Welcome to issue 72 of our journal the editors October 2014 Editorial This issue is dedicated to one of the true legends of Australian screen culture, John Flaus, who turned 80 in April this year. The extensive “tribute” dossier that dominates this edition of Senses of Cinema mar...
Stray Images, Inside-Outside: On Tsai Ming Liang’s Stray Dogs Yvette Biro October 2014 Feature Articles Tsai Ming Liang’s lastest film, Jiao you (Stray Dogs), winner of the Venice Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize (2013),was made after a long period of si...
Pump and Dump: The Wolf of Wall Street Marko Bauer October 2014 Feature Articles The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013) is a repulsive affair. A hybrid of Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987) and American Pie (Chris and Paul W...
Alain Robbe-Grillet:Teasing the Real Tony McKibbin October 2014 Feature Articles In the DVD extras to the new BFI Alain Robbe-Grillet box set, the interviewer Frédéric Taddeï asks the novelist and filmmaker what it felt like filmin...
Alain Robbe-Grillet and the Nouveau Roman: An Interview Rolando Caputo October 2014 Feature Articles In 1986 Alain Robbe-Grillet, accompanied by his wife Catherine, visited Australia as guest of the cultural institute Alliance Francaise to give a seri...
The Free Mind of a Man in Captivity: 12 Years A Slave, Book and Film Daniel Garrett October 2014 Feature Articles There were the highest expectations for the film 12 Years a Slave (2013), the motion picture about the enslavement of Africans in America by the black...
Cinema, Race and the Zeitgeist: On Pulp Fiction Twenty Years Later Michael Green October 2014 Feature Articles Prologue For many in Generation X, there is the time before Pulp Fiction (1994) and there is the time after Pulp Fiction. The shift in consciousness ...
Back Street (John M Stahl, 1932) John Flaus May 2002 Feature Articles, John Flaus Dossier Precise and measured discussion of Stahl's overlooked gem.
Everywhere, But Not Yet Nowhere: The 63rd Melbourne International Film Festival Laurence Barber October 2014 Festival Reports It’s only natural for the film festival to get philosophical. This is not to accuse the long-running Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) of d...
Politics, Hipness and Aspiration: The 21st Sheffield Doc/Fest Comes of Age Lydia Papadimitriou October 2014 Festival Reports Take two world premieres I happened to watch one after the other: The Last Man on the Moon (d. Mark Craig) and We are Many (d. Amir Amirani). The firs...
Leaders in African Film Today: the 17th Festival du cinéma africain de Khouribga Sally Shafto October 2014 Festival Reports Nowadays there are no more traditional storytellers. I think that a filmmaker can replace them. To be properly heard, a storyteller needs to know how ...
Beyond the Frame: The 61st Sydney Film Festival Stefan Solomon October 2014 Festival Reports Towards the end of Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery, a carpenter working in the eponymous London institution hesitantly holds forth on the ins and...
International Tourism: The 25th FID-Marseille Festival Philip Cartelli October 2014 Festival Reports For the past twenty years, Marseille has been home to the largest urban development project in Europe, a redesign of the city’s aging and increasingly...
The Festival Where First Feature Directors Reigned: the 38th Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival Stuart Richards October 2014 Festival Reports Audiences attending the Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival earlier this year for San Francisco Pride month were, as always, voca...
In and Out of the Mood: The 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Cerise Howard October 2014 Festival Reports This July just past I attended my second Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, my second in succession, as a member of a five critic-strong FIPRES...
Political Ghosts and Roiling Generations: The 67th Locarno Film Festival Jaimey Fisher October 2014 Festival Reports In the fierce arena fight of film festivals, Locarno might have gone one battle too far this year when it invited Roman Polanski for a lifetime achiev...
Wellman, Wajda and Restored Italian Divas: The 28th Cinema Ritrovato Festival Peter Hourigan September 2014 Festival Reports “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” (1) Bologna’s Cinema Ritrovato festival invites us to explore the past. But it rev...
