I loved John O'Grady's books, and laughed myself silly, in my early teens in Australia. The books presented a world that was unknown to me, of Aussie battlers and the land of the "fair go" - Australia's first pizza house had not yet opened - the hardship of the 1962 recession passed me by as I dutifully went to and from high school, oblivious to the pressures that caused both my parents health to fail. I didn't know anyone who spoke like O'Grady's characters, but the caricature was funny, and the romantic plot was pure Jane Austen.
As a fifteen year old, I loved the film. Today, as I watched it again on DVD, the gulf of time is horrifying. The obsessive colourless and characterless household interiors of the battlers and toffs alike is scarily real. The funniest scene is afternoon tea with the men unable to pick up a meringue without crushing it.
The pointless bravado of slang that is impenetrable to outsiders. Why is it funny? The overt humour of making fun of those not in the know rebounds and we are left pathetically trying to be different. I still can't tell the difference between a schooner and a midi - just ask for a bigger glass of beer if that is what you want, because the pubs closed at 6 o'clock.
That this slang-based "look at us" humour is not a thing of the past also stuns me - think of the 1990s verse novel and film "The Monkey's Mask" - the book was published overseas with a glossary of archaic authentic Aussie words that most of us never use, and it is hard not to cringe when they appear on screen - both films play the travelogue card, with many scenic shots of Syndey and that damned opera house still unfinished. I'm not envious, I'm really not.
Still amazed what this time capsule tells us about the fictional world of Australia in the 1960s - but I'm still bound to love it because it would be unbearable to destroy my 15 year old idyll.
The documentary on the DVD was also stunning - the film meant something to Michael Powell and Walter Chiari, about egalitarianism and the "fair go" - easy to say, but still so much harder to live by.
As a fifteen year old, I loved the film. Today, as I watched it again on DVD, the gulf of time is horrifying. The obsessive colourless and characterless household interiors of the battlers and toffs alike is scarily real. The funniest scene is afternoon tea with the men unable to pick up a meringue without crushing it.
The pointless bravado of slang that is impenetrable to outsiders. Why is it funny? The overt humour of making fun of those not in the know rebounds and we are left pathetically trying to be different. I still can't tell the difference between a schooner and a midi - just ask for a bigger glass of beer if that is what you want, because the pubs closed at 6 o'clock.
That this slang-based "look at us" humour is not a thing of the past also stuns me - think of the 1990s verse novel and film "The Monkey's Mask" - the book was published overseas with a glossary of archaic authentic Aussie words that most of us never use, and it is hard not to cringe when they appear on screen - both films play the travelogue card, with many scenic shots of Syndey and that damned opera house still unfinished. I'm not envious, I'm really not.
Still amazed what this time capsule tells us about the fictional world of Australia in the 1960s - but I'm still bound to love it because it would be unbearable to destroy my 15 year old idyll.
The documentary on the DVD was also stunning - the film meant something to Michael Powell and Walter Chiari, about egalitarianism and the "fair go" - easy to say, but still so much harder to live by.