Conference bookie::movies

Very good film about the life of the transient sheep shearers.

If you know what a 'rissole' is you'll love the description of how the one-armed
cook used to make 'em.


T.

  Breaker Morant was one of my top 10 favorite all time movies. The story is
about 3 Australian officers fighting for the British during the Boar war in
South Africa that were tried for murder.

  The name of the movie confused some people. Breaker Morant was the name of
one of the officers. He got the name because prior to his military service he
worked with horses in Australia. 

  Outstanding movie. One of the other officers was played by an actor who has
appeared in a number of other productions from Australia. I forget his name.

  *****
  George

    
     Gallipoli - with a much younger Mel Gibson.
    
    
     Bob

    "Careful He Might Hear You" was an Austalian movie that I enjoyed.  It
    was out a few years ago.  It's about a boy who is raised by his aunt.
    
    I, also, really enjoyed "Tim" a movie (based on a novel by Coleen
    McCullough) about a mildly retarded but extremely handsome young man
    and his relationship with an older woman, a single schoolteacher.  I
    thought it was very touching and well-done.  Mel Gibson does a good job
    as Tim.
    
    Lorna
    

    I'm not sure if "Kangaroo" (based on the novel by D.H. Lawrence) is an
    Australian film, or not?  But, it stars Judy Davis and takes place in
    Australia.  I liked that one quite a bit.
    
    Also, another Australian movie that I just loved, and that I rented a
    year, or so, ago is called "Going North."  I think it's "Going North"
    or it might be "Heading North" or "Traveling North"!!!!  I'm not sure!! 
    But, it's one of those three!  :-)
    
    Anyway, it's about a little bit older than middle-age woman, who is a
    widow, and against the better judgment of her grown children she takes
    up with an older man and moves to to a very rural type of area to live. 
    Her family, of course, winds up learning some very enlightening life
    lessons from the older man, but it was a very enjoyable movie.
    
    Lorna
    
    ps - I think it's "Heading North"
    

    RE: .2 Breaker Morant
    
    Ha! I always thought Breaker Morant was about a big-rig trucker! 
    You know, "breaker, breaker, good buddy, we got staties on our
    tail and a hog on our side."  :^)
    
    I'll have to check it out.
    
    The movie "Tim" has come highly recommended by a true 
    Mel Gibson fan I know. I'll have to see tht also.
    
    Jodi-

    re .6, you mean "Breaker Morant"'s not about a big-rig trucker?
    
    wow.  :-)
    
    Lorna
    

  I'm glad I was able to straighten you guys out about that one. 

  And here's another one that will come as a surprise (also one of my top 10).
Hamlet is NOT about a small town in Connecticut. 

  Also, Lady and the Tramp is NOT about two sisters on the opposite end of the
moral spectrum. 

  Check them out,
  George

    :^)
    
    I can see we need to start another topic. :^)
    
    Jodi-

    re .8, I thought Hamlet was a Disney movie about a small, yet plucky,
    pig.  Mel Gibson stars as the friendly farmer who saves his life in
    this 1992 remake.
    
    Lorna
    

     One of the best Auzzie film has to be "Malcolm".It really appealed to
    my sense of humor.
     There is another one that I really liked,but I'm not sure of the title.
    It was about an Auzzie rules football team who had just paid a record
    fee for this new player.The best scene was when this player was telling 
    the clubs owner how he had sex with his mother and legless sister....Yes 
    it was a comedy @:^).Anyone know the title????
     Another that I would really like to see is "Romper stomper".
    
    SCott
     

    Re .10: <snicker>... Hey, I'd pay money to see that one!
    
    Re other Australian films - what about "Picnic at Hanging Rock"? 
    I remember it feeling oppressive, uncomfortable, and distinctily weird,
    as if I were seeing somebody else's memories...
    
    -b

Don't know if this qualifies as Australian but...  'Where the Green Ants
Dream' is a Werner Herzog film which takes place in the outback.  A basic
cultures-in-conflict flick with very little of the cloying insipidity one
expects from Hollywood-produced films of the genre.  Stars the usually
interesting Bruce Spence (birdman/Transavia pilot from 'Mad Max').

