CINEMA REBORN 2022 - Cast and Crew Memories of RETURN HOME (Ray Argall, Australia, 1990)

Frankie J Holden, Ben Mendelsohn

The award winning Australian film, restored in 4K will be the centerpiece Australian presentation at this year’s Cinema Reborn. The festival takes place at the Randwick Ritz from 27 April to 3 May. 

Director of Return Home Ray Argall won the AFI Award for Best Director and lead actor Frankie J Holden was nominated for Best Actor. Return Home also won Best Film at the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards in 1990.Also screening on the same program, as it did on first release back in 1990, will be Lucinda Clutterbuck’s short animation Tiga which won the Asia Pacific Award for Best Animation and was nominated in 1990 for Dendy and  AFI Awards.

 

Ben Mendelsohn

Ray Argall writes: The Return Home restoration has been a labour of love, it was one of the first films I started to restore over ten years ago. Since then there has been so much change and evolution in the digital environment that the restoration work has been reinvented several times. We scanned the camera original negative, then matched the A&B rolls which required a lot of stabilisation on the cement splices, then did a shot by shot grade and a painful amount of dust busting. For the soundtrack we digitised the original 3 track 35mm magnetic mix into separate DME (Dialogue Music Effects) tracks. We then replaced all the music with digital stereo versions of the original music stems and created a 5.1 digital sound master. Greg P Fitzgerald did the remix from mono and stereo stems to the new digital 5.1 master. Our original restoration master was in 2K and presented at MIFF 2019. Last year I went back to the original scans and restored the picture to a 4K master, which is having its first public screening at Cinema Reborn.

 

Return Home prompts a lot of fond memories from those involved in its production back in 1989.

 

Frankie J Holden, Micki Camilleri

Lead actor Frankie J Holden recalls:

Making Return Home remains one of the highlights of my 40 plus years in showbusiness. It is a very Australian story populated with identifiable Australian characters which explains its continuing resonance with viewers of the film. One of the pleasures for me from the experience has been keeping an eye on some of the key creatives behind Return Home. Ray Argall has forged a stellar career as a director, Mandy Walker is now one of the world’s leading cinematographers, Dennis Coard enjoyed years on Home and Away. And Joe Camilleri had a cameo! It certainly gave me great credibility as an actor and led to much work for me. So thanks for casting me, Ray! Ben Mendehlson was there too, whatever happened to him? After 30+ years, Return Home still stands up as a beautifully realised,  evocative depiction of Australian values.

Frankie J Holden OAM

 

Many of the others involved in this superb Australian film have similar fond memories and Ray Argall has assembled this collection

 

Fun fact: Andy McPhee, the actor who plays Frankie's petrol head mate, is Kodi Smitt-McPhee's father.

 

CAST

 

MICKI Camilleri:

'Return Home' was the most fun I think I've had in my on/off acting career.

I got to work with some of the most creative up and coming actors and crew than I have done ever since.

Despite the simple but delightful storyline, there was a sense of anticipation that this was something special!

Culminating in Ray winning Best Director at the AFI's the following year.

Dennis Coard 

DENNIS Coard

Looking back……

Return Home was my first professional work and, for me, it was a steep learning curve.

I couldn’t have wished for a better environment.

Everyone, in every department, knew how to aim for perfection but never forgot how to really enjoy the process.

An amazing achievement on a very modest budget.

Congratulations to all concerned but special congratulations to Ray Argall - for dreaming, writing, directing and 

surrounding himself with all the right people.

 

Special memory - The un-serviced apartment being shared by Ben and Noah which ended up knee-deep throughout 

with nearly-empty pizza boxes, bottles, cans, dead vermin and only the gods know what else.

 

Mandy Walker, Ray Argall

CREW:

 

MANDY Walker ACS ASC AM Cinematographer:

 “ 'Return Home’ was a defining moment in my career, where I made the big jump from operating and shooting music videos and short films to doing my first feature film as a Cinematographer. I had been mentoring under Ray Argall and he gave me this great opportunity when he decided to write and direct this movie. I think we all knew we were working on something special, and it was a very close and dedicated cast and crew. "

Micki Camilleri

 

KERITH Holmes Production Designer:

Thinking about working on Return Home all those years ago seems so appropriate to the essence of this film. I spent longer than usual working on it as I also worked as editing assistant, and like all films it became my life for a brief intense period. A nostalgic haze has settled over my memories, but it was great working in particular with Ray and Mandy to create a believable but aesthetically appealing environment for the characters. 

It was a challenge, even then, to find a location that we could control and create a environment that felt like a small corner of the world. I’ve always liked heightening colour to ‘soup up’ reality - the garage had red and yellow trim and bright blue roller doors. I remember trying to get some kind of bright colour into all the scenes set in the garage workshop, and getting really cross with Mandy and Ray when they wanted me to stick a poster up on a window to hide a reflection, after I had passionately stated in pre-production how much I hated things being stuck up on walls or windows to fill space - I’ve always loved expanses of blankness!

 

CRISTINA Pozzan Producer:

‘Return Home was a special experience, particularly looking back at that era. The very low budget meant that anyone involved did so for the passion, the collective spirit it engendered, and also out of loyalty to Ray and our company at that time. It was in some ways the culmination of all that had been achieved in the preceding eight or so years. It was a benchmark for me in terms of understanding how to bring people together to realise a creative vision, a vision that spoke to subject matter both personal and, in some ways, political, with a resoundingly humane and warm heart. It remains a treasured and proud part of my history in the industry.’

 

KEN Sallows ASE:

RETURN HOME was edited on 16mm film on a Steenbeck in Edgerton Road, Armadale, in a house that had been commandeered

by several filmmakers in the 1980’s. It was originally Ian Pringle’s home.

The editing room had a carpet over the floor, but you had to know where your chair was, for quite often it would fall beyond the floorboards.

During the shoot of RETURN HOME in Adelaide, a heatwave hit, making it difficult for the cast and crew to walk across the beach sands.

The film and sound rushes were sync by Catherine Birmingham and Ken watched these rushes on a daily basis, for he was doing something else,

something like trying to earn an income.

When the shoot finished Ray returned to Melbourne and we watched all the footage. Ken thinks that Ray may have left him alone for a few

weeks to achieve an assembly.

Ken notes that as he seemed to be on the same page as Ray, the assembly was achieved quickly.

Diverse music was used, the end scene playout by Dvorak (‘From The New World’).

The laugh we have is that on the cut to the end titles, the version of the music we used has a trumpet player,

playing a flat note.

 

(FURTHER NOTE TO KEN'S rather ironic notes: In the sound restoration we tuned up the flat note (I think it was a french horn not a trumpet) and now it's perfect!!!)

 

There are some terrific notes by filmmaker and former Cinema Papers editor Scott Murray on the Cinema Reborn website https://cinemareborn.org.au/Return-Home