Goodbye Pork Pie director helped put his country on the cinematic map in the early 80s before moving to Hollywood
Geoff Murphy, the film-maker who was a key pioneer in the development of the modern New Zealand film industry, has died aged 80, the New Zealand film commission has confirmed. With hits such as Goodbye Pork Pie and The Quiet Earth, Murphy stood alongside Roger Donaldson as a central figure in the creation of a homegrown industry.
Born in Wellington in 1938, Murphy made his mark playing the trumpet in travelling performance co-op Blerta in the 70s, performing at festivals and living as part of a commune. Having made TV shorts in the early 70s, Murphy’s first feature, Wild Man (1977), grew out of his friendship with Blerta founder Bruno Lawrence – who would go on to act in a number of Murphy’s films as well as Donaldson’s 1981 hit Smash Palace.
Geoff Murphy, the film-maker who was a key pioneer in the development of the modern New Zealand film industry, has died aged 80, the New Zealand film commission has confirmed. With hits such as Goodbye Pork Pie and The Quiet Earth, Murphy stood alongside Roger Donaldson as a central figure in the creation of a homegrown industry.
Born in Wellington in 1938, Murphy made his mark playing the trumpet in travelling performance co-op Blerta in the 70s, performing at festivals and living as part of a commune. Having made TV shorts in the early 70s, Murphy’s first feature, Wild Man (1977), grew out of his friendship with Blerta founder Bruno Lawrence – who would go on to act in a number of Murphy’s films as well as Donaldson’s 1981 hit Smash Palace.
- 12/4/2018
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Cannes 1988 (L-r) John Maynard, whose feature The Navigator was in competition, Nzfc chief executive Jim Booth, Lindsay Shelton and distributor/producer Barrie Everard.
Many of our earliest highlights were at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1980 we took New Zealand films to the market at Cannes for the first time. We persuaded Geoff Murphy to rush completion of Goodbye Pork Pie and it became New Zealand’s first commercial hit in terms of sales: Six contracts for distribution in 20 countries.
John Laing’s Beyond Reasonable Doubt and Roger Donaldson’s Smash Palace earned success in the market in our second year – with Roger’s film getting one of our first deals for theatrical release in the USA.
In 1982 New Zealand earned official selection at Cannes for the first time with Sam Pillsbury’s The Scarecrow in Directors’ Fortnight.
That was followed in 1983 by Geoff Murphy’s Utu in official selection out...
Many of our earliest highlights were at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1980 we took New Zealand films to the market at Cannes for the first time. We persuaded Geoff Murphy to rush completion of Goodbye Pork Pie and it became New Zealand’s first commercial hit in terms of sales: Six contracts for distribution in 20 countries.
John Laing’s Beyond Reasonable Doubt and Roger Donaldson’s Smash Palace earned success in the market in our second year – with Roger’s film getting one of our first deals for theatrical release in the USA.
In 1982 New Zealand earned official selection at Cannes for the first time with Sam Pillsbury’s The Scarecrow in Directors’ Fortnight.
That was followed in 1983 by Geoff Murphy’s Utu in official selection out...
- 11/21/2018
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Smash Palace
Blu ray
Arrow Video
1982 / 1.85:1 / Street Date May 28, 2018
Starring Bruno Lawrence, Anna Jemison
Cinematography by Graeme Cowley
Directed by Roger Donaldson
Smash Palace is the wryly grandiose name given to a New Zealand junkyard run by Al Shaw, a tight-lipped workaholic up to his elbows in axle grease and resentment. It also describes the wreck Al has made of his own marriage.
At the beginning of Roger Donaldson’s 1982 film, Shaw and his wife Jacqui are already nearing the end of their rocky alliance – both work at the family business but the family is all Al’s – Jacqui has finally come to terms that she wants no part of it.
Shaw, a burly pub crawler with deep set eyes and the thinnest of skins is an occasional auto jockey who appreciates a finely-tuned V8 but understands little about the niceties of married life. Jacqui is tired of Al...
Blu ray
Arrow Video
1982 / 1.85:1 / Street Date May 28, 2018
Starring Bruno Lawrence, Anna Jemison
Cinematography by Graeme Cowley
Directed by Roger Donaldson
Smash Palace is the wryly grandiose name given to a New Zealand junkyard run by Al Shaw, a tight-lipped workaholic up to his elbows in axle grease and resentment. It also describes the wreck Al has made of his own marriage.
