BERESFORD, Bruce

Nationality: Australian. Born: 1940. Education: Sydney University. Family: Married 1) Rhoisin Patricia Harrison; 2) Virginia Patricia Mary Dugan, 1985; has three children. Career: Worked in advertising and for ABC TV, late 1950s; moved to London, 1961, and taught at girl's school, Willesden; film editor, East Nigerian Film Unit, 1964–66; head of British Film Institute Production Board, 1966–70: produced eighty-six films, notably short documentaries; moved to Australia, 1971; directed first feature, The Adventures of Barry MacKenzie, 1972; moved to United States, 1981. Awards: Best Director, Australian Film Awards, for Don's Party, 1976, and Breaker Morant, 1980; Best Director, American Film Institute Awards, for Don's Party, 1977; Best Director, Canadian Film Awards, for Black Robe, 1991. Agent: William Morris Agency, Beverly Hills, CA.

Films as Director:

1972

The Adventures of Barry MacKenzie (+ sc)

1974

Barry MacKenzie Holds His Own (+ co-sc, pr)

1975

Don's Party

1977

The Getting of Wisdom

1978

Money Movers (+ sc)

1980

Breaker Morant (+ sc)

1981

The Club

1982

Puberty Blues

1983

Tender Mercies

1985

King David; Fringe Dwellers (+ sc)

1986

Crimes of the Heart

1987

Aria (directed one episode)

1989

Driving Miss Daisy

1990

Her Alibi

1991

Mister Johnson (+ co-sc)

1992

Black Robe

1993

Rich in Love

1994

A Good Man in Africa; A Silent Fall

1996

Last Dance

1997

Paradise Road (co-sc)

1999

Double Jeopardy; Sydney: A Story of a City

Other Films:

1967

You're Human like the Rest of Them (pr)

1994

Curse of the Starving Class (exec pr, sc)

Publications

By BERESFORD: articles—

"An Aussie in Hollywood," an interview with G. Crowdus and U. Gupta, in Cineaste (New York), vol. 12, no. 4, 1983.

Interview in Screen International (London), 21 May 1983.

"The Paramount King David," an interview with Brent Lewis, in Films (London), December 1984/January 1985.

"Tender Crimes," an interview with Margy Rochlin, in AmericanFilm (Washington, D.C.), January/February 1987.

Interview with Film a Doba (Prague), Autumn 1994.

Interview with S.B. Katz, in Written By (Los Angeles), June 1997.

On BERESFORD: books—

Reade, Eric, History and Heartburn: The Saga of Australian Film,1896–1978, Sydney, 1979.

Stratton, David, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Reader, Sydney, 1980.

Tulloch, John, Australian Cinema: Industry, Narrative, and Meaning, Sydney and London, 1982.

White, David, Australian Movies to the World: The InternationalSuccess of Australian Films since 1970, Sydney, 1984.

Bruce Beresford: An Annotated Bibliography, Melbourne, 1985.

Hall, Sandra, Critical Business: The New Australian Cinema inReview, Adelaide, 1985.

Moran, Albert, and Tom O'Regan, editors, An Australian FilmReader, Sydney, 1985.

Radcliff-Umstead, Douglas, ed., National Traditions in Motion Pictures, Kent, Ohio, 1985.

Lewis, Glen, Australian Movies and the American Dream, New York, 1987.

McFarlane, Brian, Australian Cinema 1970–85, London, 1987.

Bennett, Bruce, ed., A Sense of Exile, Nedlands, Australia, 1988.

Dermony, Susan, and Elizabeth Jacka, The Screening of Australia:Anatomy of a National Cinema, Vol. II, Sydney, 1988.

Bertrand, Ira, ed., Cinema of Australia: A Documentary History, New South Wales, 1989.

Radcliff-Umstead, Douglas, ed., Motion Pictures and Society, Kent, Ohio, 1990.

Rattigan, Neil, Images of Australia: 100 Films of the New AustralianCinema, Dallas, 1991.

McFarlane, Brian, and Geoff Mayer, New Australian Cinema: Sourcesand Parallels in American and British Film, Cambridge, England, 1992.

Radcliff-Umstead, Douglas, ed., Varieties of Filmic Expression, Kent, Ohio, 1992.

