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Leatherstocking looks at TWO HANDS
Hey folks, here's a film we haven't heard much of anything on thus far, but I'll tell you this. It seems to be liked down in Australia, and.... The star of the film, this Heath Ledger, I'd keep my eye on cause he landed the absolutely plum role opposite Mel Gibson as his son in THE PATRIOT... a star making role if I've ever read one. So watch out for this film, as of yet I haven't spotted an American release date on this movie, but from the sound of it, I sure would like a chance to see it! Well, here's Leatherstocking...
Don't know if you have heard about this one, Harry, but it is
something which, if it gets to the US, and I hope it does, deserves
to get at least a cult following: Two Hands, by Gregor Jordan, whose
only other film was a great dark comedy short called Swinger (Not
Swingers). Two Hands is the story of Jimmy (Heath Ledger), who is
trying to break into the Sydney underworld, get past his job standing
nights outside a strip club pulling people in. A good fighter, he
gets the notice of Pando (Bryan Brown), the crime boss of King's
Cross (the seedy area of Sydney). He is supposed to do a quick easy
job for him, but things go horribly wrong. The money gets stolen by a
couple of kids and Pando and his cronies are quickly out to kill him,
as well as anyone else who happens to be in the way.
I could do more of a plot summary, but I don't think it would serve
much purpose. Just some comments on brilliant scenes... Pando doing
oragami with his son while taking a phone call about the current
status of the Jimmy hunt. The bank robber planing their heist with
his toddlers crawling around on the floor (shades of Raising
Arizona). The kids walking into the candy store with 10grand cash
that they just found.
The film is similar in many ways to Lock Stock and Two Smoking
Barrels, but with a more Australian sensibility (here are some Aussie
styles in film, seen in things like Babe and Simply Ballroom, which
you can recognize here) but I am not sure which is better. They
both have great things about them, and I hope that Two Hands makes it
over to the US. It has some great performances and deserves to make
it.
Call me Leatherstocking...
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Sounds promising if it's anything like "Lock, Stock..". Who's this Heath Ledger? Has he been in anything previously, and is he doing anything else at the moment other than "The Patriot"? You never know people if he's young enough we could have found the new Anakin!!!!
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not more contrived bullshit....
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'Two Hands' is a very impressive debut in the punchy vein of 'Idiot Box' and 'Kiss or Kill" (were they released in the US?). You might have seen Ledger in '10 things I hate about you'.
Beyond that, your Mr Cruise is a very nice man - he and his lovely wife were out on the town last night at the Australian premiere of 'Eyes Wide Shut', even jumping the barriers to sign autographs for the crowd. You might be interested to know that we are getting the unaltered version of EWS - it was rated R18+ (which is actually more restricted than NC17) but it doesn't pose any of the problems you guys get with restricted ratings.
Cheers, big ears! -
Yeah - Heath Ledger seems a nice enough chap on the round of interviews he has been doing for 'Two Hands' and 'Ten things..'. Neither film has been fabulously well received down here though. 'Two Hands' is a pretty straight down the line affair, all told. Nonetheless, as some posters have commented, the film and tv world of Australia is a lucky one. No doubt everyone knows of the value of shooting film in Australia - much to the despair of the U.S. industry, no doubt. But, more than that, we have a very broad range of US/UK/Euro/Asian flicks showing on both the big and little screens. SBS - our multinational tv station - regularly shows great Hong Kong Asian films, cult films, European etc. all throughout the day. Channel 2 shows wonderful British and American oddities from the 30's and 40's quite often late at night and is currently running an Orson Welles 'festival' - 'Magnificent Ambersons' tonight and 'A touch of Evil' next week. I would reckon that Melbourne has close to fifteen cinemas that specialise in non-major or overseas films, as well as cinemas like The Astor which show restored prints and cinema classics. We also have a couple of great film festivals each year. Our release schedules are pretty cool too - we manage to get US films before pretty much every where else - except the US! - and UK films pretty soon after their UK release and well before the US. We are well placed to get many Asian films, many of which are also quickly available on video before they are released elsewhere on film. Funny thing is, though, that we produce few feature films, and certainly not too many films of great substance or worth. Much of this is because of the lack of funding to various film bodies, but it is odd that Australia produces films that - more often than not - fall into the same three categories: wacky comedies about eccentric characters or indie/stude types; vaguely gritty crime thrillers; and historical/rural films. There are a few films that fall outside of these categories (some would suggest that they are merely odd combinations of the above) like Bad Boy Bubby and Proof. Rarely are the films in these categories bold or different which is even more strange since many of the films we see in our short film festivals are strikingly individual, even when they tend towards the pretensious. What happens to these people - someone out there with an idea of the Oz film industry must know. Do they get soaked up by the soapie/drama TV industry? Just up and go for Hollywood? There was a time when many Oz directors rose quickly to prominence and disappeared to the US - like Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford, Jane Campion, Phillip Noyce, Fred Schpisi - but where and who are the current breed? We all know that we have great acting talent here - whether it is Nicole Kidman or Cate Blanchett, Mel 'not all that Australian' Gibson, Russell Crowe, Judy Davis etcetera to mention some of the more well known names - but we need to give the up and comers more than just playing someone daft or charming in a second rate comedy or historical drama. In the tv world, even within the aforementioned broad genres, for every horrid sitcom (Australia seems incapable of creating a decent one) or teen soap we produce there are great dramas like 'Blue Murder' or interesting and occasionally good ideas like 'Good Guys, Bad Guys', strong comedies like 'Frontline' and 'The Games'. So we can do it. I know that getting a script from go to screen is a process that takes anything up to 6 years here, but it would be nice to see students going for it and doing a Blair Witch Project for 60 grand, and even better to see something like that shown and distributed.
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Monday. Heath Ledger Day. Perhaps my firends and i are just bored, perhaps more sane that the rest of the world. Great Film. Great Actor. Look forward to mondays.
Nola.
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