Monday, 14* July 2014
6.30pm — 8.30pm
The Dolphin Hotel, Surry Hills
* This special event replaces the regular meeting of 21 July.
Guest Speaker: Bruce Beresford
Born in Sydney, Bruce is a 1962 graduate of the University of Sydney. Having moved to the UK to pursue a career in film, he was the Head of Production for British Film Institute Production Board (London) from 1966 to 1971, and also film advisor to Arts Council of Great Britain.
Bruce has directed over 30 feature films. Probably his best known film is Driving Miss Daisy (written by Alfred Uhry) which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989. Other notable films, arguably, are Don's Party (1976), Breaker Morant (1980), Tender Mercies (1983), Crimes of the Heart (1986), The Fringe Dwellers (1986), Black Robe (1991), Paradise Road (1997), Double Jeopardy (1999), Evelyn (2002), and Mao's Last Dancer (2009).
His most recent film is a three-hour Bonnie and Clyde (2013), made for the History Channel, Lifetime, and A&E Television Networks. In the leading roles were Emile Hirsch, Holliday Grainger, Holly Hunter, and William Hurt.
Bruce wrote the screenplays for Money Movers (adapted from the novel by Devon Minchin), Breaker Morant (based loosely on the play by Kenneth Ross), The Fringe Dwellers (adapted from the novel by Nene Gare), and Paradise Road (an original script).
On the set of The Contract with John Cusack and Morgan Freeman.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for the script of Breaker Morant and direction of Tender Mercies. Black Robe won the Canadian academy awards for best film and best director. In Australia he won best director awards for Don's Party and Breaker Morant and best screenplay awards for Breaker Morant and The Fringe Dwellers. Mao's Last Dancer won the audience award at 11 film festivals around the world.
Bruce has directed operas in Italy, USA, and Australia. In 1982 he directed the Australian premiere of Richard Strauss's Elektra (71 years after its European premiere).
For Opera Australia he directed André Previn's opera version of A Streetcar Named Desire (2007) and Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men in 2011. In 2012 he directed the Australian premiere of Erich Korngold's Die tote Stadt ("The Dead City") at the Sydney Opera House.
He has also directed Rigoletto for LA Opera, The Crucible for Washington Opera, Cold Sassy Tree for Houston Grand Opera, Sweeney Todd for Portland Opera, and La fanciulla del West ("The Girl of the West") for the Spoleto festivals. In 2012 Of Mice and Men won Best Opera Production and Best Direction at the Green Room Awards.
Bruce has also written an entertaining and indiscreet book about his film experiences titled Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants to Do This… True Stories from a Life in the Screen Trade (published by Harper Collins in 2007).