Screen test for local films
August 12 1999: As two locally produced films are
released simultaneously this week,
Andrew Worsdale examines the
state of the troubled South African
film industry
The South African film industry is
forever on the verge of finding itself
as local film-makers spend more and
more time together in think-tanks and
pressurising already stressed-out
government departments. A welcome
break from the whingeing comes this week
with the release of two local films.
Gavin Hood’s A Reasonable Man opens
countrywide with 12 prints, while the film of
Paul Slabolepszy’s hit play Heel Against
the Head has been given an
unprecedented release of 70 prints,
making it the second biggest release of a
local film next to Leon Schuster’s Panic
Mechanic of June 1996. In comparison to
release runs of 89 prints for Independence
Day, 73 for The Lion King and 59 for
Titanic, Heel Against the Head’s
achievement is no mean feat.
Both films belong in different, distinctly
South African genres: the serious
“message” picture and the slapstick,
Jamie Uys/Leon Schuster-type pratfall
comedy - this time about booze, broads
and ball play. With both coming out on the
same day, they make for an interesting
comparison, not only in terms of genre but
also in their production values.
A Reasonable Man, which recently won
the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the 34th
Karlovy-Vary Film Festival, is loosely
based and inspired by the legal issues in a
1933 court case (State vs Mbombela)
where a Zulu youth was put on trial for a
supposed muti murder, his defence being
that he believed he was killing a tokoloshe.
“I first came across the case when I was a
law student,” says Hood who wrote,
co-produced, directed and stars in the film.
“It brought together characters from a
broad spectrum of South African society
and threw them together in a courtroom,
where conflict and drama are present by
the very nature of the proceedings.”
In the movie Hood plays Sean Raine, the
defense attorney for a rural herd boy
charged with the murder of a one-year-old
baby. The advocate and his photographer
wife happen to be chance “witnesses” to
the aftermath of the incident while driving
back from a holiday in the Zululand bush.
What follows is a low-key courtroom
drama revolving around the question of
what a “reasonable man” would have done
in the circumstances, given the diversity of
belief systems in our society.
The film has its faults. A major sub-plot
about the question of who cut off the
baby’s genitals is never adequately
explored. However, at no point does the
viewer feel the notorious cringe factor so
common to local film, and despite the
word-driven nature of the narrative it is
completely engrossing.
The performances are uniformly excellent
with Nigel Hawthorne as the imperious
judge who serves as a mentor to the young
lawyer. (Interestingly, Hawthorne played a
vicious and gratifyingly villainous special
branch interrogator who gets his
comeuppance in the new democratic
South Africa, in Arthur Penn’s sluggish
made-for-TV film Inside which was never
locally released). Hawthorne is well
matched by Hood and there are equally
rooted performances from Vusi Kunene,
Nandi Nyembe and Ian Roberts.
In many ways the film reminds one of Peter
Weir’s The Last Wave, which had Richard
Chamberlain as a liberal lawyer who, while
defending a group of Aborigines accused
of murder, comes across a world of ritual
mysteries and apocalyptic prophecies.
“Weir’s film leaves you in a position where
you don’t know if this mysticism exists or
not. It never implies that the magic does
exist. If anything the parallel to my film is
that both the main characters are white
liberals who are stuck in their own
middle-class ways,” Hood observes.
Shot over a period of six weeks for
R10-million (Hood is quick to point out that
over 8% of that was used to pay interest
on loans used against a letter of credit),
the film had a relatively quick but typically
arduous trip from page to screen. While
studying at the University of California, Los
Angeles, Hood won the prestigious Diane
Thomas Screenwriting Award for an early
draft. He was flooded with calls from
interested American producers who, it
turned out, had little faith in its local flavour
and wanted it to revolve around a
native-American shaman, complete with a
simplistic, happy ending.
Hood stuck to his guns and a few years
later, while trying to eke out a living driving
trucks for a London flower shop, he was
given a £5 000 grant by British Screen to
develop the script. It was at a British Film
Institute script reading workshop, attended
by industry executives, that a
representative of French film company
Pandora - who enjoyed international
success with Oscar winners Kolya and
Shine - expressed interest.
But problems lay ahead. Hood had never
directed on 35mm before, having only
done educational stuff for television.
However, on the strength of his acclaimed
short film The Storekeeper, which was
released by Ster-Kinekor as a supporting
programme, Pandora gave Hood the
go-ahead.
With Pandora in the bag Hood tried to
interest South Africans, with little luck until
the project arrived on the desk of Philip
Key of African Media Entertainment. They
came in with 30% of the budget, while
M-Net and the Department of Arts, Culture
Science and Technology completed the
ratio.
Hood is cautiously optimistic about the
local industry, but fully aware of the
difficulties of a South African movie
recouping its costs locally. While many
South Africans refer to Australia or
Canada as role-models, Hood believes
differently: “Australia is virtually
homogenous while in the Czech Republic I
came across Eastern Europeans, South
Americans, Indians - people who were
struggling to make films in multicultural
societies. They should be our models,” he
notes.
A Reasonable Man will have a
slow-burning local release, largely
dependent on favourable word of mouth.
On the other end of the scale is the blanket
opening of Heel Against the Head. This
reworking of the hit play finds Slabolepszy
and Bill Flynn reprising their roles as the
loud-mouthed womaniser Crispin and his
soft-hearted buddy Tjokkie, who travel to
Wales to see South Africa defend the
rugby World Cup crown. There they
indulge in all forms of debauchery.
It’s a finely honed piece that rests firmly
within the world of caricature. The movie
displays Slabolepszy’s undisputed talent
at creating great lingo, in what essentially
turns out to be a French bedroom farce in
“local is lekker” clothing.
