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“Travelling North” tells the story of a curmudgeon in his 60s who marries for a second time and moves to a cottage on a lake in northern Australia where he can fish and listen to music on the radio and be happy for the days that are remaining to him. What he doesn’t figure on is that those days are numbered. But this isn’t a heartrending movie about how he puts up a brave fight against death. It’s about how he carries on just as before, stubborn and crusty, irascible and temperamental, and about how his wife and his friends love him anyway, most of the time.

The movie stars Leo McKern as its hero, Frank, who in his prime was a two-fisted union organizer but now likes to dream in the shade, play chess and wander around the house getting under the feet of Frances ( Julia Blake ), his second wife. She is a cheerful, competent woman some years younger than Frank, and she has to live with the consequences of his unilateral decision to live in Queensland, many hours from the families of her grown children in Melbourne. They are bitter about her decision to remarry, and feel abandoned, but Frances feels it’s time to live her own life for a change. The problem is, she seems to be living Frank’s instead.

They pack their things into an old van and point it north, and settle into a life of palm trees and verandas and fishing. Almost instantly they make a new friend, Freddie ( Graham Kennedy ), the next-door neighbor, who is friendly and nosy and opinionated and lonely. And before long, Frank makes another friend, Saul ( Henri Szeps ), the local doctor, who tells him he has a bad heart and should take good care of himself.

Nothing much really happens in “Traveling North,” in the sense of large events to move the plot ahead. It’s not a movie like “ On Golden Pond ,” in which deep truths are told and old wounds are healed.

This is a film of everyday life, and all the more moving because of that. It’s not a film of sentiment, but a film of love: It loves old Frank just as he is, but without forgiving him a single wart. And it loves Frances, too, for her loyalty but also because she sees the situation clearly and does not deceive herself.

The film belongs to McKern, best known for “Rumpole of the Bailey,” and he inhabits Frank with utter confidence, endowing him with all of the messiness and stubborness of life itself. He knows he will die. That isn’t the problem. He simply refuses to change anything because of that fact. He refuses to act as if he will die, and this refusal frustrates his friends and yet makes them love him all the more. By the end, the movie has prepared us so gently and thoroughly that we accept the inevitable more or less as Frank does, by not wasting a lot of time thinking about it before it’s absolutely necessary.

This is a special film, the kind of film that probably can be made only as a labor of love. Movies about the last days of old people are not boffo at the box office, and yet this one deserves an audience, because it is so careful with the human qualities of its characters.

Some of them we recognize, and some of them, no doubt, we will someday be. “Travelling North” is the kind of movie that offers no consolation for death, but doesn’t wring its hands, either; it seems to argue, like Frank, that if you can find the love of a warm person, and a place where you can catch a few fish and listen to good music on the radio, then death, when it comes, will not discover an unhappy victim.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Travelling North (1988)

Rated PG-13

Andrea Moor as Joan

Leo McKern as Frank

Henri Szeps as Saul

Drew Forsythe as Martin

Michele Fawdon as Helen

Diane Craig as Sophie

Graham Kennedy as Freddie

Julia Blake as Frances

Directed by

Carl Schultz

Produced by

Screenplay by.

David Williamson

Photographed by

Julian Penney
Henry Dangar

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Travelling North

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Travelling North (1987)

Genre: drama, duration: 96 minuten, country: australia, directed by: carl schultz, starst: leo mckern , julia blake and graham kennedy, imdb score: 6,9 (370), releasedate: 19 june 1987.

This movie is not available on US streaming services.

Travelling North plot

"family" Frank, a grumbling old man, moves from Melbourne to Northern Australia to spend his old age in a warmer climate. He is joined by a middle-aged woman, Frances, who has long since been divorced and is drawn to both by her family and by her lover. In any case, they will not exactly find peace together...

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Travelling North

1987, Comedy/Drama, 1h 36m

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Travelling north photos.

Frank (Leo McKern) is an irascible widower who takes delight in his nonconformity and leftist ideals. He marries Frances (Julia Blake), much to the chagrin of her adult daughters, and the elderly newlyweds travel north from the big city to a small port town, intending to settle into an idyllic retirement. In their new home, they befriend some of the locals and spend their days fishing and watching the sunsets. When Frank suffers a mild heart attack, the specter of mortality enters their lives.

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Carl Schultz

Box Office (Gross USA): $8.6K

Runtime: 1h 36m

Sound Mix: Surround

Cast & Crew

Julia Blake

Graham Kennedy

Carl Schultz

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Travelling North

The CEL VHS release promoted the film as being “ From the director of ‘ Careful, He Might Hear You '’’ , with the logline A Journey into love, tears and laughter , and on the back page, a couple of quotes form critics, “One of the best Australian films ever made” - David Stratton , and “ Absolutely enchanting. A delightful, heart warming experience” - Jeffrey Lyons, Sneak Previews, CBS Radio , followed by this synopsis:

Winner of five major film awards including Best Actor and Best Screenplay, Travelling North is a sensitive and passionate movie starring multi award winning actor, Leo McKern and Julia Blake.

This is the story of one man’s struggle to retain his dignity in the face of adversity.

Leo McKern plays Frank, a crotchetty old man who has an unending zest and passion for life. Julia Blake is Frances, his much younger companion who watches helplessly as Frank enters a traumatic period in his life - unable to understand the complexity of his personality and his strong desire to live life to the fullest.

Travelling North is one of the most highly acclaimed movies of our time. A movie which will stir the hearts and souls of all who witness this magnificent journey - watching and feeling every moment as it takes you to the heights of happiness and the depths of despair.

Travelling North is David Williamson’s adaptation of his award winning play, directed by Carl Schultz ( Careful He Might Hear You ).

Not only has Travelling North received the highest praise and critical acclaim, it is also the top grossing Australian release of 1987!

The later DVD release by Umbrella used the same logline, and playwright David Williamson pumping up his own work and that of director Carl Schultz: “After seeing the finished film my hopes were more than fulfilled, it sprang to life on the screen with a vividness I couldn’t have imagined.”

There was also a short synopsis, which, like the VHS, obscured the down ending:

Travelling North tells the story of Frank (Leo McKern), a crotchety old man with an unending zest and passion for life and Frances (Julia Blake) his much younger companion travelling to Queensland to enjoy their retirement and each other. Unfortunately the idyllic North cannot calm Frank’s complex personality and desire to live life to the fullest and Frances watches helplessly as Frank struggles to understand his own emotional and physical limitations.

Directed by Carl Schultz, with memorable performances by Graham Kennedy as Freddie, the meddlesome but loyal neighbour and Henri Szeps as the long suffering local doctor weathering an endless stream of self-diagnosis by Frank, Travelling North travels to the heights of happiness and the depths of despair.

(For a more detailed synopsis, with spoilers, see the bottom of this site's 'about the movie' section).

Key Details
About the Movie
The Downunder Club
full head credits
full tail credits
full music credits

Production Details

Production company : Ben Gannon presents; tail credit copyrights to View Pictures Limited. Joint underwriters and sponsoring brokers, Westpac’s Merchant Bank Partnership Pacific Limited, D&D-Tolhurst, J. B. Were & Son; produced with the assistance of the Queensland Film Corporation; produced with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission.

Budget : $2.5 million (Murray’s Australian Film ); Cinema Papers , March 1987 puts the budget at $2,250,000. In his newspaper diary of the shoot, actor Graham Kennedy wrote that the budget had been reduced to $2.2 million, requiring him to take a pay cut.

Location s: Melbourne, Victoria and Port Douglas, Queensland, and Sydney. Saul's doctor room was shot in a studio in Paddington, Sydney. The NSW Art Gallery was dressed in as a substitute for the National Gallery of Victoria.

Filmed : Cinema Papers , March 1987 puts the first day of principal photography at 30th June 1986. The film is listed as being in production in the July 1986 Cinema Papers ’ production survey, and in post-production in the September 1986 production survey. In his newspaper diary, actor Graham Kennedy says it was a 31 day shoot, with filming first in Port Douglas, before the unit returned to Sydney (Melbourne was the last location filmed).

Australian distributor : CEL

Theatrical release : 19th June 1987 in Melbourne and Sydney via mainly independent theatres

Video release : CEL - the film was released on tape late March 1988.

Rating : PG (January 1987, 2633.28m.)

35mm Kodak Eastmancolor

Lenses & Panaflex camera by Panavision ®

Dolby stereo in selected theatres

Running time : 96 mins (Murray’s Australian Film ; David Stratton’s The Avocado Plantation, Filmnews ); 95 mins ( Cinema Papers ); 98 mins ( The New York Times )

DVD time : 1’33”08

Box office :

Relative to its budget, the film did well in Australia, with Film Victoria’s report on domestic box office noting $1,464,000 in returns, equivalent to $2,942,640 in A$2009. This is all the better because the property had already been well exposed as a play, and it was likely to appeal to an older demographic of the kind that rarely went to the movies. Because CEL was a minor distributor, the film struggled to break wide and had to make do with mainly independent theatres, but ran for months in these venues.

Travelling North did respectable arthouse business in some international territories. Screen Australia’s data for films which did over $100,000 in the United States ( here - this data changes as it's updated ) had it at position 109 at time of writing, with a tidy $214,722 for Cineplex/Oden. This is no big deal but it helped awareness in the home tape and television markets.

The film didn’t do particularly well at the 1987 AFI Awards, that being the year of The Year My Voice Broke , but it did pick up two predictable wins:

Best Screenplay adapted from another source (David Williamson)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Leo Mckern)

Julia Blake was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, but missed out to Judy Davis in High Tide .

David Williamson also won an Awgie (Australian Writers’ Guild award) in 1987 for “Film Adaptation” - he had previously won a 1980 Awgie for “Stage” for his original play.

As consolation for not being nominated in the AFI’s best picture category, the film won Best Film in the 1987 Sydney Film Critics’ Circle awards ( The Year My Voice Broke , winner of the 1987 AFI best picture award, won this prize in 1988).

The film was also entered in the 1987 Chicago International Film Festival but that year Péter Gárdos’s Szamárköhögés won Best Feature.

But Leo McKern did win Best Actor in the 1987 Montreal World Film Festival - used in publicity for the Australian domestic release - and in 1989 McKern tied with Stéphane Audran in Babette's Feast for the London Critics Circle Film Awards ALFS Award as actors of the year.

Availability

The film remains popular and widely available via streaming services, television broadcast and digital devices.

In its day, it was an early release for Umbrella as a DVD.

The image presented was a little dirty, but colours were rich and focus was reasonably sharp, in 16:9 format. There was some grain on view, but it was a more than adequate way to see the film, with good sound.

There were a number of handy extras, including:

an 18’48” featurette copyrighted to Umbrella in 2004, From Stage To Screen Travelling North , featuring playwright David Williamson, actors Julia Blake and Henri Szeps, and excerpts from the show;
6’48” of original cast tests with Leo McKern and Julia Blake, shot in 4:3 video, with the quality to be expected of auditions;
some 15 photos in a photo gallery, with the menu obscuring the bottom bit of the image;
a 26”27 featurette about playwright David Williamson, Voices on the Page, David Williamson Compulsive Playwright , directed by Ian Walker for Film Australia in 1986. This turned up on other Umbrella Williamson releases - such as the two disc edition of Emerald City and Williamson's The Club - and is a handy complement to another Umbrella extra, Tall Tales but True , which could be found on the two disc edition of Don’s Party , see here ;
The theatrical trailer for the film, together with other Umbrella propaganda, trailers for Skippy The Bush Kangaroo , The Big Steal , Malcolm and We of the Never Never.

