Cinema Papers no. 6 July-August 1975 (2024)

OCR

00 Far;=tAway
antom of Liberty
rial of Billy Jack

The Removalists
Shadowman ‘
The Taking of Pelham 123 ii

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Nada

Alice Doesn't Live Her[...]

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The Commission wishes to open
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Festival in the Sebel Town House Functlon ~~ . ' . . , . ' . Paris director Peter Weir chat at the 1975
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THE HOUSE OF STARS

This glamorous name was given to the Sebel Town
House at a time when a lot of actors and actresses were
accommodated at our hotel while appearing as guest-
stars in a locally-produced television series.
Since then many more celebrities have been hot
guests or guests-of-honor at receptions held In the Funt.
tlon Centre. and the Sebel Town House has become firm-
ly established as ‘The House of Stars’.
Recently, we were honored to play host to the dis-
tlnguished delegation of film directors who attended the
1975 Sydney Film Festival.
in recognition of the film directors’ influence on the Terephone.
succesgfallascentota'r.1y‘star',fpSe[...]houid change Sydney 35'8 3244
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—Wi|liam S. Bayer

Cineaction
proves him wrong

FILMS

from the
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Bureaucrat, Dillinger is Dead, Distant Thunder, Dream life, Dyn Amo, Etc. Etc. Etc., Film in Revolution: an in-
troduction to The Traitors, Fll Portrait, First Charge of the Machete, Going Home, Hallelujah the Hills, How to
Draw a Cat, In the Name of the Father, Introduction to the Enemy (Jane Fonda), Jackal of Nahueltoro,
Kashima Paradise, La Marseillaise, La[...](Agnes Varda), Living with Peter,
Macunaima, Made in U.S.A., Punishment Park, Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania, Rocket Ship (the
original Flash Gordon), The Soldier and the Three Sisters, Spirit of the Beehive, Strike, Terra em Transe,
Themroc, Throw Away Your Books, Let's Go Into the Streets, Tout va Bien, The Traitors, Tupamaros,

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Wh[...]

Steven Spielberg: Interview

John Moran 106
The International Women's Film

Festival Sue Spunner[...]view

Sue Johnston 112

1001 Nights and 120 Days: The erotic

cinema of Pier Paolo Pasoiini
Noel Purdon * 113
Restrictive Trade Practices Legislation
and The Film industry: Part ii

Antony l. Gin[...]iew
Ivan Hutchinson and Peter Beilby 165
Features
The Quarter 104
Cannes 75 Antony I. Ginnane 127
Melbo[...]Picnic at Hanging Rock
Animation: Disneyland and The Man From Hong Kong 152 . .
. ' - The erotic cinema f
to Dlsmaland: 139 Production Surv[...]0

Soundtracks Ivan Hutchinson 176

Film Reviews

The Removalists Jim Murphy 147

The Godfather Part it Mark Randall 148

The Taking of Pelham 123 John C. Murray 148

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Virginia Duigan 149

Nada Lindsay Amos 150

The Trial of Billy Jack Freya Mathews 151

Sunday Too Far Away Jack Clancy 154

Shadowman John O'Hara 155

The Phantom of Liberty Meaghan Morris 157

Book Reviews 173

The Day of the Locust ii_nage and Influence Mick Counihan 1975 Melbourne and Sydney
previewed in Cannes 75: 127 Final Cut Roger 0- Thornhiii Film Festivals report: 129

The Hamlyn Series Bill Collins

Editorial Board: Pete[...]Papers
is produced with financial assistance from the Film. Radio and Television Board of the Australia Council. Signed articles
represent the views of their authors and not necessarily those of the Editors. Whilst every care is taken of manuscripts
and materials supplied for this magazine. neither the Editors nor the Publishers accept any liability for loss or damage
which may arise. This magazine may not, by way of trade. be reproduced in whole or in part. without the prior permission
oi the Copyright owner. Cinema Papers is publishe[...]

SHAKEUP

While a large segment of the
Australian film industry was attending
this year'[...]lm Festival, back at
home shock waves passed down the cor-
ridors of the Media Department, the Film
Development Corporation and the Film,
Radio and TV Board.

The former Media Minister, Doug
McClel|and, had never been very popular
with the production side of the local in-
dustry. Frequently accused of consorting
with the multi—natlonal distribution en-
tities, he was[...]for divorcement and
divestiture also brought him in for
criticism. His permanent head Jim Oswln
was a[...]rmer commer-
cial TV executive, Oswln was accused of
not having the feel for the production re-
quirements of an embryonic industry.

Film, Radio and TV Board chairman
Phillip Adams never made any secret of
his dislike for McCiel|and, and his article
in The Age on April 16, set his objections
out clearly.[...]y 22, Adams announced
his resignation as chairman of the Film,
Radio and TV Board.

Shortly after, The Age insight team,
together with columnist John Pinkney,
ran a series of ‘exposes’ on the dealings
of the then almost defunct Australian
Film Development Corporation.

Notable was the attempted slur cam-
paign against Tom Stacey. the AFDC ex-
ecutive director. it was alleged that
St[...]uted Sydney
criminal, Abe Saffron, as a potential in-
vestor ln AFDC-funded projects. Stacey
was also accused of attempting to sell
both his own and his wife's fi[...]C-funded
trips.

Shortly after TheAge publication of the
insight series, Senator McC|ei|and —
and most of his ministerial colleagues —
became the victim of a Cabinet re-sh uffie
and was transferred to the Special
Ministry of State. Dr Moss Cass,
previously Minister for the Environment,
became the new Minister for Media.

Phillip Adams, who claim[...]ntrate on production work on his
forthcoming film of David Williamson's
play Don’s Party, is known t[...]s cer-
tainly anxious to establish pipelines into
the industry, and Adams may well be one
of them.

The new permanent head of the
department is Jim Spigeiman, Prime
Minister Whlt|[...]etary. His appointment has been
widely criticised in the press as “jobs for
the boys”.

Spigeiman's film interests are un-
disclosed. However, he is known to have
played an active part in the formulation
of new Labor media policy.

Meanwhile, the long-advertised posi-
tion of executive director of the Film,
Radio and Television Bord has been fili-
ed by Lachiin Shaw, formerly of
Australian Associated Press.

FILM COMMISSION

The Australian Film Commission is
now operative. Spawned from the 1972
Tariff Board report into the industry, the
Commission's Bill was bounced back
and forth through both Houses of Parlia-
ment for what seemed an eternity. Finally
on July 1, the Commission opened for

I04 — Cinema Papers, July—August

business round the corner from the now
defunct Australian Film Development
Corporation.

While the AFDC was controlled by the
Media Department, the Film Commission
— which takes over the responsibilities
of the AFDC as well as Film Australia — is
under the direct wing of the Prime
Minister's Department. it is rumored in
some quarters that the days of the Media
Department are in fact numbered. This
would certainly seem to be the case if the
Labor government falls.

The new Media Department’s respon-
sibilities now lie solely with the Australian
Information Service and the Australian
Government Publishing Service.

While the Commission is in fact a
Whitiam responsibility, cynical observers
have pointed out that in the event of the
Prime Minister being too busy to con-
centrate on the Commission's day to day
problems, the duty will fall to the Special
Minister of State, who has responsibility
for anything the PM is unable to work on.
in the recent cabinet re-shuffle this port-
folio went to ex-Media Minister Douglas
McCle||and.

The Commission is headed by a full-
time chairman, Ken Watts (former
general manager of the ABC) and two
full-time members, Pat Condon
(producer) and Peter Martin (ex-Media
adviser). One of the full-time members is
responsible for project support,
marketing and management services;
the other for Film Australia. There are
seven part-time members, including
Gra[...],
Village Theatres), John McQuaide (ex-
president of the Theatrical Amusement
Employees’ Association) and Jill Robb
(producer with the South Australian Film
Corporation). There is also provision for
the liberal use of outside consultants.

The Commission is already being in-
dependently lobbied by local filmmakers
and indu[...]or to its policy
meeting on July 23, and a number of
suggestions have been put forward for
fund disbursement. Among the more
strongly supported is a proposal to
ailocate.20 per cent of production funds
to development projects; 30 per[...]al projects.

it has been suggested that a number
of projects (among them Cecil Holmes’
Call Me By My Proper Name, and John
Lamond's Australia After Dark) which
were rejected by the AFDC, would have
qualified for AFC assistance.

According to the report of the interim
Board, the Commission is also em-
powered to make grants and[...]Further, an appli-
cant will be entitled to know the identity
of the assessor on his project and object
to them if he so desires.

There has certainly been a hiatus in
local production over the past few
months, but now that the Commission IS
operative production can perhaps mo[...]TRADE PRACTICES ACT

Litigation is aboundlng at the moment
under the Trade Practices Act, and the
outcome of present disputes and policy
making should help to[...]idelines for that brave soul who tries to
take on the integrated local film industry.

The Commission has a number of
cases pending, following the decision in
the Sharp Corporation case. Sharp were
fined $100,000 by Mr Justice Joske in the
Australian industrial Court for "false and
misleading advertising", and the publici-
ty departments of local exhibition and
distribution groups have, si[...]tle bit more cautious with ex-
travagant claims.

The Commission's attitudes towards
mergers is also be[...]105 applications for clearances have
been made to the Commission, and to
date only about 10 have been refused. Of
the 10, three have subsequently received
authorizations, following the intervention
of the Attorney-General. in two other
cases the Commission refused clearance
on the grounds that competition was
substantially lessened, but granted
authorizations because the mergers
were in the public interest. The com-
panies were apparently abie to show the
cost savings which were to flow from the
mergers as well as other benefits.

However, the Commission refused to
grant a clearance to Nationwide Funeral
Merchandise Pty. Ltd.'s acquisition of H.
H. Webb and Co. Ltd., taking the view
that “the integration between the leading
supplier and a substantial group of
customers must further weaken the com-
petitive structure of the industry, and will
have the effect of substantially lessening
both actual and potential competitive
conduct at both the manufacturing and
retail levels of the industry."

The test is the likely impact of the ac-
quisition on competition. This obviously
depends on the structure of the industry,
the behavior of the firms in it at the time
of making the application for a
clearance, and the likely behavior of
firms after the clearance.

The Commission's closing words may
be of interest to exhibition majors con-
sidering further expansion: “The acquisi-
tion will eiiminate from the market a
funeral director which has been a signifi-
cant influence on the Melbourne market,
especially in the matter of price competi-
tion and its unorthodox approach".

The Commission's views on anti-
competitive behavior also got an airing
recently when it ruled on the tied house
arrangements prevailing between NSW
ho[...]hich hotels are
restricted to sell only one brand of beer.
The Commission concluded such an
arrangement was anti[...]dustry franchise agreements
are not dissimilar to the ‘tying’ system the
breweries use on hotels. Again, this deci-
sion will be awaited anxiously.

CANNES

As reported elsewhere in this issue,
Australian filmmakers were represented
officially at the Cannes Film Festival this
year by a delegation headed by the
Media Department's film chief Roland
Beckett and the Australian Film Develop-
ment Corporation's executive director
Tom Stacey.

Films screened Included The Man
From Hong Kong, Petersen, Piugg, Inn
of the Damned, Sunday Too Far Away,
Stone, The True Story of Eskimo Nell,
Between Wars, Promised Woman and
The Removaiists.

Media Department and Overseas
Trade personnel provided an information
stand in the foyer of the Carlton Hotel,
and a so-called hospitality suite was
available down the Crolsette at the Mar-
tinez Hotel, where the officials of the
delegation and some producers stayed.

Sources indicate that many of the
producers were dissatisfied with the un-
democratic decision-making structure of
the delegation, and lists of alleged inef-
ficlencies are apparently circulating.

Yet, a number of foreign sales were
negotiated at Cannes as a result of the
expedition. it is difficult, however, to
ascertai[...]g under their own steam (but still
with help from the Export Incentives
Scheme of the Department of Overseas
Trade) could have achieved as much.

Sales for Brian Trenchard-Smith's The
Man From Hong Kong (a Movie
Company-Golden Harves[...]tiated by both
Cathay Films and BEF», as well as the
director himself. Cathay apparently
made sales in most countries for record
amounts for an Australi[...]ee.

Tim Burstall's Petersen was taken by a
major in the U.S. for a rumored five
figure advance, and as a[...]Warner for Britain. Richard
Franklin's True Story of Eskimo Nell was
sold to Canada, the U.S.. Greece, Israel,
Britain and France. Inn of the Damned
and Plugg sold to Italy, Germany and
Spain[...]countries, including Canada. it is
reported that The Removaliate was the
least successful of the films on view.
However, the producers are still waiting
for details on possib[...]pating filmmakers are urged to
put their views on the 1975 expedition to
the newly-established Film Commission
as soon as possible, so that plans for
Australian participation in the 1976
Cannes festival can be carefully con-
sidered.

DISTRIBUTORS EXPAND

A new development in Australian
distribution-production has been the re-
cent move by Flimways and Seven Keys
into the international market. While BEF
set the trend with The Man From Hong
Kong — a co-production with Golden
Harvest — the creation by Flimways and
American associates of. Austamerican
Productions for Goodbye Norma Jean[...]rry Buchanan
has produced a Harlow-like biography of
Norma Jean Baker between the ages of
16 and 21. Flimways contribution to the
US$130,000 35mm techniscope produc-
tion was litt[...]ad to pay for Australian distribution
rights, but in return they are obtaining 50
per cent of all world revenue.

Flimways are also negotiating[...]tion titles jointly for Britain, South Africa
and Australia. This appears to have been
an attempt to keep pac[...]1,
and are obtaining films for British
release.

The British market is a depressed and
conservative on[...]r
to combine to keep him out.

Gaty has also tied in with the Robert
Stlgwood organization (he paid a
slzeable upfront for Tommy during
preproduction, and the returns so far
have been record breaking) and a
C[...]ate to produce a
multl-million dollar production, The
Entertainer, with Jack Lemmon, Ray
Boiger[...]

What this means for Australian[...]nly these
distributors will now be building up an in-
formed knowledge of world markets. and
a network of international contacts
previously unavailable to[...]urther. an Australian producer may
now be assured of a West End release if
(reportedly like David Baker and The

Great Mccarthy) he distributes with
Seven Keys.

MARKET SLUMP

The Common Market debate which
swept Britain recently deeply divided the
film community, and in so doing pointed
up some of the more obvious problems
that are going to have to be overcome if
the industry is going to properly recover
from the withdrawal of American produc-
tion capital.

On the one hand the executive side of
the industry —- the exhibition-distribution
combines and their production affiliates
— came out in favor of staying in the
Market.

Graham Dawson. chief executive of
the Rank Organization. summed up their
position: "Anything that is good for
Britain's trade must be good for the film
industry; (and) anything that opens up
new markets for our skills and talents
must be a good thing for the film industry

The militant Federation of Film Unions,
however. took a different stand. Alan
Sapper, the union's secretary, pointed
out that the Italian, French and German
industries are already saturated with
national product and that over the two
and a half years of market membership
no new money has been attracted to
promote production.

Sapper also made the point that now
EEC productions count as quota films
the British quota has been effectively cut
by half. f[...]ralling inflation,
Sapper contended, will destroy the

as V . 1

British film Industry: "The overall effect of
our membership . . . has been the con-
tinulng scarcity of finance lack of
production . . .and the growing threat . . .
of unfair competition from the EEC in
registration, finance and designation. .

The referendum of course resulted in
Britain staying in the EEC. it remains to
be seen which view of the future of the in-
dustry will be the correct one, but
Sapper's assessment of the present is
certainly accurate.

At the time of the referendum only
three British films were in production:
Gene Wilder's The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother;
Michael Klinger's Shout at the Devil; and
Red Siiversteln’s The Swiss Conspiracy.

Things have never looked worse for
British film production.

ATTENDANCE POLL

_ Amid the recent revelations about the
importance of the Australian market to
the American film industry, questions
have again been raised about the size
and composition of the local audience.

Everyone is well aware that cinema
attendances are on the rise, and that
clnemagolng habits have changed, but
until very recently the Australian film in-
dustry has shied away from any indepen-
dent att[...]“a nose for show-

iz”.

Last year. however, the Department of
the Media commissioned Australian
National Opinion Po[...]ce attendances. Their
results are now available.

The poll revealed in its main finding
that the most avid group of cinemagoers
were 14-17 year oids with an average
yearly attendance of 16.9 visits. com-
pared with 8.9 for the 24-34 year old
group. Attendance figures for othe[...]35-plus . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.3% 5.4 times

The poll also revealed that the
audience is an affluent one. On the A-B-
C scale of socio-economic grouping
used by the pollsters. 75 per cent of
cinemagoers fall into the A-B group and
75.1 per cent into the C group.

