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| David Stratton was a major figure in the Australian film industry. Photo courtesy news.com.au |
By Tony Magee
Australian film critic David Stratton, who died August 14 aged 85, will be fondly remembered starring alongside Margaret Pomeranz on The Movie Show on SBS and At the Movies on the ABC.
Tributes have flowed including from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who said “With dry humour and sharp insight David Stratton shared his love of film with our country.
“All of us who tuned into At The Movies respected him for his deep knowledge and for the gentle and generous way he passed it on”.
Director George Miller said “His immense contribution included screening films at the Sydney Film Festival from Asia, Europe, the Eastern Bloc, India and Japan, influencing the directors who were breaking through in the 1970s.
“If Stratton had not screened the first short film that I made with producer Byron Kennedy in 1971 - Violence in the Cinema, Part 1 - it would not have been distributed by Greater Union and we would not have made Mad Max. That was directly attributable to David standing up for the film”.
A spokesperson for his family said, “David’s passion for film, commitment to Australian cinema and generous spirit touched countless lives.
“He was adored as a husband, father, grand- and great-grandfather and admired friend. David’s family would like to express their heartfelt gratitude for the overwhelming support from friends, colleagues and the public recently and across his lifetime.”
Stratton also chronicled the history of Australian film in his books The Last New Wave, The Avocado Plantation and, in 2024, Australia at the Movies. His memoir I Peed on Fellini: Recollections of a Life in Film, was published by Penguin Books in 2008.
A “ten-pound Pom”, Stratton was born in Wiltshire in the UK in 1939, and moved to Australia in 1963 under the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme introduced by the Chifley government in 1945.
In 1965, he took over as director of the Sydney Film Festival, a position he would hold for the next 18 years. He championed foreign-language films, rallying against the censorship that was rife at the time.
A spokesperson for the festival said “We would not exist without David’s remarkable passion and devotion.
“We praise his successful fight against censorship of films in Australia, the establishment of the Travelling Film Festival, support for emerging filmmakers from Australia and around the world, and fostering of a brave and adventurous cinema culture in Australian audiences”.
He later gained greater fame for reviewing films on SBS and the ABC with Margaret Pomeranz, the two becoming one of Australian television’s most famous duos.
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| Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton were co-hosts for 28 years — first of “The Movie Show” on SBS and then “At the Movies” on ABC. (Photo supplied / ABC TV) |
“When we met I was a cinema enthusiast, not a walking encyclopedia of film like David.” said Pomeranz.
“When he first came into SBS and I tried to talk to him, he brushed me off unceremoniously. I imagine a few people have had that experience with him but over the years he became much more welcoming of people approaching him – especially young film enthusiasts, many of whom he mentored and promoted. He was unstintingly generous in that way.
“So I became the producer of his movie introductions, to Movie of the Week and his beloved Cinema Classics. I had to create new lead-ins to these, and David and I decided to use Nino Rota’s music. I had such fun with the introduction to the Classics, with images of Polanski’s Knife in the Water, Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin. Of course David had to approve everything, and we formed a good working relationship.
“Our first film discussion, or vague disagreement, was about the Australian film The Empty Beach, directed by Chris Thomson, based on a novel by Peter Corris. I was dismissive but, as I listened to David’s support for the film, I realised that my reaction had been too facile. It was the beginning of Strats’ education of my film appreciation.
“It’s extraordinary that, over all the time we worked together, we never had a falling out.”
David Stratton experienced significant vision loss in his later years due to giant cell arteritis. The condition caused him to lose sight in one eye and severely limited his vision in the other. This impacted his ability to review films, leading him to retire from reviewing in 2023, though he continued to be involved in other film-related activities.
Stratton has always stated that his all-time favourite film was the Gene Kelly musical Singin’ in the Rain.
“It’s probably the best of the MGM musicals in an era when the musical film was one of the most innovative forms of cinema,” he told digital editor Craig Platt. “It’s funny, it’s clever. The songs and dances are great, and it also has a fascinating story.”
