Titles curated by Paul Byrnes
260 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 next
C (continued)
Cosi feature film – 1996
Does it matter that Cosi, about psychiatric patients staging the opera Così Fan Tutte, never quite loses its theatrical origins?
Crackerjack feature film – 2002
An overgrown boy from a spoiled generation, becomes a man through fraternising with an older, wiser — and very daggy — generation.
Crocodile Dundee feature film – 1985
This is not just the most commercially successful Australian film ever made, but also one of the most successful non-Hollywood films.
Crocodile Dundee II feature film – 1988
This sequel, in which Mick Dundee battles drug dealers, follows the pattern of the first movie but in reverse.
Crystal Voyager documentary – 1973
George Greenough, who helped revolutionise surfboard design in the 1960s, is inspired by the shape of marlin and other fish.
D
Dad and Dave Come to Town feature film – 1938
The question this fish-out-of-water comedy is really asking is whether Australians have the confidence to be modern in the context of the wider world of 1938.
Dad and Dave from Snake Gully – Episode 1 radio – 1937
The first episode of the long-running Dad and Dave radio show from 1937.
Dad Rudd, MP feature film – 1940
Dad Rudd, MP truly signals the end of an era, the last gasp of the cycle of rural comedies featuring yokels and livestock that went back 30 years in Australian cinema.
Dead Calm feature film – 1989
Nicole Kidman was 20 when she was cast in Dead Calm. Within a year of the film opening, she was in Hollywood – partly as a result of her performance in this film.
Dead Heart feature film – 1996
Bryan Brown plays a second generation Northern Territory cop caught up in a power struggle over whether black or white law is supreme.
Death in Brunswick feature film – 1990
An under-achieving Aussie cook falls for a young Greek waitress at a seedy Melbourne nightclub, but a dead body gets in their way.
Deck Dogz feature film – 2005
Three teenage friends cross Sydney by skateboard to reach the Beachbowl skater competition, chased by two drug dealers and the police.
The Devil’s Playground feature film – 1976
Both writer Thomas Keneally and director Fred Schepisi spent time in a Catholic seminary, the world explored in this drama.
Diggers feature film – 1931
Pat Hanna first told stories from his time in World War I as part of a travelling comedy troupe, then adapted the material into film.
Dingo feature film – 1991
Dingo is a French-Australian co-production starring an American jazz legend. According to director Rolf de Heer, Miles Davis turned out to be a wonderfully instinctive actor.
Dirty Deeds feature film – 2002
A photograph from the 1960s of a prominent Sydney criminal pig-shooting with two American mafiosi helped inspire this drama.
Dogwatch feature film – 1997
This film could almost pass as a 1940s Hollywood studio thriller starring Humphrey Bogart.
Doing Time for Patsy Cline feature film – 1997
In Doing Time for Patsy Cline, Ralph (Matt Day) believes at the start that he wants to be a country singer, but he’s not so sure by the end.
Don’s Party feature film – 1976
The off-stage bedroom scenes in the original play became on-screen sex in this film, and the male characters got naked not just drunk.
Dot and the Kangaroo feature film – 1977
A generation of Australian school children grew up on Dot and the Kangaroo and the six other Dot films that followed it. Really.
E
The Enemy Within feature film – 1918
Snowy Baker stars as a secret agent who smashes a ring of German spies in Sydney during the First World War.
Epsilon feature film – 1995
Rolf de Heer combines extraordinary time lapse photography with a drama that argues that the human race is killing the planet.
Erskineville Kings feature film – 1999
This was Hugh Jackman’s first film role, before he had established himself as a star of musical theatre, and he gives a fine performance in a difficult role.
Eureka Stockade feature film – 1949
In 1854, miners in the Ballarat goldfields take up arms against government troops in a defining moment of Australian history.
Everynight… Everynight feature film – 1994
A new prisoner refuses to submit to frequent bashings by prison officers in the notorious H Division of Pentridge prison in Melbourne.
Expedition South documentary – 1961
A film record of a year at Mawson, Australia’s largest Antarctic station.
The Exploits of the Emden feature film – 1928
A reconstruction of Ken G Hall’s composite film about the destruction of the German warship Emden in November 1914.
F
Fighting in Flanders documentary – 1917
Silent footage of Australian troops in the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), fighting near the Menin Road in Belgium, in September 1917.
The Final Winter feature film – 2007
Matt Nable drew on his rugby league career to write the script but it was his natural skill as an actor that scored him a Hollywood gig.
The FJ Holden feature film – 1977
When The FJ Holden premiered at the Chullora Drive-in in 1977, anyone driving an FJ or FX Holden got in free.
Floating Life feature film – 1996
Being a new migrant is portrayed with amazing freshness, perhaps because the film’s key creators had not been in Australia for long.
Footy Legends feature film – 2006
Anh Do, best known as a stand-up comedian, gives a heartbreakingly real performance as a man of limited education trying to keep his family together, and get back into the economic mainstream.
For the Honour of Australia feature film – 1916
War melodrama about two brothers in 1915: one joins the navy, the other discovers a German spy ring in Australia and is saved after the Sydney batters the Emden.
For the Term of His Natural Life feature film – 1927
The use of locations, particularly Port Arthur, is probably the film’s strongest asset, lending both veracity and visual impact. The other real strength of the film is its confident use of special effects.
Forty Thousand Horsemen feature film – 1940
Chauvel introduced a very young and fresh-faced Chips Rafferty, who modelled his performance in part on the comical digger created by Pat Hanna in Diggers (1931).
G
Gallipoli feature film – 1981
Gallipoli remains one of the most loved of all Australian films. It’s one of Weir’s most nakedly emotional films and one of his most poetic.
The Getting of Wisdom feature film – 1978
The affair between two school girls was only hinted at in Henry Handel Richardson’s 1910 novel, but lesbian overtones are obvious in the film.
Gettin’ Square feature film – 2003
David Wenham’s performance as a hopeless junkie, especially when he bamboozles everyone in court, is a comic tour-de-force.
Give a Little Credit to your Dad; Lonesome for You, Mother Dear music – 1939
Two songs by then unknown country singer Buddy Williams, recorded in 1939.
The Goddess of 1967 feature film – 2000
The Goddess of 1967 is a love story that’s made more powerful by its ambiguity and its lack of conventional storytelling.
Going Down feature film – 1983
Four women friends leave behind the feral days of youth after a night of uncontrolled excess in inner-city Sydney during the early 1980s.
Gone feature film – 2007
The not uncommon notion of this film is that the isolation felt in the outback can be fatal, especially for the young and seemingly innocent.
Gone to the Dogs feature film – 1939
The second comedy that George Wallace made with Cinesound features a musical interlude with dogs, children, dancing girls and backing singers on bicycles!
Goodbye Paradise feature film – 1981
This evocative picture of the Gold Coast as paradise lost includes a gaudy, sleazy fun park, tawdry politics and busloads of old ladies singing.
Grandad Rudd feature film – 1935
Some of the comical sketches are old-fashioned while others are beautifully designed to get audiences laughing during the Depression.
Grievous Bodily Harm feature film – 1988
Movie critic David Stratton described Grievous Bodily Harm as 'one of the most satisfying thrillers made in Australia’.
H
Happy Feet feature film – 2006
Filmmakers spent two months in Antarctica photographing landscapes and fauna to make this animated film look photoreal.
The Hard Word feature film – 2002
The Hard Word is both a comical crime fable and a story of brotherly love, an unusual mix of elements.
Harmony Row feature film – 1933
George Wallace’s talent for physical comedy is fully evident in the boxing match which serves as the film’s climax.
