Dr Plonk

Cast & Crew

Production Company: Vertigo Productions
Executive Producer: Sue Murray, Domenico Procacci, Bryce Menzies
Producer: Julie Ryan, Rolf de Heer
Screenplay: Rolf de Heer
Cinematographer: Judd Overton
Editor: Tania Nehme
Production Designer: Beverley Freeman
Music: Graham Tardif
Principal Cast: Nigel Lunghi, Paul Blackwell, Magda Szubanski, Phoebe Paterson de Heer

WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING

4 Stars "enthusiastic, energetic and funny... had the delighted audience in continuous laughter" - Stan James, Adelaide Advertiser

"... weaves a curious but definite magic ... sheer delight" - Frank Hatherley, Screen International

... a vigorous, bracing comedy, with notes of subversion and a sting in the tail" - Philippa Hawker, The Age

A comedy about the end of the world!

From Adelaide Film Festival where the film premiered in March 2007

One of Rolf de Heer's great strengths as a filmmaker is his recognition that the cinema can be used to put us imaginatively in touch with other times, other people and other places. Turning from the geographical distance of the Arafura Swamp to the temporal distance of 1907, de Heer consolidates his reputation as Australia's most unpredictably imaginative filmmaker. As he tells it, the genesis of this film was the desire to use up some left-over film stock, but having made a decision, de Heer always throws himself into a project, and this was to be no simple period film!

Dr Plonk is a black and white, silent comedy shot with a hand-cranked camera and brimming with romance, action and especially, slapstick comedy (think of Chaplin, Keaton or Harold Lloyd). The eponymous scientist/inventor [Nigel Lunghi aka Mr Spin] calculates that the world will end in 101 years unless immediate action is taken to stop the fatal chain of eventshop being initiated. Assisted by his formidable wife [Magda Szubanski], his faithful manservant Paulus [Paul Blackwell], and his trusty but demented Jack Russell terrier [Reg], Plonk realises that he needs to furnish evidence his grave claims. He sets out to invent a time machine in order to visit the outlandishly strange and deadly year of 2007. With a fabulous cast, including guest appearances from many familiar faces, and a wonderful score composed by Graham Tardif ... thoroughly entertaining and delightful ...


Review by Sandra Hall
SMH, 30 Aug 2007

I suspect the Australian writer-director Rolf de Heer thinks a film is worth making only if it involves a high degree of difficulty.

It's a risky policy. There's always the chance the drama behind the film's making is going to eclipse the film itself. But de Heer has managed to avoid that embarrassment. Bad Boy Bubby, The Tracker and Ten Canoes - to name just a few of his ruggedly individualistic productions - have helped him make his mark as somebody with an inimitable sense of style, which is quite an achievement for a man who changes tack with every picture.

It has to be said that it's a sombre sense of style. The de Heer sense of humour has taken a long while to declare itself. There were mordant glimpses early on but not until he made Ten Canoes - his wry and rambling retelling of an Aboriginal legend - did he give any clue that he could enjoy a joke for its own sake.

His latest, Dr Plonk, is all jokes. Not that he's gone soft on us. Once again, he's made a film which could only have been produced by somebody with an eccentric passion for doing things the hard way.

Modesty is another of his attributes and the explanation he gives for the film's birth is pretty typical. He says he opened his refrigerator one day to discover a large supply of unexposed film stock. It seemed a shame to throw it away, so why not use it to make an old-fashioned black-and-white silent comedy? There are many answers to this question, all of them ending in the negative. But he chose to ignore them. The script, he decided, would feature a time machine so the action could flip back and forth between present-day Australia and the silent movie era. To get the right look at the right price, he and his crew would use a hand-cranked camera and natural lighting.

He admits this seemingly straightforward scheme did not work as he had hoped. And by the time the film was finished, he had been forced to use some very modern and complicated methods to arrive at the simplicity of 100 years ago. He doesn't sound too surprised at this, incidentally. I get the feeling he would have felt cheated if things had turned out any other way.