In the 'making of', all three participants focus mainly on the film's cast, but they also speak well of director Carl Schultz - Szeps calls him very methodical and very clear and good at creating a free atmosphere on set, Blake notes he was wonderfully meticulous and very actor supportive, and Williamson talks about the space between the lines in a film, images, close-ups, the atmospheres, the ambiences, the moods that Schultz was very sensitive to...

Speaking of the atmosphere that Carl Schultz created on the set, Julia Blake suggests that the landscape is almost like an extra character in the story…

With the film available in many formats, it seems superfluous to watch a couple of clips, but the ASO has three of them here .

It is interesting to contrast curator Paul Byrnes’ cautious detailing of the project at the ASO, as opposed to his response on the film’s first release in The Sydney Morning Herald , where he wrote that he wanted something more to happen in the film, saying it was too gentle and lacked intensity:

“I kept wishing someone would break out and start shouting or throwing things. A little catharsis and risk-taking might have really helped.”

But the film is aimed at a demographic that doesn’t want that much excitement - a heart attack is often more than enough to go on with.

The film obliges that audience, with slabs of Mozart and Beethoven, and the family domestics not pushed too far, and generous servings of magic hour north Queensland paradise.

Who wouldn’t want to go, quickly and gently, after listening to a Mozart quintet, having spent their last few years with the obliging and giving Julia Blake, with Graham Kennedy as a heart-of-gold albeit conservative neighbour for quirky exchanges, with heart-of-gold Henri Szeps as your exasperated doctor, and with time spent fishing, and grumping around in a fine male curmudgeonish way and with those magic hour visions continuing right to the end.

It’s a largely male vision, but as a nod to the mature female demographic, Blake’s character is given her freedom and a new independence and awareness at the end, for her services rendered.

Taken in this spirit, it’s very well acted, nicely directed and shot, and with the obligatory heart-tugging moments at the end (and not just the quick and gentle climactic heart attack, but a marriage with harbour views, dancing amongst young things and a visit to a Whiteley exhibition).

It’s civilised, “tradition of quality” film-making, sold in the United States as On Golden Pond down under, and for an Australian audience, the film can hold its head high in that company.

Of course reviewers will get agitated at the deliberate restraint and the obvious contrivances in the story, but others will appreciate the time spent with McKern, Blake, Kennedy and Szeps - essentially a string quartet cast, with in-built appeal for the older demographic, with the occasional domestic growling off adding a tuba to proceedings.

David Williamson first wrote Travelling North as a very successful stage play. The many productions of the play are listed at AusStage here , and the Nimrod Upstairs production is listed here .

In the DVD ‘making of’, Williamson explained how the idea came to him:

The original idea for Travelling North when it first emerged as a play was sparked by my wife’s mother’s, Hope Wilkinson’s relationship with her husband … Wilkie, as we called him … Wilkie was a dogmatic and highly intelligent, irascible old left winger who didn’t suffer fools gladly, and I met them many years before I started to write the play and was impressed by his intelligence, his indomitable will to live. He was sick and he was getting sicker, but he wasn’t going to give in easily, and I was impressed by Hope’s love, care, concern and compassion for him, even though he gave her a rougher time than he should have. There was obvious love between the two of them and I was also interested in the tug of war in Hope’s heart between her responsibilities to Wilkie and her responsibilities to her two daughters, who were going through life crises of their own… and that tug of war, whether she wanted to be with her daughters or with Wilkie, was very difficult for her …

… I had a new play to write, and Frank Wilson had been a huge success in The Club , and I admired Frank an awful lot, and I was looking for a stage role for an older man so that we could put Frank on stage, and suddenly I thought ‘Wilkie!’. He would be wonderful as the irascible Wilkie and so the play started that way …

Williamson said much the same thing in an STC interview here , when talking about the genesis of the play as background to the STC's revival of the play in 2013:

...the inspiration for Travelling Northcame soon after I met my present wife Kristin and she took me up onto the Central Coast of NSW to visit her mother Hope who had recently remarried an older man called Wilkie. There was more than a little hint of disapproval from her two daughters about the new liaison, which I used in the play, but I found them an inspiring couple. Wilkie was a ferociously intelligent man, a former electrical engineer and ex-communist with pronounced opinions on just about everything. Hope was gentler but with a wonderful quality of perception and understanding. They both impressed me and, some years later, the image of them both living in a verdant, sunlit subtropical paradise re-entered my mind and became Travelling North. In fact, by the time I wrote it, Wilkie had died. I asked Hope whether I could write the play and she trusted me and was most cooperative. She told me anecdotes about a busybody neighbour who had annoyed the hell out of Wilkie and a long-suffering doctor who had to answer Wilkie's probing questions about the quality of treatment he was delivering. These characters found their way into the story. I think Hope genuinely liked the play, but my wife Kristin and her sister were a little less enthusiastic, particularly when Frank, in the play, refers to them as "Goneril and Regan".

Williamson also notes in his DVD interview that the role of the doctor Saul Morgenstein (played in the film by Henri Szeps) came about as a result of his research into Wilkie:

Wilkie gave his doctors hell …he believed he was far more intelligent than any of them and that they had no right to withhold knowledge from him …He became an expert in his own medical condition, researching it thoroughly, even at the point of getting the actual medical references and journals themselves, so that in effect he ended up knowing more about his own condition than the doctors who consulted him, which drove them mad, and he criticised their treatments, criticised the drugs they were prescribing, and finally, you know, nearly drove them crazy … some of them just said ‘no’, (laughs) ‘go, I can’t stand it any longer, which Henri Szeps does in the film …’

In his STC interview Williamson discounts any awareness of grey nomads, reverse mortgages and such like in the late 1970s:

...I can't say I was aware of it as a social trend. It was just that that travelling north was what Wilkie had chosen to do and he had convinced Hope to follow him. Now, of course, it has become a veritable flood of northward-bound, sun-seeking southerners making the pilgrimage. Many of them, like Frank and Frances in the play, find that living in paradise isn't quite enough without having a social context of friends, families and meaningful activities to fill in the time. Frances gets a little tired of rowing Frank day after day to his favourite fishing holes. Perhaps that's why the nomads choose to keep on the move.

However, in the usual Williamson way, there are certain connections between the storyline and Frank’s character and Williamson’s, and these connections have become more obvious as Williamson also did the grey nomad thing:

...I still connect to those characters and, as the years wear on and my own life winds ever closer to its inevitable end, the play seems even more relevant than it did when I wrote it. Back then, life seemed endless, as I was still in my early thirties. Now it's more a case of every extra birthday is a bonus, which is exactly what Frank feels when he finds out about his heart condition. And, yes, I still connect strongly to the plight of Frances, torn between her loyalty and love for Frank, and the emotional tug of her two struggling daughters. It's a warm and hopefully understanding play about issues that so many people have to face.

Another connection between Frank and Williamson is that Frank is a civil engineer while Williamson graduated from Swinburne with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Frank has heart problems, while Williamson confessed to George Negus in an interview broadcast 9/9/2004 and on line at the ABC here that he had heart issues and he too moved away from stressful big city life to live in Queensland, at Noosa beach.

DAVID WILLIAMSON: I was finding big-city life very stressful. There are lots of demands on you and I'm not very good at saying no. I remember being very elated one time, just after I'd come up here, where I was able to send off seven faxes saying, "Sorry, I'd love to attend your whatever, but I'm not in Sydney anymore. I'm up here." It was a great burden off my shoulders. I decided to come to Noosa because it's a place Kristen and I always loved. The kids were brought up here on holidays from the very early days so we've known the place for a long while. And that combination of a wonderful physical environment and a less stressful place to live was something that attracted us. I think 'Travelling North' was prescient about my mental state in a way. Physical beauty and relaxed living have always been an ideal that's been somewhere near the back of my mind. And I thought, "Well, Kristen and I are both writers. "There's no reason why, with modern technology, we can't write anywhere, so why not write somewhere that's beautiful and relaxing?"

I felt strongly about Plautus. He was a highly popular playwright. But he was going through the same agonies as any playwright so I identified with him – trying to convince the producer to put his next play on, trying to get his actors in line, trying to cast it, trying to keep them in order, trying to sort out his marital problems at the same time. He was a hugely funny character and I really liked him.

DAVID WILLIAMSON: I like to think that the writing has become more focused since I've moved here because I am able to concentrate, I am able to read and think and have some times of just tranquillity walking on the beach, thinking about nothing in particular. The immediate future is to enjoy life, enjoy family and community, still write, but not obsessively, and stay healthy. That's the ambition of everyone getting into their 60s.

GEORGE NEGUS: You mentioned your health there. You shocked a lot of us – most of the country, I suppose – when you told us you weren't particularly well. How is your health now?

DAVID WILLIAMSON: Look, I've got an intermittent heart rhythm problem that's stress-related and it's not life-threatening.

GEORGE NEGUS: That's wonderful to hear.

DAVID WILLIAMSON: Yeah. It's just something I'd prefer not to happen too often, so I'm trying to calm down and slow down.

GEORGE NEGUS: And not as much writing for the stage.

DAVID WILLIAMSON: Yeah, well, typically a play goes through about 15 drafts and a lot of exhaustive work goes on. It looks easy when it's on stage...

GEORGE NEGUS: "Typically 15"?

DAVID WILLIAMSON: Yeah, well, 9 to 15 is the general rule of thumb because to fit all the pieces together it has to have a lot of thinking and work done on it, to get the structure right. I thought, almost 35 years – that's enough. I'll slow down.

GEORGE NEGUS: The number of things that you've turned out over the years is phenomenal. I mean, the body of work is almost hard to believe. Are you obsessive? Are you a workaholic?

DAVID WILLIAMSON: Yes, I think...

GEORGE NEGUS: Are you mad or what?

DAVID WILLIAMSON: No, I think most writers are obsessive and I can't claim that I wasn't.

GEORGE NEGUS: But some writers can be obsessive and still be slow and take a lot longer than you.

DAVID WILLIAMSON: I suppose I was always in a hurry to see the end product. The excitement for me was getting it in the theatre with good actors and an audience and watching that play connect. It wasn't the money, it wasn't the fame, it was really the buzz of making something work in the theatre. And so I suppose I really wanted to see the next one work after the last one. So I enjoy the process of writing. It's taken its toll. It's caught up with me after all these years.

GEORGE NEGUS: You think the health problem is related to the pace that you worked at?

DAVID WILLIAMSON: I think so, because I was also... My kids will say at least I was a reasonable father, given my obsessiveness, and we had five children so it was a hectic life. And Kristen was a full-time journalist and a full-time writer too, so there was lots going on and... But, yes, I was obsessive. But I love writing and I love solving the puzzle of putting something together that would finally work, and that was the big buzz.

