Australian Film Theory and Criticism

Description

A three-volume project tracing key critical positions, people, and institutions in Australian film, Australian Film Theory and Criticism interrogates not only the origins of Australian film theory but also its relationships to adjacent disciplines and institutions. The second volume in the series, this book gathers interviews with national and international film theorists and critics to chart the development of different discourses in Australian film studies through the decades. Seeking to examine the position of film theorists and their relationship to film industry practitioners and policy makers, this volume succeeds mightily in reasserting Australian film’s place on the international scholarly agenda.

 

Introduction: Serious film studies and magpies – Noel King and Deane Williams

PART I: Brisbane

1. 'From "pictures" to formats' – Albert Moran Interviewed by Noel King

2. 'Everyone’s got their favourite periods of Cunningham’s career, and it’s always something before the present!' – Stuart Cunningham Interviewed by Noel King 

3. 'For a lot of people film became a bridge between literary studies and other kinds of cultural studies' – Graeme Turner Interviewed by Noel King 

4. 'The circulation of ideas' – Tom O’Regan Interviewed by Deane Williams 

5. 'We just thought we were unstoppable' – Colin and Jane Crisp Interviewed by Noel King 

6. 'I loved best when really practical solutions had to be found for artistic problems' – Jonathan Dawson Interviewed by Noel King 

PART II: Melbourne 

7. 'Early on I’d been an inveterate attender of Saturday matinees' – Mick Counihan Interviewed by Noel King 

8. 'Yes, but it never entered my head that it would ever become a field as such …' – Barbara Creed Interviewed by Deane Williams 1

9. “This is all part of the historical process” – Ina Bertrand Interviewed by Deane Williams 

10. 'Some things you never learn' – Sam Rohdie Interviewed by Deane Williams 

11. 'I’ve left a good life behind me in London and I’m going to be met by a phalanx of safari-suited men' – Lesley Stern Interviewed by Deane Williams

12. 'We might leave it there' – Bill Routt Interviewed by Deane Williams 

13. 'Trust your instincts' – Adrian Martin Interviewed by Deane Williams 

PART III: Sydney and Newcastle 

14. 'I don’t want a straight world job but I do want access to spheres of possibility and avenues of influence' – Ross Gibson Interviewed by Deane Williams 

15. 'Who’s afraid of the 1980s?' – Meaghan Morris Interviewed by Lauren Bliss 

16. 'The sheer complexity of film' – David Boyd Interviewed by Noel King 

PART IV: Adelaide and Perth 

17. 'This was a certain, particular moment' – Brian Shoesmith Interviewed by Noel King 

18. 'When I discovered Metz I was in seventh heaven' – Noel Purdon Interviewed by Noel King 

19. 'Look, I’m really not a true believer like you people. I’m something else' – Toby Miller Interviewed by Deane Williams 

PART V: UK and USA 

20. 'The double access, film culture and the ossification of film studies' – Paul Willemen Interviewed by Deane Williams 

21. 'It’s a small world' – Dana Polan Interviewed by Deane Williams 

22. 'I’d like to just think back on what has been for me nearly forty years of involvement in developing this field' – Manuel Alvarado Interviewed by Noel King 

23. 'It was a great relief that somebody was listening!' – Colin MacCabe Interviewed by Noel King 

24. 'You can’t have an academic discipline unless there’s something that can be represented as a proper body of knowledge' – Edward Buscombe Interviewed by Noel King 

25. 'I love films that are based on reality … I love the dramatisation of reality, the narrativisation of reality' – Michael Eaton Interviewed by Noel King 383

26. 'My interest in American identity, ideology, history' – Jim Kitses Interviewed by Noel King 

About the authors

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Arts visuels
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinema
• General officer
• History of film
• Art
• General
• Australia

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 07 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783204694
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published in the UK in 2013 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2013 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2013 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover designer: Edwin Fox
Copy-editor: MPS Technologies
Production manager: Jelena Stanovnik
Typesetting: Planman Technologies
ISBN 978-1-84150-581-7
eISBN
Printed and bound by Hobbs, UK
 
