20. “Film ’78″/Barry Norman/British, French, American and Australian Films

Barry Norman presents “Driver”, “Girl Friends”, “Blood Relatives”, ””Violette et Francois” (with Isabelle Adjani), “Second Chance” (by Claude Lelouch, with Catherine Deneuve, Anouk Aimee), animated films (“Watership Down”, “Pete’s Dragon), ”Hooper” (with Burt Reynolds), ”Coma” (with Genevieve Bujold), ”Stevie” with Glenda Jackson, Australian films (interviews with Peter Weir, Ray Barrett, Bruce Beresford, Ed Devereaux), ”The Getting of Wisdom”, ”The Serpent’s Egg” by Ingmar Bergman.

[Music] good evening tonight we have a sort of United Nations program American films French films Canadian films and even a British film all the other movies are about people but the British one is about rabbits well that’s the way it is with us British deep down we’ve always preferred animals to people however the first of the American pictures is a thriller called driving in which Ryan O’Neal is pursued by Bruce Stern and the second girlfriend is about women and was directed by a woman Claudia wild from Canada comes another Thriller blood relatives starring Donald Southerland and directed by a Frenchman Claude chabrol And since Claude and female versions of it seems to be the Christian name of the week I should also mention Second Chance the latest offering from Claude Louch with the half-term holidays coming up yes already it hardly seems possible does it we have the inevitable Disney Pete’s Dragon and a British animated version of Watership Down the bestseller that said effect let’s really hear it for the rabbits and in addition film harmonic celebrates 50 years of fox films and we have another of our awful moments from the movies but back now to driver which is one of those films in which nobody has a name Ryan O’Neal a professional getaway driver for bank robbers and the like is known simply as the driver Bruce Stern the detective who pursues him is called the detective Isabella jany who plays a gambler is known simply as the player and so on still let’s have a look at some of the action Ryan O’Neal helping Sury bank robbers to get away from the cops [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] w [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] I think he’s the guy pass me on the motorway this morning I always feel rather uneasy when confronted by a picture in which the characters are identified only by their occupations or their appearance this one for example includes a couple of villains called glasses and teeth I have this fear that such a film is suddenly going to creep up and hit me behind the ear with an allegory but driver luckily isn’t like that it simply concerns Bruce Stern’s obsessive desire to trap and arrest Ryan O’Neal largely by means of an elaborate setup which even an America could hardly have had the approval of his superiors in the police force why he should be so relentless in this Pursuit and how he manages to have no other work to do for days on end is one of the flaws in the story another is O’Neal’s habit of walking deliberately into traps when any fool could see them a mile off still never mind what we have is a deadly game between the two men with Isabella JY as an enigmatic porn with the power to shift the balance either way it’s a very interesting picture ly directed by Walter Hill who also wrote it there’s a good number of car chases of course which is a bit unfashionable these days but they’re quite freshly done especially the sequence in which Mr O’Neal sets out to demolish a brand new Mercedes in about 30 seconds flat inent Ryan O’Neal who is readers of the gossip columns will be aware he been rather less well known lately for his acting than for the ardor with which he chases women a kind of poor girls Warren batty but he’s splendidly cast in the impassive role of the driver and Bruce St positively exuding Menace as the ideal foil as the detective here’s the moment when D makes it clear that what they’re both involved in is indeed a game present I brought it for you found it on the floorboard as some Ford a cowboy boosted go ahead take it save you the trouble of making another one I really like Jason you sounds like you got a problem I’m much better at this game than you are you play against me pal you’re going to lose you win you make some money I win you’re going to do 15 years how about it [Music] driver driver is now out on General release and well worth a visit the same could be said with even more enthusiasm for girlfriend which alas is only on in London at the moment though it should be going out to other parts of the country soon it’s the first commercial movie to be financed from American public funds girlfriends is a modest and slender little tale about the Friendship of two girls who when we first meet them are sharing a flat in New York the principal character played endearingly and myopically by Melanie meron supports herself by snapping weddings and bar mitzvah but aspires to being a serious and artistic photographer when her flatmate the blonde Anita Skinner unexpectedly moves out to get married Miss Marin is left alone and often lonely to cope with the difficult business of making a life and a career in the big city this strand of the story deals with her relationships with such people as a married Rabbi nicely played by Eli Wallock a somewhat insensitive teacher who becomes her lover and a young dancer who rooms with her for a while but the main theme of the film is friendship the Friendship of the two girls and the strains placed upon it and the changes wrought in it by Miss Skinner’s marriage the picture was directed by Claudia while her first feature film and an excellent job she made of it too without special pleading or sentimentality although with a lot of help from the oddly attractive Melanie meron she makes her main character immensely touching and quite Unforgettable in this scene Anita Skinner breaks the news of her impending marriage and you all for it you’re going to be famous and I’m going to be famous tell me what happened I did it they’re taking three of my pictures three pictures and one of them is of you oh sus that’s fantastic which ones um one of the