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THE MAGAZINE FOR \MOMEN WHO MEAN BUSINESS
CUSTOM MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR
WOMEN AT WORK, NETWORKING, FASHION, COCKTAILS, TECHNO AND MORE,..
S5,95 AUD MAY JUNE
2OO3
tssN 13289225
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COVER STORY
SAMANTHA LA}TG:
THE DIRECT APPROACH
Samantha Lang ha-. found her filmmaking feet. After winning acclaim with her
feature debut, TheWell, she proved her brilliance with TheMonkey'sMask. As
her latest filmLldn/2, a Parisian love story hits the cinemas, this young Australian
director is about to step firmly into the intemational spotlight.
STO=\ GAYNOR FLYNN
PHOTCCtrAPHY ALAN FOREMAN
ir
first feature fi1m. Tfu \Izll. nas
Oificral
Competitirn, li1:1: rhi. is a huge honour for ant director.
ri rvas doub.'. .-- -.:l I ans, Fresh out of film school, she u'as not
::r-'.' ::e ltru1-Igest dlr.-:.:::::ai i'ear in the o{ficial competirion, but alsc.
ihe -r".; remale.
L:-n: r'ividly rec=i.s :::r -'.-enr: ivalkrng up the red carper. tumine
::..urLi at the top .-: ::r: .:-:rrs. anJ in front of thousands of press.
spe.:arrris and fla.hrr: ::r--r::. velLing at the top oi her r-oice,
" I,i- STR{LIAI" -\r:=:;.:i.. .ie remembers thinking, "What on Earth
u'as I d.ring?" She 1ari.::. :, rLe rnemon'. "That was one of the mosr
emtarrassing thing. i..'. e'.'.r j.-ne. 1 rr'asn't even drunk, I was jusc so
overu'he1med. I felt ,:*r !iJ: l crruntr\ bumpkin, you know, Babe goes
to the cit1,."
Lang is no counr.L l::ri::r. Quietlr'elesant and highly articulate, she
possesses a discemin:-r ---:: r::icLLi:ence. \\''1-rich is what ultimately
convinced veteran r:,,.:'a-r S;:,iia Le.-r' to take a chance on the
inexperienced nelr'.!-::-r rrtn .h: r:l itel Lang to direct The WeLL,
"Sam's critical ar-rd ar,:i;:i;aL abLh:, airai's impresseJ me," says Levy.
"She has the most u'..ni;ir, rrLnl."
Not bad for the rr'.-m:n r-iev rranrel rLr ki.k .-ui of tilm school because
thev didn't think she i.:-i tb,e skills t.r be a lirecr.:,r. "That it'as a hostile
enr-ironment," groan. Lans. "There u'as so much Fre:sure to perform.
years ag,-. Sar:rar,i:r: Lane's
ii-rvited
tc ..:-.:r in the Cannes Film Fe.tival's
'From rhis moment on. \'LrLi are part of an
e1ite, 1-ou s,ill be u'archeJ and rou rvill be judgeJ.' i liiera1lr rvalked out
and fainted. The idea of teing a pubLic figure rerrifieJ me. I Jon't rvork
well u'hen i think I'm being u'atched."
On the iirst day thev r..Ll
'us,
Wtrich is why Lang has based herself in Paris it:r the iasr couple
years, quietly finishing her rhird feature fiim Lldrp, "k u'as an
of
incrediblv intense experience. [France has] a culture u'here ther beLieve
that conflict is the beginning of all creativity. So there u'as quite a bit of
conflict," she laughs.
Lang speaks fluent French and even studied at the Sorbor,ne u-hen she
was 18. She's always felt a strong affinity fol the culture that gave birth
34 VIVE
to
such cinernatic greats as Jean Renoir and Jean-Luc Godard.
She recalls ri-atching so much French cinema at Sydney's Valhalla
on SunJav attemoons that she started picking up the language. The
erperience had a huge impact on the impressionable youngster.
"l Jidn't knorv rvhat it meant to be a director," says Lang, "but it
me.nerised me." Currently back in Australia to decide upon her next
cLrurse Lri action, Lang has reached a turning point in her career.
She sar-s making Lldolehas chalrged everything. "Making a film in a
f..reisn ianguage taught rne to be strong in ways I didn't think possible,"
she sar-s. "Because 1 u'as an outsider in a foreign country, I could see
clearll u'hat I do u-e11, and rvhere my strengths and weaknesses are as a
iilmmaker. It u'as incredibly enlightening. So I'm feeling more
confident and less neurotic about the filmmaking process these days."
That's u,hy it's a tr,rrning point for Lang. After three hauntingly
cerebral fihns, she's ready for a complete change of pace. "l want to do
something different. I don't want to do 'out there' stuff any more. I feel
like I'r,e said what I wanted to say on that particular subject, and now I'd
like to rnake films that make people 1augh."
Curled up on a couch and nibbling biscotti, the self-effacing Lang, who
looks rnuch younger than her 35 years, is relaxed and looking folward to the
future. "I'm excited because I think my next project wilL be much more
light-hearted."
