image of person or book cover 8601420970318280295.jpg
Screen cap from promotional trailer
form y separately published work icon Bliss single work   film/TV  
Adaptation of Bliss Peter Carey , 1981 single work novel
Issue Details: First known date: 1985... 1985 Bliss
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

When Harry, an executive, suffers a heart attack, he experiences a brief moment of brain death, only to awaken with a far darker vision of the seemingly idyllic world that he's left behind. In quick succession, he learns that his wife is cheating on him, his son has become a drug dealer, and his daughter is a junkie. Even his perfect career has become a nightmare, as he discovers that his latest client is, in fact, a heartless, deadly polluter. Enraged, Harry is determined to live a morally righteous life, a notion that proves anathema to everyone around him.

Contents

* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 1986 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Introduction, Don Anderson , single work criticism (p. 9-22)
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* Contents derived from the London,
c
England,
c
c
United Kingdom (UK),
c
Western Europe, Europe,:Faber , 1986 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Introduction, Don Anderson , single work criticism (p. 9-22)
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Form: screenplay
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Works about this Work

10 Best Australian Films Made by First-time Directors Luke Buckmaster , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 2 March 2016;
Sydney Film Festival : 5 Classics Travis Johnson , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 17 May 2016;
Bliss Rewatched : A Dark, Controversial but Amusing Vision of Purgatory Luke Buckmaster , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 28 June 2015;
— Review of Bliss Peter Carey , Ray Lawrence , 1985 single work film/TV
Gothic Definitions : The New Australian "Cinema of Horrors" Jonathan Rayner , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 25 no. 1 2011; (p. 91-97) This paper examines ‘ the pervasive presence of horror materials, in both thematic and stylistic terms, within the Australian feature film industry from its re-establishment at the end of the 1960s to the present.’ (p. 91)
Film's Last Big Showing Tinged with Sadness Jacqueline Williams , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 6 November 2010; (p. 9)
Bliss Rewatched : A Dark, Controversial but Amusing Vision of Purgatory Luke Buckmaster , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 28 June 2015;
— Review of Bliss Peter Carey , Ray Lawrence , 1985 single work film/TV
form y separately published work icon Tony Buckley Peter Thompson (interviewer), ( dir. John Wiggins ) Sydney : Australian Film and Television School , 1986 Z1583347 1986 single work film/TV interview

Tony Buckley discusses the Australian film industry from the producer's point of view (in particular, the costs of film-making), reflects on the changes and growth of the Australian film industry since 1979, and discusses his new feature film Bliss and recent documentary work.
y separately published work icon 'Bliss' Jessica Ruiz , Perth : Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (Murdoch University) , 2002 Z1672571 2002 single work criticism Research undertaken by a student of the Centre for Culture and Communication (Murdoch University) into Bliss (1985). Includes aspects relating to the production phase, critical reception, principal performers and production crew, references and a synopsis.
Ahead of Its Time Simon Weaving , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 30 October 2010; (p. 31)
Film's Last Big Showing Tinged with Sadness Jacqueline Williams , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 6 November 2010; (p. 9)
Peter Carey's and Ray Lawrence's Bliss (1985): Fiction, Film and Power Robert Dixon , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 3 no. 3 2009; (p. 279-294) This article looks into the uncertain cultural politics of Ray Lawrence's 1985 film adaptation of Peter Carey's Bliss (1981) perhaps one reason for critical reticence about it to examine the functioning of the film as a critique of the options aesthetic, commercial and political within the inherited aesthetic force field of the period. The film is considered in two ways: first, with regard to the question of why Bliss has come to be regarded as a key film in the story of the Australian movies, as a kind of liberation point a leap away from naturalism and the historical realism of the new wave of the 1970s (Byrnes 2008); and second, with regard to its main theme, the satiric treatment of advertising, American consumerism and commodity culture. What lies at the heart of this is the complex relationship between representation and power, and this will be considered in terms of the paradox that Bliss criticizes consumerism while being aware of its own aspirations as a commercial feature film, and therefore a commodity. This is what is meant by the film's uncertain cultural politics: the paradox arises from the fact that cinema is both an artistic and a commercial medium; as a culture-industry, it seeks to criticize the commercial processes in which it is itself embedded (Author's abstract).
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Awards

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Last amended 30 Nov 2016 09:47:00
Ray Lawrence
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