Tim Burstall & Jacki Weaver : The Cinema Of Oceania

Tim Burstall became a major figure in Australian cimema in the 1970s. He was born in the industrial north of England, in the market town of Stockton-On-Tees in County Durham. His working-class comedies, genre pieces and road pictures were viewed as part of the "ocker" movement which ran concurrent to the emergence of the Australian "new wave" movement of the 1970s.

Tim Burtsall launched the 'Alvin Purple' comedy franchise which produced three movies and a television series. Though he wrote and co-produced the first 'Alvin' sequel, he handed it over to Australian David Bilcock and Englishman Robin Copping to direct as he was busy.

Some major Australian theatre performers appeared in Tim Burstall's films before establishing themselves as film stars. His signature performer among his stock company players was theatre actress Jacki Weaver.

Tim Burstall's wife Betty Burstall was a pioneer in her own right. She founded the La Mama Theatre in Melbourne, Victoria in the 1960s. Alumni include 'Alvin' star Graham Blundell, playwright David Williamson, playwright Jack Hibberd, French comedienne Julia Zemiro and double Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett. Sadly, this iconic theatre, which is located in Carlton, was ravaged by fire in 2018.

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I also enjoy a fair number of Oceanian movies that were directed by filmmakers from distant shores. For example, among English directors, Michael Powell made 'Age Of Consent' (1969) while living in exile in Australia, Nicolas Roeg made 'Walkabout' (1971) there and Alec Mills made 'Bloodmoon' (1990). Similarly, rogue Canadian Ted Kotcheff shot 'Wake In Fright' (1971) during his time in the outback. I consider these to be excellent films that make great use of some stunning vistas and landscapes.

* I'd like to acknowledge the contributions of independent movie producer Antony I. Ginnane, a man who can take his seat at the table alongside Roger Corman, Ed Pressman, Charles Band and few others. Ginnane sometimes brought in talented directors from abroad to helm genre films, including English director and action maestro Brian Trenchard-Smith, American director Michael Laughlin who made the horror movies 'Strange Behavior' (1981) and 'Mesmerized' (1986), and English director Michael Anderson whose comic fantasy 'Second Time Lucky' (1984) is generally regarded to be one of Ginnane's New Zealand pictures ('Strange Behavior' was an international co-production while 'Mesmerized' was more a co-production between Australia and New Zealand).

# Filmmaker Paul Cox was born in Netherlands and worked in Australia. For some reason, nobody seems to have any interest in releasing his films on dvd. There's a complete box-set available online that goes for $1,700 which few people can afford.
Though I've only seen a couple of his movies, I did like 'Golden Braid' (1990). The ones I'd most like to see are 'Cactus' (1986) with French actress Isabelle Huppert, and two more films he made with Polish actress Gosia Dobrowolska (she moved to Australia in the 1980s), 'A Woman's Tale' (1991) and 'Touch Me' (1993).

On a sidenote, I'd like to see Australian director Bob Ellis' film 'The Nostradamus Kid' (1992), which I believe might be related to some of John Duigan's work on grounds of casting; Duigan actually passed on the project, as did Paul Cox who was originally slated to direct.

There's many other films I'd like to see, notably John Eastway's 'Alvin' franchise entry 'Melvin : Son Of Alvin' (1984), Chris Langman's action adventure 'Run Chrissie Run!' (1984) featuring daytime Aussie legend Annie Jones, and Arch Nicholson's creature feature 'Dark Age' (1987) which ranks high among Quentin Tarantino's favourite Australian movies.

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Filmmaker Martin Campbell is from New Zealand but he's been making films in the U K since the 1970s. Andrew Niccol's also from New Zealand but he's been making films in the United States of America since the 1990s. Truth is, some of my favourite filmmakers from New Zealand have found success living and working overseas.
There are some famous films produced in New Zealand that I've just not seen. Top of my target list is New Zealander Tony Williams' 'Next Of Kin' (1982) which is one of Quentin Tarantino's favourite films. Films are sometimes shot on location in cities like Auckland, Christchurch, Tauranga and Wellington.

To the best of my knowledge, I've only seen one film from Papua New Guinea and it's a co-production with Australia. It was co-directed by Papua New Guinean Albert Toro with documentary filmmaker Chris Owen who's worked extensively in Papua New Guinea. The film is 'Tukana - Who Is Responsible?' (1984).