At the beginning of Roger Donaldson’s 1982 film, Shaw and his wife Jacqui are already nearing the end of their rocky alliance – both work at the family business but the family is all Al’s – Jacqui has finally come to terms that she wants no part of it.
Shaw, a burly pub crawler with deep set eyes and the thinnest of skins is an occasional auto jockey who appreciates a finely-tuned V8 but understands little about the niceties of married life. Jacqui is tired of Al...
- 7/10/2018
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Smash Palace (1981) is currently available on Blu-ray from Arrow Academy
Premiering at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, Smash Palace was Roger Donaldson’s second feature following the success of Sleeping Dogs, a film which had heralded the arrival of the New Zealand New Wave.
Smash Palace concerns itself with the marriage of former racing driver Al and French-born Jacqui. The pair had met when she nursed him back to health following a career-ending injury. They married, returned to Al s native New Zealand to take over his late father s wrecking yard business the Smash Palace of the title and had a child. But over time stagnation has set in, Jacqui s resentment of Al has grown, and things are threatening to spill over…
Playing out as a darker, more haunting New Zealand variation on such Us separation movies as Kramer vs. Kramer or Shoot the Moon, Smash Palace offers a brilliant,...
Premiering at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, Smash Palace was Roger Donaldson’s second feature following the success of Sleeping Dogs, a film which had heralded the arrival of the New Zealand New Wave.
Smash Palace concerns itself with the marriage of former racing driver Al and French-born Jacqui. The pair had met when she nursed him back to health following a career-ending injury. They married, returned to Al s native New Zealand to take over his late father s wrecking yard business the Smash Palace of the title and had a child. But over time stagnation has set in, Jacqui s resentment of Al has grown, and things are threatening to spill over…
Playing out as a darker, more haunting New Zealand variation on such Us separation movies as Kramer vs. Kramer or Shoot the Moon, Smash Palace offers a brilliant,...
- 5/30/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Remember the warning to avoid ‘crossing the streams’ in Ghostbusters? Director Geoff Murphy enjoyed a world-wide release for this eerie sci-fi fantasy about a scientist who becomes unstuck in time-space, alone in an empty world.
The Quiet Earth
Blu-ray
Film Movement
1985 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date December 6, 2016 / 39.95
Starring Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Pete Smith
Cinematography James Bartle
Production Designer Josephine Ford
Art Direction Rick Kofoed
Film Editor Michael Horton
Original Music John Charles
Written by Bill Baer, Bruno Lawrence, Sam Pillsbury from the novel by Craig Harrison
Produced by Sam Pillsbury, Don Reynolds
Directed by Geoff Murphy
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
New Zealand was indeed quiet on science fiction filmmaking before the massive production Lord of the Rings. When Geoff Murphy and Bruno Lawrence surfaced in 1985 with The Quiet Earth it was received as a pleasant surprise, a brainy alternative to the Australian Road Warrior series. Distinguished...
The Quiet Earth
Blu-ray
Film Movement
1985 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date December 6, 2016 / 39.95
Starring Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Pete Smith
Cinematography James Bartle
Production Designer Josephine Ford
Art Direction Rick Kofoed
Film Editor Michael Horton
Original Music John Charles
Written by Bill Baer, Bruno Lawrence, Sam Pillsbury from the novel by Craig Harrison
Produced by Sam Pillsbury, Don Reynolds
Directed by Geoff Murphy
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
New Zealand was indeed quiet on science fiction filmmaking before the massive production Lord of the Rings. When Geoff Murphy and Bruno Lawrence surfaced in 1985 with The Quiet Earth it was received as a pleasant surprise, a brainy alternative to the Australian Road Warrior series. Distinguished...
- 11/29/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Roger Donaldson is attached to direct two projects, a feature doc and a feature, inspired by the lives of two famous Kiwis.
McLaren will profile Bruce McLaren, the Formula One champion who won the Us Grand Prix when he was 23, the youngest ever to do so.
The Guinea Pig Club will chronicle the story of renegade plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe, who revolutionised the treatment of burns victims during WW2.
The New Zealand Film Commission has offered conditional investment to both projects. Donaldson has already shot some footage for McLaren, using Nzfc development funds.
The Nzfc is also co-funding The Patriarch, just the second Kiwi feature from director Lee Tamahori, who broke through with Once Were Warriors in 1994.
Due to shoot on March 24, the drama is scripted by John Collee, based on Whale Rider author Witi Ihimaera's novel Bulibasha. The protagonist is the youngest son of a huge extended Maori family of shearers,...
