David Stratton

{{Infobox person

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AM}}

| name = David Stratton

| image = David Stratton.jpg

| caption = Stratton in 2012

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1939}}

| birth_place = Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England

| employer =

| occupation = {{hlist|Film critic|journalist|interviewer|television presenter}}

| known_for = {{unbulleted list|The Movie Show|At the Movies|The Weekend Australian film reviews}}

| spouse = Susie Craig

| children = 2

}}

David James Stratton {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|AM}} (born 1939) is an English-Australian film critic and historian. He has also worked as a journalist, interviewer, educator, television personality, and producer. His career as a film critic, writer, and educator in Australia spanned 57 years, until his retirement in December 2023.

Stratton's media career included presenting film review shows on television with Margaret Pomeranz for 28 years, writing film reviews for The Weekend Australian for 33 years, and lecturing in film history for 35 years.

Early life and education

Born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, in 1939, David James Stratton{{cite book | last=Burgmann | first=M. | title=Dirty Secrets: Our ASIO files | publisher=NewSouth Publishing | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-74224-175-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x8toAwAAQBAJ | access-date=30 December 2023 | page=}} was sent to Hampshire to see out the war years with his grandmother. An avid filmgoer, his grandmother regularly took Stratton to the local cinemas. When he was around six years old, his father returned from the war and the family moved back to Wiltshire.{{Cite web |last=Purcell |first=Charles |date=2019-06-01 |title=David Stratton on changing up the Sydney Film Festival's retrospective |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/david-stratton-on-changing-up-the-sydney-film-festival-s-retrospective-20190529-p51s9n.html |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}} He attended Chafyn Grove School from 1948 to 1953 as a boarder,{{cite book | last=Stratton | first=D. | title=I Peed on Fellini: Recollections of a Life in Film | publisher=William Heinemann | year=2008 | isbn=978-1-74166-619-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KPgXei32evoC | access-date=30 December 2023 | page=}} but never finished secondary school.

He saw his first foreign film at Bath in 1955, the Italian romantic comedy Bread, Love and Dreams. That was soon followed by Akira Kurosawa's Japanese adventure drama classic Seven Samurai, found showing in Birmingham. At the age of 19, he founded the Melksham and District Film Society.{{cite web|url = http://www.randomhouse.com.au/Authors/Default.aspx?Page=Author&ID=Stratton,%20David|title = David Stratton|access-date = 16 March 2008|publisher = Random House Australia}}{{cite web| url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/david-stratton| website= The Australian| title= David Stratton | access-date=30 December 2023}}

Career

Stratton arrived in Australia in 1963 under the "ten pound" migration scheme.{{Cite web |last=Maddox |first=Garry |date=2024-10-11 |title='I thought I'd go completely blind': Cruellest blow for a movie critic hits David Stratton |url=https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/i-thought-i-d-go-completely-blind-cruellest-blow-for-a-movie-critic-hits-david-stratton-20240926-p5kdt6.html |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}} He soon became involved with the local film society movement. He directed the Sydney Film Festival (a job he landed after fighting film censorship) from 1966 until 1983. At the time, he was the subject of surveillance by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), due to the festival showing Soviet films, and his late-1960s visit to Russia. This information was not made public until January 2014.{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/national/david-stratton-oblivious-hes-been-cast-as-a-spy-asios-vault-shows-its-odd-choice-of-surveillance-targets-20140103-309hu.html|title=David Stratton oblivious he's been cast as a spy|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald| date=4 January 2014 | access-date=4 January 2014|last=Fenely|first=Rick}}

Stratton worked for SBS from 1980, acting as their film consultant and introducing the SBS Cinema Classics on Sunday evenings and Movie of the Week for 24 weeks a year. From 30 October 1986{{cite web| url=https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/and-silver-goes-margaret-and-david| website= National Film and Sound Archive| title=Celebrating 25 years in 2011| first= Jan |last=Thurling |date=2011 | access-date=1 January 2024}} onwards Stratton co-hosted the long-running SBS TV program The Movie Show with Margaret Pomeranz, who was also the show's original producer. Stratton and Pomeranz (often referred to as "Margaret and David"{{cite web | last=Evershed | first=Nick | title=At the Movies: Margaret and David's most divisive films revealed | website=The Guardian | date=16 September 2014 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/sep/16/at-the-movies-margaret-and-davids-most-divisive-films-revealed | access-date=30 December 2023}}{{cite web | title=What Margaret and David say about 500 Oz Movies | website=Ozflicks | date=13 September 2016 | url= https://ozflicks.wordpress.com/2016/09/13/what-david-and-margaret-say-about-400-oz-movies/ | access-date=30 December 2023}}) left SBS in 2004.{{cite web| url=http://www.abc.net.au:80/goldcoast/stories/s1076954.htm| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080304143210/http://www.abc.net.au:80/goldcoast/stories/s1076954.htm| publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation|website= ABC Gold and Tweed Coasts| title= David Stratton| date= 7 April 2004| first= Jane| last= Cowan| archive-date= 4 March 2008}}

