George Miller restarts the “Mad Max” machines with “Furiosa”, the fifth film in the saga, presented in Cannes on Wednesday May 15. A look back at the Australian director’s legendary epic of blood and metal.
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Once upon a time, there was George Miller. Before becoming the director of the post-apocalyptic saga that needs no introduction, he began his career as a doctor. HAS there END of the 19 years70, he was emergency doctor In a small city of Queensland. He takes care of it THE acciofnted from there road. Dyears A country as Australia, where we worship the automobile, it is a true national sport. In addition to his work as a doctor, Miller East also cinephhee.
George Miller has spent his savings to finance and film Mad Max. He will release the film in 1979. The pitch? A rodeo savage taking place on THE highways of there suburb of Melbourne. A first shutter brutal And nihilistic Who reveals your strongest asset : Mel Gibson.
It appears on the screen In THE role of Max Rockatansky, A police officer in love of revenge And widower. Max’s shadow will continue to loom over action cinema for years to come. The rest is history.
George Miller’s machine is launched. Three years after his first opus, he is expected around the corner. With the following, Mad Max: the challenge, released in 1982, he perhaps signed his magnum opus. This work will influence science fiction cinema at the end of the 20th century. In the world George Miller, a gasoline can is at the center of killings and motorized warriors dressed in leather kill each other in a desert as far as the eye can see.
Miller’s staging gains momentum. Among the admirers of the saga, director James Cameron. “When I saw Mad Max 2: the challenge, I figured Miller had read my mind.”confided the director ofAvatar At Figaro last April. “I said to my neighbor in the room whom I did not know: It’s awesome ! I was addicted to cars, I even did street racing. I’ve crashed a lot of cars! We find this adrenaline in Terminator.” HASThus, George Miller confirms his status as a pioneer of the golden age of Australian cinema.
The unloved episode of the saga was released in 1985. Civilization is still on the verge of extinction after a nuclear war but, this time, Mel Gibson has long hair. Tina Turner, great rock song icon, plays the role of Entity, emblematic figure of the town of Bartertown, fueled by methane.
Many things are criticized for this third part: for example, the fact that Max calms down, takes a sudden passion for the defense of the oppressed to put aside a little of the energy and violence of Mad Max to fall into a watered-down fiction devoid of this rage and this madness specific to the protagonists proposed in the two previous opuses by George Miller.
The duels to the death under the “Thunderdome” lack the adrenaline of the chases of the first two films. The film aims to offer a new facet of the post-apocalyptic world, closer to the family blockbuster, in which the secondary characters gain importance. We move away from lethal cars and noisy roads to seek to understand the functioning of a world which is rebuilding itself after years of anarchy.
The three Mad Max follow each other, but are not alike. Thirty years after his last appearance on screen, Max Rockatansky is back. Without Mel Gibson. Mad Max: Fury Road was presented at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 and won six Oscars in the process. If, for Scorsese, cinema is a reflection on today’s world, for Miller, it is tank trucks speeding at full speed. The director, aged 70 at the time, is back on track with Fury Road. The chase remains the director’s favorite figure of speech.
Movement, action, speed. In this film, it is after water that everyone is running, and no longer oil. In total, 150 million dollars were used to produce this film and allowed the director to afford the toys of his dreams. Customized vehicles with a range of accessories (poles, flamethrowers, electric guitar, etc.). Spectacularly staged fights are there. Mad Max, played here by Tom Hardy, mainly plays the role of foil. Charlize Theron is at the wheel of this film. She plays the role of Furiosa, an Amazon with a shaved head and one arm amputated.
We will know on Wednesday May 15, the day of the world premiere in Cannes of Furiosa before its theatrical release on May 22, whether George Miller still has gas in the engine or whether it’s time to turn off the ignition. The director tells the story of the youth of his one-armed heroine, played by Anya Taylor-Joy (known for her numerous roles including that in the Netflix series The Queen’s Game), when she still had her two arms and already thirsty for revenge. Everything but a walk in the park at the sight of the first images.