I’m sorry if this newsletter seems to be getting later and later, but to tell the truth, the newspaper is leaving me in the dark as to whether a piece will be run on Saturday or not. In response to inquiries I can tell you there is now a backlog, with the Herald having three articles on file that have yet to see the light of day.The given reason is “space”, and one only has to look at the paper nowadays to see that’s no lie. The problem, from my point of view, is that I’ve agreed not to run anything on my site until it has been published. This means I’m at the mercy of whatever juggling act is going on in editorial ranks.
As a result, the only thing I can offer you this week is a review of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, another dialogue-heavy, psychologically complex movie from the director who made Drive My Car. I recognise that Hamaguchi is the kind of director whom people adore, or find too boring for words. Personally, I’m smitten with his films. I’d sooner watch a long, slow movie full of intense human interaction than all the thrillers ever made. I’ve yawned through Star Wars and various superhero films, but it’s eyes-wide-open for Hamaguchi, or Antonioni, or early Wim Wenders…
Tomorrow, 5.15 pm, 1 May, I’m introducing Joseph Losey’s Mr. Klein, at the Randwick Ritz, as part of Cinema Reborn. If you don’t know Cinema Reborn, it’s a festival of classic films in brand new prints, run by volunteers and enthusiasts who are delighted if they cover costs. Anyway, Mr. Klein (1976) stars Alain Delon as an art dealer in Paris under the Nazi Occupation, who finds himself embroiled in a case of mistaken identity that grows ever more alarming and labyrinthine.
If I get onto politics the newsletter always threatens to run away from me, but – as predicted – Albo’s week at home seems to have done wonders for Labor’s campaign, with his colleagues stepping up and looking business-like. Matt Caravan and others have effectively derailed any promises the government ever made about global warming, saying that ‘Net Zero by 2050’ is “dead”. This must be infuriating for Scummo because the policy was dead from the word go, he just didn’t want any of the gang to admit as much in public when he is spinning a golden web of fibs.
In addition this week, Scummo and the Boiled Egg both made outrageous statements about China and the Pacific, scrambling to account for their complete and total negligence. The Egg thinks we need to get ready for war, and Our Leader says it’s not his fault that the Solomons has plunged into the arms of Beijing. All he did was cut funding, pull ABC services, ignore pleas about climate change, and enter into an agreement with the US and UK to put nuclear subs into the Pacific in contradiction of an anti-nuclear agreement Bob Hawke signed with the Pacific nations – without consulting the Pacific leaders. This week, the Solomon Islands’ Prime Minister, Manesseh Sogavare, with whom Scummo has “a great friendship”, brutally denounced Australia’s patronising attitude. We should join him in denouncing the narrow-minded stupidity that thinks sending aid to the Solomons (as opposed to say, Gerry Harvey) is a waste of money, with no consideration of the wider security implications of this beneficence.
Meanwhile, the national debt is approaching $1 trillion, and Scummo – usually in hard hat and fluoro vest – is still ranting about what great economic managers the Coalition are. Once again, any problems are not his fault. He’s tried his best to withdraw money from costly areas such as the National Disability Scheme, Aged Care, Higher Education and the ABC, but there’s never enough to go round when you need to do some serious election pork-barrelling.
Labor may not be setting the world on fire with their promises and policy ideas, but all we are getting from the government is one self-aggrandising lie after another, seasoned with pathetic stunts. Surely we’re witnessing the last days of Nero, playing his ukelele while Canberra burns..