kids the one of David’s feet and one of the morning ones with you but I’m half naked oh you’re not naked e they love the lighting that was their favorite one sus I’m going to get paid isn’t that incredible no more bar MIT so excited it’s fantastic no more weddings one more wedding never never I’ll never do another wedding again Annie I can’t believe it they loved them my wedding what do you mean you’re not getting married I’m getting married what Martin and I are Annie that’s great Susan how can you get married I mean you don’t even know him are you sure I’m sure well how can you be sure when you’re so unsure I don’t know but I am as I said girlfriends isn’t on release yet but when it does come your way watch out for it and while I’m on this enthusiastic streak I will also commend to you Claude chabo’s blood relatives which is a thriller starring Donald Southerland and his set in Canada and is shab’s first film in English the first I hope of many at which point I suppose I’d better point out that I am a shabal Enthusiast because I reckon he handles a thriller as well as anyone since Hitchcock Brad relatives is based on a novel by Ed McBain and has Mr southernland as a cop trying to solve the brutal murder of a 17-year-old girl the only eyewitness is the girl’s 15-year-old cousin who accuses her brother of the crime but did he really do it and if so why shabel turns what is basically a simple mystery story into a fascinating study of character and relationships that grips the attention right to the end even though it’s fairly easy to guess the identity and motive of the culprit quite early on excellent performances by Donald southernland the two young girls Lisa langlo and OD Landry and in a supporting role David hemings my only complaint is that shabel actually makes the elegant Stefan odran look dowy an almost impossible feat I should have said and certainly one that isn’t even worth attempting just watch it chabel don’t do it again anyway here she is explaining to Donald southernland why her son was so upset by the girl’s death it’s going to take him a long time to get over it I think he blames himself why do you say that Mrs Lowry well he was supposed to go to the birthday party at Paul’s with them but the restaurant called he always needs extra pocket money for his records he he could have saved her had he finished at the restaurant just a few minutes earlier I’m not sure I follow exactly what you’re trying to say ma’am after work he went to get the girls of the party but they’d already left your son went to the party what did he do that huh he went looking for them in the street yes but it started to rain and uh he thought they might have come back to Paul so he went back there but they weren’t there so he went looking for them again but he still couldn’t find them come in sweetheart finally finally he came home alone a little before midnight and I really started to worry and I called the police station Patricia Sergeant detective Clinger and myself would like to extend to you our sympathies I apologize but I have to ask you something I hope you’ll understand it’s because you’re the only person who can help us with this yeah have you ever seen this before yes where it’s the knife that killed me [Music] Uriel this is the knife the menus right now those of you who wrote to tell me a couple of months ago that I was wrong to call Greece Olivia Newton John’s Film debut are now no doubt going to tell me I’m wrong to call blood relative Shell’s first English fil film well I was wrong about Olivia Newton John but I’m right about chabel he’s made two other pictures in French and English but he himself regards blood relatives as his first totally English-speaking picture even though some of the characters are obviously dubbed work that out for yourselves meanwhile let’s move on to consider a totally French film Viet franois starring Isabella Jani you remember she was the female interest in driver it’s a sort of Bittersweet love story this one Mela Jani and Jac duton are a couple with a small baby who support themselves by doing odd jobs and eventually by shoplifting ing rather clumsily I’d have thought I’m sure London has scores of Arab visitors who could teach them how to do it much more efficiently anyway the story is about the way in which this career of petty crime affects them and their marriage the director jacqu Rufio says it’s a film about the Triumph of life and love Over The Temptations of Despair and death whatever that means I thought it was prettily played but not very convincing a rather meteor French film is Second Chance directed by clae Louch and like girlfriends dealing with the friendship between two women in this case however both the women Kar denve and ANUK am are ex-convicts looking for a second chance in their late 30s again it’s not altogether convincing and indeed the prison background is largely played down it could almost as well have been about two divorcees setting up house together but it was nice to see ANUK a again after seven years away from the cinema and the subplot about her seduction of Mel Den’s 15-year-old son is at least unusual here’s the scene in which the two women discuss this unconventional Affair how could you do such a thing couldn’t you stand being good how’d you find out how did I find out how did I find out really you’ve no sense of decency no we’re closed it seemed he was old enough to learn what the difference between his mother and other women was besides it’s not so odd a boy always falls in love with his mother’s best friend but he’s only a child I don’t know look wasn’t it better me than with someone you don’t know but but what are you going to come up with next you’re liable to do God knows what next what else are you planning to do you’d make the cutest grandmother out of your mind that’s all I have to say oh seriously now don’t you see he’s going to fall in love and get hurt because you’re so charming and pretty you do know you’re charming I won’t have any trouble making him want out when the proper time comes you know for two ladies of a certain age as the French so charmingly put it they’re not bad are they well both women you’ll have noticed are dubbed into English by other people thus neatly robbing the film of practically all its French flavor United Artists seem to be aware of this because in London they’re putting out two versions a dubbed print at the cine Center in Leicester Square and a subtitled version at the minimar in nightsbridge though brow plebs requested to queue up in leester square intellectuals linguists and people who simply feel that for full appreciation a French film should be played in French will kindly make their way to nightsbridge both versions open next Thursday and the Press who cover the whole Spectrum from intellectual to wouldbe intellectual to lowbrow pleb will see the subtitle print well now it’s almost half term again an event that can only be welcomed by school children teachers and the purveyors of what are known as family films and inevitably there are various family films about one of them is a British production a 2 million pound animated version of Richard Adams bestselling novel Watership Down it’s all about rabbits though I suppose it’s hardly necessary to point that out now since everyone in the country seems to have read the book except me still the film has been four years in the making and has a royal World premiere in London next Thursday it was made by the way in a studio of Warren Street well where else would he make a film about rabbits this is a brief rundown of what creating a full- length animated movie entails really go film begins modestly as a comic strip Story Board the subject of daily debate between producer Martin Rosen and his staff right down the staff consists of 80 researchers artists and animators creating 200 ,000 drawings a figure later reduced to a mere 75,000 when the film story has been fully worked out we just finish the story board the new Holly confrontation which didn’t work the first time take a look at this you want a multiplane shot or multi panning shot yeah from Holly’s point of view with the voice over of the group talking to bigwig he’s creeping up on him through creeping up on him parting the bushes and the story board becomes the team’s Bible a wrong judgment or a Mis Nuance at this stage will prove expensive both in time and money if it has to be altered later reaction takes him back ends up with a mouthful of fur for the first time in the picture Hol assum or Hazel assumes a leadership stance at a much earlier Point than in a film featuring live actors the animation team have to decide exactly how the film is going to look which character moves where and why and so on and then realizing that it’s big and he’s expression changes once the storyboard is settled and this contains every shot in the film the drawings are pinned to the wall in sequence and backgrounds are sketched in looking up at big wig who’s on screen screen bounding in from over camera these rough sketches are turned into finished backgrounds quite early on in the picture’s progress overlays are added to give depth and movement I’ve graded this part portion of the background so that it throws back against this overlay here the sky I think fairly much the same tone as the ground in fact to keep an overall key color all over hundreds of backgrounds are produced in this way to create a landscape for the rabbits to inhabit each artist remembering to keep his style consistent with that of the others elsewhere in the building the rabbit characters themselves are being animated the artists produce a series of pencil sketches that will eventually become the moving pictures paying particular attention to the character’s lip movements which are timed to fit the already recorded dialogue they work out the smallest number of drawings necessary to make any movement effective and of course in keeping with the character of each rabbit these black and white drawings are then photographed frame by frame with an overhead movie camera as a test run here the rabbit’s head is being made to move thus the only drawings which change are those of his head it can take a whole day to film one small sequence of movement but you still won’t know till later whether it actually worked so in the editing room the producer and his team anxiously checked the result so far so good but will the shots cut together a second see C comes up from behind lines in the foreground just need this foreground in the other shop for that match just probably cutting frames on the start of that anyway there are the Silver’s dialog is he alarm yeah yeah a [Applause] nice now that the animation works the characters must be fine drawn and colored in this is a timec consuming job for a large team of Highly skilled coloring artists taking great care to ensure that the color of each character remains constant so numbered paint pots are used for each individual a large quantity is mixed at the beginning of the movie and only that particular numbered color is used for that particular character altogether 70 different colors were mixed for the different rabbits in Watership Down the colored animals are then placed in the backgrounds painted on transparent sheets they can be precisely located by means of special pins around the drawing then they’re carefully checked for any errors of movement or color finally they photograph frame by frame as they were for the earlier tests using once again the overhead movie camera and this is the finished result they seem sad like like trees in November yeah well I still think we’ve made a big change for the better you think the man puts the food out there because of a kind heart well it’s not poison there’s something under natural and evil and twisted about this place it feels it feels like misted like being deceived and losing our way as some of us are gathering and suggesting stories I we hoping you’ll tell one Hazel can tell you about our adventures and how we had the good luck to join you sure it was no harm in that uh dandelion why didn’t you tell us a story Ela El ARA and his trickery don’t really mean very much to us Charming as it is rabbits will always need tricks no we need dignity and above all the will to accept Our Fate as one of our poets is fond of saying if I may quote yes yes of course why