Week 10 - National Cinema

Introduction

“National Cinema” is a term used to describe films associated with a specific country. The term itself is hard to define and its meaning is debated, not only by film scholars and critics but investors and film funding bodies.

Factors when considering the nationality of a particular film include:

1. The country that provided financing;

2. The location of the production shoot;

3. The location of the production company;

4. The nationalities of the characters in the film;

5. The language spoken by characters in the film.

The film is not set in Australia, does not contain Australian characters or promote Australian culture. Its director is Australian, but we don't generally think of the oversees work of Australian directors as being "Australian films". For instance, did you know that The Truman Show was directed by one of Australia's greatest filmmakers, Peter Weir? It's a great film by a great Australian filmmaker, but it is of course a Hollywood film. Marvel movies aren't all made by Americans---New Zealander Taika Waititi and Australian Cate Shortland have both made contributions to the MCU---but we still consider those to be Hollywood films.

The reason we consider Disgrace to be an Australian film is because it received funding from the Australian government. But why does the Australian government use tax payer money to fund filmmaking?

A Short History of Australian Film

In the silent era, from film's inception at the end of the 1800s to the late 1920s, Australia had one of the world's most successful film industries. It produced the first feature length film ever made in the year 1906, The Story of the Kelly Gang, at a time when Hollywood only made short films. It would be almost a decade before Hollywood would start making feature films regularly. That it was long was The Story of the Kelly Gang's claim to fame, but were Australian films any good? Well, Ina Bertrand and Bill Routt claim that Raymond Longford's The Sentimental Bloke (1919) is "among the very best films made anywhere [in the world] before 1920" (in Moran and O'Regan, 1989, p. 20). While, like many early silent films, The Story of The Kelly Gang only exists today in fragile fragments, The Sentimental Bloke is available in full. It remains funny and moving for contemporary audiences in a way that few films of its time do.

The fortunes of Australian filmmaking ebbed after the silent era. Stuart Cunningham (in Moran and O'Regan, 1989) called the years 1930--1970 the "Decades of Survival" for the Australian film industry. Making sound films was more expensive, and Hollywood and its studio system had gained the dominant global position that it continues to hold to this day. Australia developed a talking film industry, but it was tougher to compete with the slickly-produced Hollywood product. Significant films and filmmakers emerged in Australia during this period, notably Queenslanders Charles and Elsa Chauvel, but by the mid-1950s Australia stopped making films, becoming instead a setting for "location films": Hollywood films set in Australia that were generally regarded as "undercapitalised" (read: cheap) and "culturally inauthentic" (O'Regan, 1987, p. 1).

Over the course of the late 1960s and early 1970s the Australian film industry began to be revived. Australia began to make films again, but these films were made by foreign directors. British auteurs Michael Powell (The Red Shoes, 1948) and Nicholas Roeg (Don't Look Now, 1973) both made landmark Australian films: fish-out-of-water "new Australian" migrant comedy They're a Weird Mob (Powell, 1966) and the visceral, sensual, poetic Walkabout (Roeg, 1971). The film regarded by many critics as Australia's greatest contribution to cinema was directed by a Canadian: Ted Kotcheff. His 1972 Wake in Fright was lost for many years before a print was discorvered and restored by the National Film and Sound Archive in 2009. Joyously, you can watch the film in full on YouTube.

In the 1970s, the Australian government invested millions of dollars in the film industry and 120 feature films were produced. This was known as the “Australian New Wave”. Many of these films were popular in the United States and elsewhere internationally. The government funding body, the Australian Film Commission (or AFC), was established. The government also set up the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Such institutions of the Australian film industry continue to exist (under different names and forms) to this day. The current Australian film industry is a legacy of this 1970s institutionalisation, an attempt to guaruntee a continuous output and avoid the "boom and bust" cycles that had previously characterised the industry when it was solely commercially funded.

Key directors and films to emerge in this period include:

Tim Burstall — founded Hexagon Productions and directed a series of popular sex comedies, including Stork (1971) and Alvin Purple (1973). Burstall often said, “I’d rather be frivolous than boring.”

