Submitted by rickeyre on
As we await the commencement of the 66th Sydney Film Festival on June 5 2019 - my ninth - here is a list of all the films and related events I have attended since my first festival in 2006:
Submitted by rickeyre on
Submitted by rickeyre on
Legendary Australian writer, film maker, political campaigner, thinker: Bob Ellis died on 3 April 2016 at the age of 73. You didn't have to like or agree with everything he said to have the deepest admiration for his passion and intellect.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Decades of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences being out of step with contemporary values are finally catching up with it.
For the second year running all of the twenty nominees in the acting categories have been from Euro-white background, and while the Academy has made some great choices in recent years, "12 Years A Slave" in 2013 for example, a lot of talented choices have been overlooked for the 2015 awards. Coincidence? The consensus is that it is not.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Arthur Beetson, one of Australia's greatest rugby league players of all time, died suddenly on December 1 at the age of 66. A larger-than-life figure who was a brilliant play maker in the second row for Balmain, Easts and Parramatta, his last major game of football as a player was the inaugural State of Origin clash between Queensland and New South Wales in 1980. The first indigenous Australian to captain a national sporting side, Beetson became a coach, mentor and indigenous community leader in later years. And he even had a go at acting.
Submitted by rickeyre on
It's probably corny to describe Dennis Hopper as an "icon among iconoclasts", but the mark he left on motion picture history was notable and much admired. And not just because he lived to the age of 74 despite decades of drugs and alcohol.
Hopper died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. He was meant to visit Australia last year to open an exhibition of his photography in Melbourne. He had to pull out at the last minute, and made no further public appearances.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Today, June 20, is the centennial of Tasmania's biggest thespian, Errol Flynn. While I pondered some three years ago whether Ricky Ponting was a bigger Tasmanian, his Punterness hasn't been swashing his buckle too well in those live action shorts better known as the ICCWT20 lately.
Submitted by rickeyre on
As Australia mourns the passing of Bud Tingwell - who has, indeed, been granted a state funeral next Wednesday - let us cast our minds back to the 1953 war drama "The Desert Rats", in which Tingwell played a minor role. Field Marshall Rommel was played in the same film by James Mason. Today, May 15, is the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Hearing the news in the past hour of the death of Bud Tingwell from prostate cancer at the age of 86 is a bit like feeling that part of Australia's heart and soul has just passed away. A great, lovely, Australian.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Creative writers from the highly-leveraged Channel Nine's publicity department have been spruiking the announcement yesterday that the Haunted House of Packer will be televising next year's Why It Looks Like My Uncle Oscars on February 23 for, in their words, "the first time" in Australia.
Those of us who remember "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" cleaning up the WILLMOOs live on Channel Seven in March 1976 will know otherwise.
