Tag Archives: cheat sheet

The Peter Weir Cheat Sheet

Peter Weir Directs

Want to become an instant expert in our filmmaker of the month without committing yourself to an entire filmography? Then you need the Hell Is For Hyphenates Cheat Sheet: we program you a double that will not only make for a great evening's viewing, but bring you suitably up-to-speed before our next episode landsâ€¦

Peter Weir Films

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975) and DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989)

It's back-to-school this week so let's prep with two sad, strange and magical school stories from Peter Weir, a director who loves sad, strange communities and the weirdness that occurs therein. These are films that mark people's memories: if you saw either when you were a teenager, they will have lingered in how you think about the passions and persecutions of your schooldays. If you haven't, no worries, they'll haunt you now. Picnic at Hanging Rock, Weir's third full-length feature, is every bit as mysterious and daring as it was forty years ago: its central enigma (not based on a true story, despite rumours) remains unsolved (and unspoilered here). Filmmakers like Carol Morley (The Falling) and Lucile Hadzihalilovic (Innocence) have recently revisited its dreamy strangeness of Edgar Allen Poe-quoting girl crushes and fairy-tale references. Dead Poets Society reflects, likewise, that adolescence is no picnic - but for a brief moment, it can be painfully glorious, with Robin Williams channeling Walt Whitman at the front of the classroom. It jump-started the careers of Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Josh Charles as the hormonal hornets' nests given a jolt of inspiration by Williams' English teacher John Keating (named after Australia's then-Treasurer?), who tells them poetry was invented to woo women. These films will definitely seduce you.

Substitutions: If you can't get or have already seen Picnic at Hanging Rock, go for Gallipoli, which can't be held responsible for Mel Gibson. If you didn't watch it as part of the 100^th anniversary of the battle of Gallipoli last year, watch it now. Brutal, moving, truthful, the film put this ANZAC story on the international map. If you can't get or have already seen Dead Poets Society, you must watch The Truman Show, which was pipped by Dead Poets to the Cheat Sheet post by the still-palpable loss of Robin Williams. Like an extended version and inversion of God calling to ask for girls at Helton, The Truman Show is a quintessentially Weir-ian film that starts out quiet and normal and ends up epically uncanny: a tale of an ordinary life that encounters the impossible. And that's just the idea that Laura Linney would really be married to Jim Carrey (as if)â€¦

The Hidden Gem: Want something a little off the beaten path? Then you'll need to check out the 1979 telemovie The Plumber. One of the earliest examples of Weir finding the thrilling in the simple, the film follows the a woman as she is subjected to a series of mind games by a man claiming to be a plumber. If you think you know how the film will play out based on that premise, then you really need to seek out this film, which subverts its Hitchcockian premise at every turn.

The next episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Kriv Stenders talking Peter Weir, will be released on the morning of August 31 (AEST).

The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Cheat Sheet

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ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL (1974) and CHINESE ROULETTE (1976)

This was a particularly difficult cheat sheet to do. Not because there weren't enough options, but because there were too many. There are so many combinations of great Fassbinder films that would be equally valid, but we're pretty happy programming this particular pairing. We kick your evening off with Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. For a director with a reputation as an edgy provocateur, it's something of a surprise to see a film as gentle and beautiful as Ali. It follows the unlikely relationship that forms between a 60-year-old widowed cleaning woman, and a younger Moroccan immigrant. Fassbinder's love of Douglas Sirk films are apparent, and Ali is often hailed as his masterpiece. Follow that up with Chinese Roulette, a tremendously-engaging psychological thriller about a married man and woman who simultaneously discover they are cheating on one another. They decide to try to be civil and spend the weekend together as a foursome, but things are complicated when their young daughter and her governess unexpectedly appear. It's dramatic, thrilling and a must-watch.

Substitutions: Can't get or have already seen Ali: Fear Eats the Soul? Then seek out 1975's Fox and his Friends, a superb drama starring Fassbinder as a decidedly unsophisticated circus performer who wins the lottery and falls in love with the son of an industrialist. If you can't get or have already seen Chinese Roulette, check out 1972's The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. The film takes place within the bedroom of the titular Petra, a fashion designer who falls obsessively in love with a cunning, working-class young woman seeking a career in modeling. It's a twisty psychological drama ever bit as compelling as Chinese Roulette.

The Hidden Gem: Want to see something from off the beaten path? Check out 1973's World on a Wire. This was Fassbinder's only science fiction film, adapted from Daniel F Galouye's Simulacron-3 and made as a two-part TV series. You'll be amazed at how many modern science fiction classics were so obviously inspired by this fantastic work.

The next episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Rebecca Harkins-Cross talking Rainer Werner Fassbinder, will be released on the morning of July 31 (AEST).

