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Visual Representation Commentary

‘They’re A Weird Mob’ is a 1966 film directed by Michael Powell, based on the book by John O’Grady about Nino Culotta, an Italian immigrant who had arrived in Australia with the promised job as a journalist for his cousins magazine.  When he gets there he finds that the business is shutting down and his cousin falling into debt so Nino, as an Australian immigrant, is determined to get a job & and help pull his cousin out of trouble. The image above is the film poster of ‘They’re A Weird Mob’. Stereotypical imagery, colours, text and layout help to promote the story and struggles of Nino Culcutta and a story about migrant Australia .

Powell uses a combination of stereotypical imagery and layout to represent Nino as an outcast or outsider. Australian labels like, beachwear, outback apparel and trademarks such as the Sydney Harbour bridge and the Australian flag placed on top of the geographical shape of the country. Nino Culotta’s head is positioned separately from this dominating imagery so that the poster has the literal effect of representing him as an outsider. The speech bubble which appears from Culotta’s mouth presents the title of the movie from to be aimed at the bunch or mob of people standing on Australia so that in the first instance the audience thinks that this is the weird mob the title is referring to. This creates the effect of a reversal of expectations about, who is on the inside or the outside.

Bright colour used in this visual representation dominates the center of the picture. Nino’s face however is a very bland black and white colour making him stand out. This promotes him as the main character as well as an outsider to the Australians represented on the landform. His black and white appearance looks like a photo cut out or a still from a black and white film. This works in contrast with the other ‘australian’ painted colorful cartoon like characters. The photo form brings out a personable looking character which we can relate to and the painted forms look look threatening and a little on the absurd side. Again this can be seen to be playing with audience expectations.

The use of the speech bubble can be seen as a symbol to potray language as an important feauture of the relationship between immigrants and Australians.

In conclusion Powell’s poster works on many different levels to promote some ideas and themes of the movie. It plays with audience expectations and gets the audience thinking.

COMMENTARY ON POEM:

//COMMENTARY// //The poem ‘Australia’ by Ania Walwicz was published in the 1990’s. Walwicz arrived in Australia as an immigrant from Poland in 1963. The Prose Poem aims to portray a negative view about Australia and Australian society. It offers a contrasting view to many things Australians consider as positive things such as aspects of their everyday lifestyle e.g. going to the beach or living in the suburbs. It stems from her experiences living in Australia as an immigrant and dealing with Australian society. She obviously feels like an outsider and expresses her hatred through prose.//

//To achieve this Walwicz uses alliteration such as ‘Dumb dirty city’…’box of biscuits’ giving the poem a sense of rhythm. It also exaggerates the hot tempered pace of Walwicz’s prose, like she is a stuttering child trying to get her angry words out.//

//The overriding feature of the poem is the use of colloquial language ..‘// You silly shoppingtown. You copy. You too far everywhere. ////’. ‘You big cow’. At first glance the poem seems childish and immature but a deeper reading of the text and the way each sentence is positioned shows her unhappiness Walwicz disillusionment makes the reader see the words in a different light. Walwicz makes the everyday colloquial language seem a bit more ruthless than we first thought. ////

////Walwicz uses to identify migrant Australia is the short simple sentences throughout the poem. She uses these to suggest the character is not very strong in English. Knowing that English is Australia’s main language we now identify the character as a foreigner to Australia. “ //// You never accept me. // For your own. You always ask me where I´m from. You always ask me. You tell me I look strange. //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">” ////

//In conclusion, Walwicz successfully represented to us a migrant Australian using particular language techniques and poetic devices to negatively provide us with more of an understanding of the Australian Identity.//