war on screen - National Film and Sound Archive

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WAR ON SCREEN
A guide to cinema held in the
National Film and Sound Archive
Screen Lending Collection
For more information contact:
NFSA Screening Loans
GPO Box 2002 Canberra, ACT 2601
phone: 02 6248 2217
fax: 02 6249 8159
toll free: 1800 012 175
email: [email protected]
nfsa.gov.au/screeningloans
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Catch 22
About Our Service
HOW DO I BORROW ?
1.
Choose a regular time slot for your screenings and search our catalogue to make
a list of the movies from the collection that you’d like to borrow.
2.
Fill in the registration form and return it to us.
3.
We’ll give you a log-in and you can book your whole year’s programme directly
online. Or you can email it to us or call and we will book on your behalf.
4.
The DVDs will arrive at your venue several days before the screening. After your
screening you post the DVDs back to us.
5.
We post you an invoice with various options for payment.
You can get more information, and our registration form at our website.
nfsa.gov.au/screeningloans
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
It’s free to register as a member. Loans are inexpensive—see our website for current fees.
Rates include the screening licence and outwards postage. You pay return postage.
WHAT ABOUT COPYRIGHT?
Our DVDs are pre-licensed for public screening. Our licences require that no direct
admission charge is made. Screenings must be either free or only for members of a club
or organisation, however it is acceptable for your members to pay a subscription for a
season pass or membership.
Cover image: Diggers (1931)
HOW TO SEARCH THE COLLECTION
Go to our website nfsa.gov.au/screeningloans to see information about the NFSA Screen
Lending Collection and our services. To view our catalogue, click on the link
“Search NFSA Screen Lending Collection” .
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Overlord
Overlord
National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra
All Feature Films
4 Days in May (2011) Germany
Above Suspicion(1943) USA
After Your Decrees (1983) Germany
Always Another Dawn (1948) Australia
And Along Came Tourists (2007) Germany
Ashes and Diamonds (1958) Poland
Attack Force Z (1982) Australia
The Battle of Algiers (1966) Italy
Beneath Hill 60 (2010) Australia
Between Yesterday & Tomorrow (1947) Germany
Blood Oath (1990) Australia
Breaker Morant (1980) Australia
Casablanca (1942) USA
Catch 22 (1970) USA
Charlotte Gray (2001) Australia
Children, Mother and General (1955) Germany
Children of the Silk Road (2008) Australia / China
The Devil's General (1955) Germany
Diggers (1931) Australia
Diggers In Blighty (1933) Australia
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) USA
The English Patient (1996) USA
Europa, Europa (1989) Germany
Flame and Citron (2008) Denmark
For Me and My Gal (1942) USA
Goodbye Franziska! (1941) Germany
Gun Wound (1984) Germany
The Highest Honor (1981) Australia
Hitler: A Film from Germany (1977) Germany
Hotel Lux (2010) Germany
I was 19 (1968) Germany
Jacob the Liar (1974) Germany
John Rabe (2009) Germany
Kokoda (2006) Australia
The Last Bridge (1954) Germany
Lili Marleen (1980) Germany
The Longest Day (1962) USA
Lost Patrol (1934) USA
MASH (1970) USA
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978) Germany
Men in War (1956) USA
Merrill’s Marauders (1962) USA
Morituri (1948) Germany
The Murderers are Amongst Us (1946) Germany
Nerves (1919) Germany
The Ninth Day (2004) Germany
Nowhere in Africa (2002) Germany
Objective Burma (1945) USA
Overlord (1975) UK
Paradise Road (1997) Australia
Patton (1969) USA
Platoon (1986) USA
The Plot to Assassinate Hitler (1955) Germany
Poll (2010) Germany
Rosenstrasse (2004) Germany
Schindler’s List (1993)USA
Smilin’ Through (1941) USA
Sophie Scholl (2005) Germany
The Sound of Music (1965) USA
The Thin Red Line (1998) USA
This Land is Mine (1943) USA
Those Days (1947) Germany
Tomorrow When the War Began (2010) Australia
Tora Tora Tora (1970) USA
Turtles Can Fly (2005) Iran
War and Peace (1956) USA
The Way Back (2011) Australia
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) USA
The White Rose (1982) Germany
The Woman and The Stranger (1984) Germany
Welcome
The NFSA Screen Lending Collection loans films for public screening
to libraries, museums, clubs, councils, film societies, universities and
schools. There are hundreds of organisations all over Australia who
use our service.
