Everyone likes talking about movies – what’s good, what’s bad, old favourites and new releases. It’s a dinner party staple and can prop up all sorts of awkward silences when the chitchat runs dry. Speaking of awkward silences, the art of movie talk has been elevated to a kind of performance art in Cinemania at the Museum of Contemporary Art, from December 6, where artists talk about their favourite movies, directors, genres and movie stars.
Kicking off the program this Thursday is Todd McMillan with I Love Wood Allen And Really Like Talking About Him. Join Me? Young McMillan’s’s fascination with the disgraced filmmaker has not waned over the years, despite the up and downs of the bespectacled one-time funny-man-turned-morose-philosopher and purveyor of cinematic fluff, whose recent films have ranged from terrible to woeful. Angus Truskett’s talk Nicolas Cage: Hollywood Shaman will examine the on and off-screen life and career of the greatest self-confessed “surrealist actor” of our time, Nicolas Cage. Punters should demand their money back if Truskett fails to mention the infamous cockroach-eating scene from one of Cage’s greatest performances, the deranged Max Shreck in Vampire’s Kiss.
On December 13, Dara Gill presents You Weren’t Supposed to See That, a tour through censored films that have been shown, or not, or just cut up, in Australia, including favourites now in video shops such as Passolini’s Salo and John Waters’ Pink Famingos. Gill will also look at contemporary censorship and the role of government censorship more widely. On a lighter note, Zoe Coombs Marr’s love of musicals will be explored in Whip, Crack, Away! as she examines the gender roles in classic Hollywood productions including Calamity Jane, the altogether heterosexual movie about a queer, gutter mouthed gunslinger.
Thursday December 20 welcomes back to the stage, former child-actor, artist and gallery guy Sebastian Goldspink whose talk The Brunette reveals his obsession with Natasha, from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, the most evil, villainous and downright gorgeous secret agent since Mata Hari, offside to Boris, and the owner of the best bangs since Louise Brooks. Says Goldspink, Natasha “…was the gate way drug that led to a life time of brunette femme fatale dependence -?the first step that any addict can take to beat an addiction is to admit that they have a problem.” To conclude the season is Kate Jinx’s Light As A Feather, Stiff as a Board looks at the teenage witch, from Buffy and Sabrina to The Craft and maybe that girl who was in 90210 who later became a witch, then left. The talk “… examines the strength and chaos of the teen witch trope in these and other films with both raised (evil) eyebrow and broomstick.”
December 6, 13 & 20.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rocks.
$8/$6 MCA Members and Concessions ?(booking fees will apply).?Over 18s only.
