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'One of the seminal films of the 1970s, Alvin Purple depicts Alvin's struggles with his irresistibility to women - from his school days and time as a waterbed salesman to his short-lived career as a sex therapist. The 'definitive ocker comedy', Alvin Purple survived a critical mauling and went on to become the most commercially successful Australian film of the 1970s.
'Catharine Lumby takes a fresh look at the film, the social and political era in which it was made and the forces that fuelled its success. She revisits claims that the movie is little more than an exercise in sexploitation and argues that the film is far more complex than its detractors have allowed.' (Publisher's blurb)
According to McFarlane 'Lumby situates this discourse on Alvin as a representation of female desire in the 1970s context of a feminist polemics which made itself felt variously in the high-level argumentation of a Germaine Greer and in more populist vein in the pages of Cleo magazine.'
Notes
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Launched in Canberra at the Arc Cinema, National Film and Sound Archive, 26 June 2008 and in Sydney at the Chauvel Cinema, Paddington, 3 July 2008.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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[Review] Alvin Purple [and] The Piano
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 54 2009; (p. 207-211)
— Review of Alvin Purple 2008 single work criticism ; The Piano 2007 single work criticism -
Alvin Purple by Catherine Lumby
2008-2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , no. 49 2008-2009;
— Review of Alvin Purple 2008 single work criticism -
Actor Turns to Purple Prose
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11-12 October 2008; (p. 35)
— Review of The Naked Truth : A Life in Parts 2008 single work autobiography ; Alvin Purple 2008 single work criticism -
Off the Shelf : Film
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 2 August 2008; (p. 28)
— Review of Alvin Purple 2008 single work criticism
-
Off the Shelf : Film
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 2 August 2008; (p. 28)
— Review of Alvin Purple 2008 single work criticism -
Actor Turns to Purple Prose
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11-12 October 2008; (p. 35)
— Review of The Naked Truth : A Life in Parts 2008 single work autobiography ; Alvin Purple 2008 single work criticism -
[Review] Alvin Purple [and] The Piano
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 54 2009; (p. 207-211)
— Review of Alvin Purple 2008 single work criticism ; The Piano 2007 single work criticism -
Alvin Purple by Catherine Lumby
2008-2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , no. 49 2008-2009;
— Review of Alvin Purple 2008 single work criticism