SHIRLEY THOMPSON VERSUS THE ALIENS

Australia, 1972, 104 minutes, Black and white.
Jane Harders, June Collis, Tim Elliot.
Directed by Jim Sharman.

Shirley Thompson versus the Aliens was a popular avant garde film by stage and film director Jim Sharman. He directed such stage productions as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, such films as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Summer of Secrets, Patrick White's The Night The Prowler and theatre productions of Patrick White's plays. He was also director of the Adelaide Festival.

This film echoes themes of the early '70s - reflection on the '50s, the fads and trends, the formative influences and the disruption of the '60s. It has its heroine going mad - influenced by the trends of the '50s and her thinking she is influenced by aliens appearing in Sydney's Luna Park. After a conventional marriage she disintegrates at the end of the '60s. There is an alternate use of black and white photography and colour. There are various devices for conveying madness, memory. There is also caricature of the styles of youth in the '50s as well as the humdrum aspects of the parent generation and their Australianism. In this way the material is similar to Patrick White's The Night The Prowler and Sharman's treatment of it. The film is an interesting attempt to look at Australian suburban schizophrenia. Many people involved in the renaissance of the Australian film industry participated in this film, for example Matt Carroll as producer, David Sanderson as photographer and such actors and actresses as Kate Fitzpatrick, Candy Raymond, Ron Haddrick, Tim Elliot. Jane Harders is very good as Shirley. Jeannie Lewis sings songs including 'Fly Like a Bird'. An interesting example of early '70s Australian filmmaking and the work of Jim Sharman.

1. The impact of this film? For what audience? As a product of the early '70s? As a film at the beginning of the rebirth of the Australian industry? The work of Jim Sharman - in theatre and on screen? The technical virtuosity? The themes?

2. The contribution of the range of camera work and cinematic styles: colour photography, black and white, hand-held camera work, the range of sounds from music, dialogue, artificially contrived? Flashbacks, devices to suggest
madness, memory?

3. The focus of the title and its tone? Irony? Shirley Thompson as the average Australian girl? The aliens and the overtones of B films of the '50s with science fiction contrivance (not the later developments of the '70s)?
The ordinary Australian and aliens and the indications of madness? The focus on madness and asylums? Patients and the traditions of the hospital and asylum film? The use of the devices of the horror film and the B grade science films? How much imitation, how much homage? The irony of the point of view on 1970 looking back on the 150s?

4. Shirley Thompson having her breakdown in the late '60s and early '70s? A period of breakdown and the film's comment on this, suggestions of reasons, critique of society and pressures? Shirley and the pressures of the '40s and '50s? Her growing up, family life, interests, peer group? The tones of the '50s in terms of imagination and science fiction? The gap towards the end of the film passing over the 1960s and her marriage? The suggestion that the '60s were no real help for the Shirley Thompson? They produced collapse only?

5. The focus on 1956 as a crucial year for the Shirley Thompson generation? The visual suggestions of the '50s: rock 'n roll emerging, the gangs, the leather, the Coca Cola, cigarettes, Luna Park, the Victory theatre? The visual echoes and styles of the time? The vocabulary and language patterns? How humorous the presentation of the '50s, how nostalgic, how critical? How authentic?

6. The use of radio background - commercials, programmes, the parent generation relying on radio, Shirley Thompson influenced by it and believing it? The introduction of television and the wider possibilities for brainwashing, influence? The styles of media communication? The background of the Olympic Games of 1956 and the reality? The irony of the manipulation of the Games, Prince Phillip and the look-alike? The film's mockery of royalty, Australians, the Games - to what purpose?

7. The opening in the asylum and its creation of atmosphere? Colour and black and white interchange? The long presentation of the individuals in the asylum - their appearance.. behaviour, range of dress? The family album style and Shirley Thompson taking her place here? The ugliness of Shirley being taken in to the asylum and finding her place here? The irony of the hallway of hone being similar to the asylum? The comment on Shirley's madness? Her entry into the asylum., interaction with the characters in the asylum and with the doctors, the place of the flashbacks? The focus on Shirley's waiting for the interview - Blake and the sex and violence overtures (and the echoes of film and their treatment of this kind of scene), Matron and tea? The doctors and their techniques? The talking, the unearthing of trauma? Files? The cigarettes. Shirley's talking, remembering? Blake and the needle and the whirling? Shirley getting worse - staying mad? Opting out of the '60s world? The implication that the '40s and '50s would drive people mad, the '60s be no help, the '70s be a world of madness?

8. Rita and Reg and home life? Rita's comments to Reg and Shirley and to the camera? The background of drinking and Australian alcoholics? The worry about the neighbours? The verbal fights? Rita and her doing the peas, listening to the radio? The neighbours and the garbage? The range of programmes influencing Rita's and Reg's life? The changing of moods? The pressures on Shirley about her engagement, the sequence where Rita talked about her engagement being in the paper and Shirley's reaction? The talkback on the radio programme? Their other daughter and the comparison with Shirley? Death? How satiric was this presentation of family - done in short comments, odd bizarre presentations of the characters? Highlighting the peculiar aspects of Australian suburban life in the '50s? The visual presentation of Australian suburbia?

9. The contrast with the gang, their appearance, the riding of the bikes, the sequences in the bar, drinking Coca Cola, the visits to Luna Park? The contrast with Bruce and his relationship with Shirley? The build-up to the experience of the aliens? In the context of the peer group with the leather and the rock 'n roll? Shirley and her mission from the aliens - and the gang not believing? The background sequences of the ride. the dance? The build-up to the focus on Prince Philip and the reality and unreality of Shirley's experience?

10. Harold as the nice young man of suburbia? His work at Woollies, his way of talking. going to sleep, expecting to marry Shirley? The Pete Smith background? The irony that he did marry Shirley - and his contribution to her eventual breakdown?

11. The device of the aliens: the science fiction background of the '50s, the visual presentation of the aliens with the B movie aura? The reality and unreality of the aliens? Their appearing at Luna Park with all its connotations? Sideshow and carnival? Shirley and her belief, her experience with them with its mystical and religious overtones? Photo? The talk? The background of the radio programme- and the Orson Welles atmosphere of his hoax with the War of the Worlds? The aliens taking over - and the power in Prince Philip and his sabotaging of the Melbourne Games? Shirley as the prophet of the aliens and their power? The importance of the power for her and her becoming pregnant and giving birth to aliens embodied in human form? Shirley and the build-up to her collapse and eventually not remembering her experience of the aliens?

12. Shirley and her seeming normalisation? The marriage? The passing over of the '60s with the suggestions of her way of life? The restaurant sequence and her collapse? Shirley trapped in her past?

13. How incisive the presentation and critique of Australian society? The reliance upon incidents to build up an atmosphere? Audiences being drawn into the atmosphere of madness? The critique of suburbia, the political implications?

14. The understanding of the characters - the telling vignettes of the parents saying so much about the older generation, the peer group, Harold, Shirley? The mutual influence of this strange range of characters? In comparison with the people in the asylum with their mannerisms, behaviour? The brutal Blake, the sweet smiling Matron, the doctors - and their serious interpretation of Shirley's case?

15. How optimistic the film? Pessimistic? A moral fable for the beginning of the '70s? As seen in the hindsight of the '70s?