The poll also shows that the cinema
attracts both sexes equally, and debunks
the myth that couples stop going to the
movies regularly once they are married:
in excess of 78 per cent of married 25-34
year olds attended in 1974 compared to
87 per cent of their single counterparts.

The survey also revealed a marked
preference amongst some filmgoers to
attend drive-ins rather than cinemas: the
14-17 and 35 plus groups clearly ex-
pressed a preference for ‘hard-tops’.
while the 18-34 group were equally divid-
ed in their preferences for ‘hard-tops’
and drive-ins.

Polls conducted in the United States
seem to bear out these findings. A survey
conducted by Opinion Research Cor-
poration of New Jersey for the Motion
Picture Association of America found 72
per cent of the filmgoing population to be
between the ages of 12-30 —— a group
which, surprisingly, represents nearly 40
per cent of the total population.

APOCALYPSE NOW

Following the success of The God-
father Part ii (the two Godfathers have
now grossed in excess of US$100
million). Francis Ford Coppola's network
of companies is planning its future
development carefully.

Sometime back Coppola bought a
slice of Don Rugoff's New York-based
Cinema 5 distribution[...]were selling interests in a series of future
productions solely on the basis of his
reputation. The first of these. currently
titled Apocalypse Now, has been
described as a satirical treatment of the
Vietnam war.

Godfather Part II personnel Gary
Fredericksen. Fred Roos and Dean
Tavoularls visited Australia recently to
promote Coppola's Mafia sequel and
discussed with the former Media
Minister, Doug Mcclelland, the possibili-
ty of filming the production in
Queensland.

What response Australian film unions[...]dia Department
seminar held last June on overseas in-
volvement in Australian production. The
recent conflict-ridden Universal co-
production The Sidecar Racers certain-
Iy did not win any friend[...]hat
may possibly be his last film. Titled
Deceit. the film stars Karen Black. Bruce
Dern and Barbara Harris. The screenplay
is by Ernest Lehman (North By
Northwest). Bernard Herrman has been
approached to do the score.

Filming on the largest sound stage at
Universal and on locations[...]thout its complications.
Studio heads blanched as the production
proceeded uninsured. Hitchcock. now
wi[...]sufficiently fit by insurance
company doctors for the usual produc-
tion insurance to be issued. Sets were
closed, but worries persisted on the $6
million production.

Some four weeks into shooting
Hitchcock dismissed the secondary male
lead Roy Thinnes (a contract Universal
player on view in The Hindenberg). and
replaced him with a virtual unkn[...]. it will be
Hitchcock's first major venture into the
occult.

POLANSKI

Goffredo Lombardo, head of the
Italian production-distribution company
Titanus,[...]t a $10
million spectacular entitled Pirates. Two
of America's biggest stars have been
approached for the production, but no
details were disclosed.

Other Titanus projects for 1975-76 in-
clude Mandrake, with Alain Delon and
Cyrano de B[...]n-Paul
Belmondo.

LAURENTIIS

Dino De Laurentils. the Italian
producer of Serpico and Death Wish.
now resident in New York, is set to
produce 14 films in the next two years
with a working budget of US$50 to $60
million. Already US$5 million has been
outlayed in purchasing rights.

One of the films, Buffalo Bill and the
Indians. is the first of a three-film deal
with director Robert Altman. The $7
million film will star Paul Newman.

Also scheduled for. production is King
of the Gypsies, based on a forthcoming
book by Peter Maa[...]rtin Scorsese. Other
titles include One Just Man. The Last of
the Mohicans, and an untitled production
starring Cha[...]The Man From Hong Kong: launching
Australia Into the international market at this
year's Cannes[...]

In the American film industry, Spielberg’s rise to prominence
is still talked of with as much enthusiasm as it was four years
ago. On finishing a film course at the University of Southern
California in 1970, he went straight to work at Universal.
Within a year he was directing episodes of such television series
as Name of the Game, Marcus Welby and Colombo.

During

this time he made the TV films Duel (1971) and

Something Evil (1972). For Duel he shot 90,000 feet of film in ten
days to create what is regarded in the US as a minor classic. So
popular was its reception that it was released theatrically in
Europe and Australia. Impressed with his skill and exuberance,
produce[...]chard D. Zanuck selected
Spielberg for Jaws after the three had combined successfully on
Sugarland Express (1973), his first feature in the US.

At the time that you were making
“Duel” did you real[...]e such an important film?

Well, I realized that the story was
important and that the statement it
was making was important, but
becaus[...]nk that it would ever
find a theatrical audience in Europe
and Australia, and also a cult
audience in this country. It’s funny,
because at the time I thought it
would make a terrific television film.
And, technically speaking, at the
Cannes Film Festival we were illegal-
ly qualifi[...]ut feature, for a new
director.

For that matter, the “Name of the
Game” episodes you directed would
have to quali[...]They were feature length and they
were also made in ten days. It was a
good training ground because y[...]nd airtight as possible. You’d vir-
tually edit the film before you’d
shoot it and that way you’d be sure
that what you made would not end
up on the floor.

The “Night Gallery” episode you

made with Joan Crawford, was that
the first thing you shot?

Well, it was the first professional
film I shot. I did short films of my
own at college.

But it must have been a formidable
task in your first big job at Universal,
directing Joan Crawford.

I was in a state of shock because I
got that job on coming straight out
of college. In my mind I suppose I
wasn’t fully prepared to ac[...]wanted to do was to make my
own films and dabble in small in-
dependent ventures. But I got this
chance, two m[...]ought she was going to tell me how
to direct her. In fact, she kept com-
ing up to me asking one quest[...]he should be doing.
I was prepared to answer some of her

“All the symbols others read into Duel. I had
encountered or anticipated along the way.
But in shooting from scene to scene they were
not my pri[...]t I was really
striving for was a statement about the
American paranoia. Duel was an exercise in
paranoia.“

questions but not all of them. She ex-
pected me to be George Cukor and I[...]out.

Getting back to “Duel”, were you
aware of all the symbolism that was
to be read into it?

All the symbols I read about which
others had read into Duel, I had en-
countered or had anticipated along
the way. But in shooting from scene
to scene they were not my pri[...]t I was really striving for
was a statement about the American
paranoia. In this country we’re
getting crazier and crazier and, for
me, Duel was an exercise in
paranoia.

How much did you add to the
original TV version of “Duel”?

In order to release the film
overseas I had to add 15 minutes
before CIC would accept it as a
feature. I added three scenes, two of
which I wanted to put in from the
very beginning, but couldn’t, and one
scene the producer George Eckstein
wanted to have in.

For curiosity’s sake, which ones
where they?

I added the scene where the car
pulls up to the railroad crossing and

' the truck tries to push the car in front

of the oncoming train. It went over
very well and added about an extra
five minutes. I loved the idea that the
train and the truck were allies; later
on in the film the truck signals the
train by blasting twice on its horn
and the train answers by blasting
back twice.

Another scene added (because a
lot of people wondered with the TV
version, why the man didn’t turn
back and go home) was the sequence
where the school bus locks bumpers
with the man’s car. At this point the
truck is way ahead of the car, or it is
assumed to be, so I had the truck
turned around coming back through
the tunnel to get him. Originally I
wanted to indicate this, that the
truck would go to all lengths to tor-
ment and terrify this man.

The other sequence which was part
of the extra 15 minutes was the new
main title. In the TV version it began
on the open road whereas in the
European (and Australian) versions
it began with the camera on the
bumper of the car; you are the car as
it leaves the darkened carport.

The impact of “Duel” was that it

worried people. Was it the same on
TV?

Not really, because of the commer-
cials. It did have impact and there
was a lot of talk when the show was
aired twice. But’you get to a point
wh[...]ain
itself past a commercial, unless you
turn off the set or put your hands
over your face until the film comes
on again. We tried to structure the
film into ‘act’ breaks so that you
could hold interest, but believe me,
_the rating ‘needles’ are going to fall

Ci[...]

I think the concept of anything can
be taken seriously if the medium you
choose to display your work happens
to be television. I think people can
read past the scanning lines and see
what you’re trying to sa[...]ttacker was rather “Exorcist”
oriented . . .

The film of The Exorcist hadn’t
come out at that time and Robert
Klaus had already written the

screenplay. But in the process of

making Something Evil I heard about
the _William_ Blatty novel and on
reading it said: “My goodness, there

are great similarities between the
two”.

It was good to see Johnnie Whit-
tacker doing something really sinister
on the screen . . .

Yeah, that’s why I cast Johnnie. I
purposely cast him because ofof experimenting
in that. It was the first time in a
television film that hot windows were
used; those were all sets and I
‘burned-up’ all the windows to give a
kind of hellish effect outside. I don’t
know if you rem[...]passes by a window, they
almost disappear because the win-
dow is so bright they fade out and
become stick figures until they pass
beyond the light. I thought that the
house should be surrounded by a
wholly white hell[...]well.

Do you like working on subjects
concerning the supernatural?

I think Jaws is somewhat super-
natural in a small way in that we
have been able ‘to control all
maneaters except the shark. The
central character in Jaws is really the
shark and it’s not so much super-
natural, but[...]lar shark can
sense, more than other sharks, when
the best time to attack would be. He
attacks at night when they are asleep
on the boat or when they are looking
towards the sun and are therefore
blinded by it. He is a witty creature,
and there is some supernatural in-
fluence which people are going to
read into the film. Sharks do not
have rational, intelligent b[...]ur shark is also an
eating machine but every once in a
while it outwits the three humans
who set out to catch it.

How do you see the nature of the
conflict between the three main
characters?

108 — Cinema Papers, Ju[...]Express: top Goldie Hawn during
location shooting in Texas. 2nd top fugitives
Lou Jean (Goldie Hawn) and Cloris Poplin
(William Atherton) plot their next move'in
their headline-making flight across Texas. 3rd
t[...]n) prepares

to confront civilians who have taken the law
into their own hands. Above Steven Spielberg[...]hael Sacks. Below
Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw on the set of
Jaws.

Well, they’re from three different
walks of life. Each man has hisjob to
do and each one is, in some shape or
form, an authority figure in his own
s here. One is the chief of police of
t e town and is responsible for the
safety of the people on the beach. He
has also left New York City
retreating not so much in cowardice,
but retreating to protect his children.
But in the island town in which he
settles, the shark is there and he has
to deal with the same violence and
evil which he had to tolerate in New
York City.

That character is contrasted
against an ichthyologist who is quite
rich and somewhat of a dilettante
(the Dreyfuss part). He knows all
there is to know about sharks and so
intellectually he feels superior to the
shark.

Then there is the Robert Shaw
character, who just kills sharks for a
living, a shark hunter. He has vivid
memories of a revious shark attack
and he talks 0 this in a six—minute
scene in the third act.

Why do you say third act?

The film is very carefully struc-
tured —— there are three different
acts.

When you talk of structure, you’re
really referring to pace . .[...]I had to slow it down. It
begins very quickly and the nature of
the controversy in the small town is
that the city fathers and the town
select-men are worried that ifit’s an-
nou[...]ged by sharks off their coast,
then it would kill the entire summer
season. So, because this is a major
controversy in the film, there is a lot
of dialogue and argument. A lot
happens at the beginning of the film
which is out of control. The police
chief, our central character, can’t
cope with all the problems; he can’t
hire the shark hunter Quint, he can’t
kill the shark himself because he’s
afraid of the water and at the same
time he can’t control the town. So
there’s this swirl of confusion that
surrounds this guy and it gives the
first act of the film a very staccato in-
fluence.

The second act is much slower
than the first and concerns finding
out what kind of shark it is. Also
there is the controversy of whether
the town is going to open the beaches
for the Fourth of July weekend or
close them: whether they’re all going
to go on welfare for the winter or
profit from the summer tourism.

In the third act comes the decision‘
to hire Quint and pay the $10,000 he
requires. After this it is all at
sea hunting the shark. So I suppose
the film is fast-slow and then slow-
fast with the third act building to
rather a frenzied climax.

How different is your interpreta-
tion of Peter Benchley’s screenplay
from his novel?

They’ve become two different
statements. The book was about
something Peter Benchley was in-

terested in, beyond sharks, while the
film is based on subject matter that
interests me, beyond sharks. The
book goes off in one direction and
the film goes off in another, but at
the end they converge and become
the same.

As far as the script was concerned
I made a lot of changes, virtually
every day. I had the actors come in
to rehearse and they would come up
with ideas and we would change the
script accordingly. There were im-
provisational readings; often I would
wake up in the middle of the night
and write down some idea and shoot
it the next day. A lot of it was free
expression.

How long was “Jaws” in the
making?

Well, I spent about five or six
months just editing it. It’s been two
years in the making: six months pre-
production, six months sh[...]ention preparations for release.
Certainly it’s the most commercial
venture I’ve undertaken. Duel made
$7 million and was put together for
$375,000 but the scale of Jaws is
greatly in excess of that.

Have you got your next project in
view at this stage?

I’ve ot one in mind but it’s
nothing ike Jaws, Duel or Sugarland
Express. It’s called Bingo Long and
it’s the story of the travelling black
baseball teams in this country in the
l930’s. For me it’s very interesting
because I love baseball and I love the
whole era of Sachel Page and all the
great black ballplayers who were not
allowed to play with White Anglo-
Saxon teams. This is in the mid-
thirties when these teams would go
into a town and cakewalk down the
street, get everybody excited and
play a nice baseball game in the local
stadium against the firehouse nine.
It’s very funny and at thethe box-office.
Was this a disappointment to you?

Yes it w[...]think I was
more angered than disappointed.
First of all they didn’t sell the film
properly. Sugarland never opened
big and in some cases never opened
at all. People saw that i[...]you know, a real ‘teddy bear’!
Also there was the title: most people
thought it was a kid’s film. When it
opened in New York there were lines
of kids waiting outside the theater
expecting to see Willie Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory. That was a
pity because when the film com-
pleted its run it was doing very good
business.

In essence, “Sugarland” was fic-
tionalized fact. Did you find any in-
herent problems in working within
this framework inasmuch as[...]

Sue Spunner

The role of women in film will come into sharp
focus in August this year when the International
Women’s Film Festival commences screenings in
all capital cities of films made by women around
the world.

The idea of this festival grew out of the Sydney
Womenvision Conference in 1973, when women
involved in media discussed the paucity of oppor-
tunities available to them in the film and TV in-
dustries. They realized that a film festival was one
of the means of correcting this imbalance. In
September 1974, the Film and Televison Board
granted a loan of $20,000 to get the Festival off
the ground.

The following article by Sue Spunner highlights
the achievements of women directors, and ex-
plains the need for an International Women’s
Film Festival.

‘A’ * ~ *

In spite of all the difficulties and barriers which
have confronted women directors in film in-
dustries around the world, some have created
feature length narrative films. Wome_n directors
have played a role in every country Wl’l1Cl'l has ever
had a film industry. Why then doesn’t anyone

know of their existence? _
From the earliest day_s of the industry, women

have had the creative incentive to make films.
Alice Guy-Blan[...]busy
creating filmmaking equipment, she took on the
job of making short demonstration films. Her

first film, La Fée aux Choux, made in 1896, was
completed six months before Melies made[...]until 1905, then moved to Ger-
many and later to the U.S., where her directorial
career continued until 1925. .

Another of the early pioneers of American
filmmaking was Lois Weber. Her prolific career
began in 1913 as part of a filmmaking team with
her husband. However, Weber soon began
directing her own films, and in 1916 was dubbed
by a popular magazine as “the highest salaried
woman director in the world today”.

THE

FESTIVAL

By 1920, she had about 75 one and two[...]several longer films. Weber
made six more films in the twenties and thirties,
and her last, White Heat. was completed five
years before her death in 1939.

In the same period other women made fleeting
appearances as directors: Frances Marion with
Just Around the Corner and The Love Light;
Mary Pickford, directing herself in three films;
and Lillian Gish, directing her sister Dorothy in
Remodelling Her Husband.

Yet, while Marion was an established
screenwriter and Pickford and Gish the darlings
of the screen, these excursions into the role of
director were never taken seriously. They were
on[...]heir ‘real’ —— sup-
portive — work.

By the 1930s women had been effectively clos-
ed out of executive and creative positions in the
American film industry. Those few who remained
w[...]Only one woman, Dorothy Arzner, managed to
crack the system and work expressly as a director.

Arzner began her film career in the twenties,
first of all editing, then directing for Paramount.
In the thirties, she moved to RKO, becoming
H0llywood’[...]irector, working with
stars like Rosalind Russell in Craig's Wife,
Katherine Hepburn in Christopher Strong and
Lucille Ball in Dance Girl, Dance.