The Guillermo Del Toro Cheat Sheet

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GDT Directs

GDT Films

HELLBOY (2004) and PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006)

Guillermo Del Toro is synonymous with genre filmmaking, and these back-to-back films in the early 2000s are vintage Del Toro. Kick your evening off with Hellboy, the adaptation of Mike Mignola's comic. If Del Toro announced tomorrow, in the midst of shared universes and endless capes, that he was going to make his own superhero film, this is exactly the one we'd all want him to make. Hellboy is funny, imaginative, and has a wonderfully unusual edge to it. He followed this film up with Pan's Labyrinth, the perfect encapsulation of his tendencies towards the horror-fantasy stylings of fairy tales. Program this double, and you may dub yourself a true expert in the worlds of Guillermo Del Toro.

Substitutions: If you can't get or have already seen Hellboy, you should watch Blade II (2002). And here you thought we were going to suggest the Hellboy sequel. Which is a fine choice, but you'll learn a lot about Del Toro by seeing the direction he takes the vampire superhero in. If you can't get or have already seen Pan's Labyrinth, then you should seek out The Devil's Backbone (2001), the wonderful and terrifying companion piece to Pan.

The Hidden Gem: There are not many hidden gems for Del Toro's fans, who have comprehensively sought out all of his early works. But it's his debut Cronos (1993) that is arguably the least-discussed. His film about the quest for eternal life is equal parts horror, fantasy and funny.

The next episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Maria Lewis talking Guillermo Del Toro, will be released on the morning of June 30.

The Antonia Bird Cheat Sheet

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Antonia Bird Directs

Want to become an instant expert in our filmmaker of the month without committing yourself to an entire filmography? Then you need the Hell Is For Hyphenates Cheat Sheet: we program you a double that will not only make for a great evening's viewing, but bring you suitably up-to-speed before our next episode landsâ€¦

AB Films

PRIEST (1994) and RAVENOUS (1999)

Without a doubt these were - and remain - director Antonia Bird's biggest critical and commercial hits, and her hallmark films. And they're quite a pair: Priest, her debut feature won the double honour of a Michael Powell Award and a call for a ban from the Catholic Church. It follows a Catholic priest (Linus Roache) in 1990s Liverpool facing a loss of faith because of his sexuality (but who wouldn't fall in love with Robert Carlyle?) and a parishioner's terrible confession. Ravenous is the film The Revenant wishes it had the balls to be: a wild, bloody (funny) satire on cannibal colonialism, bear trap included. Carlyle - more Begbie than big softy here - brought Bird onto the project three weeks before shooting after the original director left, and she gets to express a ferocity and appetite for physical drama not seen since her TV drama Safe (1993).

Substitutions: If you can't get or have already seen Priest, you must watch 1993's Safe, where Aiden Gillen and Kate Hardie boil with the energy of a British Mean Streets. If you can't get or have already seen Ravenous, then switch up to 1997's Face, possibly the best of the â€˜lock, stock' bunch (Winstone, check; Davis, check), and certainly the only one a) starring Gerry Conlon, and b) where the gangster's driven by the demise of socialism.

The Hidden Gem: Has to be The Hamburg Cell (2004), the first film to grasp the nettle of understanding the 9/11 bombers, which was buried in by a nervous HBO. Bird's use of CCTV is genius, generating claustrophobia - but also a strange intimacy with the young men under surveillance. The best kind of uncomfortable and necessary viewing.

The Coen Brothers Cheat Sheet

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CB Films

FARGO (1996) and THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)

Usually we try to err on the side of films that come from the chronological extremes of a career, but there's something about the one-two hit of these works that feel as if they encapsulates what the Coens are all about. 1996's Fargo was a huge hit, its strange mix of comedy, violence and drama the perfect example of their interest in the dark and ugly side of polite society. And their follow-up? 1998's The Big Lebowski is pure Coens: an ageing hippy finds himself in the middle of a gumshoe detective drama, one that he has no interest in or ability to navigate. This is arguably their most beloved film, a deeply funny film that pays tribute to a genre by subverting it.

Substitutions: If you can't get or have already seen Fargo, you must watch 1990's Miller's Crossing, their extraordinary Italian mafia vs Irish mob thriller. If you can't get or have already seen The Big Lebowski, then tap in 2000's O Brother Where Art Thou, the 1930s deep south retelling of Homer's Odyssey.

The Hidden Gem: How do you find a hidden gem in a filmography such as this? Probably the closest is 2009's A Serious Man, their strangest and most niche film about a 1960s Jewish physics professor whose life is falling apart. It's genius.

