Peter Weir
Encyclopedia
Peter Lindsay Weir, AM
(born 21 August 1944) is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave
cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock
, The Last Wave
and Gallipoli
, Weir directed a diverse group of American
and international films—many of them major box office hits—including the Academy Award nominees Witness
, Dead Poets Society
, Green Card
, The Truman Show
and Master and Commander
.
and Vaucluse Boys' High School
before studying art and law at the University of Sydney
. His interest in film was sparked by his meeting with fellow students, including Phillip Noyce
and the future members of the Sydney filmmaking collective Ubu Films
.
After leaving university in the mid-1960s he joined Sydney television station ATN-7
, where he worked as a production assistant on the groundbreaking satirical comedy program The Mavis Bramston Show
. During this period, using station facilities, he made his first two experimental short films, Count Vim's Last Exercise and The Life and Flight of Reverend Buckshotte.
Weir then took up a position with the Commonwealth Film Unit (later renamed Film Australia
), for which he made several documentaries, including a short documentary about an underprivileged outer Sydney suburb, Whatever Happened to Green Valley, in which residents were invited to make their own film segments. 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
, The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band
and Wendy Saddington
. He also directed one section of the three-part, three-director feature film Three To Go (1970), which won an AFI award
.
After leaving the CFU, Weir made his first major independent film, the short feature Homesdale
(1971), an offbeat black comedy which 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. Homesdale and Weir's two aforementioned CFU shorts have been released on DVD.
Weir's first full-length feature film was the underground cult classic, The Cars That Ate Paris
(1975), 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.
Weir's major breakthrough in Australia and internationally was the lush, atmospheric period mystery 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
, 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 film" genre, typified by The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
and Alvin Purple
.
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 the American actor Richard Chamberlain
, who was well-known to Australian and world audiences as the eponymous physician in the popular Doctor Kildare TV series, and would later star in the Australian-set major series "The Thorn Birds". The Last Wave was a pensive, ambivalent work that expanded on themes from Picnic, exploring the interactions between the native 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 was only a moderate commercial success at the time.
Between The Last Wave and his next feature, Weir wrote and directed the offbeat low-budget telemovie The Plumber
(1979). It starred Australian actors Judy Morris
and Ivar Kants
and was filmed in just three weeks. Inspired by a real-life experience told to him by friends, it is a black comedy about a woman whose life is disrupted by an intrusive tradesman (which bears a strong similarity to the 1996 Jim Carrey film The Cable Guy
).
Weir scored a major Australian hit and further international praise with his next film Gallipoli
(1981). Scripted by the Australian playwright David Williamson
, it is regarded as classic Australian cinema
. Gallipoli was instrumental in making Mel Gibson
(Mad Max
) into a major star, although his co-star Mark Lee
, who also received high praise for his role, has made relatively few screen appearances since.
The climax of Weir's early career was the $6 million multi-national production The Year of Living Dangerously
(1983), again starring Mel Gibson, playing opposite top Hollywood female lead Sigourney Weaver
in a story about journalistic loyalty, idealism, love and ambition in the turmoil of Sukarno
's Indonesia
of 1965. It was an adaptation of the novel by Christopher Koch
, which was based in part on the experiences of Koch's journalist brother Philip, the ABC
's Jakarta correspondent and one of the few western journalists in the city during the 1965 attempted coup. The film also won Linda Hunt
(who played a man in the film) an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
On 14 June 1982, Weir was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia
(AM) for his service to the film industry.
was the successful thriller Witness
(1985), the first of two films he made with Harrison Ford
, a thriller about an Amish boy who sees the murder of an undercover police officer and has to be hidden away in his Amish
community to protect him. Child star Lukas Haas
received wide praise for his debut film performance; Witness also earned Weir his first Oscar nomination as Best Director, and was his first of several films to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture
.
It was followed by the darker, less commercial The Mosquito Coast
(1986), Paul Schrader
's adaptation of Paul Theroux
's novel, with Ford playing a man obsessively pursuing his dream to start a new life in the Central American jungle with his family. These dramatic parts provided Harrison Ford with important opportunities to break the typecasting of his career-making roles in the Star Wars
and Indiana Jones
series. Both films showed off his ability to play more subtle and substantial characters and he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his work in Witness, the only Academy Awards recognition in his career. The Mosquito Coast is also notable for an impressive performance by the young River Phoenix
.
Weir's next film, Dead Poets Society
(1989) was a major international success, with Weir again receiving credit for expanding the acting range of its Hollywood star. Robin Williams
was mainly known for his anarchic standup comedy and his popular TV role as the wisecracking alien in Mork & Mindy; in this film he played an inspirational teacher in a dramatic story about conformity and rebellion at an exclusive New England prep school
in the 1950s. The film was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Weir, and launched the acting careers of young actors Ethan Hawke
and Robert Sean Leonard
. It became a major box-office hit and is without doubt one of Weir's best-known films for mainstream audiences.
