The Sydney Morning Herald calls THREE BLIND MICE "a cut above". Read the full 4 star review HERE.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
FRIDAY NIGHT MICE NIGHT!!!
Friday night is Mice Night at Paddington’s Chauvel Cinema!!
Season commences Friday September 4 with a gala screening of Matthew Newton’s film “Three Blind Mice”.
Sydney’s elite will be in attendance to launch the first ever Friday Night Mice Night. The event will be an exclusive, by invitation only screening followed by a Q&A with writer/director/actor Matthew Newton and cast, including Pia Miranda, Barry Otto, Ewen Leslie, Marcus Graham, Gracie Otto and many more.
“Three Blind Mice” will continue it’s run at the Chauvel with screenings every Friday night at 8:30pm. Bookings essential.
Cnr Oxford St & Oatley Rd
Paddington, NSW 2021
Infoline: 02 9361 5398
Coming soon to Hobart's State Cinema
Matthew Newton will be in Hobart this Thursday, September 3 for the Tasmanian premiere of THREE BLIND MICE. Buy tickets online now!
Three Blind Mice makes its Brisbane debut!
Matthew Newton and John L Simpson hit the Gold Coast on Thursday for the Australian International Movie Convention.
The next day, the duo road-tripped to Brisbane for the Queensland premiere of THREE BLIND MICE at the Blue Room Cinebar. The screening was so popular that extra chairs had to be brought into the cinema and when the lights went up, the audience was treated to a special "Meet the Filmmaker" session with writer/director/actor Matthew Newton.
THREE BLIND MICE is now showing at the Blue Room Cinebar. See here for details.
Three Blind Mice Premiere at Cinema Nova
Check out the photos from the THREE BLIND MICE Melbourne premiere!! The film screened at the Cinema Nova in Carlton and writer/director/actor Matthew Newton, composer John Foreman, actress/editor Gracie Otto and actor Clayton Watson were on hand to answer questions during the post-screening Q&A.
An exclusive after-party was held at the White Charlie bar where guests celebrated the film's release with Piper Heidsieck Champagne and Nando's Portugasm delights.
THREE BLIND MICE is still showing at the Nova - book here now!!!
Matthew Newton directs Bud Tingwell in his last role
Harbant Gill August 17, 2009
BUD Tingwell in his last role, Pia Miranda, Gracie Otto and father Barry were among Australia's finest who rushed in for Matthew Newton's directing debut.
They agreed, within a day of getting Matthew Newton's email, to work for no pay, just points in the film, on the feature he wrote, directed and acts in - Three Blind Mice.
Newton was just as astonished with the success of the film, which has picked up accolades around the world, including the London Film Festival's critics' prize.
A year after a red-carpet screening at the Melbourne Film Festival, the film is being released.
Newton's work of passion, which took two years to create and $90,000 to shoot in 14 days, made him the last director to work with Bud Tingwell, who died in May.
It was a unique honour, now bittersweet, given that Tingwell was Newton's first acting coach.
"We had one night with him. He shot through the entire night and, at 83, at 4.30 in the morning, I would call 'cut' and he'd say 'ooh, can I have one more, Matty?'.
"He'd walk on set and everyone would stand up -- someone special had walked into the room. The most professional actor I've ever witnessed. He was considerate, he was kind, and he was just damn good."
Newton's mission was to make an anti-war film that was not political but personal. He went beyond the uniforms of the three young men, who have one last night before being shipped over to the Gulf to fight, to show the human face of the sons, brothers, boyfriends and fathers.
"They are not superhuman, they are just people. A bullet is going to go through them as easily as it is going to go through you or me," says Newton, who was moved by the stories of school friends who had gone on to join the forces.
"I wanted to show what young men should be doing as an alternative to killing -- meeting girls, guys, getting into trouble, getting out of trouble, growing up, making mistakes, fixing them, sorting out what it is to be a man.
"They all start as Three Blind Mice, but they all, at some point during the film, start to see."
Newton plays one of the trio, the warm-hearted mischief-making Harry, alongside Ewen Leslie and Toby Schmitz, his good mates on and off the screen.
Newton, who played drug lord Terry Clark in Underbelly and has just finished playing the lead in Poor Boy in Sydney, has been cast as a rogue on stage and screen, as well as real life.
