In the history of the Academy Awards there has only been one posthumous Best Actor award. To an Aussie: Peter Finch. Finch had battled his way through the hardships of the doldrums of the Australian film industry in the 1950s and 1960s and with perseverance born of impeccable talent broke through into British film and American film and a presence as a world-class actor. The American Academy Awards recognized his talent and nominated him for his sterling work on Network. However, Finch died. His death, however, did not discourage the Academy and Finch won the coveted Best Actor award, posthumously. At time of writing, another actor is rumoured to win a posthumous award. He is another Aussie: Heath Ledger, whose performance as villain The Joker in the Batman film The Dark Knight mesmerized critics and audiences alike. Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose some time before the film was debuted and in the meantime the myth machine went to work and the Aussie actor was awarded press attention the likes of which was rarely seen. In the wake of such, The Dark Knight opened to the biggest box-office taking in American film history. The reason was said to be the Aussie actor’s last brilliant performance. Postscript: at the Academy awards for 2008, Heath Ledger did in fact win a posthumous Oscar.
extract from the forthcoming wider screenings guide: australian film tales
...LATEST HEADLINES...
Roman Polanski Arrested!
The noted director of such as Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Tenant - and Academy Award winner for The Pianist - was arrested in switzerland by Swiss authorities on request from US officials.
Polanski was en route to the Zurich International Film Festival when he was detained for an outstanding arrest warrant issued some 31 years ago. Shortly before completing the film The Tenant, Polanski admitted to sex with a 13 year old girl and subsequently fled the USA to avoid prosecution on charges of statutory rape. He has subsequently resided in Paris, building a successful film career. He has until now avoided travel to countries that have an extradition treaty with the USA.
Swiss officials are currently detaining Polanski in Zurich airport under the expectation of an extradition request from US officials. Polish and French foreign ministers intend to make a joint approach to representative of US President Barack Obama in hopes of securing a Presidential pardon for Polanski. Polanski's arrest was condemned by the French Cultural Minister and Zurich Film Festival atendees were horrified that a cultural celebration was used as the occassion to apprehend him. Polanski had an appeal last May to have the outstanding charges dropped, but his case was denied when he failed to appear in person in court and the Judge decreed that the case would not be dismissed as long as the director remained a fugitive from justice.
Mackenzie Phillips admits to incest
with her father, Mamas & Papas
singer John Phillips.
INCEST SCANDAL
Mackenzie Phillips, best known for her role in American Graffiti, has revealed to Oprah that on the eve of her wedding to first husband Jeff Sessler she was raped by her father, Mamas & the Papas singer John Phillips.
The actress claims that both she, then 19, and her father had been heavily into illicit drugs during the incident. She passed out only to awaken having sex with her father.
Over the subsequent year, Mackenzie Phillips lost her sitcom role on "One Day at a Time" due to her drug use. Consequently, she entered into a consensual sexual relationship with her father, feeling "isolated" by the resultant emotional turmoil. At one point, her father-lover John was adament they relocate to a place where incest was an accepted practice, suggesting Fiji as a possible haven.
Heavy drug use since the incident has taken its toll on Phillips, who was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for cocaine possession last August, an offence which had her sentenced to a drug rehabilitation program.
Phillips' stepmother has since spoken out, claiming that the incest claims are false and merely Phillips' attempt to drum up publicity for her tell-all new book.
Film and DVD News & Gossip
Remakes, Remakes, Remakes - this time its Hollywood for the Chinese.
Award-winning director Zhang Yimou (pictured right) is following up his highly publicized stint as director of the 2008 Beijing Olympics with plans to remake the debute feature from American maverick duo the Coen Bros.: Blood Simple.
The director of Hero and House of Flying Daggers is to re-set the plot of adulterous shop owners from a Texas bar to a Chinese country noodle-house. This Chinese remake of American film noir is to be distributed worldwide by Sony Picture Classics. While many balk at the idea, it is an interesting reversal of the usual trend which sees Hollywood appropriate the films of other cultures for their own remake agenda.
Open Casting Call for Peter Greenaway's Cinema of Transgression?
Legendary art-house director Peter Greenaway, whose films The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and Baby of Macon, has hit the rumour mill. This time, allegations of pornography blight the noted art-house auteur's artistic freedom.
Greenaway, who has worked with established actors has two establishing questions he asks of an actress: “Would you be willing to have unsimulated intercourse on screen?” and “Would you be willing to appear in a shot in which semen leaks out of your vagina?” No further details as to this unusual casting request have been forthcoming although the rumour has been enough to generate interest in Greenaway's latest, as yet unreleased, movie. Pornographic imagery has threatened to inch its way into mainstream cinema for some time, and such European directors as Gaspar Noe and Catherine Breillat have repeatedly attracted the ire of censors (especially in Christian-scourged Australia) for their incorporation of often explicit sexual imagery: art v. porn yet again?
UPDATED WEEKLY WITH FILM AND DVD NEWS!
updates via Twitter
LATEST CINEMA / DVD RECOMMENDATIONS
All illustrations and YouTube material are used for review purposes only.