Australian New Cinema

Australia was a British penal colony from 1788-1840, then in 1901 became a self-governing commonwealth with six federated states. They boast—as do other countries—that they produced the first feature length film—The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)—but soon production waned.  They produced only 10 features during WWII, and afterwards the country was used mainly for locations by foreign filmmakers.

New Cinema began with creation of Australian Film Commission in 1970 to subsidize growth of a natl. cinema by est. a film school and enacting a system of lucrative tax incentives to attract foreign investment capital to Aussie film productions–explosion of 400 films between 1970-85.

Characteristics:

  1. mandated to have indigenous casts and crews and treat distinctly natl themes
  2. many adapts of novels set at turn of century—the time period of the federation

WATCH: Trailer for Picnic at Hanging Rock

Picnic at Hanging Rock trailer – CC

often deal w. Australia’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule  (Gallipoli –enacts the World War I battle of Gallipoli in Turkey when the British send the Australian ‘diversionary’ forces into battle first  to be slaughtered .In  Breaker Morant, the leaders of an Australian platoon in the Boer War are court-martialed and executed for using the non-protocol methods the British had trained them to use. Both films suggests that the Australian soldiers are pawns and cannon fodder under the yoke of sneering British superiors. )

Often deal with injustices perpetrated by the Whites vs. the Black aboriginal pop (The Last Wave, Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith) –who are treated as barely human.

Ex. Roeg’s Walkabout (1971) starred Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil in a tale of a young Aborigine male enduring a cross-country trek as a manhood ritual. He encounters a young white girl (Jenny Agutter) and her little brother who have been abandoned by their father in the country also.)

WATCH: Walkabout

https://youtu.be/kAG-osKJv0g?t=737

Emphasis on “manliness” –strong feeling for male bonding and virile friendships–romantic notion of Aussie man as anti-authority pioneer (Crocodile Dundee)

Ex. Wake in Fright (aka Outback) (1970) Story of an engaged schoolteacher who leaves on summer vacation enroute to England but is waylaid in the Outback where he becomes involved in a drunken debauch which tests his manhood.

WATCH:   Trailer for Wake In Fright

Wake in Fright

WATCH:  clip – The Road Warrior

Mad Max 2 clip – CC 

WATCH: clip Mad Max- Thunderdome

 With closed captions

 

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