Around 50 fantastic war-themed feature films on DVD are
contained within our wider collection of thousands of Australian
and international titles, which range from feature films to
documentaries, educational training films, animations and short film
compilations. All the films listed here are available at a low cost for
recreational screenings and have copyright permission pre-cleared.
For cinemas and groups that can screen 16mm and 35mm film
prints of Australian and international films, the selection of titles
available for loan is even larger —contact NFSA Screening Loans for
more details.
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Breaker Morant
Highlights from Australia
ALWAYS ANOTHER DAWN
Dir: T.O. McCreadie, 1948, 76mins
The son of a WW1 naval officer killed in
action in 1916 enlists in the Australian Navy
to fight the Germans and the Japanese.
He soon finds himself at the Battle of the
Coral Sea. A very early lead role for
Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell.
NFSA exclusive title
ATTACK FORCE Z
Dir: Tim Burstall, 1982, 93mins
A specially-trained group of Australian
WWII soldiers—the Z Force—are sent on a
rescue mission to an island occupied by
the Japanese. With plenty of action and a
cast including Mel Gibson, Sam Neil and
Chris Haywood, the film is lifted slightly
above that of a conventional war pic in
the way it depicts the local villagers.
BENEATH HILL 60
Dir: Jeremy Hartley, 2010, 117mins
It's 1916 and Australian miner Oliver
Woodward (Brendan Cowell) must leave
his young love to go to the mud and
carnage of the Western Front. Deep
beneath the German lines his secret
platoon of Australian miners fight to
defend a leaking, labyrinthine tunnel
system packed with enough explosives to
change the course of the war.
BLOOD OATH
Dir: Stephen Wallace, 1990, 108mins
Based on the Ambon tribunal which tried
91 Japanese soldiers for war crimes
against Australian prisoners, this film,
portrays the issue of war guilt, against
international power politics, through the
rhetoric of courtroom drama. Bryan Brown
heads a strong cast as the prosecutor.
BREAKER MORANT
Dir: Bruce Beresford, 1980, 102mins
Based on the true story of three Australian
Lighthorse men accused of murder during
the Boer War. Jack Thompson excels as
the lawyer appointed to defend the men
at their court martial in what increasingly
appears to be a show trial for political
expediency. Bryan Brown, Lewis FitzGerald and Edward Woodward play the
soldiers sent for trial.
PLATOON
Dir: Oliver Stone, 1986, 114 mins
Chris Taylor - a young naive college
student who enlisted in order to see the
world, is soon defiled by the actions of his
platoon sergeant, who brutalises his men
and whose ruthless, cruel and unrelenting
pursuit of the enemy befits his own
loathing of humanity. A metaphor for
America's own conflicting relationship to its
involvement in the Vietnam War.
autobiographical novel of James Jones,
the film is set on Guadalcanal Island in the
Pacific, during 1942, where a young group
of American soldiers have arrived to do
battle with the Japanese. The narrative
shifts from Private to General, from
Lieutenant to Sergeant, in a continuous
fragmented voice-over in which the
audience is made to confront the fears
and terrors that every soldier must face in
battle.
SCHINDLERS LIST
Dir: Steven Spielberg, 1993, 195 mins, B&W
Epic drama based on Thomas Keneally's
novel on the true story of Oskar Schindler,
an Austrian businessman who, during the
Second World War, saved 1,100 Polish
Jews from extermination by the Nazis.
Initially exploiting Jews from the Krakow
ghetto as unpaid labour in his ammunition
factory, Schindler develops a conscience
when he sees the full extent of Nazi antisemitism. Realising that employment in his
factory is the only thing preventing them
from being shipped to death camps, he
demands more workers.
TORA! TORA! TORA!
Dir: Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda, Kinji
Fukasaku 1970, USA / Japan,138 mins
An epic and expensive production that
attempted to realistically present the
battle for Pearl Harbour and the ensuing
conflict between the American and
Japanese armies in World War II. Uniquely,
the battle is presented from both sides,
rejecting traditional notions of one-sided
jingoistic storytelling so common in war
films. The Japanese directors pay close
attention to the military manoeuvring and
blunders of the campaign as well as
infighting within high command. For the
American section, the army is depicted as
unsuspecting of an attack of this scale,
hampered by limited technology and a
lack of foresight. One of the key films
about the pacific war.
