It all began in Marvellous Melbourne. One hundred years of ground-breaking film history. The world’s first Feature Film. Australia’s first Picture Palace. Australia’s first Film Festival.
The excitement and brilliance of Melbourne’s vibrant film culture is seen through the life of a movie obsessed Melburnian, Ross Campbell, in Melbourne and the Movies: Confessions of a Certified Cinephile.
Ross tells the extraordinary story of Melbourne making the world’s first feature film, experiencing first-hand the rebirth of Australian filmmaking in the 1970s, and embracing art and music, projection and ever-evolving technology.
An insider’s story, filled with celebration and humour: Francis Ford Coppola mortgaged everything to make Apocalypse Now? You spoke to Bernard Herrmann? Richard Franklin’s illegal screening of Hitchcock’s Vertigo in Melbourne? Five rounds of applause at Cannes for Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career!
Ross illuminates decades of astounding innovation and change. From music for silent films to IMAX and beyond. A revelation on every page. A cinematic adventure for film lovers everywhere. The book is lavishly illustrated with original photos from films, movie posters, actors and critics.
A child of the Saturday matinee, Ross Campbell is an award-winning documentary director and producer. An honours graduate of the London Film School. For three decades, he was a technical consultant to the Melbourne International Film Festival, and artistic director for silent film and orchestra for the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts.
An expert and exacting curator of music for silent film screenings, Ross created the majestic and opulent Erwin Rado Theatre in Fitzroy for the Melbourne International Film Festival’s media previews and young filmmakers’ cast and crew screenings. A legendary mini-cinema beloved across the city by directors, filmmakers, writers, cinephiles, movie-makers and musicians. Ross is a member of Cinema Pioneers of Australia.
Melbourne and the Movies is now available from all good bookstores. For more information, visit: www.melbourneandthemovies.com.au for details.
Image: Melbourne and the Movies (supplied)