{"id":67173,"date":"2025-08-14T08:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/67173\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T08:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:27:08","slug":"david-stratton-esteemed-australian-film-critic-dies-aged-85-film-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/67173\/","title":{"rendered":"David Stratton, esteemed Australian film critic, dies aged 85 | Film criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Stratton, the revered Australian film<\/a> critic and beloved co-host of television programs The Movie Show and At The Movies with fellow critic Margaret Pomeranz, has died aged 85.<\/p>\n

Stratton died in hospital near his home in the Blue Mountains, his family confirmed in a statement to the ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid\u2019s passion for film, commitment to Australian cinema, and generous spirit touched countless lives,\u201d the family statement read. \u201cHe was adored as a husband, father, grand- and great-grandfather and admired friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid\u2019s family would like to express their heartfelt gratitude for the overwhelming support from friends, colleagues, and the public recently and across his lifetime,\u201d they continued, inviting the public to \u201ccelebrate David\u2019s remarkable life and legacy by watching their favourite movie, or David\u2019s favourite movie of all time \u2014 Singin\u2019 In the Rain<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith dry humour and sharp insight, David Stratton shared his love of film with our country,\u201d Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cAll of us who tuned in to At the Movies respected him for his deep knowledge and for the gentle and generous way he passed it on. May he rest in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in the English town of Trowbridge in 1939, Stratton was sent to live with his grandmother in Hampshire during the second world war. An avid filmgoer, she took Stratton to the cinema almost every day, which changed his life. In the 2017 documentary David Stratton: A Cinematic Life<\/a>, Stratton said he watched \u201cat least one\u201d film he hadn\u2019t seen every day, and had seen more than 25,000 films in his life.<\/p>\n

Stratton moved to Australia in 1963, and was soon involved with the local film industry, becoming director of the Sydney film festival<\/a> from 1966 until 1983. The role sealed his decision to stay in Australia; he later spoke of feeling \u201cvery guilty\u201d<\/a> about the decision, as it meant ending his family\u2019s tradition of passing down the family\u2019s grocery story in England from father to son since the 1820s. He became an Australian citizen in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Stratton pictured with actor Jacki Weaver, date unknown. Photograph: Supplied by Transmission Films<\/p>\n

In 2014, it was revealed<\/a> Stratton was under surveillance by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation while he was director of the Sydney film festival, due to a visit he made to the USSR in the late 1960s and his decision to show Soviet films.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Sydney film festival paid tribute to its former director, saying: \u201c[This festival], and by extension the very culture of cinema in Australia, would not exist as it does today without the remarkable passion and devotion of David Stratton.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the 1970s onwards, Stratton wrote reviews for The Australian, and Variety magazine in the US. In 1980, he joined SBS<\/a> as a film consultant, introducing movies shown on the channel for six months a year.<\/p>\n

In that role he met TV producer Margaret Pomeranz; reflecting on their partnership in 2011<\/a>, Pomeranz recalled wanting to make the strait-laced Stratton \u201ctake his tie off and grow a pony tail\u201d. After they successfully pitched a weekly film review program to SBS, and several disappointing screen tests with female presenters, Stratton convinced Pomeranz to join him on camera. In 1986, they began presenting the long-running SBS program The Movie Show.<\/p>\n

Their tastes were diverse, and often amusingly contrasted; Pomeranz\u2019s open fondness for Hollywood action and mainstream blockbusters was stark against Stratton\u2019s distaste for the same, often reserving his admiration for more obscure European cinema. In 1992, Pomeranz rated Romper Stomper five stars, while Stratton refused to give it a rating because he disliked it so. The film\u2019s director, Geoffrey Wright, later threw a glass of wine in Stratton\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz. Photograph: ABC<\/p>\n

SBS managing director James Taylor said the broadcast was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by Stratton\u2019s death, and credited his work cohosting The Movie Show between 1986 and 2004 for \u201cintroducing generations of viewers to cinema from Australia and around the world. His legacy endures in every thoughtful review and every inspired viewer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stratton and Pomeranz left SBS in 2004, and took the concept to the ABC, with the show renamed At the Movies. The much-loved show ended in 2014 after almost three decades; when it ended, actor Geoffrey Rush lauded the pair\u2019s \u201csparkling bickering\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the success of At the Movies, Stratton appeared on several ABC shows as a snobbish parody of himself, including on The Chaser\u2019s War on Everything, Review with Myles Barlow and Lawrence Leung\u2019s Choose Your Own Adventure.<\/p>\n

He was highly regarded around the world for his knowledge of international cinema, particularly the French New Wave \u2013 he was a fan of Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Demy \u2013 and for his work championing Australian cinema abroad. He served as a member of the International Jury at the film festivals of Berlin (1982), Montreal (1982) and Venice (1994), and was the president of FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) juries in Cannes twice and once in Venice.<\/p>\n

In 2001, Stratton was appointed the Croix de Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the French honour\u2019s highest rank, for his services to French cinema. That same year, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Australian Film Institute, and a Centenary Medal for his \u201cservice to Australian society and Australian film production\u201d. In 2015, he was made a member of the Order of Australia.<\/p>\n

In the 2012 Sight & Sound critics\u2019 poll, Stratton named his 10 favourite films<\/a> as Charulata, Citizen Kane, The Conversation, Uzak (Distant), Distant Voices, Still Lives, Kings of the Road, Lola, The Searchers, Singin\u2019 in the Rain, and The Travelling Players.<\/p>\n

In 2008 he released an autobiography titled I Peed on Fellini, named for his drunken attempt to shake director Federico Fellini\u2019s hand while at a urinal. In 2021<\/a>, he published My Favourite Movies, a book that explored his relationship with 111 films. In 2024 he published his final book: Australia at the Movies<\/a>, compiling around 650 reviews of every locally produced feature made between 1990 and 2020.<\/p>\n

His publisher Allen & Unwin said called Australia at the Movies his \u201cmagnum opus\u201d and saying he would be \u201cbest remembered for the 28 years he co-hosted movie shows on SBS and ABC TV as yang to Margaret Pomeranz\u2019s yin. Who could forget David\u2019s cool, measured tone in response to Margaret\u2019s passion?\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023 Stratton retired from writing criticism and teaching, telling Guardian Australia<\/a> of his retirement plans: \u201cI\u2019d like to watch one new movie every day that I haven\u2019t seen before. And from time to time watch an old movie that I want to see again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Stratton, the revered Australian film critic and beloved co-host of television programs The Movie Show and At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-67173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}