But what there hasn’t been a lot of in the 100 is Australian films. Only six to be precise.
In that way I’m not really very different to the Australian movie viewing public who tend to go for easily consumed Hollywood blockbusters or comfortable topics with favourite actors. And that’s a shame and that’s not right. Strangerland is a good example of why that’s the case.
At its best Australian cinema tells intricate and thoughtful stories. Australian actors can be highly skillful and have gone overseas with great success, accompanied by a flood of Aussie directors, cinematographers and other crew.
Strangerland brings Nicole Kidman and Hugo Weaving home and also brings out the best in them as actors. While Kidman has a tendency to overact (it’s just her style and it works for her), Weaving is understated, comfortable and brilliant. Strangerland covers universal themes of loss and explores how different people react to crises. It does this in a very familiar typical Australian town in a very harsh Australian bush landscape that adds to the toughness of the film’s subjects.
That Strangerland was so well received by the Sydney Film Festival audience should come as no surprise, they’re not exactly your typical film going audience. But for its general release, if it gets one or even if it goes straight to DVD/cable/streaming etc, Strangerland will struggle to find an audience. It’s the same for documentaries and foreign language films and for the same reasons. I haven’t seen many of them either out of the 100 to date. But that’s a potential topic for the next hundred films.
