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''Bliss'' is a 1985 Australian
comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
directed by Ray Lawrence, and co-written by Lawrence and Peter Carey, based on Carey's 1981 novel of the same name. It stars
Barry Otto Barry Otto (born 1941) is an Australian actor, primarily of cinema, and an amateur artist. Early life Barry Otto was born in Brisbane in 1941, the son of a butcher. He trained as an artist but switched to acting. Career Otto received an AACTA ...
,
Lynette Curran Lynette Curran is an Australian actress known for many roles in Australian television series and films, including the soap opera '' Bellbird'', and the films ''Country Town'' (1971) and '' Bliss'' (1985). Theatre She started acting in the t ...
and Helen Jones. After a rocky start – 400 of the 2000-strong audience walked out during its first screening at the
1985 Cannes Film Festival The 38th Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 20 May 1985. The Palme d'Or went to the ''When Father Was Away on Business'' by Emir Kusturica. The festival opened with ''Witness'', directed by Peter Weir and closed with ''The Emerald Forest'', ...
– the film went on to receive multiple awards at the AFI awards.australianscreen.com.au – Bliss info
/ref>


Plot summary

Harry Joy, an advertising executive in an unnamed Australian city who is known for his ability to tell stories, has a terrifying near-death experience after suffering a massive heart attack, brought on by his dissolute lifestyle. Upon recovering, he believes himself to be either in a hellish version of the world he knew, or with his eyes opened to an altogether different view of that world. He eventually discovers that his wife is unfaithful, his dissolute daughter trades sex for hard drugs with his deviant son, and his latest client is a carcinogenic polluter. Harry tries to reform and steer a morally correct path, abandoning most of the trappings of his previous affluent life, to the dismay and disruption of everyone around him. He is also seemingly 'tested' by a series of bizarre and frightening events including being '
sectioned Involuntary commitment, civil commitment, or involuntary hospitalization/hospitalisation is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qualified agent to have symptoms of severe mental disorder is detained in a psychiatric hos ...
' to a psychiatric hospital. Fighting for his sanity, Harry flees his home and takes up residence in a hotel, where meets a young hippie country girl, Honey Barbara, who prostitutes herself and helps a friend sell marijuana on trips to the city to bring money back to their forest commune. Harry decides that Barbara is his true love but he is soon drawn back into his old ways, and she with him. She eventually rejects Harry's lapse back to materialism and flees to the commune, refusing to see him. Harry pursues her patiently over many years, living alone near her commune, and eventually winning her heart with a 'gift' of plantings of the type of tree that provides Barbara's favourite honey (the Yellow Box Eucalyptus,
Eucalyptus melliodora ''Eucalyptus melliodora'', commonly known as yellow box, honey box or yellow ironbark, is a species of medium-sized to occasionally tall tree that is endemic to south-eastern, continental Australia. It has rough, flaky or fibrous bark on part o ...
).


Deleted footage and later restoration

In one memorable sequence, Harry is dragged through a bizarre and blackly humorous chain of events, in which he smokes marijuana for the first time with a terminally ill waiter friend, then has his car crushed by an elephant and is finally arrested. The extended version of this sequence was cut from the original theatrical release after its premiere at the Cannes film festival, but the full length scene —featuring a tour-de-force monologue by Barry Otto, which was captured in a single unedited take)— was restored for the film's re-issue in the 1990s.


Cast

In cameos are Australian historian
Manning Clark Charles Manning Hope Clark, (3 March 1915 – 23 May 1991) was an Australian historian and the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume ''A History of Australia'', published between 1962 and 1987. He has been descri ...
as a preacher and comedian John Doyle as Bettina's doctor.


