AURAL AUTEUR: SOUND IN THE FILMS OF ROLF DE HEER. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Published Papers in the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia. Supervisors: Ms. Helen Yeates Lecturer, Film and TV, Creative Industries Faculty, QUT. Dr. Vivienne Muller Lecturer, Creative Writing and Literary Studies, Creative Industries Faculty, QUT. Associate Professor Geoff Portmann Discipline Leader, Film and TV, Creative Industries Faculty, QUT. Written and submitted by David Bruno Starrs BSc (ANU), PGDipHlthSc (Curtin), BTh (Hons) (JCU), MFTV (Bond), MCA (Melb). Self-archived publications available at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Starrs,_D._Bruno.html January 2009. Aural Auteur: Sound in the Films of Rolf de Heer. 2 Aural Auteur: Sound in the Films of Rolf de Heer. ABSTRACT. Aural Auteur: Sound in the Films of Rolf de Heer. An interpretative methodology for understanding meaning in cinema since the 1950s, auteur analysis is an approach to film studies in which an individual, usually the director, is studied as the author of her or his films. The principal argument of this thesis is that proponents of auteurism have privileged examination of the visual components in a film-maker’s body of work, neglecting the potentially significant role played by sound. The thesis seeks to address this problematic imbalance by interrogating the creative use of sound in the films written and directed by Rolf de Heer, asking the question, “Does his use of sound make Rolf de Heer an aural auteur?” In so far as the term ‘aural’ encompasses everything in the film that is heard by the audience, the analysis seeks to discover if de Heer has, as Peter Wollen suggests of the auteur and her or his directing of the visual components (1968, 1972 and 1998), unconsciously left a detectable aural signature on his films. The thesis delivers an innovative outcome by demonstrating that auteur analysis that goes beyond the mise-en-scène (i.e. visuals) is productive and worthwhile as an interpretive response to film. De Heer’s use of the aural point of view and binaural sound recording, his interest in providing a ‘voice’ for marginalised people, his self-penned song lyrics, his close and early collaboration with composer Graham Tardif and sound designer Jim Currie, his ‘hands-on’ approach to sound recording and sound editing and his predilection for making films about sound are all shown to be examples of de Heer’s aural auteurism. As well as the three published (or accepted for publication) interviews with de Heer, Tardif and Currie, the dissertation consists of seven papers refereed and published (or accepted for publication) in journals and international conference proceedings, a literature review and a unifying essay. The papers presented are close textual analyses of de Heer’s films which, when considered as a whole, support the thesis’ overall argument and serve as a comprehensive auteur analysis, the first such sustained study of his work, and the first with an emphasis on the aural. i Aural Auteur: Sound in the Films of Rolf de Heer. KEYWORDS. Rolf de Heer auteur analysis aural auteur auteurism auteurist authorship textual analysis film sound Australian film aural point of view binaural sound recording unlikely protagonist non-hyper-masculine protagonist psychoanalytic film theory Graham Tardif Jim Currie ii Aural Auteur: Sound in the Films of Rolf de Heer. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS FORMING PART OF THE THESIS. 1. Starrs, D. Bruno (2007). “The Tracker and The Proposition: Two westerns that weren’t?”, Metro Magazine, (ISSN: 0312-2654), Melbourne, Australian Teachers of Media, no. 153, pp. 166-172. 2. Starrs, D. Bruno (2007). “Filmic eco-warnings and television: Rolf de Heer’s Epsilon (1995) and Dr. Plonk (2007)”, Forum: The University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts, (ISSN: 1749-9771 - online), UK, University of Edinburgh, no. 5. 3. Starrs, D. Bruno (2008). “Enabling the auteurial voice in Dance Me To My Song”, M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, (ISSN: 1441-2616 - online), Brisbane, QUT Creative Industries, vol. 11, no. 3. 4. Starrs, D. Bruno (2009, forthcoming). “Revising the metaphor: Rolf de Heer as Aussie aural auteur”, (accepted for refereed publication in the conference proceedings of the Indian Association for the Study of Australia 4th International Conference, 22-24 January 2008, Kolkata, India. A revised version is also currently undergoing refereeing by Metro Magazine [ISSN: 0312-2654], Melbourne, Australian Teachers of Media). 5. Starrs, D. Bruno (2010, forthcoming). “The aural point of view in the early films of Rolf de Heer”, (accepted for refereed publication in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, (ISSN: 1543-5326 - online, 1050-9208 - hard copy), London and NY, Routledge, vol. 27, no. 5). 6. Starrs, D. Bruno (2008). “An avowal of male lack: Sound in Rolf de Heer’s The Old Man Who Read Love Stories (2003)”, Metro Magazine, (ISSN: 0312-2654), Melbourne, Australian Teachers of Media, no. 156, pp. 148-153. 