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The film reviewing of Kenneth Slessor: a cine-aesthetics of the sound cinema
Journal article   Peer reviewed

The film reviewing of Kenneth Slessor: a cine-aesthetics of the sound cinema

Tom O'Regan and Huw Walmsley-Evans
Studies in Australasian Cinema, Vol.10(2), pp.211-222
2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2016.1170956
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https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2016.1170956View
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Abstract

Film, Television and Digital Media Historical Studies Literary Studies film criticism film reviewing film history Australian film sound cinema
This paper examines the film reviews of Kenneth Slessor, an Australian poet, journalist and war correspondent best known for his contributions to Australian poetry between the two world wars. His film reviews of early Hollywood, British, and Australian sound cinema were an important part of his journalism at Smith's Weekly from 1931 to 1940. Mostly overlooked until recently these reviews reveal a sophisticated approach towards the new (sound) cinema. The criteria he advanced for evaluating film and the range of qualities he discerned, criticised and celebrated in films were based on appreciating film as a unique artform with its own formal repertoire and modes of production. While such standpoints are now familiar in film reviewing, at the time he was writing such standpoints were just coming into being. Close attention to Slessor's film reviewing discloses a fecund critical imagination attuned to cinema's range. He deserves wider recognition as a distinctive voice on the cinema in general and Australian cinema in particular.

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