Art Smitten

Reviewer, Caroline Tung, is joined by Simon Hoy, Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer at the Melbourne Ballet Company. They discuss the MBC's production of Guernica, based on Pablo Picasso's 1937 war mural and William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet. 

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Hello and welcome to the Art Smitten guide to the Melbourne International Film Festival. My name's Ben and I love films a bit too much.

If you didn't know, the end of next week is the beginning of over two weeks of the Melbourne International Film Festival – or MIFF – as it takes over many of the screens in the city, and pushes film to the forefront of Melbourne's minds.

There’s such a wide array of films in this year’s festival, so there’s bound to be something for everyone. Unless, of course, you just really hate films. Then I probably can’t help you.

Personally, as I said, I love films, and I'm going to be seeing quite a few of them at the festival. But rather than giving you my picks of the festival, I thought I’d share a few tips on how to navigate the whole thing.

Firstly, choosing films. A good way to start off is with people you know. This is probably the easiest way to find something you’ll enjoy. If you’ve liked a film directed by someone or starring someone, chances are you’ll like their latest one. And there’s plenty of recognisable names in this year’s festival, like directors Kelly Reichardt and Pedro Almodóvar - Tom Hanks even pops up and there's not one but two films starring Kristen Stewart - so hopefully there’s someone there whose films you’re already familiar with and can go watch.

Or: take a stab in the dark! Film festivals are notorious for including an eclectic array of films, to say the least. Pick something or someone you’ve never heard of and just go watch it. You may be surprised. Or if you’re not that adventurous, at least read about a bunch of films you have no idea about and see what takes your fancy. Who knows, that might just become your next favourite filmmaker.

Don’t forget retrospectives. Film festivals are not just about showcasing new films, they’re also about celebrating the past. Most film festivals have a couple of themed retrospective sections, and this year MIFF have included four separate retrospective streams, including one celebrating Jerry Lewis who turned 90 this year and one entirely devoted to female directors from New York like Elaine May or Sara Driver. You could almost go the entire film festival watching films from these retrospectives.

Also, check cinemas to see what’s coming soon. For example, High-Rise, Captain Fantastic and Girl Asleep, three popular titles at the festival, are all being released fairly shortly after the festival ends anyway, so unless you’re absolutely dying to see them I’d recommend holding off and going to see something that might not have a wider release.

Hopefully by this stage you’ll have a fairly decent idea of what it is you want to watch at the festival.

But remember, book early! This is Melbourne, city of culture. Cinephiles are racing to secure tickets to their chosen films. Some sessions are already sold out and even more are selling fast! So be quick if you don’t want to miss out.

Once you’ve got your tickets and have put all the dates and times in your calendar, you’re ready to get to the films themselves. Don’t be afraid to go alone, either. This goes for the rest of the year too but there’s nothing wrong with going to the cinema alone. Especially if all your friends take ages to agree to go with you. Just book the ticket and go for it.

Remember to get there early and get used to queuing! There’s going to be lots of waiting around but I prefer that to arriving just on time and worrying that I won’t get a good seat. You can always talk to people, anyway. Generally, film festival audiences are friendly and eager to chat about what they’re seeing during the festival or what they’ve just seen. Strike up a conversation in the queue or even once you’re seated. Chances are the other person will be more than happy to talk and you might even make some new friends. Just remember to stop talking once the film itself has begun! Also, turn your phone off.

But my number one tip is: enjoy yourself. It’s really a fun time of the year and I hope this guide can help you make the most of it. So if you only go and see one film or if like me you’re seeing over fifty films, enjoy the festival. See you there!

Written by Ben Volchok

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Retro Futurismus is a sci-fi cabert, created by Anni and Maude Davey along with Anna Lumb, Gabi Barton and Teresa Blake, with new special guest stars performing every week. Retro Futurismus as been shown all over Australia to much acclaim and is now performing a new season at 45 Downstairs this month.

Retro Futurismus transformed 45 down stairs into a feminie sci-fi wonderland. It was a beautiful, welcoming atmosphere, I was greeted by one of the performers and directed to a great seat where I waited and listened to a fabulous soundtrack of songs before the show begun.

Retro Futurismus was a series of sort performances, ranging for dance, circus, and song to avant-garde visual acts, which explored the performers own experience of womanhood.

During the interval we were entertained very sweetly by puppetry, which later in the show was revived and was so beautiful people in the audience began to cry.

It was wonderfully self-aware and at times meta, and also very extravagant and glamorous. It was defiant and strong and tender and sweet. It gave me a beautiful mix of emotions, it was vulnerable while also being playful and fierce was intensely powerful and empowering.

