PLAYING FOR TIME

US, 1980, 149 minutes, Colour.
Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Alexander, Maud Adams, Christine Baranski, Verna Bloom, Marisa Berenson.
Directed by Daniel Mann.

Playing For Time is a moving telemovie with a superb Emmy winning performance by Vanessa Redgrave. There was much criticism at the time about her playing a Jewish entertainer in Auschwitz. Miss Redgrave's sympathy for the P.L.O. antagonised many Jewish people. However, she portrays Fania Fenelon with great dignity and sympathy as well as wisdom. The screenplay is by Arthur Miller and evokes memories of so many concentration camp films and the television series, Holocaust. However, with its focus on women, with its more special focus on a group of musicians playing for the administrators of the camp and considered as no better than prostitutes by so many other prisoners, the film is a different viewpoint on the concentration camps. Human dilemmas are quite well presented and there is a basic message that faith in humanity is necessary to sustain hope in situations of despair.

Jane Alexander in the supporting role of the orchestra conductor also won an Emmy for her performance, as did the production and the screenplay. There is excellent support from a gallery of American character actresses with Melanie Mayron standing out. Direction is by Daniel Mann, a director who has drawn Oscar winning performances from Shirley Booth, Anna Magnani, Elizabeth Taylor, and has a wide range of entertainments to his credit. The film is moving and provocative.

1. The impact of the film? The awards it received? The background of interest in The Holocaust during the '70s? Arthur Miller's dramatic work and his contribution to the screenplay? Vanessa Redgrave and her political stances and choice for the central role? The strong supporting cast?

2. Fania Fenelon as a French celebrity, her experience of arrest and imprisonment, surviving and compromise, love and hate, support for fellow prisoners, trust in humanity and survival? The film as based on her memoirs?

3. The viewpoint of the screenplay on World War Two, the Nazi rise to power, cruelty, the concentration camps, the humiliation of prisoners, women prisoners, Jewish prisoners? The compromises in the concentration camps and moral issues? The film's judgment on Nazi Germany?

4. The impact of the film as a telemovie? Its delineation of character, portrayal of situations? Length? Commercial interruptions (and appropriateness)? The importance of music for the plot and for atmosphere? The use of concentration camp sounds for background to the more intimate dramatic action? The interpolation of documentary footage?

5. The prologue and the establishing of Fania Fenelon as entertainer? Her role in Paris? The suddenness of her arrest? The long train trip and its taking the passengers further and further away from how? The mystery of their destination? The cramped conditions in the train, the bucket, the deaths? The arrival at camp? The immediate humiliations? The interaction between the women prisoners? The importance of the prologue in establishing Fania as musician, the invitation to play in the orchestra?

6. The tour de force performance by Vanessa Redgrave? The introduction and her presence in the cabaret, singing style, Jewish and Catholic background, wealth and position, her sympathy in the train, her being humiliated, her capacity for survival, her loss of emotion and feeling, her playing and singing, her growing sense of sorrow. her coping with the crises in the imprisonment, the support she gave as well as the criticism offered of the behaviour of fellow prisoners, the contacts with the administration of the camp? Vanessa Redgrave's presence, ability to convey emotion, the use of long close ups to portray her feelings, thoughts, dilemmas? The impact of her final singing of The Marseillaise?

7. The portrait of Fania Fenelon - as singer, fashionable entertainer, sympathetic human being, her arrival and the question of her coat, the humiliation of the stripping and the shearing of the hair, barracks life and the clashes, the continual hunger? The hard manual work with the intercutting of the prisoners going to be executed, the ovens and the burning, the flaws? The approach to join the orchestra? The personality of the conductor? The audition and her condition that her friend be part of the orchestra? The singing from Madame Butterfly, and the use of Madame Butterfly throughout the film and its lyrics corresponding to the situations of the prisoners? The clashes with the conductor? Her promise to orchestrate and her inability to do it? The performances before the camp administration? The reaction of Mengele? The woman Commandant and her support of Fania, getting her things e.g. putting on the boots? Fania's capacity to hear the stories of the fellow prisoners e.g. the young girl in love, the communist who spoke frankly, the girl and her prostitution for food, the countess, the woman who knew the hospital patients would be gassed?

8. Fania as a symbol of humiliation and suffering, dilemmas and compromise, hope and survival? The old man who singled her out for survival to tell the story? His continued reappearances as a kind of chorus?

9. The contrast with the personality of the conductor? Her relationship with Mahler, her role in Vienna, the musical family background? Her imperious manner, cold personality, dedication to art and her reflections on music? Her not looking out the windows at the suffering and the humiliation? The music that she favoured? Her reaction to the group singing 'Stormy Weather'? Her role of authority among the prisoners, with the line-ups? and information given? Her acquiescing to the authorities? Concerts, her using the music as a way of surviving? The personalities in the group and her harshness with them? Her taking Fania away for talks and the clashes that ensued? Her being humiliated by the authorities? Jealousy of Fania and feelings of resentment? Her growing emotional response to the camp situation? The offer for her to go on concert tour? Her needing approval from Fania? Her emotional response to this and the irony of Frau Schmidt's invitation and the pathos of her death? The grief of the other prisoners passing by her coffin?

