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'Peter Weir: Interviews is the first volume of interviews to be published on the esteemed Australian director. Although Weir (b. 1944) has acquired a reputation of being guarded about his life and work, these interviews by archivists, journalists, historians, and colleagues reveal him to be a most amiable and forthcoming subject. He talks about "the precious desperation of the art, the madness, the willingness to experiment" in all his films; the adaptation process from novel to film, when he tells a scriptwriter, "I'm going to eat your script; it's going to be part of my blood!"; and his self-assessment as "merely a jester, with cap and bells, going from court to court." He is encouraged, even provoked to tell his own story, from his childhood in a Sydney suburb in the 1950s, to his apprenticeship in the Australian television industry in the 1960s, his preparations to shoot his first features in the early 1970s, his international celebrity in Australia and Hollywood. An extensive new interview details his current plans for a new film.
'Interviews discuss Weir's diverse and impressive range of work–his earlier films Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, Gallipoli, and The Year of Living Dangerously, as well as Academy Award-nominated Witness, Dead Poets Society, Green Card, The Truman Show, and Master and Commander. This book confirms that the trajectory of Weir's life and work parallels and embodies Australia's own quest to define and express a historical and cultural identity.' (Publication summary)
Contents
- Introduction : 'Unmet Friends' : Encounters with Peter Weir, single work criticism (p. xiii-xxx)
- Peter Weir: Reclaiming a Sydney Boyhood, single work interview (p. 3-5)
- Peter Weir : Snapshots in Time, single work interview (p. 6-39)
- Peter Weir : Early Days, single work interview (p. 40-46)
- Small Screens and Big Screens : Television and Film, single work interview (p. 47-69)
- The First Features : The Cars That Ate Paris, single work interview (p. 70-78)
- 'Weir, Weird, and Weirder Still : The Riddle of Hanging Rock, single work interview (p. 79-84)
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Years of Living Dangerously : The Last Wave, The Plumber, Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously,
single work
interview
Interview conducted in 1985.
- Interview with Peter Weir, single work interview (p. 105-110)
- Peter Weir - Master of Unease, Terry Dowling (interviewer), George Mannix (interviewer), single work interview (p. 111-132)
- Towards the Center, single work interview (p. 133-147)
- The Swizzle Stick : Peter Weir and Hollywood Genres, single work interview (p. 148-160)
- The Iceman Cometh : Mosquito Coast, single work interview (p. 161-166)
- Fearless : The Poetry of Apocalypse, single work interview (p. 167-174)
- Poetry Man : Dead Poets Society, single work interview (p. 175-182)
- Weir's Worlds : The Truman Show, single work interview (p. 183-190)
- This Is Your Life : The Truman Show, single work interview (p. 191-199)
- He's Fought His Own Way Back to Work, single work interview (p. 200-203)
- 'I Am Your Eyes' Interviews with Russell Boyd, ACS, ASC, single work interview (p. 204-239)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Review : Peter Weir : Interviews
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 8 no. 1 2014; (p. 76-78)
— Review of Peter Weir : Interviews 2014 anthology interview
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Review : Peter Weir : Interviews
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 8 no. 1 2014; (p. 76-78)
— Review of Peter Weir : Interviews 2014 anthology interview