Retro Futurismus is showing Wednesday-Sunday at 45 Downstairs until the 31st of July

Written by Ebony Beaton

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If you’ve ever felt that your office was one hoop short of a circus, Scott Hollingsworth’s Performance management is the cabaret that will speak to your funny bone. Hollingsworth’s one-man show is an outrageous, unapologetically offensive performance, that highlights the ridiculous in the mundane.

The show came back for one night last Sunday, with minor alterations to last year’s performance. Set at the Southern star observation wheel in docklands, Scotts own SHHH Productions presented Performance management in cabaret for a 90-minute erotic extravaganza. 

Hollingsworth plays the Ringmaster, opening the show with a re-scripted cover of Britney Spears’ “Circus”, the audience is welcomed by an incredible areal hoop act by Jessica Robbins, the scantily clad muscle man, Murat Yilmaz and Joshua Fielding as the larrikin lion.

Scott draws inspiration from his real life day job as an office manager and the employees he faces during the daily grind. The cabaret explores everything from job interviews, to unfair dismissal to the ridiculous white lies on a CV, all of which are topics that will speak to the everyday office monkey.

The creative rescripting paired with costuming and lighting pulled the audience in for a night of laughs and performance interaction.

Although Scott Hollingsworth is joined by his stage “minions” the performance really is a one man show, as the ringmaster manages to switch it up with simple costume changes, voice alterations and cheeky quips that almost make you forget that there simply is one fantastic human holding the piece together.

Scott is a NIDA trained actor who has toured internationally with huge productions such as Oklahoma, West Side Story and Cats and although quite a different production, Scott’s experience shines through with performance management, as he cracks the whip in a killer performance.

Hollingsworth doesn’t shy away from mixing themes either as he appropriates tunes from the little mermaid, Frozen, Mary poppin’s and Chicago, bringing his own cheeky twists that although questionable are wonderfully catchy.

With bits such as “everyone’s a little bit racist” to making jokes about killing co-workers. Though maybe not for everyone, the ringmaster’s colourful charisma had the audience giggling and holding their cheeks.
All in all Scott Hollingsworth’s Performance management in Cabaret definitely earned its slot as the Monday morning office gossip.

Written by Ta-lisse Corinne

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Hosts Jim and Christian, along with AP Thierry, discuss Abigail/1702, the sequel to Arthur Miller's The Crucible. 

Boutique Theatre's production of Abigail/1702, is being performed at the Victorian Trades Hall, 54 Victoria Street Carlton from 14th July to 30th July. 

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Hosts Jim and Christian were joined in the studio by artist Samuel Tupou, who is opening his new art exhibition, Duplikator. 

Duplikator will be displayed at the Linden Art Gallery, 26 Acland Street St Kilda, from the 20th July to the 9th October. 

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Hosts Christian and Jim are joined in the studio with playwright, Anthony Weigh, who spoke about his upcoming play Edward II, produced by Malthouse Theatre.

It will be performed at the Merlyn Theatre, The Coopers Malthouse, 113 Sturt Street Southbank from the 29th July to the 21st August. 

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Never underestimate the power of a child's imagination. Children often understand much more than we think about our adult world. When confronted with something complex and scary, they seize upon what they do know and invent like crazy to fill in what they don't know. This is something every great children's storyteller understands, and something that I certainly hope first-time feature director Simon Rouby never loses sight of. His debut, Adama, takes on the task of showing the horrors of the battle at Verdun, one of the worst of the entire First World War, to a primary school audience. What helps enormously is that his titular protagonist is the same age as the people who will be watching him. Adama (voiced by Azize Diabaté Abdoulaye) is the plucky adventure-loving hero of this particular kids’ animation. He and his family live in a village in West Africa that is surrounded by lush vegetation, freshwater rivers and towering cliffs. His older brother, Samba (Jack Mba), has been his best friend and playmate for as long as he can remember, but now the time has come for Samba to become a man, with the heavy responsibility of putting food on the family table. However, his initiation ceremony is interrupted by the appearance of a seagull flying overhead, a bad omen. The ritual is halted, and this dark sign turns out to be very prophetic. Samba is offered a bag of cold coins by the recruiting "Nassaras," to travel to France and fight in the army. He accepts, determined to be his own man instead of the man his father has always told him he has to be. He tells Adama, on the night that he runs away, that he'll understand when it's his turn to leave childhood behind, and gives him the bag of gold.

Right now, Adama doesn't understand in the slightest. He hears his parents talking about the terrible fate that awaits all those travelling to the front, but refuses to believe that his brother can't be saved. He too runs away from the village, taking the gold so he can return it to the Nassaras and have his brother back.

