Smash Palace
| Smash Palace | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Roger Donaldson |
| Produced by |
Roger Donaldson Larry Parr |
| Written by | Roger Donaldson Peter Hansard Bruno Lawrence |
| Starring |
Bruno Lawrence Anna Maria Monticelli Greer Robson Keith Aberdein Desmond Kelly |
| Music by | Sharon O'Neill |
| Cinematography | Graeme Cowley |
| Edited by | Michael J. Horton |
|
Release date
|
30 April 1982 |
|
Running time
|
108 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Box office | NZ $600,000 (New Zealand) |
Smash Palace is a New Zealand feature film, released in April 1982. The film chronicles a former race car driver (played by Bruno Lawrence) who inadvertently helps ruin his own marriage, then kidnaps his daughter (Greer Robson). Lawrence's character runs a carwrecking yard in an isolated area of New Zealand's North Island. Smash Palace was the second feature directed by Roger Donaldson. Critical acclaim in the United States won him interest from Hollywood, and the chance to direct the first of a number of films financed outside of New Zealand, The Bounty.
The soundtrack was composed and performed by New Zealand-born singer Sharon O'Neill. Smash Palace has an R16 rating.
The film centers on the "Smash Palace" car wrecking yard known on the North Island Volcanic Plateau, where former racing driver Al Shaw (Lawrence) lives with his unhappy French wife Jacqui (Jemison) and daughter Georgie (Robson). Jacqui begins a relationship with Al's best friend, local police officer Ray Foley (Aberdein). After a violent argument she leaves Al, taking Georgie with her. Al takes Georgie and takes her into hiding, but shortly afterwards Georgie falls ill and the police catch up with Al when he tries to rob a pharmacy at gunpoint. Al ends up cornered in Smash Palace, and agrees to hand Georgie over to Jacqui, and exchange a female hostage over in return for Ray.
The film was funded by the New Zealand Film Commission. When Donaldson first begun applied for funding he was turned down. On a second attempt he was once again denied funding, until veteran film maker John O’Shea pointed out that Donaldson’s earlier work Sleeping Dogs had been the reason the commission was founded.
One of the conditions of the film’s eventual funding by the NZFC was that it be completed in time to screen at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. This forced a tight schedule on the production team, giving only four months between the commencement of the shoot and the film’s premiere.
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