Favorite Australian films

Many years ago I became impressed with Wendy Hughes. She is of course in My Brilliant Career but also in Lonely Hearts (1982) a rather touching little film but was completely different in Warm Nights On a Slow Moving Train (1988). I think Bruce Beresford did a very nice job with Tender Mercies (1983) working in America.

Hi there spiderwort  Well you have caught me out here! I have not seen 5 of your quality listed films! but I must also admit to not being a big fan of the local industry.
A few that I would like to mention are...

Clay (1965) an independent and rare production at a time when the Australian Film Industry was virtually non existent.  In other parts of the world thriving film industries were making a splash with the New Waves, this excellent solitary film I call Australia's ripple...

Morning of the Earth (1971)  A teen of the seventies this film still manages to bring a tear to the eye. Those halcyon days are forever captured in this hippie surfie fused film. No dialogue just song, a lyrical and visual ode with deep respect for one another the  sea and our environment.

Silent Partner (2001) A not for all tastes piece of Australian filmmaking lots of drunkenness and swearing. Two everyday blokes down on their luck have good fortune fall into their laps when the chance to train a greyhound dog is offered to them. Friendship and trust are elements that bind the characters in this black humoured film which is very south-side suburban Australia, low budget Aussie film treat

Dons Party (1976) and Sweetie (1989) come to mind before I go...


 



 

Some of my favourites:
The Sentimental Bloke (1919)
The Back of Beyond (1954)
Jedda (1955)
Mike and Stefani (1952)

Also, though not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, I really like the b-movie Night Club (1952) because it is the only 1950s feature film set in contemporary Melbourne.

I see you with Lantana and The Proposition, and raise you with Animal Kingdom (2010).

Two Hands (1999), an early Heath Ledger effort, is worth watching once, too.

Until I reached adulthood, probably the only "Australian" film which I, or most other Brits, had heard of was The Overlanders 1946, although it was actually made by the English Ealing Studios. It was not very good, though no worse than the similarly themed Australia (2008) (made on a huge Hollywood budget with major stars in the lead). The earlier film was surely the source of many stereotypes.

There were a decent number of Australian silent films given the small population at the time, although few of these films survive. I know of three that are on DVD, "The Sentimental Bloke" of course, the other two being "The Kid Stakes" (1927, it's also on Region 0 Blu-Ray), and "The Woman Suffers" (1918, sadly on DVD-R only).

There were also a decent number of 1930s films made in Australia, but very few in the 1940s/1950s/1960s. Ironically, TV helped revive the Australian film industry, since the production of TV shows provided the experience needed for the industry to be revived.

EDIT: One example of the TV/Film connection I'm talking about, can be seen by looking at the filmographies of a lot of 1970s Australian film actors/actresses. A lot of the same TV productions keeping popping up in many of their filmographies (ABC's one-off TV plays in the late 1950s/early 1960s, the Crawford crime drama productions during the mid-1960s and onwards, made-for-export series like "Skippy" during the late-1960s, etc....)

very well written. on the day i watched WAKE IN FRIGHT, i went to the bar and got so drunk, the next morning i had the worst hangover of my life.

I am always amazed at the number of leading Australian actors who started their careers in "Neighbours".

Dead Calm
The Reef
Bait
Adore
Newcastle
Babe
Crocodile Dundee
Strictly Ballroom
Shine
Candy
The Hard Word
Wolf Creek
Little Fish
Animal Kingdom
Black Water
The Babadook