Cinema Papers December 1982

Registered by Australia Post

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HM9

Mel Gibson in

JHEyEAROE lyingDangerously ^^Color poster inside plusPharlaji We o f the Never Never and more December 198:

Issue 41 $ 3 .5 0

Jaws L uther I ’d R a th e r Be R ich Im itatio n of Life Im m oral Tales In C elebration In Love an d W ar In n o c en t B ystanders T h e In te rn e c in e P roject In te rru p te d M elody T h e Ita lia n Job It’s A lways Fair W eather Jupiter’s D a rlin g K athy O K ing of H e arts K ism et Kiss of the V am pire Les G ra n d es M anoeuvres G reen Fire G um shoe G uns for San S eb astian Guys an d D olls T he H a rra d E x p erim en t Help H ot E nough for June H ouse of U sher H ow 1 W on the W ar H ustle I C ould Go on S inging I K illed R asp u tin I W alk the L ine Secret C erem ony 1776 Sham us Sim ba T he M ilky Way M uriel T he Story of Adele H A Study in T error Sum m ertim e S u n stru ck Suspira T he Sw an Tales From th e C ry p t T he T am arin d Seed T aras B ulba Ten R illin g to n Place T h a t Lady T h a t O bscure O bject of D esire K nights of th e R ound Table K nights of the T eutonic O rd e r Lady C aroline L am b Lady L L ancelot and G uinevere L andru T h e Last H u n t Last Sum m er T he Last S unset T he Last Valley Lease of Life T he L ight at the Edge of the W orld T he L ittle H ut Live for Life T h e Long H ot S um m er Loot Love an d P ain and th e W h o le D am n T h in g Love Me or Leave Me Lover C om e B ack Loving L u n ch on th e G rass A m sterd am A ffa ir

B eau B rum m el A n A ffa ir to R em em ber A lice ’s A dventures in W onderland A ll C reatu res G reat and Sm all A n a sta sia A sylum B ad D ay at B lack R ock T h e B a rb a ria n an d th e G eisha B a rry L yndon Belle de Jour B en jam in Les B iches B itter H a rv est B lack on W h ite B lack O rp h eu s B low U p B occaccio 70 Le B o n h e u r B o rsa lin o Le B oucher T h e B ride W ore B lack A M a n a n d a W om an M id n ig h t E xpress M r K lein M on O ncle S traw Dogs L’H orn me de Rio T h e re ’s a G irl in my Soup T h e L acem aker Lady Sings th e Blues T h e Lion in W in te r Live an d Let Die T h e L ong H ot S um m er If. . .

Isadora T h e K in g an d I T h e G reat G atsby T h e H u n c h b a c k of N otre D am e M onty P y th o n ’s Life of B rian O liver C h a rio ts of Fire Alfie B attle of B rita in T h e Blue M ax T h e B ridge on th e River Kwai M onty P y th o n a n d th e H oly G rail M u rd e r on th e O rie n t E xpress L aw rence of A ra b ia Julia H e n ry V D e ath on th e N ile D r D o little D ra cu la A B ridge Too F ar T h e C h a rg e of th e L ight B rigade 2001: A Space O dyssey T h o ro u g h ly M o d e rn M illie R ussian R oulette Zazie D a n s Le M etro T h u n d e rb a ll A T ouch of C lass You O n ly Live Twice T h e P in k P a n th e r T h e P in k P a n th e r S trik es A gain T h e P rim e of M iss Jean B rodie K ra m er vs K ra m er T h e S h in in g R aiders of th e Lost A rk A rth u r S apphire O n G olden Pond M ondo C an e

La F em m e Infidele F or P ete’s Sake C ries a n d W h isp e rs D ay for N ight D -D ay th e S ix th of June T h e D evil’s P la y g ro u n d T h e Eagle h as L an d ed E lm er G a n try E lvira M ad ig an E m m an u elle Bugsy M alo n e C a lla n C arousel T h e U gly A m e ric an T h e W ay W e W ere T h e M usic Lovers N icholas a n d A le x a n d ra O L ucky M a n T h e O dessa File O n e D ay in th e Life of Ivan D enisovich T h e T h irty -N in e Steps T ill D e a th U s D o P a rt Tom Jones T h e T rojan W om en R ed Sun W om an of Straw Young W in sto n Z T h e O w l an d th e Pussycat Les P arap lu ies de C h e rb o u rg P icn ic at H a n g in g R ock P illow T alk Song W ith o u t End T h e S pider’s S tratagem S tan d U p an d Be C o u n ted Stolen K isses Face of a Fugitive T h e F am ily W ay Fat C ity F edora F lig h t from A shiya F o o l’s P a ra d e F oreign In trig u e F u n n y Lady G alileo T h e G am bler T h e G a rd e n of Fitzi C o n tin is A G a th e rin g of Eagles G e ttin g S tra ig h t T h e G lass S lipper G ood N e ig h b o u r Sam T h e C urse of F ra n k e n ste in T h e D a rk A venger A D ay in th e D e ath of Joe Egg T h e D ay of th e T riffids D eep in My H e a rt T h e D efector T h e D evil at F o u r O ’clock D irty L ittle B illy T h e D iscreet C h a rm of th e B ourgeoisie A D o ll’s H ouse A D re am of P assion Eagle in a C age El G reco El Topo Butley C a p ric io u s S um m er C a ra v a n to V accares C a rto u c h e T h e C obw eb T h e C onfession T h e New C e n tu rio n s

T h e K in g of M a rv in G ardens Scream a n d S cream A gain T he S erpent’s Egg Sm all C h an g e T h e D am n ed T he D angerous Exile T h e B urglars Bus Stop T h e C h ristm a s Tree Le Rouge et Le N oir W h en E ight Bells Toll T he W icker M an T he W ild Geese Pepe T he A dventures of A rsene L upin A nd G od C reated W om en B artelby B ern ad in e T he Best H ouse in L ondon T he Best T h in g s in Life are Free Betrayed T he Blue Peter T he B ottom of th e B ottle Boy on a D o lp h in M acon C o u n ty L ine M ajor D undee M ake M e a n O ffer M an Friday T he M an on th e R oof T h e M an W ith th e G olden G un T he M arseilles C o n tra c t M asquerade M ayerling M edea S piderm an T he A m ityville H o rro r G allipoli H o o d w in k W in te r of o u r D ream s P u b erty Blues T h e K illin g of A ngel Street Love Boat Best of F riends D octors an d N urses H eatw ave Lady Stay D ead M ad M ax 11 M onkey G rip Squizzy Taylor D ouble D eal P a rtn ers (Four H a n d e d Duet) T h e P irate M ovie G inger Meggs D angerous S um m er W all to W all C ross T alk K itty and T h e Bag M a n F ighting B ack N ow an d Forever R u n n in ’ on E m pty Save T h e Lady Som ething W ic k ed (Early Frost) S ta rstru ck B reakfast in P aris M an from Snow y River G oodbye P arad ise D ead Easy Close to th e H e a rt N o rm a n Loves Rose T he D a rk ro o m G oing D ow n “ G re ed ” B lood on Snow

t film makers trust test film maker.

Brothers Moving Out The Year of Living Dangerously The Boyfriend Blood Line Breaking Glass Curse of the Pink Panther Diamonds are Forever The Empire Strikes Back Evil Under the Sun Force 10 from Navarone French Lieutenant’s Woman For Your Eyes Only Gold Mary Queen of Scots Murder on the Orient Express Mohammed - the Messenger of God Man with the Golden Gun Omen Outland Return of the Pink Panther Roller Ball Revenge of the Jedii Shout at the Devil Sarah Superman II Triple Echo The Three Musketeers Tommy Under Milkwood Venom Victor Victoria Wild Geese Watcher in the Woods The Wall All that Jazz Hair The Rose The Wiz Raging Bull Jaws 2 Star Trek The Godfather Part II Firefox Missing Airport Alice’s Restaurant All the President’s Men American Graffiti An American in Paris The Arrangement Barbarella The Betsy Blazing Saddles Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice Bonnie and Clyde The Boston Strangler The Boys from Brazil The Boys in the Band A Man Called Horse A Man for all Seasons Mary Poppins Midnight Cowboy Midway Sunday Bloody Sunday Superman Tales of Beatrix Potter The Taming of the Shrew Taxi Driver The Ten Commandments Last Tango in Paris Le Mans

The Jazz Singer The Jolson Story Jonathan Livingston Seagull Kelly’s Heroes The Killing of Sister George King Kong The Great Escape The Guns of Navarone Heaven Can Wait Hello Dolly Shampoo A Shot in the Dark Silent Movie Slap Shot Soldier Blue Star Wars The Sting The Exorcist The French Connection Fun with Dick and Jane The Godfather The Day of the Jackal The Deer Hunter The Dirty Dozen Dirty Harry Downhill Racer Easy Rider Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Can Can Carmen Jones The Cassandra Crossing Close Encounters of the Third Kind Cool Hand Luke The Valachi Papers Valentino Vanishing Point What’s Up, Doc? Myra Breckenbridge Nashville Network One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest The Other Side of Midnight Three Days of the Condor Tora! Tora! Tora!

Trapeze Travels with My Aunt The Turning Point The Goodbye Girl Marathon Man Woodstock Women in Love Zabriskie Point The Paper Chase Patton Planet of the Apes Play it again Sam The Poseidon Adventure The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes The Prize The Professionals Prudence and the Pill Grease The Spy Who Loved Me Northwest Frontier Traffic Between Heaven and Hell The Brass Bottle The Bravados Turkey Shoot We of the Never Never Little Big Man ET

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SIGHT & SOUND 50TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE: AUTUMN 1982

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The international film magazine famous for its detailed coverage of the best of world cinema and television. Extensively illustrated, critical and controversial, Sight & Sound is Britain's leading film quarterly.

Recent issues have featured: Articles on jazz in the movies, Raul Ruiz, French crime films, the making of Heat and Dust, Coppola's Zoetrope, new broadcasting technologies, the economics of exploitation movies and Abel Gance's Napoleon.

Interviews with Andrzej Wajda, Walter Hill, Francesco Rosi and Satyajit Ray Published quarterly January April, July and October.

For month by month reviews of every feature film and selected short films entering UR distribution. MFB contains a full plot synopsis and a critical appraisal of each film and a definitive list of its cast and technical credits. The Retrospective section assesses silent and early sound features and a new Video section reviews selected television material and films available only on video.

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Phar Lap Producer John Sexton Director Simon Wincer Executive in Charge of Production Richard Davis Director of Photography Russell Boyd

Savage Islands Producers Rob Whitehouse, Lloyd Phillips Director Ferdinand Fairfax Production Supervisor Ted Lloyd Director of Photography Toni Imi

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The Settlement Producer Robert Bruning Director Howard Rubie Production Manager Irene Korol Director of Photography Ernie Clark

Ginger Meggs Producer John Sexton Co-Producer Michael Latimer Director Jonathan Dawson Production Manager Jill Nicholas Director of Photography John Seale

Battletruck Producers Lloyd Phillips, Rob Whitehouse Director Harley Cokliss Production Manager Jake Wright Director of Photography John Ease

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A rticles and Interviews Igor Auzins: interview Debi Enker Guilty Pleasures: the Films of Paul Schrader Neil Sinyard Peter Tammer: interview Geoffrey Gardner The Efftee Legacy . Chris Long Liliana Cavani: interview Sue Adler All Creatures Great and Mostly Small: the Biography Industry. Part One Brian McFarlane Colin Higgins: interview David Stratton Class of 1984 Peter Malone

The Year of Living Dangerously Picture Preview: 538

504 510 516 521 524 528 533 542

Igor Auzins Interview: 504

Features The Quarter Australian Film Awards Scott Murray Letters Picture Preview: The Year of Living Dangerously New Products and Processes: an interview with Julian Ellingworth Ian Wilson Film Censorship Listings Production Survey Picture Preview: Phar Lap Box-office Grosses

500 501 502 538 545 549 551 571 577

Film Reviews The Biography Industry Surveyed: 528

Lonely Hearts Keith Connolly Three Brothers Paulo Weinberger We of the Never Never Brian McFarlane E.T. The Extraterrestrial Robert Conn Crosstalk Geoff Mayer Barbarosa Barrie Pattison The Sharkcallers of Kontu Solrun Hoaas A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy Margaret Smith

561 562 563

Liliana Cavani Interview: 524

564 565 567 568 569

Book Reviews

E.T. The Extraterrestrial Reviewed: 564

Variety International Motion Picture Marketplace 1982-83, Variety International Showbusiness Reference, Variety Major U.S. Showbusiness Awards, Kemps International Film and Television Year Book 1982-83 and International Film and TV Year Book 1981-82 G. R. Lansell 572 Recent Releases Merv Binns 575

Managing Editor: Scott Murray. Publishers: Peter Beilby, Scott Murray. Contributing Editors: Tom Ryan, Ian Baillieu, Brian McFarlane, Fred Harden. Sub-editor: Helen Greenwood Research: Jenny Trustrum. Proof-reading: Arthur Salton. Design and Layout: ARTetc. Business Consultant: Robert Le Tet. Office Administration: Patricia Amad. Secretary: Anne Sinclair. Office Assistant: Jacquelyn Barter.

Advertising: Peggy Nicholls (03) 830 1097 or (03) 329 5983. Printing: Waverley Offset Publishing Group, Geddes St, Mulgrave, 3170. Telephone; (03) 560 5111. Typesetting: B-P Typesetting, 7-17 Geddes St, Mulgrave, 3170. Telephone: (03) 561 2111. Distributors: NSW, Vic., Old, WA, SA: Consolidated Press Pty Ltd, 168 Castlereagh St, Sydney, 2000. Telephone: (02) 2 0666. ACT, Tas.: Cinema Papers Pty Ltd. U.S.: T. B. Clarke Overseas Pty Ltd. 'Recomm ended price only.

Phar Lap Picture Preview: 571

Cinema Papers is produced with financial assistance from the Australian Film Commission. Articles represent the views of their authors and not necessarily those of the editors. While every care is taken with manuscripts and materials supplied for this magazine, neither the editors nor the publishers accept any liability for loss or damage which may arise. This magazine may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the permission of the copyright owner. Cinema Papers is published every two months by Cinema Papers Pty Ltd, Head Office, 644 Victoria St, North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3051. Telephone: (03) 329 5983. © Copyright Cinema Papers Pty Ltd, No. 41, December 1982.

Front cover: montage of actor Mel Gibson (who plays Guy Hamilton) and a scene from Peter Weir’s The Year of Living Dangerously.

CINEMA PAPERS December — 499

Director Piers Haggard continues: “ One only has to look at the French government’s plans to realize how incredibly important the film industry is in presenting any national culture to the world. Maggie clearly sees us as a nation of porno-cable watchers.”

Certainly the Sproat Report, to be released at the end of the year, will have a great effect on how long the British feature film industry continues to flicker.

(For a more detailed report, see “ Shock Review Stirs Industry” , by Quentin Falk and Sue Newson-Smith, Screen International, November 13-20, pp. 1-2.)

Children ys Television Dimsey Departs Ross Dimsey, chief executive of Film Victoria (formerly the Victorian Film Corporation), has retired at the end of his three-year contract. Dimsey, who directed Blue Fire Lady and Final Cut before joining the VFC, is to direct Faust for producer Antony I. Ginnane.

Film Victoria, which is to undergo major reorganization, has not as yet appointed a replacement for Dimsey.

In mid-November, the Victorian Minister for the Arts, Race Mathews, introduced legislation which provides for direct state government finance for films, and will enable Film Victoria to produce films and promote schemes for financing them.

In 1976, when the VFC was formed, it was legislated that VFC could not produce films because it was believed that would create unfair competition with private companies. It is felt, however, that since then the circumstances have changed so dramatically that a complete re-think is called for.

One motivating factor has been the drain of creative talent over the border to Sydney, where the Australian Film Com­ mission and the New South Wales Film Corporation have successfully concen­ trated the film industry. Mathews hopes to change this by making the film financing climate in Victoria more pro­ ductive for local talent than anywhere else.

Mathews also said the Victorian industry will in future depend on young, inexperienced filmmakers, who would reach their potential only if Film Victoria was able to act as a producer for them.

This is a total change of policy, and a welcome one.

Eady Fund While debate in Australia continues on the degree, function and type of govern­ ment support of the film industry, a similar debate rages in Britain.

There, tax is applied to all cinema ticket sales and the proceeds go into the Eady Fund. This in turn funds (wholly or partly) the National Film Finance Corporation and the National Film School, among others.

Recently, the British Films Minister, lain Sproat, announced a review of the Eady Levy and it is feared by many within the industry that the levy may be abolished. There is a feeling that the Thatcher Government, in its desire to cut costs, is not committed to govern­ ment support of British film production.

The Association of Independent Pro­ ducers, which comprises 350 leading producers, has already expressed alarm over Sproat’s move. Says AIP adminis­ trative director, Fiona Hamilton: “ Every other European government supports its indigenous film industry.

Yet, the [British] Department of Trade [is] thinking of abolishing the one small support to keep the British film alive: the Eady Levy, a parafiscal tax that costs the Treasury nothing.”

Investments totalling almost $60,000 in the script development of five new children’s projects were announced by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation. Dr Patricia Edgar, ACTF director, said that a continuing flow of good quality projects was being sub­ mitted for funding both by experienced professionals and new writers. “ If all the projects now given investment funding reach production,” she said, “ we have estimated they will represent nearly $10 m illion worth of new c h ild re n ’s programs.”

Total investment by the ACTF in project development has now reached $235,000, with three of the projects funded earlier this year scheduled to go into production early in 1983.

The ACTF also revealed that it would be a major investor in the South Aus­ tralian Film Corporation’s production of Colin Thiele’s Fire in the Stone. This will be the SAFC’s third film of works by Thiele, and follows Storm Boy and Blue Fin. In announcing the investment, Edgar emphasized that the ACTF has been created mainly to invest in the inno­ vative, but costly, high-risk stage of the production process — program develop­ ment — and then to attract the industry to make the program.

Funding to establish the ACTF has come from commonwealth and state governments, but, according to Edgar, the ACTF will not survive without broadbased financial support from the com­ munity. Funds from individuals, corpora­ tions, and philanthropic trusts and foundations are needed to continue investing in new programs.

Details of the new investments are as follows: Chase Through the Night — $15,950 for first-draft funding of a five-part mini­ series to Endeavour Film Productions.

The Parallax Factor — $5644 for finaldraft funding for Episode one and treatment funding for Episodes two to five for a mini-series to David King.

Amazing Australian Animals — $3800 for pilot-script funding for a wildlife series to DNM Productions.

Peppino — $5420 for first-draft funding for Episode one of a seven-part mini­ series to Colosimo Nominees and Pablo Albers Productions.

Telefeature Package and Rocks of Honey — $8000 for Package Develop­ ment and $20,166 for first-draft funding for the telefeature Rocks of Honey to Merryweather Productions.

National Library of Australia Roger Easton, chief of technical operations at the Canadian National Film and Television Archives in Ottawa, recently spent a month in Australia as a consultant at the National Library.

Widely recognized throughout North America for his expertise in sound and video preservation methods, he advised the Library on a strategy for establishing a video preservation facility in the National Film Archive and on the latest preservation developments that could be adopted in the Library’s sound recording section.

Easton was born in Sydney and once worked for a Sydney television station, but has lived in Canada for 16 years and is now a Canadian citizen.

Melbourne Festival New appointm ents have been announced by the Melbourne Film Festival, now in its 32nd year and the world’s fifth oldest film festival.

Replacing Geoffrey Gardner as executive director (he retired in October) is Franco Cavarra, former artistic director of the Australia-wide Italian Arts Festival. Cavarra has also produced opera and drama, including Australian Opera sessions at the Adelaide Festival and the Sydney Opera House. In 1982, he was a member of the jury at the Mel­ bourne Film Festival.

Mari Kuttna, an Australian of Hun­ garian descent, has been named program director. Kuttna is a film critic who has written for many world film journals, including Sight & Sound, American Film and Cinema Papers. She is also on the awards panel of the British Film Institute, is vice-president of the British branch of FIPRESCI (Inter­ national Association of Film Critics) and has co-directed the Oxford International Film Festival. It is not intended that Kuttna will attend the Melbourne Film Festival.

David Stratton, director of the Sydney Film Festival and presenter for A Whole World of Movies on 0/28, has been retained as program consultant.

Don Dunstan, former Premier of South Australia, has been appointed president of the Festival, a newlycreated position.

Concluded on p. 503

A billboard image from Times Square, New York (The Road Warrior is the U.S. title fo r Mad Max 2).

The Quarter militate against the criticism of favoritism for the new over the old.

The prior-release clause stayed until this year, when the number of films — and the number of unreleasable films — was deemed too large to be coped with adequately. So, the old problem of audience bewilderment returned.

It is certainly a problem that needs to be solved if ratings are to increase, which is the whole point of the telecast.

Australian Film Awards The 1982 Australian Film Awards were held in Sydney at the Capitol Theatre on October 27 and telecast nationally by the ABC. Scott Murray reports: In many ways the 1982 Awards presentation was the most successful yet, combining an entertaining live per­ formance with a popular distribution of awards among many films. But the leadup to the Awards was anything if not eventful.

The A w ards

The Voting The first controversy was over the implementation of a pre-selection process, which ‘narrowed’ the 30 films entered down to 18. (For a full report see Cinema Papers, No. 37, pp. 108-109, 192.)

Once the 18 films had been nomi­ nated, accredited AFI members voted in approved categories. M ultiple screenings of each film were held in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Hobart and Brisbane; attend­ ance was compulsory.

Voting closed on October 20 (later extended to October 24) — or should have. First, there was the problem of the Best Actors ballot paper — it had Norman Kaye starring in Moving Out and Vince Colosimo in Lonely Hearts (instead of vice versa). Once the AFI realized the error another ballot was sent out — this time correct. _ Voters were told to discard the first ballot and use the second. The only problem was that some people had already completed and returned the first ballot before the second arrived. In some cases, the voter crossed out and corrected the errors on the ballot, thereby inadvertently making their vote null and void. As they felt they had cor­ rected the mistake, it is possible they didn’t bother to vote again.

What of those who voted twice? Well, the auditors, Lowe, Lippman, Figdor and Franck, weeded out the incorrect ballots during the sorting and discarded them. Thus, only the second votes counted.

The second ballot paper error con­ cerned the Screenplay Award. Instead of alphabetical order, as required, the nominees were jumbled — not a serious error except for the donkey voters.

The m ajor b a llo tin g problem , however, was the mail-out. Numerous people complained about non-arrival of forms: most who complained finally got their ballot papers; others merely waited in vain.

One Melbourne voter (not myself) was so incensed that his ballot paper had not arrived that he rang three times and complained. The first time he was told it was the mail. The second time Australia Post was again blamed. When he said his wife had received her voting slip two weeks earlier, the rationale was changed to a don’t know.

Finally, the closing date came and went. Irate that he had been denied his chance to vote, he telephoned the AFI on Monday, October 25, two days before the Awards. He was told it was too late to do anything. When he then said he was going to take legal action, he was told to

Compere Phillip Adams.

Sujatha and John B. Murray, producer o f Lonely Hearts (Best Film) and co­ producer o f We o f the Never Never (Best Cinematography).

Eric Porter, winner o f the Raymond Longford A ward.

stand by and he would be rung back.

When he was called later that afternoon he was told to ring the auditors direct, who would take his vote by phone. This is what they did. And had he not told them he was ineligible in some cate­ gories, he would have been allowed to vote in all categories.

Needless to say, this account raises serious questions about the AFI’s and their auditors’ handling of the Awards voting.

The P resentation

It is the prerogative of any organiza­ tion to change its protocol requirements at any time — especially if a new management or board structure is intro­ duced. Equally, there are certain courtesies that no organization should fail to observe.

At all previous Awards presentations, past executive directors have been invited to attend. This year, the incum­ bent executive director, Kathleen Norris, changed that policy and decided all past executive directors would have to pay if they wanted to come. This was both ungracious and mean-spirited — ungracious because several of those past executive directors had worked slavishly to lift the AFI to the high position it until recently held, and meanspirited because the cost saving was minimal (only one past executive director opted to pay — a profit of $30).

The executive directors involved were Erwin Rado (founder and longestserving), Richard Brennan, David Roe, John Foster and Peter Crayford. Of these, Brennan was invited as a pro­ ducer of the nominated Starstruck and Crayford paid. Rado and Foster did not attend. Roe was finally invited after several complaints were lodged to Norris and AFI chairman, Senator Hamer, and after the intervention of two AFI board members.

Overall, the whole incident put the AFI in a poor light. One hopes that in the future it may feel more inclined to recog­ nize the contributions of those who came before.

For those present, the 1982 Awards seemed to be the best since the start of television telecasts. The program was better structured, the musical numbers more crisply staged and the presenters far briefer and to the point. As compere, Phillip Adams gave a humorous and win­ ning performance, and Norris certainly proved a striking presence in her tradi­ tion-breaking appearance (all previous executive directors felt it proper that only the chairman should speak on behalf of the AFI).

Looking at a video recording later, however, the presentation seemed a little lacklustre in spots. Despite exten­ sive technical gear and the expensive Louma crane, the camera work and editing was often choppy and disconcer­ ting. The fine performance by Jo Kennedy, Ross O’ Donovan and back-up dancers, for example, was a brisk, invig­ orating performance to watch live — particularly the leap to the pole — but on television it lost most of the flair (the leap was covered from above, for some reason).

A second criticism of the presentation — and mostly from those outside the industry — was that too many of the films mentioned had never been heard of.

In 1976, when David Roe convinced Channel Nine to do the first televised Awards, the majority of the prizes went to Fred Schepisi’s unreleased Devil’s Playground. While helping that film at the box-office, it did not make for great television because the audience didn’t know anything about the film and felt left out.

Another criticism of the 1976 Awards was that the voting favored new, unreleased films over ones that already had finished their national release (e.g,, Picnic at Hanging Rock which went largely unrecognized).

As a result, when the ABC agreed to do the telecast in 1977, it insisted that all films be released before the presenta­ tion. The AFI was happy to agree because such a regulation was felt to

Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence accept their awards fo r Best Screenplay.

Awards presenters David Atkins and Jacki Weaver.

Tradition

The awards themselves require little comment as they represent the collec­ tive voting of accredited members of the AFI. It does seem odd that a film of the exceptional standard of Mad Max 2 should not be nominated for Best Film (but nominated for Best Director!) but that is the way voting goes.

I certainly agree with Bob Ellis in his criticism of the abandonment of the Jury Prize for features, but one can’t complain about Peter Tam m er’s Journey to the End of Night receiving just recognition.

The winners are: Best Film: Lonely Hearts, produced by John B. Murray.

Best Achievement in Direction: George Miller for Mad Max 2.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Ray Barrett in Goodbye Paradise.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Noni Hazlehurst in Monkey Grip. . Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Kris McQuade in Fighting Back.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Warren Mitchell in Norman Loves Rose.

Best Achievement in Cinematography: Gary Hansen for We of the Never Never.

Best Achievement in Editing: Tim Wellburn, David Stiven, Michael Balson, Chris Plowright and George Miller for Mad Max 2.

Best Screenplay: Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence for Goodbye Paradise.

Best Music Score: Bruce Rowland for The Man From Snowy River.

Best Achievement in Art Direction: Graham Walker for Mad Max 2.

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Norma Moriceau for Mad Max 2.

Best Achievement in Sound: Bruce Lamshed, Roger Savage, Mark van Burren, Andrew Stew art, Byron Kennedy, Penn Robinson and Lloyd Carrick for Mad Max 2.

Jury (N on-feature A w a rd s) Best Short Fiction Film: A Most Attrac­ tive Man, produced by Gillian Coote and directed by Rivka Hartman.

Best Documentary Film: Angels of War, produced and directed by Andrew Pike, Hank Nelson and Gavan Daws.

Best Animation Film: Flank Breeder, produced by Bruce Currie.

Best Experimental Film: The Bridge, produced and directed by Mark Foster.

Jury Prize: Peter Tammer for Journey to the End of Night.

Special Achievement in Cinemato­ graphy: Louis Irving for Greetings From Wollongong.

R a ym o n d L o n g fo rd A w a r d Eric Porter.

Noni Hazlehurst is applauded by Mel Gibson and Pat Lovell fo r winning the award fo r Best Actress in Monkey Grip.

CINEMA PAPERS December — 501

Hip, hip, hooray Dear Sir, My working week had ended and the usual pleasant anticipation with which 1 reached for Cinema Papers was dulled by just sheer exhaustion. However, when 1 read Scott Murray’s piece headed “ Industry Hysteria” my spirits were recharged and 1was ready to take on anything. Could 1 say to Scott “ hip, hip, hooray” for such clear thinking and for having the guts to say what needed to be said.

1 agree 100 out of 100 with virtually everything that Scott said in this piece and if there can be a recognition of these basic facts, then actions by people of goodwill will have a chance of moving the industry forward once more.

Let us hope that by next year the ratings ratio will be reversed and we will see 10 out of 10 for at least three.

Because, after ail, there is nothing wrong with cinema that a damned good film won’t cure!

Yours sincerely, Graham W. Burke Roadshow

Misplaced accusations Dear Sir, S co tt M u rra y ’ s Q u a rte r item , “ Industry Hysteria” (Cinema Papers No. 40, p. 406), raised several topics that deserve comment.

First, the point is well made that it is the quality of a film itself, rather than the presence or absence of a foreign star, that determines whether the film will have box-office success; however, both those who argue that it is fallacious for producers to equate foreign talent with box-office success, and those who argue the contrary, miss the further point that the producer’s direct customer is not the filmgoer but the distributor.

It is the distributor’s belief in the box­ office attraction of a particular star that justifies the producer’s decision to engage that star, not whether that belief proves to be justified.

It would be interesting to see the results of regular surveys of distributor attitudes towards Australian talent. Such surveys would indicate, better than any attempted correlation of box-office results with the presence or absence of talent imports, the extent to which such imports remain commercially necessary.

The lobby to exclude foreign nationals from participating in film production in Australia purports to be in defence of employment. In fact, it often has the opposite result, as when the policy results in a proposed production being cancelled or removed from Australia to another country (e.g., Race to the Yankee Zephyr, The Bad Seed). Since the proponents of the policy shrug off these effects, it is hard to resist the con­ clusion that their real purpose is not to increase local employment opportuni­ ties, but to shelter local mediocrity from the demands of an international market­ place.

In an international industry, true talent should not be confined within national boundaries. By the same token, it should not fear international competi­ tion, especially not on its home ground.

If indeed there is some excellent Aus­ tralian talent that is not fairly recognized, the remedy lies not in policies designed to restrict the freedom of choice of Aus­ tralian producers and investors, but in promotion directed towards foreign dis­ tributors and other film buyers. ' Secondly, Scott Murray was rightly critical of some of the attitudes and argu­ ments of the recently-formed Film Action Group.

While I support the Group’s general aim of promoting the Australian film industry, and its aim to extend the June 30 deadline imposed by Part III Division 10BA of the Income Tax Assessment

502 — December CINEMA PAPERS

Act, I can only deplore the unfairness of its attack on UAA, and its mis­ representation of the effects of section 51(1) of the Act. For all the Group’s rhetoric about Aus­ tralian money being siphoned away to American-controlled productions, there is no evidence that investments in Aus­ tralian certified film s have been seriously affected by the money-raising activities of UAA, any more than they have been by other legitimate opportuni­ ties competing for investors’ funds.

UAA was active last financial year, when the industry produced more than 30 Australian features. In the current year, when the slowdown in production has occurred, UAA has not yet promoted any projects so far as I am aware.

Producers whose finances are subsidized by the new film tax con­ cessions can hardly accuse UAA of exploiting the Australian taxation system.

The whole point about UAA’s opera­ tions is that they do not rely on any special tax concessions. The only deduction offered is under section 51(1), under which any taxpayer can offset non-capital, non-domestic business expenses against business income.

It is just not true to claim (as the Group evidently does, judging by similarly worded articles appearing in newspaper after newspaper) that section 51(1) offers investors a 375 per cent write-off.

Section 51(1) itself offers no leverage.

Leverage can only be achieved by the taxpayer borrowing to pay for the expenses. As such borrowings have to be repaid (the Act already contains pro­ visions whereby the Commissioner may disallow the deductions if he is not satis­ fied that such repayment will take place), they are only justified when the profit­ ability of the business is assured.

Why should Australians not be free to obtain loan finance and to invest in servicing foreign film projects (or indeed any other kind of projects) of guaranteed commerciality when the income will be fully taxable and represent export earnings for Australia?

Producers of certified Australian films have been handed a major competitive advantage, in that they can offer investors the subsidies contained in the film tax concessions. Not content with that, some producers are now trying to persuade the government to outlaw their competitors altogether.

They seem extraordinarily blind to the dangers (leave aside the unfairness) of such a campaign. If it succeeds, what reason will there be for the government to continue to subsidize investment in Australian films? The tax concessions may well be withdrawn. Further, many artists, technicians and others in the industry may find their own tax positions (or that of their loan-out companies) harmed by whatever legislation is intro­ duced to curb the application of section 51(1) to film business expenses.

It is surprising that the Group, and the many journalists and politicians who have echoed its views, have failed to identify what everyone on the inside of Australian film financing knows is the real reason (apart from the recession and investor-disappointment with some recent films) for the current slowdown in feature film production, namely, the operation, since July 1, of the new Com­ panies legislation, which contains an expanded definition of offering interests “ to the public” , and which officials have interpreted as requiring a film producer to register an approved deed and prospectus before seeking investment moneys from the sources most often relied on in the past: the clients of solicitors and accountants.

The Sydney Corporate Affairs Com­ mission has led the way in drawing the attention of producers to the heavy penalties (up to $20,000 and 5 years imprisonment) for breach of the relevant sections. Investors and investment brokers have been warned of possible injunction actions to freeze production accounts, should traditional fund-raising go ahead seeking to rely on a less-strict interpretation of the new definition.

Some promised investment has been frightened away, and other proposed Australian film productions, which were either fully-financed or on the way to being so, have been postponed while their advisers grapple with the unfamiliar complexities of preparing and register­ ing approved deeds and prospectuses.

Of course, this hiatus would not matter so much if it were not for the rule requiring films to be completed and marketed by June 30 in order to qualify their investors for tax concessions in the year of investment. Soon it will be too late for productions to start and be com­ pleted in the current year.

The June 30 deadline (sometimes wrongly described as a “ 12 months rule” ) was an ill-conceived, last-minute addition to the film tax concession legis­ lation. It has had many harmful effects on the industry, and one can only agree with the arguments listed by Scott Murray for relaxing it.

If that can be achieved, then regard­ less of the activities of UAA-type operators, once the short-term diffi­ culties of learning to comply with Companies legislation are overcome, Australian film production should resume a more normal level and hope­ fully we shall see a continuing output of films of the quality that won prizes at the recent Australian Film Awards.

Yours sincerely, Ian Baillieu

Strong statement Dear Sir, As Scott Murray in his Quarter item titled “ Industry Hysteria” in Cinema Papers’ October issue (No. 40) implied that he strongly believes in free speech, I hope he will let me have my say on some of the points he makes.

First, I agree with Scott that PictonWarlow should have been allowed his say without hesitation and without having to put to a vote his right to have that say. I strongly disagree with UAA’s methods, and I am glad to see that it looks as if the Film Action Group is heeding Scott’s advice and are indeed directing their complaints, objections and arguments against such organiza­ tions as UAA, Cinema Enterprises Ltd and Trans-Pacific Media to the govern­ ment, which is as it should be. ~ Scott cites the industry’s indignation and reaction to these companies as having “ had all the moralistic hyperbole of a Jerry Falwell rally” . Such a strong statement leaves no doubt whose side Scott, director of two unsuccessful films, is on. The Pirate Movie was quite enter­ taining — but only if looked upon as a children’s film. The overall critical reac­ tion to Ken Annakin’s picture has amazed me (will Cinema Papers publish a review of The Pirate Movie? I doubt it.

Scott could do a favorable one himself, if he dares.)

Bob Ellis, to my memory, has never known what he is writing or talking about when making statements or writing articles on films and film industries, especially the Australian one. Bob has written good film scripts (Newsfront, Fatty Finn and Goodbye Paradise) and some very good film critiques in his time, but appears very naive in anything else he attempts. Ellis should stick to what he knows and does best.

When Bruce Beresford claimed that he wanted to make films in Australia for Australians he probably meant just that.

Tender Mercies (his 1982 Texas film) was made in America for Americans.

Why should the industry speak against B e re sfo rd , P h ilip p e M ora, Fred Schepisi, Gillian Armstrong, Graeme Clifford or anyone else for that matter going to the U.S. to make a film?

Overseas directors should be allowed to come here, but only if they happen to be making 98 per cent all-American, etc., films (with U.S., etc., main actors, crew, writers, musicians, etc.) that happen to be set, or partly set, in Aus­ tralia (e.g., Ride A Wild Pony, Born to Run, Adam’s Woman, The Side Car

The Quarter

Letters Racers, The Sundowners, On the Beach, Journey Into Darkness, Girl in Australia, And Millions Die, the three Goldsworthy epics, Sunstruck, The Shiralee, Squeeze a Flower, The Siege of Pinchgut, and so on). Just because our indigenous film industry is now quite large, it shouldn’t stop this type of film from being made here — with no Australian money in them, of course!

As regards overseas actors being used in our films, most of them are unnecessary (e.g., Kirk Douglas, Tom Skerritt, Cheryl Ladd, Robin Nedwell, Alan Arkin, Sara Kestleman — and .every actor that Tony Ginnane has so far used from overseas). In this day and age of the non-star they are just not called for. All (or most) of today’s best films have “ unknowns” playing the leads and supports. Anyhow, we should be developing our own “ star system” instead of encouraging has-beens and never-weres to come here. The sort of “ star” that may be box-office today, Australian films just can’t afford to hire.

By the way, at least 10 of our 30 films entered in the 1982 Australian Film Awards can be considered significantly successful, not eight as Scott suggests.

I agree that most of the other 20 were uniformly bad.

Yours sincerely, David Maher P.S. Let’s hope that Tender Mercies and Frances get more than the oneweek afforded Schepisi’s Barbarosa and Mora’s The Beast Within in Aus­ tralian city cinemas.

Scott Murray replies: David Maher is wrong when he infers from reading my Quarter item that I am in support of UAA. The point I was making was twofold: 1. UAA has acted within the law, a fact ignored by most of its detractors; and 2. The attacks on UAA have been largely emotive, not logical (no one, for example, has been able to argue convincingly that money going into UAA would go into Australian films if the legislation were changed).

My view about UAA, unstated in the item, is that legally, at present, it has every right to operate. I do not see myself, or anyone other than an elected government, dictating what UAA or any other film organization or individual should do with their or their investors’ money.

I would prefer Australian investors to put money into Australian films, but I would also hope the all-too-vocal industry would do something about raising local standards. If Australia produced films as entertaining, witty and successful as Superman II, then it might entice Australian investors to keep their money at home.

Maher goes on to link my supposed support of.UAA with the claim that I made two unsuccessful films. He is wrong both in his logic and his facts (the number of films is four).

Travelling Festival 1IIBIRHRRBRBI9IHB Dear Sir, I refer to the Quarter Item, “ The Travelling Film F estival” , which appeared in Cinema Papers (No. 39, p.

392).

As director of The Travelling Film Fes­ tival — a division of the Sydney Film Festival — I would like to point out that there is only one “ Travelling Film Fes­ tival” operating in Australia. The name — The Travelling Film Festival — is a business name, registered in each state of Australia.

Any legal difficulties relating to other organizations in operation in the state of Victoria have been overcome, and The Travelling Film Festival will commence its Autumn Tour in Yarram on February

11...

Yours faithfully, Victoria Brien, Director.

The Quarter Continued from p. 500

Australian Films Score Festival Awards RRSIRRaHRIIiaiRil Angels of War has won the Grand Prix at the 14th Nyon International Film Festival in Switzerland. Produced by Andrew Pike, Hank Nelson and Gavan Daws, Angels of War is a documentary about the experience of villagers when World War 2 came suddenly to the islands of Papua New Guinea.

The Plains of Heaven, produced by John Cruthers and directed by Ian Pringle, has been awarded the Gold Ducat (carrying a cash prize of 2000 DM) at the 31st Mannheim International Film Week in West Germany. The Plains of Heaven is the story of two men who maintain a satellite relay station on the Bogong High Plains.

Producer Bob Weis’ television mini­ series Women of the Sun was awarded the United Nations Media Peace Prize for Television at Macquarie University on October 25. The awards (for tele­ vision, radio and press) are determined by the United Nations Association of Australia.

The four-part series, directed by David Stevens, Stephen Wallace, James Ricketson and Geoffrey Nottage, depicts episodes in Aboriginal women’s history and was recently shown on Channel 0/28.

Australian Film Commission Projects Approved ■RBIliRRBBBIRBIBB C om m ission M eeting, June 28 The AFC approved profit-sharing investm ents and grants totalling $524,822.

Major script development funding included: $75,000 allocated to Naked Under Capricorn (Bloodwood Film); $25,000 for project development for The Umbrella Woman (by writer Peter Kenna); $16,000 for third-draft funding on Venture Films’ XPX; $14,200 for James Ricketson’s Ginger Whisky; and $13,750 went to G & S Productions for its television series Hoop.

Further production investment in the form of a standby finance facility of $300,000 was allocated to Jill Robb’s Careful He Might Hear You. Additionally, a grant of $3000 towards developing “ American Dreams, Aus­ tralian Movies” (a series of radio programs for NPR Radio in the U.S.) went to Hamilton/Mathews Associates; and Andrew Mason received $3972 as a travel grant to enable him to attend the BKSTS Seminar in Special Effects in Britain.

C om m ission M eeting, Ju ly 26 Investments and grants approved included projects from the Project Development and the Creative Develop­ ment branches.

A total of $105,083 was allocated to Script Development Investment through the Project Development Branch, and included $32,750 for third-draft script funding of Richard Bradley’s Alien Hunter; $24,933 for Joan Long’s Silver City; $11,000 for Cynthia Connop’s tele­ vision series Dreamspeak; and Story­ teller Enterprises receiving $9100 for writer Michael Cove’s Terminal Man. Projects approved through the Crea­ tive Development Branch included Script and Production investments allocated to 13 projects, including Mitch Mathews and Ben Cardillo’s Life’s Little Luxuries ($38,151); Helen Gaynor’s The Trombonist ($31,217); John Walker and Macau Light Com­ pany’s The Lion in the Doorway ($23,300); Alec Morgan’s Lousy Little Sixpence ($19,151); and Pat Fiske’s Boots An’ All ($18,712).

Script Development and Production Grants totalling $84,801, through the

Paul Dallwitz ACS, left, receives his Gold Award (in the Commercial Television category) at the Australian Cinematography Society (South Australian branch) Awards, presented by the former South Australian Minister fo r the Arts, C. Murray Hill. Dallwitz also won two Silver Awards in the same category and a Silver in Commercial Theatre. No awards were given fo r features. G eoff Simpson won the Gold in Documentary General.

Creative Development Branch, were also approved at the AFC’s July meeting. Major allocations included a grant of $13,106 for Paul Winkler’s Trades; $10,351 for Roger Scholes’ The Sealer; and $9358 for Anne Harding’s Genius in Lying.

C om m ission M eeting, A u g u st 30 Profit Sharing Investments totalled $516,250, including funding for two tele­ vision series: $34,500 to Tusitala Pro­ ductions for Tusitala (writer Ted Roberts); and $8000 for Anthony J. Brooks’ Curve of the Earth. Other projects include David Elfick’s Under­ cover, which received a total of $100,000 for production development; $10,500 allocated to Eleanor Witcombe’s Daisy Bates; and production development funding of $25,000 for Horizon Films’ Where East Meets West.

Additionally, Crawford Productions has received a standby finance facility of $300,000 for All the Rivers Run. Cowane Holdings has been allocated a $9350 grant for a 13-week study of Australian films on the international market; and a Trainee Grant of $1500 went to the Film Producers’ Guild (WA) to cover Sydney accommodation costs for their nominated trainee, Tony Stanley.

Further information can be obtained from Gillian Armstrong (02) 82 1004 or Albie Thoms (02) 969 7468.

McElroy & McElroy BiRBBBRBBBHBIieBR McElroy & McElroy has announced two senior executive appointments as part of continued company expansion.

Robert Fisher has been made general manager. He was senior partner in the Sydney and Brisbane practices of Wallace, McMullin & Smail, chartered accountants.

Fisher is financial controller of McElroy Productions. They are currently the MGM-financed feature The Year of Living Dangerously and, with Hanna Barbera (Australia), a $2.5 million tele­ vision mini-series for the Ten Network, Return to Eden.

Barrister Michael Wilcox has been made business affairs manager. He was manager of the corporate finance divi­ sion of Citicorp Australia. Wilcox’s speciality will be contracts and financing.

AFFDA = ASDA R R lB R illiillB B ilR The Australian Feature Film Directors Association is now to be known as the Australian Screen Directors Association.

Members voted to change the name and expand the interests of the Association to include all directors working in film and television.

Gillian Armstrong has been elected president of ASDA, replacing foundation member Henri Safran. Armstrong heads a new executive consisting o f Phillip Noyce, Stephen Wallace, Albie Thoms, James Ricketson, Sophia Turkiewicz and Anthony Bowman.

The aim of ASDA is to seek better con­ ditions for directors in the Australian film and television industry. It is also working towards a standard contract that will clearly define directors’ rights and protect their role in the industry.

Ken G. Hall has been made an honorary life member, and was recently guest-of-honor at a meeting of ASDA where he addressed members on the role of directors in the Australian film industry. Referring to recent disputes in the making of Australian films, Hall said: “ If the director’s not the boss, who else is going to make the picture?”

The ASDA currently has 50 members and says it is aiming to see that all accredited film and television directors join.

Pat Lovell, producer o f Monkey Grip and Australian Businesswoman o f the Year.

■ CINEMA PAPERS December — 503

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A MAMA OF EMPTYSPACES P re-p ro d u ctio n When did you start work on “ We of the Never Never” ?

I bought the option rights to the book about five years ago. I was one of the thousands of people who were first introduced to it at school. It always had a relevance to me about the way of life in Aus­ tralia.

What relevance is that?

I saw it as telling the story about the development of the Australian rural heritage. There is no doubt that much of what Australia is, and what we are, is because of our rural background. It is not the events, not the total scope, but the emotion of it — between races, between males and females, and between human beings and the countryside. We o f the Never Never seemed to sum it up very well.

At what stage did Adams-Packer become involved?

After I’d had a shooting script prepared and only a few months before shooting. But their involve­ ment only went as far as the financing of it.

It was understood that it was my project, and my view of the book.

They specifically excluded them­ selves from anything other than an advisory capacity.

I had discussions with Phillip

Adams quite often. Phillip is obviously very creative and talented, and the guidance he gave was valuable. Greg Tepper, who is a producer of the film, was at the Victorian Film Corporation when 1 first started the project, and he has guided it through the years.

The film credits four producers: producer (Greg Tepper), co­ producer (John B. Murray), executive producer (P hillip Adams) and associate producer (Brian Rosen). Why was there a need for four producers?

Phillip, as executive producer, was in charge of the business end.

As associate producer, Brian dealt with the usual, senior, day-to-day production area. Greg became the Left: executive producer Phillip Adams and Auzins at Ripponlea, the set fo r the film ’s opening scenes.

CINEMA PAPERS December — 505

Igor Auzins

it while we were there, almost as if it were a foreign country.

Is that another reason why you decided to shoot on the actual locations of the book?

Yes, and I think that judgment is probably justified by the results on film. I don’t think we could have achieved the same look or feeling if we had shot the film just out of Shepparton with a few fibreglass ant-hills.

I don’t see remote locations and difficult shooting conditions as insurmountable problems. It is part of our work. It is part of the way filmmaking has always been.

You don’t always shoot in studios.

Ultimately, it’s probably no more difficult filming in the Northern Territory than it is filming in Footscray or Kings Cross.

There must be a lot of differences in terms of the amount of the control you can have. You are subject to the weather, and you have all sorts of logistical problems to contend with . . .

Well, there shouldn’t be those differences. One of our problems was that some of the pre-produc­ actual name producer when John Murray [the original producer] parted company with us.

At what stage did Murray leave the production?

John joined the production a few weeks before we were due to shoot, and he left perhaps one or two weeks into the shoot.

Above: Auzins directs Fincina Hopgood, who plays Jeannie Gunn’s niece. Right: the scene on film : Jeannie (Angela Punch McGregor) kisses her niece’s hand in farewell. We o f the Never Never.

We sort of folk?

Yes, you know, people who interview and publish.

What caused his resignation?

Why did you decide to shoot in the Northern Territory, with the problems of distance and isola­ tion?

I haven’t discussed it with him and I don’t know that my vague opinions would be worth noting, really. I was too busy at that time directing the film. However, for a producer like John, it may have been difficult to work with the fact that it was my project and that I was in creative control. But I really don’t know and I don’t think it would be proper of me to make suppositions. I wasn’t involved with discussions that took place between the production company and John just before he left the production. Quite a number of people came and went during the shooting. My job at the time was directing, not being totally familiar with why people were coming and going.

If the film is judged as success­ ful, it will be to some extent because we were in the area where the story actually took place, and because we did, as individuals, experience basically the same con­ ditions that the real characters experienced. It certainly had a profound effect on the cast, just to be in the same place and to walk the same ground. Some of them were quicker to realize that than others.

It is not easy working like that, obviously, but I think it is very worthwhile. The shoot was only 12 weeks and you can live through 12 weeks under almost any hardships.

Perhaps one of the film’s strengths is that it does have that edge of insanity about it.

You sound a little circumspect. . .

What was the original budget?

I am determined in this interview not to be rude to anyone, because the last time I did an interview for Cinema Papers vast sections of the industry wouldn’t speak to me for months.

I always believe it is so difficult to avoid ambiguities in answering questions that you sort of folk ask.

About $2.5 million but I think we probably went about $700,000 over that. Most of the excess was expended on transport, accommo­ dation and the art department. The cost of accommodation, for some reason or other, escalated while we were there. Transport costs had been underestimated, as had the

506 — December CINEMA PAPERS

cost of obtaining materials and supplies. Those three areas really took the film grossly over budget.

One of the complaints that Dan, a character in the book, makes is that city people, who don’t really understand the outback, like telling bush stories. Do you think that the 12 weeks out there put you in a better position to understand what the book was about?

Yes, even though I had spent quite a lot of time there in the years of researching the story and writing the script.

It is a special part of the world.

It has a spiritual quality. I think that most of the cast and crew felt

tion on the film wasn’t as tightly organized as it could have been. It is not absolutely the end of the earth in terms of distance. It should be possible to organize a film almost anywhere in the world and have it run smoothly. It just requires expertise and effective planning.

Screen A d a p ta tio n What are the advantages and limitations of adapting a screen­ play from an autobiography?

Peter Schreck, the screenwriter, could answer this better than I. But the limitations are enormous, particularly when adapting a

Igor Auzins

national classic like We o f the Never Never. Obviously, we had to be aware of the possibility of severe criticism for damaging a classic. Whether or not we will escape that, I don’t know.

In this case, we decided to try to be faithful to the style and the intent of the book, and I believe we have been. Perhaps some people won’t quite see it like that, but I believe some people haven’t read the book properly. Perhaps we haven’t faithfully reproduced the sense and style of all the characters, but I think that we have been faithful to the intent of the book.

It certainly shows the attitudes of the other women, and it shows that she is a rebel of some sort.

Obviously, it provides a contrast between city and country, and gives a context for the rest of the story.

The book is written in the first person. Did you ever consider using Jeannie as a narrator?

would probably be more successful and just as relevant if we retained it as a period story.

The relationship between Jeannie and Aeneas (Arthur Dignam) is never explicitly developed in the book, and in the film it is emotion­ ally restrained. How do you create a feeling of intimacy between a couple who talk so little about themselves and their marriage?

No, though we did consider re­ setting it in the present day, I suppose the answer is that we because life in that part of the understood them to be not parti­ Territory has changed very little . cularly communicative about their since 1902. own feelings and emotions as However, we judged that it human beings. We learned that from her family in Melbourne.

But it wasn’t really a story of their marriage as such. Their marriage was a catalyst for the other events of the story. It is an examination of males and females, but not only of married males and females. It deals with the whole maleness of rural Australia as opposed to the woman’s influence.

I thought her reticence in writing about emotions and feelings was a product of the time, of the sort of things that were acceptable for women to say at that time . . .

It was partly that, and partly because her husband had died only a year and a half after they were married. I don’t think she’d really formed an advanced consciousness Left: the marriage ball, with Aeneas Gunn (Arthur Dignam) and Jeannie. Below: Jeannie, alone at Elsey Station. We o f the Never Never.

about her position as a married woman.

How did the Gunn family react to the film?

Generally they liked it. Some of them weren’t absolutely comfor­ table with the two or three scenes between husband and wife that aren’t in the book, because they tended to be confrontation scenes, and because they made Jeannie more aggressive than they remem­ bered her to be. But we felt those s c e n e s w ere d r a m a tic a lly necessary.

Do you see any similarity between films like “ We of the Never Never” and “ The Man From Snowy River” and the American Western in terms of the explora­ tion of history and the celebration of pioneers and folk heroes?

Yes. Those two Australian films and Westerns certainly seem to perform the same function, but not in the same way. Interestingly, a comment I heard quite often from d istrib u to rs in N orth America was that perhaps We of the Never Never will fulfil the search American filmmakers have embarked on for a new form of American Western.

They identified with the aspects of romanticism and pioneering isolation, and with the drama of empty spaces. Films like Long Riders and Barbarosa are all part of that continuing search.

It appears that the Western forms nowadays are a reflection of

What did you think its intention was?

I think Jeannie Gunn’s inten­ tions for the book were to explain some of the harshness and pecul­ iarities that she witnessed in her year in the Northern Territory.

That exploration becomes almost a personal justification, on behalf of the white people of the outback of that time, for the way of life out there. It doesn’t read like a personal story, but I believe it is.

I think she saw the men of the outback as bruised, lonely figures, and she wanted the book to be an explanation of that.

Why did you decide to include the opening scenes of the marriage preparations, the advice that Jeannie (Angela Punch McGregor) was getting and the reaction of the city women to her decision to go into the outback with her husband?

To set the theme for the film; to give it an immediate purpose and identity.

Do you think it shows a contrast between Jeannie’s attitudes and the attitudes of the other women of the time?

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Igor A uzins

America’s urban society, whereas in We of the Never Never perhaps they see a Western form that doesn’t have an edge of harshness and cynicism.

There seems to me to be a common theme in Westerns and in “ Snowy River” to do with the necessity to prove your worth in a harsh environment. I saw the horse­ breaking scene as Aeneas’ show­ ing the men that he was competent

Clearly, Jeannie feels obliged to prove herself as an individual before the men on the station will accept her. Yet throughout the film you get the feeling that she is excluded and resentful . . .

Yes. It is an expression of the growth in mutual trust in the rela­ tionship between her and the men.

But it is still not an absolutely warm, open, contemporary rela­ tionship. It remains reserved and as shy as they would have been.

She was excluded from the broader range of the station society. She was expected to be a There are several scenes in the film housewife. She wasn’t the sort of which are crucial to Jeannie’s lady to like that. She wanted to be character development but which accepted as an individual and not seem quite different to the as a woman whose place is in the character charted in the book. The

time. But perhaps, as filmmakers, we were searching for some slightly more dramatic events. On several occasions we were advised that We o f the Never Never just wouldn’t make a film because it was altogether too saccharine, too unimportant and irrelevant to anything that’s Australian today.

Frankly, I think it is an indication of how poorly people read.

After her conversation with Mac (Tony Barry), Jeannie is convinced that the men built the house as a prison for her, to keep her in her place. It accentuates her resent­ ment and insecurity. Why does the film accentuate the conflict between Jeannie and the men? -

Each of these questions is rela­ tive to scenes we have invented rather than taken from the book.

The film needed a forward-moving structure, and we decided to use those devices. We had no other reason for straying from the book.

But the drama really changes her character. It makes her much more aggressive, more sanctimonious, and even a bit neurotic . . .

Certainly it is not an absolutely faithful reproduction of the lady as perceived in the book, though I would hope that it is not a ridi­ culous interpretation. We tried to ensure that our inventions were believable variations of human behaviour, given the circumstances of the book.

A film can only possibly deal with a very small section of a year in the life of a cattle station. Some­ times we couldn’t find the approp­ riate dramatic moment in the book and we modified some of the events or some of the responses for the structure of the film.

Jeannie is told she can come no closer to the feverish stranger, and Aeneas takes the tray. (This scene, along with all the others dealing with the stranger’s sickness, death and burial, was cut from the film just after the world premiere and two days before the national release.)

house. Once she proved herself, she was still just an individual woman and they had pre-concep­ tions of her position.

There seems to be a stronger feeling of warmth and humanity in the book. You feel that she under­ stands the men and that they begin to understand her . . .

It is a reality in those sorts of environments, even today, that unless you are competent you are a I don’t think we suggest in the liability. The men expected Aeneas to do it, particularly given his film that she doesn’t understand background. He was a strange them or that they don’t understand character: an adventurer, a geo­ her. Towards the end of the film grapher, a romantic, a seafarer, a the attempt at comfort that she librarian — everything but a cattle receives from Dandy (John station manager.

Jarratt) is an indication of the support that she describes in the What about Jeannie’s comment book. I suppose that the slant we that she’s a wallflower? You get a took in the script was more much stronger sense from the film concerned with the relations than the book of a woman who is between the whites and the blacks 30, who feels left on the shelf . . . in the second half of the film.

The concept of herself as a wall­ flower is taken directly from one of her letters from the Northern Territory to Melbourne, where she writes of herself as Plain Jane, the wallflower.

508 — December CINEMA PAPERS

One of Jeannie’s major criticisms of the men is their inability to express their emotions to a woman. Do you think Dandy’s tears at the end are an indication of her influence on them?

chapter dealing with the arrival of the feverish stranger is for Jeannie a demonstration of the bonds of mateship. Yet in the film it is her affirmation of exclusion from the male world. Why did you change its meaning?

We tried to describe something she didn’t describe. We tried to look at the events and suppose a personal, emotional response to them from her. She doesn’t describe her emotional response to those events in the book. She describes the men’s response. I think we have retained that as described in the book. We just tried to work through her response to being rejected in that way.

Yet, the effect of that scene is to make her seem resentful, whereas in the book she is more accepting of the constraints of her life in the Never Never . . .

I would argue that the reactions we gave her are reasonable, human reactions and not that far from what she might have felt at the

I had trouble with the scene where Jeannie states that she has no desire to teach the Aboriginals anything but is quite happy to learn from them. She then proceeds to bribe Goggle-Eye (Donald Blitner) to wear trousers, and teach Bett-Bett (Sibina Willy) to eat with a fork . . .

Exactly. I am delighted you had trouble with that. We saw those moments and attitudes as some­ thing she had to work through for herself. She was a city bred, Edwardian lady with no special knowledge or understanding of other cultures. She had a certain emotional response to a situation, and believed that all human beings are equal. She wanted to learn rather than to teach.

Yet, when it actually comes to a moment of how to do that, in the middle section of the film, she doesn’t have the knowledge or the experience or the insight to offer anything other than traditional Edwardian gardening tasks for Aboriginals.

As a character she is by no

Igor Auzins

means infallible. Her intervention does cause problems. Later in the film she questions her own inter­ vention, but we have to see it before it is worth questioning.

Is the corroboree at the end supposed to indicate a resolution of problems?

It is an indication of acceptance by some of the members of the group, a desire for contact. But even that piece of intervention is basically unsuccessful because the white men overstep the situation.

Why is it necessary for them to get up in the middle of the ceremony and start shooting?

As their form of expression of aggression towards the black people of the time. I think that is a fairly accurate representation of how it was and is. It is unresolved.

All we hoped to be able to do with the film was to have the audience ask itself one or two questions. We have no answers, only questions.

Occasionally the book is quite patronizing towards Aboriginals.

How difficult is it to depict atti­ tudes that are racist and to differ­ entiate those attitudes from the attitudes of the film?

I can’t tell anymore. Do you believe that the film takes a racist or a non-racist stand?

I think it shows that the men believe Aboriginals are heathens and subordinates. Jeannie holds a different view at the beginning, intervenes, finds that her actions are only causing conflict, and then leaves it at that . . .

You don’t believe that there is any advance towards a third form of treatment of the Aboriginal just prior to her husband’s death?

I suppose one of the things that perhaps the film ultimately says is that it is unresolved. In her case, we would suppose it is unresolved because she left the station. The work and the understanding that she as an individual, she and her husband as a couple, and, through them, the men of the station, accomplished was terminated because their time at the station was over.

their own. We wanted a device that would convey the feeling that the Aboriginal people have their own way of life, their own sense of humor, their own priorities and their own sensitivity. I would suggest that that thought probably hasn’t occurred to many urban Australians. But a film as broad as We of ihe Never Never, describing so many events, must trivialize most of them, unfortunately.

If you must trivialize events, what are you hoping to convey with the film?

Well, you hope the moments that you indicate are real and true.

But they are not very deep examinations of the moments — they can’t be. Not necessarily in this film, but in any film. You are looking at a broad time scale; you have to be very specific about the events you select. You can’t explain or background the moment adequately, can you?

I assume that through a whole variety of different techniques, without having a literal time scale, it is possible to convey a sense of what has gone before and what will follow particular moments . . .

Perhaps our definitions aren’t exactly matching. I consider that unless you do fully explain and fully follow up, you have trivial­ ized the importance of something.

For me, We of the Never Never should probably run for about three weeks solid and then we might have been able to address ourselves to some of the things that we tried to indicate.

A film obviously isn’t a defin­ itive statement of any sort. It is an impression. It is an idea. It is hopefully an em otional and moving idea, but it is not a thorough explanation or examina­ tion.

How did the Aboriginal actors in the film feel about the way they were being depicted? Did they con­ tribute in any way to the creation of the characters?

They contributed to the creation of their characters, yes. They didn’t contribute to the script’s treatment and the script’s concept of black and white to any great extent.

Were they satisfied with the way they were depicted?

Yes, the responses I have had were that they were delighted with the film. They believed we were going to advance understanding of them as human beings.

What about the Bett-Bett char­ acter? She is a peripheral character in the book, but a central one in the film . . .

Concluded on p. 587

Yet in the film Jeannie actively challenges the men’s attitude that the Aboriginals are somehow sub­ ordinate. Did you choose that change to make people aware of the prevalence of racist attitudes?

Depicting Aboriginals on film . Above: Aboriginal women and children, Rosie (Mawuyul Yanthalawuy) and Jeannie. Top right: Rosie, Jeannie and friend. Right: Bett-Bett (Sibina Willy) and Jeannie. We o f the Never Never.

Why did you use sub-titles?

It is not a change we made. That confrontation between Jeannie and the men is described in the book. She specifically suggests that the Aboriginals have better know­ ledge and better ability to use that country than whites. She says that the station owners should share the produce of the station with the Aboriginals. I think she was a non­ racist person; she held very advanced views for her time on black-white relationships.

The book does read as a racist document sometimes, but we didn’t believe that to be her inten­ tion. If we had, I don’t think we would have made the film.

I don’t think it is appropriate to have characters speaking a foreign language and not understand what they are saying; it is offensive. If we understand the white charac­ ters, I think we should also under­ stand the black characters.

I found that the sub-titles create an audience awareness of a complex Aboriginal culture of which the white characters remain ignorant

Right. One of our intentions was to give the Aboriginal people a life and community and culture of CINEMA PAPERS December — 509

GUILTY Neil Sinyard

aul Schrader is one of the seminal figures of the contemporary American cinema. His success is attributable to the creative use of his critical faculty and a commercial deployment of his Calvinism. The result is a body of work that is a bracing commentary on classic and modern Hollywood, and whose bleak vision would make film noir look lik musical comedy.

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the curator as a romantic idealist in search of chrader’s new film, Cat People (1982), his Beatrice. is the first he has directed from This connects Oliver very strongly with someone else’s script1, but, in every Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson), the hero other way, it looks like a characteristic Schrader created for Brian De Palma’s Schrader work. The heroine, Irena Obsession (1976), who is also a romantic Gallier (Nastassia Kinski), is both a predator obsessive, a man who kills the thing he loves and a victim of her own nature, and, as such, and then builds a shrine for her. In Obsession, she recalls Schrader’s characterization of the the Dante-Beatrice legend is alluded to quite heroes of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976) explicitly. and Raging Bull (1980)2.

Cat People and Obsession can also be As with Taxi Driver and with Hardcore compared because of their imaginative use of a (1979), the violence is closely linked to sexual New Orleans setting for metaphysical melo­ repression. In Cat People, when a young keeper drama, and their concern with the taboo of is attacked by a black leopard, there is a shot of incest which in both films traumatically seems his blood splashing at the heroine’s feet, to be the only form of sexual release that will visually implying a link between feline ferocity preserve the characters’ identity. and loss of virginity. The connection between sexuality and violence is spelled out by Irena’s brother, Paul (Malcolm McDowell): “ Every ike most of Schrader’s films, Cat time you tell yourself it’s love. But it isn’t. It’s People is extremely violent. The zoo blood. It’s death.” is used to suggest that people are in The curator of the zoo, Oliver Yates (John their own private cages. In this film, Heard), is as repressed as the heroine, and as at the end of American Gigolo sexual contact is postponed not only because of (1980), the two lovers are separated by bars, Irena’s fear of her savage nature but also seeming to achieve an emotional affinity only because of Oliver’s apprehension about when separated forcibly. The zoo imagery is despoiling a vision of perfection. The character used also as a correlative to human savagery is introduced as he is reading Dante, which anti­ and, as Schrader puts it, “ the fear in our cipates the film’s ultimate descent into the society now that there’s a monster lurking underworld and the revelation of his character: under the calm surfaces of every person” .

Similar imagery also pervades Schrader’s 1. By Alan Orm sby, and based on the script for Cat People screenplays for Taxi Driver and the evocatively(1942) by DeW itt Bodeen. entitled Raging Bull, when Jake La Motta 2. Schrader is credited as co-scripter on Raging Bull with (Robert De Niro) screams, “ I’m not an animal!

M ardik M artin.

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I’m not an animal!” , as he batters his head against a brick wall.

The intense inner life of Schrader’s characters is often signalled by external aggres­ sion. Similarly, just as a Schrader character tears himself to pieces psychologically, he is also in danger of being torn apart physically, limb from limb. One only has to think of the missing digits that scatter the Schrader scripts for The Yakuza (1975)3 and Taxi Driver; the hero’s right hand in Rolling Thunder (1977)4 that is thrust into the mechanical garbage disposal unit; the keeper’s severed arm in Cat People; the most sickening broken nose in film history in Raging Bull; and, in that film, the whole way in which Jake’s masochism (mas­ querading as machismo) is signified by his ability to absorb extreme physical punishment.

Such bestiality goes hand in hand with Schrader’s excremental vision. One of the dubious achievements of Cat People is to give a whole new dimension to the word “ pus” , as the black leopard leaves disgusting evidence of its imminent presence. A hand becomes part of the garbage in Rolling Thunder. The demented desire of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in Taxi Driver to clean up New York by practical action, rather than by political persuasion, erupts disturbingly when he startles the poli­ tician by declaring that, “ The President should clean up the whole mess here; should flush it down the fuckin’ toilet.” The desire to clean and purify becomes indistinguishable from a desire to expunge and annihilate.

One should be wary of identifying Schrader too clearly with his characters, but there sometimes is an uneasy sense of his putting a sentiment he is afraid to acknowledge within himself into the mouth of an unbalanced protagonist.

This might account for the uncomfortable tone that hovers over some of the films. Is Travis in Taxi Driver a madman or a hero? Cat People recalls Hardcore in the way it seems to hesitate between tragedy and titillation, 3. Co-scripted with R obert Towne.

4. C o-scripted with Heywood Gould.

Above: actor John Heard, director Paul Schrader and actress Nastassia Kinski. Right (top to bottom): three images o f lovers separated by ‘p rison walls’: Irena (Kinski) looks at her leopard in Cat People; the hand o f Michelle Stratton (Lauren Hutton) comforts Julian Kay (Richard Gere) in American Gigolo; the scene in Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket which inspired the Gigolo coda.

between sexual censoriousness and coy nudity.

Schrader seems half-appalled, half-fascinated by the urban hells he evokes, and the films reel between contrary impulses of pleasure and punishment, Protestantism and permissiveness, purification and perversion. I am a little reminded of D. H. Lawrence’s early response to Dostoevsky: “ He is again like the rat, slithering along in hate, in the shadows, and in order to belong to the light, professing love, all love. But his nose is sharp with hate, his running is shadowy and rat-like, he is a will fixed and gripped like a trap. He is not nice.”

It summons again Schrader’s ambivalence towards his taxi-driver hero and his description of him as a man “ who moves through the city like a rat through a sewer” . chrader might be called a junk-food Dostoevsky. Like Dostoevsky, he is violent, melodramatic, religious and profoundly conservative. Like the Russian master also, he uses the tawdry formulae of crime fiction to erect massive psychological dramas about selftormented people who struggle furiously between heaven and hell, and who find redemption through suffering and sacrifice.

The ultimate dramatic goal is rarely a narrative resolution but invariably a form of spiritual transcendence or enigma. One has only to think of the ironic and inscrutable final minutes of Taxi Driver or the spiritual implosion yet narrative diminuendo that forms the denouement of American Gigolo. “ One thing I know that, whereas I was blind, now I see” , is the epilogue for Raging Bull, following the ambiguous closing scene where Jake talks to himself in the mirror, either facing himself at

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Paul Schrader

The original: John Ferguson (James Stewart), right, and Judy Barton (Kim Novak), the girl John tries to turn into his former love, Madelaine. Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

The reclamation: Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson), right, and Sandra Portinari (Genevieve Bujold), the girl Michael tries to turn into his former wife, Elizabeth. Paul Schrader’s Obsession.