10. The girl who prostituted herself: in the train, the bond with Fania, the story about her boyfriend in the Resistance, her huddling close to Fania, her need to be eating? Her singing and being part of the orchestra? Her gradual move into prostitution? The food and her need for it, her unwillingness to share it? The clashes with Fania about approval and disapproval? Tempting Fania with the food and her long pause before eating it? The resentment of the other prisoners? The liberation and her beating Fania, going in the truck with the soldiers? The pathos of the experience in the camp?

11. The other members of the group: the communist girl and her forthright talk about death, the young girl in love with her, the sick woman in the hospital, the new conductor and her madness, the countess and her story about her past life, the angry young woman wanting to go to Israel after the war? A cross section of women in the concentration camp?

12. The Mala incident? Interpreter, escape, hanging?

13. The authorities in the camp? How harshly presented? Mengele and his reputation? His love of music? Admiration for Fania? Visits to the barracks?

14. The woman Commandant and her harsh manner yet trying to be pleasant? The splits in her personality? Favours for the group? Brutality towards incoming prisoners? Getting the boots for Fania? Taking the baby and fondling it? Eventually giving it back? Her inability to cope with the liberation?

15. Frau Schmidt and her harshness, manipulation and accumulation of wealth, wanting to get out, poisoning the conductor?

16. The Nazis and their administration of the camp, harshness and cruelty, starving the prisoners, the burnings, the selection of prisoners for execution? The truckloads of incoming prisoners? The human suffering, especially with mothers separated from children? The bombings and the move towards liberation? The arrival of the Russians and their horror at finding the group of prisoners? The rounding up of the Nazis?

17. Survival, for what? The importance to tell the story and witness to such suffering? The sensitivity presented in the film? Fania's faith in human nature, even of the Nazis? The symbolism of the title, the place of music, performing it, as a means for survival as well as for culture and the hope of the spirit?

PUZZLE

Australia, 1978, 90 minutes, Colour.
James Franciscus, Wendy Hughes, Robert Helpmann, Gerard Kennedy.
Directed by Gordon Hessler.

Puzzle is one of six telemovies, co-productions between the Australian Broadcasting Commission and American Productions. It is one of the less successful of the group. The best was the Ralph Nelson film about a retarded child, Because He's My Friend. She'll Be Sweet was an entertaining variation on the madcap heiress theme - in the Australian bush. A comedy, Barnaby And Me, was a misfire. This film has the overtones of the violent American thriller. The action and the violence seem somewhat incongruous in the Australian setting.

The lead is an American, James Franciscus. The Australian cast do well but seem to be presented with inconsistently-written roles. Their credibility as characters is puzzling. Robert Helpmann, particularly, has a very eccentric as an English art collector and criminal. Gerard Kennedy looks very severe as a mercenary. The film is at times tongue-in-cheek, sometimes serious. The comic and the action elements do not quite jell. Direction is by Gordon Hessler who has made a number of effective thrillers, especially his Vincent Price -Poe stories: Cry Of The Banshee, The Oblong Box. He has made a number of thriller telemovies which have been quite effective e.g. Betrayal. An oddity with a touch of the ludicrous.

1. An entertaining telemovie? American influence and style? Australian influence? How well did the two influences blend? For Australian audiences, American? The emphasis on American style gangsters, crime, violence? Heroes and heroines? Affluent society?

2. Colour photography, the Burmese opening, Macao? The use of Sydney? The harbour, the ocean? The emphasis on Sydney? Musical score?

3. The conventions of the puzzle thriller? The prologue and the robbery and violence, Mr. Shepherd and his dealings, the suicide of Mr. Cunningham? The emphasis on Harry, on Claudine? Their interaction? The police investigation conventions? Diana and her playing both sides? The build-up of double crosses, counterplans and kidnapping? Chase and explosions?

4. The plausibility of this kind of plot? Big money deals? International crime? In an Australian setting? The treatment?

5. Harry and his American background, tennis, his coaching? The marriage with Claudine and its breaking up? Her trying to seduce him into action? His surveillance and being beaten up? His decision to help? His statements about self-esteem? His pursuit of clues? Breaking into the house, the encounter with Diana? The meal together? The mine and the discovery of the gold? The ship and the confrontation with Shepherd? His shooting the old war gun? Making up with Claudine? How consistently-written a hero?

6. Claudine and her glamour, marriage for money, grief at the funeral, greed, the encounter with Shepherd, the inconsistencies of her behaviour with Harry: weak and weeping, strong minded, rebellious? Her pushing him into action? The greed? The kidnapping by Shepherd? The final confrontation and happy ending? A credible heroine?

7. Robert Helpmann's style as Shepherd? In Macao, in Sydney, his manner of speaking, art collecting? Pressure and violence? Fastidious? The double deal and the final explosion? An eccentric villain?

8. His henchmen, especially in the prologue with the raid on the Buddhist temple, the massacre of the monks? The brutality towards Harry? Their being destroyed with Shepherd?

9. Diana and her manner, the beach house. Edwin's mistress, after the gold, plausibility with Harry, antagonism towards Claudine, the connection with Shepherd? Her drawing the gun? Being thrown into the harbour?

10. The suicide situation, the police investigator and his contact with the victim, the surveillance of the house, the murder of his assistant? The arrest and the violent questioning of the intruder? The pursuit of the boat? The solving of the crime?

11. The artificiality and concoction of the screenplay - characters, dialogue, situations? The quality of entertainment?

PEEPING TOM

UK, 1959, 109 minutes, Colour.
Carl Boehm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey, Maxine Audley, Esmond Knight, Michael Goodliffe, Shirley Ann Field, Jack Watson.
Directed by Michael Powell.

