Starlight Cinema - North Sydney Outdoor Cinema

Australia to launch Outdoor Cinema Season on 14th Jan

The Starlight Cinema - Outdoor Season will open on January 14 with the Australia.  Click here for a review

In trivial pursuit of his true love

Slumdog Millionaire screens at Starligth Cinema on 28th February 2009. Visit www.starlightcinema.com.au for tickets

From Sydney Morning Herald - December 15, 2008

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/12/14/1229189446552.html

Danny Boyle was not yet done with the Taj Mahal, but the Taj Mahal was done with him.

The British director needed to grab a few more shots inside the landmark for his new movie, Slumdog Millionaire, a drama about the remarkable life story of an orphan from the slums of Mumbai. Yet the production was no longer welcome. "The people who were helping us there didn't help us," Boyle says.

Some directors would have moved on and made do with what they had in the can. Others might have scouted another location. A few might have called up a special effects house to re-create the palace in a computer.

Yet Boyle rarely has followed custom, and the outside-the-box thinking that has yielded his eclectic filmography also helped Boyle and his Slumdog Millionaire team conjure up a novel solution - they sent in a fake documentary crew to get the footage.

"I can't remember if they posed as Indian or German or a mixture of both," Boyle says of the team sent to the Taj Mahal. The trick was picking production members who had not been there the first time so they wouldn't be recognised by security. "We had to do a little bit of stealth," he says.

Boyle got what he needed, yet that was hardly the only impediment he faced in making the movie for half a year in and around Mumbai, one of the world's most populous cities.

While casting the film, Boyle and his Indian co-director, Loveleen Tandan, decided that the movie's first third should be in Hindi, rather than mostly English - jarring news for his French and American backers, who knew that foreign-language films do not usually perform very well at the box office.

Later, running low on funds, he had to abandon a planned monsoon sequence. And then, just as filming wrapped, the US distributor Warner Independent Pictures was shut down by Warner Bros, and the parent studio briefly considered releasing Slumdog Millionaire straight to video before Fox Searchlight came to the film's rescue.

At its heart the film is a story of fate, and just as Boyle and his crew were swept up by Mumbai's whatever-it-takes spirit, the film's optimistic storyline somehow altered Slumdog Millionaire's destiny. Boyle is fond of saying about working in Mumbai: "If you trust it it will come back to you."

And that is exactly what has happened to the movie. Slumdog Millionaire not only found a new distributor but is also one of the holiday movie period's best-reviewed titles. It opens in Australia on Thursday.

After premiering at the Telluride Film Festival in the US, Slumdog Millionaire also played at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the festival's People's Choice Award, an honour previously bestowed on American Beauty and Chariots Of Fire.

For those familiar with Boyle's filmography, it is not an entirely surprising outcome, given the 52-year-old director's remarkable artistic range. He has made a zombie flick (28 Days Later), a children's fantasy (Millions), an SF thriller (Sunshine), two big star vehicles (Leonardo DiCaprio's The Beach and Cameron Diaz's A Life Less Ordinary) and an often horrific, often hilarious, sad, sick and ultimately impossible-to-categorise drug story (Trainspotting).

As varied as all of those films have been, they are inherently united by Boyle's fanciful vision, unexpected images in unexpected places: babies crawling on ceilings, houses materialising out of thin air, flesh-eating monsters running like Olympic sprinters.

"I always try to make films intense - intensely pleasurable or intensely frightening or intensely joyful," Boyle says.

"Intensity is something I go for. That's how I judge things."

There's plenty of intensity in the MA-rated Slumdog Millionaire, too, including a few brief but troubling scenes of torture, a glimpse of teenage prostitution and some terrible cruelty to homeless children. But amid the heartache there is something else that's not always so obvious in Boyle's other movies: naturalism.

Even though Slumdog Millionaire is a work of fiction, it feels so consistently real that some early audience members were convinced it is based on a true story.

Freely adapted by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) from Vikas Swarup's novel Q & A, Slumdog Millionaire tracks the life of Jamal Malik, an impoverished orphan living in Mumbai's sprawling slums, in which half of the city's 16 million residents live. As a child, Jamal (played as a teen by Dev Patel) meets Latika (played as a teen by Freida Pinto), a fellow Indian street urchin.