How does he not only cope but flourish, despite bearing the burden of celebrity that includes dealing with intrusions into his private life?
"Keep working," he says. "My work is my hobby, my profession, my life. I love it. I'm either working or spending time with my friends, working."
Newton rates Three Blind Mice as the most rewarding thing he's ever been involved in.
It has cost him a lot of money, he's had to find outside work throughout the editing process to pay for it, and he's had to knock back acting jobs.
He's also about to begin shooting his next script, Some People, starring Asher Keddie, Ewen Leslie and Bob Franklin, about a married couple trying to stay together.
Another family drama, in which one of the members happens to be a hitman, is being developed in the US. A fourth is an adaptation of Kinky Friedman's detective novel A Case of Lone Star.
What's most important to Newton is telling tales that help us connect.
"The juice for me is to keep telling stories that make people feel like they're not alone," he says.
"Making Three Blind Mice was the most joyous, beautiful experience I've ever had. It's an actor-centric movie, where everybody treated the movie as if they were the lead.
"A lot of films I see it's like the perfect leading man, the perfect bad guy, the perfect woman, the perfect comic relief. I don't think life is perfect. Life is a beautiful mess and I wanted to capture that.
"And seeing an actor even of Bud's calibre do a take and have a glint in his eye, to play a small part in helping an actor do that is the best drug I've ever had."
Three Blind Mice opens at the Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton, on Thurday.
It's the frame not the name for rising filmmaker
Melissa Kent August 23, 2009
AT FIRST blush, Gracie Otto seems destined to wear the ''It girl'' tag. Tall, gangly, blonde and blue-eyed, she also comes with an impeccable pedigree - her dad is legendary thespian Barry Otto, her half-sister is blockbuster star Miranda Otto, and her brother-in-law is actor Peter O'Brien.
Oh, and then there's her filmmaker ex-boyfriend, the progeny of another Australian showbiz family, Matt Newton.
All this, plus regular social page appearances, makes it all too tempting to file Otto in the party girl pigeonhole.
But this ambitious 21-year-old actor and director is determined to show she has more strings to her bow than good looks and a famous surname. She's making considerable headway, receiving rave reviews for her debut feature film performance in Three Blind Mice, a low-budget drama written and directed by Newton, and in which he also co-stars. The seemingly improvised flick follows three navy officers on a wild night of shore leave before they sail for Iraq.
Otto plays Emma, a waitress who lures Sam, one of the sailors, on a reckless adventure. The performance has put her on track to another potentially treacherous label - the ''next big thing''. One critic called it ''outstandingly memorable'', another observed: ''Gracie Otto displays all the physical and technical gifts required to be the next major Australian export a la [Abbie] Cornish.''
Otto is proud of the film, though dismissive of the hype.
''A lot of my friends who've seen it were like, you were just playing yourself!'' she laughs on the phone from the Otto family home, a rambling inner-Sydney manor, where she still lives.
''I admit, yeah it was me. Emma is very like how I am. Some people say it's harder to play yourself, but I think it's easier. I wanted a production assistant role or something, but Matt talked me into it.''
While the couple survived the media tsunami over Newton's 2006 assault charges stemming from his messy break-up with actress Brooke Satchwell, they parted last December after a year together.
Both say they remain on good terms. When asked, Newton has nothing but praise for Otto.
''Gracie was completely untrained, but that brought a real immediacy to her performance, which was perfect for the part,'' he says. ''There was something about having her energy on set that was really important.''
Otto is equally effusive: ''Matt really helped with great direction. I found that he was good at giving me direction and giving the other actors something completely different. You know, we don't go out any more but he's still a good director.''
Remarkably, Otto also edited the film, a skill she picked up at Sydney Film School. In fact, it is not acting but filmmaking - writing, directing and editing - that is Otto's true love.
''Some people say being an Otto is an advantage, but it can be a disadvantage …there's a pressure to live up to the high expectations that come with having the name Otto and being Miranda's sister.
''But Miranda and I do have a big age difference, so I don't think people do compare me to her. She's done a whole body of work and had an amazing career, and she was 18 when I was born, so there's no competitiveness there at all. She was more like the cool aunt than a sister when I was growing up.''
At school (Sydney's Burwood Girls High) Otto was initially more interested in sport than the arts. She was a state softball player and represented Australia and NSW in indoor soccer. She still loves soccer, recently playing with Anthony LaPaglia in a celebrity match in Los Angeles to raise money for the Victorian bushfires.
