Puberty Blues

Puberty Blues (1981)

The coolest things to do are the things they say we can't do.

Two teenage surf chicks from the southern suburbs of Sydney ingratiate themselves with a new group of boys.

Date of release
1981-12-10
TMDB
5.3 / 10 (45)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
Drama, Comedy
Director
Bruce Beresford

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: A$3.9M
  • Based on: Puberty Blues
  • Filmed in: Australia

Puberty Blues is a 1981 Australian coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Bruce Beresford, based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey. The film stars Nell Schofield and Jad Capelja as teenagers in the Sutherland Shire in Sydney. It was both a commercial and critical success in Australia. It was followed by a TV series adaptation of the same name in 2012.

Production

Television writer Margaret Kelly was working at a writing workshop at a suburban theatre where she met Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey, who had written a number of unpublished stories about growing up in the surfing beaches of southern Sydney. Kelly showed the stories to producer and writer Joan Long, and optioned the film rights.

Long first approached Gillian Armstrong to direct but she turned it down. Then Bruce Beresford read the book and wrote asking to direct:

I bought it [the novel] while I was waiting for a bus in North Sydney. I went to get a chocolate or something and I saw a pile of these things sitting on the counter. I thought I'd buy one and read it on the bus going home. It was remarkable, a very well-expressed book. And the girls were only fifteen. It was a sort of insight into the way of life of those kids, which was a revelation to me...

The movie was made with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission, who provided $413,708. The lead roles were cast after an extensive selection process.

Nell Schofield, said that "It's a very honest and realistic movie. It touches on this and it touches on that. I really like it. It's subtle and doesn't preach: 'This is the way of life.'" Schofield felt that "Different sections of the audience will perceive different levels. The parents who go and see it will come out and either believe it or it will give them a bit of a jolt.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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