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DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE AUSTRALIAN FILM?

 
 
msolga
 
Reply Thu 30 Jan, 2003 04:56 pm
I started a thread on this topic on Abuzz, ages ago .... Unfortunately endless outages meant that postings kept vanishing, not appearing. Shocked Evil or Very Mad
So, another try here:

A few of my personal faves are:

Lantana (fabulous!)
Picnic At Hanging Rock (though a wee bit dated now)
The Dish
The Year My Voice Broke
The Last Wave
Heat Wave
The Getting of Wisdom.

What are yours?
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 7,267 • Replies: 87
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Dartagnan
 
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Reply Thu 30 Jan, 2003 04:59 pm
Road Warrior (hands down)
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littlek
 
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Reply Thu 30 Jan, 2003 05:05 pm
I agree D'art, but I don't know much of anything else out of Oz.
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fbaezer
 
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Reply Thu 30 Jan, 2003 05:09 pm
Peter Weir is one of my favorite directors (or should I write favourite?).
My favorite Australian film has to be Gallipoli.
But I have a sentimental favorite, also by Weir, and originally a TV Film: The Plumber. Great social comedy. That story would have hit right on the nail with Mexican characters.

Another, lesser known, very good & strong Australian film is Ted Kotcheff's Outback (AKA Wake in Fright).

And who can forget that gallant pig, Babe?

Picnic At Hanging Rock has been on my must-see list for over two decades. Haven't got a chance, yet.
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LarryBS
 
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Reply Thu 30 Jan, 2003 10:59 pm
You've already mentioned some of my favorites, The Dish, Mad Max 2,
Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Gallipoli. I haven't seen Rabbit Proof Fence yet, but it sounds interesting. One of my other favorites might have been a tv mini-series down under, but I'll include it here, A Town Like Alice - I really enjoyed that. My other top favorites,

The Efficiency Expert (aka, Spotswood)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Walkabout
We of the Never Never
The Year My Voice Broke
Flirting
The Fringe Dwellers
Breaker Morant
The Sum of Us
Strictly Ballroom
Sweetie
Sirens
Children of the Revolution
Paradise Road
An Angel at my Table

others:

Shine
The Castle
Dead Calm
The Crossing
Proof
Romper Stomper
Ground Zero
Prisoners of the Sun

I think all of these are Australian or mostly Australian productions, but I might have missed one or two.
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littlek
 
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Reply Thu 30 Jan, 2003 11:08 pm
Sweetie - the dark goth film? That was an Aussie film?
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LarryBS
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 12:33 am
This one was one of Jane Campion's first few films, a couple of years before The Piano. Its offbeat to say the least - don't remember a goth element.
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LarryBS
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 12:40 am
Ebert on Sweetie:

"The acting style edges toward parody, the material is unforgiving of Australian middle-class life in the boondocks and then, pow! - Sweetie waltzes onto the screen. We have already met the rest of her family, including her sister Kay (Karen Colston), who tries to lead a relatively normal life, and her parents, Flo and Bob, who do lead relatively normal lives, by the device of denying their bizarre family reality.

"Then Sweetie (Genevieve Lemon) comes back into their lives - Sweetie, the spoiled daughter whose cute childish antics have persisted right on up to the onset of middle age. It becomes clear that Sweetie has always terrorized this family. In the early days (suggested in flashbacks), Dad spoiled Sweetie and told her what a wonderful little girl she was, and Sweetie, the monster, took his approval as an assignment to hold center stage in all family events and terrorize those who would not pay attention to her. In more recent years, grown obese, obnoxious and more obviously unbalanced, Sweetie has drifted in and out of their lives. Her return is like a family disease that has gone out of remission."
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the prince
 
  1  
Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 02:45 am
Not really a film - but I loved Bangkok Hilton !!
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larry richette
 
  1  
Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 11:11 am
There are a lot of terrific Aussie films. But my all-time favorites are two starring Judy Davis, whom Woody Allen and I both consider the best actress in the world today:

HIGH TIDE (directed by the fabulous Gillian Armstrong)

WINTER OF OUR DREAMS (costarring Bryan Brown)
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Lightwizard
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 11:27 am
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Lightwizard
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 11:27 am
deleted by author
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Lightwizard
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 11:27 am
I'm not too sure about "Picnic at Hanging Rock" being dated as it is based on a true story and is a period piece to begin with. Can't believe fbaezer hasn't seen this cinematic masterpiece. The new movie "Signs" owes a lot of it's metaphysical, enigmatic atmosphere. What's been name here is just about a comprehensive list of Aussie cinema and larry just mentioned what is very high on my list. I agree about Judy Davis -- ever since I saw her in "Passage to India," I've been drawn to every film she's had a part in.
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LarryBS
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 03:07 pm
Picnic is such a beautiful film to look at.

I forgot The Year of Living Dangerously, for which Linda Hunt won her Oscar.

Loved Judy's manic performance in Husbands and Wives, and she was good in the much earlier My Brilliant Career. That and High Tide were directed by Gillian Armstrong, who had another quirky one that was interesting, The Last Days of Chez Nous.
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patiodog
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 06:32 pm
Children of the Revolution (one of my favorite movies, period). But I can't say I'm an aficianado of Aussie cinema...
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dlowan
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 08:59 pm
Love Armstrong - and Children of the Revolution is right up there in my view, too.

Rabbitproof Fence is wonderful.

News something or other - Newsbreak(?) - Sunday Too far Away - lots more - need to think - a lot of then get made right here where I live, which is fun.
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sozobe
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 09:17 pm
Judy Davis rocks.

I would like to see "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" but I haven't yet.

Does "The Piano" count? (Lotsa 'mericans, but Jane Campion...)
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flyboy804
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 09:17 pm
My favorites would be "My Brilliant Career", "Picnic at Hanging Rock", "Walkabout" and "Gallipoli". I'm not sure that "Gallipoli" is the best of the four, but it is definitely my favorite. I can still sense the pain and anger I felt at the end when those young men were needlessly sent out to be slaughtered. This is coming from an extremely non pacifist.
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Pitter
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 09:18 pm
"WALKABOUT" where the the father abandons his two pre-teenage children in the ouback.
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LarryBS
 
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Reply Fri 31 Jan, 2003 09:41 pm
Sozo - Priscilla is fun and funny and touching, and if you like ABBA, you'll like it that much more. And the costumes won an Oscar that year (the dress of the lady who won it was made up entirely of credit cards.)

The Piano is listed on IMDb as Australia/New Zealand/France.
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