As the city trundles through its millionth week of monotony, Guardian Australia’s locked-down critic decides to revisit his favourite haunts on screen
Which film best represents Melbourne in its current state? I pondered this one evening recently during what felt like the millionth week in lockdown, the wheels of my beloved home city having slowed to a virtual halt during this lonely era of the
Coronavirus.
I concluded that the answer must be Stanley Kramer’s 1959 post-apocalyptic drama On the Beach, which famously depicts Melbourne CBD as a ghost town – one ominously compelling image capturing a large banner, waving in the breeze outside an abandoned State Library, bearing the words “THERE IS STILL TIME… BROTHER”.