Author Archive for: ‘Ina Bertrand’
Issue 8 Editorial
Issue no.7 was thematic: called “After Grierson”, it considered the worldwide and continuing influence of John Grierson, not only in film. In the present issue we have two more articles that continue this theme. The first is Terence Dobson’s “McLaren and Grierson: intersections” – an article that technical problems prevented us from including in issue 7, but that should be …
Read MoreShining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute
Lisa French and Mark Poole, Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute. The Moving Image, no.9, ATOM 2009 AU$39.95 252pp Dr George Miller, doyen of the Australian film industry and director of key films from Mad Max (Australia 1997) to Happy Feet (Australia/USA 2006), declares on the cover of this book that the AFI is where you can “identify the Australian …
Read More‘Bring[ing] family life into the theatres’: the drive-ins of Western Australia
This article was written in 2003. The author has administered a web-site on Western Australian cinemas for many years. Further information about all sites mentioned in this article can be obtained at that website:http://cinemaweb.scam.ecu.edu.au. Nowadays, everyone is familiar with the drive-in, but in the late 1950s, when the concept was still new, it was thought necessary to educate potential customers …
Read MoreScreening the Past: A Memoir
Once upon a time, an Australian academic life consisted of three elements: a contribution to the subject which the academic taught and researched, a contribution to the administration of the institution, and a contribution to the wider academic and social culture. The first got you the job, the second grew in importance as you progressed up the institutional ladder, and …
Read MoreAn Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930
Denise Lowe, An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930. Binghampton NY: Haworth Press, 2005 ISBN: 978 0 7890 1842 7 US$69.95 (hb) ISBN: 978 0 7890 1843 4 US$49.95 (pb) 623 pp (Review copy supplied by Haworth Press) In the current revival of interest in the early film industry, marked by a large number of new publications, this book …
Read MoreGreen Screen: Environmentalism and Hollywood Cinema
David Ingram, Green Screen: Environmentalism and Hollywood Cinema. Exeter, Devon: University of Exeter. 2004 ISBN: 0 85989 608 0 £39.50 (hb) ISBN: 0 85989 609 9 £14.99 (pb) 240 pp (Review copy supplied by Exeter Press) This book takes a position at the intersection of two polemics – one concerning attitudes to the environment, and one concerning the ideological operations of …
Read MoreSilent Screens: The Decline and Transformation of the American Movie Theatre
Michael Putnam, Silent Screens: The Decline and Transformation of the American Movie Theatre Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. ISBN 0 8018 6329 5(hb) 202pp 122 pp US$39.95 (Review copy supplied by Johns Hopkins University Press) Uploaded 1 March 2001 This is primarily a book of photographs – works of art, but as record rather than nostalgia. Michael …
Read MoreThe Shadowcatchers: a history of cinematography in Australia
Martha Ansara, The Shadowcatchers: a history of cinematography in Australia Austcine Publishing, Sydney 2012 ISBN: 9780987225214 Au$66.00 (pb) 288pp http://www.shadowcatchers.com.au/ (Review copy supplied by Australian cinematographers society) Cinematography captures images, playing with light and shade, mood and texture, distance and what is right under our noses. It is very appropriate to call the people who do such work ‘shadowcatchers’, and …
Read MoreNovels into Film
George Bluestone, Novels into Film. Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press. Paperback edition. 2003. (first published Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore Maryland, 1957) ISBN: 0 80187 386 X 256pp US$25 (pb) (Review copy supplied by John Hopkins University Press) There can be many reasons for re-publishing a book. It may be so popular that it acquires new readers in every …
Read MoreScreen Histories: A Screen Reader
Annette Kuhn & Jackie Stacey (eds), Screen Histories: A Screen Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 019815 9498 233 pp A$59.95 (Review copy supplied by Oxford University Press) Uploaded 1 March 2001 The most interesting thing about this book is the fact that it was published at all, that both a prestigious journal (Screen) and an equally prestigious publishing house (Oxford University …
Read MoreOrwell Subverted: The CIA and the Filming of Animal Farm
Daniel J. Leab, Orwell Subverted: The CIA and the Filming of Animal Farm. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007. ISBN: 978 0 271 02987 8 US$55.00 (hb) 232pp (Review copy supplied by Pennsylvania State University Press) It is a truism of film theory nowadays that a book and a film are separate entities, and that one cannot legitimately be judged in terms …
Read MoreDiasporas of Australian cinema, Catherine Simpson, Renata Murawska, Anthony Lambert (eds)
Catherine Simpson, Renata Murawska, Anthony Lambert (eds), Diasporas of Australian cinema Intellect, Bristol, UK/Chicago USA, 2009 ISBN: 1 841 50197 2 US$40 (pb) 128pp (Review copy supplied by Intellect) My first problem with this book was its title. From the title alone, I assumed it would be about the spread of Australian cinema into other cultures (probably a study of …
