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Breath
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| Wand6122360 |
Date: Monday, 21-May-18, 2:36 PM | Message # 856 |
Bee's Knees
Messages: 517
Status: Offline |
Nice photo. Thanks, DSP. |
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| tigglewink01 |
Date: Monday, 21-May-18, 5:53 PM | Message # 857 |
 Rip Snorter
Messages: 315
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Nice pic DSP but not a very flattering one he looks realy old in that one. Hee Hee! I should talk he's 8 years younger than me. |
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| bee |
Date: Tuesday, 22-May-18, 5:26 AM | Message # 858 |
 Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1525
Status: Offline |
Nice photo thanks DSP, it's also Simon's new profile pic on instagram. |
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| DS_Pallas |
Date: Tuesday, 22-May-18, 12:31 PM | Message # 859 |
 Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1979
Status: Offline |
Breath film review:
a spiritual surfer movie that drips with authenticity
BY Blake Howard CRITIC
Reviews | 03 May 18
https://www.flicks.com.au/blog....nticity
Simon Baker (from T.V’s The Mentalist and L.A. Confidential) charges into the director’s chair with dramatic intensity and confidence,
adapting Tim Winton 70s coming of age novel Breath. Set in an isolated coastal town in Australia, two ‘grommets’ (novice surfers) Pikelet
(Samson Coulter) and Loonie (Ben Spence) are drawn to the waves. As they embrace the chase and challenge a mysterious, battle-hardened,
big wave master Sando (Baker) takes them under his wing and pushes them beyond their limits.
If you’ve read Tim Winton, you’d agree that his prose has the power to impart that implacable allure and experience of the elements.
Baker and underwater cinematographer Rick Rifici render the flow of being on the water, with a swell of any size, with such energy that
you get the charge of being there. Baker, Coulter and Spence are all clearly on the water, catching waves. If they’re not then Baker’s time
on The Mentalist has granted him the command of CGI laced with dark magic.
Breath is not merely concerned with adrenaline rush; there’s a deeply spiritual practice wrapped in neoprene that glides gracefully across
moving water on fibreglass. The script (adapted by Gerard Lee and Baker from Winton’s novel) muses on this pursuit.
It might feel like a fantasy, with gruff voice over and the silence and beauty of underwater filming, but as a child of a coastal surfing
community, I can tell you that the script drips with authenticity. The deeply inferred class distinctions; the hippie surfers and the rigid,
conservative working class. The choice in many instances places for the actors to convey their characters’ emotion, rather than expound
their feelings in long monologues makes dramatic sense.
Baker delivers an unselfish performance that’s refreshingly in his native brogue. The lines in his face shade all the necessary topography
of a life lived, contrasting the face of Pikelet (Coulter), with its notable absence of lines. Samson Coulter’s performance as Pikelet is in
the school of Martin and Charlie Sheen, in Apocalypse Now and Platoon respectively. It’s crafted and restrained to withhold those impulses
that expect in scenes of heightened emotion. Occasionally you watch Coulter try on the personas of those around him; flexing who he is
from who he wants to become. Ben Spence delivers a character with great certainty and unpredictability as Loonie.
Elizabeth Debicki’s Eva is where Breath wipes out. While Debicki’s emotional performance attempts to render Eva at her wit’s end,
the actor ultimately fails to make sense of the events that surround her character in the latter part of the film. Debicki exudes something
inherently powerful in her posture and in her gaze that make her actions reek of melodramatic fantasy (which, in my research in the wake
of viewing the film, was cast at the novel).
Baker’s assured debut makes a profound impact in its portrayal of surfing as a physical and spiritual pursuit. And it makes an equally
profound misstep in Debicki’s portrayal of Eva. |
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| DS_Pallas |
Date: Tuesday, 22-May-18, 12:42 PM | Message # 860 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1979
Status: Offline |
From surfer Brock Fitzgerald (Simon's double) Instagram https://web.stagram.com/p/BjEy7vOFckq
Sick postcard from Denmark W.A. That’s me #Slipper #AngelusCrew out there in the surf on the set of @breathfilm
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| tigglewink01 |
Date: Tuesday, 22-May-18, 5:47 PM | Message # 861 |
Rip Snorter
Messages: 315
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What sick about it its a nice view but thanks as always for the pics and write ups and reviews. |
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| DS_Pallas |
Date: Friday, 25-May-18, 10:45 AM | Message # 862 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1979
Status: Offline |
Breath (2019)
Filmtrax (25 mai 2018) | Original Score [musique originale]
https://www.cinezik.org/critiqu....twitter
Harry Gregson-Williams signe la musique du premier film de l'australien Simon Baker.