Fuller, Samuel Jeremy Carr October 2014 Great Directors b. Samuel Michael Fuller, August 12, 1912, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA d. October 30, 1997, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA "It is not nec...
Marking Time, Duration as Subject: Tony Woods: Archive by Andrew Gaynor (ed.) Dirk de Bruyn October 2014 Book Reviews I like boring things. When you sit and look out of a window, that’s enjoyable. It takes up time. Yeah. Really, you see people looking out of their win...
Portrait of an Eternal Outsider: The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov by James Steffen Giuliano Vivaldi September 2014 Book Reviews In light of the reputation of Parajanov as one of the giants of late Soviet cinema, and the canonical status of at least two of his most well-known wo...
Evaluating Ecocinema: Green Documentary: Environmental Documentary in the Twenty-First Century, by Helen Hughes Ila Tyagi September 2014 Book Reviews In this clearly written and structured work, Helen Hughes offers us the first book-length survey of the eco-conscious documentaries that crammed theat...
Towards a Single Cinephilia: On An Invention Without a Future: Essays on Cinema by James Naremore Nafis Shafizadeh September 2014 Book Reviews I’m a sucker for a good epigraph. A good epigraph can put the reader in the right state of mind for what follows, creating in her consciousness what f...
Innocence Lost: Darkness in the Bliss-Out: A Reconsideration of the Films of Steven Spielberg, by James Kendrick Adrian Schober September 2014 Book Reviews In his 1987 book-length study, UK film writer and academic Neil Sinyard attempted to sum up the essential qualities of Steven Spielberg’s films that m...
Cinematic Spectatorship by way of Architecture: Gabriele Pedullà, In Broad Daylight: Movies and Spectators After the Cinema Swagato Chakravorty September 2014 Book Reviews Clocking in at barely 171 pages and change (including front and back matter), Gabriele Pedullà’s In Broad Daylight: Movies and Spectators After the Ci...
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia Wheeler Winston Dixon October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film “For me, Hollywood no longer exists. It’s past history. I’ve decided to stay in Mexico because I believe I can make my pictures with greater freedom f...
Ride the High Country: The Once and Future Sam Tony Williams October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film Popularly viewed as Peckinpah’s first accomplished film following the compromised The Deadly Companions (1961), Ride the High Country (1962) has been ...
Major Dundee Dana Polan October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film Famously, and infamously, the majority of the films of Sam Peckinpah were made – and unmade – in the editing room. For instance, as two UK film schola...
The Ballad of Cable Hogue Martyn Bamber October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film Sam Peckinpah has a popular reputation as a macho movie director obsessed with portraying graphic scenes of violence and pursuing a relentlessly misog...
L’Heure d’été Sam Ishii-Gonzales October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film “I don’t know whether Summer Hours is a summing up of everything that preceded it, but it does recapitulate a lot of things at a moment when I felt th...
Après mai Darragh O’Donoghue October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film A teenager sits in class, barely listening to a lecture on classic French literature. The student begins the film actively political, taking part in d...
Paris, Texas Lee Hill October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film Paris, Texas (1984) is a story about the prodigal son and his uneasy homecoming. It is also, among other things, a road movie, a modern Western, a nea...
Pina Carlota Larrea October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film Like his compatriot and contemporary Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders has alternated fiction with documentary filmmaking across his long career. Besides the...
The End is a Transition: Wim Wenders’ Alice in den Städten David Heslin October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film “I had a funny dream: I turned on the TV set, and sat down in a chair. I tied myself to it. Then, suddenly, a scary movie came on. I couldn’t get away...
Buena Vista Social Club Inge Fossen October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film Among European filmmakers of the highest order, only Federico Fellini has had an identification with travel and the road as metaphors for life remotel...
À nous la liberté John Flaus November 2000 CTEQ Annotations on Film, John Flaus Dossier À Nous la Liberté (1931 France 95mins) Source: CAC Prod Co: Tobis Dir, Scr, Ed: René Clair Phot: Georges Périnal Art Dir: Lazare Meerson Mus: Georg...
