Robert Connolly is a busy man. With dozens of iconic Australian projects like Balibo and The Boys under his belt, you’d think his next project might be a quiet breather and maybe some rest. But no – he’s decided to adapt Tim Winton’s iconic novel The Turning, bringing together 17 different directors, casts and crews to create a mammoth three hour ‘art gallery’ of cinema. Danielle Muir had a chat to Connolly about why The Turning spoke to him, the state of the Australian film industry and what’s next on the slate.
TOM: The Turning is a mammoth project with a runtime of 3 hours and split into 17 segments. What made you want to adapt such a challenging project?
Robert: I was looking for something to challenge me. I was interested in trying to make the experience of film in the cinema a bit different for an audience. I mean there’s piracy, you can watch amazing drama on TV, it’s a world where you don’t have to go to the cinema to see stuff – how do you make that experience different and unique and a night out. I loved that book, it was lying around the office and I was having lunch with someone I was working with and we talked about ‘how would you make this different?’ And that was when we came up with the idea that we’d invite different people to do one chapter each.
TOM: The film’s format is very unique with the 17 segments – why did you think that audiences might enjoy that more?
Robert: There’d been a concert in Mebourne, a Paul Kelly concert where all these bands had done their favourite Paul Kelly song in their own style which had been quite good. I’d also worked on the TV show The Slap which had four different directors and they allowed us to do it all in our own style. There’s just something about people enjoying – like going into an art gallery and seeing different works of art. Rather than going into the movies and your 20 minutes in and you’re going ‘this isn’t for me, but I’ve got to watch another however long’, have the art gallery experience in a cinema where you could go in and love one more than the other and have opinions and discussions. So that was my idea. It seems to be going well but we’ll see. It’s been exciting, audiences get really passionate about which one they love the most.
TOM: Do you have one you love the most?
Robert: I can’t really say, I curated them so they’re like children – you’ve got to treat them all equally (laughs).
TOM: As well as producing you directed the segment ‘Acquifer’, and as you’ve said previously the director’s chose the ones they warmed to the most. What drew you to ‘Acquifer’?
Robert: I grew up in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney and there was a lagoon that I used to drive past on the school bus every day and it was really mysterious as a young kid, and as I got older my brother and I went and started exploring it and it kind of unlocked its secrets. So I had this idea of the mystery of a place like that. Then I read this story about a guy my age remembering his past that he’s coming back to, so it’s as simple as that. I responded to that story in a personal location place rather than a thematic reason, it just reminded me of a place in my childhood. I think that’s what great about Tim Winton, that it actually does speak in a way that’s very familiar.
TOM: As well as yourself, you handpicked all the directors – there’s an interesting mix in there as you’ve got more experienced filmmakers as well as first timers like Mia Wasikowska and David Wenham. What was the process of picking the directors?
Robert: It was a combination of moving between people whose work I loved, and people who were my friends. So I kind of wanted to have a personal reason for everybody – David Wenham had acted in the first film I produced called ‘The Boys’ and I directed him in the film The Bank so he was a mate, and as a friend he’d always wanted to direct. Whereas someone like Mia who is wonderful, I’d been talking to her about acting in something and she revealed this thing that she was a photographer and interested in visual arts. Stephen Page from Bangarra, I’d just seen his shows and I thought they were amazing so it was inevitable that I’d approach him. It was very different but I did try and make it personal. I wasn’t just trying to say ‘who are the best directors, or who audiences might think are the best directors.’ I was more trying to find my own personal way into it.
TOM: Many of the segments have reoccurring characters – did the directors know the interpretations that the other directors had taken?
Robert: No, I kept it a secret.
TOM: Why was that?
Robert: I was inspired by a 16th century art form where they take a canvas and consentina it together and each artist would paint one strip, and then you’d hide it, and then you’d open it up at the end. We did have an underlying document, like a dramaturgical document that had the themes and the imagery – but you didn’t have to use it, if you wanted to you could. But I wanted them to be different, I wanted the audience to be surprised by what it was so that was a real energy, ‘what’s coming up next?’
TOM: You’ve said previously by allowing each segment to be interpreted individually that it allows ‘creative liberation’. Why was that really important to The Turning?
