Sydney on screen
Ten Australian films that define - and capture - the Sydney celluloid mystique
The Sentimental Bloke
1919 Dir. Raymond Longford
(******) One of the very first times
Sydney found itself on celluloid, this early
feature was adapted from the famous 1915
poem by C.J Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental
Bloke. A silent story of a larrikin trying to
clean up his act, it was a big hit on its release.
Set mainly around the wharves of Woolloomooloo, Sydneysiders would also still recognise
Manly Beach and the Royal Botanical
Gardens. Hornsby might be harder to pick
– in 1919, this northern suburb still was still
rural enough for the “orchard scenes” to be
shot there.
Lantana
2001 Dir. Ray Lawrence
(******) This slow-burning psychological
tangle of a film finds the shadows in the
suburbs of Sydney. Lawrence finds the dark,
brooding side of formerly bohemian Balmain,
and Narrabeen provides the scenes where
things become overgrown. Anthony Lapaglia
gives one of the performances of his career as
a cop trying to keep his midlife out of crisis. In
real life, the actor and football fan is owner of
the Sydney FC soccer club, and pays for their
goalkeeping coach personally.
Stone
1974 Dir. Sandy Harbutt
(******) In the 70s, Australian film was
undergoing a renaissance, with art films
like Picnic At Hanging Rock and Walkabout gaining critical accolades. Stone was a worthy
antidote, and a prescient precursor to Mad
Max – a trashy, brutal bikesploitation B-movie,
where the cast was as acid-washed as the
jeans. Director Harbutt also wrote and (over)
acted, bringing gang-leader Grave Digger to
life. Look out for leafy Balmain among the
sickening zoom shots, and the fortress that
hosted the Satanic bikers’ headquarters can
still be found at Middle Head. Only if you dare!
Looking for Alibrandi
2000 Dir. Kate Woods
(******) The novel Looking for Alibrandi
is the book most likely to be stolen from Australian
schools, and this film is partly to blame.
With the perennially 16-year-old Pia Miranda
in the title role, this classic teenage melodrama
soaks up real burgeoning hormones from its locations:
school scenes shot in Scots College,
SCEGGS Redlands, and Kincoppal Rose
Bay School of the Sacred Heart. Those
looking for Alibrandi’s house for pilgrimage
purposes can find it in Cardigan St, Glebe.
Newsfront
1978 Dir. Philip Noyce
(******)One of the finer points in the
career of writer, ratbag and shambling artist
Bob Ellis, Newsfront blended real newsreel
footage with a mythical story of the men who
made it. Filmed mainly in Sydney, the old
20th Century Fox Building on Brisbane
St served as the headquarters of Newsco
International, and the scene where country
town Maitland floods was actually created
much closer to the big smoke, the main drag
rebuilt in Narrabeen Lake, with an outboard
motor just off camera creating the swirling
torrents (a suggestion from legendary director
Ken G. Hall).
Caddie
1976 Dir. Donald Crombie
(******) Shot in more than 40 locations
all over Sydney, Caddie tells the story of Catherine
Elliot-Mackay, a Sydney barmaid trying
to tough out the Depression alone. Abandoned
by her husband, and beset with disaster, Caddie
struggles to find kindness among men who
“think it is awfully smart to insult a woman
behind a bar”. Writer Joanne Long based the
script on Elliot-Mackay’s autobiography Caddie
: the Autobiography of a Sydney Barmaid. Long later explored another complex social
aspect of Sydney as a director with Puberty
Blues, her clear-eyed examination of the randy
teenage beach tribes of Cronulla.
Little Fish
2005 Dir. Rowan Woods
(******) Local Oscar Winner Cate
Blanchett is synonymous with Sydney acting
on film and stage. Here she plays a junkie
making her way through the seamy
side of Sydney’s west. Bankstown,
Fairfield and Cabramatta provide the low-rent
backdrop, as well as a few
stretches of the bible belt in
the form of Sylvania Waters. Sylvania Waters was
also the name of a reality
show (when reality shows
were still called documentaries),
that exported Sydney
the mating rituals of Sydney
bogans to the world, albeit briefly.
Hugo Weaving also has a role as
the world’s only former first grade league
player turned gay porn dealer junkie.
The Boys
1998 Dir. Rowan Woods
(******) A story that bears surface similarities
to that of the killers of Anita Cobby,
The Boys was vividly brought to the screen
by two playwrights (Gordon Graham and
Stephen Sewell). It ploughs Sydney’s boondocks
for characters always sitting half-way
between boredom and violence. Toni Collette is
a woman battered by life, and David Wenham
lets all of his charms curdle, emitting crawling
menace like gamma rays. Their mood festers
in a curtain-shrouded Maroubra apartment,
captured on location.
Two Hands
1999 Dir. Gregor Jordan
(******) Sparked by the success of Lock,
Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, this debut
feature from Tropfest winner Gregor
Jordan had more than enough
spark of its own to avoid
being Lock, Stock and Local
Knock-Off. The late Heath
Ledger starts proceedings
so desperate for a
swim he buries $10,000
in the sands of Bondi
Beach. Cue the chaos.
In real life the dosh
would be found by an
odd bloke with a metal
detector, but here the treasure
is the catalyst for a cagey
gangster flick. Locations immortalised
are Kings Cross, Revesby, and
the dire pokie-hole of Chinatown’s Star Hotel.
Muriel’s Wedding
1994 Dir. PJ Hogan
(******) Toni Collette plays a young
woman stifled by more than Queensland heat.
She heads south and fi nds redemption in
Sydney – a job on Oxford Street, a friend, and
a husband. A celebration of the town’s opportunities,
Muriel’s Wedding captures Sydney’s
spirit in a host of inner city locations (and
Parramatta Road bridal shops). The wedding
takes place in St Mark’s Anglican Church,
Darling Point, and the scene where Muriel is
confronted by her father’s lawyers takes place
at the Grotta Capri in Kensington.