A documentary-style book by Chauvel published to coincide with the release of his film, In the Wake of the Bounty.
In the Wake of the Bounty
( dir. Charles Chauvel
)
Australia
:
Expeditionary Films
,
1933
6939997
1933
single work
film/TV
(taught in 1 units)
The first of two docudramas by Charles Chauvel (the other is Heritage), In the Wake of the Bounty retells the story of the mutiny led by Fletcher Christian in 1789 against William Bligh, depicting the fate of the mutineers on Tahiti and Pitcairnis. Presented as part narrative and part travelogue, the film uses introductory enacted scenes showing the mutiny, followed by documentary footage, anthropological style, of the mutineers' descendants on Pitcairn Island (including Polynesian women dancers) and an underwater shipwreck.
'This script is dedicated to the memory of Susanne Chauvel-Carlsson, and was inspired by a chapter in Elsa Chauvel’s book, My Life With Charles (1973). This is the story of the making of a dream, a dream to capture the essence of a narrative set in the South Seas, a story of a mutiny of the soul when The Bounty sailed into Matavai Bay in 1789. In 1932, the young Australian filmmakers Elsa and Charles Chauvel set sail with their cameraman Tasman Higgins to travel 15,000 miles by steamer to Papeete and Pitcairn. Leaving their toddler daughter Susanne with grandparents back in Stanthorpe, the trio set out on a journey that would take six months to complete, to gather film footage never before seen, of Tahitian dancers on location in Tahiti for their film, In the Wake of the Bounty. ' (Author's abstract)
'This script is dedicated to the memory of Susanne Chauvel-Carlsson, and was inspired by a chapter in Elsa Chauvel’s book, My Life With Charles (1973). This is the story of the making of a dream, a dream to capture the essence of a narrative set in the South Seas, a story of a mutiny of the soul when The Bounty sailed into Matavai Bay in 1789. In 1932, the young Australian filmmakers Elsa and Charles Chauvel set sail with their cameraman Tasman Higgins to travel 15,000 miles by steamer to Papeete and Pitcairn. Leaving their toddler daughter Susanne with grandparents back in Stanthorpe, the trio set out on a journey that would take six months to complete, to gather film footage never before seen, of Tahitian dancers on location in Tahiti for their film, In the Wake of the Bounty. ' (Author's abstract)
