Australians did extremely well at the Oscars this year and this has spurred interest in Australian films in Taiwan. Part of this attraction is that Australia's relatively small and under-financed film industry has been able to produce so many international stars, many of whom are solidly located in the US cinematic mainstream.
Many of the great movies that truly reflect the uniquely Australian brand of sentimentality and irony have virtually never penetrated the Taiwan market. The Australian Film Festival, which will run from May 11 to May 19 at the Spring International President Cinema, gives audiences a chance to see Australian films that have not been contaminated by American money and American sensibilities.
The days of Mel Gibson's original character Mad Max are long over and Russell Crowe, while undoubtedly turning in brilliant performances in Gladiator and Beautiful Mind, is also walking his own road to cinematic perdition. Priscilla Queen of the Desert may have got noticed because of its raucous unconventionality, but many others remain little known outside film circles.
One of the films being brought in by the festival is The Sum of Us, starring a young Russell Crowe. Made back in 1994, it is surprising how edgy it still is eight years later. The film tells the story of a gay man living with this broad-minded father and the way the two men deal with their needs and perceptions of each other.
A comedy, the film is perhaps a little over earnest, but in coming to grips with complex issues always manages to maintain a light touch. A willingness to confront the unpleasant aspects of human sexuality, not giving in to romantic sensibilities and treating both homosexual and heterosexual needs as beautiful if sometimes inconvenient facts of life is what differentiates this film from being specifically a gay film and probably also accounts for its longevity.
The opening film for the festival is a recent work released in 2000 called Looking for Alibrandi, a light family drama about ethnic identity and finding a place in the often xenophobic world of "multicultural" Australia. The presence of Greta Scacchi gives this film a higher profile than it otherwise might have had, but the real draw is the fine performances by Pia Miranda as Josie Alibrandi, a senior high school student rejecting her Sicilian ancestry while dealing with the usual swag of adolescent concerns of love, parent and school discipline.
As with The Sum of Us, the whole thing is relatively low key, and has strong natural performances and dialogue that rings true more often than not. Technically it is far from flawless and occasionally has a somewhat soap-opera quality -- an art form that series like Neighbors has revealed Australians to be masters of -- but the strong script holds it together; a fact that Taiwan's film industry might find enviable.
One of the high points of the festival is the screening of Chopper, a film which has had a significant international impact, not least for the outstanding performance of Eric Bana, who is probably better know for his role as Delta Force Sergeant `Hoot' Gibson in the recently screened Black Hawk Down. Although the film received acclaim at Sundance earlier this year, it would probably not have made it to Taiwan except for this film festival.
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