When planning a tribute, most film festivals pick a safe subject; an unassailable giant of cinema like Orson Welles or Ingmar Bergman. Melbourne International Film Festival, however, has chosen not to play it safe this year, with a 12-hour Nicholas Cage marathon and accompanying panel discussion titled, For the Love of Cage.
Described as the “jazz musician of acting” by David Lynch, Cage’s bona fides as a respectable thespian seem hard to dispute – at least on paper. But, in 2018, Cage is beloved less for his Oscar turn in Leaving Las Vegas than he is for his deranged performances in an endless string of schlock movies like Outcast and Ghost Rider, and for his status as a Reddit meme.
“We see Nicholas Cage as on the same level as Orson Welles,” says Michelle Carey, Melbourne International Film Festival’s Artistic Director. “Film festivals are there to celebrate everything that’s amazing in cinema. As a festival, we’re very open. Just because these films are seen on TV doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be seen in a cinema.
“Where else are you going to see 737 minutes of Nicholas Cage? The event takes you on a journey. The night starts with the quality films, his indie films, and it gets more ridiculous as it goes on.”
The Cage-a-Thon event will include Vampire’s Kiss, a horror-comedy that features Cage shouting the alphabet at his therapist while randomly changing posture. The Wicker Man will also get a screening, in which Cage famously runs around punching women while dressed in a bear suit.
The MIFF program will also offer more down-to-earth fare, including screenings of a record 43 Cannes films and a series of masterclasses on acting, production design, and other filmmaking disciplines. Running the Accelerator Lab masterclass on editing will be Julie-Anne DeRuvo, whose TV credits include Please Like Me and Romper Stomper, and Nick Meyers, editor of Australia Day and 2011’s Sleeping Beauty.
The festival’s masterclasses will have something to offer both beginning and experienced practitioners. Movie music buffs can attend both a composing masterclass and a live recording of the Art of the Score podcast, dissecting Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer’s BAFTA-nominated score for Blade Runner 2049.
Festival screenings will be held at Melbourne mainstay venues including the Astor, the Kino and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square. New to the festival since 2017 is the Regent Theatre. With its sumptuous baroque interior, the Regent will host Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Paul Dano’s directorial debut Wildlife and a screening of Drive with a live synth-wave soundtrack, among other films.
Another one-time event at this festival will be the departure of Michelle Carey, who plans to hand over the reins to Artistic Director Al Cossar for MIFF 2019.
“If I’d only been with MIFF for a couple of years, I’d think, ‘No, I’ve still got work to do’,” Carey says. “But I’ve been here for ten years, and I think it’s important for the festival to have new blood every once in a while. I’m happy to be leaving on a high. It’ll be great to see what Al can do with it.”
Carey’s departing contributions to the festival include a new fashion retrospective, exploring the reciprocal influence of clothing on cinema and vice versa through films like the Audrey Hepburn musical Funny Face and 1975’s Picnic at Hanging Rock.
“These days, when people can get access to films on YouTube or Netflix, it’s a challenge,” says Carey. “But people will still come out and see a film at MIFF, even a film that they could see on iTunes. They want to see it with an audience. They want to see it on the big screen. MIFF is very, very unique and people know that.”