not do where are you going stream far far away take me with you stream take me on your dark Journey Lord fris oh take me take me far away to the hearts of light the silence I give you my breath My Life The Silence I’ve had [Music] enough well I repeat the waters ship down is a British picture but as I expect you realized it has an American producer good luck to Martin Rosen of course but couldn’t a British producer have snapped up this very British subject I will animation is also involved partly at least in the new Disney film Pete’s Dragon which is a predictable Disney effort about a cute little orphan boy running away from nasty hillbilly type foster parents and finding Refuge with nice but drunken Mickey Rooney and his equally nice but sober daughter Helen ready subsidiary comic villains like red buttons and Jim Dale are also involved but naturally the little lad is saved by his amiable Dragon who is called Elliot and looks like an amalgamation of every animal the Disney Studios have ever produced Elliot of course is the animated character just as animated in fact as any of the humans and a good deal more animated than the songs and music which have the rare distinction of being forgettable even while you’re listening to them Jim Dale is rather good and so is Jim bakus as the local mayor while Shelley Winters as the evil Foster mother makes in effect three appearances one covered in mud two covered in dust and three covered in oil but none of these substances is thick enough to disguise the ham underneath sha Marshall who plays Peter is one of those kids who are obviously mass-produced in the Disney Factory I have this mental image of hundreds of them going round and round on a conveyor belt while somebody sprays freckles all over them with a paint gun anyway here he is singing one of those songs in duet with Elliot night when [Music] firsted so right that we decied now we’re together and life is perfect don’t ever dis [Music] oh really oh you’re just saying is it [Music] true I love you too we’re walking down a road of our own where rain can never fall I’m glad I don’t have to be alone [Music] know what to say when I want Direction don’t turn away when I need [Music] protction your voice is the sound of an Angel sing music I wait to hear say it again and again everything seems so new I love you [Music] too I love youo I love [Music] you I love you too well Peach’s dragon has just opened in London it did very well in America around Christmas time and variety the Showbiz newspaper described its success thus Dragon wamo 35g translated into English that means it was rather popular and in one week took $35,000 at the box office variety which is the Bible of the money men in the movie business is much given to this kind of eccentric language zombie Al Livewire at Italo boo it says which doesn’t mean that a new Wonder deodorant called Zombie has finally conquered body odor in Italy but that a film called Zombie is packing them in at the Italian box office likewise fiva Heidi Capricorn solid means that the producers of the film Saturday Night Fever Heidi and Capricorn one can safely order another box of Havana cigars because the loot is rolling in my current favorite variety headline reads Sports films click So Hood works up sweat on jock cycle if like me you’re fluent in varieties you’ll know at once that this doesn’t mean that Hollywood Moguls are keeping fit by riding scsh bicycles around Beverly Hills it means that Sports films are popular so Hollywood intends to make lots of them jock I must tell you even at the risk of bringing a blush to a maidenly cheek refers to that intimate but invaluable part of every Sportsman’s equipment the jockstrap and now for some items of news Emi headed by Lord delant plans to film SOS Titanic about the sinking of that ill-fated liner while his lordship’s no less noble brother Lord grade is planning to salvage the thing in a rival production called Raise the Titanic the damn ship’s going to spend the next few months going up and down down like a submarine inent Emi have introduced an interesting experiment in woking where they’ve turned a cafe that’s been closed for 10 years into a cinema called the ABC 2 it’s a bit small only 80 seats and the screen is a mere 6 ft by 8 but this mini cinemar has been made possible by transferring feature films onto video cassettes well all right you lose a bit of quality that way but at least it’s cheap video projection equipment costs only £6,000 or thereabouts compared with the £20,000 it costs to equip a conventional Cinema ah good I hear you say that means it must be cheaper to go to the pictures in woking wrong the seat prices are the same as ever still if it leads to more defunct cafes or even bingo halls being reclaimed for the movies The woking Experiment must be a step in the right direction and one more item in the new section Keith cper of great Booker Inari sent me this advertisement from the Historia pearly Richard Burton in Wild Greece what a troling thought well that brings us rather neatly to this week’s awful moment from the movies suggested by Rodney M Bennett of West London from maytime in Mayfair made in 1949 and it features Peter Graves as a Mayfair couturier who entices customers into his shop by singing at them won’t you sing just one more song for me just a little one oh my voice is so tired you really must excuse me of course we mustn’t overwork that glorious organ of yours must we well Amen to that I say what I also say as I’ve said before is that if you too have some suggestions for awful moments do send them in and try and find some clean ones will you here’s the address film 78 bbct TV London W12 7rj and that brings us more or less to the end of tonight’s program except that I would like to mention that the eth annual charity film Harmonic concert takes place at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday October the 28th as usual it features a feast of Movie music played this year by the London philonic and includes a special tribute to 50 years of what is now 20th Century Fox among the songs that will be played is one made famous by the gorgeous and incomparable Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes so what better way to leave you tonight than with Marilyn singing it herself The Voice may not be all that great but just look where it comes from I’ll be back in two weeks time till then good night I’ve heard of Affairs that are strictly platonic but Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend And I think aairs that you that’s it was Sonic a better BS if little pets get big bagett time rolls on and youth is gone and you can’t straighten up when you B but stiff back or stiff knees you stand straight at [Music] diamonds diamonds diamonds I don’t mean [Music] r best best friend [Music] [Applause] 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 [Music] [Music] good evening tonight we’ll be taking a look at films from America Britain Sweden and Australia and a nicely mixed bag they all are from America comes Hooper with Bert Reynolds starring as the greatest stump man in the world world and coma in which Genevie bold is a hospital doctor mixed up in some weird going on from Britain though only alas thanks to American currency we have glender Jackson as The Splendid and eccentric English poet Stevie Smith from Sweden by way of Germany where the Maestro sits brooding in Exile comes imar bergman’s the Serpent’s egg and in addition to all that and in view of the fact that an Australian film newsfront opens this year’s London Film Festival next week we’ll have a report on the recent Revival and even more recent problems of the Australian film industry and naturally we’ll be showing more awful moments from the movies and there’s a small celebration of 25 years of cinemascope in this country but let’s begin with Hooper in which Bert Reynolds plays the title role that of Hollywood’s currently greatest stuntman a sort of Walking Disaster Area whose body is so full of Old Wounds and fractures and scars that as he puts it his x-rays look like a map of Los Angeles Breathing heavily down his neck is a new Young rival the Vint of stuntmen played by Jan Michael Vincent they meet first at a stuntman’s charity performance where Reynolds is determined to prove that he’s still number [Music] one come on [Music] [Applause] [Music] well the basic theme of hoopa will be immediately familiar to all Western addicts think of it if you will in terms of the Aging gunfighter coming up against the fast young kid and just to add to that cozy feeling of deja vu Sally Field is the girl who provides Mr Reynolds home Comforts and wants him to retire before he kills himself a pretty banal plot therefore but a great deal of fun nevertheless and briskly directed by Hal needam the big weakness of the film is that although the stunts are increasingly spectacular and to culminate in the biggest and most improbable stunt of all there’s no real indication of how stunt men go about their Preposterous work or the preparation that’s necessary before they perform such lunatic S as hurling themselves out of helicopters without benefit of parachute but on the other hand the script is sharp and witty there’s a clever performance by Robert Klein as a megalomaniac young director making a film called The Spy Who laughed at danger and Bert Reynolds is surprisingly good ever since his best film Deliverance he’s been chucking himself with more enthusiasm than skill into comedy roles in which hither to he’s never been a great deal funnier than gingervitus but in Hoopa the blend of humor and Mr Reynold’s natural Macho style works very well indeed here he is watching Jan Michael Vincent give a very very possible imitation of a human fly roll the cameras come on good buddy not too shabby that’s pretty good well we probably could have done that when we were his age except they didn’t have buildings that tall [Music] [Music] [Applause] is pretty damn good yeah I have to admit it pretty damn young too yeah I hate him I just hate him well I thought it was a little slow if you don’t mind uh I’d like to have another one okay are you kidding me yeah I’m kidding well hoop is now on in London and the South and we’ll be showing in the rest of the country soon another American movie now on in the West End is coma a thriller set in a hospital in Boston where an alarming number of young people go into a coma from which they never emerge while on the operating table is this merely a tiresome coincidence to be dismissed with a philosophical shrug and a murmured you can’t win them all after through a surgical mask or is something very Sinister going on Genevie Bol the young doctor is inclined towards the latter Theory but as the brains of the Kos victims are cut up with bacon slices and their entrails are held up dripping for our inspection she finds as is ever the way in this sort of Thriller that nobody seems to agree with her Richard Woodmark the kindly old head of the hospital sends her to a psychiatrist and her doctor boyfriend Michael Douglas is too preoccupied with sulking over the fact that she always seems to beat him into the shower to take her little problems seriously even so it’s not at all a bad Thriller and the den numo is really quite tense will miss Bol be saved in time or will she come off the operating table minus all her marbles as well as her appendix well I shall say no more except that she has a very pretty belly button the fact brought to our attention by one of the nurses in the operating theater however before we have that minor but pleasing Revelation the poor girl suffers great Peril as in this scene in which she’s pursued into the hospital Mory by a wouldbe assassin [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] do you know it occurs to me that there are more corpses than live patients in that hospital please God don’t ever let me fall ill in Boston incidentally coma was directed by one Doctor Michael kryon from a novel by another Robin Cook and one of its effects May well be to deter the squeamish from ever going to hospital again but now by way of complete contrast we have Stevie in which glender Jackson plays Stevie Smith the remarkable English poet who lived nearly all her life in Palmer’s green and proved that art can flourish even in such an unlikely Suburban setting as that the film