|
“TONI SPENT THE FIRST HOUR TELLING
US SCENE-BY-SCENE WHAT SHE LOVED
ABOUT THE SCRIPT SO WE JUST SAT
AND SHUT UP! FROM THAT POINT ON,
WE KNEW THAT, IN TONI, WE HAD AN
ACTOR WHO UNDERSTOOD BOTH THE SCRIPT
AND THE PART AND
WANTED TO COME ON
THE JOURNEY WITH US”
“WE WALK ACROSS THIS EARTH
WITHOUT STOPPING TO THINK WHAT’S UNDERNEATH, AND THE SAME APPLIES TO THE PEOPLE IN THIS FILM,”
says director Sue Brooks (above)
“When you’re directing something you commit a big part of your life,” she adds. “You’re swimming in the deep end for a long time, so you don’t want to do that unless it feels like a journey that’s worth going on. But I loved the script and the script is the most important thing. The three of us shared a moment of connection like we’d had with Road to Nhill [the 1997 film which was the first collaboration between writer, producer and director], where we thought, ‘OK, this is the one – let’s go for it!’”
The project that brought them together is Japanese Story, which is unveiled internationally in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this May and is the only Australian movie in this year’s official selection. It is a compelling mixture of intense character study, road movie and culture-clash drama which involves two very different people: Sandy, a career-oriented Australian geologist (Collette); and Hiromitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima), a Japanese businessman with his own agenda. The pair become stuck in the remote red dust of Western Australia’s Pilbara which, at 2.8 billion years, is one of the oldest unchanged landscapes on the planet. “Ultimately,” says Baker, “there are three lead characters in this film: Toni, Gotaro and the Australian landscape.”
|
