Cinema of Australia
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Featured:  Illustration: Portrait fantaisiste du marquis de Sade (1866) by H. Biberstein |
Australia has a long history of film production — in fact, it is claimed that the first feature-length film was the Australian production The Story of the Kelly Gang. However, the purchase of virtually all cinemas by American distribution companies saw an almost total disappearance of Australian films from the screens. A notable exception was Charles Chauvel's classic Jedda (1955). During the late 1960s and 1970s an influx of government funding saw the development of a new generation of directors and actors telling distinctively Australian stories. Films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Sunday Too Far Away had an immediate international impact. The 1980s is regarded as perhaps a golden age of Australian cinema, with many very successful films, from the dark science fiction of Mad Max to the comedy of Crocodile Dundee, a film that defined Australia in the eyes of many foreigners despite having remarkably little to do with the lifestyle of most Australians. The 1990s saw a run of successful comedies such as Muriel's Wedding, The Castle and Strictly Ballroom, which helped launch the careers of Toni Collette, P. J. Hogan and Baz Luhrmann. The indigenous film industry continues to produce a reasonable number of films each year; also, many US producers have moved productions to Australia following the decision by Fox head Rupert Murdoch (a former Australian, now an American) to move the new studios to Sydney where filming could be effectively completed well below US costs. Notable productions include The Matrix and the Star Wars Episode II and III.