Williamson added this in his STC interview about his move north, and the play serving as an inspiration for the move:

...I was dazzled by the beautiful subtropical splendour of Hope and Wilkie's new abode. I loved the peace, the sunlight filtering through the flowering gums, the birdsongs and the tranquillity. It was a powerful image that stayed with me and, after several more freezing winters in Melbourne, I asked myself why we couldn't travel north ourselves. Kristin and I were both writers and not tied down and we knew our young family would adjust. There were some who thought I was deserting the Melbourne arts scene to embrace the bourgeoning Sydney scene, but the truth was I was sick of the cold. After many years, the Sydney winters got to me and I went further north with Kristin to Noosa, but we were sensible enough to keep a Sydney apartment where we still spend a lot of time in the always exciting Harbour City.

Williamson has a wiki here , and a website here .

A film tie-in version of the play was released, with Leo McKern conducting Beethoven in Melbourne (with Frances' gift baton) on the cover.

(Below: front and rear of the film tie-in version).

2. The Package:

David Stratton in his 1990 survey, The Avocado Plantation , explained how producer Ben Gannon put together the package:

(he)… obtained an option on the film rights and immediately contacted Leo McKern to play the role of Frank: this would be the first Australian film for the celebrated expatriate. McKern says: ‘Ben sent me a copy of the play, and when I read it, I thought: “That’s me!” My wife read it and said: “Williamson must know you backwards.”’

It was originally intended that another Australian expatriate, Michael Blakemore, would direct: Blakemore had a distinguished career as a theatre director: he had directed Don’s Party on stage in London, and The Club in Washington and New York. He had made only one feature film, the disappointing Privates on Parade, but Gannon felt he would be ideal for Travelling North. However, after casting was completed, Blakemore dropped out and was replaced by Schultz, who responded wholeheartedly to the sensitivity of the material. ‘However,’ says Schultz, ‘I felt that, if it was to make a successful film, a lot of that snappy dialogue of David’s, which worked so well on stage, would have to go. The film is much less funny than the play, deliberately so.’ Williamson agreed to Schultz’s suggestions, and the two had a harmonious working relationship.

David Williamson had this to say about the casting of the film in his DVD interview:

..Of course when the film version happened Leo McKern was available and despite the fact that Frank ( Wilson, 'Frank' in the premiere stage play production) is a wonderful actor, Leo was such a talent that you wouldn’t want to say ‘no’ to Leo McKern and one of the wonderful things about Travelling North is that I managed to get the great Leo McKern - or I didn’t manage, the producers managed - to get Leo McKern in that role, plus Graham Kennedy again playing the neighbour, and the wonderful Julia Blake who I think is one of Australia’s great actresses playing Frances.

Julia Blake goes on to say, in the 'making of', that Leo is not unlike Frank, and she was nervous about appearing up against him, having seen him first when a drama student in London and then in subsequent roles where he displayed his rotund voice (she calls it a superb stage presence and superb voice).

Blake says McKern almost treated her like a second wife while they got to know each other during screen test and production, despite the presence of his real wife during the shoot: “He was very bossy, but witty, generous … he had the innocent inventiveness of a brilliant child, which a lot of great actors have.”

As a result, she says McKern had fun performing in the film and the shoot was easy, and everybody found it easy to work with him:

That’s not to say that sometimes my hackles didn’t rise if he was being bossy. He hated me being behind the wheel of the car, the van, and he hated me being at the oars of the boat, but he was fantastic.”

Szeps chips in by calling McKern a gruff old bugger who giggled a lot and who loved telling gags.

Blake adds that he was irresistible, telling an anecdote of how, before McKern went snorkelling, he took out his glass eye and put it in her hand saying “there you are darling, look after that … he was a great tease …He was no oil painting, let’s face it, but he was so attractive …I could imagine myself marrying McKern …It’s the appetite for life it’s the encyclopaedic mind, it’s all those things … its the fact that he would have always been like that and he was like that until he died, I’m sure … Somebody like that wakes you up, he challenges you, you know, every nerve’s throbbing ...”

Williamson: Leo McKern brought to the role of Frank a bite, an attack, an irascibility that only Leo could have …and he plays it very much as a distinctive character. I mean, he’s not playing Rumpole again … if you watch it carefully, it’s not a Rumpole characterisation, sure there’s the irascibility but there’s an edge to Frank, a dangerous edge and a bombastic edge that’s um really not there in Rumpole, so we get an entirely new characterisation out of Leo for Frank and he makes him both totally irritable but totally likeable at the same time … I think that’s something that only Leo could have done …

Blake says she was very nervous about working with Kennedy, noted for his caustic wit, but he was very, very different from what she’d expected.

“He didn’t actually have confidence in himself as an actor … and Kennedy used his wit in real life to cover up enormous vulnerability. He didn’t I think like displaying his vulnerability as a person, but it shines through that performance.” (For an example of Kennedy's caustic wit, directed at Blake, see below in his diary of the shoot).

“He was nervous when we started … I was surprised to see him shaking in one scene, physically shaking, but I loved the scene where he comes in to speak to Frank … and I’m at the sink, and Frank insults him and he’s terribly hurt and he leaves with great dignity …and what I love about Kennedy’s performance is that in no way is it a cliche of a returned serviceman …It avoids that and it becomes a gem. He was actually a good actor, Kennedy, he was very intelligent ...”

David Williamson also thinks Kennedy’s performance a gem, saying he brought a humanity to the role, with the human decency brought out by Kennedy in the role finally getting the better of Frank.

Kennedy wrote a diary about the film - the full text can be found in the photo gallery, see below for a summary.

Szeps notes that he was around at the formative stage of the play - with Williamson rushing around with newly written pages. Szeps appeared in the Nimrod Upstairs production in Surry Hills in August 1979, details at AusStage here , with Frank Wilson in the role of Frank.

Blake talks of her character’s journey, from living in a converted garage in her daughter’s house, though she’s not old, yet she’s boxed up in this garage in a sort of emotional winter, presumably having given up her independence. Her journey is towards finding her voice, independence - although she gets married she becomes a much more independent spirit - and finally on her own embracing the sun:

In the stage play, she’s much more of a match for Frank in terms of balance. Frances is more pruned out, she has less dialogue, she’s a much more subtle, passive person and I think that works well for the film ‘cause it gives the film a clean focus with Frank …

3. Production:

Graham Kennedy wrote a diary about the film (see below) which confirms what actors suggest in the DVD interview, which is that it was a very pleasant and relatively trouble-free shoot, with everybody enjoying director Carl Schultz’s laid-back style.

David Stratton also confirmed this in his look at the production in his survey of the 10BA years, The Avocado Plantation :

‘Schutlz was a great choice to direct,’ says Williamson. ‘Carl is fond of atmosphere and mood. Bruce Beresford has a strong sense of pace and momentum: he often gets his actors, when they’re walking, to move 50 per cent faster than normal; Bruce likes to get on with things, he hates longeurs. He was perfect for robust, satirical material like Don’s Party and The Club ; Carl is gentler, more whimsical in his approach, and he was ideal to direct a poignant subject like Travelling North.’ As for Leo McKern, Schultz reminded him of Fred Zinnemann, with whom he had worked on A Man for All Seasons: ‘They have that same Central European sensitivity,’ he says.

The film was shot with a budget of $2.5 million on location in Port Douglas, in northern Queensland, in July-August 1986. Everyone involved in the shoot agrees that it was a happy period. McKern, who sailed agrees that it was a happy period. McKern, who sailed to Australia from Britain on a cargo-boat (he has a fear of flying) talks of the relaxed and happy atmosphere. Graham Kennedy, appearing in his third Williamson film (the first without Beresford) was equally contented: ‘I was overawed by Leo at first: after all, he’s one of the great character actors of our time. But he was charming, and he has a wonderful fund of stories about all the people he’s worked with over the years.’

Schultz loved working with the actors. ‘There’s one moment when Graham Kennedy, who is quite superb in the film, says: “You’ll find I’m a good neighbour”, that brings tears to my eyes. Graham’s a nervous actor, terrified of forgetting his lines, but he had a great understanding of that character.’

In the usual Williamson way, the film includes a number of references. For the Mozart and Beethoven played in the film, see this site's pdf of music credits.

Frank and Frances also go to a Brett Whiteley exhibition. Whiteley has a wiki here . Whiteley is also well represented at the Art Galley of NSW, see here .

The AGNSW was used in the film as a substitute for the National Gallery of Victoria, when the characters Frank and Frances go to the gallery to say farewell to the works they love, before heading north.

Two paintings are featured.

The first is a George Lambert painting, Important People , details at the NGA where it was loaned to be part of a retrospective exhibtion here .

The second was a painting by E. Phillips Fox, The Ferry , details at the AGNSW here . The painting's shown in CU in the film, suggesting metaphorical significance for the characters.

Frank can also be seen in the film reading Martine De Courcel's 1976 study Malraux: Life and Work .

Malraux has a wiki here , and perhaps the book is used in the film as an additional sign that Frank has abandoned his old hardline ways as a Communist, though Frank himself says he left the party after Hungary.

4. Release:

David Stratton looked at the film’s commercial fate in his 1990 survey of the 10BA years, The Avocado Plantation :

The film was distributed by one of the smaller companies, CEL, and was consequently denied the best cinema outlets. Had it screened in, for example, GU cinemas, it might have become a major hit; as it was, it was a modest one. It won awards (Leo McKern was deemed Best Actor at the World Film Festival in Montreal, and also at the AFI awards, where David Williamson was awarded for his screenplay adaptation) but it deserved more, since it undoubtedly another of the best films of the decade.

The film might have only been a modest hit in Stratton’s eyes, but the Film Victoria report on domestic box office records $1,464,000 in returns, equivalent to $2,942, 640 in A$ 2009.

This was a good result for a low budget exercise designed to appeal to an older demographic, and the CEL VHS slick boasted that the film was the biggest Australian film at the box office in 1987 - though this didn’t mean that much as the industry took a dive from low quality 10BA films flooding the marketplace.

Helped by McKern’s name (thanks to Rumpole, he was known internationally as a television star), the film scored theatrical releases in the UK, the United States and some European territories.

In the United States, it was given wan, pallid, reviews and did modest arthouse business for Cineplex/Odeon, with $214,722 (putting it in position 109 in the Screen Australia data for Australian films doing more than $100,000 in the US marketplace - this data is updated regularly here ).

5. Graham Kennedy’s diary of the shoot:

Graham Kennedy wrote a 3000 word diary about the making of the film for The Age , published on two chunks on the 18th and 25th July 1987. The diary confirms Kennedy’s nervousness about performance, and about performing in the film up against McKern.

Below is a summary - for the full text, see this site’s photo gallery.

