Bondi Local | Mark Joffe
Bondi Local | Mark Joffe
Melanie first met Mark in around 1990 when he was directing the movie Spotswood, and over the years we’ve kept in touch as friends. These days we tend to run into Mark on the Promenade, where he, more often than not, has some fabulously interesting movie industry contact in tow.
Melanie spoke to Mark at his home on Brighton Boulevard.
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Please tell us a little bit about your background.
Basically I’m a film director and well, also television director now.
I came up here from Sydney in the mid 80s to do a job. I came up from Melbourne but I was born in Belaruse. I came to Australia when I was nearly 5 and grew up in Melbourne. Very much a Melbourne boy until I came up here.
Are your parents still around?
My mother is.
Does she still speak with a strong Russian accent?
A thick accent, yes. She’s 90 and going strong.
I got a job up here and straight away I liked it. Through a friend, Deborah Thomas – an apartment next to her was being sold in Elizabeth Bay. She said buy it, and I did. It went for the princely sum of $97,500!
We all hate those stories!
8 floors up overlooking the harbour!
(By the way, that was 97.5 but I owe half a million on it now.)
I continued to work up here and a little bit overseas and in Melbourne. Then I met my late wife, Lydia [Livingston]; and she had this fantastic apartment that she had been sharing, originally with Stephen McLean who had found it. Steve was a write/director and had made a couple of films and was a real bon vivant around town. And she was sharing with Sally Campbell at the time. And I loved it and not long after that I moved in. Lyds had been here for a few years and I moved in in 1990.
We’re talking about the apartment we’re sitting in at the moment with this beautiful view over the beach?
Correct.
And so tell us some of the things you’ve worked on. I think Spotswood was probably where I first met you …
The very first thing was The Great Bookie Robbery that was a Melbourne mini series that did very well. Then I did a film in Sydney – Grevious Bodily Harm. And then after that films like Spotswood,Cosi and Matchmaker in Ireland. The Man Who Sued God and more recently House of Hancock about the lovely Gina Reinhart. Top rating show of last year!
Top rating AND had its own little controversial moment!
Yes, a little stoush that’s still going on. And I’m just setting up my next project – the next Bond. Alan not James! Hopefully that will be seen around September 2016. It’s a very quick turn around.
What do you love about Bondi?
I was in Melbourne recently working on a project and I was desperately keen to get back. Bondi is like a village. I go down to the beach, which I’m only a couple of hundred yards from – I don’t even take a towel with me, I just dip in and head back. And it’s all shapes and sizes which suits me! It’s just a very collegiate atmosphere. Everyone knows everybody else. Especially those people who have been around for a long time like I have.
And there’s still quite a few of the oldies don’t you reckon?
Yes, but they are getting a bit pushed out. There’s a lot of development going around. It’s going on all around here on Ben Buckler. But that’s the way it goes. And why not? It’s a beautiful part of the world.
The thing we all have in common with everyone who comes here is our love for the place don’t you think?
The proximity of it [the beach] is just great. My car is in the garage now and it sometimes doesn’t come out for 4 or 5 days.
What I do means that I can work out of home a lot of the time. Working on scripts or anything on the computer can be done here.
What would you consider your Bondi beat? What are your favourite coffee/foodie places?
I think just here at Ben Buckler. I love Bru, my favourite coffee – Allpress. Sean [Moran] and Michael {Robinson] are great friends of mine so when I can afford it – although he’s so generous – I’m always there at Sean’s Panaroma. I think it’s as good as any restaurant in the city. My friend Paulie Franco has got The Italian so I go there quite a lot. Maybe once a week or so and I always have coffee with him. He’s an old Bondi boy too. And round the corner here is Bondi’s Best which I think has fantastic fish. And Hiro, the Japanese chef there does a great ginger and clam soup which I would recommend highly. There’s always new spots popping up. There’s a great place called Macelleria which is a couple of doors up from Ravesi’s. You pick your own steak and Peter [Zaidan, profiled HERE] who runs that I’ve gotten to know quite well. It’s good value. So there’s quite a good variety of food and things like that. I don’t visit the bars quite so often! There’s good spots around but everyone’s about 15 years old! Also, Hall Street has now taken off which is great.
So long as the Council is careful about what it allows. We could have had a train station right on the beach which would have been horrendous. It’s the only bit of greenery we’ve got down there. Trams OK – bring them back! Down Blair Street or whatever.
People still want to knock down the trees. There’s a few trees left on Ben Buckler but people still want to get rid of them. They just don’t get it. It’d make a better view if we knocked down the trees in front here but I don’t want it. You can’t underestimate people’s stupidity and greed! It’s an attitude that they somehow deserve this and you can’t speak logically with them.
What are you reading and/or watching at the moment?
I love all those cable shows. From America particularly. My favourite show is VEEP. Julia Louis Dreyfuss is sensational. I rewatched The Wire which I think is one of the greatest shows ever made. I also rewatched The Sopranos. The FargoTV series is good fun to watch. Last night I watched a bit more of The Missing which I didn’t think I’d like – child that goes missing and all that, but if they’re well made and not too silly or pretentious. I enjoyed the House of Cards until the third series when they all went a bit crackers. I don’t watch a lot of Aussie TV which probably makes me do things a bit differently. And sport I watch.
What’s your code?
I used to play Australian Rules! I was captain of Box Hill at 22! I got paid as well at that time. I was getting a $100 a game. But quit when I started directing at 23, so I didn’t last too long.
You can always go back to it!
Yes, I have these weird dreams some times when I am playing again. I love watching the AFL but I’ll watch pretty much anything. I’ve become pretty friendly with a lot of good rugby players lately so I catch up with them. We went to France in 2007 to watch the World Cup which was fantastic. We travelled with George Gregan, who was playing … and his wife Erica. That was great fun!
I love reading The New Yorker which I think is the greatest magazine in the world. Beautifully written about any story you want. Beautiful writing. And the occasional novel. I don’t mind the odd pulp novel. Currently I’m reading A Brief History of Seven Killings (by Marlon James) set in Jamaica where I’ve been a couple of times. There is NOTHING better – and this is going to show my age - than popping into bed with a good book. I don’t mind the odd night out but it’s getting odder and odder.
Do you have a motto for life?
Very profound! I don’t think it’s a motto but I think try and behave reasonably. I’m suffering fools less. And so much of our society is controlled by buffoons. It’s changing here and there. I saw The Big Short last night, and you can’t take it from a film but, it’s beyond satire how the system is run. But what can you do? I’m lazy and don’t do too much about it. There’s so much disparity and so much greed. You can see around here, there is so much money in what was a working class suburb. So, avoid greed. I can’t bare greedy or unfair people. They have to be called out.
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Full interview on SoundCloud below or HERE
