During another week of bleak news, Herald readers have embraced what’s known in the news business as a “change of pace”, in the form of a beautiful, interactive piece about the top 50 Australian films of all time, as judged by some of our most eminent filmmakers, actors and critics. Thanks to the work of our talented visual stories team, it feels like an online stroll through our cinematic history, reminding us of global hits as well as brilliant but quieter works that some of us may have missed.
I won’t spoil the verdict for you, except to say that the best Australian film is not The Castle or Crocodile Dundee (which, to the disappointment of at least one of my colleagues, didn’t feature at all), but rather one that tells a story that is as relevant today as it was when the film was released, almost 20 years ago. The Castle was, however, the most popular with readers as of Friday afternoon, followed by Gallipoli, Muriel’s Wedding, Strictly Ballroom and The Dish (for what it’s worth, Gallipoli got my vote).
A film that might not be in their league, but that made international news this week nonetheless was the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada, which has been released some 20 years after the original. Our film critic, Sandra Hall, gave the film four stars. “The script is an artful blending of the new and the old, the serious and the silly,” she wrote.
In place of Simon Baker, the Aussie heartthrob from the original film, the sequel features new Aussie heartthrob Patrick Brammall, aka Gordon from Colin from Accounts, who, as Lauren Ironmonger wrote, bonded with star Anne Hathaway over ping pong and almost didn’t take the role.
While Hall liked the film, our fashion editor, Damien Woolnough, was less enthusiastic about the clothes, which are arguably the true star of the Devil franchise. The movie’s “central runway scene in Milan has the authenticity of a $50 Hermes Birkin bag bought in Bali,” he wrote, in a withering piece that will be enjoyed by both those who are interested in high-end fashion and those, like me, who are completely befuddled by it.
The busy week for our culture team continued as arts writer Michaela Boland covered one of the most popular events on Sydney’s visual arts calendar, and certainly a favourite among Herald readers, the announcement of the finalists of the Archibald prize. The Packing Room Prize was won by Sean Layh, with a meticulously detailed portrait of actor Jacob Collins performing Hamlet. Layh told the Herald’s Linda Morris one of his influences had been a portrait of comedians Roy and HG he had seen in an exhibition of Archibald finalists 25 years ago.
No one knows the Sydney arts scene like Linda, and readers were particularly interested in her story this week about a parliamentary committee’s report warning that the push to revive Sydney’s nighttime reputation has come at a direct cost to the state’s arts and culture sectors. A world-class city should have both. And as Liz Giuffre argued in an opinion piece this week that looked back at the heydays of the Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney’s live music scene is experiencing a revival.
Stay tuned for the culture team’s coverage over the next few weeks of the Venice Biennale, where controversy has already erupted over the Russian entry.
Another key pillar of Sydney’s arts scene is its literary community. This week, the Herald featured one of the city’s prominent writers, Anna Funder, who spoke to another acclaimed Sydney novelist, our own senior writer Jacqueline Maley, about her confidence that human creativity could co-exist with artificial intelligence.
The Herald also signalled our commitment to literary coverage today with a significant new appointment. Melanie Kembrey, who has been the editor of Spectrum for five years, will become our national books editor. Mel has had a strong influence on our literary coverage; as well as interviewing the likes of Margaret Atwood, Peter Carey and Zadie Smith, she also oversees the SMH Best Young Australian Novelists prize. She will now devote herself entirely to books and literary news, which is a wonderful development for the readers among us.
On the topic of books, there was controversy this week over whether children’s tale The Twits, by Roald Dahl, contained an anti-beard bias. A piece by writer Michelle Cazzulino, who clearly has a deep knowledge of the genre, made me laugh out loud. I recommend it to anyone who feels like a chuckle over the weekend.
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