106 • Metro Magazine 195 | © ATOM
AS ADRIAN DANKS’ INSIGHT-
FUL AND THOROUGHLY RE-
SEARCHED ESSAY SAYS OF
3'$/("341$2'.6, -:
?3'$Ű%(+,Ű' 2+ 1&$+81$-
CEDED FROM CRITICAL ATTEN-
TION SINCE ITS AUSTRALIAN
RELEASE IN 1977.’ IT IS CLEAR
FROM HIS STUDY THAT IT IS
OVERDUE FOR REAPPRAISAL,
ON GROUNDS BOTH TEXTUAL
AND CONTEXTUAL. AS DANKS
POINTS OUT, THE FILM OFFERS
A PERCEPTIVE AND SYMPA-
THETIC ACCOUNT OF THE
EARLY DAYS OF CINEMATIC
EXHIBITION IN AUSTRALIA,
AND HE ALSO DRAWS ATTEN-
TION TO THE ROLE OF WOMEN
FILMMAKERS IN THE RENAS-
CENT NATIONAL CINEMA OF
THE 1970S. AS ONE WHO UN-
DERVALUED THE FILM AT THE
TIME OF ITS RELEASE, I FEEL
PROPERLY CHASTENED WHEN
I NOW REFLECT NOT ONLY ON
SO MANY ASPECTS OF ITS AF-
FECTIONATE REIMAGINING OF
TIMES PAST, BUT ALSO ON ITS
PLACE AMONG THE LARGER
CONTEXTS THAT THIS ESSAY
EVOKES SO TELLINGLY.Brian McFarlane,
Series Editor