This month’s issue of Sight and Sound has just landed in my letterbox. The cover story is about ‘the cool 75 Hidden Gems … The Great Films Time Forgot’, an exercise in producing ‘one version of an anti-canon’. This set me thinking about a number of things, not least the skew in critics’ location, and the origins of films. There are no Australian films in the list. Are there any hidden Australian gems, ripe for rediscovery?
S and S editor Nick James writes:
We asked 75 critics from across the world each to nominate one film they thought was unduly obscure and worthy of greater eminence. …this is not another exercise in canon-forming [like the Top Ten Films critics' poll that S and S runs every decade]. The intention is precisely the opposite.
Fair enough, so far. The group of ‘critics across the world’ is indeed global although, like the nominated films, there is a distinct bias – over two thirds of the critics are based either in the UK (43) or US (13); over one third (26) of the nominated films are American, 5 are British.
Other critics come from Canada (3), France, Mexico, Thailand, Philippines (2 each), Greece, Israel, Austria, Denmark, Germany, India, Japan and Australia (Adrian Martin who writes for The Age newspaper in Melbourne).
The films (details below) also cover a lot of ground in terms of their ‘nationality’ (although a number were made by filmmakers working outside their country of origin): US (26), France (10), Japan, UK (5 each), India, Czechoslovakia (3 each), Germany, Mexico, Thailand (2 each), Israel, Argentina, Tunisia, Brazil, Peru, USSR, Hungary, Italy, Philippines, Cuba, Canada, South Korea, Cameroon, Iran, Italy/France, Spain and Greece.
In continental terms: North and Central America 30 including Cuba, Europe 27, Asia 13, South America 3, Africa 2.
The films, in alphabetical order, with links to relevant pages in Senses of Cinema:
The Actress (George Cukor, US, 1953)
Adieu Philippine (Jacques Rozier, France, 1962)
The Adventure of Hajji Baba (Don Weis, US, 1954)
Andaz (Mehboob Khan, India, 1949)
Avanti Popolo (Rafi Bukai, Israel, 1986)
Baksa Badal (Nityananda Dutta, India, 1965)
Bari Zogon (Watanabe Fumiki, Japan, 1996)
Blow Out (Brian De Palma, US, 1981)
Chaos (Coline Serreau, France, 2001)
Crazy Thunder Road (Ishii Sogo, Japan, 1980)
Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, Germany, 1970)
Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes (Walerian Borowczyk, France, 1981)
El (Luis Bunuel, Mexico, 1953)
Elle est des Notres (Siegrid Alnoy, France, 2003)
Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, US, 1948)
Funny Dirty Little War (Hector Olivera, Argentina, 1983)
The Girl from Carthage (Albert Samama Chikly, Tunisia, 1924)
The Gold Diggers (Sally Potter, UK, 1983)
Grace of My Heart (Allison Anders, US, 1996)
Grounded God (Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol aka Tan Mui, Thailand, 1975)
Hustle (Robert Aldrich, US, 1975)
The Insect Woman (Imamura Shohei, Japan, 1963)
Intimate Lighting (Ivan Passer, Czechoslovakia, 1965)
Iracema – Uma Transa Amazionica (Jorge Bodanzky and Orlando Senna, Brazil, 1976)
Khon Jorn (Attaporn Thihirun, Thailand, 1999)
Kukuli (Luis Figueroa, Eulogio Nishiyama and Cesar Villanueva, Peru, 1961)
The Last of the Mohicans (Maurice Tourneur and Clarence L Brown, US, 1920)
LBJ (Santiago Alvarez, Cuba, 1968)
Leolo (Jean-Claude Lauzon, Canada, 1992)
Leo the Last (John Boorman, UK, 1969)
The Mad Fox (Tomu Uchida, Japan, 1962)
The Magic Face (Frank Tuttle, US, 1951)
Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, US, 1937)