Jake La M otta (Robert De Niro) and family: "disappearing under the flab o f narcissism” ? Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull.

last or disappearing under the flab of narcis­ visiting producer is impressed by the direction facets of Schrader’s creative work is the way it sism. Oliver visits the cage at the end of Cat of his new porno opus and receives the instant feeds off previous films and offers a modern People as if it were a shrine, and, as the cat explanation for such sleazy expertise: “ He’s perspective on earlier film classics, a form of stares back, the David Bowie song intones the from UCLA.” adaptation that is also a form of criticism. This lyric: “ I could stare for a thousand years, and Schrader is also from UCLA. Having process variously takes the form of homage, don’t you feel my blood enraged.” decided not to become a minister, he took up a parallelism with variations, expansion and All four films conclude with a movement into place there on a recommendation from Pauline contrast. the mysterious black hole of the hero’s head. Kael. Out of this period came his book on For example, Schrader’s screenplay for Brian “ Your last scene should play out there on the Bresson, Dreyer and Ozu, Transcendental Style De Palma’s Obsession is essentially a homage. sidewalk” , Schrader has said. “ The ripples in Film5, which is a fascinating fusion of The film’s fixation is with Alfred Hitchcock’s should extend beyond the immediate film.” theology and film. It has the flavor of the kind Vertigo (1958), of which Obsession is a virtual Schrader’s style accompanying these visions of films that Schrader would be interested in remake, both in terms of plot (man loses the is laceratingly lurid. It could be termed ‘neon making: those which emphasize soul above woman he loves only to come across her realism’, in which an objectively familiar world character, spirituality over substance, and are double), and in terms of style and visual detail is refracted nightmarishly through a disturbed intrigued by what would happen if European (360 degree panning shots, dreams, paintings, central consciousness. The setting is invariably existentialism were to be transposed to the letters, the church). There is a moment when a modern America of garish impersonality, and streets of the U.S. According to Schrader, Taxi the young artist, Sandra Portinari (Genevieve the style takes its shadings from the tension and Driver gives the answer to this: a European Bujold), the mirror-image of the woman counterpoint Schrader finds between an active existential hero would kill himself; an Ameri­ Michael Courtland has lost, asks whether it is psychological life and an outer world of plastic can existentialist would kill everyone but preferable to restore a great artistic original or surfaces. himself. cut through the surface to see what is under­ Cat People is something of a departure from neath. Michael prefers the former. this and Schrader’s boldest stylistic experiment.

The question has relevance to the main Reality is only perfunctorily indicated and, chrader also wrote an important relationships, suggesting Michael’s self­ through color, sound and performance, article on film noir, which not only deception and his desire to restore the original Schrader reaches for a visualization of a assisted towards a revaluation of the woman. But it also has relevance to the relation mythical world, not only to summon up the classic noir films of the 1940s and of this film to Vertigo. Now that the chances of creatures that roam the subconscious but to 1950s but may have helped to create a seeing the Hitchcock film seem to be very evoke the essence of films as a dimension of climate in which the form could be revisedscarce6, and Obsession becomes itself the restora­ magic. Some films make you think; Schrader’s recognized in films such as Klute, Chinatown tion of a lost masterpiece. Bernard Herrmann’s make you dream. The goal of Cat People is to and Night Moves. Schrader was to contribute towering, anachronistic score supplies a provide a pleasurable nightmare in a stylish to this revival himself with his screenplay for delicious and nostalgic slice of authenticity. exploitation context.

Taxi Driver, in which the hero has classic noir Interestingly, Schrader fell out with De symptoms: a loner, sexually-frustrated and Palma because he wanted to continue the story obsessed, and oppressed by night and the city. into the 1980s, with Michael still searching for he dark side of life on which Schrader could have become a great critic, his lost love. This might have been truer to the Schrader’s work seems exclusively but his ambition was to turn his demons into spirit of the tragic outcome of Vertigo, with its to concentrate is at least alleviated dollars and his way to do that was to write a ghosts and wanderers and its sense of trauma. by flashes of lugubrious humor. Cat script. Nevertheless, it is possible to see As it stands, the film could be almost equally an People has fun in drawing feline Schrader’s film career as being as much an act allusion to Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. A of criticism as of creativity. One of the central hero’s weakness costs him, he thinks, the life of analogies to human feelings: the preenings of Paul, the way Irena pounces on a bowl of fish in a cafe, or the way Paul’s housekeeper, 5. Paul Schrader, Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, 6. The film is subject to a contracted legal dispute over Bresson, Dreyer, University o f C alifornia Press, copyright, which has stopped the film being shown in Female (Ruby Dee), gives a clue to her own Berkeley, 1972. most countries for several years — Editor. origins by her delighted response to Topcat on television.

The script for Joan Tewkesbury’s Old Boy­ friends (1978), written by Schrader and his brother Leonard, has some nice comic flourishes, notably in the sexual humiliation of the egocentric vocalist, Eric Katz (John Belushi), and in John Houseman’s wonderful cameo as Dr Hoffman, a stuffy, small-town psychiatrist with a disdain for West Coast morality (he even pronounces Los Angeles as “Loss Angeles” ).

When a worker in Blue Collar (1978) launches a one-man attack with a forklift on a recalcitrant vending machine, the excessive reaction amusingly yet tellingly reflects the intensity of his exasperation with impassive Harry Kilmer (Robert Mitchum) takes the violence o f the Calvinist ethics versus Los Angeles decadence: Jake Vanmechanical inefficiency.

West to Japan in Sydney Pollack’s The Yakuza.

Dorn (George C. Scott) confronts Andy Mast (Peter Amidst the perversion and pornography of Boyle). Hardcore.

Hardcore, there is a funny moment when a

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Paul Schrader

similar to those of Ethan and Scar in The Searchers.

Travis Bickle (Robert D e Niro) talks to his ‘D ebbie’, Iris (Jodie Foster), centre, and a friend (Garth Avery) in Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver.

The search fo r a lost daughter: Jake looks at a porno film o f his daughter, while watched by Andy. Hardcore.

his wife and daughter, but, after a remorseful 16 years, he is given a second chance to redeem himself through his reunion with a daughter who is also a surrogate wife figure. Destruction gives way to renewal: dam nation to redemption.

Schrader’s third act for the drama could have been a compelling addition, but the film still is a remarkable celebration of Hitchcockian aesthetics, as important to the reclamation of Vertigo as one of the screen’s masterpieces as is the criticism of Robin Wood7 and Donald Spoto8.

Obsession is a critical work of interpretative insight and not blind hagiography, and the form the film takes implicitly throws the emphasis away from Hitchcock as master of suspense and towards Hitchcock the anguished romantic and perverse psychologist.

Driver and Rolling Thunder, like The Searchers, have psychotic heroes whose antag­

onists are nightmare images of their own undisclosed wishes and innate violence. Their revenge becomes a kind of terrible purgation.

It is the madness in The Searchers that excites Schrader; the other element in that film which he has seized and enlarged is its veiled racism.

Rolling Thunder attempts to confront this issue by having Charles Rane (William Devane), an ex-Vietnam POW, as the hero who sees the gang that invaded his home and murdered his wife as the equivalent of the Vietnamese whom he was prevented from fighting by his capture.

His revenge thus becomes an elaborate compensation and a re-enactment of a personal racist fantasy, rather in the manner of Ethan Edwards’ (John Wayne) vendetta against the Indians in The Searchers who have ravaged the woman he secretly loved. However, with John nother key film from the same Flynn’s direction softening Charles into a nice period, to which Schrader’s work guy (“ which would be the equivalent of giving has alluded constantly, is John the character in Taxi Driver a dog” , Schrader Ford’s The Searchers (1956). Four has said), Rolling Thunder now looks less like a of his screenplays seem to derive film about a racist than a racist film. inspiration from this source: The Yakuza, Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder and Hardcore. The axi Driver is more uncompromising.

Yakuza takes from The Searchers the idea of a It includes a tender scene between hero’s quest in an alien world for a kidnapped Sport (Harvey Keitel) and the girl, a quest which is also a form of self-interro­ underage prostitute, Iris (Jodie gation. However, Taxi Driver and Hardcore Foster), which is the equivalent of a have heroes who see themselves as self­ appointed Saviours journeying into the under­ scene often imagined in The Searchers but world to save a girl from what they perceive as never shown: the life together of Scar (Henry the lower depths: a rescue mission that is also a Brandon) and Debbie (Natalie Wood). Was it really unimaginable savagery or was there journey into Hell.

Although The Yakuza borrows only the tenderness and even love there? Ford seems no equivalent narrative situation of The Searchers, more willing than his hero to confront these the other films make an attempt to approximate possibilities. Scorsese and Schrader crosscut the complex psychology of the Ford film. Taxi their ‘Scar’ scene with that of Travis’ prepara­ tion for his own private war that will lead 7. R obin W ood, Hitchcock’s Films, Collins, L ondon, inexorably to his invasion of Sport and Iris’ 1965. camp. The nervy confrontations between 8. D onald Spoto, The A rt o f Alfred Hitchcock, W. H. Travis and Sport in Taxi Driver are not dis­ Allen, L ondon, 1977.

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As well as exposing some of the racist issues that the earlier film elided, Taxi Driver is also a modern reflection on the efficacy of heroism, maleness, prejudice and legitimized violence embodied in the Western of which Ford’s films are the supreme achievement. For the first time Ford, in The Searchers, is profoundly ambivalent about these attitudes and values.

The bloody denouement of Taxi Driver merci­ lessly dramatizes their savage legacy, and their fearful logic. .

The other 1950s Hollywood classic which Schrader has revalued in his fictions is On the Waterfront. Schrader’s debut as writer and director, Blue Collar (1978)9, is full of references to Elia Kazan’s film, culminating in a verbal confrontation between Jerry Bartowski (Harvey Keitel) and Zeke Brown (Richard Pryor) that is almost word for word a repeat of the slanging match between Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) and Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) that presaged their fight. But, signi­ ficantly, Blue Collar is politically more knowing than On the Waterfront, more detailed in its observation of men at work, sharper in its observation of shop-floor politics, more cruel in its imagery (the rebel worker who is suffocated in a haze of blue paint spray) and more cynical in its exposure of the limits of individualism.

Kazan’s upbeat ending has now been pessi­ mistically inflected by Schrader. Kazan’s apologia for the informer in McCarthyist America has been pressed by Schrader to what he sees as a specifically Marxist conclusion. The final frame freezes the men at the point of con­ frontation and we hear again the film’s message: “ They pit the lifers against the new boys, the old against the young, the black against the white, to keep us in our place.”

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aging Bull alludes overtly to On the Waterfront in the final scene when

Jake La Motta recites Terry Malloy’s famous speech: “ You don’t understand — I could have had class. I could have been a contender.” Both films have heroes who are punch-drunk ex­ boxers moving toward some form of redemption and who have a relationship with a blond heroine classier than themselves but representing a desired vision of genteel woman­ hood, a sense of softness in a hard world. Both heroes have a love-hate relationship with their brothers who are also their managers and who ought to have looked after them better.

But the differences between the two heroes are more striking than their similarities. The allusions of Scorsese and Schrader to On the 9. Co-scripted with L eonard Schrader.

Three images o f ”a blond heroine classier than themselves but representing a desired vision o f genteel womanhood, a sense o f softness in a hard world”: Travis and Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) in Taxi Driver, left; Vickie La Motta (Cathy Moriarity) in Raging Bull; Julian and Michelle in American Gigolo.

CINEMA PAPERS December — 513

Paul Schrader

Waterfront and their examination of an actual

1950s hero in La Motta illustrate, by contrast, the essential romanticism of the 1950s screen hero and how such portraiture has changed during the past 25 years or so. Brando’s hero represents the confusions of a typical rebel of the ’50s; De Niro’s that of the alienated anti­ hero of the ’70s. Brando is a rebel without a cause; De Niro a rebel without a brain.

Brando’s solution to what he sees as corruption in On the Waterfront (testifying in court, fighting the villain) seems prissily conventional when compared with De Niro’s manic and bloody remedies in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

These new heroes are not anguished idealists or angry young men. They are heroes who challenge any attempt at identification or moral approval. (As a British critic observed, Raging Bull could be subtitled: “ Somebody Up There Hates Me.’’) They reflect a contemporary confusion and scepticism about heroism and modern heroes and their morality is personal, private and idiosyncratic.

If a film such as Raging Bull can be read as Schrader’s critical commentary on the changing face of screen heroism since the 1950s, his remake of Cat People equally reflects savagely the different conventions of representing violence, sexuality and perverse mythology.

Jacques Tourneur’s 1942 version is all atm osphere, traces and im plications; Schrader’s is explicit and erotic. Although the film pays tribute to two of the classic set-pieces of the original (the pursuit in the park; the swimming pool scene), Schrader is in some ways closer to Hitchcock than to Jacques Tourneur. The film particularly recalls Marnie in its self-conscious use of color (the association between blood-red and loss of innocence), its frank sexual imagery, and its allusions to animal behaviour to convey the heroine’s frightened sexuality and the hero’s odd and detached perceptions of the human zoo.

Given Schrader’s cine-literacy, such analogies are probably not accidental. But Schrader’s cine-literacy is of an altogether different kind from that of, say, Peter Bog­ danovich’s. He does not simply compose a series of obsequious fan letters to his favorite films. The references are incorporated into an auto-critique of the cinema. They are not nostalgic, but intellectual. Their function is not simply referential but comparative and revaluative. Obsession resurrects Vertigo as a film of profound romantic psychology. Taxi Driver pays tribute to The Searchers but also extends it and recasts it for a new age, its racism and ambivalent ideology now brought closer to the surface. Blue Collar and Raging Bull criticize and revise the political evasions and rhetorical heroism of On the Waterfront. Cat People, by alluding to the original and to Marnie, becomes

a critical essay on the changing fashions of cinema in reflecting horror, demonology and sexual tension. f Schrader’s films comment on film history, they also create it and become part of it. Indeed, any critical history of Hollywood in the past decade would have to give substantial attention to Schrader. He has collaborated with esteemed film brats such as John Milius (who produced Hardcore), De Palma and, in particular, Scorsese. His career has also intersected with less flamboyant but nevertheless significant figures of the decade, such as Sydney Pollack (who romanticized Schrader’s raw screenplay for The Yakuza) and Tewkesbury (who gave a liberal feminist slant in Old Boyfriends to the

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Jerry Bartowski (Harvey Keitel) at the car works. Blue Collar.

514 — December CINEMA PAPERS

Jerry and Zeke Brown (Richard Pryor) in the wash room.

Blue Collar.

reactionary melodramatics of Schrader’s script). He did a first draft of Close Encounters of the Third Kind which Steven Spielberg later rejected. Indeed, it is tempting to think of Schrader and Scorsese’s Boating yellow taxi­ cab (in the first shot of Taxi Driver) and Spiel­ berg’s floating yellow spacecraft (in Close Encounters) as the two most resonant emblems of the decade. They represent the extremes of menace and magic that were Hollywood’s chief box-office assets during the turbulent 1970s.

For all that, Schrader seems to stand apart from what seems most memorable or charac­ teristic of the so-called Hollywood renaissance — from Scorsese’s febrile Catholicism to Milius’ epic extroversion, from the horror rhapsodies of De Palma to the Utopian fantasies of Spielberg. Schrader looks like a slightly cold, calculating enigma. How would one assess his achievement to date? Is there still a sense of a vacuum between the quality of his intelligence and the coherence of his achievement? If so, why?

A clue might be found in his creative method.

When teaching screenwriting in an American university, his advice to his students, apparently, is: “ Cultivate your neuroses: you never know when they might come in handy.”

For the past decade or so, he has done that very successfully. But the danger is one of morbid introspection, of a neurosis indulged in more than critically examined.

With directorial sensibilities of the calibre of Scorsese and Tewkesbury, the neurotics at the wheel in Taxi Driver and Old Boyfriends can be scrutinized with some objectivity. Thanks mainly to Scorsese, Taxi Driver becomes something of a social document and not simply

Paul Schrader

sleek, hustling, loveless Los Angeles).

Above: Irena outside the leopard’s cage. Cat People. Top right: Travis at the taxi depot, before setting out in his own ‘cage’. Taxi Driver.

the diary of a madman. Blue Collar also avoids neurotic narrowness by broadening its social context and splitting its focus of interest among three main characters. But the identification with the hero of Hardcore hurts the film: it is impossible to decide whether we are meant to deplore or endorse Jake VanDorn’s (George C. Scott) increasingly-violent behaviour.

The closer we are drawn into Schrader’s frame of mind, the more his distaste for certain aspects of modern progressiveness borders on the repressive and the prurient. This is something which also disfigures American Gigolo in its hostile attitude to gays and Negroes, not to mention gay Negroes. chrader’s screenwriting method, which he encourages in his pupils, is to think of one dominant emotion that is ruling his life at that moment and then find a dramatic metaphor that corresponds to that emotion. The example he often Taxi Driver, the inspiration for which derived from Schrader’s personal feelings of loneliness and isolation and which were converted into the metaphor of a taxi driver cut off from human contact by the glass. It explains why Schrader’s characters seem to belong in a peculiar twilight zone between psychological realism and poetic metaphor. The roles they assume define for Schrader their professional function in society (taxi driver, gigolo) and a symbolic function in his particular vision of the world (taxi driver as a symbol of urban alienation, gigolo as icon of

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Perhaps his greatest gift is precisely this imaginative capacity to summon forth images of infinite suggestiveness even before being fleshed out in narrative form.

Nevertheless, this method clearly has limitations for Schrader, irrespective of whether it would work for anyone else. It is a gift more appropriate to an imagist poet than a narrative dramatist. Schrader is much better at exposition than development, and the excellence of the basic idea sometimes diminishes in the machinery of narrative formula (like, for example, the glib attribution of the hero’s violence in Rolling Thunder to brutalization in Vietnam).

Hardcore has a brilliant premise. George C. Scott’s star persona as a crusader against the pollution of environment and traditional values (as in Rage, Day of the Dolphin, The Formula and, more recently, Taps) is powerfully evoked.

The moral issues — the thin line between freedom and exploitation, the bourgeois having to defend his way of life to the prostitute, not the other way round — are potentially explosive, but Schrader has no real idea how to translate these into a dramatically-convincing context. VanDorn’s home life might explain why the daughter disappeared: it does not explain why she went into porno films. The mid-section, where VanDorn poses as a trendy film producer in sweat shirt and wig, is fearfully unconvincing on any level.

Attempting to be an intelligent examination of the new morality, the film looks like a porno­ graphic version of Mr Deeds Goes to Town.

Blue Collar has similar crudities of structure, its political strengths somewhat diluted by domestic sentimentality and the contrived diversion of a caper film plot. American Gigolo uses neveris quite pulls off its Bressonian coda, largely because this throws the whole weight onto the film’s weakest area: the hero’s relationship with the politician’s wife.

Old Boyfriends has a promising concept — the revaluation of one’s present through a direct encounter with one’s past — but no clear strategy and no real psychology. Why should the heroine believe that the process of rediscovery will result from a reunion with former boyfriends rather than, say, ex-girl­ friends? (The obvious answer would be that it exemplifies and confirms Schrader’s conser­

vative patriarchy.) What kind of heroine is it who, professing to be a clinical psychologist, dresses a retarded young man in his dead brother’s clothes before seducing him, and then is positively shattered to learn that it appears tc have done him some harm? It is hard to decide whether the film is about adaptation or regres­ sion, or whether an adult film about a yearning for childhood innocence has coarsened into an immature film about developing adulthood. he turning point in Schrader’s career might have been when he turned down an offer from Kael to become a regular film critic and instead wrote a screenplay. Schrader has always been materially ambitious and it might be that success came too quickly and too easily to him. The impression he has given since is that of an artistic sensibility slipping too willingly into a commercial straitjacket. He has mastered the complex currency of modern Hollywood, but it might be at the expense of his own sense of human complexity.

When thinking of Schrader, I always think of a line in Obsession when the daughter, distraught at defrauding her father with whom she has become emotionally involved, wonders how he will cope with her desertion, how he will live. “ It’s a little late for existential questions, darling” , she is told bluntly. “ Just take the money. Believe me, it’ll help you to forget.”

That is the question mark over Schrader’s career. Is it too late for him to return to the existential questions? Is the money helping him to forget? ★

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Filmography Screenwriter 1975 The Yakuza co-scripted with Robert Towne.

1976 Taxi Driver.

1976 Obsession.

1977 Rolling Thunder co-scripted with Heywood Gould.

1978 Old Boyfriends co-scripted with L eonard Schrader.

1980 Raging Bull co-scripted with M ardik M artin.

Director 1978 Blue Collar also co-scripted with Leonard Schrader 1979 Hardcore (The Hardcore Life in Britain) also screenplay.

1980 American Gigolo also screenplay.

1982 Cat People.

CINEMA PAPERS December — 515

516 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; December CINEMA PAPERS

filmmaker eter Tammer has been making films for two decades. Throughout that time he has made films largely using his own resources and equipment. In many senses he is the most genuinely “ independent” filmmaker in Australia. This is not necessarily by choice (as the ironic final credit of Mallacoota Stampede indicates), but the failure to find government funding has not, as it has with others, deterred or prevented him from pursuing his craft.

Independent film has various connotations. It stands for many adjectives used to describe certain aspects of filmmaking practice. “ Oppositional” , “ radical” and “ alternative” are words fashionable in this context. “ Experimental” and “ avant-garde” are now less popular.

There is a wealth of meanings and nuances.

The situation of independent filmmaking in Australia is similar to that in other western, social democracies. At the core of this activity is government funding via state-established funding bodies and/or state television. Financial support may entirely or partially cover the budget, usually on the basis that the filmmakers and any other personnel involved are prepared to work for near subsistence wages, and on the expectation of nil or marginal financial returns.

There is a certain irony, then, that what is described as independent filmmaking is in fact heavily dependent on government funding to produce, often, films opposed to the views of the political masters of those agents of the governments which make funding available.

The situation has been succinctly summarized by Sylvia Harvey in her pamphlet Independent Cinema? (West Midlands Arts, 1978): “ Given the present system of social relations and of relations in the cinema only the very wealthy are ‘independent’. Without the private means not only to finance a film project but beyond that to buy up a few cinemas in which to show the film, or at the very least a few projectors with which to show it, no filmmaker is ‘independent’. Rather, what we need to understand and analyse are the complex series of dependencies which characterise the position of the non-commercial filmmaker. What must be emphasised is the fact of dependence on whatever system of finance presents itself. ‘Independents’ are part of an economic system which contains and to some extent controls their production. The important question then becomes, from within that dependency, what are the possible areas of action, the possible areas of freedom within the larger constraints?”

In the case of Tammer, the fact that he has operated with a measure of self-inflicted financial independence in making films on laughably small budgets has meant that he has been entirely free to pursue his own notions of film form. It is safe to say that as a result of this freedom his films are unique, operating by Tammer’s own methods and laws.

I would not count him as a ‘natural’ filmmaker. His methods do not have any smooth grace. Poverty of means produces work that is rude and abrupt in the confrontation between subject and audience. At their best and most effective, they rely on a sense of shock that derives from an interest in the subject and from the way that Tammer attacks that subject. It is always a frontal attack.

Tammer’s most recently-completed film, Journey to the End of Night, is so far his only work to have a broad public impact mostly through extravagant press reaction to the revelations of its subject. Overseas film festivals are now showing interest. A breakthrough into commercial exhibition would seem to be mandatory.

CINEMA PAPERS December — 517

In the films you made through the 1960s and early 1970s there is a quite eclectic range of topics. The one common thing is that you have chosen people who are in some way eccentric . . .

Above: Peter Tammer. Belov/, top to bottom: four images from Mallacoota Stampede: the drag show at the pub; out swimming; Michelle and Larry in the motel scene; Debbie (Debbie Conway) and her dad (Tom Pye) discuss her leaving home.

Eccentric is a bad word because it is prejudicial; it has a feeling of somebody being a nut. I don’t think of someone like Danny Cramer or Reg Robinson that way.

They are remarkable people.

The only time I have made a film about a real oddball was Danny Cramer in Struttin’ the Mutton.

But I don’t think of Danny as an eccentric so much as a guy who had a freaky unpredictability, to which I was attracted. I was actually scared when I was doing the filming and I didn’t know what was going to be the outcome. It took me six months to realize that instead of Danny being in only one scene in the film, he was the whole film. Mark Gillespie, who was to be the centre, became an onlooker to the event. I identify with the same sort of cringing that Mark was showing in the film.

What attracts subjects?

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I don’t have a rule. I don’t look for specific qualities. When I meet a person who has some remarkable attribute, as with Myra Roper or Reg Robinson or Bill Neave, I am attracted to making films which reflect their personalities and report their lives.1 But I have always tried to do more than that.

For example, I was very conscious when making Here’s to You Mr Robinson with Gary Patterson that we were also making a portrait of ourselves as vagrant filmmakers.

That is very clearly in the film for those who care to read it. We didn’t go out of our way to state it, but it was in the footage, so we left it in.

What does the term “ vagrant film­ makers” mean?

I don’t see myself as part of the commercial film establishment in a conventional sense. I am an inde­ pendent filmmaker who will con­ tinue to make whatever films appeal to me, regardless of the financial conditions at the time.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I don’t have aspirations to make feature films, it just means that when I do, I imagine I will be oper­ ating as an independent filmmaker and not as part of a general industry scene.

I prefer to work with standards completely different from those espoused by the industry. I do not want to work with large crews, large b u d g ets or casts of thousands. I want to work on an intimate scale.

1. A Woman of Our Time, Here’s to You Mr Robinson and Journey to the End of Night respectively.

You have called this form of work “ portrait films” , making a distinc­ tion with what others call docu­ mentary or ‘biogs’. How do you see that distinction?

I see my films as one of the aspects of documentary. They can loosely be called bio-pics or biogs, but the normal understanding pre­ supposes films about people of public note. You might get a film made by the BBC about Dame Edith Sitwell or a documentary on the life and work of Orson Welles, including an interview with him.

That is the traditional documen­ tary portrait.

Now, mine are equally portraits.

They have elements of documenta­ tion but they are different in approach and style from the house style of television documentary portraits, which always, to my knowledge, include a narrator.

There are very few films in the bio­ pic line of documentation that I look at with great relish; one is Grey Gardens. What I like about that film, and what people have responded to in my earlier films, is that the characters speak for them­ selves. The filmmaker modulates what the characters allow them­ selves to reveal.

With Grey Gardens, the Maysles brothers established a trust with two hermits, who reveal them­ selves to the world at large. I found that an absolutely staggering, breathtaking documentary. But, of course, it is so different from tradi­ tional documentary because of the absence of a voice of God dictating the sort of things that the audience should pick up on. The audience is left total freedom to pick up on what it wants.

That is true of Here’s to You Mr Robinson, much more than it is true of Journey to the End of Night, although Journey still has some of that quality. I have inter­ posed in that film things such as quotations.

The Maysles’ films come out of the cinema verite school, and there has been a lot of discussion about whether the camera is influencing the people to perform before it. In your films, one suspects there is a great deal more performance. In “ Struttin’ the M utton” , for instance, there is an element of outrageous performance going on which is being encouraged simply by the presence of the camera . . .

There is a great difference between the amount of perfor­ mance encouraged by me as a film­ maker with Mark and Danny in Struttin’ the Mutton and the amount of performance encour­ aged by me in Journey. The Myra Roper and Reg Robinson films would fall in between those two extremes.

I take as a basic departure that people will not be absolutely natural in front of a camera. They will not only reveal qualities about

themselves they want revealed, but qualities they don’t. T h a t’s inevitable.

Now, how much one pushes a person in that circumstance has to do with the aims and purpose of a film. Myra, for example, was co­ operative but in no way as nearly as co-operative as Reg, who was in no way as co-operative as Bill.

Bill was the one with the greatest sense of having a story to tell. He was the one who most wanted his story to be heard. He believed it was of great significance.

Quite often I would say to Bill things like, “ Okay, let’s set up a scene now. I want you to talk about going down to the Tol plantation, and seeing some bodies of your mates that you might know from parade a couple of weeks ago and just down the trail two days ago. I want you to live through that moment again.” He would then do so.

I might have to do three takes on that because the first two didn’t have that quality of really re­ living, but the third one did. I am not saying that there weren’t many first takes in the film — 40 or 50 per cent are first takes — but 50 per cent are third, fourth or fifth takes.

The best example of that was the last take in the film, where Bill talks to his mother and God and his mate Shep, who died after watching Bill kill the Japanese the day before. In that scene, I spent one whole evening doing what is a 10-minute take on film.

The first three takes were totally useless and it was cracking Bill up.

I was scared of how far I was pushing him because I was pretty broken up watching him go through it. But even though it had the quality of disturbing him immensely, it did not come over as genuine as it was in the final take, which is in the film. That is devas­ tating in its power because he loses himself in a trance, which he hadn’t done in the first three takes.

Now, I d id n ’t take that approach with the Danny Boy take, which is equally powerful.

That was a oncer.

You started making films literally out of your own pocket. How much of this was an instinctive way of working?

It has always been instinctive at the level that I want to make films and, if funds are not available through other channels, then they become available through my own resources. Therefore, I have had to make films on pocket-money budgets.

Mallacoota Stampede is the most expensive film I have made.

Its total cash budget was $20,000 for 60 minutes. I put up $18,000, and got a $2000 Creative Develop­ ment Fund editing grant. The true budget for Journey to the End of Night was about $17,000 for 74 minutes.

All my other films have been cheaper, down to home movies like Our Luke and Flux, which cost me in the vicinity of $100 and $500 respectively.

Mallacoota Stampede Did “ Mallacoota Stampede” start life as a documentary?

No, Mallacoota was always meant to be a mixture of styles.

The first level is actuality observa­ tion, with people doing casual things, such as parking their cars in caravan parks and bumping into people in the process of doing it, or a two-year-old kid pushing his father off a sandbank in a canoe.

Sometimes they are aware of the camera; sometimes not.

The second level was meant to be a narrative structure in which two stories go on simultaneously, based around Donny, the country boy. In fact, two complete stories were written and a full cast was prepared. But because of budget problems, we didn’t get as many scenes shot as we intended. I could have completed it in a more expanded manner, even feature length, had 1 money to go back and do some extra shooting. But I couldn’t raise it before everyone disbanded.

Then there was a third level, where things were set up with the air of possibility. Take the motel scene, with Wanda and Michelle, the drag queens, and Donny and Larry. We discussed all the possi­ bilities that scene could take. Then I just set up the camera and lights, with Kit Guyatt doing the sound, and said, “ Okay, now we’re going to go into it.” We shot 400 feet of film which is 11 minutes, and there’s the scene!

The intensity comes from its penetration of Larry’s embarrass­ ment. Larry allows his embarrass­ ment to show through in his grace­ ful, country-boy style. His natural personality takes over and he doesn’t mind showing that he is embarrassed. It is beautiful! Of course, it also owes a lot to Michelle’s natural coquetry. “ Mallacoota Stampede” gives the impression of improvized drama.

How much of it did you plan?

The casting of the people who come from the city was done in two or three weeks before shooting. We even had some rehearsals in town. The country boys were only introduced to me on the day of my arrival at Malla­ coota, by John Archer, the production manager. None of them had acted before, not even in school theatre.

I took a punt down there and tried them out with bits and pieces to find out who had a personality suited to a certain character. It was

either all or nothing at that stage.

So, yes, it was a conscious deci­ sion that we were going to mix people who had acting ability with some who had none. Michael Bladen had acted in student films at Swinburne, Kirsty Grant had a dramatic course behind her, and Debbie Conway had parts in many commercials but no other screen acting at that stage.

Of course, Wanda and Michelle, the two drag queens, had done many shows but they are not performers in the style of film actors. Wanda, for example, was good doing repartee with an audience, but had never acted in a film. She didn’t know how to do things actors would know how to do.

It is difficult to be able to measure and deliver a perfor­ mance, hit cues along the way and things like that. As none of the people were really experienced as film actors, I had to modify the direction and performances to one standard. I went for long takes and tried to find the action as it was happening, hoping that there were not too many continuity errors. I wanted the actors to get into a wind-up situation.

Unless it was budget, why did you choose to film like that?

Partly because I like to make films that have people questioning whether it is performance or whether it is a documentary of observation. In fact, one of the things I am very happy about in Journey to the End of Night is that a few people have asked me, “ Does Bill really go around talking to himself like that all the time?” I would have thought that the fact it was artificial would have jumped out at them.

How do you expect people to react to this sort of sluggish, dramatic quality of the acting, acting that would be perceived by many as in­ experienced?

The most difficult moment required of an inexperienced actor in Mallacoota Stampede would have been the scene between Tom Pye, who played the father, and Debbie Conway at the back of the van. He is coming to the realiza­ tion that she has grown up and is about to leave home. He did that in one take, and he had never done anything on film before those two days. He did it with such power and conviction because it came out of his own experience. Is he an actor or is he just a person, and where is the difference?

It is not so much what is in the scene but whether, with its halting quality, it looks real in the context of how people judge film acting today . . .

I can answer that only by taking the completely opposite tack.

Top: Michael (Michael Bladen) and Debbie the morning after. Above: Michael, Debbie and Kirsty (Kirsty Grant) in debate at the local. Below: Kirsty and Debbie at the Mallacoota Stampede. Mallacoota Stampede.

Peter Tammer

Imagine I were lucky enough to work with whom I consider to be the best actors in Australia. I believe I could still make my style of film, with the looseness I want and the tightness they want.

Can there be a confusion between what an amateur actor will give you, naturally, and what a profes­ sional actor will do by the nature of his training?

That confusion will be illum­ inated if a professional actor were cast alongside an amateur actor, and they both hit the truth of the performance. That is an indefin­ able thing. But it is what convinces you as against what doesn’t. What I can’t tolerate is performance that is not working, whether the actors are amateur or professional.

A war-time photograph o f Neave.

Journey to the End of Night The press has concentrated on the revelatory nature of Bill Neave’s story in “Journey to the End of Night” , not on how it is told. I think we should concentrate on how it is told. We are talking about a number of dichotomies in this film. First, you have to stop and consider how much of what happens is a performance for the camera and how much of it is a deeply felt experience that you just happened to record. The film starts with a sequence which to me denotes fiction: out of the dark­ ness appears a man in his pyjamas, who looks at the memorial. It then cuts to close-up of the man breaking down and crying. Then we are led back from there into everyday country-town life and slowly the man starts reliving memories . . .

No, when he is on his own, he instantaneously relives the mem­ ories. There is a scene with his wife and son talking about putting bets on the races. Then it goes straight 520 — December CINEMA PAPERS

into the remembrance of the war, in the living room, when he is obviously on his own.

That is disconcerting for the audience, which is at a loss to understand what is going on . . .

I don’t believe the scene at the memorial was strictly fictional, though I regard it as having a fic­ tional quality. In a sense it is rep­ resentational, like the other scene of him waking up in the night and walking around the house until he gets to the kitchen and finds some pills.

I suppose those two scenes are fictional, but they have a validity.

Even if he hasn’t been to the war memorial before, he has been there in his mind. Even if getting up in the night has a representational

tive truth because I don’t believe that Bill has revealed the truth of every event that he takes you through. It is only true insofar as it was true for him at the time, and that it hasn’t changed too radically in the 40 years of remembering.

Now, while some of those events have gained greater importance and clarity, some have receded and taken on a sort of misty quality.

Others have changed slightly because of people he has talked to in the past, who have suggested things to him.

What gives the film its interest is a constantly shifting nature at work where truth and reality and fiction and performance all come together on the screen. That is why I think you are probably right to call it a portrait film . . .

Bill Neave sets a charge during the war in New Guinea.

Neave as seen in Journey to the End o f Night.

quality, he has been doing that for 40 years.

One is more documentary than the other. The pills in the night is a representational attempt to place a d o c u m e n t a r y r e a l i t y . The memorial was a fiction in a sense because I don’t believe Bill had ever been to the memorial at night, until that night. I asked him to do it because I know that he has been unable to come to terms with 40 years of insomnia and guilt. The only way I could represent it was those two scenes.

So, I was attempting to rep­ resent something that internally is true, but which externally may have fictitious qualities.

I resent narrow, category defini­ tions. I believe every film poses new realities and any good film, any film that I respect, challenges me on a multiplicity of levels including the things you have just mentioned, such as wherein does the power or truth of a film lie.

Francesco Rosi’s films, for instance, have haunted me from the times I have seen them. In a sense, they are documentaries made in a feature mode, but they are still very powerful documenta­ tions. Why limit them and call them either a feature film or a d o c u me n t a r y ? They are a wonderful hybrid, and I like hybrid films.

Is there a distinction in the film between a sort of objective truth and a truth that comes out of this recreation of what Bill Neave has gone through?

The quotations and titles inter­ spersed throughout “Journey” obviously provide some commen­ tary on Bill Neave’s state of mind.

But do you see them as more than that?

The whole film is a recreation.

What we are looking at is what is coming out of his mind and we have no idea about the truth of that . . .

Right. I don’t believe in objec­

They are meant to have a mul­ tiple function. The first level was to break up the story and to throw events into a separate relief. There are, as you know, two separate sets of quotes, from the “ Book of Job” and from Celine’s Journey to

the End o f Night, which was written after World War 1.

Now, that brings me to the second layer of intentions. Journey and the “ Book of Job” are about characters in the same style as Bill Neave, human beings who have been tested beyond the normal level of endurance. They are about their attempts to come to terms with it in different ways.

Now, I see Job’s way, the biblical way, being essentially different from Bill’s. And Celine’s way is altogether different from both. But, then, all are similar at some level. They are all basically asking, “ What is the purpose of existence? Why do I want to live?

Why do I carry on through this shit, this veil of tears?” They all come up with different answers.

Bill’s answer is very religious because he believed that God was a personal God looking after him.

I don’t share that view. I am more inclined towards Celine’s atheism and his sense of everything in this world taking us through nightmares beyond comprehen­ sion. They have no meaning, no justification.

According to Celine, we are going through a terrible existence which is difficult for us to „under­ stand. But at least we can be honest about that and acknow­ ledge it.

Someone like Bill takes the other approach and says, “ I can’t under­ stand it, therefore it is bigger than me. It must have been ordained by God that it should come to pass, but I can’t even really believe that.” So, therefore, he is in despair. “ How could I have been saved by God and then gone back and become a murderer?” Celine says, “ It is normal, mate! It’s just the way it is. Accept it!”

You would obviously reject the notion of various reviewers that the quotes are simply pompous or pretentious . . .

There has been a good string of words: pompous, pretentious, portentous, longwinded. Basically they add up to one word: unneces­ sary. That just means they see the film as being only about what Bill Neave sees, and not about what the filmmaker sees. In that sense, they have said, “ We don’t want to know what you think about it, we only want to know what he has to offer” , which is their right.

But I felt I was giving them much more. I felt I was giving them a view of relief from the story that would throw it into a wider context, a historical, universal per­ spective beyond Bill’s personal experience, and challenge them at a level of their own cultural exper­ ience. It may well have failed to do that, but I believe it is there to be read.

I was never interested in making the film to support only Bill’s Concluded on p. 585

Chris Long

h e re s h o u l d fi l m history research begin? Surely the start should be made with the films themselves, for the final evidence of their successes and failures. Would it be possible to make an objective judgment of the work of a filmmaker without first seeing a major part of the output?

W

Director Raymond Longford provides a good example of this oversight. Of the 26 silent films that Longford directed, only The Senti­ mental Bloke (1919), On Our Selection (1920) and a part of Margaret Catchpole (1911) survive. These were purportedly among the best of Longford’s output. No total overview of Longford’s work can be made.

A newcomer to film history research was emphatic in stressing to me the superiority of Longford’s direction over that of the McDonagh sisters following screenings of The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and The Cheaters (1929). Comparing two films of such vastly differing genre is questionable. But comparison of Longford’s best film with the least successful of the McDonaghs’ output is totally unreason­ able.

By many accounts, the best of the McDonaghs’ films was the powerful anti-war talkie Two Minutes’ Silence (1933). Like so much of Australia’s film heritage, Two Minutes’ Silence is a ‘lost’ film. Not only is judgment of its value on an objective basis impossible, most of the films which would pro­ vide the frame of reference for its judgment are lost as well.

Short films have survived in even smaller percentages than the features. The backbone of

Left: F. W. Thring, head o f Efftee Film Studios. Above: The Haunted Barn (1931): produced by Efftee and directed

by E. A. Diettrich-Derrick and Gregan McMahon.

many Australian film studios were newsreels, advertisements, documentaries and variety shorts. In the 1920s and ’30s, the Victorian exhibition quota specified a minimum of 2000 ft (22 mins) of British and Australian film per program. A newsreel and a short could fill this requirement. Features were — at least in those days — more speculative.

Australian shorts had received practically no study before the recently-released The Docu­ mentary Film in Australia, edited by Ross Lansell and Peter Beilby. Ross Cooper and Andrew Pike’s excellent magnum opus, Aus­ tralian Film 1900-1977, might therefore be more appropriately titled Australian Feature Film 1900-1977 to emphasize this intentional omission. robably the largest body of undocu­ mented Australian shorts are those made by Frank Thring Senior’s Efftee Film Studios in Melbourne.

Nearly all of them were shot between March 1931 and April 1934. In those 38 months, 12 features, about 80 shorts and 2 un­ completed features were produced with Efftee’s facilities. It was the most active period of sound film production in Melbourne’s history.

Amazingly, nearly all of the Efftee output survives at the National Film Archive, Canberra. Many of these films are freely avail­ able for loan on 16mm viewing prints, without copyright restriction. The remainder are mostly held on nitrate prints and negatives. These await copying to acetate.

In its totality, the Efftee collection provides a comprehensive view of almost the whole output of one early Australian studio. This is probably a unique situation.

P

The Pat Hanna production o f Waltzing Matilda (1933), which was made at the Efftee Studio,

CINEMA PAPERS December — 521

The Efftee Legacy

Efftee films contrast sharply with those of Cinesound. Lacking Ken Hall’s tight direction and William Shepherd’s skilful editing, Efftee films are often static, stagey and claustro­ phobic, seldom moving outdoors.

But the Efftee films have extremely high value as record. Over-riding their lack of cine­ matic quality, a high technical and artistic quality allows most of the films — and particu­ larly the unpretentious shorts — to ‘ride well’ with a modern audience.

The Efftee Entertainers shorts, for instance, are a home-grown equivalent of Hollywood’s V itaphone V arieties. C inesound never attempted to film stage acts on anything like this production scale, with the single exception of the 49-minute Cinesound Varieties (1934), of which only fragments survive.

The acts filmed by Efftee were often recorded contemporaneously by Vocalion, the only Melbourne record company then active.

Discs were made by Pat Hanna, Jack O’Hagan, Keith Desmond, Athol Tier, The Sundowners and Harry Jacobs’ Orchestra. Efftee films provided a convenient means for cinema patrons to see Australian radio and recording stars who had previously been known only for their voices. This held particularly true in country areas, where cinema patrons had little opportunity to attend good legitimate theatre and variety shows. The Efftee Entertainers shorts are the visual equivalent of 78 r.p.m. recordings, and run to similar lengths (3 mins).

Their survival alone makes them a priceless and unique record of Australian theatre history.

Unlike the Cinesound films, which could rely on their cinematic excellence to draw a crowd, the Efftee films relied heavily on the star appeal of established radio and stage personalities. Pat Hanna’s films are particularly difficult for a modern audience to assess, stripped of the context of Hanna’s ubiquitousness on stage and radio in the early 1930s. “ Digger” humor, so familiar to Australian theatregoers in the 1920s, tends to be lost on a modern audience. Collo­ quialisms, then familiar, have since been replaced by the catchwords of another war, and have faded even further in the subsequent flood-tide of language input with post-war immigration.

Melbourne Today (1931) provides flowing

fftee films all reflect a rather naive and idiosyncratic Australia between the wars, anxious for psychological escape from the rigors of economic depression. George W allace’s ‘Aussie battler’ comedies, Dorothy dreams of a better life in Clara Gibbings and Pat Hanna’s echoing of wartime camaraderie all reflect this.

Even in the Efftee documentaries, the escapist element is evident, presenting a ‘chocolate box’ vision of Australian life.

images of rich parks and gardens, busy prosperous thoroughfares and stately public buildings. Arthur Higgins’ magnificent cinema­ tography maintains the highest standards of photographic pictorialism. Only occasionally is one brought down to earth by the sight of “ sussos” scratching for gold in the gutters of Ballarat, or by a brief shot of a Fascist march in Dear Old London.

Noel Monkman’s 11 shorts were made under the Australian Educational Films banner, in partnership with F. W. Thring. Monkman (1896-1969) pioneered Australian micro­ cinematography in these shorts. Most of the equipment used to make them was extem­ porized by Monkman. Even today, they are a fascinating and highly original record of Aus­ tralian natural history, obviously made with sensitivity and enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, the 16mm viewing prints of the Efftee material are all too often a sad travesty of the 35mm originals.

Without exception, the original 35mm Efftee prints have impeccable image quality and registration, and uncannily good sound quality.

In shocking contrast, the 16mm print of the Regent Theatre Orchestra short has a virtually unlistenable soundtrack, full of hiss and flutter.

The 16mm print of the Athol Tier short is incorrectly exposed, out of focus, and its sound is terribly distorted.

Nearly all of the pre-1934 sound films were shot to a square frame, or pre-Academy format. In practically every case, 16mm prints from these pre-Academy films are badly cropped at top and bottom, destroying composition and slicing off heads and feet.

Copying of these should be repeated to ‘modified silent format’ reduction specifica­ tions, to preserve the original aspect ratio on 16mm. Multiple 35mm release prints, and some original sound and picture negatives of the Efftee films, are held by the NFA, so the job should not entail any technical difficulty.

Fortuitously, the Efftee nitrates haven’t deteriorated except for a little shrinkage.

Of the five Great Barrier Reef shorts, only Ocean Oddities has been copied complete with its soundtrack. Originally, the NFA acquired only the picture negatives of these four shorts.

With the acquisition of several Monkman release prints in the Davidson collection, it should now be possible to recover the missing sound.

Several of the Efftee shorts, including the important Apollo Granforte operatic item, Brunton’s have not been copied at all. The NFA has at least one print of this, as well as the original sound and picture negatives.

Most intriguing, the 1000 ft film cans con­ taining the original nitrates are mostly listed in NFA catalogues by the titles on the leader of

E fftee’s first musical short, Will Cade and his Regent Theatre Orchestra in Selections from ‘The Desert Song ’ (1931). (Photograph courtesy Alan Stuart.)

The sound department at Efftee Studios, St Moritz, St Kilda, in 1934: Alan Mill, left, Jack Murray, John Hey er.

(Photograph courtesy Jack Murray.)

E

522 — December CINEMA PAPERS

each film. In several cases, during a search through some of these cans in 1978, I found two and sometimes three unlisted items joined end-to-end in each can. Most of the ‘ring-ins’ had been previously unnoticed by NFA staff. It is quite possible that a thorough investigation of the cans of Efftee nitrate could reveal a wealth of film material hitherto undiscovered.

Until a thorough documentation of Austra­ lian film is undertaken, including newsreels, documentaries and shorts, any analysis of the history of Australian film will be incomplete and misleading. The research must begin with the films themselves.

Running times of original Australian prints are given. These are derived from censorship records. In some cases, the National Library’s prints are derived from truncated versions intended for release in Britain. These will be noted. Detailed credits for the features, already published in Cooper and Pike’s Australian Film 1900-1977, have been intentionally avoided.

Several of the Efftee shorts are held only on original nitrate stock at the NFA. The technical crew on all films listed here is as follows, unless otherwise stated.

Camera: Arthur Higgins; Bert Nicholas Sound: Alan Mill; Alan Stuart; Jack Murray (RCA Photo­ phone Recording System) Sets: W. R. Coleman

Feature Films Made in the Efftee Studio (chronological order)

A Co-respondent’s Course (44 mins, rel. 6/11/31) P.C.: Efftee. Dir.: E. A. DiettrichDerrick. Marital farce starring John D’Arcy, Patricia Minchin, Donalda Warne.

Diggers (69 mins, rel. 6/11/31) P.C.: Efftee. Dir.: F. W. Thring.

Wartime comedy-drama starring Pat Hanna.

The Haunted Barn (43 mins, rel. 28/11/31) P.C.: Efftee. Dir.: E. A. Diettrich-

Gladys M oncrieff and Robert Chisholm in E fftee’s Collit's Inn (1934). (Photograph courtesy the South Australian Performing A rts Museum.)

The Efftee Legacy

Derrick and Gregan McMahon. Mystery-drama with comic elements. Stars Keith Desmond, Phil Smith, John Cameron, Thelma Scott.

The Sentimental Bloke (92 mins, ref. 26/3/32) P.C.: Efftee. Dir.: F. W. Thring.

Talkie adaptation of C. J. Dennis poem, starring Cecil Scott and Ray Fisher. N.B.: the NFA has the British release print, cut to 72 mins.

His Royal Highness

The “ Efftee Entertainers” Variety Shorts (chronological order) (1) Will Cade and his Regent Theatre Orchestra in Selections From ‘The Desert Song’ (5 mins, 1931) Melbourne’s Regent Theatre Orchestra plays “ The Riff Song” and “ One Alone” .

(90 mins, rel. 29/10/32) P.C.: Efftee. Dir.: F. W. Thring.

Lavish musical comedy of an Australian down-and-out who dreams that he is the king of a small European country. Stars George Wallace, John Dobbie, Marshall Crosby. N.B.: the NFA has the British print, cut to 85 mins.

(2) Jack O’Hagan — Vocalist Composer (7 mins, 1931) Pioneer broadcaster O’Hagan sings a selection of his own compositions, including “ Carry On” , “ By The Big Blue Billabong” , “ In Dreamy Araby” , “ After The Dawn” and “ The Road To Gundagai” .

Harmony Row (82 mins, rel. 11/2/33) P.C.: Efftee. Dir.: F. W. Thring.

George Wallace as an incompetent but lovable policeman. N.B.: the NFA print is cut to 67 mins.

(3) Cecil Parkes’ Strad Trio in Selections From Their Repertoire (8 mins, 1931) Trio of violin, cello and piano playing a selection of ballads and light classical items.

Diggers In Blighty

(4) Athol Tier As Napoleon (7 mins, 1931) Rather bizarre and dated stage comic turn.

(78 mins, rel. 11/2/33) P.C.: Pat Hanna Productions. Dir.: Pat Hanna and Raymond Longford. Wartime comedy starring Pat Hanna. A sequel to Diggers.

Waltzing Matilda

(5) Keith Desmond In Recitations (No. 1) (3 mins, 1931) Desmond recites the poem On The Stairs in typical turn-of-the-century declamatory style.

(87 mins, rel. 2/12/33) P.C.: Pat Hanna Productions. Dir.: Pat Hanna and Raymond Longford. Comedy of returned servicemen in Melbourne.

(6) Keith Desmond In Recitations (No. 2) (6 mins, 1931) This short exists at the NFA only as a picture negative, and may not have been released.

A Ticket In Tatts

(7) George Wallace, Australia’s Premier Comedian (7 mins, 1931) An excellent comedy short delivered in stand-up fashion. Patter, dance and song. The excellence of this short induced Thring to hire Wallace as a star comic for his later features.

(91 mins, rel. 6/1/34) P.C.: Efftee. Dir.: F. W. Thring.

George Wallace horse-racing comedy.

Sheepmates (unfinished feature, in production at end of 1933) P.C.: Efftee. Dir.: F. W. Thring. About a third of this film was completed before production was suspended by Thring owing to dissatisfaction with the first rushes. Some 8000 feet of outback footage and several lip-synch scenes had been filmed prior to suspension. Sheepmates was an adaptation of W. Hatfield’s book of the same name, dealing with an Englishman’s arrival in outback Australia.

Leading players were Campbell Copelin, Marsh Crosby H. B. Meade, George Wallace and Henry Wenman. About five minutes of out-takes survive, with lip-synch sound.

Streets O f London

(71 mins, in production early 1934, never publicly released in Australia) P.C.: Efftee, Dir.: F. W. Thring.

Filmed 19th Century stage melodrama. Stars Frank Harvey, Phyllis Baker, Campbell Copelin, Noel Boyd.

Clara Gibbings (88 mins, rel. 13/10/34) P.C.: Efftee. Dir.: F. Thring and F. Harvey. Society melodrama starring Dorothy Brunton.

Collit’s Inn (unfinished feature, 1934) P.C.: Efftee. Dir.: F. W. Thring.

This Australian musical extravaganza, set in the 1820s, was produced on stage by Thring at the end of 1933. A film was planned, but only sound tests were made before production was suspended. A six-minute sound test of Gladys Moncrieff and Robert Chisholm singing “ Stay While The Stars Are Shining” , with a spoken introduction

by Frank Harvey, survives.

Heritage (98 mins, rel. 13/4/35) P.C.: Expeditionary Films. Dir.: Charles Chauvel. Chauvel’s epic attempt at an Australian equivalent of The Birth Of A Nation. Stars Peggy Maguire and Franklyn Bennett. Only indoor scenes and the soundtrack were done at the Efftee studio.

E ff tee’s uncompleted feature, Sheepmates (1934). (Photo­ graph courtesy Peter Wolfenden.)

(8) Melody and Terpsichore (7 mins, 1931) Violinist Herme Barton leads a corps-de-ballet of dancing lady violinists and solo dancer Dorothy Hutchison.

(9) Stan Ray and George Moon Jnr., Speciality Dancers (No. 1) (3 mins, 1931) Tap dancers with Art Chapman’s Dance Orchestra playing “ There Ought To Be A Moonlight Saving Time” .

(10) Stan Ray and George Moon Jnr., Speciality Dancers (No. 2) (4 mins, 1931) Eccentric dance in blackface. Accompaniment probably by Art Chapman’s dance orchestra.

(11) Melbourne’s Chinese Orchestra in Selections (3 mins, 1931) Chinese orchestra with ethnic instruments.

(12) Minnie Love In Impressions of Famous Artists (No. 1) (3 mins, 1931) Veteran stage performer does an impression of British music hall star Lily Morris singing “ We Crawled In The Old Apple Tree” . Piano accompaniment by Stan Rafael.

(13) Minnie Love In impressions Of Famous Artists (No. 2) (5 mins, 1931) Impressions of Gracie Fields singing “ A Couple Of Ducks” and Maurice Chevalier singing “ Valentine” .

(14) Minnie Love In Impressions Of Famous Artists (No. 3) (4 mins, 1931) Impression of Randolph Sutton singing “ Over The Garden Wall” and of Maurice Chevalier singing “ You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me” .

(15) The Sundowners — Harmony Quartette (No. 1) (5 mins, 1932) Popular vocal quartette from radio 3LO with piano accompanist Cecil Fraser. Songs include “ In Apple Blossom Time” and “ I Haven’t Told Her, She Hasn’t Told Me”.

Frame enlargement o f Henry Wenman in Sheepmates.

(Photograph courtesy Peter Wolfenden.)

(16) The Sundowners — Harmony Quartette (No. 2) (5 mins, 1932) Songs include “ The Wedding Of The Three Blind Mice” and “ Sleepy Town Express” .

(17) Lou Vernon — Character Songs (No. 1) (4 mins, 1932) Lou Vernon (1888-1971), veteran character actor and creator of the radio character “ Dr. Mac” , sings “ That’s My Idea Of A Lady” .

(18) Kathleen Goodall — Songs At The Piano (No. 1) (4 mins, 1932) A character actress in panto and Gilbert & Sullivan, and later a classical singer of some repute, Miss Goodall’s personality shines through these shorts. It is a great puzzle that Thring never cast her in his feature films. She sings “ Widows Are Wonderful” .

(19) Kathleen Goodall — Songs At The Piano (No. 2) (4 mins, 1932) Sings “ Little Mr. Baggy Breeches” .

(20) Kathleen Goodall — Songs At The Piano (No. 3) (4 mins, 1932) Sings “ Little Mary Fawcett” .

(21) Peter Bornstein, Celebrated Violinist (5 mins, 1932) Bornstein plays a selection of classical items, with Henri Penn providing piano accompaniment.

(22) George White (unknown length, 1932) Short of unknown content, now apparently lost. Listed in an issue of Everyone’s, March 1932.

(23) Miss Ada Reeve — Comedienne (No. 1) (4 mins, 1932) Famous British music hall star Ada Reeve in her first talkie shorts. Her career stretched back to the 1880s, and she had toured Australia as far back as 1897. In 1899 she appeared in the original cast of Floradora. She stayed in Australia for some years in the early 1930s, giving acting classes. Later returned to Britain and often appeared in cameo roles in later British films. Here she delivers the monologue “ Aint Yer Jim” with accompaniment from Harry Jacobs Palais Theatre Orchestra.

(24) Miss Ada Reeve — Comedienne (No. 2) (5 mins, 1932) Sings “ I Never Forget I’m A Lady” with accompaniment by Harry Jacobs’ Orchestra.

(25) Miss Byrl Walkley, Soprano (5 mins, 1932) Star of His Royal Highness and many other Efftee productions sings “ Love Is Best Of AH” and “ Trees” . Piano accompaniment by Alaric Howitt, co­ composer of music for His Royal Highness with George Wallace.

(26) Somewhere South Of Shanghai Rendered By Marshall Crosby (4 mins, 1932) The Jack Lumsdaine composition sung by character actor Marsh Crosby, father of Don Crosby.

(27) Neil McKay, Scottish Comedian (7 mins, 1932) Glasgow-born comic filmed on his second visit to Australia. “ The Sea’s The Life For Me” with some rather cliched patter.

(28) Williamson Imperial Grand Opera Co. Orchestra — Overture From Carmen, by Bizet (3 mins, 1932) Conducted by Maestro Wando Aldrovandi.

(29) Williamson-Imperial Grand Opera Co. Orchestra — Overture From Gounod’s Faust (4 mins, 1932) Conducted by Wando Aldrovandi.

(30) Williamson-Imperial Grand Opera Co. Orchestra — Selections From The Barber Of Seville by Rossini (7 mins, 1932) The J. C. Williamson 1932 Opera Season Orchestra conducted by Wando Aldrovandi.

Continued on p. 582

Dorothy Brunton and Harold B. Meade in Efftee’s Clara Gibbings (1934).

CINEMA PAPERS December — 523

Liliana Cavani, like compatriot Lina Wertmuller, is a controversial director.

N ot only have her film s run into censorship problems (particularly The N ig h t P o rte r ), they also have the distinction o f being attacked by L eft and Right, and ridiculed fo r being pro- and anti-feminist.

Cavaniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s film m aking style is as original as her opinions, which show no concession to popular thinking and indicate an individualist o f striking talent.

Cavani was interviewed in Rom e by Sue Adler during the post-production o f her latest film , O ltra la p o r ta (B e yo n d th e D o o r), which stars Eleanora Giorgi and Marcello Mastroianni.

524 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; December CINEMA PAPERS

After graduating with a degree in Classics at the University of Bologna, you attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. What was it like there in the early 1960s?

It worked very well. Some courses were properly designed and others were not, as in every school. But the students became very stupid in the years around .1968 and they closed the school down. It was very painful to see the destructive demagogy because it meant that young people in successive years were deprived of a school. It was the only one for cinema which existed, and it was needed badly.

In most American universities there is a cinema section, but not in Italian universities. There are courses in the performing arts, but, like most things Italian, these courses are very rhetorical and not at all practical.

The Centro Sperimentale was very practical: at the end of the first year you did a 15-minute film, at the end of the second year a 30-minute film and so on. You learned to use lenses, to edit, etc.

They are now re-establishing the school, 14 years after it was destroyed, and hopefully they will do it well.

Do you think you would have gone into the cinema without attending the Centro Sperimentale?

In Italy, schooling is virtually worthless, unless you want to make a career in the public service or as a functionary. No one has ever asked me about my degree.

I applied for a post as a func­ tionary at the RAI [the Italian equivalent of the BBC] and got the job, but then I refused it. Instead, I proposed certain projects for them on a freelance basis. One was The Story of the Third Reich, which used German newsreel docu­ mentation from all over the world.

From there, I went on to do other things for the RAI and for private television in Italy. I proposed documentaries on ideas that interested me and about things that were not very well known. I did a story about Stalinism, and an inquiry about urbanization. I was very interested in social and poli­ tical issues at that time, and worked on many programs of this nature until 1965.

Francesco cFAssisi Francis of Assisi was suggested by the people at the RAI. They wanted to do it in the studios with telecameras. I said, “ No, I want to do it on 16mm with people from the street, not professional actors from the theatre.” I was able to do this because I already had a relationship with the RAI and had done various things for them.

I did have a bit of trouble

because we were dealing with Saint Francis. I chose a modern young man who didn’t fit in with their ideas of the young Saint. They were rather taken aback. But their image didn’t interest me at all. I was concerned about the problem of Francis, which is that of every young person of 20 years of age who wants to change the world. It was also my problem and that of my generation.

Galileo Galileo grew out of a co-produc­ tion between a private network and the RAI and Sofia (Budapest) — the first, and perhaps the last, co­ production between Italy and this eastern country. Many of the interiors were done in theatres and studios in Sofia. The RAI didn’t want to show it because it con­ sidered the film too anti-clerical and anti-Catholic. So it was shown in cinemas.

There were a lot of problems because in doing Galileo I had to depict Galileo against the church and the church against Galileo.

Remember that only three years ago they took his books off the black list. But I find the polemics within the church and the church itself boring. I don’t want to discuss it on film.

The Guest, the Host was the story of a woman who had been dumped in an asylum and who was sick only because the asylum had made her that way; before she was put there she was not sick, just too sensitive. Instead of sheltering these people, the asylum becomes a prison or concentration camp.

Now they have closed down a lot of these institutions and people who formerly were locked away are roaming the streets. Reforms are needed. It is not enough to open the gates.

Milarepa

Milarepa was inspired by my reading the book of the great Tibetan poet, Milarepa, which I liked very much. In the film I tell the story of a young person who reads the book and identifies with it. He and his professor are the key characters, and the youth has an important experience.

Sometimes reading a book does this to you: it is like experiencing physically the thing itself, or being taken on a voyage. I simply wanted to relate the feeling of having an experience with a different culture and making an imaginary journey.

I made it for television on a low budget but nowadays it is impos­ sible to approach the private net­ works with projects like this. They should do films like Milarepa, I cannibali which deal with certain themes and argum ents. But the private The Cannibals was something I networks clearly are not interested did in the 1968 period. It was the in such films; they cost more than topic of the time and for me there they make. So I did it with the was a desire to modify and above RAI. Galileo, The. Guest, the Host all to rediscover the true value of things — a search for the meaning and Milarepa were filmed on of existence. The Cannibals was a 35mm film and done on low version, shall we say, of Antigone, budgets. I believe in the quality of set in a contemporary ambience — film stock over everything else. It at least, that was its point of is obvious that with 35mm the results are superior. I cannot bear departure.

Today, our problems have been when people use 16mm and blow it reduced to two: terrorism and the up to 35mm — the latest film by Mafia. The Mafia is exclusively an the Taviani brothers, for example.

Italian problem, but terrorism is a It is a swindle; it is not right.

It is fair enough to say that we general one. I have never treated these issues on film because the cannot compete technically with newspapers are full of them and the American cinema, but there there is no point retelling it in the has to be a minimum of profes­ cinema, unless you have certain sionalism and technical modern­ ization. You can’t just rely on the revelations to make. moral content; you also have to produce something that is well L yospite (The Guest, made, that is visually beautiful. the Host) The technical aspect is extremely important to me, but the Italian The Guest, the Host is a film I cinema has lagged behind in this wanted to make because I had visited an asylum, and it had made area. For those who want their a great impression on me. I went films to be very good technically, for a week to observe and make like Bernardo Bertolucci and me, notes. I wanted to do a story about you have to go through death a woman who lived there for many struggles to ensure that things are done properly. Advanced tech­ years.

In those days, the asylums were niques cost a lot of money; you full of people who were not neces­ have to hire expensive equipment. sarily raving mad, but who were a bit nutty and an annoyance for the Top to bottom: Max (Dirk Bogarde) family. So they were put away and expects sexual favors from Lucia (Charlotte left there. Often they could not Rampling); entertainment fo r the Nazi adapt to life, perhaps because they officers; Max and Lucia; Lucia. Liliana Cavani‘s The Night Porter. were too sensitive.

In Italy, the critics don’t help at all. The more ‘poor’ a film is, the more they go for it; it is ludicrous.

I believe films should be as well made as possible.

Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter) The Night Porter emerged when I did The Story of the Third Reich.

I interviewed women who had survived the concentration camps, and others who had lived through accustomed, they get very angry, that era.

There was one woman who said and rant and rave. They are very that every year she goes to Dachau, conformist. where she had been a prisoner, for For example, if you make a film her holidays. This made a strong about the war, you have to talk impression on me. I would prefer about the Resistance. I have made to go on holidays to Hawaii, two films which talk about war, certainly not Dachau. But she The Night Porter and The Skin, experienced very intense sensa­ which treat it in a manner contrary tions there. She didn’t want to tell to what they expect. I would not me about them — though she did enjoy giving a history lesson along say she was searching for some­ the lines of what they would expect thing, perhaps the suffering. I to hear in the schools, the way don’t know. The human psyche is those bores — the critics — like to very complicated. see things. When I want to say There was another woman, from something, I want to do so in a Milan, who, when she returned different way — to the sound of home after surviving a camp, was another drum. By doing things this greatly annoyed that people way, you come to understand them treated her like a poor wretch. It better yourself. got to the stage where she couldn’t I grew up in the post-war era. stand her friends and relatives.

Listening to what people said then, The only thing of which she you would ask yourself: well who accused the Nazis was that they was a Fascist in Italy? Nobody! had made her perceive the depths There was not one Fascist left, yet of human nature. We always think nobody had gone anywhere! It was of this as a positive thing, because as if the Martians had come and we look for the better side. then gone away again in their However, she ascertained what spaceships, back into the sky. You human nature can be, and that ask yourself: how is this possible? understanding made it practically In fact, you were not allowed to impossible for her to remain in the talk about the things the Nazis or company of others. She said, “ The Fascists had done; everybody was physical suffering passes; this in agreement — from the Christian won’t ever go away.”

Democrats to the Communists. All A story slowly evolved from all of them had rolled a big rock over this, a story of the things that it. And then you come to discover really happened. War does not just certain things, such as many occur, it changes people. It plays Italians — in fact, nearly all on the need of people to feel Italians — had actually liked important, to feel that they are Fascism. You start to see things as stronger and superior to the next. they really were then, not as they In the end, it plays on the most had been told to you. My genera­ animal instincts. tion doesn’t know what really When I dealt with the sado­ happened. masochism within the couple in I did The Story of the Third The Night Porter, only the psycho­ Reich exactly to demonstrate this, analysts, not the critics, credited to show that Nazism played on me with being right. They maintain something inside us, on the con­ that in each couple’s relationship cierge (porter), the person who there is sado-masochism, which lives below us or across the road. can be developed to a maximum or Maybe this person feels frustrated remain at a minimum. The ordi­ in some way. So the moment he nary filmgoer understood this can put on a black uniform and because he found something in it punch somebody, he feels better. which, to an extent, he lives.

He feels like a big man.

But the critics are used to seeing, Fascism opened the doors for all and love to see, things with which those who had a problem. To they are familiar. And, if it is a make a career in the university, for woman who has made the film, example, you had to be a card­ and she has presented things in a carrying Fascist. Every university manner to which they are not professor in Italy except 11 had taken the Fascist oath, just as had Top: Lucia runs terrified through the all the magistrates. So, what was prison camp bathroom. The Night Porter. the poor, little anti-Fascist to do?

Left: Erland Josephson, Liliana Cavani, Dominique Sanda and Robert Powell The reality was that very few during a break in filming o f Beyond Good anti-Fascists existed. But, in 1944, and Evil. when Germany was losing the war,

suddenly there was a mass of them.

But the world has always been this way; the important thing is to understand what happened, other­ wise we will never know what we are made from.

Did things become easier for you after the success of “ The Night Porter” ?

Indubitably. The film was very successful.

A l di la del bene e del male (Beyond Good and Evil) What was the particular interest in Nietzsche?

From Nietzsche is born prac­ tically all modern challenging and questioning thought. Marcuse, for instance, derives from Nietzsche.

Nietzsche’s relationship with Lou is fascinating to relate. The story was already modern: Lou was the blonde creature of which he had spoken, free and inde­ pendent. She no longer had that 1800 type of female behaviour; more than a feminist, she was already simply herself. He pushes her and then he suffers.

Your heroines are similar: Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) in “ The Night Porter” and Lou (Domi­ nique Sanda) in “ Beyond Good and Evil” are slim, self-assured

Above all, they are cool and autonomous, as if they were young men. This is my ideal of woman; I am not interested in relating a story about the dolly-like heroine.

I don’t find these women physi­ cally interesting, either.

Actually, the Italian censors criticized me because Charlotte Rampling was on top making love.

It was the first film — in Italy, at any rate — with ‘her’ on top and with ‘her’ ravishing ‘him’; it was ‘she’ who unbuttoned his pants and groaned. But does the woman have to wait until it is done to her?

In the U.S. this question may not arise, but it does in Italy: how has being a woman influenced your career?

I really don’t think that things are any better for women in the U.S. than they are in Italy. On the contrary, due to a strange cultural co n trad ictio n , in the Latin countries women are more res­ pected than in Anglo-Saxon countries.

Sure in Italy when a woman walks down the street, men turn and look at her. They whistle, too, but I don’t see what’s so bad about that. They may not pinch your bum in the U.S., but there is a greater hatred of women among the men. They all seem to be

homosexuals in the head, even if But apart from the phenomenon they go on to marry. It isn’t like that is Naples, it interested me that in Italy. greatly to present Fascism to the In Italy, it is often the woman people as it was. who doesn’t set off and take on I also wanted to show that it is certain jobs. If she did, she always the women and the children wouldn’t encounter any more who put things back together difficulties than those encountered again. But then, even more than

by American women. Actually, now, their opinions never counted. when you look around, you see Malaparte’s point of view is there are female prime ministers in excellent: the population, which is India and England, and there has never asked if it wants the war or been an Israeli woman Head of not, is always the one which pays.

State, but never in the U.S. The Sure, there are lots of other stories Americans all talk a lot but they I could have done, but it was never actually do anything. They important to me to portray history are a bunch of fops. as it really happened, not as it is So, I don’t believe that Italian depicted in the textbooks. This is women have a more difficult life far more educational.

— especially in the north, where I In fact, I should now do The come from. My town is full of big- Skin 2, because of what went on in business women, and they get Naples after the earthquake, and more respect than the men. with the money the government Having said this, one must provided for its reconstruction. remember that in the south of Italy Things really went wild: the men are capable of killing a Camorra [Neapolitan Mafia} was woman if she has a lover. But you involved and it was practically like have to understand the context. It a war breaking out. Last year is part of a game. I am not saying alone, there were 187 deaths from that you should kill — on the con­ this ‘civil war’, much more than trary — but it is important to see under the American occupation in the thing as a whole.

Naples. So why should we be scan­ Germaine Greer went to Sicily in dalized over what happened then, a very provocative way and with when today it is worse? negative preconceptions, in order to speak critically of it. But once Do you always collaborate on a she got there, she understood a lot screenplay? of things, much of which was con­ trary to what she had originally If I were offered a screenplay thought. which I liked very much, I would Everybody tends to stop at their do it. But that hasn’t happened own experience. One can say, “ I yet. find it annoying that a man So far, I have always done films pinches me on the bum” , and of based on stories written by me or course that is perfectly right. It is with a collaborator or, as in the an awful, masculine, roosterish case of The Skin, based on a story habit. But it has to be seen with an taken from a book, but again with overview. the screenplay written by me.

