Candy's Australian script writer receives award

From Aust lit

Neil Armfield, one of Australia's foremost theatre directors, has been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature at The University of Sydney. Armfield, who graduated from the Sydney university in 1977 with Honours in English, has been artistic director of Company B at the Belvoir St Theatre for the past twelve years. He has also 'directed productions for every state theatre company in Australia. His international work includes productions for the Royal Opera Covent Garden, the Lyric Opera Chicago, the Zurich Opera, the Canadian Opera, the Welsh National Opera, the English National Opera, and the Bregenz Festival in Austria.' Armfield was nominated for the honorary degree by Professor Penny Gay and AustLit Board member Professor Elizabeth Webby 'in recognition of his long and distinguished contribution to the Humanities, especially through his work as a director of plays, opera and films both within Australia and overseas.' (The University of Sydney news release, 21 April 2006)

Collaboration Bears Fruit at the Cinema

Neil Armfield has also been in the news with the release of the film Candy – the result of a script writing collaboration with novelist Luke Davies. Davies's semi-autobiographical novel, also titled Candy, was published nearly ten years ago and he and Armfield have been working on the screen adaptation since 1999. Davies told SBS's Movie Show that he enjoyed moving away from his usual experience of 'writing isolation' and learning about 'narrative economy' in the development of a script. Asked whether he used words differently in script writing Davies responded in the affirmative saying: 'everything else I write – a novel, a short story, a poem, a play – the words matter, the language actually matters, but in a sense a screenplay needs to be about as transparent a document as you can write and the words can get in the way if you think you need to be poetic or something in a screenplay. It is only a technical document that is the bridge between the thing that you're adapting and the work that will blossom in its final version on a screen, in a dark cinema, with an audience sitting in front of it.'Believing the 'emotional heart' of the novel remains, Davies explained that he and Armfield achieved that result not by 'using literary methods', but by initially using a voice over and then understanding the film as being 'a building and the voice over was like the scaffolding that we erected while we put the building up and then we had to take the scaffolding down to reveal the beauty of the building.' (SBS Movie Show, 17 May 2006)Candy premiered at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival and was released in Australian cinemas in late May 2006.

script writer, Candy, communication, film