David Stratton: A Cinematic Life – movie review

What an engaging, charming and heart-warming film! David Stratton: A Cinematic Life opens up the life history and passion of one of this country’s most revered reviewers.

Cinema has always been an obsession for the English-born Australian critic David Stratton. Filed in a ring binder labelled “1946” on a shelf in his office he can, without delay, extract a short “review” he wrote as a seven-year old after seeing the Australian film The Overlanders. At last count he’d seen 25,254 films and reviewed most of them. More than 1,000 were printed in the international film trade magazine Variety.

It was Australia that gave David the opportunity to turn his passion for cinema into a profession. First, that came as the director of the Sydney Film Festival – a position he held for nearly two decades – then on national television, alongside Margaret Pomeranz, for nearly three. His international renown came via Variety. He arrived in Australia an outsider; now he’s a national treasure.

This is the you-beaut story of Australian cinema and its creators, told through the gaze of one of this country’s most revered critics. The biggest challenge Stratton had in participating in the documentary was whittling down the list of films he wanted to feature.

Filming on David Stratton: A Cinematic Life – and the TV version David Stratton’s Stories of Australian Cinema – ran off-and-on from February to December 2016. With 52 people interviewed across Australia and in Los Angeles and London, scheduling was a juggle. Written and directed by Sally Aitken, she undertook formal interviews with Stratton and followed him to various famous film locations. These included Hanging Rock, near Mount Macedon, in Victoria and the Silverton Hotel, near Broken Hill, in New South Wales. The idea of making a documentary about the glorious story of Aussie cinema – with David Stratton as tour guide – came from Claude Gonzalez, who produced the ABC show At The Movies.

Stratton comes across as beautiful spoken, considered and dedicated. He is eternally grateful for the opportunities this country has given him and has a deep appreciation of and for Australian cinema. Some of the biggest names in Aussie film – actor, directors, producers and writers – extol his integrity and virtues. Stratton goes into some detail about the disconnect with his father. His brother also comes across as a very decent and real guy who readily points out how different the pair is.

The film starts out on a high when we view David’s inner sanctum, namely his unique, old-school filing system for every movie he has seen from his youth until today. In this computer age, he hasn’t quite caught up and it appears he has no intentions of doing so. Not surprisingly, some of the documentary’s most delicious moments are left to his old sparring partner, Margaret Pomeranz. She is certainly not afraid to have a lend of Stratton and it is quite joyful to watch the interplay between the two.

We are also treated to a veritable cornucopia of the best and greatest in Australian cinema, a treasure trove, if you will – from the world’s very first film to more contemporary dramas and comedies. Snippets of about 100 films are shown, as Stratton reflects upon them and what made them so memorable.

The production values in this picture are, as can only be expected, outstanding. Kevin Scott was responsible for cinematography. Whilst I anticipated that it would be worth seeing and would be very good, I didn’t think it would be as compelling as it turned out to be. Stratton has had a rich and fulfilling life, immersing himself in motion pictures, and we are all the better for it. Rated M, David Stratton: A Cinematic Life scores an 8½ out of 10.

Director: Sally Aitken
Release Date: 8 March 2017
Rating: M

Alex First