From 1 July 2004, they co-hosted the ABC film show, At the Movies with Margaret and David.{{cite web |date=2014 |title=David Stratton |url=http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1138600.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706201441/http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1138600.htm |archive-date=6 July 2017 |website=At the Movies with Margaret and David |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}} On 16 September 2014, Stratton and Pomeranz announced that they would be retiring at the end of the 2014 series. The ABC confirmed that the series would end, with the last episode broadcast on 9 December 2014.{{cite news|title=Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton roll end credits on 28-year film review partnership; At The Movies will not return to ABC in 2015|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-16/margaret-pomeranz-and-david-stratton-roll-end-credits/5747214 |access-date=16 September 2014|work=ABC News (Australia) |date=16 September 2014}}

Stratton wrote for US film industry magazine Variety from 1984, and has also written for TV Week. Stratton has presented a number of film reviews for Palace Nova cinemas, which are posted on their website.{{cite web |date=1 January 2024 |title=David Stratton Recommends |url=https://www.palacenova.com.au/david-stratton-recommends |access-date=1 January 2024 |website=Palace Nova}}

He lectured in film history at the University of Sydney's Centre for Continuing Education,{{cite web|url=https://cce.sydney.edu.au/course/AHWC |title=A History of World Cinema Course with David Stratton|access-date=10 August 2015}} from around 1988 until December 2023, during which he covered around 840 films and showed 7,506 film clips. Many of his students re-enrolled year after year.{{cite web | last=Hennessy | first=Kate | title=David Stratton's closing credits: 'I've done the best I could' | website=The Guardian | date=22 December 2023 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/23/david-strattons-closing-credits-ive-done-the-best-i-could | access-date=30 December 2023}}

In 2008 he released his autobiography called I Peed on Fellini, a reference to a drunken attempt to shake director Federico Fellini's hand while using a urinal. {{as of|2024}}, he had authored six books.

Juries and other roles

Stratton and Pomeranz have played an important role in challenging the often heavy-handed decisions of the Australian Classification Board throughout their career.[http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=7595&s=features "Lies and Damned Censorship"] by Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile (3 July 2003)[http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/04/1057179156219.html "Film board chief on the defensive over banned movie"] by Suzanne Carbone, The Age (5 July 2003) One of Stratton's legacies is the part he played in bringing about the R18+ film classification.

Stratton has been invited to sit on many international juries at film festivals. Regarded as an expert on international cinema, particularly French cinema, he was president of FIPRESCI (International Film Critics) Juries in Cannes (twice) and Venice. He was also a member of the jury at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival in 1982.{{cite web |url=http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1982/04_jury_1982/04_Jury_1982.html|title=Berlinale 1982: Juries|access-date=2 September 2010|publisher=Berlinale}}

He has also acted as programming consultant to the London and Los Angeles Film Festivals, and has contributed regularly to the International Film Guide, compiled and published in London. Stratton and Pomeranz are patrons of the Adelaide Film Festival.

On 14 March 2015 Stratton appeared in front of a sold-out crowd in a meeting with David Lynch on the opening weekend of the exhibition David Lynch: Between Two Worlds, at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane, Queensland.{{cite report| url= https://documents.parliament.qld.gov.au/tableOffice/TabledPapers/2015/5515T1154.pdf| title= Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees Annual Report 2014–15 |publisher= Queensland Art Gallery| date= 18 September 2015}} The one-hour conversation was Lynch's first and only public appearance in Australia.{{cite web | last=Caldwell | first=Thomas | title=Living Inside a Dream: The Art and Films of David Lynch | website=CINEMA AUTOPSY | date=26 April 2015 | url=https://blog.cinemaautopsy.com/2015/04/26/living-inside-a-dream-the-art-and-films-of-david-lynch/ | access-date=1 January 2024}}

