Saturday, October 25, 2008

London Film Festival Day 11 - NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD is a brilliant doc about Aussie exploitation flicks from the 70s and 80s. It's a great flick for three reasons. First off, the subject matter is just balls out funny - slasher pics, crazy stunts, kung-fu fighting and copious quantities of tits'n'ass. Second, because even if exploitation films aren't your thing (and they're not my thing at all) you can't fail to be swept up by the enthusiasm, good humour and audacity of the guys and girls who made and starred in these movies and their chief cheerleader - Quentin Tarantino. This is all down to director, Mark Hartley, who has managed to get all the major players on tape, talking candidly. Third, Hartley does a great job in editing his material together. He manages to impose order on this chaotic film movement, making a clear case for Ozploitation as being culturally significant and the foundation of the Aussie film industry. After all, people like Barry Humphries, Susannah York and DP John Seale went on to mainstream success, and directors like Brian Trenchard Smith have a major influence on films from KILL BILL to the SAW series. So whether or not you're a fan of B-movies - indeed whether or not you're a cineaste - I can highly recommend NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD. It's that rare thing - intelligently made AND raucous fun!

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF OZPLOITATION! played Toronto and London 2008. It was released earlier this year in Australia.

2 comments:

  1. It's surprising, but there's nt a lot of fuss about the film here. I saw the trailer and it looks like a blast. I recognized some of the films like Razorback and Turkey Shoot but Anna had no idea about any of them. There's a website up with loads of Ozploitation trailers at Madman.com.au, who are the best distributors in Australia.

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  2. That's a shame. It's just so funny and obviously made by someone who loves his subject!

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