Metro Australia — January 2018

110 •Metro Magazine 195 | © ATOM

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/HBSTQD 2GNV ,@M’s affection for the nascent days of the movies.

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contexts, seeing it as

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2GNV ,@Mreceived a decidedly staggered and uneven international

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can be traced across occasional reviews of

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in late 1980, in Britain’s,NMSGKX %HKL !TKKDSHM

in early 1982 and as a result of its screening

on BBC TV in 1979.It was also sold to a

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countries.^14 Taylor himself was more critical of

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would have been better served by employing

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marketing and sales.7D\ORU FHUWDLQO\ FRQVLGHUHG WKH ĺOP D PRUH

commercial and internationally competitive work than even a cursory

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Australian release in 1977. Although"@CCHDis still commonly

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2GNV ,@Mis routinely seen as an affectionate, episodic, leisure

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alised aspect and practice of cultural history. This rarely revived

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anecdotal screenplay, as well as its comfortable place within the

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ema history would have garnered more attention and sympathy,

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But the decision to focus on the arcane and marginally allegorical

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art movies such as the remarkable8@BJDSX 8@BJ'DYH -RQHV

1974) and the more conventional-DVREQNMS,'TMS MFDKR(Alec

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relegate, if unfairly,3GD /HBSTQD 2GNV ,@Mto the realm of bucolic

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cant involvement of one of the key Australian female screenwriters

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to be produced by a woman in the early stages of the Australian

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precursor to,X !QHKKH@MS "@QDDQ(1979), a major breakthrough at

the end of the decade that was produced (Margaret Fink), directed

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advocate for the greater involvement of women in the Australian

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as writing several articles on the history of women’s involvement

in Australian cinema and the parlous state of the contemporary

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centred on female experience and follow

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her characters’ quotidian existences. Of

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of an exception here – even if it does give

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acters – because of its sporadic structure

and the way it tunes into the unspectacular

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focus is characteristic of the episodic forms

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as the subsequent/TADQSX !KTDR(Bruce

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cant and formative moments in time, narrating a growing sense of

personal awareness while noting the relationship of the individual

subject to broader cultural and historical trends.

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the place of women in Australian cinema within a historical con

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the two key documentaries she wrote and, in the latter case,

also directed for the Australian Commonwealth Film Unit (CFU):

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Anderson, 1968) and3GD /@RRHNM@SD (MCTRSQX^24 These

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number of women working in such roles at the time for the CFU,

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concentrate, in turn, on the relatively ‘open’ and genuinely pioneer

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Australia (3GD /HBSTQDR 3G@S ,NUDC) and the subsequent consoli

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production that became symptomatic of the stuttering Australian

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The film has largely receded

from critical attention since

its Australian release in 1977

...The Picture Show Manis

routinely seen as an affectionate,

episodic, leisurely and relatively

ineffectual period piece dealing

withamarginalisedaspectand

practice of cultural histor y.