Stromboli John Flaus July 2000 CTEQ Annotations on Film, John Flaus Dossier Stromboli (1949 Italy 81 mins) Source: NLA/CAC Prod Co: Berit Film for RKO Prod: Roberto Rossellini, Ingrid Bergman Dir: Rossellini Scr: Rossellini...
Parenthood by Arrangement: The Lady is Willing John Flaus June 2000 CTEQ Annotations on Film, John Flaus Dossier A discussion of Mitchell Leisen's The Lady is Willing.
A Tale of Sound and Fury: Manpower John Flaus June 2000 CTEQ Annotations on Film, John Flaus Dossier An intriguing discussion of Raoul Walsh's Manpower.
Pete Kelly’s Blues John Flaus May 2000 CTEQ Annotations on Film, John Flaus Dossier Pete Kelly's Blues (1955 USA 95 mins) Source: ScreenSound Australia/Warner Bros. Prod Co: Warner Bros. Prod, Dir: Jack Webb Scr: Richard Breen Pho...
Budd Boetticher John Flaus September 2001 Revisiting Budd Boetticher An overview of the Western myth and the art of Boetticher.
“Keep the coffee hot, Hugo”: A Celebration for John Flaus (1) Adrian Danks October 2014 John Flaus Dossier This special tribute dossier is devoted to one of the true legends of Australian screen culture, the inimitable and mercurial John Flaus. It marks a l...
Bubbles in a Coffee Cup: The Film Criticism of John Flaus Bruce Hodsdon October 2014 John Flaus Dossier STANDARD GRAMMAR: CUT ON EYELINE Two glances meet – he looks down, to see Worlds emerging in a coffee cup. See: Deux ou trois choses que je sai...
The John Flaus I Know Patricia Edgar October 2014 John Flaus Dossier This is a story about a 40-year friendship. One I have always valued greatly. Others will write about John Flaus’ significant contribution to film and...
For John Flaus David Stratton October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Image: Flaus as the priest in Newsfront (Phillip Noyce, 1978) I met John Flaus on 5 October 1963. I had been in Australia for only a little more than...
Flausy Chris Fitchett October 2014 John Flaus Dossier John Flaus was a mentor and inspiration for a number of Swinburne Film School students in the ’70s, many of whom went on to have successful careers in...
John Flaus Through the Pages of FilmNews Tina Kaufman October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Back in the early ’60s I often went to the screenings at Sydney University’s Union Theatre, where the Sydney University Film Group programmed an inter...
Dr Flaustus (Who Didn’t Have to Sell his Soul) Richard Brennan October 2014 John Flaus Dossier I met John some time in 1960. He was a cinephile and an anarchist who had some sort of job on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I was a first year Arts stude...
Reminiscences of John Flaus Paul Winkler October 2014 John Flaus Dossier My first contact with John would be around 1962-63. I had joined the Workers’ Educational Association Film Study Group in Sydney. Not knowing much ...
Down Nightmare Alley With John Flaus John Baxter October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Encounters with numerous remarkable men in a lifetime spent in and around the cinema have not effaced the vision of John Flaus’ bare feet planted in t...
John Flaus – Critic of Fortune Michael Thornhill October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Image: Buchanan Rides Alone (Budd Boetticher, 1958) The following short piece should be read as an unreliable memoir. John Flaus (hereinafter referre...
Happy Birthday, John Bryan Brown October 2014 John Flaus Dossier How fondly I remember those early days of excitement making movies. Gunslingers we felt like. Your house in Newtown with cardboard boxes filled wit...
Words for John Flaus Sylvia Lawson October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Back in the ’60s and early ’70s, our serious film-viewing landscape was the main campus cinema, Sydney University’s Union Theatre, later the Footbridg...
On John Flaus: Marines, Let’s Go Tom Ryan October 2014 John Flaus Dossier I’ve known John Flaus for more than 40 years. Remarkably, he still looks almost exactly as he did when we first crossed paths at La Trobe University i...
John Flaus: A Tribute Neil McDonald October 2014 John Flaus Dossier In the early 1970s when academic film study was beginning, most of us would wait for what John Flaus was going to come up with next. Those of us profe...
John Flaus, a Man with Qualities Lorraine Mortimer October 2014 John Flaus Dossier John Flaus Sydney Like anarchist and writer, Ursula Le Guin, and wily old pragmatist, Bertolt Brecht, we can rightly decry our need for heroes. I l...
A Touch of Flaus: Encounters and Impressions Jake Wilson October 2014 John Flaus Dossier When I think of John Flaus, my mind goes back to an evening ten or 15 years ago, when Fitzroy’s Erwin Rado Theatre hosted a rare revival of Salt of th...
A Face Out of Rembrandt Barry Jones October 2014 John Flaus Dossier (Image: Flaus and Bruce Kerr in Waiting for Godot (La Mama Theatre, 2011)) The face is out of Rembrandt. In one of his YouTube clips my image appe...
Hearing From John Flaus David Donaldson October 2014 John Flaus Dossier An early influence In 1952, I had somehow scored a job as a research assistant in economic history at the NSW Institute of Technology, soon to become...
John Flaus: Australian Screen Maverick Lisa French October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Anarchy John Flaus became active in the film society movement in 1953 and in the following year he published in Voice: The Australian Independent Mon...
Images of Flaus Dave Jones October 2014 John Flaus Dossier John Flaus joined the La Trobe faculty in 1972, the second year of my three-year stint there. Thus he was a working colleague of mine for just two yea...
Flaus Phillip Adams October 2014 John Flaus Dossier John Flaus looks like an animated Bert Tucker painting. The voice? It recalls the vocalising of a mallee root if, of course, a mallee root could speak...
By Crikey! John Ruane October 2014 John Flaus Dossier I first saw John Flaus when I was at La Trobe University majoring in Latin American History. I thought he looked like he had just auditioned for Bad S...
A Tribute to John Flaus Nigel Buesst October 2014 John Flaus Dossier John Flaus Ah, the memories. I think back to first hearing of John in the early ’60s. He was a leading light in the Push, a vaguely lefty group of...
Flausography: Articles, Essays and Poems on Film by John Flaus Adrian Danks and Bruce Hodsdon October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Complied by Adrian Danks and Bruce Hodsdon This bibliography is an incomplete listing of John’s publications on film in print (mostly) over the last ...
Night People and The Wild One John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier These two articles were originally published in consecutive issues of Voice: The Australian Independent Monthly, vol. 3, no. 11 and 12, August and Sep...
The Western Myth John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in Sydney University Film Group Bulletin vol. 4, no. 3, Second Term 1966, pp. 61-63. Republished with the permission of the autho...
More Than Skin Deep: La Peau douce John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in Film Digest no. 28, December 1967, pp. 11-22. Republished with the permission of the author. “All art is life; some life is a...
The World of Satyajit Ray John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in Masque vol. 1, no. 5, May-June 1968, pp. 14-17. This article appeared within a special film issue of this relatively short-liv...
The Killers John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in Sydney University Film Group Bulletin no. 50, First Term 1970, pp. 6-7. Republished with the permission of the author. Audien...
Melville: Le Samouraï John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in Cinema Papers no. 1, January 1974, pp. 56-7. Republished with the permission of the author. “There is no greater solitude tha...
Josef von Sternberg: Morocco and Blonde Venus John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in Film Buffs’ Forecast: A Guide to One-off Screenings in Melbourne, Buff Publications, Melbourne, May 1981. This fanzine-style n...
There’s Always Tomorrow John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in Annotations on Film, ed. Michael Koller, Melbourne Cinémathèque, Melbourne, 1990, p. 53. Republished with the permission of th...
Miller’s Crossing – A Film Neither Structured nor Constrained by Fashion John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in Filmnews vol. 21, no. 3, April 1991, pp. 8-9. It appears here with minor corrections. Republished with the permission of the a...
