Bicycles, Testicles, and French Nicole Kidman…
July 20, 2009
Bicycles, Testicles, and French Nicole Kidman…the rush of speed on the senses, the power of the pedal on the environment. Movie trivia from the genre trenches.
Is an homage a rip off or a celebration? I prefer to think of imitation as the sincerest form of flattery. All genre directors try their hand at a range of standard set piece sequences on widely differing budgets, with varying degrees of success. If the result is still engaging an audience on DVD and Cable channels 26 years later, that’s gratifying, but a genre director really gets his rocks off when one of HIS films gets imitated!
Remember my Nicole Kidman starrer BMX BANDITS, in which I had a go at comedy bicycle chase scenes. (It did not hurt to have future Academy Award winner John Seale behind the camera either.)
As a warm-up, here’s a BMX BANDITS trivia collectible: Nicole’s first scene in the film is taken from a French language print.
It kinda plays better in French, don’t you think? Did the actress in the Paris dubbing studio know she was French-voicing a future Academy Award-winning star? Did she do Nicole’s voice in other French releases? Did it grow into a good living? I wonder about things like that. How often does one of the invisibles of our celebrity obsessed trade become the recipient of windfall good fortune? Over to you, French Showbiz researchers.
OK. Now take a look at this. A 30 second Australian TV commercial for BMX BANDITS that played Christmas 1983. The film was such fun to make. Perhaps it shows.
Please note the 2 year old kid at the end. We’ll get back to him in a moment.
They even imitated the costume design. Good for them! I wish I had included a martial arts fight in my building site chase sequence.
Now, back to the kid in the picture, with that expression on his face of uninhibited joy as the bikes fly past him down the escalator… He actually said “BMX Wow!” when we shot it. (For the TV spot they dubbed in a girl‘s voice for clarity) Well, that’s my son Eric, and 26 years later his enthusiasm for bikes is unabated. Here he is, doing some flatland. His bike will ride into shot after 12 seconds. Click this pic:
Eric has a license but does not want a car. He bikes to work, in order to reduce his carbon footprint. I am proud to have a son who follows through on his principles. It’s one thing to talk the talk, it’s another to pedal 9 miles each way and save on all that carbon monoxide. We should all seriously think about using bikes for our short range travel. Walking’s good too.
The Dutch city of Groningen sets a great example by creating a bike friendly environment. Their view is that cycling is the life blood of the city, and have prioritized urban planning accordingly. Look at the space saving in this bike parking lot.
Bicycles and pedestrians rule the medieval-era city hub, cruising along on car-free dedicated pathways and short cuts. People also commute on bikes in large numbers from suburban housing spread out around the city to downtown jobs, via a ring-and-spoke network of paths. Population 185,000. A recent survey counted 150,000 bike trips per day.
Bicycling is also good for your health. For those in the LA area, I recommend WHEEL WORLD in Culver City as the best place for a reliable purchase. Ask for Eric.
My son introduced me to some real life footage of bike messengers racing through the streets of New York. Check out this video. The audio has been removed for copyright reasons, just jog forward to 50 seconds. I think it will pique your interest.
Those guys (and gals) have big brass balls.
If you are in the mood for more, this time with musical accompaniment, here’s one of Lucas Brunelle’s hair raising adventures in urban traffic across the world.
Now there’s a Stunt Rocker!
Guess what? There was even a bicycle film festival in San Francisco….
http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/
Excellent post, Brian! What fun! And the bandits were fun too, similar in feel to another of my unsung ‘fun’ film faves, ‘Coolangatta Gold’. I think both have been at times- thought certainly not exclusively- unfairly maligned films.
Thankfully, that does change with time- the eighties are enjoying a comeback after all that time in the desert (!)- but kudos decades after the fact is of fairly limited value when artists have to eat.
Still, what can I do about the state of such things, when I am one of the hungry?
This did not start out an unpaid political broadcast, nor should it end as such. How is your book going, Brian? Many fans eager to get a taste…(and your blogs are so good, perhaps an account of your thoughts/feelings about the book as opposed to the film, a la Steinbeck’s ‘Diary of the Novel’??)
Your sterling stuff takes one’s mind off the hungry tummy…briefly…
Thanks for the positive feedback. I made the trailer for COOLANGATTA GOLD so I had time to study it. Indeed ,it is a much better film than its reviews at the time would indicate. If the same story were made today with today’s hot young Aussie actors, shot with the same visual gloss, it would draw a large Australian and made even American audience.
Oh, and the novel is with a publishing agent in NY, I await word.
BMX BANDITS is playing constantly on cable at the moment. Even though I have a copy, I still watch it. It captures a period in Sydney that I remember with great affection. It’s also interesting watching how far you go with the bad guys in what is essentially a kiddie pic. You are right on the edge there with the gunplay and action. Why the hell didn’t the bloody Australian industry embrace more stuff like that? Things would be very different today if it had. And I’d probably still be living back there! Maybe you, too?
I would be living in Australia if I could make two films a year, every year. Sadly funding decisions fell into the hands of arts bureaurocrats with little understanding of the international side of the business. It’s better now I understand. I am off to shoot an internationally saleable movie in Tasmania on Saturday.
Good luck with the Tassie movie, Brian. Will be hanging to see it.
I think things are changing down there slowly. The proof will be in the output, huh?!
I think I described this movie as “endearingly stupid” and thought it was really fun.
Didn’t Nicole Kidman play a ninja in a later movie? (Watch the Shadows Dance)
I am hoping the new “Tomorrow, When the War Began” movie will be a cross between BMX Bandits and Inglorious Basterds (shooting starts next month.)
worked with brian in nz some years back and still remember the experience fondly , a fun 2 weeks shooting, air force 2 down , rhys duncan steadicam guy aucklad new zealand hope its all going well
worked with brian in nz some years back and still remember the experience fondly , a fun 2 weeks shooting, air force 2 down , rhys duncan steadicam guy aucklad new zealand hope its all going well