Murray, Scott, Australian Cinema, St. Leonards, Australia, 1994.

On BERESFORD: articles—

Connelly, Keith, "The Films of Bruce Beresford," in Cinema Papers (Melbourne), August/September 1980.

Robinson, David, "Bruce Beresford's New Australian Cinema," in the Times (London), 23 October 1980.

Heung, Marina, "Breaker Morant and the Melodramatic Treatment of History," in Film Criticism, Winter 1984.

Quartermain, Peter, "Two Australian Films: Images and Contexts for The Term of His Natural Life (1927) and Don's Party," in Commonwealth Essays and Studies (Dijon, France), Spring 1984.

Lewis, Brent, "A Deft Talent," in Films (London), February 1985.

"Bruce Beresford Is Home," in Encore (Manly, New South Wales), 7 November 1985.

Bryant, Hallman B., "Breaker Morant in Fact, Fiction, and Film," Literature/Film Quarterly, 1987.

Rochlin, Margy, "Tender Crimes," American Film, January/February 1987.

Davidson, Jim, "Locating Crocodile Dundee," Meanjin (Victoria, Australia), March 1987.

Pym, John, "Mister Johnson," in Sight and Sound (London), Spring 1990.

Vann, Helene, and Jane Caputi, "Driving Miss Daisy: A New Song of the South," Journal of Popular Film and Television, Summer 1990.

Freebury, Jane, "Black Robe: Ideological Cloak and Dagger?" in Australian Canadian Studies (Wollongong, Australia), 1992.

Mortimer, Lorraine, "The Soldier, the Shearer and the Mad Man: Horizons of Community in Some Australian Films," Literature/Film Quarterly, 1993.

Groves, D., "Oz Helmers Graduate from Hollywood High," in Variety (New York), 7–13 October, 1996.

Bruce Beresford's career has been described as both interesting and uneven. Since his debut as a maker of feature films in 1972 with the broad comedy The Adventures of Barry MacKenzie, Beresford has made a wide variety of movies. But there is unity in this variety. If his Australian films, such as The Getting of Wisdom and Breaker Morant, seem more hard-edged and political than Tender Mercies, Crimes of the Heart, or Driving Miss Daisy, his latest American films nevertheless carry a social comment, if conveyed ever so quietly.

Beresford showed an interest in making films from an early age but moved to England when he saw little chance of being able to direct in Australia. After holding a number of jobs abroad, including a stint working for the British Film Institute, he returned home when government subsidies offered the possibilities for an expanded local production schedule. His first film, The Adventures of Barry MacKenzie, was deliberately commercial and pitched at a popular level since he felt that Australian films needed to prove their marketability at that time. The success of this film and his next "ocker" epic, Barry MacKenzie Holds His Own, gave him the leverage within the industry to be able to explore a different kind of work.

The more serious social comment of Don's Party, a film set against the failure of the Labor Party in the national elections of 1969, offered a clear-eyed look at Australian society of the 1960s and pursued in a more serious way the contradictions in the Australian character. Don's Party is a small movie based on David Williamson's play, and it was filmed largely within the confines of a suburban house. Its intense probing of character and the film's at-times claustrophobic atmosphere surfaced in the director's later, better-known films.

Beresford next turned to a project he had wanted to do for some time, The Getting of Wisdom, based on the autobiographical novel by H. H. Richardson. The story traces the adventures of a young woman who arrives from the outback to receive a proper education at a city girl's school. The film is a period piece but provides a devastating look at the overly genteel pretensions of class-bound, nineteenth-century Australian society. Not yet secure in its own identity, the film noted that the society still copied the Victorian social arrangements of the motherland. A stunningly beautiful film, The Getting of Wisdom established Beresford as a maker of serious and thoughtful films in the European art film tradition.

After shooting a caper film, The Money Movers, Beresford made Breaker Morant, which returned to Australia's past and explored the country's colonial relationship with Great Britain against the background of the Boer War. The film confirmed Beresford's international reputation and opened the way for him to make films outside the rather limited resources of the Australian cinema. Breaker Morant contains a savage look at British attitudes towards its former colony and examines the exploitation and condescension such attitudes produce. Although the film's leading character was played by an Englishman, the movie was also a showcase for Australian acting talent.

