Cool things to do on a hot, hot day

While today isn't quite the scorcher it was on Saturday, it's still getting uncomfortably warm; too warm for my liking. Anything above about 26-27 degrees is too warm for me, and while I no longer suffer nosebreeds and dizzy spells once the temperature climbs above 30 degrees, as I did as a child, I'm still definitely a cold weather kind of guy. Which is why I favour finding ways to escape the summer heat that are simultaneously rewarding, culturally and personally, as well as offer lower temperatures than can be found outside, on the baking streets of Melbourne.

Yesterday, my tempature-control plans saw me fleeing to the comforts of the cinema, at least initially.

One of the good things about living in Fitzroy is that the city is so close. At 10:15am, on the spur of the moment, I decided to catch the 10:30am session of The Golden Compass at the Melbourne Central Cinemas (comfortable seats, air conditioned, great sound system and - at such an early session - an almost total absence of screaming children to distract me from the story unfolding on the screen).

Now, had the film actually started at 10:30 I would never have made it in time; but knowing that there would be at least 20-30 minutes of ads and trailers before the film started gave me more than enough time to get out of the house and to the cinema on time.

The reviews for The Golden Compass (which is based on the novel Northern Lights by English fantasist Philip Pullman, the first in the His Dark Materials trilogy) haven't been great, with suggestions the story felt rushed, was too complex and confusing for its audience, etc. Having not read the book on which it is based, I thus went into the cinema in an ambivilent state, and came out enraptured.

With its feisty heroine, Lyra Belacqua (a wonderful performance by newcomer Dakota Blue Edwards despite her all-over-the-shop accent); a stellar cast including Daniel Craig as Lyra's uncle, the scholar-explorer Lord Asriel, the usually annoying but here convincingly cold and manipulative Nicole Kidman as the villainous Mrs Coulter (memorably described in a Guardian review as "an arresting mixture of Darth Vader and Veronica Lake"), and Sir Ian McKellen voicing the war bear Iorek Byrnison; and assured direction by Chris Weitz, who also wrote the screenplay, The Golden Compass is a thoroughly entertaining romp.

Without going into detail about the plot (which concerns, at its heart, a struggle over the choice between freedom and control of the human soul between free-thinkers and the Magisterium, a thinly-veiled portrait of the Church) the film is by turns enthralling in its detail, breathtaking in its scope, and inspiring in the message it subtly conveys.

The special effects-heavy production never gets in the way of the essential humanity (or lack thereof) of its characters, which include witches, sea-gypsies, child abductors, aeronauts and talking polar bears. While the film is not without its flaws (Lyra seems remarkably unsupervised for someone half the world is searching for, and constantly wanders off on her own despite the malevolent forces that are gathered against her; and the breakneck pace of the film certainly borders on the rushed) its skillful blend of story and spectacle, its rebellious heroine, and its essestial heart ensure that The Golden Compass is the best fantasy film to hit the screen since the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings, with significantly reduced machismo. Certainly it's a vast improvement on the blandness of Eragon and the by-the-numbers The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Highly recommended for children of all ages.

Thereafter, having had a brief lunch at a Vietnamese noodle bar, I ventured into the coolth of the State Library, and spent a happy hour or two perusing two of three permanent collections on display (the contents of which regularly cycle through the library's holdings, and so will not be the same in six months as they were yesterday).

Mirror of the World is an exhibition about books and their impact on civilisation, from the earliest form of the written word through to pulp fiction, graphic novels and contemporary literature. Whether exploring the 'religions of the book' (Islam, Christianity and Judaism, which each have a holy book at the core of their teachings) or the impact the publication of titles such as Darwin's The Origin of the Species and Mao's Little Red Book have had upon the world; this is a pretty cool exhibition for anyone with literary leanings. The exhibition is also situated in a gallery that runs around the library's great domed reading room, providing a perspective of the space I'd never experienced before.

