Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Motion pictures Australia Plots'
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1
Cagle, Paul Christopher. "Historical foundations of Hollywood's social problem film, 1945-1967 /." View online version; access limited to Brown University users, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3174579.
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Peach, Ricardo. "Queer cinema as a fifth cinema in South Africa and Australia." University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2100/425.
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Australia had the world’s first gay film festival at the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op in June 1976, part of a larger commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in New York City of 1969. In 1994, South Africa became the first country in the world to prohibit discrimination in its constitution on the basis of sexual orientation, whilst allowing for positive discrimination to benefit persons disadvantaged by unfair discrimination. South Africa and Australia, both ex-British colonies, are used in this analysis to explore the way local Queer Cinematic Cultures have negotiated and continue to negotiate dominant social forces in post-colonial settings. It is rare to have analyses of Queer Cinematic Cultures and even rarer to have texts dealing with cultures outside those of Euro-America. This study offers a unique window into the formations of Queer Cinematic Cultures of two nations of the ‘South’. It reveals important new information on how sexual minorities from nations outside the Euro-American sphere have dealt with and continue to deal with longstanding Queer cinematic oppressions. A pro-active relationship between Queer representation in film and social-political action is considered by academics such as Dennis Altman to be essential for significant social and judicial change. The existence of Queer and other independent films in Sydney from the 1960s onward, impacted directly on sexuality, race and gender activism. In South Africa, the first major Queer film festival, The Out In Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in 1994, was instrumental in developing and maintaining a post-Apartheid Queer public sphere which fostered further legal change. Given the significant histories of activism through Queer Cinematic Cultures in both Australia and South Africa, I propose in this thesis the existence of a new genus of cinema, which I term Fifth Cinema. Fifth Cinema includes Feminist Cinema, Queer Cinema and Immigrant/Multicultural Cinema and deals with the oppressions which cultures engage with within their own cultural boundaries. It can be informed by First Cinema (classical, Hollywood), Second Cinema (Art House or dual national cinemas), Third and Fourth Cinema (cinemas dealing with the decolonisation of Third World and Fourth World people), but it develops its unique characteristics by countering internal cultural colonisation. Fifth Cinema functions as a heterognosis, where multi-dimensional representations around sexuality, race and gender are used to assist in broader cultural liberation.
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Crilly, Shane. ""Gods in our own world" representations of troubled and troubling masculinities in some Australian films, 1991-2001 /." Connect to this title online, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/37939.
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The dominance of male characters in Australian films makes our national cinema a rich resource for the examination of the construction of masculinities. This thesis argues that the codes of the hegemonic masculinities in capitalist patriarchal societies like Australia insist on an absolute masculine position. However, according to Oedipal logic, this position always belongs to another man. Masculine yet 'feminised,'identity is fraught with anxiety but sustained by the 'dominant fiction' that equates the penis with the phallus and locates the feminine as its polar opposite. This binary relationship is inaugurated in childhood when a boy must distinguish his identity from his mother, who, significantly, is a different gender. Being masculine means not being feminine. However, as much as men strive towards inhabiting the masculine position completely, this masquerade will always be exposed by the elements associated with femininity that are an inevitable part of the human experience. Yet, the more men are drawn to the feminine, the more they risk losing their masculine integrity altogether under the patriarchal gaze. Men, in this dualistic regime, are condemned to negotiate their identity haunted by the promises of the phallus and the fear of its loss. I begin with a model of masculine integrity represented in the image of an ideal father, Darryl Kerrigan, from The Castle and then proceed to problematise it through an examination of its excesses observed in the father of David Helfgott in Shine. In the second chapter I investigate two films that represent mothers as the principal threat to masculine integrity: Death in Brunswick and Proof. Both films reveal a misogynistic impetus, which is expressed as violence against women in The Boys, the sole focus of my middle chapter. With misogyny and violence still resonating, I follow the contours of my argument through an examination of Chopper and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in the fourth chapter, where I emphasise the performative nature of identity, before arriving at a discussion of men and their relationships in the final chapter (Mullet, Praise, and Thank God He Met Lizzie).Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Humanities, 2004.
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Weightman, Elise. "The mirror has many faces : an exploration of women's aesthetics in contemporary mainstream Australia." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1999.