Weir's first romantic comedy Green Card
(1990) was another casting risk. Weir chose French screen icon Gérard Depardieu
in the lead—Depardieu's first English-language role—and paired him with American actress Andie MacDowell
. Green Card was a box-office hit but was regarded as less of a critical success, although it helped Depardieu's path to international fame, and Weir received an Oscar nomination for his original screenplay.
Fearless
(1993) returned to darker themes and starred Jeff Bridges
as a man who believes he has become invincible after surviving a catastrophic air crash. Though well reviewed, particularly the performances of Bridges and Rosie Perez
— who received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress
. The film was also entered into the 44th Berlin International Film Festival
. The film's unsettling subject matter was less appealing to large audiences than Weir's two preceding films.
After five years, Weir returned to direct his biggest success to date,The Truman Show
(1998), a bittersweet fantasy-satire
of the media's control of life, later noted to have predated the reality TV trend begun by Survivor
. The Truman Show was both a box office and a critical smash, receiving glowing reviews and numerous awards, including three Academy Awards nominations, for Best Original Screenplay (by Andrew Niccol
), Best Supporting Actor (Ed Harris
), and Best Director for Weir himself. Again, Weir was noted to have given his star, comedian Jim Carrey
, the chance to prove himself in a serious acting role. The Truman Show also included a link to the very beginning of Weir's directorial career: Australian actor Terry Camilleri
, who starred in his first full-length feature, The Cars That Ate Paris, appears in a cameo role.
In 2003 Weir returned to period drama with Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
, starring Russell Crowe
. A screen adaptation from a volume in Patrick O'Brian
's blockbuster adventure series set during the Napoleonic Wars
, it was well received by critics, but only mildly successful with mainstream audiences. Despite winning two Oscars (for frequent collaborator Russell Boyd
's cinematography, and for sound effects editing) and another Best Picture nomination, its audience acceptance ($93 million at the North American Box Office) was moderate, considering the production values and the star power of Crowe. The film grossed slightly better overseas, gleaning an additional $114 million.
's novel The Playmaker
, focusing on the theatre profession in Australia at the turn of the 20th century, but this did not see production. In the 1990s, Weir was considered as a director for the film adaptation of Toni Morrison
's novel Beloved
, but he was ruled out in favor of Jonathan Demme
at an early stage, allegedly due to conflicts over the casting of star/producer Oprah Winfrey
.
In the mid-2000s, according to The Internet Movie Database, Weir was attached as director of several other projects. He was to direct a film adaptation of William Gibson
's 2003 novel Pattern Recognition
. He was also attached to a film adaptation of Gregory David Roberts
' book Shantaram
, starring Johnny Depp
; he left the project, which later folded in 2009. He was also planning to direct two other films: War Magician and Shadow Divers
. As of summer 2010 Weir had directed only one film released in the past twelve years.
Weir wrote and directed The Way Back
, which was released in late 2010.
His films typically involve a juxtaposition between macrocosm and microcosm
, depicting the transformation of the central character/s following their introduction to a testing situation. This basic mise-en-scene has been variously enacted in Weir's films through dangerous situations (The Cars That Ate Paris, Gallipoli, Master & Commander), enclosed, constrictive or repressive social milieus (Homesdale, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, Witness), foreign cultures (The Year Of Living Dangerously, Green Card, Mosquito Coast), unfamiliar customs (The Last Wave, Mosquito Coast, Witness), or confrontations with a new way of comprehending the world (The Last Wave, Dead Poets Society, Fearless, The Truman Show).
Despite his international success and celebrity, Weir has a relatively low personal profile; he has maintained close connections with his home city and on several occasions he has returned to Green Valley, the suburb where his early CFU documentary was set. There he has been closely involved in programs designed to teach filmmaking skills to disadvantaged young people. In April 2005 Weir returned to Sydney and reunited with the stars of Gallipoli to celebrate the film's release on DVD.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(born 21 August 1944) is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave
Australian New Wave
The Australian New Wave was an era of resurgence in worldwide popularity of Australian cinema...
cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock
Picnic at Hanging Rock (film)
Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian feature film directed by Peter Weir and starring Anne-Louise Lambert, Helen Morse, Rachel Roberts and Vivean Gray. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name, by author Joan Lindsay....
