Bliss

Bliss (1985)

After Harry Joy dropped dead... his life was never the same again.

An advertising executive dies and goes to hell... except nothing changes. Well, his daughter is buying drugs with sexual favours from her brother, and the number of cancer-causing products is on the increase. But the notes he writes to himself to prove he hasn't gone insane are getting more disjointed, and he runs off with an ex-prostitute called Honey Barbera.

Date of release
1985-10-04
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (22)
Runtime
1h 52m
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director
Ray Lawrence

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: A$1.1M
  • Awards: 3 · Nominations: 13. Including: AACTA Award for Best Film; AACTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; AACTA Award for Best Direction

Bliss is a 1985 Australian comedy-drama film 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, Lynette Curran and Helen Jones.

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 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.

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.

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

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