Walkabout (1971)

Before renowned skinematographer Nicolas Roeg directed the thriller Don’t Look Now (1973) starring Julie Christie and the sci-fi flick The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) featuring David Bowie, he helped establish the Australian New Wave cinema movement with Walkabout (1971). As an allegorical tale about modern society and the loss of innocence, we find two white siblings from Sydney (Jenny Agutter and Luc Roeg) who are lost in the remote Australian outback until an aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil) appears and guides them homeward. In this primal drama, the English auteur’s reputation for looking nudity straight in the bush was solidified, especially when Jenny goes for a skinny dip. The intrinsic act showcases the ingénue’s beautiful body — from her perfect peaks to her bare booty. If that’s not stunning enough, she also shows off her fluffy muff in and out of the water. The scene has been analyzed to be a symbol for shedding the threads of an over-civilized world. Indeed, the camerawork captures the natural wonders of the raw terrain with such sweeping and pinpointed grandeur that the awestruck viewer may need a few moments to realize the city girl is going native in her embrace of being naked. Off screen, things weren’t as serene since Ms. Agutter admitted, “Nic wanted the scene in which I swam naked to be straightforward. He wanted me to be uninhibited – which I wasn’t.” Nevertheless Walkabout’s visual poetry is something to behold — but only metaphorically since its star is just a teen.