Giorgio Mangiamele

A killer on the run is found lying flat on his face in a wet clay bank. He is rescued by potters who shelter him within their community. There he falls in love with a woman. Unfortunately, another man who has been calling upon the woman gets jealous and turns the fugitive in to the cops. The woman gets revenge.

The NFSA has restored Giorgio Mangiamele’s uncompleted (and therefore mute) first feature film 'Il Contratto' (The Contract). A remarkable film in the context of Australian cinema of its era, 'Il Contratto' was the only feature of the 1950s to unflinchingly show the isolation, alienation and loneliness of Italian migrants to Australia. Mangiamele based his script on the experiences of the fellow countrymen with whom he travelled to Australia in 1952. The film’s authentic portrayal of immigrant hardships was accentuated by his casting of people who had lived through the events they were portraying. While Mangiamele later focused on loners who were up against the system, the characters of 'Il Contratto' are sustained by their unity.

Director Giorgio Mangiamele produced the first examples of multicultural cinema in this country. 'The Spag' was shot in the streets of Carlton and tells the story of a newspaper boy working to support his widowed mother; along the way his life is fraught with racism. The film is Neo-Realist in style and makes interesting use of incidental music and post-sync dubbed dialogue track; a dog's bark is even mimicked by an actor's voice.

With 'Ninety Nine Per Cent' Giorgio Mangiamele harnessed satiric, surreal and slapstick comedy to tell his most socially probing story of the impact of urban as well as cultural isolation. Where his earlier films, including 'Il Contratto' and two versions of 'The Spag' had portrayed problems specific to being an Italian migrant in an often racist and uncaring Australia, 'Ninety Nine Per Cent' made the impact of isolation within a multiracial society more universal. The film is a visual advance on Mangiamele’s earlier films, aided by its being filmed on 35mm stock (all the earlier works had been shot on 16mm), bringing a new sharpness, depth of field and exposure range to images. 'Ninety Nine Per Cent' was to be Mangiamele’s only comedy and in many ways it is his most adventurous, accessible work.

Nuclear war breaks out and the staff and patients of a mental hospital take refuge in an underground bunker and accidentally get locked in. Disciple soon disintegrates and the patients, led by Richard, start to resist authority. Richard devises a scheme for a new social order where the sane will take no part. The doctors try to resist but are ultimately overcome.