RKO were known for their B-grade films, and
in her autobiography Lucille Ball reveals that
when she worked at RKO, Arzner was known as
“Queen of the B’s”; the ballyhoo that accom-
panied an A-grade film throughout the thirties
was not the lot of a B-grade director —— male or
female.

Ida Lupino, well-known to audiences as an
actress in A-grade films, was equally unable to
redress the lack ofin
order to have artistic control of her work.
However, the lirfiited production budgets on most
of her films effectively rated them below B-grade.

In Britain, the production fund monopoly that
crippled Lupino’s work had the same effect on
Muriel Box. Between 1946 and 1964,[...]Varda film?‘
Those words, spoken by a director of a
major film festival with just the correct
subtle balance of incredulity and scorn,
epitomize the need for an Australian Inter-

national Women’s Film Festival.

Other women working in Britain with a freer
artistic rein did so at the expense of their in-
dependence — women like Alma Reville,
Hitchcoc[...]cinematic
better half.

Olga Preobrazhenskaya was the Soviet Union’s
first woman director. She made her first film "in
1916 and made seven more before the Stalinist
purges in 1935. Esther Shub, along with Dziga-
Vertov, was one of the first Russians to create
feature films entirely[...]p: Dorothy Arzner (right) directing Joan Crawford in The
Bride Wore Red. Arzner was the only woman working ex-
pressly as a director in America during the thirties.

Above: Agnes Vardas’ Lion's L[...]

eastern Europe was Poland’s Wanda
Jakubowska, who co-founded the Society of the
Devotees of the Artistic Film (START) in the
twenties. In the thirties Jakubowska joined the
vanguard of the prewar documentary movement
and by 1949 — with the making of The Last
Stage* — she had established herself as one ofthe
leading filmmakers in Poland. Since then
Jakubowska has made eight more features — the
last in 1965.

Overall, the degree of emotional and physical
support given to filmmakers in communist
countries has been greater than in the West. Such
support is due, in part, to the policies of official
organizations — such as State-run film schools —
which do not discourage the participation of
women. Consequently eastern European women
have not suffered as much as their sisters in the
‘free world’ from the liberal myth that success
comes to those who deserve it, and their work has
been seriously considered from the beginning.

. Preobrazhenskaya, Shub and Jakubowska all
worked closely with their male contemporaries in

the forefront _of technical innovation and creative
experimentation, whereas Arzner and Lupino

were denied this sort of ongoing productive
association with their contemporaries.

Mention here must be made of the extraor-
dinary success of Leni Riefenstahl. Extraordinary
in that the most totalitarian regime of the century
allowed a woman director hitherto unparalleled
creative freedom. For the filming of the Berlin
Olympics in 1936, Riefenstahl had 29 cameramen
at her disposal, and the famous Nuremberg Rally
was staged exclusively for the production of
Triumph of the Will.

After the war, Riefenstahl disclaimed all
associations with National Socialism. She is still
making films, although in the more remote parts
of the world. Only her documentary propaganda
films have been seen in Australia.

In the West, Agnes Varda is the only woman
director to have worked as an equal with men. She
was an active member of the New Wave, and her
film Les Créatures dates from this period. She
was also one of the directors of Loin de Vietnam.

The status of women filmmakers today has
hardly improved. But w[...]ither. Clear-
ly there is historical precedent.

*The Last Stage is a documentary reconstruction ofthe fate of.
women in Nazi concentration camps. It was made by a cast
and crew, including the director herself, who had been im-
prisoned in them.

I10 — Cinema Papers, July-August

Those[...]buted, inadequately
publicized, and never receive the serious critical
attention they deserve. In addition, the subtext
they communicate — that women can make[...]cycle ensues,
keeping women either completely out of the in-
dustry or working as embattled independents —
those very mavericks who, as Pauline Kael has
said in a recent New Yorker article, the dis-
tributors and studio heads won’t touch with a
barge pole.

Lina Wertmilller is a glaring case in point. Her
third feature Mimi the Metalworker has been
released in Australia, but only in a 350—seat
government subsidised ‘art’ house.

In view of the brilliance and wit with which this
unabashedly commercial piece was executed, the
fact that it has not had a major commercial
relea[...]able. Not that Mimi is an avowedly
feminist film; in fact, to many, its commercial
appeal is the direct correlative of its rampant
celebration of sexism, since the film is told ex-
clusively from the viewpoint of a philandering
Sicilian male who pursues the double standard
with unmatched vigor. One can only hope Wert-

muller’s latest film, Of Love and Anarchy, fares
better.

At present the only film by a woman director
enjoying a full com[...]iana
Cavani’s Night Porter.

So, at a time when the need for women to create
and explore their own cinematic images has never
been greater, the commercial exhibition of
women’s films in Australia continues to be
blocked. Agnes Varda and Susan So[...]us Girl (Bloody Mary) is considered too
obscene.

The need for a retrospective festival of films
made only by women is urgent, and a case par ex-
cellence for positive discrimination in favor of
women. A festival is neither an apology nor a
destructively separatist event. The accusation of
separatism (after all why not show films about
women, not necessarily made by women?) can be
met if the unique opportunity International
Women’s Year affords is considered. Never again
will women have the resources at their disposal to
send representativ[...]or films. And perhaps never again will
women have the energy nor the audacity to stage
festivals in all the state capitals of the country.

Moreover, if the notion of a women’s film
festival is not to be a mere flash in the same greasy
old pan, the original festival should provide an
historical context and celebration of the catholic
tastes and varied concerns of the numerous
women who have been making films since the in-
ception of this newest and most socially decisive
art form.

The success of the 1975 International Women’s
Film Festival cannot be measured purely in terms
of the audience who sees it, because the vast ma-
jorityof Australian women will not. The reason
for this cannot, unfortunately, be explained by
simply citing admission prices —- $16 in
Melbourne and Sydney for full subscriptions. If
the Festival becomes the province of the educated
middle class it will be because of the nature of the
event and not the cost. Women are more likely to
be put off by the unfamiliar and opaque notion of
a film festival per se.

Hence the inroads that are made into the con-
sciousness of the community at large will depend
on the energy that is directed towards the other
‘events’ of the festival — the video access
centers; the proposed screenings of films and
videotapes in schools, country centers, shopping
center auditoriums and on the factory floor by
mobile projection units; the photographic ex-
hibitions; the video tuition and the possible film-
making workshops.

The organizers hope to expand the dimension of
this festival by utilising its audience — a fil[...]venues will be provided for people to meet
after the screenings in order to talk in warm and
sympathetic conditions.

The danger inherent in such a festival is that it
could become an excuse for passivity, under the
respectable guise of a critical evaluation of the
past, unless its praxis-making potential — its
ability to illuminate the past in order to inspire,
inform and emotionally support current or poten-
tial female filmmakers — is realized.

The existence of such a festival is almost man-
datory if women filmmakers are to be exposed to
the need for dynamic reappraisal of their own in-
dividual perceptions, in order to ensure that a new
idiom and new dimensions are added to the art of
filmmaking. «Av

Above left: Leni Riefenstah'l's[...]rling‘s Night Games. Zetterling will be
a guest of the International Women’s Film Festival.

Who were the film and stage
actresses that inspired you as a g[...]rd, Bette Davis,
Katherine Hepburn . . .

Because of the sort of roles they
played?

No, because of their acting; but
someone I really liked was Esth[...]ring which time you tended
to play a certain type of woman. Has
that relationship and the particular
way he saw you had any effect on the
films you have made for other direc-
tors? ,

No, he had seen me in Marat-Sade
and asked me as a result to do
Women in Love. He was one of the
young directors who had come up
through television in the post-
Osborne era and I had always liked
his work[...]ndous energy
and so much enthusiasm, but most

In 1954 Glenda Jackson entered the Royal Academy of

Dramatic Art, following

in the wake of actors like Albert

Finney, Peter O’Toole, Sarah Miles and Alan Bates.

Ten

years of demoralizing repertory work followed her

graduat[...]s Peter Brook and
Charles Marowitz to play a role in the Artaud-inspired produc-
tion of Marat-Sade for the Royal Shakespearean Company’s

Theatre of Cruelty season.

Her rivetting portrayal of the crazed Charlotte Corday on
stage in London and New York — and later in Brook’s film of

the production — mesmerized audiences.
Ken Russell[...]e and was

prompted to take her on to play Gudrun in his film of

Law_rence’s Women in Love. Her precision acting and raw, un-
fashionable type of sexuality immediately established her as a

unique actress.

W_ithin_ten years she was to become one of the most
charismatic screen presences in the world.

Glenda Jackson was recently in Melbourne with the Royal
Shakesperean Com an , and was interviewed b[...]rnational Women’s Film Festival.
Jackson speaks of the ‘dark’ and perhaps demented women
she has pla[...]g
about Bergman, say that a good
director creates the space for the ac-
tor’s fantasies. There’s an instance
she cites of when she was playing a
vain woman who was to walk[...]osen to do a panning shot,
but Liv Ullman stopped in front of a
mirror in order to roject her
thoughts. Bergman hacf) placed the
camera exactly because he an-
ticipated she might do just that.

Great directors have the ability to
anticipate or allow innovations to oc-[...]ability.

Have you ever had a director place
you in a physically harrowing or

dangerous position?

K[...]ous
things so he doesn’t look a coward
himself. In one scene in Women in
Love, Oliver and I were in a side-car
on a low loader, going along a very
narrow lane in Derbyshire with deen
ditches on either side. We were going
at such incredible speed that we went
off the road and ended up in the
ditch. Only the cameraman’s protest
that the speed was quite unnecessary
saved us from having to repeat the

“The success of any actor in
any generation can be traced to
the personification of some
trait which is fairly common to
most of the population . . .

“Glenda Jackson personifies
a kind of anti-sentimental can-
dor which, in our finest
moments, enables us to reject
the pap, kitsch and schlock
that stultify our daily l[...]ready to pick ourselves up
and start afresh.

On the coldest day of the coldest
British winter for years, for the last
shot of The Music Lovers in the
asylum, I found myself crouched
over a grating, in a disused army
barracks, clad only in a thin cotton
frock, no stockings or shoes. The
shot was repeated over and over
again during the day until I was
literally blue. Eventually, my face
had quite frozen —— it looked perfect
for the film.

For the 1812 fantasy scene in The
Music Lovers, Richard Chamberlain
and I had to run into the street in a
storm. They had got an enormous
wind machine wi[...]t literally lifted us off our feet
and dropped us in a hea , with me on
the bottom. I realized‘: during the
moments the bodies above me were
getting up, that Ken would b[...]ke flying. To which he
responded by ordering that the
machine be turned down by half at
least. I knew i[...]to
be just like that and wanted to do it
again.

In the context of the rest of your
films, “A Touch of Class” is unusual.
Why did you do it?

F[...]

Well. I’m certainly interested in
that situation — at a certain point in
my life I was haunted by it. But the
choice of theme for the film was also
determined by a limited budget. So, I
automatically thought of a closed
situation with few changes of
location, a small number of
characters and some kind of personal
confrontation.

I was actually happy to[...]started off negotiating with an
Italian producer in Rome and that is
why an Italian actress has a key[...]I asked her to come to Sweden. She
did, and then the role had to be
changed somewhat because she
spoke[...]I’m an American, I was
originally going to make the film in
Italy, and I actually made it in
Sweden. Had I made the film in
Italy, the characters would have ex-
teriorized much more, whereas now
the film does have a Swedish flavor.
There is a ver[...]outlined personal style that Swedish
people have, of feeling with each
other, and inevitably the material
had to be adapted to that as well.

Coincidentally the subject of the
film is a theme that is found in
Swedish culture especially in the
plays of Strindberg.

People have said that Duet for
Cannibals is influenced by Ingmar
Bergman, but this is not so. The only
Swedish films most people are
familiar with[...]2 — Cinema Papers, July-August

As part of the preparations for the Women’s Film Festival to
be held Australia-wide from August to September this year, Sue
John[...]ms and shorts
and to interview women filmmakers. The following interview
between Johnston and Susan Sontag took place in Paris in
January and was edited from an original interview[...]ore she turned to scriptwriting and film-
making in 1969. Her first two films, Duet for Cannibals (1969)
and Brother Karl (1971), were made in Sweden because her
producer was Swedish and both themes were adaptableto thethe French
producer Nicole Stephane and shot on location in Israel.

Critical reaction to Sontag’s Swedish[...]astic about Sontag’s intellectual ex-
ploration of the constantly changing emotional and erotic per-
mutations of her characters with one another, and the austere
and tightly controlled cinematic style she has developed. Others
find the films oppressively boring. Sontag is not popular with
feminist critics because she is primarily preoccupied in her films
with intellectual creativity, cinemati[...]ogy, rather than presenting an alternative vision of indepen-

dent, fulfilled womanhood.

Sontag is typical of women filmmakers emerging in Europe
and the US. She both writes the scripts and directs. She also
tends to work on ti[...]her
than for large film corporations. Similarly, the distribution of
her films is handled by independents.

Sontag’s[...]r a woman filmmaker and demonstrates her
stature in a field where a director’s ability to find a[...]her last film.

Promised Lands marks a departure in content and style from
the Swedish films and reveals Sontag a filmmaker of versatility
and promise.

cinema is really not as individualistic about this sort of psychological con-
as it would appear, because th[...]conflict.

great deal that is just plain Swedish
in Bergman. Yes, I know Marguerite’ Duras,
and we[...]y
independently. We saw each other’s
films for the first time when they

were both selected to be shown at thein 1969 and
had a long conversation about how
simila[...]here
are even two scenes which are a
variation on the same theme — the
woman in front of the mirror.
Marguerite was particularly struck
by the resemblance. Destroy She
Said was indeed the first film she had
completely directed and it’s true that
she also accepted low budget
limitations.

In “Duet for Cannibals” you use
irony to show the role reversals that
are taking place. For example, in the
first of the two main dinner sequences
one of the girls is a guest, and in the
second a servant.

It’s the kind of thing that works
very well in films. Here I am very
different to Duras — I’m going to
take her as an arbitrary point of
comparison.

Marguerite is somebody who is
recycling the same material in a
number of forms and that is a very
extraordinary phenomenon[...]m director
and also a playwright. There are
works of hers which have been
written as novels as well as plays, and
have also been made into films. In
each case she uses basically the same
story or situation with similar
characters and dialogue — and she
can adapt to each of these forms.

That’s very remarkable. I don’t do
that at all. For me, ifI have an idea
for some kind of narrative, I know
that it’s either a film or a work of
prose. I know it’s one or the other. I
can’t imagine that I would write a
novel and then want to make a film
of it. When I got the idea for Duet
for Cannibals I knew it was a film.
That kind of role reversal with a
guest becoming a servant I saw ab-
solutely ‘in a visual way as the
difference between sitting and stan-
ding, being helped and serving.

The things that I like about Duet
for Cannibals are p[...]gs, I dislike even
putting dialogue or voice-over in
films. So far it's been necessary in
the three films I’ve made, but I
would love[...]

So when Pasolini’s 120 Days of Sodom finally
hits the screens, everyone will nod wisely. “Ah,”
they’ll say. “Oh: So that’s where he’s going.” And
the seers of the near future will read back to the
shattering revelation in a recent review of 1001
Nights, that Pasolini was decadent, a 'voyeu[...]re that lot’s headed, can’t you? Straight
for the Pit.

This review is typical of many in combining the
manners of a really confused sexist bunny with the
morals of the zeal-of-the-land ‘Busy’. “Nothing
goes downhill so fast[...]ghtfully. Its pseudo-technical com-
plaints about the dubbing, the “bad” acting etc,
further complicate the ar ument.

In the hands of a pr uction company given,
like much established[...], to co-
production deals, Pasolini is an example of many
other French and Italian directors, auteurs[...]rs along with their product and
sold to audiences in Arkansas or Adelaide
parroting away in Transatlantic.

And, precisely because of the extent to which
Pasolini uses films as personal essays, a habit
shared by other Italian directors (see the monsters
Felliniroma and Viscontisdeathinvenice), critics
are more prone to pounce on him in terms of per-
sonal abuse. And the trouble is you can’t merely
blame the producers or translations (grotesque as
the dubbings are), since the images for the most
part remain intact, and they should still convey
their meaning. Can it be true that the once-
promising—Marxist-director has gone gaga,[...]c?

Top right and right: Rogopag —- religion is the opium, the
bleeding heart of a cruel world.

