Not Quite Hollywood
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''Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!'' is a 2008 Australian
documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
about the
Australian New Wave The Australian New Wave (also known as the Australian Film Revival, Australian Film Renaissance, or New Australian Cinema) was an era of resurgence in worldwide popularity of Australian cinema, particularly in the United States. It began in the ea ...
of
1970s File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War i ...
and
1980s File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...
low-budget A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or ...
cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...
. The film was written and directed by Mark Hartley, who interviewed over eighty Australian, American and British actors, directors, screenwriters and producers, including
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
,
Brian Trenchard-Smith Brian Medwin Trenchard-Smith (born 1946) is an English-Australian filmmaker and author, known for his idiosyncratic and satirical low-budget genre films. His filmography covers action, science fiction, martial arts, dystopian fiction, comedy, ...
,
Jamie Lee Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, children's author, and activist. She came to prominence with her portrayal of Lt. Barbara Duran on the ABC sitcom '' Operation Petticoat'' (1977–78). In 1978, she m ...
,
Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...
,
George Lazenby George Robert Lazenby (; born 5 September 1939) is an Australian actor. He was the second actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service' ...
, George Miller,
Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries (born 17 February 1934) is an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He is also a film prod ...
,
Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fictiona ...
,
John Seale John Clement Seale ACS ASC (born 5 October 1942) is an Australian cinematographer. He won an Oscar for his work in the 1996 film ''The English Patient,'' in addition to a BAFTA and Satellite Award. He is a member of both the Australian Cin ...
and
Roger Ward Roger Ward (born 1936) is an Australian actor who has had a considerable career in film and television, noted for "tough guy" roles in which he often did his own stunts. Biography Ward was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1936. His car ...
. Hartley spent several years writing a detailed research document, which served to some degree as a script for the film, about the New Wave era of Australian cinema. It focused on the commonly overlooked "
Ozploitation Ozploitation films are exploitation films – a category of low-budget horror, comedy, sexploitation and action films – made in Australia after the introduction of the R rating in 1971. The year also marked the beginnings of the Australian ...
" films—mainly filled with sex, horror and violence—which critics and film historians considered vulgar and offensive, often excluded from Australia's "official film history". Hartley approached Quentin Tarantino, a longtime "Ozploitation" fan who had dedicated his 2003 film ''
Kill Bill ''Kill Bill: Volume 1'' is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a team of assassins (Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox) an ...
'' to the
exploitation Exploitation may refer to: *Exploitation of natural resources *Exploitation of labour ** Forced labour *Exploitation colonialism *Slavery ** Sexual slavery and other forms *Oppression *Psychological manipulation In arts and entertainment *Exploi ...
genre, and Tarantino agreed to help get the project off the ground. Hartley then spent an additional five years interviewing subjects and editing the combined 250 hours of interviews and original stock footage into a 100-minute film. ''Not Quite Hollywood'', which premiered at the 2008
Melbourne International Film Festival The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venice Film Fest ...
, did not perform well at the box office upon its Australia-wide release, but garnered universally positive reviews from critics and a nomination for "Best Documentary" at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards.