was directed by Robert Enders from the stage play by Hugh Whitmore and essentially it consists of Miss Jackson aided by Trevor Howard Alec maau and most splendidly of all by Mona wasborn as the poet’s beloved Maiden Aunt reminiscing about her past life a strange eccentric lady Miss Smith afraid of marriage obsessed by death greatly attracted by the thought of suicide and at the same time R and witty and very funny indeed the life we’re asked to examine often in the form of a monologue as Miss Jackson speaks directly to the camera is quite unexceptional and even monotonous yet the film is Holy delightful and Miss Jackson’s performance is faultless here’s a scene early in the film when Stevie with her aunt recalls her childhood I spent months and months in a children’s hospital I first thought of suicide when I was eight the thought cheered me up wonderfully life may be treacherous I remember thinking but you can always rely on death it also occurred to me that if one can remove oneself from the world at any time why particularly now I realize death is my servant he’s got to come if I call him I think every sensitive young child should learn this it’s a great source of strength and comfort more tea Peggy there oh yes please eventually of course I got better came back home to Avendale Road How Sweet the birds of Avendale of Avendale of Avendale How Sweet the birds of Avendale do swoop and sing and call my sister Molly and I thought this was a beautiful house and a beautiful garden and so it was but so it is Although our more cautious Elders would only sign a lease for the first 6 months we’ve been here ever since mind you it was a Country Place then with Woods stretching all the way up to Southgate station but I still find it very dreamy and poetical the people are Charming too they have a helpful non-interfering politeness which is very like old Chinese courtesy is it uh 6:00 yet H uh was 22 oh soon be time to do the vegetables two old ladies live next door to us then miss Jessie Jesse and Miss em a smashing film about a smashing lady who had the gift of encapsulating all the commonplace fears and Terrors and Ambitions and yearnings to which every one of us is prey indeed the only depressing thing about Stevie the movie is that it took an American producer director Bob Enders to envisage it as a film and it took an American company first artist to put up the 250,000 or say that it cost to make thus it turns out to be yet another British picture which if it had been left to the British would never have been made at all but while on the subject of British Productions I think I better mention the latest remake of The 39 steps of which I said quite confidently in our last program that it was going to open last week well I only said that because I got it wrong and the producers and Distributors of the film are as they say in football circles as sick as parrots about it I don’t know why parrots should be considered to be more liable to sickness than any other creatures but footballers who are very simple-minded men on the whole think they are and no parrot was ever sicker than the people associated with the 39 steps which will in fact have its Royal charity premere on November the 23rd in Aid of the save the children fund and now let’s pass on quickly to the Serpent’s egg imar bergman’s first film was a tax Exile from Sweden I asked Alan Brian of the Sunday Times who’d seen the picture before I did what he thought of the Serpent’s egg and he said good in Parts a rotten joke which I noticed he had the profound sense not to include in his own review and yet he was right you know bergman’s film is set in the Berlin of November 1923 when the viar Republic was disintegrating and Hitler was about to attempt his first abortive coup in Munich strange inexplicable murders have been taking place and are being investigated by inspector ger fober in the center of all this David caradine as an outof workor alcoholic Jewish American circus artist which amounts to about as many handicaps as anyone should be asked to bear in The viar Republic liman as his sister-in-law who sings in Cabaret and moonlights in a brothel as every Working Girl appeared to do in Berlin in 1923 if the movies are any guide and Hines Bennett as a mad scientist conducting obscene experiments it’s all very Bleak and doomed and says hardly more about fascism than Cabaret and rather less than the Damned but the Berlin sets and atmosphere and Sven Nick fist’s photog graphy are marvelously evocative it’s a film that’s always worth watching but is nevertheless disappointing because by Bergman standards what it says is both obvious and heavy-handed anyway in this scene the Nazi bully boys raid the cabet where liman [Music] works fore fore foreign fore [Applause] I think I ought to tell you that apart from occasional scenes like that the film is in English and also that the latest inar Bergman film Autumn Sonata will be shown at this year’s London Film Festival which opens on Wednesday with a showing of an Australian picture newsfront this was directed by Philip no and it takes a look at the life of a newsreal cameraman and is a assistant as they work for a small Australian company in the 1940s and 50s it includes a clever and impressive blend of newsreal footage and real life action as this scene [Music] reveals after 8 years in office under the leadership of first prime minister curtain and then Mr chifley the Australian labor party has been defeated at the polls by Mr mens’s new liberal country party Coalition looks like a big can’t go around it Mr Chipley seen here voting Mr menes cast his [Music] choice you may think it’s funny stop it there will you MAA [Music] I’m astonished at you Jeff for imagining that a piece of bad taste like that was worth your time my disappointment in you and the money I’m going to dock from your pay for the ingenious processing work oh come on astonished absolutely astonished it was a joke Ag and something of a political statement and two more serious Australian pictures the getting of wisdom directed by Bruce barisford and the Irishman will be shown early on in the London festiv Festival this report from Australia gives a