Prescient Elements: An Interview with Robert Connolly
Australian director Robert Connolly returns as a MIFF Ambassador in 2023. At this year’s festival, he presents a 4K restoration of his debut feature, The Bank – an entertaining, anti-capitalist caper of greed and deception, starring David Wenham and Anthony LaPaglia – which will be followed by a post-film conversation.
In the lead-up to the screening, we speak to Connolly about the film’s continuing relevance and his longstanding relationship with MIFF.
Why have you come aboard as a MIFF Ambassador?
MIFF has played an important part in my career and championed so many emerging filmmakers. My first film as director, The Bank, opened the festival in 2001, and since then I have always loved the chance to screen my work for audiences at MIFF. I see the role as Ambassador as a chance to give something back to MIFF and thank them for championing our national cinema.
What can audiences look forward to from the MIFF 2023 screening of The Bank?
It was shot on 35mm by wonderful DP Tristan Milani (we went on to work together on Three Dollars, Balibo [MIFF 2009] and Paper Planes [MIFF Premiere Fund 2014]!), and now audiences will get a chance to see the premiere screening of a new 4K remaster. These days, the technology available to filmmakers to remaster films shot on celluloid is incredible, and the visual scale of the work is being presented as it was intended back in 2001!
Above: The Bank | Header: Robert Connolly
What was it like working with David Wenham and Anthony Paglia?
David Wenham and Anthony LaPaglia are two of Australia’s greatest actors. I went on to work with David on Three Dollars and Paper Planes, and with Anthony on Balibo and Underground. To see their early work on this film reminded me of the tremendous gift that it was to work with them on my very first film.
The film was released two decades ago, but in many ways, its themes are still highly resonant. How has it managed to remain topical?
The Bank was made long before the Banking Royal Commission revealed so much about the banking system in Australia; reflecting on the politics and the financial challenges we face today, I feel there are many prescient elements in the story.
Beyond The Bank, what else are you looking forward to at MIFF 2023?
I loved Celine Song’s Past Lives and would recommend that everyone catch one of its subsequent screenings. I also loved meeting Celine – a great filmmaker whose work I’m looking forward to seeing in the future – and enjoyed getting the chance to talk to her after the film. One of my favourite things about MIFF has always been the chance to meet other filmmakers from around the world here in Melbourne.