Amongst the matters noted by Kennedy:

Kennedy required an air-conditioned caravan with lavatory, after being made to head for the dunes on the mini-series Silent Reach ;
Leo McKern, as well as getting first head credit, specified that no actor’s name could be no more than 75% the size of his, in the film and in press ads. Kennedy said no. The budget had been reduced, and he had agreed to take a 20% cut in salary, but he wouldn’t take a 25% cut in billing. The credit was sorted by McKern and Blake going above the title, with all the other actors in the smaller print size, until Kennedy then got his own title “And also starring Graham Kennedy as Freddy Wicks”. Ironically in the finished film, this would read “as Freddie” , while in the tail credits, Kennedy would be credited as “Freddy” (This site follows Kennedy's spelling of his character's name) ;
Kennedy put the reduced budget at $2.2 million, to be shot in 31 10 hour working days;
Wednesday, 11th June - Kennedy lost a six-year-old molar, and spent the post-dentist evening watching Prisoner to catch up on Julia Blake, though he was uncertain if she was the handsome-looking superintendent “a handsome-looking woman and the right age, but not as beautiful as I’ve been told" ;
Friday, 13th June - Kennedy received the second draft shooting schedule, of two six day weeks and four five day weeks of 10 hour days, with seven part-night shoots. On 14th June, 16 pages of blue pages changes to the schedule arrived;
Monday, 16th June, there was a read-through in Sydney: “I’m concerned as to how to address Mr McKern when I meet him. My upbringing was very strict on this: if the person to be introduced was a minute your senior, he had to be Mister. I looked him up in my Halliwell’s and cross-checked in ‘Ephraim Katz’ - he was born Reginald McKern in 1920. But then, this profession is more casual; I don’t wish to appear sycophantic.” (As an aside Kennedy recounts working with Sinatra, and being invited to call him Frank). Kennedy realised the woman in Prisoner wasn’t Julia Blake and that she was very beautiful. Kennedy sounded paranoid about scene 68, “Freddy’s scene. It’s very short, only two pages, but it should tell you everything about Freddy Wicks. If it doesn’t, it means I’ve failed. The scene has worked on stage hundreds of times, so if it doesn’t work on film, it’s Graham Kennedy’s fault. Or the director’s. Or the editor’s. Or the casting people. Or the 50 other people you can blame in this business";
Thursday, 19th June - Kennedy rehearses with Leo and Julia in the United Church, a former Presbyterian church, built in 1896, in East Sydney. He describes Leo, Julia, Henri Szeps and himself as a happy little group, with much laughter all day: "Lines were replaced, given to others, rewritten on the spot or discarded entirely. Second rewrites (blue pages) were altered again (which will cause purple pages) and two speeches of mine have gone back to the original second draft white pages, at my request. Director Carl Schultz is being very helpful, and Freddy is emerging as a slightly different character from the one I first had in mind. This is why we have rehearsals. In the scene where Frank and Frances are leaving Queensland to go travelling south, I suggested some extra business, and the four of us became convulsed with laughter. It’s unlikely that any of this will make it to the final cut. It may not even make it to the final camera rehearsal, for experience has taught me that what seems cripplingly funny at a first rehearsal rarely travels all the way to the screen. Worse, some of the crew laughed out loud at our additions, which almost guarantees their excision. There is a scene in ‘TN’ where I have to sing while accompanying myself on a musical instrument. I had assumed that someone else would be actually playing the instrument during my song. Carl said today (rather firmly, I thought) that I had loads of time to learn to play the tune, parrot fashion, and that I indeed would be playing the bloody thing as well as singing. No sleep again tonight." (The scene with Kennedy playing the instrument didn’t end up in the film - see below);
Friday , 20th June - more rehearsals, business, lines and word changes: " Leo continues to delight us with his limitless fund of “pro jokes” and we all absolutely adore him. I want to ask him about his glass eye but don’t have the confidence yet ." Director Schultz wraps Kennedy from the Sydney rehearsals;
Saturday 21st June - St Kilda wins its first game of the season. Kennedy has been following them since the age of six, and writes that if you follow a club for 46 years, it eventually pays off. A memo from producer Ben Gannon advises a per diem of $100, a need for masses of mosquito-repellant and crocodiles in the rivers and estuaries around Port Douglas: "Crocodile repellant? I shall ring my friend Paul Hogan" ;
Wednesday 25th June - wardrobe visits Kennedy at home with Freddy’s wardrobe; make-up proposes a cream Kennedy can apply each night so he will wake up brown in the morning, to match Freddy’s Queensland exposure to the sun; more alterations and coloured paper: “our scripts now look like fodder for a confetti-maker. All this is quite normal.” Kennedy suggests to costume designer Jennie Tate that Freddy should have a hat or cap for outdoors. “This has nothing to do with helping the characterisation of Freddy Wicks: this is to do with Graham Kennedy not getting a very painful sunburned scalp.”
Saturday 28th June - production supervisor Sandra McKenzie rings from Port Douglas to tell Kennedy he’ll start Tuesday afternoon rather than Wednesday morning because director Schultz now wants Leo McKern to have his minor heart attack in the beautiful canefields, rather than on the road as planned, involving best part of a half day in extra set-up time. Kennedy, watching Essendon play, wants to know he can watch the football up north and discovers “Port Douglas IS civilised.”
Monday, 30th June - producer Ben Gannon meets Kennedy at the Cairns airport. “Port Douglas is Bali Ha’i with sugar cane”, t hen moves on to the shoot: " The night before the first shot. Sheer terror. Nothing to do with being a creative person under stress; just a human being, scared shitless. What am I doing here? A former radio station record-library assistant, who has never had an acting lesson in his life, about to share the big screen all over the world with one of the greatest character actors of our time! With a bit of luck I’ll die during the night."
Tuesday, 1st July Port Douglas - more scenes than scheduled shot, three minutes of usable film, though the light faded for the last shot, with the Kennedy saying Julian Penney was open to less than a 2-stop. Kennedy reported that Freddy’s vehicle was a very temperamental old Holden ute manual, which once in first gear refused to change into second, so he drove most of the time in first. “Julia expresses nervousness of my driving - Christ you should see her.” Grip George Tsoutas’s birthday, and a birthday cake is brought out at afternoon tea. “This is traditional and very boring unless it’s your own birthday in which case it’s very embarrassing.” Vile T-bone that night in the pub;
Wednesday, 2nd July Port Douglas - a typical example of how boring film-making can be for an actor. Kennedy originally called at 9.15, put back to 10.55 and he doesn’t do a frame until 3 pm. "No dialogue. Just driving Julia and around and carrying her bloody heavy luggage." Knowing it’s Panavision and a point of view shot, Kennedy also knows he’ll be out of focus all the time. “A whole day of just sitting around waiting for the next postponement. Then, when you finally do something, the result is just a few seconds of blur on the screen … and then only if the shots are used." Kennedy decides to skip a dinner with Diane Cilento catching up with Leo McKern. Exhausted, lines to learn and sleep before the dreaded 5 am call;
Thursday, 3rd July Port Douglas - Kennedy reports attending dinner with Cilento and then husband playwright, Tony Shaffer, Leo and Jane, Julia Blake and Ben Gannon, and Toorak Road florist Kevin O’Neill. It was next door and an easy walk;
Friday, 4th July Port Douglas - David Williamson arrives on location for a few days. Williamson tells Kennedy he’s heard his joke about some of his words being left in the scene they’re about to do. “Some directors shout and scream if all is not going well, but Carl is soft and gentle at all times. Nevertheless, he delivers firm words today to the crew when they say they are ready for a take and they’re really not... Do the dreaded 'singing-accompanied-by-myself scene'this afternoon. A compromise is reached, a key is decided upon and the backing will be dubbed-in later. The elderly pop song cost the production $5,000 for the rights, even though I only complete a few bars of the chorus.” In a footnote, Kennedy reports that the song “When the Red Red Robin” is deleted from the final cut, saving the $5,000, and notes that the beautiful Beethoven effectively used throughout the picture only cost $1,200. “Wouldn’t you think that, taking inflation into account, 18th-Century classical music would be more expensive than 20th-Century crap?";
Saturday 5th July Port Douglas - another early call, another exhausting day, featuring the scene in which Freddy arrives with the special reclining chair present;
Sunday, 6th July Port Douglas was a rest day. Kennedy went to see the edge of the Great Barrier Reef on the motor vessel Quicksilver. A super trip for only $60, but when producer Gannon goes to pick up David Williamson, leaving Kennedy at a pasta and pizza takeaway, he’s harassed by drunken yobbos, foul-mouthed girls and evil-looking men who want to shake his hand and have their photo taken with him. Then Reg Gardside, best boy and standby props Nick McCallum arrive and rescue him, and Kennedy spends the evening watching NQTV news, with Rudy Vallee having a heart attack watching the fireworks (Kennedy had met Vallee), followed by The Blue Lagoon . Kennedy discovers McKern was in the film and wonders how they get a crab to crawl out of his mouth in tight close-up;
Monday, 7th July Port Douglas - McKern says the crab was his idea, and there were no tricks, he just put a live crab in his mouth, waited a few seconds after ‘Action’ , opened his mouth and out it came. Kennedy doesn’t think he’d be brave enough to do it, and reports that in terms of drug wise, it’s a very pure shoot, apart from the de rigeuer grass only after work, and drinkers getting pissed on Saturday nights, and other nights too ( "rarely actors; it’s hard enough to do without a hangover "). “Although something called ‘ecstasy’ is discussed, there is no evidence of it, or coke either. This is a refreshing surprise”;
Tuesday 8th July Port Douglas - Kennedy reports Julia has lost her wedding ring, which has been established in all scenes shot so far. Julia says she heard something clunk on the decking. A metal detector is borrowed from underwater cameraman Ben Cropp, which picks up nails, bottletops and ring-pulls but not the wedding ring. Unit runner David Joyce, BA (hons), LL.B, crawls under the slats of the decking to look. The production supervisor checks out another of Julia’s handbags and finds the ring. “Filming resumes. What Julia heard go clunk remains a mystery to cast, crew and metal-detector”;
Wednesday, 9th July. Kennedy is interviewed by David Thompson from the Port Douglas ‘Gazette’ . He is due on set on 5.30 but then is told by production supervisor Macca that he’s needed at 4.30, as a night scene will be shot with the windows blacked out. Kennedy rushes breathless to set, but knows they won’t be blacking out, and as he predicts, he learns he'll be doing the scene when it’s dark;
Friday, 11th July, Port Douglas, Cairns, Sydney - up at 5 am, pack and travel to Cairns airport for Kennedy’s last shot in Queensland, which is deleted from the final cut. (In the carpark, Freddy helps Frances out of the ute and carries her bags. Freddy: I hope we see you up here again, Frances. Frances: Look after him won’t you? Freddy: I’ll keep the old goat company );
Kennedy calls it a straightforward tracking shot, and they rehearse with the extras, and then nothing, because Nick McCallum (Googie and John’s son) has slept in, and is driving furiously from Port Douglas to the airport with the props needed for the scene - Frances’s luggage, which has been established in a previous scene. Three takes and sound man Syd Butterworth asks Kennedy to speak up “and it’s over for me and I get a round of applause. This is no big deal. When an actor completes his last shot at a location he always get farewelled in this manner. I mean, if Philip Brady were a film actor, even he would get a hand.” Then a little Kenndy wit: " Julia Blake gives me a kiss and a cuddle and we both say how happy we are to have worked together. She really is very nice. A first-class actress and extremely beautiful. I’ll put the incessant vacuous chatter down to nerves”;
Friday 18th July Sydney: Kennedy’s last day of filming, in Saul’s surgery, which is a set built in film studios in Paddington. Kennedy fluffs the line ‘direct war injury’ and it comes out as ‘direct war industry' : " This has happened to me before and is very annoying because it’s not a regular fluff: I don’t realise that I’m getting it wrong at the time. The director calls 'cut' and I assume it’s someone else’s fault. It’s not - it’s me. I leave the set in a foul mood without saying goodbye to the crew."

