Educational Media Reviews Online

Australian novelist and poet David Malouf describes in this biographical documentary his literary influences and the ways in which his novels and poetry came into existence. In personal interviews, Malouf discusses the formative effects that imagination, memory, experience, and the self-conscious have had on his writing, while his publisher and literary critics detail his mastery of language and his rich characterizations. This is the story of how fiction is written as told by one of the great writers of twentieth-century English literature. The film includes selected excerpts from Malouf’s works read by actor Geoffrey Rush, as well as short dramatizations from the novels Johnno, 12 Edmondstone Street, and the multiple award winning Remembering Babylon. Brief archival footage and photographic landscape essays give a sense of place and history to Malouf’s writings.

Whether used as an introduction to the author or as a background to literary criticism of his work, this film is recommended for any student of literature with an interest in the art and craft of fiction-writing and poetry. Part of a series that features other well-known writers in the English language, the photography, editing, narrative and dramatizations are of the highest professional quality.