background to those Productions and the current Revival of the Australian industry a Hollywood type Premiere all glitter and Bal whoo was held in Sydney on St Patrick’s Day for the Irishman which cost 650,000 Australian dollar about half a million pounds the film was made by the same team as made caddy one of the most popular of the recent New Wave Australian pictures director Donald cromby and producer Tony Buckley we hope for the Irishman if it’s as half successful as Cy has been will be very pleased and that will be the reward the Irishman concerns the predicament of an Irish Teamster whose livelihood is threatened by the introduction of Motor Vehicles thus accounting for the horses and Dre carts that turned up at the premere I can remember about 5 years ago when there was a stigma attached to an Australian film in fact producers and Distributors wouldn’t advertise the fact that it was Australian they deliberately leave it off the credits or leave it off their advertising material today it’s exactly the reverse Australian audiences seem to seek out of Australian films in the last 7 years some 70 feature films have been made in Australia but the energy and enthusiasm that led to this commendable output is somewhat tempered by the fact that few of the pictures have made any International impact and none has really broken through in the very important American market now the financial support for these Productions has come initially from the Australian film commission a federal body set up in 1971 to revitalize the native industry and this involvement resulted in a wide range of pictures often looking back at Australia’s past more recently the various state governments have also started to finance films each vying with the others to gain attention and Prestige for itself through the quality of the pictures it backs so satellite film corporations have sprung up in New South Wales Victoria Tasmania Queensland and South Australia we make the best films in Australia we made Sunny too far away Picnic at Hanging Rock storm boy Peter where’s last film was made with us and he’s going to make another one Bruce barisford is just starting to shoot film as you know people are accessible I I found up the premier’s office and uh I said I’d like an interview with the premier when can I have it and they said tomorrow morning at 11:00 well that knocked me back I went in and I said Mr Premier I believe you promised to get behind the queens and film Corporation and he said yes so I said what are you going to do about it and shall I stay oh should I go back to the UK so I’d like you to stay so well I’m going to stay people are seem to be very very direct and amable to suggestions I suppose that’s because the uh the Australian film industry is really moving now and uh everybody is anxious uh to see us in a world situation and everybody’s caught up in that wonderful excitement can I put it this way I have a feeling that every member of the crew has a feeling that it’s their picture where I didn’t experience that a lot in the UK or anywhere else uh they were simply doing their their job they were props or Sparks or whatever but here everybody is making their picture it’s not just the the producer the director the actors and the writer and so forth and that’s a wonderful excitement everybody’s so Keen well I we started making features in Australia I made two films uh based on the Barry McKenzie comic strip they were very successful really then I made a uh a film based on a play Don’s party which is also very successful I’m glad to say that’s how I’ve kept working uh Don’s party was play by David Williamson and I even won the best director’s award for that which surprised me and then I made the getting of wisdom which is from a classic Australian novel set in a girl school it’s a period film but it’s uh it’s not one of these petty coat pictures a very earthy kind of thing [Music] good happens oh I’m terribly sorry I need knock very softly I thought you said come in what can I do for you young lady I’m Laura tle rambol from the college ah yes yes of course uh You Came To Stay yes and you quoted some Virgil to me and I’m having such trouble with my translations well I believe you have some very fine teachers at the college yes but well you did say say you said if you could help did I how do we know he’s even in the v besides I don’t believe a minister would stoop to such a sorted Intrigue with a child of 15 oh come up with him Pete Juliet was only 13 she was ital and Roman Catholic getting a think we shot that in 6 weeks I can hardly believe it you know I’d love to have 10 or 11 weeks to do it but if we go really over about half a million dollars we can’t get the money back on the Home Market well Bruce is I think one of our best directors uh and he’s done about five pictures and uh he’s yet to have a financial failure and action please hey he Jackson that’s right exercising Samy Rose h of squad my brother Brian I think the success of the industry so far is due in part to the fact that we do keep our budgets done and we do this through not paying the top people okay okay that’s good right the director writer producer and the top artists nearly as much as they would get for similar jobs overseas in our um early days of this current Revival we tended to um you know just get a script together and grab the money and make anything you know not anything but I mean make a film you know at any price sort of thing now the Australian industry went has got wonderful technicians but then they’re used to working very quickly and the actors have been left behind and when they go into production such as this over such a short period of time it’s like a tidal wave that sweeps over the actors and they’ve got no time for repose they’ve got no time for pause or reflect and I think um I’d like to see the actors because being an actor uh I’d like to see them given more chance to really think about what they’re doing so you get thought processes you know going in the mind yeah let’s not not talking about stars but talking about uh character actors that’s where we do have a shortage I mean to to for an example if you have a sequence where you have