, The Last Wave
The Last Wave
The Last Wave is a 1977 Australian film directed by Peter Weir. It is about a white Australian lawyer whose seemingly normal life is disrupted after he takes on a murder case for Aborigine defendants...
and Gallipoli
Gallipoli (1981 film)
Gallipoli is a 1981 Australian film, directed by Peter Weir and starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee, about several young men from rural Western Australia who enlist in the Australian Army during the First World War. They are sent to Turkey, where they take part in the Gallipoli Campaign. During the...
, Weir directed a diverse group of American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
and international films—many of them major box office hits—including the Academy Award nominees Witness
Witness (1985 film)
Witness is a 1985 American thriller film directed by Peter Weir and starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. The screenplay by William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, and Earl W...
, Dead Poets Society
Dead Poets Society
Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams. Set at the conservative and aristocratic Welton Academy in Vermont in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.The script was written...
, Green Card
Green Card (film)
Green Card is a 1990 romantic comedy film written, produced, directed by Peter Weir and starring Gérard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell. The screenplay focuses on an American woman who enters into a marriage of convenience with a Frenchman so he can obtain a green card and remain in the United...
, The Truman Show
The Truman Show
The Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
and Master and Commander
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a 2003 film directed by Peter Weir, starring Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey, with Paul Bettany as Stephen Maturin and released by 20th Century Fox, Miramax Films and Universal Studios...
.
Early life and career
Weir was born in Sydney, the son of Peggy (née Barnsley) and Lindsay Weir, a real estate agent. Weir attended The Scots CollegeThe Scots College
For other schools with a similar name see Scots College.The Scots College is an independent Presbyterian day and boarding school for boys, located in Bellevue Hill, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
and Vaucluse Boys' High School
Vaucluse High School
Vaucluse High School , known from 1960-1981 as Vaucluse Boys' High School , is a former high school in the eastern Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, New South Wales, Australia...
before studying art and law at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. His interest in film was sparked by his meeting with fellow students, including Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce is an Australian film director.-Life and career:Noyce was born in Griffith, New South Wales, attended Barker College, Sydney, and began making short films at the age of 18, starting with Better to Reign in Hell, using his friends as the cast...
and the future members of the Sydney filmmaking collective Ubu Films
Ubu Films
Ubu Films was an experimental film-making collective based in Sydney, Australia that operated from 1965 to around 1970. It was formed by Albie Thoms, David Perry, Aggy Read and John Clark at Sydney University in 1965. Group associates included Matt Carroll, Peter Weir, Phillip Noyce and Bruce...
.
After leaving university in the mid-1960s he joined Sydney television station ATN-7
ATN-7
ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of Fairfax, was one of the first four licences to be issued for commercial television stations in Australia...
, where he worked as a production assistant on the groundbreaking satirical comedy program The Mavis Bramston Show
The Mavis Bramston Show
The Mavis Bramston Show was a popular and award-winning Australian TV satirical sketch comedy series of the mid-1960s.-Introduction:The tremendous impact that The Mavis Bramston Show had in Australia in the mid-1960s was heightened because of its unique place in the history of the Australian TV...
. During this period, using station facilities, he made his first two experimental short films, Count Vim's Last Exercise and The Life and Flight of Reverend Buckshotte.
Weir then took up a position with the Commonwealth Film Unit (later renamed Film Australia
Film Australia
Film Australia was a company established by the Government of Australia to produce films about Australia. Its mission was to create an audio-visual record of Australian culture, through the commissioning, distribution and management of programs that deal with matters of national interest or...
), for which he made several documentaries, including a short documentary about an underprivileged outer Sydney suburb, Whatever Happened to Green Valley, in which residents were invited to make their own film segments. 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
Spectrum (band)
Spectrum is an Australian progressive rock band that formed in Melbourne in 1969 and, in its original period, remained in existence until 1973. Its members also performed under the alter-ego Indelible Murtceps...
, The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band
The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band
The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band was an Australian band, active throughout the 1970s. It was based in Melbourne and centred around singer and multi-instrumentalist Mic Conway and his brother Jim Conway, who is widely regarded as one of Australia's finest exponents of the blues harmonica.Inspired...
and Wendy Saddington
Wendy Saddington
Wendy June Saddington is an Australian blues / soul / jazz singer and was in the bands Chain, Copperwine and the Wendy Saddington Band. She wrote for teen pop newspaper Go-Set from September 1969 – September 1970 as an agony aunt in her weekly "Takes Care of Business" column and as a...
. He also directed one section of the three-part, three-director feature film Three To Go (1970), which won an AFI award
Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
.
After leaving the CFU, Weir made his first major independent film, the short feature Homesdale
Homesdale
Homesdale is a 1971 Australian film directed by Peter Weir. Homesdale is a black comedy about visitors at a guest-house acting out their violent private fantasies and games under the control of the house staff....
