Three Summers Aussie Movie?

Subject: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 16 Sep 18 - 04:44 AM

I did a search and couldn't find a previous thread on this movie. It's about the goings-on at an Australian folk festival. I recorded it from the TV last night and watched a bit this morning. It looks really entertaining.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 16 Sep 18 - 06:33 AM

Written by Ben Elton. Includes a morris team. Some amusing incidents that have some parallels with the UK festival scene!
Derek

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: banjoman
Date: 16 Sep 18 - 07:25 AM

Watched it and apart from some obvious musical miming I found it entertaining and worth watching.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Marje
Date: 16 Sep 18 - 07:28 AM

It was a lightweight romcom with some funny and well observed moments, as you'd expect from Ben Elton. My favourite line was:
"I don't mind ukuleles, it's the people playing them. A uke isn't an instrument, it's a low-tech dating app for middle-aged divorcees"

As a newbie uke player myself (neither divorced nor, alas, middle aged any longer) I had to laugh at that.

Marje

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 16 Sep 18 - 11:36 AM

I came in on it after about the first 40 minutes or so and watched the rest. It only got a 2-star rating in The Radio Times, but I found it quite entertaining and a few laugh-out-loud moments. Some parallels with people and situations I've known!

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Helen
Date: 16 Sep 18 - 04:21 PM

Well, you have surprised me. I have never heard of that movie and it stars one of my all-time favourite actor-comedians Magda Szubanski, and Ben Elton's scripts are always good value.

I'm surprised that our ABC TV has not aired it, but maybe it's on their list.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 16 Sep 18 - 06:54 PM

And Deborah Mailman!

Beware! Region 4 (Australia)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Summers-Rebecca-Breeds-Robert-Sheehan/dp/B077H6W6WV/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1537138231&sr=1-1&keyw

Ross

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Sep 18 - 07:12 PM

Helen! even a person like me who does not go to the movies knows about this movie

sandra

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: rich-joy
Date: 16 Sep 18 - 07:16 PM

Well Helen, the Australian critics tended to pan the film when it first came out!

Firstly, it was set in West Aussie (where??!) at the historical site of Fairbridge and home to WA's long-running folk festival of the same name. Secondly, it was obviously about the Folk Music festival scene - which they tended to look down their noses at!

However, it's an oftimes amusing entertainment with a good cast (e.g. Magda S. + Michael Caton, John Waters, Deborah Mailman and Peter Rowsthorn et al) that also visits the modern political-societal issues within the various subplots.
Commedian Ben Elton, is also a longtime Fairbridge festival-goer and observer.

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: JennieG
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 04:53 AM

I haven't heard about it......but then, I do live in the Small Smoke!

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Helen
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 05:33 AM

You live in Newcastle, Jennie? LOL

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Helen
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 06:06 AM

I'm also a big fan of Deborah Mailman.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: JennieG
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 08:24 AM

No, Helen......Tamworth! Much smaller than Newcastle.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 09:32 AM

There are far too many low budget movies being made...                  
                                                                     
god knows how they all get financed...???                                                
Rumours abound about tax loss dodges...                                                                     
                                                                     
But most seem to end up in an abyss of limited release and obscurity..
Or shelved forgotten for years after completion...

Neither me nor the mrs have heard of this one until this thread,
and she's a big fan of his books...

I think it's now on BBC catch up...

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: GUEST,DK.
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 09:40 AM

"Firstly, it was set in West Aussie (where??!)" That's about right, when the soapies like Neighours or Home and Away want to get rid of a character without actually killing them off they are sent to Perth and usually never heard of again.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Helen
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 03:40 PM

JennieG, the size of the smoke is relative, I guess. Tamworth is a nice town. For a few years, my Hubby lived in Armidale - before we married - so I spent a bit of time visiting that area.

Well, DK, what else are you going to do with the characters but send them to the far west of the country? I have heard that WA is well worth a visit. It's on my to-do list.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Tangledwood
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 06:19 PM

It's a fun movie. I suggest that its poor ratings reflect the in jokes that folkies would get but others not.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: GUEST,DK
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 10:52 PM

Helen, it may be like Samuel Johnson said about some attraction in Ireland, "It might be worth seeing, but it's not worth GOING to see." Anyway, don't come this weekend, people are paying more than the price of an International ticket to come to Perth to see the football semi-final.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Helen
Date: 18 Sep 18 - 04:28 PM

DK, did you see the very, very long documentary on SBS-TV a while back, called The Ghan. I went to Broken Hill on the Indian Pacific once and I loved looking at the countryside along the way. But, I'd probably fly over there instead. Not this year, but maybe when Hubby & I both retire in the next few years.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: JennieG
Date: 18 Sep 18 - 06:00 PM

You could pack up the hubby and the caravan, and drive over!

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: rich-joy
Date: 18 Sep 18 - 07:08 PM

Yeah! Every Aussie should "Do the Nullarbor" at least once in their Life.

