Directed by: Ray Lawrence
Stars: Barry Otto, Lynette Curran, Helen Jones
Language: English + Commentaries (3tracks) | Subtitles: English (embed)
(Commentary by Ray Lawrence & Anthony Buckley)
(Audio Description)
Country: Australia | Imdb Info | Ar: 16:9 | Dvdrip Director’s Cut
Description: After a near-death experience, a man wonders if he actually did die and is now in Hell.
Preview
2.43GB | 129:44mins | 714×576 | mkv
https://tezfiles.com/file/6e813527a08dc/Bliss.1985.mkv
One of the best Australian films of all time, in my opinion, and one of my favourite films. Likeable but wishy washy 80s’ ad exec Harry Joy can tell a good story, but has a near death experience, rejects his scheming materialistic loved ones and becomes a bit of a born again hippy, maxing out the family credit card and baiting the loony bin as he finds true love with free spirit Honey Barbara. The love story throughline sounds like a typical male midlife crisis, but the details in Bliss are what make it so special. Every minor character and incident are amazing (boy scouts are believably threatened with incineration in this version), every song, every beautifully composed shot, and surreal fantasy packs an emotional punch, from the very beginning when Harry’s mother rides a boat out of a flooded church in his memory and is described by her future husband as the Vision Splendid. This is a gorgeous, poetic, surreal black comedy with unpalatably Vonnegut levels of cynicism and sweetness which was not received well in Australia at the time, and was heavily cut all over the world until cinema provocateur David Stratton managed to screen this version in the 90s on Australian SBS TV. Nazi incest fantasies, high school drug dealers, prepper paranoiacs, organic food fetishists (“You talk about food like it’s shit, and shit like it’s food”), delusional religious sadism, vaginal fish flopping, bee hives, mass murdering cheer squad suicide bombers and insurance company cancer maps all play major parts in the story, which is more or less played straight by some of the best screen actors Australia had to offer, but is completely berserk when you think about it, which you will. And Honey Barbara is a one-off, “you’ve struck a gifted amateur”, and worth the price of admission alone. The director’s cut on offer here at RL is the version that caused the mass walk out at Cannes due to “bad taste” in a year that saw Monty Python’s Meaning of Life win the Palme D’or (and that was in good taste???), and is the best way to experience this film. It’s just a pity it has never been restored/revived since the DVD. But trust me, this is at the moment the best Bliss you’re gonna get.