Peeping Tom is a strange thriller. It was severely criticised on its first release as being a lurid objectionable melodrama. Since then, it has achieved something of a horror classic. It was written and directed by the writing,. producing and directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger who had been responsible for a wide range of films from the '40s including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Matter of Life and Death, I Know Where I'm Going, Black Narcissus. With an interesting cast, they explore madness, horror, voyeurism, and link it with film-making.

Colour was important to many of the Archers films and they use it to strong effect here. The film may be seen in the changing patterns of the British film industry from the '50s to the '60s including the establishment of the Hammer Studios and their tradition of horror films, especially the Dracula and Frankenstein series.

1. The impact of the film? In its time? Later cult and classic status? An effective psychological horror story?

2. The work of the Archers? Their exploration of British themes? British horror? Styles of colour, sets and decor? Studios and cameras? Flats? London and the suburbs?

3. The musical score, the piano accompaniment (especially for the silent film)? The range of film clips and their use?

4. The title of the film: voyeurism? Fact, psychological background, compulsion? The film as a portrait of a voyeur and his madness and its consequences? A study of voyeurism? Fear? The audience made to be voyeurs of the victim? The psychology of voyeurism: curiosity, prurience? The association with film-making and watching?

5. The psychological background: Mark's father, his skills, the tests? Filming everything? The boy wired for sound? His writing his books and using his son? The tapes and films? The voice-over and the ending? The morbid aspects of this for the father, for the son? The laird and his son? The mother and her death? The new marriage? The present of the camera? The influence of this environment on Makk?

6. The horror techniques: colours and lighting, the Jack the Ripper style of the deaths? The prologue and its ghastliness? The prostitute and her death, the replay? The killing of the stand-in and the discovery of her body? The photographer's model? Mark filming the police and their investigations? The finale and the revelation of the distorted mirror in front of the camera, the morbid filming of the women and their actual dying? The set-up for Mark's own death?

7. Mark: in himself, sympathetic or not? The murders? Alone? In the block of flats? The family downstairs? Helen's birthday? His watching the photos, the films, processing his film? Showing Helen the biographical -,-films? Seeing him at work, filming the investigations? The relationship with the dancer (and the delight of Moira Shearer who had worked with the Archers for The Red Shoes)? The

outing with Helen? Helen's mother sensing trouble? The talk to the psychologist friend? The set-up? His sparing Helen? Killing and leaving the film?

8. Helen, her birthday, watching, liking Mark, sharing with him, her interest in his work, the outing, the discovery of the truth, the threat?

9. Helen's mother and her apprehensions, her blindness (and the irony of the contrast with the voyeur)? Her visit to Mark's room and being able to detect and feel uneasy? Her powerlessness? Feeling faces to see?

10. The police, their psychological investigations? The victims - the prostitutes, the actress, the morbid comedy with the soap opera, the ineffectual actress and the continued filming? The funny turn?

11. The background of films, studios, film-making, cameras, techniques, processes?

12. The value of this kind of psychological horror film? The visualising of ugly aspects of human nature? Exploration of themes via empathy and shock?

PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE

Australia, 1980, 90 minutes, Colour.
Directed by David Bradbury.

Public Enemy Number One is a second documentary by David Bradbury. He achieved critical and popular acclaim with his story of Neil Davis, the Tasmanian war correspondent in Vietnam during the war and afterwards: Frontline. It received an Academy Award nomination in 1980.

Wilfrid Burchett has been a sign of contradiction for many decades in Australia. Brought up during the Depression, he became an international correspondent with scoops during World War Two, reporting first for western papers of the aftermath of Hiroshima. Allegedly keeping neutral, he had access to communist governments throughout China and South East Asia during the '50s, '60s and '70s. He received acclaim both in Iron Curtain countries as well as in western countries. However, his reputation in Australia was as traitor. His return in the early 170s was treated with great hostility by reporters (presented here) and it was not until the coming of the Labour government that he was able to get a visa to return to his country. He instituted a libel suit in Australia which he lost - up to 1981 he had not paid the damages and so is not able to return. During 1981 his autobiography was published - and all this material gives an opportunity for Australians to re-appraise his career as journalist, his political allegiances, his relationship to Australia and his integrity as a man and journalist. This film received a citation from the Melbourne Film Festival 1981 for its quality in drawing attention to this controversy and illuminating Australian history.

1. How interesting the background history of Wilfrid Burchett's life - upbringing during the Depression, the establishment of his career, his work in World War Two, his journey to Hiroshima (and his later visit reminiscing), his attitudes towards sides in wars, his presence in Vietnam, Kampuchea? Questions of his refusal of entry into Australia, passport questions in the early '70s, the libel case?

2. The background footage of Australian social history and that of the world during the '30s and '40s - situating Burchett?

3. How interesting the story of Burchett's changing views: his political insight, his politically neutral stances, yet his sympathy towards socialist governments? His emotional responses to the situations reported? His access to personalities in communist governments?

4. Burchett's stances on communism, communist propaganda, socialist values?

5. The presentation of Hiroshima, the devastation, the parallel with Kampuchea and the Pol Pot regime? Burchett's pondering on the mystery of destruction and devastation and murder?

6. Burchett's involvement in Korea, his interest in Vietnam? The nature of his reports, friendships, access to Ho Chi Min, presenting his viewpoint to the western world? The hostility during the war?