La pelle (The Skin) In The Skin I wanted to talk about that period of the American occupation of Naples. I think that everything we know about that era is distorted.

Malaparte [author of La pelle], like everybody else, was a Fascist and then became a Communist.

But in many things he is much better than many others.

You have been quoted as saying that the images are more important than the dialogue . . .

It is always better to tell every­ thing you can without words. The value and relevance of the image is always more important and more interesting, given that cinema is not literature.

Of course, dialogue can be very beautiful, and can be also extremely important. But I believe it is better that a scene has as little dialogue as possible. Naturally, if you are making a film about a trial then there has to be a lot of dialogue. But the photography, the costumes, etc., are all very important.

In the case of The Skin, for example, we had to reconstruct the 1940s — the Americans in Naples and the rubble in the streets — but we could only give an impression.

Concluded on p. 579 Top to bottom: Lou (Dominique Sanda) “on to p ’’ o f Friedrich Nietzsche (Erland Josephson), as Paul Ree (Robert Powell) watches — Beyond Good and Evil; images o f the American occupation o f Naples in the 1940s. The Skin.

REATURES BRIAN McFARLANE

aid side by side, as I am sure many of their authors would like to be, film star biographies and autobiographies take up several, good-sized shelves in any performing arts bookshop. Twenty years ago, an actor generally had to make it on the stage before he or we could expect his life to be celebrated between hard covers. So, luminaries of Broadway a Shaftesbury Avenue, from Tallulah Bankhead to A. E. Matthews, were trying to persuade us that they were as interesting off-stage as on, and certainly that they were much more interesting than we were. The 1970s changed all that. Not to have the enthralling saga of your life take its place on the shelf with all those other lives has become a tacit admission of not having made it. Mere decent reticence in the face of a dull life stops no one, nor does even merer unimportance.

For the flood of star biographies and, worse, those written allegedly by the starsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own hands, has gathered momentum through the past decade and shows no sign of abatement. Furthermore, they are getting longer (the first fruits of Stewart Grangerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s anecdotage1 run to more than 400 pages) and, a still more disquieting sign, there is a new trend towards stopping mid-career. Presumably, this latter habit, as evinced

by Granger, James Mason2 and the unspeakable Shelley Winters3, is meant to leave us breathless with anticipation for Volume Two. This is indeed making a little go a long way, since the off-screen lives of these people often are remarkably dull â&#x20AC;&#x201D; often as dull as our own, just lived in more comfort.

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“ They’re not stars fo r no reason, you know . . . ”

shrewdly selecting the best of 50 takes, or Gregg Toland catching the upturned face in a way that softens the hard egoism.

On the basis of the nearly 20 volumes with which I have frittered away my youth in recent months, I would find it hard to adduce evidence for Gregory Peck’s assertion that, “ They’re not stars for no reason, you know. They’re stars because they are interesting people.” 4 One of the chief recurring elements of these works is certainly egoism. Clearly, even to get noticed to the point of being offered any role in a film takes a degree of persistence allied crucially to a powerfully egoistic belief in one’s powers.

Having achieved not merely any role but the power and right to choose their roles — that is, to be a star — it is equally clear that an immense egoism, and egotism, comes into play to sustain that privileged position. Even a pro­ fessional nice-guy like Peck derives gratifica­ tion from the fact that, in his first film, his “ name was to go above the title — and it has never gone anywhere else since” (p. 57). A monstress like Bette Davis5 snarled and clawed her way to the roles that made her a star, and, once established, she alienated many by “ relentlessly demanding, imposing, seeking restlessly for what was best” : best for the film of course too, but essentially best for Bette.

To know you are a film star is, presumably, to know that millions of people around the world want to watch you both being recog­ nizably “ yourself” and doing something that is called film acting. It is a heady thought no doubt, and to the head, no doubt, it often goes.

More often than not, unsustained by families, education, religion or any other of the decentralizing structures of their society, they are encouraged by those with a financial interest in their careers to believe their own publicity, to believe themselves the centre of their personal universes. With so many lives dependent on whether their latest film is pulling in the customers, small wonder it is that many of them give co-workers, spouses and others hell if their wishes are not fulfilled. To be as universal an icon as a film star is makes prepos­ terous demands on the sanity, balance and humanity of the often otherwise-unremarkable human being just beneath the glamorous surface.

“Night o f the few large stars”

Film stars are so much a phenomenon of a packaging process, whereby some astute producer recognizes a saleable commodity, It may be that the publishing bonanza of the ensures that it is handsomely gift-wrapped and 1970s (not just star lives, of course, but every employs highly-skilled minions to market it, aspect of cinema) is a product of a more or less that sometimes it is hard to know what there is starless age. Now that there are so few to any given star apart from a seductive authentic stars left, the reading public is physical presence. This presence is, of course, perhaps doubly fascinated with the big names infinitely more important on the screen than on of the past, expecting that they must have big the stage, which is at once more exposed to the lives attached to them. For, whatever it is that consumer and more tactfully distant from him. makes a star, the public knows one when it sees How film stars look seems to me to be the one one.6 At the moment there aren’t many to see: indisputably vital element in their screen this is Walt Whitman’s “ night of the few large personae; whatever else they may bring to their stars.” roles in the way of, say, intelligence, under­ I remember reading in the mid-1970s that standing, depth of feeling or experience is there were but 10 bankable stars left in much harder to assess and to attribute.

Hollywood (Redford, Newman, etc., and one This being so, it is perhaps not surprising that woman — Streisand). This is a black night on the page, as distinct from the screen, they indeed when you think of how many stars often are disappointing. The perceptiveness and glittered on the mid-’40s payroll of any one of sensitivity we have admired as they loomed 4. Michael Freedland, Gregory Peck, W. H. Allen, 1980, above us in the dark must, we begin to feel, p. 59. belong elsewhere — perhaps to William Wyler, 5. Charles Higham, Bette: A Biography o f Bette Davis, 1. Stewart Granger, Sparks Fly Upward, Granada Publishing, 1981.

2. James Mason, Before I Forget, Hamish Hamilton, 1981.

3. Shelley Winters, Shelley — Also Known as Shirley, Granada Publishing Ltd, 1981.

New English Library, 1981, p. 160.

6. On the recent Fred Astaire Life Achievement Award shindig, the audience — admittedly not average general public — knew exactly who was to get a standing ovation: that is, Eleanor Powell and Audrey Hepburn but not Cyd Charisse of the glorious legs. Stardom, like Blood, will out.

the big studios. Can it be that present depriva­ tion has provoked both nostalgia and the urge to literary embalmment? An urge, that is, showed by interested parties such as publishers, public and ageing stars themselves.

The reasons for the declining number of stars are complex. It is not that we, the cinema-going public, now feel ourselves above the idea of stars. It seems to me that the public still reaches out to any actor who is even half-way towards Coward’s “ star quality” — towards the likes of Jane Fonda, Warren Beatty or, as the suc­ cess of On Golden Pond suggests, towards unarguable and enduring Hollywood staples such as Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda.

But the passing of the studio system, that very nursery of the stars; the precariousness of the film actor’s life when he must negotiate each new role as part of a business deal; a decreasing willingness of newer actors to share their private lives (even a diluted or sugared version) with their public; an increasingly sophisticated awareness of films among articulate sectors of the public which both make a cult of old stars and decry the need for contemporary ones: these are a few guesses about the reasons for the decline in stars. The mass audiences will still turn out for a Star Wars but not for a star turn.

We are no longer “ visited all night by troops of stars” : in these tough times we are lucky if our film has one star supported by Ben Johnson.

. . Preserve the stars from wrong” (Wordsworth) Apart from Flora Robson7 who didn’t marry at all and Mae West8 who may or may not have done so, most of the biographed girls and boys here have notched up several partners. “ ‘I’ve been married five times’, [Henry Fonda] said abruptly, ‘and I’m goddamn ashamed of it.’ ” 9 In most of the other volumes, the casting-off of the old and the taking-on of the new are presented as part of some restless quest for truth in human relations. Fonda’s abrupt honesty on the matter — and I don’t mean to be striking a moral pose about this — is markedly at odds with the usual cant offered about marriage and divorce.

On the whole I prefer Susan Hayward’s direct account10 of why she wanted to be rid of Jess Barker, “ The son of a bitch hit me” , to the tasteful evasion of Freedland’s account of Gregory and Greta Peck’s break-up: “ . . . the sad-looking surroundings [of their French villa] only seemed to echo the state of their relationship together. It took very little time for them both to realise that they weren’t going to be able to cope and that it had come to an end.” (p. 125.)

I don’t mean to underestimate the sort of pressures that stardom, with all its demands for ego maintenance and repair, must make on relationship; nor do I want to suggest that it is easy to write about a succession of liaisons, with and without the benefit of formal cere­ monies. Inevitably notions of romantic commitment get somewhat tarnished by the time the fifth or, in Elizabeth Taylor’s case, the seventh marriage is reached.

The (auto-) biographers are caught in something of a bind here: on the one hand, they may wish to present their subjects as a moral mixture of Little Nell and Mother Theresa of Calcutta; on the other, they are aware that a breath — or better, a gust — of scandal will 7. Kenneth Barrow, Flora, Heinemann, 1981.

8. Fergus Cashin, Mae West, W. H. Allen, 1981.

9. Henry Fonda, (as told to Howard Teichmann), Fonda: M y Life, W. H. Allen, 1982, p. x.

10. Christopher P. Anderson, A Star, Is a Star, Is a Star!

The Life and Loves o f Susan Hayward, Robson Books, 1982.

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boost sales like nothing else. Responses to this dilemma are various: Shelley Winters has decided to let it all hang out and a very repulsive spectacle it makes; James Mason has opted for such discretion that it comes as a surprise to find him named as a co-respondent in Roy and Pamela Kellino’s divorce or to find, 100 pages later, that he and Pamela are parting.

The point of this is to suggest that very rarely indeed does a star emerge from one of these biographical skirmishes with his or her image unsullied. Honesty will frequently be unkind to them; discretion can make them sound dull; and a flair for the salacious may lose respect even as sales thrive. It is not just a matter of sexual behaviour; revealing other aspects of the private lives of stars rarely makes one think better of them. Claire Bloom is one exception: she writes11 with unaffected honesty about the vanity, ambition and selfishness that, she believes, played a part in her career. So, too, is Flora Robson who emerges, miraculously, from Kenneth Barrow’s daunting hagiography as hard-working, intelligent and compas­ sionate.

The fact that the off-screen lives of so many stars seem not to be particularly interesting sometimes leads biographers into whipping up a spurious sense of drama where none exists.

For women stars this usually means an affaire with Howard Hughes; the men, faintly afraid that theirs is an effeminate profession, dwell on manly experiences like motor-racing or flying.

Again and again, one feels how much more satisfactory these Lives would be if they devoted themselves more whole-heartedly to the activities that made the stars famous enough for us to want to read about them: that is, their work in films. Instead of the current stress on their sexual appetites and adventures, instead of white-washing their marital histories, from which processes they inevitably emerge as lesser people, they could very usefully tell us a great deal that would be worth knowing about the processes of filmmaking.

FONDA

“I t is the stars, the stars above us govern our conditions” Shakespeare knew it all. For, in the history of Hollywood certainly, the influence of stars in shaping entertainment has been enormous.

Productions were built around the talents of particular stars; the greater the responsibility on a star for a film’s success or failure, the more powerful became that star’s wishes in the making of the film. If stars could not sell a bad or unattractive film to the public (cf. Gable and Parnell, Julie Andrews and Star!), they undoubtedly increased the pulling power of many average-to-good films. Considering, too, the public’s notorious fickleness (it could never, for instance, be induced to flock to Deanna Durbin movies after the Christmas Holiday fiasco), it is not surprising that so much studio effort and star ego went into ensuring that those stars above us would continue to govern our conditions.

Top: Bette Davis (right o f centre) in Herman J. Mankiewicz’ A ll A bout Eve. Above: Joseph Schildkraut, Tyrone Power, Anita Louise, Norma Shearer and Reginald Gardiner in fV. S. Vandyke’s Marie Antoinette.

Below: Ward Bond, Henry Fonda and Tim Holt in John Ford’s My Darling Clementine.

ew actors fought harder to attain and maintain stardom than BETTE DAVIS. In 1964 she told her own story as she chose to present it in The Lonely Life\ as Charles Higham tells it now in Bette, the lady’s own account seems to have offered just a carefully preserved public

F

11. Claire Bloom, Limelight and After, W eidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982.

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M Y LIFE

As toldto Mommi Teichmann

The Biography Industry

persona of brisk New Englander, dispensing crisp honesty and common sense. Higham erodes this image by describing her as selfdramatizing, obsessively ambitious and, “ a woman whose brilliance and , aggression prevented her from achieving fulfilment in a relationship.” The one great, positive attribute she persistently reveals is energy, but that is certainly made unattractive by the ruthlessness, egoism and egotism that accompanies it. This energy seems to have worn out the men in her life though there were brief periods of happiness with husbands 2 and 4 (Arthur Farnsworth and Gary Merrill).

It stood her in good stead for her protracted fighting with Warner Bros, with the result that she got more than her fair share of juicy roles and the power to dictate in what conditions she would perform and how her public would therefore view her. Her worst enemy (com­ petition for the title would be stiff, even with Joan Crawford and Miriam Hopkins now gone) would no doubt grant her energy and courage. There was courage at the time in choosing roles like Mildred in Of Human Bondage, or Leslie Crosbie in The Letter, or Baby Jane, as well as the perception to assess their potential in terms of her capacities to act them and make the public accept her in them.

Higham’s account, as slickly professional and anonymous as others from his assembly line (Kate, Marlene, Ava), at least does justice to the films and makes something compulsive of the way Davis’ energies worked towards making so many of them memorable. He is quite astute at identifying the highlights — Jezebel, Now Voyager, All About Eve, among others — even if his assessments of them are unilluminating. There is surely more to Now Voyager than . . of course, a camp classic, a masterpiece of schmaltz” . Higham (and Joel Greenberg) did better with classic Hollywood in their 1970 book Hollywood in the 40s.

However, he often has interesting comments on the conditions surrounding the making of the films and, discussing Now Voyager, he claims: “ Scripts in those days were explicitly tailored for stars, and [Casey] Robinson included many touches which suggested Bette’s New England background.” These “ touches” are then considered in relation to several scenes.

The book is full of nasty side-swipes at Davis’ consorts and colleagues: at Farnsworth, with his “ aura of fake self-confidence, mascu­ line security, strength that disguised a fawning servile w eakness” ; at Paul Muni — “ withdrawn, haughty, never a mixer” ; at John Farrow, “ a boorish, drunken lecher with a foul mouth” ; at George Brent who was “ meanspirited, tough, and handicapped by a wickedly vicious tongue” ; and at that “ small, pot-bellied and balding” great lover, Charles Boyer. In fact, Davis seems to have liked very few men and fought with most of her male co-stars. Her closest friends were younger actresses like Jane Bryan and Geraldine Fitzgerald, whose careers she encouraged, and some of her best perfor­ mances were opposite strong actresses like Joan Crawford, Mary Astor and Anne Baxter. In fact, as her star rose, say to 1941, she was less and less likely to have a leading man who could draw her full fire — either on-screen or off.

Possibly a terrible woman, Davis is indubitably a great star. She frequently took unpromising scripts, saw something playable in them, grabbed them by the scruff of the neck, belted them and everyone concerned into shape, and as a result she has survived as a star for 50 years. Despite ill-temper, unco-operativeness, little affection or respect for most of her colleagues, she continues to command public respect and attention. Knowing about the woman, as Higham’s handsomely-published

century. But, with the backing of a shrewd and grateful studio who pushed him — not that he resisted — through 25 films in seven years (1936-42), he became a household word in a way that is scarcely possible now that the studios are gone, and households, perhaps, not what they were.

Power died in 1958, just at the stage when the hile Bette Davis was ruling the maintenance of a star career was getting roost at Warners (known tougher as the studios crumbled under threats affectionately as San Quentin), from television, anti-trust legislation, and T Y R O N E P O W E R was possibly a more sophisticated public awareness. keeping Twentieth Century- But if the studios carefully nurtured their Fox solvent and Darryl F. Zanuckvaluable rich. Hector star properties, the latter often seemed Arce’s “ coast-to-coast bestseller” , The Secret to have little sense of creative direction when Life o f Tyrone Power12, despite its salacious they left — or were turned loose by — the packaging which draws attention to Power’s studios “ which controlled not only the sexual ambidexterity, is in fact a surprisingly publicity but which parts the contractées would humane account of the man and a sometimes play.” 13 shrewd appraisal of the career. If Power’s sexual life caused him a good deal of torment, ENRY FONDA, who had his first his star career was rarely satisfying in the way successes at roughly the same time that he wanted. Coming from several genera­ as Power, with whom he co­ tions of acting Powers, he always seemed to be starred in Jesse James (1939), after a success which eluded him — that is, as a serious actor on stage and screen. retained his star status until his Power established quickly a potent romantic death a quarter of a century after Power’s, image in his pre-World War 2 films, films like clinching it with his 1981 Oscar for On Golden Lloyds of London, Suez and In Old Chicago Pond.

It is hard to believe Power could have opposite beauties like Madeleine Carroll, retained his position that had he lived. It is Loretta Young and Alice Faye. More than not just that Fonda waslong a “ actor — usually amenable in his dealings with studio i.e., more complex, more better” resonant, more chiefs, he was used by Fox to help launch eloquent — than Power ever was, and he estab­ aspiring stars like Jean Peters, Linda Darnell lished this on the stage too; as well, as Howard and Anne Baxter who all profited by exposure Teichmann records it, and as the filmography in films with Power. He, however, longed for more demanding roles and, as Arce points out, bears out, he was never firmly held in the of a long-term contract with any found real critical success only once in his stranglehold one studio, and he insisted on retaining the 25-year career. That was in Edmund right to appear on stage.

Goulding’s authentically nasty little film noir, Teichmann, a man of the theatre, tends to Nightmare Alley, in which he played a shoddy opportunist very well indeed. His earlier, more stress the plays — Mr Roberts particularly, The prestigious film for Goulding, The Razor’s ‘Caine’Mutiny Court Martial, Harrow — while Edge, had sought to extend his range. “ His skimping on the films, but he makes clear that long speeches” , Arce writes, “ about eventual Fonda understood the difference between the redemption had to be delivered with a genuine two media. He quotes Fonda: “ T just pulled it [i.e., voice] right back to sense of inspiration, since the camera held him reality because that lens and that microphone mercilessly in its close-up gaze.” But for all his are doing all the projection you need. No efforts in this role, and for all the film’s sense in using too much voice, and you don’t seductive patina, Power came to fear it was need any more expression on your face than “ pretentious, simplistic claptrap” . you’d use in everyday life.’ ” There is something touching in the story of this agreeable-sounding man whose private life And Teichmann adds: “ In almost a hundred films the technique was bedevilled by dangerous liaisons and whose Fonda employs has not varied. Some say he public life hardly ever satisfied him, even when underplays, some say he’s not even acting. it was satisfying millions of cinemagoers.

Quiet, calm, even in anger or desperation, Tyrone Power has not worn well and 30 or so whether comedy or drama Fonda uses as years after he rarely looks convincing: apart little facial mobility as possible. Whatever he from Nightmare Alley, he probably wears best does he makes you see inside the character he in the swashbucklers he grew so tired of, worst plays.” (p. 98.) in his more high-minded pieces (vide his display Very early on “ Fonda fell easily into the of tortured conscience in Anatole Litvak’s This Above All). Hector Arce neither wishes to spare rhythm of film-making” , believing it to be us the more sensational passages of Power’s life largely a director’s medium, with actors as “ two-dimensional figures to be used in the nor does he wallow in them. exposing of raw stock to its best advantage” (p. volume insists we must, adds nothing to the star image. On the other hand, though, the private dirt can’t diminish the power with which that image has often worked on us, in the guise of, variously, Mildred, Regina Giddons or Margo Channing.

W

H

“A nd the stars are shining bright” (Shelley) Stars, answering who knows what urge towards the setting up of idols, are essentially a phenomenon of 1930s and ’40s Hollywood.

Brando and Monroe had their hour but those that shone longest and brightest began their blaze in those decades now sentimentally known as the Golden Years. It is hard to imagine anyone as modestly talented as Tyrone Power getting started in the mid-’70s and holding on to star status till the end of the 12. H ector A rce, The Secret Life o f Tyrone Power, B antam Books, 1980.

102).

Considering how much more perceptive Teichmann is about acting than most of the stars’ biographers, it is disappointing that he doesn’t give more detail about Fonda’s film performances. The early meetings with John Ford and the making of Young Mr Lincoln and The Grapes of Wrath rate about four pages altogether, while My Darling Clementine, a time-secured masterwork, gets no more than a passing mention. Other notable films like The Wrong Man and Fort Apache are skimmed over, while The Best Man is not there at all; there is a little more on Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men, which Fonda also produced. “ I don’t think if you took a stick and beat him he 13. E lizabeth Weis (ed), The Movie Stars, The Viking Press, 1981, In tro , p. xi.

CINEMA PAPERS December — 531

The Biography Industry

could do anything false, he’s incapable. As a performer, as a man, he’s pure” , Sidney Lumet claimed, and if it sounds an extravagant claim it is perhaps not far from the public’s view of Fonda. He has always seemed like one’s ideal of the American liberal; according to Teich­ mann, there is more than a little correspon­ dence between the screen persona and the real man, though the latter emerges as more ascetic, more rigorous, more egoistic, harder to know and harder still to live with. There is honesty in his approach to some of life’s major issues; and in some of his chief relationships a stubborn integrity emerges, not unbecoming Tom Joad, Wyatt Earp and Barney Greenwald. f Henry Fonda made a career out of persuading us to take him seriously, whether in a humid jury room or bringing order to the wild West, that other wild West — Mae — appeared on screen to take nothing seriously — especially not sex or men, and especially not any of the virtues held dear by middle America. Fergus Cashin’s slim volume (a happy change from the n e v e r-m in d -th e -q u a lity -fe e l-th e -le n g th approach) may not intend to cut MAE WEST down to size, but it does. “ She had spent most of the twentieth century inventing herself” , Cashin writes, and if she did not invent sex, “ She . . . saw the humour in it and probably no one before or since has had more fun on what she called the ‘linen battlefield’ ” (Time magazine).

And yet, if Cashin is to be trusted, the reallife truth is a good deal less amusing and less glittering than her brief, dazzling star career might have suggested. In fact, Mae West is a somewhat sad story of a creature who purveyed lubricity in public, first on stage and then on screen, and perhaps never knew anything about sex, let alone love in private life. The off-screen facts are shrouded in mystery, starting with date of birth (1893 or 1888? — not that it can have mattered to anyone in over half a century), including the marriage (or was it?) to Frank Wallace in 1911, whether or not, if it happened, it was ever consummated, and indeed most of her private life.

West’s 1930s films are now camp classics, a status that has nothing to do with their quality, which, apart from the choice one-liners, is generally atrocious. However, in the ’30s the one-liners came thick and fast, many of them Mae’s own invention we are told, and she quickly secured a powerful position at Para­ mount. Her first screen line, in reply to the hat­ check girl’s “ Goodness, what beautiful diamonds” , was the immortal, “ Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.” From that moment, Cashin tells us somewhat fulsomely, “ she walked slowly, majestically up the stairs into motion picture history” (p. 98). The next two, She Done Him Wrong and I’m No Angel, both with the young Cary Grant, established her as a major star.

If none of the remaining six films she did in the ’30s was as good as these, they were good enough to keep her public and Paramount more than happy. The 1940 teaming with W. C. Fields in My Little Chickadee was not a happy occasion (“ They were, in turn, suspicious of each other, hostile, then indifferent” , says Cashin) and this shows in the resulting film.

Their comic styles — lewd innuendo from her, misogynistic mutterings from him — prove curiously immiscible.

It was, however, a triumph of subtlety, wit and taste, compared with the last two films of her career: Mike Same’s Myra Breckinridge (1970), a Hollywood sex farce from below the bottom of the barrel, and Ken Hughes’ bizarre

I

532 — December CINEMA PAPERS

Top left: Lee Marvin and Dorothy Lamour in John F ord’s Donovan’s Reef. Left: publicity still fo r Henry Hathaway’s Spawn o f the North (book caption reads: “I f you had smelled that seal, you wouldn’t look too happy either’’).

Below: publicity still fo r Ken H ughes’ S ex tette, starring Mae West (centre).

Sextette (1978), in which she plays the bride of a young English aristocrat. But it is absurd to talk of Same or Hughes as if they were the authors of those films which defined new nadirs. Mae West was invincibly the author of her own films, as she was of the trashy, funny, finally mysterious drama of her life. There was probably much less, in several senses, than met the eye. The best is there in those ’30s gags (“ Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before” ) and Cashin does well to quote a good number of them. For the rest, he is left with an enigma: a star who became the target of a ferocious purity campaign, a woman whose private life would almost certainly have undermined the public image.

nother star who scarcely seemed to be taking sex seriously was DOROTHY LAMOUR. By the end of the ’30s, in films like Jungle Princess, Ford’s The Hurricane and Her Jungle Love, she had made the saron and herself famous, but her most prolific period of stardom was in the next decade when she made 29 films. In these she established herself not merely as shapely but as blessed with a nicely deflating sense of humor that worked to best effect in the six Road films (1939-52). Her career and her not-very-remarkable private life are now presented for inspec­ tion in a volume of artless maunderings entitled My Side o f the Road, “ as told to Dick Mclnnes” .14 One doesn’t doubt that Dorothy Lamour was a cheerful, pleasant woman but there just aren’t 200 pages in her life. It is almost as if she is aware of this too as she tries conscientiously to whip up a spurious narrative interest: “ Being practical, my first thought [grammar is not her major strength] was how could I get to Hollywood on my limited funds. Why bother? I asked myself; I knew I could never make it in films anyway.” (Actually, this points to one of the weaknesses of all these books: we know they all made it, so that suspense is at a premium. This being so, most of them need more unusual — or better-observed — lives to offset the daunting lack of narrative interest.)

Dorothy — it would seem unfriendly to call her _____________________ Continued on p. 580

A

14. D orothy L am our (as told to Dick M clnnes), M y Side o f the Road, R obson B ooks, 1981.

Colin Higgins is one o f America's most successful practitioners o f screen comedy. His screenplay fo r Harold and Maude (directed by Hal Ashby) was the basis o f a continuously-popular cult film .

Subsequently he wrote Silver Streak (directed by Arthur Hiller) and wrote and directed Foul Play, 9 to 5 and The Best Little Whore­ house in Texas.

While serving as a jury member at the 1982 Montreal Film Festival, Higgins talked to fellow jury member David Stratton.

Apparently you grew up in Sydney

old Chalmers St office; I had to take the slides that advertised coming attractions to all the city and suburban Metro cinemas every week.

Yes. Actually, I was born in New Caledonia in 1941. My mother was from Sydney and my father from San Francisco. They How did you become interested in had met while she was a passenger writing? on the “ Mariposa” ; my father was Chief Purser. It was a shipboard At first I wanted to be an actor.

In fact, I lost a scholarship to Stan­ romance.

After Pearl Harbor, my father ford University because I became enlisted and my mother returned to so obsessed with theatre. I went to Sydney with me and my older New York and hung around the brother. In 1945, we lived in San Actors Studio, but there were no Francisco for a while but soon acting jobs. So I became a page at afterwards returned to Sydney, the ABC television studios. Then I where I stayed until 1957. We had lost hope and volunteered for the a house in Hunters Hill and I went Army. I was sent to Germany, and became a reporter on the army to school at Riverview.

I got my first part-time job in newspaper, Stars and Stripes. I Sydney, working for MGM at their was discharged in 1965 and spent

six months in Europe, mostly in Paris.

Then I went back to the U.S., back to Stanford, and eventually got my B.A. majoring in Creative Writing. While at college, I sup­ ported myself as an actor, playing in small theatre productions. I also spent a year and a half in a dreadful sex farce called Once Over Nightly.

Then in 1967, I visited Expo’67 in Montreal, and went to many of the programs at the Montreal Film Festival. That was when I decided I wanted to direct. I was accepted into Film School at UCLA, where one of my fellow students was Paul Schrader. At the same time George Lucas and Randal Kleiser were at USC. That generation has become the backbone of our industry now,

the first group to bridge the gap between film school students and the industry proper.

What sort of films did you make at UCLA?

I made two: Opus One was a satire on student films; Retreat was an anti-war statement. Then I sub­ mitted as my thesis a feature screenplay, which was Harold and Maude. I hadn’t much money and I had answered an ad in the L.A .

Times. A couple wanted a part­ time chauffeur and someone to clean out their swimming pool in return for free lodging in the chauffeur’s quarters.

I was very lucky. It was a pretty swank Bel Air home, and turned out to be owned by a film proCINEMA PAPERS December — 533

Colin Higgins

failed. So Evans, though he wanted the script, was not at all keen for me to direct. However, he gave me, or rather Paramount gave me, $7000 to do a director’s test.

Ed, who was making a film at Columbia at the time, arranged for me to use the Bob & Carol & Ted & What was the inspiration for Alice set to do the test. It was amazingly economical; Daniel “ Harold and Maude” ?

Fapp shot it for me and we did It came from seeing a dolly three scenes from the film, all with crane for rental in a film equip­ the kid and his mother. ment store. I thought I would Well, the result was that they make an exercise for film school, liked it, but not enough. So something very elaborate tech­ eventually I relented about direct­ nically. So I worked out a situation ing it myself and Hal Ashby was with the dolly crane in mind, and brought in; I was made co­ that became the first scene where producer. I got on very well with the mother discovers Harold Hal, and we both thought the film hanging. came out great; Paramount was Then I thought, this is a bit grue­ high on it, too. Then, fate took a some, why not make a joke of it? hand. It was the end of 1971 and So it became a fake suicide. And The Godfather was supposed to be that is how the whole idea came to the studio’s big Christmas release; me; it all sprang from a desire to it was booked into all the biggest use that piece of equipment. Much and best theatres. But Francis later I realized that it developed [Coppola] hadn’t finished it. So into a personal story, with Harold Harold and Maude became a last­ and Maude representing the minute replacement: this little film introvert-extrovert sides of my of ours in those big cinemas up own character. against all the top releases of the Anyway, Ed Lewis showed my season. We were swamped. It was script to Bob Evans at Paramount, a major failure; total disaster. And who liked it a lot. But I wanted to I, of course, was persona non direct it myself. Now, in that post­ grata.

Easy Rider period a lot of new­ comers had been given the chance But it became a success eventually to direct, but they had mostly

ducer, Ed Lewis. [Edward Lewis produced several of John Frankenheimer’s films of the 1960s, includ­ ing The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May and Grand Prix.] Ed was kind enough to take me quite often on sets. I showed him my script and he liked it.

Much later. In the meantime, I was in trouble. I finally got an offer from a couple of friends, Tom Miller and Eddie Milkis, who ran a television film company.

They had sold a “ Movie of the Week” to ABC on the strength of a title, The Devil’s Daughter. But they had no script. So I wrote one for them, Jeannot Swarcz directed it and Shelley Winters and Joseph Cotten starred in it. It was just a job.

Then out of the blue I received a letter from Paris, from Jean-Louis Barrault. He told me Harold and Maude was a success there, that he had loved it and had thought of turning it into a play for the veteran French actress Madeleine Renaud. Would I help? I was very pleased and flattered. I went to Paris, adapted the screenplay into a theatre piece and then worked with Jean-Claude Carrière on the French translation. It was a huge success and ran for seven years.

While in Paris, I met Peter Brook and he invited me to join his com pany as “ playw right-in­ residence” . We did a play together called The Ik, a serious piece about mountain people in Uganda, which was put on first in Paris and then at the Round House in London.

How did you get back into movies?

Well, by now Harold and Maude was looking better; it had become something of a cult film internationally. I still wanted to direct films, and I had figured the way to do that was to find pro­ ducers who would support me. So I contacted Tom and Eddie with an idea for a script, which was Silver Streak, in the hope that if, by using another director, we could make a success with that one, I would have a chance to direct the next one.

And that is what happened. We offered Silver Streak to Para­ mount, but they turned it down

Below: lead actors Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon during the shooting o f Harold and Maude. Right and below right: Harold and Maude, written by Colin Higgins and directed by Hal Ashby.

because Tom and Eddie were tele­ vision people. So we took it to Fox, and Frank Yablans agreed to do it with Arthur Hiller directing.

Later we offered Foul Play to Fox, and they said, “ We don’t use first-time directors” , so we went back to P ara m o u n t, which approved it because of the success of Silver Streak.

Were you happy with the job Arthur Hiller did on “ Silver Streak” ?

Arthur is a very sweet man. He is not Hal Ashby, but he is a good commercial director. Seeing the film now, I think the climax, the train crash, is terrific, but I find the early scenes kind of slow. He

Colin Higgins

that to write anything is a kind of miracle.

They are three very different kinds of actresses . . .

How did you come to do “ 9 to 5” ?

Yes indeed. Jane is very deter­ mined, but also surprisingly girlish and fun-loving. I thought she was super.

I had never seen Dolly work before and hardly knew who she was, but I went to see her act and was amused by the warm, quick­ witted ad-libbing she did with the audience. When I discovered the following night that all those ad­ libs were scripted, I was very impressed. Any time an actor fools me, I am impressed. I knew she would have no problem as an actress. I wrote the part as much as I could for her.

Lily’s background is improvizational, so there was yet another contrast. I also wrote with her in mind.

I was approached by Jane Fonda, who had seen Foul Play. I had heard about this project for about a year. The premise was that three secretaries wanted to kill their boss; Jane was the producer and had got Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. I think originally Mike Nichols was to have been the director; I know it was then a pro­ ject for Herbert Ross.

Essentially, no one could lick the script, and the whole thing seemed to be falling apart. I was flattered to be asked, but when I read the script I realized why it was in trouble. The concept was right, but I knew it would have to be com­ pletely re-structured.

Shortly after I started working on it, I went to Cleveland to a meeting of an organization of office workers. I asked, as a dis­ cussion point, if any of them had ever thought of killing their boss.

Suddenly everyone started laugh­ ing; they came up with some of the most gruesome schemes which they had conceived in moments of severe stress. And I knew then that was the key on which to hang it all: to get the women in such a stressful situation that they would imagine killing their boss in grotesquely humorous ways. treats the script with a great deal of respect. If I had directed it, I would have been a bit less faithful to the writer; I would have slashed away.

Having been an actor yourself must have made working with them easier when you directed “ Foul Play” . . .

Above top:Doralee (Dolly Parton), Violet (Lily Tomlin) and Judy (Jane Fonda) tell their chauvinist boss (Dabney Coleman) how to run the office. Above: the office girls fantasize about getting even with the boss. Colin Higgins’ 9 to 5.

Right top: Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in Arthur Hiller’s Silver Streak. Right bottom: Chevy Chase in Colin Higgins’ Foul Play.

What attracts you to comedy?

I have great satisfaction in Yes. Goldie Hawn is a joy to hearing people laugh. People ask work with, very natural and totally me what part of the process I like understanding of the comedic way most: writing, directing or post­ I like to work, which is to base a production. For me the best part is situation on honesty and reality, when the piece is finished and you and then let it play out. I wrote the sit in the theatre and hear the audi­ script for Goldie, but it was a fight ence laugh. to get her; the studio didn’t want I am also personally optimistic; I her very much. like to see the absurdities in every­ I re-wrote the lead for Chevy day existence. Comedy comes Chase; it was his first movie, and very naturally to me. his style was very different — a television style of establishing a Do you find writing easy? rapport with the audience on the other side of the television camera.

I would not say “ easy” . It is get­ Of course, you don’t do that in ting easier because I am more movies; you let the camera come in experienced and more conscious of and discover you. At that time he what the processes are. Writers had no real respect for the craft of have to create an imaginary world, acting. But he did a very good job. live in it, and at the same time Dudley Moore, of course, was report on it. It is a very schizo­ terrific, too. I like actors and I like phrenic state. to assist them getting per­ In the early days, I found it very formances. frustrating when I couldn’t get into that meditative state, or whatever What visual style did you go for? it is, which enables you to create; now when that state doesn’t come I I wanted a crisp, bright, well-lit just consider it part of the process film with sharp colors and with and don’t get too disturbed. I used San Francisco looking marvellous. to beat myself up! Now I think

Your next project was “ The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” . . .

It was another troubled situa­ tion. Universal had bought the rights to the stage musical and originally the stage director was going to do the film version, but he was fired — as was the writer. I was then brought in and produc­ tion was put back about nine months. Universal had already cast Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton, scouted locations and built sets, so

The

reason

I loved

doing

Whorehouse was that it was an oldfashioned MGM musical with two big stars doing what they do best.

It is a slight story about a simple relationship: boy has girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. It is very simplified entertainment and has been very successful, but if I did another musical I would try to do

it was well advanced and the delays were expensive.

I re-wrote the script from scratch. Originally, the problem was that the Broadway show was about a sheriff who was 65 years old and a madam about 45, who had a relationship about 20 years before, a one-night stand in Galveston. It was clear to me the relationship had to change once those two actors were cast and that the romance had to be ongoing during the trouble over the whore­ house.

Considering how expensive it is to do a musical, which means you have to aim for the widest possible audience, the film is surprisingly bawdy, not only in its nudity but in, for example, the scene where Parton presents Reynolds with some flimsy panties . . .

I think it should be naughty, in the sense of sex being fun. In some parts of the U.S., newspapers wouldn’t even print ads using the word “ whorehouse” . But if you are making a film with “ whore­ house” in the title, you can’t be too coy about it all.

Many American critics have remarked on the show-stopping solo by Charles Durning as the Governor of Texas . . .

I cast Charles. He is a very accomplished actor, but he had started out as a dancer years ago.

536 — December CINEMA PAPERS

Top left: Dulcie Mae (Lois Nettleton) is in love with Sheriff Ed Ear (Burt Reynolds), but he is in love with Miss Mona (Dolly Parton), bottom left. Above: Mona and Deputy Fred (Jim Nabors). Colin Higgins’ The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

He worked for three solid months on that dance. It did not come easy to him. In fact, the first time I saw him try it I thought we were going to be in trouble. But he worked and sweated.

I am very proud of that sequence. We did it on location in Austin; it is not a set. And there is no process photography involved in the moments when he appears and d isappears behind the columns. We did that in the way that Buster Keaton did some of his great stunts, by measuring out the distances and calculating them per­ fectly. Fortunately, we were rained out the day before we shot it, so we had a whole day in which to rehearse in the Capitol itself, and believe me it took all that time to get everyone — camera operator, dolly operator, choreographer and actor — happy.

it better. It is interesting to specu­ late what it might have been like if the film had been cast closer to the original stage production, maybe with Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine. That would have been interesting.

Now that “ Whorehouse” is a big success, presumably you can pick and choose your next project . . .

Do you think there is a problem with the ending of the film?

Well, we did go through various ideas for an ending. In one we had Dolly get into her car and Burt get into his, the helicopter lift up with the camera, and they drive off in opposite directions. But finally I figured we needed a happy ending.

I am not entirely satisfied with the ending; maybe it is not shot quite right. But I have seen audi­ ences applaud when he sweeps her off her feet.

I really meant the device of

reprising shots seen earlier in the film . . .

Oh, yeah, I get criticized for that. But I did it because I like curtain calls. I would not change that. I understand why some people don’t like it, but for me it is fine.

I think the conventions of musicals are difficult to take these days; young audiences can get rest­ less when characters burst into song. Maybe we have to find a new convention.

I can, as you say, get finance easily now. I would like to do some smaller films, and I would like to do one in Australia, because of my background there and also because I am very impressed by all the excellent actors and actresses you have. I would very much like to work with some of them. And I find the Australian accent delight­ ful!

A re y o u r comedies?

future

projects

Probably. I have a couple of projects that are not comedies per se, but I think I would always treat them as comedies. I understand Olivier totally when he says he plays every part as comedy. He said once that he always insists on getting a laugh in the first ten minutes, whether it is there or not.

I approve of that. ★

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MOTION PICTURE YEARBOOK

1983 T h e th ird e d itio n o f th e Australian M otion Picture Yearbook has been to ta lly revised a n d u p d a ted .

T h e Y e a r b o o k again ta kes a d eta iled lo o k at w h a t has been h a p p e n in g in all sectio n s o f th e A u stra lia n f i l m scene o ver th e p a s t year, in clu d in g fin a n c in g , p r o d u c tio n , d istrib u tio n , exh ib itio n , television, f i l m fe stiv a ls , m edia, censorship a n d aw ards.

A s in th e p a s t, all en tra n ts in A u s tr a lia ’s m o s t co m p re h en siv e f i l m a n d television in d u stry d irecto ry ha ve been c o n ta c te d to c h ec k th e accuracy o f entries, a n d m a n y n ew categories h a ve been added.

A n ew series o f p r o file s has been c o m p ile d a n d will h ig h lig h t th e careers o f d irecto r P e te r W eir, c o m p o se r B rian M a y a n d a cto r M e l G ibson.

A n ew fe a tu r e in th e 1983 ed itio n is an exten sive ed ito ria l sectio n w ith articles on aspects o f A u s tra lia n a n d in te rn a tio n a l cin em a , in clu d in g f i l m fin a n c in g , special e ffe cts, censorship, a n d a su rv e y o f th e im p a c t o u r film s are h a vin g on U .S. audiences.

Reactions to the Second Edition “. . . an invaluable reference fo r anyone with an interest — vested or altruistic — in the continuing film renaissance down under . . . "

Variety

“Anyone interested in Australian films, whether in the industry or who just enjoys watching them, will find plenty to interest him in this book. ” The Sydney Sun-Herald

“The most useful reference book fo r me in the past year . . . ” Ray Stanley Screen International

“This significant publication is valuable not only to professionals but everyone interested in Australian film. ” The Melbourne Herald

“The Australian Motion Picture Yearbook is a great asset to the film industry in this country.

We at Kodak fin d it invaluable as a reference aid fo r the industry. ” David Wells Kodak

“May I congratulate you on your Australian Motion Picture Yearbook. It is a splendidly useful publication to us, and I ’m sure to most people in, and outside, the business. ” Mike Walsh Hayden Price Productions

“. . . one has to admire the detail and effort which has gone into the yearbook. It covers almost every conceivable facet o f the film industry and the publisher’s claim that it is ‘the only comprehensive yellow page guide to the film industry’ is irrefutable. ” The Australian

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“Indispensable tool o f the trade. ” Elizabeth Riddell Theatre Australia

“The 1981 version o f the Australian Motion Picture Yearbook is not only bigger, it’s better — as glossy on the outside as too many Australian film s try to be and as packed with content as many more Australian film s ought to be .. . ’’ The Sydney Morning Herald “1 have been receiving the Cinema Papers Motion Picture Yearbook fo r the past two years, and always find it to be fu ll o f interesting and useful information and facts. It is easy to read and the format is set out in such a way that information is easy to find. I consider the Yearbook to be an asset to the office. ” Bill Goo ley Colorfilm "... another good effort from the Cinema Papers team, and essential as a desk-top reference fo r anybody interested in our feature film industry. ’’ The Adelaide Advertiser

Documentary films occupy a special place in the history and development of Australian filmmaking. From the pioneering efforts of Baldwin Spencer to Damien Parer's Academy Award winning Kokoda Front Line, to Chris Noonan's Stepping Out and David Bradbury's Frontline, Australia's documentary filmmakers have been acclaimed world-wide.

The documentary film is also the mainstay of the Australian film industry.

More time, more money and more effort goes into making documentaries in this country than any other film form â&#x20AC;&#x201D; features, shorts or animation.

In this, the first comprehensive publication on Australian documentary film, 50 researchers, authors and filmmakers have combined to examine the evolution of documentary filmmaking in Australia, and the state of the art today.

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The History of the Documentary: A World View International landmarks, key figures, major movements.

The Development of the Documentary in Australia A general history of the evolution of the documentary film in Australia, highlighting key films, personalities and events.

Documentary Producers An examination of the various types of documentaries made in Australia, and who produces them. A study of government and independent production. The aims behind the production of documentaries, and the various film forms adopted to achieve the desired ends. This part surveys the sources of finance for documentary film here and abroad.

The Marketplace

Repositories and Preservation

The market for Australian documentary films, here and abroad. This section examines broadcast television, pay television, theatrical distribution, video sales and hire, box-office performances and ratings.

A survey of the practices surrounding the storage and preservation of documentary films in Australia.

Comparisons of procedures here and abroad.

Making a Documentary A series of case studies examining the making of documentaries. Examples include large budget documentary series for television; one-off documentaries for television and theatrical release; and educational and instructional documentaries.

Each case study examines, in detail, the steps in the production of the documentary, and features interviews with the key production, creative and technical personnel involved.

The Australian Documentary: Themes and Concerns An examination of the themes, pre-occupations and film forms used by Australian documentary producers and directors.

The Future A look at the future for documentary films. The impact of new technology as it affects production, distribution and marketing. A forward look at the marketplace and the changing role of the documentary.

Producers and Directors Checklist A checklist of documentary producers and directors currently working in Australia.

Useful Information Reference information for those dealing with, or interested in, the documentary film. This section will include listings of documentary buyers, distributors, libraries, festivals, etc.

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The chapters: The Past (Andrew Pike), Social Realism (Keith Connolly), Comedy (Geoff Mayer), Horror and Suspense (Brian McFarlane), Action and Adventure (Susan Dermody), Fantasy (Adrian Martin), Historical Films (Tom Ryan), Personal Relationships and Sexuality (Meaghan Morris), Loneliness and Alienation (Rod Bishop and Fiona Mackie), Children’s Films (Virginia Duigan), Avant-garde (Sam Rohdie).

AUSTRALIAN T V The First 25 Years A U S T R A L I A N T V The f i r s t 2 5 yea rs records, year by year, all the important television events. Over 6 0 0 photographs, some in f u l l color, recall forgotten images and preserve memories o f programmes long since w iped fro m the tapes.

The book covers every facet o f television programming — light entertainment, quizzes, news and documentaries, kids ’ programmes, sport, drama, movies, commercials . . . Contributors include J i m M urphy, Brian Courtis, Garrie Hutchinson, Andrew M cK ay, Christopher Day, Ivan Hutchinson.

A U S T R A L I A N T V takes yo u back to the time when television fo r most Australians was a curiosity — a shadowy, often soundless, picture in the window o f the local electricity store.

The quality o f the early programmes was at best unpredictable, but still people would gather to watch the Melbourne Olympics, Chuck Faulkner reading the news, or even the test pattern!

A t fir s t imported series were the order o f the day. Only Graham Kennedy and Bob Dyer could challenge the ratings o f the westerns and situation comedies fro m America and Britain.

Then came The M avis B ram ston Show. W ith the popularity o f that rude and irreverent show, Australian television came into its own. Programmes like N um ber 96, The Box, A g a in st the W ind, Sale o f the Century have achieved ratings that are by world standards remarkable.

A U S T R A L I A N T V is an entertainment, a delight, and a commemoration o f a lively, fast-grow ing industry.

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FILM EXPO SEM INAR REPORT In November 1 9 8 0 the F ilm and Television Production Association o f Australia and the N ew South Wales F ilm Corporation brought together 15 international experts to discuss f i l m financing, marketing, and distribution o f Australian film s in the 1 9 8 0 s with producers involved in the f i l m and television industry.

The symposium was a resounding success.

Tape recordings made o f the proceedings have been transcribed and edited by C in e m a P apers, and published as the F ilm Expo

Sem inar Report.

Contents

Contributors

Theatrical Production The Package: Two Perspectives

Arthur Abeles

Theatrical Production Business and Legal Aspects

Barbara D. Boyle

Distribution in the United States Producer/Distnbutor Relationship

Chairman, Filmarketeers L td (U .S .)

Executive Vice-President, and Chief Operating Officer, New World Pictures (U .S .)

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Lois Luger Vice-President, Television Sales, Avco Embassy Pictures Corporation (U .S .)

Professor A w . Massimo FerraraSantamaria Lawyer (Italy)

Mike Medavoy Executive Vice-President, Orion Pictures (U .S .)

Ashley Boone

Simon O. Olswang

Distribution Outside the United States

Worldwide Marketing and Distribution Head, Ladd Company (U .S .)

Television Production and Distribution

Mark Damon

Rudy Petersdorf

President, Producers Sales Organization (U .S .)

President and Chief Operating Officer, Australian Films Office Inc. (U .S .)

Financing oj Theatrical Films Major Studios Financing o f Theatrical Films Independent Studios Presale of Rights Presale o f Territory M ulti-National and Other Co-Productions

Michael Fuchs Senior Vice-President, Programming, Home Box Office (U .S .)

Samuel W. Gelfman

Solicitor, Breaker and Company (Britain)

Barry Spikings Chairman and Chief Executive, E M I Film and Theatre Corporation (Britain)

Independent Producer (U .S .)

Eric Weissmarm

Klaus Hellwig

Partner, Kaplan, Livingston, Goodwin, Berkowitz and Selvin

President, Janus Film Und Fernsehen (Germany)

Harry Ufland President, The Ufland Agency (U .S .)

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CPL Services P/L N O W A T 11-15 W ellington S treet, W indsor 3181

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G uy becom es increasingly in v o lv ed w ith the p o litic s o f the c o u n try a n d w ith Jill B ry a n t (Sigourney W eaver), an E nglish E m b a ssy secretary. E ven tu a lly, as these interests diverge, G u y m u s t choose betw een them .

The Year o f Living Dangerously is directed by P eter Weir, fr o m a screenplay by D a vid W illiam son (based on the no vel by C hristopher K och and on additional m aterial by A la n Sharp), f o r p ro d u cer Jam es M cE lroy. S h o t on locations in The P hilippines a n d A ustralia, the film is W eirâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s f i f t h fe a tu re and his second collaboration with W illiam son.

Clockwise from left: American journalist Pete Curtis (Michael Murphy) and Chinese-Australian cameraman Billy Kwan (Phipps Hunt); Australian journalist Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson), left, Tiger Lilly (Kuh Ledesma), and Kumar (Bembol Roco); Hamilton and soldier during the political unrest in Jakarta in 1965; the army takes control; the press corps at the bar â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Kwan, Hamilton, Wally (Noel Perrier), Curtis and Condon (Paul Sonkkilla); an Indonesian woman is given money by Kwan; Kumar and Hamilton.

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LASS OF 1984

Peter Malone

lass of 1984 is the kind of film that immediately draws protests from those who fear films are going too far in dramatizing social unrest and in visualizing violence. It is true that the film’s Lincoln High is a dingily-depressed school, that its central gang is sometimes a variation on Alex and his Clockwork Droogs, and that some of the final killings, especially the circular-saw slashings, are alarmingly gruesome. But a case can be made for Class of 1984. he film presents Perry King as Mr Norris, the earnest American teacher with his potentially devoted students.

These signal sentimentality. It also presents a punk gang that suggests sadistic eruptions are not far away.

As Class of 1984 proceeds, the gang is shown to be more and more psychotic; while they pose, vandalize and brutalize, the audience is forced to identify more and more with the teacher and his growing frustration and rage. When the gang rapes and abducts his wife, one feels so much revulsion and disgust that there is little problem in joining the teacher emotionally in massacring the gang. Our heads may not approve, our emotions may be disgusted but the film makes the gut consent to what we see.

By the time the gang is dead and the bloodied teacher rescues his wife, I, for one, felt physi­ cally better for having experienced the horren­ dous denouement. I had no intention of massacring anyone, but there had been a real catharsis. “ Unreal” , “ exploitive” and “ sentimental” are all apt words to describe the film. Yet, the invitation to identify with frustration, anger and rage, and their eruption is compelling. FurtherT

542 — D e c e m b e r CINEMA PAPERS

The punk gang attacks a black student. Mark L. Lester’s Class o f 1984.

Fingers suggest what bodies can do. Class o f 1984.

more, the purging of this rage by visual violence is very strong.

Mark L. Lester’s films have usually had a drive-in release in Australia. Distributors have seen them as tough actioners that will please the drive-in audiences like any other exploiter. The films then disappeared, although Truckstop Women has had some Melbourne University screenings and Stunts, his most respectable

film, has been shown on television. In a Monthly Film Bulletin review of Truckstop Women, Tony Rayns wrote: “Truckstop Women carves its way jovially through a great deal of B-feature territory, investing the contemporary girl gang exploiter with strong reminiscences of ’Fifties Westerns and small gangster movies, so that its appeal is at once nostalgic and very up-to-

Class o f 1984

date . . . Writer-director Mark L. Lester . . . has an astute eye and ear for a cliche, and knows better than Hawks ever did how to invert it to expose its absurdity. He also has a very witty way indeed with casual details and thumbnail characterisations . . . ” (March 1975, p. 65).

This is true of all Lester’s films and helps as an approach to Class of 1984.

If having the instinct and capability to arrest audience attention, to keep it by cinematic devices and to play on these is exploitation, then -Lester is an exploiter. He knows what creates strong emotional involvement and what keeps his audience stirred.

ester is linked with the B-budget genre films, which, in recent years, have come in for reappraisal. Without denying their use of stereotypes and cliche, one can acknowledge their power, and that they take for granted an appreciation of genres and their conventions.

The filmmakers know that if they suggest a convention vividly enough, the audience will recognize it, supply their own background and move with it. Cliches may be truths told too often or too tritely, but they are truths nonethe­ less. Similarly, conventions and stereotypes are authentic devices which have been over-used or used too tritely. But audiences quickly recognize the conventions — and relish this recognition — with a kind of automatic response which governs how they continue to respond. The audience accepts the conventions and becomes involved with the film.

Some audiences, however, who like to keep their distance, often identify the convention that gives them a feeling of instant superiority to the film. But even in the act of looking down on a convention, a critical audience acknowledges that the stereotypes do their work, something which the astute director (or exploitive director, depending whether you are for or against him) can presume.

Lester chooses impact by action and conven­ tion rather than by speeches and reflection, although this film is not without its rhetorical regrets about contemporary society. He chooses gut response before intellectual response. A moment’s recall of his previous films highlights this. Steel Arena and Stunts relied on the visual impact of speed, risks, danger and deaths to L

Lester is also a film-buff director. Allusions or quotations can delight as well as serve as quick cross-references to themes and responses (both pro and con) to other films. Watching Class of 1984, one is compelled (even without the hints of the advertisers) to remember Black­ board Jungle as well as To Sir with Love, Up the Down Staircase and other school films.

The kids assemble for classes in a style reminiscent of Grease (with an ironic twist as the drug-high boy plummets to death with the Stars and Stripes-from the school flagpole). There is an underpass gang confrontation echoing West Side Story. The psychotic gang is a bizarre variation on The Warriors, The Wanderers and the teenagers in Over the Edge.

Some compositions and lighting suggest Peter Stegman is an American Alex and possibilities of a Clockwork Orange future world. Circularsaws suggest chainsaws and other massacres in the multiple murder genre. The lone crusade of the teacher with his private vigilanteism echoes Death Wish.

The audience that Lester’s films draw have some familiarity with these films and the allu­ sions make ironic comment on Lincoln High and its problems.

cannot be found to bring against him. The line is that no one saw anyone actually do anything and so charges cannot be proven.

The film, though seemingly action-exploitive material of the drive-in type, does not appear to be catering for the teenage audience but for the adult and middle-aged audience. Teenagers might be tempted for a while to identify with Stegman and his anti-establishment stances, and his group’s punk appearance and behaviour.

But it soon emerges that they are bullies, local gangsters and quite psychotic.

Bikies interviewed after a 1979 preview of Mad Max told television reporters that they did not care for the film because it was unrealistic in its presentation of bikie groups. Similarly, members of gangs are not likely to identify with Stegman’s group. The average teenager, like the victim teenagers in the film, is probably not interested in seeing this kind of film anyway.

ut exactly what audience is Lester aiming at? The information offered at the opening of the film is tongue-in­ cheek grim. One is told of 200,000 inci­ dents of violence in high schools and that the story is based on fact. But, Lester reassures the audience, schools are not like Lincoln High — yet! There is the ominous choice of 1984 as the year of the title.

The U.S., with its often spectacular domestic violence, may see the film as part warning, part mirror and as yet another film showing how authority and law are inadequate: a headmaster, who enjoys closed circuit television surveillance of the school corridors and the ability to send security guards to trouble-spots by intercom, sides with students rather than his staff. The law requires incontrovertible evidence by sight or action before charges can be laid against the gang members. From this point of view, society, as well as its assailants, is sick. The only sane way of self-protection or justice is in violence.

This is the language of the right and of moral majorities. But because a large group in power upholds a view, it is a fallacy to assume that all

n catering for the adult audience, the film chooses acceptable targets. It parodies the widow, who is blind to the behaviour of the rotten son she has spoilt, and the inert prin­ cipal. It is critical of, but kinder to, the police, whose hands are tied because of the law and its protection of hoodlums.

On the other hand, the adults who are to be identified with are the idealistic, committed, talented teacher and his pregnant wife, and Corrigan (Roddy McDowall), the frustrated, comic biology teacher who goes off the deep end, because he can’t teach any more. The film appeals to the middle-of-the-road professional who identifies with work, is committed to people and who is frustrated by bureaucrats and boors. The film, then, could even be accused of sentimentalism in its presumptions about who are the good guys and how black are their foes.

In fact, just as Death Wish appeals to the preservation of lifestyle and values as we know and want them, so this film is definitely on the side of the establishment in terms of education, personal growth, culture and tradition. The American High School (Lincoln, of course) is defaced, degraded by the bureaucrats and the boors. “ Moon River” and the “ 1812 Over­ ture” are the music for the class to work on, in the hope of recognition by the city’s symphony authorities. The group that causes havoc in the school is made up of only five individuals (though they recruit a 14-year-old hit-and-stab

The gang prepares to rape the wife o f the school teacher.

Class o f 1984.

The terror continues: Mrs and Mr Norris (Perry King).

Class o f 1984.

Norris fights back — and the audience sides with him. Class o f 1984.

communicate how stuntmen ticked, especially in action. Stunts had the pluses of a murder mystery and love story to gain a larger audience.

Truckstop Women and Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (which villain Peter Stegman [Timothy van Patten] is watching on television in Class of 1984) were action stories of tough women (and men) with their own codes of behaviour apart from the law in an exploitive, ugly world.

who voice sentiments that sound similar are endorsing the same political stances. It might be argued that Norris is pursuing decency within the law and a sense of justice rather than wanting to be a member of a private lawenforcement agency. This is further endorsed by the ironic comment at the end of the film that the hero is not charged for his killing of the gang because the same incontrovertible evidence

man and a would-be call girl). The principal comments explicitly that it is the disruptive minority that gets so much attention.

But by focusing on the pleasant hero battling for what he thinks is best, Lester is able to communicate anger to his adult audience and make them share the rage. The gang is insolent,

B

I

Concluded on p. 587 CINEMA PAPERS December — 543

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Number 1 January 1974

Number 2 April 1974

David W illia m s o n . Ray Harryhausen. Peter Weir.

G illian A rm strong. Ken G. Hall. Tariff Board Report.

Antony I. Ginnane. The

Violence in the Cinema.

Alvin Purple. Frank M oorhouse. S andy H a rbu tt.

F ilm U n d e r A lle n d e .

Nicholas Roeg. Between

Number 3 July 1974

Number 5 March-April 1975

Number 9 June-July 1976

John P a p a d o p o lo u s .

W illis O'Brien. The M cDonagh Sisters. Richard B re n n a n . Lu is B u ñ u e l.

J e n n in g s L an g. B y ro n Haskin. Surf Films. Brian Probyn. Sunday Too Far Away. Charles Chauvel.

M ilo s F o rm a n . M ik lo s Jancso. Luchino Visconti.

Robyn Spry. Oz. Mad Dog Morgan. Joan Long,

Cars That Ate Paris.

The True Story of Eskimo Nell.

Index: Volume 1

Wars.

index: Volume 2

Number 12 April 1977

Number 13 July 1977

Number 14 October 1977

Number 15 January 1978

Number 16 April-June 1978

Kenneth Loach. Tom Haydon. Bert Deling. Piero Tosi. John S cott. John Dankworth. The Getting

Louise Malle. Paul Cox. John Power. Peter Sykes.

Bernardo Bertolucci. F.J.

Phil Noyce. Eric Rohmer.

John Huston. Blue Fire

Tom C o w an, F ra n c o is Truffaut. Delphine Seyrig.

Lady.

Holden In Search of Anna Index: Volume 3

Chinese Cinema.

The Irishman. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. Sri Lankan Cinem a. The Last Wave.

Patrick. Swedish Cinema.

J o h n D u ig a n . S te v e n Spielberg. Dawn! Mouth to Mouth. Film Period­ icals.

of W isdom . Journey Among Women.

S u m m e rfie ld .

Number 10 September-October 1976

Number 11 January 1977 Emile de Antonio. Aus­ tralian Film C ensorship.

Sam A rk o ff. R o m an P o la n s k i. The Picture

Nagisa Oshim a. Phillippe Mora. Gay Cinem a. John Heyer. Krzysztof Zanussi.

M a rc o F e rre rl. M a rc o Bellocchio.

Show Man. Don’s Party.

Storm Boy.

Number 17 August-September 1978

Number 18 October-November 1978

Bill Bain. Isabelle H up­ pert. Polish Cinem a. The Night the Prowler. Pierre Rissient. Newsfront. Film Study Resources.

John Lam ond. Dimboola.

In d ia n C in e m a . S o n ia B o r g . A la in T a n n e r .

Cathy’s Child. The Last Tasmanian.

Index: Volume 4

Number 19 January-February 1979 A n t o n y I. G in n a n e Jerem y Thomas. Blue Fin. A n d re w S a rr is . A s ia n C in e m a .

S p o n s o re d Documentaries.

Number 20 March-April 1979

Number 21 May-June 1979

Number 22 July-August 1979

Ken C a m e ro n . F re n ch C inem a. Jim S h arm an.

My Brilliant Career. Film S tu d y R e s o u rc e s . The

Mad Max. V ietnam on Film. Grendel, Grendel, Grendel. D a v id H e m m ings The Odd Angry Shot. B ox-O ffice Grosses.

Snapshot

Bruce Petty. Albie Thoms.

Newsfront. Film S tu d y R e s o u r c e s . K o s ta s .

Money Movers. The Aus­ tra lia n F ilm and T e le ­ vision School.

Night the Prowler.

Index: Volume 5

Number 26 April-May 1980

Number 27 June-July 1980

The Films of Peter Weir.

Charles Joffe. Harlequin.

Nationalism in Australian Cinem a. The Little Con­

The New Z ea land Film In d u s try . The Z Men. Peter Yeldham . Maybe This Time. Donald Richie.

vict.

Index: Volume 6

G r e n d e l, Grendel

G r e n d e l,

Number 23 September-October 1979 A u s tr a lia n

T e le v is io n .

Number 24 December 1979 January 1980 Brian

Trenchard

Sm ith.

Last of the Knucklemen.

Palm Beach. B ra z ilia n

W o m e n F ilm m a k e r s .

J a p a n e s e C in e m a . My

Cinem a. Jerzy Toeplitz.

C o m m u n ity T e le v is io n .

A rthur Hiller.

Brilliant Career Tim. Thirst. Tim Burstall.

Number 25 February-March 1980 Chain

Reaction.

P u ttn a m .

David C e n s o r s h ip .

Stir. Everett de Roche.

Touch and Go. Film and Politics.

Number 28 August-Septem ber 1980

Number 29 O ctober-Novem ber 1980

Number 32 May-June 1981

Number 33 July-August 1981

Number 36 January-February 1982

The Films of Bruce Beresford. Stlr. M elbourne and Sydney Film Festivals.

Breaker Morant. Stacy K e a c h . R o a d g a m es .

Bob Ellis. Actors Equity D e b a te . U r i W in d t.

Judy Davis. David W illiam ­ son. Richard Rush. Cuban Cinem a. A Town Like

John Duigan on Winter of Our Dreams. Government and the Film Industry. Tax and Film. Chris Noonan.

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SOUND MIXING Julian Ellingworth discusses the new Atlab mixing theatre.

The Australian film and commercial industries have been fortunate to have had a tradition o f invention and a supply o f creative technicians and audio-engineers which have com­ pensated fo r the lack o f the latest equipment. But with the opening o f another stereo sound film mixing facility in Sydney, Australia is now being serviced by audio p o st­ production o f a quality that will allow it to present its material at a standard equal to any in the world.

The continuing im provem ent in the quality o f theatre sound equipment, with the installation o f stereo sound and D olby noise reduction systems, has created demand by local and overseas m arkets that m ust be met. The im proved sound systems are also increasing the range o f subtleties that a producer and director can call upon, and this in turn places demands on the operators.

Julian Ellingworth is the chief mixer at A tlab and it was at the opening o f its new mixing theatre that Ian Wilson was able to interview him and fo llo w this double theme o f craft and technology. Ellingworth begins by discussing his entry into the film industry.

I left school in 1961 and did six months chartered accountancy, before getting a job at Artransa Film Studios in the accounts departm ent under Keith Williams. But it didn’t take long before I found myself spending more time in the sound department and in the animation department where the tracers were.

I became fairly interested in production and i finally managed to enveigle Gus Lowry into getting me into it; he could see I was wasting everybody’s time in accounts.

The first job I had was as a director’s assistant to Alec Ezard on The Adven­ turers. It was about three young children, one of whom was played by the 12-yearold Sonia Hoffman.

After that I went into the editing room with Paul Bushby and learnt how to synchronize rushes, and bits and pieces like that. Then camera time of retrench­ ments and I was the first to go, being fairly expendable.

I then worked for Les Kelroy, who had a Nagra, for a while. People would ring him up and say they needed a sound recordist; one day I said, “ This is it. I’ll take this Nagra and record sound.” So I went to record on the Cinesound sound stage, with Lloyd Shields on camera, for an episode of Memoirs. I forget which episode it was but it was being made for Channel 10. The sound must have been al! right because they asked me to come back to work on it again.

I became a freelance recordist on the strength of that. In the famous words of Peter Fenton [mixer at United Sound], I had a Nagra and a roadmap and I was off and running. I freelanced for a while and eventually got a three-month contract at Film Australia as a location recordist, a contract which ran for about three years.

Eventually I joined the staff and went on location to New Guinea and all around Australia.

However, I got heartily sick of standing around or sitting on camera cases waiting for the lights to be set up or for people to make up their minds about which way the eye line should be! I became so bored I decided I would try studio work and do the

. . two plus our computer”: at work in the new Atlab mixing theatre.

mixing; at least I was involved, pushing knobs up and down, while others sat around.

I was at Film Australia for a total of 10 years; I left shortly after my long service leave, so I guess I was mixing for about eight years.

During my leave I worked for United Sound. Although I intended going overseas on a study tour, I only got as far as Pier St They were getting busy with Barry McKenzie Holds His Own and the second Alvin Purple.

It was a great experience working with Peter Fenton. He was doing things differ­ ently. In Film Australia, it was just “ laceem-up and record ’em” . When I went to

United, they were recording Hollywood­ style on the three-track. It was new, exciting and a lot easier. You were able to do things that you would get frustrated trying to do when recording from 16mm.

Then I got bogged down working on Luke’s Kingdom. I was doing effects for three months and I got the shits again. So I went back to Film Australia and worked there for another year while they were setting up the new mixing theatre. Armed with my knowledge of United Sound, I designed the mixing console.

The console was made by Neve, which cost a fortune, and ergonometrically was my idea of how a console should be laid out. Because I had worked at United Sound for 12 months, I figured I was an expert!

It was designed about six or seven years ago and now is actually out-of-date for stereo films, though it has been doing them quite successfully. They have done Mad Max 2, Freedom, Starstruck, Dead Easy, The Pirate Movie and a few others.

After leaving Film Australia, I freelanced for a while as a mixer. At the same time, I became interested in stereo mixing and applied for a Commonwealth Film Com­ mission Grant for assisted passage overseas. Much to my surprise, because I had never won an award before, they said “ Sure!” It wasn’t a lot of money, just enough for an around-the-world ticket and about $50 a day.

I was away for six weeks and watched some stereo mixing in Hollywood and London. I picked up an enormous amount of information and a lot of tricks about how the rest of the world operates.

Did they welcome you?

Julian Ellingworth, during a sound mix.

Yes. I was not allowed into a couple of films because the directors were a bit ‘anti’, but, through Ron Purvis’ contacts in Hollywood, I was able to see quite a few films. I saw them do The Muppet Movie which I felt should have been done in about one quarter of the time.

I watched Bill Barney, who won the Academy for Raiders of the Lost Ark,

CINEMA PAPERS December — 545

New Products and Processes

and Samuel Golds who was mixing Rocky II. I also saw Altman’s studio in which Dick Portman was mixing Rich Kids. Dick was nominated and won an Academy for Ordinary People.

So I saw a lot of top people. It was interesting to compare what they did and what they had to put up with, with what we do.

What were the differences?

Some of the studios, which will remain nameless, tended to have two and three guys sitting behind the panel and, if some­ thing went wrong, they just tended to “ goddamn” around for a few minutes.

They would then wait until a tribe of thou­ sands walked in and they then all had an argument. They would then go away and do things, and two hours later the mix would start again. It seemed to me that they had more time on their hands than they needed.

Was there an inefficient hierarchy?

are completely music desks and, in any conversion to film, have to be absolutely retro-fitted, which can be nasty. If you say that is no good because this has to be here, then a whole box of controls has to be bolted on the side, which is not the way to go.

To my knowledge, Neve does a very fine line in custom design consoles, but neither the rate of exchange nor the delivery schedule was favorable. We could get a better deal from Quad-Eight in Hollywood, where most film studios, or all the ones I saw, had custom-built QuadEights.

We came up with a proposal for QuadEight whereby we bought an off-the-shelf design and modified sections of it to perform in the way we wanted. It still fitted into the Quad-Eight console, and still looks exactly like a Quad-Eight Coronado, but there have been quite a few changes.

It started originally as a quadraphonic music console with two front speaker channels and two back speaker channels.

I went over to the U.S. in February 1982

just giving us faders and equalizers, which is all that would have been useful to us. I thought, let’s just redesignate things and get them to rewire some of the modules.

for a week and we reworked it so that it had left centre and right centre surround channels up the front.

They wanted, once again, to tack on a box and say, “ For a film modification, what you need is this.” I said, “ But, all this part of the board is going to waste. If you want to change all those buttons to something else, then just un­ solder those wires and put them on there.”

They eventually agreed and we got every­ thing we wanted in the confines of the board.

