The real Australia, "only sometimes" captured by local films
A survey commissioned by The Australia Day Council of NSW’s has revealed that 58 percent of Australians believe that local films “only sometimes accurately represent who we are” and capture “the real Australia”.
In this context, participants named The Castle (37 percent) and its lead character Darryl Kerrigan (23 percent) the best big screen representations of who we are as a nation.
Mick “Crocodile” Dundee followed closely, with 21 percent, and the protagonist of Muriel’s Wedding reached the third spot with 17 percent.
The results of the survey were presented in Sydney by actor Gyton Grantley, director Ray Lawrence and swimmer Elka Whalan.
According to the survey’s participants, Cate Blanchett (41 percent) and Hugh Jackman (54 percent) are the country’s favourite leads.
The survey also asked which politician people would most like to co-star with – a category won by Bob Hawke (37 percent), followed by John Howard.
“The fact that we are proud of our suburban culture shows self-confidence. We are hardly putting our best foot forward with Darryl Kerrigan but we don’t care. Australia is saying, via Darryl, this is who we are and we’re proud of it,” said social commentator Bernard Salt.
The event was also the launch of the Reel Australia competition. Supported by the Australian Film Institute, it asks people to capture “what the real Australia means to them” in a two-minute film. The prize is $5,000 and attendance to the AFI Awards 2011.
Entries are open until December 3. To enter, visitwww.AUSSIEVAULT.com.au
Of recent films, I thought The Tree did a great job of portraying “the real Australia”, although the director is actually French. She is obviously a great director, but often it takes the eyes of an outsider to see a “real Australia”, and portray it back to us on screen. Sometimes it seems to me like us Australians either get carried away with trying to create the myth (Australia, Crocodile Dundee) or destroy it (so many great but exhaustively bleak and violent films of recent years). Watching The Tree, I saw the Australia I grew up in for the first time; icypoles, riding bikes to school, watering restrictions, beach holidays in a caravan, wildlife that can be annoying as well as cute. Even a few crustaceans on the barbie didn’t irk me…I had seen it all before – in my own life, no less.
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Good Australian films are few and far between .The film that best illustrates Australia is Wake In Fright which was made in the early 1970s.Bryan Brown is probably the standard template for a typical australian male on screen.Jackie Weaver is more authentic than Cate Blanchett in my eyes.Hugh Jackman doesnt represent Australia to me at all,but this is all subjective,most aussies wouldnt have a clue as this survey shows.
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