Read More200 shots: Damien Parer, George Silk, and the Australians at war in New Guinea
Neil McDonald & Peter Brune, 200 shots: Damien Parer, George Silk, and the Australians at war in New Guinea. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1998. ISBN 1 86448 541 8 197 pp. A$39.95 Uploaded 29 May 1998 The ‘Foreword’ to this book is provided by Damien Parer himself. In a 1943 article he explained to the people back home what …
Read MoreMoskva Kino: The Cinemas of Southwest and Central Moscow, Warner Cinemas: An Outline History, MGM Cinemas: An Outline History & Showcase Cinemas: An Outline History
Philip Turner, Moskva Kino: The Cinemas of Southwest and Central Moscow (Brantwood Books, St Paul’s Cray, Kent, 1999) ISBN 0 9531021 0 6 44pp. £6.99stg Philip Turner, Warner Cinemas: An Outline History (Brantwood Boks, St Paul’s Cray, Kent, 1997) ISBN 0 9531021 2 2 30pp. £9.95stg Philip Turner, MGM Cinemas: An Outline History (Brantwood Books, St Paul’s Cray, Kent, 1998) ISBN 0 9531021 3 0 …
Read MoreAlvin Purple
Catherine Lumby, Alvin Purple. Australian Screen Classics series Currency Press/AFC/NFSA, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-86819-844-6 Au$16.95 (pb) 80pp Henry Reynolds, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. Australian Screen Classics series Currency Press/AFC/NFSA, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-86819-824-8 Au$16.95 80pp (Review copies supplied by Currency Press) I vividly remember being told many years ago, by people who should know, that it was a waste of time researching …
Read MoreEditorial
Screening the Past is a year old. The editorial team gathered together recently to consider what had been achieved in that year, and where we want to go in future. A number of changes to the site are planned, and one of these is to publish an Editorial in each issue. Personally, the Editorial is the part of any publication that …
Read MoreAustralian Television: A Genealogy of Great Moments
Alan McKee, Australian Television: A Genealogy of Great Moments. Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 2001. ISBN: 0 195512251 362 pp Au$49.95 (pb) (Review copy supplied by Oxford University Press) In both the title and the text (“This book is a genealogy”, 13) the author proposes that he is writing a “genealogy”, which my dictionary defines as a “pedigree” or a …
Read MoreIssue 5 Editorial
There is no central theme to this issue – but it does take up several themes that have appeared in earlier issues. One of the original purposes of this journal was to invite a dialogue between archivists and their customers among the community of screen scholars. In our very first issue we published Ray Edmonsden’s article about the problems and …
Read MoreThe Barry McKenzie Movies
Tony Moore, The Barry McKenzie Movies. Currency Press: Australian Film Commission National Film and Sound Archive, 2005. ISBN: 0 86819 748 3 86pp Au$16.95 (pb) (Review copy supplied by Currency Press) For more than two decades, Currency Press has been Australia’s foremost publisher of titles concerning Australian drama and film. The current slim volume is one of their Australian Screen …
Read MorePolicing Cinema: Movies and Censorship in Early Twentieth-Century America
Lee Grieveson, Policing Cinema: Movies and Censorship in Early Twentieth-Century America. Berkeley, University of California Press, 2004. ISBN: 978 0 520 239661 361pp US$24.95 (pb) (Review copy supplied by University of California Press) Censorship can be a sensational subject – couched in terms of the struggle of light against dark, good against evil. Whichever side of the debate you support, …
Read MoreSheep and the Australian Cinema
Deb Verhoeven, Sheep and the Australian Cinema. Melbourne University Press, 2006. ISBN: 0 522 85240 8 317pp Au$49.95 (pb) Au$39.95 (eBook) (Review copy supplied by Melbourne University Press) This writer’s style is not for everyone: however, it is a style that brilliantly echoes its subject matter. Like the sheep which pour in masses across Australian screens, words and phrases pour …
Read MoreDance Hall and Picture Palace: Sydneys Romance with Modernity
Jill Julius Matthews, Dance Hall and Picture Palace: Sydneys Romance with Modernity. Sydney: Currency Press, 2005. ISBN: 0 868 19755 6 Au$32.95 (pb) 342pp (Review copy supplied by Currency Press) This is a tale of modern romance, of heroic adventures and impassioned desire. It is set in the city of Sydney over thirty tumultuous years of prosperity, between the two …
Read MoreAustralian Postwar Documentary Film: An Arc of Mirrors
Deane Williams, Australian Postwar Documentary Film: An Arc of Mirrors. Bristol: Intellect Books, 2008. ISBN: 9781841502106 UK£29.95 (hb) 192 pp (Review copy supplied by Intellect Books) Deane Williams re-evaluates Australian documentary film production after World War 2, positioning it as part of an international left culture, which can embrace producers as different as the Realist Film Unit, Cecil Holmes, John …
Read MoreThe Money Shot: Cinema, Sin and Censorship
Jane Mills, The Money Shot: Cinema, Sin and Censorship. Pluto Press, Annandale 2001. ISBN 1 86403 142 5 255 pp A$32.95 (pb) (Review copy supplied by Pluto Press) Uploaded 25 July 2001 The “money shot” – so-called because it is the most expensive shot in the movie – is the sequence in a porn film which depicts the “male ejaculatory …
Read MoreThe Internet Challenge to Television, Latin American Television: A Global View & Television: An International History