In film and other TV

The documentary film David Stratton: A Cinematic Life, written and directed by Sally Aitken, was released in 2017, and re-edited for television, featuring interviews with Stratton about his life and with actors, directors, producers representing Australian cinema since the 1960s.{{Cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/film-critic-david-stratton-gets-his-own-movie-at-last-20170216-gueeja.html|title=Film critic David Stratton gets his own movie at last |last=Cerabona |first=Ron |date=February 18, 2017|work=The Sydney Morning Herald}}{{IMDb title|6554406|David Stratton: A Cinematic Life|(2017)}} A preliminary version of the film was first released at the 2016 Adelaide Film Festival as David Stratton's Stories of Australian Cinema, a "work in progress screening{{nbsp}}... a celebration of 110 years of Australian Cinema history and its creators".{{cite web|website=Adelaide Film Festival |url=https://adelaidefilmfestival.org/titles/105933/?festivalid=2|title=David Stratton's Stories of Australian Cinema|date = 2 October 2018|access-date=22 May 2019}} The title was later screened as a three-part series on ABC Television.{{cite web | title=David Stratton's Stories Of Australian Cinema | website=ABC iview | url=https://iview.abc.net.au/show/david-stratton-s-stories-of-australian-cinema | access-date=1 January 2024}} The series was produced by Jo-anne McGowan of production company Stranger Than Fiction.{{cite web | title=David Stratton: A Cinematic Life | website=Stranger Than Fiction | url=https://www.strangerthanfictionfilms.com.au/film/david-stratton-a-cinematic-life/ | access-date=6 May 2024}}

In 1993 Stratton made an uncredited cameo appearance in Paul Cox's Touch Me, one of the short films featured in the series Erotic Tales.{{cite web | last=Foundas | first=Scott | title=Australia's Siskel & Ebert Sign Off After 28 Years of Savvy Sparring | website=Yahoo News | date=10 December 2014 | url=https://news.yahoo.com/australia-siskel-ebert-sign-off-28-years-savvy-221153733.html | access-date=1 January 2024}}{{imdb title|0108367|Touch Me}}

He has appeared in several ABC programs, including The Chaser's War on Everything, Review with Myles Barlow, Good Game, Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight, Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure, Dance Academy, and The Bazura Project, often parodying himself.

Recognition and honours

1 January 2001: Centenary Medal for "Service to Australian society and Australian film production"{{cite web|url = https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1127614|title =David James Stratton – Centenary Medal|access-date = 2 November 2021|publisher = Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet}}
22 March 2001: Croix de Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Literature), the highest rank for this award, for his services to cinema, in particular French cinema{{cite web

|url=http://www.ambafrance-au.org/article.php3?id_article=399 |title=French Embassy media release 04/2001 |access-date=16 March 2008 |date=22 March 2001 |publisher=Embassy of France in Australia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029162532/http://www.ambafrance-au.org/article.php3?id_article=399 |archive-date=29 October 2007 |url-status=dead |df=dmy }}