The next episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Martyn Pedler talking the films of the Coen Brothers, will be released on the morning of March 31 (AEST).

The Max OphÃ¼ls Cheat Sheet

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Max OphÃ¼ls Directing

MO Films

Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) and La Ronde (1950)

Max OphÃ¼ls never stopped moving. But he's been called a â€œVienneseâ€ filmmaker, for the sophisticated sensibility, sensuality and psychology exemplified by these two exquisite films set in the city in 1900 (although shot in the US and France). Stanley Kubrick paid tribute to his filmmaking hero with Eyes Wide Shut, his contemporary â€˜take' on Arthur Schnitzler's novella Traumnovelle, and OphÃ¼ls' adaption of Schnitzler’s play Reigen is equally ingenious: a merry-go-round musical of interlocking love stories light as a feather and deep as a dream. Letterâ€¦ replays La Ronde's comedy as tragedy through the contrasting perspectives of its dashing composer protagonist (Louis Jourdan) and the lovelorn female narrator (Joan Fontaine) whose love he longs for and carelessly lost. Sofa, snacks, swoon.

Substitutions: Upper-class ultra-romantic drama Madame deâ€¦ (1953) might be the closest cinema ever got to the great nineteenth-century novels, but in the purest of film form (how does the camera navigate the tiny jewellers' shop?), while love/hate career closer Lola MontÃ¨s (1955) (look for the 2008 restoration) is a theatrical fever dream, the century-sweeping story of the titular dancer/muse/lover, and tone-poem to Eastmancolor.

The Hidden Gem: For an early and inventive working of classic OphÃ¼ls style and themes (and staircases), choose La signora di tutti (1934). It made Isa Miranda a star - even as it told the story of the fall of glamorous, haunted film star Gaby Doriot. It's the only film OphÃ¼ls made in Italy, and as gloriously operatic as you'd imagine.

The next episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Laura Mulvey talking Max OphÃ¼ls, will be released on February 29, 2016.

The John Carpenter Cheat Sheet

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HALLOWEEN (1978) and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986)

It has to be Halloween. It just has to. Not only is it a work of terrifying brilliance, but it's also one of the most important films ever made: after 1960's Psycho and 1974's Black Christmas, Carpenter's Halloween firmly established the concept of the slasher film and changed the entire genre of horror forever. When you've finished that, follow it up with Big Trouble In Little China, the fantasy comedy that's really unlike any other film you've seen. Watching this back-to-back with Halloween is not only a hell of a fun evening's viewing, but also the best way to demonstrate Carpenter's impressive range.

Substitutions: If you can't get or have already seen Halloween, seek out his seminal horror-thriller The Thing (1982). If you can't get or have already seen Big Trouble In Little China, seek out his first feature film, the science fiction comedy Dark Star (1974).

The Hidden Gem: Want to see something a bit off the beaten path? A Carpenter film people don't talk about as much as the others? Then you need 1978's Someone's Watching Me!. This TV movie was filmed between Assault On Precinct 13 and Halloween, but aired after Halloween's release. It's an incredible thriller, a throwback to classic Hitchcock films (particularly Rear Window), and features one of the best characters ever in a Carpenter film: Lauren Hutton's amazing Leigh Michaels. If you can find it, watch it.

The next episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Garth Franklin talking John Carpenter, will be released on the morning of January 31 (AEST).

The Don Hertzfeldt Cheat Sheet

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REJECTED (2000) and WORLD OF TOMORROW (2015)

Let's be honest, you could do the entire Don Hertzfeldt filmography in an evening without ever feeling the need to look at your watch. And we absolutely encourage you to do this. But if you want to stick to our usual two-film tradition, then we've got some absolute doozies for you. Hertzfeldt's films are almost exclusively animated shorts, and it wasn't easy to figure out which two to go with. Thankfully, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made our job a little easier. Kick your viewing off with the Oscar-nominated Rejected, which runs for only nine minutes. This hilarious short film imagines a series of rejected ads and promotions, and is surely the most anti-corporate film to ever be accidentally embraced by the Academy. Once you've seen that, follow it up with his most recent film, World of Tomorrow, in which a little girl is contacted by her future clone/descendent. This is one of the funniest and sharpest science fiction films you're likely to see, somehow deeply scathing and whimsically lighthearted all at once. And literally only sixteen minutes.

Substitutions: Again, it's really strange to be doing substitutions when you should just be watching all of this stuff. But our sub for Rejected is the painfully-funny Billy's Balloon, which we won't tell you anything about because even the setup is too good to spoil. The sub for World of Tomorrow is I Am So Proud Of You, part of his Bill trilogy, and an ingenious recounting of a sad man's life and his family history.