7. His independence, his personal point of view and its purpose? His having to change his mind e.g. on Kampuchea?

8. The refusal of entry into Australia, the change under the Whitlam administration, the details of the hostile press interview on his return?

9. Burchett after 1975 - the involvement in Kampuchea, the bomb attempt on his life - and the film ending with this?

10. The value of this type of documentary - visual material, the point of view of director and editor, letting the audiences judge from interview and background material for themselves? The importance of government policy towards individuals, the role of the media in influencing public opinion? Hysteria against communism during the 20th. century? The role of the journalist and the possibilities of his neutral reporting of news? How valuable is the film as a contribution to Australia's social and political history?

PSYCHO II

US, 1983, 107 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, Dennis Franz.
Directed by Richard Franklin.

Psycho II seems at first glance a pretentious project. Hitchcock made his classic in the late '50s with Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles. its skill in horrifying audiences has been noted (and imitated extensively). Film critics, with a moralising bent, have written extensively on Hitchcock's moral preoccupations in the film.

Writer Tom Holland was commissioned to do a sequel to Psycho, focusing on the character of Norman Bates. Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles agreed that there were possibilities in the screenplay. Australian director Richard Franklin, a one-time pupil of Hitchcock's and the director of such thrillers as Patrick and Road Games, was brought to Hollywood to direct the film.

Critics tended to be divided about the success of Psycho II. On the whole, they seemed to be satisfied that it was a satisfactory sequel -opening with a reprise of the famous shower scene, modelling a lot of the sequences on Hitchcock's original and using the house, the motel and its atmosphere and design to satisfactory effect. While the influence of the multiple murder films of the late '70s and early 180s is evident, it is less gruesome in its visual presentation than many other films of its kind. The strength of the sequel is in the performance by Anthony Perkins who makes Norman Bates' emergence from an institution credible. Vera Miles is rather shrill as Leila. However, Meg Tilley is attractive as Mary. Various characters are made to parallel the original characters - but the end is somewhat confusing and there seemed to be certainly too many Mrs. Bates'.

1. The popularity and impact of Psycho in its time? Its becoming a Hitchcock classic? The decision to make a sequel after 22 years? The sense of continuity? Changing times and tastes? The choice of Richard Franklin for director?

2. The work of Anthony Perkins in the original, in the sequel? Vera Miles? A sense of continuity? Sets, decor? Credibility?

3. The '70s and '80s and the emphases on horror, shock tactics, gruesome murders? The comparisons in horror with the original? The presentation of atmosphere, menace, suspense, deaths? The motel, the house? The parallels of the musical score with the original by Bernard Herrmann?

4. The sequel's homage to the original: the importance of using the opening shower sequence, the house and the way that it was photographed and framed, the silhouettes, especially of Norman, the birds in the motel, shower sequences, the stairs where previous deaths had occurred, the costume for Mrs. Bates, the draining of the swamps etc.? Character parallels?

5. The film as an exercise (rather than a study) in horror techniques?

6. Audience response to Norman - knowledge of the original film? Anthony Perkins' persona and the creation of the character of Norman Bates? Cured, returning home, his hopes? Leila Loomis and her appeals? work in the motel, cooking? His seeming to adjust to ordinary life? The menacing notes, the glistening knives? The attack on the manager and sacking him? The friendship with Mary, talking to her, her moving into the house? Norman's way of talking, talking about his cure? The beginning of the phone calls - and audience puzzle about Leila’s calls and the uncertainty of Norman's real mother ringing? Norman's pleasantness, under siege by Leila and Mary, his slips into insanity? His meeting with the doctor, the discussions, the faces at the window? The exhuming of Mrs. Bates? Could Norman have been saved from lapsing into madness again? Friendship with Mary, sharing chores with her? The effect of the phone calls, his being locked in the attic, the night protecting of Mary? Responding to Leila, responding to Mary as his mother? Trying to cope, the deaths? His being vindicated by the police? The irony of his real mother arriving? Her madness, his killing her? 'It's starting again'. The references to the Norman of the original film?

7. Leila and her revenge, the appeals, her frantic behaviour, moving to the town, her madness and normality, hysterical behaviour with Mary? The law, the petitions? The campaign? The plan with Mary: the wig, redecorating the room and taking away all the furniture again? The clash with Mary at the hotel? Her making a scene? Her going to the house - echoing her previous visit 22 years earlier, her death? Mary discovering her in the coal-heap?

8. Mary as friendly, at work, infiltrating into the house, her pleasant attitude towards Norman, her responsibility for the notes, the elaborate setting up of Norman's mother's room? The shower sequence and the eyes? The sexual overtones and voyeurism in the hole in the wall and the memories of the initial film? Unlocking the door and letting Norman from the attic? Her knowing that Norman was not responsible for the deaths in the fruit cellar? Phone calls to her mother, the confrontation? The police asking her to leave after discovering the truth? Her changed attitude towards Norman? Trying to keep him sane, disguising herself as his mother. the accidental killing of the doctor, her being shot - and the ambiguity of the appearances and the police interpreting the events wrongly?

9. Mary as the parallel with her aunt (Janet Leigh), in the original? Her arrival at the house, the shower, nudity. the sexual overtones? Her death?