With The Club and Puberty Blues, Beresford returned to contemporary Australia. The Club, adapted from another of Bruce Williamson's plays, is a satire on the inner workings of an Australian football club, including its financial woes, moral tensions, and labor disputes. Puberty Blues deals with a pair of would-be "surfer-girls" growing up along the southern beachside suburbs of Sydney. The film deftly explores the macho world of Australian surfers while offering up an unflattering picture of how young women in this world are exploited and abused.

In part because of his growing international reputation, Beresford moved to the United States to direct his next film, Tender Mercies, from a Horton Foote script about a down and out country singer who finds love and solace with a small town Texan widow and her son. At first glance the story seems an unusual subject for Beresford to film, but Tender Mercies contains much of the same social commentary and the visual beauty of his earlier films. The acting is notable, as is the evocation of locale, which is not unlike the arid spaces of the Australian outback. It is a quiet, small film, the kind of movie Beresford was used to making, and it set the pattern for the other successful American films that followed. Only when venturing into the mega-epic with King David did the Beresford touch falter.

Returning to Australia, Beresford made The Fringe Dwellers, a movie about a family of aborigines and their attempts to integrate themselves into white Australian society. Their failure to do so causes a split between the generations and a dissolution of the family itself. Long a touchy subject in Australia, Beresford handled the integration issue with sensitivity, tracing the sad divisions between the races. King David came next. Although fraught with high expectations, the film was a critical and box-office disaster. He recouped whatever damage the fiasco might have done to his career by turning to Crimes of the Heart, an adaptation of Beth Henley's play about three eccentric sisters who have come together as a result of a family crisis. Once again, the director captured the ambience of small-town Southern society with gentleness and affection. The three sisters, all played by major Hollywood stars who worked remarkably well together under Beresford's direction, come off as a loving but eccentric byproduct of regional gentility and repression. Underlying the film is a steady and unblinking look at the place of women in this traditional society.

It is noteworthy that Beresford's next film rated a large spread in the financial section of the New York Times. Driving Miss Daisy cleaned up at the box-office as well as at the Oscars, and made Beresford's name a known quantity among general film audiences around the world. A quiet film about the relationship between a black man and his elderly Jewish female employer in the South, the work features tour de force acting performances from both of the principal stars, Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy. For the most part the film does not deal with racial or social problems, but prejudice hovers around the edges of the world of the film and subtly affects its tone. It is another of Beresford's small films, a work of intense concentration that focuses on a microcosm of the modern world and which, in its unfolding, explores broad human as well as social issues.

Beresford's films of the 1990s have met with mixed critical and financial success. Mister Johnson, based on a Joyce Cary novel, follows the adventures of an English engineer in West Africa during the 1920s. The engineer, who has been hired to build a road through the native bush, is accompanied by Mr. Johnson, his wily local assistant. Like many of his other films, it is a tragic story about the clash between societies in a colonial setting. Black Robe is a larger-scale historical film set in the Canadian wilderness. In 1734 a French Jesuit priest accompanies a tribe of Algonquins to his mission among the Hurons. The priest's spirituality is challenged by the hardships he faces in the wilderness and with the North American Indians. It is a grim film with bleak, scenic locations that create a thoughtful and stark background for its message of cultural friction.

The same creative team that filmed Driving Miss Daisy reunited to film Josephine Humphreys' novel about a Southern family whose conventional lives are disrupted when the mother unexpectedly, and without explanation, leaves her husband and children. Rich in Love deals with the various members of the family but focuses on the coming-of-age of the youngest daughter, who has taken over the mother's duties. Both the acting and the screen adaptation were critically praised. In A Good Man in Africa, starring Sean Connery, the director returned to Africa, where the locals and the British were still at odds. The film was rather badly reviewed and several of the critics found the portrayal of both sides stereotypical and dated. Silent Fall is a suspense film about a psychiatrist who solves a double murder witnessed by the victims' nine-year-old son. It was released right on the heels of A Good Man in Africa and might have helped to save Beresford's current reputation, but it was so infrequently and so negatively reviewed that it only multiplied his troubles.

