Director Mark Joffee talks to us about his seductive made-for-TV crime thriller "Dripping In Chocolate", which stars David Wenham, and is set to premiere next month.
Set in inner city Sydney, director Mark Joffe's contemporary crime thriller, Dripping In Chocolate, centres around Juliana (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's Louise Lombard), a boutique chocolate shop owner who comes under scrutiny as a murder has just taken place outside her shop windows. As the mystery unfolds, jaded Homicide Detective Bennet O'Mara (David Wenham), finds that this alluring and seductive temptress has more to do with the ensuing murders than she lets on...
Selecting his leading man wasn't a tough choice with the director having worked with David Wenham before on the 1996 comedy/drama Cosi, also starring Toni Collette and Ben Mendelsohn. "I know David quite well," Joffe says. "I worked with him years and years ago in what I think was his first [major role in a] feature film with Cosi. I ran into him socially and I said, СI think I have something that could be right up your alley.' So we discussed it, I got the script sent to him and he responded immediately that he liked it. We went from there."
The director says he strived to create a collaborative vibe on set. "I wanted to create an atmosphere that is conducive with everyone having a bit of input and I think they appreciated that," Joffe says.
Dripping In Chocolate exudes the flavour and atmosphere of a classy film noir - stylistically a departure for Joffe whose previous features (The Man Who Sued God, The MatchMaker) have all had a comedic element. Joffe saw David's character, Bennet, as a contemporary Humphrey Bogart; an anti-hero - complicated, contradictory and flawed. Joffe notes, however, that "it had to be a modern film noir. You have to bring them up to date otherwise it becomes too cliched and obvious. Everything has to be rooted in some sort of honesty and reality. It's a modern film noir, but it's not pretentious or anything like that, it's something that I hope will appeal to a lot of people."
Indeed, Joffe - along with writers Sara Smith and John Ridley - was determined to find the humanity and truth in these enigmatic characters. "It was very important for us to make the characters believable and modern, but mysterious and also complicated like nearly everybody is. Not everyone is cut and dry or behaves in a normal way. One of the good things to come out in a lot of these characters is that they behave in occasionally contradictory ways and that's how real people behave."
So what does Joffe think of the Australian TV crime thriller, given the genre's recent rise in popularity (largely thanks to Underbelly)? "I think the old Сwhodunit' is always interesting, along with the murder mystery, sex and drama." But Joffe also adds advice as to the future of Australian crime drama. "You look at the wonderful stuff that is happening in American cable television from HBO to Showtime. They've got shows about the police with The Wire, drug dealing with Breaking Bad, the domestic situation with The Sopranos. Each of these shows is a step up from a lot of cinema that we have seen, and if Australia can try and follow that template - and pay attention to the stories and the complexity of the characters - then that is always going to attract an audience."
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