Australian Screen

An incredible amateur film for many reasons, not the least of which is the filmmaker’s fascination with the filmmaking process. R Goslin, probably like many other curious Melbournians, made the most of the Stanley Kramer production coming to Victoria to film part of the post-apocalyptic romance, On the Beach.

Goslin filmed these scenes over two days in late January and edited it together, supplying his own commentary. To see behind the scenes colour footage of this black-and-white feature film is quite extraordinary. The openness of the set, and Goslin’s own ability to film so close to the action, is unlikely in today’s highly managed and controlled movie industry. Official ‘making-of’ documentaries are put out by studios and a private individual would no longer be allowed as close to the set as Goslin’s camera gets here. The voice-over narration and opening title card which state ‘similarity to any other film is entirely nonsensical’ conveys an affection and cheekiness which comes through in the finished amateur film. Here, Goslin adds his own personal perspectives on what came to be a very famous movie, and by creating his own narrative out of the events he filmed, his home movie beautifully captures an ordinary person’s experience of a very public event.

On the Beach the feature film was filmed partly on a beach near Frankston, and in Canadian Bay in Mount Eliza – both in the southern outer suburbs of Melbourne. The film is partly set in a Melbourne of the near future, where Australia is the only country in the world (unsurprisingly) which has survived nuclear world war. The film was based on the book On the Beach by imported Australian author Neville Shute.

The print of Goslin’s On the Beach: home movie of the filming of the 1959 feature film ‘On the Beach’ held at the National Film and Sound Archive was duplicated from a print belonging to the Victorian Arts Centre’s Performing Arts Collection in Melbourne.