Writing about movies, monsters, cinematic events and other wild trips
On Sunday 7th August 2022, I hosted a Q&A with filmmaker Sophie Hyde, actor Daryl McCormack (pictured left) and Emma Thompson (pictured right) following a special advanced screening of GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE at Cinema Nova.
And what an occasion it was! The audience was pumped, the film was feel-good fab, and we were all left floating on air (mainly due to Dame Emma’s enigmatic presence). Here’s photo evidence…
Time got away from me, so consider this post a belated shout-out for Cinema Nova’s Film Club screening of MEN, starring Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear (brilliance x 2!), which saw me join host KoKo for a post-film audience discussion.
This event possibly involved far longer ramblings from me than anticipated, given the film rendered the audience semi-mute but – hey – that’s the sign of a good film, I say.
I will take this as an opportunity to encourage all foolhardy filmgoers to give this one a shot – not for the lily-livered but worth it if you don’t mind a bit of folk-body-horror.
Here’s a great review in Screenhub that includes a reference to our event…
How blessed I am to have been asked by Lee Gambin and Cinemaniacs to do the pre-screening presentation of ALL THAT JAZZ (1979) on Friday 27th May at ACMI, Melbourne. I make no bones about this being one of my favourite films (ever) and, luckily, the prep for this presentation was completed almost two years ago when I appeared on The Projection Booth to speak about this incredible film.
This will be the first time I’ve seen ALL THAT JAZZ on the big screen so it’s likely I’ll be crying with joy (something I do often when I attend good cinema). Come along and cry 😭 (or dance 👯♀️) with me.
Public appearances have been few and far between during this global pandemic but, with a little bit of luck, I’ll be dusting myself off for another Cinemaniacs joint on 27th August at ACMI, Melbourne, Australia. Here’s a bit about it:
“Launching from a 20-minute video essay detailing various components of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) by Lee Gambin, fellow critics Emma Westwood and Jarret Gahan will discuss works that caused controversy, sometimes sparking protest, as well as the role of the rock opera through a cinematic lens.”
“From religious themed films that prompted outrage such as The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971) to Russell’s manic magnificence in his filmic adaptation of The Who’s Tommy (1975), this will be a rollicking panel conversation.”
You can book tix now via ACMI’s website:
It is with great pleasure that I’ll be joining Stephanie Van Schilt (pictured right) as a mentor of burgeoning female voices in film criticism as part of the Critics Lab at the upcoming Melbourne Women in Film Festival (20th to 23rd February 2020).
Looking forward to learning a thing or two myself from some fresh, fertile filmic minds (mmmmmmmmmm… brains…)
Want to know more about this year’s MWFF program?
Few films send shivers down the spine in the same way as DELIVERANCE (1972) so it was an honour to introduce the Cinemaniacs’ screening of DELIVERANCE on Saturday 12th October at Backlot Studios in Melbourne, Australia.
Here’s the evidence…
Want to know more about the event? Visit the Cinemaniacs’ website and start a curated journey into cinema history…
It was International Women’s Day on 8th March 2019.
Programming and Content Manager at Triple R, Bec Hornsby, asked Cerise Howard and I from Plato’s Cave, and Megan McKeough from Zero-G, to talk about anything we wanted to talk about. So we chatted about women in film and we introduced our hour-long broadcast with the Duran Duran song, ‘Girls on Film’ (my personal highlight of the show).
One of the things we discussed was early women filmmakers, which meant the subject of Alice Guy-Blaché came up – one of (if not) the most criminally forgotten people in cinema. In talking about Alice, we were able to determine that cinema is not an industry that is new to female practitioners; it is one that was built by female practitioners. Somewhere along the way, the money men pushed the women out.
You can listen back to our broadcast here, and you can also find out more about Alice Guy-Blaché in a documentary that seeks to right a wrong, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.
We owe a lot to Alice Guy-Blaché. Worship her.
It’s hard to believe Ridley Scott’s transcendent sci-fi/horror classic ALIEN is now 40 years old. What a film and what a legacy.
Accordingly, I’ll be celebrating this milestone birthday with a few hundred or so of my closest friends when Tristan Jones and I introduce the special ALIEN 4K restoration screening at The Astor Theatre in St Kilda, Friday 26th April. Here’s what the folks from the Astor have to say about it:
“To celebrate 40 years of the original cinematic space nightmare, we are presenting a new 4K restoration of the original theatrical cut of ALIEN to mark its 40th anniversary. The film was restored in 4K in 2018 by 20th Century Fox at Company 3/Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, supervised by Ridley Scott and Pam Dery. The 4K scans were done at EFilm and the audio restoration was done by Audio Mechanics.
But that’s not all – in this special “Alien Day” double feature, we will be following the screening of ALIEN with the return of the rare 70mm 6-track magnetic Dolby surround sound print of ALIENS. The way this original print sounds will blow you away!
This is enough to make any ALIEN fan scream! Expect some additional surprise on the night too – and keep en eye on Duke so we don’t have to go back on the ship and get him!”
Tristan and I will have more to say about it on the night. Buy your tickets here…
This Saturday 23rd February, I’ll be joining four other women – Susie Porter, Donna McRae, Alison Adriano and Janice Loreck (moderator) – for a panel discussion as part of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival (MWFF), exquisitely titled Delightfully Dark.
But why Delightfully Dark, you might ask?
Because we’re tackling the subject of (delightful) women in filmmaking, particularly those who venture into weird, transgressive and extreme cinema. What does the dark side look like for women creatives? And can it be empowering to depict darkness onscreen?
It all takes place at ACMI, 12.30pm. Please come along and don’t be afraid to say ‘hello darkness, my old friend.’
Following the success of their inaugural film festival in January 2018, ‘You’re a vile sorry bitch’ – A Celebration of Hagsploitation!, Melbourne’s premier film retrospective collective, Cinemaniacs, is going full horror with a tribute to the late, great iconoclast, Tobe Hooper.
Beginning with his groundbreaking debut feature film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), the festival will survey seminal Hooper moments, including two films that I’m excited to be introducing – Eaten Alive (1976) and The Funhouse (1981). Lee Gambin, Sally Christie, John Harrison, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Angela Ndalianis are the other venerable speakers who will be fleshing out his career.
‘My family’s always been in meat’ – A Tobe Hooper Retrospective takes place on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th January, Backlot Studios, Melbourne, and the programme looks something like this:
EMMA WESTWOOD 