Top left: Pasolini as Chaucer in Canterbury Tales and
Bottom left as Giotto in The Decameron — the effect is
to reinforce the importance of the auteur.

Lower center: 1001 Nights

IOOI NIGHTS

and
I20 DAYS

THE EROTIC CINEMA
OF
PIER PAOLO PASOLINI

Noel Purdon

Or might it be nearer the truth to point out that
certain Australian critics, for all the notice they
take of visual style or all the skill they have in in-
terpreting it, might as well be blind.

Comparisons of Pasolini with that Taorminian
baron who photographed young Sicilians in
Theocritan poses are not entirely irrelevant. Only
the function of comparisons in a work of criticism
may be objected to, e.g. “Pasolini wa[...]has now become a dirty
old perv, and this lowers the quality of his work.”

Such accusations are neither recent nor un-
usual. A Time critic in 1967 was already billing
his review of Theorem as “lilies that fester”. It is
amazin[...]inciples suddenly display
themselves as champions of Marxism at sight of a
prick.

It should be possible to lift the discussion finally
away from the sniggering innuendoes of the
reviewer, and to start from the premise that
Pasolini’s art is, like Proust’s[...]his situation seems at all odd can only
emphasise the complicated sexism of those who
oppose, conceal or ignore it.

Physical love between men, repressed in the
tough machismo of the subproletariat in Accat-
tone, in Christ’s fiery platonics with the Apostles
in The Gospel, is given complete representation
for the first time in Theorem, in the affairs of the
father and son with the young stranger. In Pigsty
it becomes guiltily disguised asbestiality in the
modern story, and cannibalism in the ancient
one. Despite the lusty adolescent nudes who roll
through the Decameron, homosexuality is no
more than mentioned incidentally, or disguised as
fraternal, as in the tableau of Isabella’s brothers.
The Canterbury Tales includes a curious sequence
inve[...]rch, and, one imagines, his particular
phobias at the time. This is his interpretation of
Chaucer’s Summoner, which is consciously
treate[...]limaxes with a
moneyless sodomite being burned at the stake
because he cannot bribe the ecclesiastical officers.
No wonder he should wish to say in the last reel of
the Nights: “The beginning was bitter, but the end
was sweet.”

Cinema Papers, July-Aug[...]

Below: The Decameron.

Bottom left: 1001 Nights —— The ‘Caliph’ _who quotes
homoerotic poetry to her[...]touch her
vu va.

Center bottom: 1001 Nights — The secret turns out to be that
the Caliph's beard is really on her pudenda. and that anyone.

given the right vestimentary sign, can be what they please:

Whatever else it is, 1001 Nights remains also
the emotional record of a director in the praxis of
filmmaking, not in the carefully scripted and ex-
teriorized manner of Truffaut’s Day for Night,
but in the form of an interior meditation which
acts particularly on the montage, creating the
process of a journey to the book. and the Arab
world. Pasolini’s fascination with Islamic culture
goes back at least as far as the poem Ali Degli
Occhi Azzuri, which fantasises Europe’s im-
migrant class of Arab workers as a revolutionary
force teaching Pa[...]free, and giving them back a culture once had by
the ancients but lost by Europeans.

The Nights embody both his definition of that
culture and the last part of his erotic medieval
trilogy. It would seem important, therefore, to
look at the film structurally, studying some of the
codes by which it operates in tcrms_of shot-
rhythm, costume, location etc, and giving some
account of what it does on the level of aesthetics,
narrative and sexuality.

SEXUALITY AS STRUCTURE

Firstly, it is important to recognize that the

structure is essentially sexual, and that, far f[...]rant abuse, this needs

critical examination.

1. The polarization of the sexual adventure is
begun by the protagonists Zumurrud and
Nur-el-Din as soon as they are alone. He puts
his prick in the ‘wrong’ place, an action of
sodomy returned to jocosely as a threat to him
by Zumurrud in the final scene. Here, as the
Caliph, she also quotes homoerotic poetry to
her lover while making him touch her vulva. In
his encounter with the lion in the desert, Nur
reaches and passes through the existential
crisis of all Pasolini’s protagonists. But he is
still to be initiated, and whatever else is sexual-
ly accomplished in the film, the reduction of
the male principle from the fucker to the
fuckable is its final visual point.

ll4 — Cine[...]ust

{..’:,'4*z£tIa.-t-".~zv4m_v§-Lav:-..

2. The tale of Caliph Harun and Queen Zobeida
is inset with the episode of the Vizier and the
three beaming naked boys lined up for his in-
spection, just as in the second half of the film
Taji’s pursuit of Princess Dunya has cut into it
the encounter with the banana-loving Sheikh
who offers Taj and Aziz a bath. Homosexual
too are the selections of the male contestant by
Harun and the female by Zobeida, though
their heterosexual dire[...]r
is brought out by their fondling as they spy on
the adolescent couple.

3. Even the ordinary townsfolk of Zumurrud’s

royal city suppose that Nur has been hauled off
for the ‘King’s’ pleasure. One comments
that he wouldn’t mind having a go at the boy
himself. Whatever the prudery and sense of sin
with which Islam, like Christendom, may of-
ficially regard sexuality, on the popular level of
Arab culture all forms of sexuality are at least
granted recognition. So if there is more
homosexuality in 1001 Nights than in either the
Decameron or the Canterbury Tales, that is a
just reflection of the preoccupations of the
dlifferent medieval societies which produced
1: cm.

Caliph, slave, man or woman.

In seeing this as an example of Pasolini’s wilful
decadence and personal invention, critics are ap-
parently unaware of the continuing debate on boy
or girl love which runs through the collection, e.g.
the tales of the 389th to the 393rd nights. Here, in
a debate between a learned and witty lady and an
equally learned and witty pederast, the man places
his homoerotic preference on a typical male
chauvinist base: “Now man is the active principle
in life and woman the assive; therefore past
peradventure, woman is bel[...]rating women. He
does so, not only by eliminating the desperate ver-
bal prostitute Shahrazad, who appeared in the
writings, but by making another woman,
Zumurrud, delightfully incarnated by Ines
Pellegrini, the active principle in the film. It is she
who initiates the action at the beginning, and she
who has the last word at the end. Just as he con-
tradicts the basis of the medieval sexual
argument, so he reverses the political (i.e. the
master/slave) situation in her imperious treat-
ment of her owner. “Give me a massage. Take
your pants off,” she commands.

The secret turns out to be that the Caliph’s
beard is really on her pudenda, and that anyone,
given the right vestimentary sign, can be what
they please, caliph, slave, man or woman. The
zero point of the vestimentary sign is, of course,
the body itself — as appears in the second ar-
tisan’s tale, where the real contrast is between his
memorable nudity and the Knight’s metallic
cover: thus perish all tinpots! The nude human
body, then, in its own shape and color, and the
angle from which it is shot, determines the emo-
tion we take from it: lust, pathos, sado-
ma[...]n a dozen naked female bodies
and an equal number of full frontal male ones,
Pasolini provides a range of possibilities in the
nude, from the voluptuous desert beauty having a
dildo fired into her vagina to the pathos of the
white buttocks of the slaughtered boy. Is it deca-
dent to make art tha[...]mit that you enjoy
art that gives you a hard-on?

In defending himself at the Venice biennale
against attacks on his eroticism, Pasolini drew
attention to Marx’s original views on the political
nature of love, and lamented the Stalinist
chauvinism of the male _left. “Marxism has taken
up the old bourgeois ideas of puritanism. It is
significant that my books and films are not allow-
ed to be translated or seen in the Soviet Union.”

NARRATIVE

The Decameron had closed with the half-
despairing question: Why bother to make a work
of art when it’s much better to dream it? The long-

ing for dream-cinema continues in 1001 Nights
with the added recognition that one pers0n‘s

dream isn’t enough. “Truth lies not in one single
dream, but in many dreams.” Besides being a dis-
tillation of a particular book, then, the film is an
examination of Islamic culture and of the role of
collective fantasy in any culture, including our
own experience of cinema.

Its major experiment is with narrative.[...]lways preoccupied Pasolini,
as a poet who came to the cinema via the novel
and semiology. His methods of discourse have in-
cluded the free indirect narrative of Accattone,
the geometrical parallelism of Theorem, the
embedding of a Greek play, ahistorically treated,
within a par[...]rovided by Boccac-
cio, his instinct was to avoid the framework of
aristocratic tale-telling, and change the metaphor
of tale-telling to fresco painting (Decameron).
Since he himself played the Giottesque painter,
the effect, of course, was to reaffirm the impor-
tance of the single auteur.

In Canterbury Tales, despite the communal
prologue, he took a further step back by reducing
the narrative to the comic voice of Chaucer
(played by guess who) rather than using the rich
variety of narrative voices in the pilgrims’ tales.
For 1001 Nights he mercifully elected to play
neither the King nor Shahrazad, and thus achiev-
ed his most significant experiment of the trilogy
by abolishing them from the narrative altogether.
Along with Ali Baba and Aladdin, they receive
not a mention.

The decision to dispense with Shahrazad as

Top left and center top: 1001 Nights —— the tragic sexual
sacrifice oi the young.

Top right: 1001 Nights — Castration as[...]: I001 Nights — An interior meditation creating
the process of a journey to the book and the Arab world.

Bottom right: 1001 Ni hts — The nude human body. The angle
from which it is shot etermines the emotion we take from it.

narrator leaves him free to confabulate the tales
within tales as well, thus imitating the sinuous
narrative line of the original without slavishly
following it. The clearest example of this is his
bricolage of the Tale of Zumurrud with the Tale
of Nur—el-Din. Achieving a notable new story of
the two tales seems to have been what caught his
mind: a slave auction in which the witty slave
chooses her own buyer, but is abducted by
Christians and escapes by posing as a bearded
man.

In Barthe’s terms, Pasolini has picked up the
vestimentary signs of the original, and used them
as part of the legitimate code of the cinema, i.e.
costume. The Caliph’s beard, as a datum of the
cognitive order, takes its place as the central
visual prop in the activity of sexual role-playing
which is the chief motif of the film.

He has similarly picked up the various cultural
strata of the Nights, Persian, Damascene, north
African, Arabian, and reflected them in his choice
of locations: Eritrea, the two Yemens, Iran and
Nepal. The original Nights, the Hazzar Afsana or
Thousand Tales, ordered into a matrix in 1100,
and finally added to and established in Cairo c.
1350. dealt with a culture that extended from
Indo-Persia, via the Bagdad of Harun al Rashid
to Mameluke Egypt. Very much of a feast for the
senses, it celebrates the fruits, flowers, colors,
jewels, wines, drugs, erotic encounters and in-
trigues of Islam. In finally cutting together a con-
versation, half of which is shot by the Red Sea and
half in Nepal, Pasolini achieves that polymorphy
of image, that mixing of cultural realities in order
to create a new reality, which characterizes the
cinema as well as the tales.

CODES OF MANY DREAMS

The f1lm’s epigraph about dreams mirrors the
difference between Christian and Islamic cultures
put by Norman Daniel thus:

“For Christians the prophetic preparation of

the Jews leads to a single event, the Incar-

nation, which is the inauguration of the

Messianic Kingdom . . . For Muslims too there

is just one Revelation, of the only religion,

Islam, or submission to God; but[...]again and again through successive prophets.”

The people of the Nights share each other’s ex-
perience (many dreams) by being set in a structure

I00] NIGHTS AND l20 DAYS

which unifies them by the codes or motifs they
have in common. This structure is itself oneiric
and aest[...]reference to dreaming,
or reading from books, as the cues for the tales to
unfold.

It is impossible in the end to call them tales,
because in the film that is not the unit any longer,
any more than the single shot is. The structural
unit here tends to be either a nude hu[...]e, whatever other shots or tales surround
it. And the images around it take off from
whatever particular image it connotes, e.g. food to
be consumed/the human body to be made love to:
the human body to be consumed/food to be made
love to. Pasolini has already reached, in Pigsty,
the limits of oral and anal confusion, defined later
(and memorably!) by La Grande Bouffe. In each
successive film he has tried to purge himself of
these two sexual stages, which in a capitalist socie-
ty may be seen in their unattractive aspects of
consumption and despoilation. The mouth gulps
down; the arse shits on. A vision of oral heaven in
Decameron is matched in Canterbury Tales by an
anal hell, which climaxes with a Boschian hellarse
shitting forth priests and friars. The Nights give
the two their human expression as places of
pleasure.

Discourtesy about food is treated with[...]sy about love. Those who put
their left hand into the communal rice dish will be
executed; Aziza lovingly forces Aziz,to eat the
food she has prepared for him, though she herself
is wasting away. In some places, notably in the
same tale, food and love are fused. Aziz insults the
enchantress by wolfing down her pavilion banquet
and falling asleep, thus twice failing his erotic test.

The dynamic by which this structure operates
cinematically may be thought of as: still life con-
trasted with invading action, a static setup
violated by tracking. The best visual example of
this, one which gains a rhythmic effect by being
repeated, is seen in the static composition of the
fatal rice bowl which awaits each of its victims in
turn, as they are tracked or panned with on their
entrance to the King’s khan. Sometimes the in-
vading action is that of violent reality (e.g. the
kidnapping of Zumurrud), sometimes of dream
(the pigeons fluttering in the trap), sometimes of

overt hallucination (Nur’s encounter with the
desert lion).

Continued on page [80

Cine[...]

and the Film Industry - Part II

By ANTONY I. GINNANE

In Part l of this two-part article, Antony I. Ginnane examined the ownership, attitudes and practices of the Australian film in-
dustry. He also examined the history of anti-trust legislation in the U.S., and described the legislative changes which were needed
to break u_p the vertically integrated American industry.

In this second part, Ginnane examines the British and New Zealand industries, and the measures undertaken there to combat
monopolistic practices. He concludes by outlining the development of trade practices legislation in Australia, and suggests ways
in which Australian producers and exhibitors may make the new Trade Practices Act work for them.

THE COMMON LAW
APPROACH

Halsbury’s Laws of England“ state that it is
contrary to the policy of English common law for

any person, or group of persons, to secure the ex-
ercise of any known trade throughout the country,
and point out that the Crown cannot grant such a
monopoly without statutory authority, except in
certain cases. The right of the Crown was further
limited and defined by the Statute of
Monopolies".

In North Western Salt Co. Ltd. V Electrolytic
Alkali[...]law an agreement might be illegal if, by causing
the control of a trade or industry to pass into the
hands of an individual or group of individuals, it
creates a monopoly calculated to injure the public
by increasing prices unreasonably.

Although sixteenth century cases upheld the
anti-monopoly line — for example, Mitchell v
Reynolds” stated that three inseparable incidents
of monopoly were: increase of prices; the
deterioriation of quality; and the tendency to
create unemployment among artificers — a
general laissez-faire had, however, prevailed by
the nineteenth century. Even in Mitchell v
Reynolds”, Lord Macclesfield had recognized cir-
cumstances in which a contract in partial, but not
general, restraint of trade could be valid.

The courts’ withdrawal from economic regula-
tion can be noted in Hearn v Griffin (l8l5)3°, in
which two coach proprietors agreed to charge the
same prices to passengers, a stipulation which it
was claimed was “in restraint of competition in a
trade which is so conducive to the interest of the
public”, and consequently void.

Rejecting the argument, Lord Ellenborough
commented: “How can[...]Cinema Papers. July-August

- BRITAIN

restraint of trade? They are left at liberty to
charge what they like, though not more than each
other. .

The high point of the ‘all competition is
ruinous’ argument came in 1937 in the Thorne v
Motor Trade Association" case, where the House
of Lords unanimously approved the enforcement
of group price fixing agreements against members
and non-members of the association alike by
means of a system of secret ‘courts’, collective
boycotts and fines.

Similarly, in the notorious Mogul Steamship
Co v McGregor, Gow and Co. (l892)", where the
defendant shipping lines combined to secure the
carrying-trade out of Hankow for themselves ex-
clusively (by regulatin[...]ith
agents who represented competing shipowners),
the House of Lords held that their conduct gave
rise to no cause for action on conspiracy charges.

In spite of the fact that McGregor, Gow and
Co., had sent numbers of its ships to the port to
undercut the plaintiffs ship, there was nothing un-
lawful about their object to monopolize tl
Hankow trade, and the methods used were neither
unlawful intimidation n[...]ween fair and unfair competition is
enunciated by the court. —

Lord Justice Bowen commented: “I my[...]misfortune if we were to
attempt to proscribe for the business world how
honest and peaceable trade was to be carried on in
a case where no such illegal elements as I have
mentioned exist, or were to adopt some standard
of judicial ‘reasonableness’, or of ‘normal prices’,
or ‘fair freights’ to wh[...]otherwise innocent, were bound to con-
form.”