10. The theme of mothers and sons? The original and Norman's responsibility for his mother, the psychotic taking her part? Leila using the same device as the original to make Norman mad? Her malevolence? Her using Mary and Mary's becoming Norman's mother? The parallel between Mrs. Bates and Norman, Leila and Mary? The interchanges? Being causes of death? The phone calls - and the irony of Norman's real mother? His killing her, his setting her up again and the process starting over? Themes of American mothers and sons and daughters, possessiveness?

11. The sketch of the doctor, his belief in Norman, helping him to cope -his investigations and the accident of his death? The parallel with Arbogast in the original?

12. The sketch of the police. memories of 1959, being exasperated with Leila? Her dissatisfaction with them? Discovery of the truth, the clash with Mary and telling her to go away? Dragging the swamp? The final investigation and vindicating Norman?

13. The deaths and their visual appearance, shock, gore? The death of the manager and his drinking, the kids in the fruit cellar, Leila's death, the doctor, Mary?

14. Suggestions of madness: the eyehole, the room, the cellar, the motel itself?

15. Atmosphere of terror, horror? Fears, shocks? The use of light and darkness?

16. Violence and madness? The humorous touches - and Norman's memory of toasted cheese sandwiches?

17. The comparisons with the original - its match, a satisfying enough homage to the original? A film of the '80s?

POLLY ME LOVE

Australia, 1977, 90 minutes, Colour.
Jackie Weaver.
Directed by Peter Maxwell.

Polly Me Love is an Australian historical telemovie, made at the time when television studios were making series like Against the Wind and The Timeless Land. It is set in Australia, 1810, and shows two days in a small settlement outside Parramatta. It focuses on an inn, the barracks, and a wealthy house with a wild robber in the vicinity. The presentation is episodic and melodramatic for home viewing. This is heightened by a wide-ranging score, adapting themes to particular characters and incidents. The film is a vehicle for Jackie Weaver and the film is alive when she is on the screen. Direction is by Peter Maxwell who directed the comedy-crime drama Touch and Go.

1. The appeal of an Australian story, a glimpse of Australian history, romance, violence?

2. The telemovie style, brevity, episodes, melodramatic incidents, brief and melodramatic treatment?

3. Colour photography, the 1810 period - the inn, the barn, the settlement, the barracks, the house. the landscapes? An authentic period flavour?

4. The use of songs, traditional melodies?

5. The structure of the film - the activity over two days, the focus on Polly, the drama centring on her and Kane? The interaction of the various characters, classes? Law and order in a convict settlement? The credibility of the plot within the pioneering and convict days? A brief glimpse of the way of life in the convict period?

6. Life in the inn and the Dwyers running it? The weak father, the harsh and dominant mother? Their convict background? Amy and Polly as their daughters? Amy and the prostitution in the barn. the mother pressurising Polly? The singing for entertainment? The farm labourers at the inn? Drinking, fighting? The barn as a brothel? The military threat to close it, the persuasion with Polly to stay open? St. Patrick's feast day and the workers celebrating? The colony and the drinking? A microcosm of the colony centred on Dwyers' barn?

7. The barracks, the soldiers, loneliness? Cargill and his pursuit of Kane? The chase? Cargill at the Bates household and his courtesy, the appointment with Miss Bates, the prospect of a marriage? Cargill and the threat of closure of the inn? His loneliness, the arrangement with Polly's mother about her coffin Polly's visit and his awkwardness, writing letters, his explanations to Polly, her response? Miss Bates' arrival? His future in the colony, a soldier doing his job? His assistants?

8. The ugly portrait of Kane? His attraction towards Polly at the opening, people calling him an animal and his resentment, his escape from the inn, hiding in the barn, the rejection of Polly? The chase and his violence? His hiding near the Bates house, the attack on Bates, the. savage pursuit of Miss Bates? His being shot? His vindictiveness in burning the house? His return, Dillon's shooting him, his being taken to prison? A credible type from the early days of the colony?

9. The contrast with Dillon as convict? His escape, his story of his life as a forger? The attraction of Polly, her helping with the meal, getting his chains loose? His talking with her and her attraction towards him ? His advice about going to Cargill and her following it? His regrets? His being shot, arrested and taken to prison with Kane?

10. Polly as the centre of the film - as a young girl, her place in the inn, her singing? Her virginity? Her mother's force and persuasion, her father's helping her? The friendship with Dillon and bringing him food, helping his burnt hand? Her wondering about what she should do, the discussion with Amy and Amy's explanation about wedding nights - and seeing her with her customers? Her love for her father, the hostility towards her father? Her dilemma about going to Cargill, asking Dillon, awkwardness with him? Her going away back to the inn and singing songs again? Her future in the colony? How sympathetic was Jackie Weaver's performance ?

11. The Bates household, Bates and the workers getting St. Patrick's Day off, his imprudent decision to stay at the house, his being attacked by Kane, his sister and the vicious pursuit, her escape to the town and enlisting help?

12. A cross-section of the types of people in the early New South Wales colony? Classes in society? Law and order and its administration? Basic issues of survival? Drinking, sexuality? How well were these themes blended? Effectively presented, the point of entertainment, the point of a picture of life in the early colony?

PLUNGE INTO DARKNESS

Australia, 1978, 75 minutes, Colour.
Olivia Hamnett, Bruce Barry, Ashley Grenville, John Jarrat, Tom Richards, Athol Compton.
Directed by Peter Maxwell.

