Australian National Cinema – Comprehensive Study Notes

Characteristics of National Cinemas

• National cinema = simultaneously
  • aesthetic / production movement
  • critical–academic category
  • civic-state project (cultural + political)
  • industrial strategy
  • international response to dominant cinemas (esp. Hollywood)
• Core shared traits
  • Must contend with Hollywood’s dominance (le défi américain)
  • Always both local & international in outlook
  • Function as festival / art-house cinemas
  • Depend on nation-state policies, subsidies, regulation
  • Intrinsically fuzzy & relational (defined in contrast to others)

Hollywood vs. “National” Cinemas (Le Défi Américain)

• Hollywood treated as commercial & supra-national; others tagged “national”
• Kristin Thompson: alternative cinemas undermine equation “movies = Hollywood”
• Makavejev’s aphorism: modern life ≈ learning to be American
• Similarities between Hollywood & other nationals
  • Relies on domestic market ext{(≈45–75 ext{%} of revenue)}
  • Negotiates local social & ethnic differences
• Crucial differences
  • Hollywood has audiovisual lingua franca; historic stranglehold on cinema/video worldwide (esp. Europe, Americas, Australasia)
  • U.S. producers worry about competition within Hollywood; other countries worry about imported product
  • In U.S. foreign films remain niche (ethnic & art-house circuits) → term “art cinema” itself popularised via U.S. distribution practice (Elsaesser)
• Domestic market shares illustrate marginality of nationals
  • Australian features at local box-office $5\text{–}21\%$ (1980s)
  • TV drama $16\%$ of commercial, $7\%$ ABC, <1\% SBS (1990)
  • $1991$ theatrical releases in Australia: $60\%$ U.S., $10\%$ U.K., $14\%$ Europe ($7\%$ France), $9\%$ Australia, remainder minor
  • $1992/93$: Australian AV exports $\$65\text{ million}$ vs imports $\$437\text{ million}$
• Structural implications
  • Nationals are fragile, dispensable to exhibitors/distributors who can survive on imports
  • Need state help, co-production, festival visibility, import-substitution niches

Strategic Responses to Hollywood

• Direct competition (esp. English-language nations)
  • Produce interchangeable or consonant blockbusters: Crocodile Dundee, Four Weddings & a Funeral, Mad Max series
  • Utilize U.S. majors for distribution (e.g., Warner Bros. on Mad Max)
• Indirect / Complementary competition: market niches
  • Emphasise local specificity (history, myths, vernacular)
  • Sunday Too Far Away, Phar Lap, David Williamson adaptations (Don’s Party, The Club, etc.)
  • Cultivate “art cinema” aesthetic & auteur tradition (literary adaptations; focus on speech texture)
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock, My Brilliant Career, Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Getting of Wisdom, Sirens (Norman Lindsay mythos)
  • Promote humanist, quirky, black-humour values for festival circuits (Breaker Morant, Sweetie)

National Cinema as Local & International Forum

• Nationals are products of internationalisation, not alternatives to it
  • Australian “project” only materialised post-$1969$ with government intervention
  • Even “ocker” comedy Barry McKenzie designed for U.K.+AU markets, parodying colonial ties
• Story selection & casting reflect transnational calculus
  • British/Australian colonial relations: Gallipoli, Breaker Morant, Country Life, Spotswood
  • American in Australia / Australian in America tropes: Roadgames, Gross Misconduct, Razorback, Delinquents, Rebel, Coca-Cola Kid, Dallas Doll
  • American actors playing Australians: Meryl Streep (Evil Angels), Mitchum/Kerr (Sundowners), Chamberlain (Last Wave)
• Reliance on first/second-time directors → local stories as calling cards
  • $1990s$ successes: Proof, Romper Stomper, Strictly Ballroom, Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla, etc.
  • Financing mixes: e.g., Muriel’s Wedding underwritten by French CIBY + multiple Australian state agencies
• Three “local” possibilities
  1. Low-budget culturally authentic sleepers
  2. Crass commercial exploitation (Alvin Purple, early Mad Max)
  3. Quirky/eccentric festival darlings (Sweetie, Strictly Ballroom, Priscilla)