Capitalising on the current interest ir.LIdoLe, Lang recently returned
from a round of "strut my stuff' meetings in the US, an integral part of
the industry and something the unassuming director admits she's not
very good at. "Hollywood use to intimidate me," she confesses. "So
I u,ent after The WeLl, but I wasn't psychologically ready. Going there
a second time I felt a lot more mature. Whether or not it u,ill work
for me there is another thing, but certainl,r'people u,ere interested in me
and that was a nice surprise. It u'as so nerve-u'racking. I'm amazed
I managed to do it!"
'lfhile
not sure Ho1l1-u,ood is the right "path" fcrr her, she is
it is olten held up as the ultirnate symbol of
success. "lt's never been n-rr particular dream. \bu har.e to be pretty
she's stil1
aware that in AustraLia,
COVER STORY
"I d,on't want to do 'out there' sfuff ary more. I feel
X've said what t :nrantcd t* say on that suhject, and
xr.ilI&r
t'd"
like tc make films that make pe*ple laug$r."
tough to want to go to Hollywood and I wasn't sure if it was in me. But
now I feel that I do want to work there and I'm not so overwhelmed."
"You do have to be strong to survive Hollywood," says Lerry. "And
female directors in particular, have to be very determined and ambitious.
You're judged so harshly and there's enonnous pressure. Women need to
I think Sam has all those srrengths."
While there are a couple of film projects on the table Lang is,
be very strong to succeed [there].
howevet, theoretically unemployed. "It's such a strange way to exist,"
smiles Lang, "I woke up at 3 o'clock the other moming, thinking, 'okay,
how many months have I got left before I have to get a paid job?'
Sometimes I think, do I always want ro live with this insecurity? Why
don't I start being strategic and work out how to eam money in a more
systematic way?"
Which is exactly what prompted Lang's first foray into theatre.
"[Theatre director] Neil Armfleld very generously offered to let me hang
out and observe his technique on Woiting for Godat," she explains.
"Then I'm doing an exploration of Brecht at the Sydney Theatre
Company in June. And hopefully it will lead to me directing other stuff."
For now, howeveE she's trying to decide which film offer to take.
There is an offer on the table, but she's just not sure it's the right one.
"Another dilemma," smiles Lang. "A French producer approached me
recently with a proposal to go off and make a film in St. Petersburg.
Of course, there's no script and no money.
"The idea is to discover the story in the process. Several European
directors like to work that way and he feels that I could do the same.
And I must admit I'm tempted to take the film in St, Petersburg, which
would be no good for my career whatsoever, but it would be a great
adventure. I actually stopped myself from saying yes [to that project],"
she confesses. "I thought, okay, you've got to think about eaming some
money and laying foundatioru for yourself."
\While I:IdolE might mark an end to a particular phase in Lang's
filmmaking, it resonates with themes that have intrigued her for a long
time. It's an evocative tale about a beautiful 18-year-old Australian
actress, Sarah (Leelee Sobieski), who moves in to a Paris apartment
building, where one of her neighbours is a 74-year-old Chinese man,
called Zao (James Hong). Zao becomes enchanted by Sarah and she in
turn comes to rely on him after her relationship breaks up.
36 VIVE
"I've always been interested in characters a bit out of synch with the
rest of the world," she explains, "because they are more emotionally
fragile. They're not conventional frameworks and I like that, because it
means their emotional joumeys are rockier and more ambiguous."
Perhaps because British.bom Lang's own upbringing was less than
conventional. Her parents divorced when she was 12 and a year later her
mother "met an Australian". A man, she says, "who is a bit of a tribal
eldeq he's got seven children to four women". Suddenly, Lang went from
inner-city London to Collaroy, in Sydney, and remembers feeling like a
complete outsider. "I was desperate to become Australian. As soon as
I was 18 I got naturalised. I wanted that identity more than anything."
Iildale will allow Lang to finally shake off Tlw Monkey's Mask, her
"difficult second film", as she calls it. Not only did she feel under
enornous pressure to outdo the success of TheWe[l,which she points out
is not a great way for her to work, but she also broke up with director and
Tiopfest founder John Polson in the middle of it.
"Ah, my least favourite media sublect," she smiles. They dated for
seven years, and the two have remained good friends, "It was a really
fruitful relationship,"
says Lang. "He was incredibly supportive of me and
I was really supportive of him. He'd lust started Tropfest, then I made my
first feature and he came to Cannes with me. So we went through a lot
of that early stuff together. He's still very special to me."
As for the future, Lang's goals are quite simple. "['d like three kids,
although it's getting a bit late," she laughs. "I think it would be great to
have a child because it's another part of being a woman. I just haven't
decided which guy to do it with yet. Anlway, it's just another adventure."
She admits she doesn't really know which path her career will take
next. "It takes a lot of good fofiune to be a director. And as a female
director, you sometimes feel a bit like an extraterestrial, because it's
a very male dominated industry. So it's a little nerve wracking, and
sometimes it feels like I'm in the big casino of life," she laughs,
"It is an incredible profession, and it could all eventuate into
something amazing or it could all fall to nothing. You have to proceed
with humility, knowing you might have to go off and work in a book
shop." Which would be okay by Lang, because it might just be the start
ofanother great adventure. r
f/dole screens at selected cinemas around Australia from June.
W