Max Gillies Movies

This caustic Australian comedy is meant to burn those commercial interests who sponsor artists for tax breaks. It also a sexually unresponsive wife's revenge against her cheating husband. Heiress Georgina Oliphant, the daughter of pharmaceutical magnate George Oliphant is on a mission to find a sculptor suitable of her father's sponsorship. Normally, George doesn't give a hoot about art, but tax time approaches and he needs a big deduction. Since large bronze statues are 100% deductible, that's what he wants. Georgina comes through with the lesbian sculptor Lily Carmichael who suggests a detailed male nude, sans fig leaf. For her model, lily chooses unemployed hunk Karl-Heinz Applebaum who at first doesn't realize he is to model totally nude. Fortunately, coquettish Georgina is around to convince him to shed those clothes. He soon begins looking forward to the sessions much to the dismay of his frowsy, sexually frosty wife Cecilia, a devout member of the "Center for Synchronic Awareness," an esoteric religious cult which is headed by the oily, avaricious Baba Charles whose picture Cecilia has placed throughout her home (Aussie film buffs may recognize the photo as that of director Rolf de Heer, a rival of this film's director Paul Cox). Soon enough, her husband and Georgina become lovers causing Cecilia to hatch an elaborate plot for revenge, a plot in which the financially beleaguered George Oliphant unwittingly assists by having her pose with her husband for an even larger, more tax deductible sculpture. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This Australian-made sci-fi tale is about a surfer who stops in for a bite to eat at a 1940s-type diner. Eventually he realizes that it is not a diner at all -- it is a spaceship disguised as one, and the "owners" of the diner are aliens. ~ Brian Gusse, Rovi

A London newspaper correspondent travels to the colorful town of Dimboola, Australia to write a story, and has many delightful experiences with the locals in this charming, exceptionally well-filmed comedy. For him, the fun begins when he sees that a major wedding is about to occur. For a lark, he dresses up as a woman and crashes the bride's shower. Next he goes to the bawdy stag party and learns all sorts of interesting secrets about the bride and groom. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

An offbeat Australian comedy filmed in that country and in Canada, this is not the documentary its title suggests. Its unlikely protagonist is a mild-mannered window peeper named Dead-Eye Dick (Max Gillies). Dick spies on a Mexican couple. The husband is very jealous and is about to discover that his wife has a lover when Dead-Eye Dick rescues the lover, whose moniker is Mexico Pete (Serge Lazareff). The worldly Pete counsels the shy Dick on his problems approaching women. Dick claims that he's waiting for an Alaskan Eskimo named Nell. Pete and Dick decide to travel to Alaska to find this fantasy woman, and they have several wacky misadventures along the way. This mostly overlooked ripple in the Australian New Wave was produced, directed, and written by Richard Franklin. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

This seminal effort from Australian filmmaker John Duigan stars Peter Cummins in the title role. Not much is known about the firm for which businessman Gerald Baxter (Cummins) works, but it seems to have a negative effect on everyone involved. The hero begins to experience bizarre visions, while his wife (Eileen Chapman) commences an affair with a friend of the family. In addition to directing, Duigan also produced and scripted. His "official" film debut, The Trespassers, was still a year or so in the future. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Four Australian directors explore different angles of the title topic in this generally downbeat anthology. In "The Husband" a husband increases his arousal during lovemaking by imagining his wife in different sexual liaisons without realizing that his fantasy may based on fact. The second vignette "The Child" centers on the resentful son of a widow who is having an affair with another. While his mother is off galavanting with her new love, the boy is left in the care of a governess whom he grows to love. The poor boy begins to fear that his new friend will be fired as soon as his mother returns and so goes off on a walk to sort out his feelings. He wanders into a field and it is there he sees his governess making love to his mother's boyfriend. This causes the emotionally fragile lad to shatter and blindly run towards the river where he crazily hops into a boat and begins rowing into the current. The lover, wanting to save the child from harm dives in and tragedy ensues. In "The Priest," a priest wrestles with his love for a nun. Though they want to marry, the nun forces them to leave their orders in the correct way. It is a way filled with red-tape and takes so long that the relationship withers and they remain in their vocations. The final segment "The Family Man" deals with a slob of a husband who decides to celebrate the birth of his third child by having a little fling while his wife recuperates in hospital. He enlists the aid of a buddy and together they get drunk, pick up two floozies and head to his beachhouse. When the gals learn about his wife, they stomp out of the house. Time passes and the husband brings his family to the house for vacation. Much to his horror he finds that the two women have placed a large incriminating sign upon it leaving him to try to explain it all to his wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi