The Man From Hong Kong (1975) (Brian Trenchard-Smith, Yu Wang).The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) (Peter Weir).The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972) (Bruce Beresford).I have selected 35 of the most significant films of the decade: Lowbrow Today, films from each category are still entertaining, or at least of interest for what they can tell us about Australian society in the 70s.
By the end of the decade, the film industry included successful films from all of these streams, constituting a somewhat well-rounded industry.
Success came at first to certain lowbrow films, and then to middle and highbrow films later on. Unlike other decades, I think it is useful to look at films under three broad categories: Lowbrow, Middlebrow and Highbrow. Taken as a whole, these directors created a body of films that re-established the film industry in Australia. The success of the early lowbrow films of Tim Burstall and Bruce Beresford provided the impetus for the new industry to grow, and a number of other young directors branched out to create more tasteful and even artistic films, which also proved popular. The new film directors of the early 70s took advantage of the relaxed censorship to make a series of lowbrow films that managed to shock, amuse and thrill local audiences. The decade also saw a lifting of censorship, meaning that films were permitted to depict nudity, sex, bad language and bad behaviour to a much greater extent, in line with greater permissiveness in society at the time. The film industry was revived by a group of determined young film-makers, aided in the beginning by government funding and a pent-up desire of Australians to see films about themselves. The 1970s was the decade that the Australian film industry revived after many years of moribund production. By contrast, the decade of the 1970s saw nearly 150 Australian-produced films released, and many of them were commercial and/or critical hits. In the decade of the 1960s, only eight locally produced Australian films were released, and none were very successful. 40s films – 50s films – 60s films – 80s films – 90s films – 2000s films – 2010 FILMS
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