Kennedy completed his diary this way:

In late November, ’86, I was invited along to see the final cut of ‘Travelling North’ - the finished product, the one the customers will see.

It’s totally beyond me to be objective about a film I’m in. I just sit there in the dark, trembling with apprehension waiting for me to come on; and then I’m so appalled I can’t concentrate on the story or how it’s being presented. (I don’t know of a lonelier feeling. I wonder if Richard Gere goes through this hell each time? In ‘King David’, he probably did!)

I remember the direction and photography being excellent. And the music was superb (quite deafening in places, I thought). All the other actors give first-class performances, especially what’s-her-name, Michele Fawdon.

Whether ‘Travelling North’ will become an Australian classic and return millions of dollars to its investors or disappear without trace, after a week at the Dendy, is really up to only one person. You.

5. Ben Gannon:

Producer Ben Gannon died in January 2007 from cancer at the age of 54. There is a tribute to him at The Age , by Bryce Hallett here .

Hallett also contributed a more lengthy obituary which was published in The Sydney Morning Herald and is available online here .

Hallett charts Gannon graduating from NIDA in 1970, then assisting Jim Sharman on As You Like It at the Old Tote, then continuing to work with Sharman on a series of musicals, telling Sharman his ambition was “To become a successful producer without becoming a monster.”

This is an excerpt:

...Ben Gannon, who died last week aged 54 from cancer and whose funeral service was held yesterday, was born Bernard Norman Gannon in Maffra in Victoria's Gippsland. His father was a land surveyor and farmer. Leaving the Jesuit Xavier College in Melbourne, Gannon undertook NIDA's two-year production course in Sydney.

After graduating, he worked at the Queensland Theatre Company before stage managing the original Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar for Miller. In London, where he lived for eight years, Gannon was a theatrical agent for the American talent agency ICM - its clients included Laurence Olivier and Ingrid Bergman - before establishing his own small agency in Soho.

"I thought I might be a good agent," he said. "Once I can do something I find that I want to move on and do something else."

He moved on in 1980, back to Sydney, encouraged by the buoyant Australian film industry and deciding it was an ideal time to chance his arm. He became the general manager of Associated R&R Films, the Robert Stigwood/Rupert Murdoch joint venture that produced Peter Weir's Gallipoli, starring Mel Gibson. Gannon was the associate producer. Shortly after he formed his own production house, View Films, out of which emerged the mini-series Shout! The Story of Johnny O'Keefe, the impressive film Travelling North, with Leo McKern, and Shadow of the Cobra, about the Asian hippie-trail mass murderer Charles Sobhraj.

For a time critical acclaim rather than commercial success seemed easier to come by, but the wavering fortunes and hurdles helped make Gannon a canny and formidable producer.

In 1983 he met his partner Brian Abel, a former music teacher who helped Gannon run the companies that produced the hit television series Heartbreak High, which was sold to more than 80 countries, the innovative ABC-TV drama series Wildside, and the celebrated musical The Boy from Oz, about the life and music of Peter Allen.

Gannon's first big box office hit was the film The Heartbreak Kid, starring Claudia Karvan and newcomer Alex Dimitriades, which spawned the TV series. The film, directed by Michael Jenkins, opened the 1993 Sydney Film Festival. Audiences warmed to its cheeky humour, sensitivity, ethnic diversity and heart.

Gannon's business interests in film, TV and theatre boomed through the '90s. The former NIDA director John Clark said the producer maintained close links with his training ground and had been one of its benefactors. "His story is a remarkable and courageous one. He created new work of great merit on screen and stage. His contribution to the industry was phenomenal."

Gannon was passionate about Australia without being parochial. In the early 1980s he had detected a shift in public attitudes. Although there was still evidence of cultural cringe, he sensed audiences were keen to embrace Australian stories. In the absence of a studio or star system, he set about developing talents, kindling creative alliances and promoting Australians overseas.

"I think a producer above all has to be tenacious and determined not to give up," Gannon said. "You also have to have a way of marshalling people. You have to be a bit of a salesman. More than anything you need a lot of luck."

He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in last year's Queen's Birthday honours "for services to the performing arts as a producer, contributing to the development of film, TV and theatre in Australia".

For Hallett on Gannon’s mounting of The Boy From Oz , on Broadway with Hugh Jacksman, follow the link here .

6. Detailed synopsis, with cast details and spoilers:

After giving his building site supervisor a kick up the bum, elderly civil engineer Frank Brown (Leo McKern) heads back to the office to endure an office retirement party, including a dire farewell speech by Stan (Roger Oakley), in which Stan tells his co-workers that Frank wants to do what they all want to do, travel up north to paradise in the sun.

But in the basement carpark as he’s packing his new farewell valise into the boot of his Citroën, Frank clutches at his heart.

The spasm passes and soon enough he’s at home trimming his moustache, and putting on his tie for a night out with his younger girlfriend Frances (Julia Blake), who’s staying with her tense daughter Helen (Michele Fawdon) and Helen’s fraught husband Martin (Drew Forsythe). Martin's trying to relax by flying a plane in his computer game (only to crash).

Stunning, exquisite, says Frank as Frances comes into the kitchen, to the disapproving looks of Helen and Martin.

At a concert hall, Frank and Frances watch a string quintet perform Mozart, and later over a glass of red, Frank raises his glass to her: “From now on, your happiness is my life’s work.”

Frances says he makes her feel too obligated, and confesses to not having told her daughters yet … She reassures him she’s not having doubts, but she feels a bit guilty about going so far away. “I reckon the further parents can get away from some children the better,” says Frank.

At a barbecue, as Martin tends the snags, Jim (John Gregg) rants about Ronald Reagan carrying on like the local sheriff.

In the kitchen, grumpy Helen is asking Sophie (Diane Craig) if she knew their mum Frances had sex with Frank the second time they met. She read their letters. Sophie thought they’d be past all that.

It’s nauseating, says Helen, the thought of it, asking Sophie if she knew he used to be a Communist. And now the garage conversion that cost a fortune to give their mum somewhere to live is totally wasted.

She’s always been irresponsible, says Helen, brooding about how she was sent off to stay with her uncle at the age of eight, adding that she couldn’t be bothered with them then, and she can’t be bothered with them now.

Sophie tries a feeble defence, before heading out to tell Jim to lay off middle east politics and help her mother move a bench, as it begins to rain on the barbie.

Inside Frances asks her daughters if they approve, and Sophie says they’re very glad for her, and the duplicitous Helen says it’s her life and she can do what she wants. “We just want to make sure you’ve thought it through.”

Frank’s a lot older, Sophie notes, and Helen, not wanting to be brutal, asks if it’s ever occurred to her that he might be after someone to look after him in his old age.

“You’ve always managed to find ugly motives in quite wonderful things, Helen,” snaps Frances, and Sophie says it’s not about missing a babysitter, it’s about missing her.

Helen opens the window and snaps at Martin for letting the children get wet in the rain.

Later a real estate agent (Steve Shaw) is showing potential buyers over Frank’s home when his daughter Joan (Andrea Moor) arrives, and says she’s not upset about the selling of the family home. Frank wonders if she might think it’s some sort of betrayal of the memory of her mother … "Nothing will ever diminish the affection I have for your mother,” says Frank. “In some ways we were the perfect married couple.”

At that point, Joan laughs, saying she’s not sure mother would have agreed. He wasn’t the easiest person in the world to live with …

After a little more bickering around the point, we cut to Frank and Frances in an art gallery. Frank is looking at a George Lambert painting, Important People, before asking Helen if she’s sure she really wants to go. Yes, I am, she says, as he says he’d hate to think he’d bullied her into it. “Frank you couldn’t have bullied me if I didn’t want to go.”

They walk away leaving an E, Phillips Fox painting, The ferry , to occupy the frame.

Martin, Helen and the kids say their farewells as Frank and Frances get into their mustard yellow Kombi van and set off.

Later at a petrol station Frank grumbles about the fuel consumption of the Kombi and how salesmen lie without so much as a blink.

Later at night, to hurricane lamp light, Frances tries to learn chess moves.

Still later Frank goes fishing and they drive past cane fields, a sure sign paradise is approaching.

When they arrive, Frances is startled by the stunning view - Frank had kept it as a surprise - and he cracks a bottle of champers, saying the best part is that there’s not another house within sight.

Just then neighbour Freddy Weeks (Graham Kennedy) rocks up with a couple of welcoming bottles of beer, telling them to cheer up, they’re not on their own after all…

What a surprise, says Frank, as Freddy begins to chatter about his dead wife, the death of the previous occupant, the beautiful beaches, the need to keep an active mind, and so on …

He had a cousin in Melbourne, shot himself, and Frank notes that the town can affect people that way … with Freddy wondering if its a second marriage because they seem too happy for it to be their first.

Later Frank and Frances are rowing a dinghy across the placid sea.

He asks the boat owning man on the wharf (Joe MacColum) what the fishing’s like and the man says they fight to get on the hook. The man asks 220 for the dinghy, Frank offers 150 and the deal’s done. But when Frances says well done, Frank says he’s just been taken.

Later Freddy’s in at the doctor’s (Henri Szeps as Saul Morgenstein) explaining that while it isn’t a direct war injury, but if they could convince Repat it was, he’d get an increase in his pension.

But Saul’s distracted, looking out the window at the beautiful woman walking by … Frances …

When Freddy says it’s his new neighbour, Saul wants an introduction, watching as Frank, carrying a box of groceries, has another twinge of pain and shortness of breath.

Saul tells Freddy his parents will have to take the blame for his varicose veins … the war’s already taken credit for his bunions, arthritis and shingles …

When Freddy next approaches the house, Frank snatches up his ghetto blaster, which is playing classical music and ducks into the house, asking Frances to talk to him instead.

Freddy wants to invite them to a meal at the RSL and then Freddy collars Frank and asks him if he was a soldier - he was - but Frank says he won’t go near the clubs, because they’re the repository of everything he despises.

“Bastions of hidebound conservatism and mindless patriotism.”

Freddy says that’s a pretty hard thing to say about men who fought and died for their country, but Frank retorts that just because a man’s fought for his country doesn’t mean he should act like a cretin when he gets back.

Frances arrives with a cup of tea and an apology for Frank being a little unreasonable on some issues.

There’s nothing unreasonable about my convictions, snorts Frank.

“Patriotism is the final refuge of scoundrels!!”

Freddy does a couple of beats and says he’d better be off. “We mightn’t see eye to eye on everything Frank, but I think you’ll find I’m a good neighbour.”

Frances emerges to tell Frank he was extremely rude. He apologises, saying the Freddys of this world bring out the worst in him, and suggests she invite Freddy around to dinner one night and he’ll try to behave himself. Then. gritting his teeth, he shouts after Freddy asking what’s the best bait for the fish in the lake. Freddy snorts he’s joking - the last fish there was so lonely he gave himself up - and suggests the estuary, before stalking away.

Later in town, after doing some shopping, Frank heads up to see Saul, the doctor, who welcomes him to the district and explains he’s had a very interesting life but now all he wants is tranquility.

