Chris Haywood Movies

The Australian Man of Flowers stars Norman Kaye in the title role. A painter, Kaye has earned his nickname from his beautifully rendered flower portraits. He uses his artistic skills as a means of channelling his repressed sexual yearnings, especially his feelings towards nude model Alyson Best. When flowers no longer quench his carnal thirsts, Kaye expresses himself on his pipe organ, hammering out impassioned songs as a sort of musical cold shower. A flashback, which is meant to explain Kaye's hang-ups (but deliberately does not) features German director Werner Herzog in an unbilled cameo as Kaye's father. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alex (Lauren Jackson) is a well-rounded girl in addition to being an Olympic-quality competitor. She takes ballet, plays on the school hockey team, and somehow finds time to perform in the school's production of The Mikado. Currently, she is one of the best swimmers in her class in all of New Zealand, and she's confident of a place on the Olympic team, but her coach (Chris Haywood) is worried that she's spreading herself too thin. Normally, competition-level swimmers have time for their classwork and for swimming, and precious little for anything else. In addition to her other non-swimming activities, Alex is even finding time to study Italian in preparation for the Rome Olympics. While a little confidence in an athlete is a good thing, this level of smugness is dangerous, and her cozy world is shattered when an equally good swimmer (Catherine Godbold) moves back to New Zealand from Singapore and begins competing against her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This grim drama examines the situation of Aya (Eri Ishida), a Japanese war bride living in Australia in the late forties. Her husband has little use for her cooking or her company, aside from sex, but a family friend who also knew her during the war offers a more generous form of companionship. Perhaps he would have married her, too, but he's probably homosexual. Later, she has an affair with a Japanese/Australian and conceives a child. Her attempt to abort the fetus lead her to a particularly repellent abortion doctor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Directed by Craig Lahiff, Black and White is a story about bigotry, social injustice, and a real-life murder trial that made Australian headlines in the late '50s. On a December afternoon in 1958, the body of a nine-year-old white girl is discovered in a cave off the coast of Southern Australia. Detective Paul Turner (Roy Billing) quickly arrests a half-aboriginal fair-worker named Max Stuart (David Ngoombujarra), who signs a confession. However, being that Max is illiterate, the legitimacy of the confession is contested by his legal aid representatives, David O'Sullivan (Robert Carlyle) and Helen Devaney (Kerry Fox). Despite the questionable confession, Max is found guilty by the all-white, all-male jury, and sentenced to be hanged. O'Sullivan lodges a series of appeals, but no conclusive evidence of Max's guilt or innocence has been found to this day. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Breaker Morant is one of the most acclaimed Australian films, telling a powerful tale of wartime betrayal and injustice. Henry "Breaker" Morant (Edward Woodward) is an Englishman living in Australia at the end of the 19th century. When war breaks out in 1899 between Britain and the Boers (descendants of Dutch colonists), Morant and a number of Australians volunteer for duty and are absorbed into the non-regular units of the British army. Acting under orders from his commanders, Morant oversees the execution of several Boer prisoners; it turns out that one of them was German, and in order to keep the peace with Germany, Britain agrees to courtmartial Morant and two other soldiers, sentencing two to death and one to life imprisonment. Based on a play by Kenneth Ross, Bruce Beresford's film is powerfully filmed and acted and has become a classic anti-war movie since its 1980 release; the script (co-written by Beresford) was nominated for an Academy Award. The final execution scene is nearly overpowering in its sense of tragedy and futility. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

The title of the 1986 Australian miniseries Cyclone Tracy refers to an infamous hurricane that hit and nearly destroyed the northern Australian city of Darwin between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 1974, killing well over 100 and leaving over 20,000 homeless. This docudrama recreates that terrible series of events. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A dramatic story about a houseful of youth with no apparent purpose in life, this film features pounding rock music and attitude problems galore. The main setting is a rundown dwelling in an impoverished district near Melbourne, Australia, where conversations ebb, flow, and overlap much like the lives of the people who live there. Strangers also wander in and out of the premises as life continues, for some, more through an indestructible momentum than any internal driving force. Some of the young people go to school, others do nothing but party, and some take drugs. The police tolerate the residents of the house, even when they burn their television set. Sam (Michael Hutchence) and Anna (Saskia Post) are one of the couples that form among the residents, a mismatched pair whose actions lead to tragedy for Anna and an indictment against hard drugs. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This Australian drama, based on the novel Priest Island by E.L. Grant, tells the tale of a man exiled to a lonely island after he is caught stealing sheep. The story is set in an unnamed time in an unknown time. Peter had been stealing the sheep to pay the dowry for his beloved, Jean. He is sentenced to spend his life on an uninhabited island with only a few simple tools. If he leaves the island, he will be killed. While he learns to survive, Jean is forced to marry another. She gets pregnant but loses the baby during childbirth. Mary is a servant at the local inn. She is curious about the rumors of a good looking man exiled on a nearby island. She goes to the island with some chickens and a goat. Though Peter still mourns the loss of Jean, he and Mary soon become lovers. Mary bears him a son. Later a priest comes to baptize the child and marry the couple. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

While visiting a commerce planet, Crichton (Ben Browder) falls under the power of vampiric sorceror Maldis (Chris Haywood). Transported to a metaphysical limbo, Crichton ends up locked in gladitorial combat with his mortal enemy, Capt. Crais (Lani Tupu) It is up to Zhaan (Virginia Hey) to save Crichton and vanquish Maldis--but the personal price for her bravery may be more than she is willing to pay. "That Old Black Magic" originally aired on June 11, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Heatwave is the mildly interesting story of a woman's attempt to stop a redevelopment plot which she thought was the cover-up for fraud and other criminal activity. Kate (Judy Davis), through her own efforts, manages to find some evidence to support her claims and also have a romance. Davis gives an energetic performance as the crusading woman, but the script lacks a convincing plot or characters. While it has some good moments, Heatwave is primarily notable because it was one of the earlier efforts of Australian director Phillip Noyce, who went on to make the very exciting Dead Calm. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide