Anthony Buckley - Behind a Velvet Light Trap: From Cinesound to Cannes - A Filmmakers Journey

Behind a Velvet
Light Trap

Behind a Velvet
Light Trap

A filmmakers journey from
Cinesound to Cannes

ANTHONY BUCKLEY

Published in 2009
Hardie Grant Books
85 High Street
Prahran, Victoria 3181, Australia
www.hardiegrant.com.au
www.hardiegrant.co.uk

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Copyright Anthony Buckley 2009

Cataloguing-in-Publication data is available from the National Library of Australia.
Behind a Velvet Light Trap
A filmmakers journey from Cinesound to Cannes
ISBN 978 1 74066 7906

Cover and text design by Nada Backovic
Cover image Hopper, Edward (1882-1967); New York Movie, 1939. New York, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Oil on canvas, 32 x 40 1/8 (81.9 x 101.9 cm). Given anonymously.
396.1941. 2009. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence
Typesetting by Bookhouse, Sydney
Printed and bound in China by C & C Offset Printing Co. Ltd

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Mavis, who sadly missed so much of this story.

Contents

T here may be many readers who believe the renaissance of the Australian film industry in the 1970s was its beginning. Certainly Tim Burstalls Stork and Bruce Beresfords The Adventures of Barry McKenzie spearheaded a new wave but in actual fact Australian cinema was born in 1896 two years after the first Kinetescope parlours opened in Sydney and Melbourne.

However, this is not a history of Australian cinema.

It is a journey of one filmmaker who has had the good fortune to have worked with and for great filmmakers who pioneered the Australian cinema and who had a marked influence on my career. You will meet pioneers of cinema here and abroad Raymond Longford, Ken G. Hall, Elsa Chauvel, Arthur Higgins, Walter Forde, Louis Edelman, directors Michael Powell, Ted Kotcheff, Rudolf Nureyev, Donald Crombie, Ray Lawrence, Jim Sharman, et al.

For the filmmaker this book will take you into three worlds of cinema. The mystique of film editing, the tasks and torments of the producer and the extraordinary world of the newsreel, the celluloid newspaper of its day.

T he first of many to be remembered are the librarians at the Mitchell Library reading room of the 1950s who, every Tuesday night and Saturday for a period of two years delved into the bowels of the building to recover volumes of Everyones magazine, The Picture Show, Stage and Screen, Theatre World and whatever else they could find related to the history of the Australian film industry the industry I never knew we had had.

In these more recent times, particular thanks to the following:

Marilyn Dooley of Canberra who read my chapter about Raymond Longford and Lottie Lyell, and who herself wrote Photo Play Artiste about the work of these two great pioneers. Lloyd Shiels, veteran Cinesound cameraman, who read my three chapters about the company, verifying that my memory hadnt failed. Gregory Ropert, former assistant editor of mine and filmmaker, for allowing me to read his unpublished thesis about Filmcraft and Colorfilm laboratories. Stanley Moore, editor and mentor, for allowing me to read his memoir. Kevin and Lorna Powell, who read my two chapters about Kevins father, Michael Powell. Kevin gave me his blessing to publish extracts from his fathers letters to me. Donald Crombie for reading my chapters about our work together and reminding me of things I had forgotten. David Williams, retired managing director of Greater Union, who supported Donald Crombie and me so generously with the making of our pictures, for reading my chapters pertaining to that period. In a couple of instances his memory differs from mine. James McCarthy, Christopher McCulloch, Philip Powers and Tim Read for their respective papers about their experiences at Film Australia, which in some cases run counter to mine. Alan Thorne and Angela Raymond for reading and commenting upon my chapter on the making of Man on the Rim. The editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and their contributors Paul Byrnes, Richard Glover and Michael Duffy, Scott Murray and Peter Beilby for permission to quote from their valuable record of the film, Cinema Papers, David Stratton for quotes from his books The Last New Wave and The AvocadoPlantation and his pieces in The Australian, Philip Adams and Bob Ellis, both long-time associates and friends. Lucy Cowdroy, current owner of our family home in Wollstonecraft, for allowing me to revisit and photograph the place of my boyhood. Lane Cove Public Library and Stanton Library, North Sydney, in particular Leonie Masson. Naomi Crago, archivist, City of Sydney Library, for assisting in my search for Heiron & Smith. Last but not least, the State Library of NSW and the Mitchell. Here, by coincidence, my lifelong friend Judy Gimbert works as a volunteer. Judy showed me how to use the index system and microfiches at the library, and proofread the very first draft of this work. My companion, Gary MacDonald, for his patience over the six years it has taken me to write and rewrite by hand, not on the computer, and for his proofreading and his ability to scan material for me on the printer. Raena Lea Shannon, my entertainment lawyer at Frankels, who read the manuscript and alerted me to what one can and cant say! Justin Fleming, who did the same from another perspective (however, I have graciously declined his recommendation to publish and be damned). Tim Curnow, long-time friend and professional associate from his days at Curtis Brown, who thankfully agreed to be my literary agent and whose notes to each chapter were the first instance of improving my work, only surpassed by my literary editor, Bruce Sims. Bruce has painstakingly and patiently culled, edited and fine-tuned this work to make the flow of the text a much better read than ever before. Thank you. My publisher, Pam Brewster, who has bravely taken on the task of putting all this together. Elaine Menzies knows where all the bodies are buried, and lots, lots more. Private secretary to a couple of my peers as well as to me, Elaine would have to be the worlds most discreet secretary, for none of us can ever find out anything about the other! Secretary to me since the early 1970s, her life has many parallels to mine, but our paths werent to cross until she became secretary to the Australian Film Council. Elaine was also born in Crows Nest, also attended Lady Hays school and went to the Saturday matinees at the Sesqui. I went to Canada in 1958, she to London and on to Geneva. Her ability to read my handwriting and correct my grammar is legendary. She has typed every draft of this book over the past six years. She still talks to me! From here in Port Douglas I dictate my weekly correspondence to Elaine in Sydney and she emails them back for me to print out and post. The efficiency and craft of stenography is a lost art. Thank you, Elaine.

Photos: Apart from the libraries already mentioned, I am indebted to three people who have allowed me to plunder their precious private collections Peter James, DOP, and long-time friend, for his on location snaps on Don Quixote, Caddie, The Irishman and The Killing of Angel Street; Peter Hannan, DOP, in London, for on location photos of Wake in Fright; and Ian Hanson, film historian, for his pictures of theatres and, in particular, the rare front of house still of