Article - Herald Sun - Thursday, 19th June 2008.
Eye on the Sky
There's nothing unfinished about William McInnes, writes Claire Sutherland
PITY the poor schmuck on jigsaw duty on Unfinished Sky.
A recurring visual theme in the new Australian film is an enormous
2000-piece puzzle of the sky. As characters chip away at it, it's
impossible not to think of the department in charge of continuity.
"That guy is still in therapy. He shook a lot,'' star William McInnes
says with a laugh. "One quote I remember was `The bit that
looks like Tasmania'. It's all f---ing blue, man! What are you talking
about?''
Unfinished Sky is a remake of a Dutch film called The Polish Bride.
In the new version, an illegal Afghani refugee stumbles -- horribly
injured -- up the driveway of a remote Queensland farm, to be
found by reclusive farmer John Woldring (McInnes).
McInnes hasn't seen the original film, though not from any actor's
notion of not wanting to influence his on-screen decisions.
"It was pure inertia that stopped me from watching it,'' he says.
Dutch actor Monic Hendrickx, who played the titular Polish bride in
the original film, becomes the desperate Afghani in the new version.
"She thought this was a completely different film and that's why
she wanted to do it,'' McInnes says.
"This is an Australianisation of a film and that's the strongest
thing about it. It's just a solidly made film that has a really strong
narrative. It never loses sight of the fact it's an entertainment,
but it has a bit of a brain to it. Hopefully that will attract
an audience that likes that kind of stuff.''
The recent Lucky Miles, for example, took a firm stance on the politics
of immigration and refugees, but Unfinished Sky steers clear.
"That's not the point,'' McInnes says. "It doesn't lecture you in
any way, or tell you how you're meant to feel. It's not self-important.
It doesn't have tickets on itself. I think it's just a really
well-told story.''
Not having tickets is something important to McInnes. Whenever he
catches himself saying something that might be misconstrued as earnest
-- or worse, pretentious -- he immediately blows away the hot
air with a joke.
Take the matter of subtitling, for example. Hendrickx learned the
Central Asian language Dari to play Tahmeena, but the film's director,
Peter Duncan, chose not to subtitle it.
"I don't want to blow smoke up anyone's a---, but it's really confident
storytelling to say, `That works, we'll leave it there'. You're
not treating the audiences like dullards who need everything
pointed out.''
Or possibly there's another explanation.
"Probably couldn't afford it. She was making it up, I think. It was
all Dari to me,'' he adds.
McInnes has carved out a particular niche for himself in the Australian
entertainment industry. He's a regular in TV series and mini-series
-- from playing wartime PM John Curtin in Curtin to a corrupt
cop in SBS drama East West 101 to publishing a memoir (A Man's
Gotta Have a Hobby) and novel (Cricket Kings) and the forthcoming
mix of the two, That'd Be Right.
He was delighted to discover one of his books in the room where he
was staying while making Unfinished Sky.
"I tell you what, you know when you've made it as a writer. I've
been put in one of those Reader's Digest condensed books. I can haunt
holiday houses now.''
AND as any jobbing Australian actor, he's found himself in some mystifying
roles, including a made-in-Queensland US TV series about
dinosaurs, the title of which escapes him (The Lost World for those
playing at home).
"I played a German member of a squadron, with my fantastic German
accent that made me sound like Inspector Clouseau's younger brother,''
he recalls.
I had no idea what I was doing there, but I got to go to Wet and
Wild for a couple of weeks.''
Perhaps McInnes's most successful foray into film was in his animator
wife Sarah Watt's directorial debut Look Both Ways, a hit at
the Australian Film Institute awards and the box office.
Watt is now putting the finishing touches to her next film, My Year
Without Sex, in which McInnes has a tiny role.
"Blink and you'll miss me,'' he says.
The pair have decided to avoid working together as closely as they
did for Look Both Ways.
"It's not fair on the kids. We're pretty busy, both of us. She's
editing the film and also illustrating a children's book she's written
and I'm just finishing off my book. And we're renovating.''