The only thing we have as an add-on are pan pots, which slide along the front or can be unplugged and given to somebody else sitting out the front. There is just no room on the board.

What I was worried about was that they would cheapen the console by virtually

There are reasons, in my opinion, why computer acceptance has not been large in Hollywood: a lot of mixers over there, whom I revere, are older than myself by 20 years in some cases, and would not enter­ tain the idea of PROMs, boots and format­ ting, and floppy discs. That is just not their game. They have been into mixing sound and I really don’t see why they should have to, or how they would be able to, adapt to it. I am having difficulty and I am only 37.

Surely, that is the reason for having a custom-built desk . . .

Well, the Americans wouldn’t entertain that sort of console unless it was for a smaller studio. There they all start from the ground and build a huge console.

Todd-AO has 93 inputs on it and they tend to work in deliberate sections; they have huge buttons and you go to recorder 1, 2 or 3. Our console does look like a music board to most people. You can still assign to any of 24 outputs.

Do you have three or four people on the panel?

Three or four usually, but we are looking at two plus our computer. I could very easily demonstrate how it is the third.

Stuffs up the union!

than one man could possibly handle, say 24, and mix a group of them, say 12. The computer will keep playing them back until you get the balance right. Then add these to the other 12, and the computer will be the mixer. It will do what it is told without answering back, it will remember those fader movements and will do it as many times as you like.

What about equalization?

It doesn’t need to be equalized; with one sound through one fader it can already be equalized. On the stereo mixes I have done, there has not been a huge amount of equalization. I don’t usually equalize the dialogue tracks, just the effects tracks, the effects mix and then the final mix.

When you have a couple of four-tracks already pre-mixed for stereo, and dialogue and music, you can put them on group faders, run the computer and ride the whole thing. If someone wants to change something, saying “ That’s nice but why

Yes. Certainly there were a lot of guys behind the panel. I watched them on one film spending four hours getting one music sequence ready, and there was nothing to it: there was just stereo music and a vocal track. They played it to make sure it was the right vocal, then played it again; then they called the music editor in who listened to it and said he thought it was right but they should get somebody else. So they went and got another mix in the music studio and hauled it over and sunk it up.

The number of people who became involved seemed to me to be a bit beyond the pale. It would have been better to have canned the reel and gone on with some­ thing else instead of farting around for four hours.

How do you stop that happening in Australia?

Well that is exactly what we don’t do here. If there is a debate going on, we would go on to something else because we just simply don’t have the time not to.

They were looking at a six-week mix on a film which didn’t need that long.

I had done the trip and learnt what I thought was quite a lot — a good ground­ ing in Dolby stereo — but I was still not at the point where I could really throw down the gauntlet and say, “ Yes, I can do it. I’m the man to bring it to this country.” But I did come back thinking it would be interesting and I did know more about stereo than I had before.

However, there wasn’t a lot of work happening at United Sound when I came back. So I went and spoke to Ron Bray at Atlab. Eventually I joined the organization in September 1979. From that point on it was a dream to build a bigger and better sound studio at Atlab.

In all fairness, I guess the dream was to build it bigger and better and quicker than anybody. We knew Film Australia was get­ ting going and we figured United Sound would do something eventually. It was just a matter of where we did it and how.

We had a few problems building the ideal studio because of space limitations.

There was talk about moving the complex elsewhere, but it was decided to keep it “ in-house” ; even though we are out at Epping, at least the whole thing is under one roof.

The project started to take shape in about October 1981. We started to finalize almost two years after I joined.

We had to run with the old gear in the new room for six months, which at least gave people room to work in. There was the normal frustration of people saying it would be that much better with a new console. In February 1982, we made a decision to buy a Quad-Eight Console.

The only choice was between a custombuilt Neve and a Quad-Eight console modified to our system. Most other desks

546 — December C IN E M A P A P E R S

Do you have to program the computer yourself or is it existing software?

The software is supplied on floppy disc and the computer itself has certain RAM instructions. You put two identical discs in and the program is formatted.

One way of using it is to put more tracks

don’t you bring this in earlier” , you can update that bit of information. The whole thing is then on the disc and you can then go straight into record.

In effect, it is replacing your memory, freeing you from writing and revising dubbing charts . . .

And allowing you to rehearse as many times as you would like, rather than saying, “ Let’s go for a take.” This way I can guarantee that the final mix will last exactly the time the footage runs, because we will rehearse for an hour to get it right.

In Melbourne, where there is no decent dubbing set-up, the sound is trans­ ferred at one place and mixed at another. What do you think about the

New Products and Processes

sound recordist having a supervisory role in this situation?

I think it would be dangerous to bring in a sound recordist on a job. There are times when it could work, but I know there have been times when it has caused enor­ mous friction. I know of situations when the dialogue recordist has been at the mix and has been convinced that there was a better take of something, or that it should have been equalized, and the mixer has said, “ Thank you but I’m mixing this film!”

Do you think there is anything positive about having a sound supervisor?

What there should be is a pre­ production conference with the location recordist, mixer and dubbing editor dis­ cussing how to handle the stereo mix. You discuss what will be an advantage and what will be a waste of time. This is useful because you can suggest that they should get stereo atmospheres whenever poss­ ible, what things are good to cover, etc.

We also talk then about whether to use Dolby for the transfers in the initial stages, which the Dolby people say you should do. We have decided that is a waste of time because it means that the dubbing editor has to work with Dolby encoded rushes which, when you screen them any­ where else, sound shithouse — the inter­ cines don’t sound right, etc.

There also needs to be a big sound post-production conference, especially when using stereo, to talk about whether you are going to re-transfer all the sound later or encode it in Dolby first or what­ ever. But I don’t think the sound recordist needs to be at the mix.

However, we do need to involve the music people more because we still get the situation where the music guy says, “ I thought that was a music sequence” and the dubbing mixer says, “ What are you talking about? It is World War 3 and we are going to have effects.” But we are getting better.

In terms of the optical transfer of the Dolby track, there are fewer complications than with the mono optical track. For years, mono tracks have been a matter of listen to the mix but, if it needs a bit of mid­ lift or a bit of compression, don’t tell the mixer because he is going to go off the deep end and say transfer the film flat. He is going to get flak from the producer who will say it doesn’t sound any good and it is not loud enough.

There has been a certain little protec­ tion racket going on for years, here and overseas. If you talk to people at- Glen Glen, say, they will say we are only pro­ tecting ourselves. We are making it sound good and to hell with what the mixer says.

That is what you have to do with mono tracks: if you play it in your optical transfer suite and it sounds too wide-range, too dull or the music is too loud, you have to compress it for the optical. You can’t tell them that the film is no good, because in the studio it sounded fantastic.

With stereo it is slightly different. You are mixing through. a much tightercontrolled Dolby system and, by the time you do your two track transfer to magnetic, it is limited. There is no way you can exceed certain boundaries. When you lace it up to go to the optical camera you line up the Dolby tone, 50 per cent on the camera, press button A then button B, the transfer goes straight across and you can’t tamper with it. That is the first time that has ever happened!

Do you see any improvement in sight for 16mm optical tracks?

They could also use stereo for cable television release, which would solve some of their problems. There are limita­ tions, of course, because of the speed of 16mm. It is more difficult to resolve the tighter waveform on 16mm. There is no way to solve the non-standard print problems: 16mm was invented as a

reversal medium years ago and no one intended professionals to get in on it. Now the same thing is happening with 8mm: they want 8mm optical tracks for in-flight movies!

Are there any technical reasons why a stereo mix would need to be done overseas?

No. Certainly they have the expertise from having done a million films, but they are probably going to take a hell of a lot longer than we will. I guess we are more enthusiastic, particularly now that stereo Dolby is here. We just have to prove that we can make films that are as good. ★

M agic S o u n d f o r “A b r a C a d a b ra 99 The soundtrack for Abra Cadabra, the world’s first 3-D animated feature film with Dolby Stereo sound, is being recorded at AAV-Australia in Melbourne, after being chosen by Adams-Packer Films and producer-director Alex Stitt. “ We are recording the entire movie on 24 track recorders in our studio using Dolby noise reduction and stereo to complement the 3-D pictures” , says the film’s sound engineer, AAV’s Brian Laurence. “ It will finally be mixed down to three front channels and one rear channel, so as to create a surround-sound feeling.”

Abra Cadabra stars the voices of John Farnham, Jacki Weaver, Hayes Gordon, Jim Smillie, Gary Files and Hamish Hughes, with songs by Melbourne com­ poser, Peter Best. “ The sound for many new films today requires planning and experimentation to keep up with the complex special effects techniques used” , says Laurence.

AAV has been involved in Australian films such as Mad Max, Mad Max 2, The Blue Lagoon, The Pirate Movie, The Man From Snowy River, The Clinic, We of the Never Never, Kitty and the Bagman and Goodbye Paradise.

which is simply to take two reels or parts, splice them into an endless loop sup­ ported on elevators, and print and process, say, 100 or 200 prints of the same reel(s) before moving on to other reels. This practice exaggerates the pro­ cessing variables by increasing the time between printing and processing succes­ sive parts of the same copy.

Rank Film Laboratories, through its R & D Group, has found a method of over­ coming this and other deficiencies in bulk release printing. It has succeeded in: • eliminating poor color matching in change-overs; • eliminating stock joins requiring removal of frames or strengthening by backing tape; • minimizing handling and simplifying movement of negatives; and • reducing or eliminating accumulations of particular matter, especially at the beginning and end of reels.

Achieving this required an expenditure of $1,600,000, the invention of new equip­ ment and the creation of a total system whereby a complete film of up to two hours and 25 minutes (4000 m) could be printed and processed in one pass, a condition which allows the grading at a reel change-over to be as accurate and fixed for all release prints as the grading within each reel.

New equipment was needed to handle the cleaning and rewinding of negative or positive film rolls of feature length. The specially designed equipment cleans negative or positive film rolls of any length; negatives are spliced together on the cleaner-rewind and then wound on to a large 46 cm centre core by a modular winder, creating a true-and-hard roll which needs no side supports or flanges.

To cope with both the size and weight of these 4000 m lengths, purpose-built trolleys transport up to four of these rolls simultaneously between the different loca­ tions for cleaning, analyzing, printing and processing.

m icron

R a n k ’s L o n g e r L en gth P rin tin g As the media worlds focus their atten­ tion on the new video techniques of tape, cassettes and disc, there is a vague assumption in the air that film has been left in the role of the horse after the inven­ tion of the internal combustion engine.

This assumption, while understandable, couldn’t be further from the truth.

Film, by most qualitative criteria, has no commercial equal as the originating means of recording visual images. It is easier to use a film camera in most situa­ tions; editing is cheaper; and the result is invariably better (it is not without reason that the largest buyers of color negative film in Britain are television broadcast companies).

But it is not only a matter of film being the ideal image-recording medium. Print standards must also be maintained if the quality is to be appreciated by the filmgoer, and this traditionally has been a problem.

The principal raw materials of the film laboratory are film stock, light, chemistry, engineering and human skills. While the objective has been to maintain maximum stability in these areas to obtain a high quality product, existing methods of bulk printing release copies have not over­ come some serious quality and logistic problems. It is therefore interesting to note a revolutionary method of improving print quality.

The most common technique in large laboratories is the “ looping system”

The process is as follows: the negative is examined, cleaned at a speed of more than 100 m per minute to remove all minute particular matter, and then timing and cueing information is compiled by computer prior to printing.

Raw stock lengths are created to suit the corresponding negative rolls and splices are predetermined to fall exactly on the frame line (becoming invisible on projection). Because this stage is separate from the printing machine cycle, it means that rolls can be made up in advance, removing a complete operation from the printing cycle.

Checks and controls during printing are all computerized; the microcomputer that is used contains its own diagnostic pro­ grams to identify and display any elec­ tronic or mechanical problems.

After the printed roll is completed, it is transported to the processing machine and, using a modular film winder, is fed into the developing machine as a whole copy.

As the developed print comes off the developing machine it is viewed, checked, broken down into double reels and shipped in the normal manner. The feature-length negative rolls are safely stored on their centre cores in the vertical position for maximum security.

As well as benefiting the filmgoer, Rank claims real benefits from the effective use of laboratory resources. Unlike looping methods which delay completion until the last reel has been processed, the Rank system is capable of integrating large and small print runs without difficulty, thereby allowing the earliest possible delivery of part orders.

Rank Film Laboratories presented this longer length printing system to the SMPTE Conference in 1981. It represents a major contribution to ensuring constant print quality for every filmgoer. Although, in itself, this system will not change the future of cinema exhibition, it is con­ sidered a positive step forward. ★

Why are the world’s technicians using micron radio microphones?

DRIVE” one For further information contact the sole Australian distributor P I C S A u s tr a la s ia L im it e d (incorporated in N.S.W.)

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CINEMA PAPERS December — 547

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PETER W E IR ’S FILM OF

• Reduction Printing — 16mm to Super-8mm • Super-8mm to Super-8mm Duplication • Blow-ups Super-8mm to 16mm • Magnetic Striping ® Pre-striped Prints • Cartridge Loading • Sound Transfers

ROBERT SHGW 00D • RUPERT MURDOCH for ASSOCIATED R&R FILMS PTY LTD present PETER WEIR'S FILM OF 'GALLIPOLI' with MEL GIBSON • MARK LEE Screenplay by DAVID WILLIAMSON • From a story by PETER WEIR • Executive Producer FRANCIS O'BRIEN Produced by ROBERT STIGW 00D and PATRICIA LOVELL • Directed by PETER WEIR • An Associated R&R Rim A Roadshow Release.

Movies from the Movie People

For further details contact

SU P E R -8 SE R V IC ES P T Y LIM ITED Suite 4 870 Pacific Highway Gordon NSW 2072 Phone (02) 498 7668, (02) 498 7835

1 I l \

MELBOURNE: 500 Collins Street. Melbourne. Victoria 3 0 0 0- Box 1498N. GPO. Melbourne 3001-Telephone (03)613811;Cables: Roadshow, Melbourne: Telex AA32502.

SYDNEY: 4th Floor. 49 Market Street. Sydney. New South Wales 2 0 0 0Telephone (02)2673522. Telegrams: Roadshow: Telex AA24161, BRISBANE: 136 Elizabeth Street. Brisbane. Queensland 4 0 0 0 -Box 2254. GPO. Brisbane 4001 -Telephone (07)2210033: Telegrams: Roadshow: Telex AA41430.

PERTH: 447-449 Murray Street. Perth. Western Australia 6000 Telephone (092) 218545: Telegrams: Roadshow: Telex AA93123.

DARWIN: Contact Sydney representative. ADELAIDE and TASMANIA: Contact

................... ......................................................................

FILM CENSORSHIP LISTINGS Films examined in terms of the Customs (Cinematograph Films) Regulations and States’ film censorship legislation are listed below.

An explanatory key to reasons for classifying non-“G” films appears hereunder:

July 1982

Frequency

Films Registered Without Eliminations

Infrequent

For General Exhibition (G) Annie: R. Stark, U.S., 3483.61 m, Fox C olum bia Film Dist. P/L

Birdmen

of

Kilimanjaro

(16m m): O rana Film s, Australia, 767.90 m, A. Folland Der alte und der junge koenig (16mm): H. Steinhoff, W . Germ any, 1164.00 m, Germ an Em bassy Der schimmelreiter (16mm): A. W eid enm ann, W. Germ any, 1087.00 m, Germ an Em bassy

Die spur von meinen erdentagen: 500 jahre faust: Aladin Film, W . Germ any, 669.00 m, Germ an Em bassy Documentary (16mm): Texture Films, U.S., 1495.00 m, N ational Library of Australia Dusty: Dusty Prods/Kestrel Films, Australia, 2413.84 m, Film ways A ’sian Dist. P/L E.T. The Extra Terrestrial: U niversal, U.S., 3154.45 m, United In t'l Pictures Ewiger Walzer (16mm): P. Verhoeven, W. G erm any, 1100.00 m, G erm an Em bassy Ginger Meggs: J. Sexton, Australia, 2770.43 m, Hoyts Dist. P/L My Dinner With Andre: G. George/B. Karp, U.S., 3095.57 m, C onsolidated Exhibitors Primmel-kleines maedchen zu verleihen (16mm): M. Teuber, W. Germ any, 990.00 m, Germ an Em bassy So That You Can Live (16mm): Cinem a Action, Britain, 932.00 m, Australian Film Institute Storm Riders (16mm): Hoole M cCoy Film s, Australia, 1031.18 m, Hoole M cCoy Films Tron: Disney, U.S., 2523.56 m, GUO Film Dist P/L

Not Recommended for Children (NRC) Aap ke deewane: V. Kumar, India, 4212.00 m, SKD Film Distributors, V fi-l- g ) The Animals Film (16mm): V. Schonfeld, Britain/U.S., 1437.00 m, Sharm ill Films, 0 ( a n im a l s u ffe r in g ) Author! Author!: I. W inkler, U.S., 2914,00 m, Fox Colum bia R im Dist. P/L, L fi-l-j), O fs e x u a l a llu s io n ) Best Grade Army: Not shown, Hong Kong, 2637.00 m, Grand Film Corp. P/L, O f a d u lt t h e m e s ) Beginning of Heroic Deeds: G orky Central Studios, USSR, 3771.00 m, USSR Embassy, S (i-l-j), V (i-l-j) Bom To Kill (16mm) (a): RKO, U.S., 1 0 1 2 .0 0 m, National Library of Australia, S (i-l-j), V fi-l-j), O fa d u lt th e m e )

The Casino: First Films, Hong Kong, 2880.15 m, Com fort Film Enterprises, 0 ( a d u l t c o n c e p t s ) Die dreigroschenoper (16mm): Nero Film, Germany, 1149.00 m, G erm an Embassy, O f a d u lt th e m e ) Firefox: C. Eastwood, U.S., 3730.48 m, W arner Bros (Aust.) P/L, V fi-m - g ) For Y’ur Height only: Lilin Prods, Philippines, 2468.70 m, Film ways A ’sian Dist P/L, V (f-l-g ) Ihr verbrechen war liebe (16mm): G. Radvanyi, W. G erm any, 1075.00 m, Germ an Embassy, 0 ( a d u lt th e m e )

intimate Friends:

Not

shown,

China,

3247.00 m,

S (Sex) ..............................

V (Violence).......................

L (Language) ....................

O (Other) ...........................

i / i /

Rialto/Maran, W. Germ any, 2852.72 m, Film ways A ’sian Dist. P/L, O f a d u lt c o n c e p ts ) Far East: Film co/A lfre d Road Film s, Australia, 2935.01 m, Roadshow Dist. P/L, V fi-m -j) F ig h tin g B a ck: S am son P rods P/L, A u s tra lia , 2726.97 m, Samson Prods P/L, L ff-m -j), O f e m o tio n a l s tre s s )

H ouse O f S h adow s (untitled): Not shown, Spain, 2715.57 m, Int’ l Film Dist. — Aust., V ff-m -g ) Le choc: Sara Film s, France, 2249.26 m, Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd, V fi-m -g ) The L ily U n der The G un: Kuo Hwa Prod. Co., Hong Kong, 2488.00 m, Com fort Films Enterprises, V fi-m -g ) L o n e ly F ifteen: V. Lee Leung, Hong Kong, 2688.14 m, Golden Reel Films, V fi-m -g ), O f a d u lt c o n c e p ts ) M oving O ut: Pattinson Ballantyne Film Prods P/L, Aus­ tralia, 2468.70 m, Pattinson Ballantyne Film Prods P/L, L fi-m -g ), O fs e x u a l a llu s io n )

My S u rv iv a l A s A D e viant (Super 8 ): G. Lewis, Aus­ tralia, 329.00 m, Australian Film Institute, L ff-m -g ) N ow A n d Forever: Now And Forever Film P’ship, Aus­ tralia, 2770.43 m, Now And Forever Film Partnership, S fi-m -j)

P a rtners: A. Russo, U.S., 2496.13 m, United Int’ l Pictures, O fs e x u a l a llu s io n s ) P a s s io n a te L o v e rs : G. D im itropo ulos, Greece, 2386.41 m, Blake Film s P/L, S fi-l-g ), V fi-m -g ) P4W P riso n For W om en (16mm): Spectrum Films, Canada, 877.60 m, Australian Film Institute, L ff-m -j), O fa d u lt c o n c e p ts )

The P lains O f Heaven (16mm): Seon Films, Australia, 855.66 m, John Cruthers, L fi-m - g ) A Q uestion O f S ilen ce: Sigm a Films, Netherlands, 2605.85 m, Australian Film Institute, V fi-l-j), O fa d u lt th e m e )

R aggedy Man: Universal, U.S., 2523.56 m, Filmways A ’sian Dist. P/L, V fi-m -j), O fs e x u a l c o n c e p ts ) S haolin In v in c ib le G uys: Success Film Co., Hong Kong, 2523.56 m, Golden Reel Films, V ff-m -g ) S ta g e frig h t (16mm): J. Jost, U.S./W . Germany, 767.90 m, Australian Film Institute, O f a d u lt c o n c e p ts ) The T h in g : Turm an-Foster Co., U.S., 2984.02 m, United Int’ l Pictures, O fh o rro r) W acko: Jensen Farley/Greydon Clark Prod., U.S., 2276.69 m, GUO Film Dist. P/L, L fi-m - g ), O fs e x u a l in n u e n d o )

W ells Up In My Heart: Superstar Motion Pictures, Hong Kong, 2318.00 m, Golden Reel Film s, O f a d u lt c o n c e p t s )

Explicitness/lntensity

Frequent

f f f f

Low

I I I I

Medium

m m rn m

h h h h

Justified

Gratuitous

j / j j

g 9 g g

W ho Is The K ille r: T. Chu, Taiwan, 2304.12 m, Golden Reel Films, V ff-m -g ) Y oung D o c to rs In Love: ABC Motion Pic., U.S., 2605.85 m, Roadshow Dist. P/L, L ff-m -g ), O fs e x u a l

T rip T o K ill (videotape): T. Stem , U.S., 89 mins, VCL Video P/L, V ff- m -g ), O f d r u g s ) U p rig h t A c tio n (reconstructed version) (16mm) (e): Venus Prod., U.S., 471.70 m, 14th M andolin P/L, S ff-

c o n c e p ts )

m-g)

(a)

Z o m b ie Flesh E aters (Britain reduced version) (video­ tape) (f): U. Tucci/D e Angelis, Italy, 8 6 mins, Central Video W .A., V ff- m -g ) (a) Previously shown on January 1973 List. (b) See also under “ Film s Refused R egistration” and “ Films Board of Review” (c) Previously shown on January 1978 List (“ R” with deletions). (d) Previously shown on January 1982 List. (e) Previously shown on January 1982 List. (f) Previously shown on February 1980 List.

S p ecial c o n d itio n : That the film w ill be exhibited only at the Second Com m onwealth R im Festival in Brisbane between O ctober 3-10, 1982 and then exported.

M alanggan L ava rim a — A T rib u te T o B u kb u k (16mm): Inst, of PNG Studios Film Unit, PNG, 1481.00 m, Com m onwealth Film Festival.

Reduced by im porter’s cuts to qualify for lower classification; previously “ R ” (June 1982 List).

For Restricted Exhibition (R) A n y b o d y ’s W om an (Super 8 ): B. Gordon, U.S., 160.00 m, Australian Film Institute, L fi-h -j), O fa d u lt c o n c e p ts )

The B lo o d y F is ts (videotape) (reduced version) (a): Ocean Shores, Hong Kong, 94 mins, Risis Ethnic Video SVCS, V ff-m -g ) C h ris tia n e F (English language pre-censor cut version no. 2): Golden Harvest, W. Germany, 3520.30 m, Fox C olum bia Film Dist. P/L, L ff-m -g ) D evil K ille r: Not shown, Hong Kong, 2704.00 m, Comfort Film s Enterprises, V ff-m -g ) The Head H u nte r: New Century Film Corp., Hong Kong, 2622.80 m, Grand Film Corp. P/L, V ff-m -g ) In The Realm Of The Senses (reconstructed English language version) (videotape): Argos/Oceanic/O shim a, Japan/France, 94 mins, Publishing & Broadcasting Video, S ff-m -j) I S p it On Y o u r G rave (videotape): J. Zebeda, U.S., 97 mins, Video Classics, O fs e x u a l v io le n c e ) The K n o c k o u ts (videotape): D. Stark, U.S., 53 mins, Intercontinental Video P/L, S ff- m -g ) Love A n d K isses (videotape), W. Shaw, U.S., 74 mins, K & C Video, S ff- m -g ) The Mad C o ld -B lo o d e d M urder: Tat Shing Film Co., Hong Kong, 87 mins, Grand Film Corp. P/L, V ff-m -g ) P ixote (English sub-titled version) (b): S. Naves, Brazil, 3490.00 m, Consolidated Exhibitors The Savage H u n t (videotape): Poleroy Ltd, Britain, 88 mins, Anjohn International, S fi-m -g ), V fi-m -g ) S treet W ars: C. Conte, U.S., 2593.58 m, Roadshow Dist. P/L, V ff-m -g ), L ff-m -g ) S u spiria (videotape) (c): C. Argento, Italy, 94 mins, Videomania, V ff-m -g ) T axicab For Ladies (pre-censor cut version): Cinevideo 80, Italy, 1700.00 m, Apollon Films, S ff- m -g ) Teenage Sex K itte n (reconstructed version) (d): Super Bitch Prods, U.S., 1645.80 m, A.Z. Assoc. Film Dist.

P/L, S ff- m -g )

Com fort Film s Ent., O f s e x u a l a llu s io n ) (16m m ): J. Rouch, France, 1020.00 m, Australian R im Institute, O f a d u lt c o n c e p t s ) La prise et pouvre de Louis XIV (16mm): P. Gout, France, 1086.03 m, Australian Film Institute, O fa d u lt

Jaguar

c o n c e p ts )

Legendary Weapons Of China: Shaw Bros, Hong Kong, 2962.44 m, Joe Siu Int’ l Film Co. P/L, V ff-l-g ) Mensch Mutter (16mm): P. W ehage, W. Germany, 935.00 m, Germ an Embassy, O f a d u lt c o n c e p t s ) S h iva s & S k o lim o w s k i, B rita in , 2660.00 m, Hoyts Dist. P/L, O f a d u lt c o n c e p t s ) One Way Only: Shaw Bros, Hong Kong, 2821.00 m, Joe Siu Int’ l Film Co. P/L, V fi-l- g ) Open Your Eyes: Mosfilm , USSR, 2352.00 m, USSR Embassy, V fi-l-j) Peter’s Youth: G orky C e ntral S tudios, USSR, 3873.00 m, USSR Embassy, V fi-l-j) The Pirate Movie: Joseph Ham ilton Int’ l Prods, Aus­ tralia, 2880.00 m, Fox C olum bia Film Dist. P/L, O fs e x u a l

Moonlighting:

Films Registered With Eliminations For Mature Audiences (M) O ag io s prevexis: Karagiannis, Greece, 2257.00 m, Apollon Films, S fi-l- j) Deletions: 10.4 m etres (23 secs) Reason for deletions: S fi- m - g )

For Restricted Exhibition (R) D racula E rotica: H. Schwartz, U.S., 2203.15 m, Blake Films P/L, S ff- m - g ) Deletions: 4.5 m etres (10 secs) Reason for deletions: S fi-h -g ) One For The M oney (reconstructed version) (16mm) (a): Tudor & Taylor, U.S., 504.62 m, 14th Mandolin P/L, S ff- m -g )

Deletions: 7.5 m etres (41 secs) Reason for deletions: S fi- h - g ) P eggy (pre-censor cut version) (16mm) (b): Jack Films, U.S., 570.40 m, Landm ark Films, S ff- m - g ) Deletions: 5.5 m etres (30 secs) Reason for deletions: S fi- h - g ) P riva te Le sso n s (producer's reduced version) (c): R. Ben Efraim, U.S., 2112.11 m, Sun Classic Prods Inc. (Aust.) P/L, O f a d u lt c o n c e p t s ) Deletions: 0.5 m etres (2 secs) Reason for deletions: O f s e x u a l e x p lo it a tio n o f a m in o r ) The P u ssycat Ranch (reconstructed version) (d): J. Christopher, U.S., 2147.38 m, Landm ark Films, S ff- m - g ) Deletions: 38 m etres (1 min. 23 secs) Reason for deletions: S fi- h - g ) S ensual Fire (reconstructed pre-censor cut version) (e): Diamond Rim s, U.S., 2276.00 m, A.Z. Assoc. Film Dist.

P/L, S ff- m - g ) Deletions: 6 m etres (13 secs) Reason for deletions: S fi- h - g ) (a) Previously shown on January 1982 List. (b) Previously shown on August 1981 List. (c) Previously shown on April 1982 List. (d) Previously shown on April 1982 List. (e) Previously shown on January 1982 List.

Films Refused Registration

in n u e n d o )

Rolls, Rolls I Love You: R. Shaw, Hong Kong,

Boys In The Sand (pre-censor cut version) (16mm): Pisces Film, U.S., 404.00 m, Greg Lynch Film Dist.,

2586.91 m, Joe Siu Int’ l Film Co. P/L, L fi-m - g ) 17 sferes gia ena Angelo: N. Bougioklakis, Greece, 3103.00 m, Apollon Films, V fi-l-j) Sholay: G. Sippy, India, 5915.00 m, SKD Film Dist.,

S ff- h - g )

F ringe B e n e fits (pre-censor cut version): Not shown, U.S., 2008.00 m, Impact Films, S ff- h -g ) Inches (pre-censor cut version) (16mm): T. Benson, U.S., 296.00 m, Greg Lynch Film Dist., S ff- h - g ) Ju lch e n Und J e ttc h e n : E. Dietrich, W. Germany, 2207.00 m, Filmways A ’sian Dist. P/L, S fi- h - g ) K iss O f The S p id e r W om an (Super 8 ): R Caputo/J. Davila, Australia, 100.00 m, Australian Film Institute,

V fi-l-j)

Sir Henry At Rawlinson End: C harism a Film s, Britain, 1947.53 m, Valhalla Films, L fi- m - g ), O f a d u lt c o n c e p t s ) Fog: Not shown, Iran, 3840.20 m, Cine Action, V fi-l-j) Tadetloeser und wolfe (16mm): E. Fechner, W. G erm any, 2252.00 m, Germ an Embassy, O f a d u lt

The Stranger And The

S fi-h -g )

th e m e )

Teenage

Purpose

High

P a ndora’ s M irro r (soft version): W. Evans, U.S., 2639.00 m, A.Z. Assoc. Film Dist. P/L, S ff- h - g ) P ixote (English sub-titled version) (a): S. Naves, Brazil, 3490.00 m, C onsolidated Exhibitors, O f s e x u a l e x p lo it a ­ tio n o f a m in o r ) S c re a m F o r V e n g e a n c e : M anson In t’ l, U.S., 2558.00 m, Video Classics, V fi-h -g ), O f s e x u a l v io le n c e ) The Set-U p (untitled) (videotape): Not shown, U.S., 31 mins, Rahim a Prods, O f s e x u a l v io le n c e ) (a) See also under “ Films Registered W ithout Elim ina­ tions” ("F o r Restricted Exhibition” ) and “ Films Board of Review” .

Dreamers:

S haw Bros, H ong Kong, 2244.26 m, Joe Siu Int’ l Film Co. P/L, S fi-l-j) (a) Reconstructed version registered “ Suitable Only For A d ults” with elim inations in 1947.

For Mature Audiences (M) Bloody Mission: Lui W ai Man, Hong Kong, 2441.27 m, Golden Reel Film s,, V ff- m -j)

The Clinic: Cenes Pty Ltd, Australia, 2550.99 m, The Film House P/L, L (i-m -j) , O f a d u l t c o n c e p t s )

Conan The Barbarian (a) (reconstructed version): Dino de Laurentiis, U.S., 3428.75 m, Fox Colum bia Film Dist.

P/L, V ff- m -g ) The Dark Room: Film co Ltd, Australia, 2578.42 m, Film co Lim ited, S fi- m - j) Dead Easy: Firebird R im P/L, Australia, 2413.84 m, R rebird Film P/L, V fi-m -j), L (f-l- j), O f s e x u a l in n u e n d o ) The Decline of Western Civilisation: M anson Int’i, U.S., 2743.00 m, Film ways A ’sian Dist. P/L, L ff-m -g ), V fi-m -j)

Desolation Angels: W internig ht Prods, Australia, 2386.41 m, W internight Prods P/L, V ff-m -g ), L fi-m - g ) Die sehnsucht der Veronika Voss: Laura/Tango/

Films Board of Review John Milius’ Conan the Barbarian: cut by its distributor, Fox-Columbia, to gain an “M ” rating. Originally classified “R ” and coded S(i-m-g)V(f-m-g), it was re-coded V(f-m-g) after 60 seconds were removed. So, the sex has been deleted and presumably M ilius’ concept ruined. Surprisingly, no appeal to the Films Board o f Review was lodged; that way, it may have been re-classified without the film being butchered.

C h o p s tix (reconstructed pre-censor cut version) (a): W. Dancer, U.S., 1986.00 m, Cineram a Films Decision reviewed: Refusal to register by the Film C ensorship Board.

Decision of the board: U phold the decision of the Film Censorship Board.

Concluded on p. 579 CINEMA PAPERS December — 549

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E325

S yn o p s is : A rom antic com edy based on C. BUDDIES MOLLY J. Dennis' book of verse in which a roughtough Australian is unafraid of sentim ental Prod, c o m p a n y ...................................J D Prods Prod, c o m pany..................................... Troplisa feelings.

P roducer....................................................... John Dingwall Dist. com pany............................................. GUO D irector......................................Arch Nicholson P ro d u c e r...... ............................. Hilary Linstead SILVER CITY S c rip tw rite r.................................................. John Dingwall D ire c to r............................................ Ned Lander Based on the original idea S crip tw riters................................Phillip Roope, P R E -P R O D U C T IO N Prod, c o m p a n y ....................... Lim elight Prods b y ................................................................John Dingwall M ark Thomas P rodu cer............................................Joan Long P h otog rap hy.............................................. David Eggby Based on the story by...............................Phillip Roope, D ire c to r................................Sophia Turkiewicz Sound re c o rd is t.......................................... Peter Barker M ark Thomas, DEATHWATCH S c rip tw rite rs......................Sophia Turkiewicz, E d itor.......................................................... M artin Down Hilary Linstead Thomas Keneally Prod, d e s ig n e r.......................................... Phillip W arner Photography............................................... Vince M onton Prod, c o m p a n y ................ Deathwatch Prods.

G a u g e ........................................................ 35mm Assoc, p roduce r......................................... Brian Burgess E ditor........................................................

Stew art Young — Virgo Prods.

Shooting stock........................... Eastm ancolor Prod, co-o rd in a to r.............Rosslyn Abernethy C o m po ser....................................Graeme Isaac P ro d u ce r.....................................................Judith W est S yn opsis: It is 1949. A young woman, Nina, Loc. m anager...........................................Narelle Barsby To ensure the accuracy of your Exec, p ro d u c e r.....................Richard Brennan D irector........................................ Peter Maxwell arrives in Australia from Europe. She is all Prod, a c c o u n ta n t............................ Lea Collins entry, please contact the edito r of Assoc, producers......................................Phillip Roope, S crip tw rite r.................................................. Peter W est alone in the world.

She finds herself in a this colum n and ask fo r copies of Prod, a s s is ta n t................................Jane Cook M ark Thomas Based on the original huge m igrant camp, Silver City. She is drawn our P rodu ction Survey blank, on 1st asst director......................................... Phillip Hearnshaw Prod, m a n a g e r...................................... Barbara Gibbs idea b y ..................................... M ichael Ralph to a young fellow Pole, Julian, but he is which the details of yo u r p ro d u c­ 2nd asst director..........................................Keith Heygate Asst d ire c to r................................................ M ark Thomas Photography...................................................Ray Henman married and has a child. They have a secret 3rd asst d ire c to r...................................... Marcus Skipper tion can be entered. All details C a s tin g ................. M & L C asting C onsultants Sound recordist............................. Bob Clayton love affaire, while experiencing the culture m ust be typed in upper and lower C o n tin u ity ...........................................Linda Ray Costum e d e s ig n e r....................................LaurelFrank Exec, p ro d u c e rs ........................................Brock Halliday, shock of late-1940s Australia.

C a sting........................................................Alison Barrett case.

Len gth......................................................90 mins Peter W est The caat entry should be no Camera o p e ra to r........................................ Clive Duncan G a u g e ........................................................ 35mm Prod, m a n a g e r...................... V ictoria Christie STREET STORY m ore than the 10 m ain a cto rs/ Focus puller........................Algenon Sucharov C ast: Claudia Karvan (Maxie).

Prod, a ccou ntan t............. N. G. Prabsch & C o actre sse s — th e ir nam es and C lappe r/loa der....................... Leigh McKenzie S y n o p s is : A contem porary fairy tale about Art d ire c to r..............................O wen Patterson Prod, com pany................... Helen Boyd Prods Key g r ip ....................................................... Peter Mardell character nam es. The le ngth of the Maxie, an 11-year-old girl who befriends W ardro be........................................David Rowe P ro d u c e r.................................................... Helen Boyd Special fx su p e rviso r.................................Chris M urray synopsis should not exceed 50 Molly, a dog that sings.

Fight choreog raph y.......................................Jim Richards D ire c to r.......................................Howard Rubie G affer.......................................................... Roger Wood w ords.

S tunts c o -o rd in a to r....................................Peter W est S c rip tw rite r..............................................Forrest Redlich Editor’s note: All entries are Boom o p e ra to r.............................................. Keir W elch Studios...................................................Artransa Based on the original idea THE MOST WANTED MAN Art director..................................................... Ron Highfieldsupp lie d by p ro d u c e rs /p ro d u c Laboratory....................................................Atlab b y .......................................................... Forrest Redlich tion com panies, or by th e ir agents.

Asst art d ire c to r........................................

Phillip Chambers C om pletion gua ra n to rs........................ Haliday Prod, com pany ............................Ukiyo Film s Photography.................................................John Seale Costume d e s ig n e r......................................Jane Hyland C in e m a P a p e r s cannot, therefore, and Nichollas P ro d u c e rs ..............................Don M cLennan, C om poser................................................. Steven Kipner M ake-up....................................................... Sally Gordon a c c e p t r e s p o n s ib ility fo r the Len g th ....................................................100 m ins Z bigniew Friedrich Prod, m anage r............................................Irene Korol H a ird re s s e r...................................................W illiKenrick corre ctne ss of any entry.

G auge....................................35m m Panavision D ir e c to r ................................. Don M cLennan Producer’s ass is ta n t...................................Kate Russell Stand-by w a rd ro b e ................................. Margot Lindsay S c rip tw rite rs .................Zbigniew Friedrich, Casting director.............................................Dee Neville Cast: Hugh Keays-Byrne (Quin).

Props b u y e r............................................Alethea Dean Law rence Held, Musical director....................................... Steven Kipner Synopsis: A suspense thriller horror film o f a Standby pro p s .......................................... Shane Rushbrook o ntinuity......................................... Pam W illis Don M cLennan Cast: Scott Burgess (Denny), Nicole Kidman Set c o n s tru c tio n .........................................Peter TemCpleton night watchm an who spends his last shift in a Producer's a ssista n t.................Judith Hughes G a u g e ....................................................... 35m m (Maddy), B arry Otto (Ralph), Anthony Unit runner.................................................. Fiona Sullivan departm ent store. Tw elve hours later, two C a stin g ...................................................Forcast, Length ................................................100 m ins Hawkins (Ray), Frank G allacher (Grant), Standby unit ru n n e r.................................Jam ie Egan men are insane, three men are dead and M ichael Lynch Marianne Howard (Chrissie), Chris C onnelly C arpenter................................................. W ayne Allen there is blood everywhere.

Camera o p e ra to r............................John Seale (Harry), Paul Newman (Peter).

THE NOSTRADAMUS KID Stunts c o-ordinator.......................................Bob Hicks Focus p u lle r.................................Steve Mason S yn opsis: The film explores the relationship Best b o y ................................... Phillip Golobick C lapper/loader............................................Derry Field Producer...................................Jane Ballantyne ELDORADO PARK between Denny and Maddy, a boy and girl Length......................................................97 mins Key g rip .........................................Ross Erikson D ire c to r................................................ Paul Cox from opposite sides of the track. Strangers Prod, co m p a n y .................................... Standard FilmSsc rip tw rite r..........................................Bob Ellis Asst g rip .......................................................... Roy Miko who find som ething as innocent and Cast: Colin Friels (Mike), Harold Hopkins P ro d u c e r............................... Andrew W isem an G a ffe r...............................................Reg G arside (Johnny), Kris M cQuade (Stella), Simon Based on the original idea inspiring as love in a world that is rapidly Chilvers (Alfred), Norman Kaye (George), D ire cto r.........................................................Brian McKenzie E le ctricia n ............................. Jonathan Hughes b y ....................................................... Bob Ellis going to hell.

Dennis M iller (Andy), Lisa Peers (Jennifer), S crip tw rite rs................................................ Brian M cKenzie, Boom s w in g e r.............................................. NoelQ uinn Exec, p ro d u c e r..........................Andrew Martin Art d ire cto r....................................................John Carroll Andrew Sharp (Peter), Bruce Spence (Ted), Bob Jewson Assoc, p roduce r........................................ Patric Juillet STRIKEBOUND Dinah Shearing (Merl).

O riginal idea b y .......................................... Brian M cKenzie Costume d e signer.....................................Bruce Finlayson Cast: Robert M enzies (Elkin).

Sound re c o rd is t.........................................Bruce Em ery Prod, c o m pany..........................T.R.M. Prods.

M ake-up...................................Annie Pospischil S yn o p s is : A gentle com edy about the end of S yn opsis: An action dram a based around E d ito r................................................ David Greig P rodu cers...................................M iranda Bain, W ardro be..........................................................Liz Keogh the world. two miners digging for sapphires. Filmed on Assoc, p ro d u ce r............................... Ian Pringle Tim othy W hite Standby w a rd ro b e ...................Julie Constable location in Emerald, Queensland.

OUTPOST Prod, m anager..............................................Alan M cKenzie D irector............................ Richard Lowenstein Seam stresses....................Linda M apledoran, Scriptw riter...................... Richard Lowenstein Unit m anage r.......................................... DannialScharf Chris Klingenberg D irector........................................................... Don Sharp BUSH CHRISTMAS Prod, secretary.......................................Annette Kardachi Photography.........................Andrew de Groot Props b u y e rs ......................... Sandy Wingrove, Prod, d e s ig n e r.......................................Bernard Hides Prod, designer..............................

Tracey Watt Prod, accou ntan t .....................C a roline Fyfe John W ingrove, Prod, c o m p a n y ...........Bush Christm as Prods Exec, p ro d u c e r.......................................M ichaelMilne 1st asst d ire c to r.......................................... Peter Askew Len gth................................................... 100 mins Clarrisa Patterson, P rodu cers....................................................G ilda Baracchi, Stunts c o -o rd in a to r......................................Max Aspin 2nd asst d ire c to r....................................... Claire Dobbin Jock M cLachlan S yn opsis: In 1936, the miners in the small Paul Barron Lighting c a m e ra m a n ....................... Ray Argali Standby p ro p s .............................Igor Lazareff D irector.........................................................HenriSafran South G ippsland town of K orum burra OVERSEXED, OVERPAID, OVER Cam era assistan t....................................... Rene Romeril D raughtsm an/m odel m a k e r...... Gert Schidor barricaded them selves in the main shaft of S crip tw riter..................................... Ted Roberts HERE Model m aker................................ Lewis Morely the Sunbeam colliery, dem anding better pay G a ffe r............................................................ John W hitteron Based on the novel b y ................ Ralph Smart, Boom op e ra to r...................................................J. Dunwoodie Art departm ent a sst.......... M atthew C um m ing and conditions.

Their story is that of the Mary Borer Prod, com p a n y............. McElroy and McElroy Art d ire c to r.............................................. Richard Francis Best b o y .........................................................Sam Bienstock Australian Labor M ovem ent in the 1930s.

P h otog rap hy........................M alcolm Richards P ro d u c e r........................................ Jim M cElroy W ardrobe...............................................C hristine Johnson C a te Loc. sound recordist.................................... Don Connolly rin g ....................................... John Faithful S crip tw riter................................. Trevor Farrant THE WINDS OF JARRAH Laboratory...................................................

Atlab Standby p ro p s ..................................... C h ristina Pozzan E d ito r..............................................................

Ron W illiam s S y n opsis: A crazy com edy set in Sydney in Lab lia is o n ....................................Jim Parsons, P u blicity.................................................... .Jennie Crow ley At the beginning of the year the Prod, designer........................

Darrell Lass 1942.

Prod, com pany......................Film Corporation C a te rin g ...................................................Kristina Frohlich Exec, pro d u c e r.............................................Paul Barron G reg Doherty Am ericans were welcom e saviours. By of W estern Australia Lab o ra to ry............................................. C inevex Length.................................................... 110 mins Prod, m anage r........................................... Kevin Powell Septem ber the mood had changed. Before Producers...................................M ark Egerton, Len g th .............................................................. 100 minslong a saying was going around that there Prod, secretary......................................... Penny W allG a u g e .................................35mm anam orphic Film Corporation G a u g e ......................................................... Super 16mm Shooting s to c k .....................Kodak 7247/7293 Loc. m anager......................David Aderm ann were three things wrong with the Yanks: of W estern Australia Shooting s to c k ................................................Fuji8527 Cast: Nicholas G ledhill (PS), W endy Hughes Prod, a ccou ntan t.......................................Marie Brown “ overpaid, oversexed and over here” .

D ire c to r........................................................ Mark Egerton (Vanessa), Robyn Nevin (Lila), Peter W hitSynopsis: Forced from her own home, 1st asst director..........................................David Munro Scriptw riters..................................... Bob Ellis, Jenny sum m ons her courage and with her ford (George), John Hargreaves (Logan), 2nd asst director............................................. IanKenny PENTATHLON Anne Brooksbank two kids in tow looks desperately for refuge.

Judith Anderson (Agnes), G eraldine Turner 3rd asst d ire c to r.................M urray Robertson E d ito r...........................................................Sarah Bennett Seeking sanctuary in a caravan park, Jenny (Vere), Colleen C lifford (Ettie).

C o n tin u ity ....................................Jenny Q uigley Prod, co m p a n y.................................. Expar Co. Prod, d e s ig n e r...........................................David Copping battles defiantly to protect her fam ily and to S yn opsis: Set in Sydney in the 1930s, this is Camera g r ip ...................................Paul Holford P ro d u c e rs ......................................Eric J. Cook, Prod, supe rvisor.........................................

Julia Overton make ends meet. the poignant story of a small boy caught up C lapper/loader........................................... Gene Moller Philip Howe 1st asst d ire c to r............................... John Rook in a bitter custody battle between two sisters.

Camera a ss is ta n t....................................... John Ogden D irector..................................... Michael Latim er Asst g r ip ............................................Tom Hoffie S c rip tw rite r.............................. M ichael Latim er C a sting........................................Alison Barrett HOSTAGE FAST TALKING G a ffe r..........................................................Derek Jones Based on the original idea M ake-up...........................Vivienne Rushbrook b y ........................................... M ichael Latim er P R O D U C TIO N Prod, c o m p a n y......................................Klejazz, Prod, c o m p a n y ............................ O ldata Prods W a rd ro b e ....................................................Fiona Nicolls Photography.............................. Kevin Hayward Frontier Films P rodu cer....................................................... Ross M atthews Standby p ro p s ............................................. Mike Fowley Sound re c o rd is t......................................M ichaelW estgate ro d u ce r...................................... Frank Shields D ire cto r........................................................... Ken Cameron Set d resser................................................ Martin O 'NP eill Supervising edito r......................... Philip Howe D ire cto r.........................................

Frank Shields S crip tw riter..................................................... Ken Cameron Sound a s s t.............................................Graham Ademann Prod, d e s ig n e r...........................Jon Dowding ABRA CADABRA S crip tw riter...................................Frank Shields B u d g e t.................................................. $900,000 Editing assistant........................................ Pippa Anderson C om poser....................................... John Stuart P hotography.............................Vincent M onton Prod, com pany ..................... Adam s Packer Length................................................... 95 mins Horse m a s te r.........................................Graham W are Exec, producer........................Harvey Spencer C o -produ cer.................................................BasilAppleby G a u g e ................................................... Super 16 Film Prod.

Best b o y ......................................................... Ted W illiam s Assoc, p ro d u c e r........................................ Ingrid Strewe Cast: Kerry Mack, Ralph Schicha.

Synopsis: A contem porary com edy. The P ro d u c e r .................................... Phillip Adam s R unner.........................................................Steve Otten Prod, m anager..................................... Christina Ferguson story of a young urban “ b ush ran ger" D irector ...................................A lexander Stitt Location ru n n e r..........................................Craig Bowles Prod, secretary...............................................Lyn Galbraith S c r ip tw rite r ............................ Alexander Stitt fighting for survival in Sydney’s oppressed PHAR LAP C a te rin g ...................................................... Frank Manly Prod, a c c o u n ta n t................................... Howard W heatley Based on the original western suburbs.

Laboratory...................................................Atlab 1st asst director........................................... John Warren Prod, c o m p a n y ................John Sexton Prods/ idea by ...............................A lexander Stitt Length................................................................96 mins 2nd asst director..................................... George M annix Michael Edgley International Sound recordist .............. Brian Lawrence, G a u g e ................................................... Super 16 C o n tin u ity .................................................. Susan Pointon P rodu cer.......................................................John Sexton AAV Australia Shooting s to c k ........................................... 7247 C a s tin g .......................................Mary Ann W illis FOR LOVE ALONE C o m p o s e r......................................

Peter Best Camera o pe rator.......................John Mahaffie D irector....................................................... Simon W incer Cast: John Howard (Sly), John Ewart (Bill), Exec, p roduce r .................... Phillip Adam s Prod, com pany ......... M argaret Fink Film s Focus p u lle r................................................. John Lomax S c rip tw rite r.......................... David W illiam son Manalpuy (Aboriginal boy), Jam es W ingrove P ro d u c e r ................................... M argaret Fink Assoc, produce r .................. Andrew Knight Photography............................................ RussellBoyd C lappe r/loa der............................................ G ary Philips (Michael), Mark Spain (John), Nicole Kidman D ir e c to r ................................................. Stephen W allace Prod, secretary ...........................Janet Arup Sound recordist........................................... G ary W ilkin Key g rip ......................................................... Brett McDowell (Helen), Vanetta O 'M alley (Kate), Peter S crip tw rite rs ...................... Stephen W allace, Anim ation director ................. Frank Hellard Prod, d e s ig n e r............................................ Larry Eastwood 2nd unit p ho tograph y.................................Keith W oods Sumner (Ben), Bushwackers Band (Band).

Fay W eldon Key a n im a to r s ............................Anne Jolliffe, G affer................................................................. G.Rutherford Prod, supe rvisor.........................R ichard Davis S yn opsis: A re-make of the film made in Assoc, p ro d u ce r ................R ichard Brennan Gus M cLaren, Prod, co-ordinator/.................................... Cathy Flannery Sound a s s is ta n t............................................ Eric Briggs 1947 s ta rrin g C h ip s R a ffe rty , B u s h Synopsis: Teresa Hawkins, high-m inded, Steve Robinson, Prod, m anage r........................................... Paula Gibbs M ake-up...................................................Richard Sharah C h ristm as is an adventure involving a group in depend ent, im aginative but em otiona lly Ralph Peverill Unit m a n a g e r................................... Philip Corr W a rd ro b e ..................................................... Sally W alker of teenagers in pursuit of two would-be horse starved by her ram shackle fam ily, pins her Painting supervisor ............ M arilyn Davies Prod, se cre ta ry.......................Elizabeth W right E ditor...........................................................Susan M idgley thieves. affections on the egotistical Jona thon Crow.

D irector special fx Musical d ire c to r.............................................Kim Thraves Prod, accountant....... M oneypenny Services, It is, how ever, only thro ugh her ebullient p h o to g ra p h y .................... M ike Brow ning Sound edito r............................................MichaelW estgate Androulla CAREFUL, HE MIGHT HEAR YOU and w a rm -hearted em ployer, Jam es Quick, A rt d ir e c to r ..............................Alexander Stitt Editing a ssista n t..................................... M arilyn Karet Asst prod, accountant.....................................JillCoverdale that Teresa com es to und erstand her pow er M usical d ire c to r ............................Peter Best Stunts co-ordina tor................................... Grant Page Prod, assistant.............................................

Julia Ritchie Prod, c o m pany...... Syme International Prods as a wom an and em erges from obsession to Tech, a d v is e r s .................... M ike Browning, 1st asst d ire c to r.......................................M urray Newey Length................................................................ 98 mins P roducer........................................... Jill C. Robb a real consciousness of sexuality and love.

Volk Mol G a u g e ........................................................ 35mm 2nd asst d ire c to r....................................

M ichael Bourchier S tu d io s .................................................... Al et al D ire c to r........................................... Carl Schultz 3rd asst d ire cto r....................... Deuel Droogan S c rip tw rite r..............................Michael Jenkins Laboratory ...............................Victorian Film 4th asst d irector................

C hristopher W alker THE SENTIMENTAL BLOKE Based on the novel GETTING ON Laboratories C o n tin u ity.......................................................... Jo W eeks b y ..................................Sum ner Locke Elliott Prod, c o m p a n y ....... Universal Entertainm ent Length ...................................................90 m ins Producer’s a s s is ta n t....................................... DiHolmes Prod, c o m p a n y .................................... Kingcroft Photography.................................... John Seale Corporation Gauge .............................35m m Panavision, C a sting........................................................Alison Barrett D irector..........................................Ted Ham ilton Sound recordist......................Syd Butterworth Producers............................................... M aurice Murphy, Triangle 3D Camera o p e ra to r....................................... Nixon Binney S crip tw riters................................Ted Hamilton, E d itor.........................Richard Francis-Bruce C aroline Stanton S hooting s to c k ........................ Eastm ancolor Focus p u lle r.................................................Peter Menzies David Sm ilow Prod, d e s ig n e r.......................... John Stoddart D ire c to r................................................... M aurice M urphy Scheduled r e le a s e ....................................Late 1983 Clapper/loader......................................

G eoffrey W harton Exec, produce r...........................Terry O hlsson S criptw riters...................................................Bob Ellis, Voices: J a c k i W eaver, Jo h n Farnham , Com poser............................................Ray Cook Key g r ip ...........................................................Ray Brown G a u g e ......................................................... 35mm Prod, m anage r........................ Greg Ricketson M aurice M urphy Hayes G ordon, Gary Files, Jim Sm ilie, Asst g rip s ..............................

G eordie Dryden, Shooting sto ck............................. Eastm ancolor Loc. m a n a g e r..........Carolynne Cunningham Based on the book of Hamish Hughes.

Stuart Green Synopsis: The story of four ageing classical verse by....................................... C. J. Dennis Synopsis: W ill A b ra C adabra thw art the Prod, s ecretary............................Lynda House G a ffe r.................................... Brian Bansgrove m usicians who by accident becom e the Prod, accountant....... M oneypenny Services/ Prod, d e s ig n e r........................... G eorge Liddle plans of rotten B. L. Z'B ubb and nasty Kiaw, Electrician.....................................................Colin Chase hottest ro c k 'n ’ roll group in Australia. The Craig Scott Costum e d e s ig n e r...........................Jan Hurley the Rat King, to control all of the know n and Boom o p e ra to r......................... Mark W asiutak scenario unfolds around a ten-day concert unknown universe? Of course he will, with Prod, a s s is ta n t..................... Elizabeth Symes Art d ire c to r................................David Bowden tour during which they are exposed to a life­ Cast: Philip Q uast (Bloke), Jackie W ood1st asst d ire c to r......................... Colin Fletcher the help of beautiful Prim rose Buttercup, Asst d e sig n e r.................................... Lisa Elvy style they have only read about, now th e y ’ re burne (Doreen), Linda Cropper (Rose), John Mr. Pig and Zodiac the space dog, am ong 2nd asst d ire c to r............................. Sue Parker Costume d esigner...................................... Anna Senior Howard (Ginger). part of it.

3rd asst d irector........................... Tom Blacket others. But not until the end.

M a ke-up........................ Lesley Lam ont-Fisher

FEA TU R ES

PRODUCERS, DIRECTORS AND PRODUCTION COMPANIES

CINEMA PAPERS December — 551

Hairdresser............................................... CherylW illiam s Jim Mason, who is anxious to clear hand, (S u p e rin te n d e n t W ilkens), B ru n o Law ­ Based on the novel by ........ Roger W ard C onstruction m a n a g e r........... Ray Partisan W ardrobe supervisor..............Graham Purcell himself of suspicion of the sabotage. rence (Peeky), Ralph Cotterill (Hoimby), Photography .............................Ray Henman Still p h o to g ra p h y .............V ladim ir Osheron Wardrobe sta n d b y....................................... Rita Crouch John Bach (Bodell).

Sound recordist .................... Bob Clayton Title d e s ig n e r .................................. Alex Stitt Asst wardrobe standby.............................. Leah Cocks Synopsis: Romeo and Juliet: R-rated and Editor ...................................... Ron W illiam s PRISONERS Best b o y ............................... M ichael A dcock Props b u y e r................................................ Clark Munro updated to a New Zealand prison.

C om poser ...................................Bob Young C a te rin g ........................... Anne Dechaineaux Prod, com pany ................... Endeavour Film Standby p ro p s .................. Karan M onkhouse Exec, producers .................Brock Halliday, S tu d io s ........................Melb. Prod. Facilities M anagem ent (No. 2) Set deco rator............................Sally Campbell Frank W ilkie Length ............................................... 90 m ins — Lemon Crest Scenic a rtis t................................................Peter Harris RUNNING MAN Assoc, producer .................... John Hipwell G a u g e ........................................................35m m Dist. com pany .................. 20th Century-Fox Asst p a in te r.................................................T ony Babicci Prod, m anagers .................. Ken M etcalfe Shooting s to c k ......................... Eastm ancolor Prod, com pany............ ......................Eastcaps Film C orporation C arpenters......................... Errol Glassenbury, ’ (Philippines), Producers..................... ..................Pom Oliver, P ro d u c e rs .........................A ntony I. Ginnane, Peter W atson, Cast: Chris Haywood (Eric Linden), Simon Judith W est (N Z/Aust.)

Errol Sullivan John Barnett C hristopher Reid Burke (Paul Armstrong), G erda Nicolson Unit m anager ...........................Tim Higgins D ire c to r........................ ................Ken Quinnell D ir e c to r ......................................................Peter W erner Set construction......................................... Brian Hocking (Linda), Rona McLeod (Carol), Suzanne Prod, secretaries .................... M itch Griffin, Scriptw riters................. ............Robert Merritt, S crip tw riters .......................... M eredith Baer, D raug htsm an....................Marc Schulenberg Roylance (Patty).

Victoria Christie (Aust.)

Hilary Henkin Ken Quinnell Art dept runner................................... G eoff Full S yn opsis: The film takes a light-hearted look Prod, accountant ........................Ross Lane Based on a story b y ............. M eredith Baer Based on the novel Still photography....................................... David Parker at what goes on in an Australian clinic for the Com pany accountant ............ Neil Drabsch P h o to g ra p h y .......................James G lennon b y ............................... ......... W. A. Harbinson W rangler.....................................................Heath Harris treatm ent of venereal disease.

Prod, assistant ............ Roy H arries-Jones Sound re c o rd is t........................Gary W ilkins P hotography................ .................. Louis Irving Best b o y.........................................................PaulG antner Insurance/C om pletion Editor ............................................. Adrian Carr Sound recordist........... ..................Noel Quinn P u b lic ity ......................................................Suzie Howie guarantors ..............Halliday & Nicholas THE DARK ROOM E d ito r............................ .................Greg Ropert Prod, d e s ig n e r........................Bernard Hides C a te rin g .......................... Chris Smith “ Feast” 1st asst d irector ............ Bosie Vine-M iller Art d ire c to r................... .................Robert Dein Exec, produce rs .............David Hemmings, (Sydney), 2nd asst director ............ Andrew W illiam s Prod, com pany .................... N adira Pty Ltd Assoc, p ro d u c e r..........

Keith Barish, ............Barbara Gibbs Helen W right 3rd asst director .................. Peter Kearney Dist. com pany ......................Film co Lim ited Craig Baum garten Prod, m a n a g e r............ ............Barbara Gibbs (Melbourne) C ontinuity ............................ Jenny Quigley Producer ................................... Tom Haydon Assoc, p r o d u c e r .....................................

Brian Cook Unit m anager............... ............Adrienne Read Budget...............................................................$5 million D irector’s secretary . Jennifer W oodw ard D irector ..................................... Paul Harm on Unit m anager ..........................M urray Newey Prod, ac c o u n ta n t........ ............... Moneypenny Casting ............................. Roger W ard (NZ) Cast: Tom Burlinson (Tommy W oodcock), S crip tw riters .................... M ichael Brindley, Prod, secretary .......................... Jenny Barty Services, Casting consultants .................... Eric Cook Martin Vaughn (Harry Telford), Judy Morris Paul Harm on Prod, accountant ................... Stanley Sopel Anthony Shepherd Camera operator ....................... David Burr (Bea Davis), Dave Davis (Ron Leibman).

Asst a c c o u n ta n t........................Tony W hyman Based on the original idea 1st asst d ire c to r........... ............. Mark Turnbull Focus puller .................. M alcolm Burrows by ........................................... Paul Harm on S yn opsis: The story of the w o rld ’s greatest Prod, a s s is ta n t................. B arbara W illiam s 2nd asst d ire c to r........ ....................... Ian Page C lappe r/loa der .................... Conrad Slack P hotography .............................Paul O norato Prod, tra in e e .......................Tim C oddington C o n tin u ity.................... .................... Liz Barton racehorse, set against the backdrop of the Key grip .................................. Lester Bishop 1st asst director ................ Terry Needham Sound recordist ................ Ken Ham m ond Great Depression of the 1930s. It tells of C a s tin g ......................... ............. Susie Maizels Asst grips ___Nicholas Reynolds (Aust.), Focus puller........................... Jerem y Robbins Phar Lap’s sudden rise to national fame and 2nd asst directors .................. Kevan O'Dell, Editor .....................................Rod Adam son Dennis Cullen (NZ) the controversies surrounding his career, in­ Clapper/loader............. ................... Derry Field Jonothan Barraud Prod, designer ....................Richard Kent G affer ...........................................Pav Govind Key g r ip ........................................ Stuart Green cluding attempts on his life before the 1930 3rd asst d ir e c to r .............................Geoff Hill C om poser ............................ Cam eron Allan Electricians ..........

M ark Friedman (Aust.), C o n tin u ity .................. Jacqueline Saunders G a ffe r........................... ............... Reg Garside Melbourne Cup. The story moves to the U S. Assoc, produce r ............ M ichael Brindley Johnathan Hughes (Aust.), with Phar Lap’s success at the w orld’s D irector’s a s s is ta n t.................................. Cass Coty Prod, co-o rd in a to r .................. liana Baron Neil Cam pbell (NZ) P roducer’s assistant: Costume d esigner...... ............Anthony Jones richest horserace, and his untim ely death in Prod, m anager .............. M ichael M cKeag Boom operator ..........Graham M cKinney Asst to M r Ginnane __ Sylvia Van Wyk mysterious circum stances.

M ake-up........................ ................Viv Mepham Unit m anager ............................ Ian Kenny A rt director .................................Paul Tolley Asst to M r Barnett ...........Frances Gush H a irdre sser.................. ................Viv Mepham Prod, secretaries ........................ Lyn M orris, Asst art director ...................Rachel Rovay Casting: Standby w ardrobe....... .................Roger Mork Terry Fogarty Costume designer .................. David Rowe Australia — M & L Casting Consultants Standby p ro p s ............. .........Jock McLachlan Prod, accountant.....M oneypenny Services, P O S T-P R O D U C TIO N M ake-up ........................ Robern Pickering New Zealand ........................ Diana Rowan Scenic a rtis t................. .............. David McKay A n droulla Hairdressers ............Willi Kennick (Aust.), Camera operator ......................... David Burr Arm ourer....................... .................Brian Burns 1st asst director .............. David Bracknell Trish Cohen (NZ) Focus puller ..................... M alcolm Burrows Editing assistant.......... ....... Josephine Cooke 2nd asst director .......................John Rooke W ard, assistant ........................

Rima Rowe PLATYPUS COVE C la p p e r/lo a d e r......................... Roland Carati Stunts co-ordinator........................Grant Page 3rd asst director ............... Ken Richardson Standby props ........ David Findlay (Aust.), Camera dept, tr a in e e ......... W illiam Grieve Motorbike s tunts.......... ................... Guy Norris C ontinuity ...........................Roz Berrystone Prod, co m p a n y............................. Independent Prods Chris Paulger (NZ) Key g r ip .............................Grahame M ardell ...........Sam Bienstock Best b o y ........................

Camera ope rator .......... David W illiam son P ro d u ce r......................................................Geof Gardiner Special effects ............... Reece Robinson Asst g r ip s .................................Gary Carden, Runner.......................... .................Judy Rymer Focus puller ......................... Jerem y Robins Director........................................................ Peter Maxwell Asst editor ..................Annabelle Sheehan Richard Scott C a terin g........................ .......

DJ & CJ Location C lappe r/loa der ................ Robyn Peterson S crip tw riter.............................................Charles Stamp Musical director .....................Bob Young G a ffe r ......................................W arren Mearns Catering, Key grip ...................................Robin M organ Photography............................ Phil Pike A C S .

M ixer .........................................Peter Fenton E lec tric ia n s .............................................M urray Gray, John Welch Asst grips ..........................Graeme Shelton, Sound recordist.............................................DonConnolly Stunts co-ordina tor ............ Frank Lennon Ian Beale Post-production.................... Studio Clip Joint Robert Verkeck E d itor.............................................................. Bob Cogger Stunts ...................................... Frank Lennon, Lighting dept, tra in e e ............................. John Kaiser Laboratory.................................................. Atlab Gaffer .................................... W arren M earns Exec, producer...................... Brendon Lunney Boom o p e ra to r....................... M ark W asiutak Grant Page.

Lab. lia is o n ................................. Greg Doherty Electrician ................................

Doug W oods Prod, co-o rd in a to r..........................Dixie Betts Peter West, A rt director ....................Virginia Bieneman Cast: Tom Lewis, Hugo W eaving, Katrina Boom operator ................ Andrew Duncan Prod, secretary................................Fiona King Zenda Graves, Costum e designer ....... A p hrodite Kondos Foster, Mark Lee, Ralph Cotterill.

Art director .............................

Richard Kent Prod, accountant..........................Peter Layard Jade Clayton, M ake-up .........................................Jose Perez S yn opsis: The story of a strange love affaire Asst art director .................. David Bowden 1st asst director.......................................... Tony W ellington Kerry Blakeman, M ake-up assistant ......... Robern Pickering in a world of young outsiders living on the M ake-up ....................................Viv M epham 2nd asst d irector.......................................... PaulCallaghan M arty Takarang.

H airdresser ................................... Joan Petch edge.

W ardrobe .....................................Liz Keogh 3rd asst d ire c to r.................................... MichaelFaranda Rangi Nikora, W a r d ro b e .................................Julia M ansford W ard, assistant .....................

Fiona Nicholls C o ntinuity.................................................. Jenny Q uigley Chris Hession W ard, assistant .................. Glenis Hitchens, TH E S E TT LE M E N T Props buyer .................................Jeff Bruer C a s tin g ............................... Mitch Consultancy Still photography .....................David M iller Elizabeth Jowsey Standby props ....................

Nick M cCallum C lapper/loader............................................Sean McClory Transport supervisor ........ Barry Branson W ardrobe dept, tra in e e ......... Jude Crozier Prod, c o m pany............Robert Bruning Prods Special effects ................ Conrad Rothm an Camera assistan t........................ Keith Bryant O pticals .................................. Acm e O pticals Props b u y e r................................................ PaulDulieu P roducer.................................. Robert Bruning C arpenters .....................Jam es Thom pson, Key g rip...................................................Graham Litchfield Title designer ............................ Larry Wyner Standby p r o p s .......................Trevor Haysom, D ire c to r.......................................

Howard Rubie M ax Feutrill, 2nd unit pho tograph y................................Greg Hunter, Tech, adviser ..............................

Hine Grey M orris Quinn S criptw riter....................................................Ted Roberts M ichael Patterson Garry Maunder (M aori songs) Dressing props .........................M ike Becroft Based on the original idea Set construction .........................Fred Kirk, G a ffe r............................................. Derek Jones Best boy ..............................Graham M ulder Art dept, tra in e e s ................Francey Young, b y ............................................................... Ted Roberts Ian M cGrath Boom operator........................................... Steve Miller Jerem y Chunn 1st unit runner ............................ Chris Cole Photography............................................... Ernie Clark A dditional editing ...................... Alan Lake Art d ire c to r.................................................... KenJames Scenic artist ..................................Ray Pedier 2nd unit runner .......................Stuart M iller Sound re c o rd is t...........................................

Max Bowring Asst edito r ..............................

Julia G elhard M ake-up...................................................... Fiona Spence P a in te r ......................................... Paul Radford Location nurse . . . . Glenise Brady (Aust.), Editor.......................................................... Henry Dangar Neg. m atching .......................................Atlab W ardro be................................................... Fiona Spence Stand-by stage hand ............... Adrian Lane Catering .......... David W illiam s (NZ, Aust.)

Exec, assistant.............................................

Jan Williams Musical director .................Cam eron Allan Ward, a s s is ta n t......................................... Kerry Thompson Set construction ...................... Trevor M ajor Mixed at ................................. United Sound Prod, co-ordinator...................................... Sally Ayre-Smith Sound editors ........................Paul M axweii, Props b u y e r................................................ Brian Edmonds Asst e d it o r .............................Virginia M urray Laboratory .............................................. Atlab Prod, m anaager...............................Irene Korol Anne Breslin, Standby pro p s...............................................Igor Lazareff Editing dept, trainee . .. Vicky Yiannoutsos Gauge .................................................... 35mm Unit m an a g e r................................................. BillAustin Jeff Bruer, Asst e d ito r............................................. M ichelle Cattle Still p h o to g ra p h y....................... Rob Tucker Screen ratio ............................................1:165 Prod, acco u n ta n t........................... Rob Prince Peter Foster, Stunts co-o rd in a to r................................... Peter West Tech, adviser ......................... Greg Newbold Shooting stock ........................ Eastm ancolor Prod, a s s is ta n t............................... Debra Cole Julia Gelhard, Still photography.......................................Bruce Haswell Cast: Chard Hayward (Adam), M argaret Unit n u rs e ....................................Toni O kkerse 1st asst d ire c to r............................................ LesCurrie Elizabeth Haydon Best boy.........................................................Matt Slattery Laurence (Lani), lvar Kants (Kevin), Alison Best boy ........................................... Ian Philp 2nd asst director............................Paul Healey M ixer .............................Julian Ellingsworth P u b lic ity .......................Rea Francis Company Best (Jeanine), Jennifer Cluff (Alison), Les Publicity: 3rd asst director.........................Wayne Moore Stunts co-ordina tor ............ Frank Lennon Unit p ub licist.............................................. Annie Page W o rld w id e ......................Dennis Davidson Foxcroft (Jim ), Joan Bruce (Maureen), C o ntinuity.................................. Anne McCloud Still photography .................Carolyn Johns C a terin g...................................................... Jem s Catering James Elliot (Rev.), M oira W alker (Connie), Associates Producer's assistan t................ Anne Bruning Laboratory....................................................CFL O pticals .................................Rick Springett, Ricky May (Bill).