The great thing about the film is that it's entirely free of the subliminal nudges and winks that so often result from a director getting cute with himself. It has an unselfconscious air, as if cast and crew have indeed stepped into a time machine while retaining their own comic instincts in translating old-time slapstick for a modern audience.

Played by Nigel Lunghi, a juggler whom de Heer found busking in Adelaide's Rundle Mall, Dr Plonk is a scientist convinced he has discovered the world is going to end in 2008. No one will believe him so he instructs his harried assistant, Paulus (Paul Blackwell), to help him build a time machine. Paulus happens to be a deaf mute, which means Plonk's customary way of communicating with him is a kick in the behind. The third member of the team is Mrs Plonk (Magda Szubanski), who bustles around in the background, adding to Paulus's woes by further bossing him about. And finally, completing the quartet, is Paulus's Jack Russell terrier, Tiberius.

Filled with dials and pulleys, wheels and pumps, Plonk's laboratory is a wonderfully homespun construction and a nostalgic glow infuses the authentically faded tone and texture of the black-and-white cinematography. Then there's Graham Tardif's score, which is both frantic and melodic, augmented by the accordion and strings of the Stiletto Sisters.

It's more Buster Keaton than Chaplin, with a chase scene worthy of the Keystone Cops and a sense of absolute immersion in the work at hand, and the overall effect is genuinely innocent and carefree. After 20 years of working in the unforgiving climate of the Australian film industry, de Heer has retained his sense of fun - along with a crew who share it with him. That in itself is enough to make you smile.


Review by Jane Schoettle
Toronto International Film Festival

The latest film from esteemed Australian director Rolf de Heer is more than a completely original piece of cinema -- it is an event. Shot on expired black-and-white stock with a hand-cranked camera, it skilfully manages to be both a tribute to silent filmmaking and a wry commentary on current events.

Played by Nigel Lunghi, Dr. Plonk (looking remarkably like Mr. Monopoly with his tidy coattails and stylish moustache) is a scientist and visionary. Not-so-ably assisted by the clumsy Paulus (Paul Blackwell), the good doctor leaves most of the humdrum details of the day to his plump wife (Magda Szubanski, best known as the farmerfs wife in Babe), their harried maid (Phoebe Paterson de Heer, the director's daughter) and a crafty pooch named Tiberius (an award-calibre performance by Reg the Dog). This chaotic, Keystone Cops-inspired 1907 household is thrown into even further disarray when Dr. Plonk discovers that the world will end in 2008.

Like Chicken Little, Dr. Plonk can find no one -- not even the Australian Prime Minister -- to take him seriously, so he builds a time machine to bring back evidence from the twenty-first century. His machine has a few kinks, however, and initially sends Dr. Plonk and Paulus to inappropriate times and places, with raucous results. When the duo finally gets it right, the present-day powers that be brand Dr. Plonk a terror suspect, which leads to a fantastic chase sequence. Thankfully, all's well that ends well.

The actors clearly relish the chance to play at silent-era comedy, giving plucky performances full of esprit. Graham Tardif's delightful score salutes numerous musical genres and integrates extremely well with the action onscreen. Witty and wry, Dr. Plonk reveals the comical side of a filmmaker usually associated with quiet, intimate dramas, and the result is sheer pleasure. De Heer's previous film, Ten Canoes (which screened at the 2006 Festival), showcased a gentle humour that enchanted audiences all over the world. In Dr. Plonk, the director lets loose and throws a whole laboratory's worth of good old-fashioned fun up onscreen.

Director Biography

Rolf de Heer was born in Heemskerk, The Netherlands, and grew up in Australia. He spent several years working at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation before entering the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney, where he studied production and directing. His acclaimed films include Incident at Raven's Gate (88), Dingo (90), Bad Boy Bubby (93), The Quiet Room (96), Epsilon (97), Dance Me to My Song (98), The Old Man Who Read Love Stories (99), The Tracker (02), Alexandra's Project (03), Ten Canoes (06) and Dr. Plonk (07).

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