 
For David Boyd, Jim Kitses and in memory of Manuel Alvarado
—NK
For Noel King, mentor and friend
—CV
For Paul Willemen (1944–2012), and his sizeable contribution to Australian Film Theory and Criticism
—DW
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Patrice Petro
Introduction
Chapter 1:Australian Film Theory and Criticism
Noel King, Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams
Part I: Institutions
Chapter 2:Film Theory Goes to Australia
Constantine Verevis
Chapter 3:Writing the Australian Film Revival
Constantine Verevis
Part II: Personnel
Chapter 4:Cultural Mobility and Film Studies in Australia 1975–1990
Noel King
Part III: Criticism
Chapter 5:Shifts and Interventions: Cultural Materialism and Australian Film History
Deane Williams
Chapter 6:Australian Film Theory and Criticism and Cultural Studies
Deane Williams
Conclusion
Chapter 7:Contemporary Australian Film Theory and Criticism
Noel King, Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams
Appendix 1: Australian Journal of Screen Theory (AJST), 1976–1985
Appendix 2: Australian Film Theory and Criticism: The Interviews
Works Consulted
About the Authors
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Australian Research Council for financial support provided by an ARC Discovery Grant for this project. At Intellect, we thank Jelena Stanovnik for her initial interest in, and ongoing support for, this and other volumes in the Australian Film Theory and Criticism series. Special thanks to Paul Coughlin and Lauren Bliss for their research assistance.
Material appearing in this book appeared in earlier versions in the following publications and is reprinted here with the permission of the editors:
1.Noel King, Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams. “Australia.” The SAGE Handbook of Film Studies . Ed. James Donald and Michael Renov. London: SAGE, 2008. 112–22.
2.Noel King, Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams. “Mapping Film Studies in Australia: Institutions, Personnel, and Critical Positions.” Creative Nation: Australian Cinema and Cultural Studies Reader . Ed. Amit Sarwal and Reema Sarwal. New Delhi: SSS Publications, 2009. 1–12.
3.Constantine Verevis. “Screen Theory Goes to Australia.” Framework 51.2 (Fall 2010): 420–37.
4.Constantine Verevis. “Writing the Revival.” Metro 150 (2006): 168–69.
5.Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams. “Contemporary Australian Film Theory and Criticism.” Media International Australia 136 (2010): 177–90.
6.Deane Williams. “Shifts and Interventions: Cultural Materialism and Australian Film History.” Screening the Past 26 (2009). http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/26/cultural-materialism-australian-film-history.html.
Preface
Recent years have witnessed a surge of publications that explore the institutional and intellectual foundations of film studies as a discipline, spanning not just the academy, but also government, the museum and the publishing industry. 1 In his book, Scenes of Instruction: the Beginnings of the US Study of Film , for example, Dana Polan focuses on the history of film studies as an academic field, situating his research within other disciplines in the humanities, sciences and social sciences, which have likewise questioned and investigated the nature and boundaries of disciplinarity over the past two decades. Polan’s book is an invaluable work of historical research and recovery and yet, like other recent titles that explore the disciplinary history of our field, it focuses largely on developments in the United States. To be sure, Haidee Wasson’s excellent study of MoMA also elaborates the ties between the United States and Europe (especially the United Kingdom) 2 and Michael Zyrd has written extensively on experimental film and the development of film studies in the US and Canada. 3 Nevertheless, the larger, more complex history of the disciplinary formation of film studies remains to be written if we are to ascertain how the study of film has been institutionalised elsewhere, how ideas have travelled among intellectuals interested in film and media cultures, and how this international exchange has shaped the field of film studies across frameworks that are at once national, regional and transnational.
This is precisely why Australian Film Theory and Criticism (in three volumes) is such a signal accomplishment and critical intervention into the growing literature on the foundation of film studies as an intellectual field of inquiry. As Noel King, Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams make clear, although the rapid growth of film studies in Australia in many ways reflects trends already explored by scholars elsewhere, there are at least two aspects that are unique to the Australian context. First, the growth of film studies in Australia coincided with the revival of the Australian feature film industry in the early 1970s, supported by state and federal government funds as well as other cultural activities. Second, and perhaps even more importantly, film studies in Australia emerged alongside a new style of film reviewing and criticism which, as the authors explain, “acted both as a counterpoint and a complement” to the new academic discipline of film studies in the Australian context.
Indeed, what is distinctive about the institutionalisation of film studies in Australia is the emergence of what Tom O’Regan has emphasised as the discursive nature of Australian film culture, its engagement with multiple components of cinema as an institution, including economic, political, cultural and historical discourses. 4 Historians, cinephiles and critical intellectuals – often in tandem, more often in critical debate – have endeavoured to provide an understanding of the particularity of Australian film theory and criticism, at once informed by international currents but shaped in specific institutional and educational contexts.
In the tradition of the work surveyed in this volume, Australian Film Theory and Criticism successfully captures the unique array of voices and views that have shaped Australian film culture as well as the international flow of film theory and criticism which circulates well beyond Australia, demonstrating how local distinctiveness abounds in the global circulation of moving images. This local distinctiveness might be best described as offering a challenge to the polarisation of theory and practice and the gap between film enthusiasts and film theorists. Above all else, it reveals itself in a rejection of impersonal, academic discourse in favour of an impassioned, immersed, and thoroughly engaged approach to film culture that is at once deeply local and inherently global. Needless to say, the legacy of Australian film theory and criticism, which is the subject of this volume, has not only transformed film and media studies in Australia. It has also expanded, enlivened and challenged our view of the institutional and intellectual foundations of film studies as a discipline, allowing us to grasp the contours of a more complex, international and globalised tradition of film and media studies, both in the past and today.
Patrice Petro
Notes
1 These works include Dana Polan’s Scenes of Instruction: The Beginnings of the US Study of Film (Berkeley: U of California P, 2007), Lee Grieveson and Haidee Wasson’s edited volume Inventing Film Studies (Durham: Duke UP, 2008), and Peter Decherney’s Hollywood and the Culture Elite: How the Movies Became American (New York: Columbia UP, 2005).
2 Haidee Wasson, Museum Movies: The Museum of Modern Art and the Birth of Art Cinema (Berkeley: U of California P, 2005).
3 See Michael Zyrd, “Experimental Film and the Development of Film Study in America” in Grieveson and Wasson, Inventing Film Studies 182–216.
4 Tom O’Regan, Australian National Cinema (London: Routledge, 1996).
Introduction
Chapter 1
Australian Film Theory and Criticism
Noel King, Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams
Since the 1970s, the discipline of film studies has been a rapidly expanding, international academic and intellectual field of inquiry. Around the globe, there are a host of university departments that offer courses in film (television, radio and media) studies, numerous journals devoted to the critical appreciation of the cinematic form, and countless newspaper columns, radio spots and television programmes devoted to film commentary and criticism. In Australia the rapid growth of film studies – especially in the decade-long period from 1975 to 1985 – in many ways reflected international trends, but there are at least two aspects of the story that may be unique to the Australian case. One was the coincidence that, in the early 1970s, the rise of film studies and the strategic revival of the Australian feature-film industry, which was accomplished with significant government funding and institutional support, occurred at the same time. The other was the coincidental emergence of a new style of film reviewing and criticism that acted as both a counterpoint and a complement to the new academic discipline.
In his book Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema , David Bordwell provides a history of various mo