Filmmaking couple Nadia Tass and David Parker are selling 14 Lang St, South Yarra, which served as a production office and creative studio for their AFI- winning film Malcolm starring Colin Friels (left).
Prolific Australian filmmaking couple Nadia Tass and David Parker have listed the South Yarra house where they crafted the iconic gadgets for their cult movie Malcolm.
The 1986 AFI best film award-winner starring Colin Friels, Bud Tingwell, John Hargreaves, Lindy Davies and Denise Scott won seven other AFI awards that year, a Best Director gong for Tass and a Best Screenplay for Parker among them.
Their four-bedroom home at 14 Lang St, South Yarra, is on the market with $3m-$3.3m price hopes.
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The residence became a production office for Malcolm and other projects which saw actors including Heather Mitchell, Ben Mendelson and Claudia Karvan, plus British comedian and writer Ben Elton – with whom the couple worked on the BBC miniseries Stark – visit, often for rehearsals.
Tass recalled cutting Friels’ hair at the table for Malcolm’s filming and he also lived at the home for a time, as did Hargreaves.
Parker and Tass have collaborated and worked individually on many award-winning flicks such as Rikky and Pete and The Big Steal, television series and theatre productions.
“With films such as The Big Steal, there are certainly scenes in there that we realised what their potential was around the dining room table,” Tass said.
Nadia Tass and David Parker at the premiere of their film Fatal Honeymoon in 2014. Picture: Zak Simmonds.
The facade of 14 Lang St, South Yarra, as seen from the street where David Parker and Nadia Tass tested out the cars they used in the film Malcolm.
Nadia Tass, David Parker and former Victorian deputy premier Jim Kennan at the 1991 opening of the Melbourne Film Studio in Port Melbourne, with the famous car that was split in half in the movie Malcolm. Picture: Rob Baird.
Their feature Amy in which Rachel Griffiths appeared won 23 international awards including multiple gongs at the 1999 Cannes International Film Festival.
And their 2016 film The Menkoff Method starred Noah Taylor who took time off from shooting TV’s Game of Thrones to participate.
In the 1970s, Parker purchased the house, consisting of a former ice cream cone factory and Victorian-era cottage, because it was both an ideal photography studio and abode.
That same decade, he photographed bands like the Beatles, ABBA, AC/DC, Skyhooks and Mondo Rock.
Later, the couple raised their two sons at the home which they updated throughout the 1980s and 1990s, adding an indoor swimming pool and spa, plus the upper storey.
There’s Baltic pine floors, high ceilings and exposed brick working fireplaces inside.
Actor Colin Friels in film Malcolm.
The house is set on a 441sq m block of land.
Ms Tass joked they had done “terrible things to their finances” such as borrowing against the residence to help finance films including Malcolm in which Friels portrays a brilliant inventor who helps plan a bank heist.
The movie’s profits allowed them to purchase the Melbourne Film Studios in Port Melbourne which they operated until 2009.
Malcolm set pieces crafted at the home included movable rubbish bins which had attachments like a gun, a fire extinguisher, and a clown’s head that could blow smoke bombs and cars which split in two for the bank robbery scenes.
“I can remember, particularly with the split cars, we’d wheel them out on the street to try them out,” Parker said.
“We got these little Honda-Z’s, which were the smallest car, I think, available at the time and we’d strip all the mechanics out of them.
“Then you left with just the bodywork and we actually cut that those in half with a full inch angle grinder.”
The pool where the couple taught their sons to swim.
David Parker, Nadia Tass and actor Claudia Karvan at the premiere of their film The Big Steal.
They said the local community had been incredibly supportive of the film but had some “pretty funny” reactions to seeing the bisected cars.
Apart from their creative endeavours. their favourite memories of the home include teaching their sons to swim and spending time in the sunlight-filled living and dining areas.
The couple moved out of the house some years ago and Tass’ mother, who loved tending to the garden, lived there until last year.
The kitchen is accompanied by living and dining rooms and a casual meals area on the ground floor.
Blood orange trees and a lemon tree feature in the garden.
Set on 441sq m block, the home is close to Toorak Rd, Commercial Rd and Chapel St’s shops and restaurants, South Yarra train station, Prahran Market, several schools and Fawkner Park,
The residence features Baltic pine floors, high ceilings, exposed brick working fireplaces and four sets of double doors opening to the gardens planted with fruit trees.
Upstairs is the main bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe and ensuite, a fourth bedroom, attic storage and study with a balcony.
Marshall White’s Richard Mackinnon said most buyers were planning to renovate or build a new family home, or else develop two to three new homes.
The house will be auctioned at 10.30am on December 6.
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