Then, in her final year of school, she discovered filmmaking. For her HSC she made Kill Blondes, a short film that starred her dad and brother-in-law, Peter O'Brien. It received a perfect score from the HSC examiners.
In 2007, she was the youngest-ever finalist in Flickerfest with her 18-minute short La Meme Nuit, a frenetic farce in which Barry again starred, as a concierge, and future boyfriend Newton played a partner-swapping swinger.
Now she is working on a feature called Rue de Tournon, about her experiences living in Paris with her best friend, actress Ashleigh McDonald, for eight months in 2007. Within weeks of arriving, Otto met a charming man who took her to dinner, stole her credit card, and bought himself $5000 worth of designer clothes.
''So many awful things happened but it was the most amazing experience of my life,'' she says.
If it took ambition alone, Otto would undoubtedly make good on those next big thing charges. Last month she made the gossip pages when she threw herself into Quentin Tarantino's limo in Sydney to deliver a DVD of Kill Blondes. ''He took it,'' she Twittered triumphantly.
''My ultimate goal is to direct my feature film and that's what I'm most interested in, but at the same time I really enjoy acting.''
Three Blind Mice is now showing.
Newton's Fun Buckets
Pia Miranda and Matthew Newton were guests on 2Day FM's Kyle and Jackie O Show last Thursday - check out the photos below!
Matt and Pia chatted about working together on THREE BLIND MICE before playing a hilarious improv game called "Newton's Fun Buckets".
It's Brilliant!
Film Ink calls THREE BLIND MICE "brilliant... an engaging, dramatic and often very funny film that doesn't falter for a nanosecond". Read the rest of the review and an interview with the boys in this month's Film Ink Magazine.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Three Blind Mice opens this week!!!!
Three Blind Mice opens in Melbourne this Thursday, August 20 at the Cinema Nova in Carlton!!!
Join us at the Opening Night Gala to celebrate the film's release. Director/writer/actor Matthew Newton, composer John Foreman and star and editor Gracie Otto will be present to discuss the film after the screening.
Book tickets online HERE now or call the Nova box office on (03) 9349 5201.
"A gorgeous performance piece"
Margaret Pomeranz calls Three Blind Mice "a gorgeous performance piece" and David Stratton says "Newton gets the very best out of his collaborators while giving a riveting performance himself". Read the rest of the review and watch an interview with writer/director/actor Matthew Newton here.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Three Blind Mice come out to play ...
... but no one's watching
Garry Maddox, Sydney Morning Herald
August 5, 2009
IT HAS screened at 14 film festivals around the world, winning warm reviews and a critics’ award in London.
Yet when Matthew Newton’s feature film Three Blind Mice opens around Australia this month, it is unlikely to be shown in its home city of Sydney.
Competition for cinemas is so intense that the distributors of the drama, about three naval officers on their final night of shore leave before heading for Iraq, are considering temporarily reopening the Newtown adult venue The Hub. Another option is a short-term cinema at the CarriageWorks arts centre near Redfern.
The distributor, John L. Simpson, said yesterday that the city’s arthouse cinemas had rejected Three Blind Mice as not commercial enough. ‘‘We’re not fooling ourselves – it’s not Titanic – but it’s an excellent film with a unique Australian voice,’’ he said.
Mr Simpson had a similar experience with the sex-trafficking drama The Jammed two years ago. It could secure a release at only one Melbourne cinema until enthusiastic reviews helped it expand to 40.
In recent months more than a dozen small films have opened at just one Sydney cinema, reflecting the way ‘‘event films’’ dominate ticket sales. Another complication is that more than 30 Australian films will be released this year.
Already in cinemas are Disgrace, Samson and Delilah, Cedar Boys and Beautiful Kate; the political thriller Balibo and the comedy Subdivision are also out this month.
Three Blind Mice looks set to be a casualty of this crush even with Newton’s profile high after starring in Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities and the Sydney Theatre Company play Poor Boy. He wrote, directed and stars in the film.
When it premiered in competition at last year’s Sydney Film Festival, the freewheeling drama was commended by the jury for ‘‘its energy, passion, superb ensemble cast and as such a fine collaboration by a talented group of young filmmakers’’.
