Re: RARA-AVIS: movie music and novelizations- Thimoty Harris

From: Rene Ribic ( rribic@optusnet.com.au)
Date: 13 Jul 2002


Etienne wrote:

> HEATWAVE (1979) is Timothy Harris' best novel, a real must read. Set
in the
> recent past and with Bobby Paradise as central character.
> As far as I know, the script, first produced by Harris, never was used
for
> a film in the USA. So he decided to make a novel based on it. Finally,
in
> 1983, there was an Australian film with the same title and based on
Harris'
> story- but I never saw it.
>
I've never read Harris but I doubt that the Australian film HEATWAVE is related in any way. The movie is inspired by the real life murder & disappearance (her body has still not been found) of journalist Juanita Nielsen back in the 1970's. Nielsen was a vocal opponent of the rampant development that was happening at the time, in particular relating to Victoria Street in Kings Cross, a working class street that had seen mass evictions. It was believed at the time that the developer, who was losing millions of dollars, had had her "knocked" through the agency of a local gangster (she was last seen at a meeting with this gangster's top lieutenant). Later, info came out that in the course of her investigations, Nielsen had dug up proof of massive corruption involving the highest levels of power in the state of New South Wales.(A few years later, two independent journalists were roughed up & threatened by local police when they tried to track her last known movements). This murder also served as the inspiration for another Aussie film, THE KILLING OF ANGEL STREET.

Rene

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