An adult audience might view this as a cute but tragic story of a naive boy on a well-intentioned fool's errand, but a child probably has no reason to think his plan won't work. The genius of Rouby's direction of Julien Lilti's original story, co-written for the screen by Bénédicte Galup is that, on Adama's long journey, some of his wonderment will be shared with the young audience while other parts of it will seem very strange to them at first. After he has been walking for some time and arrives at the coast near his village, he thirstily slurps up a mouthful of seawater that he of course very quickly spits back out. This is the very first time that he has seen the ocean, a scene that really drives home to a Western audience how different his life has been from theirs, and yet also how similarly they both would react to seeing something for the first time. The same goes for Adama's first look at a White person, a mirthless military official on board a ship just like the one that would have taken Samba away, a faceless spectre looking more like a mannequin than a man.

This figure is also rendered in 2D animation, along with the backgrounds and the crowds, while the characters in the foreground are animated in 3D. Any character that emerges from the nameless throng sheds their watercolour texture and gains a striking definition that also highlights their facial imperfections. The digital imaging, combined with the skilful clay sculpting by Michel Lauricella,, gives these characters a sharp yet jerky appearance, one that's lifelike without trying to be photorealistic.

By the time we, and Adama, get to Verdun, and start seeing bombs, horrific injuries and lethal gas, the adults and teenagers in the room will definitely know that this storyworld is partly a fantasy, but one that rings true on an emotional level. Young children may not necessarily find the story as fanciful, in fact this may well be the most intense film they will have ever seen, but the animation is certainly a good cue for them not to take this at face value. Whilst they will surely identify with Adama, share his frustration with the adults in his life, feel the urgency of his quest and be just as afraid of its many dangers, I think they will also have a sense that everything is going to be alright in the end. They'll recognise staple kids film characters, like the streetwise sidekick, the eccentric wise old homeless man who is vaguely magical (Pascal N'Zonzi), and that one stuffy grownup that eventually comes around to helping our young hero (Oxmo Puccino, who also writes and performs a beautiful piece of slam poetry that is heard during the end credits). Together, all of them will reassure younger viewers that this is a fable, one where courage and kindness are rewarded, war or no war.

Review written by Christian Tsoutsouvas

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I had never been to the Mailbox Art Space prior to their current exhibition, Heathen. Of 'Heathen', the promotional shots of the works gave me the impression of huge canvases filled with extravagant, thought provoking watercolours.

After getting mildly lost in my own city looking for a gallery space on flinders lane, myself and a friend realised that we had to go up a flight of stairs tucked away at the 141-143 Flinders Lane Pawson House heritage building. 

The stairs were choked with people talking and drinking wine. We were late - I figured that people must have already gone in and come back out to discuss the exhibition.

Pushing up the stairs apologising, looking for the door to the gallery, jostling almost everyone, we began to get funny looks. We followed the eyes of a few patrons, turned and beheld a set of 18 1930's mailboxes, the kind you have in an apartment building - lots of about 15x10cm boxes, crammed next to each other, with glass fronts.

Within these tiny boxes were not the vast canvases of traditional galleries that I had expected, but miniature works by Belle Bassin, Valentina Palonen and Anna Parry, with work from the curator, Mitchel Brannan's, private collection, interspersed. It is one of Melbourne's smallest gallery spaces.

To quote the exhibition's description, the theme of 'Heathen'  is 'mysticism, the numinous and the unknowable', the goal 'to explore ways of knowing that are beyond rationality and empiricism'.

Parry has included the watercolours, Palonen the intricately detailed sculptures, and Bassin the photography and digital media.

Parry's watercolours are a kaleidoscope of colour, which with inspection seems to shift like sand in the wind before your eyes, solidifying after moments into new forms. Acorns turn into hearts which turn into crystals, pomegranate seeds are in fact perhaps precious jewels, seaweed like tendrils lurk blue like veins. Organism meets mineral meets the abstract, in which a darkness of spirit and light comedy of visual play meet.

Palonin's contributions take the form of mixed media sculptures. Her works that that drew me the most were a series of disembodied hands holding objects. To call these sculptures intricate would be an understatement - the detail is so incredible, accurate down to the fingerprints and tiny creases of the skin.

The hands are painted green on the fingernails, yellow on the fingers, and purple on the palms, implying that each hand might belong to the same owner. Each hand interacts with an object - one holds an acorn, another a seashell, another a rock, another a crystal. As I interrogated the pieces, I began to mime the hand gestures the sculptures were set in. 

Some have the knuckles facing away from where the face would be, delicately holding the object, indicating that they had perhaps just picked the object up and were observing it, curiously. Other hands gripped their objects hard, possessively, tightly, so that it was obscured from view. I began to see the hand less as a dumb tool, but as of extensions of our mind, of our curiosity, able to display love, hate, ownership and fear as clearly as if these emotions had been yelled.

Bassin's digital photography and one minute video installation are perhaps the most difficult to interpret in the exhibition. She employs seemingly simple patterns of undulating line in black and white, which spiral and throb the longer one observes it into a headache inducing maze of complexity. It is not an optical illusion, it is more interesting than that, but I can't help but compare the effect of Bassin's use of shape and time in her still images with the Penrose infinite staircase.