At a recent press screening there was very
little laughter, with local critics greeting the
movie with rather dour and patronising
responses. The film should however be
treated on its own terms. As Slabolepszy
said, “An audience is an audience is an
audience, a laugh is a laugh is a laugh ...
“What really frustrates me about our movie
industry,” he continued, “is that people are
waiting for some miracle to come from the
sky. Some film financiers and producers
look at our theatre as if it’s something that
doesn’t exist. We have people who can
keep people entertained for two hours or
so on stage.”
Flynn and Slabolepszy, who for years have
been virtual comic partners, approached
many in the past with a view to getting this
and other projects done. They approached
the SABC and M-Net to finance the
picture, but were met with a cold response.
“We were sitting opposite some SABC
executive - he shall remain nameless,
actually fuck him anyway,” says Flynn, “who
said no, we don’t do this kind of movie.
“The same went for M-Net. They thought
we can’t make movies. They thought these
guys are theatre people - they do theatre,”
he moans. “This country’s famous for
celebrating politicians. Overseas visitors
from Michael Jackson to Fergie get a
meeting with Mandela, and then are
rushed off to donate to the children’s fund.
We also celebrate DJs. But as for actors
and our great theatre tradition, it’s
ignored.”
Heel Against the Head found its financial
feet after Carrie Dempsey heard an
interview with Slabolepszy conducted by
Barry Ronge on radio 702, in which he
asked the playwright why there had never
been a film of the stage hit.
Dempsey spoke to her husband,
professional songwriter, musician and
producer Terry Dempsey, who bought the
rights and raised the finance for the film.
He gave Slabolepszy and Flynn the
creative freedom to make the picture. Nu
Metro is a financial partner in the film that
was made with a grant from First
Commerce - a division of First Rand. The
film was made in five and a half weeks for
a budget of R7-million, including prints and
advertising costs. It was an extremely tight
production.
“We were determined to film in Wales,”
says Slabolepszy, “but costs meant it was
like doing a student film. When we arrived
at the Wye Hotel near Cardiff, Bill and I
were carrying two heavy camera cases
and the manager said to us: ‘So you’re
making a movie, where are the stars?’”
The film will definitely get guffaws, despite
what elitists might say about it being no
better than Schuster. For one thing, it
avoids Schuster’s crass candid-camera
antics. Dempsey says, “When I wrote Love
is a Beautiful Song (a hit in South Africa,
Canada and Australia), I got slammed by
the critics who called it the biggest load of
slush, but the public had their say. I was
dumbstruck at the film’s recent test
screening. There was a young couple
sitting next to me who laughed so hard, I
thought they were going to choke.”
Veteran cinematographer Rod Stewart,
who directs the film, agrees: “There are at
least 30 000 Crispins at every rugby match
and that’s essentially who the movie is
aimed at. It’s a dialogue-driven movie that
remains faithful to its origins as a stage
play. If you look at Peter Bogdanovich’s
version of Michael Frayn’s hilarious play
Noises Off, it failed because it didn’t
respect the film’s theatrical origins.”
Heel will undoubtedly make money on the
local circuit. Whether it’s enough to cover
its costs is another matter.
Meanwhile, local film-makers continue
harping on about the lack of support from
broadcasters and the government.
However, with the support of the
Department of Arts, Culture, Science and
Technology, and the Department of Trade
and Industry, there have been recent
meetings towards a common vision.
These film and TV clusters, as they are
called, offer complimentary products,
supplies and support services to industry
players working together in an endeavour
to improve competitiveness.
With the government handing over the
interim film fund to the Film and Video
Foundation, and with the publication of the
Cultural Industries growth strategy
document, there seems to be a realisation
of the importance of a viable industry,
given that it generates about R5,7-billion
annually and employs over 20 000 people.
These figures include commercials and
television revenue.
Two weeks ago, in a speech verbosely
titled The Identity and Creation of a Truly
South African Film Industry: Problems
and Opportunities, Sir Richard
Attenborough addressed local
film-makers. He spoke about the recent
resurgence of British cinema, saying that
its growth was largely because investors
and government saw the United States
dominance that “almost killed the British
industry”.
A similar challenge confronts South
Africans, where less than 5-million people,
out of 40-million, regularly attend the
cinema. The release of two local titles this
week is indicative of change. As is the
release on September 17 of M-Net’s
Chicken Biznis - The Whole Story, which
recently won the Grand Prix award at
Montreal, as well as best actor and
screenplay nods at this year’s Fespaco
festival in Burkina Faso.
Producer Richard Green says: “We are
progressing - we are no longer stuck in the
staid old days of Toron.”
A cautious reminder to industry players
has to be Inside Out, directed by Neal
Sundstrom and released to disappointing
results late last year. Producer Roberta
Durrant notes: “Maybe we set our sights
too high. But until there’s a major push
from local broadcasters coming to the
proverbial table, I don’t see things
happening in a hurry.”
The movie, a co-production between
SABC3 and African Media Entertainment,
was made for R4,9-million, including prints
and advertising, and cleared about R400
000 locally. It has, however, notched up
$220 000 in overseas sales to Germany,
Turkey and Scandinavia, and has recently
been invited to the Palm Beach and
Washington Jewish film festivals, where
Durrant is confident it’ll secure a US sale.
There’s no doubt that the industry has
taken major steps in the past three or four
years, but until local audiences choose
South African movies above some hi-tech
Bruce Willis seen-it-all-before junk, we’ll
have to wait to boast a truly healthy,
self-sustaining cinema.
This weekend’s box-office receipts will,
however, be an indication of whether local
really is becoming more lekker for the
ticket-buying public.
Review © 1999 Za@Play. All Rights Reserved.
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