Cassandra Delaney Movies

Filmmaker Mark Hartley explores Australia's hidden genre in this documentary that casually casts aside "official" film history to celebrate the demented genius of director Brian Trenchard-Smith, and the exciting wave of little-known but supremely entertaining films that entertained adventurous Australian filmgoers throughout the 1970s and '80s. Every film student worth his or her weight in celluloid has seen Breaker Morant and Picnic at Hanging Rock, but what about the lesser-known gems that didn't make the film-school textbooks? In his forward to Tim Lucas' book Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark, director Martin Scorsese states, "We have to keep resisting the idea of official film history, a stately procession of 'important works' that leaves some of the most exciting films and filmmakers tucked away in the shadows." In this documentary, director Hartley explores the films forgotten by "official film history" with the comprehensive eye of a true film buff. As a child watching such films as Snapshot and The Man from Hong Kong, Hartley immediately recognized how wildly disparate they were in tone and execution from the films that comprised Australia's traditional film library. Appearing like American genre films that just happened to be shot in Australia and cast with Australian actors, these so-called "Ozploitation" flicks flourished in the wake of relaxed censorship laws down under. Yet despite constant chatter about the "new wave" of Australian cinema, financially successful films like The Man from Hong Kong and Patrick that were popular both at home and abroad were never mentioned, sneeringly dismissed as "genre" films rather than Australian films. Perhaps in the wake of such successful Australian films as Wolf Creek and Undead -- and looking ahead to such films as the slasher shocker Storm Warning and the eagerly anticipated remake of Long Weekend -- curious filmgoers are finally prepared to discover what they've been missing all these years. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An Australian wildlife sanctuary is violated by low-life poachers intent on destruction. The attractive female director of the sanctuary (Cassandra Delaney) becomes their intended prey, as she struggles to avoid falling into their clutches. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

This is one of the more unusual films about a nuclear holocaust, nearly introspective in its focus on a handful of people in Sydney's world-famous opera house, finding ways to pass the time until the morning brings more news. The setting is New Year's Eve (in the middle of summer here), and some intimation of the immediate future surfaces in the form of reports on a major crisis in Europe and the aftermath of demonstrations against U.S. nuclear ships at harbor in Sydney. Sharon (Cassandra Delaney) and Eva (Saskia Post) are young teen roommates who are more interested in their own personal relationships than what is happening in distant Europe, and after meeting at the opera house where Sharon works, they are ready to go off to a New Year's party together. But before they can leave, a radio broadcast announces that nuclear bombs have been dropped in Europe and North America and also on U.S. targets in Australia. The announcer requests that people remain where they are, and the two shocked teenagers are at a loss as to how to cope. They are soon joined by an American soldier gone AWOL and a custodian who was busy working after the end of the evening's concert. The four isolated people explore the empty building, engage in conversation just to fill the time, and even distract themselves with a game of strip poker -- anything to avoid facing the possibility that this may be the last night of their lives. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi