- 27A
- Alvin Purple
- Backroads
- Breaker Morant
- Buddies
- Cars That Ate Paris
- Devil's Playground
- Don's Party
- Greetings From Wollongong
- Killing of Angel Street
- Lonely Hearts
- Love Letters From Teralba Road
- Man From Hong Kong
- Man From Snowy River
- Money Movers
- My Brilliant Career
- Newsfront
- Night Cries
- Odd Angry Shot
- Palm Beach
- Picture Show Man
- Return Home
- Singer and the Dancer
- Stir
- Storm Boy
- Sunday Too Far Away
- Sweetie
- The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
- The Big Steal
- The Club
- The FJ Holden
- The Night The Prowler
- Walk into Paradise
- They're A Weird Mob
- We of the Never Never
- Wrong Side of the Road
- Crystal Voyager
- Morning of the Earth
- Journey Among Women
- The Getting of Wisdom
- Oz
- Pure Shit
- Crocodile Dundee
- Jedda
- Goodbye Paradise
- You Can't See 'Round Corners
- The Year My Voice Broke
- Petersen
- The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
- Mad Dog Morgan
Kodak/Atlab Cinema Collection
Don's Party (1976)
A new 35mm print of this feature and trailer are now available on request. Courtesy of Phillip Adams and Kodak (Australasia) and Atlab Australia
National Film and Sound Archive National Collection
Title Number 4503.
Classification: R rating
Synopsis
The 'Party' of the title refers to both the Labor Party, which lost the 1969 federal election, and to the election-night party given by Don (John Hargreaves) in his suburban home. Based on David Williamson's highly successful play of the same name. Beresford directs an ensemble cast as the friends who gather to celebrate what they hope will be the first Labor Party victory in twenty years.
Background
Production cost was covered by the Australian Film Commission and a small investment from Twentieth Century Fox. The feature won Best Director, Best Editing and Best Sound for William Anderson, Pat Bishop won Best Actress, David Williamson won Best Original Screenplay and Veronica Lang won the Best Supporting Actress at the 1977 AFI Awards.
Director
Bruce Beresford
Year of Production 1976
Duration 90 minutes
Format 35mm, (1:1,85) Colour
Optical Soundtrack Mono, remastered to Dolby® Digital
Production Company
Double Head Productions
Producer
Phillip Adams
Screenplay
David Williamson
Director of Photography
Don McAlpine
Editor
William Anderson
Sound Recordist
Des Bone
Cast
Ray Barrett (Mal)
Clare Binney (Susan)
Pat Bishop (Jenny)
Graeme Blundell (Simon)
Jeanie Drynan (Kath)
John Hargreaves (Don)
Harold Hopkins (Cooley)
Graham Kennedy (Mack)
Veronica Lang (Jody)
Candy Raymond (Kerry)
Kit Taylor ( Evan)
Further Information
- Journalist, Vin Maskell, nominated Don's Party as one of his six favourite expressions of Australian summer:
David Williamson wrote early drafts of the play Don's Party, set on election night in October 1969, at a beach house. The 1976 film, shot mainly in the Sydney suburb of Westleigh, shows the characters' hopes and dreams unravelling amid the sweat of a suburban summer's night. A major part of the Australian film renaissance.
- 'Six Pack', Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 January 2001
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