David Stratton's Favourite Australian Movies
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- DirectorPhillip NoyceStarsBill HunterGerard KennedyWendy HughesIn post-war Australia the men and women of Cinetone struggle to produce the weekly news reels for the movie-going public.“I think this is probably my favourite Australian film. This is Phil Noyce, 1978, and it’s a film that says so much about Australia, and Australians, in that post-war era — it spans the years 1946 to 1956. So brilliantly acted by Bill Hunter, Chris Haywood, Wendy Hughes, Bryan Brown, a wonderful cast. So witty, and just beautifully made.” - David Stratton
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsRachel RobertsAnne-Louise LambertVivean GrayDuring a rural summer picnic, a few students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace. Their absence frustrates and haunts the people left behind.“I have to say Picnic because it was a film where Australian cinema took off in a new direction. Not just that it was made but it became such an enormous success in 1975, and people were so intrigued by this unsolved mystery which was so beautifully directed by Peter Weir.” - David Stratton
- DirectorRolf de HeerStarsDavid GulpililPeter DjigirrLuke FordDispleased with the intervention of whitefella laws, Charlie takes off to live the old way and sets off a chain reaction of enlightening difficulties.“I think Charlie’s Country makes me cry every time I see it. The scene where Gulpilil’s hair is cut, is the most moving scene in any Australian film. I think it’s so sad. And it’s so important that film.” - David Stratton
- DirectorShirley BarrettStarsMiranda OttoRebecca FrithGeorge ShevtsovIn Sunray, a backwater town on Australia's Murray River, there's little to do but fish or listen to the local radio station. D.J. Ken Sherry arrives from the hustle of Brisbane to run the station; he's mid-40s, detached, thrice divorced, hatchet faced. But both sisters next door find him attractive: awkward Dimity, only 20, who works in a Chinese restaurant with few patrons, and perky Vicki-Ann, a hairdresser with a hope chest who invents a happy future with Sherry based on little but his arrival. First Dimity then Vicki-Ann spend the night with Ken, one concluding he's her boy friend, the other her fiance. Then Dimity begins to smell something fishy.“Shirley Barrett’s film which won the Caméra d’or in Cannes, this is a very quirky film about two women in a small outback town. I don’t know why I love it as much as I do, but I think it’s so strange but at the same time so touching and so original.” - David Stratton
- DirectorWarwick ThorntonStarsRowan McNamaraMarissa GibsonMitjili Napanangka GibsonA glue-sniffing boy and his girlfriend escape the government-controlled no-hope Aboriginal community they live in and go to the city, Alice Springs, looking for a better life.“Samson And Delilah is a film that breaks your heart, and it’s so wonderfully done by Warwick Thornton and the two young actors, both non-professional actors. Being in Cannes, being there when that film won [the Caméra d’or] was such an amazing experience, it was one of the great moments of my life.” - David Stratton
- DirectorRay LawrenceStarsAnthony LaPagliaGeoffrey RushRachael BlakeThe relationships of four couples unravel after the discovery of a young woman's body in Lantana bush in suburban Sydney.“Because it’s so well written, and so well acted, and such a model of how to transform a play into a film. It’s full of intriguing characters, just terrific.” - David Stratton
- DirectorDavid CaesarStarsBen MendelsohnJeremy SimsJohn PolsonLooking for the fast track out of suburban hell, two natural born losers scheme an impossible heist. Two undercover cops and a highly strung speed dealer are not far behind."a considerable achievement and the most completely successful Australian film since the very different Shine." - David Stratton
- DirectorTed KotcheffStarsDonald PleasenceGary BondChips RaffertyAfter a bad gambling bet, a schoolteacher is marooned in a town full of crazy, drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent.“I have to start with Wake In Fright, because it was the first great Australian film, I think. Directed by a Canadian, of course, but he did a fantastic job and really got to the heart of a certain aspect, a very specific aspect of Australia.” - David Stratton
- DirectorGeorge MillerStarsMel GibsonBruce SpenceMichael PrestonIn the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline-rich community get rid of a horde of bandits.“Of all the Mad Max films, I think I still prefer Mad Max 2. It’s a touch of pure film, all of George Miller’s skills and humour and ideas are encapsulated in it, it’s a terrific film. I like Fury Road and of course the first one, but I like this one the best of the four.” - David Stratton
- DirectorPaul CoxStarsNorman KayeAlyson BestChris HaywoodAn eccentric elderly man tries to enjoy the three things in life that he considers real beauty: collecting art, collecting flowers, and watching pretty women undress.“Paul Cox’s film spoke to me — he was an immigrant to Australia as I was, in fact we came on the same ship. Not the same voyage, he came on the previous voyage of the same ship from Europe as I did. And he of course settled in Melbourne and found a different kind of career. And he made beautiful films. Some more beautiful than others — Man Of Flowers is such a tender film about a troubled character, so wonderfully played by Norman Kaye. It’s a film that sort of knocked me around when I first saw it, and I still love it.” - David Stratton
