He is the child prodigy of Australian cinema, the gifted director whose talent has led him to star-studded, big-budget Hollywood productions, to efficient and elegant blockbusters. He was born in Griffith, New South Wales and directed his first film at the age of eighteen. Shot for the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), his documentary, Castor and Pollux, won the prize for best Australian short film in 1974.

Backroads, in 1977, was his first fiction film. Newsfront, in 1978, an evocation of the production of newsreels in post-war Australia, won several Australian Film Awards including Best Film and Best Director.

The success of Dead Calm, an oppressive thriller on the high seas, which introduced Nicole Kidman, opened the doors to Hollywood where he found his mark with ease.

He shot, among others, action films adapted from Tom Clancy novels starring Harrison Ford  (War Games in 1992 and Clear and Present Danger in 1994), an erotic thriller with Sharon Stone (Sliver) in 1993, and a variation on the serial killer theme, Bone Collector with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie in 1999.

In 2002 he signed a new adaptation of A Quiet American, offering Michael Caine one of the best roles in his career. He never lost interest in stories from his homeland and in that same year he directed ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’, about the fate of Indigenous Australians of the Stolen Generations. Noyce has also directed numerous works for television.

The Cinémathèque retrospective will allow us to revisit his best-known works, but also to discover many titles that are still unknown to the French public, notably his first short films.

In collaboration with The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

Photo: Prod DB © Paramount / DR – CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, Phillip Noyce, 1994, USA – with Harrison Ford