By Tamsin Kemp
Elvis Is Leaving The Building! Time is ticking to be transported to Tinsel Town as Australians & Hollywood exhibition at the NFSA leaves town on 28 January
We’re a weird mob, and we love it.
Remember when you were a kid, how you could get lost in the intrigue of a kaleidoscope? You’d hold a plain object in your hand but peer inside, and it would transform into an endlessly morphing world of colour and reflection. Any movement yields new patterns and relationships, a hidden universe.
And so to adulthood, and cinema. We sit solid, in place, then suddenly, we are not in place; we are in the arc of the story, sucked in and pushed about until we are released, blinking, blinded by light and reality. We often wish to return and inhabit that magical space; just one more taste.
So, you’d know what I mean when I say this exhibition is like a kaleidoscope; you exit your day into a space where stories collide, and each piece of the pageant is situated to resonate with another, to crystallise or reveal a relationship: whether it is genre, person, techniques, time or aesthetics. The curation enables a zig-zag of points of connection that zip through the display like electricity.
Does this all sound dramatic? It is; that’s the whole point.
This exhibition is jam-packed with mise-en-scène, moments of gravity and, of course, extravagance. It’s showbusiness in all its constituent parts. And it’s fascinating.
Who is behind this cabinet of wonders? A whole clever team, naturally, but at the helm is the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) Senior Curator Tara Marynowsky. I was privileged to speak with Tara about the shape and intentions of the show.
Tara tells me she planned it “like a series of universes – with each story like a planet in a solar system”. How does one manage a solar system of stories? “By feeling for connections… and finding the rhythm of the exhibition. The flow follows the rhythm.”
And what better way to find your rhythm than with George Miller’s ode to petrol and apocalypse in true dinky-di Aussie style?
“I wanted to start with Mad Max not only because it is iconic but because it helped
launch a wealth of Australian talent worldwide,” Tara explains. “I wanted to launch from and connect to the wild and experimental age of the 1970s.”
“Mad Max also typifies Australian innovation, the spirit of trying things out and being gung-ho.”
The objects in this first space are a hook: pieces from the films, such as handcrafted steering wheels from Mad Max: Fury Road. Seeing them brings a thrill of curiosity – who built them, whose actor fingers have touched them, the dust and the screams they have witnessed.
“It’s one thing to see them in a movie,” Tara interjects into my thoughts, as if reading them. “To see them in real life pushes home what a collaborative business this is. When you see the craft, you see the extensive, cooperative relationships.”
It’s true. I feel it. It’s in the storyboards, the collaged diaries, and the meticulous detail in the textiles.
A significant highlight is the work of Catherine Martin and Baz Luhrmann. Luscious pieces from Moulin Rouge, oozing sensuality and frivolity in equal parts, and the oh-so painstakingly reconstructed pieces from Elvis, historically inspired, Martin made. Tara talks about how the NFSA wanted this show “to be a celebration. Avoid focusing on the cultural cringe and embrace local talent and the Australian voice.”
Even though these particular costumes donated by Martin and Luhrmann tell stories of other cultures and places, their playfulness speaks to the energy in Australian creative industries.
“We wanted this exhibition to feel contemporary, proud and celebratory,” Tara asserts. “Our intent was not to create a history or chronology, or to critique, but to provide a wondrous glimpse into the creative process.”
The glimpse at the creative process that the famous pink suit provides is powerful – attention to the original, the consummate tailoring, but then there is the fall of the fabric, the rhythmic way the suit drapes… There is no doubt about it; that suit is ready to JIVE.
Reflective dialogue from directors and actors punctuates the collection, providing moments of intimacy with people and processes. We are swept through the guts of David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom (the copper wall piece from the set is an instant craving) to the rare intellect and powerful stories of women directors such as Gillian Armstrong, Jane Campion, and Cate Shortland, to the glamour and sequined bliss of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and The Sapphires.
Gorgeous. But not, Tara relates, “highbrow”.
“We want this exhibition to be accessible for all,” she states. “To instil, or renew, a love for cinema, and be unapologetically Australian”.
In the digital clip on the exhibition page, actor Emily Browning says: “When we lean into our weirdness, I think that’s when we make the best films”.
Unapologetically weird. Welcome to Australia.
The final shining moment in the kaleidoscope is the spotlight on Indigenous filmmakers. Tara speaks seriously about this part.
“A space of honour is dedicated to our First Nations directors, and it features materials that represent powerful films and stories, including a video essay installation by GARUWA about Warwick Thornton.
The images are seductive and luminous. We see Warwick Thornton’s The Beach and the measured narrative he gifts us, in real-time, with a genuine embodiment of experience deeply embedded on and in Country.
Even the harrowing stories, the Sampson and Delilah and Charlie’s Country stories, have an enduring beauty, one of intergenerational resilience working and growing alongside the ravages of intergenerational trauma.
The devastation of Colonialism on culture, language and lives is told truthfully, but still, even there, is Country. The land sings.
Closing with First Nation stories and achievements feels particularly poignant in this post-Voice context. It feels sad, but it also feels hopeful. One of the things Tara said she wanted people to take away from the exhibition is “the sense that anything is possible”. She was referring to creative projects and products, but I think it goes further.
Artists are agents of change. The revolution will not be televised, but it will be in the cinema.
The last thing Tara said was she wanted people to know “that creativity can lead to all kinds of incredible jobs and opportunities, as seen in this exhibition. Do you recall how parents, school counsellors, and old ducks at the hairdresser would always talk about ‘getting a real job’?
Good news. Inside the kaleidoscope, you can find one.
Australians & Hollywood is open daily from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm until its final day on 28 January. The exhibition is also open until 8.00pm on Friday nights, except for 26 January. Tickets $11 – $16 via NFSA website.