Inside Out, a new local film, seems to have got it the right way round in terms of financing and filming, writes Andrew Worsdale
`This movie marks a turning point in the local industry.” This was the less- than-original prophecy on everybody’s lips at the recent bold and upbeat launch of the new SABC3/ African Media Entertainment film, Inside Out, at Sandton City. And this time it may well be true.
The film is a gentle romantic comedy written by and starring Gilda Blacher and directed by Neal Sundstrom. The plot revolves around Hazel, a Jewish comedienne, travelling down to do a gig in Cape Town. When her car breaks down she ends up in the fictitious town of Eden somewhere in the Karoo.
The town has a motley assortment of characters from the kindly mayor (an impeccable Tobie Cronje), a widowed father (Marcel Van Heerden) who beats up his daughter (Emily McArthur), a gay boy (David Dukas) working in a general dealer, a black schoolteacher who has problems with the townsfolk, and numerous others.
Hazel gets to direct the town’s annual nativity play and through the course of the movie everyone in the closed community changes -the mayor tap- dances, the abused daughter comes out of her shell and Hazel falls in love with the local hunk.
Reminiscent of the Australian movie Cosi, the movie is not devoid of problems. Structurally it tends to have one liners directly after each other and then dramatic scenes all in a line- up, and perhaps it tries to deal with too many issues. On the plus side, however, it’s fantastically performed and looks great. For once South Africans can see a local movie that looks, sounds and feels like a real film.
Cinematographer Paul Gilpin, who also shot Cry the Beloved Country, says he went for a “Fellini-like” look for the piece, using strange lenses and imbuing many scenes with lots of colour – and it works wonderfully.
I visited the set of the movie in August and observed a real happy cast and crew, the only disaster I discovered was that Tobie Cronje sat on his glasses.
The movie is the first co-production between JSE-listed AME and SABC3 and is budgeted at around R4,9-million with both partners putting in equal financial weight. There were no pre- sales on this picture, it was fully financed through equity.
Producer Roberta Durrant says: “This is a major move in that the public broadcaster is putting its license fees into a feature film budget – it’s a first and hopefully will set a precedent.”
On top of that Rob Collins, CEO of Primovies which owns Ster-Kinekor, made a pledge at last year’s Cape Town Film Market that every local film made would get one print from Ster-Kinekor. Earlier this year the local movie Sexy Girls opened with four prints but three were paid for by M-Net.
Inside Out opens nation-wide with 26 prints all paid for by the distributor, evidence of a great deal of faith.
Clive Rodel of SABC3 assured me on set that this is no “Kugel in Paljas” story. “It’s more like a kugel version of Fried Green Tomatoes,” he said. “It’s a character piece … it’s about a Jew in the Karoo.” Last year Durrant and director Neal Sundstrom had the idea to do four movies with generic titles – all based around a “woman’s story”. They went with this one which seemed to have a hassle-free way through to production.
Evidently the script took four weeks from concept to finished draft (although there were “touch-ups”); pre- production lasted a paltry four weeks; the movie was shot in 25 days; and, so Sundstrom says, cut in 10 days. (Durrant qualifies his statement by saying: “Neal’s 10 days is 20 days for normal people, because he doesn’t sleep.”).
“I’ve been waiting for 12 years for Jemima and Johnny (a feature he’s been developing) to no avail and this has taken six months from conception to camera,” says the affable Sundstrom.
When I visited the location in Wakkerstroom, in the nest of the Drakensberg, I witnessed the crew shoot a scene that had Tobie Cronje, complete with cowboy hat, as the small town mayor holding a bosberaad about what should happen with the annual Christmas play. The woman who used to direct it has passed away and, as Cronje’s character says: “The nativity play was her baby and the crib is now motherless.”
It was done in one shot, a crane and track towards the table. After a couple of blurbs from the actors it was all wrapped up in one take. Sundstrom is known for his efficiency and, much like a kid in a toy store, he seemed to be having the time of his life.
Blacher says when she first heard her script uttered she was nervous and a bit thrilled, “But I worked very closely with Neal on casting,” she smiles, “Sometimes when I see a scene I want them to say it like that, but when they do it, they do it perfectly anyway. I mean most of the cast are people I would’ve chosen anyway … It’s a divine cast.”
This, however is no Orkney Snork Nie for the big screen. Although comedy driven, its flair lies in the writing of a rites-of-passage story. There are no broad laughs here, although Sundstrom is painting it with what he calls a “surrealistic pen”. Durrant – who directed numerous episodes of It’s Good It’s Nice and Going Up for television and has produced oodles of programmes, says: “It’s the most hassle-free production I’ve ever been involved with.”
The townspeople of Wakkerstroom, the dorp that gave away three votes to lose Smuts’ election and give rein to the Nats in 1948, seemed to be in tune with all this production bliss when I was down there. Part-time garage owner David – his missing teeth in full glare – commented: “It’s bloody brilliant these ous are here. I mean I dig a movie with a good laugh and, listen, life here’s too tense. This is a small town and everyone knows everyone else’s business. It’s time we had some strangers give our dorp a bit of life.”
Let’s hope the public feels the same way when it opens on Christmas eve, because with players like AME, Primedia and all the broadcasters finally getting serious about a local industry, this may well the turning point.