Bruce M.Owen, The Internet Challenge to Television, (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1999 ) ISBN 0 674 87299 1 (hb) 372 pp US$29.95 (Review copy supplied by Harvard University Press) John Sinclair, Latin American Television: A Global View, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999) ISBN 0 19 815930 7, 0 19 815929 3 (pb) 187 pp A$45.00 (Review copy supplied by Oxford University …
Read MoreSome Early History of the Australian Film Institute: A Memoir of the 1970s
The Australian Film Institute (AFI) has always struggled to find its niche within Australian film culture. It has also always had financial difficulties. These two issues intersect at the point where the AFI applies for funding from government agencies: if the agencies are unsure of the function of the AFI, or disagree with any of its stated policies or activities, …
Read MoreRaymond Longford’s The Sentimental Bloke: The Restored Version
Raymond Longford’s The Sentimental Bloke: The Restored Version. Madman/NFSA/ATOM, 2009 (Review copy supplied by ATOM http://www.metromagazine.com.au/shop/product.asp?pID=1864) The Sentimental Bloke is a classic of Australian – and even world – silent cinema: Bill Routt and I are quoted on the cover of this package, calling it “among the very best films made anywhere before 1920”. So I welcome this package, which hopefully …
Read MoreHollywood in the Neighbourhood: Historical Case Studies of Local Moviegoing
Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley (ed.), Hollywood in the Neighbourhood: Historical Case Studies of Local Moviegoing. University of California Press, 2008 ISBN: 9 780520249 73 8 US$27.95 (pb) 290pp (Review copy supplied by University of California Press http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9480.php) Not so long ago – when serious film study meant the textual analysis of films – this book could not have been published. Post-structuralism and …
Read MoreA Feminist Reader in Early Cinema
Jennifer M. Bean & Diane Negra. A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2002. ISBN: 0 822 32999 9 584pp US$27.95 (pb) (Review copy supplied by Duke University Press) The women of silent cinema are in the process of being re-discovered. An international Congress on Women and the Silent Screen was held in Montreal in …
Read MoreIn the Kingdom of Shadows: A Companion to Early Cinema
Colin Harding & Simon Popple, In the Kingdom of Shadows: A Companion to Early Cinema London: Cygnus Arts, 1996 ISBN 1 900541 05 X 271 pp. Uploaded 16 April 1999 We normally review books only within two years of publication, but this one was a long time reaching us, so we are stretching a point. This compilation of documents relating …
Read MoreAmericanizing the Movies and “Movie Mad” Audiences: 1910-1914
Richard Abel, Americanizing the Movies and “Movie Mad” Audiences: 1910-1914. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. ISBN: 978 0 520 24742 0 (hb) US$65.00 ISBN: 978 0 520 24743 7 (pb) US$29.95 391pp (Review copy supplied by University of California Press) From outside USA, ‘Americanizing’ is what occurs when the American film industry shapes both public taste and film economics …
Read MoreThe Tread of a White Man’s Foot: Australian Pacific Colonialism and the Cinema, 1925-62
Jane Landman, The Tread of a White Man’s Foot: Australian Pacific Colonialism and the Cinema, 1925-62. Pandanus Books, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 2006. ISBN: 1 7407620 61 AUD$34.96 (pb) 268pp This is not an objective review, as I have watched the progress of this project from its inception and I was honoured to be …
Read MoreIssue 7 Editorial
“Grierson” is a name to conjure with – no need, for any reader with pretensions to knowing anything about film, to even add a first name. The outlines of his life-story are equally well-known: born in Scotland in 1898, visited USA 1924-27 where his interest in the educational potential of film was aroused, returned to England to become Films Officer …
Read MoreTheory into practice: Stanley Hawes and the Commonwealth Film Unit
Uploaded 1 July 1999 Documentary film has always been a contested space: arguments persist about whether it is possible to define “documentary”, and whether any attempt at definition should be couched in aesthetic/epistemological terms (what documentary is) or in functional/social terms (what documentary does). [1] The epistemological definition is based largely on the relation of the film’s images and soundtrack to …
Read MoreCanvas Documentaries: Panoramic Entertainments in Nineteenth-Century Australia and New Zealand
Mimi Colligan, Canvas Documentaries: Panoramic Entertainments in Nineteenth-Century Australia and New Zealand Melbourne: Melbourne University Press 2002. ISBN: 0522850197 250 pp Au$59.95 (hb) (Review copy supplied by Melbourne University Press) The first thing that impresses about this book is its presentation: hard covers, glossy paper, clear type, lavish illustrations (some in colour) – the sort of book that is as …
Read MoreLen Lye: A Biography
Roger Horrocks, Len Lye: A Biography. Auckland University Press, 2001 (reprinted 2002) 436pp (Review copy obtained from author) Referring to Len Lye’s “singularity”, this book opens with a quote from painter Julian Trevelyan: “He was like a man from mars who saw everything from a different viewpoint, and it was this that made him original”. The rest of the book …
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