Tracklist
1. In the River (1:41)
2. Restless (1:16)
3. First Waves (2:15)
4. Styrofoam Boards (1:29)
5. Outside Sawyer Point (3:23)
6. Dancing on Water (1:33)
7. Going Home (0:54)
8. A Different Life (1:58)
9. Appointment Undisclosed (3:09)
10. Living (1:55)
11. Beneath the Surface (2:02)
12. Old Smokey (2:43)
13. "Go, Pikelet!" (2:49)
14. Loonie Did It Harder (1:28)
15. The Nautilus (3:34)
16. After the Waves (1:54)
17. The Social (1:34)
18. "You're Different" (3:35)
19. Breath (2:23)
20. "It's Not for Me" (6:58)
Purchase Link to Amazon:
https://www.amazon.fr/gp....k060-21 |
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| tigglewink01 |
Date: Friday, 25-May-18, 11:59 AM | Message # 863 |
Rip Snorter
Messages: 315
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Wow the music list but not the DVD boo hoo! hee hee! yet but thanks for the link I think I will go and look at that later on Amazon thanks DSP. |
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| DS_Pallas |
Date: Wednesday, 30-May-18, 10:12 AM | Message # 864 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1979
Status: Offline |
Breath
****1/2
Reviewed by: Anne-Katrin Titze
https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review....n-titze
"Take a deep breath. Pick yourself up. And start all over again" sings Fred Astaire in Swing Time about the "famous men
who had to fall to rise again." Astaire didn't mean surfing but Simon Baker's beautifully subtle film adaptation, co-written with
Gerard Leeof Tim Winton's novel, is all about that deep breath following failure or disappointment.
In his feature directorial début, The Mentalist star doesn't hold back. He is hell-bent on truth and grace and tragedy and the
white-crestingjoy of being gloriously alive in the hug of an ocean wave. People who feel they have nothing to lose can make for
dangerously captivatingfriends. Death and water in the old romantic tradition swim together hand in hand.
Copy picture
The first images of Breath are as beguiling as they are bewildering. Two bodies float underwater. Two boys? A boy and a girl? A boy
and amermaid? A merman? Are they alive or drowned or deathless? Cinematography, in (by Rick Rifici) and out of the water
(Marden Dean) andthe production design by Steven Jones-Evans, locate us firmly in a time and place and together help to set the
tone, with an irresistible touchof wistfulness, that opens up our hearts to follow the tale being told.
Pikelet (Samson Coulter) and Loonie (Ben Spence) live in a small, spread out Western Australian coastal community in the 1970s.
The unspoken trade between the friends - although a lot is shared verbally with each other while they ride their bikes - is this:
I give you some of my stability, you give me a hunk of freedom. And vice versa.
Sando (Simon Baker), a surfing champion, resides in what could be described as an enchanted, slightly disheveled tree house for
grown-ups with his girlfriend Eva (Elizabeth Debicki), a former professional skier and their unwavering dog Rooster. Pikelet and Loonie
are fascinated by Sando's world, as both see in him an alternative to their respective fathers. Mr. Pike (Richard Roxburgh) likes to pot
plants, whereas Loonie's dad (Jacek Koman) has a cruel streak that puts him in an altogether more hazardous category.
"Surrender is what frees you up," Sando teaches them, while he himself, as it turns out, can only follow through with his own maxim
to a certain extent. When you live your life "like someone who didn't believe in death," a structural switch occurs. For a film so deeply
planted in the implications of the concrete - from hand-knit sweaters (the gray one by Baker's mother), to dusty trucks, to the plastic
bag tucked under the bed - Breath gives extraordinary pointers to explore abstract concepts of what it means to become a man.
