D.H . Lawrence's 99 Days in Australia
ART, MUSIC & FILM
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FILMS ABOUT KANGAROO & LAWRENCE IN AUSTRALIA |
Two films have been made about Lawrence and Kangaroo. The first, appropriately titled "Kangaroo", was the 1987 feature film directed by Tim Burstall. produced by Ross Dimsay, and starring Colin Friels, Judy Davis and John Walton.
The second In the Footsteps of Lawrence, 2015, was made by Australian artist Garry Shead in which he celebrated Lawrence's attraction to the bushland and seascape of Australia
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THE 1987 FEATURE FILM OF KANGAROO |
OIGINALLY this film was to have starrred Dirk Bogarde, but nothing came of this early (1972) venuture until the 1980s when a pair of Australian actors, Colin Friels and Judy Davis, were chose to play the roles of Somers and Harriett.
The feature-length (110-ninute) film, directd by Ross Dimsey,sticks more-or-less to the basic plot of Kangaroo, portraying the English writer, Somers, played by Colin Friels and his wife, Harriet, arriving in Australia.where Somers resists joining a para-military organisation and also refrains from joining a socialist group.
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The A$4.5-million film was relased first in the USA in March 1987 and then in Australia in April 1987. Although Friels and Davis both gave excellent performances, the film was somewhat mared by its location: Melbourne, rather than Sydney and Thirroul where Lawrence had based his novel. (This relocation was caused by the demans of the Victorian film organisation which provided the finance for the film and thus demanded it be shot in Victoria and its capital, Melbourne. The result was that much of the atmosphere of the novel, and Lawrence's lyrical descriptions of the beach, the high escarpment behind the town and sea were not depicted.) |
ARTIST GARRY SHEAD'S FILM
The poster for Shead's film
This film, titled created by Australian artist Garry Shead, is a lyrical tribute to Lawrence's depitction of the Australian bushland and the sea, which both attracted and repelled the novelist.
He found the white gum trees in the nightime in Darlington, Western Australa, frightening, inspiring the phrase "The spirit of the bush" which he later refined to "Spirit of place."
Yet he encountered a more benign bushland when he travelled to Thirroul on the eas coast of Australia, where the "angel presences" of the spring golden wattle blossoms captivated him. |
Shead's film includes footage filmed at "Wyewurk", ("Torestin" in the novel, the cottage at Thirroul, the south coast location where Lawrence and Frieda stayed in 1922. The narration is by Jack Thompson.
The music score is by Australian composer, Peter Sculthorpe. The commentary features Lawrence scholar Robert Darroch and Professor Sasha Grishin.
A DVD of the film is available from the D.H. Lawrence Society of Australia. A$29.00 plus postage. To order, please click HERE. |
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