Thursday, August 16, 2007

A Quick Reminder

Even I'm tired of hearing myself spruik The Jammed, but I'm pleased to see that I'm not alone. David and Margaret each gave it fours stars on At The Movies last night, David saying "it deserves to be seen by everybody."

I convinced The Age's Jim Schembri to see the film earlier this week and his review today has given it four and a half stars, calling it the Australian film of 2007. He's also put up a piece online.

"The Jammed," he writes, "is one of those films you just can't get out of your head. I've seen it twice and it still gives me chills. If another film comes along this year that is as powerful, as compelling, as skillfully made as this we'll be doing very well indeed.
And if that film also happens to be Australian - or more accurately, as Australian - as The Jammed, it'll be nothing short of miraculous."

Anyway, it opens tonight for a two week run at Cinema Nova. Tonight's screening will included a Q&A with writer/director Dee McLachlan as well as castmembers Saskia Burmeister and Veronica Sywak.


There's also a special event on Saturday at 11am called 'Auditions—Rehearsal—Performance'. It focuses on the unique form of actor preparation developed for the film and sounds like a kind of workshop with the cast and crew exploring the tools of character creation. Actor types would be well advised to attend, especially if the astonishing performances by some castmembers in the film are anything to go by (seriously, people I'd be hugely underwhelmed by in the past deliver totally unexpected performances here).


Actually now that I think of it, one of the best roles in the film is played by Adriano Cortese (pictured above with Burmeister). Cortese is the director of one of THE best theatre pieces on at the moment, Holiday by Ranters Theatre. I'll get around to posting a review of that some time soon. Fantastic show.

Geez,I'm all about the praise right now, aint I?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Funny... just came here after reading Schembri's review. My take on the release is that it didn't get played at MIFF because it was shown at the Sydney Festival. Hell, they used to not screen films at MIFF it they had played a small festival like St Kilda. I figure that the festival still has a policy of showing work which hasn't screened at any other festivals...

Looking forward to seeing it.