By BRUCE BERESFORD (HarperCollins; 2007)
A resolutely witty and enjoyable recounting of a couple years in the life of the Australian film director Bruce Beresford. Truthfully, I’ve never found Beresford’s films—which include BREAKER MORANT (1980), DRIVING MISS DAISY (1989), A GOOD MAN IN AFRICA (1994) and DOUBLE JEOPARDY (1999)—terribly exciting on the whole, but he does prove an engaging raconteur.
This book is related in the form of a 2003-05 diary in which Beresford chronicled his attempts at getting several film projects financed. All his efforts came to nought, stymied by false promises and unreasonable demands by producers and financiers (who won’t commit to a film unless a name actor is attached). He wound up directing the straight-to-DVD thriller THE CONTRACT in late ‘05, from a script he hated and with a star (John Cusak) he didn’t feel was right for the part.
Beyond that the book is filled with enjoyable tidbits. My favorites were a remembrance of how Jodie Foster attempted to get Beresford to halt an argument because, she claimed, she was so intelligent she’d surely win, and how DRIVING MISS DAISY became the phenomenon it did because Warner Bros’ designated 1989 awards contender IN COUNTRY tanked, and so, lacking a holiday tentpole, the studio put all its support behind the low budget DAISY.
Beresford isn’t shy about voicing vitriolic opinions, from his thoughts on Toni Collette’s “overacting” (which got him into a fair amount of trouble in his native land) to the “monumentally silly” KILL BILL (2003) to his claim that physical beauty is responsible for actors’ success “90% of the time.” There’s also the very astute observation that, “As a general rule, the more elaborate the posters and more expensively designed the promotional material the less impressive the movie.”
And yes, as the title promises, actor Josh Hartnett figures into the proceedings. His first appearance is in a mid-book recollection during which Hartnett claims to have been anxious to work with Beresford, and again at the end, when Hartnett has the opposite reaction, saying he’ll only work on a project Beresford is slated to direct if he bows out.