Australia

  • Bruce Beresford – ‘Breaker’ Morant AKA Breaker Morant (1980)

    1971-1980AustraliaBruce BeresfordDramaWar

    At the turn of the twentieth century, three Australian army lieutenants are court-martialed for alleged war crimes committed while fighting in South Africa. With no time to prepare, an Australian major, appointed as defense attorney, must prove that they were just following orders and are being made into political pawns by the British imperial command. Director Bruce Beresford garnered international acclaim for this riveting drama set during a dark period in his country’s colonial history, and featuring passionate performances by Edward Woodward, Bryan Brown, and Jack Thompson; rugged cinematography by Donald McAlpine; and an Oscar-nominated script, based on true events.Read More »

  • Peter Fisk & Bob Ellis – The True Believers (1988)

    1981-1990AustraliaBob EllisDramaPeter FiskPolitics

    One of the great unseen political epics of Australian TV, True Believers was an account of the Labor Party in the decade after World War 2, focusing on the towering political personalities of the day, Ben Chifley and H V Evatt, and their nemesis Robert Menzies. Starring Ed Devereaux and a host of other iconic Australian actors, the series was written by the great Bob Ellis and marks a high point in political television drama.Read More »

  • Peter Weir – Picnic at Hanging Rock [Director’s Cut] (1975)

    1971-1980AustraliaDramaMysteryPeter Weir

    Quote:
    Desire as persistent and intense as the sunshine on a bright summer day is what teases out madness in Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock. The objects, or goals, of these desires are disparate, though they all spiral out following the 1900 disappearance of three young women and a teacher from the Appleyard School during a trip to the small titular ridge on St. Valentine’s Day. The vanishing of these women is central to the plot, but Weir’s film is never as fascinated with the reasons for this absence as it is with the characters left in its inexplicable wake. Cliff Green’s script, adapted from Joan Lindsay’s novel of the same name, never goes about teasing what could have happened to these women at Hanging Rock, instead focusing on the wild cupidity that erupts in the surrounding community in reaction to the mystery.Read More »

  • Karl Hartl – Mozart AKA The Life and Loves of Mozart (1955)

    1951-1960AustraliaDramaKarl HartlMusical

    If you agonized through “Amadeus”, cringing at the depiction of a giggling buffoon and his featherbrained Constanze, shuddering at the underlying premise that God gave the gift to the wrong man for reasons we just can’t understand, then this film may provide you with a pleasant antidote. Filmed in 1955, probably in anticipation of the bicentenary of his birth, it gives a totally different view of the composer, and recreates the last year of his life on a more intimate anti-blockbuster scale. But though it is an engaging effort with many fine points, it doesn’t succeed in redeeming Mozart from the fictions of Milos Forman’s travesty, because it is itself a fictionalization that distorts in its own way the character of the composer.Read More »

  • Tom Jeffrey – Weekend of Shadows (1978)

    1971-1980AustraliaDramaThrillerTom Jeffrey

    A blood-stained cleaver, the hurried departure of a farm worker. A town with a lust for revenge…

    Quote:
    This Australian fox-and-hounds melodrama concerns an intensive manhunt for a suspected murderer. Polish immigrant Mark Gaweda is accused of killing a rancher’s wife. Heading the posse is police officer Wyn Roberts, who hopes that by catching Gaweda he’ll be able to live down an earlier tragedy caused by his negligence. John Waters, one of Roberts’ men, begins to believe in Gaweda’s innocence, and ends up defending the fugitive against his accusers.Read More »

  • Clytie Jessop – Emma’s War (1987)

    1981-1990AustraliaClytie JessopDramaRomance

    ‘Emma’s War’ is the turbulent tale of a young girl’s coming of age in Sydney during WW2.

    From OzMovies.com:
    Emma’s War is a 1987 Australian drama film starring Miranda Otto and Lee Remick. Clytie Jessop made her debut directing, producing and writing this film. It was completed in 1986, and released there in 1987-88. This was the last feature film for Lee Remick and David Cahill.Read More »

  • Pia Borg – Demonic (2018)

    2011-2020AustraliaDocumentaryPia BorgShort Film

    A true story of false memory.

    During the 1980s, claims of satanic ritual abuse ran rife throughout the western world, uncovered by hypnotic therapists and perpetuated throughout the media, including high-rating television talk shows. In Demonic, filmmaker Pia Borg delves into this bizarre chapter of history, examining the elusive line between fact, fiction and the persuasive power of the media.

    “Pia Borg’s Demonic, which investigates the mass hysteria which swept through the US in the 1980s, will have its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.Read More »

  • Justin Kurzel – Nitram (2021)

    2021-2030AustraliaDramaJustin KurzelThriller

    SYNOPSIS :
    Living a life of isolation and frustration, a young man develops an unexpected friendship with a reclusive heiress. When that relationship meets its tragic end, his loneliness and anger culminates into the most nihilistic and heinous of acts.Read More »

  • Julie Bertuccelli – The Tree AKA L’Arbre (2010)

    2001-2010ArthouseAustraliaDramaJulie Bertuccelli

    The Tree is a French/Australian 2010 Christmas film co-produced between Australia and France. It was filmed in the small town of Boonah in Queensland, Australia and follows the lives of Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her four children after the unexpected death of her husband Peter (Aden Young). The film is an adaptation of the debut novel Our Father Who Art in The Tree by Australian writer and performer Judy Pascoe. The film closed the Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2010 following the Awards Ceremony and received a seven-minute standing ovation] As well as this, The Tree premiered at the 2010 Sydney Film Festival.Read More »

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