I made quite a few trips from Perth "to the Eastern States" in the 70s-80s, but not since moving to the Top End and then Qld - I'd kinda like to do it again before my days are up!!

I recall my Aunt and Uncle driving over from Tassie to WA, with 3 kids in their small car, around 1957 - now that long dusty trip would be soooooo different to today, eh!!!

Cheers,
R-J

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 18 Sep 18 - 07:32 PM

Think you're right about that, Tangledwood: some of the jokes would go way over non-folkie's heads!

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: GUEST,DK
Date: 18 Sep 18 - 10:00 PM

No, Helen, the news or a rare movie is about all I see on TV. But I crossed from Sydney to Perth by train in 1958 before the standard gauge line was laid. For those a bit younger, no two bordering states had the same rail gauge, with the result that one had to change trains four or five times. I also 'did' the Nullarbor by car in a very wet winter a couple of years later while the Eyre Highway was unsealed, it was quite exciting at times, a sheet of water on the road could conceal a hole deep enough to wreck a tyre. Large trucks would be throwing up enough water and mud to nearly drown a car, but being young and silly, we enjoyed it. (I'm much older now, but not much more sensible).

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 19 Sep 18 - 04:43 AM

Ah Perth, my all-time greatest sports hero, Herb Elliott, came from that part of the world.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 19 Sep 18 - 12:02 PM

I was startled to find that the name Nullarbor is not a native name but a Latin description; no trees.

Robin

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: GUEST,OLDNICKILBY
Date: 20 Sep 18 - 09:48 AM

Ben Elton had Fairbridge Festival off to a tee. The first time I went there I looked for "Arbiet Macht Frei " over the gate , after a drive down the red road to be greeted by Brown Shirted trainee Jobs Worths, well they were Scouts but behaving like Fascists, I could not have enjoyed myself more
The sight of Aussies with their bums on their Eskies " You ain't having my grog" written

all over their faces had me in stitches. The Chapel was a delight and a pleasure to sing in as the acoustics are fabulous.However I was very troubled by the thoughts of those poor kids who had been forced to build it Ben seemed to encapsulate the essential essence of the place. I went 9 or 10 times and loved every minute . One memorable event stands out. A Family was eating Hot Dogs, a Kookabura was eyeing up the proceeding when with one flash it robbed a Kid of the Sausage from out of the roll

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: rich-joy
Date: 20 Sep 18 - 07:55 PM

Yes, Guest, OldNickilby, I have had that same experience in the SW of WA!

Whilst raising a BBQd lamb chop from plate to mouth, a Kookaburra with split-second timing, stole my prized lunch and I felt only the breeze from his skilled act!!
(They were introduced to WA in the 1890s from the Eastern States "to control snake numbers", so not a native West Aussie species.)

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: rich-joy
Date: 20 Sep 18 - 08:07 PM

The FAIRBRIDGE FESTIVAL site :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairbridge,_Western_Australia

Like most "Institutions" for children it seems (whether private, religious, or govt), much child abuse is now known to have been perpetrated.

It's a weird world indeed.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: GUEST,OldNicKilby
Date: 21 Sep 18 - 06:58 AM

I had a wierd premonition when I first visited Fairbridge, Wandering around the site I am sure that I found a Graveyard for the Kids that died there. A Crackingly Great Festival for all that. Its a shame that I dont have a reason to visit W A now that my Daughter has returned Home.Ben Elton was prophetic in his skit with the sponsors when he called "Bunnings" Bungles. Serves them right on the Homebase debacle. They should not have copied the products that we sold to them

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: r.padgett
Date: 21 Sep 18 - 07:26 AM

Enjoyed the film! James Fagan and Nancy Kerr came to mind

Ray

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: Helen
Date: 22 Sep 18 - 04:05 PM

I bought the DVD yesterday at a cheap price. The advantage of a movie panned by the critics is that it goes in the bargain bin!

I watched it yesterday and enjoyed it. Thanks for telling us about it.

I was disappointed that there wasn't more folk music in it, i.e. the real stuff we go to folk events to experience, but I guess the movie critics would have switched off quick-smart if they had to listen to real folk music.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: GUEST,Vic at home
Date: 22 Sep 18 - 06:52 PM

As a film, quietly enjoyable, the music left a lot to be desired, but the memories the pictures brought back - priceless. The Kookaburra, if you remember Nick, proceeded to a nearby branch and battered that sausage to death!

The Chapels acoustics were sublime. OldNick, Rob and myself never sang in a better venue and it was the highlight of the only mini-tourof of WA we ever did.

Thank you Fairbridge.

Subject: RE: Three Summers Aussie Movie?
From: GUEST,OldNicKilby
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 07:14 AM

Ray
Great minds think alike, Fools seldom differ. I was thinking the same thing
Vic
You are right , it just proves that "Practice makes perfect You forgot one thing. We drank a lot of wonderful Cape Clairault "Swagmans Kiss"
Why did they ever stop making it ?.
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