Frank asks for a check-up and as Saul takes his blood pressure, they chat, Frank explaining he thinks he’s in good health. He was a civil engineer and active in politics, though he didn’t win, it being a bit difficult, being the Communist candidate in Toorak.

And the politics meant no jobs with the big firms and no superannuation, even though he was one of the best in the country.

And one of the most modest, jokes Saul, as Frank explains he left the party after Hungary, asking if Saul has any scruples about treating an ex-Communist. Not at all, says Saul, saying he saw Frank leaning against his car. He asks about chest pains and mentions angina. His coronary arteries have deteriorated and they can’t supply his heart with enough blood during exercise.

They’ll do the usual tests, but he’s got a fair idea and it means Frank’s not going to make a hundred.

Saul offers 3, 5 or 10 years - as little as three, asks Frank - but Saul points out that as an engineer Frank should know that humans are very imperfect machines. “If there is a creator, I can’t help feeling he went on to do better things on some other planet.”

Saul’s own problem is ulcers, and so he lives on biscuits and milk, but Frank points out that’s better than a weak heart. “ You’d feel differently after a few weeks of biscuits and milk,” says Saul, telling Frank to relax, to take things easy, never to lose his temper or get too excited. As for the other areas, Saul tells him to keep it up. Angina’s like having your own built-in doctor - whenever you feel pain, stop what you’re doing and try again later. “This may prove disconcerting to your good wife, but remind her of the words of the Duke of Wellington … that a strategic withdrawal is often the first step towards a forward thrust of renewed vigour.”

Out in the dinghy in the bay, Frank tells Frances he’s puzzled by her belief in God. When Frank asks her if God would disapprove of their not being married, she says He’d prefer if if they were.

And he’s amazed she really does believe in life after death, saying he wished he could share her optimism. “When this body of ours packs it in, that’s it… There’s no second chance.”

As he casts out his line, he grimaces with pain. “One of the worst things about growing old is that you issue an order from a twenty year old brain and a seventy year old body makes a mess of it.”

A tropical downpour and Frank struggles with the umbrella.

Sunshine returns and Frank is off on another fishing expedition, but this time Frances cries off, saying it’s a bit hot out on the water.

They’re starting to bite, says Frank, as he heads off, and classical music accompanies a montage of activities, Frank fishing alone, Frances gardening alone …

Dusk and as Frank loads his fishing rods and gear into the back, he pants a little as he looks at the view.

Night and Freddy is explaining that the Vietnam war had to be fought.

Why, says Frank, saying what’s happened there now is because we fought it … pointing out the Americans bombed Cambodia, producing Pol Pot, as in the foreground Frances opens a birthday card and looks wistfully at a present of cash ...

At the time the protestors were calling it civil war, insists Frank, North Vietnam had a whole army in the south. They had more right to be there than the Americans, says Frank. At least they were Vietnamese …

Next day and Frank is with Saul, saying he wants to know more about the tablets he’s taking.

When Saul talks about toning up his heart strings, Frank gets angry, saying he’s the one that’s going to die of this condition and he’s the one that’ll decide what he needs to know and what he doesn’t!!

As Frank persists, Saul observes he can be a very arrogant and irritating man.

Frank starts shouting about wanting a copy of medical manuals to give him the vital information he needs, and refusing to leave until he gets them, and Saul tells him to calm down or he’ll have an attack.

Frank threatens to have it in his surgery so Saul races to the cabinet and hands over the manuals, clutching at his stomach and complaining about the extremely bad effect Frank has on his ulcers.

That night Frank reads his manuals, but Frances is restless and pacing about, and she suggests they go down to Melbourne in August.

The middle of winter? asks Frank but Frances says Sophie’s having a baby.

Another one?! says Frank, repeating his line about winter.

Frances says she needs to go, she has to get away occasionally … he’s out on the lake all day and he argues with Freddy all night but her daily routine isn’t all that exciting, and she can’t just look at the view.

Frank drily says they mustn’t stagnate and how remiss of him not to notice how dreary it’s been for her. They’ll definitely go to Melbourne

Cut to Frank organising the trip like a military expedition with essential supplies. Frances notes his variety of medicines and Frank pretends he has a problem with a muscular condition. Frances notes the books are about heart disease, and he admits to a slight problem with the heart, but nothing serious.

Frances says she doesn’t think they should go, and Frank retorts that Saul says he’ll live for another fifteen years.

As they get into the Kombi, Freddy turns up and wishes them a great trip, offering to build a barbie down by the lemon tree while they’re away. Oh you’ve got to have a barbie, everyone up here has one, it’s compulsory. He could build a bigger one if they want, but Frank urges him to keep it modest and small, in keeping with the garden.

They drive off, but not far down the road, Frank has an attack, takes off his seat belt, and steers the van across a ditch into a field of sugar cane.

Frank slides into the passenger’s seat, telling her there’s a letter of instruction in the top drawer, and if he dies she’s to break out a magnum bottle of champagne, and share it with Saul and Freddy. “For all my faults, I’m damn well worth a magnum!”

Frances gets Frank back to the house where Saul attends him. He can regard it as a small heart attack or severe angina, whichever he prefers.

However they choose to view it, it does mean some changes.

At his new barbie, Freddy is reminiscing about the entire Japanese Imperial Army being in hot pursuit and a Pommy Colonel blocking their way up the gang plank, saying “I’m fraaifully soorry old chap but there’s simply no ruum aboard …”

Freddy says he saw red, and using his barbie tongs, acts out how he got out his pistol and stuck it in the Colonel’s gut, saying “make ruuum!!”

Frank slams his medical book closed and says the evidence against cholesterol is overwhelming and he’s giving up meat. That’s a nice time to tell him, says Freddy, as he attends to his barbie.

Frank says he can eat barbecued fish and then gets on to joking about Freddy’s design, saying the strange, haunting quality has got something of the Druid about it. “Or perhaps it’s Aztec. We think it’s got enormous potential as the focal point for the start of a brand new religion.”

As Freddy notes he’s having him on, Frances hastens to add it’s a wonderful structure, Frank says the meat smells so good he’ll start his diet tomorrow, and heads off on a walk because the evidence is solidly in favour of light exercise.

Freddy pours himself a cask red, and observes to Frances that if anything happens to Frank - God forbid that it did - she’s got someone around she can turn to…

Christmas and Frank and Freddy exchange presents on the verandah. A conductor’s baton for him, a wind chime for her.

Then Saul’s on the phone saying Frank can’t drive, it’s too stressful, as in the car Frank asks what can be more stressful than Frances crunching the gears.

In Saul’s rooms, Frank is describing his assorted experiments with medication, and Saul asks for the conclusions… and Frank announces the best medicine is exactly what Saul prescribed in the very beginning ...

“Ah yes, but you were only guessing,” says Frank. “I’ve confirmed it all, scientifically.”

Frank chastises Saul for not mentioning one side effect, a loss of white blood cells that might have left him without a first line defence against infection. “It would be a reckless germ that tangled with you, Frank!”, jokes Saul.

Frank: “And there’s one other thing… I’ve always thought that a persistently morbid outlook on life was a sign of character weakness, but just lately I must confess, I’ve been feeling depressed.”

Saul notes he has a serious heart condition, his hearing’s getting worse and he’s starting to have trouble with his vision, he’d be a mental oddity if he didn’t feel a little depressed. “You’ve got a lot of life left, live it for its good moments.”

There’s nothing he can offer Frances, Frank says, she’d be better off down south with her family.

And that’s when he confesses he can’t do something he’s always been able to do, and it’s giving him a bloody inferiority complex.

He wants a stimulant.

Saul notes he’s nearly seventy, he has a weak heart and he suspects Frank’s had more than his fair share of erotic satisfaction in life, “so for heaven’s sake, grow old gracefully.”

So Frank says he wants something for depression, and specifies the drug. Saul gets out his pad, asking if it’s spelled with an ‘i’ or a ‘y’ …

Cut to an Ansett plane landing …

Frances is at the airport to welcome Sophie with her new baby.

At the house, Sophie complains about the loudness of the classical music, and Frank sitting listening for hours, but Frances explains he’s thinking, trying to make sense of his life past …

Sophie says she wishes Frances could come to Melbourne. Helen is gloomy, and Frances wonders why she married Martin.

Frances regrets her own marriage, and leaving her husband, and Sophie not going to university …

And then we’re with her and Frank in the dinghy, Frances sighing and groaning as she rows out on the water and Frank tells her to take it easy.

They bicker about the rowing - Frances isn’t sure how to turn - and next thing Frances is in seeing Saul, who’s joking how they get 307 days of sunshine a year, “It’s almost too much of a good thing.”

She’s come for advice about Frank. How is the old despot, jokes Saul.

Frances says she's going to Melbourne and Frank wants to come. Saul says it won’t be good for him but … and then she says she doesn’t want him to come.

She needs a rest, but he’s got this idea in his head that if he lets her out of his sight, she won’t come back.

“And er will you come back?”

“Yes.”

“I’m just asking, because er nobody could really blame you if you didn’t.”

With his medical advise that the trip is contraindicated, Saul takes the chance to say that if anything should happen to Frank - and he sincerely hopes it doesn’t - “I’d just like you to know that there’s someone around here who would do anything he could to help you for as long as you’d like to be helped …”

“Thank you Saul,” she says sweetly and leaves.

Cut to Frank loading bags in the van, and getting into the passenger’s seat, asking Frances if she thought he’d let her drive thousands of miles on her own … what if something happened on the road?

Cut to Frances attempting to change a flat rear tyre - easier than finding an intensive care unit - and Frank explaining she should have loosened the wheel nuts before jacking it up.

Cut to assorted kids and Helen emerging from their Melbourne home to greet Frank in wool scarf and Frances.

Wrapped in a blanket, Frank takes to conducting Beethoven’s eighth in the lounge room.

Joan arrives and Helen says she’d appreciate it if Frank would turn down the volume a little. He’s just woken Rachel.

Frank switches it off, and when Helen asks him if he’s cold, he says he’s just pretending to be a red Indian.

When Joan asks him why he doesn’t, Frank explains “If I did, the subject of fuel bills would wind its way into the dinner table conversation tonight with all the delicacy of a draught horse’s fart… that woman has taken a five year course in how to make a guest feel uncomfortable and she’s graduated with first class honours.”

Frank and Joan leave and walk along the banks of the Yarra, the Melbourne skyline behind them, with Frank asking what went wrong with his relationship with his son. He took him fishing every school holidays.

Eric hated fishing, Joan explains. “Oh did he, well that’s his problem, the snotty little twerp.”

Frank explains he’s spent a great deal of time going into his past life, and he’s gone thoroughly into that relationship with your brother - your son - “yes, and I have come to the conclusion that his deficiencies are his own fault.”

And then he raises what she’d said about his treatment of her mother, and wants to know what she’d meant by it. Joan says they should talk about something else, but Frank insists, and finally she says ...

“Dad, you scarcely ever spoke to her, except to issue commands…”

And when he asks for one example when he didn’t treat her with respect, and Joan says there were so many, and he asks again for one, and then he reminds her of the time when he and Eric were arguing over politics and her mother offered a quite reasonable opinion, and Frank turned on her: “Stick to your cooking Eve, you haven’t got the brains of a gnat.”

