Emerald City (film)

Emerald City
Directed by	Michael Jenkins
Produced by	Joan Long
Written by	David Williamson
Based on	play by David Williamson
Starring	John Hargreaves Robyn Nevin Nicole Kidman
Music by	Chris Neal
Cinematography	Paul Murphy
Edited by	Neil Thumpston
Release date	1988 (Australia) 9 February 1992 (USA)
Running time	93 min.
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	A$2,831,738
Box office	AU $192,831

Emerald City is a 1988 film directed by Michael Jenkins, an adaptation of the play of the same name. Much of the play's dialogue is retained, though discussion of off-stage characters is usually replaced with their appearance and a more conventionally cinematic level and speed of dialogue. Also, the younger daughter Hannah was omitted.

Film rights to the play were bought by Joan Long whose first choice to direct was Bruce Beresford. However he had just filmed an adaptation of the play Crimes of the Heart and did not want to do another play adaptation so Mike Jenkins was hired instead. According to some accounts, the original draft of the script pared down the dialogue but John Hargreaves and Robyn Nevin insisted it be put back during rehearsals. Michael Jenkins decided to go along with the actors but had them speak the dialogue especially fast. Jenkins:

We sat down with the piece when it was in script form and we thought, `This is not going to survive if we approach it too politely', so... we decided we would do it as we did - we were a bit inspired by some of the Cary Grant movies of the '40s when they talked so quickly. So we thought we would pursue that line and feed the information to an audience at a fairly fast rate so that it keeps happening for them. There were mixed critiques. We had some friends and some foes. Those that loved it loved it - those that hated it were very angry about how fast we spoke.

The Australian Film Institute nominated it for five awards: Best Actor (John Hargreaves), Best Achievement in Cinematography (Paul Murphy), Best Adapted Screenplay (David Williamson), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Nicole Kidman), and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Chris Haywood), for which it won.

Williamson enjoyed the adaptation saying it "had a lot of raw energy".

The film has never been released on home video in the United States, though it has been shown on the cable channel Romance Classics. A region-free PAL DVD was released in the United Kingdom by an anonymous company in Herts (VFC31962 NL041; UPC: 5 017633 41002 >) sometimes given online as "Hollywood Classics". This edition was pressed with a ten-second jump in the master early in the film. Although this jump is noted in the counter, it happens in exactly the same place on all copies.

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