Production

Ray Lawrence and Peter Carey were both working in advertising when they met at a party and became friends. They wrote two screenplays together, ''Dancing on Water'' (based on Carey's short story "Life and Death in the South Side Pavilion") and ''Spanish Pink''. They approached
Phillip Adams Phillip Adams, Philip Adams, or Phil Adams may refer to: Sports * Phillip Adams (American football) (1988–2021), American football cornerback * Phillip Adams (sport shooter) (born 1945), Australian pistol shooter * Phil Adams (cricketer) (born 1 ...
to see if he wanted to produce; he passed. They then tried Anthony Buckley, who was enthusiastic and tried to find money to produce both scripts, but was unsuccessful. In the meantime, Carey's novel ''Bliss'' had been published and won the Miles Franklin Award, so Buckley suggested they adapt that instead. He optioned the rights in January 1983 and raised the money through 10BA.
David Stratton David James Stratton (born 10 September 1939) is an English-Australian award-winning film critic, as both a journalist and interviewer, film historian and lecturer and television personality and producer. Life and career Born in Trowbridge, ...
, ''The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry'', Pan MacMillan, 1990 p173-177
In October 1983 Lawrence shot a 35mm screen test with Barry Otto and Lynette Curran to help convince investors about the film. Shooting took place in October 1984 following two weeks' rehearsal and went for eleven weeks. Although the film was set in Queensland, it was shot in New South Wales.


Commercial and critical reception

Early responses to ''Bliss'' were mixed, as the Cannes walkouts attest. After this Lawrence reduced the film's running time from 135 to 110 minutes. Its initial Australian release was killed after the
Office of Film and Literature Classification The Office of Film and Literature Classification ( mi, Te Mana Whakaatu), branded as the Classification Office, is an independent Crown entity established under Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 responsible for censorship ...
classified it as ''Restricted 18+'' because of the incest scene between Harry's children, and as a result, no Australian distributor would handle it. Buckley decided to distribute it himself. The classification was eventually overturned on appeal and the film opened at the State Theatrette in Sydney, a tiny former
newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...
theatrette with 130 seats. Positive reviews and word of mouth helped it to find an audience and become a cult hit. It won three AFI Awards for
Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
, Best Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay for 1985 and played for six months. ''Bliss'' has since acquired a significantly higher critical reputation. Former '' Sydney Morning Herald'' film critic and
Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...
director Paul Byrnes describes it as: :"... a key film in the story of Australian movies. It represents a kind of liberation point – a leap away from naturalism and the
historical realism Historical realism is a writing style or subgenre of realistic fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals a ...
of the 'new wave’ of the 1970s, towards the modernism of the 1990s. To say it was ahead of its time is an understatement – the boldness of its metaphors and the sharpness of its satire were too much for many people in 1985." Despite the film's eventual success, director Ray Lawrence did not direct another film until ''
Lantana ''Lantana'' () is a genus of about 150 species of perennial flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. They are native to tropical regions of the Americas and Africa but exist as an introduced species in numerous areas, especially in ...
'' (2001), and in the intervening period he chiefly earned his living as a director of television commercials, several of which won industry awards. His third film, ''
Jindabyne Jindabyne () is a town in south-east New South Wales, Australia that overlooks Lake Jindabyne near the Snowy Mountains, in Snowy Monaro Regional Council. It is a popular holiday destination year round, especially in winter. This is due to its ...
'', was released in 2006.


Home media

The theatrical release and director's cut of ''Bliss'' was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in May 2010. The DVD is compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as the unauthorised American trailer and audio commentary with Ray Lawrence and Anthony Buckley. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) restored the film in 2016.


Awards

The film won the Best Film, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay Awards and was nominated for ten other awards of the Australian Film Institute in 1985. It was also nominated for the
Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
(Golden Palm) at the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
in the same year.


References


External links

* *
Bliss
at the National Film and Sound Archive {{Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film 1970–1989 1985 films 1985 comedy-drama films Australian comedy-drama films 1980s English-language films Incest in film Films about advertising Films about cancer Films about reincarnation Films based on Australian novels Films directed by Ray Lawrence Films scored by Peter Best (composer) Films set in Queensland Films shot in New South Wales Surrealist films