In Sorrel v Smith (l925)” the ‘conspiracy

OVERSEAS REACTION TO FILM INDUSTRY MONOPOLIES

doctrine’ crystallized. A combination of two or
more persons wilfully to injure a man in his trade
is unlawful, and if it results in damage to him is
actionable. If the real purpose of the combination
is not to injure another, but to forward or defend
the trade of those who enter into it, then no wrong
is committ[...]Thus most
attempts at monopolization or restraint of trade,
which are usually motivated by hope of business
gain, were preserved."

The highwater mark of_ laissez-faire — the en-
forceability of contracts in restraint of trade —

occurred in Nordenfelt v Maxim Nordenfelt Guns
and Ammunition Co (l894)”, where the
reasonableness, in reference to the interests of the
parties concerned and the public, was held to
justify contracts in restraint of trade.

The burden of proving the unreasonableness
lay with the individual alleging it, and as Walker“
notes in Australian Monopoly Law, the interests
of the public were rarely considered.

STATUTORY INTERVENTION

It would thus seem inevitable that the common
law’s failure to discourage monopolistic activities,
or protect the public interest, would “precipitate
some legislative intervention as the number of
restrictive practices grew.

In 1948, the British House of Commons passed
the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices (Inquiry
and Control) Act with three main purposes. The
first was to define conditions, ‘monopoly con-
ditions’, to which the machinery of the Act was to
be applied, when, “in the opinion of the Board of
Trade the conditions did,‘or might prevail in any
department of trade or industry as regards the

The second was to institute a commission —
originally _known as the_Monopolies and Restric-
tive Practices Commission (now the Monopolies
Commission) — to investigate and report on
monopoly conditions and the practices resulting
from, or designed to maintain them.

The third purpose of the Act was to provide
sanctions in the — form of orders by specified
government departments, approved by Parlia-
ment and enforceable in the courts by injunction.
The purpose of these was to prevent the reported
conditions and practices from being used, or
allowed to operate against the public interest.

In 1953, the Act was amended and the number
of members was increased in an attempt to speed
up the processes of the Commission. But the 1956
Restrictive Trade Practices Act made radical
changes to the 1948 Act, especially with reference
to resale price maintenance, and restored the
Monopolies Commission to its former size.

The Commission is a judicial tribunal with the
powers and authority of a superior court of
record, presided over by a judicial official with the
standing of a High Court judge. It has extensive
jurisdiction over restrictive and discriminatory
practices currently in force in trade and industry.

_ The Act of 1956 further makes certain restric-
.t1ve practices liable to registration with the Board
of Trade, as opposed to the Monopolies Com-
mission, but the control of the practices remains

roughly the same, still leaving monopolies to the
1948 Act.

THE MONOPOLIES

COMMISSION REPORT ON
THE FILM INDUSTRY

On October 28, 1966 (acting on further
amendments to the original 1948 legislation con-
tained in the Monopolies and Mergers Act of
1965) the Monopolies Commission presented a
report to Parliament on “The Supply of Films for
Exhibition in Cinemas”.” At the time of making
the report, there were two major cinema circuits
in Britain — the Associated British Corporation
(ABC) circuit and the Rank circuit.

Of the 2013 cinemas in Britain, 600 were
operated between them. Distribu[...]ciated British—Pathe — and seven
subsidiaries of the U.S. majors. The methods of
restrictive distribution discussed in Part I con-
cerning the U.S. industry were virtually all in
operation in the British industry, with the addition
of distance-bars.

The problems of time-bars have already been
discussed. These barring clauses in agreements
between exhibitors and distributors enable the ex-
hibitor to get full value from a film by prev[...]r cinemas from playing it concurrently, or
before the expiration of a specified period. The
Commission stated: “In addition it has become

RESTRICTIVE TRADE PRACTICES LEGISLATION AND THE FILM INDUSTRY PART II

the practice for the barring clause frequently to in-
clude a statement that the cinema is entitled to
play first-run in a particular area and that other
cinemas are not[...]con-
currently.”

There have been some changes in the British ex-
hibition field since then, but only to the extent of
revised ownership of the chains and not to the
appearance of new competition.

Bars thus give formal recognition to the prac-
tice of regarding some cinemas as first-run houses
and some as subsequent run. The effect of bars is
to permanently allocate to cinemas operating
them, the right to the first-run of all available
films in that release.

The Commission recommended that:

(a) The two circuits extend the flexibility of
their booking arrangements via split
releases (as[...]tional splash’)
and specialized marketing;

(b) The circuits initiate proposals to establish
product[...]putes and competitive
bidding by exhibitors;

(c) The Rank Organisation refrain from dis-
( criminating against documentaries made by
others;

(d) The Board of Trade review disputes
machinery for time-bars and distance-bars,
and the time-bars be generally shortened;

(e) Distributo[...]act collectively to restrict ex-
hibitors’ use of premises.

The Commission examined the U.S. divestiture
and divorcement experience during its considera-
tion of arguments for breaking up the two circuits
and splitting production from distri[...]hile both Rank and ABC were large
film producers, the Commission found that there
was no large specific dominance of the British in-
dustry by either organization. Although the two
held a dominant position in exhibition, much of
the distribution and financing of roduction was
done by companies not connecte with ABC or
Rank, and which themselves had no stake in ex-
hibition.

The Commission, therefore, felt that the system
of reciprocal preference* which gave rise to the
U.S. situation was absent from Britain. The Com-
mission also found that the system of local
monopoly (‘closed town’) situations which gave

‘in negotiating films for the circuit from the distributors. the corporations lumped
together towns in which they had no competition, and those in which there were
competitive theaters. They generally licensed first-run release for their theaters of
all films to be released by a distributor in a year. and they frequently included
second-run film rental in their First-run film hire. _

rise to divestiture in the U.S. was not present in
Britain. Competitive biddin and theater-by-
theater booking in the U.S. ad produced con-
flicting results, and the Commission considered it
was not in a position to determine which in-
terpretation of these results was correct.

The Commission, therefore, set its face against
a radical revamping of the British industry,
preferring to patch,it up from[...]see some looser and more com-
petitive structure in the film industry. But given
the situation as it now exists, we are impressed by
the formidable, and probably expensive, practical
problems in the way of adopting any of the
proposals” — i.e. concerning divestiture,
divorcement, and the creation of a third circuit
booking force.”

To a degree the Commission was limited by the
tendency of the British legislation to gyrate
around the ‘public interest’ rather than to prohibit
various practices per se.

It is interesting to note that the years 1967-69
saw the virtual take-over of the British film in-
dustry by American producer-distributor in-
vestment,,which, when withdrawn in late 1969,
almost saw the total demise of production.

The British industry is now in a sorry state, ex-
isting off old formula successes (the Carry On
series, etc.) and TV spinoffs. Perhaps a major
reworking of the industry could have produced the
same vibrant independent output that flourished
in the U.S. after the consent decrees in the sixties.

A NEW PROPOSAL FOR
REFORM

In August 1973, the Nationalisation Forum of
the Association of Cinematograph, Television and
Allied Technicians published a document called
Nationalising the Film Industry which contained
some of the most radical proposals vet advanced
for saving the British industry.“ The report,
which is a mine of factual material concerning
ownership of the multi-national production;
distribution organizations (parts of which are
reproduced in Appendix G*), advocated the com-
pulsory acquisition by the Government, without
compensation, of the major production, ex-
hibition, distribution and[...]ear, two-stage plan is outlined for
restructuring the industry together with
organizational arrangement[...]ers’ control and forming a democratic
framework of decision-making from a local to a
national level.[...]these proposals were
received with scepticism by the established film
industry, and were never general[...]- EMERGENCE, GROWTH AND RELEVANCE

INTRODUCTION

The general structure of the Australian film in-
dustry has been discussed in some detail in Part I
of this article. Similar situations have also been
found to exist in the U.S. and Britain, and the
remedies undertaken have been noted there. Here
i[...]trade
practices legislation, its development and the

scope of the most recent enactment. Considera-
tion will be given to how the Act may be applied
to various film industry practices.

Before doing so, however, it is interesting to
note the state of the film industry in New
Zealand, where restrictive trade practices
legislation“ is quite similar to the previous
Australian Liberal Government’s Act.

In New Zealand, distribution and exhibition
are cont[...]orations. Amalgamated

Theatres, who are owned by the American Twen-
tieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, control
around 35 of the country’s 230-odd cinemas. The
other circuit, Kerridge—Odeon, which controls
approximately 65 of the country’s cinemas, is con-
trolled in turn by the Rank Organisation. The
remaining ‘independent’ cinemas are well away
from the main centers of Auckland, Christchurch
and Wellington, and are unimportant to the total
box-office billings. Kerridge—Odeon and
Amalgamated Theatres have virtually the same

Cinema Papers, July-August — I17

relationship to distribution suppliers as Fox and
Rank have in Australia.

New Zealand has virtually no feature film out-
put, and there are no incentives for either of the
two majors to invest in local productions.

THE PRE-BARWICK
LEGISLATION

Australian monopolies le[...]like its British counterpart: a reaction against the
laissez-faire attitudes of the common law. As
Walker“ points out, early attemp[...]tion
received rough handling from judges schooled in
common law traditions. In 1906, Federal parlia-
ment passed the Australian Industries Preserva-
tion Act, an anti-trust enactment that resembled
the Sherman Act in all but one clause. It forbade
contracts and combinations made with “intent to
restrain trade to the detriment of the public”, and
monopolization “with intent to control, to the
detriment of the public”, the supply or price of
any part of commerce. The public detriment ele-
ment allowed the courts to inject into the
statutory structure the laissez-faire standards of
British courts of the nineteenth century. In Hud-
dart Parker v Moorehead (1930)‘”, Sections 5 and
8 of the Act purported to regulate anti-
competitive conduct by corporations in both inter-
state and intrastate trade, and that such conduct
exceeded the Commonwealth’s power to legislate
with respect to corporations.

Then came the Coal Vend appeal in 1910". The
prosecution claimed that the defendant mining
companies had combined with inte[...]estrain or to monopolize interstate coal trade to
the detriment of the public. The defendant ac-
counted for 92 to-98 per cent of the local supply,
and their activities encompassed all the exclusive
dealing, profit sharing activities we are familiar
with in the film industry.

In the High Court, Mr Justice Isaacs found all
charges proved, citing unreasonable price in-
creases and restrictions of choice to the public

detriment.

The Full High Court, however, reversed the
decision in a much-criticized judgment which
sounded the familiar cry of the evils of com-
petition.

The court maintained that the public interest
was better served by an industry[...]d be what would occur if competition was
allowed. The Privy Council approved the Full
Court judgment for similar reasons. The Act then
was left largely in disuse until the successful
prosecution almost 50 years later, in the Redfern
v Dunlop Rubber Australia Ltd (l964)" case.

Four Australian states have restrictive trade
practices acts which antedate the 1906 Federal
Act“. Like the Federal Statute they have been
largely disused because of “restrictive interpreta-
tion by the courts, apathy in government and ig-

norance among the people”".

THE BARWICK PROPOSALS

It was inevitable, therefore,[...]far-
reaching legislation would be suggested, and the
proposals of the then Attorney—General, Sir Gar-
field Barwick, provided some basis for a com-
prehensive new Act“. The law was to be based on
a case-by-case interpretat[...]were designed to encourage voluntary
registration of agreements, and to reduce to a
minimum the amount of investigative work. They
also applied to vertical[...]gistration scheme was without
precedent. Moreover the criterion of ‘public in-
terest’ — that a practice is only ruled against if

118 — Cinema Papers. July-August

the Tribunal is satisfied it substantially lessens
competition — was made more precise.

However, the basic dichotomy of the Barwick
scheme — i_.e. that list ‘B’ practi[...]r after they have been
successfully challenged by the registrar in
proceeding for deregistration — was truncated
during debate on the Bill. As assented to on
September 27, 1966, the Trade Practices Act
1965-66 was a watered-down, toothless version
with the ‘B’ practices removed.

The purpose of the Trade Practices Act, as
stated in the preamble, was “to preserve competi-
tion in Australian trade and commerce to the ex-
tent required by the public interest.”**

The restriction of competition, however, is not
paramount: the Act is also subject to the public in-
terest requirement and thus may be modified from
time to time. The task of the Trade Practices
Tribunal set up by the Act was to work out a case-
by-case accommodation of the values to be
preserved by competition, and the values compris-
ing the notion of public interest.

The main sections of'the Act deal with the
following:

(a) Five categories of examinable agreements,
some of which must be registered with the
Commissioner of Trade Practices and all of
which are subject to examination by the
Trade Practices Tribunal —— which may
declare them to be contrary to the public
interest (Section 35);

(b) Four classes of examinable practices, none
of which are registerable, and all of which
may be examined by the Tribunal to deter-
mine whether they are contrary to the
public interest (Sections 36-37) and

(c) Two sub[...]are not subject to
registration or examination by the Tribunal
(Sections 85-87).

The examinable agreements include those
which contain restrictions on the freedom to
produce (i.e. output), deal and zone. The ex-
aminable practices include attempts to claim
favorable treatment from a supplier to the disad-
vantage of his competitors; full-line forcing;
collective boycotts; and mono olization.

As the Act stood it was 0 little value to in-
dependent cinema operators. Appendix G shows
the fate of one typical complaint. It seems abun-
dantly clear, as Walker" argues, that a large list
of prohibited practices should be enacted: “The
Australian approach”, he says, “rests on the
assumption that all the examinable agreements
and practices are likely to be innocuous in a sub-
stantial percentage of cases.” This is clearly not
so. He examines and answers affirmatively the
question of whether the Australian economy can
afford — small as it is,[...]es that some basic prohibitions are
necessary for the sake of fairness, because the
case-by-case system presents the injustice of some
groups being examined early on and others later.
Greater use of absolute prohibitions would give
Ll'21dC groups a[...]ike
price fixing, market sharing and coercion out of
their agreements”.

CONCRETE PIPES AND
BEYOND

An opportunity arose for the McMahon
government to put teeth into the Trade Practices
Act in 1971, when the High Court and the Chief
Justice, Sir Garfield Barwick (Strickland v Rocla

" The Act is thus aimed at activities that restrict com[...]nopolization.

Concrete Pipes Ltd (l97l)“, held the entire Act to
be invalid for constitutional reaso[...], chose not to capitalize on this oppor-
tunity.

The new Restrictive Trade Practices Act of
1971 went little further than the original Act. It
did nonetheless provide some ind[...]tunity to phrase their
problems more exactly, but the inability of the
aggrieved exhibitors to commence proceedings on
their behalf limited the usefulness of the Act. (See
Appendix F*).

The whole structure of the film distribution and
exhibition duopoly was considered by the Tariff
Board in its recent inquiry into the Motion Pic-
ture and Television Industry”, and the Board
recommended assistance needed for the produc-
tion of Australian programs. During the inquiry
evidence was heard from all sections of the in-
dustry, and the Board’s findings were presented to

Cabinet in September 1973.

The Board recommended that some divestiture
of present-day cinema ownership be made. It also
urged that the present concentration of control
within the industry be reduced — specifically, the
dominance of the prime exhibition outlets by the
Greater Union, Village and Hoyts groups — and
the necessary measure of competition be created
by providing a greater number of suitable alter-
native outlets.

The Board believed that once the exhibition sec-
tor of the industry was restructured, “the normal
interplay of market forces will provide the
necessary guarantee of equal opportunity for all
films on the basis of their box-office merits with
little or no government intervention”? The Board
also recommended measures involving the
divestiture of shareholding interests by certain
parties, to ensure that horizontal and vertical in-
tegration within the industry was sufficiently
structured, so that no one company could
dominate the marketing of films in Australia.

It further recommended a limitation on the
total number of exhibition outlets held by one
person or company in certain key areas, and that
limitations be placed on the ownership and con-
trol of exhibition companies. A divorcement
recommendatio[...]eemed necessary to
prevent preferential treatment of films made by
dominant producer-distributor-exhibitors.

Aware of the constitutional uncertainty of the
Restrictive Trade Practices Act, the Board noted
the possible use of Section 92D of the Broad-.
casting and Television Act (1942-72) which
limits overseas holdings in local companies.

The divestiture and divorcement proposals —
which were similar to parts of the US legislation
— were intended to reverse the trend towards in-
creased duopolization, and expedite the replace-
ment of older cinemas. They were also designed to

rov_ide a better range of films, both local and
oreign.

It was left to the new Labor.government to im-
plement the divorcement and divestiture
proposals set out in the Tariff Board report.

