Provides an introduction to the products and context of the new Australian film industry which arose toward the end of the 1960s. Traces the development of Australian film, in terms of prominent directors and stars, consistent themes, styles and evolving genres. The evolution of the film genres peculiar to Australia, and the adaptation of conventional Hollywood forms (such as the musical and the road movie) are examined in detail through textual readings of landmark films. Films and trends discussed include: the period film and Picnic at Hanging Rock; the Gothic film and the Mad Max trilogy; camp and kitsch comedy and the Adventures of Pricilla, Queen of the Desert. The key issue of the revival (the definition, representation and propagation of a national image) is woven through analysis of the new Australian cinema.
Preface
I INTRODUCTION
1. The nationalities of the cinema
2. The prehistory of Australian cinema
3. Representing the nation
4. The valuable territory
5. The big country
6. The Australian abroad
7. Reading the national cinema
II AUSTRALIAN GOTHIC
8. Origins
9. The gothic rural community
10. The Mad Max trilogy
11. The urban gothic
12. Conclusion
III THE PERIOD FILM
13. The AFC genre
14. Picnic at Hanging Rock and the literary adaptation
15. The period film cycle
16. Fred Schepisi's period films
17. Newsfront: the nation on record
18. Sirens: the parody of the period film
19. Conclusion
IV THE MALE ENSEMBLE FILM
20. Australian-ness and masculinity
21. The working environment
22. Sexual politics
23. The sporting life
24. The personal factor: between wars
25. Sons of Anzac: The Odd Angry Shot
26. Parabolic history
27. Landscape cinema
28. Male drama and the mini-series
29. Males and mateship in 90's cinema
30. Conclusion
V NEW GLAMOUR, NEW GOTHIC: AUSTRALIAN FILMS IN THE 1990S
31. The quota quirky
32. The Australian film finance corporation
33. New gothic
34. The rite of passage film
35. Australian road movies
36. Glamour, kitsch and camp
37. Conclusion
CONCLUSION
Filmography Bibliography
