Duet for Four

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Duet for Four
Directed by Tim Burstall
Written by David Williamson
Produced byTom Burstall
Tim Burstall
Starring Mike Preston
Michael Pate
Wendy Hughes
Diane Cilento
Vanessa Leigh
Gary Day
CinematographyDan Burstall
Edited byEdward McQueen-Mason
Production
company
Tim Burstall Nominees
Distributed by Greater Union
Release date
  • 1982 (1982)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

Duet for Four is a 1982 film directed by Tim Burstall.

Contents

Plot

A 48-year-old man, Ray Martin, faces a series of problems – his wife is dependent on him for money while she supports a younger lover, his mistress is dissatisfied and he is vying to secure a distribution deal with US interests to take his toy business to a new level.

Cast

Production

The script by David Williamson was originally commissioned by Hexagon Productions in the wake of the success of Petersen (1974). Tim Burstall asked Williamson to write a script on a mid-life crisis even though he was in his early thirties at the time. Williamson wrote the script in eight days under the title The Toy Man but Hexagon decided not to make it, even though at one stage it was announced as a vehicle for Jack Thompson. [1] [2] [3]

In the 1980s Williamson's reputation remained high and Burstall decided to proceed with the film. Burstall said:

I was going through a mid-life crisis of some sort and thought – 'What is the nature of work? Have I wasted my time? Am I doing the right thing?' That sort of thing. And toys was the industry we decided to use because it was being taken over by the Yanks. It was a sort of image of what was happening in film at the time. I don't think the picture works very well. [4]

The title during shooting was Partners (the title of the finished film is perplexing as there are more than four prominent characters). The film was shot in Melbourne (Heide II, La Trobe University, Nicholson Street Carlton and Prince Henry's Hospital provide locations) and Queenscliff. According to David Stratton's The Avocado Plantation, the movie features some in-jokes about the Australian film industry of the early 1970s. [1]

Finance was partly provided by the Australian Film Commission and Victorian Film Corporation. [5]

Wendy Hughes later described making the film as "one of my most enjoyable experiences" but thought "the role I was playing... seemed more a part of the early 1970s, when in fact it was written". [6]

Between the writing of the script and the film's production the television presenter Ray Martin became prominent as part of the Australian 60 Minutes . That the main character in Duet for Four has the same name as a well-known media figure is not acknowledged in the film.

References

  1. 1 2 David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p116
  2. ↑ "Fertile year for this film-making team". The Australian Women's Weekly . National Library of Australia. 6 November 1974. p. 27. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  3. ↑ Radic, Leonard (16 November 1974). "Just a brief rest between his premieres". The Age. p. 20.
  4. ↑ Interview with Tim Burstall, 30 March 1998 Archived 15 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 14 October 2012
  5. ↑ Adrian Martin, 'Duet for Four', Australian Film 1978-1992, Oxford University Press, 1993 p97
  6. ↑ Richard Brennan, "Wendy Hughes", Cinema Papers, October 1982 p431


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