The splendid costume design by Terri Lamera retains the fine balance between veracity, desire (some of the pullovers could be Elder
Statesman) and metaphor. A hole in Sando's suede jacket becomes visible to us just at the moment his young pals, definitely one
of them, discover their idol's imperfection. His sheen is cracked. The façade cannot hold. This fragile deal only functioned for a while.
Samson Coulter and Ben Spence give startling, intensely physical performances. During dinner at his friend's house, Loonie eats so
voraciously and drinks his milk with such fervour as though he wanted to absorb years of family life in one meal. He is a kid starving
for affection. Love me, take care of me, I'm dangerous, don't hurt me anymore - his body language shouts out into the world.
On the other end of the friendship is Pikelet who feels stifled by what he perceives as the blandness, staleness and conventionality
of his home.
Simon Baker's directing heart beats for authenticity. Riding bikes on dusty roads, catching waves among presupposed sharks, and
growing up to become a man - large universal truths peek out from underneath the realism in depicting the boys' lives. This is a
story of fathers and sons, friendships and betrayals, boredom and excitement, sea monsters and seduction, choosing who one
wants to be like and the very different process of becoming it.
Much is communicated by a well-placed gesture, the choice of a cup, a nap on the veranda or a fishing trip declined only to later
be accepted. Breath discerningly doesn't shy away from the tragic dimension we sense from the very first shot but for whose
confirmation we have to wait until the final die is cast.
Reviewed on: 29 May 2018 |
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| tigglewink01 |
Date: Wednesday, 30-May-18, 6:09 PM | Message # 865 |
Rip Snorter
Messages: 315
Status: Offline |
Thanks for read and link |
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| DS_Pallas |
Date: Friday, 01-Jun-18, 9:51 AM | Message # 866 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1979
Status: Offline |
SIMON BAKER ON FEAR AND MAKING MOVIES
By Samantha Morris Film, BLANK GOLD COAST - 31/05/2018
http://blankgc.com.au/simon-baker-breath/
‘Breath’ is much more than a coming-of-age tale, and it’s much more than a surf film. Simon Baker’s
directorial debut explores the fear that at times holds us back and others drives us forward. With stunning
cinematography, breathtaking Australian landscapes and genuine surf sequences, the film adaptation of Tim
Winton’s book of the same name is picking up rave reviews wherever it screens.
Samantha Morris spoke to Simon Baker and his two lead actors Samson Coulter and Ben Pence about what
it was like to work together and whether any mishaps occurred along the way.
_ _ _ _
It seems fitting that when I meet with Simon Baker and his proteges Samson Coulter and Ben Pence, we’re in Surfers Paradise
with a view of the ocean. It’s a well-known story now, but neither Samson nor Ben aspired to be on the screen, coming to
Simon’s attention after a year-long search for young surfers who might make that transition. Simon says time and time again
that it’s easier to teach surfers to act than teaching actors to surf. The younger pair are obviously stoked with their experience.
“You just don’t think surfing will lead to something like this,” said Samson Coulter (Pikelet).
The three men became friends pretty quickly through the filming process and while Simon admits there were lots of challenges
in working with people who’d never acted before he says their shared love of the water created a short-hand.
“I already lived, kind of, what these guys were living,” he added, “so there was a shorthand there too, and because of that
we didn’t have to go into airy-fairy actor stuff that a lot of times you have to go into. I pushed that there is no right and
there is no wrong. I tried to create that kind of environment.”
Simon says it’ll be interesting to see what happens if the pair work on another film.
“I can’t wait to hear what their experience of that is, because this was tailor-made to the fact that we were working with
two guys who’d never acted before so all the things that make you nervous and jumpy were pushed back a bit so they could
still be themselves, be kids and find their way,” he said.
“I like to think I learnt a few things in that experience I could take to something else,” Samson told Blank Gold Coast.