McLaren will profile Bruce McLaren, the Formula One champion who won the Us Grand Prix when he was 23, the youngest ever to do so.
The Guinea Pig Club will chronicle the story of renegade plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe, who revolutionised the treatment of burns victims during WW2.
The New Zealand Film Commission has offered conditional investment to both projects. Donaldson has already shot some footage for McLaren, using Nzfc development funds.
The Nzfc is also co-funding The Patriarch, just the second Kiwi feature from director Lee Tamahori, who broke through with Once Were Warriors in 1994.
Due to shoot on March 24, the drama is scripted by John Collee, based on Whale Rider author Witi Ihimaera's novel Bulibasha. The protagonist is the youngest son of a huge extended Maori family of shearers,...
- 2/3/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Here’s a vintage 1980s thriller nobody remembers because it won’t open till next month. Based on an ’80s espionage novel. Directed by Roger Donaldson who made two terrific ’80s thrillers,...
- 7/23/2014
- by Ryan Adams
- AwardsDaily.com
The New Zealand Film Commission is getting out of the business of selling feature films and shorts internationally as part of a wide revamp of the agency.s structure and mission.
The Nzfc will seek to place the new and recent films it represents with sales agents and is hiring a consultant with sales experience to manage the transition. That process will start on April 1.
The organisation, which has 129 films under its care, will continue to handle sales of at least some of the older titles. The Commission has sold the films it produced or invested in for more than 40 years, including An Angel at My Table, Bad Taste, Vigil, Once Were Warriors, Sleeping Dogs, Smash Palace, The Navigator, The World's Fastest Indian and, more recently, Black Sheep, Eagle vs Shark, Two Little Boys and Fresh Meat.
Lindsay Shelton, who served as marketing director from its inception in 1979 until 2001, was...
The Nzfc will seek to place the new and recent films it represents with sales agents and is hiring a consultant with sales experience to manage the transition. That process will start on April 1.
The organisation, which has 129 films under its care, will continue to handle sales of at least some of the older titles. The Commission has sold the films it produced or invested in for more than 40 years, including An Angel at My Table, Bad Taste, Vigil, Once Were Warriors, Sleeping Dogs, Smash Palace, The Navigator, The World's Fastest Indian and, more recently, Black Sheep, Eagle vs Shark, Two Little Boys and Fresh Meat.
Lindsay Shelton, who served as marketing director from its inception in 1979 until 2001, was...
- 3/7/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
With Piranha and Humanoids from the Deep getting all the love lately in the news, we'd be remiss if we did not mention two other Corman cult classics that are poised to make their special edition double-feature DVD debut from Shout! Factory.
From the Press Release:
Brace yourself for twice the fun, twice the adrenaline rush, and twice the traction as Shout! Factory, in association with New Horizons Picture Corporation, is set to release a dynamic duo of Roger Corman classics on one double-feature collector’s edition DVD. August 3, 2010, will see the release of Deathsport/Battle Truck Collector’s Edition, which marks the first time Deathsport is being presented in a widescreen format as well as the first-ever DVD release of Battle Truck (released theatrically as Warlords of the 21st Century). This double-barreled dose of high-octane excitement decisively marks the latest summer installment from fan favorite Roger Corman’s Cult Classics home entertainment series.
From the Press Release:
Brace yourself for twice the fun, twice the adrenaline rush, and twice the traction as Shout! Factory, in association with New Horizons Picture Corporation, is set to release a dynamic duo of Roger Corman classics on one double-feature collector’s edition DVD. August 3, 2010, will see the release of Deathsport/Battle Truck Collector’s Edition, which marks the first time Deathsport is being presented in a widescreen format as well as the first-ever DVD release of Battle Truck (released theatrically as Warlords of the 21st Century). This double-barreled dose of high-octane excitement decisively marks the latest summer installment from fan favorite Roger Corman’s Cult Classics home entertainment series.
- 5/26/2010
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
No movie I've seen at Sundance this year conjures the possibilities -- or the current, gloom-and-doom marketplace environment -- of independent film more powerfully than Blue Valentine. A lushly touching, wrenching, and beautifully told story, directed by Derek Cianfrance with a mood of entwined romantic dreams and romantic loss, it stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as Dean and Cindy, a young, semi-working-class couple who meet, fall in love, get married, raise a little daughter, and lose their spark, though not necessarily in that order. Among other things, the movie fractures time with elegant originality. There are moments in Blue Valentine that make you melt,...
- 1/26/2010
- by Owen Gleiberman
- EW.com - The Movie Critics
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