Latest news with #MartaDusseldorp
Perth Now
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
10 Shows to Watch on TV This Winter
Winter's closing in, which can only mean one thing: it's time to get snuggly on the couch and settle in for good old binge watch! Good news: there are plenty of great shows on the way. Ready, set, watch! And just like that, we're back with the girls! Can we still call them that? Probably not, they're well into their 50s. But true to form, they're still living their best New York lives. This season begins with Carrie settled into her enormous new Brownstone, Miranda dating up a storm (Che Diaz is out of the picture), and Charlotte still knee-deep in teen life. Frothy, escapist fun. Starring and executive produced by Owen Wilson, this series is about an over-the-hill pro golfer (Wilson) who, after the collapse of his life and his marriage, decides to hedge his bets and mentor a 17-year-old golf prodigy called Santi (Peter Dager). Described as a 'heartfelt, feel-good sports comedy', it's already getting lots of buzz. Ted Lasso 2.0? There have been some great British crime dramas doing the rounds of late, and this one, starring Sean Bean as a cocaine smuggling gangster called Ronnie Phelan, is up there, having already generated plenty of buzz in the UK. Joining Bean are James Nelson-Joyce as Ronnie's associate and Hannah Onslow as the woman he falls for — their love story is at the centre of the story. Based on the enormously popular book by Jane Harper, this stars The Rings Of Power's Charlie Vickers as Kieran Elliott, a man returning to his home town in Tasmania, along with his partner (Yerin Ha, who'll soon be seen as the romantic lead in the upcoming series of Bridgerton), haunted by a tragedy that changed their lives years earlier. When a woman's body is discovered on the beach, the truth of what really occurred comes to light. Emily Alyn Lind and Shubham Maheshwari star in We Were Liars. Credit: Jessie Redmond / Prime Based on the bestselling novel by E. Lockhart, the series follows the story of wealthy teen Cadence Sinclair Eastman (Emily Alyn Lind) and her close-knit group of friends, nicknamed The Liars. Cadence, from a privileged and secretive family, returns to their private island a year after a mysterious accident changed her life — dark secrets begin to emerge. One for younger viewers. If you've ever made a mixtape, then this one's for you! Based on the novel by Jane Sanderson, this tells the story of two teen lovers, Alison (Teresa Palmer) and Daniel (Jim Sturgess), living in Sheffield, England, in 1989 who drift apart, only to reconnect years later on the other side of the world. This has big One Day energy, and fans of that nostalgic Netflix series will want to check this out. Bay of Fires, starring Marta Dusseldorp, is back for a second season. Credit: Supplied Season two of this Tasmanian-set dark comedy is hitting screens mid-June. It sees Marta Dusseldorp returning to reprise her role as mum-on-the-run, Stella. She's still stuck in Mystery Bay, but good news — no one has tried to kill her in recent months! But things won't stay smooth-sailing for long — you can't mess with the Russian mafia and not expect consequences. Those that love a period drama will be pleased to see that this under-the-radar favourite is returning for a third season. The Julian Fellowes-created show follows New York's upper-crust as they navigate life in the 'Gilded Age'. Come for the fabulous frocks, stay for sensational performances from The White Lotus' Carrie Coon and Christine Baranski. Disney is doing fans a solid favour and dropping all 10 episodes of the fourth season at the same time — winning! This season sees Carmy, Sydney and Richie determined to move forward after the disastrous run-up to the opening of their fine dining establishment. Can they overcome all that toxicity and pull together as a team? We can't wait to find out. If you've seen the trailer for the third and final season of Squid Game, chances are you'll be bracing for the show's release — it looks scary as heck! This final series picks up from season two's devastating cliffhanger, and thrusts Gi-hun (Player 456) back into the game — he's more determined than ever to dismantle it once and for all. This one's shaping up to be big.
