Buff's Choice

The Age

Friday September 30, 2005

Paul Harris

FILM REVIEWS: Beach Party (1963); In Search Of Anna (1978); Thelma And Louise (1992); Age Of Consent (1968); God's Little Acre(1958)

Beach Party (1963), (Today, 10pm, ACMI, Federation Square, city).

The last place you might expect to find ultrasquare Italian-American pop crooner Frankie Avalon and former Disney Mouseketeer Annette Funicello is on a surf beach - but such is the magic of the movies. Robert Cummings plays an anthropologist researching tribal practices of typical American teenagers and Quentin Tarantino's favourite surf instrumentalists Dick Dale and the Del-Tones provide some tasty instrumentals. Vincent Price's cameo is much funnier than the strained humour that afflicts this otherwise lame comedy.

Drive-in producers American International latched on to a lucrative trend with a series of low-rent farces exploiting a newly discovered market, already popularised by the summer vacation film Where The Boys Are (1960) and Gidget (1960) with Sandra Dee but the winds of change were already starting to blow, rising to gale force with the release of Easy Rider (1969).

In Search Of Anna (1978), (Saturday, 2pm, ACMI, Federation Square, city).

Following a five-year stint inside Pentridge for armed robbery a young man bearing a considerable chip on his shoulder (Richard Moir) attempts to find his former girlfriend. He takes to the road and meets up with a beautiful model (Judy Morris) - a kindred spirit on that well trodden road to self-discovery.

Unfortunately, due to the vagaries of local distribution and a glut of locally produced work in the market place, Esben Storm's non-linear road movie fell through the cracks and failed to find an appreciative audience.

Thelma And Louise (1992), (Sunday, 2pm, Betty Day Centre, 67 Argyle Street, St Kilda).

Thelma, a bored Arkansas housewife (Geena Davis) is unhappily married to a sexist boor (Christopher McDonald). Louise (Susan Sarandon) works as a waitress and has been marking time with her itinerant boyfriend (Michael Madsen) who won't make a commitment to their meandering relationship.

When a bar-room redneck attempts to rape Thelma she shoots him and takes to the road with Louise, heading for the Mexican border.

Blasted by some as a man-hating feminist tract, Callie Khouri's screenplay does not preach any party political line and the desert landscapes through which the pair travel accentuate their quest for freedom and escape in the best tradition of road movies. Admission by gold coin donation.

Age Of Consent (1968), (Wednesday, 7pm, ACMI, Federation Square, city).

James Mason relives his Quilty role from Lolita (1962) but plays for easy laughs as a cantankerous painter of advanced years, holed up on a remote island where he falls in love with his nude model, the nubile teenager Cora (Helen Mirren in her first screen role of any consequence).

Michael Pate, recently returned from a career as a Hollywood character actor, bought the rights to Norman Lindsay's 1938 novel and acted as associate producer to the imperious Michael Powell.

Working without his usual collaborator Emeric Pressburger, Powell commissioned Peter Yeldham to write the adaptation, which is an uneasy mix of knockabout humour and meditations on the artistic temperament, filmed on the highly photogenic Dunk Island in the Great Barrier Reef.

God's Little Acre(1958), (Thursday, 1.45pm, Salvation Army City Citadel, 69 Bourke Street, city).

A white trash farmer (Robert Ryan) with more than Georgia on his mind, cajoles his quarrelling family to join in a search for gold on his property.

Ryan, a classically trained theatre actor who never achieved the stardom he deserved, pulls out all the stops in a surprisingly intelligent family melodrama adapted from Erskine Caldwell's trashy bestseller by veteran script polisher Philip Yordan (Johnny Guitar) under the direction of Anthony Mann, best known for panoramic westerns and historical epics that doubled as stories of titanic inter-family struggles. Admission free.

TOP FIVE AT THE BOX OFFICE

1. Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

2. The Dukes of Hazzard

3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

4. Wallace and Gromit

5. Sky High

Film sessions subject to change. Consult daily cinema advertisements in The Age.

RATINGS

***** MASTERPIECE

**** EXCELLENT

*** VERY GOOD

** NOT BAD

* NOT GOOD

? HALF

X DOWN, BOY!

FILM SESSIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. CONSULT DAILY CINEMA ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE AGE.

Paul Harris hosts Film Buff's Forecast on 3RRR each Saturday between noon and 2pm. Email: filmbuff@netspace.net.au

© 2005 The Age

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