Although in many ways Bruce Beresford has become a Hollywood director, one who likes large filming budgets and the options that such budgets afford, his films remain really quite consistent. Preferring ensemble acting to star vehicles, smaller films to epics (even though Breaker Morant was favorably compared to a David Lean epic by the critics, the film is still basically an intimate courtroom drama) and always infusing his films with an insistent social critique, especially on the question of racism, Beresford has fashioned a remarkably consistent career for all of its seeming diversity.

—Charles L. P. Silet

BERESFORD, Bruce 1940-

PERSONAL: Born August 16, 1940, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; son of Leslie (in sales) and Lona (Warr) Beresford; married Rhoisin Harrison (a graphic designer), 1965 (marriage ended); married Virginia Patricia Mary Duigan (a filmmaker and screenwriter), 1985 (one source says 1988); children: (first marriage) Benjamin, Cordelia, Adam; (second marriage) Trilby. Education: Attended Sydney University.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Endeavor Talent Agency, 9701 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

CAREER: Director, producer, and screenwriter. Director of films, including The Adventures of Barry MacKenzie, 1972; (and producer) Barry MacKenzie Holds His Own, 1974, Don's Party, 1975; The Getting of Wisdom, 1977; Money Movers, 1978; Breaker Morant, 1980; The Club, 1981; Puberty Blues, 1982; Tender Mercies, 1983; King David, 1985; Fringe Dwellers, 1985; Crimes of the Heart, 1986; Aria (one episode), 1987; Driving Miss Daisy, 1989; Her Alibi, 1990; Mister Johnson, 1991; Black Robe, 1992; Rich in Love, 1993; (and coproducer) A Good Man in Africa, 1994; A Silent Fall 1994; Last Dance, Buena Vista/Touchstone, 1996; Paradise Road, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1997; Sydney: A Story of a City, Total Big Screen Productions, 1999; Double Jeopardy, Paramount, 1999; Ataturk, 2000; Bride of the Wind, Paramount Classics, 2001; and Boswell for the Defence, 2001. Also producer of the films You're Human like the Rest of Them, 1967; and Paradigm, 1970. Executive producer of the film Curse of the Starving Class, Trimark Pictures, 1994.

Director of stage productions, including La Fancicella del West (opera; title means "Girl of the Golden West"), Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC, and Spoleto, Italy, 1985; Elektra (opera), State Opera Company of South Australia, Adelaide and Melbourne, c. 1991; The Crucible (opera), 1999; Rigoletto, Los Angeles Opera, 2000; Cold Sassy Tree, Houston Grand Opera, Houston, TX, 2000; and Sweeney Todd, Portland Opera, Portland, OR.

Director of television movies, including Poor Fella Me, Australian television, 1973; The Wreck of the Batavia, Australian television, 1974; and And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, 2003. Executive producer and director of the television series, Aria & Pasta, Bravo, 2000.

WRITINGS:

screenplays

(With Barry Humphries) The Adventures of BarryMcKenzie, Longford, 1972.

Poor Fella Me (television movie), Australian television, 1973.

(With Barry Humphries) Barry McKenzie Holds HisOwn, Roadshow, 1974.

Side by Side, 1975.

Money Movers, Roadshow, 1978.

(With Jonathan Hardy and David Stevens) BreakerMorant, New World, 1980.

The Fringe Dwellers, Atlantic, 1985.

"Die Tote Stadt," Aria, RVP-Virgin Vision, 1987.

(With William Boyd) Mister Johnson (adapted from a novel by Joyce Carey), Avenue Entertainment, 1991.

Curse of the Starving Class, Trimark Pictures, 1994.

Paradise Road, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1997.

SIDELIGHTS: Bruce Beresford may be best known for directing the hit movie Driving Miss Daisy, but he has also written and directed many other well-received films. These works, which range over a wide geographical area, including the based-on-a-true-story prisoner-of-war tale Paradise Road and Mister Johnson, a film about life in colonial Nigeria.

Beresford wanted to be a filmmaker since he was a small child, "which was considered a bit of a joke in the bush in Australia" where he grew up, he told Luaine Lee in an interview for Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. He started making 8mm movies before he reached his teens and continued to write and direct short films throughout college, but he did not believe he could actually make a career out of it until his philosophy professor encouraged him to try. So Beresford moved to England and took a job with the British Film Institute.