As well as Ewen Leslie, Toby Schmitz and Newton in the lead roles, it features cameos by Pia Miranda, Alex Dimitriades, Marcus Graham, Barry Otto, Jacki Weaver and the late Bud Tingwall.
Mr Simpson admitted that a strategic move to qualify Three Blind Mice for last year’s Australian Film Institute awards has harmed its chances with Sydney cinemas. ‘‘In order to be eligible, films needed to have had at least seven consecutive screenings,’’ he said. ‘‘The sales agent hired a cinema – the old four-walling trick – but it was not advertised and it was not reviewed. No one knew it was on.’’
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/08/04/1249350546972.html
Monday, August 3, 2009
AIMC Gala
Matt Newton and John L Simpson will be jetting into Brisbane for the 2009 Australian International Movie Convention. Matt and John L will help celebrate the Australian Film Industry at the annual Gala Industry Awards on August 27.
Matt Newton at Hobart's State Cinema
Join Matt Newton at Hobart's State Cinema, 8pm September 3 for a special Meet the Filmmaker screening! Book now at www.statecinema.com.au!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Well done Ewen!!
Congratulations to Ewen Leslie who won Best Actor in a Supporting Role at last night's Helpmann Awards!
The annual Helpmann Awards® recognise distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in the many disciplines of Australia's vibrant live performance sectors.
Ewen won the award for his brilliant performance as Henry V in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of War of the Roses.
Glamorous Gracie
Check out Gracie Otto in this week's Who Magazine! Gorgeous Gracie is one of the few Aussie beauties to feature in Who's annual Glamour issue.
Monday, July 13, 2009
CRITICS NOTEBOOK - Three Blind Mice review
There are three admirable things about "Three Blind Mice": Firstly, the use of language. It's not just that this is an Australian film where the accents are mercifully closer to "Flight of the Conchords" instead of "Kath & Kim." It's the fresh banter, the overlapping arguments, the repetitive light conversation and the way the characters argue. Secondly, the staging. This is an obviously small-budget film, clearly made with little money, on real locations, and filmed wholly at night; but for once, these restrictions enable cleverness and freedom, and don't box the movie in. Thirdly, Matthew Newton – who wrote, directed, and starred – has done something which many big cinematic players can only hope to achieve: "Three Blind Mice" is not about what it's about. Three compelling reasons to see this most excellent film.
Dean (Toby Schmitz), Harry (Mr. Newton) and Sam (Ewen Leslie) are in the Australian navy, and shipping out in the morning for destination unknown. The night before the morning of has been the stuff of cinema even before Gene Kelly tapped his way through "On the Town." "Three Blind Mice" proves no exception, starting immediately with the nasty wounds on Sam's back, and Harry's cheerful insistence that ordering whores for a midnight fling will be the best way to end the evening. The lads then leave their hotel, stopping off in a deli, where Dean and Harry take over a poker game in the back while Sam flirts with waitress Emma (Gracie Otto, who also edited). Sam and Emma sneak off to flirt and then visit Sam's mother (Jacki Weaver) and grandfather(Charles "Bud" Tingwell), while Dean drags Harry to dinner with his girlfriend (Pia Miranda) and her parents (Barry Otto and Heather Mitchell). Of course, nothing goes quite to plan.
Almost everything is likable in this movie. It's not just when Harry comes back to the hotel room, sees it's splattered with blood, and without blinking says, "Waitress was a virgin, was she?" Or when Emma decides to impress Sam by playing a recorder with her nose, or later when she expertly charms his grandfather. It's how two small parts, Sam's mother and a woman he meets in hospital (Tina Bursill), are finely and completely drawn within their first six lines of dialogue. It's how the obvious smallness of the budget was compensated for with that acute ear for normal conversation, a keen sense of the dramatic in the every day, and a burning rage at the injustices people can suffer in their daily lives. It's a movie that knows a few things and has opinions about them too: Whether you've been bullied in a pharmacy or the middle of an ocean, the important thing is how you cope with the injustice. How phone calls are much more compelling when you can only hear one side. Actions have consequences, whether a drunken rant over a karaoke machine, counting cards at poker, or a lie told to cheer up your grandfather. And whether or not you realize it, the friends you choose have a big impact on your life.
