It was my first time at the Melbourne International Film Festival and I decided to break the ice by going to see “The Making of Samson and Delilah”. Warwick Thornton’s debut film is now one of my favorite Australian films. Thornton has managed to produce one of the better films in Australia’s recent cinema memory.
The film struck me in a plethora of ways. Form and content are obviously quite difficult to separate in an accomplished film. However, it is a social realist film, which means that it challenges many definitions of and levels in cinematic truth. The powerful force of this film is relayed in the recording of events as they unfold in front of the viewer’s eyes.
This is a story about a boy and a girl growing up, facing a hostile world. What makes it real – not realistic or copy, but the real thing – is the experience of watching non-professional actors face the hostile world on set with and naturalism. The story is a bridge to their world, whilst the visual pace of the film sucks the viewer into the reality of their existence. The documentary outlines this process, but in a way that is less real than the film. It reveals the difference between talking about something and actually experiencing it. The experience “Samson and Delilah” offers is full scale. This mirroring film suggests that there is no immediate solution.
The documentary “The Making of Samson and Delilah” (55 min.) was premiered wed 29/7/09 at MIFF 2009. Director Beck Cole, Producers Kath Shelper and Beck Cole.
Interview with Warwick Thornton and Keith Gallagher for Real Time Arts
Interview with Warwick Thornton and producer Kath Shelper for the AFI
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