“It wasn’t easy work, I think I have a new respect for actors – for a while there I thought they had a good gig.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get to work on a project of a similar nature though,” he said. “I have nothing to compare him [Simon]
to as a director but I think it’s safe to say that he took a different approach and he was easy to be around and kept calm
I guess. I could imagine a lot of people would have been a little bit frustrated.”
That connection around the water and the sea extends way beyond this trio. The surf sequences are noticeably authentic
and Simon is quick to praise the entire team.
“It starts with who you work with as collaborators. It’s why I cast two kids that hadn’t acted but could surf. It’s why I used
Jodie Cooper – she’s an ex-champion surfer who grew up in the area. She was the prop master for the first time. I used
Ric Rifici as a surf cinematographer who had a grounding in drama but understood the water. John Frank as a camera
operator – a celebrated water cameraman who’d never shot drama EVER as our lead camera guy,” he said.
“You’ve gotta put all those things in place ‘cos I know the problem – I’ve seen it a million times and then you just keep
on top of it and you hope for good conditions,” he said.
Of course there were mishaps along the way. “Plenty,” in Simon’s words. Including a boat that was sunk and had to be
towed underwater. They laugh at some of the scenes that caused distress.
“I was driving the boat, Ric was beside me with his housing like this and Samson had his back to me, and we were in
the middle of the ocean pretty much and this wave just loomed up – solid wave – and I was like ‘fuck, what’s this’ and
I fanged the motor, Samson could see the whites of my eyes and it broke just at the top and I let go of the throttle just
as we got over it. Samson went flying through the air and landed on me and we were like ‘woah, what was that’ and
then there was another one coming.”
The retelling of that story, along with several surf tales and the laughter that go with them makes me realise how close
the trio have become during the shooting of Breath. It’s obvious were a lot of fun moments, but Simon is quick to stress
the strong work ethic shared by the team.
“We were working our arses off,” he said. “If it’s not fun, you can’t get good stuff. There’s certain things you have to do
in scenes and moments. You have to go there. But there’s no reason why you can’t have a good time while you’re
doing it,” he said.
And he’s philosophical about any industry expectations that existed around his directorial debut.
“Things are going to flow your way or not.
You can’t choke the life out of something,” he said.
“I am a bit of a perfectionist and a bit of a task master. But I’m definitely that with myself before I am with anyone else.
“These guys saw the good, the bad and the ugly in me but they stuck with me. For a couple of young men their age and lack
of experience, it was incredibly admirable of them and in a weird way it fed me and gave me energy.”
“I can’t help but look at these kids – not so much now, but at the time and see an aspect of myself in them at that age…
that wide-eyed kind of nature, these guys threw themselves into it.”
That wide-eyed fear is a recurring theme through the film. Indeed Simon says one of the film’s key messages is that there’s
fear in all of us and it’s how you live with it that makes you who you area.
“That’s kind of the strength of what fear is. It’s always going to be there in some form,” Simon said.
“You invite fear with you on the journey, just don’t let it drive.”
_ _ _
‘Breath’ had its Australian premiere at the Gold Coast Film Festival and is now screening across the country. |
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| tigglewink01 |
Date: Friday, 01-Jun-18, 4:55 PM | Message # 867 |
Rip Snorter
Messages: 315
Status: Offline |
Thanks for the link and the good read he's really getting places now with this film I cannot wait. |
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| DS_Pallas |
Date: Saturday, 02-Jun-18, 1:43 PM | Message # 868 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1979
Status: Offline |
Entertainment
How Simon Baker’s Lifetime of Surfing Helped Him
Make ‘Breath’
by Charles Thorp
https://www.mensjournal.com/enterta....-breath
Simon Baker, best known for his work on The Mentalist, has been getting sent scripts for surf movies his entire career.
But for Baker, who grew up riding some of the best waves in the world, none of those projects rang true to his experience.
But then someone sent him Tim Winton’s novel Breath.
The 65 Best Surf Spots in the World
“There were moments and feelings in the book that felt pulled from my own life,” says Baker, who decided to make the
book’s film adaptation his directorial debut. “I couldn’t turn away from the opportunity. I knew that I would rather die
trying than not try at all.”
