Page 4124 - Week 13 - Thursday, 6 December 2007
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One thinks that Mr Gentleman has a penchant for fast cars. I might suggest Too Fast, Too Furious, but some people might not think that that is quite in character for him. He might prefer a quieter mode following the career of one of the Marx brothers through Duck Soup, A Day at the Races and Harpo Speaks.
Ms MacDonald can spend the holidays catching up on all those Old Testament epics: The Ten Commandments; Samson and Delilah; The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah; and Esther and the King, which has recently been remade as One Night with the King, so there are two versions. But not everything should be a sword-and-sandal epic; she could take in a few musicals like Fiddler on the Roof and Yentl.
Sometimes Dr Foskey seems to be not on the same planet as the rest of us. I thought of Blithe Spirit, but in the light of the recent discussions on the Greens’ drugs policy we have put together a stoned pack: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; Pulp Fiction; Dazed and Confused; Half Baked; and, for light relief with a public transport twist, Dude, Where’s My Car?
There will be no Dirk Bogarde for Mr Barr and no Snakes on a Plane. I had been intending to give him a blockbuster teachers pack—Akeelah and the Bee, Goodbye, Mr Chips, Blackboard Jungle and To Sir, With Love, but after today’s answer in question time there will be no movies at all for Mr Barr. Instead, there will be a pair of books—Michael Heywood’s The Ern Malley Affair along with Peter Carey’s My Life is a Fake.
To the members of the media, I have a few offerings as well. To our friends in print, you cannot go past Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau with The Front Page, recalling the days when papers were papers and reporters were truly intrepid. To our friends in the electronic media, don’t miss Network and Broadcast News, which has some of my favourite lines in movies.
To my staff Tio and Jeremy I say avoid Rocky—any Rocky movie—and The Da Vinci Code at all costs.
To the staff in the Assembly: apart from Amazing Grace, which we have already talked about, there are not many movies about the parliamentary process except Mr. Smyth goes to Washington—but that is not very Westminster—and some costume dramas about the English Civil War and Cromwell like To Kill a King. Hansard, I am sorry to say, rarely gets a look in in the movies, and committees are almost equally overlooked. For the attendants, my only suggestion is a film version of Waiting for Godot; I hope it is not too absurd.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella) (6.20): To celebrate Christmas this year I am pleased to present the Assembly with the Top Gear awards. For those who are unaware, Top Gear is the top rating British car review show. I will start this year by giving the top gong to our illustrious leader. This year Jon receives the car made famous by the charismatic, smooth-talking James Bond—and what better car than Aston Martin’s self-proclaimed king of cars, the DB9. According to Aston Martin,
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