Jamal's childhood travels are filled with memorable encounters, not all of them pleasant. Those experiences shape Jamal into a romantic dreamer determined to be reunited with Latika and a savant possessing a wealth of seemingly inconsequential pop culture knowledge. When Jamal appears as a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, his trivia database helps him last much longer than anyone - including a police interrogator (Irfan Khan) and the show's host (Anil Kapoor) - can believe.

Soon after Boyle contemplated directing the movie, he travelled to Mumbai to consider filming there. "I thought very early after I arrived, 'You have to do this,' " Boyle says of how he was transformed by the city's manic liveliness.

"Some people find that appalling and rush back to the hotel and book the first flight they can out of there. It's an assault, the whole thing - people, smell, temperature, dirt, atmosphere, the air, the water, the danger - 'Don't drink that. Don't touch that. Don't eat there.' It's exciting. Everybody is contributing an energy to the place, everybody is throwing something into the pot."

To appreciate the area's essence and to capture it on cameras were, of course, very different challenges. But Boyle had a plan.

Rather than arrive as an imperialist interloper, Boyle brought along just a few British department heads, and made a point of hiring heavily from India's filmmaking ranks. Largely because the film's characters are children, most of its actors were local neophytes.

But it was not just in casting (or in having the youngest actors speak Hindi, or in sneaking into the Taj Mahal) that Boyle achieved a distinctive realism.

Where Swarup's novel was episodic, Beaufoy's screenplay created what Boyle calls "fluid time", in which the divisions between present and past - the film cuts back across more than a decade - are almost indistinct. That same compression between now and then is evident in Slumdog Millionaire's contemporary scenes, which cut between the game show stage and a police interrogation room. Even though Jamal is in both places, it almost feels as if the scenes are unfolding simultaneously.

"The experience that I wanted to have was that everything would feel present day, even though some of it is 10 years ago," Boyle says.

"The most important thing was that you were living it right now."

So when the game show's host asks Latika on the phone what her name is, Boyle cuts back to when she introduced herself to Jamal at age seven.

"And you get this feeling of destiny," Boyle says.

"Normally, in a film, you can never do that. I've certainly never been as free, editing-wise, as I've been on this, to go back in time."

Los Angeles Times

 

Hugh Jackman to Host 81st Academy Awards

Beverly Hills, CA –– Hugh Jackman will host the 81st Academy Awards® telecast, producer Laurence Mark and executive producer Bill Condon announced today.  This will be Jackman’s first time center stage at the Oscar show, although he has previously been a presenter.

“Hugh Jackman is a consummate entertainer and an internationally renowned movie star,” said Mark and Condon in a joint statement.  “He also has style, elegance and a sense of occasion.  Hugh is the ideal choice to host a celebration of the year’s movies – and to have fun doing it.”

Jackman stars in the current release “Australia,” directed by Baz Luhrmann.  He will next be seen in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” having portrayed the title character in the previous three smash-hit “X-Men” movies.  His other film credits include “The Prestige,” “Flushed Away,” “The Fountain,” “Happy Feet,” “Van Helsing,” “Kate & Leopold” and “Swordfish.”

A native of Australia, Jackman won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in “The Boy from Oz.”  He has served as host of the Tony Awards ceremony and won a 2005 Emmy for that assignment.

Jackman’s other stage credits include “Carousel,” “Oklahoma!” “Sunset Boulevard” and “Beauty and the Beast.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2008 will be presented on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network.  The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide

Movie Review - Quantum of Solace - James Bond 007

See Quantum of Solace at Starlight Cinema, North Sydney on 24th January 2009. Visit www.starlightcinema.com.au for information and tickets.

From http://www.yourmovies.com.au/movies/?action=movie_info&title_id=34708

Still shaken and stirred

Yury Glikin, MovieFix   - 3.5 Stars

Daniel Craig returns for his second stint as Agent 007 in "Quantum of Solace", following on from "Casino Royale", the 2006 smash that reinvigorated the franchise.

"Quantum" picks up the story an hour after the end of the previous film, with Bond betrayed by his love, Vesper, and out for revenge. Travelling to Haiti, he meets the gorgeous and spirited Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who leads Bond to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a ruthless businessman within the mysterious organisation known as Quantum.