ABC News
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
With or Without You director Kelly Schilling on why she wrote a Mother's Day love story to 'heal' after divorce
Kelly Schilling's debut film is a story about love — but it's not quite a love story. What: A road-trip movie exploring the relationship between a young woman, her alcoholic mother, and the handsome stranger she's reluctant to take a chance on. Directed by: Kelly Schilling Starring: Marta Dusseldorp, Melina Vidler, Albert Mwangi Where: In cinemas Likely to make you feel: Like calling your mum She initially pegged With or Without You as a cross-cultural romance, and says writing it became a "healing process" at the end of her marriage. "I didn't want to get bitter, and I'm a romantic," she tells ABC Entertainment. "I didn't get the love story I wanted in real life, but I wanted to put one on the page so I could experience it through my characters." But after almost 15 years in the making, the film focuses more on the relationship between a mum and daughter — and is released just in time for Mother's Day. It follows Chloe (Melina Vidler), a young woman who's dedicated her life to rescuing her alcoholic mother, Sharon (Marta Dusseldorp). Chloe and Sharon soon find themselves on an unexpected road trip after Chloe's ex-boyfriend fire-bombs her caravan, destroying everything inside. They're joined on their journey by West-African man Dalu (Albert Mwangi), a relative stranger who's also looking for a better life. Despite delving into the cyclical, intergenerational nature of violence, abuse and addiction, as well as the experiences of those seeking asylum in Australia, With or Without You never feels bleak or didactic. And for Dusseldorp, it's the director's personal stake in the story that makes it shine. "I knew it would be treated with an enormous amount of respect and care and consciousness," Dusseldorp tells ABC Entertainment. Raised by a single mum with four kids, Schilling says things were "tough" financially for her family growing up. While her mum wasn't an alcoholic like Dusseldorp's character in the film, she did experience domestic violence in her childhood. "There's things that we live and learn from, especially in regards to relationships, and people come through our lives that maybe weren't very nice," Schilling says. As an adult, She remembers observing one of her partners — who had a substance abuse problem — around her children. It was then that she realised she was repeating the mistakes of her mum. "For me, that cycle was feeling that I was only really loveable if a man loved me — so accepting less than what I deserved in a man, because I was just lucky if he loved me." In the film, we see Chloe both pushing against and falling into the mistakes of her mum's past — just as Sharon mimicked her own mother's vices before her. Much of the film centres on Schilling's message that we cannot save each other — only ourselves. Chloe spent her childhood picking up the pieces of her mother and, as an adult, is still dedicating her life to dragging Sharon towards sobriety. Chloe pushes Dalu away, seeing him as just another person who needs her help, just as Dalu is drawn to Chloe's own tragedy, and tries to act as a mediator and support between the two women. "A lot of women try to save their partners, [and maybe] men do too, I don't know," Schilling says. "But in trying to save them, you put yourself in positions of possibly danger and pain — until you realise you have no control over their actions." Dalu's character was inspired by the father of Schilling's two children, who is Nigerian, and the obstacles the director saw him fight firsthand. Schilling says there was no awkwardness about putting her ex-husband on screen. "Apart from being West African, he just became his own character. For Mwangi, his character's story as a migrant and international student struggling to find work is "something I can relate to a lot". He remembers being told to "get out" of a bus after counting coins for a ticket and coming up short. "I will never forget that day. I was sweating through every pore in my body, and I felt like everyone's gaze in that bus was weighing on me. It was very embarrassing." Schilling and Mwangi collaborated on Dalu's character, with the actor editing elements of the script to ensure authenticity. "I really wanted to maintain his dignity," he says. He points to a scene where Dalu counts coins to pay for a meal in a diner, while a white waitress pointedly hovers over him. "He was kind of written as not really seeing [the racist subtext of] what was happening. And for me, that was impossible." For all the film's themes around our inability to save others, it also celebrates love and the power of small acts of kindness; a tissue from a child on a bus and gentle patience from a stranger in a pub provide key turning points in Sharon's recovery. "I want the audience to walk away from this film with the courage to forgive themselves for past mistakes … knowing they can trust their instincts. They just need to listen to them." In her own way, Schilling admits she wrote With or Without You as a love letter to her younger self. "Writing saved me when I was younger. Fighting for funding (and time, as a busy single mum) to see her script go from a dream to a reality, has been a years-long battle. "You just have to tuck it away. And then suddenly, I went to the cinema and I saw the posters up and I was like: 'It's really a real movie!'" Tearing up, she says the "dream come true" has been overwhelming at times. "Seeing some of the performances on screen, like Marta and Melina and some of their moments together, actually seeing it thrown back in my face in such a real, powerful way, it was confronting." Her own mum is "very proud". "She said, 'If you can find something good out of something that was so bad, and it helps people, then do it.'" With or Without You is in cinemas now.
