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Long Weekend

Colin Eggleston   •   Australia  • ​  1978
92 mins  •   R16

Perhaps as a foreshadowing of the terrible summer bush fires in Australia, this psychological thriller is a cautionary tale, about a young couple on a weekend camping trip in the Outback, and the dire consequences of treating nature with contempt.
With: John Hargreaves (Peter), Briony Behets (Marcia)
Director:  Colin Eggleston
Producers:  Colin Eggleston, Richard Brennan
Screenplay:  Everett De Roche
Photography: Vincent Monton
Editor: Simon Reece
Production Design:  Mike Beecroft
Production Company:  Dugong Films, Australian Film Commission, Victoria Film Corporation
Music: Brian Kavanagh

REVIEWS
​
This 1978 film was re-made in Australia as Long Weekend/Nature’s Grave in 2008, which may be testament to the timely tale it tells, about marital discord, disregard for nature, and the dangers of venturing ill-equipped into the Australian Outback (there may be dingos!). 
 
-  Geoff Lealand, Hamilton Film Society
 
The script was the first feature script written by Everett De Roche, an experienced Australian TV writer. He was inspired by a trip he took on an Easter weekend to an isolated beach in New South Wales:
I started LW as a way to avoid the TV-cop-show doldrums while still convincing myself I was “working”. LW was a unique project because I began with no outline, no notes or research, very little idea as to where the story was going, and absolutely zero knowledge of screenplays. I simply started at page 1, scene 1, and made it up as I went. I had only a vague plan to write a kind of environmental horror story. My premise was that Mother Earth has her own auto-immune system, so when humans start behaving like cancer cells, She attacks. I also wanted to avoid a JAWS-like critter film. I wanted the LW beasties to all be benign-looking and not overtly aggressive.[7]
De Roche wrote the script in ten days.[8] He showed it to Colin Eggleston, who had worked with him at Crawfords, and Eggleston decided to make the movie.[7] Funds were obtained from Film Victoria and the Australian Film Commission.
Shooting took place in March–April 1977 in Melbourne and near Bega in south-east New South Wales. The ending was originally different according to De Roche:
I wrote an enormously complicated sequence for near the end where the animals give Peter a second chance. They want him to wise up, and he is at the point of doing so when he hears a truck in the distance. He dashes off to the highway, and the animals decide there is no hope. Poetically, they leave it to another man to kill him.[8]
However his scene was too difficult to shoot because it involved animals and was cut.[8]
-  wikipedia                                                                     


FILM SOCIETY SCREENING

Hamilton
Monday, 23 March, 8:00pm

Want to see this film?  Ask your local Film Society to add to their 2020 programme.

Film Societies of Aotearoa New Zealand

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Phone: +64 4 385 0162  |  Fax: +64 4 801 7304  |  Email: 
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  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • SOCIETIES
    • AUCKLAND
    • HAMILTON
    • TAURANGA
    • NEW PLYMOUTH
    • WHANGANUI
    • PALMERSTON NORTH
    • CARTERTON
    • WELLINGTON
    • NELSON
    • CANTERBURY
    • TIMARU
    • QUEENSTOWN
    • DUNEDIN
    • WESTPORT
  • 2022 SEASON
    • ROBERT ALTMAN
    • SCANDINAVIA
    • BREAKING THROUGH
    • CONTEMPORARY WORLD
    • CLASSIC & CULT
    • NZ FILM
    • FRENCH CONNECTIONS
    • AFRICAN CINEMA
    • GERMAN CINEMA