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David Stratton

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For other people named David Stratton, see David Stratton (disambiguation).

David Stratton
AM
Stratton in 2012
Born1939 (age 84–85)
Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England
OccupationFilm critic (At the Movies)
EmployerAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
Known for
  • Film critic
  • journalist and interviewer
  • television presenter
  • television producer

David James Stratton AM (born 1939) is an English-Australian award-winning film critic, as both a journalist and interviewer, film historian, educator, television personality, and producer. His career as a film critic, writer, and educator in Australia spanned 57 years, until his retirement in December 2023. He co-presented film review shows with Margaret Pomeranz for 28 years, wrote film reviews for The Weekend Australian for 33 years, and lectured in film history for 35 years.

Early life and education

Born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, in 1939,[1] David James Stratton[2] was sent to Hampshire to see out the war years with his grandmother, an avid filmgoer, where he was taken to the local cinemas regularly and saw a diverse range of films. He attended Chafyn Grove School from 1948 to 1953 as a boarder,[1] but never finished secondary school.[3]

He saw his first foreign film at Bath in 1955, the Italian romantic comedy Bread, Love and Dreams. That was soon followed by Akira Kurosawa's Japanese adventure drama classic Seven Samurai, tracked down in Birmingham. At the age of 19, he founded the Melksham and District Film Society.[4]

Career

Stratton's career as a film critic, writer, and educator in Australia spanned 57 years. He co-presented film review shows with Margaret Pomeranz for 28 years,[3] and wrote film reviews for The Weekend Australian for 33 years,[5] from around 1990 until December 2023, when he announced his retirement.[3]

Stratton arrived in Australia in 1963, and soon became involved with the local film society movement. He directed the Sydney Film Festival (a job he landed after fighting film censorship[3])/ from 1966 until 1983. At the time, he was the subject of surveillance by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), due to the festival showing Soviet films, and his late-1960s visit to Russia. This information was not made public until January 2014.[6][2]

Stratton worked for SBS from 1980, acting as their film consultant and introducing the SBS Cinema Classic and Movie of the Week for 24 weeks a year. From 1986 onwards Stratton co-hosted the long-running SBS TV program The Movie Show with Margaret Pomeranz, who was also the show's original producer. Stratton and Pomeranz (often referred to as "Margaret and David"[7][8]) left SBS at the end of 2003.[3]

From 2004 they co-hosted the ABC film show, At the Movies. On 16 September 2014, Stratton and Pomeranz announced that they would be retiring at the end of the 2014 series. The ABC confirmed that the series would end, with the last episode broadcast on 9 December 2014.[9]

Stratton wrote for US film industry magazine Variety from 1984,[3] and has also written for TV Week. He lectured in film history at the University of Sydney's Centre for Continuing Education,[10] from around 1988 until December 2023, during which he covered around 840 films and showed 7,506 film clips. Many of his students re-enrolled year after year.[3]

In 2008 he released his autobiography called I Peed on Fellini, a reference to a drunken attempt to shake director Federico Fellini's hand while using a urinal.[1]

Stratton participated in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll, where he listed his ten favourite films as follows: Charulata, Citizen Kane, The Conversation, Distant, Distant Voices, Still Lives, Kings of the Road, Lola, The Searchers, Singin' in the Rain, and The Travelling Players.[11]

Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz have played an important role in challenging the often heavy-handed decisions of the Australian Classification Board throughout their career.[12][13]

The documentary film David Stratton: A Cinematic Life, written and directed by Sally Aitken, was released in 2017, and re-edited for television, featuring interviews with Stratton about his life and with actors, directors, producers representing Australian cinema since the 1960s.[14][15] A preliminary version of the film was first released at the 2016 Adelaide Film Festival as David Stratton's Stories of Australian Cinema, a "work in progress screening ... a celebration of 110 years of Australian Cinema history and its creators".[16]

Juries and other roles

Stratton has been invited to sit on many international juries at film festivals.[3]

A highly-regarded expert on international cinema, particularly French cinema, Stratton was president of FIPRESCI (International Film Critics) Juries in Cannes (twice) and Venice.[4] He was also a member of the jury at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival in 1982.[17]

Other appearances

Honours

Personal life

Stratton said that his favourite movie is the 1952 American musical Singin' in the Rain: "I grew up on musicals and this is the best musical ever made".[3]

He has been friends with many filmmakers.[3]

Publications

  • — (1980). The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival. Angus & Robertson. ISBN 9780207141461.
  • — (1990). The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9780732902506.
  • — (2008). I Peed on Fellini: Recollections of a Life in Film. Australia: William Heinemann / Random House. ISBN 978-1-74166-619-9.
  • — (2018). 101 Marvellous Movies You May Have Missed. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781760870096.
  • — (2021). My Favourite Movies. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781761063268.

References

  1. ^ a b c Stratton, D. (2008). I Peed on Fellini: Recollections of a Life in Film. William Heinemann. ISBN 978-1-74166-619-9. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b Burgmann, M. (2014). Dirty Secrets: Our ASIO files. NewSouth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-74224-175-3. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hennessy, Kate (22 December 2023). "David Stratton's closing credits: 'I've done the best I could'". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d "David Stratton". Random House Australia. Retrieved 16 March 2008.
  5. ^ "David Stratton". The Australian. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  6. ^ Fenely, Rick (4 January 2014). "David Stratton oblivious he's been cast as a spy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  7. ^ Evershed, Nick (16 September 2014). "At the Movies: Margaret and David's most divisive films revealed". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  8. ^ "What Margaret and David say about 500 Oz Movies". Ozflicks. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  9. ^ "Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton roll end credits on 28-year film review partnership; At The Movies will not return to ABC in 2015". ABC News (Australia). 16 September 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
  10. ^ "A History of World Cinema Course with David Stratton". Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  11. ^ "David Stratton". BFI. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016.
  12. ^ "Lies and Damned Censorship" by Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile (3 July 2003)
  13. ^ "Film board chief on the defensive over banned movie" by Suzanne Carbone, The Age (5 July 2003)
  14. ^ Cerabona, Ron (18 February 2017). "Film critic David Stratton gets his own movie at last". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  15. ^ David Stratton: A Cinematic Life (2017) at IMDb
  16. ^ "David Stratton's Stories of Australian Cinema". Adelaide Film Festival. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  17. ^ "Berlinale 1982: Juries". Berlinale. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  18. ^ "David James Stratton – Centenary Medal". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  19. ^ "French Embassy media release 04/2001". Embassy of France in Australia. 22 March 2001. Archived from the original on 29 October 2007. Retrieved 16 March 2008.
  20. ^ "David Stratton to receive honorary doctorate". The University of Sydney. 7 June 2006. Retrieved 16 March 2008.
  21. ^ David James Stratton – Member of the Order of Australia, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 26 January 2015
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