Celebrating a cinephile
James Croot talks to Australian cinema guru David Stratton about a life at the movies.
Imight have once worked in a multiplex and reviewed movies for almost a quarter of a century, but my efforts pale in comparison to Australia’s David Stratton.
Director of the Sydney Film Festival for almost two decades, the now 78-year-old English-born Stratton also reviewed for Hollywood bible Variety for many years and spent almost three decades debating movies with onscreen partner Margaret Pomerantz on Australian television. Now a new documentary – directed by Kiwi Sally Aitken – not only looks back on his life and career, but also investigates the history of Australian cinema from a man who has seen more than 20,000 movies from around the globe.
Ahead of David Stratton: A Cinematic Odyssey‘s debut on Kiwi TV, Stuff caught up with the avuncular cinephile.
Where did the idea for the documentary come from? When we finished doing (movie review show) At the Movies in 2014, the producer of that programme said that he would like to work with me on some other things, so he and I between us got the idea of making a film looking at Australian films and maybe linking it to my life as well.
In it, you talk a lot about your favourite Australian movies. When do you think was the golden age of Australian cinema?
I have to say it was the 1970s and into the early ‘80s. I was very fortunate, because at the time I was the director of the Sydney Film Festival, so I was able to show the early films by the likes of Fred Schepisi, Peter Weir, Gillian Armstrong, Phillip Noyce, and so on, who went on to make some really impressive features. You had films like Picnic at Hanging Rock,My Brilliant Career and Breaker Morant. I also championed New Zealand films at Sydney. As soon as Roger Donaldson made Sleeping Dogs ,I flew to Auckland to see it and invited him to come over and screen it.
And what do you think of cinema on your side of the Tasman at the moment?
Well, we just had a marvellous new film called Sweet Country by Warwick Thornton. It stars Sam Neill and Bryan Brown and has some great Aboriginal actors in it. It had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last September, where I was fortunate enough to be on the jury. We actually gave it a major award (the Special Jury Prize) – not because of my presence though. I am also looking forward to the new version of the Ned Kelly story (The True History of the Kelly Gang), which is based on the Peter Carey book and is due out later this year.
You mentioned Picnic at Hanging Rock earlier. What do you think of the rise of classic films like that, Romper Stomper and Wake in Fright being remade as TV mini-series? I think it’s an interesting phenomenon. I think it also shows a lack of imagination – why pillage the past? Where are the new ideas? But having said that, it’s true that a lot of the best talents are involved in TV now, but that has changed television and it’ll feedback. Steven Soderbergh said he was quitting movies to work in TV, but he’s back making movies now. It will come back and forth I think. There may come a time when people get a bit tired of the time that they have to spend having to watch these very long series and would rather have the story told in a tighter, more compact way.
And what are your thoughts on the rise of Netflix as a creator of original movies?
I think it has opened things up. It’s a really fascinating new situation. My only regret is they have this policy in Australia (and New Zealand) that they don’t allow their original films to screen in cinemas and they don’t put them out on DVD – you can really only see them through streaming. One of the best films I saw last year was The Meyerowitz Stories, which was a very funny movie with Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman and Adam Sandler. To me, it seems a shame that a crowdpleaser like that is sort of confined to a streaming service – but that’s Netflix’s policy. I’m also interested in your opinion of modern film criticism, especially now that – thanks to the internet – virtually anyone can share their view with the world.
I think there are so many interesting opinions and I love this democratisation of reviewing so you can read people’s blogs and see what they are saying. When you get to my age, it’s good to see what younger people are thinking and how they are reacting to the same films that I’m seeing. Sometimes we have similar tastes, but very often we don’t – and I think it’s important. I read a lot of reviews from various places, but not before I see the film. I have this sort of strange idea that I want to know as little as possible about a film before I see it. I want it to take me completely by surprise, so I don’t watch trailers. If I’m in a cinema and a trailer comes on I block my ears and close my eyes. I just don’t want to know anything. Then I can look at the film and receive it with a fresh mind. After that, I’m curious to see what other people think of it.
I read that you once flew to Honolulu just to see Interview with a Vampire before its Australian release. Was it worth it? Probably not – but it was worth it just to make the distributor annoyed. I actually saw four films belonging to the same distributor who was being very difficult about showing us their films.
Finally, you’re famous for keeping a record of all the movies that you’ve seen. How many are you up to now? 26,052 – and counting.
❚ David Stratton A Cinematic Odyssey debuts at 8.30pm on Wednesday on the Rialto Channel.