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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Elderly and successful artist Bradley Morahan believes he has become too stale and is past his prime. His friend (and agent) persuades him to go to a secluded island on the Great Barrier Reef to try and recapture inspiration. He re-discovers his muse not through nature but in the form of Cora, a shy teenage girl. The relationship is not viewed well, however, by her drunken grandmother, Ma Ryan. When Morahan and the grandmother argue one night, the old lady falls and dies. Cora helps Morahan deceive the police about her grandmother's death. While the artist's feelings toward Cora turn increasingly to love, she in turn manages to open his eyes to see her as more than merely his model.
Notes
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The film rights to Norman Lindsay's novel were bought by Australian actor, writer, director, and producer Michael Pate some years prior to the making of this film. Managing to interest British director Michael Powell (They're a Weird Mob) in the story, Pate took on the role of Associate Producer for the production. Interestingly, Pate had previously adapted the story into a screenplay himself, but this version was not used for the Powell film. Instead, Pate and the director assigned Peter Yeldham to write the screenplay.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Related Works
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y
Age of Consent
1960-1969
(Manuscript version)x401472
Z1209191
1960-1969
single work
drama
Works about this Work
-
y
Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema : Poetics and Screen Geographies
London
:
Anthem Press
,
2016
11063066
2016
multi chapter work
criticism
'‘Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema’ comprises eight essays, an introduction and conclusion, and the analysis of poetics and cultural geographies is focused on landmark films and television. The first section of the book, ‘Backtracks: Landscape and Identity’, refers to films from and before the revival, beginning with the 1978 film 'The Irishman' as an example of heritage cinema in which performances of gender and race, like the setting, suggest a romanticised and uncritical image of colonial Australia. It is compared to Baz Luhrmann’s 'Australia' (2008) and several other films. In the second chapter, ‘Heritage Enigmatic’, 'The Irishman' is also drawn into comparison with Charles Chauvel’s ‘Jedda’ (1955), as films that incorporate Indigenous performances in this heritage discourse through the role of voice and sound. In Part 2, ‘Silences in Paradise’, the first essay, ‘Tropical Gothic’, focuses on Rachel Perkins’s 'Radiance' (1998) as a landmark post-colonial film that questions the connotations of icons of paradise in Queensland. The discussion leads to films, in the next chapter, ‘Island Girls Friday’, that figure women on Queensland islands, spanning the pre-revival and contemporary era: ‘Age of Consent’ (1969), ‘Nim’s Island’ (2008) and ‘Uninhabited’ (2010). Part 3, ‘Masculine Dramas of the Coast’ moves to the Gold Coast, in films dating from before and since the current spike in transnational production at the Warner Roadshow film studios there, namely, 'The Coolangatta Gold' (1984), 'Peter Pan' (2003), and 'Sanctum' (2011). The final section, ‘Regional Backtracks’, turns, first, to two television series, ‘Remote Area Nurse’ (2006), and ‘The Straits’ (2012), that share unique provenance of production in the Torres Strait and far north regions of Queensland, while, in the final chapter, the iconic outback districts of western Queensland figure the convergence of land, landscape and location in films with potent perspectives on Indigenous histories in ‘The Proposition’ (2005) and ‘Mystery Road’ (2013). ‘Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema’ presents the various regions as syncretic spaces subject to transitions of social and industry practices over time.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
-
The Girl with the Bush Knife : Women, Adventure and the Tropics in Age of Consent and Nim’s Island
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Etropic : Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics , no. 9 2010; 'Our paper broadly concerns the distinction of our cinematic heroines, Cora in Age of Consent (dir. Michael Powell 1969) and Nim of Nim's Island (d. Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, 2008), from the more typical 'bush women' of Australian cinema and literature. The figure of our title, the 'girl with the bush knife', is a kind of marine creature, vividly captured in Age of Consent beneath tropical waters, mermaid-like but arguably a modified mermaid, while Nim of Nim's Island is an androgynous child adventurer descended from a swag of male mariners, whose several accessories include a bush knife. Their appearances in films 40 years apart are as much the object of inquiry in this paper as the femininities they perform, in that these films also represent minor milestones in Australian cinema at points at which the film industry has undergone change. The contexts of these changes are somehow signified, we suggest, by the use of tropical locations and settings, and we are therefore drawing attention to the way these female characters are accompanied by the spectacle of the tropical place in its difference from the more mythologised bush and desert landscapes of Australian mise-en-scene. Indeed, both Age of Consent and Nim's Island use locations in Queensland to fictionalize settings that are either in or towards Queensland, and both adapt the well established symbology of Eden, paradise and epic journey, that are defined in studies of Queensland in film and television by Bruce Molloy (1990) and Albert Moran (2001). But whereas Molloy and Moran largely concentrate on films produced by Australian interests within the ambit of a local film industry, our films are both instances of films made by international interests, with a degree of local involvement and capital, on visitations to 'locations less used', namely North and Far North Queensland.' (Author's abstract) -