The people in "Three Blind Mice" are very Australian, but their concerns are universal. Mr. Newton made the film without upfront government funding, although the print he is taking on a global film festival tour was paid for by Screen Australia. He has yet to secure a single distributor, whether in Australia or anywhere else. "Three Blind Mice" deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. It's so intelligent, so opinionated, and so ripe for discussion that it's difficult to see how it could get left on the shelf. Let's hope that someone takes a chance on this film and lets us all enjoy a night in its company.
By Sarah Manvel
Dean (Toby Schmitz), Harry (Mr. Newton) and Sam (Ewen Leslie) are in the Australian navy, and shipping out in the morning for destination unknown. The night before the morning of has been the stuff of cinema even before Gene Kelly tapped his way through "On the Town." "Three Blind Mice" proves no exception, starting immediately with the nasty wounds on Sam's back, and Harry's cheerful insistence that ordering whores for a midnight fling will be the best way to end the evening. The lads then leave their hotel, stopping off in a deli, where Dean and Harry take over a poker game in the back while Sam flirts with waitress Emma (Gracie Otto, who also edited). Sam and Emma sneak off to flirt and then visit Sam's mother (Jacki Weaver) and grandfather(Charles "Bud" Tingwell), while Dean drags Harry to dinner with his girlfriend (Pia Miranda) and her parents (Barry Otto and Heather Mitchell). Of course, nothing goes quite to plan.
Almost everything is likable in this movie. It's not just when Harry comes back to the hotel room, sees it's splattered with blood, and without blinking says, "Waitress was a virgin, was she?" Or when Emma decides to impress Sam by playing a recorder with her nose, or later when she expertly charms his grandfather. It's how two small parts, Sam's mother and a woman he meets in hospital (Tina Bursill), are finely and completely drawn within their first six lines of dialogue. It's how the obvious smallness of the budget was compensated for with that acute ear for normal conversation, a keen sense of the dramatic in the every day, and a burning rage at the injustices people can suffer in their daily lives. It's a movie that knows a few things and has opinions about them too: Whether you've been bullied in a pharmacy or the middle of an ocean, the important thing is how you cope with the injustice. How phone calls are much more compelling when you can only hear one side. Actions have consequences, whether a drunken rant over a karaoke machine, counting cards at poker, or a lie told to cheer up your grandfather. And whether or not you realize it, the friends you choose have a big impact on your life.
The people in "Three Blind Mice" are very Australian, but their concerns are universal. Mr. Newton made the film without upfront government funding, although the print he is taking on a global film festival tour was paid for by Screen Australia. He has yet to secure a single distributor, whether in Australia or anywhere else. "Three Blind Mice" deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. It's so intelligent, so opinionated, and so ripe for discussion that it's difficult to see how it could get left on the shelf. Let's hope that someone takes a chance on this film and lets us all enjoy a night in its company.
By Sarah Manvel
THE GUARDIAN (UK) Three Blind Mice article
'I made a film that I want people to argue about'
It was inevitable that Australian actor-writer-director Matthew Newton would end up in showbusiness. As the son of Australian television royalty Bert and Patti Newton, Matt is a household name in Australia, but still relatively unknown outside his home country.
That's set to change if he keeps making films of the calibre of Three Blind Mice, which is screening at the London film festival this month.
Three Blind Mice – which won a jury commendation at this year's Sydney film festival, and was shown at Toronto last month – is a fast-paced comedy-drama about three naval officers on shore leave in Sydney, the night before they are due to ship out for Iraq.
It's a clever, well-made film with smart, realistic dialogue that belies the fact that its only Newton's second film as a writer/director. It was independently funded – although Screen Australia paid for the print - and was made with a cast and crew made up of Newton's friends and recent graduates of the Sydney Film School. It was even edited by Newton's girlfriend, Gracie Otto (sister of actor Miranda), who also has a small role in the film.
"It's a gamble, but what you get out of it is a film you're happy with and a film you want to see," he says.
The idea for Three Blind Mice, with three vastly differently personalities out for a night of revelry, was one that Newton had been mulling over for a while.
"I was thinking about having that truncated period of time before you are going to go and do something phenomenal - like fight in a war, a huge life-changing experience - and what you would want to do to fill those last hours, or what you'd HAVE to do," he says.
