Today my friend Luz and I watched the Australian movie Dirty Deeds, which we considered a diverting cultural experience. Not out and out amusing, but anthropologically enlightening. It confirmed for me many of the generalizations I have regarding Australian movies. For example:
--They are odd. Really just plain strange. Australians find them highly diverting, but everyone else eyes them with the suspicion relegated for any film labeled "foreign."
--The accents are thick. I have lived in Australia for over three years and have rarely had trouble understanding anyone. Very occasionally I'll meet a very "ocker" (is that how you spell it?) Australian, but if I pay attention then I can generally cope. The movies, though, are another story altogether. Highly idiomatic and laced from start to finish with Australianisms, they also feature lazy speakers who continually sluralltheirwordstogether. I have no idea if the plots would be easier to follow if they simply enunciated, but somehow I doubt it.
--Not really sure how this one works, but I have the hardest time keeping the characters straight in a "but all the white guys kind of look the same" sort of way. Maybe this is because no one besides Australians knows the "famous" Australian actors?
--Averageness. I'll leave you to determine if I mean this in the American (average = the middle) or Australian (average = below the middle) sense, but it's just so prevalent: average looking actors, average cinematography, average special effects, average acting and average plots. Not saying they're bad, just saying they're average.
--Swearing. Far be it from an Australian screenwriter to produce a sentence entirely devoid of profanity.
--Inside jokes. Australians find their movies utterly hysterical. Everyone else finds them odd. I pride myself on now being able to point out parts that an Australian is likely to find funny, though I'm still at a loss as to explaining why.
Now this makes it sound like I don't enjoy Australian movies. This is only partially true. I enjoy parts of many of them, such as when the show the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I get all excited at recognizing something. And really, as an outsider, I know I'm in a bit of a tight spot to judge. Perhaps I don't get them entirely, but I was never really the target market, either.
Go out and watch one for yourself -- and enjoy it, if you can!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
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4 comments:
Ah, yes, we 'like' our swearing, but at least we don't feel the need to have a sex ed lesson in every movie. In fact, it's quite rare to find an Australian movie that does have a sex scene, it's normally left as innuendo for the audience to assume.
I haven't seen Dirty Deeds and in fact, the only thing I can find on imdb is about a USA film so I expect that's not it. I assume from your write-up that it's meant to be a comedy. What's the basic idea/plot line?
In our collection of Australian movies we have comedies such as The Castle, The Dish, The Nugget, Spotswood, Strictly Ballroom, Young Einstein and Crackerjack. In drama we have Looking for Alibrandi, Rabbit-proof Fence and The Shiralee (strictly speaking a mini-series). Have you seen any of these?
The comedies may give you a better insight into Australian humour. But don't worry, I expect we'd have just as much trouble explaining why we find something amusing. Try explaining to us why you find something amusing and you'll probably find yourself stumped and reduced to, "because it is, why don't you find this funny?" Humour is just one of those things that is largely affected by the culture of the producer and the audience.
Hey -- I've seen The Castle and The Dish and I'm pretty sure I saw Strictly Ballroom ages ago. I've read Looking for Alibrandi and heard about the Rabbit-Proof Fence, but haven't actually seen them. I think most my observations come from The Castle, The Dish and Dirty Deeds.
I had to teach The Dish for my ESL students -- which I found a very odd choice because they understood vastly less of it than I did and very nearly left the entire room, teacher and all, sound asleep! They do only marginally better with Whale Rider, and like Finding Nemo best of all :)
What about The Black Balloon, amazing drama, Charlie and Boots is hilarious (it stars Paul Hogan you must recegonise him). Famous Aussie actors Toni Collete, Hugh Jackman, Eric Bana.
@Laetitia, I found this http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280605/
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