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This thesis investigates the concept of "women's aesthetics", as distinct from "feminine" or "feminist" aesthetics, asserting that an original and liberated women's film practice and spectatorship may be realised, in the late 1990s, by reinterpreting women's aesthetics as diverse social and artistic processes. Aesthetic concepts such as pleasure, value, art and sensory experience are also
tested in this study to establish their relevance to feminist discourses on film, the wider culture and society. The study also argues that the aesthetics of Australian women filmmakers working in mainstream cinema may be
characterised by certain social and artistic processes. Further, it is suggested that these women achieve a more liberated and empowered artistic practice through their distinctive and personal explorations of particular aesthetic processes. Through case studies of films by Gillian Armstrong, Jane Campion, Samantha Lang and Rachel Perkins, certain characteristics of women's aesthetics are
identified, and their power and relevance for Australian women filmmakers are evaluated. While focusing its investigation on the concept of "women's aesthetics", this
study also interrogates recent and seminal feminist film theory as well as the historical development of Australian national cinema, establishing a context and justification for the exploration of women's aesthetics. The revised, inclusive concept of women's aesthetics is then applied to a
practical project, in which my own artistic processes are explored through the production of three short films. This practical component is reported and critiqued to establish the relevance of the concept of women's aesthetics to my
own film practice. Finally, this thesis concludes that the concept and practice of women's aesthetics as a negotiated process can be used to promote and develop a more relevant, political and productive relationship between women, mainstream cinema and the wider culture and society.
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Beeton, Sue 1956. "Film-induced tourism impacts and consequences." Monash University, National Centre for Australian Studies, 2002. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/7570.
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Athique, Adrian Mabbott. "Non-resident cinema transnational audiences for Indian films /." Access electronically, 2005. http://www.library.uow.edu.au/adt-NWU/public/adt-NWU20060511.140513/index.html.
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Emerson, John. "The representation of the colonial past in French and Australian cinema, from 1970 to 2000 /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2002. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phe536.pdf.
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Reid, Mary Anne. "Success factors in Australian cinema in the 1990s." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2000.
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The main body of this research thesis employs a combination of case study and national data to discuss the concept of 'success' in relation to the Australian film industry in the 1990s. Faced with the problem of measuring 'success', my approach has been to apportion success into 'commercial' and 'critical', in relation to three Australian films - Muriel's Wedding, Love And Other Catastrophes and Kiss or Kill - each of which is considered to have been successful in one way or another. The purpose of these case studies is to demonstrate that films can be successful at different levels - niche or mainstream - and that in commercial terms, 'successful for whom?' depends on where one stands in the long chain of creators, marketers and exhibitor/broadcasters of a single film.
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Urquhart, Peter. "1979 : reading the tax-shelter boom in Canadian film history." Thesis, McGill University, 2004. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=85211.
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More certified-Canadian feature films were shot in Canada in 1979 than in any other year. The height of what has become known as the "tax-shelter boom," 1979 stands as a remarkable moment in the history of the Canadian cinema, with 70 features shot in a year in which Hollywood produced only 99 films. The extant history of the Canadian cinema has largely ignored this moment, and in this thesis I argue that the slim treatment of the period by critics represents a "received wisdom," consistently repeated, but seldom scrutinized, and that this received wisdom is representative of the culturally nationalist impulse which has coloured the entire historiography of the Canadian cinema. Because many of the films produced during the boom were in the style of Hollywood genres, the "received wisdom" presents the entirety of the tax-shelter boom as a cultural and industrial near-disaster for the Canadian cinema, and this thesis, partly a revisionist history, explores not only those conclusions, but also provides critical discussion of them.I begin by presenting the received wisdom, the existing account, on the period. This is followed by a chapter which situates the tax-shelter boom in a history of state intervention in the feature film industry. Following this, I provide analysis of the contexts surrounding the tax-shelter boom, including critical discussion of articles and reviews from the contemporaneous popular press, and of the industry discourse. I then turn my attention to the texts themselves, which the received wisdom more or less ignores, and provide three thematically-organized chapters of textual analysis: the first organized around readings of gender and genre in the films, the second on the prevalent theme of "selling out," which is central to numerous films of the period, and a third chapter which explores the place of Quebec in the films of the period.
The thesis concludes with an analysis of the material effects of the government policies which led to the boom, and concludes that in this respect too, the received account of the period---once again, as a failure---needs to be reexamined.
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Enders, Michael Leonard. "Gettin' acquainted : film, ethnicity and Australian society." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1996. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/36279/1/36279_Enders_1996.pdf.
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This thesis uses a cultural studies- based social- cultural- historical methodology to
compare changes in depictions of ethnicity in selected Australian feature films
produced from 1930 to 1995 to changes in Australian immigration policy over the
same period. The aim is to identify the relationship between feature film
depictions and the societies which produced them. The study will show that
depictions of ethnicity in Australian feature films have progressed through three
phases in line with the changes in Australian immigration policy from 'white
Australia' (1930-1946) to assimilation (194 7 -1971) to multiculturalism (1972-
present) .
The study also proposes a model of 'cultural absorption' as better alternative than
'reflection' to explain the means by which social-cultural beliefs and values are
transferred from society to feature films. The results of this study confirm that
the myths and social cultural beliefs and values of a society can be identified by
analysing the cultural artefacts, such as feature films, produced by that society.
This means that it is possible to identify the myths, beliefs and values of past
moments in Australian social history by analysing feature films produced by that
society. Identifying changes in society and culture and the mechanisms which
brought them about provides a means of better understanding contemporary
society and culture and how future changes may affect social and cultural
evolution.
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Romão, Moisés Henrique Mietto. "Belle toujours e a eloquência do silêncio : considerações sobre o épico no filme de Manoel de Oliveira /." Araraquara, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/182537.
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Orientador: Renata Soares JunqueiraBanca: Fabiane Renata Borsato
Banca: Wiliam Pianco dos Santos
Resumo: O cineasta português Manoel de Oliveira (1908-2015) é reconhecido mundialmente pela sua estética cinematográfica singular. Uma de suas principais características é a relação intrínseca que os seus filmes ostentam com as artes de uma forma geral, como a pintura, o teatro, a literatura, a arquitetura, a escultura, a música e o próprio cinema. Do teatro podemos notar o peso da palavra proferida. Com mais de 50 filmes em sua carreira - longas, médias e curtas-metragens -, o realizador nos presenteou com diálogos antológicos que nos instigam a refletir sobre os mais variados dilemas que perturbam o ser humano. Além disso, a sua distinta estética apresenta traços épicos que causam um distanciamento entre o espectador e o que é mostrado na tela, já que, muitas vezes, seus filmes se mostram realmente como filmes, como espetáculos. Tendo isso em mente, e sublinhando alguns filmes em que os diálogos são imprescindíveis, como em Um filme falado (2003) ou em O gebo e a sombra (2012), para citar apenas dois, é interessante examinar a eloquência do silêncio em Belle toujours (2006), obra em que os diálogos existem e são importantes, mas que recorre à quietude das personagens, em planos fulcrais, para sugerir um significado maior do que aquele que qualquer palavra seria capaz de indicar. Outrossim, a mise-en-scène é composta por elementos expressivos e muito significativos, os quais parecem gritar e dar voz à mudez. Em vista desse silêncio que causa estranheza a nós, espectadores, e que se ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo)
Abstract: The Portuguese film-maker Manoel de Oliveira (1908-2015) is known worldwide for his singular film aesthetic. One of its main characteristics is the intrinsic relation that his films display with art forms in general, such as painting, theatre, literature, architecture, sculpture, music and cinema itself. From theatre, we may notice the weight of the uttered word. With more than 50 films in his career - feature films, medium-length films and short ones -, the director gifted us with anthological dialogues which instigate reflection about various dilemmas that affect the human being. Furthermore, his distinctive aesthetic exhibits epic conventions which create distance between the audience and what is shown on screen, since his films are several times assumed as films, as spectacles. With this in mind, and underlining some films whose dialogues are crucial, as in A talking picture (2003) or in Gebo and the shadow (2012), to name but two, it seems interesting to examine the silence eloquence in Belle toujours (2006), masterpiece in which dialogues exist in their importance, but the film invokes the characters' quietness in fundamental shots, to suggest a deeper meaning than any other possibly indicated by words. Moreover, the mise-en-scène is composed by expressive and very meaningful elements, which seem to make muteness loud and give voice to it. In face of this silence that causes us, the audience, strangeness and that shows itself meaningful, this work aims to analyse how it... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)
Mestre
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Boden, Susan, and n/a. "'an unsettled state': the real and the imainary in Australian cinematic and designed landscapes." University of Canberra. Design, 2002. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060426.161116.