A u s tra lia ................................ Carlie Deans Focus puller............................... Martin Turner Lab. lia is o n .....................................................CalGardiner Optical & G raphic Pty Ltd New Zealand ...C o n su ltu s New Zealand Synopsis: Tw o b ro th e rs e s c a p e the C lapper/loader.......................... Garry Phillips Title designer ............................ M ike Berry Length...................................................100 mins m assacre of five fellow Australian news­ Unit p u b lic is t...............................Tony Noble Key g rip .......................................Lester Bishop Best boys .............................

Alleyn Mearns, G a u g e ....................................................... 16mm C a te rin g ...............................David W illiams, Asst g rip ................................................... W ilfred Flintmen in Asia, but their lives are still charged G eoff M aine Shooting s to c k ....... Eastm ancolor 7247/7293 Location Caterers with em otion and futility in a sm all New G affer..................................................... Graham Rutherford Runner ....................................R ichard Hobbs Cast: Tony Barry (Frank Wilson), Allen Bick­ S tu d io s ......................... Northern Television, Zealand town as they try to escape the holo­ Boom operator......................... Bruce Wallace Publicity ........................... Elizabeth Johnson ford (Ted Finch), Aileen Britton (Gran Auckland, New Zealand caust of their nightm ares.

Art d ire c to r................................. John Watson Catering ................................. Fillum Catering Mason), Simone Buchanan (Jenny Nelson), L a b o ra to ry ......................................... C olorfilm Costume d e s ig n e r.............................Ron Reid M ixed at .................................................. Atlab Carmen Duncan (Margaret Davis), Bill Kerr Lab. liaison ...............................Dick Bagnall H a irdre sser.........................M argaret Lingham Laboratory .............................................. Atlab (Mr Anderson), Martin Lewis (Peter Nelson) Length ................................................95 mins THE CLINIC Props b u y e r...........................................Graham Blackmore Lab. liaison .............................. Greg Doherty John Ley (Leo Baldwin), Paul Smith (Jirr G a u g e ....................................................... 35mm Standby p ro p s.................................. Barry Hall Length ............................96 m ins 46 secs Mason), Henri Szeps (Winston Bell).

Shooting s to c k ......................... Eastm ancolor Prod, com pany ................ The Film H ouse/ Standby w a rdrobe.................... Anne Watson Gauge .................................................... 35m m S yn opsis: Saboteurs, attem pting to cripple Cast: Tatum O’ Neal (Christie W ilkens), G eneration Films Special e ffects......................Conrad Rothman Shooting stock ........................ Eastm ancolor the tug-boat, Platypus, and put her owner Colin Friels (Nick Skinner), Shirley Knight P ro d u c e rs ............................... Robert Le Tet, Asst e d ito r.................................. Pam Barnetta Cast: Alan Cassell (Ray Sangster), Anna out of business, are thwarted by young d eck­ (V ir g in ia W ilk e n s ), D a vid H e m m in g s Bob Weis Dubbing e d ito r....................... Ashley Grenville J e m is o n (N ic k y ), S ve t K o v ic h (M ik e D ir e c to r .................................. David Stevens Best b o y ........................................................ KenMoffat S a n g s te r) , D ia n a D a v id s o n ( M a r th a S crip tw riter .................................. Greg Millen R unner........................................ Tonti Connolly Sangster), Rowena W allace (Liz Llewellyn), Based on the original idea Laboratory...................................................Atlab Ric Hutton (Sam Bitel), O riana Panozzo b y ...............................................Greg M illen Length..................................................... 95 mins (Susan Bitel), Sean M yers (Peter), Sally Photography .................................. Ian Baker G a u g e ........................................................35mm C ooper (Sally), Jon Darling (Bob Henning).

Sound re c o rd is t....................... John Rowley Cast: Bill Kerr (Kerney), John Jarratt Synopsis: A contem porary story of sexual Editor .................. Edward M cQ ueen-M ason (Martin), Lorna Lesley (Joycie), Tony Barry rivalry and obsession: of lost youth and Prod, s u p e rv is o r....................M ichael Lake (Crowe), Katy Wild (Mrs Crowe), Alan Cassell false m anhood. A triangle w hich leads to Prod, c o -o rd in a to r......................Trish Foley (Lohan), Elaine Cusick (Mrs Lohan), Babette disaster.

Prod, accountant ......................G roliss Fyfe Stevens (Mrs Gansman), Neil Fitzpatrick 1 st asst director ....................... David Clark DEAD EASY (Carter), Dennis Grosvenor (Reilly).

S yn opsis: Two men and a girl set up house 2nd asst d ire c to r......... Hamish M cSporran 3rd asst d ire c to r s ...............................A nnette Binger, Producer.......................................................John W eiley in an abandoned mining shack on the Jonathon B alm ford D irector.......................................................... Bert Deling outskirts of a small country town in the C o n tin u ity ............................................

Caroline Stanton S criptw riters..................................

Bert Deling, m id-’50s. The scandalized townsfolk resolve Danny Sankey to move them on, but the situation gets out of P roducer’s a s s is ta n t__ M argo M cDonald C a s tin g .................................. The Film House P hotography........................... M ichael Molloy, hand. ’ Casting consultants . ... M & L Consultants Tom Cowan Focus puller ............................. Clive Duncan Sound recordist........................... Peter Barker C la p p e r/lo a d e r....................Leigh McKenzie E d itor..................................................John Scott G r ip s ........................................Barry Hansen, Prod, de sig n e r.............................Jon Dowding Ian Benallack C o m po ser............................... W illiam M otzing AWAITING RELEASE G a ffe r ..........................................................Brian Adam s m anager....................... G reg Ricketson Prod, E le c tric ia n ..............................................M ichaelTanner Asst director............................Tony W ellington Boom o p e ra to r.................. Steven Haggarty Camera operator.......................... Louis Irving A rt director .................................. Tracy W att Art director.................................... Jon Dowding M ake-up ...................................Kirsten Vessy, BROTHERS Costume d e s ig n e r.........Robbie Schuurmans Di Biggs M ake-up....................................... Carol Devine Prod, com pany ..................... Areflex Prods W a r d ro b e ......................................Rose Chong H a irdre sser...................................Greg Morse Dist. com pany .......................... IMC-ISRAM W ard, assistant ............................ Gail Mayes Special effects............................Alan Maxwell, P roducer ...................................Terry Bourke Props b u y e r.................................... Cliff Kelsall Peter Evans D irector .....................................T erry Bourke Standby p r o p s ................... Andrew M itchell Sound e d ito r.......................................Greg Bell S crip tw riter .............................Terry Bourke C a rp e n te r........................... Danny Corcoran Phar Lap M ixe r............................................. Peter Fenton

552 — December CINEMA PAPERS

P r o d u c e rs ...................................................Brian Kavanagh, Stunts su p e rv is o rs ............... Stuart Freeman, Exec, pro d u c e r .................John Fitzpatrick Lynn Barker Bob Hicks (Film co) D irector ..................................Brian Kavanagh M ixed a t ..........................................................Film Australia Prod, m anager .....................Julia O verton S c r ip tw rite r ................................................. Brian Kavanagh. (by United Sound) Unit m anager .............................Di N icholas Based on the L ab ora tory.............................................C olorfilm Prod, secretary ............ .B elinda Mason original idea b y ....................................Brian Kavanagh Len g th ...................................................... 92 mins Prod, accountant ........ Howard W heatley P h o to g ra p h y ...............................................Ross B errym an G a u g e ......................................................... 35mm 1st asst d ire c to r ...............Stuart Freem an Sound re c o rd is t .....................John Phillips Shooting s to ck ............................. Eastm ancolor 2nd asst d ire c to r .......... M ichael B o urch ler E d it o r ..............................................................Tim Lewis Cast: Scott Burgess (Geòrgie), Rosemary 3rd asst d ire c to r ................ A nnie Peacock C o m p o s e r .............................Bruce Sm eaton Paul (Alex), Tim M cKenzie (Armstrong), C o ntinuity ............ M argaret Rose S tringe r Exec, p ro d u c e r ..............................John Daly P rodu cer’s assistant ........ Vanessa Brown Tony Barry (Ozzie), Max Phipps (Francis).

Assoc, p r o d u c e r ....................... Carlie Deans Lighting cam eram an ............ David Eggby S yn o p sis: A love story in a com bat zone.

Prod, s u p e rv is o r .........................John Chase Cam era o pe rator ....................David Eggby Every city has one.

Prod.

Focus puller ........................... David C onnell co -o rd in a to r . . . Carolynne C unningham C la p p e r/lo a d e r .......................... Erika A ddis DESOLATION ANGELS Prod, accou ntan t ...................... Lynn Barker Cam era assistants ........ Salik Silverstein, Prod, co m p a n y................... W internight Prods Prod, a s s is ta n t..............................................Lyn Devine Sally Eccleston P ro d u c e r.......................................... Chris O liver 1st Asst d ir e c t o r ................ Ross H am ilton Key g rip .............................M erv M cLaughlin D ire cto r............................ Christopher Fitchett 2nd Asst d ire c to r ..........................Bill Baster Asst g rip s ...........................Brett Robinson, S crip tw rite rs....................Christopher Fitchett, 2nd unit d ir e c t o r ......................................Brian Kavanagh Robdrt Verkerk Ellery Ryan C o ntinuity ................................ Shirley Ballard 2nd unit pho tograph y ............ Peter Levy, P h o to g ra p h y...............................................Ellery Ryan P rodu cer’s a s s is ta n t.......... Helen Kavanagh Sam Bienstock Sound re c o rd is t....................Laurie Robinson Focus p u lle r ...................................................Ian Jones G affer ...........................................Roger W ood E d ito r .............................................................Tony Stevens C la p p e r/lo a d e r .............................. Phil Cross Electrician ....................................Peter W ood Prod, d e s ig n e r........................Josephine Ford Special fx ........................... C onrad Rothm an Boom o pe rator ......................... Steve M iller C o m p o se r................................ Mark McSherry G a ffe r ....................................... Lindsay Foote A rt d ire c to r ...............:. Bob H ilditch Exec, p ro d u c e rs ........................................ David Barclay, Boom op e ra to r ........................... Ray Phillips Asst art d ire c to r .................... R obert Jones Terry G orka A rt d ir e c t o r ......................................Jill Eden M ake-up .................................Rina Hofm anis Prod, m a n a g e r...................................... M iranda Bain Asst art d ire c to r ...........................Phil Eagles Hairdresser .............................Rina Hofm anis Asst d ire c to r............................Tony McDonald M ake-up .............................. Deryck De Niese W ardro be ....................................... Bob Lloyd Cam era o p e ra to r.........................................Toby Phillips H a ird re s s e r............................................... Pietra Robins W ard, assistant ...................R obina Chaffey Costum e d e s ig n e r............................ Josephine Ford W ardro be ..................................... Anna Jakab Props ...............................................Tony Hunt Fighting Back Sound e d ito rs .............................................. Greg Steele, Props b u y e r ................................................ Nick H epworth P rops buyer ......................................Ian Allen Jacky Fine S tandby p r o p s .............................................Ken Hazelwood S tandby p r o p s ................................ Tony Hunt M ix e r................................Alasdair M acFarlane Special e ffe c ts ................... Conrad Rothman G affer ......................................... Reg G arside Assoc, p r o d u c e r .........................Julie Barry Special effects ......................Brian Olesen, Stunts co-ordinator ...New G eneration Stunts Boom ope rator ...................Jack Friedm an C o n s tru c tio n .....................G eoff R ichardson, Prod, m anager ........ M itou Pajaczkow ska Alan M axwell, M ixed a t ........................................................ Palm Studios Ian Doig A rt d ire c to r ...............C h ristop her W ebster Location m a n a g e r...................................Julian Russell Peter Evans Lab ora tory.................................................... Atlab Asst e d ito r ................................. Ken Sallows M ake-up ..........................................Jill P orter Prod, secretary .............................. Gai Steele C arpenters ...........................Russell Jones, Len gth................................................................ 95 mins Still p h o to g ra p h y .......................................Suzy W ood W ardro be .................. Robyn Schuurm ans Prod, accountant .......... A n drew S nedden M orris Evans, G a u g e ......................................................... 35mm W ard, assistant .........................Jenny M iles Best boy ................................... G ary Scholes 1st asst, d ir e c t o r ....................................... Peta Lawson A drian Storey Shooting sto ck............................. Eastm ancolor Props buyer .....................M ichael Tolerton R u n n e r .........................................S tuart W ood 2nd asst, d ir e c t o r ...............Chris M audson Set construction ..................... John Parker, C a s t: K im T r e n g r o v e ( J illy ) , M a rie S tandby props ......................... Colin G ibson P u b lic ity .......................................Carlie Deans.

C a s tin g ........................................................... Tim Burns, M ichael O sborne O ’ Loughlin (Liz), Kerry M ack (Joanne), U nit pub lic is t .......................... Peter M urphy Set construction .......................Hans Theile Ian G ilm our Asst edito r ................... C atherine Sheehan Karen W est (Pam ela), Jay M annering Lab ora tory ......................................... C o lorfilm Asst e d ito r ......................... Cathy Sheehan Cam era ope rator ................... "R ace’’ Gailey Neg. m atching .........................G ordon Peck (Vince), Paul A lexand er (Gerry), Nield Neg. m atching ...................M argaret Cardin Lab. lia is o n .....................................................BillGooley Focus p u lle r ................................................Paul Giasetti M usical director ...................... M ike Harvey Schneider (Trevor), Nick Lathouris (Night­ B u d g e t.............................................................. $1m illion Key g r ip ................................... Nick Reynolds M u s ic ............................................................ Colin Stead M usic perform ed man), Nick Forster (Brian), Louise Howitt S hooting s to c k .......................... Eastm ancolor 2nd unit pho tograph y .........“ Race” Gailey Stunts c o -o rd in a to r ................Heath Harris by ................................... Doug Parkinson, (Susan).

Cast: Angela Punch M cG regor (C hristina G a ffe r ...........................................................Peter Gailey Action vehicle Naomi W arne, S yn o p sis: An action-thriller set at the Stirling), Louis Jourdan (Peter Stirling), Boom ope rator .................C hris G oldsm ith m anager .............................B arry Bransen M alcolm M cCallum , Victorian seaside resort of Portsea. Three Diane C ra ig (June S tevens), W a rw ic k A rt d ir e c to r ........................... M elody C ooper David Spall, Still pho tograph y .....................Jim Tow nley teenage girls enjoy a wild weekend away C om ber (young man), Bruce Spence (Doug Asst, art d ir e c to r s .............. Steven Teather, A ctors tu to r .............................W ilfred Flint Steve Kiely from their parents w hile a m ysterious woman M itchell), Peter C um m ins (D etective Mills), C hristine Flin, M echanic .................................. Dave Thom as Sound edito r .............................. Klaus Jaritz is on the run from the police and her crim inal Patty C rocker (C hristina’s m other), Kerry David M cKay Best boy ............................... Sam Bienstock Editing assistant ................... Terry M ooney boyfriend.

W alker (Sibyl Anderson),. Danee Lindsay M ake-up ....................................Karla O'Keefe Runner .................................Richard Ussher M ixer ............................................... Phil Judd ( ju n io r s e c r e ta r y ) , J u n e J a g o ( M rs Asst, e d it o r .................................................... GaiSteele Publicity .....................................

David W hite Stunts co -o rd in a to rs .. .Peter A rm strong, DOT AND SANTA CLAUS Coolidge).

Sound e dito rs ............................

Paul Healey, (Brooks W hite O rganization) Herb Nelson (F u rth e r A d ve n tu re s of Dot and the Synopsis: A psychological thriller, its plot is Catering .................................. Nene M organ, Ashley G renville Stunts .............................................Glen Davis, K a ngaroo) a m ystery of m anipulation and dou b le ­ M ixer .......................................... Peter Fenton C hristina Norm an Bev Teague, d e a lin g a b o u t th e e le g a n t, b e a u tifu l Stunts co -o rd in a to r .............. Frank Lennon Studios ....................... John M orten Studios M atthew Hessian, Prod, co m pany .........................Y oram G ross C h ristina S tirling, her urbarle, successful M ixed at .................................. United Sound Fights c o - o rd in a to r...................... David Brax Dee Jam es, Film S tudio m a n - o f- th e - w o r ld h u s b a n d , P e te r, a Laboratory ..................................... C o lorfilm S tu n ts .................................. Reece Robinson, C hris Hessian, Dist. com pany . . . Satori P rodu ctions Inc., daunting, sensuous young man and Peter’s Lab. liaison ....................................Bill Gooley Rocky M cDonald Ian Lind New York efficient, devoted secretary.

Length ............................................. 100 mins Still p h o to g ra p h y .......... Robert McFarlane, Still pho tograph y .....................Chic S tringe r S c r ip tw rite r s .............................. John Palm er, Gauge ....................................................35mm O pticals ..................................Andrew Mason ’’Race" Gailey Yoram Gross S hooting stock ............ Eastm ancolor 5247 R u n n e r................................... Greg Stephens DUSTY Title d e s ig n e r ............................................. M ike Berry Based on the Ca*t: Lewis Fitz-G erald (John), Paul Sm ith C a te rin g ...................................M erle Keenan, Best boy ......................................Peter W ood original id ea b y ..................... Yoram Gross Prod, com pany ......................... Dusty Prods.

(Tom), Kris M cQuade (Tom 's m um ), C a ro­ Runner ................................... M ardi Kennedy Donna Sims Dist. com pany .............Kestrel Film Prods.

P h o to g ra p h y .......... Bob Evans (anim ation), line G illm er (Rosem ary), C atherine W ilkin M ixed at ....................................United Sound Publicity .....................C arlie Deans Pty Ltd C hris A sh bro ok (live action) P ro d u c e r...........................................Gil Brealey (M ary), Ben G a b rie l (M o re la n d ), Wyn Laboratory ................................................ Atlab Unit p ub licist .................Elizabeth Johnson D ir e c to r ................................John Richardson S ound re co rd ist fo r Roberts (Payne).

C atering ................................... Paul Sargent, Length ................................................... 90 m ins S c rip tw rite r ....................................Sonia Borg cha ra cte r v o ic e s ........ Julian Ellingw orth Synopsis: A rem a rkab le relatio nship be­ Shooting s to c k .......................... Eastm ancolor Eric Larsen, Based on the novel C h ara cter design ...................Ray Nowland Scheduled release ........................June 1982 Shelleys, tween a young teacher and a deeplyb y ............................... Frank Dalby Davison C o m p o s e r ..................................M ervyn Drake Plum Crazy Cast: Tracey Mann (Karli), David Argue d isturbed 13 year-old boy. Tom Is w ritten P h o to g ra p h y .............................Alex M cPhee Assoc, p ro d u ce r ..................... Sandra G ross (Gregg, Trixie, the Hood, the S prooker), M ixed at .................................United Sound off as a delinq uent by m ost adults until Sound re c o rd is t....................... John Phillips Prod, m anager .......................V irg inia Kelly Lab ora tory ............................ Atlab Australia V erra Plevnik (Jane), M oira M aclaine-C ross John, the teacher, fights against all odds to E ditor ............................................. David Greig Prod, se cre ta rie s/ straighten out his life.

(Ellen), Julie Barry (Jackie), Esben Storm Lab. liaison ...........................Jam es Parsons Prod, d e s ig n e r ...................... R obbie Perkins A d m in is tra tio n ......................Meg Rowed, (M ichael), Ian G ilm our (Shadow), Henk Length ............................................... 90 m ins Exec, pro d u ce r ................. John R ichardson M argaret Lovell Johannes (Ian), M ercia D ean-Johns (Ned), GINGER MEGGS G auge ................................................... 35mm Assoc, pro d u ce r .....................David M organ Prod, a ccou ntan t ............. W illiam Hauer Ian Nlm m o (John).

Prod, m a n a g e r.......................................... M ark RuseShooting stock .......... E astm ancolour 5247 P ro d u ce r’s a s s is ta n t................ Kelly Duncan Prod, com pany ..........................John Sexton Synopsis: “ The iron tongue of m idnight Cast: Diana M cLean (Val Meadows), Jon Unit m anager ................ M ichael M cGennan C a s tin g ........................... International Casting Productions hath to ll'd twelve. Lovers, to bed; 'tis alm ost Blake (Peter M eadows), Jan Kingsbury Prod, secretary .................. Elizabeth Syme Services P ro d u c e r..................................................... John Sexton fairy tim e, I fear we shall outsleep the Prod, a s s is ta n t............................................. Jan T ou (Peg rrier P re n tic e ), David F ra n k lin (D avid C a m era op e ra to r ......................... Bob Evans D ir e c to r ..................... Jonathan Dawson com ing m orn As m uch as we have this night P r e n tic e ) , D a n ie l C u m e r fo r d (J o e y 1st asst d ire c to r ..................... C olin Fletcher C am era assistant ...........Lynette Hennessy o'er w atched. This palpable gross play hath Meadows), Guy Dolem an (M ike Hayes), S crip tw riter .......................... M ichael Latim er 2nd asst d ire c to r .......................................Jake Atkinson A rt d ir e c t o r ............................... Ray Nowland Based on the cartoon b y .......

Jim Bancks well beguiled The heavy gate of night.

Joanne Sam uel (Chris), Kit Taylor (Paul 3rd asst d ir e c t o r ...................................... Gaye A rnold S cenic a r t i s t ........................................... A m ber Ellis P h o to g ra p h y ...................................John Seale Sweet friends, to bed .”

Sloane).

C o n tin u ify ...............................................A n dre a Jordan Neg. m a tc h in g ................... M argaret C ardin Sound r e c o rd is t................................Tim Lloyd Synopsis: A suburban com m unity is bliss­ C a s tin g ............................................................Lee Larner Chief a n im a to r ......................... Ffey Nowland GOODBYE PARADISE fully unaware that a kille r stalks the streets. Editor ............................................. Philip Howe Lighting c a m e ra m a n .................................Alex M cPhee A n im a to r s ............................... Paul M cAdam , A m other and her two sons survive in a dis­ Prod, d e s ig n e r ................. Larry Eastwood Focus puller ........................... B rendan W ard A n drew Szemenyei, Prod, c o m p a n y .......... Petersham Pictures C o m p o s e rs .................................. John Stuart, integrating relationship.

These two ele­ C la p p e r/lo a d e r..........................................C hris Cain A thol Henry, Pty Ltd Kim Thraves m ents com e together to fo rm the basis of Key g r ip ................................... Ian T ho rbu rne C ynthia Leech, P r o d u c e r ......................................... Jane Scott Prod, m a n a g e r...............................................Jill Nicolas this m ystery-thriller.

Sound e d ito rs .................... Louise Johnson, N icholas Harding D irector ........................................Carl Schultz Asst d ir e c t o r ........................... Jam es Parker Steve Lam beth S c r ip tw rite rs ...................................Bob Ellis, Asst a n im a to r............................................... Kay W atts C ostum e d e s ig n e r s ....... M iranda Skinner, B a ckgro und a r t is t .................................A m b e r EllisStill p h o to g ra p h y .................................. B ruce Haswell Denny Law rence Larry Eastwood Dog tra in e r ..................................................M ary M cC rabb Based on original idea P a in te r s .................................. Ruth Edelm an, M ake-up ................................. M ichelle Lowe FIGHTING BACK W ra n g le r ..................................................... John Baird by ..................................... Denny Law rence Kim M arden, Hairdresser ................................ Gail Bunter Best boy .................................... Bruce Towers Sound re co rd ist .............. Syd Butterw orth Steve Hunter, Prod, com pany ..................... A d am s Packer W a r d ro b e ....................................................Kerri Barnett R u n n e rs ....................................................... M ary Sdraulig, E d it o r ....................... Richard Francis-B ruce Nerlssa M artin, Sound e d ito r ...................................V ikki Gates Film P roductions Am anda W alker Prod, d e s ig n e r...................................... G eorge Liddle M arg are t Butler, Stunts c o - o r d in a to r ........................Bob Hicks — Sam son Film Productions C a te rin g .....................................W olfgang Graf C o m p o s e r.......................................Peter Best Kim Craste Title d e s ig n e r ..........................Carol Russom P roducers ..................................Sue M illiken, M ixed at .....................................United Sound Prod, co -o rd in a to r ................... Fiona Gosse in betw eeners ..................... Vicki Robinson, L a b o ra to r y ..........................................C olorfilm Tom Jeffrey Laboratory ....................................................VFL Prod, m anager ......................... Jill Nicholas A strid Brennan, Length ................................................. 95 m ins D irector ..............................M ichael Caulfield Length ................................................... 90 m ins T ra n sp o rt/ B renda McKle, G a u g e ........................................................ 35m m S crip tw riters ......................... M ichael Cove, G a u g e .........................................................35m m Unit m a n a g e r...................................... Peter Lawless Paul M aron Shooting s to c k ..........................Eastm ancolor Tom Jeffrey Shooting s t o c k ...........................................5247 Prod, secretary ........................ Lyn G albraith Cast: G ary M cD onald (M r Meggs), Coral A n im ation a s s is ta n t ........ R obert M alherbe Based on the novel by . . . .John Em bllng Cast: Bill K err (Tom ), Noel Trevarthen Financial c o n tr o lle r .............. Richard Harper Kelly (M rs M eggs), Paul Daniel (G inger C h eckers and cleaners .. .A nim atio n Aids, D irector of (Harry), Carol Burns (Clara), John Stanton Prod, accountant ................... Karen Volich M eggs), Ross H iggins (Floggswell), Hugh B ruce W arner, pho tograph y ........................... John Seale (Railey Jordan), Nick Holland (Jack), Dan Location m a n a g e r................................ Janene Knight Keays-Byrne (Capt. Hook), Gwen Plum b, Jan C arruthers Sound re c o rd is t ....................... Tim Lloyd Lynch (Ron), Kati Edwards (M rs M uspratt), 1st asst d ire cto r ................. Neill V in e -M ille r H a rold H o p k in s , T e rry C a m ille ri, John Lab ora tory ......................................... C o lorfilm Editor ......................................... Ron W illiam s W ill Kerr (Jim).

2nd asst d ire c to r ...................................... Peter W illesee W ood, M arie Loud.

Length ............................................, . . 80 m ins Exec, pro d u c e r ......................Phillip Adam s Synopsis: The story of a sheepdog in the 3rd asst d ir e c t o r ...................................... Peter Kearney Synopsis: All the fam ous characters from G auge .......................................................35m m Prod.

A ustralian outback, based on the classic C o ntinuity ....................................... p a m W illis the com ic strip com e to life. G inger tries to S h ooting s to c k .......................... Eastm ancolor c o -o rd in a to r ...C a ro ly n n e Cunningham novel by Frank Dalby Davison.

C a s tin g ....................................................M ichael Lynch prove his affections fo r M innie Peters, but C eet: Drew Forsythe (Santa Claus).

Prod, m anager ..................... Su A rm strong Casting consu ltants .. Forcast C onsultants his plans don’t always w ork out. Eddie C h a ra cte r voices: Barbara Frawley (Dot), Location m a n a g e r.................. Tony W inley Coogan, his rival, has other ideas and, of Cam era o pe rator .......... Danny Batterham Ross Higgins.

P rodu cers’ secretary .......... M ary W illiam s course, there’s Tiger Kelly to contend with.

Focus p u lle r ............................... Steve M ason EARLY FROST S yn opsis: The co ntin uing adventures of Dot Prod, accountant . . M oneypenny Services C la p p e r/lo a d e r .......................Russell Bacon and her search fo r the m issing joey. Dot (Craig Scott) Prod, com pany .....................David Hannay Key g r ip ....................................Paul Thom pson GOING DOWN m eets w ith a hobo in her outback home 1st asst d ire c to r ................Steve Andrews P roductions Asst g rip ...........................Brendan Shanley town, the hob o becom es Santa Claus, 2nd asst d ire c to r ...............Chris M audson P rodu cers ............................. David Hannay, Prod, com pany ...................................X-Prods 2nd unit p h o tograph y .............Jan Kenny, and takes Dot on a w o nderfu l adventure 3rd asst d ire c to r ...........................Phil Rich G eoff Brown P r o d u c e r ................................. Hadyn Keenan Frank H am m ond w itnessing various C hristm as cerem onies C o ntinuity .......................... C aroline Stanton D ir e c to r ....................................Hadyn Keenan S c rip tw rite r .........................Terry O’C onnor G a ffe r ...............................G raham Rutherford around the w orld.

Casting consu ltant ............... Helen Rolland S c rip tw rite r s ................................. Julie Barry, Based on an original Boom o pe rator ............................ Noel Q uinn • (HR consultant) id ea by ........................... Terry O’Connor M oira M aclaine-C ross, Art d ir e c t o r ................................................. John C a rroll DOUBLE DEAL Extras casting .............................Dina Mann P h otog rap hy .............................. David Eggby M elissa W oods Art dept, c l e r k ........ ..........G eraldine Royds Focus puller ...................Richard M errym an P h o to g ra p h y .....................M alcolm R ichards S ound re c o rd is t ........................

M ark Lewis Prod, com pany ................ R ychem ond Film M ake-up .................. Lesley Lam ont-Fisher C la p p e r/lo a d e r .........................Derry Field E ditor ...............................................Tim Street P roductions Sound re cordist ...................... Lloyd Carrick H a ird re s s e r...............................................Jenny Brown Key g rip .................................Paul .Thom pson A d dition al recordist ................. Peter Barker Prod, designer .........................Bob Hilditch Dist. co m pany .................................(overseas) W ardro be ....................................... Kate Duffy Asst grip ............................Brendon Shanley E d it o r ............................................................ PaulHealey C o m poser ................................. M ike Harvey H em dale Leisure Corp.

W ard, a s s is ta n t.................Lesley M cLennan

CINEMA PAPERS December — 553

Introducing the academy award winning remote controlled camera crane, Louma, by Samcine and our newly completed commercial sound stage.

A double feature you should definitely make a point of seeing.

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SYDNEY: 1 G iff nock Avenue, North Ryde. 2113.

Tel: 888 2766 MELBOURNE: 25 Lothian Street, N. Mel bourne. Victoria.3051 Tel: 329 5155.

There is always something new and exciting at Sammies.

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Props assistant ................................ Igor Nay P ro d u c e r ...................................Terry B ourke Special effects ...................... Alan Maxwell, Props b u y e r ..................................... Ian Allen D ir e c to r .......................................T erry Bourke Peter Evans Standby p r o p s ..........................Igor Lazareff S c rip tw rite r................................ Terry B ourke Choreography .................. Elizabeth Burton Special e ffe c ts .........................C hris M urray Based on the original idea C arpenter ................................Robin W arner Special effects assistant . . . . David Hardie b y .............................................Terry Bourke Set construction ....................Denis Donelly C horeography .......................Ross Colem an P h o to g ra p h y ............................... Ray Henman Asst editor ............................. Robert G rant Scenic a r t is t ................................................ Ned M cCann Sound recordist .......................Bob Clayton Dubbing edito r ............................ Greg Bell E d it o r .............................................................Ron W illiam Carpenter ................................ Robin W arner Asstsdubbing edito r ............... Helen Brown Set construction m anager ..D e n is Donelly C o m p o s e r.....................................Bob Young Stunts co-o rd in a to r ....................Vic W ilson Asst edito r ................................... M ark Darcy Exec, p r o d u c e r ............ A lexander H opkins Still photography .......... Geoff M cGeachin Assoc, p r o d u c e rs .................................... John Hipwell, Dialogue consultant ............ Jack Rozyckl Sound edito r ...................... A ndrew Stew art Eric Cook M echanic ...............................David Thom as Editing assistant .............. Ashley G renville Prod, s u p e rv is o r ........................ John Hipwell Best boy .................................Alan G lossop Stunts c o -o rd in a to r ................ Dennis Hunt Prod, secretary ...........................Pam Brown Runners .................................... Janet M clver, S tu n tm e n .......................................... Vic W ilson, Prod, accountant ......................... Ross Lane Paul A rnott M ike Read, Prod, a s s is ta n t............... M ary-A nne Halpin Publicity .......... Brooks W hite O rganization Ian Lind.

1st asst director .................. Eddie Prylinski Catering ..................................... M ark Neylon, Dog h a n d ie r ..............................Dennis Hunt 2nd asst d ire c to r ...............David Trethewey Robyn Hartigan Still p h o to g ra p h y ......................Jim Townley C ontinuity .................................June Henman M ixed at ..................................United Sound Best boys ...............................Jack Kendrick, C a s tin g ...........................................................Eric Cook Laboratory .......................................C o lorfilm Alan Glossop Casting consultants .......................Eric Cook Lab. liaison ................................... Bill Gooley R u n n e r.......................................... M eryl Cronin M anagem ent Budget ............................................$2,583,924 P u b lic ity .......... Brooks W hite O rganization Lighting cam eram an ............

Ray Henman Length .............................................100 m ins Unit pub licist ............................. David W hite Cam era ope rator .................... Ray Henman Gauge .................................................... 35m m C a te rin g .......................................................John Faithfull Focus p u lle r ...............................Peter Rogers Cast: Jam es Laurie (Steve), Gia Carides S tu d io s ..................................................A rtransa C la p p e r/lo a d e r .................... Robert M arriott (Ruth), Max Cullen (Tomas), Bruce Spence M ixed at ....................................U nited Sound Cam era assistant ..................

Peter Rogers (W im py), David A rgue (Rabbit), Tony Barry Laboratory .........................................C olorfilm Key g r ip ......................................................Peter M ardell, (Howard), John Clayton (Vincent), Graeme Lab. lia is o n .......................................Bill Gooley Film Unit Blundell (Sidebottom ), Jonathan Colem an B u d g e t............................................ $ 1.8 m illion (Wayne), John G odden (Chris the Rat).

Asst grip .................................M ichael Nelson Length ............................................... 110 m ins G a ffe r ...................................Chick M cDonald Synopsis: The story of young people, their Gauge ...................................................... 35mm S u nshin e C ity car 'c u ltu re ', the m o to r Electrician o n e ..........................Alleyn M earns Shooting s to c k . . . Eastman C olor Negative Electricians t w o ........................... Bud Howell, speedway and the c rim inal w orld of car-p art Kitty and the Bagman Cast: Ray B arrett (Stacey), Robyn Nevin stealing.

Douglas W ood (Kate), Janet Scrivener (Cathy M cCredie), Boom operator .............................K eir W elch Kate F itz p a tric k (M rs M cC re d ie ), Lex Art d ir e c to r ......................................... Bob Hill Neg m a tc h in g .................................... Film sync Prod, a s s is ta n t...................... Sean M cLoury M arinos (Con), John Clayton (Bill Todd), MOVING OUT M ake-up ...................................Sally G ord on Sound e d ito rs .................... Louise Johnson, 1st asst d i r e c t o r ___ C hristopher G ardiner G uy D o le ffia n (Q u in e y ), P aul C h u b b H a ird re s s e r...........................Jan Zeigenbein Prod, com pany...............

Pattinson-Ballantyne Frank Lipson 2nd asst d ire c to r....................................... PaulCallaghan (Curly).

W ardrobe .............................C atriona Brown Prods C ontinuity ........................... Catherine Sauter Dubbing a s s is ta n t.............. Ross C ham bers Synopsis: She was all any old fool could ask Dist. com pany............................................. GUO C a s tin g .............................M itch Consultancy Props b u y e r .......................Sandy W ingrove M ix e r...................................Julian Ellingworth fo r— a beatitiful m asochist with an Electra Standby p r o p s ........................................ Bevan C hilds, Fight c o -o rd in a to r.................. Gus M ercu rio Cam era assistant ......................Keith Bryant com plex. She knew her life was a great pre­ P r o d u c e rs ...........................Jane Ballantyne, Nick M cCallum S tu n ts ....................................Paul Alexander, Key g r ip .............................M erv M cLaughlin destined adventure, and, if it ended like M ichael Pattinson Special e ffe c ts ........................................ Reece Robinson 2nd unit pho tograph y ................ Phil Dorlty, A rchie Roberts, Bonnie and Clyde, so be it. It was fo r girls D ir e c to r .............................M ichael Pattinson 1st asst edito r ............ A ntoinette W heatley G arry M aunder M att Burns like this that old fools like A gam em non died S c rip tw rite r...................................................Jan Sardi 2nd asst edito r ..................... M oira M cLaine Still p h o to g ra p h y ......................... Suzy W ood G a ffe r ...................................................Ray Ang — A g a m e m n o n and M ike Stacey. Ex­ Based on the original Neg. m a tc h in g .........................G ordon Poole Title d e s ig n e r .............................................Alex Stitt Boom operator .....................Jan M cHarg D eputy P o lice C o m m issio n e r, M ichae l idea by .............................................

Jan Sardi Musical d irector .......................... Bob Young A rt d ir e c to r .............................. Jakob Horvat Best boy .................................. Alan Glossop Stacey QBE. P h o to g ra p h y ......................................... Vincent M onton M usic perform ed by ..................Bob Young C a te rin g ..................................... Helen W right W ardrobe ................................ Fiona Spence Sound recordist ........................ G eoff W hite O rchestra P r o p s ...................................... Brian Edm onds S tu d io s ......................... C am bridge, York St. E d it o r .......................................................Robert M artin Sound edito r ............................ Paul M axwell Asst edito r ........................M ickey O 'Sullivan M ixed at .................................................... Atlab KITTY AND THE BAGMAN Prod, d e s ig n e r............................................ NeilAngwln Editing assistants ...................... Peter Foster Neg. m a tc h in g ............................ C hris Rowell L a b o ra to ry ................................................... VFL C o m p o s e rs .........................................U m berto Tozzi, M ixer ........................................... Peter Fenton Prod, com pany . . . Forest Home Film s for Still p h o to g ra p h y ................... Fiona Spence, Length .................................................. 95 m ins Danny Beckerm an Stunts c o -o rd in a to r .............. Frank Lennon Adam s Packer Film Prods.

G arry M aunder G a u g e ........................................................35m m 1.66 Assoc, p r o d u c e r ...................................... Julie M onton S tu n ts ..............................................G rant Page, P ro d u c e r.............................A nthony Buckley Shooting s to c k ......................... Eastm ancolor P u b lic ity .................................................. W endy C ham bers Prod, c o n s u lta n t......................................Rosa Colosim o Dee Jones, D ir e c to r ............................... Donald C rom bie Laboratory ................ Cine Film Laboratory Cast: Jackie Kerin (Linda Stevens), John Prod, secretary ......................Beverley Frost Lab. lia is o n ....................................................CalG ardiner Chris Hession S c rip tw rite rs .......................Phillip C ornford, J a r r a tt ( B a r n e y ) , C h a rle s M c C a llu m Prod, accountant .......... Natalie Ham m ond Still p h o to g ra p h y ......................... David M iller John Burnie Length ................................................85 m ins (Lance), G erda Nicolson (Connie), Alex 1st asst, d ir e c to r .................................. Robert Kewley Title d e s ig n e r ................O ptical & G raphics D irector of p h o to g ra p h y ....... Dean Sem ler Gauge ......................................

16mm Scott (Dr Barton), B ernadette G ibson (M rs 2nd asst, d ir e c t o r ..................................... Alan M ackenzie Dog w r a n g le r ...........................Evanne H arris Sound re cordist .......................John Phillips Shooting s to c k ..........................Eastm ancolor Ryan), Robert Ratti (Kelvin), Vince Deltlto 3rd asst, director ......................... Ian Fowler Camera g a f f e r ..........................C onrad Slack E d it o r .................................Tim othy W ellburn Cast: Alleen Britton (M iss M arkham ), Henri (Nico), Debra Law rence (Carol), Tom m y C ontinuity ........................... C atherine Sauter R u n n e r..........................................................Alex Poliak Prod, d e s ig n e r...................... Owen W illiam s Szeps (M r W ilb e rfo rc e ), Jo h n C o bley Dysart (Harry).

Focus p u lle r ...........................................Robert M urray P u b lic ity ...........................................................Liz Johnston C om poser.......................................... Brian May (M orris), Ray M eagher (Stakovich), Sim ohe C lappe r/loa der .................C hristopher Cain Synopsis: Linda Stevens returns to Mont C a te rin g ...................................................... Kaos Katering Buchanan (Kate), Scott Nicholas (Ben), Exec, producer .......................Phillip Adam s Key g r ip ...................................................... Greg W allace Clare, the old fam ily home run by her mother M ixed at ....................................U nited Sound Jerem y Shadlow (Spider), Robert Geam mel Assoc, p r o d u c e r .......... Jacqueline Ireland Asst, g r ip ...............................................M ichaelM adigan as a retirem ent home for the aged, and Laboratory ................................................

Atlab (Rocco), Tony Lee (Ah Leong).

Prod, m a n a a e r........................... Lynn Galley G a ffe r .......................................................

Trevor Toune strange things start to happen.

Lab. lia is o n ...........................Greg D ougherty Synopsis: W hen three children cross the Prod, s e c r e ta ry .................A n tonia Barnard Boom operator ........................ G rant Stuart B u d g e t................................................. $610,000 h a rb o r to e x p lo re C astle H ouse — a Prod, accountant ...........Howard W heatley Costum e designer ...............

Frankie Hogan Length ..................................................92 m ins strange, unoccupied m ansion — they en­ 1st asst d ire cto r ................ Stuart Freeman M a k e -u p /h a ir............ A m anda Rowbottom Gauge ...................................................... 35m m counter sinister baddies, a kidnapping and 2nd asst d ire c to r .................. Colin Fletcher NOW AND FOREVER Stand-by w ardrobe ............ Frankie Hogan Shooting s to c k ..............5247 Eastm ancolor 3rd asst d ir e c t o r ..................................... C hris S hort Props buyer ............................... Harry Zettel a hilarious, eccentric lady. Excitement, Ektachrom e m ystery and non-stop action and roll-lnC o n tin u ity .......................................................Jo W eeks Prod, com pany ...............Now and Forever Cast: Chard Hayward (G ordon Mason), Stand-by p r o p s ...........................Harry Zettel the-alsle com edy fo r children.

C a s tin g ................................. M itch M atthews Film Partnership Louise H o w itt (Jenny Nolan), D e borah Set fin is h e r ................................................. Nick Hepworth Cam era operator ...........Danny Batterham P ro d u c e rs ...............................Treisha Ghent, Coulls (M arie Colbey), Les Foxcroft (Billy C arpenters .....................................Baz Props, Focus p u lle r ...........................Steve Dobson C arnegie Fleldhouse Dennis Lee Shepherd), Roger W ard (O fficer C lyde ColNEXT OF KIN C lappe r/loa der ................ Andrew M cLean D ir e c to r ........................................Adrian C arr lin g s ), J a m e s E llio tt (P a tro lm a n Rex Set construction Key g r ip .............................M erv M cLaughlin A d dition al m aterial directed m a n a g e r ..................................................Ken Hazelwood Prod, c o m p a n ie s .............. The Film House, Dunbar).

Asst g rlp /s .......................................Pat Nash, b y ........................................ Richard Cassidy Asst, e d ito r s ............................................. Craig Carter, S.I.S. P roductions Synopsis: A young wom an, looking after Brian Edm onds S crip tw riter ..........................R ichard Cassidy M ark Atkin Dist. com pany .......................................Film co her sister's house w hile she is away on lo ca­ G a ffe r.......................................................... John M orton Based on the novel tion, is unaware that her sister and the c a re ­ Sound edito r ...............................M artin Jeffs P ro d u c e r.................................. Robert Le Tet b y ........................................... Danielle Steel E le c tric ia n ................................................ Jason Rogers M ixer ................................ Julian Ellingworth D ir e c to r ...................................................... Tony W illiam s taker have been m urdered. The m urd ere r .Photography ...........................Don M cAlpine Boom ope rator ........................... Ray Phillips S crip tw riters .......................... M ichael Heath, returns to kill the wom an, and so begins a Still p h o to g ra p h y ........................ Suzy W ood Supervising sound A rt d ir e c to r ................................................ John C arroll T itle s ...................................O ptical & G raphic Tony W illiam s battle of wits. r e c o rd is t................................................Kevin Kearney Asst art d ire cto r .....................Judith Russell Dialogue c o a c h .......................... Peter Sardi Based on the original idea Sound re c o rd is t........................................ John Franks Costum e designer ............ Judith Dorsman Best boy ............................... W erner G erlach b y .............Tim othy W hite, M ichael Heath Supervising edito r ....................Adrian Carr M ake-up .................. Lesley Lam ont-Fisher C a te rin g .............................Chavelle Exquisite P h o to g ra p h y ..............................................Gary Hansen MIDNITE SPARES A rt directors ....................Rene & Rochford H a ird re s s e r..................................W illi Kenrick S tu d io s ........................................... Soundstage Fitzroy Sound re c o rd is t........................................ G ary W ilkins C om poser ..............................Bruce Rowland W ard, a s s is ta n ts .........................................LynAskew, Prod, com pany ........................ W ednesday M ixed at ...................................................Atlab Editor .............................................Max Lem on Assoc, p r o d u c e r ........................................ ReaFrancis Kerri Barnett Laboratory .............................................. Atlab Investm ents, C o -p ro d u c e r........................... Tim othy W hite Prod, c o - o rd in a to r..................................... Lyn G albraith Props b u y e r s .............. Stephen Am ezdroz, A Film co Presentation Lab. lia is o n ................................................ Greg Dougherty Prod, s u p e rv is o r.................... M ichael Lake Prod, m a n a g e r......................................... CarolW illiam s Billy Allen, Length .................................................. 91 mins Prod, c o -o r d in a to r ........................ Trish Foley Producer ...................................Tom Burstall Unit m a n a g e r............................................ Tom Blackett Sue Hoyle D irector .............................Q uentin M asters Scheduled release....................... March 1983 Com poser................................................... Klaus Schulze S tandby p r o p s ........................................... PaulJones Prod, accountant ...........Spyros Sideratos S criptw riter ............................... Terry Larsen Unit m anager .......................M arcus S kipper Cast: Vince C olosim o (Gino), Kate Jason Special e ffe c ts ..........Alm ax Special Effects Asst a c c o u n ta n t......................C onnie Dellios Photography ............................. Geoff Burton (M rs Condello), Peter Sardi (Lino Condello), Prod, accountant .....................W endy M iller Choreography .......................Anne Sem m ler 1st asst director ..................S tuart Freeman Sound recordist .................. Lloyd C arrick 1st asst director .............Philip Hearnshaw S ylvie Fonti (M rs S im o n e lli), Luciano Scenic a r tis ts ..............................................Ned McCann, 2nd asst d ire c to r......................................Chris S hort Editor ...................................Andrew Prowse Catenacci (M r Sim onelli), Brian Jam es (M r Asst d ire c to r s .............................................PaulHealey, Joyce M acFarlane 3rd asst d ir e c to r ........................................ Bob Donaldson Prod, designer .....................George Liddle Aitken), Ivar Kants (M r Clarke), Sandy Gore Tony M cDonald Carpenters ...............................Len M etcalfe, C o n tin u ity ................................ Shirley Ballard C om poser .............................Cameron Allen (Miss Stanislaus), Sally C ooper (Sandy), C o n tin u ity .................................................. Anne M cCleod Hannes Finger Producer’s a s s is ta n ts ......... M aggie Scully, Exec, producer ................ John Fitzpatrick M aurice de Vincetis (Renato).

C a s tin g .............................

M itch Consultancy Set construction .................. Richard W eight Neil Green Prod, co-o rd in a to r ............ Cathy Flannery Synopsis: Two turbulent adolescent weeks Steadicam o p e ra to r................Toby Phillips Asst edito r .................... A n nabelle Sheehan Casting c o n s u lta n ts ........................... Forcast Com poser ............................. Cam eron Allen in the life of a teenage m igrant Italian boy Camera ope rator ....................Gary Hansen Neg. m a tc h in g .................... M argaret Cardin Extras c a s tin g ......................M iriam Freeman Prod, m anager .......................... Jenny Day living in M elbourne’s inner suburbs. For this Focus puller ............................. Phillip Cross S till p h o to g ra p h y .................................. Patrick Riviere Cam era ope rator ...........Danny Batterham Unit m anager ...........................John W arren fo rtn ig h t tw o fa m ilie s live in the one C la p p e r/lo a d e r............... John Jasiukowicz Best boy ...................................... Ian Plum ber Focus puller ..........................

A ndrew Lesnie Financial controller .......... Richard Harper Key g r ip ....................................................... NoelM cDonald crow ded terrace: the recently arrived fam ily R u n n e r..................................... A nnie Peacock C la p p e r/lo a d e r....................................... Robyn Petersen Prod, accountant ................... Karen Volich from Italy who will take over the house, the Asst g r i p ................................................. W ayne M arshall P u b lic ity .........................................................ReaFrancis Key g r ip ...............................

M erv M cLaughlin 1st asst director .......... Derek Seabourne current fam ily who are preparing to leave. 2nd unit p h o to g ra p h y ............ Toby Phillips Laboratory .................................... C olorfilm G r ip ...................................................Pat Nash 2nd Asst director .............. Peter W illesee G ino m ust com e to term s with giving up his G a ffe r .............................................. M ick M orris Lab. lia is o n ....................................................BillGooley Asst g r i p .......................................................Eric Pressley 3rd Asst director ...........................Ian Kenny hard-w on inner city life, accept his Italian Gen. o p ........................................................ G ary Plunkett Progress ..................................... Production G a ffe r ............................................................ Rob Young C ontinuity ....................................Ann W alton background, and start a new kind of life, Boom o p e ra to r..........................................M ark W asiutak Cast: Liddy C lark (Kitty O’Rourke), Val Best boy ................................. Colin W illiam s Producer's assistant . .. M argaret Roberts hopefully one m ore step tow ards m aturity.

Art directors ........................Richard Francis, E le c tric ia n .................................................... Guy Hancock Lehman (Lll Delaney), John Stanton (The D irector’s assistant .......... M ardi Kennedy Nick Hepworth Boom o p e ra to r.................................... Graham M cKinney Bagman), G erard M cG uire (Cyril Vlkkers), Casting consultants .......... M ichael Lynch, M ake-up .............................. Elizabeth Fardon MYSTERY AT CASTLE HOUSE Collette Mann (D oris de Salle), Reg Evans M ake-up ..................................... Sally G ordon Rae Davidson Special prosthetic H airdresser ........................... Jan Zeigenbein (C h icka D elaney), K ylie Foster (Sarah Focus puller ...................... David Foreman Prod, com pany ........................ Independent m a k e -u p ...................................................Bob M cCarron W a r d ro b e ........................... Rene & R ochford Jones), Ted H epple (Sam), Danny A dcock C lappe r/loa der ....................... G illian Leahy P roductions H airdresser ...........................Suzle Clem ents Standby w a rd r o b e ..................................... Lyn Askew (Thom as), John Ewart (The Train Driver).

Key grip ....................................Lester Bishop P ro d u c e r.............................Brendon Lunney W a r d ro b e .................................... Jenny A rnott Seam stress .................................A m ber Rose Asst grip ...............................Nick Reynolds Synopsis: A period com edy dram a set in D ir e c to r ...................................Peter Maxwell W ard, assistant ............................ Gail Mayes Props buye rs/dressers . .Sandy W ingrove, 2nd unit photography ___Bill G rim m ond Sydney abo ut two crim e queens, Kitty S c rip tw rite rs ...........................Stuart Glover, Props b u y e r............................................Harvey Mawson Ken McCann, Gaffer .............................G raham Rutherford O 'R ourke and Big Lil Delaney. Together, M ichael Hohensee Standby p r o p s ..........................................John Powdltch Jock M cLaughlan Electrician ................................... M ark Verde these tw o rem a rkab le wom en ruled the Based on the original Idea Special e f fe c ts ......................... C hris M urray Standby p r o p s ...............................Alan Ford underw orld of sly-grog shops, gam bling Boom ope rator .................... Toivo Lem ber b y ............................................... G eoff Beak Special effects Scenic artist .............................. Ned M cCann houses, prostitution and h old-up m erchants A rt dept co-o rd in a to r ........ Janene Knight a s s is ta n t.................................David Hardie P h o to g ra p h y .....................................Phil Pike Set construction ..................... Dig by Stew art in the rip -ro a rin g 1920s, playing, laughing Asst art d ire c to r ...........Richard Hougntor.

Set d e c o ra to rs ....................Harvey Mawson, Sound recordist .......... Rowland M cM anls Editing a s s is ta n ts ....... Louise B. Johnson, and fightin g w ith $ gusto the city has never M ake-up ................................... Carol Devine Ken Hazelwood E d it o r ...........................................Bob C ogger Andrew Plain known since.

W ardrobe .........................Ruth de la Lande C onstruction m a n a g e r........... Ray Pattison Exec, p r o d u c e r ...........................Gene Scott S upervising sound W ard, assistant ....................... Kathy Jam es Asst Assoc, p r o d u c e r .................. Russell Hurley e d ito r .....................................................

Bruce Lamshed LADY, STAY DEAD Props buyers .......................David Bowden, construction m anager . Danny Corcoran Prod, co-o rd in a to r .................. Peter A b bott Sound e d ito rs ...........................................Peter Burgess, G eraldine Royds C onstruction s e rv ic e s ....... Dom enic Villella Prod, m anager ........ C h ristop her G ardiner Glen M artin Prod, c o m p a n y ........ Ryntare Productions Standby props .................... Nick M cCallum Asst e d it o r ................................. Ken Sallows Prod, s e c r e ta ry .............W endy Chapm an

CINEMA PAPERS December — 555

S o undtrack d e s ig n ...................Bruce Emery Asst sound e d ito rs .................. Craig Carter, Asst a n im a to rs .....................Astrid Brennan, Boom ope rator ................ C hris G oldsm ith RUN REBECCA, RUN! Sound edito rs ...............................Ray Argali, Tim Chau M aria Brinkley, A rt d ir e c to r ..................................................PaulJones Still p h o to g ra p h y ................................... Patrick Riviere B ruce Emery M arian Brooks, Prod, com pany ...... ................Independent M ake-up ........................................Jose Perez, M ixer ........................................... Bruce Emery D ialogue coach ..........................Alice Spivak Diane Farrington, P roductions Joan Petch Still p h o to g ra p h y .......... Tom Psom otragos Catering .....................................Kaos Katering Eva Helischer, P rodu cer ...........................B rendon Lunney H a ird re s s e r.................................................Jose Perez Runner ............................. Julian Darling Brenda McKie, NSWFC contin uity D irector .................................Peter Maxwell W ardrobe .....................................Anna Jakab P u b lic ity ................................ ...... lenny Darling Paul M arron, attachm ent ..................................Liz Barton S c rip tw rite r ...........................Charles Stam p W ard, a s s is ta n t.................. M elanie Velinos C a te rin g ............................... K ristina Frohlich Kaye W atts P roduction runner .................. Jenny Sharp Based on the original P r o p s .............................M atthew Cum m ings M ixed at ................................. Tony Paterson C olor d e s ig n .............................Susan Speer idea by ................................. G ary Deacon Standby p r o p s .................. Helen Kavanagh A rt dep artm ent r u n n e r.............Steve Volich P o st-P roduction P a in fe rs /tra c e rs ................ M argaret Butler, Photography ................................... Phil Pike Set d e c o ra to r..................... Ashley Leighton Unit r u n n e r............................................. M urray Francis Laboratory ....................................... C o lorfilm Kim Craste, Sound re c o rd is t ..........Rowland M cM anis Unit p u b lic is t............................... A nnie Page Set construction . . . . Phlum m up Film Sets Lab. lia is o n ...................................K erry Jenkin Pari Dounis, 2nd unit c a m e ra m a n ......... Ross Berrym an Editor ...................................... Bob C ogger Set designer .............. G eoff Richardson Length ................................................

80 m ins Ruth Edelman, C o m poser .......... .................... Sim on W alker Nurse , . ......................................... C hris Cole C onstruction m anager .................. Ian Doig Gauge ......................................................16mm Lynette Hennessy, Exec, p roduce r .........................Gene Scott C a rp e n te rs ................................................. Sean Killen, Stunts ............

Phil Brock Shooting s to c k ................................. Fuji 8527 Steve Hunter, Features m anager . . . . W endy C ham bers Carsten Schim onovskl Asst edito r ...........................Peter C arrodus Cast: Richard M oir (Barker), Reg Evans Ellen Jackson, Prod, supe rvisor ................ C hris G ardiner Song ‘Now and Forever’ Still p h o to g ra p h y ...... ..............David Parker (C unningham ), G erard Kennedy (Lenko), Kim Marden, Prod, m anager .......................Peter A b bott com posed b y ................... G raham Russell Best boy ...................................G ary Scholes John Flaus (L a n d ro v e r o w n e r), Je n n y N arelle Miels, Prod, secretary ...............Wendy Chapm an Perform ed b y ............................................ Air Supply R u n n e rs .................................Brian G ilm ore, C a rtw r ig h t (N u rs e ), A d a m B ris c o m b e Krystyna M ikita, Prod, accountant ................... Peter Layard M ixed at .............Goldwyn Sound Facilities M ike M cIntyre (S oldier on train).

C harm aine Shelton Price Prod, assistants .................. Sean M cClory, L a b o ra to r y ........................................ C olorfilm C a te rin g ..................................... Helen W right Synopsis: Two men w ork in a satellite relay B ackgrounds ............ Zbigniew Drom irecki, Fiona M arks Lab. liaison .................................... Bill Gooley S tu d io s .................. Port M elbourne Studios station on the Bogong High Plains, one of A m ber Ellis, 1st asst d ire c to r ..................... Kevin Powell Neg. m atching ....................M argaret Cardin Laboratory ......................................... C inevex' A u stralia’s m ost isolated and haunting land­ K o lorkra ft Lab. 2nd asst d ire c to r .................Paul Callaghan Length ............................................... 100 m ins Length ............................................... 102 m ins scapes. Each is obsessed in his own way, R ecording s tu d io s ...................................Atlab C o ntinuity .........................C atherine Sauter Gauge ..................................................... 35mm Cast: C heryl Ladd (Jessie Clarke), Robert Recorded by ................ Julian Ellingsworth and the film follow s the w o rking out of these Casting ........................... M itch Consultancy C o le b y (Ian C la rke ), C arm en D uncan Cast Robin Nedwell (Toby), Juliet Jordan Sound recording obsessions in the m en's responses to the Cam era assistant ...................Keith Bryant (Astrid Bonner), C h ristine A m or (M argaret (W endy), John Ewart (Hughes), Jane Clifton (New Y o r k ) .........................M agno Sound vast and elem ental landscape of the plains Key g rip ............................. M erv M cLaughlin Burton), Aileen Britton (Bethanie), Kris (Fay), Caz Lederm an (Sally), Dina Mann M ixed at .................................. United Sound of heaven.

2nd unit pho tograph y ___Gary M aunder, M cQuade (Spencer), John Allen (M artin (Barbara), A m anda M uggleton (Eva), Julie Phil Dority Laboratory .......................................Colorfilm ; H arrington), Tim Burns (Kent), Henri Szeps Nihill (Pam), Lulu Pinkus (Addy), Gwen M ovielab (New York) G affer ..................................................Ray Ang (York).

THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN Soares (Mei Linn).

Cast: M ia Farrow (Sarah).

Boom o pe rator .......................Jan M cHarg Synopsis: The story of a stylish Sydney INVINCIBLE Voices: Joan Bruce, John Faassen, Ron A rt d ire c to r ..........................., Jakob Horvat Synopsis: A young man goes into hospital b o u tiq u e o w n e r a n d h e r h u s b a n d , a H addrick, Shane Porteous.

M ake-up .................................. Fiona Spence for the routine removal of a cyst and finds p ro m is in g w rite r w h o has n o t as yet P r o d u c e r ...................................A ndrew Gaty W ardro be ................................ Fiona Spence Synopsis: The poignant story of a young that he gets more than he bargained for. achieved finan cial success. On the surface, D ir e c to r ...................................P h ilippe M ora child, orphaned by war, and her struggle to W ard, assistant ................Kerry Thom pson they appear to have a perfect relationship.

S c rip tw rite rs ............................A ndrew Gaty, Props ..................................... Brian Edm onds survive. It is representative of the plight of However, th e ir m arriage is shattered when Steven de Souza Asst edito r ................................Gina Lennox children in w a r-to rn countries and acts as he is accused of rape after a casual in dis­ Based on the original Neg. m atching ..........................C hris Rowell the voice of all children against the suffer­ SOUTHERN CROSS cretion one afternoo n w ith another wom an. idea by .................................A n drew Gaty ing and hardships im posed by all wars.

Sound e d ito r ...........................Bob Cogger Their relationship disintegrates as they P h o to g ra p h y ...............................M ike M olloy M ixer .................................Julian Ellingworth Prod, com pany . .'........................ Southern struggle to prove, and fo r her to continue to Sound recordist ...................Ken H am m ond Still p h o tograph y .............. G arry M aunder International Film, A SLICE OF LIFE believe in, his innocence.

E ditor ............................................John Scott Anim als arranged — S h innihon Eija Prod, d e s ig n e r.......................David C o ppin g Prod, com pany .......................John Lam ond by .........................Anim al Talent Pty Ltd P ro d u c e r................................. Lee Robinson ON THE RUN M u s ic ................................................. Bestall & M otion Picture E nterprises C atering ....................Sally G reville-S m ith D ir e c to r ................................... Peter Maxwell Reynolds M anagem ent M ixed at ...................................................Atlab Dist. com pany ...............................Roadshow S crip tw riter ............................. Lee Robinson Prod, com pany ..................... Pigelu Pty Ltd Assoc, p r o d u c e r ............. Brian D. Burgess D istributo rs Australia Lab oratory .............. Cine Film Laboratory P h o to g ra p h y .......................... John M cLean Producer .................................. M ende Brown Unit m a n a g e r.........................W arw ick Ross P r o d u c e r ..................................John Lam ond Lab. liaison ..........................

Calvin G ardiner Sound r e c o rd is t................ Syd Butterw orth D irector .................................... M ende Brown Prod, s e c r e ta ry ............ Rosslyn Abernethy D ir e c to r ....................................John Lam ond Length ................................................85 m ins Editor .......................................... David Stiven S crip tw rite rs ..........................M ende Brown, NSWFC prod, a s s t ........... Joanne Rooney S c r ip tw rite r .............................Alan H opgood Gauge ..................................................... 16mm Prod, d e s ig n e r......................Bernard Hides M ichael Fisher Prod, accountant ______ . . . . . Lea C ollins Shooting stock ....................................... 7247 Sound re c o rd is t ......................... Paul Clarke C o m p o s e r........................................ Eric Jupp Photography ........................... Paul O norato Asst a c c o u n ta n t.....................Kate H ighfleld Prod, m a n a g e r.......................Betty Barnard C a s t: H e n ri S z e p s (M a n u e l), S im o n e E d it o r ................................................... Jill Rice Sound recordist ................... Ken H am m ond 1st asst d ire c to r ...............Bosie V ine-M iller Asst d ire c to r s ................ .. David Bracknell.

Buchanan (Rebecca), Adam G arnett (Rod), C o m p o s e r....................................... Brian May Editor .................................... Richard H indley 2nd asst d ire c to r .................. Keith Heygate Charles Rotherham M ary Ann Severne (M rs Porter), John Exec, p r o d u c e r .......... Cinem a E nterprises A rt d ire cto r ............................. Richard Kent 3rd asst d ir e c t o r .................. Peter Kearney Assoc, p r o d u c e r .................................M ichael Hirsch Cam era ope rator ...........David W illiam son Stanton (M r Porter), Peter Sum ner (M r C o m poser .................................Laurie Lewis C ontinuity .......................................Linda Ray M ake-up .....................................Viv M epham Dim itros), Ron H a ddrick (Speaker o f Parlia­ Prod, s u p e rv is o r ...................................... John Chase Prod, co -o rd in a to r ........................C atherine T e le p h o n is t.........................M arguerite G rey Hairdresser ......... M aureen W roe-Johnson m ent), John Ewart (M inister fo r Im m igra­ Prod, s e c r e ta ry .......................................... Ann M udie Phillips Knapm an P rodu cer’s s e c r e ta ry ___ S andra W heatley W a r d ro b e ............................ Graham Purcell tion), M artin Vaughan (Cranky M em ber), Prod, accountant ........ , . . G raem e W right Prod, m anager .............................Irene Korol C a s tin g .............................................................Liz M ullinar Prod, a s s is ta n t...................

Deborah Hanson C ornelia Francis (M em ber fo r Southdown).

Sound e d ito r ........................Penn Robinson U n it/lo ca tio n m anager ...........Roger W ylie Cam era ope rator ................ .-.. . Lou Irving Synopsis: A young girl taking photographs 1st asst director .................. Ross H am ilton M ix e r ...........................................

Phil Judd Prod, accountant ...........G raem e Dowsett Focus p u lle r ..............................................Peter Rogers 2nd asst d ire c to r .....................

Euan Keddie M ixed at ................................U n ite d Sound of her pet cockatoo is prevented from 1st asst d ire cto r .................... M artin Cohen C la p p e r/lo a d e r .......... ................S tuart Quin L a b o ra to ry ......................................... C olorfilm le a v in g a lo n e ly is la n d by an ille g a l 3rd asst d ir e c t o r .......................Stuart W ood 2nd asst d ire cto r ......................John Rooke Key g r ip ..................

G raem e M ardell im m igrant, who fears dep ortation. A fte r a C ontinuity .................................... Julie Bates Length ............................................... 137 m ins C ontinuity ................................. Sian Hughes G rip ...............................................G ary Cardin w idespread search, she m anages to escape C a s tin g ......................................... Helen W atts G a u g e ........................................................35mm C asting .......................................Felippa Pate Front p roje ction o p e ra to r . . . Paul N icholla with the help o f a boy scout. S ym pathetic to Lighting cam eram an ........ .Ross Berrym an Shooting s to c k ........... ................................. Fuji Cam era o pe rator ......... David W illiam son Front p roje ction a s s t ................................ Ken A rlidge the im m ig ra n t’s problem s, she pleads his Focus p u lle r .................................................. Ian Jones Cast: G eorge M allaby, M ichael Aitkens, Focus puller .........................Jerem y Robins G a ffe r ...................... . , ........Brian Bansgrove C la p p e r/lo a d e r .....................Brian Breheny cause in Parliam ent.

• A tsuo Nakamura.

C la p p e r/lo a d e r ........................Tracy Kubler 1st ele ctrics .................................C olin Chase Key g r ip ........................................................Noel M udie Synopsis: O peration Rimau, the attack by Key g rip ................................G raem e M ardell THE SEVENTH MATCH Boom o p e r a t o r ...................A n drew Duncan Asst g rip ......................................B arry Brown 23 Australian and B ritish soldiers on S inga­ Asst grip ...................................G arry C arden A rt d ire c to r s ........................Owen Paterson, G a ffe r .......................................

Lindsay Foote pore H a rbo ur durin g W orld W ar 2.

Prod, com pany Yoram G ross Film S tudio Addn unit Ron Hlghfield in association with cam eram an .............. M atthew Flanagan Asst art d ire c to r .................. Robyn C oom bs Sarah Enterprises G affer ........................................... Alan W alker A rt dep t asst .........................Vivienne Elgie and the AFC Asst electrician .........................Alan W alker A rt asst ................................... P hillip Colville P r o d u c e r ......................................Yoram G ross Boom ope rator ................... Andrew Duncan C ostum e designer .......................Kate Duffy D ir e c to r ........................................Yoram G ross M ake-up ................................Rina Hoffm anis M ake-up ...........................R obert M cC arron S c r ip tw rite r ..................................Y oram G ross W ardro be ........................................ Liz Keogh M ake-up a s s t ..........................................Robyn Austin Photography . . .

Lloyd Freidus (New York); Props buyer ............................ Jam ie M iram s H a ird re s s e r...............................................Jenny Brown Jenny Ochse, S tandby props .............................Jon Fabian Asst hairdresser ..................C heryl W illiam s Bob Evans (anim ation) Transpo rt m anager ................... Tim Sayers W ard, a s s is ta n t.............. Jenny C arseldine Sound recordist . . .

G ary Rich (New York) Editing assistant ................... C hristine Spry Standby w a rd ro b e .........................Lea Haig E d it o r .........................C h ristop her Plow right Stunts co -o rd in a to r ...................G rant Page P rops b u y e r ........................D e rrick Chetwyn D irector of a n im a tio n ___ . . . .

Athol Henry Tutor ..................................... V ictor M cKeown Standby p r o p s .............................................Igor Lazareff M u s ic ...................V ivald i’s “ Four Seasons” Anim al handler ....... Bernadette Ham ilton Special effects supe rvisor . M onty Feiguth Assoc, p r o d u c e r ......................

Sandra Gross H elicopter pilot ..................... Alan Edwards Special effects asst .............. Steve C ourtly Prod, c o -o rd in a to r .....................Meg Rowed Best boy ................................. Alleyn M earns Special asst ......................... R obert H llditch Prod, m anagers .......... David B. A p pleton Runners .......................................... Ric Bower, Scenic a r t is t ............ Elizabeth Leszczynski (New York); M onica Pellizzari Asst set finisher .................. Brian Nickless Jeanette Toms, Unit pub licist ..............................Felippa Pate C onstruction m a n a g e r........ Danny B urrett Kelly Duncan, C atering ...............Take One Film C atering A s s t c onstruction m anager .. Roger C lout Yolanta Pillich (anim ation) (Anne Harris) C arpenters ...........................Paul Vosiliunos, Location m a n a g e r..........M itchell K lebanoff Laboratory ...................................... C o lorfilm Roger Briggs, (New York) Cast: Paul W infield, Rod Taylor, Beau Cox, G ordon M cIntyre, Prod, s e c re ta rie s .............. M argaret Lovell, Ray M eagher.

