Wed 17 Apr 1968 - The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982)

Page 8 - THE FILM COULD BE A WINNER

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Line 1.0.0 THE FILM Line 1.0.1 COULD BE Line 1.0.2 A WINNER

Line 2.0.0 On Dunk ls. in the Barrier Reef Line 2.0.1 a film unit, led by international Line 2.0.2 star James Mason and famous Line 2.0.3 director Michael Powell, is shoot Line 2.0.4 ing "Age of Consent," the Norman Line 2.0.5 Lindsay novel. After a stay on Line 2.0.6 location Kay Keavney reports..,

Line 3.0.0 CORA, sea-waif of the story (English Line 3.0.1 actress Helen Mirren), with a piece of Line 3.0.2 ornamental driftwood which artist Brad Line 3.0.3 (James Mason) has set up and painted Line 3.0.4 outside his decrepit shack on the island. Line 3.1.0 SUNDAY PICNIC (below) at Purtaboi, Line 3.1.1 near Dunk Island. James Mason pours Line 3.1.2 beer for the company on their day off. Line 3.1.3 Right is Englishman John Pellatt, veteran Line 3.1.4 of 60 films, who paid tribute to the crew.

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Line 6.0.0 ABOVE: Producer-director Line 6.0.1 Michael Powell (pointing) Line 6.0.2 and camera crew working Line 6.0.3 in torrential tropic rain on Line 6.0.4 a platform built out from Line 6.0.5 Dunk Island jetty. Powell is Line 6.0.6 signalling James Mason to Line 6.0.7 start his run down the ¡etty. Line 6.1.0 PAINTER Brad (right) Line 6.1.1 explores the beach with Line 6.1.2 Godfrey, a wire - haired Line 6.1.3 bitzer who plays the artist's Line 6.1.4 boon companion in the film.

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Line 9.0.0 JAMES MASON, as Brad, '» Line 9.0.1 the tropic solitude he hos Line 9.0.2 crossed the world to fid

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I MAKE-UP GIRL Peggy Carter, of Balgowlah,

I N.S.W., shares a joke with James Mason and

I Hehn Mirren. In the film they play a middle-aged

I painter and a teenage ragamuffin orphan girl.



STAR James Mason spearfishing

in the blue-green seas off

Dunk Island, where "Age of

Consent" is being filmed.



I'TITHO taught you to

TT steal?" snapped

the artist. "My grand-

mother," tjbe girl said.

She sat with the sea at

her back, grasping a bucket-

ful of sea creatures between

her bare brown legs.

"Where's your mother?"

demanded the artist, a

middle-aged man dreading

involvement, and with a

compassionate heart to hide.

"Dead," said Cora.

"Father?"

"Never had one," said

Cora. "Not one that would

own up to it."

The wind whipped her

long, wet, sun-bleached hair.

Came a whirring, and

artist and sea-waif and en-

chanted island faded and

disappeared. Lights went up.

I came down to earth.

I sat in a crowded tent

on Dunk Island, off the

¡North Queensland coast, and

what I had seen were rushes

from the million-dollar film

being made there, based on

Norman Lindsay's novel

"Age of Consent."

The bearded artist wa«

James Mason, and Cora wa;

England's Helen Mirren

who were sitting just ar

[arm's reach away.

I Producer-director Michac

I Powell, taut and dynamic

I turned to argue color value:

I with Hannes Staudinger

I photography directo)

I (whose credits include th<

?Japanese masterpiece

I "Samurai").

I Sixty-odd people crammec

I the tent, analysing and dis

I jeering in a sudden out

I burst of sound. Most o

I them were young - tannec

(boys and girls in brigh

j casual clothing. All wen

I dedicated film professionals

? Nearly all were Australian:

I Carpenters and cinematog

I raphers, actors and account

lan«, make-up and wardrob

I girls, lighting experts, soun<

I'xpcrts, a nurse, thre



artists, film editors, secre-

taries, a generator operator,

a dog-handler - all were

part of an army air-lifted

2000 miles to this tiny

island on the rim of thc

Barrier Reef.

Their mood was victori-

ous. They seemed to feel

they were on a winner. And

so, over the next few davs,

did I.

""Age of Consent*' is dif-

ferent. It's refreshing, and

what an advertisement for

Australia - part of Aus-

tralia I, for one, had never

seen.