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This thesis considers varied representations of landscape in
Australian narrative film and designed landscape. Landscape is
taken as an active concept that combines the associative meanings
of place and the dynamism of space. Sixteen film and designed
landscapes are examined to derive their landscape sources, forms
and ideas, using the methodology of 'contextual poetics', Each of
these landscapes is considered under a specific theme: landscape as
delight, absence, nation or hope.
In addition to detailing specific landscape responses by the
designers of the examined landscapes, this project aims to
contribute to an enhanced conversation about the effective, just
practice of landscape architecture.
The topic derives from a question central to landscape architectural
practice in a post-colonial context, such as Australia. In a cultural
setting where no single, agreed definition of landscape is allowed
by the conditions of its history, which versions do practitioners of
landscape architecture take up? What should be their limits, where
are their inspirations and whose landscape narratives are ignored in
these decisions?
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Rezende, Marília Abrão. "O mistério no cinema: questões de gênero, hibridação e escrita de roteiros." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2018. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/21339.
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This research regards the mystery on cinema, noting and questioning its typological statute; pointing out its relationship with the following typologies: whodunit, noir, and suspense thriller; and observing the building up of mystery on screenwriting. More specifically, we pose the question: which elements, noticeable since the script, contribute to the understanding of these films as mystery films? Therefore, our corpus comprises three screenplays: Rear Window (1953), Chinatown (1973) and Memento (1999). The screenplay’s analysis is supported somewhat by the work of Jule Selbo –– researcher and screenwriter who studies genre as a tool for writing feature-films ––, and also looks for noticing (A) which situations in these scripts alludes to the mystery universe and the genres related to it; (B) which are the emotional effects provoked on the spectator by the use of genres (C) how could the genres that crosses a script be related to the film’s relevance on its time? The concept of genre adopted comes mostly from Rick Altman, who understands the generic kind in historical perspective instead of seeing it as a fixed category. Altman’s semantic-syntactic approach makes possible the observation of elements that contribute to the analysis of the screenplays mentioned above, summing up to Selbo’s approach. The bibliography also contains names as Raphaëlle Moine, Thomas Schatz, David Bordwell, Edward Buscombe, Steave Neale –– authors that explore the genres in various directions. Beyond them, we found help on a diverse range of authors and researchers, who enriched the discussion. We believe that the relevance of this research is related to the few numbers of works in Brazil regarding the mystery’s statute, as well as to the scarce academic studies related to the practice of screenwriting
Esta pesquisa volta-se para o mistério no cinema, notando e questionando seu caráter tipológico; assinalando sua imbricação com as tipologias do whodunit, do noir e do thriller de suspense; e observando a construção do mistério na etapa de roteirização. Mais especificamente, pergunta-se: quais elementos, presentes desde a etapa do roteiro, contribuem para a apreensão desses filmes enquanto filmes de mistério? Para tanto temos um corpus composto por três roteiros fílmicos: Rear Window (Janela Indiscreta, 1953), Chinatown (Chinatown, 1973) e Memento (Amnésia, 1999). A análise dos roteiros apontados se fundamenta no trabalho de Jule Selbo –– pesquisadora e roteirista que estuda o gênero enquanto ferramenta para a escrita de roteiros longa-metragem –– e busca observar (A) quais situações nesses roteiros remetem, de forma mais imediata, ao universo do mistério e dos gêneros a ele relacionados; (B) quais as relações afetivas que são despertadas no espectador a partir dos gêneros; (C) de que forma os gêneros que perpassam tais roteiros relacionam-se à pertinência dos respectivos filmes na sua contemporaneidade. O conceito de gênero aqui adotado é o de Rick Altman, que entende as categorias genéricas em plano histórico e não como formas imutáveis. A abordagem semântico-sintática do autor possibilita o apontamento de aspectos que contribuem para a observação dos roteiros em questão, complementando a abordagem de Selbo. Os referenciais teóricos da pesquisa também envolvem outros estudiosos como Raphaëlle Moine, Thomas Schatz, David Bordwell, Edward Buscombe, Steave Neale — autores que trabalham o gênero cinematográfico em suas diferentes dimensões. Além disso, encontramos respaldo em importantes nomes da história do cinema. Acreditamos que a relevância da pesquisa liga-se à escassez, na universidade brasileira, de trabalhos relacionados ao estatuto do mistério, bem como à raridade de estudos teóricos que se relacionem à prática de roteirização
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Smith, Keith. "Kodak's worst nightmare Super 8 in the digital age: A cultural history of Super 8 filmmaking in Australia 1965-2003." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1612.