I would never have said anything like that, snaps Frank, but then realises to himself that he did … “If I did, that was unforgivable.”

Frank says he has to face one thing about himself: “While I’ve always loved mankind in general, I have been less than generous to some of those I’ve been involved with in particular.”

Cut to a family meal in a restaurant and Sophie saying to Jim that he treats her like a mental defective and she’s sick of it.

As a political argument about South Africa, Russia and the Jews rages between the pair, others at the table look away.

Sophie says she won’t be talked down to by him and his academic friends, though she doesn’t have a string of letters after her name and Jim says he won’t let her statements go unchallenged, when she’s patently and obviously wrong.

A drunk Sophie gets to her feet and speaks to the restaurant’s patrons, advising them that they’re dining here tonight with Sir James Walker, instant authority on just about everything, and if they form an orderly queue he will personally autograph their menus.

There’s a few laughs, and Jim gets up and walks out.

When Martin dares to observe it was a bit rough, she tells him to be quiet, he’s no better than Jim.

Martin gets up and leaves.

That leaves coffee for the three women and Sophie saying her mother’s ashamed of her …

Frances says she shouldn’t have humiliated Jim in public, and acknowledges that it’s her fault Sophie didn’t go to university, but she can go back and study now.

It’s too late, says Sophie, with Frances insisting it’s not too late.

Frances recalls her running down to the beach as the epitome of exuberance and zest, she shouldn’t get bitter and defeated.

Helen chips in to note why she was never the favourite - she didn’t spend enough time running down to the beach with her hair streaming behind her …

Sophie says she’s paranoid, but Helen asks her mother to remember one thing she did when she was young.

Frances pours a red and recalls Helen used to sit on the beach making houses for soldier crabs and giving them a tongue-lashing if they didn’t behave. Then she adds one positive memory - she always said what she thought and never let herself be bullied, and that touches Helen, who asks her if she has to go so soon. She’s getting no support from Martin or his family and she’s got another baby on the way.

Sophie says she doesn’t have to go up there if she doesn’t want to.

But Frances simply says she wishes there won’t so many things starting to go wrong with him.

Cut to the car arriving back at the family house.

Martin walks in, and Frank uses his cane to draw Martin’s attention to the way he’s sitting in a lounge chair, in the middle of a heart attack, pills scattered on the nearby table.

“This one won’t go away,” he gasps out to Martin.

Cut to a heart monitor in a hospital.

Frank is in bed and pretends to sleep as Frances comes up to him.

A kiss ‘wakes’ him and he tells her the doctor’s said if he gets through the next ten days he’ll survive.

Frances says he’s getting colour back in his cheeks, and Frank jokes they must be putting vegetable dye in the drip.

He says as soon as he gets out he’s heading back north. She doesn’t think that’s a good idea, but he says if she won’t take him, he’ll get the train.

“Ah, I suppose Goneril and Regan have been urging you to stay down here, have they? Taking you out to restaurants ...”

“Frank, if you want to go back up north, and you’re fit enough to travel, we’ll go. How many times do I have to tell you I love you and I’m staying with you?”

That melts Frank and he kisses her hand. “Thanks love,” reminding her that there’ll be a magnum at the end, though she says it’s not a magnum she’s looking forward to …

Cut to Helen saying that Frank’s being stupid and infantile, and that it’s outrageous he expects Frances to drive him all the way up there in that damn campervan.

Sophie chimes in and Frances explains that Frank’s got it in his head that he’ll only last a few weeks if he stays in Melbourne and Helen says it’s a totally irrational belief … but Frances says it’s not totally irrational, the cold does thicken the blood.

Tell him to sit in front of a heater, grumps Helen, while Sophie says that Frank isn’t her responsibility.

He is, Frances insists, but Helen turns on her asking her about her responsibility to them.

Frances stays firm.

Helen: “I see, dumped when I was eight, dumped again now.”

Sophie chides her, saying she doesn’t know when to shut up, but Helen says that’s how she feels and continues to attack, asking Frances where her priorities lie …

Sophie interrupts: “Don’t be such a selfish little bitch.”

Helen turns on Sophie, and they argue, with Helen calling Sophie a bloody bully. “I haven’t forgotten all those ghost stories at night to scare me out of my wits! And how you put me in the old pram and shoved me down the hill and laughed every time I fell out ...”

“You got what you deserved, you were a pain in the arse.”

At that point, Frances interrupts. “You were both pains in the arse, you took after your father …,” saying she’s always known she should never have left Helen with her brother ...

They hug, with Frances saying she can’t run out on Frank now.

Cut to Frank and Frances back in the campervan.

To the wistful sound of classical piano and orchestra (Mozart), the van pulls into the driveway of their northern home.

On the verandah, Frank turns back from the view with a smile: “You brought me home … it’s gunna be alright love ...”

Frances smiles and scuttles away.

But as Frank sits reading in the dusk light he feels another pain.

Another day, and Freddy is helping bring things with his ute.

When she comes in with a box of food, Frank demands to know where his spanners have gone, and Frances confesses she leant them to Freddy …

As he asks about vitamin E and his medication, the phone interrupts him.

Saul’s called with a list of appointments and Frank shouts at the phone to tell him that his eye is still aching (he now boasts an eye-patch over his left eye).

Frances struggles to hear Saul as Frank moans about $2.60 for cashew nuts, the third price hike in a month.

Freddy comes in and Frank’s immediately on to him about his spanners.

Then Freddy asks if he should bring it in, though Frances says she’s not sure he deserves it.

As Frances kisses him and wishes him a happy birthday, Freddy wheels up a box and takes it off to reveal a chair.

Just siddown, he tells Frank, showing off the recliner chair’s features.

Later Frank is reading Malraux, Life and Work , and asks Frances about a letter she’s received from the baby farm down south.

When Frances mentions Sophie’s Tarquin can read the alphabet, Frank jokes "incredible, in two weeks he’ll be reading Shakespeare" before saying “Do those idiots know who Tarquin was? A Roman despot who raped anything that moved!”

“Would you prefer me to read my letter outside?,” Frances tersely asks.

She sighs, and when Frank asks if everything is alright down there, Frances reveals that Martin’s having an affair.

Frank: “You astonish me. I would have thought passion was beyond him.”

She says it’s apparently serious, he’s moving out.

Frank: “Oh who could blame him. Twelve years of that tongue’d be enough for anyone.”

Helen snaps back, saying that she loves her daughter and that it sounds like she’s going through hell and that Helen has been sending them money, which is the only reason they’ve been able to exist up there.

“She what?”, says Frank, slamming his book down.

Frank says she’ll be going down there of course, and Frances says yes, and when Frank asks for how long, she retorts “possibly for good.”

When he asks why, she rounds on him: “Why? Because you are a rude, despotic, arrogant old bully and I cannot stand living with you a minute longer.”

The next day Frances is getting into Freddy’s ute. They drive away, and a sullen Frank turns back inside the house.

A montage to classical music - Frank alone in the sunset, Frank jabbing at leaves in the ground that curl in on themselves, Frank checking his pulse, pressing a vein on his wrist, hearing his heart pounding, seeing a fishing boat out at sea, rain clouding the view, rain making the leaves on the ground curl in on themselves, a spider in a sodden web, rain down a palm trunk, rain on palm leaves, Frank drying himself off and trying to keep the rain off the verandah, Frank in bed as thunder erupts, and then Freddy’s voice waking him from sleep to ask him if he really was a Communist.

For thirty years, says Frank.

“There was a wonderful period after the war. Fascism had been defeated, and we all thought that a new order of justice and fraternity would sweep the world… It wasn’t all that simple… It’s very good of you to come down again Freddy, I appreciate it …”

“No worries,” says Freddy, slumped in the recliner.

Frank says he wasn’t feeling too good yesterday and it’s a comfort to know that there’s someone who can get on the phone. “No sweat,” says Freddy. “Still haven’t heard from Frances?”

“No.”

“Well why don’t you ring her?”

“I won’t beg. I’ve never done it in my life and I won’t start now.”

“Yes, well. I think you should swallow your pride and admit you’re wrong.”

Frank doesn’t reply and we cut to Helen holding the phone with a sullen look on her face.

She passes it to Frances, and then Frank’s asking if she arrived safely, and then he tells her he’s been thinking: “I’ve realised that while I’ve loved mankind in general I’ve been very thoughtless to some of those I’ve been involved with in particular…. so I’ve rung to apologise …I’m missing you very much …and if you ever did see fit to return, you may rest assured that I’d never treat you as badly again … (a silence) and er if you did see fit to come back, I would deem it an honour if you’d marry me ...”

(Silence from Frances and once again Frank asks if she’s still there) … I do love you very much…”

A teary Frances, and Frank says Freddy and Saul send their love and a couple of times that he won’t keep her “goodbye for now”.

He sits tearful at the phone, then walks out on the verandah and looks to the dawn light, as classical music plays…

Then Frank is fishing off a sand bar, prodding mangoes off a tree, sitting on the verandah cane in hand, as Freddy’s ute pulls up in the driveway …

Freddy opens the door for Frances and Frank can’t believe the vision.

She glides into view and smiles.

Frank, in the door frame, gives a little wave of his hand.

Freddy discreetly retreats.

As Saul waits on the verandah, Frank emerges in a tropical suit and straw hat, ready for his wedding. Saul asks why he can’t get married at the house - they have two celebrants in the district - but Frank insists they’re going to Sydney. They’re staying in the Regent, they’re going to a night club, they’re going to see the Whiteley exhibition, “We’re doing this properly.”

Saul reminds him he knows what those pains are …

Arthritis! says Frank.

They’re referred pain from his heart, Saul says, but Frank offers a ten dollar bet he’ll outlive him.

At first Saul refuses - it’s bad luck - but then shakes hands on the deal.

Frances emerges, and Freddy cracks a joke about the bridegroom in white and the bride in red … “Blimey, that wouldn’t have happened in my day …”

Freddy lines them up to take a snap, Saul tries to get into the picture, Frank grimaces a smile, and then after a bit more by-play between Saul and Freddy, we cut to a view of Sydney Harbour and Frank and Frances in a hotel room looking down on the emerald water of the emerald city...

In the hotel room, with the bellboy and maid as witnesses, the celebrant (Bevan Wilson) says what a wonderful thing it is that people in the autumn of their lives find love …

Frank suggests they get on with it before autumn slips into winter

Wedding over they head off to the Whiteley, only to have the gallery attended (Genevieve Mooy) tell them it’s a private preview. The gallery’s open to the general public tomorrow.

Frank says it’s preposterous. “I am the artist’s father.”

The attendant apologises profusely to Mr Whiteley. She should have recognised him.

Frank is grand. He rarely comes to an opening - in his opinion, the boy is far too obsessed with sex. They score two catalogues and the attendant rushes over to look at a lurid Whiteley of a couple of assorted sex positions.

Then it’s off to a nightclub and Frank and Frances dance amongst the young things.

They hug and we dissolve to a view of the harbour at night.

Back in the north, Frank is tending the garden when Saul turns up in a 4WD.

Saul asks how he is, and Frank says fine, “and just between you and me, something happened down there that I thought I’d never experience again …”

Saul says if he’s talking about what he thinks he’s talking about, it’s a miracle he’s not dead, and Frances comes into view with a cup of tea, scoring a kiss in the process, and a thank you my love.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more nauseatingly happy couple in all my life,” says Saul.

