She’s an outsider and different and so they don’t want to see her things clean or proper, they just want to keep destroying her physically and therefore emotionally. I think it’s a very important scene that one because it sets my rhythm for how the whole piece should continue. But it also illustrates just how challenging a role Giselle is.”

WHAT: Giselle

WHERE: 28 Feb – 8 March at the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre Pavilion 6

Interview with Sherry Hopkins

This year’s Lotterywest Film Festival feels a little different. For starters, it’s much longer than usual. Spanning five months and featuring 21 feature films from all around the world, this season is the longest yet. More pertinently though, you’ll note that, for the first time in many years, French comedy darling Daniel Auteil is no where to be found. It’s almost incomprehensible.

While the Festival still features a healthy dash of light-hearted comedy, this year’s programme is characterised by its more serious, and more topical entries. “This is a very discerning and intelligent audience, and they want something meaty that they can talk about afterwards,” explains the programme’s director, Sherry Hopkins.

“They want current affairs, and what’s going on around them,” she continues. “As much as they like the occasional little light comedies, and they will like Pain in the Ass, the new Francis Veber comedy, because Perth audiences love Francis Veber [of The Dinner Game] – but as much as they like that, they’re also showing me that they appreciate these more grand scale films too.”

This year, audiences can expect to be shocked by Buddha Collapsed out of Shame, as it exposes the permeating influence of the Taliban through a group of Afghani schoolchildren determined to mimic their parents. They can expect to be baffled by the ridiculous true story at the core of Lemon Tree, in which a Pakistani widow travels to the High Court to protect her lemon grove from Israel’s paranoid Defence Minister. They can expect to be shaken by the Oscar-nominated Katyn, Andrzej Wajda’s powerful drama about the infamous Soviet massacre. All of these films, and many others, are guaranteed to linger with audience members, and to fuel plenty of post-film discussion.

Furthermore, while the Festival Films have always served as portals across the globe, Hopkins argues that this year their reach is also far wider than ever before. “It’s much more of a global picture than usual; I think we’re transporting people more this year. We’ve got two Israeli films, for example, and one Iranian film, Lemon Tree, which is a fine film.”

Despite this evolution, though, the Festival season begins as always, with a couple of lighter films set in familiar, Western contexts. “My hardest job is finding the opening films,” Hopkins confesses, “We try to open with an English language film if we can. We want something to ease people into the program, sometimes perhaps a French comedy. One year we had nothing so I put in Affliction, which was great and won all those awards, but was just too heavy.”

Last week, Sommerville lit up with Young@Heart, a heart-warming piece that sees pensioners reinvigorated by a turn towards punk, disco and rock music. Meanwhile at Joondalup Pines, the British comedy, Grow Your Own, which charts the relationship between a group of “grumpy old men” and the family of asylum seekers that take over a nearby garden patch, has apparently received rave reviews from Joondalup’s large English community. The two films swap locations for the coming week.

For those still uncertain, Hopkins has a couple of recommendations. “I’ve Loved You So Long is the best film in the Festival. Also, apart from the storyline, I think that the style of animation for Waltz with Bashir is amazing, that’s why it’s winning all these awards. You the Living also, is bizarre yet terrific. Every scene is like a picture postcard, and there’s this one scene where a couple get married on a house on train which is just mesmerising.”

In amongst these global stories, Hopkins also disperses a series of West Australian shorts. “I just don’t want to throw in any short with any feature,” she warns, “they’ve got to work together; usually it’s in terms of fitting the subject matter together.” Hopkins also hopes to one day premier a W.A. feature film, but in the meantime one aspect of the festival remains unchanged; its commitment to delivering fascinating stories from all across the globe to the most isolated city within it.

Interview with Antonio Zeccola - "Bella Vista"

I catch Antonio Zeccola after his Saturday arvo soccer match. Much hilarity ensues as we discuss that clichéd image of the soccer-ball-toting Italian ex-pat. More seriously, though, the Italian Film Festival director confesses that soccer is his single break from the hard slog of festival organising. “Apart from this three hour break on a Saturday I am thinking about the festival 24/7. It’s always on my mind and there is just so much to do.”

Zeecola’s entire year is based around his pursuit of fine Italian Cinema, with a schedule guaranteed to make any cinephile salivate. “There’s a lot of research that we do, plus I attend the Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto film festivals every year and that’s where I watch all the films and make the selection from what I’ve watched, before I approach the producers and formulate the programme,” he explains. “I’m looking for good films, but also I want to make sure they’re all different; not all about the mafia, or family, or anything like that. I also try to create a story within each festival. It’s like I’m saying ‘this contemporary Italy now,’ or, ‘this is how it was 1945,’ so there’s a message in each programme based on what I choose.”

This year, the festival’s underlying themes include a critique of Italy’s contemporary situation. “If we look just at the opening night film, Her Whole Life Ahead, it is a very sadly contemporary film,” Zeccola asserts. “It’s about a very creative, very smart young girl who passes all her exams with the highest accolades but still can’t get a job. She ends up working in a call centre and is forced to sell things that she is not interested in. This is only one example from the festival, but it connects to the message I’m trying to portray; there are so many qualified people in Italy who don’t have a job. In order to make a living they just have to do whatever they can do.” The director additionally recommends the political opera Il Divo, the period piece Wild Blood and the youthful drama Don’t Think About it. While Zeccola of course quick to add that there is “no bad film in the festival,” he does suggest that these selections will offer any film-goer a condensed summary of the variety on offer.

