'Petersen'

For many people, it may be the period costume pieces, adapted from Australian literary works, that most powerfully evoke the 1970s Australian cinema revival - the likes of 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' (Peter Weir, 1975), 'The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith' (Fred Schepisi, 1978), 'The Getting of Wisdom' (Bruce Beresford, 1978) and 'My Brilliant Career' (Gillian Armstrong, 1979). But as influential as these films were in creating the perception of a new national cinema, there was always a lot of very different work going on. I would claim that, in some ways, 'Petersen' (Tim Burstall, 1974) now looks like an archetypal film of the decade - not just in themes, but in style, in personnel, and in how it deals with the relaxed censorship of the 1970s.