But it has not done so, and there are reasons to
believe that the proposals have been shelved.

The Labor government has, however, steered
through Parliament what has been called in many
quarters the most important piece of legislation
regulating the conduct of business ever to have
been enacted in Australia — The Trade Practices
Act of 1974, which fundamentally changes the law
on restrictive trade practices and establishes a new
agency, the Trade Practices Commission.

The new Act makes the following practices un-
lawful in most instances: contracts; arrangements
or understandings in restraint of trade or com-
merce (Section 45); monopoli[...]

The Commission is empowered to grant
authorizations for contracts, arrangements and
understandings in restraint of trade or commerce
(other than price fixing of goods, save for joint
‘venture partners), exclu[...]if it is satisfied that they are likely to result in a
substantial benefit to the public, and in all the cir-
cumstances they are justified.

Further the Commission has the power to grant
clearances for:

(3) Contracts, ar[...]ant effect on competition;

(b) Exclusive dealing of the type referred to in
Section 47(2) which it. considers would not be
likely_ to have the effect of substantially
lessening competition in a market for goods
and services, and;

(c) Mergers which it considers would not be likely
to have the effect of substantially lessening

competition in a market for goods and ser-
vices.

The distinction between clearance and
authorization is that a clearance is a ruling that
the Act does not apply to a particular situation»,
while an authorization is a ruling that even though
the Act does apply, the contract or conduct is
justified given all the circumstances. Strong
remedies are provided for the Act’s infringement:
pecuniary penalties for contravention of Part IV
(restrictive trade practices); injunctions; orders
for divestiture of shares and assets; and actions
for damages for those who have suffered loss or
damage.

_In_ addition to the rights granted to the Com-
mission and the Attorney-General, the Act also
provides for an aggrieved individual to bring an
action. This private right makes the new Act a
potentially powerful weapon in the hands of the
independent producer, distributor or exhibitor.[...]hem substan-
tially before him, is an arrangement in restraint of

trade outlawed by Section 45.

Such an arrangement imposes re_strictions_in
respect of the terms or conditions subject to which
dealing may be engaged in. It also restricts per-

sons or classes of persons, or the circumstances in
which they may be dealt with. It could also
restr[...]cond person, ex-
cept on terms disadvantageous to the second per-
son.

Further, the exhibitor might allege that such a
restrictive agreement, and indeed the whole dis-
criminatory basis of distribution — exhibition ac-
tivities as outlined in Part 1 of this article —
amounts to an offence against Section 46 of the
Act, the monopolization provision. This section
states that “a corporation that is in a position sub-
stantially to control a market for goods or ser-
vices shall not take advantage of the power in
relation to that market that it has by virtue of be-
ing in that position to:

(a) Eliminate or substantially damage a com-
petitor in that market or in another market;

(b) Prevent the entry of a person into that market
or into another market; or

(C) Deter or prevent a person from engaging in
competitive behavior in that market or in
another market.”

Commentators on the new Act suggest that in
certain fragmented markets, like the film in-
dustry, the test of market control may well be far
less than the 25 per cent share of the market
criterion which previously held sway. It will be
clear that Section 46 of the Act has far-reaching
implications for the independent film producer as
well, and might well[...]ual against distribution companies here,
who with the notable exception of Roadshow and
BEF have generally refused to become involved in
local production, thereby effectively preventing
many producers from entering the market.

Penalties under the new Act are sufficiently
high for even large corporations to be severely
affected. For breaches of Part IV of the Act, the
restrictive practices sections discussed, the
penalties are a $50,000 fine per offence for an in-
dividual, and a $250,000 line per offence for a[...]oted, a private individual may initiate an
action of his own volition, or lodge a complaint
with the Trade Practices Commission or the
Attorney-General’s Department. The $100,000
fines recently handed down against Sharp Cor-
poration of Australia for offences against Part V
(the consumer protection sections of the Act)
show the tough line adopted by the Australian In-

Appendix G: Ownership of foreign distribution and exhibition combines
operating in Australia (Source: Nationalization Proposal).

Rank Group[...]anty Nominees Ltd.
(primarily American holdings)

The Rank
Organisation

“II is generally recognised that the
leisure industry is one of the fastest
growing industries in the world
today: this is a field in which The
Rank Organisalion has been active
from the first and is now a leader."

The Rank Philosophy
Sir John Davis

I. General finan[...]I973:
£637,038,000

and Subsidiaries.

1000, is the 10th largest life

member of Eagle S_iar's board.
and the company has been
connected with ATV, Scottish
Tel[...]11-75 £11-88
(iii) April 1973 £4-25 £4-25

53% of the Ordinary shares, or
. by Rank Group Holdings Ltd.[...]nual

(0) Rank by 1|-||'fl0V9l' among UK report, the whole of the share

dustrial Court.

Two further points to not[...]nce for any potentially
restrictive practice, and the time for making
applications for authorizations e[...]lmost certainly
qualify for legal assistance from the Australian
Legal Aid Office, if he were to attempt to bring a
private action.

It is true that in the years since the Tariff Board
report there has been a new openness and under-
standing within the film industry, in all its sec-
tions. However, it may well be that the only way
some of the abuses and excesses practised by dis-
tributors will be eliminated, and the only way the
almost total lack of distributor involvement in
local production will be changed, is by individual
recourse to the new legislation.

FOOTNOTES

25. 23 Ha,lsbury‘s Laws of England (2nd ed.), p. 340; Notes (i) to (It).

26. I7 Halsbury-‘s Statutes of EngIand‘(2nd'ed.)', p. 617 —

27. (I92) I07 I[...]4. See Sykes, E.l. & Glasbecck. HJ. “Labour Law in Australia", pp. 334a.II‘l
333; and Fleming “Law of Torts". pp 664-71.

35. (1894) AC 535.

36. De Q. Walker, 0. “Australian Monopoly Law", p. 28.

37. Supra in 20.

38. Supra fn 20 at p. 15. para 54.

39. Supra fn 20 at p. 80, para 239.

40. ACTI‘, "Nalionalising the Film Industry". l973‘74-

4I. Collinge, J., “Restrictive Trade Practices & Monopolies in New Zmland“.

42. Supra fn 36 at p. 31.

43. (1[...]1912) I5 CLR.

45. (I965) 110 CLR 694.

46. Supra in 36 at p. 35. footnote 47.

47. Supra In 36 at p. 35.

48. "Some aspects of Australian proposals for the control of Rmlrictive Trade
Practices and Monopolies“; (19[...]crrllry
Korah V. (1964) 38 ALJ 190.

4‘). Supra In 36 at p. 289.

50. Supra In 36 at p. 298.

51. (1971) 45 ALJR 485.

52. Supra in I at p. 1.

53. Supra in at p. 19.

Errata and Corrigenda to Part 1

I. Ta[...]rcsarea
West Australian exhibition group. Further the word ‘independent' in colriirmr
‘I971-2‘ should be next to Capitol, not Embassy. The ‘I974’ column.hoIewtr_is
correct.

2. In the Fifth paragraph on p. 37 when 1 state “Prudenti[...]r interests to Village Theatres“ I did not mean the word ‘forcuf to be
used in ii strictly literal way. The Capitol could not get product by rmson oft}:
system. Village through Roadshow had access to product. The deallrasctrlaiinly
proved to be a profitable one for Prudential Theatres and they acquired. at the
lime of the deal referred to, a 50 per cent interest in the Swanston Cinema.

B-rgle Star Insurance Company Ltd.
Eagle Star. according to The Time.r
insurance company in this country

and 7th largest non-life insurance[...]s
chief executive and chairman. is a

(a) Control of the Rank Organisalion

about 8 million shares. is own[...]by profit before interest
and tax: 21st

Source: The Times I000 1972/73

(d) Financial review

1972 1971 1970

195-2157-C 141-9
50-4 36-6 33-7

£ million

(e) Shareholdings in the Rank

Organisation.

Persons or companies holding
more than 10%, of the ordinary
share capital:

capital of Rank Group Holdings
"is ultimately owned by the
Rank Foundation Ltd. and the
Trustees of the J. Arthur Rank
Group Charity (to whom these
inter[...]ven by Lord and
Lady Rank under arrangements
made in 1953] and by the Trustees
ofthe 1961 Rank Group Charity.
The Rank Foundation Ltd. . . is
the Company's ultimate holding
company."

There seem to be at least two
other holding companies involved
in this rather intricate structure,
Group Holdings Ltd. and

F. D. & R. Holdings Ltd. The

directors of The Rank Foundation
Ltd. are: R. F. H. Cowen,
chairma[...]e.
Mr. Cowen, who is apparently
Lord Rank‘s son-in-law, is also a
director of Church and Chapel
Films Ltd. and Religious Films
Ltd. Mr. Giuseppi is a solicitor,
and is a director of a number of
other companies including
Adjustable Nominees Ltd.

Mr. Joseph Rank and Mr. J. D.
Hutchinson are dircclors of Rank
Hovis McDougall Ltd. Mr.
Keighley is a former chief general
manager of the National
Provincial Bank, and a director of
the Rank Organisation. Lord
Nelherthorpe is the chairman of
Fisons Ltd.. a director of. among
other companies, Lloyds Bank
and Unigate L[...]ormer
president ofthe National
Farmers’ Union.

The Charitable activities of this
foundation and the Rank
charities deserve further
investigation, but the main
purpose of the elaborate maze of
holding companies is to ensure
that the Rank Organisation
remains under B1’Il|Sl1 control.
There are two kinds of shares in
the Rank Organisation, Ordinary
and ‘A’ Ordinary, and only the
holders of the Ordinary shares
have voting rights. About 40
mill[...]uaranty Nominees Ltd.,

(b)

and these shares are in the main
held by holders of American
Depository Receipts.

Although the American
shareholders do not have voting
rights, they do have a considerable
influence on lhe Rank
Organisation's policy since t[...]ir shares. When
Rank made a ;bid for Walney
Mann, the American investors
were worried about the possible
dilution of Rank-Xcrox‘s profits.
They brought pressure to bear on
Rank not to continue with the
bid, and Rank'was eventually
forced to abandon this takeover.

Recent hislor y

The Rank Organisation was
almost exclusively dependent on
its film activities, but in recent
years it has been ‘rationaIising'
its film interests which in practice
means closing less profitable
cinemas and re-developing the
sites. The wealth which came from
the film industry has been used to
diversify Rank‘s activities. One
almost accidental result of this
process of diversification was the
Rank-Xerox partnership.
Originally Rank's Xerox interests
were managed by the Rank
Organisation, but the Xerox
Corporation was not lhappy with
this arrang[...]new
company. Rank was given zr large
shareholding in the new company.
Today the profits from this

(i) Turnover ‘Z,

shareholding dwarf The Rank
Organisation's traditional
activities. In 1970, 75% of The
Rank Organisation's poshtax
profits came from Rank-Xerox.
In 1971, 82%, and in 1972 the
percentage was 72 Z. In cash
terms, the post tax-profit
attributable to Rank from
Rank-Xerox was about £13 million
in 1970. about £16 million in
1971, and about £19 million in
1272. Using such massive annual
injections of capital. the Rank
Organisation has continued its
diversifianion. Rank has in the
last few years acquired City Wall
Properties, But[...]nd
Investment.

(C) Turnover and profit analysis of

The Rink Organisation

1972 1971 1970

Audio Visual[...]I
Unallocated Central

Costs (4) (7) (5)

Figures in parentheses indicate a log
for the year.

Continued on pages 182 and 183

Bri[...]

Thompson began acting professionally in 1967 dur1ng_the
pioneer days of Australian television drama, and appeared in a
number of series including Skippy, Motel and the long-running
Ri tide.

lin 1969 he played his first film role (which he describes as
“third heavy from the left”) in Girl from Peking. _

Then, in 1970, he landed the lead role in a new popular telev_1-
sion series, Spyforce. At the same time he also appeared in
episodes of Homicide and Division Four for Crawford Produc-
t[...]r, able to
play a natural Australian character on the screen. In the face of
the stranglehold American television series had over the
Australian audience this ability gained him considerable
recognition.

In 1970 he was given his first role in a major feature film —_—
Ted Kotcheff’ s Wake in Fright — which gave him the opportuni-
ty to work with an experienced feature[...]n widened his television experience
through parts in Matlock Police, Boney and Ryan; and in the
following year he was cast in a major role in a segment of the
Australian feature Libido.

In 1974 he played the title role in Tim Burstall’s Petersen -
his first feature film lead. The ensuing publicity made his name a
household word.

Since then Thompson has played the lead role in the South

Australian Film Corporation production Sun[...]Scobie Malone for Kingcroft Produc-
tions.

With the release of Sunday Too Far Away he has achieved a
status rare among Australian actors, and his appearance in a
film can now be a major factor in its box-office performance.

In eight years of wide—ranging experience, Thompson has

worked w[...]l directors. and has personally ex-’

perienced the ‘renaissance’ of the Australian film industry.
The following interview was conducted by Sue Adler and
Steve MacLean after the premiere screening of Sunday Too Far
Away at the Sydney Film Festival. Thompson begins by giving
his impressions of some of the directors he has worked with.

My first real film role was in
Wake in Fright. It was a director’s
film and Kotcheff was very dynamic
in the way he directed my perfor-
mance.

Working with Ken Hannam was
equally exciting but in another way.
Ken provided an aura of calm
around the camera and around the
scene._ That was his dynamic. It
made it very easy to flow, very easy
to work. In that way Ken was in-
spirational, but not as aggressive as
Kotcheff, not as Machiavellian in his
manipulation of a performance. Ken
employs a different directing[...]fiddle,
play sweet tunes to impress people,
but thethe
task ofthe country to do it, although I
would like to be given the opportuni-
ty to work with people outside
Australia, because we’ve made so
few films.

In Australia we’re not aware of
cinematic style in practical terms.
But if you’ve been making fil[...]ciousness about how long
y0u’ve been doing it.

The last film I worked on was
Scobie Malone with Cas[...]ging to a
recognizable genre, and it will be full
of the style of that genre.

Casey was on the set just about all
the time, and you were always aware
he was there. But he never got in the
way. He produced the film in the true
sense of the word, riding it all the
way. He was the critic on matters of
style and taste, and he wasn’t afraid
to look at something he’d done and
say: “Jesus, no way!”

Now in Australia, even our wisest
filmmaker would have had many
qualms about reversing a decision in
the middle of making a film. We
have to concentrate on keeping[...]Do you think we need co-productions
like “Wake in Fright” to help
Australian filmmakers develop more
expertise?

One has to be very careful of co-
production, though only in one sense:
to make sure you’re not being ripped[...]on is very important.
Jesus! Are we going to make the
classic colonial error of isolating

-ourselves?

Do you think that actors in Australia
are subjected to the rigors of PR
machinery the way they are in places
where the film industry and its
resources are more fully developed?

Petersen was a brilliant example of
what publicity can do. It was _]USt un-
believable. When I started Petersen I

could walk down the street and I sup-
pose a few people would have looked
at me. But in the eight weeks that I
was involved with Roadshow and the
promotion of Petersen I c0uldn’t
walk anywhere without being
recognized. It was beautifully done.

The PR in this country is fantastic.
We have resources we don’t even
recognize. The press and the media
are so available given our relatively
small population. With Petersen they
saturated the entire population in a
two-week period. For those two

Top: Jack Thompson and Jacki Weaver in
Petersen. A brilliant example of what publici-
ty can do with an actor’s image.[...]Petersen. a vulgar gothic hero.

Above: Thompson in David Baker’s segment
of Libido, The Family Man.

weeks you got nothing but “Jack
Th[...]ieve it — they were packaging me
as a product!

The popularity happens whether
you like it or not. The thing to do is
to say to yourself: “Okay, it’[...]ontrol it.

My agent, June Carin, takes a look
at the work opportunities available
and then presents them to me. We've
sorted out between us what sort of
work I like to do. She manages me
along those lin[...]g — not liv-
ing for my work.

Do you find that the images
generated to promote the films you

Above: Thompson in Sunday Too Far Away. Hannam’s
direction was dynamic and inspirational.

act in — for example the machismo
Petersen image — affect the sort of
work you do?

It can be changed tomorrow. The
image is made out of the work you
do. If you do one rolefand do it well
—— and there are a number of roles
around like that — then producers
and dir[...]ey will
always use someone who has done
that sort of thing well before, so you
end up becoming involved in an im-
age whether you like it or not.
There was a time when no one
would have cast me as a heavy — in
fact on the first Riptide I was offered
the director wanted to cast me as a
heavy, but the producer said: “No,
you couldn’t cast him as a heavy,
he’s too pretty.” The director

Cinema Papers, July-August -— l2l

But it is confining. I’ve been con-
scious of trying to steer my way out
of type-casting to a certain extent —
at least by trying to play a range of
characters. But I can’t seem to es-
cape the current filmmakers’ preoc-
cupation with the proletarian
Australian — which is not necessari-
ly a preoccupation of mine.