The story about two young aspiring surfers who are taken under the wing of an aged pro, played by Baker, was even
set on the beaches of his homeland Australia. In order to keep that authenticity he loved on the page, Baker road-tripped
on the country’s western coast for sets, brought on a water cinematographer, and cast surfers who had never acted
before as the leads.
The result: a nuanced coming-of-age drama complete with rides that are stunningly cinematic. Men’s Journal spoke
with Baker about his love for the sport and bringing it to the big screen.
How did you first fall in love with surfing?
The first time I saw those waves and people on them I was mesmerized. I remember just thinking, “What is that?”
At that time we were living in the suburbs outside of Sydney. I was too far from the beach. But then I was fortunate
that my family moved to this town Ballina in New South Wales. My friends and I would go up to Lennox Head to get to
the waves there.
How much was it a part of your life?
It was everything. I was a kid collecting bottles, selling on the street corner to tourists, and doing odd jobs so that I could
raise the money to get a surfboard. Our whole days were spent out there. I lived a block away from the school. My parents
would go to work. I would hear the first bell ring, and that is when I would get out of bed and get my stuff together.
One of my best friends had an old, beat-up Land Rover. I would run inside the school, be there for the beginning of class,
say “Present,” then I would walk through to the other side of school and jump in his car. We would surf until it was time
to go back to school for roll call at the end of the day.
What did being out there teach you?
The sea helped me develop as a person. The ocean is powerful and always changing. It helped me get strong. There is
always the possibility that you are going to find yourself in trouble. When you do, it is just your own instincts and strength
that are going to get you out.
How often do you still get out on the water?
I get out in some way every single day. I live in Sydney now, and I can walk to the water in three minutes. The beaches
around the city are just amazing. I look out at it often. It has this effect on me. If I’m not able to make it out on the waves,
I will jump in for a swim. I miss it when I’m away for too long. I think there is some sort of chemical connection that I have
built up.
Do you take a lot of surfing trips?
I just got back from a surf trip in Fiji that was pretty incredible. I have a property that I bought by where I grew up, so
I will take trips up there to surf on the waves I grew up on. It has changed quite a bit. There are so many girls out there,
which is amazing. That was never the case when I was growing up. Surfing is pretty great these days. The boards and
the gear that they have now is better in my opinion, because for a while, it was all starting to look the same. Now people
are embracing the other ages.
Did you have any surf movies that you liked when you were growing up that you thought of when
making Breath?
Not really. I remember my friends and I had Big Wednesday on VHS that we watched. That is all we had. It was a great
movie, but it took place in Malibu and it was really about the Vietnam War and friendship. It was about an American
experience. It wasn’t really a surf movie that we could relate to easily.
How did you go about making the surf movie that you wanted?
I found actual surfers to play the kids. I cast non-actors. I wanted the viewer to be close to us in the water. I didn’t want
any green screen, so the location was key. The place mentioned in the book is fictitious, though it is set in Western Australia.
So I went along the coastline stopping everywhere along the way, until I found this place, Denmark, this small seaside town
with only one restaurant. It was just perfect.
What made it perfect?
Everything that we needed was there, and the town became a part of the filmmaking process. This awesome VW truck that
we used in the movie was for sale on the side of the road, and the boat that we used, too. We bought the school bus, and
the kids were all locals. The dog in the movie was this search-and-rescue canine that worked in the town. Not to mention
that sea there is beautiful, wild, and untamed.
You made a tremendous surfing movie. How does it feel?
I am really happy with what we did. I think that we have made one of the best surf movies ever with this. Not just because
it is my baby, but I think it is the most authentic look at what we really experience. I made this because there was a version
of being a surfer that I hadn’t seen yet.
Breath opens in theaters June 1. |
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| tigglewink01 |
Date: Saturday, 02-Jun-18, 4:34 PM | Message # 869 |
Rip Snorter
Messages: 315
Status: Offline |
Thanks again for the link and nice read |
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| bee |
Date: Saturday, 02-Jun-18, 4:44 PM | Message # 870 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1525
Status: Offline |
We are certainly being spoilt with all these great articles and seem to learn something new about Simon and the movie each time. Thanks DSP. |
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