This is a film about indi-

vidual human values, and

human commitment, played

out against a backdrop of

sea and sky and scented air.

The film takes time out

to observe the way a frog

leaps, and to listen to bird-

song, which is a pleasant

thing in a war-weary world.

Imported frogs

- local ones didn't

jump high enough

It's a light-hearted film,

often funny, and it features

a very funny man, Ireland's

Jack MacGowran, whom

James Mason calls "one of

the finest living actors."

"How are you getting on

with the Australian accent?"

I asked Jack.

"I'm listening for it, listen-

ing all the time," he said in

his lilting Irish. "I'm learn-

ing, ah, but some Irish will

come through. It's very like

the speech of the west of

Ireland, you know. I'm

thinking maybe it stems from

there."

Helen Mirren is a joy, as

natural and unselfconscious

as Cora, the girl she plays.

She's completely anti

glamor (her sole costume for

the film cost $4) and she's

built like a female.

With any luck she might

start a new trend that buries



Twiggy, and all the girls in

(he world with curves will

be able to start acting proud

of them again.

"'Age of Consent" is vir-

tually her first film*.

"'So I'm learning my trade

as I go along," she told me,

biting messily into a guava.

"'When I got this part with

James Mason, I thought,

marvellous, I'll be able to

watch a master at work. But,

in fact, what he does is so

clever and so subtle, you

don't know what it is till

you see it on the screen."

As for Mason himself, the

film seems likely to reveal

for the first time? - the

tremendous personal quali-

ties, the warmth, seen in his

television interviews in Aus-

tralia.

I saw quite a deal of him

on th? island. Mason, at his

actor's trade, Mason, the co

producer, in constrnt con-

sultation with Powell.

Going over his lines and

fan mail with his good friend

and secretary of many years,

Frank Essien. Combing the

shore for seashells. Spending

his one day off, Sunday, at

an impromptu picnic, stand-

ing by the hour pouring beer

for the crew.

I saw crazy things, part

of the crazy film business.

A crewman, for instance,

at the height of an absolute

downpour, frantically work-

ing a machine to make a bit

more rain.

And a barrel of fat frogs,

specially imported at great

expense because the local

variety didn't leap right.

I talked to the Australians,

men and women, whenever I

got the chance, trying to find

out how they developed such

competence in a land devoid

of a film industry.

Lots of them have knocked

around the world. Most have

worked on the films that

occasionally and increasingly



are shot here, and TV series,

like "Skippy," and com-

mercials and anything else

that gets them among film.

Every one of them was

worth a story, and a spot of

national pride. IT1 just men-

tion young, dark Tony Buck-

ley, who will edit the film -

the first time it has been

wholly done in Australia and

the first time it has been

done on actual location.

"What a responsibility,"

groaned Tony. "But what an

opportunity!"

All the international big

shots paid tribute to the

Australians.

Said Mason, "Absolutely

professional." Said English-

man John Pellatt, finance ad-

viser, a veteran of 60 films,

"Wouldn't you agree. Micky,

that this is thc finest crew

we've ever worked with?"

Said Michael Powell, the

perfectionist, "It's becoming

so."

I marvelled at thc sheer

logistics - air- and sea

freighting everything from a

hairpin to a $50,000 genera-

tor to the pocket-handker-

chief of an island.

(That generator sank in

24 feet of water just off



Townsville. It had to be dug

up, towed underwater to

Dunk, landed, dried out, and

reassembled - and so tight

was organisation that the

production hardly missed a

beat.)

I watched young bearded

artist Paul Delprat and his

two pretty girl assistants,

who actually paint the works

artist Brad does on the

island. They also painted the

decrepit shack Brad rents

and turns into a riot of color.

Machine-made

rain to boost a

tropic downpour

Some of the paintings of

Cora are nudes. In the film,

she poses for them in total

innocence. Brad paints them

with total objectivity -

until the world breaks in and

brings conflict and tension,

and violent death.

Paul works on the nudes

at a remote beach called

Muggy Muggy (now known

to the crew as Nuddy

Muddy) and on the perfect

little island across from

Dunk called Purtaboi.

It was the scene of the

Sunday picnic, when the

hard workers played just as