Philip C ham bers Janelle Dawes Stage h a n d s .........................Stephen Volich, Synopsis: A chase dram a about a callous Asst d ire c to rs .......................Jan C arruthers; killer on the rampage and a black man with a T im othy Higgins John Palm er (New York) hatred for the corrupt world which has made Asst e d ito r ...............................Linda W ilson S c rip t e d it o r .............................................. John Palm er him an outcast.

2nd asst e d it o r . . .................... Helen Zivkovic Story e d ito r/d ia lo g u e .......... Elizabeth Kata M usic c o n s u lta n t................ Lance Reynolds D ialogue e d i t o r ........ ..................Moya W ood Stunts c o -o rd in a to r .....................Max Aspin C a s tin g .............................M itch Consultancy P ro je c tio n is t................................... Jim Jones THE PLAINS OF HEAVEN C am era assistant .......................Neil Haynes Still p h o to g ra p h y ...........................Bliss Swift (New York) S tills processing ......................C olor C ontrol Prod, com pany ............ Seon Film Prods.

G rip ........................................... Bob Shulm an Black and w hite .........................D ark Room P r o d u c e r ..................................................... John C ruthers (New York) M odel m a k e r s ............................. Tad Pride, D ir e c to r ......................................... Ian Pringle E le c tric ia n s ..................................................RaffiFeruci, S c r ip tw rite r s .................................................. Ian Pringle, David Pride Tom Drake, Doug Ling, Asst m odel m aker .........................John Cox Harvey Rich (New York) Elizabeth Parsons. A rtists’ t r a n s p o r t...........................Cabcharge M ake-up ......................................David Forest Unit c a r s .........................T hrifty Rent A Car P h o to g ra p h y ...............

Ray Argali (New York) Location sound .........................Bruce Emery Best boy ...................................Paul G antner H a ird re s s e r............................................... David Forest R u n n e r........................................M eryl Cronin E d it o r ............................................................. RayArgali (New York) Unit pu b lic is t ........................ .S h e rry Stum m C o m p o s e r............................................. Andrew Duffield W ardro be .................................M arsha Patter Assoc, p r o d u c e r ................. Brian M cKenzie C a te rin g .......................................John Faithful M o d e ls ....................................Phillip Einfield, Asst catering ...............................Sue Faithful Prod, s u p e rv is o r ...................................... M ark Thomas John Hull Prod, a s s is ta n ts ...................C ristina Pozzan, S e c u rity .....................W orm ald International Asst edito r ................................. Linday Trost Daniel Scharf, Equipm ent s u p p lie s .................. Sam uelsons Neg. m a tc h in g .................... M argaret Cardin Robbie Ashhurst.- Insurers ...................................................... A d air M usic perform ed by ........................ I Music!

1st asst, d ir e c t o r ..................... M ark Thom as Sound tra n s fe rs .................. Film Production C larinet m usic C ontinuity ................................ C hris Johnson Services p la y e d /p e rfo rm e d .......... G iora Feidman Cam era assistant ................ Renee R om eril Laboratory .........................................C o lorfilm D ubbing edito r .....................Denise Hunter G a ffe r ...................................... John W hitteron Cast: Alan A rkin (Capt. Invincible), C h ris­ M ixer ................................................. Phil Judd Boom o pe rator ............ Jam es Dunwoodie top h e r Lee (M r M idnight), Kate Fitzpatrick, Still p h o to g ra p h y .................. M ike B urnhaut A rt d ir e c to r ......................................... Elizabeth S tirling Bill Hunter, G raham Kennedy, M ichael (New York) Electronic design ................. David Durance Pate, Hayes G ordon, John Bluthal, M aggie Principal anim ators ..................Athol Henry, Set construction ................ David Durance, D e nce,'N orm a n Erskine.

Cynthia Leech, A nthony Bignall, Synopsis: A m adcap, m usical com edyA n drew Szemenyei Peter Kulesa, adventure where th e flying super hero Sarah’s character d e s ig n ___ Athol Henry M ars M cM illan. crushes Nazis, threatens bootleggers, helps Addit. anim ation ............ Irena Slapczynskl, Asst, e d it o r ............................... Daniel Scharf boy scouts and battles M oscow.

The Seventh Match Ty Bosco

556 — December CINEMA PAPERS

WILDE'S DOMAIN (Tele-feature)

THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY

THE LEGEND

D O C U M E N T A R IE S

Prod, com pany................. Morning Star Prods P rodu cers................................... Krishna Koch, Bill Leimbach D ire c to r........................................ Bill Leimbach Photography................................... Mike Edols, Bill Leimbach Sound recordist.........................Chipati Roach M us ic ...........................................Hans Poulson, M uktesh and Shanto, Chipato Roach, Radha Koch, Johnny (Didge) Mathews, and the other 19 members of the Dolphin Tribe P resenter............................... Peter Shenstone Laboratory......................... Colorfilm (Sydney), VFL (Melbourne) Length..................................................... 90 mins G a u g e ........................................................16mm P ro g re s s................................ Aw aiting release Scheduled release................... February 1983 S yn opsis: Twenty-five adults and children head overland for Shark Bay in W estern Aus­ tralia. Their dream is to live together harm oniously as a tribe and to culm inate with a meeting of another tribe — the wild dolphins of Monkey Mia, the only place in the world where the air breathing mammals virtually teach them selves to be with their human neighbors on land.

SH O R TS

Prod, c o m p a n y ...........Indepen dent Prods.

Prod, com pany ...................W ayang Prods.

P r o d u c e r ............................... Peter Benardos Dist. com pany ....................................... MGM D irector ...................Charles “ B ud" Tingwell P r o d u c e r ....................................Jim M cElroy S c r ip tw rite r ...............................Ted Roberts D ir e c to r ........................................... Peter W eir Based on the original S c r ip tw rite rs ..................... David W illiam son, idea by ........................... .. M arcia Hatfield Peter Weir, P h o to g ra p h y ......................... Phil Pike A.C.S. C h ristop her Koch, Sound re cordist .......... Rowland M cM anis with add itional m aterial E d it o r ..............................................Bob C ogger

by Alan Sharp C p m p o s e r ................................................ Sim on W alker Based on the GOODBYE JOEY Exec, pro d u ce r .................Brendon Lunney novel by ..................................... C. J. Koch Prod, co -o rd in a to r ..................... D ixie Betts Prod, c o m p a n y .............................Lynter Film s P h o to g ra p h y .............................Russell Boyd Prod, m anager ............................. Jan Tyrrell Dist. com pany............................... Lynter Films Sound re c o rd is t .......................Gary W ilkins Prod, secretary ........................... Fiona King P roducers......................... Peter Cunningham , E d it o r ........................................Bill A nderson Prod, accountant ................... Peter Layard Lynette Guilfoyle A rt d ir e c t o r .............................Herbert Pinter Asst d ir e c t o r .........................................Charles Rotherham D ire c to r.............................Peter Cunningham MGM re p ............................ John Hargreaves 2nd asst, d ir e c t o r .............. Paul C allaghan S crip tw rite r.......................Peter Cunningham Prod, s u p e rv is o r ...................

M ark Egerton 3rd asst, d ire c to r .................Hugh M cLaren Based on the original idea Prod.

C o ntinuity ....................................... Pam W illis Due to space lim itations, all non­ by........................................ Lynette Guilfoyle c o -o rd in a to r . . . C arolynne Cunningham C a s tin g ............................. M itch C onsultancy feature entries appear only once, Photography......................Peter Cunningham Prod, m anager .....................Tim Saunders C la p p e r/lo a d e r .....................Sean M cC ldry unless s ig n ific a n t ch a n g e s are Sound recordist....................

Lynette Guilfoyle C am era assistant ...................... Keith Bryant C o m p o s e r................................. M aurice Jarre m ade in the course of production.

Editor............................................. Tim Litchfield Location m a n a g e r................. John W iggins Key g r ip ................................. Robert Verkerk Exec, p ro d u c e r................Peter Cunningham (Syd.) 2nd unit pho tograph y ................ Phil Dority Assoc, p ro d u c e rs................... Ron Alexander, Unit m anager .......................M urray Francis G arry M aunder Ron Arthur (Syd.) Hans H eidrich Prod, supervisor...............Peter Cunningham Prod, secretary ....................

Lynda House G a ffe r ........................................... Derek Jones THE BRADMAN ERA Prod, co-ordina tor...........

Peter Cunningham (Syd.) S ound e d ito r ............................. Bob C ogger Prod, m anager................. Peter Cunningham Prod, secretary .................. Sally Blaxland M ixer ................................ Andrew M cFarlane Prod, com pany.................. Albie Thom s Prods Prod, s e c re ta ry ....................

Lynette Guilfoyle (Philippines) Still p h o to g ra p h y .....................Alan Howard P roducer/director..........................Albie Thoms Prod, assistant.............................. Greg Arthur Tech, a d v is e r ....................... Stafford Bullen Business m anager ............ M ichael W ilcox S crip tw riter................................................... Jack Egan Clapper/loader.............................. Greg Arthur Prod, accountant .............. Elaine C row ther Anim al trainer ...........................Jules Bullen Sound m ix .............................. Trevor Harrison, SERPENTINE Camera assistant......................... Greg A rthur Prod, a s s is ta n t.................... Ken Richardson Best boy ..................................... M att Slattery M artin Oswin Presenter................................................ Richard Anderson 1st asst director .................. M ark Egerton C a te rin g ...................................................... Jem s Catering E d ito r..........................................John Hollands Prod, c o m p a n y.......... Siddhartha Film Prods P u b lic ity ............................Peter Cunningham (Syd.) Boom o pe rator .........................Jan M cHarg CMX e d ito r.....................................John Morris Dist. com pany.............................................GUO Lab. lia is o n ......................................................BillHarrington 1st asst d ire c to r .....................W ayne Barry A rt d ir e c t o r ................................ Ian M cGrath Producer.....-,...............................................Jono W all Exec, p ro d u ce r............................................Jack Egan B udget................................................... $80,000 (M anila) C ostum e designer ................Fiona Spence Archival film ....Cinesound M ovietone Library D ire cto r........................................................

Jono Wall Length..................................................... 95 mins 2ndpson asst d ire c to r .......................Chris W ebb W ard, a s s is ta n t........................................Kerry Thom M u s ic ........................ Australian Screen Music S crip tw riters................... Sandy McCutcheon, G a u g e ........................................................16mm 3rd asst d ir e c t o r .......... M ichael Bourchier L e n g th ...........................................................

47V imins John Patterson M ake-up ............................... Rosalina Dunes Shooting s to c k .................Eastm ancolor 7247 (Syd.) Based on the original idea G a u g e ............................................2 " videotape Hairdresser ..........................Rosalina Dunes P ro g re s s ................................Awaiting release 3rd asst d ir e c t o r ........................................ Ken R ichardson S yn opsis: Television docum entary on the P r o p s ......................................Brian Edm onds b y ..............................................................

Jono W all Scheduled release...................................... USA Television (Philippines) Bradman era in Australia versus England Special e ffe c ts ....................... Allan M axwell S yn opsis: The film establishes the affec­ Photography..................................................JoelPeterson 2nd unit Test cricket as recalled by Bill O ’ Reilly.

C h o re o g ra p h y ........................Tania Pierson, Sound re c o rd is t.................S. Kenneth Stokes tionate and gentle nature of kangaroos. It 1st asst d ir e c t o r .................. Ian G oddard Featuring the great players of the 1928-48 Sydney Youth Ballet goes on to speak of the kangaroo industry E ditor................................... Mike W oolveridge C ontinuity ...................................Moya Iceton period M u s ic ...........................................................W illie Nelson Asst, e d it o r ............................. M ichelle Cattle and cruelty. Conservationists talk of cruelty, Production a s s t ..........................................

Ken R ichardson Sound e d ito r .......................................... Robert Davidson Exec, p ro d u c e r.................................... Malcolm Smith hunters admit to such vile acts, then we see (Syd.) M ix e r ............................. Alasdair M acfarlane FIRST CONTACT such acts on film. The meat and fur industry Assoc, producer.............................Gil Brealey Producer's assistant ......... W ilm a Schinella Neg. m a tc h in g .......................... Chrts Rowell (replaces working title is discussed and some debate entered into. Prod, supe rvisor.............................Phillip-M ark Law C a s tin g .......................................A llison Barrett Laboratory ............................................. C F L The Last U n know n ) Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldm an of the Prod, c o-ordina tor..................................... Peter Appleton Extras casting c o n s u lta n t........ Sue Parker Lab. lia is o n ................................................. Jack G ardiner s c o m p a n y ......................... Arundel Prods Am erican series The B io n ic W om an and Prod, m a n a g e r.......................................Andrew W illiam Prod, Extras casting a s s t .........................Jo Hardie Length ..................................................72 mins.

Unit m anager.............................Don Anderson The Six M illio n D o lla r Man), with Dr Jim P rodu cers...................................Bob Connolly, Cam era ope rator .................. Nixon Binney Prod, s e c re ta rie s.......................................... PatCaspar, Gauge ......................................................16mm Cairns, closes the film.

Robin Anderson Focus p u l le r .................. Peter M enzies jun.

S hooting s to c k .............. Eastm ancolor 7247 J. C. Myers D irectors.....................................

Bob Connolly, Law yer.....................................................Andrew Martin Cast: Kit Taylor (Dan W ilde), June Salter C la p p e r/lo a d e r .................... G eoff W harton JAZZ SCRAPBOOK Robin Anderson Key g r ip ........................................... Ray Brown Prod, accountant.........................................Mike Wayland (Hannah W ilde), Lenore Sm ith (Alex W ilde), Photography.................................Tony Wilson, Prod, a s s is ta n t.................. Gerald Thompson Steven G rives (Yuri), Jeannie Drynan (Liz), Asst g r i p .................................... S tuart Green, Prod, com pany.................Sunrise Picture Co. Dennis O ’Rourke G eordie Dryden Producer......................................... Nigel Buesst 1st asst d ire c to r.......................................... Jack Zalkalns Henri Szeps (Shenko), Ivar Kants (Curtis), S o u n d ................................................. Ian W ilson G a ffe r .......................................................... Brian Bansgrove Alan Lee (David W ilde), M artin Vaughan D irector............................................Nigel Buesst 2nd asst director.........................................Harry Butler E d itors......................................................Stewart Young.

E le c tric ia n s ..................................C olin Chase, (Tom), Tim Eliot (A ndrew W ilde).

P h otog rap hy..................................Nigel Buesst 3rd asst d ire c to r......................Jam es Bradley Martyn Down Paul Moyse (Syd.), 2nd unit d ire c to r............................. Bruce Petty Synopsis: Dram a about the entrepreneu­ S o u n d .........................................David Thomas Asst producer................................... Dick Smith Peter O’Brian (Manila) C o ntinuity........................................ Vivian Zink rial W ilde circus fam ily involved in every­ E d ito rs........................................ Nigel Buesst, Neg. m atch ing.......

Marilyn and Ron Delaney Script assistants..........................Loti Roberts, thing from lion parks to live theatrical p ro ­ Boom ope rator .....................M ark W asiutak Nubar Ghazarian M usic.......................................... Ron Carpenter Design c o n s u lta n t.....................W endy W eir Robert Scott-M itchell M ix e r.......................................... David Harrison m otions. Alex W ilde's love affaire with Sound m ix e r........................ Julian Ellingworth Lab o ra to ry.....................................................VFL Camera o p e ra to r.......................................Peter visiting Russian ballet dancer becom es a Asst art d ire c to r ................. A nnie Brow ning N arrator................................... Dick O xenburgh B udget........................................................ $9000 Focus p u lle r.............................Cathy Chinnery m atter of c oncern to the fam ily when it has a Costum e designer ...................... Terry Ryan Laboratory................................................. Atlab, C ostum e s u p e rv is o r.............

A nthony Jones C lappe r/loa der........................Peter Simm ons Length..................................................... 60 mins dram atic effect on several of the business Colorfilm (Archival film) M ake-up ............................

Judy Lovell G a u g e .........................................................16mm Camera a ssistant........................ Cathy Hoare enterprises.

Lab. lia iso n .................................................... Don Mosely, M ake-up a s s t .................. ..........Joan Mostyn Shooting s to c k ..................................... Fujicolor Key g r ip ........................................ Terry Jacklin Glen Ealey Kwan's m ake-up design . .. Bob M cC arron P ro g re s s ...................................Post-production Asst g rip ......................... Lorraine Binnington Length......................................................5 3 m ins H a ird re s s e r............................ Cheryl W illiam s G affer............................................................ Gary Thornell S yn opsis: A chronicling of the growth of jazz G a u g e ........................................................

16 mm W ardro be m is tre s s ...................Jenni Bolton in Melbourne from the mid-1930s through to E lectrician....................................... John Smyth P ro g re ss................................................Aw aiting release WITH PREJUDICE Standby w a rdrobe ...................Phil Eagles, the mid-1950s when rock and roll took over. Art d ire c to r................................................ Dusan Marek S yn opsis: In the 1930s, Australian gold (Tele-feature) Roger M onk Includes rare footage of Graham Bell’s Aus­ Asst art d ire c to r...............Sandy M cCutcheon prospectors stum bled across a m illion Props b u y e r s ....................................... Stew art Way,tralian Jazz Band and Frank Johnson’s Costume d esigner.................................. CarmelSears Prod, com pany .....................S iro cco Visual people in New G uinea’s highlands, whose Paddy Reardon, M ake-up...........................

Am anda Buttler, existence was previously unknown. The Fabulous Dixielanders.

Program m ing M ark Statescu, 3-Arts Make-up Centre Dist. com pany .......................S irocco Visual prospectors took a cam era with them . For Sally Cam pbell H a irdre sser..............................................Sparky Morgan KUMBHA MELA — SAME AS IT Program m ing the first tim e both sides tell what happened.

Standby p r o p s ..........................C lark M unro W ardro be............. Rosemary Blach (Sydney), EVER WAS P roducer ............................... Don C atchlove Standby props asst .................. Jenny Miles Rachael (Tasmania) D irector ......................................Esben Storm PHILATELIC CHINA A rt dept asst ............................Alan Dunstan Ward, assistan t.................................. Toni-Lou Prod, com pany......... Albert Falzon Creations S crip tw rite r .........................Leon Saunders Scenic a r tis ts ..............................................Billy M alcolm , P rops...............................................

Tina Fraser Dist. com panies......................................CrystalFilms, Prod, c o m p a n y ....................... China Philatelic P hotography ................................ Peter Levy M icnael C horney Props buyer ................ Retrospect Antiques, Albert Falzon Creations Society of Sydney Sound recordist .......................M ark Lewis Carpenters .............................Paul Vosilianis, Hobart P roducer.................................................... Albert Falzon Producer.....................................................Martin Sm ith C o m po ser................................................... Ralph Tyrrell Ron Sutherland, Standby p ro p s ............................... Ray Schultz D irector.......................................................Albert Falzon S c rip tw rite r................................................M artin Sm ith E ditor ....................................M ichael Noonan Derek Wyness, Special e ffe c ts ...............................................PhilMcDougall S crip tw riter................................ David Thomas Photography.......................................... Howard'Paton Exec, pro d u ce r ..........................Jim G eorge G eoffrey Spence Set deco rator.........................................Sherilyn M clver Based on the original idea E d ito r...................................Veronica Haussler Prod, m anager ...................Carol W illiam s Set construction ................Peter Tem pleton C a rpe nte rs.....................................................PhilBozenich, b y .............................................................Albert Falzon Length......................................................15 mins Prod, accountant .............. C onnie Dellios Asst edito r ........................... Jeanine Chialvo Barry W ilson P h oto g ra p h y............................................. Albert Falzon G a u g e ........................................................16mm Prod, assistant ...........................Juliet C obb 2nd asst edito r .............................Lee Sm ith Set c o n s tru c tio n ......................................... Keza Taylor E d ito rs ...............................Rhonda McGregor, First released..............................O ctober 1982 1st asst d ire cto r ................ M ark T urnbull 3rd asst e d ito r ............................ Karin Foster Asst e d ito r.......................................... Jono Wall Fran Dyke, S yn opsis: Howard Paton and M artin Smith 2nd asst d irector ................... Keith Heygate Edge n u m b e r e r ........................................Peter Erskine Music perform ed b y ................................... Keith Arm went itage to China in April 1982 as guests of the Calli Cerami C o ntinuity ..................................... Jo W eekes Sound edito r .........................A n drew Stuart Editing a s s is ta n ts ........................... Jono Wall, C o m p o s e r..........................................Brian Eno China National Stamp Corporation, Peking Casting ................................................... Forcast Sound editing a s s t ................... Robin Judge Joel Petersen Exec, producer...........................................David W illiams and the Directorate-General of Posts, Taipei.

Lighting cam eram an ................ Peter Levy Still p h o to g ra p h y ......................Jim Townley M ixer............................................................. Peter McKinley Assoc, produce rs...................................... David Thomas, The film looks at the history of philately and C la p p e r/lo a d e r ....................... G illian Leahy NSWFC prod. man.

Asst m ix e r...........................S. Kenneth Stokes W ayne Young stamp production in China.

C am era assistant ......................John Brock a tta c h m e n t........................................ Sandra A lexander Still photography....................................... Harry Scholten, Finance c o n tro lle r.....................................Philip Gerlach Key grip ................................. John W hitteron Tech, a d v is e r ............................Pudji W aseso Bruno Nester Prod, m anager...........................................

David Thomas PLEASED TO SEE YOU G affer ......................................... Reg G arside Best boy ...................................Paul G antner O p tic a ls........................................................ Mark Hinton Prod, s e c re ta ry ..........................................BangiSkennar Boom o pe rator .........................Steve M iller R u n n e r................ M onica Petellizzari (Syd.) Title designer............................................. Bruce PettyProd, c o m p a n y ..............Aardvark Film Prods Prod, accountant.............

G & S M anagement A rt d irector ...................................... Bob Hiil Unit pub licist ...........................Babette Sm ith Dialogue c o a c h ............................................Tina Fraser Director............................................. Paul M. Rix Services M ake-up .....................................Lloyd James C atering .................... Joh and Sue Faithful M echanic.................................................... JekyllSmyth S criptw riters................................... Paul M. Rix, Asst a cco u n ta n t..................................... Charne M urphy W ardro be ......................................Lyn Askew S tu d io s .................................................. A rtransa Best b o y ................................Caradog Morgan Producer’s a s s is ta n t................................ David Thomas Frances Edwards Standby props .................... Jock M cLachlin P o s t-p ro d u c tio n ..................F.P.S.-Alan Lake R u n n e r........................................................... Bob LeesPhotography................................................ M ike Kelly Camera o p e ra to r...................................... Albert Falzon Set construction ..................... Dick W eight C a m era/lighting e q u ip ............ Sam uelsons P u b lic ity ..................................................... Vivian ZinkSound re c o rd is ts ................... Vicki W ilkinson, Camera assistan t....................................... Mark Falzon Asst edito r .............................Duncan Taylor M ixed at ....................................United Sound Unit p ub licist..............................................Vivian Zink Art director..........................................Mat Perry Toivo Lem ber Neg. m atching .........................................Atlab Laboratory .........................................C olorfilm C a terin g.................................David Syndrome Musical d ire c to r................. G. W ayne Thomas E d itor........................................................Duncan Kerr Tech, adviser ................................ Irina Dunn Lab. lia is o n .................................................... BillGooley S tudios................Bowen Road, Moonah, Tas. Length................................................................ 20 mins Music perform ed b y .........................Brian Eno Best boy ................................Sam Bienstock Length ............................................. 105 mins.

Mixed a t........... 1 Bowen Road, Moonah, Tas. G a u g e ......................................................... 16mm & Talking Heads R unner ................................... G reg Fitzgerald Gauge ...................................................... 35mm Laboratory............................................ Colorfilm Shooting s to c k .............................................7 2 4 7 Sound e d ito r.............................. Roger Savage C atering ................................Rosie Van Ewyk Shooting s to c k ..........................Eastm ancolor Lab. lia is o n ...................................... Bill Gooley Still photography.........................................Mark Falzon P rogress...................................Post-production S tudios ............................................. M ort Bay S cheduled release ...........................Late '82 B udget............................................................... $6 million S yn opsis: The film presents the work of the O p tic a ls .............................................. Video Lab M ixed at ...................................................Atlab Cast: M el G ib s o n (G a ry H a m ilto n ) , Length................................................................9 0 minsRoyal Society for the Blind and the life of a P ublicity..........................................................RaeFrancis Lab ora tory ...............................................Atlab Sigourney W eaver (Jill Bryant), Phipps G a u g e ........................................................ 70mm sight-handicapped person w ithin a narrative C atering.....................................................Janine Thomas Lab. liaison ................................. Don M osely Shooting s to c k ...............................................Fuji framework.

Hunt (Billy Kwan).

Mixed a t ..............................................Video Lab B udget ................................................$250,000 Scheduled relea se.............................May 1983 Lab o ra to ry......................................... Video Lab Synopsis: Guy Ham ilton, an Australian Length ..................................................72 m ins S yn opsis: Based on the life of Jekyll Smyth, B u dget................................................. $504,000 Broadcasting Service jo urn alist, arrives in Gauge ..................................................... 16mm western Tasm anian prospector who digs his Length..................................................... 95 mins Jakarta during a tim e of political upheaval.

Shooting stock ............................. 7247, 7293 m ineshaft on the Serpentine River which is G auge..................... 8 mm transferred to 35mm There he is befriended by an enigm atic Cast: M ax C u lle n , R ichard M o ir, Paul to be flooded by a governm ent hydro-dam.

Shooting s to c k ......................................... Kodak A ustralian Asian, Billy Kwan, and they p ro ­ Sonkila, C hris Haywood, David Slingsby, About the conflict between land exploitation, Scheduled release........................

March 1983 foundly influence each oth e r’s destiny. He John Ley, Terry Serio, Scott Burgess, Tony including mining and wilderness.

Cast: Millions, shot on location in India. becom es increasingly involved with the Barry, David Downer.

S yn opsis: A mystical journey through the JULIE JULIE politics of the country and with Jill Bryant, Synopsis: A dram atized reconstru ction of lakes and m ountains of northern India in an English Em bassy secretary. Eventually, th e t r ia l, in F e b ru a ry , 1979, o f Tim Prod, c o m p a n y ...........................M usical Films search of the spiritual leaders of Ancient as these interests diverge, he m ust choose Anderson, Ross Dunn and Paul Alister, the Producer...................................... Daniel Scharf India. This film set against the contem porary between them. thre e Ananda M arga m em bers charged D ire c to r.............................................. Ray Argali music of Brian Eno and Talking Heads leads with co nsp iracy to m urd er Robert C am eron.

S crip tw rite r........................................ Ray Argali the audience on a surreal adventure.

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PRODUCERS, DIRECTORS AND PRODUCTION COMPANIES

SH O R TS

CINEMA PAPERS December — 557

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P h o to g ra p h y ................................................John W hitteron 1st asst d irector......... ..P hillip Hearnshaw Synopsis: The film explores techniques Sound recordist......................... John Cruthers 2nd asst d ire c to r....... ...C atherine Bishop involved in anim ating sim ple objects up to E d ito r....................................................Ray Argali C o n tin u ity.................. ...Barbara B urleigh m ore com plex puppets.

Exec, p ro d u c e r......................... John Cruthers C a s tin g ....................... .M itch C onsultancy Prod, m a n a g e r.......................................... D anielScharf Lighting cam eram an ..............Peter Moss Prod, assistan t.......................................... M andy W alker Focus p u lle r............... .....Andrew M cLean Asst d ire c to r............................................... Claire Dobbin C lappe r/loa der.......... ..........Anna Howard C o n tin u ity ....................................M ary Sdraulig G a ffe r......................... ....B rian Bansgrove Cam era assistant....................... N atalie Green Boom o p e ra to r......... .........Julian Russell Boom ope rator............................ M ary Delaney A rtd ire c to r................. ................. Ro Bruen Art d ire c to r..................................................... Lisa Parrish M ake-up..................... ..........Cherie Harris M e c h a n ic ............................................ Don Burns ........... Kathy Moyes W ard, a s s is ta n t........

D riv e r............................................................... Dan M athieson Neg. m a tc h in g .......... ................... C olorfilm Project Development Branch C a te rin g ................................................... Kristina Frohlich, Sound e d ito r............. ..... M ark Van Buren Ann M cLoughlin M ixer........................... ...Julian Ellingworth Projects approved at Australian L a b o ra to ry..............................................Cinevex Still p h o tograph y..... .................Bill Young F ilm C o m m is s io n m e e t in g , Lab. lia is o n ..................... Stanley Lopoczanski ................... C olorfilm O p tic a ls......................

Len gth...................................................25 m ins Title d esigner............

September 16, 1982 ...............Fran Burke G a u g e ..............................................Super 16mm Best b o y ..................... ......A ndrew Buchan Script Development Investments Shooting s to c k .................................... Fuji 8527 C a terin g..................... ...No Frills C atering P ro g re s s ...................................Post-production M ixed a t ..................... .......................... Atlab Brumby Innes — John Sm ythe; cinem a Cast: Jill Delaney (Julie), Ian Shrives (Sam), Lab ora tory................. ................... C olorfilm feature; 1st draft funding — $15,000 Bruce Knappett (Caretaker), Ursula Harrison Lab. lia is o n ............... ................ Bill Gooley Feature Package — Ibistra Film s; cinem a (Roadhouse lady), John C um m ings (Shop Length........................ ..................... 24 m ins feature; treatm ent developm ent — $10,000 attendant), Tam m y Bowen (Sam ’s child), ........................

16mm G a u g e .......................

A King of Shreds and Patches — P.M. Shooting s to c k .........

Sylvester (Marlon the cat).

Eastm ancolor 7293 Productions; cinem a feature; 3rd draft Synopsis: Julie got sick of living in Broken ...... Post-production Progress .................... funding — $13,050 ......Decem ber 1982 Hill, so she bought a m otorbike and left to Scheduled release...

Wacvie — Stable Productions; cinem a ride around Australia. The film shows part of Cast: Max Cullen (George), Betty Cheal feature — $18,200 ■> her journey and illustrates the sense of (Joyce), Elizabeth Chance (Frankie), Leanne Getting Even — Astra Film Productions; freedom and independence of young people Ellis (Penny), Brett C lim o (Jim), Lyn Porteous docum entary; research and script develop­ breaking loose.

(Lorna), Colleen Fitzpatrick (Beryl), Katrina ment — $5100 Bronar (Sue), and Arthur Dignam as the Lancaster and Mrs Miller — Nilsen M.E.P. Jogger.

Premiere; television series; 1st draft funding Synopsis: W ith 35 years experience behind — $39,800 (working title) him, George Parker is the No. 1 m achinist at Prod, co m p a n y ........................................... Trout Filmthe s factory where he has been em ployed Dist. c o m p a n y .............................................Trout Films most of his working life. His wife Joyce P ro d u ce rs.................................. C hris W arner, Production Investment m others her fam ily, Penny (16) and Jim (19), M aureen M cCarthy with love and care. Her one little luxury is a The Umbrella Woman — M argaret Kelly D irector......................................................... C hris W arner cream cake every m orning from the local Productions; cinem a feature; travel assist­ S crip tw riters................................................ C hris W arner, shop. An unforeseen developm ent brings ance — $6100 M aureen M cCarthy change to their lives.

Bali from the Mountain to the Sea — P h oto g ra p h y............................................. Jam es Grant Taman Sari Film s; docum entary — $70,332 Sound re c o rd is t.............................................. IanW ilson E d ito r.............................................. C hris W arner Marketing Loans Prod, m a n a g e r............................................ John Hughes Asst d ire c to r................................................. John Hughes The Applicant — Phillip Roope — $5282 C o n tin u ity ...................................Bob Kostovski Bali Mystique — Spectrum Australia — Focus p u lle r............................... Mandy W alker $5834 G a ffe r........................................ M ichael Horan Home on the Range — Gil Serine — $450 Boom o p e ra to r........................ M ichael Horan Moving Out — Pattinson/B allantyne Produc­ Art d ire c to r.................................................. Claire Jager tions — am ount not listed Asst art d ire c to r............................................. Sue Weis The Plains of Heaven — Seon Film Produc­ M ake-up.................................... Vicki Friedman tions — $20,913 H airdresser............................... Vicki Friedman Pussy Pumps Up — A ntoinette Starkiew icz W a rd ro b e ................................. Vicki Friedman, — $653 Claire Jager The Rush That Never Ended — Terence Asst e d ito r................................................. JacquiHorvath McMahon Ltd — $1750 AN OPEN GO Best b o y s ................................................ Cristina Pozzan, A Shifting Dreaming — Imago Australia — Tony Pronesti $15,000 ' P rodu cer.......................................Austin Steele C a te rin g .......................................................Helen Gaynor They Came Together — M andala Produc­ D irector........................................ M ark Sanders Lab ora tory.............................................C olorfilm tions — $3000 S crip tw riter.................................Bob Cameron Lab. liaiso n........................ Richard Piorkowski Tracks of the Rainbow — George Gittoes P h o to g ra p h y............................. M ark Sanders, Len gth................................................................ 30 mins — $1556 Greg Penneket G a u g e ......................................................... 16mm Sound recordists....................John O ’Connell, Shooting s to c k ............................................ 7247, 7293 G rant Roberts Scheduled release..................D ecem ber 1982 E ditor.........................................................Howard W aters Cast: David Bradshaw (Andrew), Con BamProjects approved at Australian Prod, designer.....................John Pryce-Jones baniotis (Vasil), Steve Bastoni (Steve), Film Commission meeting on Prod, m a n a g e r............................Andrea Grey Laurie Dobson (Neil), Hutch Keshishian November 5, 1982 Camera assistant........................................ John Bradley (Nick), Philip Evans (Darryl), Ian Shrives Studio lig h tin g ............................................. Peter O ’ Brien (Ron), Peter Findlay (Trevor), Jennifer Script Development Investments M a ke-up........................................................Trish Lacey Jarm an-W alker (Jane),- G aytana Adorna N a rrator.........................................................Keith Scott (Maria).

A ll G irl Big B and — Derek Strahan; cinem a Mixed a t .......................................... Dubbs & Co. S yn o p sis: A short dram a about the conflicts feature; for m usic concept — $200 Laboratory....................................................Atlab that a teenage boy from a M acedonian fam ily B u rke and W ills — Graham Clifford; cinem a L e n g th ........................................................8 mins faces in trying to cope with living in two feature; adjustm ent prior approval — $789 G a u g e ......................................................... 16mm cultures — that of his home, and that of the Clean S tra w fo r N o th in g — Pavilion Film s; Progress..............................................................Inrelease cinem a features; 2nd draft funding — school and his peers.

Cast: Doug Scroope, Robin Harrison, David $30,000 Bookalil, Jennifer Press, Clive Hearne, Joy ON GUARD C o sm ic G reaser — Edgecliff Film s; cinem a Smithers. feature; 2nd draft funding — $42,525 Synopsis: A hum orous look at the role of the Prod, c o m p a n y ................. Red Heart Pictures The E lo c u tio n o f B e njam in F ra n k lin — AFTS’s Open Program throughout Australia.

P rodu cer...................... D igby (Janice) Duncan Hilary Linstead; cinem a feature; 2nd draft D irector....................

Susan Lam bert funding — $16,000 S crip tw rite rs...............................................Sarah Gibson, GETTING AN AFC GRANT The G lobo s v s E a rth — View Film s; cinem a Susan Lam bert feature; script and project developm ent — Sound re co rd ist.............................................. Pat Fiske $10,000 P rodu cer........................................ Eric H alliday Assoc, producer......................... Sarah G ibson D irector........................................ Mark Sanders Love on a T o u ris t V isa — Jan Sharp; Prod, m a n a g e r........................... Sabina Wynn cinem a feature; 3rd draft funding — $6000 P rodu ction..............................Nancy W ahlquist Asst d irector............................................... G illian Coote The M ore W e A re T o g e th e r — B. Debman, Interview er.................................. Bryon Q uigley Cam era o p e ra to r........................................ Erika Addis K. Ross; cinem a feature; 1st draft funding — Length...................................................... 35 mins Cam era a s s is ta a n t.................................. Renee Rom erill $7200 G a u g e ..........................................1” videotape Boom o p e ra to r..................................Jacki Fine N ig h t S h ifte r — Gerald Elder; cinem a P ro g re s s.................................. Post-production Art d ire c to r....................................... Jan McKay feature; 4th draft funding — $13,500 Synopsis: Interview with M argaret McStandby p ro p s.............................................. Julie W iggins R unaw ay — Portrait Film s; cinem a feature; Cluskey, M urray Brown and Vicki M olloy of Len gth...................................................... 50 m ins 3rd draft funding — $12,500 Creative Development Branch of the AFC G a u g e .........................................................16mm W h ite fire — C. Oliver, H. Tefay; cinem a giving inform ation on how to apply for grants P rogress.....................................Pre-production for script developm ent, production and the feature; 3rd draft funding — $5650 S yn o p sis: Utero, a Sydney m edical m ulti­ W om en’s Film Fund.

The D in g o A lib i — S. C ornw ell, C. Levy; national, is secretly developing new tech­ docum entary; research and script develop­ niques in biotechnology. The future of ment — $20,900 GILLIAN ARMSTRONG INTERVIEW m otherhood and human reproduction w ill be D o c u m e n ta ry P a ckage — R. Schreuder; affected by these experim ents. The women docum entary; research and script develop­ P rodu cer.........................................Eric Halliday take action into their own hands. They m ent — $5500 D irector........................................ M ark Sanders resolve to sabotage Utero and m ake a For Exam ple R o c k h a m p to n — C ountry Q P rodu ction............................. Nancy W ahlquist political docum entary for television to be Films; docum entary; research and script Interview er.............................Peter Thom pson screened after the ‘crim e’ . developm ent — $7588 Len gth......................................................50 mins The Tree — Lawless Enterprises; docu­ G a u g e ............................................ 1” videotape mentary; research and project developm ent TIMES ARE CHANGING P ro g re s s.................................. Post-production — $7423 Synopsis: Peter Thom pson talks with G illian (form erly known as The W ar H orse — W arhorse Productions; Arm strong about her career since 1979, Life’s Little Luxuries) tele-feature; 3rd draft funding — $4100 when the AFTS last interviewed her.

Prod, com pany..........M athews-Cardillo Films One M ore Day — Paul Bendat; television P ro d u c e r.........................................................Ben Cardillo series — $4370 D ire c to r...................................... M itch M athews PUPPET ANIMATION W ho th e D e vil is HoJroyd — Sandra B lack­ S crip tw rite r................................M itch M athews wood; television m ini-series treatm ent — P rodu cer......................................................... Eric Halliday Based on the original idea $7000 b y ............................................ M itch M athews D ire c to r....................................................... David Johnson A G rave fo r a D o lp h in — M cElroy and S c rip tw rite r................................................. David Johnson P h o to g ra p h y....................................Peter Moss McElroy; package — $69,000 A n im ato r...................................................... David Johnson Sound re co rd ist.......................................... Peter Barker O verse xed, O verp aid and O ver H ere — Prod, m anage r...................... Nancy W ahlquist E d ito r.................................. N icholas Beaum an package; M cElroy and M cElroy; 1st stage C am era..........................................................M ark Sanders C o m p o se r................................. G roove Myers developm ent funding Camera assistan t........................................ John Bradley Exec, pro d u ce r.........................Richard Keyes G a u g e ........................................................ 16mm — C reative Developm ent, AFC Project Development Investments Progress............................................Production Prod, m anage r...............................................Ben Cardillo Cast: RussellTaylor (Reporter), Lance Fast T a lk in g — Zarwot; cinem a feature; final Prod, a s s is ta n ts ........................................ Justin Dwyer, Curtis (Dennis Dragon). draft funding — $40,000 Sandra Lee Patterson

AUSTRALIAN FILM COMMISSION

G O V ER N M EN T FILM PR O D UC TIO N

AUSTRALIAN FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL

Requiem — J. Day, C. Lahiff; cinem a feature; final draft funding — $9780 Silver City — Lim elight Productions; cinem a feature; project developm ent — $26,650

FILM VICTORIA

Production Investment Animals Noah Forgot — Yoram Gross; ' back end underw riting loan — $85,000 One Night Stand — Richard Mason, dis­ tribution underw riting — max. $250,000 Starstruck — Palm Beach Pictures; 4th overage loan — $17,505 Undercover — Voyager Film s; production investm ent — $75,000 The Winds of Jarrah — Bridging finance — max. $150,000

Grants Awards Presentation — Australian Cinem a­ tographers Society of South Australia — $600

Marketing Loans The Fluteman — Independent Productions — $39,600

Going Down — Sm art Street Films — $5000 Just Out of Reach — Portrait Film s — $1000

Kampuchea After Pol Pot — Australian Freedom From H unger C am paign Inc. — $4500 ' Seaflight — Sirocco Visual Program m ing — $10,694

Creative Development Branch Projects approved at Australian Film Comm ission m eeting in November 1982 Production Sandra Alexander, Brian Thomson (NSW); investm ent in The S h adow K n o w s — $65,641 Anthony Bowman, C hic Stringer (NSW); grant for In P u rs u it — $1000 John Conomos, George Zantis (NSW); grant for D For D ago — $2500 Bruce C urrie (NSW); grant for W alkm an in the B u sh — $13,302 Mark Foster, Bronwyn Nicholas (NSW); investm ent in The Icem an — $5000 Denise Haslem (NSW); grant for S u shila and Saro Bai — $3644 Anne Jolliffe (NSW); investm ent in The M a itla n d and M o rp h e t S trin g Q u a rte t — $6000 Laurie M clnnes (NSW); investm ent in B o xe r — $29,500 Josephine Phillips (NSW); investm ent in A n na — $2500 Anne Poliak (NSW); grant for C a the dra l Form s — $4000 Red Heart Pictures (NSW); investm ent in On G uard — $36,250 Antoinette Starkiew icz (NSW); investm ent in P ia n o fo rte — $52,203 Andrew and Irene Traucki (NSW); grant for Ego T e s tic a l — $1200 Helen Boyd, Ann T urner (Vic.); investm ent in F e rtility R ite s — $20,000 Nigel Buesst (Vic.); investm ent in Jazz S c ra p b o o k — $6400 Solrun Hoaas (Vic.); grant for Sacred V a ndals — $5200 John Hughes (Vic.); investm ent in T ra p s — $5000 ' Stephen M epham (Vic.); investm ent in The C leaning — $45,000 Jane Nicholls (Vic.); grant for T he N o n ­ O b je c tiv e W o rld o f B ria n R e berger — $500 M ark O sborne (Vic.); grant for A s tro n a u tic a — $7000 Peter Tam m er (Vic.); grant for T rip ty c h — $11,000 Max Bannah (Qld); grant for B ird B rain — $14,975 Jacqueline M cKim m ie (Qld); investm ent in S ta tio n s — $18,411 John Prescott (Qld); grant for J u s t a W h iff o f C o nsent — $2000

Feature Film and Television Ballet TV Series — Film V ictoria is currently developing a m ajor television series to be produced for the Australian Ballet, the series 13 x 1/2 hour episodes on an action/adventure form at highlighting the essentials of d a n c e c a p a b ility ; s c rip tin g and p re ­ production underway.

Breakfast Creek — Ben Lewin; cinem a feature; scripting.

The Last Star Model — Forrest Redlich; cinem a feature; scripting.

Eldorado Park — Brian M cKenzie; cinem a feature; scripting and pre-production.

Haxby’s Circus — John McRae; cinem a feature.

Family Matters — Roger Dunn, M aggie Millar; cinem a feature; scripting.

Everybody’s Talking — Adrian Tame, Philip Ackm an; television special; scripting.

Naked Under Capricorn — David W ad­ dington, Bloodwood Films; television m ini­ series; scripting.

Gordon — Hugh Stuckey, Sue W oolfe; tele­ vision mini series; scripting.

The Sunbeam Shaft — See survey.

Nemesis — Glen Crawford; cinem a feature; scripting.

The Phantom Treehouse — Paul W illiam s; animated feature; scripting.

Survival Camp — Serge De Nardo and Andrew Colem an; cinem a feature; scripting.

Fit for Heroes — C liff Green; television m ini­ series; scripting.

The Whale Savers — Laurie Levy, Neil Bethune; television special; post-production underway.

Demons Rising — Ivan Hexterp cinem a feature; scripting.

Snowy and The Whale — Tim Burstall, Sonia Borg; cinem a feature; scripting.

The Living Canvas — G eorge Mallaby, Lindsay Foote; television special; scripting.

Crow On A Barbed Wire Fence — Edward M cQueen Mason; television m ini-series; scripting.

Tooradin — Russell Hagg; cinem a feature; pre-production.

Buckley’s Hope — Tom Haydon; television mini-series; scripting.

Australia’s Hidden Wealth — Ivan Hexter, M argaret M arshall; television special; pre­ production.

Documentaries Thomastown — A d ocum entary on Thomastown School, its special structure relation to established educational cedures. Post-production com plete.

and pro­

CYSTIC FIBROSIS Prod, co m p a n y ............................. Film Victoria Exec, p ro d u c e r.................. Vincent O ’ Donnell Prod, c o -o rd in a to r...............M ichael Vaughan Length...................................................... 20 m ins G a u g e ........................................................ 16mm P rogress.....................................Pre-production Synopsis: The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has developed a method of treatm ent, giving great hope to C ystic Fibrosis suffers.

THE PATSY (form erly Detective Training Film ) Prod, c o m p a n y .............................Film Victoria in assoc, with Janina C raig Screen Services P roducer........................................ Janina Craig D ire cto r....................................C atherine Millar S crip tw riter........................................ Lyn O gilvy Exec, p ro d u c e r.................. V incent O ’ Donnell Prod, co-ordinator........................ Don Dennett Length...................................................... 25 mins G a u g e ........................................................ 16mm P ro g re ss.................................. Post-production Synopsis: A training film on the technique of crim e detection made for the Victoria Police.

NSW FILM CORPORATION

Women’s Film Fund Susan Lam bert, Sarah G ibson, Digby Duncan (NSW); production investm ent in On

Guard — $20,000 Anne Jolliffe (NSW); production investm ent in Mrs Bottle Burps — $10,000 Helen Grace, Erica Addis (NSW); post­ production investm ent in Serious Under­

takings — $9457 Claire Stapleton (Qld); grant for video test scenes for Jessie and Megan — $2000 Elaine W ilkinson (NSW); script developm ent grant for In Retrospect — $1500 M argot Lethlean (Vic.); script developm ent grant for See How They Run — $2500 Genni Batterham (NSW); script developm ent grant for Alone Together — $4000 NSW W om en and Arts Festival (NSW); advance for W om en’s Film Festival program

— $5000 NSW W om en and Arts Festival (NSW); grant for the visit of Susan Seidelm an — $750 Australian Screen Studies Association (Vic.); grant for 1982 Conference — $3000

WASTE DISPOSAL — A SAFE SOLUTION Prod, com pany.....................South Land Films Australia P ro d u ce r....................................... Bruce Hogan D ire c to r....................................... John M eagher S c rip tw rite r..........................Stephen M easday P hotography.................................Bruce Hogan E d itor............................................. Jam es Davis Exec, p ro d u c e r........................... Peter Dimond Prod, m a n a g e r.......................Michael Gissing Mixed a t ........................................Dubbs & Co. L a b o ra to ry.................. Cine Film Laboratories L e n g th ................................................. 1 2 V2 mins G a u g e .........................................................16mm Shooting s to c k ................................. 7247, 7293 Synopsis: The film dem onstrates how indus­ trial liquid wastes are being properly m anaged by the M etropolitan W aste Dis­ posal Authority, and the plans for the future.

Concluded on p. 583

CINEMA PAPERS December — 559

MIXING POST-SYNC RECORDING VCHCE-OVERS We have a well equipped sound department with first rate staff and one of Australia’s most talented mixers. A t present we have some spare capacity and invite you to phone for details:STUDIO MANAGER STUDIO SECRETARY MICHAEL ROWAN GREER LEACH

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Phone: 4397102.

Lonely Hearts Keith Connolly Paul Cox’s Lonely Hearts is a neat compendium of attainable virtues, and the Australian Film Institute majority who voted it Best Film of 1982 no doubt appreciated this fact.

A sad little social comedy with moments of anarchic gaiety, Lonely Hearts is clear-eyed in conception, thoughtfully executed, and places its somewhat implausible comic situation in a recognizably commonplace milieu.

Though the characters are unmistak­ ably Australian, the most xenophobic filmgoer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will have little difficulty in relating to them or their problems.

Although the film has arcane inter­ ludes, not at all in keeping with its otherwise wryly realistic tone, they aren’t as subversive of the whole as might be imagined. For one thing, these sequences work well as comedy.

More important, they also reinforce the film’s tragi-comic textual assertion that individuals trapped in externallyimposed life-roles are likely to break out by whatever eccentric means are at their disposal. Hence, the male lonelyheart shoplifts and pretends to be blind, while his ladylike counterpart, totally against the grain of a lifetime of complaisance, accepts the lead role in an amateur production of Strindberg.

These individuals are Peter Thomp­ son (Norman Kaye), a 50-year-old bachelor piano-tuner, and Patricia Curnow (Wendy Hughes), a shy, mousy, but younger, bank clerk. They meet through a grasping introduction service and the film charts the uneven course of a diffident romance. It is a less-than-novel subject, ripe for cari­ cature, but Cox, maintaining a basical­ ly humorous premise, invests it with warmth, sympathy and understanding.

Peter appears to have gone through life doing everything expected of him by his mother (whose funeral opens the film), his domineering sister (Julia Blake) and others. There is a sugges­

tion, too, that Peter has been only too ready to shelter his inhibitions behind a dogsbody eagerness to please just about everybody from his ailing mother to the local elderly citizens’ club.

Patricia, only child of an over­ bearing father (Vic Gordon) and fusspot mother (Irene Inescourt), has recently moved into her own flat — obviously with the disapproval of her parents.

Free for the first time of parental constraints and demands, Peter and Patricia now take what social norms (and their own expectations) regard as the next step: they nervously seek a partner of the opposite sex, not neces­ sarily view mat., but certainly with something more than casual acquain­ tance in mind. Life-tasting isn’t easy for either of these shy, repressed, sex­ ually hung-up people. Their first outings, at Peter’s instigation, include visits to his mother’s grave and his weekly bingo night.

The characters are, of course, hyper­

Patricia Curnow (Wendy Hughes) and Peter Thompson (Norman Kaye) at Patricia’s. Paul Cox’s Lonely Hearts.

bolic, but there is a little of Peter and Patricia in many Australians of their age-range. It is precisely this core of p r o b a b i l i t y t h a t m a k e s th e sweet’n’sour humor of Lonely Hearts so telling. The two suffer various hesi­ tations, misunderstandings and false starts, through which the screenplay (by Cox and John Clarke) pilots them with a nice mixture of artifice and simplicity.

As well as having to clamber over social and personal hurdles, the pair must deal with the disapproval of their nearest and dearest — in particular, Peter’s interfering and bossy sister and Patricia’s bossy and interfering Dad. Cox and Clarke concoct a small but effective drama, when Peter is caught for shoplifting, to resolve the couple’s emotional deadlock. It also places in perspective several oddities of behaviour, seen earlier, which ulti-

CINEMA PAPERS December — 561

Three Brothers

Lonely Hearts

mately may be regarded as the mute protests of an other-directed Mr Nice Guy. Several of these incidents, such as the blind-piano-tuner episode and a nervous assignation with a call-girl, rattle about rather loosely in the narra­ tive structure, giving the impression that a certain amount of post-produc­ tion revision has gone on.

Those peccadilloes of Peter’s are more apposite to the general thrust, however, than some of the lesser characters adorning, if not enhancing, the narrative for comic effect, such as Patricia’s shrink (Maggie Stevens), or the wig-maker (Ron Falk) who brow­ beats Peter into ordering a new hair­ piece. (A far more important charac­ ter, an amateur theatrical director, played with mincing flourish by Jon Finlayson, is equally overblown.)

These relatively minor shortcomings notwithstanding, Lonely Hearts has a consistency of imagination and func­ tion that is all the more admirable when the film is ranged alongside the depressing number of botched, flawed and scamped productions in the bumper crop of 1981-82.

It is, in short, a triumph for Cox and a tribute to his perseverance. The visual and dramatic perception that marks his earlier work is fused here with a descriptive delicacy lacking in Inside Looking Out and Kostas, the feature films of what might be called Cox’s post-metaphysical period.

Not that Lonely Hearts is com­ pletely free of lapses in sensibility. But here the occasional thick-edge may be regarded, charitably perhaps, as over­ emphasis in the cause of comedy. Cer­ tainly, a sequence in which the hesitant couple engages in fumbling word-play before a disastrous episode in bed is a considerable advance on a somewhat similar situation in Kostas and a coun­ try mile ahead of the fatuous, wordless screw in Inside Looking Out. Clearly, Cox’s filmmaking benefits from experience. Lonely Hearts also contains superior echoes of his moving 1977 documentary about an old people’s home, We Are All Alone, My

the real strength of Inside Looking Out and Kostas. It permeates the gentle humor of Lonely Hearts and even lends Peter’s more antic behaviour a certain perverse dignity.

The Best Film award aside, the sig­ nificance of Cox’s achievement lies in his successfully tackling social com­ edy, a genre all but ignored by Aus­ tralian filmmakers until 1982, when one saw, as well as Lonely Hearts, Michael Robertson’s The Best of Friends and Henri Safran’s Norman Loves Rose. (If I have overlooked earlier features, I am sorry. But, once one has eliminated Bazza and his far­ cical friends, what else is there apart from Don’s Party, A Salute to the Great MacArthy and perhaps two of the four segments of Libido?) The field is a notoriously tricky and demanding one, and Lonely Hearts is unlikely to provoke a flock of imita­ tions. But after the disasters of the past year, it might occur to one or two of Australia’s more capable and usuallyprincipled filmmakers that there could be an object-lesson for these troubled times in an “ entertainment” film made with such heart, conscience and intelligence.

Lonely Hearts: Directed by: Paul Cox. P ro ­ du cer: J o h n B. M u rra y . E xecutive producer: Phillip A dam s. Screenplay: John Clarke, Paul Cox. Director of photo­ graphy: Yuri Sokol. E ditor: Tim Lewis.

Production designer: Neil Angwin. Music: N orm an Kaye. Sound recordist: Ken H a m m o n d . C a s t: W e n d y H u g h e s (Patricia), N orm an Kaye (Peter), Jon Finlayson (George), Julia Blake (Pam ela), Jo n a th o n H ardy (Bruce). P roduction com pany: A dam s P acker Film P ro ­ ductions. D istributor: John B. M urray.

35 mm. 95 mins. A ustralia. 1982.

tore Giuliano and II caso Mattei [The Mattei Affair], to mention two),

comes as a very positive surprise.

Whereas most of Rosi’s films were made with a political perspective, based either on facts — Salvatore Giuliano (1961), Le mani sulla citta (Hands Over the City, 1963), The Mattei Affair (1972) and Lucky Luciano (1973) — or on works of fiction — Uomini contro (1970), Cadaveri eccellenti (Illustrious Corpses/The Context, 1976) and Cristo si e fermato a Eboli (Christ Stopped at Eboli, 1979) — this time

Rosi and co-writer Tonino Guerra have created an original script, which has been translated into a creative film.

Although there are similarities in atmosphere and feeling between Three Brothers and Christ Stopped at Eboli, the scope of this film transcends that of the previous one. It is the result of a broader and deeper, more symbolic and innovatory approach, which draws forth different levels of inter­ pretation.

Twenty years ago, when filming Salvatore Giuliano, Rosi had the idea of telling the story of an Italian family from the South. To this Rosi and Guerra have added a narrative key, taken from The Third Son, a short story by the Russian writer Andrei Platonov: an old man sends a telegram to each of his sons informing them of their mother’s death, and they all come to the funeral.

Donato Giuranna (Charles Vanel) is the old father, a peasant from Puglia, who has seen all his sons leave the white stone family farmhouse and go to different cities in Italy.

The eldest, Raffaele (Philippe Noiret), was given the best possible education, sent to university, and is

usually the case with the second son of a Southern Italian family. He is a teacher in a Naples reformatory for problem children and has been approached by the police to find out which of the children have been making trouble at night, “ stealing or doing something worse” , as a policeman puts it.

The youngest brother, Nicola (Michele Plácido), who was expected to stay and work on the farm with his parents, rebelled and left for Turin in search of the dream of the factory in the North. He is an assembly-line worker who takes an active part in the union’s struggle for better working conditions and is being threatened with dismissal. From his broken marriage with a Northern girl, he has an eightyear-old daughter, Marta (Marta Zoffoli), whom he takes with him to the farmhouse.

Three Brothers opens with a still shot of a white wall of a building, with the windows looking like dark holes, or empty eye sockets. The subsequent image is a close-up of rats in a city rubbish dump, which one soon learns is part of a dream of Rocco’s.

The fact that Rocco is the first character to appear on the screen is symbolic: he is the son closest to his old father, the first to arrive and embrace the old man in his grief, and the only one to stay by his side during mourning. They even look alike, a fact that is emphasized by Mezzogiorno acting both as Rocco and as the young Donato in scenes of their memories.

Raffaele is the second one to arrive, and he is clearly less attached to his Marta (Marta Zoffoli) and her grandfather, Donato Giuranna (Charles Vanel). Fran­ cesco R osi’s Three Brothers.

Dear.

Lonely Hearts undoubtedly enjoys

valuable input from gifted collab­ orators: John Clarke’s inspired Fred Daggery punctuates the script, Nor­ man Kaye contributes (in addition to his nicely-modulated leading role) a nostalgic musical score of familiar melodies, Yuri Sokol’s photography is discreetly underlit, while the practised, steering hand of producer John B. Murray is very much in evidence.

Wendy Hughes, her sexuality veiled — but not suppressed — beneath “ sen­ sible” clothes and a repressed mien, reminds us of the many films and tele­ vision productions that have scarcely plumbed her talents. There are moments in Lonely Hearts when, even amid the film ’s dram atic and humorous contrivance, she achieves a pathos reminiscent of her memorable stage performance, in 1973, as Mother Courage’s mute daughter, Katrin.

Another interesting character is Jonathon Hardy’s Bruce, Peter’s brother-in-law. (The sight of this accomplished stage actor and teacher simulating the flounderings of an inept amateur trying to do Strindberg is particularly piquant.) Bruce, a character not unlike Peter, finds release in dumb insolence and reluc­ tant rationalization.

In his droll treatment of the central relationship, Cox maintains an affec­ tionate regard for individuals strug­ gling with personal problems which is 562 — December CINEMA PAPERS

Three Brothers Paulo Weinberger

Francesco Rosi’s latest film, Tre fratelli (Three Brothers), even con­ sidering the quality and originality of most of Rosi’s previous films (Salva­

now a judge living in Rome with his unbalanced wife and somewhat sulky son. He has been offered the task of presiding over a terrorist trial, which a colleague has relinquished for fear of being murdered.

The second brother, Rocco (Vittorio Mezzogiorno), is unmarried and apparently was not given the same opportunities as Raffaele, which is

father than Rocco and tends to be much more composed.

With the arrival of Nicola and Marta, the three brothers finally are brought together after a long separation and gradually their signifi­ cant differences are unravelled.

Raffaele strongly believes that Italy’s democracy is being threatened by terrorism; Nicola is an activist

We o f the Never Never

Three Brothers

worker who does not feel much sympathy for the establishment. As a result, their arguments tend to be very emotional. Raffaele believes that it is only Nicola’s fear of losing his job that stops him from becoming a terrorist; this belief reflects the emotional diffi­ culty Raffaele has in controlling his fear of being murdered.

Rocco does not want to help the police find the troublemakers among his reformatory children; prison would definitely scotch the possibility of their re-education, which is his main concern. Raffaele faces a similar dilemma when asked by some villagers to settle an argument about what to do if one witnesses an act of terrorism. In answer, he uses the case of Guido Rossa, a worker from Genoa, who was murdered because he denounced some terrorists to the authorities: “ If all Guido’s fellow workers had denounced the killers too, since they . all saw them, it would have been impossible for a crowd of witnesses to be murdered.”

But Raffaele acknowledges the delicate nature of the situation when there is only one witness to the crime.1 Rosi has always portrayed issues of political relevance in his films, but in Three Brothers the political issues have become secondary. As Rosi puts it, “ The film talks first and foremost about love: love for parents, a wife, a little girl; love for nature, for one’s own dignity, for the demands one must impose oneself when faced by specific choices.” 2 This is why M arta’s closeness to her grandfather is an important aspect of the film and is linked directly to the memories of the old man. In one of the reminiscences, his young wife loses her wedding ring on the beach when covering her feet with sand, an image parallel to that of Marta playing sensuously in the grain stored in the barn. The same ring, which the young Donato recovers by sifting through the sand and then puts back on to his wife’s finger, is seen in the last frame of the film. But this time old Donato puts it on to his own finger, near to his own wedding ring.

It is important that Platonov’s The Third Son is credited as a source of inspiration since some of the situations in the film come directly from the Russian short story. The communal bedroom that the brothers share is an example. Another is when Nicola brings his daughter Marta, who sleeps beside her grandfather in his bed, where his wife used to sleep.

Most effective of all is a dialogue between Marta and old Donato. One of the most moving moments of the film is when she bursts into tears and he asks her, “ Why are you crying?”

The girl answers, still crying, “ We are all alive; Grandma is the only one who is dead.” Later, it is the old man who cannot but turn his grief into 1. It is important to note that Three Brothers was filmed in 1980, when terrorism in Italy was still at its peak.

But the Red Brigade, and other extreme right-wing groups, after initially obtaining sympathy from a few dissatis­ fied sections of Italian society, were seen more and more as radical and very dangerous lunatics. This finally led to vigorous support against terrorism being given to the state by the majority of the Italian population, and the subsequent strong anti-terrorist action. Although terrorism has not been completely stopped, the most dangerous and diffi­ cult issue facing the Italian state now­ adays is that of the Mafia.

2. Interview with Rosi, S i g h t & S o u n d , Winter 1981-82.

tears, accompanied by a discreet and almost silent sobbing, and it is Marta who asks him, “ Why are you crying?

I’ve stopped.” The embarrassed grandfather dries his tears with a hand­ kerchief saying, “ I’m not crying, it’s just sweat.”

Another fine moment occurs when Marta stays with her grandfather, while her father and uncles carry the coffin to the funeral, and finds an egg on the ground and gives it to the old man. A close-up of this gesture — his old, wrinkled hand holding that symbol of the seed of life — conveys an optimistic feeling for the future, stressing further the common ground of childhood and old age, found by M arta’s innocence and Donato’s simple wisdom of an old man.

The symmetrical dreams of the three brothers are also very effective. Nicola dreams of visiting M arta’s mother and overcoming his pride in the face of her affaire with another man; he sees himself going to bed with her. Raffaele falls asleep while looking at the photo­ graphs of the case over which he is expected to preside and dreams he is gunned down in a bus in Rome, and wakes up in anguish.

Rocco dreams of children sweeping away weapons, syringes, money and gaol window bars, in a colorful, sur­ realistic scenario which alternates from New York’s skyscrapers to Moscow’s Kremlin, with Red Army and White Army paper uniforms floating in the air, together with paper money. The apotheosis of his dream is when Rocco is cheered by the crowd of children, in the presence of an image of Christ crucified in a crossbow (in which Christ is the arrow); Rocco sets fire to a rubbish pile, with a view of a canvas, paradise-like, sunny beach as the back­ ground.

This sequence is accompanied by the musical comment of Pino Daniele’s fantasy ballad “ Je so’ pazzo” (“ I am Crazy” ). A Neapolitan, Daniele is one of Italy’s most original rock singer­ composers, who sings in Neapolitan dialect. Quoting an Italian proverb3, Daniele sings: “ In my life I want to live at least a day like a lion “ And the state should not condemn me, because I’m crazy.” 4 He then mentions Masaniello, hero of a popular uprising in 17th Century Naples against the Spanish rule and oppression by the nobles: “ Masaniello has grown up “ Masaniello has come back.” 5 The combination of music and imagery reflects distinctly Rocco’s idealism, his Utopia of a clean world: a world without drugs, crime and money; a world of happiness.

The artistry of Three Brothers is superb, from Pasqualino de Santis’ beautiful photography — the natural light of the interiors, the sharplydefined shadows and the vivid con­ trasts — to some simple but brilliantlyfilmed sequences. In one of these Rocco is making coffee in the kitchen and hears a sound of sobbing coming from outside the house. He moves towards the kitchen window and, from above, looking downwards from the first floor, sees both his brothers in the 3. “E meglio vivere un giorno da leone che cent’anni da peccora” (“ It is better to live a day like a lion than a hundred years like a sheep” ).

4. “ Nella vita voglio vivere alemno un giorno da leone “E lo stato non mi deve condanare “ Perche je so’ pazzo” 5. “ Masaniello e cresciuto “ Masaniello e tomato”

yard. The camera follows Rocco from behind and tracks up to frame Rocco’s head in the centre of the shot. Nicola, crying and leaning on the wall outside, appears at the upper right of Rocco’s head, whereas Raffaele is seen on the lower left side. Rocco starts crying too and his head, out of focus, moves just enough for the viewer to understand what is going on. This was certainly a difficult shot to do — and masterfully accomplished.

The acting also is superb, parti­ cularly Charles Vanel’s performance as Donato. Born in 1892, Vanel entered films as early as 1912, and is best remembered for his portrayal of Jo in The Wages of Fear (1953). As Rosi has admitted, Vanel actually set the pace for the film: “ He lent us all a sort of serenity.

During filming he was like the stones of that old farmhouse, like the natural world about him: . . . the rhythms of the film began to adopt the cadence of his movements.” 6 Three Brothers is a very special film and perhaps an example to many great Italian directors who have not managed to produce any recent work that is worth mentioning.

It reflects an imaginary world which is, paradoxically, very real. At the same time, it is a montage of poss­ ibly conventional fictions which, when put together, achieve a highly unconventional result.

Three Brothers (Tre fratelli): Directed by: Francesco Rosi. Producers: Georgio Nocella, Antonio Macri. Screenplay: Francesco Rosi. Director of photography: Pasqualino De Santis. Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni. Art director: Andrea Cristanti. Music: Piero Piccioni. Sound recordist: Mario Bramonti. Cast: Philippe Noiret (Raffaele), Charles Vanel (Donato), Michele Placido (Nicola), Vittorio Mezzo­ giorno (Rocco), Andrea Ferreol (Raffaele’s wife), Maddalena Crippa (Giovanna), Sara Tafuri (Rosaria), Marta Zoffoli (Marta), Tino Schipinzi (Raffaele’s friend).

Production company: Inter Film (Rome) Gaumont (Paris). Distributor: Frank Cox. 35 mm. I ll mins. Italy. 1980.

We of the Never Never Brian McFarlane As one of the few Australians alive over the age of 30 who has not read Mrs Aeneas Gunn’s autobiographical works, I am able to approach this film version with an open mind. What my open mind received was, in the main, a sumptuous bore. How far this impres­ sion tallies with Mrs Gunn’s well-loved books — We of the Never Never and The Little Black Princess — I cannot of course say.

For the first half-hour of this pain­ fully long film (it runs to 121 minutes, even in its cut form), it looked as if its visual accomplishment might save it. Igor Auzins, the director, has opened on a close-up of Jeannie, being prepared for her wedding clothes, and this gradually gives way to a beautifully composed use of the widescreen to suggest the feminine fuss going on around her.

This in turn cuts to a vast, empty, brown landscape, vertiginously pre­ sented in a fast forward-tracking shot, as the camera hones in on and then passes a figure on horseback, before pulling up for an overhead view of men and cattle.

These shots — and a great many that 6. Interview with Rosi, Winter 1981-82.

S ig h t

&

Sound,

follow — offer a ravishment to the eyes which in the early part of the film seems exciting. There is a quite thrilling use of landscape (tree trunks, foliage, swollen streams and distant mountains), of thudding horses’ hooves and of violent shifts in weather. These effects, superbly caught by Gary Hansen’s Eastmancolor photography, accompany the Gunns’ wedding and their journey to the Northern Territory cattle station, where Aeneas is to take up the position of manager. As a result, there is a pre­ monitory dramatic effect in the camera’s dazzling tracks and cuts.

Once the Gunns have arrived at the station, neither they nor the film have anywhere left to go. The viewer is increasingly aware of the inertness at the heart of the narrative, so that what was initially a visual excitement degenerates into tedious bravura.

Once the first narrative impulse exhausts itself in getting the Gunns to the station, Peter Schreck’s screenplay dissipates its energy in a series of tab­ leaux, scarcely vivants, which fails utterly to build to any sort of cumu­ lative power or meaning. The screen­ play and Auzins’ direction work devotedly to preserve every cliche, to leave no predictability unturned.

When the rough foreman McLennan (Tony Barry), who has spoken with vigorous chauvinism about Jeannie’s entry to the male preserve of the cattle run, meets her we know he will melt before that fearless gaze, that out­ stretched hand. And so he bloody well does — and becomes her humble servant. We know that, when the door of the station house falls off its rusted hinges, Jeannie will first express shock, then dissolve in helpless laughter. And so she does. We know that talk of mustering over the Gunns’ dinner table will give place to the pounding hooves and pounding score of the mustering scene. And of course it does. After Gunn’s death, when Jeannie is writing her grief to her sister, we know that Bett-Bett, the little black princess, will return to sleep in the house and give Jeannie a new sense of purpose. The soundtrack knows this, too, as it swells to complement her proud walk into the future.

In other words, the narrative settles for the utterly predictable in matters small and large: in the way it cuts to gratify our least imaginative expecta­ tions and in the way it shapes — to use the term loosely — the major narrative motif. By the latter, I mean the revela­ tion of town-bred Jeannie’s pluck as she confronts the rigors of outback life. The banalities are there in the ramshackle screenplay and, despite its often seductive surface, in Auzins’ directorial ineptitude.

Not one incident, not one narrative element, whether it be the relationship between Jeannie and Aeneas, or the feminist or racist issues tentatively raised, carries any dramatic weight. In fact, the word “ relationship” means little more than that two people are often on the screen together. As Jeannie, Angela Punch McGregor (perhaps the most uneuphonious name in movies since Jo Ann Pflugg) brings virtually nothing to the role except erect carriage. To earlier parts, like those of Gilda in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Bill Hunter’s bigoted wife in Newsfront, she brought an apt sense of clamped-down treacherous dimness, but here she is utterly at sea.

If the role of Mrs Gunn is to mean anything, it must suggest a moral toughness and ardor that are outside CINEMA PAPERS December — 563

E.T. The Extraterrestrial

We o f the Never Never

the actress’ range even when the dif­ fused screenplay is giving her the slightest assistance. Instead, it usually asks only cliche responses of her and she is unable, by her physical presence or by a sense of inner conviction, to transcend these. Against her unexpres­ sive, inflexible performance, Arthur Dignam’s intelligent brick-building with the script’s straws goes for little, and the sense of relationship goes out the window.