While it is by no means unusual to hear a festival director describe his current programme as the “best yet,” Zeccola’s words are lent gravity by the current resurgence in Italian cinema. “Since ten years ago, there’s been a resurgence of young directors who have been recounting stories that everyone wants to hear,” Zeccola agrees. “In Italy, up to 30% of audiences watch Italian films which is remarkable because, even in Europe, Hollywood rules. It’s not just happening in Italy, though, it’s also happening in Germany and France. That’s great because it shows that these people have been able to make films that local audiences want to see.

“What’s especially remarkable is that these films that have been very successful have not been blockbusters, they’ve just been made on ordinary budgets of five or six million Euros and they’ve made money back plus just in their own country, let alone elsewhere. Here in Australia we think that you need a lot of money to make great films and attract audiences, but I think Italy shows it’s possible on a lower budget. You just need a good story.”

If Italian audiences are enjoying Italian films, then Zeccola is convinced that others will too. He seems to evoke notion of civic duty when he explains why he feels so passionately about Australia’s international film festivals. “In the film industry, all over the world, we’re so dominated by Hollywood culture, but there is so much more. I guess what we’re trying to do here, through these festivals, is represent other cultures. I was born in Italy so there’s that extra connection in this particular instance, but as you would know, we run French and Israeli and Spanish festivals. In all of these we just seem to have this mission to cultivate and introduce different cultures to the Australian public.”

After eight years of success, he has no doubt that this festival will again draw in the crowds, in Perth and beyond. “When we started in 2000, our festival barely had half a dozen films and of course the number that people came was very small. Nonetheless, we were encouraged, because Italy continued to produce some amazing films and these films wouldn’t have be seen by Australians, be they of Italian origin or just cinephiles or ‘Italiaphiles,’ unless this festival was around. And the festival has continued to grow each year. This year, over in Melbourne and Sydney, we’ve already seen attendance increase by about 20 or 30 percent, which is remarkable.”

A fine turn-out inevitably eases the hard work involved in reaching that point, and Zeccola adamantly agrees. “I’ve been doing this for so many years now, and there’s still a personal satisfaction in walking into an auditorium and seeing it full. I especially love trying to gauge the audience, and tell whether they’re laughing, or whether you can hear a pin drop, or whether they’re restless. And I really love that part of it. I think it’s in my blood, I’ve been doing it for decade and I still love it, and I’m sure I’m going to love it for as long as I do it.”

Hola Mexico!

The 2007 Hola Mexico Film Festival is all about new beginnings. For starters, the festival is only one year old, having been founded by Festival Director Samuel Douek just last year. “At the moment I’m deliberately bringing a wide selection of films to the festival, because I still don’t know my crowd that well,” Douek confesses. “I’m just trying to bring something for everyone. I try to bring some comedy, some drama, some thriller and some horror – just bringing films from all the genres that are happening in Mexico.”

Secondly, the festival also represents new beginnings for the Mexican film industry. Following a brief hiatus from the international cinema scene, Mexican film is once again garnering popular attention, thanks to the efforts of “The Big 3” – Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu (Babel), Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men). “These three directors are not necessarily making ‘Mexican cinema,’ but are shifting the eyes of the world towards Mexico,” Douet suggests. “They are forcing people to say, ‘OK so these guys came from Mexico; let’s see what else is from there.’”

In celebration of “The Big 3,” the festival presents its ‘A Tribute to Mexico’ program, featuring the debt films of each of the three directors (Iñárritu's Amores Perros, Del Toro’s Cronos and Cuaron’s Solo con tu Pareja.) In setting their sights towards an international audience, all of these directors have in some sense forsaken that strong Mexican filmmaking essence in favour of Hollywood styling, so this program celebrates their traditional origins. “Each of the three films represents the really good beginnings of their careers, while it’s really interesting to see what they were doing with not that much money, and when they were still making films for an exclusively Mexican audience,” Douet explains.

For the remainder of the program, Douet has similarly focused his attention upon debuting directors. He gushes; “There are all these new directors coming out right now – it’s a whole new filmmaking generation! So, a lot of the films in this festival are the first or second films from directors, and these are really the new faces of Mexico cinema. They have such crazy ideas and their filmmaking is so good and so artistic, with influences as diverse as Indian or French cinema. And I think these are the films that really represent a growing Mexican film industry.”

Douet is particularly thrilled by the selection of documentaries on offer. This year there are two. One is 1973, the remarkably real romantic comedy story about a woman who, in search a lost love, contacts three men of the exact same name, promting each of them to respond in turn. The second is Born Without, Eva Norvind’s documentary about armless musician/actor, Jose Flores (completed Norvind’s daughter after Eva’s death in 2006). “They are so amazing this year, I’ve been really surprised,” Douet remakrs, “And the stories that are behind these two documentaries are almost more remarkable than the documentaries themselves!”

While all these filmmakers may be newcomers to the Mexican scene, Douet emphasizes the fact that they remain true to the Mexican film spirit. “When people ask me what is characteristic about Mexican cinema I would say ‘the reality.’ I think people like the idea of the raw or the real, or something that isn’t fake, just like Mexican cinema.” Then, in an almost-awkward sounding whisper, he recalls how last year he spotted several movie goers leaving cinema halls early, perhaps because they could not handle such an intense dose of reality. “I don’t think I’ve seen a single person leave the cinema this year,” he laughs. And for only his second attempt at directing a festival, that’s not bad at all.