Screen test for local films

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.