"So I was thinking about that, but not in terms of a film – just as one of the weird things that I think about. I was doing an acting job at the time, so I put it to the back of my mind. And then one night I went to the computer and wrote it really quickly. It came out in three days, and that was what we shot."
I'm sitting chatting to Newton over a coffee at his London hotel. As he speaks, his passion for film – and for this project in particular – sparkles in his eyes.
He's very critical of a lot of the mass-produced cinema we see today, and was adamant that he wanted to do something different.
"I tried to write it so the dialogue is very natural, and every scene has multiple points of view," he says.
"I didn't want to make a hero-driven film, I wanted to make it multi-narrative in the sense that every character has their point of view and I wanted every character to treat the film like they're the lead. I really wanted everyone to bring their own opinion and personality."
"And I guess I also wanted to show what young men should be doing with their evenings as opposed to going and getting killed or having to kill someone else – making mistakes, getting in trouble, meeting girls, playing cards, trying to figure out what it is to be a man."
For the three main characters, though – Dean (Toby Schmitz), Sam (Ewen Leslie) and Harry (Newton) - it's not a normal night out. They are about to ship out to a war zone, and they are fully aware of where they are going and what could happen to them. Although it's not, strictly speaking, an anti-war film, Newton did intend the spectre of war to hang over proceedings.
"The argument of whether we should or we shouldn't be fighting is irrelevant: we are," he says of the current conflicts in Iraq and elsewhere.
"It's not irrelevant to everyday politics, but I don't want to make a film about that. We are going there, and there are young men and women who are being sent over to fight, and I guess what I wanted to do was to show the human face of that. So that anyone who sees the film strips past the uniform and looks at that face.
"I made a film that I want people to argue about, and have opinions on. It's impossible to make a good film that's trying to please everyone. It's like trying to pick up a person in a nightclub, trying to be everything they want you to be. You know when someone's playing you. I hate people trying to manipulate me and I certainly hate trying to manipulate other people. I didn't want to make a film that tried to manipulate anybody."
Newton is proud to be classified as an independent filmmaker, and critical of a lot of films now that call themselves independent but aren't. His love of film came from sitting and watching classic movies on television with his father, Bert – an Australian television legend comparable to Bruce Forsyth in the UK or Dick Clark in the US.
"I didn't understand a lot of it when I was really young, but by the time I was 10 or 11 I was starting to have my own opinions on it."
"So I went, 'Well, I want to do that, I want to make those films'. And then when I started working [as an actor] I realised that the person who has the most fun and most responsibility is the director – they get to do everything. It was something I always knew I wanted to do."
Coming from a family of performers, Newton says he had no exposure to directing – so in his early days as an actor, while sitting around on film and TV sets, he watched directors to learn the craft. "That was my education. I'd just watch what was going on, and bother people."
Newton has managed to assemble a cast of old and young Australian talent – talent like Pia Miranda (who he worked with on the coming-of-age drama Looking For Alibrandi), Barry Otto, Marcus Graham, Jacki Weaver and Charles Tingwell.
Did his family background have any influence on getting the great cast, or has it helped in his career?
"I'm the wrong person to ask, I don't know why that would. I'm not being coy, I have no understanding of it, I'm the one person who's not part of the conversation – I'm never in the room when those things are being talked about."
And what's next for Newton? He's heading back to Australia to begin work on a new TV series, but film-making is now in his blood.
"I want to keep making films – the best drug for me on set was collaborating with people, and helping them do something they didn't think they could do. It's a very heady feeling. Making films is what I want to do. I've been spoiled, because I've made this film the way that I want to make it."
Gracie Otto is the sister, not the daughter, of Miranda Otto.
17 October 2008 The Guardian (UK)
It was inevitable that Australian actor-writer-director Matthew Newton would end up in showbusiness. As the son of Australian television royalty Bert and Patti Newton, Matt is a household name in Australia, but still relatively unknown outside his home country.
That's set to change if he keeps making films of the calibre of Three Blind Mice, which is screening at the London film festival this month.
Three Blind Mice – which won a jury commendation at this year's Sydney film festival, and was shown at Toronto last month – is a fast-paced comedy-drama about three naval officers on shore leave in Sydney, the night before they are due to ship out for Iraq.
