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This issue of Overland discusses the evolution of the film The Child from the outline entitled The Jetty by Hal Porter to the film version directed by Tim Burstall. The discussion, with the overall title of 'Tension on the Reel' includes fifteen pages of stills from the film.
Contents
* Contents derived from the 1978 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
The second of four short films that comprise the feature film Libido, 'The Child' is set during the 1910s. The protagonist is a child whose father has left. The boy watches as first his mother and then his governess have affairs with a local man, with tragic consequences. The story deals essentially with the child's inner emotions and the disturbance that sudden exposure to overt sexuality in an adult world can cause.
This extract is probably from an interview by the Producers' and Directors' Guild of Victoria of Hal Porter. Porter quotes from this interview in his criticism The Author's 1977 Views : Afterthoughts.
