Sunday Arts Magazine

13 Mar 2016

French Films, R.Spirou, StArt Up, Cut Opera, Remembering The Man

Arts, Comedy, Music, Performing Arts, TV & Film, Visual Arts

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French Films, R.Spirou, StArt Up, Cut Opera, Remembering The Man

David announces that Sunday Arts will only have two hosts each week from now, so each of them can have a regular break. Brendan and David talk briefly about Mardi Gras Arts and then have a short discussion about the French Film Festival leading up to their first guest later. Brendan reviews a standout French movie about a love triangle called All About Them which is beautifully told and has queer content. 4.0 stars. He also saw another film at MIFF last year which is being released now called The Witch. A ‘smart, psychological horror’ film involving a puritanical family in the 1800s, it has had good reviews and Brendan gives it 4-4.5 stars.

Today’s special guests are:

8:21 to 21:26 mins–Michel Richard is the new director of the Alliance Française (AF) in Melbourne since (September 2015) and is a part of the 27^th Alliance Française French Film Festival (AFFFF) on in Melbourne from 2 to 24 March at the Palace Cinemas. Michel is originally from New Caledonia but went to study at the Sorbonne in France and has spent most of his career there. He describes his experience ‘in the cultural landscape’ working for government orgs and then, 4 years ago, being posted as a Cultural attaché to London–for performing arts between UK and France. Michel regards the film All About Them as a comedy about love–typically French in that it’s both very light and very deep simultaneously. He also talks about the hit movie Courted –which is a blend of courtroom drama and suppressed romance–saying it’s not his favourite film but its main star could be a factor in its popularity. He and Brendan then talk about the different ‘star systems’ in Hollywood and in France.

23:06 to 34:38 mins–Photographer Ross Spirou bought his first camera at 18 and started taking photos of nature. He couldn’t afford more than 6 months of photography school and he needed money so he trained to be a chef. He’s still a casual chef now, mainly working in aged care but his passion for photography never went away. In a serendipitous fashion, he ended up finishing a Diploma of Photo Imaging at NMIT a few years ago. At present Ross is concentrating on 1) long exposure photography of seascapes and buildings and 2) naked people out in nature next to lakes, trees etc. Ross won The Laird’s Men on Men Art Competition last year with a photo of part of a naked man’s body lying in shallow water. The body almost looks like a landscape. He was thrilled as he wanted to have exposure to his work and a network, on top of just taking photos for his own creative expression. Ross also had a solo exhibition this year at The Laird called Exposed. Ross is a loner with photography but is happy to work with people more and less experienced than him to get ideas and to be a mentor. Ross is building a website and is on Facebook but googling his name will also get many hits, mainly due to his success at The Laird.

35:03 to 50:31mins– Prue Coburn and Tom Habal who are two of the chosen 42 young artists (from about 2500 applications) whose work is being shown in NGV’s StArt Up: Top Arts 2016. It is on the Ground Level of The Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square until July. David has been following this exhibition for about 6 years on Joy. It presents outstanding artwork from VCE students who have completed Art or Studio Arts. Tom and Prue talk about the application and selection process and the importance of the relationship with their art teachers. Prue’s artwork is 10 metres long and suspended from the ceiling. It consists of 2 branches which are slotted into the middle of a rock which is in the centre. Bark is taken away in stages. Her whole folio is about nature and appreciating it. Prue talks about her conceptualisation & creation of the work and her inspirations. Tom’s artwork is a series of 3 photos (of 2 nude people moving on the beach) which plays with the distortion of the human form. He explains the slit-scan technique he created the photos with–using a digital camera and an analogue camera box. It was trial and error and he ended up taking about 200 photos until he got some he was happy with. Both Prue and Tom want to stay in the creative arts field with Prue studying sculpture for now and Tom studying Communication Design.

50:50 to 1:10:06 mins–Julie Edwardson and Richard Woods from Emotionworks Cut Opera. Julie set up this company 7-8 years ago. Essentially they cut down the well-known, famous operas from about 3.5 hours to 90 mins. They take out ‘boring bits’ and repetition and cut in other music genres. The goal is to create good entertainment. They use famous operas such as Carmen, La Boheme because their stories have withstood the test of time and are iconic. Also, performances are not in theatres but in clubs or music venues. Julie’s background includes painting, singing, starting a jazz band, classical training and singing with Opera Australia, and directing. Her ideas for cut opera germinated from all these experiences. Richard’s background is as a blues musician. About 10 years ago he got vocal lessons from Julie, including singing opera, which gave him a deep understanding of voice. Their latest productions are Strauss’ operetta (Die) Fledermaus 19 to 20 March at Bennetts Lane Jazz Club which is cabaret style with Cole Porter’s songs mixed in and Carmen on 9 April at Daylesford Town Hall which mixes in Latin and Salsa music plus jazz and blues and set in a nightclub. . Later, in July, they perform Traviata mixed in with jazz standards from the 30s and 40s at The Men’s Gallery!

1:10:24 to mins–Nick Bird and Eleanor Sharpe are in to talk about their doco called Remembering The Man which is the Centrepiece film at MQFF showing in 2 cinemas simultaneously on 7 April. It’s already Sold Out with Standby Only BUT will play at Cinema Nova from 14 April with a special screening and Q&A on 13 April. Eleanor and Nick have been making films together for many years after meeting him at a Star Trek convention! They taught themselves initially but later studied filmmaking. Their doco is a separate project to the film Holding The Man and they started developing it before that film was greenlit. The idea was to tell the story of Tim Conigrave’s and John Caleo’s lives; not based on the book. They interviewed friends and colleagues and even found a 3 hour oral history audio interview with Tim a year before he died. It had known material but also additional info not included in the book. This was their primary source, and Tim ‘almost narrates his own documentary’ with interviews slotted around it. Nick is not fond of the feature film and Eleanor hasn’t seen it yet. They talk about doco making, audience reactions, other docos they’ve done, how they get their ideas and what’s next for them. Also at MQFF, Nick and Eleanor will be doing a filmmaking Masterclass on 9 April–bookings essential.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:26:28 — 39.6MB)

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