Plunge Into Darkness is one of several telemovies produced by actor-producer Robert Bruning. It was directed by Peter Maxwell who directed such films as Is There Anyone There, Polly Me Love and the feature film Touch And Go. The screen play is by Bruce Wishart, author of a number of these telemovies. The screenplay is conventional material, the maniac boy and audiences knowing what was to happen while the protagonists did not. While the material is, to a certain extent, predictable, it provides suspense in the audience's waiting for the protagonists to find out the truth. The film has a very good cast who do their best with the material and the short time of the telemovie. The colour photography of northern New South Wales is outstanding and was done by noted cinematographer Russell Boyd. The telemovie is as competent as any similar production from overseas.

1. An entertaining thriller? Audience interest in crime, chases, madness and violence? The melodrama for television? Audience response to mystery and suspense?

2. The film as a telemovie, - the adaptation of thriller conventions to the home audience? The audience knowing that the boy was mad while the main characters did not? The build-up of suspense and the finale? How predictable was the action, the characterisation? Credible?

3. The quality of the colour photography, the use of the jail and the opening escape, the countryside of New South Wales and the bush, the establishment of the characters and the editing of the various sub-plots? The contribution of the score? Special effects?

4. How plausible was the plot? Pat and Gary as an ordinary couple, taking compassion and being involved in what became a nightmare? The tourists and the boy and the credibility of such a mad boy on the loose? The escaped prisoners and the search? The bringing of all these strands together? The contrived nature of the plot - sufficient for plausibility on a brief telemovie? The significance of the title?

5. The credits sequence and the establishment of the prison atmosphere, Joe and Toby and their breaking in to get food, the killing of the guard - and the suspense of his dying throughout the film and the action of the prison governor? The two breaking out again, their moving through the bush to elude capture, the resources used to capture them, the helicopters, the aboriginal bushman? The attitudes of the two towards escape, Joe and his hold over Toby, their adventures in the bush, Joe's injury, Toby's taking charge, the chance encounter with Gary and his telling them about the house? The irony of Joe's death - poetic justice? Toby and his being the saving figure? His burial of his brother? How well delineated as characters? Their place within the plot?

6. The establishing of Pat and Gary as a happy couple, their hunting, the travelling, the staying overnight at the motel, Pat's curiosity about the scarecrow, her concern and the involvement in the deaths? The meeting of the boy and audience knowledge about his and the couple? The ugliness of the deaths? Gary and his decision to run for the police - the plausibility, the inserted memories of his athletics career, middle age and his exertions, his running, encounter with the bushmen, with Joe and Toby? His final collapse? His return to find Pat? Her staying with the boy, her nerviness, drinking, playing cards? Her fright? The discovery of the truth? His hold over her and her manoeuvres to be free? The final confrontation and her imminent death? Being saved by Toby? The relief of rescue after being plunged into darkness?

7. The glimpse of the couple driving, their bickering, their stopping at the house? The presentation of the boy? Suggestions that he was psychotic? The intercutting of the convicts robbing the man in the poultry yard and the suggestion that they had committed the murders and set the father up as the scarecrow? When did it appear to the audience that the boy was the guilty one? The suspense of waiting for him to reveal himself to Pat? His story, his behaviour, the snake, his hostility towards Pat, her striking him, his threats? His fear when confronted? A convincing portrait of a psychotic boy? The implications concerning institutions?

8. The sketching in of the supporting characters - the governor, the prison assistants and the death of the injured man? The bushman and his contribution? The man with the poultry yard and his finally giving information?

9. How well did the film bring the strands together for suspense? Audience identification? Conventional material - but material audiences could identify with and imagine themselves in similar circumstances? Fear, courage, concern? Danger and rescue, relief?

THE PLACE AT THE COAST

Australia, 1983, 93 minutes, Colour.
John Hargreaves, Tushka Bergin, Aileen Britton, Willie Fennell, Michele Fawdon, Julie Hamilton, Heather Mitchell.
Directed by George Ogilvie.

The Place at the Coast is a very pleasing evocation of the early '60s in New South Wales. The setting is a summer holiday with Bateman's Bay, Moruya settings. The focus is on a widowed doctor, played by John Hargreaves, and his teenage daughter, an attractive performance by Tushka Bergin. There are many familiar things about the holidays as the young daughter goes visiting neighbours, studying nature, keeping her art scrapbook, becoming involved in conservation issues. Her father meets an attractive neighbour returning from England after. some years, Heather Mitchell. While much of the action is predictable, it is presented with charm and insight.

There is an excellent supporting cast with many names from Australian film and television filling supporting character roles including Willie Fennell and Garry McDonald?.

The film was directed by George Ogilvie.(Short Changed, Mad Max 3 Beyond Thunderdome)

1. The impact of the film? Its gentleness and humanity?

2. The photography of the coast, the beaches and the forest, beauty? The town, holiday homes? 1961 and its period and style? Authentic atmosphere?

3. 1961 and the still-vivid memories of World War 2, of Australian relationships with England, London? A child's perspective on 1961, the change from the '50s to the '60s? Yet nostalgia for those times?

4. The title of the film (and the original title - The Bee Eater) and its reference to Ellie?

5. Audiences identifying with the situation, the holiday, travel, beauty, the coast, the six weeks' holiday, father and daughter? The memory of the crash and Ellie's memory of the death of her mother? The effect? The arrival at the coast, joy, speed and verve of Ellie, yet the memory of her mother?

