Kodak/Atlab Cinema Collection

Len Maguire (Bill Hunter) and Chris Hewitt (Chris Haywood)

Newsfront (1978)

A new 35mm print of feature and trailer are now available on request. Courtesy of Palm Beach Pictures, Phillip Noyce and Kodak (Australasia) and Atlab Australia

National Film and Sound Archive National Collection
Title Number 636.

Classification: PG rating

Synopsis

Newsfront is the fictional story of the rivalry between two newsreel companies and the men who work with integrity and honour to capture Australian news stories. The story focuses on Len Maguire (Bill Hunter) who works for the Australian company Cinetone and Charlie Henderson (John Ewart), who works for the rival American owned company, for whom Len's brother Frank (Gerard Kennedy) also works.

The film moves across several time frames in Australian history using original newsreel footage including the referendum to ban the Communist Party, the Maitland floods, the 1956 Olympic Games and the Redex car trials. These factual events are parallelled by the personal lives of the newsreel men at a time when the country was changing dramatically with traditional values being questioned, progress and technology, sexual freedom and nationalism versus internationalism. Some of the fictional scenes are in black and white which melds successfully with the b/w footage of the original newsreels to give integration of the narrative.

Background

Won Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Bill Hunter), Best Supporting Actress (Angela Punch-McGregor), Best Original Screenplay (Bob Ellis and Phillip Noyce), Best Editing (John Scott), Best Art Direction (Lissa Coote), Best Costume Design (Norma Moriceau) at the Australian Film Awards in 1978.

Director
Phillip Noyce

Year of Production 1978
Duration 110 minutes
Format 35mm, (1:1,85) Colour
Optical Soundtrack Mono, remastered to Dolby® Digital

Distributor
Palm Beach Pictures

Production Company
Palm Beach Pictures

Producer
David Elfick

Screenplay
Phillip Noyce, based on an original script by Bob Ellis

Director of Photography
Vincent Monton

Production Design
Lisa Coote

Editor
John Scott

Sound Recordist
Tim Lloyd

Composer
William Motzing

Cast
Bill Hunter (Len Maguire)
Wendy Hughes (Amy McKenzie)
Gerard Kennedy ( Frank Maguire)
Chris Haywood (Chris Hewitt)
John Ewart (Charlie Henderson)
Angela Punch McGregor (Fay Maguire)
Don Crosby (A. G. Marwood)
Bryan Brown (Geoff the editor)
John Clayton (Cliff the Production Manager)
Lorna Leslie (Ellie)
John Dease (Ken the narrator)
Drew Forsythe (Bruce the Second Editor)
Tony Barry (Greasy the Sound Mixer)

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