Editing Peter Weir (section)

===1970s===
Weir took a position with the [[Commonwealth Film Unit]] (later renamed [[Film Australia]]),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Weir |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-Weir |access-date=2022-05-18 |website=Britannica |language=en}}</ref> for which he made several documentaries, as well as one fiction film, a section of the three-part, three-director feature film ''[[3 to Go]]'' (1970), which won an [[AACTA Awards|AFI award]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ozflicks.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/oz-directors-of-the-1970s-the-new-wave-directors/|title=New Australian Directors of the 1970s – The New Wave Directors|website=Ozflicks|date=January 7, 2017|access-date=November 5, 2023}}</ref><ref name=weir/> Another notable film in this period was the short rock music performance film ''Three Directions in Australian Pop Music'' (1972), which featured in-concert colour footage of three of the most significant [[Melbourne]] rock acts of the period, [[Spectrum (band)|Spectrum]], [[The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band]], and [[Wendy Saddington]]. Weir's last major work for the CFU concerned an underprivileged outer Sydney suburb, ''[[Whatever Happened to Green Valley]]'' (1973); here, residents were invited to make their own film segments.<ref name=weir/>

Weir made his first major independent film, the short feature ''[[Homesdale]]'' (1971), an offbeat [[black comedy]]. It co-starred rising young actress [[Kate Fitzpatrick]] and musician and comedian [[Grahame Bond]], who came to fame in 1972 as the star of ''[[The Aunty Jack Show]]''; Weir also played a small role, but this was to be his last significant screen appearance.<ref name=weir/>

Weir's first full-length feature film was the underground cult classic, ''[[The Cars That Ate Paris]]'' (1974), a low-budget black comedy about the inhabitants of a small country town who deliberately cause fatal car crashes and live off the proceeds. It was a minor success in cinemas but proved very popular on the then-thriving [[drive-in]] circuit.<ref name=weir/> The plot had been inspired by a press report Weir had read about two young English women who had vanished while on a driving holiday in France. With this film, along with the earlier ''Homesdale'', Weir set the basic thematic pattern which has persisted throughout his career: nearly all his feature films deal with people who face some form of crisis after finding themselves isolated from society in some way – either physically (''Witness'', ''The Mosquito Coast'', ''The Truman Show'', ''Master and Commander''), socially/culturally (''Picnic at Hanging Rock'', ''The Last Wave'', ''Dead Poets Society'', ''Green Card''), or psychologically (''Fearless'').<ref>{{cite web|last=Joyaux|first=Daniel|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/features/this-must-not-be-the-place-the-films-of-peter-weir|title=This Must Not Be the Place: The Films of Peter Weir|website=[[RogerEbert.com]]|date=November 18, 2022|access-date=November 5, 2023}}</ref>

Weir's major breakthrough in Australia and internationally was the lush, atmospheric period mystery ''[[Picnic at Hanging Rock (film)|Picnic at Hanging Rock]]'' (1975), made with substantial backing from the state-funded [[South Australian Film Corporation]] and filmed on location in South Australia and rural Victoria. Based on the novel by [[Joan Lindsay]] and set at the turn of the 20th century, the film relates the purportedly "true" story of a group of students from an exclusive girls' school who mysteriously vanish from a school picnic on Valentine's Day 1900. Widely credited as a key work in the "Australian film renaissance" of the mid-1970s, ''Picnic'' was the first Australian film of its era to gain both critical praise and be given substantial international theatrical releases. It also helped launch the career of internationally renowned Australian cinematographer [[Russell Boyd]]. It was widely acclaimed by critics, many of whom praised it as a welcome antidote to the so-called [[Ocker#Ocker films|"ocker film"]] genre, typified by ''[[The Adventures of Barry McKenzie]]'' and ''[[Alvin Purple]]''.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Weir's next film, ''[[The Last Wave]]'' (1977), was a supernatural thriller about a man who begins to experience terrifying visions of an impending natural disaster. It starred American actor [[Richard Chamberlain]], who was well known to Australian and world audiences as the eponymous physician in the popular ''[[Dr. Kildare (TV series)|Dr. Kildare]]'' TV series. He later starred in the major series ''[[The Thorn Birds (TV miniseries)|The Thorn Birds]]'', set in Australia. ''The Last Wave'' was a pensive, ambivalent work that expanded on themes from ''Picnic'', exploring the interactions between the native [[Australian Aborigine|Aboriginal]] and European cultures. It co-starred the Aboriginal actor [[David Gulpilil]], whose performance won the Golden Ibex (Oscar equivalent) at the [[Tehran International Festival]] in 1977, but it was only a moderate commercial success at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011 |title=Film Victoria |url=http://film.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/AA4_Aust_Box_office_report.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218045303/http://film.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/AA4_Aust_Box_office_report.pdf |access-date=2024-09-07|archive-date=18 February 2011 }}</ref>

Between ''The Last Wave'' and his next feature, Weir wrote and directed the offbeat low-budget telemovie ''[[The Plumber (1979 film)|The Plumber]]'' (1979).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fangoria.com/new/the-dreadful-ten-camillas-top-ten-forgotten-australian-horrors/ |title=The Dreadful Ten: Camilla's Top Ten Forgotten Australian Horrors |date= February 26, 2015 |website=FANGORIA |first1=Camilla |last1=Jackson  |access-date=26 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226201859/http://www.fangoria.com/new/the-dreadful-ten-camillas-top-ten-forgotten-australian-horrors/ |archive-date=26 February 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> It starred Australian actors [[Judy Morris]] and [[Ivar Kants]] and was filmed in three weeks.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079727/trivia|title=The Plumber (TV Movie 1979) – Trivia |via=IMDb |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230502161808/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079727/trivia |archive-date= May 2, 2023 }}</ref> Inspired by an account told to him by friends, it is a black comedy about a woman whose life is disrupted by a subtly menacing plumber.