"Fascism rears its head." That was the caption the Commonwealth Security Service (CSS) - the precursor to ASIO - placed on a clipping from Smith's Weekly dated 27 March 1943. The article discussed the Institute of Public Affairs, recently convened by leaders of business and industry and underwritten by the Collins House group of mining companies.

It has always struck me as odd that in a country that places great store in the overseas (read Hollywood) success of ‘our actors' - as in ‘our' Nic, ‘our' Naomi, ‘our' Russ, ‘our' Cate - film reviewing culture has not developed a stronger analysis of performance as one of the elements of cinema.