6. The bond between Neil and Ellie: parent and daughter, the age difference? Going to the house, alone, the memories? Ellie and her visit to Mrs. Burroughs, friendship, the bread? Her father and his fishing? In the boat? Going to the Montgomerys? Breakfast, Julie, Bob, the bike? The town with King (Kevin) and the ride? Going to Fred and May, happiness in their garden, eating with them? Establishing Ellie in an environment of nature and people?

7. The importance of the beauty of nature, the credits and Ellie's book of leaves and descriptions? The pelicans? Margot's gift of the book? Conservation, the plan for development? The meetings? Ellie's going, Neil and Margot not going? Her upset? Her nickname of Bee Eater and Margot's nickname of Lily?

8. The portrait of Ellie: teenage, her relationship with her father, boys - Julie and the kiss, cry? Meeting Margot and sharing with her, walking? The ordinariness of life on the holiday? The Christmas dinner and the enjoyment, the singing? Her calling out and concern about conservation? her seeing the change in her fattier with Margot? The meeting and their failing to come, her anger? The reconciliation, her love for Margot? Driving away -her future?

9. Neil and his work, the death of his wife? The holiday, fishing? Nan Montgomery and school? Yelling? His opting out of the invitation? Meeting Margot, the bond between them, at home, the beer, the swim? Christmas? Talk about travel? Failing to go to the meeting? Talking plainly to Ellie? Reconciliation? Marriage?

10. May and Fred and their talk, Britain? Fussiness? May in favour of progress? Christmas and the argument? Margot and her relationship with Fred and May?

11. Margot and the talk about her, her sudden appearance, the arrival, Margot's life, talking with Ellie, the birds, sharing, her friendship with Neil, the bond, swim, visits? Care for Ellie? Not going to the meeting? The apology? Marriage?

12. The Montgomerys and Julie, going out to the pictures with Ellie, meeting King in the town? Bob and his anxiety about Julie? The kiss? King and his friendship with Ellie, talking? Youth of the town? Echoes of the '50s with motor bikes and leather? The coming '60s?

13. The Burroughs and their friendship, Mrs. Burroughs and the bread, her outburst with Neil, the weeping, the cartons? Fishing with Mr Burroughs? Christmas and the singing? Fine short sketches of real people?

14. Christmas, the coming of the family, Gran and her memories, helping Ellie? Helen and her husband, the children? The rush, the presents, the beer, the talk, the singing?

15. A glimpse of an Australian family of the past? The atmosphere of the '50s and '60s? The end of the past and the changes of the '60s? Nostalgia from the '80s?

THE PIRATE MOVIE

Australia, 1982, 105 minutes, Colour.
Christopher Aitkens, Kristy Mc Nicoll, Ted Hamilton, Maggie Kirkpatrick, Gary Mc Donald.
Directed by Ken Annakin.

The Pirate Movie, at nine million dollars, was the most expensive movie made in Australia up to the end of 1981.The film, however, looks like an expensive scratch concert. There were a lot of production difficulties: director Richard Franklin withdrew some weeks before filming, there were many discussions about the script, writer Trevor Farrant disowned the film after its release.

The film is at pains to offer its gratitude to the Australian Government and Australia for co-operation - as a result of 1981 tax incentives. The film utilises Australian coastal scenery and the Loch Ard Gorge. Chirnside Park is used for the stately 19th century home. Kristy Mc Nicoll was a popular young actress from Family as well as films like Little Darlings, Only When I Laugh. Christopher Atkins was a popular teenage star with The Blue Lagoon. Executive producer and actor Ted Hamilton leads an Australian supporting cast. Bill Kerr overacts as the Major General. Garry Mc Donald is excellent, winning an A.F.I. nomination for the best supporting actor, for his imitation of Inspector Clouseau as well being leader of the Gilbert and Sullivan police.

The film is loosely based on Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance - and uses a number of the songs with updated lyrics. It was not a rival to the Linda Ronstadt film of The Pirates. The film takes the conventions of dream and fantasy with acknowledgements to many films which it imitates e.g. Picnic at Hanging Rock, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars. There is a blend of jolliness as well as amateurishness in the production and acting - and a great number of sex jokes which are presented and passed over rapidly. The film was aimed at a teenage audience - and as a piece of expensive frothy entertainment it might pass a rainy afternoon or other. Direction is by Ken Annakin who made such films as Those Magnificent Men, The Longest Day, The Battle of the Bulge and several Disney films.

1. Entertainment? For what audience? International, Australian? The production values? The Controversy about its status as an Australian film? The writer disowning it?

2. Australian production values: technical skills. coastal and Werribee locations? The musical score? The choreography (by David Atkins)? The American and Australian cast?

3. The success of the film as musical: the basic Gilbert and Sullivan songs, the added lyrics? The romantic songs? The happy ending finale? The pleasant romantic touch? The Gilbert and Sullivan plot and its use - for fantasy and dream?

4. The satire on film-making? The opening credits and the old-fashioned pirate movies? The demonstration to onlookers of how to make action films? The artificiality of the dream film and incorporating modern characters into the dream? The allusions to so many films and the visual satire on Picnic at Hanging Rock, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, the Inspector Clouseau films?

5. The introduction with the modern aspects of film-making and demonstrations? The characters to reappear in the dreams? The girls and the glamour? Mabel with her glasses? Becoming the victim of the other girls, falling overboard?

