Von Loves Her Modernist
(2022)
Precocious, brilliant and energetic poet, Max Harris, is Adelaide’s own enfant terrible. In the late 1930s he sets out to throw hand grenades at the cultural establishment. He falls in love with Von Hutton while still at school and they stay together for 55 years.
Max promotes modernism in art and literature founding the magazine Angry Penguins and the Contemporary Art Society. He teams up with art patrons John and Sunday Reed in Melbourne and is riding high when he is targeted in the notorious Ern Malley hoax. Humiliated, Max turns to book-selling, publishing, and writing newspaper columns. He remains a promoter of Modernism to the end.
An interview with Von Harris conducted in 2007 forms the backbone of the film. Other interviewees include Von and Max’s daughter, Samela, family friend Peter Goers and literary historians Philip Butterss and Nicholas Jose.