Paradise Road may be the most widely known of the works Beresford has written and directed. This film, set in Sumatra in the early 1940s, tells the stories of a group of European, Asian, and American women and children who are imprisoned in a Japanese-run prisoner of war camp during World War II. One of the inmates, played by Glenn Close, forms a "vocal orchestra" (emphatically not a choir, she says) to keep the women's spirits up and help them to endure. "Beresford writes good, flavorsome, pointed dialogue" for this film, Richard Alleva noted in Commonweal, and it is "clear that scriptwriter Beresford understands director Beresford very well, caters to his strengths, incites his visual power, and, when need be, keeps out of his way" to make room for the stunningly photographed nonverbal scenes that Beresford is known for.

Beresford also wrote and directed Mister Johnson. This film, which was declared "a work of genius" by John Simon in National Review, is based on a novel by Irish author Joyce Cary, who worked for the British colonial administration in Nigeria during the 1910s. The title character is a man of African descent who was educated by British missionaries and who identifies strongly with English culture. Because of this, he no longer feels like a member of his tribe, but the British rulers will not accept him as one of their own, either. "What is so shattering about the film is that it sees equally clearly the predicament of all the characters," both British and Nigerian, Simon concluded.

Although he is best known in the United States as a director, Beresford appreciates being given the opportunity to make films usings scripts he has written. "I always think that better directors write the scripts because if you can't write, and you don't have anything to say, then what's the point of making films?," he told an interviewer from Reel West.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 37, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 2: Directors, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

periodicals

American Film, June, 1985, "The Right Stuff: Nineteen People Who Shaped the Decade," pp. 61-68; January-February, 1987, Margy Rochlin, profile of Beresford, pp. 36-41.

Back Stage, August 4, 1989, Robert Goldrich, "Bruce Beresford Signs Exclusive Deal with HISK," pp. 1-2.

Canadian Forum, June-July, 1984, Robin Wood, "The Beresford Mystery," pp. 46-47.

Chicago, June, 1991, Penelope Mesic, review of Mr.Johnson, p. 84.

Christian Science Monitor, March 9, 1993, Marilynne S. Mason, review of Rich in Love, p. 12; April 25, 1997, review of Paradise Road, p. 13; June 8, 2001, "Exotic Period Pieces Are His Specialty," p. 19.

Commentary, May, 1981, Richard Grenier, review of Breaker Morant, pp. 73-77.

Commonweal, June 20, 1997, Richard Alleva, review of Paradise Road, p. 18.

Cosmopolitan, February, 1981, Guy Flatley, review of Breaker Morant, p. 16.

Daily Variety, February 21, 2003, Gabrielle Mitchell-Marell, "Christopher Noms to Six Helmers," p. 32.

Entertainment Weekly, April 25, 1997, Lisa Schwarzbaum, review of Paradise Road, pp. 46-47; October 24, 1997, Denise Lanctot, review of Paradise Road, p. 72.

Esquire, July, 1982, Jan Reid, review of Tender Mercies, pp. 100-102.

Film Comment, May-June, 1988, Michael Walsh, review of Aria, pp. 76-77.

Glamour, March, 1981, Stephen Schiff, review of Breaker Morant, p. 168.

Hollywood Reporter, January 28, 2002, Nellie Andreeva, review of Pitcairn Island, pp. 6-7.

Horizon, February, 1981, Diane Jacobs, review of Breaker Morant, pp. 70-71; November, 1986, Bill Golightly, review of Committing Crimes, pp. 33-35.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, June 18, 2001, Luaine Lee, "Aussie Director Bruce Beresford's Latest Destination: Vienna," p. K7411.

Library Journal, February 15, 1992, Randy Pittman, review of Mister Johnson, p. 213.

Los Angeles Magazine, December, 1990, Merrill Shindler, review of Mister Johnson, p. 219.

Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1984, Roderick Mann, profile of Beresford, p. 3; July 29, 1984, Joan Borsten, interview with Beresford, p. 18; March 17, 1985, Roderick Mann, profile of Beresford, p. 26.