La Mancha de Sangre (Adolfo Best Maugard, Mexico, 1943)
Mandala (Im Kwon Taek, South Korea, 1981)
Marketa Lazarova (Frantisek Vlacil, Czechoslovakia, 1965)
Model Shop (Jacques Demy, US, 1969)
The Moises Padilla Story (Gerardo de Leon, US, 1961)
Monpti (Helmut Kaeutner, Germany, 1957)
Muna Motto (Jean-Pierre Dikongue-Pipa, Cameroon, 1975)
New Rose Hotel (Abel Ferrara, US, 1998)
The Night it Rained (Kamran Sheerdel, Iran, 1967)
Paris 1900 (Nicole Vedres, France, 1948)
Patti Rocks (David Burton Morris, US, 1987)
Peter Ibbetson (Henry Hathaway, US, 1935)
The Phynx (Lee H Katzin, US, 1970)
Le Plein de Super (Alain Cavalier, France, 1976)
Les Pont des Arts (Eugene Green, France, 2004)
The Pumpkin Eater (Jack Clayton, UK, 1964)
Queimada! (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy/France, 1968)
Raise Ravens (Carlos Saura, Spain, 1975)
The River Fuefuki (Kinoshita Keisuke, Japan, 1960)
Le Roi et l’Oiseau (Paul Grimault, France, 1980)
Le Roman de Renard (Ladislaw Starewicz, France, 1931)
The Ruling Class (Peter Medak, UK, 1971)
Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, US, 1971)
Silver Wind (Vaclav Krska, Czechoslovakia, 1954)
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (Steve Roberts, UK, 1980)
Still Looking for Morphine (Yannis Fagras, Greece, 2001)
Stir of Echoes (David Koepp, US, 1999)
Straight Talk (Barnet Kellman, US, 1992)
The Street with No Name (William Keighley, US, 1948)
Subarnarekha (Ritwik Ghatak, India, 1965)
Sunday (Jonathan Nossiter, US, 1997)
Superstar (Bruce McCulloch, US, 1999)
The Swimmer (Irakli Kvirkadze, USSR, 1982)
Szindbad (Zoltan Huszarik, Hungary, 1972)
Terminal Island (Stephanie Rothman, US, 1973)
Three Years Without God (Mario O’Hara, Philippines, 1977)
Track of the Cat (William A Wellman, US, 1954)
Trans-Europ-Express (Alain Robbe-Grillet, France, 1966)
Uncle Moses (Sidney M Goldin, US, 1932)
Wanda (Barbara Loden, US, 1970)
West and Soda (Bruno Bozzetto, Italy, 1965)
White Dog (Samuel Fuller, US, 1981)
{ 2 } Comments
hmmm…the mind boggles….of course the obligatory questions about what even constitutes an Australian film automatically disrupts any potential list…Then there\’s the fact that almost no-one has seen the majority of Australian films which means technically almost any Australian film is \’hidden\’ (but perhaps not a gem). I guess we could call anything that is actually listed in the AFC approved 100 Greatest Australian Movies book an obvious (rather than hidden) gem.
So forging right ahead … I\’ve always maintained Jim Sharman\’s The Night the Prowler is a forgotten classic – also Shirley Thompson vs The Aliens. Black River (1993). Wrong Side of the Road. Man from Hong Kong. Lovers and Luggers and/or Thoroughbred (Ken Hall). Norman Dawn\’s Two Lost Worlds (though I\’m not sure anyone would agree that an American giant lizard movie made in 1951 and set partially in Australia would qualify). Welcome to Woop Woop. Man from Kangaroo. Love and Other Catastrophes. John Dingwall\’s films The Custodian and Phobia. And one of my personal favourites – Funny Things Happen Downunder (Olivia Newton John\’s first big screen appearance).
That\’s a start anyway!
I\’d nominate Denny Lawrence\’s 1985 Emoh Ruo as a hidden gem – especially ripe for re-discovery since it seems to be on the verge of a DVD release. Ken Hannam\’s 1975 Sunday Too Far Away is another possibility – a film well-regarded in Australia, and, I think, available on DVD there, but very hard to see in most of the rest of the world and, as a consequence, pretty much forgotten.
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