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Martha Ansara: The Shadowcatchers – A History of Cinematography in Australia
This stylish, beautifully produced book contains more than 380 photographs of working cinematographers taken on film sets from 1901 to the present, along with historical text, biographies of significant Australian cinematographers, and personal anecdotes from some of the great characters of the industry. The author, film scholar and former cinematographer Martha Ansara, worked under the guidance of veteran members of the Australian Cinematographers’ Society.
Australian Cinematographers Society, 2012. 288 pp. RRP $66 (PB); $250 (limited collector’s edition)

The measure of Acting

Terence Crawford: Dimensions of Acting – An Australian Approach
Crawford’s latest book is a comprehensive study of the craft of acting from an Australian perspective. Rejecting the notion of acting gurus, he claims that good actors do whatever works, not following one particular method to the exclusion of everything else. The trick, he says, is knowing what to use and when, and he identifies eight ‘dimensions’ as the building blocks for a performance – and if cobbling together bits and pieces that suit the job is a challenging and messy process, no one said that art should be simple. The book also focuses on a number of widely-studied Australian plays.
Currency Press, 2012. 167 pp. RRP $32.95.

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Nick Herd: Networking: Commercial Television in Australia
This is the first comprehensive history of Australian commercial television, including its power as an institutional force and its political, regulatory and business development. of commercial television. The author, Dr Nick Herd, is Director of Research and Strategic Analysis at the Australia Council for the Arts.
Currency House, 2012. 408 pp. 69.99

 Edna's heroine

Danielle Wood: Housewife Superstar – The Very Best of Marjorie Bligh
This engaging biography salutes the splendidly eccentric Tasmanian ‘domestic goddess’ Marjorie Bligh. Now 94 years old, Marjorie has published a library of advice books covering food, household management, health and beauty, poetry, gardening and recycling – she’s famous for never wasting a thing, and has created a museum within her own home to display things she has knitted and crocheted out of such unlikely materials as plastic shopping bags and used pantyhose. Her abundant garden is staked out with old-fashioned corset brassieres that function as plant protectors. According to her colossal fan Barry Humphries, thrice-married Marjorie is ‘no slouch in the matrimonial department.’ And what’s Dame Edna’s opinion? ‘I don’t think Edna has ever admired anyone as much as she admires Marjorie Bligh,’ reports Barry.
Text Publishing, 2012. 256 pp. RRP $29.95.

Pictured History

Melbourne Theatre Company: Play On – Melbourne Theatre Company, 2000-2011
A handsome pictorial celebration of Simon Phillips’ dynamic 12-year tenure as the MTC’s artistic director. The book is a worthy companion piece to MTC’s 2003 publication The Drama Continues – the MTC’s First Fifty Years and, incidentally, a reminder of the remarkable contribution photographer Jeff Busby has made to the documentation of our theatre history.
Melbourne Theatre Company, 2012. 171 pp. RRP $25.
Available from the MTC Theatre, Southbank Boulevard.

 

Arrow at the heart of Middle Park

Middle Park History Group: The Heart of Middle Park – Stories from a Suburb by the Sea
This thoroughly delightful ramble through the history of the Melbourne suburb of Middle Park includes a useful chapter by Rosemary Goad, Diana Phoenix and Kay Rowan on the little theatre in Armstrong Street, known variously as The Hall, The Biograph, The Smith Family Cinema, The Middle Park Picture Theatre, Melbourne Repertory Theatre, The Arrow, ‘The Bug House’, and The New Arrow. Frank Thring, of course, features prominently.
Middle Park History Group Inc., 2011. 110 pp. RRP $15.
Available from MPHG, PO Box5276, Middle Park 3206;
http://mphg.businesscatalyst.com

Horse play

Mervyn Millar: The Horse’s Mouth – How Handspring and the National Theatre made War Horse
This book follows the production the play adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel, from early concept workshops to one of the most beguiling and original plays ever staged by Britain’s National Theatre and an international stage phenomenon. There are accounts of how the puppets were designed and constructed and the way the puppeteers were trained. Millar also reveals that War Horse is the third in a trilogy of Handspring animal plays; the first were devoted to chimpanzees and giraffes. War Horse comes to Arts Centre Melbourne in December 2012.
Oberon, UK, 2011. 104 pp. RRP $28.95.

Chauvel's classic

Jane Mills: Jedda

Released in 1955, Jedda is a film of many firsts – the first Australian feature shot in colour, the first to star two indigenous actors and the first to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival, garnering its director, Charles Chauvel, a nomination for the Golden Palm Award, another first. Jedda was one of several popular post-World War II melodramas that dealt with miscegenation. Film writer and scholar Jane Mills explores its themes and its representation of the Australian Aborigine, while making comparisons to the Native American sub-genre of the Hollywood Western. This is the 13th title in Currency’s ‘Australian Screen Classics’ series.
Currency Press, 2012. 80 pp. RRP $16.95.

 

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‘Housewife Superstar’ Marjorie Bligh.