Cirrus@Austlit

'Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark and Ms. Tarantula hatch a plot to pull off the ultimate heist.' (Production summary)

After the car accident in which his younger brother Sam is killed, Charlie St Cloud finds himself able to see and speak to his brother's ghost, until the intervention of Tess Carroll in Charlie's life changes the balance of the brothers' relationship.

A troubled film adaptation of Richard Neville's memoir.

A widower returns to his home town to find answers to his wife's murder, which he suspects is linked to a murdered ventriloquist from his family's past.

Alex and Sophie, two British tourists backpacking through Australia, encounter an American traveller, Taylor, who seems charming, if a little intense. But as they travel from Sydney to Bryon Bay and further into the Australian outback, heading for Katherine Gorge, Taylor's motives for befriending them appear more and more sinister.

'Period drama. In a story set in the early 1950's, racially-biased attitudes come to the fore when a fisherman is found dead off the coastline of the USA's Pacific Northwest region. Kazuo Miyamoto, a young Japanese man, is arrested and charged with the fisherman's murder. The trial is set to commence on the ninth anniversary of the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbour, a fact which only serves to underline the heightened feelings of the community.'

Source: BFI database (http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/585092). (Sighted: 13/2/2014)

Adapted from Thomas Keneally's account of a Czech businessman and Nazi Party member who tried to make his fortune during the Second World War by exploiting cheap Jewish labour but ended up risking his life and becoming bankrupt in order to save more than a thousand Jewish Poles from the Holocaust.

Oskar Schindler arrives in Krakow (Poland) not long after Germany invades the country. The Nazis' relocation of Jewish citizens has already begun, but their ultimate objective is not yet fully understood by most civilians. Schindler acquires a factory for the production of army mess kits but, with no previous experience of running such an enterprise, he gains the support of Itzhak Stern, a functionary in the local Judenrat (Jewish council) who also has contacts with the underground Jewish business community in the ghetto. They lend him the money for the factory in return for a small share of its products, for trade on the black market. At Stern's suggestion, Schindler hires Jewish Polish workers instead of Catholic Polish workers because they cost nothing: Jewish workers receive nothing because their wages go to the Reich.

When Amon Göth arrives in Krakow to initiate construction of Paszów labour camp nearby, the SS clears Krakow Ghetto, sending in hundreds of troops to empty the cramped rooms and shoot anyone who protests or is uncooperative, elderly, or infirm. Schindler watches the massacre from the hills overlooking the area, and is profoundly affected. He is nevertheless careful to befriend Göth and, with Stern's advice, turns to bribing Göth and other key officials in order to continue enjoying the SS's support and protection. The commandant is a vicious and sadistic man who enjoys shooting Jewish people as target practice from the balcony of his villa overlooking the prison camp he commands.

Schindler gets Göth to agree to build a sub-camp at Paszów for Schindler's workers. The initial motive is to keep his workers safe from the depredations of the guards. When an order arrives from Berlin commanding Göth to exhume and destroy all bodies from the Krakow Ghetto massacre, dismantle Paszów, and ship the remaining Jewish prisoners to Auschwitz, Schindler prevails upon Göth to let him keep 'his' workers. With the Final Solution now fully underway in occupied Poland, Schindler and Stern assemble a list of workers that should keep them off the trains to Auschwitz.

Based on the true story of Augusto and Michaela Odone and their relentless search for a cure for their son Lorenzo's adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), an extremely rare, incurable, and degenerative brain disorder. Before he turns seven, Lorenzo Odone's childhood is normal. Then strange things begin to happen to him. He has blackouts, memory lapses, and other strange mental phenomena. When he is eventually diagnosed as suffering from ALD, the Odones discover that no-one had been looking into the disease, due to its rarity and the lack of funding. The Odones then begin to educate themselves in the hope of discovering something that can halt the progress of the disease.

An Australian motorcycle racer teams up with an American surfer to form a motorcycle sidecar racing team.

'Romantic melodrama of an unfaithful wife who thinks she has killed her lover. He is only stunned and, suffering from amnesia, consults her psychiatrist husband.'

Source: British Film Institute (http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/43007). (Sighted: 4/9/2013)

'Suspense melodrama concerning suave Englishman's beautiful and rich American wife who is very nearly scared to death for her money.'

Source: British Film Institute (http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/42559). (Sighted: 17/9/2013)

'Newspaper melodrama concerning an alcoholic reporter who redeems himself by capturing ruthless killer.'

Source: British Film Institute (http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/65535). (Sighted: 4/9/2013)

'Filmed against the lush, tropical background of the Lamington Plateau it tells the story of an Australia many have never seen ... of Australians heard about but never met. This is the story of pioneers with adventure in their blood and their incessant battle against nature.

'Matthew O'Riordan had five sons–Shane, Barney, Luke, Terry and Mickey. The sons grew up. The farm in the valley is too small to hold them, so Matthew calls a conference and suggests that the boys take up land is Quensland, [sic] where there is unlimited opportunity and plenty of land.

'Matthew informs them of the hardships they will have to endure but fighting is a thing they understand, so they set off.

'After the decision is made the film goes on to describe their battle against what appears to be overwhelming odds. It depicts their passions, their dreams, their hopes and finally their victory.'

Source:

'Odeon', Goulburn Evening Post, 20 February 1950, p.3.