Robert: I just thought that if it wasn’t bold, creative, individual works, like if it was all a homogenised thing that it would be bigger than the sum of the parts. I wanted the audience to have a different experience, I wanted them to be surprised so I knew that I had to free it up. A lot of contemporary cinema is creating barriers and locking things in which is disappointing because I like to go to the cinema and be surprised. Otherwise you can just watch it on telly. And TV’s amazing now, TV’s so surprising and wonderful so people don’t have to go out to the cinema. And yet people go see a concert or a theatre show, live music’s booming, so that’s why I had the program [a program is handed out at screenings of The Turning] So it was the idea of creating something that was delivering for that audience.
TOM: Were you ever worried that the concept and format would turn off audiences?
Robert: Yeah. Yeah I was worried right up until when I first showed it to audiences, that people might go ‘god that was boring.’ I think what happens is if there’s one you don’t like that much then you know it’s going to be over soon! So you can watch it, and one might be really surprising and you think about that in the next one. But no, I was terrified. Because no-one’s ever really done anything like it I had no guarantee.
TOM: A lot of your other works are also based on Australian content, what makes you want to tell Australian stories rather than international ones?
Robert: I think I’m interested in our cinema culture as a mirror that it puts up to our country – I think it’s a really powerful way of reflecting something about our country and our place in the world. I think Australians love Australian stories, they definitely see them on tv so the trick is to get people to see them in the cinema. I think the power of cinema to reflect our national identity is really important.
TOM: Do you think that’s what should be the purpose of Australian cinema?
Robert: Partly, but also to entertain. I’m quite a political person and I’ve made some political films but I think cinema’s got a powerful force, and it’s active for the time that the film’s there. But I do like to find ways to entertain through genre like comedy and drama, but at the end point for me is people want to feel something when they leave the cinema. They want to come out and have felt emotions. It’s an amazing privilege that you can lock an audience in a space, turn down the lights and immerse them in the sound and the pictures. In this crazy world that we live in where we’re constantly bombarded with things, it’s a real privilege. So my feeling is you want to emotionally impact on them. That’s the theory (laughs).
TOM: There’s of course the debate about the Australian film industry with art vs. commerciality and Hollywood – do you think there’s problems with the industry as it is now?
Robert: I err on the opposite side of the argument that we need to make more commercial films. My experience is that when we make commercial films they fail because you can’t second guess the audience. Our most successful films no-one knew would be successful. I think we have to aspire to excellence, I think in any form of creative endeavour our priority should be to aspire to do extraordinary work, and that audiences want that. So the danger of saying ‘oh it’s got to be more commercial, why don’t we make stuff everyone wants to see’, well let the Hollywood studios make The Avengers films. I love big blockbusters, but America does it better than us. So we’re at our best when we’re distinctive and bold and aspiring to excellence. Our national cinema doesn’t have to be like a chain of McDonalds, it can be a boutique restaurant serving great meals. And that’s the thing – Hollywood’s trying to sell Big Mac’s all over the world that’s the equivalent of that – and that’s great! I go to McDonald’s every now and then, but I like a great meal in a great restaurant too! That’s what I think Australian cinema should try and be.
TOM: What direction do you think the industry will take?
Robert: I think it’s pretty strong – I think there’s some really interesting films coming up. I think the cinemas slightly more internationalized, like there’s The Rover with Robert Pattinson who came out to do that film, with David Michaud from Animal Kingdom. There’s a film Son of a Gun set in WA with a heist film in a mine with Ewan McGregor. It’s an interesting time, I think there’s a lot of interesting, commercial stuff happening here as well so I think we’re in for a bit of an exciting time in the next few years.
TOM: What is next on the slate for you?
Robert: I’m directing a film, believe it or not, and I start in two weeks in Perth called Paper Planes, and it’s a kids film about an eleven year old who travels to Tokyo to compete in the world paper plane throwing championships. So it’s all set in a world of paper planes.
TOM: …is that a real thing?
Robert: Yeah, kind of. It’s like a family film – it’s really exiting actually because we don’t make those films anymore.
The Turning is in cinemas now.
