Next screening "Bliss - the Director's Cut" & our AGM

'Bliss - the Director's Cut' will be the film for our next Reels event, Thursday 29th July.

Annual General Meeting- prior to the screening we will hold our AGM. All roles on the committee will be vacated and the current committee is welcoming new members. We especially need help with the promotions,
setup, setdown.

AGM 5.30pm Thursday 29th July 2010 at Wehl Street Theatre.

'Bliss - the Director's Cut'
Thursday 29th July 2010

6.30pm pre-screening wine
7.00pm film commences

"Bliss" has been re-released with the Director's Cut. This coincides with Bliss the opera, that has been playing in Australia and has now ventured overseas.

Synopsis

Bliss is the acclaimed movie based on Peter Carey's award-winning novel, Bliss, and the debut film of celebrated director Ray Lawrence (Lantana, Jindabyne)

Following a four-minute death from a heart attack, Harry Joy (Barry Otto) returns to life finding the certainties of his former existence have entirely vanished. The world he previously knew, which saw him drifting amiably through life as a successful advertising executive, has become a literal living Hell. His wife Bettina (Lynette Curran) is in a sordid affair with Harry's business partner (Jeff Truman) and his teenage son (Miles Buchanan) engages in an incestuous relationship with his sister (Gia Carides) - exchanging drugs for sex with her... All around him people are dying of cancer and Harry's advertising agency has taken to promoting carcinogenic products.

Harry is convinced he actually is living in Hell and befriends an angel in the form of ex-prostitute Honey Barbara (Helen Jones) to return him to happiness.

History

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. Indeed, the film was almost stillborn after 400 people walked out during its first screening at the Cannes Film Festival (another 1,600 stayed). No Australian distributor would touch it, especially once it received an ‘R’ classification, because of the depiction of incest between Harry’s children, David and Lucy (Gia Carides). The classification was overturned on appeal and the film eventually opened in the smallest cinema in Sydney, a former newsreel theatre with 130 seats. A couple of glowing reviews helped it to find an audience that kept growing. When the film won the AFI Awards for Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay for 1985, Bliss had become an art-house hit. It played for six months in Sydney and around the country.
(source http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/bliss/notes/)

Trailers & further information

The film http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/bliss/

The opera http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2009/s2781757.htm