Makes a good double feature with the Spence/Rosanna Arquette film whose
title I can't remember.  They play two painfully naive daydreamers trying
to make some sort of life before they're overwhelmed by the ever present
venality and viciousness of those around them.

    This topic fits perfectly - as I've seen this one some days ago.
    
    "Death in Brunswick" is a film by John Ruane from 1991, and stars Sam
    Neill (I like him ! ;-), John Clarke and Zoe Arides. It's a black
    comedy based on a book by Boyd Oxlane.
    
    It describes the life of Carl, a cook in the midthirties, whose wife
    has left him, whose mother is treating him like a child and who has
    always troubles in his life. 
    
    I enjoyed it very much - something very different to the Hollywood style
    comedies.  
    
    Andrea

OK, not exactly Australian but the New Zealsnd film industry is probably too
small to warrant a separate topic.

There is a very entertaining, if slightly bizarre, NZ film called.
"Carry Me Home".  It's about an aging farmer and his two grown up sons, who've
spent all their lives working on a farm on South Island.  They save up enough
money to go to North Island to see an important rugby (I think) match, but...

(Slight spoiler)




















While they're there the father dies.  The father's will states that the sons
can only inherit the farm if they bury the father on the farm land.  NZ law
states that you can only be buried on your own land if you die on it (otherwise
you have to go to a cemetery).  So the bulk of the film consists of the two
sons trying to smuggle the father's body home, so they can pretend he died
there.  This acts as a vehicle for them to experience "the real world" for
the first time, as prior to this they'd never left the farm / local village.

My favourite part is when the youngest son (early twenties) finds himself in
the company of a young lady not realising she is an "exotic masseuse" :-)
They get to the massage part, and she says "Talc or oil"; he in total confusion,
not knowing what's going on, says "Err, yes please", so she shrugs and proceeds
to cover him in talc *and* oil...  I guess you had to see it... :-)

Scott

    What about the Mad Max movies, these were Australian.
    
    Mad Max II is , I think, a great action film.
    
    

    
    
    Reply -1, Road Warrior is the name of the film. I agree, this has
    to be the best of the post apocalyptic films ever made. There
    are some great scenes in the movie. But my favorite is just after Max
    captures the helicopter guy the next scene is Max driving with the
    guy tied up beside him with a shotgun pionted at the helicopter guy.
    The dog has a bone in his mouth with a string attached to it and
    to the trigger of the gun. We next see a rabbit on the side of the road
    with the dog turning it's head and the helicopter guy saying "no
    doggie!!!! "/paraphrased. Comedy at it's best.
    
    
                 -=-=-R~C~W-=-=-

    FWIW, It was called Mad Max II in the UK.
    
    Andy

"The Coca Cola Kid" is Aussie, I think.

"The Man From Snowy River" and its sequel (or were
these in .0?)

"Traveling North" was a gem.  I believe Leo McKern was
the male protagonist in that film.

Cultural note from Ms.Manners:

If this is going to be "Australian films",
then a "New Zealand films" note should be started.  Other
wise rename the note to "Antipodean films" and leave it
at that.  Kiwis tend to react violently to having
NZ talked of as if it were part of Oz.  Sort of 
like Canadians and the US.

And no one who has ever seen the doco "Cane Toads"
could possibly forget it.  It's right up there with
"Kudzu" as the funniest nature documentaries of all
time.

    RE: .19  by SMAUG::LEHMKUHL 
    
    >If this is going to be "Australian films", then a "New Zealand films"
    >note should be started.  Other wise rename the note to "Antipodean
    >films" and leave it at that.  
    
    Yeh, then we could include Antarctic films as well.
    

>> Kiwis tend to react violently to having NZ
>> talked of as if it were part of Oz

Yes, I am well aware of this and it was not my intention to cause offence to
any NZ noters, or suggest that NZ was part of Oz.  But like I said, it didn't
seem worth starting a new topic just for one film.