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This project charts the extraordinary history of the Super 8 film medium, a popular amateur home movie format first introduced in 1965 and largely assumed to have disappeared with the advent of home video technologies in the early 1980's. Kodak's Worst Nightmare investigates the cultural history of the Super 8 medium with an emphasis on its (secret) life since 1986. lt asks how (and why) an apparently obsolete consumer technology has survived some 35 years into a digital future despite the emergence of technologically-advanced domestic video formats and Eastman Kodak's sustained attempts since the mid-80s to suppress, what is for it, a patently unprofitable product line. Informed by the work of Heath (1900), Zimmermann (1995), and Carroll (1996), this project takes the unusual step of isolating a specific amateur film medium as its object of study at the centre of a classic 'nature vs. nurture' debate. Arguing against a popular essentialist position which attributes the longevity of Super 8 to its unique, irreplaceable aesthetic, Kodak's Worst Nightmare proposes that Super 8 film has been a contested site in a social, cultural, political, and economic nexus where different agencies have appropriated the medium through the construction of discourses which have imposed their own meanings on the use and consumption of this cultural product. In an extraordinary cycle of subjugation, resistance and incorporation, this project finds that the meanings and potentials of Super 8 have been progressively colonised by differing institutions - firstly by Eastman Kodak ('domestic' Super 8), secondly by the alternative,independent film movement ('oppositional' Super 8 and 'indie' Super 8), and finally by the mainstream film and television industry ('professional' Super 8"). In an amazing contradiction, it is argued that Super 8 in its current incarnation has emerged as the exact opposite of Kodak's original discursive construction of its amateur status - it has become a professional medium for commercial production. Drawing together related work in the histories of domestic photography and communications technologies, and the cultural practice of everyday life, this project contributes to an area which is seriously undertheorised in the literature of film theory and cultural studies- the social, political and cultural role of amateur film technologies.
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McKenzie, Susan M., and n/a. "Canadian and Australian Feature Film Policy in Perspective: A Comparative Study from 1968 to 1998." Griffith University. School of Arts, Media and Culture, 2004. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20040804.142852.
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This comparative study is an investigation into the changing concerns of feature film policy in Canada and Australia from 1968 to 1998. Its purpose is to determine how similar policy initiatives have produced divergent results in two economically, culturally and socially similar nations. The inquiry's aim is to establish what financial, political and geographic variables affect the application of feature film policy. While resemblances between these nations justify the contrasting of comparable feature film policy initiatives, differences in outcomes suggest that these nations are not entirely alike. Therefore, rather than following the leads of comparable national agencies, film policy makers in Canada and Australia need to concentrate on conditions specific to their own particular situation.
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Barnett, Vanessa. "Tasha: A practice-based problematisation of Australian comedy cinema’s representation of gender, family and nationhood." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2014. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1411.
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Between 2007 and 2012, 140 fictional feature films were financed with the assistance of Australian film funding bodies. Of these 140 films, only 31 featured female protagonists and of these 31 films, only 8 were comedies (see Appendix B). These figures show statistically, Tasha, the creative film component of this research project, is not a typical Australian comedy film; it is the story of Tasha, an unemployed girl from Girrawheen in her early twenties, who has lost her sense of identity. As Australian films such as Little Fish¸ Candy, Jedda and Muriel’s Wedding would suggest, this is certainly not an uncommon premise in Australian national cinema. However, this is not all there is to know about Tasha; she is preoccupied, not by a love interest or by a drug addiction, but by ninjutsu, and vigilantism. This is where Tasha finds its unique approach to Australian cinema’s historic treatment of the woman-centred narrative. That said, beneath Tasha’s unconventional surface arguably lies a truly Australian comedy film.