In the Mind’s Eye John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier These articles were originally published in Paul Winkler: Films 1964-94 , Museum of Contemporary Art and Paul Winkler, Sydney, 1995, pp. 9-11 and 24. ...
The Big Heat John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in CTEQ: Annotations on Film no. 2, 1996, pp. 7-9. It appears here with minor corrections. Republished with the permission of the...
Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in CTEQ Annotations on Film no. 4, 1996, pp. 6-7. It appears here with minor corrections. Republished with the permission of the ...
Two-Lane Blacktop John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in CTEQ: Annotations on Film included in Metro no. 109, 1997, pp. 47-8. Republished with the permission of the author. Two lacon...
Diary of a Country Priest John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Originally published in CTEQ: Annotations on Film included in Metro no. 110, 1997, pp. 75-76. Republished with the permission of the author. “O wondr...
Parallacts: Motley Saws and Modest Conceits John Flaus October 2014 John Flaus Dossier Most of these couplets originally appeared in the book Parallacts: Motley Saws and Modest Conceits, published by Mark Time Books in 2012. Parallacts i...
Memoir of Albie John Flaus March 2013 Albie Thoms Dossier, John Flaus Dossier “Another sacred fire has gone out…” That’s the opening line of the poem I recited at the wake for Shelton Lea in 2005. Now I want to say it again for ...
Back Street (John M Stahl, 1932) John Flaus May 2002 Feature Articles, John Flaus Dossier Precise and measured discussion of Stahl's overlooked gem.
From Stage to Screen: Silent Partner John Flaus September 2001 Contemporary Australian Film, John Flaus Dossier A precise and insightful analysis of the differences between stage and screen in relation to this film.
An Impressionist Work: Mullet John Flaus June 2001 Essays/on/Films, John Flaus Dossier As this is a critique and not a review I won't offer a synopsis, on the assumption that readers have seen the film. Mullet (David Caesar, 2001) is ...
À nous la liberté John Flaus November 2000 CTEQ Annotations on Film, John Flaus Dossier À Nous la Liberté (1931 France 95mins) Source: CAC Prod Co: Tobis Dir, Scr, Ed: René Clair Phot: Georges Périnal Art Dir: Lazare Meerson Mus: Georg...
Stromboli John Flaus July 2000 CTEQ Annotations on Film, John Flaus Dossier Stromboli (1949 Italy 81 mins) Source: NLA/CAC Prod Co: Berit Film for RKO Prod: Roberto Rossellini, Ingrid Bergman Dir: Rossellini Scr: Rossellini...
Parenthood by Arrangement: The Lady is Willing John Flaus June 2000 CTEQ Annotations on Film, John Flaus Dossier A discussion of Mitchell Leisen's The Lady is Willing.
A Tale of Sound and Fury: Manpower John Flaus June 2000 CTEQ Annotations on Film, John Flaus Dossier An intriguing discussion of Raoul Walsh's Manpower.
Pete Kelly’s Blues John Flaus May 2000 CTEQ Annotations on Film, John Flaus Dossier Pete Kelly's Blues (1955 USA 95 mins) Source: ScreenSound Australia/Warner Bros. Prod Co: Warner Bros. Prod, Dir: Jack Webb Scr: Richard Breen Pho...
From Stage to Screen: Silent Partner John Flaus September 2001 Contemporary Australian Film, John Flaus Dossier A precise and insightful analysis of the differences between stage and screen in relation to this film.
Memoir of Albie John Flaus March 2013 Albie Thoms Dossier, John Flaus Dossier “Another sacred fire has gone out…” That’s the opening line of the poem I recited at the wake for Shelton Lea in 2005. Now I want to say it again for ...
An Impressionist Work: Mullet John Flaus June 2001 Essays/on/Films, John Flaus Dossier As this is a critique and not a review I won't offer a synopsis, on the assumption that readers have seen the film. Mullet (David Caesar, 2001) is ...