(1971), an offbeat black comedy which co-starred rising young actress Kate Fitzpatrick
Kate Fitzpatrick
Kate Fitzpatrick is an Australian-based television, film and theatre actress.-Career:...
and musician and comedian Grahame Bond
Grahame Bond (actor)
Grahame Bond is an Australian actor, writer, director, musician and composer who began his career in entertainment at University of Sydney in the 1960s as a founding student member of the Sydney University Architecture Revue, which included his university friends Geoffrey Atherden , Peter Weir...
, who came to fame in 1972 as the star of The Aunty Jack Show
The Aunty Jack Show
The Aunty Jack Show was a Logie Award–winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973. Produced by and broadcast on ABC-TV, the series attained an instant cult status that persists to the present day....
; Weir also played a small role, but this was to be his last significant screen appearance. Homesdale and Weir's two aforementioned CFU shorts have been released on DVD.
Weir's first full-length feature film was the underground cult classic, The Cars That Ate Paris
The Cars that Ate Paris
The Cars That Ate Paris is a 1974 Australian horror comedy film. Directed by Peter Weir, it was his first feature film. Shot mostly in the rural town of Sofala, New South Wales, the film is set in the fictional town of Paris in which most of the inhabitants appear to be directly, or indirectly,...
(1975), 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
Drive-in
A drive-in is a facility such as a bank, restaurant, or movie theater where one can literally drive in with an automobile for service. It is usually distinguished from a drive-through. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk out...
circuit.
Weir's major breakthrough in Australia and internationally was the lush, atmospheric period mystery Picnic at Hanging Rock
Picnic at Hanging Rock (film)
Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian feature film directed by Peter Weir and starring Anne-Louise Lambert, Helen Morse, Rachel Roberts and Vivean Gray. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name, by author Joan Lindsay....
(1975), made with substantial backing from the state-funded South Australian Film Corporation
South Australian Film Corporation
South Australian Film Corporation is a South Australian Government statutory corporation established in 1972. Former State Premier Don Dunstan played an instrumental role in the foundation of the Corporation and its early film production activities....
and filmed on location in South Australia and rural Victoria. Based on the novel by Joan Lindsay
Joan Lindsay
Joan Lindsay, Lady Lindsay was an Australian author, best known for her "ambiguous and intriguing" novel Picnic at Hanging Rock.-Life:...
, 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
Russell Boyd
Russell Boyd is an Australian cinematographer. He rose to prominence with his highly-praised work on Picnic at Hanging Rock , the first of several collaborations with director Peter Weir. He is also a member of the ASC....
. It was widely acclaimed by critics, many of whom praised it as a welcome antidote to the so-called "ocker film" genre, typified by The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie is a 1972 Australian film starring Barry Crocker, telling the story of an Australian 'yobbo' on his travels to the United Kingdom. Barry McKenzie was originally a character created by Barry Humphries for a cartoon strip in Private Eye...
and Alvin Purple
Alvin Purple
Alvin Purple was a 1973 Australian comedy film starring Graeme Blundell, written by Alan Hopgood and directed by Tim Burstall.It received largely negative reviews from local film critics. Despite this it was a major hit with Australian audiences...
.
Weir's next film, The Last Wave
The Last Wave
The Last Wave is a 1977 Australian film directed by Peter Weir. It is about a white Australian lawyer whose seemingly normal life is disrupted after he takes on a murder case for Aborigine defendants...
(1977) was a supernatural thriller about a man who begins to experience terrifying visions of an impending natural disaster. It starred the American actor Richard Chamberlain
Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
, who was well-known to Australian and world audiences as the eponymous physician in the popular Doctor Kildare TV series, and would later star in the Australian-set major series "The Thorn Birds". The Last Wave was a pensive, ambivalent work that expanded on themes from Picnic, exploring the interactions between the native Aboriginal and European cultures. It co-starred the aboriginal actor David Gulpilil
David Gulpilil
David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu , is an Indigenous Australian traditional dancer and actor. His first starring role was Walkabout....
, whose performance won the Golden Ibex (Oscar equivalent) at the Tehran International Festival in 1977 but was only a moderate commercial success at the time.
Between The Last Wave and his next feature, Weir wrote and directed the offbeat low-budget telemovie The Plumber
The Plumber
The Plumber is a 1979 Australian film. Written and directed by Peter Weir, The Plumber was originally made and broadcast as a television film in Australia in 1979 but was subsequently released to theaters in several countries beginning with the United States in 1981...