Up another flight of stairs from Mirror of the World is another exhibition, The Changing Face of Victoria, which explores the evolution of Victoria's population, from pre-settlement to post-war migration, and much more. Here you'll find such treasures as Ned Kelly's armour and the Jerrilderie Letter, dictated by Kelly to his right-hand man, the opium-smoking Joe Byrne; the surveyor's chain with which Robert Hoddle mapped out Melbourne's grid; and paintings and photographs revealing all aspects of Victoria's cultural life and history. Given my own personal interest in the history of this city I call home, I found this exhibition enthralling. Perhaps you will too?

Review: The Story of the Kelly Gang

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) hosted the Victorian premiere of the newly-restored 1906 film The Story of the Kelly Gang on Thursday night, with a crowd of screen culture luminaries (and at least one freeloading blogger) in attendance.

Introducing the night, ACMI director Tony Sweeney commented that while some people might think an evening at the tennis was the best way to kick off the Australia Day long weekend, for him, watching a classic Australian film such as that we were about to view struck him as eminently more appropriate.

I found myself nodding in agreement, because The Story of the Kelly Gang is more than just a landmark Australian film. Directed by theatre entrepreneur Charles Tait, it is widely regarded as the world’s first feature-length narrative film.

As recently as the 1970s The Story of the Kelly Gang was thought lost forever, but in recent years, scraps and fragments of the film have gradually emerged, including footage found on a Melbourne rubbish tip in 1980. More recently, almost an entire reel’s worth of footage, depicting the Kelly Gang's activities prior to the robbery of the Euroa bank, was discovered in 2006 in the offices of the National Film and Television Archive in the UK.

These surviving 17 minutes of the film, having been carefully restored to the point where they can now be screened, provide a fragmentary view of the film, from its opening scenes at the Kelly homestead through to the tragic climax at Glenrowan.

Originally an hour long when it premiered in Melbourne on Boxing Day 1906, the version screened tonight provides a more than adequate impression of what the full-length feature would have been like, despite nitrate-warping and missing scenes. Still, unless you’re prepared to wait around another 65 years to see the completed version of the film, as Paolo Cherchi Usai, the Director of the National Film and Sound Archive joked in his opening remarks, it’s probably the best version of The Story of the Kelly Gang we’re going to see for a while.

So what's it like?

As you'd expect, being a silent film the actors significantly over-emote (partially because the original film was shown without intertitles; naration was provided by an onstage lecturer who also acted as a foley artist, adding live sound effects such as gunshots and hoofbeats). The theatrical background of the director Charles Tait, coupled with the conventions of the day, ensure that the camera is primarily static, presenting the unfolding drama as if it were staged, with the majority of scenes displaying all the action in the foreground.

Nonetheless there are early signs of a developing cinematic language, such as a sequence in which a dying man is rescued from the burning Glenrowan Inn by a local priest. Shouldering the injured man, the priest walks straight at the camera, his figure filling the frame in a way that provides an immediate sense of drama, and which would not be out of place in a modern TV program.

Also look out for the scene showing Ned Kelly's last stand. As the actor playing Ned staggers forward, you'll see that the armour he wears is superbly acurate. That's because it really is armour worn by the gang - probably the suit worn by Ned's mate Joe Byrne.

Don't go in expecting to see a perfectly restored film, as there are some almost hallucinatory nitrate ripples which distort many final sequences - and which for me, actually added to the experience of watching the film, rather than destracting for it. Not everyone shared that view at tonight's screening, or course.

Nonetheless, The Story of the Kelly Gang was remarkable to watch. There were moments I felt a real emotional resonance with the events unfolding on the screen, and although the live electronic score by Endorphin was jarring for some, for me it successfully bridged past and present.

The two screenings on Australia Day, Friday 26th January, will feature a live, improvised score by the classically-trained Mauro Colombis, a renowned silent movie pianist.

The Story of the Kelly Gang is screening as part of a range of films at ACMI as part of the Australia Day celebrations: this page will tell you the details of some of the other films that are showing. I'm especially looking forward to a panel about the film and its place in Australia's early screen culture, in which the bushranger film was an important local genre before being banned as subversive in 1912. One of the speakers is academic and old friend Bill Routt, whose comments on the importance of the bushranger film you can read at the excellent website Senses of Cinema.

Look for a DVD of the film, featuring a range of extras including commentaries and both scores, to be released later this year.