6. Mabel's dream: the change in her character and personality, strong-minded heroine, attractive, bossy, romantic? Her ability to change her dream at the end? Her father and his poverty, the lavish house, the many daughters and their wanting to be married? Her sighting Frederick and falling in love? The devices of the songs and falling in love? The clash with the pirates? Getting the map from the pirate king's back and the mock seduction scene? Diving for treasure? The siege of the house? The clash with the pirates, her riding for the police? The happy ending and the song-and-dance finale? Kristy Mc Nicoll's vitality carrying the role?

7. Frederick as orphan, the battle for his birthday present, his turning 21, his being set adrift, sighting Mabel and her sisters, falling in love, his romantic touch, his inexperience with girls? The getting of the map from the pirate king's back, diving for treasure? Rescuing the girls? His honesty in siding with the pirates? The final fight? The grand finale? Christopher Atkins in this role?

8. The pirate king - and the irony of his being the loud film promoter? His songs, Gilbert and Sullivan? Esteem for Frederick, his attraction towards Mabel and the humour of the seduction scene, Ruth's love for him? Greed, deals, fights? The happy ending with Ruth? The range of pirate characters?

9. The Major General and his cowardice, his Gilbert and Sullivan song? His involvement in the finale? The many daughters and their being sex-mad -wanting to get married? The finale for marriage?

10. The Gilbert and Sullivan police and their choreography? Garry Mc Donald's imitation of Inspector Clouseau?

11. The conventions and action of the pirate movie? Popular entertainment?.

12. The continued lacing of the screenplay with sex jokes - humour, presentation, not dwelling on them and passing to the next?

13. The atmosphere of expensive scratch concert? A successful entertainment movie?

A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN SURF

Australia, 1983, 52 minutes, Colour.
Michael Blakemore.
Directed by Michael Blakemore.

A Personal History of the Australian Surf is an award-winning documentary/feature film. It is the memoir of theatre director Michael Blakemore about growing up in Sydney in the '30s, '40s and early '50s. Blakemore introduces the film and discusses his memories. He also dramatises episodes of his life and he plays his father whom he found a very stern and difficult man to get on with. These scenes vividly re-create aspects of the pressures on an Australian boy growing up - the expectations of the masculine image and the ruggedness expected. Blakemore offers a critique of the attitudes of the times and illustrates how he broke through them. There is humour and warmth in the film even though Blakemore's memories of his father had not been healed. The film is an interesting example of a cinema form that should be used far more.

1. An enjoyable film? The nature of a memoir? The blend of documentary with drama? The possibility for the protagonist to speak to the audience, to reflect? Effective and enlightening entertainment?

2. The personality of Michael Blakemore: genial presence, invitation to the audience to participate in his film? His quality of insight, ability to speak? His visiting Sydney in 1980 and looking again at the houses, the coastline and the beaches? his remembering the past and re-enacting it? How well did he capture it? The use of photos, newsreels, short films from the early period? The blend of techniques? Style, pace, editing? The use of the Australian surf - realism, symbolism? His comment on the surf?

3. The title of the film? Its highlighting Blakemore's experience of the surf? Its highlighting Australian attitudes and values? The sub-title and the irony of the heterosexual poofter? Blakemore as a heterosexual young Australian interested in the arts - interests commonly associated with homosexuals? The pressures for a boy in growing up? The surf as the soothing element in his life? His ability to give it up when he went to England and begin his career?

4. The emphasis on the personal history of Blakemore? His being seen as a child, growing in the world of his father, the picture of his family, his father and his proposition to him, comparatively no mention of his mother? The revelation of the private and public worlds? The father taking his son for swims in the harbour and the expectations of diving and swimming in the pool? The contrast with the magic of the surf? Holidays and the surf? The young boy and his interest in theatre e.g. the magic show? Problems of puberty? The greater public schools with their tradition of sport and Cadets? The expectations for a medical student - and his breaking through them by socialising? Acting and the leading to a career in theatre? The point of view of a man who succeeded in his profession and succeeded outside Australia?

5. The film's insight into the pressures on the Australian boy: father's expectations, swimming, success in sport, 'macho image', boarding school discipline, his father not wanting his son to dance, amused at the magic show, not wanting him to see so many films, hoping the Cadets would toughen him? Pressures as regards career? Pressures as regards the advantages received and the ingratitude of waste? Blakemore's seeing the surf as a freeing element, a healing element? The critique of these pressure? His looking back with good humour? The point of view of a 'straight poofter?

6. The visualising of the sea, the Pacific, the Sydney beaches? The visuals of the surf, the waves, the boards, the lifesavers? The humour of these images? The contrast with the harbour? Water, sand, people, swimming? The purifying and tranquilising of the surf? Surf as a symbol of youth? A bond possible of affection with his father? (The irony of Blakemore acting the role of his father?)

7. The image of his father and Blakemore acting it out? An example of psychodrama? His stances, laughter, whistling, cross-legged? Fights and winning? His sardonic humour especially as regards his death? The brief allusion to his mother?

8. The background of Sydney society, wealth, fashionable suburbs, holiday homes. the best schools, university, golf club, money?

9. Themes of education - for what? Medicine and its uselessness for Blakemore? The background of the magic show, his knowledge of films and cinema? Acting? The advice and help of Robert Morley?

10. The insertion of the old films about surfing to highlight the Australian image of swimmer and lifesaver?

11. The value of the memoir: returning and reliving, seeing the past with fresh eyes, interpreting places and people? Joy? Healing? A re-assessment of one's life?