(1979). It starred Australian actors Judy Morris
Judy Morris
Judy Morris is an Australian actress, film director and screenwriter, well known for the variety of roles she played in 54 different television shows and films, but most recently for co-writing a musical epic about the life of penguins in Antarctica which became Happy Feet, Australia's largest...
and Ivar Kants
Ivar Kants
Ivar Kants is an Australian actor who played the role of Ken Garrett in soap opera The Restless Years. Later roles include School Principal Barry Hyde in Home And Away...
and was filmed in just three weeks. Inspired by a real-life experience told to him by friends, it is a black comedy about a woman whose life is disrupted by an intrusive tradesman (which bears a strong similarity to the 1996 Jim Carrey film The Cable Guy
The Cable Guy
The Cable Guy is a 1996 black comedy film, directed by Ben Stiller, and starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. The film also features Leslie Mann, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson...
).
Weir scored a major Australian hit and further international praise with his next film Gallipoli
Gallipoli (1981 film)
Gallipoli is a 1981 Australian film, directed by Peter Weir and starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee, about several young men from rural Western Australia who enlist in the Australian Army during the First World War. They are sent to Turkey, where they take part in the Gallipoli Campaign. During the...
(1981). Scripted by the Australian playwright David Williamson
David Williamson
David Keith Williamson AO is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.-Biography:...
, it is regarded as classic Australian cinema
Cinema of Australia
Cinema of Australia, more commonly referred to as the Australian film industry, refers to the system of production, distribution, and exhibition of films in Australia. Film production commenced in Australia in 1906 with the production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, the earliest feature film made...
. Gallipoli was instrumental in making Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
(Mad Max
Mad Max
Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller and revised by Miller and Byron Kennedy over the original script by James McCausland. The film stars Mel Gibson, who was unknown at the time. Its narrative based around the traditional western genre, Mad Max tells a story...
) into a major star, although his co-star Mark Lee
Mark Lee (actor)
Mark Lee is an Australian actor and director, whose most prominent role was the lead in the film Gallipoli , alongside Mel Gibson. He has worked extensively in Australian film, television and theatre for over thirty years....
, who also received high praise for his role, has made relatively few screen appearances since.
The climax of Weir's early career was the $6 million multi-national production The Year of Living Dangerously
The Year of Living Dangerously
The Year of Living Dangerously is a 1982 Peter Weir film adapted from the novel The Year of Living Dangerously by the author Christopher Koch. The story is about a love affair set in Indonesia during the overthrow of President Sukarno...
(1983), again starring Mel Gibson, playing opposite top Hollywood female lead Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
in a story about journalistic loyalty, idealism, love and ambition in the turmoil of Sukarno
Sukarno
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia.Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967...
's Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
of 1965. It was an adaptation of the novel by Christopher Koch
Christopher Koch
Christopher John Koch, AO, Australian novelist, was born in Hobart in 1932. He has twice won the Miles Franklin Award. In 1995 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for contribution to Australian literature....
, which was based in part on the experiences of Koch's journalist brother Philip, the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
's Jakarta correspondent and one of the few western journalists in the city during the 1965 attempted coup. The film also won Linda Hunt
Linda Hunt
Linda Hunt is an American film, stage and television actress. After making her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye , Hunt portrayed Billy Kwan, her breakthrough performance in The Year of Living Dangerously...
(who played a man in the film) an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
On 14 June 1982, Weir was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(AM) for his service to the film industry.
Filmmaking in the United States
Weir's first American filmCinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
was the successful thriller Witness
Witness (1985 film)
Witness is a 1985 American thriller film directed by Peter Weir and starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. The screenplay by William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, and Earl W...
(1985), the first of two films he made with Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
, a thriller about an Amish boy who sees the murder of an undercover police officer and has to be hidden away in his Amish
Amish
The Amish , sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches...
community to protect him. Child star Lukas Haas
Lukas Haas
Lukas Daniel Haas is an American actor, known for roles both as a child and as an adult. His career has spanned more than 25 years during which time he has appeared in more than 36 feature films, as well as a number of television shows and theater productions.-Early life and career:Haas was born...
received wide praise for his debut film performance; Witness also earned Weir his first Oscar nomination as Best Director, and was his first of several films to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
.
It was followed by the darker, less commercial The Mosquito Coast
The Mosquito Coast
The Mosquito Coast is a 1986 American film directed by Peter Weir, based on the novel by Paul Theroux. The film stars Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix. The film tells the story of a family that leaves the United States and tries to find a happier and simpler life in the jungles of...
(1986), Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
's adaptation of Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux
Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work of travel writing is perhaps The Great Railway Bazaar . He has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his...