Festival / Art-House Circuit

• Festivals give global overlay of value; Hollywood becomes oppositional reference
• Persistent AU auteurs/documentarians: Weir, Beresford, Schepisi, Armstrong, Noyce, Miller, Campion; avant-garde (Moffatt, Thoms); docs (Bradbury, O’Rourke, MacDougalls)
• Bill Nichols: festivals circulate local difference + global commonality; confer cachet, cultural capital
• Art-cinema conventions adopted
  • Existential dilemmas > solvable problems (Schrader quote)
  • Alienation, unresolved relationships, darker vision (Debi Enker)
  • Paul Cox’s My First Wife analysed as exemplar (boundary situations, fragmented narrative, auteurist reading)

National Identity & State Policy

• Volker Schlöndorff: awareness of national identity pre-condition for being international
• Phillip Adams/Barry Jones vision $1968\text{–}69$: boutique industry of $10\text{–}15$ features/yr exporting identity to festivals
• Two national dimensions (A.D. Smith)
  • national-political (citizenship, civics)
  • national-cultural (myths, symbols)
• Australian policy moments
  • Creation of SBS TV $1980$ (multiculturalism)
  • Tax concession 10BA → $1980s$ boom of historical mini-series, myth re-statements (Gallipoli, Phar Lap, Bodyline)
  • Shift to multicultural & cosmopolitan outlook late $1980s$–$1990s$ (Rowse, Hage’s “cosmopolite”)
• Tensions between “employment” (industrial markers) vs “textual” Australianness (broadcast regulators)
• Identity problematisation parallels New German Cinema; focus on margins: women’s cinema, subcultures, indigenous issues, docos

Messiness / Fuzziness of National Cinemas

• Co-productions blur boundaries (e.g., Weir’s Green Card: AU–FR finance, U.S. setting)
• Trans-Tasman integration: shared AU–NZ talent (Campion, Ward, Holmes); The Piano as Australasian paradigm
• Regionalism within federations (state film bodies since $1972$); example: Adelaide-set Return Home mirrors German Heimat themes
• Diasporic & multiethnic cinemas overlay national category
  • Jewish, Indian, Chinese diasporic circuits; Indigenous film tours (Hidden Pictures $1995$)
  • $14\%$ households speak non-English at home; $22\%$ population foreign-born → ethnic video sub-markets

Numerical & Statistical Highlights

• AU box-office share for local features: $5\text{–}21\%$ (1980s)
• TV drama local content (1990): $16\%$ commercial, $7\%$ ABC, <1\% SBS
• Theatrical releases in AU (1991): $238$ total; $60\%$ U.S., $10\%$ U.K., $14\%$ Europe, $9\%$ AU
• Financing mix (1988/89–1992/93): $39\%$ foreign, $33\%$ government, $28\%$ AU private
• Trade imbalance 1992/93: exports $\$65\text{ m}$ vs imports $\$437\text{ m}$

Ethical / Philosophical Implications

• Debates over representation: Jimmie Blacksmith reception; Aboriginal perspectives; humanism vs. political critique
• Consultation & process ethics (comparison to Kluge, German models) in Indigenous collaborations; documentary ethics (O’Rourke)

Key Examples & Case Studies (Chronological Snapshots)

• On the Beach $1959$ – early U.S. “runaway” in AU
• The Overlanders $1946$ – proto art-film, British-AU co-venture
• Transitional films $1966$–$71$: They’re a Weird Mob, Wake in Fright, Walkabout
• 1970s revival milestones (Picnic, Mad Max, Newsfront, etc.)
• 1980s tax-boom historical epics & blockbusters
• 1990s sleeper-to-hit path (Strictly Ballroom, Muriel, Priscilla) + high-budget international co-pros (Piano, Black Robe)

Conceptual Connections & Takeaways

• National cinema is best understood as a relation (to Hollywood, to other nations, to internal regions) rather than essence
• Localising ≠ parochial; it is strategic internationalisation
• Festivals/art-house circuits function as alternative global economy of prestige
• State intervention shapes both industrial capacity & cultural narratives
• Multi-ethnicity, regionalism & co-production practices complicate any fixed idea of “Australian” film

Implications for Further Study

• Examine how future streaming & transnational platforms alter the local/intl balance
• Trace evolution of multicultural storytelling post-$2000$ (Asian-Australian, Indigenous auteurs)
• Re-evaluate commercial sleepers’ long-term impact on infrastructure & global perception