Michael Powell Down Under : Norman Lindsay’s Age of Consent
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , no. 51 2009;
— Review of The Age of Consent 1969 single work film/TV -
Beyond the Age of Consent
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11-12 June 2005;
— Review of The Age of Consent 1969 single work film/TV Discusses the restored version of the film to be shown at the Sydney Film Festival. Includes excerpts from an interview with Helen Mirren. -
Age of Consent
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , July - September no. 36 2005;
— Review of The Age of Consent 1969 single work film/TV
-
Michael Powell Down Under : Norman Lindsay’s Age of Consent
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , no. 51 2009;
— Review of The Age of Consent 1969 single work film/TV -
Age of Consent
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , July - September no. 36 2005;
— Review of The Age of Consent 1969 single work film/TV -
Beyond the Age of Consent
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11-12 June 2005;
— Review of The Age of Consent 1969 single work film/TV Discusses the restored version of the film to be shown at the Sydney Film Festival. Includes excerpts from an interview with Helen Mirren. -
Bristly Banter
1969
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 2 August vol. 91 no. 4664 1969; (p. 44-45)
— Review of The Age of Consent 1969 single work film/TV -
The Girl with the Bush Knife : Women, Adventure and the Tropics in Age of Consent and Nim’s Island
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Etropic : Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics , no. 9 2010; 'Our paper broadly concerns the distinction of our cinematic heroines, Cora in Age of Consent (dir. Michael Powell 1969) and Nim of Nim's Island (d. Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, 2008), from the more typical 'bush women' of Australian cinema and literature. The figure of our title, the 'girl with the bush knife', is a kind of marine creature, vividly captured in Age of Consent beneath tropical waters, mermaid-like but arguably a modified mermaid, while Nim of Nim's Island is an androgynous child adventurer descended from a swag of male mariners, whose several accessories include a bush knife. Their appearances in films 40 years apart are as much the object of inquiry in this paper as the femininities they perform, in that these films also represent minor milestones in Australian cinema at points at which the film industry has undergone change. The contexts of these changes are somehow signified, we suggest, by the use of tropical locations and settings, and we are therefore drawing attention to the way these female characters are accompanied by the spectacle of the tropical place in its difference from the more mythologised bush and desert landscapes of Australian mise-en-scene. Indeed, both Age of Consent and Nim's Island use locations in Queensland to fictionalize settings that are either in or towards Queensland, and both adapt the well established symbology of Eden, paradise and epic journey, that are defined in studies of Queensland in film and television by Bruce Molloy (1990) and Albert Moran (2001). But whereas Molloy and Moran largely concentrate on films produced by Australian interests within the ambit of a local film industry, our films are both instances of films made by international interests, with a degree of local involvement and capital, on visitations to 'locations less used', namely North and Far North Queensland.' (Author's abstract) -
y
Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema : Poetics and Screen Geographies
London
:
Anthem Press
,
2016
11063066
2016
multi chapter work
criticism
'‘Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema’ comprises eight essays, an introduction and conclusion, and the analysis of poetics and cultural geographies is focused on landmark films and television. The first section of the book, ‘Backtracks: Landscape and Identity’, refers to films from and before the revival, beginning with the 1978 film 'The Irishman' as an example of heritage cinema in which performances of gender and race, like the setting, suggest a romanticised and uncritical image of colonial Australia. It is compared to Baz Luhrmann’s 'Australia' (2008) and several other films. In the second chapter, ‘Heritage Enigmatic’, 'The Irishman' is also drawn into comparison with Charles Chauvel’s ‘Jedda’ (1955), as films that incorporate Indigenous performances in this heritage discourse through the role of voice and sound. In Part 2, ‘Silences in Paradise’, the first essay, ‘Tropical Gothic’, focuses on Rachel Perkins’s 'Radiance' (1998) as a landmark post-colonial film that questions the connotations of icons of paradise in Queensland. The discussion leads to films, in the next chapter, ‘Island Girls Friday’, that figure women on Queensland islands, spanning the pre-revival and contemporary era: ‘Age of Consent’ (1969), ‘Nim’s Island’ (2008) and ‘Uninhabited’ (2010). Part 3, ‘Masculine Dramas of the Coast’ moves to the Gold Coast, in films dating from before and since the current spike in transnational production at the Warner Roadshow film studios there, namely, 'The Coolangatta Gold' (1984), 'Peter Pan' (2003), and 'Sanctum' (2011). The final section, ‘Regional Backtracks’, turns, first, to two television series, ‘Remote Area Nurse’ (2006), and ‘The Straits’ (2012), that share unique provenance of production in the Torres Strait and far north regions of Queensland, while, in the final chapter, the iconic outback districts of western Queensland figure the convergence of land, landscape and location in films with potent perspectives on Indigenous histories in ‘The Proposition’ (2005) and ‘Mystery Road’ (2013). ‘Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema’ presents the various regions as syncretic spaces subject to transitions of social and industry practices over time.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
- Coast,
- Queensland,
