1990 Australian film
| Heaven Tonight | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Pino Amenta |
| Written by | Frank Howson Alister Webb |
| Produced by | Frank Howson |
| Starring | John Waters Guy Pearce Kym Gyngell Rebecca Gilling Sean Scully |
| Cinematography | David Connell |
| Production company | Boulevard Films |
| Distributed by | Boulevard Films |
| Release date |
|
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | under $2 million |
Heaven Tonight is a 1990 Australian film.
Plot
An ageing rock star (John Waters) tries to make a comeback and is jealous about the success of his son (Guy Pearce).
Cast
- John Waters as Johnny Dysart
- Guy Pearce as Paul Dysart
- Kym Gyngell as Baz Schultz
- Rebecca Gilling as Annie Dysart
- Sean Scully
- Matthew Weigall as Himself
Production
Writer-producer Frank Howson later claimed that "every incident" in the film was true: "either I have lived it, or I know somebody who has. There is no fabrication, except in the names, which have been changed to protect the guilty."
Howson said " I wrote this movie for all those talented people who had their 15 minutes of fame and then got shut out in the cold."
He says the Baz Schultz character was a combination of Stevie Wright and Ken Firth of The Ferrets.
Waters and Pearce were cast for their singing talent as well as their acting skills, and Pearce released a single, "Call of the Wild", from the film.
Howson said "I’d never seen Guy Pearce on “Neighbours” so I hadn’t type-cast him so when he came in to audition... I had an open mind and he fitted the part of Paul Dysart to perfection. He also had a very good singing voice, and could play guitar, which was a huge plus as I wanted to record all the music live."
Release
The film was not a commercial success and only ran for two weeks in cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne.
Filmink called it "probably Howson’s best movie. It is the best structured, possibly due to the input of Alister Webb who is credited as co-writer. It has a strong central situation, the drama works logically and it is excellently cast. "
Cultural references
The film provided comedic material for the 2006-2007 Austereo radio comedy show Get This. Host Tony Martin referred to the film on a number of occasions, making jibes at the name of Guy Pearce's character's band which was 'Video Rodney', the frequent references to the film's villain whose name was the ill-chosen 'Tim Robbins' and the 1980s synth-rock music which was seen as passé at the time.
References
- ^ Greg Kerr, "Heaven Tonight", Cinema Papers, March 1991 pp. 54–55
- David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p. 153
- Greg Kerr, "Heaven Tonight", Australian Film 1978-1992, Oxford Uni Press, 1993 p. 298
- Paul Kalina, "Frank Howson", Cinema Papers, November 1989 p. 45
- ^ "Producer and Writer Frank Howson on Laura Branigan, the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, the Art of Creation and more…". Cult Film Alley. 13 July 2019.
- Greg Kerr, 'This man could be the next Mel Gibson' Melbourne Age 19 August 1990 p. 25
- Vagg, Stephen (21 February 2024). "Frank Howson: The Unsung Auteur". Filmink.
External links
- Heaven Tonight at IMDb
- Heaven Tonight at Oz Movies
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