Although, of course, I couldn’t
have played the Petersen character
without some understanding of what
he was into, some understanding of
what he was reacting to and what his
values were. They are not unfamiliar
to me in this society. They are,
however, unattractive to me.

Initially, does the saleability of a film
project attract you?

Film that is involved with the vox
populi always appeals to me. I don’t
partic[...]it does have
audiences. Ifl wanted to be involved
in film regardless of audience, then I
would involve myself in experimental
filmmaking where I could indulge
wh[...]or
fantastic whims I might have.

I regard being in films as being in
an enormous market place, where
there are lots of people selling their
wares —— themselves. To[...]it; to say that Tim Bur-
stall is only interested in making
money is absolute nonsense —— to say
that Tim is not interested in making
money is absolute nonsense too. But
in terms of his films, Tim sells what I
sell, my wholehearte[...]ed to his fullest extent when he
is doing his job of directing a film.
Now whether you like his films or
not, the criticism must not come in
terms of whether you like what he
sees or projects, you mu[...]one moment,
having worked with Tim, that any
one- of his films is not an honest
statement of what he honestly
believes.

I personally find Tony Petersen
rather vulgar In a gothic sort of way.
In fact I think perhaps that is the
reason Tim does punch peo le on the
nose when they don’t like is films,
because somewhere, the Petersens —
the vul ar gothic heroes —— really are
Tim's eroes.

A lot of people are hailing “Sunday
Too Far Away” as one of. the best
Australian films evei made. How do
you feel about that?

It probably is.

How did you react to the cuts in
“Sunday Too Far A vay?”

I22 — Cinema Paper[...]ave at least made
a three or four-hour film. But the

.script had to be cut out of it, and it

was put together with a great deal of
love for the story. It eventually turn-
ed out —- and it certainly did honor
the original — but it was two hours
long.

Since then it's been cut back to 90
minutes. There were a lot of people
who were involved in the making of
the film who expected it to look a lot
different to the one that was finally
shown.

Were you one of them?

Yes; I think that perhaps all the
cast were. I think they are all pretty
happy with the film though.

Not many Australian directors seem
to have the final cut.

No, the industry isn’t rich enough
for that. We don’t[...]rectors
like Kubrick, for example, who any
number of producers are willing to
back. That just doesn’[...]trolled film production because
we’re so aware of the possibility of
making mistakes — the whole damn
thing has to work every time.

Until we learn to write off a few
films with some sort of dignity, then
we’re not in a position to have that
sort of freedom. I don’t think we can
write off our failures with any kind of
dignity because as soon as we have
one or two, ou[...]and we’re pretending it hasn’t
happened.

Let the film have its faults — let’s
not find ourselves in a position where
we believe the only films worth mak-
ing are perfect ones — i[...]t
we’re only fooling ourselves. Nine
films out of ten don’t work anywhere
for anyone.

It’s a difficult problem because
everyone wants to make the best film
possible. Peter Whittle was talking
to Ted Kotcheff, and he asked:
“What are you going to do if the film
doesn’t turn out as you want it to?”
Ko[...]would make another film.” If we
make errors on the way, all right —
for God’s sake we’re still learning to
make films.

I think Grotowski once said that
the only step worth making in artistic
endeavor is the grand gesture, and
that it should be a wholeheart[...]’t take
falling on your face you shouldn’t be
in the public artistic arena. If the
thing works, then you’ve made a
significant step in your artistic
endeavor.

I must say that the features I’ve
worked on were all grand gestures in
their way. Petersen —- whether it
succeeds or fails — was a grand
gesture in that particular area. Now
whether a film succeeds or fails is ul-
timately of less importance than the
wholeheartedness that went into
making it.

Of course it’s not sufficient to be
wholehearted; a considerable
amount of skill is needed as well. I
would hope that we can learn that

skill along the way — supported by
our wholeheartedness. That w[...]ake us hopelessly depress-
ed by our failures and the errors
we’re bound to make. If anyone’s got
a quid, let them put that into it,

What do you think of the general
state of the industry at the moment?

The film industry, along with a lot
of other industries, is experiencing a
generally depressed financial
climate. I said two years ago when
the first waves came that I thought
we only had two years — and if the
government changed back, then that
would be about all we’d have.

Lots of people see the industry as
having floundered on the rocks or
something. We were all a bit elated
by the sudden boom and we feel that
the waves should be crashing all the
time. We have to be able to ride it
out. For people to be talking about
the beginning and the end of the
Australian film industry in a two-
year period is panicky and very
negative. It gets a bit hard and peo-
ple start saying that the ship is
sinkin . It’s not sinkin — it’s jus[...]g as high and ry as it was.
If we can’t weather the economic
storm then we’re not likely to
become[...]and certainly things will
revive enormously with the success of
a few more. I think Sunday looks like
being a success, and in terms of
financial returns Scobie Malone is
bound to be t[...]ide, Woohinda, Skippy

I970 Homicide. Division 4, The Rovers,
Spyforce (regular lead)

I97l Spyforce (regular lead) -

1972 Matlock, The Evil Touch, Boney, Behind
the Legend, Homicide, Ryan, Line Haul

I973 Elephant[...]Matlock, Ryan, Homicide

Stage

I969 Hamlet (part of Claudius) for the

Films Union Theatre

I969 Girl from Peking

I970 Wake in Fright

I972 Libido

I974 Petersen, Sunday[...]

This re-examination, and its results, is of immense importance
to local producers because distributors, with the exception of
Roadshow, BEF and F ilmways, have stolidly and steadfastly set
their head against investment in local production. Thus many
producers will find t[...]Thornhill with
Between Wars or Margaret Fink with The Removalists — either
dealing directly with exhi[...]ratlon by Andrew Clark

picks up a distributor at the end of production, liaising extreme-
ly closely with the distributor’s chosen exhibitor to make sure it[...]John Mostyn, newly—appointed managing director of
Hoyts Theatres; David Williams, general manager, Theatres
Division, of Greater Union Theatres; and Graham Burke,
managing director of Village Theatres.

Similar questions were asked in each interview in an attempt
to find out where this re-examination has led them. A short
history of each of the three companies appears before each inter-

view.
It should be noted that sections of these interviews were con-

ducted by written question and answer. In several instances
answers to questions have become statements on a particular
area of policy, operation or concern.

Cinema Pape[...]

HOYTS john Mostyn

Hoyts Theatres was founded in 1908 by a Melbourne dentist, Dr Arthur
Russell, with the renovation of an old hall in Bourke St. Melbourne which he
called the Hoyts De Luxe Theatre, and the formation of a company called
Hoyts Pictures. The venture was successful and expanded to Melbourne sub-
urbs and the city of Sydney by the end of World War 1.

In 1926, Hoyts Pictures merged with Electric Theatres and J. C. William-
s0n’.s Films, a combine of Sir George Tassis and former projectionist Frank
Thring Snr. The new company, Hoyts Theatres Ltd., quickly expanded and
within two years built large cinema complexes in four States.

In 1932, after heavy buying on the stock market, the Fox Film Corporation
(now Twentieth Century—Fox) became the major shareholder and provided
finance for Hoyts to expand all over Australia.

During

the fifties Hoyts completely re-equipped for CinemaScope,

Cinerama and 70mm, and, in 1954 began drive—in operations (opening
Australia’s first drive—in at B_urwo0d,_ Victoria). The advent of television,
however, forced Hoyts to rationalise its activities and many of the chain’s

suburban theaters were sold.

In the early sixties Hoyts began a multi-million dollar[...]which is still continuing. With six new theaters in
Melbourne, seven to come in Sydney, two in Perth and three in Adelaide,
Hoyts is arguably Australia’s best first release chain and a potential gold[...]competitive.

Exhibition Trends

Hoyts is firmly of the belief that a
large proportion of audience over
twenty—five years of age has been lost
to the film industry and must be
retrieved. With this in mind, and for
general marketing information, we
have initiated a series of studies by
Dr A. E. Meadows, formerly
University of NSW into patterns
of filmgoing, on a suburb by suburb
basis, looking a[...]ectations.

We intend to engage much more
heavily in market research than
appears to have previously been the
case in the film industry, and we
hope that we will have an informed
and logical reason for every move we
make in future.

We will be actively co-operating
with the Worker’s Education
Association and education gr[...]empty these-days except on
Saturday nights. Many of our new
theater installations will have 16mm
facilities and the new ‘mini’ Cinema
6 we are building in the foyer of the
Mid City complex in Melbourne will
be similarly equipped.

As for sho[...]— are hard to find, but
we are continually on the lookout
and would welcome film producers
approach[...]tempting to encourage dis-
tributors to recognise the drawing
power of an outside supporting
program and we see this as[...]n
industry to try out its wings.
Theater expenses in our modernis-
ed complexes in Melbourne,
Adelaide and Perth, and especially in
our old theaters in Sydney — which
the Trocadero complex will replace
—— are today such that we do not
emerge from a fiscal year with vast
sums of profit from film screening.
It is a myth that we[...]ble organisation, particularly
by any measurement of return on
current value of assets, or even on
funds invested. In fact takings from
concessions at our theaters oft[...]ith our only profit. This
is a reflection largely of the escala-
tion of costs in a labor-intensive in-
dustry, which not only directly affect
Hoyts but are passed back to us by
our film suppliers by way of substan-
tially increased film hire terms.

Twent[...]nual budget which is
mutually agreed, and that is the con-
trol which Fox expects Hoyts to
observe. Of course they expect a
reasonable dividend. We need[...]x if we wish to
significantly deviate from budget in a
given area. We neither give, nor as
far as we a[...]here.

Hoyts’ image, I would agree, has
an air of ‘wholesomeness’ about it
and we will continue to maintain our
high standards of film selection.

However we are under no obligati[...]s us.
Fox film represents no more than an
average of approximately 25% of our
gross receipts per annum. This year,
for instance, Fox represents only
11% of our receipts.

Distribution Trends

We are pleased with the growth of
independent distribution outfits in
this country in the last few years.
With 7 Keys Films, we have com-
peted successfully for the release of
much of their film through us. 7
Keys’ success has, no doubt, been
due in part to its promotions, which
are always uniquely[...]er all decisions
made here about film buying from
the distributors are made strictly
competitively, on the basis of the
quality and saleability of the film
itself and the terms on which we may
buy it. We have no franchis[...]x not infre-
quently choose to sell to us because
of our marketing and retail expertise.
This shows up in an attractive gross
return on their film.

Local[...]t manufacturers. Hoyts have ab-
solutely no plans of involvement in
production or, in fact, in any opera-
tion where we believe we lack
professional expertise. However if we
became aware of a script with poten-
tial, one which we felt should be
made, we would do everything in our
power to assist the scriptwriter, even
to encouraging Twentieth Centu[...]are
most keen to exhibit local product.

We have The True Story of
Eskimo Nell in current release, The
Removalists is about to go and we
may be screening Inn of the Damned
and End Play. This is in addition to
numbers of Australian films which
we have already exhibited with mix-
ed success. I believe the time has
already arrived when local producers
and their distributors automatically
think of us as the logical first choice
for their releases simply be[...]that local
producers understand our criteria for
the purchase of film from any source.
It must be realised that pr[...]Cinema programs cannot be impos-
ed on audiences. The television
viewer is virtually locked into the
programs appearing on his screen.
The cinema audience, however,
simply will not go to a[...]ustralian—produced films are com-
petitive with the film of other sources
in standards of technical quality and
general professionalism.

Additionally, if the industry
wishes to be a commercial success, it
cannot allow itself the indulgence of
total subjectivity. There are certain
known elements in movies which are
attractive to audiences and these
must be embodied in the product.
We are always delighted to work
with Australian roducers in the
provision of in ormation which
might help their judgment of the
commercial viability of their
product, prior to starting the produc-
tion process. Unfortunately, few
take advantage of this facility.

Trade Practices Act

I totally agree with any legislation
the purpose of which is to eliminate
unfair or repressive trade practices. I
equally as strongly believe that the
purpose of this legislation was not to
correct any injustice by the creation
of new or different injustices. I know
that Hoyts does not trade unfairly in
any way. Hoyts cannot be considered
a monopoly, any more than any
other major retailer of consumer
goods or services in Australia is a
monopoly.

It is true that the Twentieth
Century—Fox distribution
organisation, which is separate from
Hoyts and autonomous in Australia,
tends to prefer Hoyts for the first
release of Fox product, but this is on
competitive grounds.

Our terms for film hire of local
products are directly in line with
those we pay for film from any
source a[...]many
foreign releases. Not only have we
promoted the fair entry of local film
into the market but have encouraged
such entry, oft[...]

rw},’j'.‘

,, ,q

,_ i[...]' '. ‘»
. _ ». -._ _l-. . \_ . . . -. i I

The Greater Union Organisation’s corporate origins lie with three pioneer
companies of film exhibition and production: Spencer’s Theat[...]malgamated Pictures Ltd. These companies merg-
ed in 1911 to form Union Theatres Ltd., and its product[...]1915 and 1929, Union Theatres built up a network of theaters,
constructing cinemas like the Crystal Palace and the Capitol in Sydney for the
exclusive screening of films. But the Depression and the necessity to wire for
sound hit hard. In fact the market value of Union Theatres’ shares on the ex-
change was completely wiped out and unfriendl[...]Greater Union Theatres Pty. Ltd. was formed from the ruins. It im-
mediately linked with Hoyts Theatres forming General Theatres Cor-
poration, in an effort to stabilize film-buying and to standardize economic
methods of operation. The outlook, however, remained bleak.

In June 1973, Stuart Doyle resigned as chairman of Greater Union and
was replaced by the dynamic young accountant Norman B. Rydge. From
Ja[...]wn way again, and Rydge set about
re-establishing the company’s credit standing and restoring morale in the
organization to allay shareholders’ fears. Rydge built up a lavish collection of
theater real estate and ended the Greater Union Organisation’s involvement
in film production with the closing of Cinesound as a feature unit in 1940.

After the war Greater Union continued expanding its interstate interests.
In 1947 it acquired the Clifford circuit in South Australia, and in the fifties it
aligned itself with Birch, Carroll and Coyle in Queensland and Ace Theatres
in Western Australia to create a national chain.

A splurge of theater remodelling and rebuilding in the late fifties and early
sixties, coupled with investment in drive-ins, successfully combatted the
debilitating effects of TV. At the same time the distribution arm of Greater
Union, British Empire Films (BEF), also widened its activities and began
buying films from all over the world.

In the sixties, Village Theatres sold an interest in its organization to
Greater Union, which is now in a very healthy state and has paid regular
dividen[...]nhill for
Between Wars; BEF has recently
finished The Man From Hong Kong;
Stone has, or will I believe, cover
complete production costs; and

Exhibition Trends

The Theatre Division of Greater
Union is a new entity, and there has
been a big changeover in manpower.
If you look at the Theatre Division,
the controllers of film-buying, adver-
tising, theaters and merchand[...]films
at Greater Union; everybody that
works’at the head of a department
now has to be a film buff.

New atti[...]de a special deal

Greater Union is now a partner in
Picnic at Hanging Rock, with the
South Australian Film Corporation
and_ the Australian Film Develop-
ment Corporation (AFDC).[...]cnic at Hanging Rock,
but Picnic Productions have the
rights for the rest of the world. It will
be promoted and shown throughout
the Greater Union Organisation. All
our people are really involved in this
project., We are not knockers of
Australian production, in fact we are
enthusiastic to find the right subjects.

David Williams

In the sixties we were basically
engaged in remodelling our old
theaters.

However, it is now[...]o our big building stage. We
are starting triples in Sydney,
Wollongong and Newcastle. We
have finished a triple in Brisbane and

a twin in Canberra, and we are.

finishing a quad in Adelaide. The last
step Will be a six—theater complex in
Melbourne.

Is any consideration being given to
16mm facilities, bearing in mind that
a good number of Australian indepen-
dent films are being made in 16mm?

I have very strong feelings on

l6mm, because I believe 16mm is an
inferior gauge and 35mm is in-
ferior to 70mm and so on. I feel a
first class theatrical presentation
should be in 35mm. That is the
professional medium after all.
, This, of course, can make it a little
difficult for many A[...]ment assistance to
blow-up to 35mm. I am thinking of
all the film material that is in the
Vincent Library, some of which
Village are now screening in
Melbourne.

Tim Burstall recently presented us
with two shorts, one made last year
and one made the year before: Three
Old Friends and The Hot Centre of
the World. We are playing both with
Petersen at the moment, but reaction
is not good. They are gettin[...]ilm that has
been promoted.

Local Production

“The Man From Hong Kong” was a
co—production with Golden Harvest,
and a corporation called The Movie
Company. Is The Movie Company a
Sydney version of Hexagon?

In_ a nutshell it is rather similar,
but it Will certainly never become a
Hexagon.

What sort of a deal exists between
Golden Harvest and The Movie Com-

pany on “The Man From Hong
Kong”?

It’s a straight out 50-50 deal.

Many people in the industry are
worried about the tendency of
Australian production budgets to
creep up and up.[...]hire estimates,
recoup its production investment in
Australia. Do you endorse that or do
you see the international market
easier to get into than they do?

Take The Man From Hong Kong
for example: with Kung Fu and[...]t. Alvin
Purple, Barry McKenzie and Weird
Mob are of solely Australian appeal.
You have to start to take risks out-
side the Australian market.

Picnic at Hanging Rock could be
the first big breakthrough. I think it
will be more of an international
production, particularly because
Rachel Roberts and Dominic Guard
are playing two of the lead roles. I
also think — and I read a lot of
screenplays—that Cliff Green’s
screenplay is one of the best I have
read. I believe this one has a chance.

But even so the budget will be
around $400,000. I wouldn’t want[...]dn’t be impossible to recoup
that $400,000 from the Australian
market. It would only need a box-
office of about $1.75 million.

Continued on page /8[...]

VILLAGE Graham Burke

Village Theatres began operations as an entity in 1954 when Roc Kirby,
Bill Spencer and Ted Alexander opened their first drive-in at Croydon, Vic-
toria. The Kirby group had operated a circuit of hard top theaters in the for-
ties, but none of the partners had in fact ever seen a drive-in. Initial plans
were therefore based on imagination and photographs from trade papers.

The theater was an immediate success and attracted a[...]d further drive-ins at Rowville and Essendon, and in
the country at Hamilton, Wangaratta and Stawell, and in Launceston,

Tasmania.

In 1957-58, Village received a major setback as television began to serious-
ly affect the suburban drive-ins. However, TV was not introduced to country
areas until 1960, and the overall trading of the group, therefore, remained

satisfactory.

The credit squeeze of the early sixties saw a drying-up of risk capital
available for expansion, and a general lack of confidence in the film industry
caused by the traumatic effect of the closures of so many suburban theaters.
It was at this time th[...]rtnership with Greater Union
to establish a drive-in theater at Geelong. This partnership proved so
su[...]her areas, and by purchasing a one-third
interest in Village Theatres, Greater Union provided an infusion of ca ital to
enable a fast expansion into new locations. During this period, in ividual
theaters of the Woodrow circuit were offered to Village, and the Rivoli Twin

cinemas were developed.

Roadshow was started in 1968 with a few drive-in films and the acquisition
of the re-issue rights of South Pacific. These films were so successful th[...]ise for American International Pic-
tures, giving the company access to a continuing line-up of product.

Simultaneously, Village increased its theater holdings, and with the com-
pletion of a twin cinema complex at Double Bay in Sydney, the group was in
a position to offer producers a viable third circuit release in the two principal
cities. Soon after, with the establishment of a luxury twin complex in
Brisbane, the network was widened, providing Village with an independent

national third circuit.

Exhibition Trends

The seventies will probably see
further expansion int[...]neighborhood
houses and local filmgoing. As
part of this, drive-ins will probably
continue to expand.

Sex movies will inevitably run
their race as the public tires of their
feast of the forbidden apple, and it
won’t be long before au[...]out to buy soft drinks while
couples copulate on the screen. Out
of context sex will become boring
because it was nev[...]spec-
tator sport — except for a small
coterie of lonely old men.

Throughout the seventies, Village
will continue to expand. This will in-
clude further expansion with the
Dendy organization, following the
successful establishment of the Den-
dy, Lonsdale St. This venture was of
mutual advantage because we felt at
the time that Dendy had access to
more specialized films than we did.
Consequently, with the availability
of Filmways or Dendy film, Village
is ensured of being more successful.

Warner Brothers

With the increase in operational
overheads in distribution, and the
general shrinking of the market due
to television, the seventies saw major
companies trying to cut overheads in
all countries. Warner Brothers’ Bur-
bank execu[...]s
created, whereby Roadshow was able
to take over the American Warner
distribution in Australia.

Distribution Trends

The American Film Theater is for
Roadshow the most exciting
challenge in 1975. It represents the
biggest single investment in our com-
pany’s history. We believe that the
American Film Theater is the right
format to reach the big audience for
quality films that has previously been
unavailable because of high
promotional costs. The second
season of the American Film Theater
in the U.S. is even more exciting and
we look forward to a big future in
this area.

The term ‘art’ films today has
almost become mea[...]our
interest is to continue with strong
emphasis in this area, and we have
recently acquired a group of films,
including Costa-Gavras’ Special

Product S, the French film Violons
Du Bal, and Sweet Movie.

It[...]Village-Roadshow
policy to always release films of
quality in a subtitled version and
never dubbed. This, of course, is with
the exception of Westerns and films
meant for broad appeal to the public.

We also see Australian films as a
very significant part of the local dis-

tribution scene _in the future._ _
Roadshow-Village’s relationship

with Greater Union during the
period has been a happy one, with

Greater Union maintaining the third
interest that they acquired in the ear-
ly sixties. Roadshow, however, has
since dev[...]ributed
through Birch, Carroll and Coyle,
and Ace in Queensland and Western
Australia respective] , in ‘an
endeavour to offset high istribution
costs.[...]beneficial distribution ex-
perience. It showed in practical
terms that good profits could be
made[...]cted Stork.
However, Tim Burstall’s experiences
in four—wall screenings quickly con-
vinced the company of the film’s
potential, and subsequent distribu-
tio[...]to both
Roadshow and Burstall. This gave
Roadshow the encouragement to
enter local production and a det[...]en
Tim Burstall, Robin Copping and
David Bilcock. The philosophy of the
company was to create a continuing
film productio[...]These films were followed
by Alvin Rides Again, The Love
Epidemic, Australia After Dark and
the recently completed End Play.

Tim Burstall is chairman of Hex-
agon and Alan Finney is its executive
director. Complete authority for
decisions concerning what the com-
pany will produce is vested in their
hands.

It is our philosophy at Roadshow
th[...]and marketing expertise. However,
we believe that the distribution peo-
ple should be the minority part of the
team when it comes to making final
decisions on[...]. We can
rant,_rave, yell and steam, but finally
the decision on what will be made
must be vested with the creative
people.

We hope, however, that our com-
mercial appreciation will help in
assessing their judgments, and might
even result at times in a ‘one for you,
one for me’ basis. But we will only be
successful with the right men as head
of production. I believe that with
Burstall and Finney at the head of
Hexagon production plans, we are
assured of a long and successful

future.
Hexagon, I would hope, has no set

or rigid policy of what it will produce
and will always retain flexi[...]which would answer critics who ac-
cuse Burstall of producing sexist
films, because this is a t'irst[...]that could

be compar to early Hitchcock or
even the film Sleuth.
The development of a

sophisticated and successful
approach to overseas selling is vital
to the success of the Australian
production industry. There is no
reason why Australian films cannot
be successful in the world market.

The only limitation is our ability
to produce and sel[...]le to sell some films to
television, but probably the best
potential lies in the theatrical
market. Alvin Purple was made as a
domestic Australian production, and
the fact that we have been able to
achieve good sales in the U.S. and
Britain, and have prospects for a
number of other markets, is en-
couraging. Our philosophy at this
time in selling overseas is to obtain,
at all times, an advance of money up
front, because this provides a real in-
centive for distributors to work hard
on the product concerned.

Trade Practices Act

I don’t believe Roadshow-
Warners in any way constitute a
monopolization of the market,
because there are still six very
vigorous[...]op-
position distribution companies.
Furthermore, the takeover of
Warners gave Roadshow a steady
flow of product which enabled a base
for expansion into A[...]his meant that
Roadshow could employ a large
team of advertising and publicity
people who would be available to
work on all films. Without the
Warner flow of product it would not
be possible to maintain a distribution
machine of such a high standard.

Roadshow basically applauds the
Trade Practices Act as something
designed to encourage fair play in the
business community. It has always
endeavored to operate on the basis of
being equitable, and would hope that
the Act, for the most part, would not
be necessary in an industry that exer-
cised restraint and intelligence.

‘Franchising’ has essentially been
out of vogue for some time, although
it is true that fi[...]. However, it
has been Roadshow policy right
from the beginning to sell its films
where it is felt _best for the producer
concerned. Right now we are playing
films in Greater Union, I-Ioyts,
Dendy and independ[...]

The international film festival held yearly at
Cannes Is_ in _a sense at least five festivals in
one. There’l's the official festival which screens
in the main; theatre on the Croisette. and
which this year included titles like The Day of
the Locust, Tommy, Alice Doesn’t Live Here
Anymore, and Yuppi Du. This is a prestigious
event inasmuch as the producers and/or dis-
tributors of the entrants (and in some cases
the governments of the producer’s country)
tend to use it as a showcas[...]elves
and their stars. As a result, films entered in the
official festival generally pick up distributors.

’Secondly, there is the Quinzaine des
Reallsateurs (the ‘Director's Fortnight’), which
began as a counter festival after the May 1968
student-worker ‘revolution’ in France. it is now
a well organized presentation of films that
generally approximates what the average
Australian filmgoer would regard as ‘fe[...]n, and once a director has had
a film screened by the Quinzaine the chances
of his next film being selected are pretty high.
Thi[...]day Too
Far Away (Ken Hannam).

As films screened in the Quinzaine general-
ly pop up at festivals all over the world during
the following 12 months, it was a major coup
for Australia's Sunday Too Far Away to be
selected. The screening focussed serious
attention on Australian film development in a
way the official government-sponsored
delegation could never have done.

The Semalne de la Critique (Critic's Week)
is arguably more aesthetically and less
politically Inclined than the Quinzaine, but has
as much, if not more, art hous[...]ippe Mora’s Brother can You
Spare a Dime opened the seven-film season
this year and although Brother[...]ion will
draw attention to projects Mora works on in
Australia.

The untranslatable Les Yeux Fertiles was a
daily intermediate feature in the main festival
building. This section concerned itself with
film versions of other media works and includ-
ed Bergman's opera film The Magic Flute, as
well as two American Film Theater produc-
tions — Galileo, directed by Joseph Losey,
and The Maids, directed by Christopher
Miles. This was a new section this year and
was well received.

By far the most popular segment of the
festival is the Film Market section. The Market
comprises single and multiple screenings of
films of any kind, presented by their
producers, agents or occasionally by their
governments (as was the case with the Cana-
dians, Swedish and French) or a combination
of both (the Australians).

Entries range from masterpieces (O[...]core porn, which this year
made up a fair segment of Market entries.

I propose to comment briefly on highlights
of each of these sections as well as discussing
the measure of success of the Australian par-
ticipation this year.

But first a note for the Australian daily
press, which seemed to concentrate itself on
denigrating the Australian fledgling industry’s
involvement. To[...]inue to note _that Australian films were
screened in ‘back street theaters’, i would
point out that 90 per cent ofail films shown at
Cannes screen in back street theaters, and
that of the 31 cinemas in Cannes, 28 are in the
back streets off the Croisette.

And to those journalists who made a to-do
of the fact that Tim Bursta|l’s Petersen
attracted only 20 people at the first of a series
of Australian screenings, i would point out that
this screening was a try-out preceding the
festival’s official opening and that most subse-
quent screenings of the 15 or more local films
on view averaged crowds of around 100 (a
good average figure for Market screenings).
And of course at its Quinzaine screenings
Sunday Too Far Away played to full houses.

The Official Festival

Many of the films in the official festival have
either opened, or are about to open in Aus-
tralia. So while Fosse's Lenny, Antonioni’s
Profession Reporter (The Passenger),
Scorcese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
and Russe|l’s Tommy would be worthy of note
and discussion I will pass on to other entries.

in my opinion the best film of the official
festival was Joseph Losey’s Thethe Mia Farrow role in Secret
Ceremony —— divides the household and
eventually splits it. Losey’s irony is that the
Berger character is living on borrowed time
himself and the conclusion has the right
measure of pessimism and hope.

Glenda Jackson and Helmut Berger In Joseph Losey’s
The Romantic Englishwoman.

Another feature of the official festival was
John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust.
While, in the past, a ponderous, pretentious
filmmaker, Schlesinger has at last found a
subject on the one hand so intrinsically
allegorical and on the other so glittering that
he has produced a major[...]West's story and Waldo Salt’s screenplay is
set in Hollywood in the thirties, and at first
sight is just a non-freakish version of Heat.
However Schlesinger gives it wider im-

plications, attempting a decline and fall of the
West parable, a comment on Nixonian
America. The final riot and killing outside
Grauman’s Theate[...]innocence and integrity.

John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust —— a comment
on Nixonian America.

The other major item and probably the
most widely praised critically, was the new
Werner Herzog film The Enigma of Kaspar
Hauser starring Bruno S as a sort of in-
carcerated ‘wild child’. Herzog’s film examines
the deadening powers of bureaucratic
authority and the viciousness of society’s
repressions in a witty and often moving
fashion.

Bruno S. in Werner Herzog’s Every Man for Himself and
God Against All (The Enigma of Kasper Hauser).

Authority of another kind is considered in
the new Costa-Gavras Special Section, yet
another treatment of French collaboration un-
der the Nazis.

Especiaily critical of the jesuitical
equivocations of Vichy’s lawyers and judges,
Gavras’ film combines fast-moving pop
politics with a darker sense of tragedy. Cer-
tainly less compromised than most of his re-
cent work.

Costa-Gavras’ special section — yet another treatment
of French collaboration under the Nazis.

Cinema Papers, July-August — I27

The Quinzaine
mm

Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw
Massacres lifts cinema violence to a level that
will be hard to top in this post-Warhol
Dracula-Frankenstein age. The film's
brilliance, like Spielberg's achievement in
Jaws, is its continued maintenance of
suspense. By being plunged into violence in
the film's early stages, the audience cringes at
the expectation of what is to come. Here a
demented group of ‘Okies’ mutilate a party of
plcnicking kids — including a wheelchair-
bound[...]nce employed by a nearby
abattoirs and fired when the plant automated,
these violent cretins wage war against the
machine age by butchering those who stray
into th[...]oper’s imagery — especially a high
silhouette in long-shot of one of the cretins
chasing a picnicker, the night sky lit by the
white trace of smoke from the chain saw and
the sound track a screaming mechanical
whine —— is superb. Hooper rubs our noses in
his gore and the effect is rivetting.

Robert Kramer, a former associate of the
Newsreel Group and the director of ice and
The Edge, has been working for three years
on his 200-minute summation of American
political history since 1968. Roughly
presented in documentary style, Milestones is
a sort of underground version of The Trial of
Billy Jack; a causes film. Often rambling and
diffuse, but frequently moving, Milestones
vindicates the views of Kramer and his
associates and endorses their claims about
American imperialism at home and abroad.

The Taviani brothers’ Allonsanfan is an
historical[...]score by Ennio Morricone
that manages to overlay the film's often glib
posturing.

Ken Hannam’s Sunday Too Far Away, cer-
tainly well received by the European critics at
the festival, has pretentions to a definitive
statement on the Australian outback ethos.
While its ensemble of male players, notably
Jack Thompson, Robert Bruni[...]especially his camera placement
and juxtaposition of imagery — is flat, un-
imaginative and ultimately a dead bore. John
Dingwall’s script has the makings of a tough
treatise on class interaction and working[...]ics, but as filmed by Hannam it's become
a series of sweaty tableaux that would make
Leone flinch.

Fa[...]e as popular. Ostensibly about
homosexuals, it is in fact a Sirkian melodrama

about love and possession. Fassbinder
himself stars.
Finally, note should be taken of Cahiers

critic André Techine‘s feature, Memories of
France which features Jeanne Moreau in her
best role for 10 years.

The Critics Week
:

Philippe Mora’s Brother, Can You Spare A
Dime? opened this week. A medley of ups and
downs of Depression life strung together as a
parable-comment on the United States today,
Brother is noteworthy for Mo[...]siastic and wildly
spirited selection and cutting of material, as
well as for much of the rare footage un-
earthed. A more engaging film than Swastika,
Brother was one of the few really enjoyable
films at Cannes this year.[...]rs, July-August