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NEWSFRONT
MY BRILLIANT CAREER
LANTANA
THE TRACKER

Previous screenings:

SAFE

DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES
HOUSE OF MIRTH
THE LONG DAY CLOSES

THE SEVENTH CONTINENT

FRENCH NEW WAVE
THE 400 BLOWS
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR
BREATHLESS
CLEO DE 5 À 7

SUMMER WITH MONIKA
PERSONA
THE SEVENTH SEAL
WILD STRAWBERRIES

THE SHINING
LOST HIGHWAY
CACHÉ

SALVATORE GIULIANO
HANDS OVER THE CITY
THE CONFORMIST

SWEET AND LOWDOWN
'ROUND MIDNIGHT
ALL NIGHT LONG

LAGAAN

MÜNCHHAUSEN
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP

PATHER PANCHALI
SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
THE SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYAS

OSSESSIONE
VOYAGE TO ITALY
AMARCORD
L'AVVENTURA

AFTERLIFE

DANNY KAYE: NOBODY'S FOOL

FESTEN
MIFUNE'S LAST SONG
ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
HENRY V
RICHARD III

CASABLANCA



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The Australian film industry has flourished since the 1960s when the Labour government generously subsidised the Arts. That government was dissolved at the intervention of the Governor-General, the Queen’s representative in Australia. Nevertheless, the film industry was established, and many good films have been made.

In this season four films will be presented (by Carmen Callil and Justin Schlicht). They will be in chronological order, and each of them is, in some way, representative of Australian life and culture They are:

Newsfront - 18 April 2009
My Brilliant Career - 28 May 2009
Lantana - 13 June 2009
The Tracker - 11 July 2009



Newsfront (1978)

An early film directed by Philip Noyce (also director of The Quiet American and Rabbit Proof Fence and others). At the centre of this film are the natural disasters, a real part of life in Australia. and a newsreel photographer’s struggle to film these events as television increases its influence. It is set in the 1950s.



My Brilliant Career (1979)

Directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill this film is regarded as one of the best films to have been made in Australia.

The daughter of a poor farming family in the early 20th.century in New South Wales decides between her ambition to be a writer and her love for a wealthy aristocrat.

The film may be seen as a metaphor for Australia’s search for a separate and valued independent identity.



Lantana (2001)

Directed by Ray Lawrence (also director of the more recent Jindabyne) Lantana is best, though inadequately, described as a psychological thriller.

Of the four films in this season it tells us little about Australia. It is, however, a wonderfully observed film more in the European tradition of, say, Chabrol.



The Tracker (2002)

Directed by Rolf de Heer (also director of Ten Canoes), and starring a suitably cast Edward Woodward and the aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, The Tracker is a powerful and moving story which addresses the most fundamental, shameful, and continuing aspects of Australian society. The film has a wonderful soundtrack with music by Archie Roach.