Australian Cinema, Autonomy and Globalisation
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Australian Cinema, Autonomy and Globalisation Rochelle Siemienowicz PhD 2002 Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the many people who have enabled, encouraged and endured the writing of this thesis. I thank my supervisor, Dr Arran Gare, whose broad vision, genuine scholarship and personal integrity have provided the foundations for the work. I am also grateful to the many people at Swinburne University who have enriched my years there. These include the members of the Joseph Needham Complex Processes Research Group. Our fortnightly meetings have provided a supportive but lively island of interdisciplinary discussion and dissent; an atmosphere of collegiality resulting in many deep and sustaining friendships. Finally, special thanks to all my other friends and family, who have had to gauge the fine line between appropriate interest and a necessary lack of investment in my progress. Eternal gratitude goes to my partner David, without whose loving kindness and patience I may never have reached completion. ii Declaration I declare that this thesis does not incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a degree in any university or other educational institution; and that to the best of my knowledge and belief it does not contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text. I further declare that the ethical principles and procedures specified in Swinburne University of Technology’s document on human research and experimentation have been adhered to in the preparation of this report. iii Table of Contents TITLE: AUSTRALIAN CINEMA, AUTONOMY AND GLOBALISATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................ (ii) DECLARATION ....................................................................................... (iii) TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................... (iv) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES ............................................ (xii) ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: AUSTRALIAN NARRATIVE, FREEDOM AND GLOBALISATION ...................................................................................... 2 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 2 An Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Identity, Nation and Narrative ..................................................................................................... 10 Identity and the Dialectic of Recognition ................................................................................... 11 National identity as Polyphonic Narrative .................................................................................. 15 National Fields ............................................................................................................................... 18 Globalisation and the Autonomy of Nations .............................................................................. 20 Globalisation as Grand Narrative ................................................................................................ 22 Australian Great Narrative and the Grand Narrative of Globalisation ....................................... 25 iv CHAPTER 2: AUTONOMY AND CULTURAL FIELDS .......................... 30 Cultural Fields ............................................................................................................................... 30 Autonomy of the Field ................................................................................................................ 34 Playing the Field/ Playing the Game .......................................................................................... 36 Habitus ........................................................................................................................................ 36 Building on Bourdieu .................................................................................................................. 40 CHAPTER 3: AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CINEMA: AN ACT OF WILL .. 45 Autonomy and Direct Government Support ............................................................................... 47 The Australian Film Commission ............................................................................................... 51 The Film Finance Corporation .................................................................................................... 52 Autonomy and Indirect Government Support ............................................................................ 56 Australian Feature Films: From Unity to Diversity ................................................................... 59 CHAPTER 4A: SLAVE MORALITY AND AUSTRALIAN CULTURE ..... 64 Imprisonment and Exile ................................................................................................................ 65 Ressentiment: A Dominant Postmodern Emotion ....................................................................... 68 Falsification of Values ................................................................................................................ 71 Head On into Oblivion ................................................................................................................... 71 Ressentiment and Unemployment ............................................................................................... 72 Ressentiment and Gay Identity .................................................................................................... 75 Ressentiment and Race ................................................................................................................ 77 Global Youth Culture and Ressentiment ..................................................................................... 84 Cowardice and Ressentiment: Head On’s Attitude Towards its Subject .................................... 86 Praise: A Love Story? .................................................................................................................... 90 Ressentiment: Dead-end Jobs and Voluntary Unemployment .................................................... 90 Ressentiment Love ...................................................................................................................... 93 Ressentiment, Impotence and Praise .......................................................................................... 96 Suicide: The Desire for Obliteration and Annihilation ............................................................... 97 Ressentiment in Praise: The Book versus the Film .................................................................... 99 Australian Narratives of Ressentiment: First Steps Towards Freedom? ............................... 101 v CHAPTER 4B: THE FIELD OF AUSTRALIAN FILM: HEAD ON AND PRAISE .................................................................................................. 104 Head On: Symbolic Impact ......................................................................................................... 104 Ana Kokkinos: Multicultural Street Cred ................................................................................ 107 Praise: Lyrical Grime .................................................................................................................. 112 John Curran: An Outsider Looking In ..................................................................................... 114 Chapter 4 Summary .................................................................................................................... 117 Narrative Elements .................................................................................................................... 117 Industry Elements ..................................................................................................................... 118 CHAPTER 5A: ABORIGINALITY, RECOGNITION AND AUSTRALIAN GREAT NARRATIVE ............................................................................. 119 Vacant Possession: History, Land & White Identity ................................................................ 124 Exiled in Botany Bay ................................................................................................................ 126 Alienated from Nature .............................................................................................................. 129 ‘They think they own the bloody place’: Entitlement, Ownership and Place .......................... 132 ‘We don’t want your house’ ..................................................................................................... 134 Basements and Roofs: Opening up the House .......................................................................... 135 ‘The thing I like about stories…’ .............................................................................................. 138 Dead Heart: Power, Law & Land ............................................................................................... 139 Aboriginality as Construction ................................................................................................... 143 Equal Treatment and the Law ..................................................................................................