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'Those who ignore the lessons of history are
doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past’.
This quotation, attributed to various people, probably
originated with Karl Marx. No matter who said it
first, the point is trenchant, and deserves consideration
by the present generation of Australian feature
producers, given the difficulties that currently
beset local feature production.
2005 is a significant milestone in the history of Australian cinema, marking the end of the first century of feature-filmmaking here and the 50th anniversary of the screening of Jedda at the Cannes Film Festival, the first recognition of an Australian feature by a major festival. Technically, Jedda is notable as the first Australian-initiated colour feature, while thematically it was the first fully Australian feature to treat seriously what white Australians referred to as the ‘Aboriginal problem’.
Although Ealing Studios’s Bitter Springs (1950) had provided an earlier examination of the dispossession of Indigenous Australians, Ealing was essentially an English production house, and its five ‘Australian’ films between 1945 and 1959 were initially intended to cement the British connection to Australia. During that period when overseas filmmakers were using Australia as an exotic location, Charles and Elsa Chauvel almost single-handedly sustained the production of truly Australian features. This drought in local production lasted from 1945 until Charles’s death in 1959, and continued into the 1960s.
Following an education in classical painting, Charles Chauvel had decided in the early 1920s that he wanted to make films. He took as his model the popular and commercially successful Hollywood industry, and spent two substantial periods in the United States studying the filmmaking process. As well as producing two silent films, he set up a programme in scenario writing for aspiring filmmakers. He also married Elsa Sylvaney, the star of his second silent film Greenhide, and they established a filmmaking partnership that would continue for more than 30 years.
Chauvel’s own films manifest two of his principles of successful filmmaking, as articulated in his screenwriting notes. The first principle is that Australian films would find an audience, not just in Australia but internationally, if the narratives were strong enough. Narrative strength, he believed (perhaps a little naïvely), came from striking the right balance between adventure and romance.
The second principle is the critical importance of integrating characterisation with setting and landscape, a task made easy for him by his knowledge of and love for the Australian bush. While this fusion of narrative and visual elements is most effectively achieved in his mature works, Sons of Matthew (1949) and Jedda (1955), it is evident in his earliest silent films, The Moth of Moonbi and Greenhide, and in his 1930s films, In the Wake of the Bounty (1933), Heritage (1935), and Uncivilised (1936).
During the 30 years of their filmmaking career, the Chauvels were engaged in a constant battle for production funding. There were no tax incentives for film investors, no state agencies to provide seed money, and little, if any, recognition by government of the cultural importance of feature films.
To obtain production funds, the Chauvels had to convince experienced and hard-headed show-business entrepreneurs such as Herc McIntyre of Universal or Norman Rydge of Greater Union that their projects would attract a general audience into the cinemas in competition with Hollywood product. That they achieved this and produced, among their nine features, three of the enduring classics of the Australian cinema is a tribute to their unflinching determination to bring their vision of Australia to the screen.
One can only speculate about what the Chauvels might have achieved had they enjoyed some of the support currently available for filmmaking in Australia. Charles Chauvel’s well-documented independence of spirit and unswerving commitment to his own artistic vision may well have led to struggles of a different kind in the contemporary environment, but there can be little doubt that his dedication and resilience would have prevailed.
Times change, of course, and Australian society is far more complex today than it was in 1955. If there is any lesson in the history of the Chauvels of relevance to contemporary Australian feature filmmakers, and to the bureaucrats who are charged with assisting them, it may well be that dedication to an artistic vision encompassing the interests of ordinary Australians, informed acceptance of the marketplace and its commercial implications, and a commitment to strong narratives set in compelling locations is still a formula worth pursuing. After all, what have they got to lose?
Bruce Molloy
Chair of the Chauvel Award committee Bruce Molloy is a Professor of Film and Television at Bond University on the Gold Coast. He has been a board member of a number of arts organisations including BIFF and the PFTC, and currently, the Gold Coast Film Fantastic group. Molloy’s projects include the publication Before the Interval: Australian Fims and Mythology and the documentary The Bush Myth.
Find out more about the Chauvel Award Presentation
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