7. Starrs, D. Bruno (2009, forthcoming). “Sound in the Aboriginal Australian films of Rolf de Heer”, (accepted for refereed publication in the conference proceedings of the CHOTRO Indigenous Peoples in the Post-Colonial World Conference, 2-5 January 2008, Delhi. A revised version is also currently undergoing refereeing by Cinema Journal [ISSN: 0009-7101], Texas, University of Texas Press). iii Aural Auteur: Sound in the Films of Rolf de Heer. STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY. The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. ---------------------------------------------------------- Signature - David Bruno Starrs (also known as D. Bruno Starrs) ---------------------------------------------------------- Date iv Aural Auteur: Sound in the Films of Rolf de Heer. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. First and foremost I would like to acknowledge and thank my Primary Supervisor, Ms. Helen Yeates (50%), lecturer, Film and TV, Creative Industries Faculty, QUT. Helen’s keen eye for detail was a decisive factor in helping me get the papers of the thesis to a standard where they were ready for submission for publication and in coalescing the thesis into a unified whole. My Associate Supervisors, Dr. Vivienne Muller (40%), lecturer, Creative Writing and Literary Studies, Creative Industries Faculty, QUT; and Associate Professor Geoff Portmann (10%), discipline leader, Film and TV, Creative Industries Faculty, QUT, made my supervisory team complete by offering advice and assistance from very different perspectives. I feel very fortunate to have had this most professional trio guiding me from the start (19 September 2006). Other staff at QUT who deserve thanks include Professor Terry Flew for his guidance regarding the publishing of papers and Dr. Bronwyn Fredericks for her advice on the choice of language that is respectful to Aboriginal Australians. Professor Brad Haseman and Mr. Peter Fell deserve recognition for their invaluable instruction in the courses “KKP601: Approaches to Enquiry in the Creative Industries” and “IFN001: Advanced Information Retrieval Skills”. Creative Industries Faculty support staff including Ms. Leanne Blazely, Mrs. Jenny Mayes, Ms. Kate Simmonds, Ms. Alice Steiner and Ms. Ellen Thompson also warrant acknowledgement for their eager and helpful assistance. Panel members at my Confirmation and Final Seminars must be heartily thanked. These QUT academics include my supervisors as well as Professor Terry Flew, Professor Julian Knowles and Dr. Susan Carson. Also on the panels were Griffith University staff Dr. Amanda Howell and Dr. Wendy Keyes, whose contributions were extremely useful. The comments and suggestions from all panellists have been vitally important in preparing and refining this document. Thanks must go to the conveners of the international conferences I attended and presented at: a very important process involved in preparing several of my papers for later publication. These were the Scopic Bodies Dance Studies Research Seminar Series, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 13 August 2007; the CHOTRO Indigenous Peoples in the Post-Colonial World Conference, 2-5 January 2008, Delhi, India; and the Indian Association for the Study of Australia 4th International Conference, 22-24 January 2008, Kolkata, India. Thanks also to the QUT Research Student’s Centre for their Grant In Aid funding that assisted me with the costs of v Aural Auteur: Sound in the Films of Rolf de Heer. travel to the two conferences in India. In 2008, this doctoral study was supported by a Creative Industries Faculty QUT Postgraduate Research Award for which I am extremely grateful. Thanks must go to the creators of the films addressed in this thesis, Rolf de Heer, Graham Tardif and Jim Currie, who gave their time so generously for interviews. I am, of course, deeply indebted to these film artists for their creative work and enterprising collaborative practices. Without their inspired output, Australian cinema would be greatly impoverished and this thesis would not exist. Finally, I would like to thank the editors and anonymous referees of: Cinema Journal; Forum: The University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts; M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture; Metro Magazine; Quarterly Review of Film and Video; and RealTime+Onscreen for accepting (or submitting for refereeing) for publication the papers and interviews of the thesis. vi Aural Auteur: Sound in the Films of Rolf de Heer. AUTHOR’S NOTE. The writing style and terminology utilised in the thesis has been deliberately chosen in order to support rather than undermine its general argument. Wherever possible, terms that reinforce the dominance of the screen image are avoided: the word ‘film’ is used in preference to the term ‘motion picture’ or its derivative ‘movie’ and the receivers of a film are referred to as ‘audiences’ or ‘filmgoers’ rather than ‘viewers’ or ‘spectators’.