- DirectorCarl SchultzStarsWendy HughesRobyn NevinNicholas GledhillHis mother dead, PS lives in Sydney with working-class Aunt Lila and Uncle George. When he's six or eight, his posh Aunt Vanessa descends from England. Named a co-guardian by PS's feckless, absent father, she asserts her rights and convinces Lila to have PS live with her weekdays. PS is happy at Lila's, playing with children, running about, speaking up. At Vanessa's, there's a regimen of private school, round vowels, piano and riding lessons, and lonely indoor play with fancy toys. He's miserable and when he objects, she sues for complete custody. Will anyone listen to him? And will he take on Vanessa's challenges to find out who he is and to love someone?“I think Carl Schultz is the most underrated Australian director, it’s very sad. He hasn’t made a film in Australia since the mid-’80s, he’s tried several times to come back here and make a film but he’s never managed to get it going, but he’s a terrific film maker and I think with Careful, He Might Hear You, there are things I connect with [personally]. It’s got such great performances from Robyn Nevin, from Wendy Hughes and from John Hargreaves, who almost makes me weep to think of how good he is in that role.” - David Stratton
- DirectorGillian ArmstrongStarsJudy DavisJan AdeleClaudia KarvanA rock'n roll singer gets stranded in a small Australian town after losing her job in a band. She winds up in a trailer park only to encounter, by accident, the teenage daughter she deserted following her husband's death. In HD.“A Gillian Armstrong film I prefer to My Brilliant Career, which I like too. I love it because the relationship between Claudia Karvan playing a little girl and her mother played by Judy Davis and her grandmother played by Jan Adele, those three generations are so beautifully depicted and Gillian handles that with such insight and such skill. A beautiful film.” - David Stratton
- DirectorFred SchepisiStarsMeryl StreepSam NeillDale ReevesA mother whose child was killed in a dingo attack in the Australian Outback fights to prove her innocence when she is accused of murder."Evil Angels is a film that we talk about a lot in the documentary, and I do think this is one of the great Australian films. I think Fred Schepisi — I mean, I love The Chant Of Jimmy Blacksmith, I love The Devil’s Playground — but I think Evil Angels is such an important film, it’s a great film because of the way it so skilfully shows the Chamberlain case from all kinds of angles and directions. I think it’s a film that changed people’s opinions, and I think that’s a very important thing. Sam Neill still gets quite testy about people mocking Lindy. It was quite moving to go to the museum in Canberra to see the artefacts that Lindy had bequeathed to them, that was quite fascinating.” - David Stratton
- DirectorBaz LuhrmannStarsPaul MercurioTara MoriceBill HunterA maverick dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner.“I love Strictly Ballroom for its originality, for its craziness, all those things.” - David Stratton
- DirectorAna KokkinosStarsFrances O'ConnorMiranda OttoDeborra-Lee FurnessSeven lost children wander the night streets while their mothers await their return home.“I don’t think we even mentioned this film in the documentary, Blessed by Ana Kokkinos. We talked about Head On, which is also very good, but Blessed is a great Australia film. It just reduces me to tears every time I see it, and I must have seen it a dozen times. It’s about children and their parents and the gap between them. Again, it just speaks to me — isn’t it interesting that time and again, it’s the themes that really touch you personally that you really respond to in films.” - David Stratton
- DirectorRachel WardStarsBen MendelsohnSophie LoweMaeve DermodyA writer reawakens his childhood trauma from the past when he returns home, at the request of his estranged sister, to grieve their father's impending death.“Rachel Ward’s film which is such a beautiful film about family relationships, such great performances from Bryan Brown and Ben Mendelsohn, just a lovely film.” - David Stratton
- DirectorDavid MichôdStarsJames FrechevilleGuy PearceJoel EdgertonA seventeen-year-old navigates his survival amongst an explosive criminal family and the detective who thinks he can save him.“It transformed the thriller genre so brilliantly, and it made a domestic family into such monsters and it gave such great roles to the amazing Ben Mendelsohn, who always gives the most astonishing performances, and Joel Edgerton and Jackie Weaver and so on.” - David Stratton
- DirectorJohn DuiganStarsNoah TaylorLoene CarmenBen MendelsohnIn rural 1960s Australia, a boy watches helplessly as his best friend falls in love with a small-time criminal, setting off a violent chain of events."Generally considered one of the finest Australian films of the decade, Voice won five AFI awards in 1987 (including Best Film, Director and Original Screenplay). Its insight into the world of teenagers growing up in a small country town in the early 60s is acute and tender. John Duigan elicits painfully real performances from Noah Taylor and Loene Carmen and also provides a richly observed background for the small town with its dark little secret. The end scene where Danny says goodbye to Freya as she leaves for Sydney is one of the most affecting and satisfying conclusions to an Australian film. We feel deeply for their characters because they are made so painfully real." - David Stratton - The Avocado Plantation