Weekend of Shadows

Weekend of Shadows is a 1978 film directed by Tom Jeffrey and starring John Waters.

Weekend of Shadows
Directed byTom Jeffrey
Produced byMatt Carroll
Written byPeter Yeldham
Based onnovel The Reckoning by Hugh Atkinson
StarringJohn Waters
Music byCharles Marawood
Edited byRod Adamson
Production
company
Release date
12 April 1978
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$495,000[1]
Box officeA$61,000 (Australia)[2]

Premise

In the 1930s, a farmer's wife in a small town is murdered. Suspicion falls on a Polish labourer and a posse is formed to catch him.

Cast

Production

Writer Peter Yeldham later called the film a "real disaster... we had constant changes and insecurity about it, right up to the day of shooting. I think many of these changes didn't help the film."[3]

Shooting commenced in July 1977 in Macclesfield in the Adelaide Hills. The film was a commercial disappointment. Director Tom Jeffrey:

I screened the film to Hugh Atkinson, the writer of the novel, after we had finished it and he came up to me afterwards and I remember him saying quite clearly, "You've got it." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "You understand the ending." And I still didn't know whether I had it right, whether I was on his wavelength, and I said, "Please explain, Hugh." And he said, "It's about the Crucifixion." And I said, "Yes, well, I didn't really realise that, but if you can see that in the ending and if that's what your original intention was and I've unwittingly achieved that for you, I'm very pleased.".. The film was actually looking at the power of the group and how it can get out of hand.[4]

References
  1. David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson, 1980 p121-122
  2. "Australian Films at the Australian Box Office", Film Victoria accessed 24 October 2012
  3. Paul Davies, "Peter Yeldham", Cinema Papers, June–July 1980 p179
  4. Interview with Tom Jeffrey, 12 November 1998 accessed 19 October 2012


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