Not Quite Hollywood

In the seventies there were two lines in Australian cinema. One was the films shown at festivals and respected. The other was the work nobody took seriously: horror, sex comedy, car chases, cheap action. The documentary is about the second. The censorship law was relaxed and the market opened. Producers shot fast, stunt performers worked without insurance and there were serious accidents on set. The films sold abroad. Then the vein dried up. The documentary finds the directors, actors and stunt performers of the period. Mark Hartley directs. Producers, actors and stunt performers of the time speak in it, along with Quentin Tarantino. It is an Australian production. The documentary uses footage from a great many films; the narrative runs through clips. The narrative defends these films and objects to the official film history of the period. The documentary shows the working conditions of the stunt performers too; the accidents are described in detail. The narrative takes on how these productions looked at women as well and includes the criticism. The interviews disagree; people describing the same event differently are set side by side. The pace is very fast; the cutting is dense and the music constant. Its limit is method; the narrative rests on enthusiasm and the critical distance is weak. Who it is for: viewers who like genre cinema and film history documentary. Who it is not for: it is loud, fast, and the content coarse.