Maclean's, March 30, 1981, Lawrence O'Toole, review of Breaker Morant, pp. 55-56; April 28, 1997, Brian D. Johnson, review of Paradise Road, p. 63.

Ms., March, 1987, Laurie Stone, review of The FringeDwellers, pp. 20-21.

Nation, January 31, 1981, Robert Hatch, review of Breaker Morant, pp. 124-125.

National Catholic Reporter, April 10, 1981, Richard Lacayo, review of Breaker Morant, p. 14; April 5, 1991, Joseph Cunneen, review of Mister Johnson, p. 16.

National Review, March 20, 1981, John Simon, review of Breaker Morant, pp. 304-306; May 13, 1991, John Simon, review of Mister Johnson, pp. 56-58.

New Republic, December 27, 1980, Stanley Kauffmann, review of Breaker Morant, p. 24.

New West, January, 1981, Kenneth Turan, review of Breaker Morant, p. 97.

New York, December 29, 1980, David Denby, review of Breaker Morant, pp. 48-49; January 19, 1981, William Wolf, "The Newest New Wave," pp. 45-46.

New Yorker, April 8, 1991, Terrence Rafferty, review of Mister Johnson, pp. 82-84; April 14, 1997, Anthony Lane, review of Paradise Road, p. 89.

New York Times, December 21, 1980, Annette Insdorf, review of Breaker Morant, p. D19; December 22, 1980, Janet Maslin, review of Breaker Morant, pp. 16, C13; April 4, 1982, David Lewin, "Australia's Bruce Beresford Tackles Texas," p. D15; June 18, 1982, Chris Chase, "Down under, They All Think It's the Top," pp. 18, C10; February 27, 1983, Lawrence Van Gelder, review of Tender Mercies, p. 17; October 17, 1986, Nina Darnton, review of Aria, pp. 16, C16; January 23, 1987, Vincent Canby, review of The Fringe Dwellers, pp. 18, C13; May 21, 1988, Janet Maslin, review of Aria, p. 13; May 6, 1990, Laurie Halpern Smith, "It's Back to Nigeria for Bruce Beresford," p. H13; March 22, 1991, Janet Maslin, review of Mister Johnson, pp. B3, C13; April 24, 1991, David Sterritt, review of Mister Johnson, p. 14; January 23, 1992, Janet Maslin, review of Mister Johnson, pp. B4, C22; April 11, 1997, Stephen Holden, review of Paradise Road, pp. B1, C12; April 23, 1997, Bernard Weintraub, interview with Beresford, pp. B4, C10.

People, February 2, 1981, review of Breaker Morant, pp. 18-19; May 23, 1988, Peter Travers, review of Aria, p. 17; April 21, 1997, Leah Rozen, review of Paradise Road, p. 23.

Premiere, March, 1991, Kitty Bowe Hearty, review of Mister Johnson, p. 12.

Progressive, March, 1981, Michael H. Seitz, review of Breaker Morant, pp. 54-55.

Rolling Stone, May 1, 1997, Peter Travers, review of Paradise Road, p. 59.

San Francisco, July, 1981, Stanley Eichelbaum, review of Breaker Morant, p. 31.

Sarasota Herald Tribune, April 25, 1997, Bill Kelley, review of Paradise Road, p. 18.

Saturday Review, January, 1981, Judith Crist, review of Breaker Morant, pp. 84-85.

Seventeen, April, 1987, review of The Fringe Dwellers, p. 87.

Sight and Sound, December, 1997, Nick Kimberly, review of Paradise Road, pp. 50-51.

Time, January 5, 1981, Richard Schickel, review of Breaker Morant, p. 85; April 14, 1997, Richard Schickel, review of Paradise Road, p. 96.

Variety, April 23, 1980, review of Breaker Morant, p. 18; September 19, 1994, Emanuel Levy, review of Curse of the Starving Class, p. 80; April 7, 1997, Emanuel Levy, review of Paradise Road, p. 42.

Vogue, May, 1985, Mary Cantwell, "Australians," pp. 312-317; May, 1997, John Powers, review of Paradise Road, p. 154.

