Australian New Wave

The Australian New Wave (also known as the Australian Film Revival, Australian Film Renaissance, or New Australian Cinema) was an era of resurgence in worldwide popularity of Australian cinema, particularly in the United States. It began in the early 1970s and lasted until the mid-late 1980s.

The era marked the emergence of Ozploitation, a film genre characterised by the exploitation of colloquial Australian culture.

Background

The Australian film industry declined after World War II, coming to a virtual stop by the early 1960s. The Gorton and Whitlam governments intervened in the early 1970s and rescued the industry from its expected oblivion.^[1] The federal and several state governments established bodies to assist with the funding of film production and the training of film makers through the Australian Film Television and Radio School, which created a new generation of Australian filmmakers who were able to bring their visions to the screen. The 1970s saw a huge renaissance of the Australian film industry. Australia produced nearly 400 films between 1970 and 1985, more than had been made in the history of the Australian film industry.^[2][3]

In contrast to pre-New Wave films, New Wave films are often viewed as fresh and creative, possessing "a vitality, a love of open spaces and a propensity for sudden violence and languorous sexuality". The "straight-ahead narrative style" of many Australian New Wave films reminded American audiences of "the Hollywood-maverick period of the late 1960s and early '70s that had just about run its course".^[4]

Legacy

Several films of the Australian New Wave are regarded as classics of world cinema and regularly rank among films considered the best. Published in 2004, The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made includes Walkabout, Mad Max, Breaker Morant, Gallipoli, The Road Warrior, The Year of Living Dangerously and Dead Calm.^[5] In 2008, Empire magazine chose The Road Warrior and The Year of Living Dangerously as two of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, ranking in at #280 and #161 respectively.^[6] The 2011 book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die features Walkabout, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, My Brilliant Career, Mad Max and Gallipoli.^[7]

Notable films

Notable figures

Directors and actors who launched successful careers as a direct result of the Australian New Wave include:

Similarly, Australian cinematographers such as Russell Boyd, John Seale, Dean Semler and Donald McAlpine also rode the wave to international success.

Sue Mathews' 35mm Dreams, published at the height of the Australian New Wave in 1984, was a landmark study of the major Australian directors of the time. Among the directors portrayed, one - John Duigan - had not yet received widespread critical and box-office acclaim. He came to worldwide attention after making The Year My Voice Broke (1987) and its sequel Flirting (1991) a few years later.

Aftermath

The term "glitter cycle" refers to a subgenre of eccentric Australian comedies that came to prominence in the early 1990s, spurning a post-new wave revival of Australian film. These films are noted for their celebration of Australian popular culture, camp aesthetic, colourful makeup and costuming, and musical performance pieces. Prominent glitter films include Strictly Ballroom (1992), Muriel's Wedding (1994), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) and Love Serenade (1996).

Other prominent post-new wave revival films include Babe, The Castle, Proof, Romper Stomper, Shine, The Piano and Kiss or Kill.

See also

References

• Film Reference Encyclopedia - "Australian New Wave: The Comedies"
• New York Times - "Australia Prides Its 'New Wave' of Films" article, 15 February 1981