The exegesis component of this project re-interprets Bazin’s question, “Qu'est-ce que le cinéma?” (What is cinema?), with a theoretical framework inspired by Australian film theorist Tom O’Regan’s influential text, Australian National Cinema. The exegesis begins by looking at Australian national cinema as a whole, then narrowing the focus to Australian comedy cinema. O’Regan (1996) describes Australian cinema as a national cinema; a cinema that embodies Australian culture, society and history. The focus is on Australian comedy film texts, and their social, political and cultural contexts. Tasha, the creative film project, is what O’Regan would term a “problematisation” of Australian comedy cinema.
The key argument of this project is that Australian national comedy films are uniquely Australian, cinematic explorations of individual identity, socio-cultural identity, landscape and family. Australia laughs about what it knows best, these four narrative and aesthetic preoccupations being central to Australian socio-cultural values and attitudes, to understanding the concept of Australianness. Australian comedy cinema is a problematic genre unto itself. The theoretical component of this project is a profile of Australian comedy cinema’s homogenised representation of Australianness. Tasha is then presented as an alternative. This investigation aims to both improve, and demonstrate an understanding of Australian comedy cinema as a problematisation of gender, culture, landscape, family and identity.
Tasha responds to the research question, “What is Australian comedy cinema?” by revealing that even an Australian action comedy with exciting stunts and fight scenes, is still a story of an individual’s sense of identity, family, and place. Such stories are arguably the hallmark of Australian comedy cinema; this carries a uniquely Australian sense of quirkiness. It remains the domain of the underdog: the battlers, larrikins, and of course the ockers. It still carries the same messages; never forget who you are, who your friends and family are, or where you came from. Despite its unconventional narrative, subject matter, soundtrack and aesthetics, Tasha proves to be no exception; it is still easily identified as a truly Australian comedy film.
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Hayes, Kalmia Joy. "Thematic integrity in filmic versions of E.M. Forster's novels." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002261.
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This study discusses the extent to which Charles Sturridge's Where Angels Fear to Tread, Merchant Ivory's Howards End, and David Lean's A Passage to India have aimed at, and succeeded in, exploring the thematic concerns of E.M. Forster's novels. A brief introductory chapter explains the motivation behind this research, and the choice of critical methodologies used. It concludes with an outline of some of the problems confronting film-makers wishing to explore the concerns of novels. The first chapter, which is devoted to Where Angels Fear to Tread, reveals that while Sturridge is "faithful" to Forster's novel at a superficial level, basing most of his scenes on, and taking most of his dialogue directly from, the text, he does not explore Forster's themes. The facility with which film tells stories proves to be a treacherous trap for Sturridge. His version of Where Angels Fear to Tread is totally vacuous because he failed to develop anything beyond the story -- Forster's "tapeworm" of time (Aspects of the NoyeI41). The causality that Forster calls plot seemed beyond Sturridge's comprehension, leaving his film little more than an endless progression of "and then[s]" (Forster, Aspects 87). Characters are not given their full weight; symbols and leitmotifs are overlooked; the allegorical elements he did recognize, he failed to understand, and thus misplaced, so that the epiphanic moments of the novel are lost. There is no possibility of thematic concerns emerging from a film in which plot, characterization, symbol and rhythm are ignored. Sturridge's apparent inability to understand his source is in stark contrast to Merchant Ivory's sensitivity to Howards End, and their evident familiarity with literary criticism on the work. Chapter two explores the way in which their adaptation smooths out putative flaws in characterization and plot, and uses filmic rhythm and camera work to suggest comments made by the novel's narrator. Almost wholly successful in developing the novel's themes, Merchant Ivory's Howards End does not, however, successfully explore the spiritual dimensions of Forster's novel. Film is a medium capable of great subtlety, but its strength lies in its ability to capture the seen; the unseen tends to evade its grasp. It is in dealing with the unseen that Lean's A Passage to India misses greatness, for in virtually every other respect his version of Forster's masterpiece is superb. Chapter three explores Lean's creative and flexible approach to adaptation, his acute sensitivity to the differing demands of film and novel, and his confident technical mastery. It also explores, however, the emptiness at the heart of his film, an emptiness that is the result of his trivialization of the spiritual concerns of Forster's novel.