Wall Street Journal, January 22, 1987, Julie Salamon, review of The Fringe Dwellers, p. 28; April 11, 1997, Joe Morgenstern, review of Paradise Road, p. A12.

Washingtonian, August, 1981, Dan Rottenberg, review of Breaker Morant, p. 46.

Wilson Library Bulletin, March, 1989, Brad Carty, review of The Fringe Dwellers, p. 94.

World Press Review, March, 1992, Rob Lowing, "What's Driving Bruce Beresford," p. 57.

online

Efilmcritic.com,http://efilmcritic.com/ (February 29, 2000), Stephen Lynch, "Bruce Beresford and the Big Budget Thriller."

Reel West,http://www.reelwest.com/ (May 11, 2003), "Question + Answer: Bruce Beresford, Director."*

Beresford, Bruce 1940-

PERSONAL

Born August 16, 1940, in Sydney, Australia; son of Leslie (in sales) and Lona (maiden name, Warr) Beresford; married Rhoisin Harrison (a graphic designer), 1965 (marriage ended); married Virginia Patricia Mary Duigan (a filmmaker and screenwriter), 1985; children: (first marriage) Benjamin, Cordelia, Adam; (second marriage) Trilby. Education: Sydney University, B.A., philosophy, 1962. Avocational Interests: Opera, skiing, Australian football, tennis, surfing.

Addresses:

Agent—The Gersh Agency, 232 North Canon Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210; Steve Kenis and Company, 72 Dean St., London W1D 3SG United Kingdom.

Career:

Director, screenwriter, and producer. Australian Broadcasting Commission, Sydney, film trainee, 1957-59; worked in advertising in Australia, c. early 1960s; teacher, London, England, c. 1962-c. 1964; East Nigerian Film Unit, film editor, 1964-67; British Film Institute Production Board, administrator, 1967-71; Arts Council of Great Britain, film advisor, 1967-70; HISK Productions, Los Angeles, CA, director of commercials, 1989. Also worked as a factory worker and cameraman.

Member:

Directors Guild of America.

Awards, Honors:

Australian Film Institute Award, best director, Golden Berlin Bear nomination, Berlin International Film Festival, 1977, both for Don's Party; Golden Palm nomination, Cannes Film Festival, Australian Film Institute Awards, best director and best screenplay—original or adapted (with Jonathan Hardy and David Stevens), 1980, Academy Award nomination (with Hardy and Stevens), best screenplay based on material from another medium, 1981, all for "Breaker" Morant; Australian Film Institute Award nomination, best director, 1981, for The Club; Golden Palm nomination, Cannes Film Festival, 1983, Academy Award nomination, best director, Golden Globe nomination, best director—motion picture, Directors Guild of America Award nomination, outstanding directorial achievement in motion pictures, 1984, all for Tender Mercies; Australian Film Institute Award (with Rhoisin Beresford), best screenplay—adapted, Australian Film Institute Award nomination, best director, and Golden Palm nomination, Cannes Film Festival, 1986, all for The Fringe Dwellers; Australian Neville Wran Award, for excellence in the film industry, 1986; Golden Palm nomination (with others), Cannes Film Festival, 1987, for Aria; Golden Berlin Bear nomination, Berlin International Film Festival, 1990, and Film Award nominations, best direction and best film (with Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck), British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 1991, all for Driving Miss Daisy; Golden Berlin Bear nomination, Berlin International Film Festival,1991, for Mister Johnson; Award for Best Opera Production, 1991, for Elektra; Genie Award, best achievement in direction, Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, 1991, Australian Film Institute Award nomination, best director, 1992, both for Black Robe; Golden Berlin Bear nomination, Berlin International Film Festival, 1995, for Silent Fall; Film Critics Circle of Australia Award nominations, best director and best screenplay—adapted, 1998, both for Paradise Road; Golden Kinnaree Award nomination, Bangkok International Film Festival, best film, 2003, for Evelyn.

CREDITS

Film Director:

The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Longford, 1972.

Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, Roadshow, 1974.

Side by Side, 1975.

Don's Party, Double Head, 1976.

The Getting of Wisdom, Roadshow, 1977.

Money Movers, Roadshow, 1978.

(Uncredited; additional footage) Blue Fin, 1978.