a a walk- on part with two lines a tea lady or something brings coffee into me at this Des um in Australia it’s very we don’t have people with the experience of that kind of work Australia is going through at the same sort of stage that Britain was going through when I was young and just after the war um uh having been in the crown film unit and there were a lot of young filmmakers like me um starting out in their careers and starting to make films uh and we made some good ones and B bad ones exactly the same thing is happening in this country in that while we’ve made films that have been critically successful all over the world the facts on paper appear to be that our films just aren’t really profitable and require a very very high level of government Finance so it’s a matter really of how long the government is prepared to continue to assist the Australian film industry if the Australian film commission pulled out tomorrow there would be now industry our studio costs equipment costs have inflated to such an extent they’ve exploded really they’ve done more than inflated I doubt whether it will ever get to a situation where we can expend much more than a million or a million and a quarter dollars as we’re now spending on on on on Productions also of course cinema prices have gone up uh over the last 12 months and they’re now I mean I think think hitting nearly 3 which is quite a lot to go to the cinema and I think since picnic was a released in fact audiences have dropped off about 40% so you’ve got less chance of making your money back here I mean we made our money back here in picnic within 3 4 months which was quite fantastic but that hasn’t been done since it is a problem because now one has got to think well if we can’t um raise get our money back here as we have thought with caught up till now then we have to look very seriously at overseas marketing uh there’s a serious doubt in my mind as to whether the sort of exercises that the Australian film commission and other producers are engaging in to Endeavor to crack overseas markets are ever going to be particularly successful I think the industry will be commercials documentaries and Telly movies or productions for television and I think there will be a few individuals who make feature films it really is a number of people I know most of them there’s not many of them there’s maybe a dozen people working and um some of us will work overseas and come back and our films will be Sometimes good sometimes not so good and the industry will therefore uh rise and fall according to the uh inspiration of that dozen people there are problems I hope it doesn’t collapse right now there’s an air of optimism about director Bruce beresford’s latest production the money Movers which is based on the true story of an armored car robbery in Melbourne yeah that’s right the Australian Distributors say that this low budget Thriller has exceeded their expectations a rare Accolade from Distributors who tend on the whole to be a jonest lot that’s good and they’ve deferred the picture’s release until it can be launched Nationwide SE the place he lives in seen his car on on a patrolman’s wages so the omen indicate that here is a film which should make a profit in Australia a comforting thought in itself but the really important question is yet to be answered namely will it prove to be at last the film The Aussies have been looking for to help them crack the lucrative American market so just to remind you three Australian films will be shown at the London Film Festival newsfront the getting of wisdom and the Irishman and newsfront will be the next attraction at London screen on the hill which brings us neatly into the news section of this program because I’d like to point out that a program of 14 Australian films called the other Australian Cinema as opposed to what in the old days one might have called a bit of the other Australian Cinema is now going around the regions on a different note entirely John Dade of Brighton sends me this extract from the ABC Cinema chains list of what’s on in Brighton and thereabouts death on the nail intrigues me greatly what is this the crucifixion perhaps has seen Through The Eyes of e paru oh well let’s move on to our awful moments from the movies William katten of chingford and essics has suggested this scene from The Iron mistress made in 1952 it’s a curious encounter with Alan lad who plays Jim Bowie the man who invented the Bowie knife tonight your father had his own worries whether I left my old life behind or not more than the knife is gone Ura it’s all gone is it you still wear the sheath what you want to change the subject for I thought they were talking about knives anyway here’s another awful moment of a different kind it was sent in by John Walden of benfleet again in Essex and I would ask you to look care at the shop window as Dorothy Dandridge and Pearl Bailey walk by in the 1954 film Carmen Jones Not a Bad scene this I don’t think too much of the Mrs dandri and Bailey but I do think the camera crew looks lovely oh and by the way if you’d like to see that bit again in context may I point out that Carmen Jones will be shown at the Ken cinemar in London next Sunday as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Advent of cinemar scope to this country so as our contribution to those celebrations I’ll leave you with this scene of Dorothy Dandridge singing in the film well actually it’s Marilyn horn singing But Dorothy Dandridge does the mouthing and that’s the tricky bit I’ll be back in a fortn night’s time till then goodbye loves a baby that grows up wild and he don’t do what you want him to Ling nobody’s angel child and he won’t pay any mind to you one man gives me his diamond stud and I won’t give him a cigarette one man treats me like I was mud and all I got that man can [Music] get go me and I’m Tabo but if you’re hard to get I go for you and if I do then you are through boy my b that’s the end of you so take your C boy don’t say I didn’t tell you TR I told you truly if I love you that’s the end of [Music] You Are so take your C boy don’t say I didn’t tell you [Music] true I told you truly if I love you that’s you