Going By Gala Audience, Australia Can't Loos
Illawarra Mercury
Thursday November 27, 2008
ONE way to gauge the success of a film among audiences is to see how many toilet breaks they take during the screening. Lots of toilet breaks means the audience's attention is waning. Fewer breaks and they're gripped.
Happily for filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, the Australia audiences at Warrawong's Gala Twin Cinema yesterday took almost no toilet breaks, according to owner Ian Hyslop.And that's quite a feat for a film that is 166 minutes long, or 10 reels - about twice the length of a standard feature."The toilet break theory is a rule of thumb that applies in all theatres," Mr Hyslop said."When people are bored they get up and go to the toilet."Mr Hyslop said about 200 people had come to see the film starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman yesterday. Although it's early days, he didn't believe the film would have the same summer blockbuster appeal as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. "The majority of people that came out, they all liked it," Mr Hyslop said. "It will have more success overseas because of the indigenous issues in it."The Gala will screen Australia four times a day for the next month.*US CRITICS TAKE AIM: P24WHAT THE PUNTERS ARE SAYINGKeiron O'Brien, Fairy Meadow: It was great. It was good to see a lot of Aboriginal acting because we don't see enough of it. Alisha Chin, Bulli: Nicole Kidman was all right. I might recommend it to people but it was a bit long. The whole movie was good. Tom Bush, Bulli: It was pretty good. I thought it was all right, but it might have gone for a bit too long. Colin Lowrie, Wollongong: It taught me a lot about history because I was still a young boy when the war broke out. And the stolen generation, we were told the truth about that. Katie Walsh, Fairy Meadow: It was really good, a very truthful story. But there were too many "crikeys", so obviously that is to appeal to the United States market.
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury
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