2001: Australian Film Institute's Longford Life Achievement Award
9 June 2006: Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Sydney in recognition of his career and his contribution to intellectual life at the university{{cite web |url = http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=6&newsstoryid=1089|title = David Stratton to receive honorary doctorate|access-date = 16 March 2008|date = 7 June 2006|publisher = The University of Sydney| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201124184608/https://www.sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=6&newsstoryid=1089| archive-date=24 November 2020}}{{cite web |last=Curtin |first=Jennie |date=26 January 2015 |title=David Stratton's 50-year service to film honoured |url=https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/2842933/david-strattons-50-year-service-to-film-honoured/ |url-access=registration |access-date=1 January 2024 |website=Blue Mountains Gazette}}{{cite web | title=The great honorary doctorates list | website=The Mayne Report | date=28 April 2010 | url=https://www.maynereport.com/articles/2010/04/28-1159-6605.html | access-date=1 January 2024}}
2007: 60th Anniversary Medal by the Festival du Film de Cannes and The Chauvel Award by the Brisbane International Film Festival
2015: Member of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day honours[https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1150917 David James Stratton – Member of the Order of Australia], Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 26 January 2015
2015: Along with Pomeranz, appointed patron of the French Film Festival in Australia
13 April 2016: Honorary doctorate (Doctor of Letters) at Macquarie University, for his contribution to the film industry{{cite web | last=Deare | first=Steven | title=Five stars! Highest honour for movie critics | website=The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) | date=13 April 2016 | url=https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/the-hills/margaret-pomeranz-and-david-stratton-of-the-movie-show-honoured-at-macquarie-university/news-story/038c841e545b5704f25865163c17a12f?nk=da64b648a9ae798938c375bde214ab51-1704076516 | access-date=1 January 2024}}{{cite web | title=Autumn graduation season commences: Honorary Doctorates for alumna Margaret Pomeranz AM and more | website=The Lighthouse| publisher= Macquarie University | date=10 June 2022 | url=https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/media-releases/autumn-graduation-season-commences-honorary-doctorates-for-alumna-margaret-pomeranz-am-and-more | access-date=1 January 2024}}
2018: Co-recipient (with Pomeranz) of the Don Dunstan Award{{Cite web |title=Patrons and Board |url=https://adelaidefilmfestival.org/about-aff/patrons-board/ |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=Adelaide Film Festival |language=en-AU}}
2024: National Cinema Pioneer of the Year{{Cite web |last=Swift |first=Brendan |date=2024-09-04 |title=David Stratton AM named 2024 National Cinema Pioneer of the Year |url=https://if.com.au/david-stratton-am-named-2024-national-cinema-pioneer-of-the-year/ |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=IF Magazine |language=en-AU}}

Personal life

Stratton is married to Susie Craig. He has a son and a daughter.{{Cite web |last=Schmidt |first=Lucinda |date=2008-03-05 |title=Profile: David Stratton |url=https://www.smh.com.au/business/profile-david-stratton-20080305-gds3lz.html |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}

Best films

Stratton has said that his favourite movie is the 1952 American musical Singin' in the Rain: "I grew up on musicals and this is the best musical ever made".

Stratton participated in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll, where he listed his ten favourite films as follows: Charulata, Citizen Kane, The Conversation, Distant, Distant Voices, Still Lives, Kings of the Road, Lola, The Searchers, Singin' in the Rain, and The Travelling Players.{{Cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/voter/669 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818153824/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/voter/669|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 August 2016|title=David Stratton|publisher=BFI}}

Two articles which analysed their reviews at SBS and ABC showed that Stratton was generally a slightly harsher critic than Pomeranz.{{cite web | title=What Margaret and David say about 500 Oz Movies | website=Ozflicks | date=13 September 2016 | url=https://ozflicks.wordpress.com/2016/09/13/what-david-and-margaret-say-about-400-oz-movies/ | access-date=1 January 2024}} At SBS, they only both gave five stars to five films: Evil Angels (1988), Return Home (1990), The Piano (1993), The Thin Red Line (1999) and Lantana (2001). At the ABC, they only both gave five stars to six films: Brokeback Mountain (2005), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), No Country For Old Men (2007), Samson and Delilah (2009), A Separation (2011), and Amour (2012). They disagreed particularly on Romper Stomper (David refusing to rate it because of the racist violence in the film), The Castle (1997), Last Train to Freo (2006), Human Touch (2004), and Kenny (2006), with Stratton awarding fewer stars than Pomeranz on all but Human Touch.

Publications

{{cite book|last=Stratton|first=David|year=1980|title=The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival |publisher=Angus & Robertson|isbn=9780207141461|ref=none| author-mask=1 }}
{{cite book|last=Stratton|first=David|year=1990|title=The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry|publisher=Pan Macmillan|isbn=9780732902506|ref=none|author-mask=1}}
{{cite book|last=Stratton|first=David|year=2008|title=I Peed on Fellini: Recollections of a Life in Film |publisher=William Heinemann / Random House|location=Australia|isbn=978-1-74166-619-9|ref=none|author-mask=1}}
{{cite book|last=Stratton|first=David|year=2018|title=101 Marvellous Movies You May Have Missed |publisher=Allen & Unwin|isbn=9781760870096|ref=none|author-mask=1}}
{{cite book|last=Stratton|first=David|year=2021|title=My Favourite Movies|publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=9781761063268 |ref=none|author-mask=1}}
{{cite book|last=Stratton|first=David|year=2024|title=Australia at the Movies|publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=9781761472091 |ref=none|author-mask=1}}