Author Jonathan Dawson

By 1950 television as the prevailing mass medium had come to stay in American cultural and social life, as well as colonising the Yankee imagination and the movie business overall. Even the once indestructible ...

“We know that under the image revealed there is another which is truer to reality and under this image still another and yet again still another under this last one, right down to the true image of that reality...

The director of Look Both Ways and My Year Without Sex passed away earlier this year. Jonathan Dawson pays homage to a distinctive talent.

“You don’t know what fear is. But you’ll see. It’s catching. It’s catching like smallpox. And once you get it, it’s for life.” - Dick in Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) The Wages of Fear is a 19...

Alain Resnais was a contemporary of the nouvelle vague, that group of largely Cahiers du Cinéma­­ aligned critics-turned-filmmakers that most famously included Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Resnais, on...

Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne): “What do you want from me? I’m just a word processor!” Street Pickup (Robert Plunket): “Why don’t you just go home?” Paul Hackett: “Pal, I’ve been asking myself that all night....

The Back of Beyond (1954 Australia 66 mins) Prod Co: Shell Film Unit Prod, Dir, Ed: John Heyer Scr: John Heyer, Janet Heyer, Roland Robinson Voiceover Scr: Douglas Stewart, John Heyer Phot: Ross Wood Mus...

La Sirène du Mississippi/Mississippi Mermaid (1969 France 123 mins) Prod Co: Les Films du Carrosse/Les Productions Artistes Associés/Lopert Pictures Corporation/Produzzioni Associate Delphos Prod: Marcel...

I Vitelloni (1953 Italy 103 mins) Prod Co: Peg-Film, Roma/Cité Films Dir: Federico Fellini Scr: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano Phot: Otello Martell Ed: Rolando Benedetti Prod Des: Mario ...

Rouge/Red/Trois couleurs: rouge/Three Colours: Red (1994 Poland/France/Switzerland 99 mins) Prod Co: CAB Productions/Canal+/France 3 Cinéma/MK2 Productions/Télévision Suisse-Romande/Zespol Filmowy “Tor” ...

Went the Day Well? (1943 UK 92 mins) Prod Co: Ealing Studios Prod: Michael Balcon Dir: Alberto Cavalcanti Scr: John Dighton, Diana Morgan, Angus McPhail, based on Graham Greene’s short story “The Lieuten...

This annotation previously appeared in Senses of Cinema, no. 19, Mar–Apr 2002. Letter to Jane (1972 France 51mins) Source: ACMI/NLA Pro, Dir, Scr: Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin Voices: Jane Fonda...

British Sounds (1969 UK/France 54 mins) Source: NFVLS Prod Co: Kestrel Productions for LWT Prod: Irving Teitelbaum Dir, Scr: Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Henri Roger Phot: Charles Stewart Editor: Elizabeth Kozm...

After the dire predictions of a crisis in the Australian cinema, a flurry of recent releases has raised the profile of local films, not least of which being Watt's début feature.

Australian director Robert Connolly discusses his adaptation of Elliot Perlman's novel about the souring of the Australian dream in an age of economic rationalism.

Ten years after the events of May 1968, director Michael Rubbo travels to Paris in search of the revolutionary dream. It has soured, but there is still much to shout about.

Blowup (1966 UK 111 mins) Source: Chapel Films Prod Co: Bridge Films/MGM Prod: Carlo Ponti Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni Scr: Michelangelo Antonioni, Edward Bond, Tonino Guerra, from the short story Las Ba...

Trans-Europ Express (1966 France 105 mins) Source: ACMI Collections Prod Co: Como Film Production Prod: Samy Halfon Dir, Scr: Alain Robbe-Grillet Phot: Willy Kurant Ed: Bob Wade Mus: Michel Fano Cast:...

Denis Arkadievitch Kaufman b. January 2, 1896, Bialystok, Poland d. February 12, 1954, Moscow, Russia filmography bibliography web resources Our eyes see very little and very badly – so people dream...

(Stuttgart/London: Edition Axel Menges, 2000) “It is my ultimate goal to establish the German film as the dominant cultural world power.” - Joseph Goebbels in 1941 The Axel Menges' Architecture Art and Desig...

Letter to Jane (1972 France 51mins) Source: ACMI/NLA Pro, Dir, Scr: Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin Voices: Jane Fonda, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin Letter to Jane is, in one sense, a very lo...

À Bout de souffle (1960 France 90mins) 35mm Source: NewVision Prod Co: Georges de Beauregard, Société Nouvelle de Cinéma Prod: Georges de Beauregard Dir, Scr: Jean-Luc Godard from story by François Truff...

Luis Buñuel's movies, beginning of course with Un Chien Andalou (1928), that ur-surrealist film for all seasons, defy category, logic, good taste and 'common' sense. They are, quite simply, unique. It's amazing...

The new BFI series has quickly established itself as one of the more sensible ways into Screen Studies after the florid excesses of post-structuralism and its fallout in unreadable doctoral dissertations. Ba...

Perhaps the first Australian film to deal in stock market crashes and corporate misbehaviour: Dawson regards it as fine and fascinating.

The Beat Manifesto (1994 Australia 18mins) Prod: AFTRS Dir: Daniel Nettheim Cast: Joel McIlroy, Ralph Cotterill, Melanie de Ferranti, Alex Norcos, StevenVidler, Peter Carmody. The annual Yuletide f...

When Baz Luhrmann's latest Red Curtain movie opened the Official Selection at Cannes last month, the critics had already made up their minds. As far as most were concerned this was film as disco, or even Ka...