"Breaker" Morant (also known as Breaker Morant), New World, 1980.

The Club (also known as David Williamson's "The Club" and Players), Roadshow, 1980.

Fortress, 1981.

Puberty Blues, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1981.

Tender Mercies, Universal, 1982.

King David, Paramount, 1985.

The Fringe Dwellers, Atlantic, 1985.

Crimes of the Heart, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.

"Die Tote Stadt," Aria, RVP-Virgin Vision, 1987.

Driving Miss Daisy, Warner Bros., 1989.

Her Alibi, Warner Bros., 1989.

Mister Johnson, Avenue Entertainment, 1991.

Black Robe (also known as Robe noire), Samuel Goldwyn, 1991.

Rich in Love, 1993.

A Good Man in Africa, Gramercy Pictures, 1994.

Silent Fall, Warner Bros., 1994.

Last Dance, Buena Vista/Touchstone, 1996.

Paradise Road, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1997.

Sydney: A Story of a City, Total Big Screen Productions, 1999.

Double Jeopardy (also known as Doppelmord and Double condamnation), Paramount, 1999.

Ataturk, 2000.

Bride of the Wind (also known as Die Windsbraut), Paramount Classics, 2001.

Boswell for the Defence, 2001.

Evelyn, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 2002.

The Contract, First Look International, 2006.

Fever, 2007.

Film Work; Other:

Producer, You're Human Like the Rest of Them, 1967.

Cinematographer, Magritte: The False Mirror, 1970.

Producer, Paradigm, 1970.

Producer, Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, Roadshow, 1974.

Producer, The Fringe Dwellers, Atlantic, 1985.

Coproducer, A Good Man in Africa, Gramercy Pictures, 1994.

Executive Producer, Curse of the Starving Class, Trimark Pictures, 1994.

Producer, Sydney: A Story of a City, Total Big Screen Productions, 1999.

Co-executive producer, Canvas (documentary short), Screen Media Films, 2006.

Film Appearances:

(Uncredited) Man in pub, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Longford, 1972.

(Uncredited) Voice in Foureyes Fenton, Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, Roadshow, 1974.

Himself, Miracles & Miracles (documentary short), Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, "Miss Daisy"'s Journey: From Stage to Screen (documentary short), Warner Home Video, 2003.

Himself, Jessica Tandy: Theatre Legend to Screen Star (documentary short), Warner Home Video, 2003.

Himself, Evelyn: Behind the Scenes, 2003.

Stage Director:

La Fancicella del West (opera; also known as Girl of the Golden West), Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC, and Spoleto, Italy, 1985.

Elektra (opera), State Opera Company of South Australia, Adelaide and Melbourne, Australia, c. 1991.

The Crucible (opera), 1999.

Rigoletto, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles, 2000.

Cold Sassy Tree, Houston Grand Opera, Houston, TX, 2000.

Also directed Sweeney Todd, Portland Opera, Portland, OR; Spoleto, State Opera Company of South Australia, Adelaide and Melbourne, Australia.

Television Work; Series:

Executive producer and director, Aria & Pasta, Bravo, 2000.

Television Director; Movies:

Poor Fella Me, 1973.

The Wreck of the Batavia, 1974.

And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, HBO, 2003.

Television Appearances; Episodic:

Mornings with Kerri-Anne, 2007.

WRITINGS

Screenplays:

(With Barry Humphries) The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Longford, 1972.

(With Humphries) Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, Roadshow, 1974.

Side by Side, 1975.

Money Movers, Roadshow, 1978.

(With Jonathan Hardy and David Stevens) "Breaker" Morant (also known as Breaker Morant), New World, 1980.

The Fringe Dwellers, Atlantic, 1985.

"Die Tote Stadt," Aria, RVP-Virgin Vision, 1987.

(With William Boyd) Mister Johnson (adapted from a novel by Joyce Carey), Avenue Entertainment, 1991.

Curse of the Starving Class, Trimark Pictures, 1994.

Paradise Road, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1997.

Television Movies:

Poor Fella Me, 1973.

OTHER SOURCES

Books:

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 2: Directors, St. James Press, 1996.

Periodicals:

American Film, January-February, 1987, pp. 36-40, 53.