Live and direct
Almost 30 years after she discovered Judy Davis, Gillian
Armstrong has launched another brave new film talent. She spoke
with Melissa Kent.
If the art of escapology involves calculated risks, a dash of
luck and an appreciative audience, then so too does filmmaking.
The parallel is not lost on Australian director Gillian
Armstrong, who delves into the world of the great American escape
artist Harry Houdini in her latest film, Death Defying
Acts.
“I love how you could never be sure where those old vaudeville
stunts were going or how they would end, and that’s much like
filmmaking,” she says. “It’s like a pack of cards: you never know
how they’ll fall.”
Set against a shadowy backdrop of 1920s Edinburgh, the film
follows a fictional love affair between Houdini (Guy Pearce) and
Mary McGarvie, a conniving pseudo psychic on the make (Catherine
Zeta-Jones).
Although Armstrong knew little of Houdini, his struggles with
guilt, fame and loneliness inspired her to take on the film, her
first feature since 2001’s Charlotte Gray.
“Houdini was a superstar of his time,” Armstrong says. “Charlie
Chaplin was the first, then came Houdini. He travelled the world
doing these huge vaudeville shows in giant theatres. You know, 5000
people would turn up in small towns to watch him hanging from a
bridge.
“But, behind that, he had a great many emotional levels because
at this point in his life he was a very troubled, unhappy man.”
Haunted by the death of his mother, Houdini became fascinated
with spiritualism while at the same time seeking to debunk it,
prompting him to post a $10,000 reward for anyone who could contact
the dead.
Cue the introduction of a beautiful con-artist and her
accomplice daughter, played by Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan
- a casting coup that proves, yet again, Armstrong’s remarkable
knack for unearthing major talent.
Ronan joins an impressive list of luminaries cast by Armstrong
in their first feature film: Cate Blanchett first came to
international attention in 1997’s Oscar and Lucinda; Judy
Davis and Sam Neill starred in 1979’s My Brilliant Career;
and Claudia Karvan in 1987’s High Tide.
Young Irish actress Ronan had yet to be cast in
Atonement when she caught Armstrong’s eye.
“I needed someone with experience on a set because it’s such a
huge role, and Saoirse had done one tiny Irish TV drama,” Armstrong
says. “She came in on our second day of audition and was a
stand-out and head and shoulders above everyone else. She wasn’t
available exactly when we needed her, because she had just been
offered Atonement, so I said to Guy and Catherine I
thought we should wait, because this kid is just
extraordinary.”
Shot in London and Edinburgh, with a combination of Australian
and British finance, Death Defying Acts adds another
international project to Sydney-based Armstrong’s film credits.
Just as she was the first woman to direct a local feature film,
Armstrong also blazed a trail for Australians working in
Hollywood.
“When I made My Brilliant Career, at that point, no
directors, or actors for that matter, worked internationally,” she
says. “We were quite sheltered, so, when I was approached to make a
film in America, we were like, ‘What? They want me to go over
there?’. It was very unusual at the time, but of course now
Australians are so successful in overseas film, it seems strange to
think we were so separated.
“I knew how difficult it was to make a film so I actually said
no, and made my second film in Australia, which was
Starstruck.”
She was eventually seduced by the script for her third film,
Mrs Soffel, a 1984 American production starring Diane
Keaton and Mel Gibson.
The clout born of 35 years in the industry has it benefits,
including the ability to attract A-listers such as Zeta-Jones and
Pearce, but Armstrong finds working with stars has its
downside.
“There is a lot of waiting involved in major films while actors
are off shooting other films and you’ve got people getting
pregnant,” she says. “I find it frustrating, because I’m a creator,
I like to make things. For me, filmmaking is actually an art. I try
to fit in smaller productions in the meantime so I’m constantly
doing something creative.”
Next up for the Melbourne-born director, who has not made a
feature film in Australia since Oscar and Lucinda, will be
a local production. Or so she hopes, although she will not discuss
it and “jinx” the project. She believes the film industry has been
stifled by a “legacy of shame” after years of the Howard
government.
“There is a terrible sense of shame and elitism that the arts
have suffered for the past 11 years in this country,” she says.
“We’re allowed to be proud of our swimmers and our cricketers, but
we’re not allowed to be proud and support our artists?
“I think there is an incredible appetite for our own stories. We
just need the support to tell them.”
Death Defying Acts screens from
Thursday.