Scott

> And no one who has ever seen the doco "Cane Toads"


That one is on again on the Discovery channel soon...

    RE: .22  by 46010::MARSHALL 
    
    >Yes, I am well aware of this and it was not my intention to cause
    >offence to any NZ noters, or suggest that NZ was part of Oz.  But like
    >I said, it didn't seem worth starting a new topic just for one film.
    
    What do you mean, one film?
    
    Although I tend to lump Australian and New Zealand films in the same
    area of my personal recollection, I can think of several memorable
    films that were a product of New Zealand.  Vincent Ward's early films,
    "The Vigil" and "The Navigator" come quickly to mind.  I can see
    elements of the latter in his recent "Map of the Human Heart".
    

Right.

And Jane Campion's two excellent films "An Angel at My
Table" and "The Piano" (the latter not yet in 
general release in the US).

dcl

    RE: .25 by SMAUG::LEHMKUHL 
    
    >And Jane Campion's two excellent films "An Angel at My Table" and "The
    >Piano" (the latter not yet in  general release in the US).
    
    And also "Sweetie", which is.
    

"Walkabout" - one of my all-time favorites.  Too bad it's not on tape.

Bob

A delightful little comedy about a man-child that loves to tinker with
gadgets and falls in with the wrong element.  Had the side benefit of
introducing me to the music of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra...

Which just sent me to the databases to see that the same director
(Nadia Tass) has 2 other films out that I might have to look into:
"Rikki and Pete" and "Pure Luck".  Oh, wait: Pure Luck was that dismal
Martin Short vehicle of a couple year ago.  Another Aussie sells out to
Hollywood, sigh.  Still, the accumulated wisdom of the USENET voters
says Rikki and Pete is worth looking into; opinions?

Incidentally, the Hamlet-about-a-pig movie is indeed in
development...but without Mel.

    re .28, I rented "Rikki and Pete" a couple of years ago.   I thought it
    was simply terrible.  It's about a brother and sister traveling around
    together, and the adventures they fall into, but it just crawls along,
    and nothing that happened seemed interesting to me.  By the time I was
    halfway through watching it, I wouldn't have minded if the unlikable,
    boring pair had been done in by one of their mishaps.  I never did
    watch the whole thing.  I thought it was totally pointless.
    
    Lorna
    

    
    
    How about:
    
            "the last wave"   with Richard Chamberlain
    
            "my brilliant career"   with Judy Davis (I think)
    
     

NZ's "Footrot Flats"    
     

    Proof.  A poignant little tale about a blind man who "sees" the world
    through the photographs he takes.  He has someone he trusts tell him
    what's in the pictures.
    
    Well worth the view.
    
    Shawn 

    "Bliss". About life after death. Surreal and very strange.
    Cheers,
    George

Re .11

The title was "The Club", from a play by David Williamson, who
also wrote "Travelling North".

If you enjoyed "Flirting", then you may want to rent "The Year My Voice 
Broke" which is the prequel film. I believe there is eventually going to 
include a 3rd - any word on it yet??

Another movie I saw while travelling in Oz was "Weekend at Kate's" which I 
really enjoyed. However, that was a few years ago, and I still haven't seen 
it out on video in North America, so maybe we won't get it.

    RE: .35  by 58633::TRP109::Chris 
    
>If you enjoyed "Flirting", then you may want to rent "The Year My Voice 
>Broke" which is the prequel film. I believe there is eventually going to 
>include a 3rd - any word on it yet??

    I think actually, that "Flirting" was a sequel to "The Year My Voice
    Broke", the latter having been made first.
    
    One of my favorite Australian movies was "Newsfront" about newsreel
    cameramen in the days before TV when newsreels were shown in theaters.
    

Recent Oz releases getting a lot of media attention here are "The Sum of Us" 
and "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". Terence Stamp as you have never seen him 
before!
I have seen neither, ut the clips look intersting, and the reviews have been 
pretty good for both. The former is rather more d&m than the latter.

Chele    

    The Terence Stamp film is being released in the US under the title 
    "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert".  
    
    - Dave