Boys
will be boys
Author: Jim Schembri
Date: 10/05/1998
Publication: The Sunday Age
As far as dream film projects go, David Wenham knows he's come about as
close as he's likely to get with The Boys.
Since appearing in the stage play by Gordon Graham at
Theatre in 1991, Wenham has nurtured the project from pub conversation to
finished film, on which he was associate producer. Whether the film gets
an audience or leads on to other things is beside the
point, he says.
"I'm very self-critical and there's not too many
pieces of work that I can
honestly say, 'Yeah, I'm proud of that'. I am with this film," he says.
"It's a fulfilling feeling to know that we did create this piece of film
from virtually nothing."
The Boys follows the release from prison of Brett Sprague (played by
Wenham) as he tries to fit back into his malfunctioning family, which
includes two layabout brothers, a pregnant young
woman and a
long-suffering mother (Lynette Curran). As the day progresses, there are
pointers to a brutal and random act of violence perpetrated by Brett and
his brothers.
On film, The Boys is an unremittingly gritty tale that carries on the
torch of Australian social realist cinema, something that has been
fluttering in the recent wake of musical comedy fancy that has filled
theatres and won overseas notice (Muriel's Wedding, Strictly Ballroom, The
Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert).
The notion of making a screen version of The Boys had been marinating for
years during long lunch and drinking sessions at the Green Park Hotel in
Darlinghurst between Wenham and the play's producer,
Robert Connolly. Soon
after the play's brief run, Connolly went to film school, Wenham went on
to get more film and TV experience and the idea eventually found purchase.
The play was adapted by noted playwright Stephen Sewell with producer John
Maynard (Vigil, The Navigator, Sweetie) teaming up with Connolly, Wenham,
cinematographer Tristan Milani and first-time feature
director Rowan
Woods.
As associate producer, Wenham says his job was to make sure "that none of
our visions were ruined anywhere along the way". The Boys is Wenham's
baby, his artistically uncompromised little baby.
"We had 100 per cent control, so of what's up there on the screen there is
not one ounce of artistic compromise at all from any of the team
involved," Wenham says. "We could have had the film done years ago if
we'd
gone with an established director, an established director of photography,
an established editor. We didn't. We all had experience working with each
other before. It's a wonderful way to work because it was like a shorthand
process. We knew how we operated."
It took Wenham an inordinate amount of time to help turn The Boys into a
film. He was motivated by one key factor.
"The thing that drove me, the thing that kept me going was just the
audience reaction from that one production in
quite a bit of stage work (Cosi, Hamlet, The
Tempest), but never before
have I been involved in a stage production where a large majority of the
audience would actually stay behind after the play to talk about the
piece.
"It obviously tapped into something that's sort of unfathomable, in a way.
I actually can't explain it."
Amazing, maybe, but limited. The Boys was not exactly
the type of project
that screamed to be filmed. Nor was it the type of proposal that had
investors kneecapping each other just to be first in line with their
money.
The Boys ran in
including SBS Independent, the NSW Film and Television Office, the AFC and
various off-shore contributors.
Any film based on a stage play has the inevitable hurdle of not looking
like a photographed stage play. The Boys avoids that by adopting an almost
voyeuristic visual style.
"When we were thinking about how we'd shoot it, we decided very early on
that we would shoot it on location," Wenham says. "We searched for a
house
that would allow the best possible perspectives for the camera. The house
is a character within the film, and Rowan was always conscious of making
the house alive."
When talking about the house in the film, Wenham is on firm ground. Ask
him to articulate what it is about the dark nature of the story that
captivated him so, and he becomes a tad tongue-tied.
So a suggestion. While not seeking to excuse what
Brett and his brothers
eventually do in the film, The Boys does present the complex background of
mounting frustrations that results in an act of violence that is as random
as it is inevitable.
"You can write all that down and attribute it to me because it's quite
correct," Wenham says.
But seriously ...
"We didn't want to explain. Within the film, we seek to understand why
events like this occur," he says.
"The reasons are extremely complex, as is the protagonist, Brett. He's a
man who has an enormous emotional range and is passionate. He's a man
capable of wonderful love on one hand, and horrendous violence on the
other hand, and you never quite know when that's going to occur."
Whether producing The Boys helps his career is not the point, Wenham
insists. "I never went into it with the prime motivation of 'Ah gee, this
could lead to whatever'. My motivation was that I was driven by the desire
to tell this story, to play this character."
Which is just as well. It's a fickle business, though
you don't have to
tell Wenham that.
He has enjoyed solid success, winning an AFI award for best actor in 1997
for his work in the mini-series Simone de Beauvoir's
Babies. He had
notable roles in Cosi and
the recent film A Little Bit Of Soul, directed by
Peter Duncan, who made
the multi-award winning comedy Children Of The Revolution. Soul was not a
success. It was, by any measure, a commercial and critical clunker. And it
hurt.
"It obviously distressed Peter to the maximum," Wenham says.
"Peter owned
that film. I was surprised by the vehemence of a lot of the criticism.
Sure, it's not a great film, it's flawed, but it didn't deserve the
absolute bucketing that it got in some quarters. I saw The Big Lebowski on
the weekend and I think it's a mess of a film, an absolute mess. I haven't
read about that. If Peter Duncan was the Coen
brothers, I wonder if the
criticism would have been the same."
He pauses again, as his fingers strangle the life out of a sugar sachet.
"I find it strange, I can't ... you know, I'm ... phew ... look, if you
believe the good that people write, you have to believe the bad as well, I
am a believer in that philosophy."
Critics aren't the worst of it, he says. Wenham still considers himself a
newcomer to TV and film, and some of the characters on the landscape scare
him.
"I don't think there are too many downsides to the business. I suppose the
bureaucracy of the film industry is frustrating, the grey or black suit
brigade that pulls the purse strings. I think in a lot of situations the
wrong people are pulling those strings. They give you script advice like
'you come back with a second draft with these amendments, then you might
get a little bit more money from us'. You've got to be kidding.
"It's also frustrating how the words business and product are used as
opposed to creation. You know, that sounds a little bit wanky,
but it
should be the culture of cinema as opposed to the culture of business."
It doesn't seem to be in Wenham's nature to carp for long. He has a nice
place in
Seachange, he's produced a film. He's doing fine.
"It's good, you know. Actors always complain. They complain when there's
no work, they complain when they're too busy. Actors are a shocking lot.
Maybe that's a collective noun for a group of actors. A shock of actors,
as opposed to a whinge of writers. Oh, I heard a
beauty the other day for
directors. A lack of directors!" He laughs.
He's not complaining.
* The Boys is on general release.