AUSTRALIA. FROM THE NEW WAVE TO GENRE FILMS – Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

In 1972 the premier of South Australia, Don Dunstan,
established the South Australian Film Corporation, and
three years later this organization produced two films that
changed the nature of the Australian film industry:
Sunday Too Far Away and Picnic at Hanging Rock (both
1975). The corporation was also involved in many other
notable productions during this period, including Storm
Boy (1976), ‘‘Breaker’’ Morant (1980), and Peter Weir’s
The Last Wave (1977) and Gallipoli (1981). Its success
inspired the other states to establish similar organizations
and provided an ideal environment for directors such as
Weir to develop a style of filmmaking that was noticeably
different from the prevailing Hollywood style. Many of
its films, including television productions such as Sara
Dane (1982) and Robbery under Arms (1985), were set in
the past and characterized by spectacular cinematography; character-based narratives; and downbeat, or open,
endings.
The best film to emerge from this period, Sunday
Too Far Away, was filmed on location near Port Augusta
in South Australia. The setting is a shearing station in
1956, and while it details the rough mateship of men
separated from wives and girlfriends, a sense of melancholy permeates the film. Aside from winning major
awards in Australia, it was selected for screening at the
Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Festival, and it also
received generous praise from British critics. While
Hannam’s film favored a low-key realist style, Weir’s
Picnic at Hanging Rock was more in keeping with the
European art film, as it largely eschewed a driving, coherent narrative style in favor of ambiguity and symbolism.
Weir’s film, which was based on Joan Lindsay’s 1967
book, was concerned with the disappearance of a small
group of Victorian schoolgirls who vanish while exploring the strange volcanic rocks at Hanging Rock, just north of
Melbourne. The film was heralded as evidence of the
artistic maturity of the Australian film industry.
The success of both films was influential, and they
were followed by a series of low-key period films in the
next four years, including Caddie (Donald Crombie,
1976) and The Irishman (1978), Storm Boy (Henri
Safran, 1976), Break of Day (Hannam, 1976), The
Picture Show Man (John Power, 1977), The Getting of
Wisdom (Beresford, 1977), The Mango Tree (Kevin
Dobson, 1977), and Blue Fin (Carl Shultz, 1978). The
languid pacing and downbeat tone of these films encouraged producer, author, and radio commentator Phillip
Adams to catalog them as ‘‘elegiac images of failure.’’
Bruce Beresford’s Money Movers (1979) and George
Miller’s Mad Max (1979) were tough crime genre films
and represented a significant change. Beresford’s film,
one of his best, was underrated by critics at the time of
its release. On the other hand, Miller’s film, which was
made on a very tight budget, struck a chord with audiences in Australia, America, and elsewhere. The film,
which made Mel Gibson (b. 1956) a star, was rooted in
the most elemental of melodramatic plots, the revenge
story. It was lean, violent, humorous, and had little
interest in the nuances of characterization. While some
critics condemned it, its commercial success resulted in
two sequels, The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max
Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Larger budgets gave
Miller an opportunity in the two sequels not only to
intensify the visceral spectacle of the first film but to be
more ambitious thematically.
The success of the Mad Max trilogy, in conjunction
with changes in the nature of government support for the
industry, provoked a rapid increase in the production of
crime films and other forms of melodrama. In 1981
division 10BA of the Income Tax Assessment Act offered
a tax deduction of 150 percent of eligible film investment
and exemption from taxation on the first 50 percent of
net earnings from that investment, providing that the
projects could verify their Australian credentials and
could be financed, completed, and released in the year of the deduction (changed to two years in 1983). This
encouraged a boom in production although, unfortunately, there were many substandard films as some producers, motivated solely by the tax rebate, churned out
movies that went straight to video or even remained
unreleased. As a consequence, the tax benefits were constantly reduced throughout the 1980s as the debate over
the nature, and level, of government support intensified
until a major review of film funding was conducted in
1997. The resultant Gonski Report, however, received
only a lukewarm reception by the federal government,
and a mixture of tax concessions and incentives for
private investment emerged as a compromise between a
government reluctant to continue large-scale financial
support and an industry still reliant on external funding.
There was also a steady increase in offshore American
productions during the 1990s with large budget films
such as Mission Impossible (1996), its sequel (2000), The
Matrix (1999), and its sequels (2003, 2004), as well as
the continuation of the Star Wars series. Many Australian
actors, directors, cinematographers, and musicians found
work, and sometimes fame, in Hollywood and Britain,
including Russell Crowe (b. 1964) (who was born in New
Zealand), Mel Gibson (who was born in the United States), Nicole Kidman (b. 1967), Hugh Jackman (b. 1968),
Geoffrey Rush (b. 1951), Judy Davis (b. 1955), Rachel
Griffiths (b. 1968), Toni Collette (b. 1972), Cate
Blanchett (b. 1969), Heath Ledger (b. 1979), Naomi
Watts (b. 1968), Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford, Phillip
Noyce (b. 1950), Fred Schepisi, Jane Campion (who was
born in New Zealand), George Miller (b. 1945), Gillian
Armstrong (b. 1950), and others.

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