ABC News
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Donald Trump's film tariff threat is a chance to invest in Australian content
The headline screamed "Don't Fear the Donald", accompanied by an elegant portrait of actor and producer Marta Dusseldorp in a red suit and smiling with a preternaturally reassuring lack of concern. She seemed so unfussed for someone at the centre of a new global trade war that I almost smiled with her. Dusseldorp was promoting her new film With or Without You and, upon being asked by a Sydney newspaper about the US president's shock announcement of 100 per cent tariffs on any film made outside the US, she rebuffed the clamour of anxiety that had met the news. "There have been a lot of announcements that come out of America and not all of them come true," she said. "If we stay authentic the world will keep listening." She's probably right, as is every other Australian and even American filmmaker who greeted the news with horror, then bewilderment then resignation as they sequentially realised the near impossibility of imposing this thought bubble on an industry so internationally linked and interdependent that there's probably not a single Hollywood blockbuster of the last 10 years that can claim to be 100 per cent Made in the USA. You need only watch any movie to the end of its credits to see the offshore animation units in Korea, the location shoots in Queensland or the generous concessions made by Ontario, Canada to realise that even if American filmmakers want to boost local production, this isn't the way they would want to do it. Cheaper labour costs, competitive exchange rates and local incentives, such as Australia's 30 per cent location offset have made Hollywood a global industry, and not only to their benefit, but to that of the territories that get to boost their talent and skill base and see hundreds of locals employed. The idea was the brainchild of actor and Trump-appointed Special Ambassador to Hollywood, Jon Voight, and his manager, and was suggested during a meeting last weekend, which is how policy is now made in the US. Voight went on to explain and justify an announcement that infuriated his Hollywood colleagues, saying that his proposal included tariffs "only in certain limited circumstances", alongside broader incentives such as tax credits. But I'm not sure that's going to be enough to get back on Tom Cruise's Christmas coconut cake list: there's barely one Mission Impossible that wasn't filmed somewhere outside the US. I've just spent the week at Screen Forever, the annual conference for makers of screen content in Australia, including the ABC, other broadcasters, independent producers, writers and directors, which was almost completely upended by Donald Trump's news, until the same sangfroid as Dusseldorp's began to steal over the meeting. The Canadian delegation just shrugged: more disruption from a president who saw bomb-throwing as the opening gambit for any negotiation, and they would know. The Canadian-US border is the most industrially porous one of any joined territory, with roughly 20 per cent of all American films either shot there or using Canadian production services, making it the most popular non-US location for American films. The Canadians at the conference, including president and chief executive of the Canada Media Fund, Valerie Creighton, know how connected the countries are through the film industry, and the advantages the US players reap. US filmmakers would not be happy. It's significantly cheaper shooting in Canada than it is in LA or New York, and regions like Ontario have built a film industry out of offering that support. Here in Australia, the Gold Coast, Sydney — and to a lesser extent Victoria — have done the same. The managing director of the ABC, Hugh Marks, was equally phlegmatic and like Dusseldorp saw a potential upside to the announcement: a chance to concentrate on developing Australian IP and investing in Australian films rather than just being a service-provider for US interests. That of course requires much more local investment — privately and from government — but the return on investment would be exponential. So perhaps the lesson from this week's Trump calamity is that sovereign interest can work both ways, and if the newly re-elected Albanese government is serious about Australian culture and production, then Trump could be inadvertently showing the way to ensuring it. This weekend, fashion now at the Met Gala, and fashion then, with the secret life of the potato farmer, Marie Antoinette. Have a safe and happy weekend and remember: it might not be true in every case, but it's quite possible that for the mum in your life the perfect Mother's Day is a pot of tea, a book (or TV remote) and a locked door, with you on the other side. Allow for the possibility. And play her this too… once she comes out. Go well. Virginia Trioli is presenter of Creative Types and a former co-host of ABC News Breakfast and Mornings on ABC Radio Melbourne.
