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The women of Australian cinema are a complex and emotional lot. As the subject of this week’s readings, they are an important impetus in the plot of many an Aussie flick. One of the more famous suburban-set offerings is ‘Looking For Alibrandi’ (2000, Dir. Kate Woods). \

Some of the more prominent filmic incarnations of the fairer sex include the classic archetypal ‘fallen woman’ and ‘the spectator’. This film’s drama uses both, relying almost entirely upon the lives of three generations of Italian women, the Alibrandis, to drive the plot.

Firstly, the fallen woman, or she who has fallen from grace, features prevalently in the film. According to Nona, all three Alibrandi women are cursed, and all three have had connections to men that have left them unhappy and in some cases, shamed. This isolates them from their culture, as Josie observes during ‘tomato day’, and has resulted in them living unfulfilled lives. The curse is a symbolic tool used to represent how, as ‘fallen women’ they are suffering the consequences of social incorrectness, i.e. Josie punching Carlie, Nona’s affair.


Secondly, the spectator woman, or she who can’t take control, is used to much effect through characterisation in the film. Nona is perhaps the best example, having lived a lifetime married to a man who ‘treated her like a farm animal’, and being in love with another. She exemplifies the end result of the stereotype, alone and bitter. Christina Alibrandi seems to be heading the same way, clearly still in love with Josie’s father, but refusing to do anything about it. Josie is their antithesis, though, proclaiming that she will be ‘the first Alibrandi woman to have a say in how her life turns out’. She receives a personal saint from school, a symbolic hint that she may indeed rise above her present circumstance and reject mundanity. These characters move us and give the plot fuel for development and suspense.


Looking for Alibrandi is an excellent movie, and doesn’t just make use of only the aforementioned female images. It does well in showing viewers that there is a wide spectrum of female characters to be found in Aussie film.


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The mockumentaries churned out by the ABC never fail to provide fodder for endless cultural reference, and are well known for pushing the boundaries to crank up the ‘crack up factor’. However the ABC is also known for producing work with real substance, and the apple never falls far from the tree. It’s my hypothesis that mockumentaries like ‘Summer Heights High’ (Lilley, 2007) are often also intended to convey some sort of meaning at the same time.

Comedy has long been used in creative works to break the ice between performer and respondent, and Summer Heights High, the wildly popular comedic offering by ABC, is definitely no exception. Satire in its very nature is a genre that searches for and attempts to expose truth through the ridiculous. Indeed, the series is absolutely hilarious, but one could argue that the ratio of humour to substance is almost if not quite equal. To exemplify this point I offer Jonah, the break dancing Polynesian rebel who is one of the trio of main characters featured on Summer Heights High, and shall discuss the way in which the characters and their interactions are used to create a sharp sense of satirical meaning.

For example, when Keerin, an Australian boy, teases Jonah continuously, and viciously, he receives no punishment, and Jonah is assumed to be completely at fault. To his credit, he is shown to be clearly struggling to hold himself back from attacking Keerin during their eventual confrontation, and in several shots we see his expression as not angry, but hurt. Furthermore, his English teacher, Miss Wheatley, openly taunts him in front of the class, in a way that holds absolutely no comic value at all. Here, at these crucial points in the story, Jonah is not the antagonist, but the antagonised.

His teachers do not hear him when he speaks any poignant truth, because it is him who says it. Miss Palmer, the one teacher that sees his potential, and treats him with respect and trust, receives the same back from him, and we notice from the positive interactions of these two characters that Jonah develops in maturity, and is definitely not as much of a lost cause as the rest of the school seems to think he is. The scene in which he takes refuge at Gum Nut Cottage after his expulsion, only to be physically dragged out by Mr Peterson, is heartbreakingly raw, and quite out of place in what is meant to be a comedy series.

The show points out the disturbing truth that racial stereotypes still play a part in Australian schools, and more obviously the way in which some problem students need only the right kind of patience to help them change for the better. Through these examples of character and interaction, we are left without a doubt that ABC mockumentary has a conscience, and that it is alive and kicking in series such as Summer Heights High.
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Gallipoli- A truly Australian film?