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Johinke, Rebecca Jane. "Blokes and cars : the construction of masculinities in Australian film / Rebecca Jane Johinke." Thesis, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/114413.
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This thesis examines the construction of masculinities in the genre of Australian film known as 'car crash' films. A number of film texts are used to examine how representations of vehicular masculinity are validated and how heroism is often associated with mastery of a motor vehicle. It contends that gender-technology relation constructs technology as masculine culture, the automobile often pivotal in rites of passage and manifestations of masculinity because other means to perform adulthood and gender are frequently unattainable. Membership of the masculine hegemony can appear within reach when behind the wheel of a 'hot' automobile that signifies power, freedom, escape, conspicuous consumption and control. The male characters in car crash films look to the streets and to the screen to enact blatent constructions of an overt mechanical masculinity, and the performative journey is mapped.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 2002
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Hopgood, Fincina Elizabeth. "From affliction to empathy: melodrama and mental illness in recent films from Australia and New Zealand." 2006. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/2859.
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The subject matter of mental illness has fascinated artists and writers for centuries. Filmmakers have responded in diverse and innovative ways to the artistic challenge of portraying mental illness. In this thesis, I focus on the representations of mental illness in six recent films from Australia and New Zealand: Sweetie (Jane Campion, 1989), An Angel at My Table (Campion, 1990), Bad Boy Bubby (Rolf de Heer, 1993), Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson, 1994), Angel Baby (Michael Rymer, 1995) and Shine (Scott Hicks, 1996). In each film, the protagonist is diagnosed, or treated by others, as mentally ill. Mental illness is portrayed as an affliction which the protagonist struggles to overcome. I argue that these films cultivate a relationship of empathy between the mentally ill character and the spectator. Whereas the related emotion of sympathy involves feeling sorry for someone, empathy involves feeling with that person; in other words, rather than feel for these mentally ill characters, we are invited to feel like they do. (For complete abstract open document)
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Emerson, John James. "The representation of the colonial past in French and Australian cinema, from 1970 to 2000 / by John James Emerson." 2002. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phe536.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Includes filmography: leaves 252-256. Bibliography: leaves 241-251. This thesis compares the representation of colonial history in the cinema of France and Australia since 1970. Films examined all had historical colonial settings, a narrative focus principally on aspects of the colonisation process and a director who was descended from former colonisers. It concludes that there are few sustained attempts to confront and resolve the problematic aspects of colonialism's legacy. The tendency to contain the representation of the colonial past within a fictional framework has the inevitable consequence of masking history and avoiding the necessity for dealing with it.
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Crilly, Shane. "'Gods in our own world': representations of troubled and troubling masculinities in some Australian films, 1991-2001." Thesis, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/37939.
Full textAbstract:
The dominance of male characters in Australian films makes our national cinema a rich resource for the examination of the construction of masculinities. This thesis argues that the codes of the hegemonic masculinities in capitalist patriarchal societies like Australia insist on an absolute masculine position. However, according to Oedipal logic, this position always belongs to another man. Masculine yet 'feminised,'identity is fraught with anxiety but sustained by the 'dominant fiction' that equates the penis with the phallus and locates the feminine as its polar opposite. This binary relationship is inaugurated in childhood when a boy must distinguish his identity from his mother, who, significantly, is a different gender. Being masculine means not being feminine. However, as much as men strive towards inhabiting the masculine position completely, this masquerade will always be exposed by the elements associated with femininity that are an inevitable part of the human experience. Yet, the more men are drawn to the feminine, the more they risk losing their masculine integrity altogether under the patriarchal gaze. Men, in this dualistic regime, are condemned to negotiate their identity haunted by the promises of the phallus and the fear of its loss. I begin with a model of masculine integrity represented in the image of an ideal father, Darryl Kerrigan, from The Castle and then proceed to problematise it through an examination of its excesses observed in the father of David Helfgott in Shine. In the second chapter I investigate two films that represent mothers as the principal threat to masculine integrity: Death in Brunswick and Proof. Both films reveal a misogynistic impetus, which is expressed as violence against women in The Boys, the sole focus of my middle chapter. With misogyny and violence still resonating, I follow the contours of my argument through an examination of Chopper and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in the fourth chapter, where I emphasise the performative nature of identity, before arriving at a discussion of men and their relationships in the final chapter (Mullet, Praise, and Thank God He Met Lizzie).Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Humanities, 2004.