THE THIN RED LINE
Dir: Terence Malick, 1998, 164 mins
Marking Malick's return to filmmaking after
a twenty year hiatus, and based on the
Platoon
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DIGGERS
Dir: Frank Thring, 1931, 59mins
The story of two Australian `cobbers’—
stereotypical larrikins—who served
together in France during WW1.
Attending a reunion 12 years after the
war, they reminisce about their "exploits",
through three different episodes. Much of
the humour comes through jokes and
slapstick, though as one of Australia’s first
sound ‘talkie’ films, audio quality is limited
by the early sound systems and their static
microphones.
NFSA exclusive title
Objective Burma
Highlights from USA
CATCH 22
Dir: Mike Nichols, 1970, 116 mins
An absurdist satire from Joseph Heller’s
popular novel about a WW2 airbase in the
Mediterranean. With surreal visuals from
director Mike Nichols and DOP David
Watkin (Oscar winner for OUT OF AFRICA),
the story features a manic performance
from Alan Arkin as Captain Yossarian, a
pilot frantic in his desire to cease flying
missions and haunted by the death of a
gunner. Yossarian's pleas of insanity falls on
deaf ears - due to the ’catch’ of the title.
There are winners, losers, opportunists, and
survivors; and almost all are a little crazy.
THE LONGEST DAY
Prod: Darryl F Zanuck, 1962, 171 mins, B&W
D-Day. 6th June 1944. The Allied invasion of
France begins, aiming to turn the tide of
the Second World War. Containing gritty
battle sequences and harrowing accounts
of the terror and confusion, the film displays
the complexity of the D-Day battle plan.
Made by ‘people who were there’, with
four directors and dozens of international
stars, headed by Robert Mitchum, John
Wayne and Richard Burton, this is one of
the most ambitious war films ever made.
M.A.S.H.
Dir: Robert Altman, 1970, 111 mins
The doctors at a US Mobile Army Surgical
Hospital (MASH) during the Korean war
(read Vietnam), use humour and practical
jokes to maintain their sanity amidst the
chaos surrounding them. Not only hugely
popular, this audacious black comedy
was stylistically innovative, Altman utilising
multi-layered stories, overlapping dialogue
and telephoto lenses, though the film does
veer increasingly off-course. Viewers used
to the spin-off TV series will find a different
tone and rawness in the original film, along
with the comparatively unfamiliar Donald
Sutherland and Elliott Gould in the lead
roles of Hawkeye and Trapper John.
OBJECTIVE BURMA
Dir: Raoul Walsh, 1945, 142 mins, B&W
A platoon of US commando soldiers (led by
Errol Flynn) parachute deep into occupied
Burma to destroy a vital radar station. While
reaching the target through dense jungle is
difficult, the trek back to the rendez-vous
to be airlifted out is their real ordeal.
Significant as it was made during WW2 (in
California), it has a harder edge and more
earnest patriotism than many war films.
THE HIGHEST HONOR
Dir: P. Maxwell, S. Maruyama, 1981,
105mins
A special force of Australian and British
soldiers travelling undercover in a
disguised boat, tell the true story of a
daring raid to blow up Japanese ships in
Singapore harbour. However they face
an uncertain fate when they are
captured, testing their loyalties.
KOKODA
Dir: Alister Grierson, 2006, 92mins
A barely-trained unit of militiamen on the
Kokoda track in New Guinea are cut off
Kokoda
from their supply lines, with only patchy
radio communications. Overwhelmed by
illness and fatigue, they make their way
through unforgiving terrain, only to have
to return immediately to battle.
PARADISE ROAD
Dir: Bruce Beresford, 1997, 122mins
Based on actual events, this is the story of
a group of Australian, British and Dutch
women who, after the fall of Singapore in
1942, were held captive by the Japanese
on the island of Sumatra. Herded into a
brutal prisoner of war camp and stripped
of everything they had, their irrepressible
courage led them to find one voice, a
vocal orchestra, that ultimately expressed
their indomitable, unbreakable spirit.
TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGAN
Dir: Stuart Beattie, 2010, 100 mins
Seven teenagers escape their small town
for a weekend of camping. When they
return they find the town—and the
country—has been invaded by a foreign
army, and their families taken hostage.
