16.6.06 When Hollywood, and then we, are ashamed of Kiwi-madeTomorrow (Saturday) night, Andrew Niccol’s Simone airs on TV2. I haven’t seen a single promo for this movie. Nor have I seen a single mention by TV2 that it was written, produced and directed by a Kiwi. So much for national pride. Back when we were promoting the heck out of the movie in Lucire, or as much as we could, I was proud of the Kiwi connection. Niccol is a film-maker with a great vision. And this is my favourite Al Pacino film. I spent $80 at Real Groovy on the DVD. It was the year when there was buzz about The Lord of the Rings and Die Another Day, Hollywood blockbusters directed by New Zealanders. Even Vertical Limit got some hype for having Martin Campbell directing, as did, most recently, the Zorro sequel. And the media all got on to the bandwagon about how much we supported our own. Peter Jackson, Lee Tamahori and Martin Campbell do get a lot of hype. But Andrew Niccol doesn’t. Not after writing and directing Gattaca, or writing The Truman Show, or even writing and directing Lord of War with Nicolas Cage—that saw an incredibly limited release here. I saw more promotions for Lord of War in Australia. He even wrote the original script for The Terminal, with Tom Hanks. I never heard anyone say that a Kiwi was behind a Spielberg film, even if Spielberg did replace Andrew with some of his own crew in The Terminal, including the bloke who wrote Speed 2: Cruise Control. At least one reviewer feels the Kiwi was treated badly by the Hollywood system. He is not alone. I admire all these famous Kiwi directors, but I applaud Andrew Niccol more—because he takes chances, and he paints stories about a future that really can get you pondering. He touches on the human condition profoundly in his films, even when he places it in a light-hearted context. The bloke is a maverick, willing to take chances, and has the guts we believe all Kiwis should have. He embodies the sort of attitude we say we want in our young people. Courage, independence, and imagination. He’s not some safe, same-again director. That might be the problem among safe, same-again Hollywood promoters. And unlike Lee Tamahori, Andrew Niccol has an Oscar nomination and a Bafta win. Simone, as far as I can learn, got released in one cinema here. On one day. And that was in Paraparaumu, where Andrew was born. He’s a home-town hero, but what of the fact the guy grew up in Auckland? Oh, and the proceeds from that screening all went to medical research. That’s where Kiwi pride sometimes rests. When it comes to movies, we promote exactly what some American in Hollywood tells us to promote. We have very little say. And the studio probably had it in for Andrew, for whatever reason, and a great film that would have gotten heaps from Kiwi moviegoers in 2002 was suppressed. Sure, there are indie cinemas getting more and more business, and deservedly so. They have the guts to say, ‘We support films made by New Zealanders. So we’ll show Lord of War.’ Places like Light House Cinema. But I’ve seldom subscribed to the fact that we are all passionate about supporting our own. The public does, but once again, there are establishment forces willing to do a tall-poppy act, and keep a good Kiwi down. Del.icio.us tags: movie film Andrew Niccol Hollywood system tall poppy syndrome New Zealand politics Posted by Jack Yan, 09:43 Comments:
Thanks for the heads-up about Simone. I knew Gattaca was by a New Zealander and I liked the film very much, but as you say, Andrew Niccol is not a household name.
I'm in two minds about whether that's a bad thing though. Once we would've patted ourselves on the back for any film a New Zealander was involved with, whether good or mediocre, so in some ways it's a sign we're growing up. Better too many films made by us with some not adequately recognized than for only a few which we all pretend are quite good. That said, to a certain degree, my POV's due to my age. Name three Kiwi-made films from the 60s - or, for that matter, songs from the 60s that still get played. I know just how far we've come! BTW, are you aware of how all your technorati tags can appear outside of your site? An example... http://syndicated.livejournal.com/jack_yan/50741.html I'd say it's best to be sparing with such links, else it tends to look like the blogging version of spamming. (Feel free to edit out these last comments if you wish.)
It’s true what you say, Carl: the flip side is all the crap we think is good just because it’s local. I remember after the first Wallace and Gromit, Nightline did a story about a local guy doing claymation. Only thing was, his was as awful as Nick Park’s was brilliant. Any time we have to say, ‘It’s the New Zealand equivalent of …’ then we know it’s not that crash-hot.
However, with a more media-savvy nation, I believe there’s less of this going on now and we can afford to be more complimentary toward people like Andrew Niccol. (His New Zealand connection was mentioned on the tail end of the programme before last night on TV2. But that was all I heard.) I did see my stuff on Livejournal and was a bit surprised, since I don’t consider my posts to be Creative Commons-governed. Did someone have to put me on Livejournal or is this merely what I should expect from RSS?
Oh, PS. here, Carl: I only put in the Technorati links to aid people looking for a particular subject, but I may cut down if it is potentially seen as spamming.
It's what you have to expect from RSS and ATOM feeds. In the case of Live Journal, their users wouldn't normally go to that page, but read it on their 'friends' page, which doubles as a feed reader.
They have a large choice... http://www.livejournal.com/syn/list.bml Feeds are all about ease of access to new information. Much easier to read all the latest news you're interested in when it's all on the one page than to visit X number of sites on the off-chance they've been updated. And yes, this may mean your posts will sit between a BBC article and a Sinfest comic. ;-)
Thanks, Carl. Oh well, I may just let that be though I will cut down on tags. I know there are many sites with Google News feeds, which seem to be most common, and I have spotted mine from time to time, including the personal posts on marketing blogs!
Note that in Live Journal's case, the feeds are only there for two weeks (I think), so your posts don't stay there permanently.
And to give you an idea of what this allows, here's an example of an LJ friend's list... http://stillcarl.livejournal.com/friends/feeds_example You're in there somewhere, though whether you'll appear on the first page will depend on how recently you've posted. It's an excellent way to keep up with what interests you on the net.
Thanks, Carl. To be honest I am seeing more pros to this than cons! Will pop by after this comment.
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