Synopsis

''Not Quite Hollywood'' documents the revival of
Australian cinema The cinema of Australia had its beginnings with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received internati ...
during the
Australian New Wave The Australian New Wave (also known as the Australian Film Revival, Australian Film Renaissance, or New Australian Cinema) was an era of resurgence in worldwide popularity of Australian cinema, particularly in the United States. It began in the ea ...
of the
1970s File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War i ...
and
1980s File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...
through
B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
s including ''
Alvin Purple ''Alvin Purple'' is a 1973 Australian sex comedy film starring Graeme Blundell in the title role; the screenplay was written by Alan Hopgood and directed by Tim Burstall, through his production company Hexagon Productions and Village Roadshow ...
'', ''
Barry McKenzie Holds His Own ''Barry McKenzie Holds His Own'' is the 1974 sequel to the 1972 Australian comedy film '' The Adventures of Barry McKenzie''. Returning from the original film is Barry Crocker in the title role, as well as Barry Humphries in the role of Barry ...
'', '' Dead-End Drive In'', ''
Long Weekend A long weekend is a weekend that is at least three days long (i.e. a three-day weekend), due to a public or unofficial holiday occurring on either the following Monday or preceding Friday. Many countries also have four-day weekends, in which ...
'', ''
Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian post-apocalyptic Action film, action film series and media franchise created by George Miller (filmmaker), George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It began in 1979 with ''Mad Max (film), Mad Max'', and was followed by thre ...
'', ''
The Man from Hong Kong ''The Man from Hong Kong'' (), originally released in the US as ''The Dragon Flies'', is a 1975 action film written and directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith in his directorial debut and starring Jimmy Wang Yu and George Lazenby, with Hugh Keay ...
'', ''
Patrick Patrick may refer to: * Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People * Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...
'', ''
Razorback The feral pig is a domestic pig which has gone feral, meaning it lives in the wild. They are found mostly in the Americas and Australia. Razorback and wild hog are Americanisms applied to feral pigs or boar-pig hybrids. Definition A feral pi ...
'', '' Road Games'', ''
Stork Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons an ...
'' and ''
Turkey Shoot A turkey shoot is an opportunity for an individual or a party to take advantage of a situation with a significant degree of ease. The term likely originates from a method of hunting wild turkeys in which the hunter, coming upon a flock, intention ...
''. From 1971 through to the late 1980s, Australian directors began to take advantage of the newly introduced R-rating which allowed more on-screen nudity, sex and violence for audiences restricted to age 18 and over. "
Ozploitation Ozploitation films are exploitation films – a category of low-budget horror, comedy, sexploitation and action films – made in Australia after the introduction of the R rating in 1971. The year also marked the beginnings of the Australian ...
"—writer-director Mark Hartley's own
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words The film addresses three main categories of "
Ozploitation Ozploitation films are exploitation films – a category of low-budget horror, comedy, sexploitation and action films – made in Australia after the introduction of the R rating in 1971. The year also marked the beginnings of the Australian ...
" films: sex, horror and action.


Production

As a child, Mark Hartley discovered many of the "
Ozploitation Ozploitation films are exploitation films – a category of low-budget horror, comedy, sexploitation and action films – made in Australia after the introduction of the R rating in 1971. The year also marked the beginnings of the Australian ...
"
B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
s from the 1970s and '80s while watching late-night television, but was disappointed when they were completely overlooked in books he read detailing
Australian cinema The cinema of Australia had its beginnings with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received internati ...
. After becoming an accomplished
music video director A music video director is the head of music video production. The director conceives of videos' artistic and dramatic aspects while instructing the musical act, technical crew, actors, models, and dancers. They may or may not be in collaboration ...
, his interest in this era of Australian filmmaking grew and he spent years researching a potential
documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
. He was close to giving up on the project when he sent a 100-page draft of the script to American film director
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
, not expecting to receive a reply. Tarantino was a longtime fan of "Ozploitation" films and had even dedicated his film ''
Kill Bill ''Kill Bill: Volume 1'' is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a team of assassins (Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox) an ...
'' to
Brian Trenchard-Smith Brian Medwin Trenchard-Smith (born 1946) is an English-Australian filmmaker and author, known for his idiosyncratic and satirical low-budget genre films. His filmography covers action, science fiction, martial arts, dystopian fiction, comedy, ...
's work. He replied the day after, telling Hartley that he would do whatever he could to get the film made. Hartley traveled to
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
to meet with Tarantino, who agreed to sit for hours of interviews as one of the film's most prominent interviewees. Hartley spent the following five years interviewing other actors, directors, screenwriters and producers, collecting original stock footage, and then cutting the 100 hours of interviews and 150 hours of film footage down into a 100-minute film.