's novel, with Ford playing a man obsessively pursuing his dream to start a new life in the Central American jungle with his family. These dramatic parts provided Harrison Ford with important opportunities to break the typecasting of his career-making roles in the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
and Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
series. Both films showed off his ability to play more subtle and substantial characters and he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his work in Witness, the only Academy Awards recognition in his career. The Mosquito Coast is also notable for an impressive performance by the young River Phoenix
River Phoenix
River Jude Phoenix was an American film actor, musician, and teen icon. He was the oldest brother of fellow actors Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer Phoenix.Phoenix began acting at age 10 in television commercials...
.
Weir's next film, Dead Poets Society
Dead Poets Society
Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams. Set at the conservative and aristocratic Welton Academy in Vermont in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.The script was written...
(1989) was a major international success, with Weir again receiving credit for expanding the acting range of its Hollywood star. Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
was mainly known for his anarchic standup comedy and his popular TV role as the wisecracking alien in Mork & Mindy; in this film he played an inspirational teacher in a dramatic story about conformity and rebellion at an exclusive New England prep school
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
in the 1950s. The film was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Weir, and launched the acting careers of young actors Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...
and Robert Sean Leonard
Robert Sean Leonard
Robert Sean Leonard is an American actor, who has regularly starred in Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Since 2004 he has played the role of Dr. James Wilson on the TV series House...
. It became a major box-office hit and is without doubt one of Weir's best-known films for mainstream audiences.
Weir's first romantic comedy Green Card
Green Card (film)
Green Card is a 1990 romantic comedy film written, produced, directed by Peter Weir and starring Gérard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell. The screenplay focuses on an American woman who enters into a marriage of convenience with a Frenchman so he can obtain a green card and remain in the United...
(1990) was another casting risk. Weir chose French screen icon Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu is a French actor and filmmaker. He is a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite and has twice won the César Award for Best Actor...
in the lead—Depardieu's first English-language role—and paired him with American actress Andie MacDowell
Andie MacDowell
Rosalie Anderson "Andie" MacDowell is an American model and actress. She has received the Golden Camera and an Honorary César.-Early life:...
. Green Card was a box-office hit but was regarded as less of a critical success, although it helped Depardieu's path to international fame, and Weir received an Oscar nomination for his original screenplay.
Fearless
Fearless (1993 film)
Fearless is a 1993 film directed by Peter Weir and written by Rafael Yglesias from his novel of the same name. It was shot entirely in California....
(1993) returned to darker themes and starred Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
as a man who believes he has become invincible after surviving a catastrophic air crash. Though well reviewed, particularly the performances of Bridges and Rosie Perez
Rosie Perez
Rosa María "Rosie" Pérez is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.- Early life :...
— who received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
. The film was also entered into the 44th Berlin International Film Festival
44th Berlin International Film Festival
The 44th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 10 to 21, 1994.-Jury:* Jeremy Thomas * Chinghiz Aitmatov* María Luisa Bemberg* Hsu Feng* Morgan Freeman* Francis Girod* Corinna Harfouch* Carlo Lizzani...
. The film's unsettling subject matter was less appealing to large audiences than Weir's two preceding films.
After five years, Weir returned to direct his biggest success to date,The Truman Show
The Truman Show
The Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
(1998), a bittersweet fantasy-satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of the media's control of life, later noted to have predated the reality TV trend begun by Survivor
Survivor (TV series)
Survivor is a reality television game show format produced in many countries throughout the world. In the show, contestants are isolated in the wilderness and compete for cash and other prizes. The show uses a system of progressive elimination, allowing the contestants to vote off other tribe...
. The Truman Show was both a box office and a critical smash, receiving glowing reviews and numerous awards, including three Academy Awards nominations, for Best Original Screenplay (by Andrew Niccol
Andrew Niccol
Andrew M. Niccol is a New Zealand screenwriter, producer, and director. He wrote and directed Gattaca, S1m0ne, In Time, and Lord of War. He also wrote and co-produced The Truman Show, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1999 and won a BAFTA award for Best...
), Best Supporting Actor (Ed Harris
Ed Harris
Edward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Radio, The Rock, The Abyss, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, and The Truman Show. Harris has also narrated commercials for The Home Depot and other companies...
), and Best Director for Weir himself. Again, Weir was noted to have given his star, comedian Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
, the chance to prove himself in a serious acting role. The Truman Show also included a link to the very beginning of Weir's directorial career: Australian actor Terry Camilleri
Terry Camilleri
Terry Camilleri is an Australian actor.Camilleri was born in Malta and made his feature film debut in Peter Weir's 1974 film The Cars That Ate Paris. Terry appreaed in the 1983 hit sequel film Superman III. He portrayed the Emperor Napoleon I in the 1989 film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure...
, who starred in his first full-length feature, The Cars That Ate Paris, appears in a cameo role.