Fascinatingly, the artists were not given the theme of the exhibition - 'mysticism, the numinous and the unknowable' to work to - the pieces were curated by Mitchel Brannan, picked from artists who had, prior to the exhibition, pushed their work to answer the questions of 'Heathen's theme. This is intriguing, as there are some startling similarities and parallels in the works, all the more interesting due to the fact they were not established by communication between the artists. The motif a heart, acorn, shell or crystal shape appear in each artists work. Each holds significance to the unconscious.

The shell, indented with the infinite spiral pattern, which surfaces from deep beneath the ocean to be viewed by the person. The ocean has over time consistently been used as a metaphor for the unconscious mind in art and literature. 

The acorn, symbolic of rebirth, or the circle of life. It is also suspended oddly in time, a snapshot of what might one day be a mighty tree, it also stands in for the child or the embryo from which we all began, either within our parents or our ancestors at the dawn of time.

Finally, the crystal, brewed deep below the ground by forces untold, becoming something wonderfully, staggeringly beautiful, but is for the most part likely never to see the light of day. It is highly symbolic of the innermost workings of the human mind, and perhaps hints at why so many crystals in the images the artists provided oscillate between seeming both organic and mineral, heightening the metaphoric tie between object and abstract.

All said, I had a brilliant time at the Mailbox Art Space, and I can highly recommend the 'Heathen' Exhibition. It's running until the 30th of July. Check out extra details at www.mailboxartspace.com.au, which will also treat you to a digital copy of Anna Parry's watercolour 'Sacred Geometry'.

Review written by Jim Thomas

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The moment you have all been waiting for – the line-by-line story created by this season’s Art Smitten guests IS FINALLY UNVEILED! Da da duuuuuum. Read aloud by Lauren Klein:

Starting line: Sitting in a crowded cafe, he checked his watch anxiously…

Omrane Khuder: He then noticed that his date was running late

Paul Knox, Hannah Vanderheide and Jorge Tsipos: He knew she couldn’t be, because of the thing they had discussed. It had been a long discussion with many twists and turns. As he pondered, he looked down into his hands and discovered something unusual

Damian Hill: His hand had tattoos encrypted in letters that he did not understand

Joel Gailer: That had was read and it picked up a terracotta brick

Simon Abrahams: It vanished into thin air before materialising in South Africa

Beng Oh: Deep underwater where it lay unseen for a good while, until it resurfaced one fine day.

Josh Lynzaat & Tim Sneddon: Resurfaced, reborn, a renaissance. It proclaimed a new era in the local township’s art - “awesome access, awesome art”.

Daniel Tobias: The electricity was felt in their big toe.

Guy Abrahams & Thornton Walker: People are waiting for fossil fuels to end

Emma Fishwick & Kyan Tan: So that we collectively reclaim the Earth

Defron (Kieron Byatt): Grain after grain until we feel like we belong

Aaron Trevaskis & Mitchel Edwards: Never follow the road until you feel like going home

Lenka Vanderboom: She told me, she told me twice...why was it she didn’t want to go home with me?! Was this her excuse?

Rose Riley: Alas, it was the shoes

Andi Snelling: That would never fit any foot in the whole entire kingdom.

Gabrielle Savrone & Marcus Molyneux: These shoes were obviously bought from an op-shop. But it wasn't just any op-shop, it was an entirely unmagical op-shop.

Bede Nash & Maxine Gigliotti: Filled with magical dragons and pretty dwarves  

Christopher Brown: This disco was unlike any you had seen before. With a cranking sound system and a great lighting display, all the characters came into the centre and... felt good.    

Georgia Moore: The disco was being held at Theatre Works Theatre in St Kilda and all the Federation University company of 2016 were really enjoying themselves as they were surrounded by the Addams Family. Wednesday was looking at Lucas, Morticia at Gomez. The rest is kind of history - da da da dum *snap fingers* 

Shane Grant, Matt Adey and Lauren Simmonds: A darkness descended upon the moving child...it’s a square planet

Kendall Jane Rundle: But I will be prepared to hold your hand and lift you -  so that you are comfortable and free to make triangles, circles and rectangles

Russ Pirie: And as you make your decisions, your choices will be celebrated and supported

Kyle Page: Just remember, the grass is greener where you water it the most

Callum Morton: Because the car is parked right next door.

Thomas Caldwell: I was immediately suspicious of the daschund behind the wheel

Scott Hollingsworth & Joshua Fielding: Simply because he was wearing a hat and smoking a pipe

Gabi Barton: He found it difficult to masticate the spaghetti that was already in his mouth

Declan Green: Riddled as he was with punishing anxiety about the hornets nest.

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