Release

''Not Quite Hollywood'' had its worldwide premiere at the
Melbourne International Film Festival The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venice Film Fest ...
on 28 July 2008, and was screened at the
Australian Centre for the Moving Image ACMI, formerly the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, is Australia's national museum of film, television, videogames, and art. ACMI was established in 2002 and is based at Federation Square in Melbourne, Victoria. During the 2014-15 finan ...
. Its Australia-wide release was a month later, on 28 August 2008, and it had its overseas premiere at the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
on 7 September 2008, where distribution rights were secured for the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: B ...
. The film was also screened at the
Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
,
Sitges Sitges (, , ) is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, in Spain, renowned worldwide for its Film Festival, Carnival, and LGBT Culture. Located between the Garraf Massif and the Mediterranean Sea, it is known for its beaches, nightspot ...
,
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
,
Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
and
Stockholm International Film Festival The Stockholm International Film Festival ( sv, Stockholms filmfestival, italic=no) is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year since then during the second half of November. The w ...
s in 2008, and featured at the
London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...
on 25 October 2008. The film did not perform well at the box office upon its Australian release, taking in a gross of A$108,330 on its first weekend but only $31,995 on its second weekend at a screen average of $681 on 47 screens.


Reception

Overall, ''Not Quite Hollywood'' received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregate
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reports that 94% of critics have given the film a positive review, "Certified Fresh", based on 63 reviews, with an average score of 7.4 out of 10.
Margaret Pomeranz Margaret Pomeranz (born 14 July 1944) is an Australian film critic, writer, producer and television personality. Early life Pomeranz was born Margeret Anne Jones-Owen on 14 July 1944 in Waverley, a suburb of Sydney. She was educated at the P ...
and
David Stratton David James Stratton (born 10 September 1939) is an English-Australian award-winning film critic, as both a journalist and interviewer, film historian and lecturer and television personality and producer. Life and career Born in Trowbridge, ...
of '' At the Movies'' gave the film four and three and a half out of five stars respectively; Pomeranz commended Hartley for "the depth of his research and for creating a wildly entertaining film experience", and claimed that "for those of us who remember the films, ''Not Quite Hollywood'' is a blast". Sandra Hall, writing for ''
The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'', gave the film three and a half out of five stars, believing that "Hartley's own film is much livelier than most of those he is out to celebrate". Jake Wilson of ''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' similarly gave the film three and a half stars, but called the film "basically a feature-length advertisement for its subject", saying that it "moves far too rapidly to permit sustained analysis". ''
The Courier-Mail ''The Courier-Mail'' is an Australian newspaper published in Brisbane. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, ...
''s Des Partidge, who gave the film four and a half out of five stars, disagreed, saying that "Brisk editing means the history is lively and fun", and claimed in homage to '' The Castle'', "Copies of Hartley's film should go straight to pool rooms all over Australia when it becomes available on DVD." while Leigh Paatsch wrote for the ''
Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...
'' that "there is not a single instant where boredom can possibly intrude", dubbing the film "an incredibly energetic and merrily messed-up celebration of Australian B-movies". English director
Edgar Wright Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a ...
named ''Not Quite Hollywood'' his fourth favourite film of 2008, and called it "the best documentary ever."


Awards and nominations


Box office

''Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!'' grossed only $186,986 at the box office in Australia.''Film Victoria – Australian Films at the Australian Box Office''


See also

*
Cinema of Australia The cinema of Australia had its beginnings with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received internati ...
*''
American Grindhouse ''American Grindhouse'' is a 2010 documentary directed and produced by Elijah Drenner. The film made its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas on March 13, 2010. Overview The documentary chronicles the history of ...
'', a 2010 documentary about American exploitation films *'' Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films'', a 2014 film by Hartley about
Cannon Films The Cannon Group, Inc. was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films, which produced films from 1967 to 1994. The extensive group also owned, amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company that invested ...


References


External links

* * * * * *
The officially posted film on Vimeo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! 2008 documentary films Australian documentary films 2000s exploitation films Documentary films about the cinema of Australia Films directed by Mark Hartley 2008 films 2000s English-language films