In 2003 Weir returned to period drama with Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a 2003 film directed by Peter Weir, starring Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey, with Paul Bettany as Stephen Maturin and released by 20th Century Fox, Miramax Films and Universal Studios...
, starring Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
. A screen adaptation from a volume in Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen...
's blockbuster adventure series set during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, it was well received by critics, but only mildly successful with mainstream audiences. Despite winning two Oscars (for frequent collaborator Russell Boyd
Russell Boyd
Russell Boyd is an Australian cinematographer. He rose to prominence with his highly-praised work on Picnic at Hanging Rock , the first of several collaborations with director Peter Weir. He is also a member of the ASC....
's cinematography, and for sound effects editing) and another Best Picture nomination, its audience acceptance ($93 million at the North American Box Office) was moderate, considering the production values and the star power of Crowe. The film grossed slightly better overseas, gleaning an additional $114 million.
Unfinished projects and current work
In 1993 Weir spoke about making an adaptation of Thomas KeneallyThomas Keneally
Thomas Michael Keneally, AO is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982 which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor...
's novel The Playmaker
The Playmaker
The Playmaker is a novel based in Australia written by the Australian author Thomas Keneally.In 1789 in Sydney Cove, the remotest penal colony of the British Empire, a group of convicts and one of their captors unite to stage a play...
, focusing on the theatre profession in Australia at the turn of the 20th century, but this did not see production. In the 1990s, Weir was considered as a director for the film adaptation of Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
's novel Beloved
Beloved (novel)
Beloved is a novel by the American writer Toni Morrison, published in 1987. Set in 1873 just after the American Civil War , it is based on the story of the African-American slave, Margaret Garner, who escaped slavery in 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a free state...
, but he was ruled out in favor of Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
at an early stage, allegedly due to conflicts over the casting of star/producer Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
.
In the mid-2000s, according to The Internet Movie Database, Weir was attached as director of several other projects. He was to direct a film adaptation of William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
's 2003 novel Pattern Recognition
Pattern Recognition (novel)
Pattern Recognition is a novel by science fiction writer William Gibson published in 2003. Set in August and September 2002, the story follows Cayce Pollard, a 32-year-old marketing consultant who has a psychological sensitivity to corporate symbols...
. He was also attached to a film adaptation of Gregory David Roberts
Gregory David Roberts
Gregory David Roberts is an Australian author best known for his novel Shantaram. He is a former heroin addict and convicted bank robber who escaped from Pentridge Prison in 1980, and fled to India where he lived for ten years.-Life:Roberts had become addicted to heroin after his marriage ended,...
' book Shantaram
Shantaram (novel)
Shantaram is a 2003 novel by Gregory David Roberts, in which a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escaped from Pentridge Prison flees to India where he lives for 10 years...
, starring Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
; he left the project, which later folded in 2009. He was also planning to direct two other films: War Magician and Shadow Divers
Shadow Divers
Shadow Divers is a non-fictional recounting of the discovery of a World War II German U-Boat sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey, USA in 1991.-Overview:...
. As of summer 2010 Weir had directed only one film released in the past twelve years.
Weir wrote and directed The Way Back
The Way Back
The Way Back is a 2010 drama film about a group of prisoners who escape from a Siberian Gulag camp during World War II. The film is directed by Peter Weir from a screenplay also by Weir and Keith Clarke, inspired by The Long Walk , a book by Sławomir Rawicz, a Polish POW in the Soviet Gulag. It...
, which was released in late 2010.
Themes and celebrity
Although Peter Weir's films are extremely varied in subject, locale and genre, all are linked by Weir's enduring thematic interest, that of exploring the motivations and behavior of characters who find themselves in isolating and/or unfamiliar situations. He tends to focus on themes such as forbidden love, clash between two cultures, violence versus pacifism and conformity versus non-conformity.His films typically involve a juxtaposition between macrocosm and microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale all the way down to the smallest scale...
, depicting the transformation of the central character/s following their introduction to a testing situation. This basic mise-en-scene has been variously enacted in Weir's films through dangerous situations (The Cars That Ate Paris, Gallipoli, Master & Commander), enclosed, constrictive or repressive social milieus (Homesdale, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, Witness), foreign cultures (The Year Of Living Dangerously, Green Card, Mosquito Coast), unfamiliar customs (The Last Wave, Mosquito Coast, Witness), or confrontations with a new way of comprehending the world (The Last Wave, Dead Poets Society, Fearless, The Truman Show).
Despite his international success and celebrity, Weir has a relatively low personal profile; he has maintained close connections with his home city and on several occasions he has returned to Green Valley, the suburb where his early CFU documentary was set. There he has been closely involved in programs designed to teach filmmaking skills to disadvantaged young people. In April 2005 Weir returned to Sydney and reunited with the stars of Gallipoli to celebrate the film's release on DVD.
