This month marks 100 years since the movie first screened. Luke Buckmaster reflects on a film he believes is still one of Australia’s best
Since cinema’s earliest years, people have debated the extent to which motion pictures should resemble other art forms such as theatre, literature and paintings. It is rare for a film to reflect elements of all three of these mediums as exquisitely as the director Raymond Longford’s The Sentimental Bloke, which is widely considered the pièce de résistance of Australian feature film-making from the silent era.
This extraordinary production’s reputation is deserved, though the claim that it represents the peak of film-making in this country during that period is complicated by the tragic fact that the vast majority of silent Australian films have been lost. Longford made his masterpiece with long-time collaborator and fellow pioneer Lottie Lyell, who was one of Australia’s first film stars and a hugely influential figure, obscured by history but far from forgotten.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2ONwScK
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