The Hidden Gem: Our hidden gems are usually off-beat or unusual departures from the norm, but that describes every single one of his films. So we're just going to put the five minute Wisdom Teeth here. Of all his films, this is arguably the strangest.

Where To Find Them: Hertzfeldt self-distributes, and DVD collections of most of his shorts can be ordered via his website, Bitter Films. You can also rent World of Tomorrow online for a paltry $5 on Vimeo, and believe us when we say that in terms of cash-to-quality ratio, that's the biggest bargain you'll find this week. Especially given you'll probably want to watch it multiple times and show it off to your friends. There is also a very limited edition blu-ray of his work that will be available soon, but we're reluctant to tell you about it because he’s only producing a finite number of copies, and, frankly, we want them. Oh, all right. Here you go. But don't tell anyone else.

The next episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Tom Clift talking Don Hertzfeldt, will be released on the morning of November 30 (AEST).

The Michael Mann Cheat Sheet

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HEAT (1995) and COLLATERAL (2004)

There are few filmmakers with such distinct periods to their career as Michael Mann: there's the Celluloid Mann and the Digital Mann. There's also the Running Man, but that was directed by Paul Michael Glaser, and we don't want to confuse you. Of course, there's a lot more to Mann than just film vs digital, but if we're going to give you the complete Michael Mann experience, this is the obvious binary to go with. The first film in your evening's viewing is Heat, the 1995 crime film that finally united Al Pacino and Robert De Niro on screen (The Godfather Part II doesn't count because they never shared a scene, and Righteous Kill doesn't count for a variety of reasons). Heat is one of the great crime epics, the epitome of the Career Cop vs Career Criminal showdown. When you've finished that, follow it up with 2004's Collateral, which is probably the epitome of the Career Criminal vs Cab Driver crime epics. It's the first feature Mann shot exclusively on digital, and the best-received of Mann's 21^st century oeuvre. Clear an evening this weekend, throw these two films on, and you'll be an instant expert in what makes Mann Mann.

Substitutions: Can't get or have already seen Heat? Then check out 1986's Manhunter. This was the first on-screen appearance of Hannibal Lecter, beating Silence of the Lambs to cinemas by five years. And a lot of film fans actually consider Manhunter to be every bit the equal to Silence. Will you be one of them? Find out! If you can't get or have already seen Collateral, check out 2006's Miami Vice. Look, it's not a universally beloved film, but like Collateral it demonstrates the visual and narrative aesthetic that Mann's been so keenly exploring.

The Hidden Gem: Want to see something from off the beaten path? Check out 1979's The Jericho Mile, Mann's first feature (albeit made for TV, so if you don't count those, then, I don't know, don't watch it). It's not talked about as often as his other works, but it's a hell of a debut and will leave you with little doubt as to why his career took off so quickly.

The next episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Blake Howard talking Michael Mann, will be released on the morning of October 31 (AEST).

The George A Romero Cheat Sheet

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GR Films

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) and MARTIN (1977)

There are two George Romeros: the zombie filmmaker, and the not-zombie filmmaker. The first is the director of legend, the one everyone knows. Romero is, to many people, the filmmaker behind Night of the Living Dead, the independent horror film that brought zombies into the mainstream. This terrifying '60s classic is a world away from the B-movie schlock that defined so much of that period's horror, and so much more identifiable with the serious dramas of the time. It has become a touchstone of horror because of how rawly it reflects everything that's happening in the 1960s, particularly in terms of race relations. There's never an evening when Night of the Living Dead isn't a great watch, and you'll want to follow that up with Martin. This is the non-zombie Romero at play, and although it may seem as if he's taking a side-step into another classic monster trope (this time vampires), Martin is so much more than that. Our protagonist and titular character is deeply disturbed, and has been raised to believe he's a monster. It's a nature vs nurture argument treated like monster A vs monster B, and all contained within this intense character drama. It further reveals Romero as someone who is far from just a horror director: he's a filmmaker who uses horror to explore all sides of human nature, proving that ultimately, these two Romeros are one and that same.

Substitutions: If you can't get or have already seen Night of the Living Dead, try 1978's Dawn of the Dead, which is considered by many to be just as groundbreaking as Night. If you can't get or have already seen Martin, try 1981's Knightriders, the film that's as much about Romero the filmmaker as it is about Ed Harris putting on a suit of armour and riding a motorbike about the place.

The Hidden Gem: Want to watch something from off the beaten track? Check out Season of the Witch aka Hungry Wives (1972), an astonishingly progressive and dangerous film that, like all of Romero's best work, is far more about the human conflict than the supernatural.

The next episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Sophie Mayer talking George A Romero, will be released on the morning of September 30 (AEST).