Feature films
- The Cars That Ate ParisThe Cars that Ate ParisThe Cars That Ate Paris is a 1974 Australian horror comedy film. Directed by Peter Weir, it was his first feature film. Shot mostly in the rural town of Sofala, New South Wales, the film is set in the fictional town of Paris in which most of the inhabitants appear to be directly, or indirectly,...
(aka The Cars That Eat People) (1974) - Picnic at Hanging RockPicnic at Hanging Rock (film)Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian feature film directed by Peter Weir and starring Anne-Louise Lambert, Helen Morse, Rachel Roberts and Vivean Gray. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name, by author Joan Lindsay....
(1975) - The Last WaveThe Last WaveThe Last Wave is a 1977 Australian film directed by Peter Weir. It is about a white Australian lawyer whose seemingly normal life is disrupted after he takes on a murder case for Aborigine defendants...
(1977) - GallipoliGallipoli (1981 film)Gallipoli is a 1981 Australian film, directed by Peter Weir and starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee, about several young men from rural Western Australia who enlist in the Australian Army during the First World War. They are sent to Turkey, where they take part in the Gallipoli Campaign. During the...
(1981) - The Year of Living DangerouslyThe Year of Living DangerouslyThe Year of Living Dangerously is a 1982 Peter Weir film adapted from the novel The Year of Living Dangerously by the author Christopher Koch. The story is about a love affair set in Indonesia during the overthrow of President Sukarno...
(1982) - WitnessWitness (1985 film)Witness is a 1985 American thriller film directed by Peter Weir and starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. The screenplay by William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, and Earl W...
(1985) - The Mosquito CoastThe Mosquito CoastThe Mosquito Coast is a 1986 American film directed by Peter Weir, based on the novel by Paul Theroux. The film stars Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix. The film tells the story of a family that leaves the United States and tries to find a happier and simpler life in the jungles of...
(1986) - Dead Poets SocietyDead Poets SocietyDead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams. Set at the conservative and aristocratic Welton Academy in Vermont in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.The script was written...
(1989) - Green CardGreen Card (film)Green Card is a 1990 romantic comedy film written, produced, directed by Peter Weir and starring Gérard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell. The screenplay focuses on an American woman who enters into a marriage of convenience with a Frenchman so he can obtain a green card and remain in the United...
(1990) - FearlessFearless (1993 film)Fearless is a 1993 film directed by Peter Weir and written by Rafael Yglesias from his novel of the same name. It was shot entirely in California....
(1993) - The Truman ShowThe Truman ShowThe Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
(1998) - Master and Commander: The Far Side of the WorldMaster and Commander: The Far Side of the WorldMaster and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a 2003 film directed by Peter Weir, starring Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey, with Paul Bettany as Stephen Maturin and released by 20th Century Fox, Miramax Films and Universal Studios...
(2003) - The Way BackThe Way BackThe Way Back is a 2010 drama film about a group of prisoners who escape from a Siberian Gulag camp during World War II. The film is directed by Peter Weir from a screenplay also by Weir and Keith Clarke, inspired by The Long Walk , a book by Sławomir Rawicz, a Polish POW in the Soviet Gulag. It...
(2010)
Short films
- Three to Go (1969) (segment "Michael")
- HomesdaleHomesdaleHomesdale is a 1971 Australian film directed by Peter Weir. Homesdale is a black comedy about visitors at a guest-house acting out their violent private fantasies and games under the control of the house staff....
(1971) - Three Directions In Pop Music (1971)
- Incredible Floridas (1972)
Further reading
- Peter Weir Pays Witness To The Amish – 27 January 1985
- Peter Weir: In a Class by Himself – 4 June 1989
- Poetry Man – Premiere magazine Interview – July 1989
- A Director Asks for Odd and Gets It – 13 October 1993
- Staring Death in the Face – 17 October 1993
- Weir'd Tales – An interview with Peter Weir – 1994
- A Weir'd Experience – 20 April 1998
- Director Tries a Fantasy As He Questions Reality – 21 May 1998
- Interview – Peter Weir – 3 June 1998
- More to Digest than Popcorn: An Interview with Peter Weir – 4 June 1998
- Peter Weir: The Hollywood Interview – 15 March 2008
- Uncommon Man – The DGA Quarterly Interview – Summer 2010
External links
- Peter Weir's 2010 David Lean lecture at BAFTA
- Peter Weir Cave (unofficial Peter Weir site)
- Photo of Peter Weir at the 76th Annual Academy Awards
- Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
- Peter Weir at the National Film and Sound Archive