Aussie film titles

[popeye]

anyone remember a couple of "Aussie" films called "the cars that ate paris" and "long weekend" i suddenly rememberd them and found both on amazon at really low cost (£7 the two inc post) i remember the cars as being a wierd film as was long weekend, i think long weekend is the one set on a remote beach thats sort of lost in time, the holidaying couple cannot escape and there this odd (turns out to be a "sea cow" washed up on the beach and an abandond camper van, a real odd one,

there are two other films i cannot remember the names of but one has (i think) Richard Chamberlain starring, it involves dream scenes of the city under water and an abborignal magic stuff, the other i can only remember someone driveing cross country and a murder it think, the Aussies certainly make some odd films

[batman]

The Chamberlain one is The Last Wave.

link: The Last Wave (1977) - IMDb

[Euryale]

The second could be Fatal Bond, which includes a road trip and murder:

Fatal Bond (1991) curator's notes on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online


E.

[wadsy]

Another good "odd" one imo is "In The Winter Dark" 1998 with Ray Barrett , Brenda Blethyn & Richard Roxburgh.

[Sgt Sunshine]

Another couple of classic Aussie films are these.......well worth searching out......





Cheers
Sgt S

[Hell_driver]

Another which includes a road trip and murder is Wolf Creek and is allegedly based on a true story. Stars John Jarrett. (Well he was the only one I knew)

[Kitty Whiskers]

One of my favourites is The Interview.

Best to know as little as possible when going into it, but enjoy seeing Hugo Weaving at his finest in a neat film made on a $20 budget.

[Wolfgang]

Looking at this topic, it is confirmed that Peter Weir is Australia's film industry. Picnic at Hanging Rock is phenomenal though, never has any film been so masterful at evoking mood, and clearly indebted to Walkabout. If anyone plans to watch it they should get Criterion's beautiful print.

[paul kersey]

One Aussie film that I have heard of but am yet to see is "Wake In Fright" with Donald Pleasance, John Meillon and Jack Thompson. Can anyone recommend it ?. There are copies on e-bay at the moment, but at approximately £25 I am reluctant to take a gamble.
It amuses me that Aussie films do not paint that great a picture of Australia, it must be a bone of contention between the tourist board and the Movie industry !. With the exception of Crocodile Dundee, the only one that might make me want to visit a land down under is "Walkabout", providing Jenny Aguter was swimming in the fountain of eternal youth !!!!!

[Steve Crook]

Check out The Mango Tree (1977)
Young boy growing up in a small town in Queensland. Robert Helpmann plays the town drunk who comes out with some surprising wisdom in his speech towards the end of the film.

It was made as Australia was getting over the "cultural cringe" and beginning to realise that they could make good films, and other works of art, themselves. Helpmann explains why they should embrace being Australian and be proud of it

Steve

[Nick Dando]

Steve, haven't you forgotten to mention They're a Weird Mob? Not like you at all!

Nick

[GoggleboxUK]

A couple of great Aussie horror films:





Classics!

[Wolfgang]

New Zealand would probably disagree!

[Steve Crook]

Steve, haven't you forgotten to mention They're a Weird Mob? Not like you at all!

Nick

I thought it was well known that They're a Weird Mob (1966) and Age of Consent (1969), and a few others, reawakened the slumbering Australian film industry and showed people like Peter Weir that it was possible to make good films in Australia

Steve

[bruiser15]

For a cracking overview of the strangeness which is Ozploitation, anyone could do worse than to watch Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008) I got the 2 DVD Region 4 version of this which is full to the brim with trailers for most of the films discussed.

Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008) - IMDb

The Road-Trip/Murder film could be Road Games which despite featuring to imported American stars [Stacey Keach & Jamie Lee Curtis] is Aussie through and through

Roadgames (1981) - IMDb

The director of that Richard Franklin also made the bonkers patient in a coma/ESP horror film Patrick with Susan Penhaligon & Robert Helpmann

Patrick (1978) - IMDb

Then of course there is the giant pig on the rampage that is Razorback, again like the previous two scripted by Everett De Roche who also wrote the aforementioned Long Weekend

Razorback (1984) - IMDb

Then there are the two Robert Powell starring supernatural horrors, Harlequin & The Survivor.

The first is a rewriting of the Rasputin legend, and is at times as mad as a bag of ferrets, it co-stars David Hemmings and is lot of fun.

Harlequin (1980) - IMDb

The second is an adaptation of the James Herbert novel about the lone survivor of a plane crash and the ghosts of the passengers who have been killed. It was directed by David Hemmings and co-stars Jenny Agutter and Angela Punch McGregor. I still find this one quite spine tingling in places.

The Survivor (1981) - IMDb

I'll post some more when I think of them, one's like Turkey Shoot, Thirst, Dead Kids, Next of Kin, Night of Fear, Inn of The Damned, Stone, The Man From Hong Kong, Stunt Rock, Dead End Drive In, Mad Dog Morgan and The Chain Reaction [with the great Steve Bisley: Goose from Mad Max] are all lots of fun and have a unique Australian lunacy to them.

[Corinne]

Mad Max 1, 2 & 3 with Mel Gibson were surprising big hits. Tina Turner appeared in the last one.

[NowVoyager]

One of my favourites is ‘The Picture Show Man’ from the late Seventies with the wonderful Rod Taylor (who is still with us), plus the late-lamented John Meillon and John Ewart. It was a charming B&W film about the early days of the cinema in Australia, when the projectionists used to travel from town to town and their arrival was a big event.

The country town where I live still has its old picture theatre from 1926 and we hold our film club nights there. Those old leather seats can’t be beaten for comfort.

Also in the film was Garry McDonald, perhaps better known as Norman Gunston, and a host of Australian actors from the Seventies which was truly a golden time in Australian cinema.

[bruiser15]

With NowVoyager posting about the fantastic "The Picture Show Man" I realised I had mentioned only really those films I enjoyed in the Australian Horror & Exploitation genres, so I must also recommend

Don's Party, a Bruce Beresford directed Comedy/Drama set on the night of the 1969 Australian election with Ray Barrett, John Hargreaves and Graham Kennedy.

Don's Party (1976) - IMDb

The Odd Angry Shot, an look at the Australian Army experience of Vietnam again with John Hargreaves, Graham Kennedy & Bryan Brown.

The Odd Angry Shot (1979) - IMDb

The Club, Bruce Beresford again, this time behind the scenes at an Australian Rules Footie club with the great Jack Thompson and Graham Kennedy again, IMHO this is one of the great sports based films.

The Club (1980) - IMDb

Speaking of Jack Thompson, I'm also rather fond of his performance in Petersen as an Aussie everyman who becomes a [im]mature student at University, not for the prudish.

Petersen (1974) - IMDb

[NowVoyager]

An excellent collection of Aussie films, bruiser15.

Graham Kennedy was a superb actor, both in drama and comedy, but sadly made very few big screen appearances. He was better known to Australians as 'the King' of Australian television with his variety show 'In Melbourne Tonight'.

[NowVoyager]

I just thought of another wonderful film, 'Careful He Might Hear You' with Wendy Hughes and the late John Hargreaves, set in Sydney around the time that the Harbour Bridge was being built. Having read the book (by Sumner Locke Elliott) and seen the film, I may have gotten the two confused, but I think I remember an evocative and haunting scene of a Sydney Harbour ferry sinking. John Hargreaves was one of Australia's finest actors and died far too young. Wendy Hughes was (and is) both beautiful and talented. She was the Cate Blanchett of the Seventies.