Bank
Author: SACHA MOLITORISZ
Date: 31/08/2001
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald

Director Robert Connolly strikes an emotional chord as he sticks the knife into bankers,

writes SACHA MOLITORISZ.

Two weeks ago, Robert Connolly attended an advance screening of his own debut feature, The Bank, in Dubbo. Today he's a local hero.

"It was huge," the Sydney writer/director says. "The cinema was packed with about 300 or 400 people, farmers, politicians, church groups ... and they were all cheering at the scenes of the bank manager being chased with a shotgun. I thought they might enjoy it, but I didn't realise they'd be cheering."

As Dubbo discovered, The Bank is not a promotional video. Instead, it's a David (Wenham) versus Goliath story of angry punters and greedy suits. "We've made an anti-bank film," smiles Connolly. "An unashamed revenge fantasy for anyone who's ever stood in a queue or paid a bank fee." Meaning that Connolly's film might just have tapped into the zeitgeist better than any Australian film since The Castle.

David Wenham plays Jim Doyle, a brilliant mathematician who approaches the CEO of Centabank with the offer of a lifetime. Jim tells Simon O'Reilly, played by Anthony LaPaglia, that he's close to discovering a mathematical formula that will accurately predict the fluctuations of the money market. O'Reilly is impressed. "That wanker could be on the verge of discovering the holy grail of economic theory," he says. If the maths whizz is right, the banker and his bank will become obscenely rich. Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Average, a couple of small business owners played by Steve Rodgers and Mandy McElhinney, are falling dangerously behind on their loan repayments.

"I think by and large most people suffer at the hands of banks," says LaPaglia, sounding decidedly unlike his profit-obsessed character. "If you invest in your bank, why should

you pay for the use of the ATM, or for a chequebook? What are you getting from your bank? Not much at all. On that level, I love the film, I love the whole underlying theme of the underdog against the behemoth."

And in a sense, The Bank itself is an underdog, an Australian film being released after a succession of Aussie flops. Apart from a handful of successes (The Dish, Moulin Rouge, perhaps Mullet), local films have barely made a dent on this year's box office. Mallboy, Yolngu Boy, Walk the Talk, The Goddess of 1967, The Monkey's Mask, Sensitive New Age Killer, Serenades: the list of box-office disappointments is longer than an Oliver Stone epic.

"It's difficult getting local audiences to see local films," says David Wenham. "That happens in every country in the world bar the US - the US has just got such a stranglehold. But you know, we fight to keep our voice, which is great."

So does The Bank stand a decent chance against the Goliath of Hollywood? Against

the seemingly endless onslaught of big budget no-brainers?

Actually, it has a number of factors in its favour, the first being its timeliness. At the Melbourne International Film Festival, 2,500 viewers stamped and cheered; at a smaller screening, a gaggle of scientists and mathematicians could hardly contain their excitement; last week, Connolly even won over a posse of politicians after taking his film to Canberra.

"It's very timely," says Wenham. "There's a great line when the head of the bank says, 'We have a duty to the shareholders: the public can look after itself.' This film is about the banks, but it has wider ramifications as well." That's undoubtedly why it appealed to Naomi Klein, author of the anti-corporate best-seller No Logo. "She loved it," says Connolly, who organised a private screening for the Canadian.

The second factor is that The Bank is a very good film, an entertaining thriller heavily inspired by Hitchc*ck (particularly in its score and opening credits). Quality, after all, counts for something.

Third, The Bank's budget was $5 million, not too exorbitant to prevent it turning a profit, but lavish enough for cinematographer Tristan Milani to create a memorable, stunning look for the film. "I don't think Melbourne has ever looked that good," says LaPaglia.

And fourth, the muscular cast, led by LaPaglia, will undoubtedly attract a hefty audience. LaPaglia says he loved the script as soon as he saw it, even if he initially turned the role down. "I was waiting to hear about another film," the Adelaide-born US resident says. "But I couldn't get The Bank out of my head. So after a few days I called my agent and said, 'Is it too late?"'

It wasn't, not for a man who has starred in films by Spike Lee, Woody Allen and Joel Schumacher and won a Tony for his work on Broadway. Says Connolly: "The general rule of thumb is you give your antagonist all the best lines, and Anthony just made all those big speeches his own.

"He's a great villain. For him, that Gordon Gekko ideal of 'greed is good' is old hat. These corporate leaders have more money than they could ever spend. It's more about global and corporate domination."

Last year, after the success of Looking for Alibrandi, LaPaglia worked on two Australian films back-to-back. After The Bank wrapped in Melbourne, LaPaglia flew to Sydney to

co-star with Geoffrey Rush in Lantana, Ray Lawrence's first film since Bliss in 1985.

"More and more as time moves on I'm enjoying coming back to Australia," LaPaglia says from his LA home. "There's a spirit of movie-making that's disappeared here a little bit, where it's so much more just about the bottom line."

Casting David Wenham opposite LaPaglia was another coup. Wenham is one of Australia's best actors, with a swelling list of film credits that include Cosi, Better Than Sex, Russian Doll, Moulin Rouge and the upcoming The Lord of the Rings, not to mention his work as Diver Dan on TV's SeaChange. "I've always had a little crush on him since he played Diver Dan," says 22-year-old Melbourne actor Sibylla Budd, who makes her feature debut in The Bank and is currently starring in TV's The Secret Life of Us. Her crush was convenient: in The Bank, Budd's Michelle falls for Wenham's Jim.

In truth, Wenham was never in doubt to play Jim. Wenham and Connolly had previously collaborated on the brilliant 1997 feature The Boys. "I produced The Boys," says Connolly. "And Rowan Woods - the director of The Boys - David and I made a pact about six years ago that we'd make three films together and direct one each and help each other through. So David's up next, I guess, though it will be more of a timing thing for him, with his acting career on the ascent."

"I certainly want to direct," says Wenham. "Though I'm in no rush."

Wenham likens making The Bank to an enjoyable reunion of The Boys. "It was like coming back home in a way," Wenham says. "All the heads of department were the same, from Tristan Milani who shot the film to Nick [Meyers] who cut the film to the head of design and the head of sound. It was like getting the team back on the field."

So yes, The Bank marks Connolly's feature directing debut, but he was surrounded by familiar faces. And that made for a smooth shoot. "I can't say I've ever worked on a film that's been better run," says LaPaglia. "Robert was always very confident with his actors and confident he had the shot he wanted, things that are uncharacteristic of a first-time director. He and David had a terrific shorthand, and one of the keys to really good independent film-making is an economy of everything."

Connolly tells it differently: "I was terrified on the first day of the shoot. All up we had 45 speaking roles and we were shooting in Melbourne, so I was outside my comfort zone. We ended up using very little footage from day one, which I now see as a very expensive meet-and-greet session for all the cast and crew."

Despite Connolly's initial nerves, the only major disruption came from the Sydney Olympics, with which the eight-week Melbourne shoot coincided. "We had to shoot it then because after that David had to go to New Zealand for The Lord of the Rings," Connolly says. "So we had this little black-and-white TV on set and each day we'd stop the shoot to watch the key events. The call sheet was built around the key events," he laughs. "But towards the end people were getting very homesick, after seeing Sydney on TV every day."

Says Budd: "I remember we were out in the bush when Cathy Freeman had her run. Someone had their car door open and we were all huddled around listening to the radio."

What remains to be seen is whether The Bank can do a Cathy Freeman and win gold. Naomi Klein and 400 Dubbo residents are quietly confident.