Friends of Foreign Flicks

"Australia" and all things Australian

I just saw "Australia" with the fam tonight. Not a bad movie, considering the dreck that Baz Luhrmann has put out previously. Actually, when you compare it to "Moulin Rouge" and "Romeo + Juliet" it's pretty great. But, in the context of general cinema, only pretty good.

My point (and I do have one) is that while watching this movie, I noticed many many references to other (better) Australian movies, which in turn got me thinking about how much I love Australian cinema. It was more or less my introduction to independent film, so it holds a pretty special place in my heart.

I wanted to know if anyone here had particular favorite Aussie films and/or directors. Mine will always be Peter Weir and "Picnic at Hanging Rock." Every time I've watched it with someone, it's been a crazy experience, from the first time I saw it with my parents to a few months ago, when I watched it with my roommate and we both ended up yelling at the screen.

Re:"Australia" and all things Australian

indieabby88:

 

My point (and I do have one) is that while watching this movie, I noticed many many references to other (better) Australian movies, which in turn got me thinking about how much I love Australian cinema. It was more or less my introduction to independent film, so it holds a pretty special place in my heart.

I wanted to know if anyone here had particular favorite Aussie films and/or directors. Mine will always be Peter Weir and "Picnic at Hanging Rock." Every time I've watched it with someone, it's been a crazy experience, from the first time I saw it with my parents to a few months ago, when I watched it with my roommate and we both ended up yelling at the screen.

I've never seen Picnic @ Hanging Rock, but I'll have to check it out. As far as good Aussie cinema goes, I really liked Chopper and Rabbit Proof Fence. I've heard that The Proposition was good, but I haven't gotten a chance to check it out yet.

One of Hugo Weaving's pre-Matrix performances was brilliant in The Interview and there's a really good little dark comedy called A Man's Gotta Do about an Australian hit-man and his relationships at home.

I was thinking that eventually (when I run out of other ideas) I would do some weekly themes on various countries. Australia would probably be my first.

Re:"Australia" and all things Australian

There are actually quite a few notable Australian films.  The couple that come to mind readily are the classics The Man from Snowy River (1982) and the more recent Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002).

I enjoyed both immensely, particularly the Rabbit Proof Fence, which deals with the harsh reality of the plight of Australian aborigines under the British ex-pats.  Not unlike US history with the Native Americans.  I'd highly recommend either film for someone interested in Australian culture and cinema.

Re:"Australia" and all things Australian

seely:

There are actually quite a few notable Australian films.  The couple that come to mind readily are the classics The Man from Snowy River (1982) and the more recent Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002).

I enjoyed both immensely, particularly the Rabbit Proof Fence, which deals with the harsh reality of the plight of Australian aborigines under the British ex-pats.  Not unlike US history with the Native Americans.  I'd highly recommend either film for someone interested in Australian culture and cinema.

I love The Man from Snowy River. Banjo Paterson, who wrote the poem on which the film is based, also wrote "Mulga Bill's Bicycle," which I had a picture book of growing up. If memory serves, we've still got it somewhere in the house. It was a favorite of mine for many years.

Re:"Australia" and all things Australian

indieabby88:

seely:

There are actually quite a few notable Australian films.  The couple that come to mind readily are the classics The Man from Snowy River (1982) and the more recent Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002).

I enjoyed both immensely, particularly the Rabbit Proof Fence, which deals with the harsh reality of the plight of Australian aborigines under the British ex-pats.  Not unlike US history with the Native Americans.  I'd highly recommend either film for someone interested in Australian culture and cinema.

I love The Man from Snowy River. Banjo Paterson, who wrote the poem on which the film is based, also wrote "Mulga Bill's Bicycle," which I had a picture book of growing up. If memory serves, we've still got it somewhere in the house. It was a favorite of mine for many years.

My husband and I actually watch The Man from Snowy River this weekend because of this discussion. We both hadn't seen it since we were really young. It's funny how different it is now to us than it was then. It's still good, but we had all kinds of questions, like "how did Jessica's horse die in the storm?", couldn't figure that one out. Regardless, there is some really beautiful footage of the mountains and landscape, and we love horses so that's always worth it.

Re:"Australia" and all things Australian

leeroy711:

One of Hugo Weaving's pre-Matrix performances was brilliant in The Interview

YEAH!  The Interview is probably my favorite movie out of Australia.  And it's one of the few movies I rented totally at random without any knowledge of at all before.  This was back when I had slightly more free time and was able to rent like 10 movies per week for free at our public library.

The Mad Max series has to be the most successful and well known movies to come out of Australia (this is my assumption).  The Road Warrior may be my favorite action film.

Ten Canoes was a movie I received from the Spout mavens program and was quite a different movie from anything I'd seen before.  I recommend that one.  And another film that features aborigines that is pretty famous is Walkabout, a movie that I thought was good, but not the greatest.