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.
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