As it turns out, I saw two Aussie films today, representing the present and past of their cinema.
"Three Blind Mice" is a new film about three Australian sailors on their last night before shipping out to Iraq. It's a smart, low-budget, indie effort with very strong performances by the entire cast. It doesn't look like they have distribution yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they get it by the end of the week.
By way of contrast, "Not Quite Hollywood" is a history of Australian genre films, mostly from the 70s and 80s. There are about 100 clips of the best and trashiest films that the Aussies produced during this time, with interviews with many of the folks who put them together. Quentin Tarantino plays a huge role in the doc as a cheerleader for these flicks.
An argument presented during the film is that these films helped to create an industry that is exemplified in most people's minds by films such as "Picnic at Hanging Rock", "Breaker Morant" and others. It's not an unreasonable argument, certainly so from the perspective of building technically competent crews.
Interestingly enough, the Australian film industry evolved in a way that is similar to ours. They had periods of questionable tax credit policies on the part of the government as well as a period when C-list American actors were imported to boost the box office potential of films. 'Course, we don't have equivalents to "The Howling III: The Marsupials" or "Razorback".
This is a film probably best appreciated on DVD, with copies of the companion book or the web site (http://www.notquitehollywood.com.au) close at hand.
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