It's a clever, well-made film with smart, realistic dialogue that belies the fact that its only Newton's second film as a writer/director. It was independently funded – although Screen Australia paid for the print - and was made with a cast and crew made up of Newton's friends and recent graduates of the Sydney Film School. It was even edited by Newton's girlfriend, Gracie Otto (sister of actor Miranda), who also has a small role in the film.
"It's a gamble, but what you get out of it is a film you're happy with and a film you want to see," he says.
The idea for Three Blind Mice, with three vastly differently personalities out for a night of revelry, was one that Newton had been mulling over for a while.
"I was thinking about having that truncated period of time before you are going to go and do something phenomenal - like fight in a war, a huge life-changing experience - and what you would want to do to fill those last hours, or what you'd HAVE to do," he says.
"So I was thinking about that, but not in terms of a film – just as one of the weird things that I think about. I was doing an acting job at the time, so I put it to the back of my mind. And then one night I went to the computer and wrote it really quickly. It came out in three days, and that was what we shot."
I'm sitting chatting to Newton over a coffee at his London hotel. As he speaks, his passion for film – and for this project in particular – sparkles in his eyes.
He's very critical of a lot of the mass-produced cinema we see today, and was adamant that he wanted to do something different.
"I tried to write it so the dialogue is very natural, and every scene has multiple points of view," he says.
"I didn't want to make a hero-driven film, I wanted to make it multi-narrative in the sense that every character has their point of view and I wanted every character to treat the film like they're the lead. I really wanted everyone to bring their own opinion and personality."
"And I guess I also wanted to show what young men should be doing with their evenings as opposed to going and getting killed or having to kill someone else – making mistakes, getting in trouble, meeting girls, playing cards, trying to figure out what it is to be a man."
For the three main characters, though – Dean (Toby Schmitz), Sam (Ewen Leslie) and Harry (Newton) - it's not a normal night out. They are about to ship out to a war zone, and they are fully aware of where they are going and what could happen to them. Although it's not, strictly speaking, an anti-war film, Newton did intend the spectre of war to hang over proceedings.
"The argument of whether we should or we shouldn't be fighting is irrelevant: we are," he says of the current conflicts in Iraq and elsewhere.
"It's not irrelevant to everyday politics, but I don't want to make a film about that. We are going there, and there are young men and women who are being sent over to fight, and I guess what I wanted to do was to show the human face of that. So that anyone who sees the film strips past the uniform and looks at that face.
"I made a film that I want people to argue about, and have opinions on. It's impossible to make a good film that's trying to please everyone. It's like trying to pick up a person in a nightclub, trying to be everything they want you to be. You know when someone's playing you. I hate people trying to manipulate me and I certainly hate trying to manipulate other people. I didn't want to make a film that tried to manipulate anybody."
Newton is proud to be classified as an independent filmmaker, and critical of a lot of films now that call themselves independent but aren't. His love of film came from sitting and watching classic movies on television with his father, Bert – an Australian television legend comparable to Bruce Forsyth in the UK or Dick Clark in the US.
"I didn't understand a lot of it when I was really young, but by the time I was 10 or 11 I was starting to have my own opinions on it."
"So I went, 'Well, I want to do that, I want to make those films'. And then when I started working [as an actor] I realised that the person who has the most fun and most responsibility is the director – they get to do everything. It was something I always knew I wanted to do."
Coming from a family of performers, Newton says he had no exposure to directing – so in his early days as an actor, while sitting around on film and TV sets, he watched directors to learn the craft. "That was my education. I'd just watch what was going on, and bother people."
Newton has managed to assemble a cast of old and young Australian talent – talent like Pia Miranda (who he worked with on the coming-of-age drama Looking For Alibrandi), Barry Otto, Marcus Graham, Jacki Weaver and Charles Tingwell.
Did his family background have any influence on getting the great cast, or has it helped in his career?
"I'm the wrong person to ask, I don't know why that would. I'm not being coy, I have no understanding of it, I'm the one person who's not part of the conversation – I'm never in the room when those things are being talked about."
And what's next for Newton? He's heading back to Australia to begin work on a new TV series, but film-making is now in his blood.
"I want to keep making films – the best drug for me on set was collaborating with people, and helping them do something they didn't think they could do. It's a very heady feeling. Making films is what I want to do. I've been spoiled, because I've made this film the way that I want to make it."
Gracie Otto is the sister, not the daughter, of Miranda Otto.
17 October 2008 The Guardian (UK)
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