Bruce Beresford directed sex comedies too, including The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972). Beresford has said his reputation with the critics improved when he made Don’s Party (1976) and Breaker Morant (1980).

Peter Weir achieved international acclaim with Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). The film was celebrated for its cinematography and mystery, though the unresolved ending infuriated some audiences.

Phillip Noyce was amongst the first class of students at AFTRS. Noyce came to prominence with Newsfront (1978). Critic David Stratton describes it as his favourite Australian film. It received the AFI Award for Best Australian Film of 1978.

Gillian Armstrong was another student in the first AFTRS class. My Brilliant Career (1979) starred Judy Davis and Sam Neill and received the AFI Award for Best Australian Film of 1979.

Fred Schepisi directed The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978).

Boosting the industry…1980s

In the 1980s, the government’s support of the industry became indirect through 10BA, a tax concession to encourage private investors. 10BA provided another source of funds. Some filmmakers argued the AFC was a closed shop, with the government body funding the same directors time and time again. 10BA was an alternative to get a film into production. There was concern the government would tire of funding films directly and the industry could return to its state in the 1960s. 10BA was seen as a necessity to sustain the industry.

10BA presented many problems, including bunching, where so many films were being made, there were not enough cast and crew members to support them. Those who were inexperienced were promoted to positions they couldn’t satisfactorily undertake. In addition, foreigners took advantage of the system. Lawyers and brokers became producers.

In his definitive book on Australian cinema in the 1980s, David Stratton described 10BA as a scandalous waste of money. Films were made that shouldn’t have been made and many were not even shown in cinemas. 10BA lowered the reputation of the film industry in the eyes of the government. It was abandoned in the late 1980s. 270 feature films were made in this decade.

Key directors who emerged in the 1980s include:

Jane Campion, director of Sweetie (1989);

Paul Cox, director of Lonely Hearts (1982);

George Miller (I), director of the Mad Max Trilogy (1979, 81, 85);

George Miller (II) (different person, same name), director of The Man From Snowy River (1982).

The term “Glitter Cycle” is sometimes used to refer to the eccentric Australian films from the 1990s. Directors of these films include:

Shirley Barrett, director of Love Serenade (1996);

Stephan Elliott, director of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994);

P. J. Hogan, director of Muriel’s Wedding (1994);

Baz Luhrmann, director of Strictly Ballroom (1992).

Other key directors in Australian cinema in the 1990s include:

Rolf de Heer, director of Bad Boy Bubby (1993);

Scott Hicks, director of Shine (1996).

New generations of Australian directors include Khoa Do (The Finished People, 2003), David Michôd (Animal Kingdom, 2010) and Ivan Sen (Mystery Road, 2013).

Australian Identity

Australians continue to debate national identity.

Australian language analyst, John Douglas Pringle, called the search for identity “that aching tooth”. Some argue that there never has been and never will be a unique and definable Australian identity.

But one element is common to most interpretations; the importance of the landscape. Most Australians live in cities, but they still think of Australia as a landscape. As we globalise, this will become our great national advantage, the key thing that defines us.

Themes in Australian Cinema

Common themes include mateship, often as a response to hardship; the Aussie larrikin; the Aussie battler; victory in defeat; the outback; multiculturalism and indigenous culture. Although the two latter of these themes are only fairly recently acknowledged properly. This may be something to explore further in tutorials.

World Cinema

“World Cinema” is a term used in English language countries to refer to films and film industries of non-English speaking countries.

The term is used interchangeably with “foreign film”, meaning foreign language or non-English language film. Interestingly, some DVD retail stores in Australia have categorised Australian films as “foreign”.

World cinema implies artistic value, as opposed to Hollywood commercialism. Although, the term can also imply a break down in viewing national cinema according to cultural distinctiveness.

Examples of world cinema that have connected with mainstream audiences in Australia include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000), Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009).

References

Archer, D. (2010) Australian Film (essay). Peace Lutheran College.

Crofts, S. (1998). “Concepts of National Cinema”. The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. eds. John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Pgs. 385–394.

Stratton, D. (1980) The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson.

Stratton, D. (1990) The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry. Macmillan.