Boxing day in australia

When martial arts blockbuster Wolf Warrior 2 earned an astronomical US$854m in China last year – making it the second-highest grossing film in a single market ever – two things happened. First, the economic might of the Chinese film audience was thrown in the spotlight again; soon, commentators enthused, it would eclipse North America as the biggest in the world. Second, commentators couldn’t stop noticing the film’s nationalistic elements. One writer combed the film for evidence of China’s geopolitical strategy; the Australian newspaper even called it “Communist propaganda”. (The fact the film climaxes with a morally impeccable ex-People’s Liberation Army soldier stabbing a callous American mercenary in the brain possibly helped this angle along.) Hollywood movies were once regularly accused of “cultural imperialism”, but the rah-rah flag-waving of a Michael Bay film is now so familiar as to be invisible. Yet when China does … [Read more...] about Enter the dragon: how Australia became China’s gateway to Hollywood

1996 was the year the Spice Girls broke, the “Unabomber” was arrested, 35 people were massacred at Port Arthur in Tasmania, Lance Armstrong got cancer and John Howard defeated Paul Keating to become Australia’s 25th Prime Minister. It was also the year a little girl named JonBenét Ramsey was found dead in her family home on Boxing Day, in the picturesque American town of Boulder, Colorado. Reported kidnapped then discovered brutally killed, the case was one of the first to be swallowed whole by the burgeoning 24-hour news cycle, accelerating daily due to cable TV, newly-minted home internet access, and a tabloid media baying for fresh blood after the sensational OJ Simpson case. With a six-year-old pageant queen at its core, and a family more willing to talk to media than police, it was the case that changed everything: David Lynch’s Twin Peaks manifested in real life. Australian filmmaker Kitty Green was 12. She spent hours watching the bizarre true … [Read more...] about Casting JonBenét director on our obsession with the murder of a child pageant queen

Given the paucity of feminist films in the Australian canon, Sydney Theatre Company’s decision to revitalise the classic romantic comedy Muriel’s Wedding as a stage musical should be cause for celebration. However, in making subtle yet distinct changes to both story and theme, the politics of the work is changed almost beyond recognition, calling into question whether it should have been dredged up from its glory box to begin with. In her original 1994 incarnation, Muriel Heslop is the social pariah of the coastal backwater town Porpoise Spit. Overweight and overlooked, our marginalised anti-heroine is desperate for escape. This initially comes in the form of the music of Abba and fantasies of romantic love and wedding bells. It soon takes on a much more literal dimension when she opportunistically robs her domineering father and high-tails it to Sydney, reinventing herself as “Marial”, flanked by best friend Rhonda. Here, the film’s writer-director, PJ … [Read more...] about Changing the ending of Muriel’s Wedding was a betrayal of its feminist spirit

Fans of movie musicals are given short shrift in Australia, with a national film industry that rarely provides opportunity for audiences to watch locally made toe-tappers in which singing and dancing are as second nature as breathing. Movie musicals can be separated into one of two camps: those based in stagey alternate universes where singing is a natural form of conversation and random people on the street join strangers to boogie and prance, and those that follow singers and musicians as they rehearse and perform. The few Australian-made iterations of both have often proven popular . Two of the former (Moulin Rouge and Happy Feet) rank in the top 10 Australian features of all time at the local box office and two of the latter (The Sapphires and The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert) rank in the top 20. Others have achieved varying degrees of success and longevity, from 1977’s Dot and the Kangaroo (a modest success theatrically but which had an enormous shelf life) … [Read more...] about Bran Nue Dae rewatched – a soulful and spritzy crowd-pleaser

Tom Acres, news reporterOn 5 July, the NHS will celebrate its 70th birthday.Now considered the envy of the world so far as health services go, it has certainly come a long way since the idea was first floated by health secretary Aneurin Bevan in 1946.Back then, Clement Attlee had just led Labour to victory in the first post-Second World War general election. He quickly made Mr Bevan part of his cabinet, and The National Health Service Act was published in 1946.It set out a vision for a "comprehensive health service" for England and Wales, which would become a reality just two years later. There was separate legislation for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Advertisement July 1948 - The NHS is born The NHS was born on 5 July, promising nationalised hospitals, a network of GPs, and community health services, all free at the point of use.Health secretary Aneurin Bevan launched it at Park Hospital in Manchester, today known as Trafford General Hospital. More from Nhs … [Read more...] about 70 defining moments in 70 years of the NHS