Re. Ross' notes on Martin and recent Australian cinema:
Can't agree with you on ``Bad Boy Bubby,'' which I view as an astoundingly
realized metaphorical tale about the myths and realities of the civilizing
process, from cave man to family man, witn step along the way. I think this
film confirmed De Heer as the most exciting Aussie director, by far, and
unaccountably the least known of the major directors from Down Under in most
of North America (except, I suspect, for Toronto, where until recently, he's
received an airing. Incredibly, Toronto blew the chance this year to screen
both ``The Tracker'' and ``Rabbit-Proof Fence.'' They screened the latter,
but by not screening ``Tracker,'' lost out on a rare opportunity to have a
conversation between two contemporary films about the same subject. And in
general, De Heer continues to be woefully underexposed in the U.S.)
Is there a web address for Adrian's article that you refer to? It sounds a
bit different from one that I read on an Oz website a little time
back--sorry, can't recall exactly where now...It's good to see this
discussion on Martin; he has a generally fresh eye, in which he will tend to
look at the same film that many other critics are writing about, and provide
a quite different angle than almost anyone else. The ``Kansas City''
criticism is a typical example.
Robert Koehler
Robert Koehler
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