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An intensely personal and autobiographical observation of the Melbourne artistic community of which director Tim Burstall was a part in the mid-1960s, Two Thousand Weeks is one of the first feature films of the modern era in Australian cinema.
The narrative concerns Will Gardener, a Melbourne journalist at a crossroads in his life. He wants to be a novelist, but he has a wife and two kids to support and at the same time finds himself struggling with the Australian cultural wasteland. His world begins to career into a series of crises as he finds himself having to choose between his mistress (who is about to leave for London with or without him) and family (including his father, who is dying in hospital). To make matters worse, an old university friend, Noel Oakshot, is returning in triumph from London, where he has become a darling of the media.
Notes
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Two Thousand Weeks was written by Tim Burstall and his partner in Eltham Films, Patrick Ryan, after two years on a scholarship studying film techniques in the US. His studies included courses at the Actor's Studio (New York), scriptwriting with Budd Schulberg and Paddy Chayefsky, and work as an assistant to director Martin Ritt on Hombre (1967).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Leaving Home : Kennedy Miller in Melbourne
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , December no. 85 2017;Kennedy Miller has been located in Sydney since the early 1980s, when its reputation as Australia’s most successful production house was established. But its origins and trajectory as a company are intimately tied to Melbourne. Drawing on textual, historical, and archival sources, I argue that Melbourne’s screen culture and industry at the time of the Australian film revival played a fundamental key role in shaping the abilities and sensibilities of the company’s founders, George Miller and Byron Kennedy.
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The Genesis of The Naked Bunyip
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , January - March no. 38 2006;
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The Genesis of The Naked Bunyip
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , January - March no. 38 2006; -
Leaving Home : Kennedy Miller in Melbourne
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , December no. 85 2017;Kennedy Miller has been located in Sydney since the early 1980s, when its reputation as Australia’s most successful production house was established. But its origins and trajectory as a company are intimately tied to Melbourne. Drawing on textual, historical, and archival sources, I argue that Melbourne’s screen culture and industry at the time of the Australian film revival played a fundamental key role in shaping the abilities and sensibilities of the company’s founders, George Miller and Byron Kennedy.
- Urban,