There's nothing unfinished about William McInnes, writes Claire Sutherland
PITY the poor schmuck on jigsaw duty on Unfinished Sky.
A recurring visual theme in the new Australian film is an enormous
2000-piece puzzle of the sky. As characters chip away at it, it's
impossible not to think of the department in charge of continuity.
"That guy is still in therapy. He shook a lot,'' star William McInnes
says with a laugh. "One quote I remember was `The bit that
looks like Tasmania'. It's all f---ing blue, man! What are you talking
about?''
Unfinished Sky is a remake of a Dutch film called The Polish Bride.
In the new version, an illegal Afghani refugee stumbles -- horribly
injured -- up the driveway of a remote Queensland farm, to be
found by reclusive farmer John Woldring (McInnes).
McInnes hasn't seen the original film, though not from any actor's
notion of not wanting to influence his on-screen decisions.
"It was pure inertia that stopped me from watching it,'' he says.
Dutch actor Monic Hendrickx, who played the titular Polish bride in
the original film, becomes the desperate Afghani in the new version.
"She thought this was a completely different film and that's why
she wanted to do it,'' McInnes says.
"This is an Australianisation of a film and that's the strongest
thing about it. It's just a solidly made film that has a really strong
narrative. It never loses sight of the fact it's an entertainment,
but it has a bit of a brain to it. Hopefully that will attract
an audience that likes that kind of stuff.''
The recent Lucky Miles, for example, took a firm stance on the politics
of immigration and refugees, but Unfinished Sky steers clear.
"That's not the point,'' McInnes says. "It doesn't lecture you in
any way, or tell you how you're meant to feel. It's not self-important.
It doesn't have tickets on itself. I think it's just a really
well-told story.''
Not having tickets is something important to McInnes. Whenever he
catches himself saying something that might be misconstrued as earnest
-- or worse, pretentious -- he immediately blows away the hot
air with a joke.
Take the matter of subtitling, for example. Hendrickx learned the
Central Asian language Dari to play Tahmeena, but the film's director,
Peter Duncan, chose not to subtitle it.
"I don't want to blow smoke up anyone's a---, but it's really confident
storytelling to say, `That works, we'll leave it there'. You're
not treating the audiences like dullards who need everything
pointed out.''
Or possibly there's another explanation.
"Probably couldn't afford it. She was making it up, I think. It was
all Dari to me,'' he adds.
McInnes has carved out a particular niche for himself in the Australian
entertainment industry. He's a regular in TV series and mini-series
-- from playing wartime PM John Curtin in Curtin to a corrupt
cop in SBS drama East West 101 to publishing a memoir (A Man's
Gotta Have a Hobby) and novel (Cricket Kings) and the forthcoming
mix of the two, That'd Be Right.
He was delighted to discover one of his books in the room where he
was staying while making Unfinished Sky.
"I tell you what, you know when you've made it as a writer. I've
been put in one of those Reader's Digest condensed books. I can haunt
holiday houses now.''
AND as any jobbing Australian actor, he's found himself in some mystifying
roles, including a made-in-Queensland US TV series about
dinosaurs, the title of which escapes him (The Lost World for those
playing at home).
"I played a German member of a squadron, with my fantastic German
accent that made me sound like Inspector Clouseau's younger brother,''
he recalls.
I had no idea what I was doing there, but I got to go to Wet and
Wild for a couple of weeks.''
Perhaps McInnes's most successful foray into film was in his animator
wife Sarah Watt's directorial debut Look Both Ways, a hit at
the Australian Film Institute awards and the box office.
Watt is now putting the finishing touches to her next film, My Year
Without Sex, in which McInnes has a tiny role.
"Blink and you'll miss me,'' he says.
The pair have decided to avoid working together as closely as they
did for Look Both Ways.
"It's not fair on the kids. We're pretty busy, both of us. She's
editing the film and also illustrating a children's book she's written
and I'm just finishing off my book. And we're renovating.''
posted by WilliamWatch at 9:04 PM
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