Contain your jealousy, it isn’t becoming, jokes Frank, and as Mozart plays he walks to his recliner chair and begins conducting, while out on the verandah, Saul asks if she’s worried, and Frances confesses he had a bad night.

Saul explains his heart is getting too weak to clear the congestion from his lungs, and when she asks if he’s near the end, Saul nods and says yes.

“Does he know that?” she asks.

“I’m sure he does, it’s a bit like an exhausted runner forcing himself uphill, but knowing that he’s soon going to have to stop.”

As the music plays, they look out at the view.

Inside the music stops, the announcer back announces the Mozart, and Frank convulses in a final, fatal heart attack.

As more classical music plays, Saul picks up the pad from under Frank’s hand and notes it was the G minor quintet, a wonderful piece to go out on.

Frances read out Frank’s instructions:

“No tears, no flowers, no priests, no piety, no head stones, and the first thing you must all do, is drink a full magnum of champagne.”

Saul offers to get one, but Frances heads to the fridge, saying it’s alright, he always planned ahead.

Freddy opens the bottle, while Saul reads a note Frank left for him, containing the ten dollar note they bet.

“Dear Saul, here’s the ten dollars. I’m afraid I can’t offer you a re-match, but I think as a gentleman you should have offered me odds … (Freddy sends the cork cannoning into the ceiling, startling Frances) … you had a much better prognosis than I did. I’d appreciate it if you and Freddy would help Frances through all the arrangements which are listed separately in envelopes 3, 3a and 4. Will you thank Frances for the happy years she has given me, and apologise to her sincerely for the miserable years I have given her … (Frances cries) … tell her she would be well advised to travel south to her family before she gets caught up in the misfortunes of any other old crocks around the district … (Freddy and Saul exchange a look) … regards Frank ...”

Freddy hands around the glasses.

Frances: “He used to say that for all his faults, he was damn well worth a magnum …”

Freddy: “And so he was …let’s, let’s drink to that ...”

Saul: “To Frank.”

They clink glasses.

Frances: “To Frank.”

Mozart begins over Frank’s body slumped in the recliner, and we cut to the view, and Frances walking down the hill into the glowing afternoon light ..

She looks up to the sky, perhaps in hope, and gives a little smile, while up on the verandah, Saul and Freddy talk, and the camera glides past them to catch in the distance Frank’s body still slumped in the chair. The Mozart surges and end titles begin to be supered over the tableaux …

Travelling North (1987)

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6.9 (362)

Travelling North is an Australian drama film that tells the story of two older individuals who fall in love and embark on a journey of self-discovery, freedom, and personal growth in their later years. The film was released in 1987 and directed by Carl Schulz, with a screenplay by David Williamson. The movie focuses on the character of Frank (Leo McKern), a retired engineer who leaves his family in Melbourne to travel up north to Queensland. Despite his family's attempts to persuade him to stay close, Frank's desires to live life on his own terms lead him to buy a farmhouse and settle in the countryside. There he meets and befriends the good-natured and lively Frances (Julia Blake), who has also left Melbourne behind to start a new life.

Frank and Frances soon fall in love with each other and begin to build a happy life together. However, throughout the film, we see both characters grappling with the challenges and limitations that come with growing older. Frank's health begins to deteriorate, and his insistence on maintaining his independence clashes with his fear and loneliness. Frances, meanwhile, must learn to navigate her new life without her former spouse and adjust to living in a new environment.

Alongside these character arcs, the film also delves into the themes of family dynamics and generational conflict. Frank's relationship with his children, particularly his daughter, is fraught with tension as they disapprove of his actions and choices. The film also explores the idea of the older generation's struggle to find their place in a rapidly changing world, as Frank and Frances reminisce about their former lives and come to terms with their present circumstances.

One of the film's greatest strengths is its central performances, with both Leo McKern and Julia Blake delivering nuanced and thoughtful portrayals of older characters still searching for meaning and purpose in their later years. McKern, in particular, offers a remarkable performance that showcases his range as an actor, moving fluidly from moments of humor to moments of profound sadness and vulnerability. Blake, too, imbues her character with warmth, intelligence, and humor, making Frances both an engaging and sympathetic figure.

Another standout feature of the film is its stunning cinematography, with the breathtaking Australian landscapes serving as a natural backdrop for the characters' emotional journeys. Schulz and his team capture the nuances of the surroundings and the grandeur of nature, crafting a visual language that complements the subtleties of the film's themes and performances.

Overall, Travelling North is a poignant and beautifully crafted film that explores the complexities of aging, love, and life's transitions. With its strong performances, sharp writing, and stunning visuals, the movie offers a compelling portrait of two individuals forging their path in a world that often feels uncertain and unforgiving.

Genres Comedy Drama
Cast Leo McKern Julia Blake Henri Szeps
Director Carl Schultz
Release Date 1987
MPAA Rating PG-13
Runtime 93 hr
IMDB Rating 6.9 (362)

Travelling North (1987)

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Travelling North is 14371 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 27882 places since yesterday. In Australia, it is currently more popular than A Is for Acid but less popular than Roadkill.

An aged couple decide to move from Melbourne to north Queensland.

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Travelling North (film)
Travelling North is a 1987 Australian film directed by Carl Schultz and starring Leo McKern, Julia Blake, Graham Kennedy (in his last film role) and Henri Szeps.Based on an original 1979 play of the same name by David Williamson, it is one of Williamson's favourite movies based on his works. The act of "travelling north" as used in the title, in the context of the southern hemisphere in which ...
Travelling North (1987)
Travelling North: Directed by Carl Schultz. With Leo McKern, Julia Blake, Henri Szeps, Michele Fawdon. After their late-life marriage, a middle-aged Australian couple move to the countryside. Their life and tempestuous marriage is detailed.
Travelling North
Travelling North is a play by Australian playwright David Williamson premiered in 1979, and published as a text in 1980, telling the story of a late-life romance and relocation to a warmer climate (the "north" of the title) of Frank, a newly retired engineer, and Frances, his somewhat younger chosen companion/girlfriend. It was first performed at the Nimrod Theatre, Sydney, and was ...
Travelling North movie review (1988)
Nothing much really happens in "Traveling North," in the sense of large events to move the plot ahead. It's not a movie like " On Golden Pond ," in which deep truths are told and old wounds are healed. This is a film of everyday life, and all the more moving because of that. It's not a film of sentiment, but a film of love: It loves ...
Official Trailer
Theatrical trailer of "Travelling North" by Carl Schultz. Starring Leo McKern, Julia Blake, Henri Szeps, Michele Fawdon, Diane Craig, Graham Kennedy, Rob Steele
Watch Travelling North (1987)
Travelling North. 1987 · 1 hr 37 min. PG-13. Comedy · Drama. After their late-life marriage, a mature couple moves to the rainforest country on the coast of Queensland, where their tempestuous marriage unfolds. Starring: Julia Blake Leo McKern Henri Szeps. Directed by: Carl Schultz. After their late-life marriage, a mature couple moves to the ...
Travelling North (1987)
Travelling North (1987) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Menu. Movies. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. TV Shows.
Travelling North (film)
Travelling North is a 1987 Australian film directed by Carl Schultz and starring Leo McKern, Julia Blake, Graham Kennedy and Henri Szeps. Based on an original 1979 play of the same name by David Williamson, it is one of Williamson's favourite movies based on his works. The act of "travelling north" as used in the title, in the context of the southern hemisphere in which the film and its ...
Travelling North streaming: where to watch online?
Other popular Movies starring Leo McKern. Is Travelling North streaming? Find out where to watch online amongst 45+ services including Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video.
Watch TRAVELLING NORTH Online
Watch trailer. Genres: Comedy, Drama. Duration: 1 hour 33 minutes. Availability: Worldwide. Travelling North tells the story of Frank (Leo McKern), a crotchety old man with an unending zest and passion for life and Frances (Julia Blake) his much younger companion travelling to Queensland to enjoy their retirement and each other.
TRAVELLING NORTH (1986) : Ben Gannon
TRAVELLING NORTH (1986) Director: Carl Schultz. Cast: Leo McKern, Julia Blake, Henri Szeps, Michele Fawdon, Diane Craig, Andrea Moor, Drew Forsythe, John...
Travelling North (1987) Trailer
TRAVELLING NORTH tells the story of Frank (Leo McKern), a crotchety old man with an unending zest and passion for life and Frances (Julia Blake) his much you...
Prime Video: Travelling North
Travelling North. 6.9 1 h 33 min 1987 13+. Travelling North tells the story of Frank, a crotchety old man with an unending zest and passion for life and Frances his much younger companion travelling to Queensland to enjoy their retirement and each other. Unfortunately the North cannot calm Frank's complex personality and Frances watches ...
Travelling North (movie, 1987)
1 hr 36 min. Premiere: World. June 19, 1987. Premiere: USA. $214 722 April 1988. Production Companies. The Australian Film Commission Queensland Film Corporation View Films. Also Known As. David Williamson's Travelling North (Australia)
Travelling North (Movie, 1987)
Travelling North plot "family" Frank, a grumbling old man, moves from Melbourne to Northern Australia to spend his old age in a warmer climate. He is joined by a middle-aged woman, Frances, who has long since been divorced and is drawn to both by her family and by her lover. In any case, they will not exactly find peace together...
Travelling North
In their new home, they befriend some of the locals and spend their days fishing and watching the sunsets. When Frank suffers a mild heart attack, the specter of mortality enters their lives ...
Travelling North
Winner of five major film awards including Best Actor and Best Screenplay, Travelling North is a sensitive and passionate movie starring multi award winning actor, Leo McKern and Julia Blake. This is the story of one man's struggle to retain his dignity in the face of adversity. Leo McKern plays Frank, a crotchetty old man who has an unending ...
Travelling North (1987)
Permalink. 8/10. Travelling North (1987) apd25 17 June 2010. David Williamson's Travelling North directed by Carl Scultz (Careful He Might Hear You)Is a very good Australian film it stars the late Leo Mckern as Frank + Julia Blake as Frances, Frank suffers a heart attack and moves up to Port Douglas they move next door to nosy Neighbour Freddie ...
Cult Aussie Classics: Travelling North (1987)
'Travelling North' (1987) is an Australian drama that follows the ups and downs of growing old. Frank and his new wife Frances move north to retire in the tr...
Watch Travelling North Online
6.9 (362) Travelling North is an Australian drama film that tells the story of two older individuals who fall in love and embark on a journey of self-discovery, freedom, and personal growth in their later years. The film was released in 1987 and directed by Carl Schulz, with a screenplay by David Williamson. The movie focuses on the character ...
Travelling North
New. Show all movies in the JustWatch Streaming Charts. Streaming charts last updated: 9:18:15 am, 01/04/2024. Travelling North is 14371 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 27882 places since yesterday. In Australia, it is currently more popular than The President's Mystery but less popular than A ...
Travelling North (1987)
Travelling North (1987) starring Leo McKern, Julia Blake, Graham Kennedy and directed by Carl Schultz.

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Travelling North (1987)

Travelling North - watch online: stream, buy or rent

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Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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