Filmmakers seem to have so much
trouble with the truth:
MURALI Thalluri should be the toast of the Australian film industry today. The 22-year-old's first feature film 2.37 is unspooling in local cinemas this weekend after debuting as an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Yet controversy swirls around Thalluri after he used a teenage girl's suicide to sell his film, a suicide that no one can corroborate.
Another director, Daniel Krige - whose brother committed suicide two years ago - has told The Weekend Australian he heard 2.37's producer, Nick Matthews, boast in a Sydney bar two months ago that they fabricated the story of Thalluri's friend's suicide, the dedication of the film and Thalluri's own depression and suicide attempt, to give Thalluri and the film more credibility.
Australian cinema is no stranger to
fictionalising details to make a story 'better':
Phillip Noyce claims his new film, Rabbit-Proof Fence, is a true story. The Hollywood director's publicity blurb repeats the boast: ``A true story.'' Even the first spoken words in the hyped film, which opens next week, are: ``This is a true story.''
Wrong. Crucial parts of this ``true story'' about a ``stolen generations'' child called Molly Craig are false or misleading. And shamefully so.
No wonder that when Craig saw Rabbit-Proof Fence at a special screening in her bush settlement last month, she seem surprised.
``That's not my story,'' she said as the credits rolled.
or to fit the filmmaker and
audience's biases:
(Age newspaper interviewer Chris) Beck: When you see a fictional film based on fact do you believe it is all true?
(ABC movie critic Margaret) Pomeranz: Yeah. I’m gullible.
Beck: The reason you two work is that you both work on an emotional level.
Pomeranz: You see, I am actively against the war in Iraq. So anything that feeds that anti-war sentiment, yeah, I’m much more likely to believe it because it fits in with my existing political beliefs.
-- Nick
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