Making his way around Europe, Bond tries to uncover the truth, while battling a conspiracy from within MI6. As he gets closer to finding the man he holds responsible for Vesper's betrayal, 007 must keep ahead of the CIA, the terrorists, and even M herself, to unravel Greene's sinister plan and stop Quantum.

There is no argument that Craig's portrayal of James Bond revolutionised the franchise and breathed new life into how the character has been portrayed. Gone are the cheesy double entendres, Q and the gadgets, and even Bond's trademark phrases (although he still likes a martini or two). However, "Quantum's" Bond seems so detached here that he's almost completely apathetic. As always, there is no faulting the excellent action sequences, but they seem to act only as tenuous links within the plot, brought out when the story needs a push to the next phase. The supporting characters are a little on the weak side, also.

Greene, the token villain, seems to spend most of his time looking slightly deranged, while staring at everyone with his deep black eyes. And the revenge subplot involving the Bond girl, Camille, feels forced and detracts from the main story. The only redeeming character is M (Judy Dench), steely eyed in her resolve as usual (a sublime bit of casting all those years ago in "GoldenEye"). Watch also for several scenes throughout the film that pay homage to the Bond films of the past.

It's still shaken and stirred, but "Quantum of Solace" and this Bond tastes a little bitter.

Starlight Cinema 2009 Season - a fantastic line-up of movies under the stars

It is pure summer fun lying on a blanket under the stars watching a fabulous movie at Starlight Cinema, which is back bigger than ever in 2009 with a great line-up of recent release films.

Starlight Cinema will celebrate its sixth season at North Sydney Oval with an unforgettable cinematic experience for everyone.

The 2009 Sydney program will open on 14 January 2009 kicking off with the highly acclaimed film Australia starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. (Full Program)

Jill Keyte, Producer of Starlight Cinema said, “Our experience over the past five years has shown the North Shore loves outdoor cinema and we are expanding this year’s program with the Starlight Shorts. We are thrilled with this season’s line up of films and know our patrons will be just as excited.”

This year Starlight has introduced Starlight Shorts, which allows filmmakers the chance to showcase their short film on the big screen. Over the season it is proposed one short film will be shown before each movie, with a total of 28 short films screening across seven weeks.

Starlight Cinema is theming its nights again this summer with:

• Adshel Wild Wednesdays
• Bluetongue Blockbuster Thursdays
• Family Flick Fridays
• Summer Lovin’ Saturdays

Movies include Taken, High School Musical 3, The Duchess, Mamma Mia!, Rocky Horror, Quantum of Solace, Burn After Ready, Twilight, Marley & Me and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

The season will also include a Brazilian Festa of culture and film on Sunday 22 February. With 10,000 Brazilians living in Sydney this is sure to be a winner. The final of the Starlight’s Shorts will be showcased at the end of the season on 1 March and the lucky winner will be awarded with a cash prize. 

Patrons can dine on a delicious pre-ordered hamper from Pieces of Provence or relax and be ‘treated like a star’ in Star Class: the VIP area with a personal deck chair, hamper and waiter service. The alfresco Grinders Cafe Terrace offers a sumptuous gourmet barbecue menu with Hungerford Hill wines, Bluetongue Beers and Grinders Coffee to complete your experience.

Bring a blanket, hire a backrest, or sit in one of the covered stands as you enjoy your film in the balmy summer evening. Starlight Cinema gates and the Grinders Cafe Terrace open from 7pm each night. Tickets are available online from $16 from 2 December or from the gate each night from $20.

For the perfect Christmas gift buy a gift voucher which can be used for any Starlight Cinema movie.

Starlight Cinema runs from Wednesday 14 January to Sunday 1 March at North Sydney Oval featuring 29 films.

Starlight Cinema thanks Tourism Australia, Hungerford Hill Wines, Bluetongue Beers, ADSHEL, GSP Print, Sanyo, Lenovo, and Grinders Coffee for continuing their support and helping to make the season possible. 

For more information, tickets and gift vouchers go to www.starlightcinema.com.au

For media information:
Vanessa Searing, P:          (02) 9922 1063        
E: vanessa@cpcommunications.com.au