Using their wits, they must now survive
alone, testing their friendships and
growing up very quickly. From the popular
series of novels by John Marsden.
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NERVES
(Nerven)
Dir: Robert Reinert, 1919 110 min, B&W
Possibly the first film about the ‘nervous
epidemic’ —shellshock—and its ripples
through the society of post WWI Germany.
This unique portrait of life also covers sex,
politics and religion, describing the cases
of different people from all levels of
society. The Munich Film Museum
reconstructed this forgotten German
classic which anticipates elements of
1920s Expressionist cinema.
John Rabe
Highlights from Germany
4 DAYS IN MAY
(4 Tages Im Mai)
Dir: Achim von Borries, 2011, 95 min
Germany in May 1945, four days before the
end of the Second World War: A Russian
patrol occupies an orphanage on the
Baltic coast and tries to come to an
arrangement with the residents.
Meanwhile, a German Army unit still resides
on the beach, getting ready to defect to
Denmark. Both sides are tired of fighting only a 13-year-old orphan wants to be a
hero and tries to provoke a confrontation.
A film about and against war, improbable
and yet based on a true story.
THE DEVIL'S GENERAL
(Des Teufels General)
Dir: Helmut Kautner, 1955, 115 min, B&W
General Harras is portrayed as a stubborn,
power-driven officer, vain, irreverent to the
point of recklessness and a womanizer.
During the course of WW2 in 1941, and
following certain key experiences, he
increasingly develops an inner distance
from Hitler's regime. He is arrested, then
released on the condition that he root out
the saboteurs responsible for a series of
fighter plane crashes. Based on a real-life
pilot, the aviation pioneer Ernst Udet.
EUROPA, EUROPA
(Hitlerjunge Salomon)
Dir: Agnieszka Holland, 1986, 109 min
A story of survival based on the actual
case of Solomon Perel. As the Nazis invade
Poland his German-Jewish family send him
east with his brother to an orphanage in
Russian-occupied Poland. When the
Germans subsequently overrun the place,
Solomon's looks allow him to pass himself
off as Aryan, a ploy which ultimately finds
him in a Hitler Youth school where he lives
in mortal fear that his Jewishness - his
circumcision - will be discovered.
JOHN RABE
Dir: Florian Gallenberger, 2009, 129 min
The New York Times called him "China's
Oskar Schindler": John Rabe, director of the
Siemens branch in Nanking (Nanjing),
saved the lives of more than 200,000
people in 1937, during the Japanese
attack on the city. The film, directed by
Oscar winner Florian Gallenberger, is
based on Rabe's diaries, which were only
discovered in 1996.
NOWHERE IN AFRICA
(Nirgendwo in Afrika)
Dir: Caroline Link, 2002, 136 min
A Jewish family emigrates from Germany
to Kenya in 1937/38. The husband works as
manager on a farm and his wife has
trouble adapting to the tough, lonely life.
Only their daughter quickly makes contact
with the natives. When the war breaks out,
the family is interned. Academy Award
winner for Best Foreign Language Film.
POLL
Dir: Chris Kraus, 2010 139 min
After the death of her mother, 14-year-old
Oda von Siering returns to Estonia and her
German father in the last days before the
outbreak of the First World War. Oda then
4 Days in May
hides an Estonian anarchist and writer
from Russian soldiers. The story tells of a first
love with a tragic end.
SOPHIE SCHOLL - THE FINAL DAYS
(Sophie Scholl - Die Letzten Tage)
Dir: Marc Rothemund, 2005, 116 min
February 1943. After distributing anti-Nazi
leaflets, young Sophie Scholl and her
brother Hans are arrested in Munich
University. After days of being interrogated
by the Gestapo, they face the Nazi
"People's Court". Winner of many awards
plus an Academy Award Nomination for
Best Foreign Language Film.
THOSE DAYS
(In Jenen Tages)
Dir: Helmut Kautner, 1947, 98 min, B&W
Told through the perspective of a car—
from its first registration in 1933 through to
its final scrapping in 1947—the film mirrors
the years of Hitler's regime. Also known as
SEVEN JOURNEYS, the fates of the car's
successive owners are depicted, among
them a composer of 'subversive' music; a
Jewish couple; a deserting soldier; and an
old woman who is fleeing the Nazis. Retelling the history of an era, it presents a
multi-faceted view of Germany, recalling
the ambience of 'those days'.