The idea of the white woman estab­

as feckless, unreliable creatures; of Jeannie’s bringing Bett-Bett into the house despite Aeneas’ claim that “ you can’t take her away from her people” ; and so on. There is an attempt to lift this sporadic interest to the level of drama as she tries to save Goggle-Eye (Donald Blitner) from dying: “ I’m sick of people telling me there’s nothing I can do.” When he dies, she asks, in plaintive anach­ ronism, “ Where did we go wrong?”

The jejuneness of the film’s racial

The publican (Tex Morton), Jeannie Gunn (Angela Punch McGregor) and Mac (Tony Barry) before the final stage o f the journey to Elsey Station. Igor Auzins’ We o f the Never Never.

awareness is most clearly seen in its treatment of the two Chinese cooks, one spitefully inclined, the other a comic character who raised indulgent laughter from the audience.

There is not much point in writing more about the ways in which the film so persistently passes up every oppor­ tunity for coherence or significance. It misses its chances in the area of rela­ tionships; it bungles the dramatic potential of the feminist and racial issues; it is either too achingly slow or too boringly high-minded to be anything as vulgar as an adventure; and it lacks even a good ear for a period piece. What we are left with is the Marlboro look and sound of the Australian outback wedded to a quite exceptionally dim little story of this and that.

lishing herself in this remote male world founders on the script’s banal­ ities as well as on McGregor’s in­ adequacy: In the opening scene Jeannie is warned, “ You must never lose your femininity” and “ Don’t try to be a mate to him” , but the prom­ ising irony — as one takes it to be — of this scene is not pursued. The resis­ tance to Jeannie’s presence in the man’s world is of course worn down by what we assume to be courage and resourcefulness. In fact, the film hardly seems interested in her role as a woman: there is a promise of warmth of feeling between her and the black woman Rosie, but this relationship is not developed; in stiffly written and played dialogue scenes, she asserts her willingness to do her own domestic work in the face of Aeneas’ opposi­ tion; and there are shots of her sitting solitary by lamplight or walking alone against the sky while the men are away for some days. But these are all perfunctory references; there is no sense of Auzins’ or Schreck’s having considered using the white woman’s situation in a male-dominated world as an organizing narrative principle.

Similarly, the film raises the racial issue but does nothing about it. It is again a matter of scattered remarks and incidents: of Jeannie’s being told she’ll “ spoil ’em” if she offers trousers to the Aboriginals who do her garden; of the black women mainly presented 564 — D e c e m b e r CINEMA PAPERS

We of the Never Never: Directed by: Igor Auzins. Producer: Greg T epper. C o­ producer: Jo h n B. M urray. Executive producer: Phillip A dam s. Associate p ro­ ducer: Brian Rosen. Screenplay: Peter Schreck. D irector o f photography: Gary H ansen. E ditor: C liff H ayes. P roduction designer: Josephine F ord. M usic: Peter Best. Sound recordist: Laurie Robinson.

Cast: Angela Punch M cG regor (Jeannie), A rthur D ignam (Aeneas), T ony Barry (Mac), M artin V aughan (D an), Lewis Fitz­ G erald (Jack), Jo h n Ja rra tt (D andy), Cecil Parkes (Cheon), D anny A dcock (Brown), Tom m y Lewis (Jackaroo), D onald Blitner (Goggle Eye), Sibina Willy (Bett-Bett). P ro ­ duction com pany: A dam s Packer Film P ro ­ ductions-Film C orporation o f W estern A ustralia. D istributor: H oyts. 35 m m . 121 mins. A ustralia. 1982.

E.T. The Extraterrestrial Robert Conn The stars are twinkling brightly in the night sky. In a secluded clearing of a redwood forest on the outskirts of Los Angeles, an alien spacecraft sits, humming softly. Small figures can be seen shuffling about in the under­ growth, illuminated by the soft lights encircling the craft. Long, delicate,

brown fingers gently uproot a small plant, while a rabbit looks on unafraid. One of the gremlins wanders to the rim of the valley and gazes in wonder at the sprawling grid of shim­ mering lights of the city below.

Suddenly, large, noisy trucks and painfully-bright headlights shatter the tranquillity of the forest. Immediately the aliens prepare to lift-off to avoid detection, but the wanderer is too far away and frantically tries to avoid the large, lumbering figures with their searching torches. The aliens wait till the last possible second and leave just as the errant is in sight. The human beings watch in stunned amazement as the vehicle soars heavenward, while little E.T., gasping for breath, sighs mournfully.

Stranded on an alien world, E.T. quietly slips away from the human beings who are now hunting him.

Waddling down into the valley, he scavenges in rubbish bins for food until he is discovered by 10-year-old Elliott (Henry Thomas), in the boy’s backyard. Elliott’s parents have recently separated; he is lonely and confused in his own home, the home into which he lures E.T. with the aid of some candy. Keeping the alien a secret from everyone except his older brother Michael (Robert McNaughton) and younger sister Gertie (Drew Barry­ more), Elliott begins the struggle to help E.T. contact his people, his only chance of survival.

This is how Steven Spielberg begins E.T. The Extraterrestrial, his latest and best film to date. After igniting our instinctive fear of the unknown in

Jaws, making us gasp in awe with Close Encounters, setting our hearts racing in Raiders of the Lost Ark and just plain terrifying us with Polter­ geist1, Spielberg has reached into his

heart and back into his childhood memories and made a film that is both exhilarating and deeply moving. It has great simplicity, sharing the basic themes of the classic animal and child stories, such as The Yearling, with strong echoes of Peter Pan. E.T. is the lost animal, the stranger from a strange land, the secret that grown-ups cannot see and whom the children must aid in any way they can, just as Tinker Bell would die if they did not believe in fairies.

E.T. is about love, it is about children — about their innocence and their surprising, underlying strength.

To help E.T., Elliott, Michael and Gertie must defy adult authority, take matters into their own hands and use their own suppressed natural abilities to change their previously ‘unchange­ able’ circumstances, all for their love of E.T. Although he has been abandoned by his father, Elliott finds in E.T. one who is even more helpless and more in need of a friend than himself. This compels Elliott, and his brother and sister, to face the serious responsibility of helping E.T. stay alive and to help him in any way to contact his ship.

They must also keep him from being discovered by the ‘grown-ups’, who, they believe, would only misunder­ stand and perhaps experiment on him.

Although E.T. is physically vulner­ able, he possesses great mental powers.

He soon learns to talk, in halting fashion, with the help of Gertie and Sesame Street, and constructs a signal­ ling device using levitation. The rela­ tionship between E.T. and Elliott is not simply that of friendship or love, it is an empathic bond that starts with the first terrified contact with each other. Instead of being reluctant about trying to find the creature, Elliott enthusiastically goes into the forest to lure the alien home, and discovers that others are also searching for E.T. The completeness of this bond is brought home when Elliott replies that “ We’re all right” to Michael’s observation that E.T. looks ill. So intense does this bond become that as E.T.’s health deteriorates so does Elliott’s. Only when both are near death does the bond weaken.

Spielberg, for the most part, depicts the adults in the film as shadowy figures and, as far as the children are concerned, seemingly bent on mischief — Elliott’s ‘faceless’ biology teacher, for example, and, to a greater extent, the ‘agents’ who hunt E.T. and whose intentions are never really known until the end. Even Elliott’s mother Mary (Dee Wallace) is all but oblivious to the incredible things happening around her. She does not see E.T. hiding in Elliott’s closet among the other toys or scampering around her feet in the kitchen. She is just too busy. Although she is the most sensitive adult por­ trayed in the film, she also has lost her ‘child’s eyes’ and fulfils Elliott’s promise to Gertie that “ grown-ups can’t see him.”

E.T. is set in typical American suburbia, an environment that Spiel­ berg knows well. It is where he grew up and where he started to tell his stories on film. He seems to enjoy injecting the cosmos into people’s backyards, juxtaposing the ordinary with the 1. Produced by Steven Spielberg directed by T obe H ooper.

and

Crosstalk

E.T. The Extraterrestrial

extraordinary and exploring the way people would deal with it. In Polter­ geist he set a graveyard of ghosts onto the home salesman and his family; Roy Neary had his first close encounter with a UFO while on the job; the supershark in Jaws terrorized the sleepy coastal resort town of Amity Island; and a man quietly travelling the country roads of the Midwest is attacked by a maniac driving a decomposing tanker in Duel. Incred­ ibly, all these fantastic occurrences seem perfectly natural because the environments in which they are set and the actions of the people involved also seem perfectly natural.

In E.T., Spielberg has perfected this technique. Allen Daviau’s practical method of lighting — where, for the most part, the lighting fixtures shown actually provide the filming light levels — James Bissell’s superb sets, John Williams’ most beautiful score and the flawless optical effects supervised by Star Wars veteran Dennis Muren all combine to perfect Spielberg’s re­ creation of suburbia invaded by a small, brown alien.

E.T. is, perhaps, the first film in which the main star has not been a person or an animal (with the possible exception of HAL 9000 in 2001).

Italian sculptor and painter Carlo Rambaldi, the creator of the monster of Alien and the earlier Spielberg extraterrestrials in Close Encounters, was called upon to construct E.T. after another special effects crew had failed with a loss of $700,000. The creature that Rambaldi devised is a fantastically complicated being with a rubber/polyurethane skin covering a steel and aluminium skeleton that sometimes needed a dozen operators to handle via electronic controls.

The magic of Rambaldi’s E.T. lies not only in his mechanics, but in the character that it becomes on the screen. Spielberg himself said that E.T., at first, is something only a mother could love, and that is indeed true. Soon after Elliott lured E.T. into his room and could be seen clearly for the first time, standing quietly in the corner wrapped in a blanket, I heard a young voice behind me in the theatre whisper, “ Isn’t he beautiful.” When a filmmaker can imbue a pile of rubber, wires and servo-motors with the qualities and emotions that E.T. exhibits, then that filmmaker is certainly a master of his medium. This is obviously what Spielberg has become.

Spielberg never loosens his grip on our emotions. Some have suspected that he may be taking sadistic delight in the audience’s tearful reaction to the film, but I have not yet found anyone who was not thoroughly delighted with E.T. It has been far too long since a film has completely captured and made one feel things ashamed of or forgotten. One recalls the loss of a pet or a loved one during childhood years and the reluctance to remember it, and there is immediate empathy with Elliott, Michael and Gertie as they fight their desire to hold on to E.T., though eventually they must lose him if he is to live.

E.T. is purely and simply a joy to watch. No sequence, scene or individual shot is forced or gratuitous.

The performances, especially from the children, are magical, as is, of course, E.T. himself (he cost $1.5 million by the way — one-third of the cost of a Marlon Brando and with a lot more personality).

The young and the not-so-young will fall in love with this strange ‘squashy

guy’ from the stars. For some it will be a new experience after having been bombarded by mindless television and recent, special effects cinema epics. It would have to be a hard heart indeed that did not want to cry out for help for E.T. as he lies dying in the terrifying steel and plastic hospital set up in Elliott’s home. Then suddenly, beyond one’s wildest hopes, emotions are taken from close to heartbreak to high exhilaration. You will be glad that a film can move you so.

Steven Spielberg has made, in E.T. The Extraterrestrial, a film that is vir­ tually the cinema ideal; a film that comes from the maker’s heart and touches the audience, not with insincere devices, but with pure emotion.

E.T. The Extraterrestrial: D irected by: S teven S p ielb erg . P ro d u c e rs : Steven Spielberg, K athleen K ennedy. Screenplay: Melissa M athison. D irector o f p h o to ­ graphy: Allen D aviau. E ditor: C arol L ittle­ ton. P ro d u ctio n designer: Jam es D. Bissell.

Music: Jo h n W illiam s. Sound: Gene C antam essa. C ast: Dee W allace (M ary), H enry T hom as (E lliott), Peter C oyote (Keys), R obert M cN aughton (M ichael), Drew B arrym ore (Gertie), K. C. M artel (Greg), Sean Frye (Steve), T om How ell (Tyler), E rika Eleniak (P retty girl), D avid O ’Dell (Schoolboy). P ro d u ctio n com pany: U ni­ versal. D istributor: U IP . 35 m m . 115 mins.

U .S. 1982.

Crosstalk Geoff Mayer Scenario: the hero, confined to a wheelchair, discovers that a man, in an apartment in the same building as him­ self, has murdered his wife. The killer becomes aware that our hero knows of the crime, although nobody will believe him. Sounds familiar? Well, it isn’t — at least not in the hands of director Mark Egerton and script­ writers Linda Lane and Denis Whit­ burn.

The filmmakers of Crosstalk have gone to inordinate lengths to bury this

deceptively simple plot in a film which eschews narrative progression for a visual obsession with computer print­ outs, glistening metallic surfaces, assorted machines, cars and cameras, and selected household appliances.

Certainly the mood of claustrophobia, entrapment, voyeurism and alienation is maintained throughout the film.

However, this viewer longed for some human confrontation; every time the narrative would head in this direction, Egerton would cut to the omniscient computer.

The plot is concerned with the machinations of an anonymous cor­ porate group and its financial invest­ ment in a sensory computer, the 1-500, developed by Ed Ballinger (Gary Day). However, Ballinger is less con­ cerned than the corporate group about the financial ramifications of the project. When a car accident confines him to a wheelchair he loses interest in it — that is, until the computer draws his attention to a murder in a nearby apartment. The computer thereby begins a cat-and-mouse game between the killer, Stollier (John Ewart, superb as ever), and Ballinger.

The early scenes in the film establish an interesting premise: Ballinger’s obsession with his computer. A pre­ breakfast argument with his wife Cindy (Penny Downie), conducted on a video hook-up in the house, emphasizes the film’s dominant motif

tradition largely ignored since the revival of the industry a decade ago. In this regard, the film works extremely well on occasions as a thriller. An excellent example of this occurs when B allinger persuades Jane (Kim Deacon), his young and attractive nurse, to search Stollier’s apartment during his absence and attach a bug to his phone. Ballinger, who is watching the monitors that cover the entrance to Stollier’s apartment, is inevitably dis­ tracted and the killer arrives home to find Jane trapped inside with the dis­ membered head of Stollier’s wife (Jill Forster) visually prominent in the family clothes dryer.

The important factor is that the narrative works; Egerton and his team demonstrate an awareness of the con­ ventions and the skill required to manipulate the audience to the desired effect. The pity is that the preoccupa­ tion with surface imagery and the repetition of the theme of the domina­ tion of machine over man allows this narrative drive to slacken, and audi­ ence involvement is sacrificed.

It is always a somewhat presump­ tuous, and totally futile, act to wish that a film incorporate neglected material. However, one cannot resist pointing to a number of missed oppor­ tunities, which also could have filled in some of the character detail.

The status of the characters within the film is largely functional in that

of the ‘all-pervasive’ machine. The argument also reveals the strain that Ballinger’s preoccupation with his ‘baby’ has placed on his marriage.

Cindy’s retort that he should “ marry the beast” is more prophetic than she realizes at the time.

The film’s attitude to the computer is ambivalent, at least in the beginning.

The computer detects the crime, and Ballinger’s claim that “ I trust the 1-500 more than I trust humans” appears to have some validity. The bizarre conclusion to the film certainly fulfils the film’s advertising slogan (“ Only the computer saw the murder . . . and it liked what it saw” ).

It is pleasing to find an Australian film that acknowledges a narrative

Elliott (Henry Thomas) and E. T., the extra­ terrestrial lost on earth. Steven Spielberg’s E. T. The Extraterrestrial.

they are regarded as actants rather than personages: the crippled, intelli­ gent hero; the understanding wife; the loyal nurse; the sadistic killer; the mercenary corporation head; etc.

However, there is sufficient scope within the framework of the drama to create a number of tensions between the characters. For example, Ballinger is cared for during the day by Jane and, on one occasion, kisses her in front of this wife. But this facet of the plot, together with the tension between husband and wife, is essentially ignored by the film.

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Barbarosa

Crosstalk

Strangely, the one character which is developed beyond the point necessary for plot progression is Stollier, who has a predilection for leather and bondage. Without knowing the censor­ ship considerations, the reason for this character attribute is obscure.

Crosstalk is an extremely stylish film to look at and listen to. There are a number of striking visual sequences which readily demonstrate the ability of director Egerton, director of photo­ graphy Vince Monton and composer Chris Neal to generate an atmosphere appropriate to the narrative emphasis of the film. The sequences leading up to the murder of Stollier’s wife are a prim e exam ple: the carefullycomposed image of Stollier standing in the shadows of his apartment, his wife gradually becoming aware of his inten­ tions; then, just as the tension is begin­ ning to build up, Egerton cuts back to the computer’s recording the event.

This pattern of frustration is evident throughout the film. Perhaps it is time to remind Australian filmmakers that audience involvement, linear narrative progression and clear storytelling are not necessarily attributes of which one should be ashamed.

Crosstalk: D irected by: M ark E gerton. P ro ­ ducer: E rrol Sullivan. Screenplay: L inda L ane, M ark E gerton. D irector o f p h o to ­ graphy: V incent M on to n . E ditor: Colin W a d d y . P ro d u c tio n d e sig n e r: L a rry E astw ood. M usic: C hris Neil. Sound recordist: Jo h n Phillips. C ast: G ary Day (Ed Ballinger), Penny Dow nie (Cindy), Kim D eacon (Jane), Jo h n E w art (Stollier), Jill F orster (M rs Stollier), P eter Collingw ood (H ollister), B rian M cD erm ott. P ro d u ctio n com pany: W all to W all P roductions. Dis­ trib u to r: G U O . 35 m m . 83 m ins. A ustralia.

1982.

Barbarosa Barrie Pattison Fred Schepisi’s Barbarosa is a Western shot in Texas in the Lajitas area, where the U.S. army was based when fighting Pancho Villa, with addi­ tional filming in Bracketsville, the much modified decors for The Alamo.

Native Texans Willie Nelson and Gary Busey lead the cast as Barbarosa, a white renegade living in the Mexican community, and Karl, a German immigrant farm boy who teams up with him.

In the opening scenes, the teaming up seems uneasy: Nelson as a grubby, foul-mouthed old man and Busey as the fugitive ploughboy fall short of what one has learned to expect from Butch and Sundance. Having been together for a while, however, they become clearly defined individuals, each with a likeable sense of humor.

Even if there is no hurry about putting the elements in order, they combine well. In the first glimpse of Barbarosa, the legendary bandit, he stands apparently unperturbed as a Mexican’s bullet creases his cheek (great effect that, too). It is not until well into the film that he begins to tutor Karl in the business of being a shootist and tells him, “ Nothin’ makes a man more nervous than to see a man standing when he should be running like a spotted ass ape.’’

Language is one of the film’s conspicuous features in a script by co­ producer William Wittliff, which he wrote 10 years ago. Since then Wittliff has worked on the script of The Black Stallion and has written the much-dis­

cussed Raggedy Man, which is being to resurrect the Western have failed — filmed. even superior, recent films such as The film is full of lines like, “ The Richard Lang’s Mountain Men, Mexicans got a saying — what cannot Walter Hill’s The Long Riders and, of be remedied must be endured’’ or course, Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s “ You haven’t got enough ass in your Gate. Since Vietnam, the perception of britches to pull the trigger on Bar­ the frontier ethic has changed. The barosa.” Then there are the exchanges pioneer has become imperialist and between the leads — “ I’ve killed a anti-ecology. The cowboy has become man” , “ That ain’t no kind of a recom­ the Ugly American. A generation has mendation” — or Nelson joking about grown up unable to understand that their parting, “ I’m getting all wore out this material once was considered the most innocent of entertainment. keeping you entertained.”

Barbarosa attempts to debunk the It has been said that Western dialogue is the only kind of archaic conventions one associates with the language convincing on film and Bar­ genre. However, it too is seduced by barosa makes considerable use of the notion of legend, already too self­ verbal set pieces. A local bandido tries conscious even in the days when people to kill Barbarosa who avenges himself were taking John Ford’s Man Who by burying the sleeping bandit with Shot Liberty Valance more seriously only his head clear of the sand — than it deserved. facing the bodies of the two boys he The climax calls for Karl to per­ has shot. The villagers compose petuate Barbarosa’s reputation. This is corridos (ballads) about the event and, done in an ingenious, even stirring listening in hiding, Barbarosa trans­ way. Yet, it fails to impress for several lates the words for Karl, who is reasons. The audience is already impatient till he finds a part of the familiar with a variety of these exciting song about himself. set pieces: e.g., Don Braulio’s son Later, Barbarosa creeps into the Eduardo (Dany de la Paz) galloping hacienda of the Zavalas clan to visit his through the rancho gate on the ven­ wife, Josephina (Isela Vega). Family geance trail, followed by the camera; head, Don Braulio (Gilbert Roland), is and Barbarosa sticking up the seedy telling the children the story of Bar- cantina. Riding out of history into barosa’s murderous wedding night. legend is something one has seen (“ The Zavalas had the desire to kill the before and not been impressed with.

As anyone who has investigated the gringos but not yet the will.” ) The exaggerated sound of the word “ shot” back shelves of his neighborhood is a nice flourish. Once again, one video store since the days of tax loss hears a different version much later. and local film commissions in the Both end with Barbarosa blowing American states knows, there are a away Don Braulio’s leg below the knee host of regional American features, with a shotgun. / with a couple of Hollywood stars and a The film’s humor, its unfamiliar stylish and entertaining gloss, which look and definite style are all assets. have sunk without the well-known The use of close-up insets is also effec­ ripple.

What makes this film of particular tive: the thorns through which Karl forces his way, with a .single drop of interest is that it is the work of Mel­ his blood falling from them; the bourne’s Fred Schepisi who moved to bereaved father’s bullets falling to the Hollywood, it was said, because local ground when he realizes he will not be critics failed to take his The Chant of able to re-load in time to kill his son’s Jimmie Blacksmith as seriously as they murderer; or the home washing, flut­ had his The Devil’s Playground.

Mind you, Schepisi is not the first of tering on the line.

Why then did a well-made, enter­ the home team to go off to the U.S. taining film pitched at a popular and come back with a feature. That audience not do better business? The distinction belongs to Philippe Mora most likely reason is that all attempts whose professionally nasty The Beast

Hollister (Peter Collingwood), Cindy (Penny Downie) and Ed (Gary Day), the computer wizard. Mark Egerton’s Cross­ talk.

Within is doing the drive-in circuit.

Bruce Beresford’s Tender Mercies is also due for release.

Schepisi also took along director of photography Ian Baker and composer Bruce Smeaton. Their work in this new situation is superior. The changing patterns of light on the desert land­ scape or the rousing passages in the music give a lift to their scenes. There is no question that Barbarosa is a handsome film.

It is particularly revealing to look at Barbarosa as part of its maker’s output. The Devil’s Playground, like Schepisi’s similarly Catholic episode in Libido, carried conviction. A naivety, which suggested that the death of a class-mate was less shocking than des­ cribing masturbation, did not stop the film from touching nerves. It had the impact of the unfamiliar that con­ vinces one that the makers are dealing in truth rather than traditional atti­ tudes, a quality that outweighs any shortcomings in, say, Craig’s Wife, Are We All Murderers or The Battle of Algiers.

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was, on the other hand, an established literary property dealing with the country’s most respectable good cause — oppression of the Aboriginals. The stances were adopted and it showed.

That film’s anti-racism is in vivid contrast to Barbarosa’s depiction of the Mexicans, Yet again they are shown as dirty, thieving, murderously shifty and whoring, a representation which, incidentally, contrasts sharply with that in films from the Mexican industry.

From the days of William Randolph Hearst’s disputes with the Mexican government, the Hollywood film con­ tinues to offer “ greaser” characters like the one who tells Tom Mix, “ Yankee pig, it is with much pleasure I am going to keel you” ; Chris Pin Martin back shooting John Wayne; The Wild Bunch, Break Out, The Border or even Seems Like Old Times, CINEMA PAPERS December — 567

The Sharkcallers o f Kontu

Barbarosa

choosing far from isolated examples.

Of all the national groups, only the Taiwanese cop more flak in films.

Lacking a lobby as effective as the NAACP or the supporters of the American Indian, the Spanish-American groups have missed out on the up­ grading of image during the past decade, apart from a few minor items like Robby Benson, Walking Tall or Boulevard Nights. There is Cheech and Chong but they are not quite Sidney Poitier.

This is not to attribute sinister beliefs and motives to Schepisi — or to Sam Peckinpah, Tony Richardson, et al. It does, however, emphasize a problem very evident in the Australian scene: the attractiveness (particularly to subsidy) of commitment to fashion­ able ideas too superficial to withstand pressure.

Barbarosa does try to balance its image of the Mexicans with Bar­ barosa’s speeches about the nobility of the Zavalas family, notably at odds with the revelation about his dealings with Don Braulio. There is the curious notion of the pursuit as a crusade which has elevated the way of life of the clan: “ Then God will put us back in houses made of sticks and mud” , and the use of the crucifix knife (thank you Luis Buñuel).

This undeveloped idea recalls the suggestion of the black and white blood in Jimmie Blacksmith as the good and bad sides of his nature, simil­ arly stated a couple of times without being integrated into the action.

It is possible that it made more sense in the longer version of Barbarosa.

The trailer contains footage which does not appear to be in the film and the synopsis describes missing scenes: Barbarosa’s original falling out with the Texas Rangers, killing Karl’s sadistic brother-in-law and the out­ smarting of the crooked horse dealer to get his breeding stock for the farm.

However, the cuts appear justified, with the film running close to out­ staying its welcome at its current length.

Barbarosa’s overall failure is regret­ table not because it contains prejudices as superficial as the good intentions of much of the locally-funded material, but because it shows that the front runners in the Australian film scene are capable of operating internation­

Barbarosa (Willie Nelson), the Mexico-based outlaw, in Fred Schepisi’s Barbarosa.

ally. They have yet to find a film which will advertise the fact.

Barbarosa: Directed by: Fred Schepisi.

Producer: Paul Lazarus III. Co-producers: W illiam W ittliff, Willie Nelson, Gary Busey. Screenplay: W illiam W ittliff.

Director o f photography: Ian Baker.

E ditor: D on Zim m erm an. A rt director: Michael Levesque. Music: Bruce Sm eaton.

Cast: Willie Nelson (Barbarosa), Gary Busey (K arl), G ilb ert R oland (D on Braulio), Isela Vega (Josephina), Danny de la P a z (E d u a rd o ), A lm a M a rtin e z (Juanita), George Voskovic (H erm an). P ro ­ duction com pany: Universal. D istributor: Hoyts. 35 m m. 140 mins. U.S. 1981.

The SharkcaSlers of Kontu Solrun Hoaas In The Sharkcallers of Kontu, Dennis O’Rourke takes material that is inherently dramatic and de-dramatizes it to focus on the spiritual meaning behind the magic of shark-calling in the village of Kontu in New Ireland.

O’Rourke looks at this ritual in the context of the traditional beliefs and the pressures of change. The result is a

A shark-caller battles with a shark caught in his hoop. Dennis O ’Rourke's The Sharkcallers o f Kontu.

5 6 8 — D e c e m b e r CINEMA PAPERS

complex film, which reveals a web of relationships between the spiritual and physical worlds of the people, and a sensitive relationship between the film­ maker and the shark-callers.

In dealing with shark-calling, O’Rourke carefully integrates it into the texture of daily life. The shark­ callers are seen in relation to the other members of the community, who are subjected to pressures from an outside money economy, changing govern­ ments and the imposition of Chris­ tianity.

The film also places the practice of shark-calling in the context of a belief pattern and its rituals. It is more than a method of catching fish: it is a form of magic, an expression of a relationship with a spiritual world and with the people’s ancestors. Moroa, an all­ powerful spirit, created the sharks and instructed them to respond only to the calling of the shark-catchers, who had carried out the necessary ritual preparations and observed the prohi­ bitions related to food, sex and certain pollutants.

All sharks have some spiritual force connected with them — either clan or wild bush spirits, or the spirit of the shark itself. Without these forces they

would not be as important. The shark­ calling provides a bridge to these spirits and is a form of communica­ tion.

This aspect of the magic is emphasized by the film’s reliance on conversations with the men who practise it, especially in two long sequences of the shark-callers — filmed in sync, in close-up and facing the camera — paddling out to meet the shark. They speak not as much of method as of their relationship to the spiritual nature of the shark and their sense of intimacy with this spirit.

These sequences are filmed from the prow of the boat, at close range, with a camera that is amazingly steady, even as the shark-catcher battles with the shark caught in his hoop, clubs it and brings it into the canoe. They have a quiet intensity unmarred by super­ fluous commentary.

The filmmaker’s presence is obvious throughout the film, but in an unob­ trusive way: a very low-key narration

by Dennis O’Rourke (the same voice heard elsewhere in pidgin on the soundtrack) provides only necessary information. He explains specific aspects of the shark-calling, without attributing intentions or feelings to the subjects.

Later, there are a few instances of editorial comment in this narration. In the memorable close-up shots in the canoe, his presence is obvious, both in the occasional question put to the man in his native language and in the strong sense one has that the shark-caller is communicating directly to the camera, knowing that the person behind the camera understands what, he says.

With the emphasis on communication in the film, the fact that the filmmaker speaks the language is important.

As they reach deeper water, O’Rourke films while the sharks swim around the canoe and, attracted by the shark-caller’s rattle, are caught in the hoop, and rock the lightweight boat. “ If you attract a bad shark, it can attack you” , says the man of Kontu The dramatic nature of such material could have been played up for effect, as was done in a couple of films on the same subject made for tele­ vision in 1977 by Nippon Audio-Visual Productions, the company headed by Jun-ichi Ushiyama. They concentrated on the technique of shark-calling and

“O ’Rourke looks at [the shark-calling] ritual in the context o f the traditional beliefs. ” The Sharkcallers o f Kontu.

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy

The Sharkcallers o f Kontu

the dramatics of it. The narration expressed incomprehension about why they continued to catch the sharks this way, when shark meat is not the prime source of food. There was little attempt to explore the significance of the magic and its spiritual basis.

In this film, the content may have its dramatic component, but there is no attem pt to impose an external dramatic structure from the narrative film in order to build towards a climax. Catching the shark itself is not the main point. The relationship between the shark-caller, and the shark and its spirit is more important, as is the relationship between the sharkcallers (with their adherence to the traditional magic) and a culture under constant economic, educational and religious pressures.

It is an immense pleasure to see a documentary that does not sacrifice idea content, where it is important, to the cheap immediacy of emotion up front on the screen, or to the old cliche that a close-up tells us more than the words of a person. So much of tele­ vision documentary on other cultures does this, leaving the impression that the overt and visual expression of their cultures has no spiritual or intellectual basis. In emphasizing the communica­ tion of beliefs, the film also relies, of necessity, on extensive sub-titling. It is good to see that there is no com­ promise about this, despite the pre­ judices against sub-titling held by most of our television channels. The sub­ titles are exceptionally clear and easy to read.

The film might be described as ‘closed’ to the extent that it takes a certain point of view and unashamedly uses editing techniques to put it across.

Edited by Stewart Young (who also did Frontline and Angels of War), the film highlights the ironies and incon­ gruities, indeed the absurdities, of the education that the children of Kontu receive.

They are totally alienated from their own culture: the children learn English in school using textbooks about cowboys, not fishermen. They are subtly conditioned, by textbooks with scenes about buying pies, to want junk food and luxuries and to reject the traditional diet of taro, tapioca and sweet potato in what is to some extent still a subsistence economy. The content of their education has no rele­ vance to their society.

There are shades here of YAP, O’Rourke’s earlier film about the coming of television to a small Pacific island, especially in the ironic use of the soundtrack: snippets from radio advertising and so on. In the earlier film, advertisements for American cosmetics and detergents explicitly made the point about the alienation of a people from their culture. The inanities of American soap operas were contrasted with a lone guitar player, strumming to himself on the fringe of the living quarters, where he was once the centre of the evening’s entertainment.

These may seem to be easy points to score, but in YAP they are in the context of a look at U.S. imperialism and economic exploitation. In The Sharkcallers of Kontu, one again finds a strong sensitivity to the sounds that make up daily life on the islands: the pop music and radio jingles — “ Easy to shop! Easy to save!” — that charac­ terized earlier films is present again, but it is more controlled than in YAP. The ironies of incongruence and the mourning for the loss of tradition

brought about by the imposition of other values are, in a sense, didactic points that are stated explicitly through the cutting. There is no pretence at objectivity and the exten­ sive use of intercutting between the magic of the shark-calling and the ‘counter-magic’ of a church service, or any other Western ritual (such as the Queen’s Birthday), makes the film­ maker’s position quite obvious.

These points are often made with humor, but perhaps once too often, and risk being slick. One sees, for instance, the shark swimming under water and getting caught in the hoop; O’Rourke then cuts to a church service, then to an old man who defends his beliefs against the new teachings that suggest if they follow old ways they will not go to heaven.

This intercutting builds to the final conclusion, stated by one of the elders in answer to a question about the survival of the traditional beliefs: they may be able to co-exist with the new government, he says, but not with the new religion.

The film’s focus on the spiritual sig­ nificance of the shark and not on the catch itself is reinforced by the atten­ tion given to the process of dividing up the different parts of the shark — some must be thrown back into the fisherman’s boat, others are given to the villagers. The fin has a special sig­ nificance and is placed in the men’s house as proof that man has the power to communicate with the spirits of his ancestors.

Today the fins are taken down from their traditional place and offered to the Chinese merchants who buy them for friends in Hong Kong and Singa­ pore; the men of Kontu need cash to adapt to the outside pressures on their subsistence economy. The film returns in the last shot to the scene where the Chinese merchant tells the men that if they supply two tons of shark fins, then he can give them a world market price. The film thus shifts its emphasis and leaves a final suggestion that the greatest pressure on the culture is the inevitable encroachm ent of an economic structure alien to and imposed on the society.

In The Sharkcallers of Kontu, as in YAP, O’Rourke recognizes the impor­ tance of repetition in a documentary that integrates its themes into the daily life and belief patterns of a society. It is not always sufficient to state a point once and proceed with the film as narrative. Whereas in YAP the result is sometimes loose and rambling in the repeated return to scenes and situa­ tions already seen, here it is more con­ trolled.

The Sharkcallers of Kontu has less of the journalistic style of the earlier films. However, it is not lacking in wry humor, and gives a sense of a more careful process of sifting out, leaving the bare bones of what is an unabash­ edly transparent structure in a very fine film.

Sharkcallers of Kontu: D irector by: Dennis O ’R ourke. P roducer: Dennis O ’R ourke.

Associate producer: Chris Owen. D irectors o f photography: Dennis O ’R ourke, Chris Owen. E ditor: Stew art Y oung. A n th ro ­ pologist: E lizabeth Brouw er. C ontributing film m akers: Peter Berry, E lton Brash, G ary K i l d e a , S te v e M a d a n a , R o s e a n n e O ’R ourke. N arrato r: Dennis O ’R ourke.

P ro d u c tio n c o m p an y : O ’R o u rk e and A ssociates Film m akers. D istributor: Ronin Film s. 16 m m . 54 m ins. A ustralia. 1982.

Woody Allen suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and turned to fairy-floss. In A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy he has lost the fighting edge of a pioneer who ventured bravely into Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan and Stardust Memories. He has kept his sense of humor and pathos, but in the final scenes of A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy that seems to be all that is left intact.

The film begs a question: where do you go when you have stopped exploring? For Allen, it seems to mean going into the past. But, on the other

The four friends who come for the weekend are Leopold (Jose Ferrer), uncle to Adrian, and famous academic bore who quotes Freud and Einstein and goes into intellectual combat with other male rivals; Ariel (Mia Farrow), the fiancee of Leopold, nymph-like, liberated and a woman of the future; Maxwell (Tony Roberts, as always), the faithful friend to Andrew and a philandering womanizer; and Dulcy (Julie Hagerty), Maxwell’s friend for the weekend, the not-so-silly nurse who can cope with any emergency.

When all the visitors descend on the house, their dreams take on a reality and transformations are in store.

As in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer N ight’s Dream, they become tantalized as if under a spell. No one wants the partner they are with, and escapades in the woods become so frantic and illbegotten that life becomes a dizzy

hand, can we expect the impossible

labyrinth.

A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy Margaret Smith

when we are all variations on our past selves?

In this film, Allen turns to what he has done before: like his Love and Death, he twists an old classic (Shakes­ peare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) on its head as a starting point. If one wasn’t familiar with Allen’s more recent work, it might be enough. It is funny, delightful and absurd, but it isn’t the Alien who turned one out of the cinema grappling with a sense of oneself. One was amused, but it might have worked better if the laughs hadn’t been so constant or so long.

A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy

takes six characters in search of an author. There is Andrew (Woody Allen), the Renaissance man, who tries to fly in his flying machine, and at other times without his wings; and his wife Adrian (Mary Steenburgen), who is an intelligent, educated woman made frigid because of the memory of an illicit affaire. They live in a rustic rural setting, at the beginning of the century, where Andrew concentrates on his inventions to the detriment of his marriage.

Andrew Hobbs (W oody Allen) and Ariel Weymouth (Mia Farrow): “sex alleviates tension, and love causes i t .” Woody A llen’s A Midsummer N ight’s Sex Comedy.

The photography of Gordon Willis, together with the music of Mendel­ ssohn, carries the situation to its logical extremes. When the actors aren’t posing as if for some Manet or Renoir Impressionist cameo, the music and photography make the actual woods come alive with the sound of music! There are babbling brooks, floating ducks, perfectly realized flowers and a host of other chocolatebox goodies. It all makes for a marvel­ lous send-up, and is one of the delights of the film.

Some of the characters are similarly ridiculed. When Leopold and Maxwell duel for word space, there is rarely a kind shot of them. But Allen’s persona in Andrew is etched more sym­ pathetically. He muses about love, art and invention: “ because I have trouble

Concluded on p. 583 CINEMA PAPERS December — 569

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PICTURE

The story o f the world's greatest racehorse, set against the backdrop o f the Great Depression o f the 1930s. It tells o f Phar L a p ’s sudden rise to national fam e and the controversies surrounding his career, including attempts on his life before the 1930 Melbourne Cup. The story moves to the U.S. with Phar L a p ’s success at the world’s richest horse race, and his death in mysterious circumstances.

Phar Lap is directed by Simon Wincer, fo r producer John Sexton, from a screenplay by David Williamson.

Clockwise from top: Tommy Woodcock (Tom Burlinson) rides Phar Lap during a morning training run, film ed by a Movietone crew; early morning preparation at Newmarket; Harry Telford (Martin Vaughn) and Tommy at Randwick; Vi Telford (Celia de Burgh) and son.

Variety International Motion Picture Marketplace 1982-83 Edited by Mike Kaplan Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London, 1982 Large format paperback, 431 pp., U.S.$50 ISBN 0 8240 9378 X

Variety International Showbusiness Reference Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Vol. 292 Edited by Mike Kaplan Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London, 1981 Large format hardback, 1135 pp., U.S.$75 ISBN 0 8240 9341 0

Variety Major U.S. Showbusiness Awards Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Vol. 337 Edited by Mike Kaplan Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London, 1982 Large format paperback, 571 pp., U.S.$50 ISBN 0 8240 9395 X

Kemps International Film and Television Year Book 1982-83 27th edition The Kemps Group (Printers & Publishers Ltd), London, 1982 Hardback, 814 pp., A$45 ISBN 0 86259 019 1

International Film and TV Year Book 1981-82 36th year Edited by Peter Noble A Screen International Publication/King Publications, London, 1982 Hardback, 702 pp.

ISBN 0 900925 13 2

G. R. Lansell

Recently, the major U.S. show­ business paper, Variety, has been entering the reference book field, augmenting its already intimidating daily and weekly inundation of information.

V ariety In tern ation al M otion Picture Marketplace 1982-83 is the

latest venture. It is divided into three substantial sections. The first, “ The companies” , is an alphabetical listing of a little more than 100 countries.

Under these national headings is another alphabetical listing of major company names and addresses, telephone, cable and telex numbers, and leading company personnel, plus types of company activities. Algeria receives only two entries; the U.S., understandably, receives the lion’s share — almost 50 per cent of this section.

The Australian entries are fairly selective: one is not told who chose them and on what basis (it goes almost without saying that it is not a patch on the current Australian Motion Picture Yearbook). There are mis-spellings, 572 — December CINEMA PAPERS

out-of-date entries and obvious omissions, almost inevitable in such a considerable and wide-ranging project.

For instance, Ken Watts is listed both as managing director of Adams Packer Film Productions and chairman of the Australian Film Commission. Marc Aussie-Stone is still listed as the national director of the Film and Tele­ vision Production Association of Aus­ tralia (James Mitchell recently resigned after three years in that position). Why two entries for M & L? And whatever happened to the Victorian Film Corporation/Film Victoria? It is a reasonable sample, but obviously in need of updating.

The second section is the 70-plus “ Classified indexes” , ranging from agencies and distribution through to television talk shows (U.S. only) and unions. It is here, in particular, that the omissions and discrepancies become more apparent from the Aus­ tralian point of view. Is there really no Australian distribution company that handles documentaries? The recent Documentary Film in Australia lists no less than 80. Are there only two film commissions/corporations in Aus­ tralia (curiously, two more are listed in the previous “ Companies” section)?

What is this National Critics’ Circle?

Films or theatre? And cardinal sin: if Filmnews is deserving of inclusion in the Tradepapers category, then, surely, Cinema Papers also merits inclusion.

The final section is simply an inter­ national telephone directory to all the people in the first section — listed alphabetically by surname, irrespective of country — and claimed to be some 15,000 “ motion picture decision­ makers and experts” . Phillip Adams appears four times, attached to no less than four, presumably defunct, oneoff production companies, all of which have the previous telephone number of Adams’ ad agency, Monahan Dayman Adams, not Adams Packer. Joe Skrzynski is nowhere to be seen. Pat Lovell is in, Matt Carroll is out, and so on. It is a seemingly arbitrary selection.

All this is nit-picking, to be sure.

Bearing in mind its limitations further afield — it is odds-on that the U.S. and the British sections are less prone to errors and omissions — Marketplace is a valuable handbook. The price, given that it is a paperback, is prohibitive.

The two other recent Variety reference books are not as subject to dubious information. They either get the information right the first time or it is simply useless forever (or at least until the second edition).

Variety International Showbusiness Reference is an even more massive project than Marketplace, and intimi­

datingly so. In a sense, it is a commem­ orative volume for Variety's, 75th anni­ versary, a distillation from the back files of what is claimed to be “ the largest single source of information about the entertainment industry worldwide” . Its avowed aim is no less than “ to provide a single source of information on all facets of show busi­ ness” somehow compacted into the one volume.

First in this information marathon are almost 6000 current biographies claimed to be “ the largest single such compilation for actors, actresses, choreographers, cinematographers, com posers, dancers, designers, directors, executives, film editors, journalists, musicians, producers, singers, songwriters and writers ever achieved” , ranging from the RKO

sound engineer, John O. Aalberg, to Paramount board member, Eugene J. Zukor (son of the centenarian pioneer, the late Adolph Zukor). Some wellknown Australians, such as Jack Thompson and Peter Weir, appear alongside the all-time greats, such as Marlene Dietrich (nee Maria Mag­ dalene von Losch, incidentally), the not-so-great, and the frankly obscure.

The next major section is compre­ hensive “ Film credits” for every film reviewed in Variety from January 1, 1976, to December 31, 1980 — not only most of the English-language titles but also the major foreignlanguage and film festival titles — plus the date of the original Variety review (readily accessible these days on micro­ film). Most Australian features released during this period are included, the exceptions being the real box-office dogs and the pretentious arty pieces.

Next is a complete listing of all the Oscar winners, as well as the nomi­ nees, in every category, from the beginning (1927-28) to 1979; the “ All­ time film rental champs” in the U.S.-Canada market (No. 1 is Star Wars), though not adjusted for inflation (No. 1 would then be Gone With the Wind); the major “ festivals, markets and conventions” of 1981; “ Television credits” , again from January 1, 1976, to December 31, 1980, including quite a few Australian programs, from A Big Country to Young Ramsay; a list of all the Emmy winners, as well as all the nominees, in every category, also from the begin­ ning (1948) to 1979-80; the “ Top 50 Nielsen-rated television shows” (No. 1 here is Dallas (Who Shot J.R.?); all “ B roadw ay p la y s ’’ (in clu d in g musicals), again from January 1, 1976, to December 31, 1980; significant “ Plays abroad” (the Australian representation ranges from the revival of Patrick White’s A Cheery Soul to Steve J. Spears’ Young Mo); all the Tony winners, as well as most of the nominees, in every category, again from the beginning (1947) to 1980; the Pulitzer Prize Plays, from as far back as 1918 (Jesse Lunch Williams’ Why Marry?) up to 1980 (Landford Wilson’s Talley’s Folly) as well as L ong-R unning Broadw ay Plays {Grease tops that list); all the Grammy Award-winners, as well as all the nominees, in every category, from 1958 to 1979, as well as Platinum Records, from 1976 to 1980; and, finally, as if to counterbalance the current biographies at the outset, a “ Necrology” (to use Variety's quaint term), also from January 1, 1976, to December 31, 1980, from the con­ ductor Nathan Abas to the previously mentioned Adolph Zukor (who died at 103).

As one may have gathered by now, this book — no, monumental tome — is nothing if not exhaustive. Quite simply, it is an essential reference work for any library resource centre con­ nected with any branch of show business.

Variety's third recent reference undertaking is Variety Major U.S. Showbusiness Awards. To some extent, it duplicates the previous volume in that it lists again all of the Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, Grammys and Pulitzer Prize Plays. On the other hand, this latter work has a massive index, which the former, perhaps understandably, has not. Actually, one really needs both books in tandem.

Their accuracy and exhaustiveness are praiseworthy; their achievement hefty.

Book Reviews

Finally, there are two other, Britishbased, film and television industry reference books or, more strictly speaking, yearbooks that serve to some extent as both national and inter­ national counterparts to th&Australian

Motion Picture Yearbook.

Kemps International Film and Tele­ vision Yearbook is basically an industry-oriented handbook of tech­ nical services and facilities, divided into two halves: Great Britain and International. The British section ranges over no less than 350 separate categories, ranging from “ Accum­ ulators and batteries” to “ Zoom fluid drive units” ; then follows a separate “ Film technicians” section that, in turn, ranges from the “ Art depart­ ment” to “ Television and video lighting designers” , and is further broken down into various sub-cate­ gories, ranging from “ Art directors” per se to the “ Technicians diary booking service” . This seemingly evermultiplying craftwork is reminiscent of all the trades and industries in Diderot’s Encyclopédie no less.

Next comes the International half, covering more than 50 countries, from Argentina to Venezuela. Australia occupies some seven per cent of this section (the U.S. almost 33’A per cent) and (like the U.S.) is first categorized state by state, then by technical classification. The researcher or researchers remain anonymous; the sources that were tapped and scoured likewise are anonymous; and the actual criteria for inclusion or exclu­ sion go unmentioned. What there is, again, is selective; there are unfor­ tunate omissions and errors, though not to the same degree as in Market­

place.

If you are a devout reader of, say, American Cinematographer or the

Society o f Motion Picture and Tele­ vision Engineers Journal, if you are

something of a Samuelson’s freak, or if you require anything from an anamorphic lens to a live vulture (or even a stuffed one) for your next British (and to a lesser extent U.S.) produc­ tion, then Kemps is definitely the manual for you: technical information overkill for some, but the name of the game is thoroughness.

Peter Noble’s International Film and TV Yearbook 1981-82 (from the fold of the major British film and tele­ vision weekly paper, Screen Inter­ national) is not as technically oriented as Kemps. It is aiming at a slightly dif­ ferent market, more the up-front showmen rather than the nuts and bolts people behind the scenes; Noble is “ above the line” , Kemps “ below the line” .

Like Kemps, it is divided into British (subdivided into “ Films and tele­ vision” ) and “ International direc­ tories” (in terms of the latter, Kemps has more than 800 pages to Noble’s 30 pages or so distributed amongst a paltry nine countries). The Australian section, consisting of a meagre page and a half of various names and addresses, is, at best, token, and really needs a major re-think and update.

Again, for instance, Ken Watts is still ensconced at the Australian Film Com­ mission, Jill Robb likewise at the Vic­ torian Film C orporation, Jerzy Toeplitz at the Australian Film and Television School, etc.

By far the most important part of Noble’s book, however, represents almost two-thirds of its contents: a “ Who’s Who in International Films and Television” . To some extent, it is the British version of Richard Gert-

ner’s New York-based Motion Picture Almanac (not reviewed here), but in some respects more comprehensive and pictorial. Noble’s British con­ tingent is naturally strong, whereas Gertner’s British contingent is fairly obviously not so. It is, in fact, a fas­ cinating conspectus of well-known and not so well-known names, both in front of and behind the cameras, from Arthur Abeles of Filmarketeers to veteran director Fred Zinnemann. It has more informative and up-to-date sets of credits and contact points than, say, Liz-Anne Dawden’s Oxford Com­ panion to Film (really for the film scholar) or Leslie Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (for the film fan): in essence, anybody who’s anybody in the contemporary British film and tele­ vision industries.

But the Australian representation is fairly thin and seems to be without much rhyme or reason: Tony Ginnane, Brian Trenchard Smith and Peter Weir, but not, say, Bruce Beresford, Pat Lovell or Jack Thompson. Again, who decides these things and on what grounds? And it is a pity that the entries could not be more up-to-date: there seems sometimes to be an unfor­ tunate lag of a year or so.

So, all in all, if you are in need of some light bedtime reading . . .

Recent Releases Mervyn Binns This colum n lists books on sale in A us­ tralia or due for distribution, up to Decem ­ ber 1982, which deal with the cinem a and related topics.

The publishers and the local distributors are listed below the au th o r in each entry. If no distributor is indicated, the book is im ported (Im p.). The recom m ended prices listed are for paperbacks, unless otherw ise

indicated, and are subject to variations between bookshops and states.

The list was com piled by M ervyn R. Binns o f the Space Age B ookstore, M el­ bourne.

Popular and General Interest America’s Favourite Movies: Behind the Scenes Rudy Behlmer Ungar/Ruth Walls, $17.95 (TPB) Background details of some of the greatest films from the U.S., including Frankenstein, The African Queen and High Noon.

The Best Movie Trivia and Quiz Book Ever Malcolm Vance Bonanza/Imp., $6.95 (HC) An illustrated “ book of lists” .

The Best TV Trivia and Quiz Book Ever Malcolm Vance Bonanza/Imp., $6.95 (HC) A nostalgic look at American television.

The Book o f TV Lists Gabe Essoe Arlington/Imp., $12.50 (TPB) A great collection of facts, figures and anecdotes about American television shows and person­ alities.

The Cinematic Cat Written by Bob Bruno, illustrated by Marguerite Chadwick A&W/Imp., $9.75 Clever cartoon comments on famous films.

Filming the Impossible Leo Dickson Jonathon Cape/Australasian Publishing Com­ pany, $29.95 (HC) An account of 10 years filming “ life-or-death” adventures for television. Illustrated with 180 color photographs.

Great H ollywood Teams Garson Kanin A&R/Angus and Robertson, $12.95 An illustrated survey of all the great teams on the screen, from Astaire and Rogers to Allen and Keaton.

The Great Movie Stars — The Golden Years David Shipman A&R/Angus and Robertson, $14.95 (TPB) Featuring more than 200 careers, each being of a star whose name was made before the beginning o f World War 2.

The Great Movie Stars — The International Years David Shipman A&R/Angus and Robertson, $14.95 (TPB) The second volume in Shipman’s history of the cinema stars following the Golden Years. New, revised edition covering from the 1950s to the ’70s. Illustrated.

The Great TV Sitcom Book Rick Mitz Richard Marek/Imp., $13.30 (TPB) The plot lines, cast and characters of all the American situation comedies on television. Illus­ trated.

H ollywood’s Children Raymond Strait St Martin’s Press/Imp., $18.60 (HC) The lives of the children of Hollywood stars and how they cope with being the children of big name stars.

The Making o f the Great Westerns William R. Meyer Arlington/Imp., $26.65 (HC) An examination of 30 great Westerns.

The R.K.O. Story Richard B. Jewell and Vernon Harbin Octopus/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $29.95 (HC) The complete studio history, with all the 1051 films described and illustrated.

The Films o f the Seventies Robert Bookbinder Citadel/Davis Publications, $30.35 (HC) A survey of the American films made during the 1970s. Illustrated.

Special Effects — Starlog Volume 3 David Hutchinson Starlog/Imp., $12.30 (TPB) Third volume in a series of fantasy and science­ fiction film effects.

The Forties Gals James Robert Parish and Don. E. Stonke Arlington/Imp., $31.25 (HC) The careers of actresses Lauren Bacall, Susan Hayward, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan and Esther Williams.

Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7: The Programme Guide Compiled by Tony Attwood W. H. Allen/Hutchinson Group Aust., $14.95 (HC) A complete guide to the science-fiction television series.

Foyer Pleasure — Fifty Colourful Years o f Cinema Lobby Cards John Kobal Aurum Press/Dent, $29.95 (HC) A history of lobby posters, includes numerous color photographs.

Twenty All-Time Great SF Films Kenneth Von Gunden and Stuart H. Stock Arlington/Imp., $26.65 (HC) Complete synopses of great science-fiction films from the 1930s to the ’70s.

Biographies and Filmographies Apple Sauce — The Story o f M y Life Michael Wilding, as told to Pamela Wilcox Allen and Unwin/Allen and Unwin Aust., $19.95 (HC) A biography of British actor Michael Wilding.

Before I Forget James Mason Sphere/Thomas Nelson Aust., $6.95 The autobiography o f the leading British actor.

Cary Grant — The Light Touch Lionel Godfrey R. Hale/Imp., $22.50 (HC) A biography of Archie Leach, born in Bristol, England, and better known as Cary Grant.

Bob Hope: Portrait o f a Superstar Charles Thompson Fontana/William Collins, $4.95 The life and career of America’s best-loved comedian.

Charles Bronson David Downing W. H. Allen/Hutchinson Group Aust., $19.95 (HC) An examination of the career of one of the most successful and highly-paid screen actors.

P

ic t u r e

M o 'k & tp h c e

mm

Clint Eastwood — The Screen Greats Alan Frank Wattle/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $6.95 (HC) A well-illustrated coverage of Clint Eastwood’s career.

The Comic Art o f Mel Brooks Maurice Yacowar W. H. Allen/Hutchinson Group Aust., $20.95 (HC) The career of Mel Brooks, whom the fans love and the critics hate.

Eddie: My Life, M y Loves Eddie Fisher W. H. Allen/Hutchinson Group Aust., $27.95 (HC) Eddie Fisher reveals his side of the story — his much publicized marriages, drugs, money problems and the rest.

Elizabeth Taylor — The Screen Greats Tom Hutchinson Wattle/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $6.95 (HC) A well-illustrated coverage of her career.

CINEMA PAPERS December — 573

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. . . Zoran Perisic, inventor o f the Zoptic System, which gave the special effects for “ 2001” and “ Superman” !

Perisic details in his book Special O ptical Effects, an exhaustive treatm ent of Special Effects which he has discovered during his career (over 500 film credits) and reveals those he perfected himself.

Other m edia manuals in the Focal Press Series are written by experts in the state of the art like Zoran Perisic. These books, above all, are easy to use and learn from as they are m ade up of double page spreads and inter-related text and illustration.

The Media Manual Series 16mm Film Cutting - Burder 166 pages $14.50, The Anim ation Stand - Perisic 168 pages $15.00, Basic Film Technique - Daley 160 pages $17.95, Basic TV Staging - Millerson 176 pages $14.95, Creating Special Effects for TV & Films -Wilkie 160 pages $15.00, Effective TV Production - Millerson 192 pages $19.00, The Lens in Action - Ray 202 pages $17,95, The Lens and Ail Its Jobs - Ray 160 pages $14.50, Local Radio - Redfern 164 pages $14.00, M otion Picture Cam era Data - Samuelson 172 pages $19.50, M otion Picture Cam era Techniques - Samuelson 200 pages $19.50, Motion Picture Cam era & Lighting Equipment - Samuelson 220

pages $19.50, Script Continuity and The Production Secretary Rowlands 160 pages $15.00, Scriptwriting for Anim ation Hayward 160 pages $19,00, The Small Television Studio - Equipment and Facilities - Bermingham et.al.

164 pages $14.50, TV Cam era O peration - Millerson 160 pages $14.50, TV Sound Operations - Alkin 176 pages $14.50, The Use of M icrophones - Nisbett 168 pages $19.00, Using Videotape 2nd Ed. -

Roblnson/Beards 172 pages $19,00, Your Film & The Lab - Happe 208 pages $19.00, Order from your local bookseller, or in case of difficulty from: FOCAL PRESS: A Division of BUTTERWORTHS PTY LIMITED, 271-273 Lane Cove Road, North Ryde, NSW 2113 Telephone (02) 887 3444

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Book Reviews

Elizabeth Taylor — The Last Star Kitty Kelley Coronet/Hodder and Stoughton, $5.95 The tumultuous personal history and career of the screen’s most publicized actress — a most detailed biography.

Elizabeth Taylor: Her Life, Her Loves, Her Future Ruth Waterbury and Gene Arleri Bantam/Transworld Publishers Aust., $4.50 A sensational biography o f Liz Taylor.

The Films o f Charles Bronson Terry Vermilye Citadel/Davis Publications, $12.75 (TPB) A title in the popular “ Citadel” series. New in paperback.

Henry Fonda — His Life and Work Norm Goldstein M. Joseph/Thomas Nelson Aust., $4.95 (TPB) A well-illustrated and comprehensive large format paperback book on the life and career of one of Hollywood’s greats.

Humphrey Bogart — The Screen Greats Alan Frank Wattle/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $6.95 (HC) A well-illustrated coverage o f Bogart’s careers.

Iron Eyes — M y Life as a H ollywood Indian Iron Eyes Cody as told to Colin Perry Everest/Imp., $22.50 (HC) Autobiography of one of Hollywood’s bestknown American Indian actors.

James Dean — A Portrait Roy Schott Delilah/Hutchinson Group Aust., $12.30 (TPB) An illustrated biography of Dean with photo­ graphs by Dean, who desired to become an accomplished photographer.

The Last Sitting Bert Stern Orbis/William Collins, $29.95 (HC) A series of photographs o f Marilyn Monroe, taken six weeks before she died, by Stern. Fifty shots in color and 40 in black and white.

The Legend o f Charlie Chaplin P. Haining W. H. Allen/Hutchinson Group Aust., $23.95 (HC) An illustrated biography o f Chaplin with a complete filmography.

Lulu in H ollywood Louise Brookes Hamish Hamilton/Thomas Nelson Aust., $22.50 (HC) A Hollywood story — the autobiography of Louise Brookes, her career, friends, contem­ poraries and the film capital, as it was in the silent days, and later.

Mae West Fergus Cashin Star/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $4.95 The complete biography o f Hollywood’s most irreverent comedienne. New in paperback only.

The Magic o f Woody Allen

Eggs

—

But We Need the

^

Robson/Hutchinson Group Aust., $20.95 (HC) The career of Woody Allen. An up-to-date critical appraisal o f his work.

Marilyn Monroe — The Screen Greats Tom Hutchinson Wattle/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $6.95 (HC) A well-illustrated, in color and black and white, volume on Monroe’s career.

Marlon Brando — The Screen Greats Alan Frank Wattle/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $6.95 (HC)

A well-illustrated career coverage.

Monroe: A Life in Pictures James Spada and George Zeno Sigdwick/Hutchinson Group Aust., $19.95 (HC) A pictorial tribute to Marilyn Monroe, mostly in black and white and with a section o f color photo­ graphs, covering her life and career.

Mother Goddam — The Story o f the Career o f Bette Davis Whitney Stine Star/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $5.95 A new paperback edition of ‘long’ interviews with Bette Davis.

P.S. I Love You: Peter Sellers 1925-1980 Michael Sellers Fontana/William Collins, $4.95 A biography of Peter Sellers by his son, assisted by his two daughters, Sarah and Victoria. New in paperback.

Hamish Hamilton/Thomas Nelson Aust., $29.95 (HC) An authoritative study o f the controversial director and his films.

Repulsion (The Life and Times of Roman Polanski) Thomas Kiernan Coronet/Hodder and Stoughton, $4.95 Biography, now in paperback.

Criticism The Brechtian Aspect o f Radical Cinema Essays by Martin Walsh BFI/Gaumont, $10.65 A collection of articles, some previously unpub­ lished, on the theme of the Brechtian aspects of radical cinema.

New printing, from Wattle Books in Australia, of the old Hamlyn title.

A Pictorial History o f the Talkies Daniel Blum, revised by John Kobal Wattle/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $24.95 (HC) A year-by-year, fully-illustrated coverage of the year’s Films and top stars — a new and revised edition up to 1981.

Western Films — A Complete Guide Brian GarField Atheneum/Imp., $37.50 (HC) A guide to the Westerns screened in the U.S. since the advent of talking pictures.

Film Scripts Two Screenplays — Jean Cocteau The Blood o f a Poet/The Testament o f Orpheus M. Boyars/Thomas Lothians, $8.75 (TPB)

Robert Redford David Downing W. H. Allen/Hutchinson Group Aust., $25.95 (HC) A large format illustrated biography with a complete filmography.

Genre Stephen Neale BFI/Gaumont, $4.95 An essay from the British Film Institute on genre theory of film.

Movies Plus One: 7 Years o f Film Reviewing William S. Pechter Horizon Press/Imp., $19.95 (HC) Seven years of film reviewing — a critical view of films of the 1970s by Kubrick, Huston, Hawks, Fellini and other leading directors.

Ronald Reagan — The Screen Greats Janice Anderson Wattle/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $6.95 The film career of the U.S. President.

The New German Cinema John Sandford Methuen/Methuen Aust., $15.95 (TPB) An illustrated survey of today’s German film.

Sir A ubrey David Allen Elm Tree Press/Thomas Nelson Aust., $37.50 (HC) A biography of C. Aubrey Smith, English cricketer, West End actor and Hollywood film star.

Talking A bout Films Chidananda Das Gupta Orient Longman/Imp., $14.95 (HC) A discussion on Indian films and various aspects of the cinema in general.

The Television Barons Jack Tinker Quartet/Australasian Publishing Co., $23.50 (HC) The story of Britain’s television moguls and how they rose to power and the empires they control.

History of the Film Industry

Television Monograph 12 — WDR an d Rhe Arbeiterfilm: Fassbinder, Ziewer and Others Richard Collins and V. Porter BFI/Gaumont, $9.35 A discussion of documentary films made for West German television.

Please D on ’t Shoot M y Dog Jackie Cooper and Dick Klemer Berkley/Imp., $4.25

Sparks Fly Upward Stewart Granger Granada/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $5.95 Discusses openly Granger’s tempestuous private life and presents a vivid insider’s view of film­ making, told with humor and honesty.

Directors and Producers Godard: Images, Sounds, Politics Colin McCabe Indiana University Press/Imp., $16.70 This book deals mainly with Godard’s work since 1968, but, in doing so, gives an insight into his earlier work.

Howard Hawks Robin Wood BFI/Gaumont, $15.95 A revised edition of this book originally published in the “ Cinema One” series. It discusses the 40 films made by Hawks and it includes a new chapter on the new theories about individual authorship in films.

The Films in M y Life Francois Truffaut, translated by May hew Penguin/Penguin Aust., $7.95 (TPB) The autobiography o f Truffaut, paperback.

Leonard new

in

Joris Ivens: 50 Years o f Filmmaking Rosalind Delmar BFI/Gaumont, $7.50 A survey of the work of political Filmmaker, Ivens, with articles and filmography.

Kubrick: Inside a Film A rtist’s Maze Thomas Allen Nelson Indiana University Press/Imp., $16.70 A critical guide to the films of Stanley Kubrick.

Polanski Barbara Learning

The Dream That Kicks — The Prehistory and Early Years o f Cinema in Britain RKCP/Cambridge University Press, $43.95 (HC) A critical history of the origin and development of the cinema in Britain.

A History o f Narrative Film David A. Cook Norton/Imp., $21.30 (TPB) A comprehensive history of the cinema designed to meet the needs of the introductory film course.

H ollyw ood’s Image o f the Jew Lester D. Friedman Ungar/Ruth Walls Books, $10.50 (TPB) The evolution of the screen Jew, from the silent Films to the present day, and the message of assimilation contained in most of the Films.

The Pictures That M oved Joan Long and Martin Long Hutchinson/Hutchinson Group Aust., $19.95 (HC) A pictorial history of Australian cinema from 1896-1930, which includes more than 300 illustra­ tions, many reproduced for the First time.

Reference The Best o f M G M — The Golden Years 1928-1959 ' James R. Parrish and Gregory Mank Arlington/Imp., $39.95 (HC) The credits, story and photographs from 160 MGM films.

The Australian Motion Picture Yearbook 1983 Cinema Papers/Thomas Nelson Aust., $25.00 (TPB) The annual almanac of the Australian film industry — who is who and what is happening.

Pictorial History o f the Silent Screen Daniel Blum Wattle/Gordon and Gotch Distributors, $19.95 (HC)

Television Ah! M ischief — The Writer and Television Edited by Frank Pike Faber/Penguin Books Aust., $8.50 Essays on script writing for television.

Television Monograph — Coronation Street Dyer, Geraghty, Jordan, Lovell BFI/Gaumont, $8.75 A critical view o f television drama through a series o f essays primarily on the British series, Coronation Street.

Film Techniques Writing Television and Motion Picture Scripts That Sell Evelyn Goodman Contemporary Books/Imp., $12.30 (TPB) Covers every stage of writing scripts for television and films.

Media and Education Creative Source Australia Conceived and designed by David Lyons Armadillo/Kingfisher Books, $39.95 (HC) In the style of the overseas publications such as Graphis Annual — a presentation of the adver­ tising industry in Australia, covering photo­ graphy y film directions and production, photo lib­ raries, illustration, design, special effects, and animation. Second volume.

Novels and Other Film Tie-ins E. T. — The Extraterrestrial Story Book William Kotzwinkle Sphere/Thomas Nelson Aust., $9.95 (HC) A picture book for young readers of the film story.

E. T. — The Extraterrestrial William Kotzwinkle Sphere/Thomas Nelson Aust., $3.95 The well-written novel based on the Steven Spiel­ berg film.

We o f the Never Never Mrs Aeneas Gunn Hutchinson/Hutchinson Group Aust., $9.95 (HC) A new edition of the Australian classic novel, now a major film. ★

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Shop 4, 4 Avoca Street, South Yarra, 3141 (off Toorak Road).

Phone: (03) 267 4541. Car parking nearby.

Condensed versions of the top Hollywood productions are available for you to show in yourown home. Titles include:

THE ROSE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK FLYING HIGH BEN HUR STAR WARS ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW THE HUNTER SHOWBOAT GREASE SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER THE FORMULA XANADU FAME A STAR IS BORN MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY JAWS Also available are cartoons. Disney films. Elvis, docum entaries, travelogues, historical film s and transportation film s specialising in steam trains etc Also a good range of older films including

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To HOME C IN EM A CENTRE. PO Box 77. G le n sid e S.A. 5 0 6 5 Please forward your listing of titles, prices and specials etc N A M E ----------------------------------------------- — .........................

ADDRESS_________________________ ____ ____ _______

or telephone (08) 31 2 3 2 0

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CINEMA PAPERS December — 575

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-------READINGS RECORDS & BOOKS-------132d Toorak Road, SOUTH YARRA. Telephone (03) 267 1885 We a re o p e n 7 d a y s a w e e k

J

BOX-OFFICE GROSSES TITLE

The Man From Snowy River Far East

go> 5T cr E

SYD.2

MLB.

PTH

ADL

BRI.

Total $

Rank

SYD.

MLB.

PTH

(9*)

(9*)

Hoyts 157,001 163,217

(9*) 94,062

(9*) 74,938

(9*) 120,573

609,791

1

(24*) 1,169, 295

(24*) 1,289, 002

(18*/16) 1,029, 111

(4) 38,051

(9*) 69,582

(7/1) 62,945

(5) 31,062

(3) 21,003

222,643

2

(5*) (6*) 139,653 172,981

(6*/6*)

(2*) 10,381

157,526

3

(12*) 161,488

140,032

4

113,824

5

90,954

6

73,874

7

(1*) 29,366

29,366

8

RS

Monkey Grip

OTH 147,145

Norman Loves Rose

GUO

(7) 49,174

The Pirate Movie

FOX

(3) 31,722

Lonely Hearts

OTH

(3*) 42,244

(2*) 48,710

RS

(4) 30,448

(2) 10,301

Running on Empty We of the Never Never Crosstalk

Hoyts

(7) 59,045

(3/1) 22,840

(2) 8973

(2) 9874

(4) 9435

(3*) 27,318

(8*) 62,793

(2) 5807

GUO

(2) 12,615

(2) 11,851

24,466

9

RS

(3) 9222

(2) 10,732

19,954

10

517,622

413,185

217,039

130,215

204,369

1,482,430

F o re ig n T o ta l 0

2,742,482 2,022,864 1,242,668 676,435

960,542

7,644,991

G rand T o ta l

3,260,104 2,436,049 1,459,707 806,650

1,164,911

9,127,421

A u s tra lia n T o ta l

(3*) 91,861

(3*) 83,830

(2*) 36,951

(5*) 112,747

(5*/2*) 114,966

BRI.

(18*) (17*) 617,241 722,890 (5*) 82,612

(5*) 87,234

Total $

Rank

4,827,539

597,446

161,488

(2*) 24,879

10,351, 318

11,721, 687

ADL.

(2*) 26,130

226,700

(3*) 36,012

185,710

(3) 8978

(3) 14,828

23,806

5,043, 116

3,617, 080

3,578, 371

34,311, 572

t Not for publication, but ranking correct. exclude N /A figures.

• BFigures o x-office grosses of individual film s

n ^ have been supplied to C in e m a P a p e r s by the Australian Film Comm ission. ° This figure represents the total box-office gross of all foreign film s shown during the period in the area specified. ' Continuing into next period NB: Figures in parenthesis above the grosses represent weeks In release. If more than one figure appears, the film has been released in more than one cinem a during the period.

a

-

-

(1) Australian theatrical distribu tor only. RS Roadshow; GUO Greater Union O rganization Film D istributors FITS - Ftovts Theatres FOX - 20th Century Fox; UA - United Artists; CIC - Cinema International Corporation; FW - Film ways Australasian D istributo rs' 7 K _ 7 Keys Film D istributors; COL - C olum bia Pictures; REG - Regent Film Distributors; CCG - Cinem a C entre G roup; AFC - Australian Rim Com m ission; SAFC — South Australian Film C orporation; MCA — M usic C o rpo ratio n of Am erica; S — S harm ill Films; OTH — O ther. (21 Figures are drawn from capital city and inner suburban first release hardtops only. (3) Split figures in dicate a m u ltipie cin em a release,

* Incorrectly listed as 4.9.82 in previous issue.

Box-Office

CINEMA PAPERS December — 577

Breaker Morant

PERIOD 21.3.82 to 11.9.82*

PERIOD 12.9.82 to 13.11.82

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Liliana Cavani

Film Censorship Listings

Liliana Cavani Continued from p. 527

present a point of view that may be different from one’s own. They can help you to understand certain things, about yourself and about others; for me, a film or a play always has a significance. ★

We couldn’t fill the streets with rubble because of the incredibly high cost.

You have to make certain choices; you have a measure for giving an impression of a given situation within the limits of what you can spend. We don’t have all those millions for making a film like the Americans.

Filmography

Are you one who is compelled to impart a message?

Not really. I do this work because I like it, not necessarily to transmit a message. It is an experi­ ence to make a film; it is also human and informative, because I usually make a film about some­ thing that I knew very little about, initially. So, in the first place, it is an experience for me. I learn to think more deeply about certain problems, about those aspects that usually are ignored. Then, of course, the film can serve others, as an experience.

But I don’t see myself as a priest preaching to people. I detest message films and political films. I

Marcello Mastroianni, left, and girl in The Skin.

make films about certain argu­ ments or themes because it is an experience for me. Maybe there are others who also find the film is an interesting experience; if so, great; if not, those are the breaks.

But three billion lire to have an illuminating personal experi­ ence . . .

2743.00

Film Censorship Listings

Angel Mine (optically m odified version) (videotape): D.

m, Joe Siu Int’ l Film Co. P/L, V (i-l-g )

Blyth/W . Sellers, NZ, 64 mins, Videoscope Aust. P/L, S fi-m - g )

For Mature Audiences (M)

Continued from p. 549

Axe (reconstructed version) (a): Box Office, U.S.,

Armaan: Sagar Art, India, 4251.00 m, SKD Film Dist.

P/L, V (i-m -g )

Battle Pixote (English sub-titled version) (b): S. Naves, Brazil, 3490.00 m, Consolidated Exhibitors Decision reviewed: Refusal to register by the Film C ensorship Board.

Decision of the board: R egister “ R” . (a) Previously shown on May 1982 List. (b) See also under “ Film s Registered W ithout Elim ina­ tions” (“ For R estricted E xh ibition” ) and “ Films Refused R egistration” .

Truck: L. P h illip s /R . W h ite h o u s e , 2550.90 m, Roadshow Dist. P/L, V (f-m -g )

NZ,

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas: M iller-M ilkisBoyett, U.S., 3072.16 m, United Int’l Pics., 0 ( a d u lt c o n c e p ts )

Blade Runner: M. Deery, U.S., 3818.88 m, W arner Bros (Aust.) P/L, V (i-m -g ) Brimstone And Treacle: Namara Film s/Pennies From Heaven Film s, Britain, 2358.98 m, Hoyts Dist. P/L, S (i-m -j)

Films Registered Without Eliminations

Bustin’ Loose: Universal, U.S., 2537.81 m, Film ways A ’sian Dist. P/L, L (f-m - g ) Croque La Vie: UPCT/Film s A2, France, 2880.15 m, Consolidated Exhibitors, O f a d u lt c o n c e p t s ) A Deadly Secret: Shaw Bros, Hong Kong, 2665.00 m, Joe Siu Int’ l Film Co. P/L, V (f-m -j) Demented: IW DC/Four Feathers/Sandy Cooke, U.S., 2496.13 m, Int’l Film Dist. Aust., V (i-m -g ) Der letzte schrei (16mm): Inter W est, W. Germany, 1031.18 m, Australian Film Institute, S (f-l-j), 0 ( a d u lt

For General Exhibition (G)

Despair: Gena Film, W. G erm any, 3264.17 m, Valhalla

August 1982

Conversations With Willard Van Dyke (16mm): A. Rothschild, U.S., 648.00 m, Australian Film Institute Food For The Sharks: Fotocine Filrp Prod. Co., Hong Kong, 2482.00 m, G rand Film Corp. P/L The Secret of Ninth: A & D Bluth, U.S., 2221.83 m, United Inter’ l Pictures Tracks Of The Rainbow (16mm): Gittoes & Dalton Prod., Australia, 636.26 m, Gittoes & Dalton Prods

c o n c e p ts )

Films, 0 ( a d u lt c o n c e p ts ) The Fearless Duo: J ia ’s Motion Pics, Hong Kong, 2523.56 m, C om fort Film s E n terprises, S (i- m -g ), V (i-m -g )

Fist Of Fear Touch Of Death: Aquarius,

U.S.,

2466.00 m, Regent Trading Enterprises, V (f-m -g )

In God We Trust or Gimme That Prime Time Religion: H. W est/G. Shapiro, U.S., 2605.85 m, Film ways A ’sian Dist. P/L, L (i-m -g ), O fr e lig io u s s a tir e )

A Trilogy On Tibet — Part II — Radiating The Fruit Of Truth (16mm): Thread Cross Films, Britain, 1371.00 m,

La controfigura: G. M ordini, Italy, 2617.00 m, Cinem a

Australian Film Institute

Cinem atografica Vascello, Italy, 2146.00 m, Cinem a Italia, S (f-l-g ), O ( n u d ity ) A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy: Orion, U.S., 2358.98 m, W arner Bros (Aust.) P/L, O f s e x u a l a llu s io n ) The Miracle Fighters: Peace Film Prods, Hong Kong, 2906.09 m, Grand Film Corp, V (i-m -g ) Night Shift: B. Grazer, U.S., 2825.29 m, W arner Bros (Aust.) P/L, O f a d u lt c o n c e p t s ) Offend The Law Of God: First Film s, Hong Kong, 2515.20 m, Grand Film Corp. P/L, V (f-l-g ) On The Run: M. Brown, Australia, 2880.15 m, Pacific Telecasters (Aust.), V (i-m -g ) Passing Flickers: Shaw Bros, Hong Kong, 2599.70 m, Joe Siu Int’ l Film Co. P/L, O fn u d ity ) Pink Floyd The Wall. M-G-M, Britain, 2605.85 m, United Int’l Pics, S (i-m -j), V ff-m -j) The Postman Fights Back: Paragon Film s, Hong Kong, 2523.00 m, Grand Film Corp. P/L, V (i-m -g ) Rough Cut And Ready Rubbed (16mm): Forum Youth Films, Britain, 647.23 m, Australian Film Institute,

The Weavers, Wasn’t That A Time?: Brown, Stoney & Lowenthal, U.S., 1645.80 m, Sharm ill Film s We Of The Never Never: Adams Packer/Film Corp. of WA, Australia, 3840.20 m, Adams Packer Film Prods

Not Recommended for Children (NRC) Amis — The Stick Of Death: Consolidated Prods, Philippines, 2441.27 m, Inter’l Film Dist. Aust., V fi-l-g )

Fight For Glory: Chao-Kwong Yong, Hong Kong, 2189.00

m, Golden Reel Films, V (f-l-g )

From The Ashes: Nicaragua Today (16mm): Inter­ national W om en’s Film Project, U.S., 636.26 m, Resource Action Centre for Latin Am erica, V (i-m -j), L (i- m - g )

Hanky Panky: M. Ransohoff, U.S., 2907.58 m, Fox Colum bia Film Dist. P/L, V (i-l-j) Highpoint (videotape): High Point Film s, U.S./Canada, 91 mins, Star Video, V (i-l-g ) Mother Lode: Agam em non Film s, U.S., 2770.43 m, GUO Film Dist. P/L, V (i-m -j) Mystery Of Chess Boxing: Hong HW A Int Film (HK) Ltd, Hong Kong, 2576.00 m, Com fort Film s Enterprises, V (f-l-j)

Return Of The Soldier: A. Skinner, Britain, 2797.86 m, Roadshow Dist. P/L, O f a d u lt c o n c e p t s ) The 7 Grandmasters: Hong HW A Int Film (HK) Ltd, Hong Kong, 2441.27 m, Com fort Films Enterprises, V (f-l-i)

Six Pack: Lion Shane, U.S., 2962.44 m, Fox C olum bia Film Dist. P/L, V (i-m -g ), L (f-l- g )

36 Chowringhee Lane: S. Kapoor, India, 3017.30 m, N.S. Prods P/L, 0 ( a d u l t th e m e ) To Hell With The Devil: Golden Harvest Prod. Co., Hong Kong, 2743.00 m, G rand Film Corp. P/L, V (f-l-j) Tough Enough: Am erican C inem a Prods, U.S., 2880.15 m, Fox C olum bia Film Dist. P/L, 0 ( a d u lt c o n c e p ts )

Winner

Takes

All:

Shaw

Prods,

H ong

Kong,

Italia, S (i-m -j)

L’aretino

But the cinema is like that.

Every film expresses the opinions or games of a director; it is like that throughout the performing arts. They don’t produce bread, they don’t save the world, they don’t save us from atom bombs and they don’t pretend to do these things. But they are a prime mover of ideas, of thought, and can

pietro:

L ff-m -g )

The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball: Am nesty Int’l, Britain, 2962.44 m, GUO Film Dist. P/L, L (f-m - g )

Sleeping Fist: C. Chung Lin, Hong Kong, 2438.00 m, Comfort Films Enterprises, V (f-m -g ) Strife For Mastery: Success Film Corp., Hong Kong, 2002.00 m, Golden Reel Film s, V (l-m -g ) Sweet Sixteen (videotape): J. Satos/M. Perfitt, U.S., 86 mins, GUO Film Dist. P/L, V ff-m -g ) Ten Tigers Of Kwangtung: Shaw Bros, Hong Kong, 2496.00 m, Joe Siu Int’ l Film Co. P/L, V ff-m -g ) 36 Secrets Of Courtship: Golden Film , Hong Kong, 2872.00 m, Joe Siu Int’ l Film Co. P/L, O fn u d ity ) The Willi Busch Report (16mm): Visual Prods, W. Germany, 1283.49 m, G erm an Em bassy, S (i-m -j)

For Restricted Exhibition (R) Angel Mine (optically m odified version) (videotape): D. Blyth/W . Sellers, NZ, 64 mins, Valken P/L, S fi-m - g )

1810.38 m, Regent Trading Enterprises, V ff-m -g )

The Beach Bunnies (videotape): AFPI/SCA, U.S., 85 mins, K & C Video, S ff- m -g ) Bedside Dentist (16mm) (b): F. Henriksen, Denmark, 1097.00 m, Blake Films Vic. P/L, S ff- m -g ) Bedside Headmaster (English version) (16mm): Palladium Prods, Denmark, 1077.00 m, Blake Film s Vic. P/L, S fi-m -g ) Bedside Romance (16m m ): P a lla d iu m Prods, Denmark, 1136.00 m, Blake Film s Vic. P/L, S fi-m - g ) Dawn Of The Mummy: Harm ony Gold Ltd, U.S., 2523.56 m, AZ Assoc. Film Dist. P/L, V ff-m -g ), O fh o rro r) Detroit 9000 (videotape): General Film Corp., U.S., 106 mins, Videoscope P/L, V ff-m -g )

Doctor Jekyll & His Women (Docteur Jekyll et les femmes): W hodunnit Films, France, 2523.56 m, Con­ solidated Exhibitors, V ff-m -j)

The Erotic Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe (recon­ structed version) (c): S p e c ta c u la r Film s, Italy, 2645.00 m, N.S. Prods P/L, S ff- m -g ) Five Elements Ninjas: Shaw Bros, Hong Kong, 3001.20 m, Joe Siu Int’l Film Co. P/L, V ff-m -g ) Gangster Story: D. De Laurentiis, Italy/France, 2633.28 m, Video Classics, V ff-m -g ) Gli amori impuri di Melody (Melody in Love) (video­ tape): Not shown, Italy, 94 mins, A.M. Alessi Film s & Video, S ff- m -g ) Golden Gate Payoff (p re -c e n s o r cut version) (videotape): Not shown, U.S., 52 mins, 14th M andolin P/L, S ff- m -g ) Harlis (16mm): Constantin Films, W. Germany, 877.60 m, Australian Film Institute, S fi-m -j), O fa d u lt c o n c e p ts )

Hell Night: I. Yablans/B. Curtis, U.S., 2770.00 m, Roadshow Dist. P/L, V ff-m -g )

Hell Night (videotape): I. Yablans/B. Curtis, U.S., 98 mins, Video Classics, V ff-m -g ) Hex vs Witchcraft: Shaw Bros, Hong Kong, 2715.57 m, Joe Siu Int’l Film Co. P/L, S ff- m -g )

II decamerone

proibito

(Forbidden

Decameron)

(videotape) (d): C. Infasselli, Italy, 93 mins, A.M. Alessi Film s & Video, S ff- m -g ) II giudice e la minorenne: Oscar Film, Italy, 2221.83 m, Cinem a Italia, S fi-m -g ), V fi-m -g ) lisa de belva del deserto (videotape). W. Brody, U.S., 87 mins, A.M. Alessi Films & Video, S fi-m -g ), V ff-m -g ) Linda Lovelace For President (videotape): General Film Corp., U.S., 95 mins, Video Classics, S ff-m -g ), L ff-m -g )

1961 Incontro notturno* 1962 L’evento* *Short films produced for a diplom a a t th e C e n tro S p e rim e n tale di C inem atografia in Rom e.

1963 Storia del III Reich A docum entary for Italian television.

1963 L’età di Stalin 1964 La casa in Italia D ocum entary in fo u r parts.

1963 Philippe Petain: processo a Vichy (Philippe Petain: Trial at Vichy) 1965 La donna nella resistenza (Women in the Resistance) 1965 Cesu mio fratello (Jesus, My Brother) 1965 II giorno della pace (The Day o f the Peace) 1966 Francesco d’Assisi C avani’s first feature film for tele­ vision in two episodes.

1968 Galileo 1969 I cannibali (The Cannibals) 1971 L’ospite (The Guest, the Host) 1974 Milarepa 1974 II portiere di notte (Night Porter) 1977 Al di la del bene e del male (Beyond Good and Evil) 1981 La pelle (The Skin) 1982 Oltre la porta (Beyond the Door)

Trapped:

(videotape): Manson Int’ l, U.S., 91 mins, GUO Film Dist. P/L, V ff- m -g ) (a) Previously shown on July 1982 List. (b) Previously shown on O ctober 1972 List. (c) Previously shown on May 1982 List as “ Never On Friday” (d) Previously shown on June 1973 List. (e) Previously shown on April 1982 List. (f) Previously shown on May 1982 List.

Special condition: That the film w ill be exhibited only at the Second Comm onwealth Film Festival in Brisbane between O ctober 3-10, 1982 and then exported.

Beyond Reasonable Doubt. Endeavour Prods, NZ, 2853.00 m, Comm onwealth Film Festival Crystal Gazing (16mm): L. Mulvey/P. W ollen, Britain, 987.00 m, Comm onwealth Film Festival Les beaux souvenirs: F. M ankiewicz, Canada, 3100.00 m, Comm onwealth Film Festival Love Brewed In The African Pot: K. Ansah, Ghana, 3429.00 m. Comm onwealth Film Festival The Red Bowmen (short version) (16mm): C. Owen, PNG, 636.00 m, Comm onwealth Film Festival Traveller (16mm): M. W illiam s, Britain, 877.00 m, Com ­ m onwealth Film Festival

Films Registered With Eliminations For Restricted Exhibition (R) Alice In Wonderland (videotape) (a): W. Osco, U.S., 75 mins, Video Classics, S ff- m - g ) Reason for deletions: S fi-h -g ) Amanda By Night: N. W escott, U.S., 2194.00 m, AZ Assoc. Film Dist. P/L, S ff- m -g ) Deletions: 4 metres (9 secs) Reason for deletions: S fi-h -g ) The Master & Ms Johnson (reconstructed pre-censor cut version) (b): Belladonna, U.S., 1782.00 m, Cineram a Films, S ff- m -g ) Deletions: 11 metres (24 secs) Reason for deletions: S fi-h -g ) Prolonged Pleasure (16mm): Not shown, U.S., 570.44 m, 14th Mandolin P/L, S ff- m - g ) Deletions: 0.5 metres (3 secs) Reason for deletions: S fi-h -g ) Soft Places (reconstructed version) (c): W. Dancer, U.S., 1617.50 m, Cineram a Films, S ff- m - g ) Deletions: 1.5 metres (3 secs) Reason for deletions: S fi-h -g ) (a) Previously shown on Novem ber 1981 List. (b) Previously shown on January 1982 List. (c) Previously shown on March 1982 List.

Loose Shoes: J. Chernoff, U.S., 1728.09 m, Video Classics, L ff-m -g ), O fs e x u a l a llu s io n s ) Marianna: Century Motion Pic. Prod., Hong Kong, 2386.41 m, Golden Reel Films, V fi-m -g ), O fa d u lt

Films Refused Registration

c o n c e p ts )

Fringe Benefits (pre-censor cut version), Pendulous

Naughty

Blue Knickers. A G C /M M P , F ra n c e , 2496.13 m, Consolidated Exhibitors, S ff- m -g ) Bee Revenge: Not shown, Hong Kong, 2523.56 m, Com fort Film s Enterprises, V ff-m -g )

Queen

Scheherezade One Thousand And One Erotic Nights: Essex Pics, U.S., 2112.11 m, Regent Trading Enterprises, S ff- m -g )

Prod, U.S., 2008.00 m, Impact Films, S (f-h -g )

Fringe Benefits (videotape): Pendulous Prod., U.S., 76 mins, Video Classics, S ff- h - g ) House Of Hookers (reconstructed version) (16mm): R. Evans, U.S., 563.00 m, 14th M andolin P/L, S fi-h -g ), O f s e x u a l v io le n c e )

The Joy Of Letting Go (videotape): Sum m er Brown

SLIP (videotape): H. Goldfarb, U.S., 86 mins, K & C

Prods, U.S., 37 mins, Int’l Video P/L, S fi-h -g )

Video, S (i-m -j)

Legend Of Lady Blue (pre-censor cut version): J.

Story Of Taxi Dancers: Golden Film (Lui Chi) Co.,

Byron, U.S., 84 mins, The House of Dare P/L, S ff- h - g )

Hong Kong, 2770.43 m, Joe Siu Int’l Film Co. P/L,

Los Violadores Del Amanecer (videotape). J. De La

S fi-m -g ), V fi-m -g )

Fuente, Spain, 88 mins, Cataluña Prods, O f s e x u a l

Suckers (reconstructed pre-censor cut version) (e): E. Everett, U.S., 1837.81 m, 14th Mandolin P/L, S ff- m -g ) Lispenard, U.S., 2245.70 m, Regent Trading En’ prises, S ff-m -g ) Taxi Zum Klo (reconstructed version) (f): Ripploh, Schier, Straub, W. G erm any, 2496.13 m, Crystal Film Corp. P/L, S fi-m -j), O f a d u lt c o n c e p t s ) Tender Loving Care: D. Edmonds, U.S., 2331.58 m, Video Classics, S ff- m -g )

The Tale Of Tiffany Lust: A.

v io le n c e )

Mad

Foxes:

2203.00

P. W oodyard, Spain/W . G erm any, m, Filmways A 'sian Dist. P/L, V fi-h -g )

Mystique (pre-censor cut version): R. Norman, U.S., 2286.82 m, Impact Films, S ff- h - g ) Nympho Cycler (videotape): Valeo Prods, U.S., 58 mins, Intercontinental Video P/L, S fi- h - g ) Star Babe (pre-censor cut version): Superbitch Prod., U.S., 1580.00 m, The House of Dare P/L, S ff- h -g ).

CINEMA PAPERS December — 579

The Biography Industry

The Biography Industry Continued from p. 532

divorce. Anderson quotes transcripts of Hayward’s story in response to her attorney’s questioning: with no further gloss, the record Lamour — is bent on adhering to the maxim: has the elements of high ’40s melodrama, “ If you can’t say something nice about a though more explicit in some details than ’40s person . . . ” She has some trouble accommo­ cinema would have allowed. dating Joan Collins to this principle when Despite the more sensational aspects of her Collins gets the lead in The Road to Hong Kong life — not merely being chased nude round the (1961), but elsewhere she is uniformly generous neighborhood by Barker but discovered in bed to her colleagues. She insists that life on the with Don “ Red” Barry (an actor so minor he Road sets was overwhelmingly wholesome and makes Barker look like Olivier) — and despite jolly, and that Bob and Bing were endlessly her chilling aloofness to most colleagues, in the engaged in japes that kept everyone in stitches.; end, Susan Hayward emerges from Anderson’s Dorothy Lamour’s was not a major career biography earning our respect — respect, that but it provided a good deal of innocent is, for the way she worked at her career, for pleasure. To give her — or Mr Mclnnes? — her unremitting vigor and professionalism in due, she does seem to remember who did what dealing with the often-ludicrous junk she was in her films. She has either a good memory or handed, and for an unillusioned approach to has been careful in checking the credits for the the Hollywood machine. films, so that the book is not littered with those Her name and fame were made in more or unnecessary errors that disfigure so many of the less lurid roles but I have a special affection for genre. She is genuinely interested in talking some quieter achievements: for Lucy Overmire, about the films, even if this remains on a pretty wavering between admirers (not at all a simple level. Her private life, once over her “ frontier spitfire” as Anderson characterizes early marriage to Herbie Kaye, was a model of her), in Jacques Tourneur’s beautiful western happy domesticity with William Howard, “ the most beautiful man [she] had ever seen, in or out of motion pictures.” From Howard Hughes she merely received roses; nice girl that she was, she turned down his dinner invitations. nice girl” is probably not the phrase that leaps to mind in relation to SUSAN HAYWARD but, as Christopher P. Anderson tells her story (published by the same firm in the same year as Dorothy Lamour’s), she lived her life, if not endear­ ingly, at least consistently. From the povertystricken Brooklyn girlhood onward (much more real hardship than Lamour can muster by way of drama), she was a real fighter — tough, demanding, humourless, loving sparely but intensely, genuinely courageous in her final struggle with cancer. When it was over in 1975, her doctor marvelled, “ Nothing in the medical literature resembles it. It was amazing to live that long with this type of cancer. She was one of the great fighters. I’ve never seen anything like it” (p. 258).

It sounds like any number of the characters she played in the heady days of her stardom in the 1940s and ’50s: the woman destroyed by drink in Smash-Up (1947); the girl who “ loved not wisely but too well” — there was a lot of that about in the ’40s — in My Foolish Heart (1949); Jane Froman, overcoming disability to entertain troops in a walking machine, in With a Song in My Heart (1952); beating the booze again in I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955): “ Sip by sip, slip by slip, Lillian Roth hit the bottom of the bottle! Filmed on location — inside a woman’s soul!” the posters tempted us; and Barbara Graham, perhaps wrongly convicted of murder and executed in I Want to Live (1958). The latter, after four previous nominations, for the films named above, brought her the Oscar at last, with the attendant irony that “ now that she indeed had what she had been striving for all those years, she no longer needed it” (p.

193).

She no longer needed it, partly because she was now — had been since the late 1940s — a true star and was now unimaginable as anything else, partly because her second marriage, to Eaton Chalkley, brought her the sort of peace that had hitherto eluded her. It eluded her in a big way during her marriage to minor actor Jess Barker, a stormy liaison even

by Hollywood standards, a schism growing mainly out of her professional superiority and leading to a scandalous and acrimonious

A

580 — December CINEMA PAPERS

Canyon Passage; for the clergyman’s wife in Henry King’s I’d Climb the Highest Mountain Cnot a “ technicolour blockbuster” as Anderson wrongly claims, but a modestly charming rural romance); and the sorely-tried wife in Nicholas Ray’s The Lusty Men. But whatever the role, quiet or flamboyant, powerful or inane, she worked like a dog to give it conviction.

Anderson’s book pays discriminating tribute to what was best in her difficult life, and that means perhaps a dozen of the 60-odd films she made. Her last appearance — at the Oscar ceremony in 1974 — epitomizes that best: very ill, but exercising the determination that marked her whole career and exhibiting the star power she had acquired over the years, she was unexpectedly and unsentimentally moving.

"ayward’s co-star on two occasions was GREGORY PECK, who, without ever being especially interesting, has remained a star .for just on 40 years in 50 films.

Perhaps those figures are significant: in 16 of the years, beginning with Days of Glory in 1943, he appeared in only one film, in 14 years he appeared in two and in only four of those years did he appear in three films. Stars who began in the ’30s, in the heyday of the studio, received much more rapid exposure (e.g., Bette Davis had four releases in 1931, eight in 1932, five in 1933, six in 1934 and so on). The pace must have been killing but the variety of roles pushed at them gave them a chance to find their metier and prove their mettle. Peck’s career is altogether more stately as befits his very earnest persona; it gives the impression of being very carefully moulded around a limited range of responses. as he moves from one prestige production to another, doing time opposite the two biggest women stars of the day — Greer Garson in Valley of Decision and Ingrid Bergman in Spellbound.

Peck is a star of the same kind as John Wayne, James Stewart, Cary Grant and (above all) Henry Fonda, but he is not really of the same calibre. Like them, he is essentially a “ small effects man” (unlike, say, such potential scenery-chewers as Rod Steiger, George C. Scott, etc.); but unlike them he doesn’t suggest reserves of dangerousness, anger, wit and sinewy integrity respectively.

With Peck, what you get is what you see.

Michael Freedland’s biography posits a real-life figure that corresponds quite closely to the usual screen persona of a liberal American — and the resulting book is a bit dull, like its subject. .As Freedland presents him, he has unexceptionable political and social views: he stuck to his guns during the HUAC squalors, but he can’t help sounding rather a pill from time to time. For example, in his advice to Tony Curtis to “ Stop knocking everything — Hollywood, the Academy” (p. 185), he sounds like one’s boring uncle.

The career is all there in Freedland’s book but the films are mostly dealt with skimpily, with a few exceptions like A Gentleman’s Agreement, The Gunfighter, Twelve O’clock High and To Kill a Mockingbird. Those are all good films and Peck is handsomely intelligent in all of them, perhaps above all in The Gunfighter, which is well-treated in the book.

According to Freedland, Peck yearned to play comedy. It is hard to see why: he is charming enough for William Wyler in Roman Holiday but his is scarcely a comic performance, and in his only other certifiable comedies — Ronald Neame’s The Million Pound Note and Vincente Minnelli’s Designing Woman — he shows as much comic flair as Lassie.

The Biography Industry

Universal features before reaching certifiable stardom in Stevens’ A Place in the Sun (1951).

In this she was very touching as factory hand Alice Tripp who, pregnant, gets in the way of George Eastman’s (Clift) ambitions. There­ after, she was rarely less than entertaining, especially fine for Charles Laughton in The Night of the Hunter, for Stanley Kubrick in Lolita and for Paul Mazursky in Next Stop, Greenwich Village. But I digress. Winters believes enough interesting things had ost of the major stars created in happened to her up to 1954 to bring her the 1950s either are dead, like unappetizing life-story to a halt with Robert Marilyn Monroe or James Dean Roosen’s Mambo, opposite one of her early or Grace Kelly, or else film so husbands, Vittorio Gassman. A threatening sparodically, like Brando, as to note is struck on page 497 with an epilogue be no longer powerful at the box-office. headed, “ To be continued, I hope . . .”

ELIZABETH TAYLOR began her career as a What is there to be said for Shelley — Also child in the ’40s and to that extent overlaps with Known as Shirley except that it is a wholly Gregory Peck, but her real stardom belongs to unworthy account of (half of) a lively career? the ’50s — that is, give or take National Velvet She offers an egomaniacal wallow throughout which remains her one indisputable star perfor­ — from the picturesque deprivations of youth, mance. For the curious thing about Taylor is through the Hollywood bombshell phase, that, though she has been the nominal star of through the Yearning-To-Act phase — omitting all her films since 1950, she has never really felt none of her star-studded (if you’ll excuse the like a star; she seems not quite able to take term) promiscuities with the likes of William charge of the screen with that effortlessness Holden, Burt Lancaster, Errol Flynn, Marlon that characterizes great stars, even when they Brando and so on. Her approach to sexual rela­ are not necessarily great actors. tionships is relentlessly vulgar, each new adven­ As a teenager, from National Velvet (1945), ture cutting at the crucial moment to “ A fire through adolescent fluff like Cynthia (1947) roaring in the fireplace, Waves pounding a and A Date with Judy (1948) to Father of the beach, Fireworks exploding” or some other Bride (1950), she never looked less than cliche for cinematic orgasm. In the name of smashing and at the time this seemed enough. love-of-life, she reveals a shoddy set of values The apotheosis of her beauty came with George in language of unengaging coarseness. Her ego Stevens’ still moving A Place in the Sun (1951). leads her — and she has this in common with As Kitty Kelley claims in her biography of most star autobiographers — to gloss over her Taylor15: deficiencies, to excuse her most unattractive “ Spilling over with sex appeal, she was behaviour. indeed the kind of girl American boys As for the career, she has some sense of dreamed of marrying. She had the kind of where the high spots were (A Double Life, A beauty that would bring all a man ever Place in the Sun), but the telling is so riddled dreamed of — wealth, fame, position. with errors as to undermine all confidence in George Stevens knew that, with Elizabeth the reader. In the epilogue, she writes: “ In this Taylor as his star, the audience would life journey, perhaps I’m sometimes vague understand why George Eastman [Mont­ about what took place in which year . . .” : this gomery Clift] would kill for a place in the sun disclaimer is presumably meant to excuse those with her” (p. 33). mistakes that derive from a lazy failure to check Stevens, that is, seems to have understood what her information as well as those that derive could be done with Taylor and that breath­ from a wilful blurring of time in her first 20 taking beauty even if she scarcely seemed aware years. Attributable to the latter are bits like of what was going on. how she was “ about 21” when she made A Kelley has a sure grasp of the high-spots of Kelley’s book is subtitled “ The Last Star” . Place in the Sun (“ about 21” in the sense, that Taylor’s career: Velvet, Sun, Giant (1956) and Surely not the last in any sense — others have is, of being 29) or the blithe absurdity of “ The Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), since certainly followed her so that she was neither roles I could have done were given to Jean which it has been more or less downhill all the the most recent nor the last in a line. Is she Arthur” whose contract with Columbia ended way. Increasingly she has thrown herself into even, one wonders, a star? As the looks that in 1944, almost coinciding with Winters’ arrival the messy saga of her off-screen life, and Kelley made her famous began to bloat, she perhaps there to play bit parts. Her sense of her own records with a nicely sardonic edge how “ The took more pains with acting though even at her importance in 1945 leads her to record how her perilous melodrama of dying and coming back best the effort shows. The book ends with her husband was mistakenly addressed as Captain to life became one of her most prized roles” (p. trying her luck on stage in The Little Foxes to Winter. In 1945? I don’t believe it.

146). She became, in fact, a bore about her mixed reviews. At the end of Kelley’s account As for the other sorts of errors, they are health and, indeed, about most things. Back in one feels an unwarranted tolerance for Taylor, legion: she recalls the earlier version of An 1950 she “ often asked [Stanley] Donen why he based on a certain likeability and survivorship. American Tragedy in “ the late twenties” (i.e., thought Nicky [Hilton] ignored her and found But perhaps such tolerance should be 1932) which “ Eisenstein had written and her boring” (p. 55). The answer is not hard to suppressed in the light of other truths: that she directed” ; she claims she co-starred in The find: apart from a certain generosity and cheery seems really foul-mouthed, dumb-headed, Raging Tide with Richard Conte (true) and vulgarity, there is nothing to her except her ignorant, mindlessly extravagant and self­ Joan Caulfield (false); she has Marilyn Monroe sexual appetite and that, of course, is a matter indulgent “ waiting in line behind Betty Grable and Alice for restricted circulation — well, fairly Faye for some kind of a decent part” in 1951, restricted. Beating by two Chaucer’s Wife of just six years after Faye’s retirement; and later Bath who had five “ Housbondes at chirche lizabeth Taylor’s career is poised she has Monroe cast as a schoolteacher in River dore [not that Taylor bothered too much between the great star-making era of of No Return; and so on. about the church door] . . . Withouten oother the 1930s and ’40s, when she might Interspersed among all this sloppiness are compaignege in youthe” (no problems here for have been made a real star instead numbing moments of self-appraisal (“ What Taylor), her sexual adventures comprise a of just a famous commodity, and was I doing with my life? I didn’t really want to sickening chronicle. Husbands and lovers alike the ’70s when she looked merely be archaic. a movie star; I wanted to be a fine actress, a are a sorry lot, though she is perennially gushy SHELLEY WINTERS, spanning the same responsible citizen and a mother” ) and dim and hopeful about them, even about Eddie period, has weathered the changing cinematic sententiae along the lines of, “ I have come to Fisher whose just published memoirs I have climate better. After a brief starlethood at know that at any given moment in life one has promised myself as a special treat not to read. Columbia, she was thoroughly noticed in to do what one has to .” Gosh, how true. ★ Cukor’s A Double Life (1948) as the doomed 15. Kitty Kelley, E liza b eth T aylor: The L a s t S ta r, Michael waitress. She then starred in half a dozen To be concluded next issue.

Joseph, 1981.

In spite of this, there is more variety in his career than one might have recalled — lewd Lewt in Duel in the Sun, for instance, as distinct from Father Chisholm in Keys of the Kingdom — but somehow it is all suffused in a rather monotonous haze of decency. The roles may have varied but Peck hardly seemed to, and this adequately written account by a reverent hack hardly persuades one otherwise.

M

E

CINEMA PAPERS December — 581

The Efftee Legacy

The Efftee Legacy Continued from p. 523 (31) Signor Apollo Granforte and the WilliamsonImperial Grand Opera Company Orchestra (5 mins, 1932) Tne internationally-renowned baritone sings “ Largo Al Factotum” from the Barber of Seville by Rossini.

(32) Lou Vernon — Character Songs (No. 2) (5 mins, 1933) Very elaborate short with Vernon as an Italian fruit-stall owner singing “ Italiano” .

Two-reel E fftee Shorts — O ne A ct Plays (1) Oh, What A Night! (14 mins, 1932) Excellent domestic comedy with George Wallace as an errant drunk. Also stars Marshall Crosby and John Dobbie.

A British print is held by the National Film Lending collection. Slightly longer print of Australian origin held at shelf number NB140 in the NFA. Dir.: Thring and Wallace.

(2) In The Future (12 mins, 1933) Love triangle farce based on sexual role-play reversal. Interesting concept, but very static and stagey. Stars Ada Reeve, Thelma Scott, Leonard Stephens and John Dobbie. Dir.: F. W. Thring and Ada Reeve.

The Pat Hanna Variety Shorts (made as supports for Diggers In Blighty at the end of 1932) (1) George Randall and Babe Scott in “ The Imposter” (10 mins, 1932) Corny comedy sketch and impersonation of a child actress. Two songs.

Randall was an English actor-aviator. Babe Scott was George Wallace^ half sister, and a well-known vaudevillian in her own right. Dir.: Pat Hanna.

(2) Joe Valli and Charlie Albert in “ Long Lost Son” (9 mins, 1932) Dandy actor applies for a job through a labor exchange. Valli appeared in many Australian films as a supporting comic, while Charles Albert’s career on stage stretched back to 1893. Albert had been on contract with J. C. Williamson’s for many years by 1932. Dir.: Pat Hanna.

(3) Lavender and Lace (4 mins, 1932) Em Kopke (tenor) and Francis Ogilvy (solo dancer) with the Ostend string trio. Song and dance in 18th Century costume. Dir.: Pat Hanna.

(4) Pat Hanna in “ The Gospel According To Cricket” (short lost at time of writing, listed in Everyone’s of 14/12/1932). Pat Hanna as a cleric, preaching the fate of ‘Australia’s Eleven’ from the pulpit. Dir.: Pat Hanna.

The Efftee Documentaries (1) Cities of the Empire Series — Melbourne Today (10 mins, 1931) First and best of the Efftee documentaries. Very high standard of camerawork

by Arthur Higgins, with skilful use of dissolves.

Commentary by Norman Campbell is somewhat flowery but evocative of the period. Dir.: F. W. Thring.

(2) Cities Of The Empire Series — Ballarat (8 mins, 1932) Standard program travelogue. Commentary spoken by F. W. Thring. Dir.: F. W. Thring.

(3) Cities Of The Empire Series — Sydney (film lost, 1932) Camerawork by Arthur and Tasman Higgins.

No print known at present. Dir.: F. W. Thring.

(4) Dear Old London (40 mins, 1934) A tourist’s view of London in four reels, shot by an English crew under Claude Flemming’s direction for Efftee. Includes an interesting shot of a Fascist march.

(5 ) E ffte e F ilm M a g a z in e S eries: “ The Wedge Tailed Eagle” (3 mins, 1934) A series shot by Bert Nicholas late in 1934. Only this episode is known to survive. Other episodes featured the koala, the echidna, etc. Dir.: Frank Harvey. Tech, assistance: David Fleahy.

(6) T a tle r N e w s r e e l S e rie s : According to Jack Murray and Bert Nicholas, about a dozen newsreels were made specifically for the Tatler newsreel theatrette in Melbourne towards the end of 1934. These appear to have been the last of the footage turned out by Efftee. Scraps of these newsreels held by the National Library include:

582 — December CINEMA PAPERS

Item from Tatler News No. 2 — Dr William Maloney, M.L.A. (born 1854, died c. 1940} gives his political retirement speech, in late 1934. single item from Tatler News, three mins long.

Tatler Social Newsreel — news compiled by Peter Newmarch of Truth newspaper and shot by Bert Nicholas. Features prominent Melbourne socialites.

Item 1: Social party held by Mrs Lou Connelly in South Yarra. Item 2: First official meeting of the Centenary Dog Club at Melbourne showground.

Item 3: Socialites at Ron Cameron’s Horse Riding School. Commentary by Peter Newmarch and Frank Harvey.

Several complete Efftee-Tatler newsreels have recently been acquired from the Harry Davidson collection. Details are unknown as yet. Items are thought to include coverage of the 1934 Eucharistic Congress procession and a topical item on a crippled model-maker living in Essendon.

The “Australian Educational Films” Shorts Australian Educational Films was formed as a partnership between Thring and naturalist Noel Monkman in 1931. Monkman used Efftee facilities to produce eleven shorts: Th e B a rrie r R e e f S e rie s (1) Ocean Oddities (11 mins, 1931) Life histories of Barrier Reef animals including the green turtle, beche-de-mer, stonefish and crown of thorns starfish. Script, direction and photography by Monkman. Narration by Thring.

(2) Coral And Its Creatures (9 mins, 1931) Coral forms, and the creatures that inhabit them. Visually rich item, but only picture negative held by NFA. Sound could be recovered from a release print in the Davidson collection.

(3) Secrets Of The Sea (10 mins, 1932) Microscopic life of the Barrier Reef. Sound lost on existing library print.

(4) Strange Sea Shells (9 mins, 1932) Molluscs, diatoms, and the unusual creatures which inhabit them. Sound lost on existing NFA print.

(5) Birds Of The Barrier Reef (9 mins, 1932) Rookeries on the Barrier Reef, with life histories of the gannet and muttonoird. Sound lost on existing NFA print.

The ‘M o n k m a n M a rv e io g u e s ’ (6) People Of The Ponds (11 mins, 1933) Microscopic life from the rock pool of an extinct Queensland volcano. Narration by F. W. Thring.

(7) Catching Crocodiles (9 mins, 1933) Life with the crocodile hunters on the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Narration by F. W. Thring.

(8) Nature’s Little Jokes (9 mins, 1933) Unusual and bizarre plants and animals of Queensland. Narration

by F. W. Thring.

(9) The Cliff Dwellers (9 mins, 1933) Life history of a primitive Australian native bee, found living in burrows at Red Bluff, Port Phillip Bay, Vic. Narration written by Tarlton Rayment. Direction and photography by Monkman. Narration spoken by F. W. Thring.

(10) The Winged Empress (10 mins, 1934) The science of beekeeping, the social life of bees, and their manufacture of honey. Narration written by Tarlton Rayment, F.E.S., and spoken by Frank Harvey.

Direction and photography by Noel Monkman.

(11) You’d Never Guess (9 mins, 1934) Micro­ photography used to explain some lesser-known natural history phenomena. The beating heart of a fly larva; the ways wasps store fresh food; water beetles which dive with trapped air bubbles to breathe under water; etc. Direction and photography

by Noel Monkman. Narration spoken by Frank Harvey.

Miscellaneous Efftee Shorts (1) Lord Somers — Speech (film lost, 1931) Speech on Empire trade made by Efftee for British Dominion Film Distributors. Shown at a special all-British program at the Melbourne ‘Athenaeum’ on June 5, 1931. Somers was then Governor of Victoria. This film was the first to be released by Efftee.

(2) Arrivals at the ‘Athenaeum’ prior to showing of all-British Film Programme (film lost, June 5,1931) The film included speeches by Prime Minister Scullin and Victorian Premier Hogan. It was rush processed and shown at the conclusion of the night’s program.

(3) Frank M. Forde, Minister For Trade and Customs Speech opening Efftee studio on June 2, 1931;

subsequently used to introduce the film Diggers .

(4 mins, 1931).

(4) Mr F. W. Thring Speech made for the first Efftee program, and introducing Efftee stars Donalda Warne, Pat Hanna, George Moon, Cecil Scott and Rae Fisher. (3 mins, 1931).

(5) Mr F. W. Thring (film lost, 1932) Speech opening the showing of the Sentimental Bloke, reported by the late Harry Davidson. As no member of the Efftee crew remembers this short, this might be confused with His Royal Highness — Prelude. This was the opening music for the George Wallace film accompanied by a rolling caption written by Thring, explaining the making of the film.

(6) Mr R. G. Menzies — Speech for United Australia Party (film lost, c. 1934) Made by Thring in return for Menzies’ assistance with the approval of licence for Efftee’s radio station, 3XY. No copy known.

(7) Efftee Contract Advertisements A large number of these were made under contract to the Robyns theatre advertising company. Includes radio personality Norman Banks advertising the Direct Supply Jewellery Company, and several ads for the Antigen B cough remedy.

(8) Film Sound Recordings Several of these were made on Efftee’s R.C.A. recorder for subsequent use on radio broadcasts. Several complete plays were broadcast over 3XY in this way.

(9) Test Films Many screen tests, out-takes and so forth were made for Efftee productions. These included the first Australian use of back projection (Campbell Copelin filmed in a train carriage with the background flying past in back projection. Test for Sheepmates, October 1933.) Efftee also made the first Australian tests of Howard Hughes’ Multicolor bi-pack color system in 1932. Troubles experienced with registration were not overcome prior to the folding of the Multicolor lab, and only tests were made. Unfortunately neither of these tests survive^.

A deleted musical item from His Royal Highness survives as a workprint in the Davidson collection.

‘Blooper’ reels are also known to have been made up by the Efftee crew, but none seems to survive. Trailers were made for many of the Efftee films, including His Royal Highness, Clara Gibbings, and most of the others.

Newsreel Items Pertaining to Efftee Filins (1) Movietone News Vol. 2, No. 46. Released November 14, 1931. This contains a brief item titled Australian Talkies a Fact At Last! . . . “ Gala premiere at Plaza Melbourne draws notable throng to see first all home grown movies.” The item, which survives at the National Film Archive, shows F. W. Thring and others giving speeches outside the Plaza on November 6, 1931, at the premiere of Diggers and A Co-respondent’s Course. Item survives in can A-006 V/A-034 (2) Melbourne Herald Newsreel No. 21 Released March 23, 1932. This contains an item titled “ How They’re Made — Melbourne: Newsreel camera gives intimate glimpses of F. W. Thring directing big studio scene.” The item was filmed by Roy Driver of Herschell’s Films while he was working as third cameraman on the ballroom scenes of His Royal Highness. No copy of this item, which was 3 mins in duration, is known to survive.

(3) Movietone News Vol. 2, No. 20. Released May 5, 1931. One of the micro-photography items shot by Noel Monkman in 1922, the basis for Thring’s offer of partnership in A.E.F. “ Looking At A Smaller World” . . . “ Mr N. Monkman, noted Australian micro-photographer, grants Movietone a glimpse through his powerful lens. Sub-title T. Magnified one thousand times under the eye of a microscope. This item seems not to have survived.

(4) Movietone News Vol. 2, No. 27. Released July 7, 1931. “ Strange Monsters In A Drop Of Water” . . . “ Movietone takes another peep through the fascinating lenses of N. Monkman, Australian micro-photographer” . This item survives in Movietone Library can A-002, V/A-012. ‘ (5) Australasian Gazette (silent, c. 1927) F. W. Thring and W. A. Gibson in Melbourne. Viewing print NA553.

Concluded on p. 583

Production Survey / The Efftee Legacy

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy

Sundowners Harmony Quartette (short 16, complete)

The Efftee Legacy Continued from

p .

Non-stop Variety No. 5

582

Lou Vernon — “ That's My Idea Of A Lady” (short 17) Peter Bornstein, Violinist (short 21, incomplete) Minnie Love — “ The Old Apple Tree” (short 12, complete)

Stage Shows Produced by Efftee in Times Resting from Film Production

Non-stop Variety No. 6

Collit’s Inn (1933) — also planned as a film Beloved Vagabond (1934) Mother Of Pearl (1934) Her Past (1934) Jolly Roger (1934) Children In Uniform (c. 1934) S.S. Sunshine (1935) The Cedar Tree (1934) Crazy Nights Revue (1935) The Oojah Bird (1935) Rope (1934) Streets of London (1933) — also made as a film Clara Gibbings (1933) — also made as a film The above produced in Melbourne at the Garrick Theatre and at the Princess Theatre.

Grand Opera Orchestra — Faust Overture (short 29) Kath Goodall — “ Mr Baggy Breeches” (short 19) Melbourne’s Chinese Orchestra (appearing here as “ Ting A Ling And His Rattling Good Din-copaters” ) (short 11)

Non-stop Variety No. 7 Marsh Crosby — “ Shanghai” (short 26, complete) Minnie Love — “ Couple Of Ducks” (first half only, short 13) Moon & Ray — “ Moonlight Saving Time” (short 9, second half only, followed by a clip from short 10)

Non-stop Variety No. 8 Lou Vernon — “ italiano” (short 32, complete) Sundowners — “ I Haven’t Told Her” (last half only, short 15) Byrl Walkley — “ Love Is Best Of All” (first half only, short 25)

Non-stop Variety No. 9

T he “ N on-stop Variety” Series These were a re-arrangement of the Efftee Entertainers shorts into groups of two or three for British release. The original shorts were sometimes clumsily edited in the process of re-arrangement.

Minnie Love — Chevalier Impression (last half only, short 13) ' Cecil Parkes Strad Trio (section only of short 3) Kath Goodall — “ Little Mary Fawcett’ (short 20, complete)

Non-stop Variety No. 10

First half only of Melody and Terpsichore (short 8) First half only of Moon & Ray (short 9) Ada Reeve in Aint Yer Jim (short 23, complete) Last few feet of Melody and Terpsichore (short 8) Ada Reeve in I Never Forget I’m A Lady (short 24) Small section only of Parkes’ Strad Trio (short 3)

Non-stop Variety No. 3 Middle section only of Melody and Terpsichore (short 8) Second half only of Byrl Walkley short (short 25)

Non-stop Variety No. 4 Grand Opera Orchestra — Carmen Overture (short 28) Minnie Love in Impressions (short 14)

Production Survey Continued from p. 559 TASMANIAN FILM CORPORATION CRIME PREVENTION Prod, company.

Dist. com pany ..

P ro d u c e r..........

D ire c to r............

S c rip tw rite r......

Length...............

G a u g e ...............

Progress...........

....................TFC ...................TFC ..Jack Zalkalns ..Jack Zalkalns Ian M. Berwick ............20 mins ................16mm ......... Scripting

(1) F. W. Thring — filmed speech made at Fox studios, Hollywood, September 1929. This short, now probably lost, was made during a tour of Fox studios, while Thring was finalizing a big film distribution deal for Hoyts. It was shown at the Melbourne Regent Theatre in October 1929.

Synopsis: A dram atized film about juvenile crim e. Sam, a 13-year-old from a good back­ ground, is incited to steal by a couple of his school mates. He finds it a traum atic experience. Produced for the Tasm anian Police Department.

FOLLOW THE LEADER Prod, company...

Dist. com pany....

P ro d u c e r............

D ire c to r..............

S c rip t...................

Photography.......

Sound Recordist E d itor...................

Prod, secretary ..

Prod, assistant...

Film Reviews Continued from p. 569 in bed, I can now fly” ; about marriage: “ the death of love” ; about sex: “ sex alleviates tension, and love causes it” ; and about the nature of immature love as against mature love.

In one wonderful, post-coital scene, Andrew and Ariel lie on the riverbank and wonder why it wasn’t what it could have been when they were young and knew one another as first loves.

They felt the sticks and stones, heard the insects and birds, and were dis­ tracted by the elements in general. The orgasmic moment eluded them; they return to their respective partners con­ siderably chastened. The dream has dissolved into the murky waters of reality.

All the other characters come to sim ilar conclusions, except for Maxwell and Leopold, who adopt rather surprising and uncharacteristic traits. While the rest become cynical and worldly-wise, Maxwell and Leopold opt for the romantic. In one

........................ TFC ........................ TFC ....... Jack Zalkalns ....... Jack Zalkalns ....Ian M. Berwick, Jack Zalkalns ..Russell Galloway ...........Ian Sherrey Mike W oolveridge ..........Pat Caspers ............ Peter Cass

Camera a s s t/g rip .................. Garry Clements G a ffe r......................................Rod Therkelsen M a k e -u p ................................. Margaret Pierce W ardro be/pro ps............................... Di Meddle S tills ........................................Jacquie Gardner Length..................................................... 20 mins G a u g e ........................................................16mm Progress............................................. In release Cast: lain Lang, Noreen Le Mottee, Joan Green, John Lavery, Brian Ervin, Don Gray.

Synopsis: A cartoon-style com edy which looks at facets of leadership in bush-walking and other group outdoor recreations. Pro­ duced for the Education Departm ent of Tas­ mania.

MAD MORRIE Prod, com pany............................................ TFC Dist. com pany............................................. TFC

stroke, Allen brings the playboy character (Maxwell in this film) out of decades of female exploitation in his previous films into a situation of sub­ mission and vulnerability. It is an ingenious comic twist.

The film has other reversals of fortune. There are constant battles between science and nature, which lend to detailed philosophical debates about the nature of life. Magic herself enters the fray, and eventually turns the tables on everyone.

A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy seems to go nowhere much in the end except into the woods. But like an old lover, Allen wins one over again, despite the resistance.

In other ways, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy can be seen as a development: as one friend said to me, the film is a lighter version of Interiors. It concentrates on the messy, poignant lives of six characters, and in this sense is a departure from the self­ absorption of his other films. But here he has made some of his characters too silly, and the ladies, in particular, suffer. They affect, in T im e 's words,

(4) Harry Jacobs’ Home Movies: 9.5mm silent films taken by Efftee’s musical director in the early 1930s.

Includes shots of Melbourne, the Palais Theatre Orchestra, Ada Reeve etc.

References Efftee Films The Coming o f Sound , unpublished ms. by Chris Long and G raham Shirley, 1978 Efftee Productions, Ina B ertrand, M edia C entre Paper No. 7, La T robe University, 1978 The Australian Screen, Eric Reade, Lansdow ne Press, M elbourne, 1975 Australian Film 1900-1977, A ndrew Pike and Ross C ooper, O xford University Press, M elbourne, 1980 Everyone’s, film industry m agazine, various issues 1930-1935 ' Film Weekly, film industry m agazine, various issues 1930-1935 I Find Australia, W. H atfield, O xford University Press, L ondon, 1937 Sheepmates, W. H atfield, Angus & R obertson, Sydney, 1931

Monkman’s Shorts Cairns, 1975

Escape

To

Adventure,

Noel

M onkm an,

Angus

&

Robertson, Sydney, 1956

Quest o f the Curly-Tailed Horses, Noel M onkm an, Angus & R obertson, 1963

Oral History Interviews and Correspondence

Also relating to Efftee Films:

Non-stop Variety No. 2

(3) Now You’re Talking (Film Australia, 1978) Compila­ tion film on Australian Cinema in the 1930s. Many clips from Efftee productions.

Over And Ujtder The Great Barrier Reef, Kitty M onkm an,

Sundowners — “ Apple Blossom Time” (short 15, first half) Kath Goodall — “ Widows” (short 18, complete) Parkes Strad Trio — “ Zigeunerweisen” (section only of short 3)

Non-stop Variety No. 1

(2) Alan Mill in Hollywood — test film on Mitchell gear featuring Alan Mill, late 1930 (silent). Held by Mill’s son in Sydney.

Patricia M inchin, Bert Nicholas, Alan S tuart, Jack M urray, Noel (Boyd) G ourlay, Thelm a Scott, Ron Shand, Kitty M onkm an, H arry Jacobs, H erbert Sanderson, K ath­ leen Goodall.

The N ational Film Archive, Ray E dm ondson, Karen Foley, The Victorian A rts C entre’s Perform ing A rts M useum , Frank Van Straten.

The late H arry D avidson, Clive Sowry (for N .Z. Censorship lists), Peter W olfenden, G raham Shirley. ★

P ro d u ce r........................................................DonAnderson “ WHO’S RUNNING THIS Director.................................................... Damian Brown SCHOOL?” Scriptw riter...................................Daryl Peebles C a m e ra ....................................................... Chris Morgan Prod, com pany............................................. TFC Camera a s s t.............................................. Adam Kropinski Dist. com pany...............................................TFC Sound............................................... Ian Sherrey P ro d u ce r..................................... Jack Zalkalns Prod, assistant................................ Peter Cass D ire cto r....................................... Jack Zalkalns C o ntinuity......................................... Lin Arnott S c rip tw rite r.................................... John Honey E d itor....................................Mike W oolveridge Length..................................................... 25 mins Asst E d itor................................................Debbie Regan G a u g e .........................................................16mm Sound m ix e r................................................Peter M cKinley Progress................................................ Scripting Length......................... ........................ 12 mins Synopsis: A com edy about a day in the life G a u g e ........................................................16mm of a woman principal. She knows that on this P rogress................................. Post-production particular day she has three potentiailyCast: Lindsay Arnold. Geoff Collis and Bill problem atic situations which she is likely to Longo. have to handle. She is not really expecting Synopsis: This film illustrates many of the all the others. Designed prim arily as a dis­ serious hazards that exist in the autom otive cussion film for principals and other relevant industry. Produced for the Tasmanian parties. Produced for the Education Depart­ Department of Labour and Industry. ment of Tasmania.

unfortunate “ wild ringlets and neurotic stammers” .

Perhaps one of the problems of the film is that it moves away from the territory Allen describes in an inter­ view — the territory which concerns itself with trying “ to live a decent life amidst all the junk of contemporary culture — the temptations, the seductions. So how do you keep from selling out?”

S tardust M em ories had nearly everyone selling out, and proved too much a cross for the cinema audience.

People were not used to being con­ fronted with themselves, and refused to accept the film as the masterpiece it was.

Even Manhattan, as Scott Murray wrote in C in e m a P a p e r s ' , concerned itself with more than the failure of love. It explored the failed literary ambitions of its characters, and sensed they were indicative of the West’s greater failing.

A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy seems to be almost purely about failed

love, except that some of the charac­ ters have the saving grace of learning wisdom.

Hopefully, having got A Mid­ summer Night’s Sex Comedy out of his system, Allen will return to the fray, where he tackled not only one’s sense of fun but one’s sense of the poignancy of the times. ★ A Midsummer N ight’s Sex Comedy: Directed by: W oody Allen. Producer: Robert G reenhut. Executive producer: Charles H. Joffe. A ssociate producer: M ichael Peyser. Screenplay: W oody Allen.

D irector o f photography: G ordon Willis.

E ditor: Susan E. M orse. P roduction designer: Mel Bourne. Music: extracts from the work o f Felix M endelssohn. Sound recordists: Jam es Sabat, Frank G raziadei.

Cast: W oody Allen (Andrew), Mia Farrow (A riel), Jose F errer (L eopold), Julie H agerty (Dulcy), Tony Roberts (Maxwell), M a ry S te e n b u rg e n ( A d ria n ), A d a m Redfield (Student Foxx), M oishe Rosenfeld (Hayes), T im othy Jenkins (T hom son). P ro ­ duction com pany: O rion. D istributor: Roadshow . 35 m m . 88 m ins. U.S. 1982.

1. No. 26, pp. 142-43.

CINEMA PAPERS December — 583

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Peter Tammer

Peter Tammer Continued from p. 520 interpretation of his events. He understood from the very start that we were making a film and that what I did, either by action or inaction, was an act of interpreta­ tion.

I was really quite worried about how Bill would accept some of the quotes. The one that freaked me out, when I showed him the first cut of the film, was about the face: that your face is a mirror of every­ thing you have been through, but how terrifying a face you would have to have to reflect all that you have been through. I thought he would take it personally and object to it. But he understood it, or seemed to understand it, as being beyond him and being as much a general comment on our faces and the faces we see around us that smile and pretend it is all all right when it is terrible!

Why did you reject the idea of using archival footage?

I did go to the War Memorial in Canberra, and searched through the war footage, but what I found looked too pretty and clean to be intercut into that story. It would have looked like comic relief. The soldiers appeared too well dressed.

Apparently Film Victoria has given you some money to promote “Journey” . What plans have you for it?

The Australian Film Institute has not offered any reasonable season at the L ongford or anywhere else, so we hired the Hawthorn Town Hall and ran the film there for two nights. Owing to the terrible acoustics and the diffi­ culty people had understanding the dialogue, I feel we will have to try and find another way of showing the film.

Pat Longmore has a plan to dis­ tribute the film throughout Aus­ tralia basing the marketing on the network of RSL clubs and other organizations which may be inter­ ested. This plan is largely why Film Victoria has loaned us promotion money.

We believe that distribution does not have to be a loss to the film­ maker or production company, unless you get yourself into the hands of the conventional distri­ butors and exhibitors, where for many films the certainty is that very little money received at the box-office will come back to the producer.

We are also offering the film for hire through Cineaction to any interested organizations, societies, clubs or colleges. Of course, at the same time as all this is going on the film is being offered to television. I feel it is the sort of film which would make a wonderful special feature for Anzac Day.

The awarding of the Jury Prize at the Australian Film Awards to “Journey” must help its release and that of your other films . . .

The day before I received the Jury Prize at the 1982 Australian Film Awards presentation, organ­ ized by the AFI, I also received in the mail a standard letter from the A F I ’s V in cen t L ib ra ry . It requested me to withdraw most of my films from the Library owing to the fact that these films have not been attracting many hirings during the past couple of years.

This is despite the fact that this organization helped to squeeze the Melbourne Co-op out of existence, taking over the films from the Co­ op Library.

The AFI then proceeded to achieve far lower returns than we had been getting from the same films at the Co-op and autocrati­ cally raised their share of rentals from 25 per cent of hire fees to 50 per cent on the grounds that the extra share would be used to further promote our films and achieve better hirings.

Now, the AFI has admitted its overall failure in the most insulting way. What it adds up to is: as we have not been able to promote your films to any reasonable level of hiring, would you please take your films out of our library as they are taking up too much space!

This has had a very serious effect on me and, I am sure, upon many other filmmakers, who must be wondering what is the point of making films if the very organiza­ tion which is set up for, owes its very existence to, our filmmaking, on the one hand shows almost no interest or expertise in promoting our work, and, in its function as an exhibitor, prefers to show overseas films in its cinemas in far greater proportion than our films.

While on the one hand I am very grateful that the judges awarded me the Jury Award, I am also

totally disgusted with the rest of the AFI operations, totally sick of begging and grovelling for a reasonable release of my films in their theatres (which they have so far avoided) and absolutely dis­ appointed in their failure to market my films through their Lib­ rary, even to the level of a quarter of the hire the same films were achieving while they were in the Co-op Library.

I Future P lans What films have you in prepara­ tion?

I have four scripts in various stages of development. They are all fictionally oriented.

One is a feature film script, Summer Rain, which I wrote with John Lord. It is ready to go, though we haven’t any actors for it.

Two of the other scripts have conventional storylines but they are at the first-draft stage and are not ready for funding.

The fourth script is a very embryonic thing which is just at the idea-mulling stage. It has an avant-garde plot which moves all over the place, and characters who change roles all the time. The main character is on the run and we don’t know what from. We assume it is a crime and that he is searching for an answer to his guilt.

Another project which I would really like to get into pretty quickly is the book Without Hardware by Catherine Dalton, which gives a completely different analysis of the Bogle and Chandler, and Holt and Calwell era. I would like to do a portrait film of Catherine Dalton rather than a film specifically about Bogle and Chandler, or a film about the book. It would be a portraiture documentary, dram­ atized and non-narrated, with Catherine Dalton as the central

character. I haven’t been able to contact her so far, but I am still trying.

For which projects have you approached the funding bodies?

John Ruane and I have a script that is currently in the first-draft stage, Trial By Order, about a mass murderer and a boy who gets in his clutches, and the struggle between them. This has been variously described as depraved and obscene, and Murray Brown of the Creative Development Branch of the Australian Film Commission said that he would not tender it for assessment because of the abhorrent subject matter.

Have you that word for word?

Yes. I can show it on paper: “ Dear Peter, “ I am returning your scripts and budgets for Trial by Ordeal, as I regret the project cannot be accepted for assessment by the Branch. “ Apart from the technical problem that the script has not been presented in screenplay format, the abhorrent subjectmatter makes it difficult for us to accept such a project as a viable competitor for the invest­ ment of public funds. “ I regret that so much effort has been involved to date. Had I known in advance of your inten­ tion to apply I would have been able to warn you of the problems associated with this type of project. “ C ongratulations on your successes at this year’s Mel­ bourne Film Festival. [Tammer won a special award on opening night for Journey to the End of Night.] “ Yours sincerely, “ Murray Brown, “ Creative Development Branch, “ Australian Film Commission.”

They are not the only ones who have reacted to it like that. It is a gruesome story, but how can you make a film about a mass murderer without it having grue­ some qualities?

They are basically shit scared of anything that deviates from a very traditional and conventional mould. ★

| Filmography (all 16mm) 1964 And He Shall Rise Again 13 mins 1964 On the Ball 4 mins 1964 Beethoven and All That Jazz 3 Vi mins 1969 Pisces Dying 16 mins 1970 Our Luke 10 mins, col.

1971 Flux 40 mins 1971 Journey to a Broken Heart 50 mins 1972 A Woman of Our Time 28 m ins, col.

1972 The Curse of Laradjongran 29 mins, col.

1975 Struttin’ the Mutton 17 m ins, col.

1976 Here’s To You Mr Robinson co­ directed by Gary P atterso n , 50 m ins, col.

1981 M allacoota Stampede 60 mins, col.

1982 Journey to the End o f Night 74 mins, col.

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Class o f 1984

Igor Auzins

Class o f 1984 Continued from p. 543 offensive, drug-peddling and responsible for deaths; they paint graffiti on cars and then ignite them; they flaunt themselves behind police authorities who can’t touch them and parents who won’t; and they are, finally, sexually violent and murderous. They are pre­ sented as vermin; therefore the audience is made to feel that they should be exterminated.

These reflections on how the film works make one realize that, if taken at too realistic a level, the film becomes either absurd or offen­ sive or both. And yet, the film works. This means that it makes impact vividly, as so many genre films do, through realistic style on the surface, but that it communicates by contact with deeper levels of our psyche at the level of myth.

flip, afraid, frustrated, and collapses when his animals are slaughtered and displayed in his lab­ oratory. Berserk, he teaches by pulling a gun on the gang in class to make them answer questions correctly. This gets a laugh from the audience so that it will take the car-smashing chase of Stegman and his death more seriously.

The other possibility is that faced by Norris: help when you can, stay strong in attitude even when assaulted, take stances and, when all goes over the edge, mete out to the killers the horrors they had in mind for you.

In fact, the film is not advocating either possi­ bility but is showing the alternatives most vividly, enticing audiences to identify with both.

Corrigan’s madness is ultimately not an answer; but getting in touch with Norris’ rage and feeling empathy with his raging outrageous eruption purges us of terror, anger, and restores us to some calm. No student is likely to be massacred by a teacher who sees Class of 1984 — even though there might have been a danger before the film was seen.

lass of 1984 may be seen as a contrived symbol of the confrontations in our cities today: between teenagers and lass of 1984 raises the question of how adults, between groups with different much violence should be permitted on powers, between differing moral stances, between good and evil, between two our screens. Most people will be repelled more by the circular-saw experiences of violence. Thus the situations and slicing an arm and killing one gang characters are dramatically exaggerated for the member than by the subsequent sake of achieving the response, especially the gut or emotional response. Lincoln High and the Response to visual violence is often a matter of city are a ‘not-yet’ world like that of A Clock­ sensibility.

In theory, there is no limit as to what can be work Orange or of the pessimistic science fiction like Soylent Green, The Ultimate Warrior and presented on the screen., Picturing the removal Escape From New York. The school itself is an of an eye in a training film for ophthalmic ugly travesty of the bopper Grease schools; the surgeons is valid. A raven pecking an eye in a authorities are more enthusiastic about their horror film, or even the eye-gouging sequence surveillance techniques than about what they in King Lear, can be suggested or blatant. are surveying. The confrontations in classrooms There is always room for argument about taste, and cafeterias echo prison riots. Vengeful and about whether the director wishes to draw vandalism is the emotional blackmail power the attention to the scene for its own sake (leaving an audience gasping, missing the scenes which gangs have.

The stage is thus set — as in the western, the follow) or as part of a cumulative effect. One gangster film, and the police melodrama — for presumes that this is behind the “ gratuitous” climactic confrontation and shoot-out. And it and “ justified” censorship codings of the Aus­ tralian Commonwealth censor. It is a different happens — with more than a vengeance.

Two possibilities are suggested: Corrigan is experience to watch the only partially-

C

C

successful decapitation at the opening of The Exterminator and to watch the decapitation of the soldier at the end of Apocalypse Now. The justification or gratuity of violence does not depend merely on some standard outside the context of the film but rather on the standards a film sets itself and on the conventions of the genre. The killings in Class of 1984 come at the end of the dramatic process of the screenplay, occurring in a set of circumstances which deter­ mine the effect of explicit violence and thereby its suitability or unsuitability for this film.

There is a long tradition of stylized, ‘myth­ ical’ plays and films dramatizing violence, frus­ tration and rage. The styles of popular plays indicate the crises of a society and its ability or inability to cope. One remembers that Oedipus Rex is surprisingly violent but that it reflected a religious interpretation of fate, guilt and responsibility. Shakespearian tragedies reflect a belief in order in the universe and in poetic justice. But Shakespeare also had his Titus Andronicus (referred to by Phillip Adams as his Mad Max) which was followed by the blood-let­ ting Jacobean tragedies, reflecting the early Stuart period that culminated in the English executing their Divine Right King a century and a half before the French Revolution. Our con­ temporary melodramas reflect a confused, violent and frustrated society. deaths.

The value of films like Class of 1984, rather than of films like The Burning, Madman and other outline copies of Halloween/Friday the 13th, is that they put the audience in touch with its ‘shadow’: the potential for violence that is so easy to ignore and gloss over for respectability’s sake and to condemn in others. The feeling of gut satisfaction in the last part of the film is, to some extent, alarming when one realizes that one shares the hero’s outburst. It is also reassur­ ing to know one has a sense of frustration and rage that puts one in touch with the feelings of those whose life is, to a large extent, based on rage.

Class of 1984 is an exploitative actioner for middle-class, professional adults — and it works. ★

Yes. Gary Hansen [director of another culture isn’t going to work. You are supposed to have a photography] and I had consider­ response that, somewhere in her able pre-production discussion mind and in the life that she and about this. For virtually every shot her husband were going to assume we wanted to have a feeling of the on the station, there would have horizon, a feeling of the size of the been some different answers, but country, even though it is not an that just never happened because open, treeless plain. That deter­ he died. And that’s one of the mined the use of cranes, tracks and sadnesses of the film; that there lenses. Almost all of it was shot on was a moment of progress where wide-angle lenses to accentuate he and white men saw that what that feeling. happened to old Goggle-Eye was wrong. One of the white stockmen You seem to prefer a mobile single questioned whether they were shot, which encompasses all the responsible for what happened, action, to a static wide-shot and and another said, yes, they were. then close-ups . . .

That small statement is a huge step I don’t mind cutting away from forward for them. It may have taken 90 minutes to get there, and what is happening providing there it is only three words. But it is very is some good dramatic reason for important, and, from that moment doing it. But I do think that the Is one supposed to interpret on, a different sense of interaction cut, the close-up and the reverse Jeannie’s unsuccessful attempt to between black and white may have shot are grossly over-used. They are remnants, probably, of teleadopt her into white society as an developed, but sadly didn’t. vison-style techniques. indication that her attitude to racial problems is an inadequate Shooting Style How does it affect the dramatic solution?

The camera work in “ Never pace of the film when you tend to That’s right. You are supposed Never” is often complex and elab­ use single long shots, rather than to have the response that any sort orate: the use of the crane, the heli­ cutting? Do you risk a detachment of paternalistic approach to copter shots, the long tracking from the characters? another culture isn’t going to shots. Was the intention to accen­ No, I don’t think so. I think it work. You are supposed to have tuate the feeling of space and the probably draws you into the the response that domination of feeling of distance?

Igor Auzins Continued from p. 509 The film is actually based on We o f the Never Never and The Little Black P rincess, which is a children’s book written by Jeannie Gunn. It deals with the same year in her life but looks at the Abor­ iginals and the little Aboriginal girl rather than the stockmen. We combined elements of both stories to re-construct the feeling of the whole year.

We have used Bett-Bett as a character to advance our story of black-white interaction. She is a device and a character useful in our attempts to alert the audience to some questions about black and white.

characters a little more effectively.

One doesn’t use a long take when it is inappropriate; one uses whatever is appropriate for the moment.

But long takes do seem to be a mark of your technique as a director . . .

It is probably something that I have developed over the years. I used the same treatment to some extent on Water Under the Bridge.

I prefer to see the characters prepare the scene in as genuine a way as possible, and then just determine a method of getting the camera into the correct observa­ tion spot for each moment in the scene. I don’t believe that cutting is always the right way to accomplish that camera repositioning.

Are you happy with the final result?

I am delighted w ith the responses I have heard to the film, but I am not quite sure that some of the emotional or racial lines are strong enough. I think there is some ambiguity in areas I’d rather hadn’t been there. Still, one is never e n tire ly h a p p y with anything, is one? ★ CINEMA PAPERS December — 587

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