March 17th 2009 13:12
So here it is, Instalment Number Two in my studious pile of MEFT2201 Concept notes! Yay!
This one dwells on how Peter Weir's 1981 film Gallipoli manages to be so unerringly Aussie, and considers what makes a film truly "Australian"...

When one labels a film ‘Australian’, they must take into account the many and varied interpretations of the term, and the flippant manner with which it is often applied to any and every film made in the country. What makes a film intrinsically Australian? Is it the crew? Perhaps the subject matter? In the writer’s opinion it is these things and more that can help to qualify a film as ‘Australian’, as illustrated by the film ‘Gallipoli’ (Weir, 1981).

For one, the subject matter of ‘Gallipoli’ is possibly among the most patriotic of any Australian film. Portraying the spirit of Australia through the lives of two typical Aussie larrikins, Archy and Frank, the film presents two of the more dominant national cinematic images- the bushman (Archy), and the urban larrikin (Frank), with excellent use of characterisation. Furthermore, the very events of ‘Gallipoli’ are enshrined with the halls of Australian folklore, and so, such a detailed and expositional telling (the point of view is very much that of the ANZACS, as seen by the very little amount of information given to us about the British perspective) makes it a thoroughly Australian story. Additionally, the crucially Australian concepts of loyalty and mateship are explored through the powerful relationship between Archy and Frank.

Next in line is the crew of ‘Gallipoli’. Directed by long time Australian filmmaker Peter Weir, written by famous Australian playwright David Williamson, and with original music by Australian composer Brian May, the hands that formed ‘Gallipoli’ are unmistakeably Australian, and it could be postulated that this high majority of Australian artists gives it a certain national integrity.

On a more mundane level, the funding of ‘Gallipoli’ also finds its origins in an Australian source- R & R Productions, a company partially owned by Rupert Murdoch, the Australian media mogul. Murdoch’s own father served as a journalist in WWI and actively campaigned against the actions of the British at ‘Gallipoli’, giving even the financial side of things a patriotic twist.

So, though many more qualifying features could be discussed, one could state confidently that from head to toe, ‘Gallipoli’ is as Australian a film as perhaps it is possible to be, from fade in to fade out.
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Cinema Herald Gets a Facelift

March 17th 2009 13:06
Hi Everyone!!

Hello!

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Hi! I'm doing a new subject at uni that's all about Australian Cinema and Television, and every week we must, on fear of death, or worse, expulsion, write 'concept notes', or around 300 words on something that particularly interested us about that week's topic. So, I shall share with you my weekly words of wisdom, in the hope that it may entertain, and hopefully provoke thought about the nature and condition of Australian cinema...


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stephen kings


Stephen King is trying out a new format for his latest video project. He is calling it a graphic video series and it's drawn in the style of a graphic novel. There are 25 episodes under two minutes each


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Movie ratings by country

October 10th 2008 05:54
Here are the movie ratings used by a few different countries. I thought it would be interesting to see how the different countries break it down.

United States

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Paradise (animated short) with movie

October 3rd 2008 05:36
paradise still animated short


This short animated film won the 2008 International children's film festival. I'm surprised it won at a children's film festival. Although it is animated it isn't really a child's story


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Warlord - (short) includes movie

September 30th 2008 05:53
The short "Warlord" won the Reel Shorts Award at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival. This short was written and directed by David Garrett. It's a dark comedy about a young boy disgusted with his suburban life so he rebels against it.

I loved the descriptions of the world as he saw it....his mother, the witch who served him putrid food (mac and cheese


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Dark Honeymoon (2008) with trailer

September 28th 2008 08:47
Dark Honeymoon (2008) film


The poster makes it look interesting doesn't it? The very short blurb I read made it sound good too, something about a couple getting married after knowing each other for a short time and how her dark secrets start to come out during the honeymoon. Well as the movie was (finally) ending I thought to myself, wow what a waste of time, I could have been watching a good movie all this time


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