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Bryson, Ian. "Bringing to light : a history of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Film Unit." Master's thesis, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/144491.
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Peters-Little, Frances. "The return of the noble savage by popular demand : a study of Aboriginal television documentary in Australia." Master's thesis, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/110389.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis, entitled The Return of the Noble Savage: By Popular Demand, is written after
several years of being an avid Aboriginal television watcher, filmmaker, and activist. It is
based on research on a neglected topic and in response to the consistent attack from well-meaning
critics, in an attempt to argue for the complexity of the meanings generated on
television, and for the rights of the individual filmmaker in representation.
In myth-making about Australian Aborigines there has been a consistent paradigm of
opposing poles-noble and savage, good blacks and bad blacks, primitive and civilised, real
and unreal. Oscillating between these two poles are all kinds of imaginings of Aboriginal
identity, politics and desires for truthful representation.
When early documentary filmmakers began to film Aborigines they disregarded the
Aboriginal audience, and spoke rather to themselves and to white audiences whom, for all
kinds of reasons, they wanted to inform about Aborigines. In contrast, there are in the
Australian television industry today many more Aboriginal people making films than there
have ever been, and a greater recognition of the existence of Aboriginal television audiences.
Aboriginal filmmakers have been backed by a history of radical politics and by the efforts of
non-Aboriginal filmmakers.
The recent marriage between Aboriginal filmmakers and mainstream television has been
neglected by most commentators and scholars. Critics ignore the efforts and progress made
by mainstream television and documentary filmmakers. They have written about television
without making references to Aborigines; and they have written about Aborigines without
making reference to television. This is startling when one considers the invisibility of
Aborigines before television, and the difference television has made.
The thesis also addresses the problem that in the current climate, new pressures being brought
to bear on filmmakers making documentary films on Aboriginal topics. Because they do not
take into account the nature of filmmaking, or the rights of individual filmmakers, these
pressures are infringing upon the rights not only of white but also Aboriginal filmmakers.
This pressure has swung the pendulum from savage to noble imagery, the latter of which is
just as unrealistic and untrue as the former. It also requires Aboriginal audiences and
filmmakers to protect and uphold a particular vision of Aboriginality, and denies them the
right to critique and defend themselves.
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Hooton, Fiona Art History & Art Education College of Fine Arts UNSW. "The impact of the counterculture on Australian cinema in the mid to late 20th century." 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/41008.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis discusses the impact of the counterculture on Australian cinema in the late 20thcentury through the work of the Sydney Underground Film group, Ubu. This group, active between 1965 -1970, was a significant part of an underground counter culture, to which many young Australians subscribed. As a group, Ubu was more than a rat bag assemblage of University students. It was an antipodean aspect of an ongoing artistic and political movement that began with the European avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century and that radically transformed artistic conventions in theatre, painting, literature, photography and film. Three purposes underpin this thesis: firstly to track the art historical links between a European avant-garde heritage and Ubu. Experimental film is a genre that is informed by cross art form interrelations between theatre, painting, literature, photography and film and the major modernist aesthetic philosophies of the last century. Ubu's revolutionary aesthetic approaches included political resistance and the involvement of audiences in the production of art. Their creative wellspring drew from: Alfred Jarry, Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism, Fluxus, Conceptual and Pop art. This cross fertilization between the arts is critical to understanding not only the Australian experimental movement but the history of contemporary image making. The second purpose is to fill a current void of research about early Australian Experimental film. This is a significant gap given it was a national movement with many international connections. The counterculture movement also contains many major figures in Australian art history. These individuals played their parts in the Sydney Push, Oz magazine and the activities of the Yellow House and have since become important multi arts practitioners and commentators. Thirdly, the thesis attempts to evaluate Ubu's political and social agenda for the democratization of film appreciation through their objectives of: production, exhibition, distribution and debate of experimental film both nationally and internationally. Ultimately the group would succeed in these objectives and in winning the war on repressive censorship laws. Their influence has informed the practice of many of Australia's current film heavy weights. Two key films have been selected for analysis, It Droppeth as the Gentle Rain (1963) and Newsfront (1978). The first looks forward to Ubu's contemporary practices and political agenda while the second demonstrates their longer term influences on mainstream cinema.