Bliss (1985) Directed by Ray Lawrence

Director: Ray Lawrence
Writers: Ray Lawrence, Peter Carey (screenplay)

Stars: Barry Otto, Lynette Curran, Helen Jones, Gia Carides, Miles Buchanan, Jeff Truman

Australian Film Institute 1985

Won
Best Film: Anthony Buckley
Best Director: Ray Lawrence
Best Screenplay, Adapted: Peter Carey, Ray Lawrence

Nominated
Best Actress in a Lead Role: Lynette Curran
Best Actor in a Lead Role: Barry Otto
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Kerry Walker
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Jon Ewing
Best Original Music Score: Peter Best
Best Achievement in Sound: Dean Gawen, Peter Fenton, Phil Heywood, Gary Wilkins, Helen Brown, Ron Purvis
Best Achievement in Production Design: Owen Paterson, Wendy Dickson
Best Achievement in Costume Design: Helen Hooper
Best Achievement in Editing, Wayne LeClos
Best Achievement in Cinematography: Paul Murphy

Australian Writers' Guild 1985

Won
Major Award: Peter Carey, Ray Lawrence

Cannes Film Festival 1985

Nominated
Palme d'Or: Ray Lawrence

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 and he passed, then tried Anthony Buckley. Buckley 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 movie. 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.

Early responses to Bliss were mixed, and there walkouts at Cannes. After this Lawrence reduced the film's running time from 135 mins to 110 mins. Its initial Australian release was killed after the Office of Film and Literature Classification classified it as Restricted 18+ and as a result, no Australian distributor would handle it. Buckley decided to distribute himself. The classification was eventually overturned on appeal and the film opened at the State Theatrette in Sydney, a tiny former newsreel theatrette with 130 seats. Positive reviews and word of mouth helped it to find an audience and become a cult hit. It won three AFI Awards for Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay for 1985 and played for six months.

Bliss has since acquired a significantly higher critical reputation. Former Sydney Morning Herald film critic and Sydney Film Festival director Paul Byrnes describes it as "a key film in the story of Australian movies. It represents a kind of liberation point – a leap away from naturalism and the historical realism of the 'new wave’ of the 1970s, towards the modernism of the 1990s. 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." Despite the film's eventual success, director Ray Lawrence did not direct a second film until Lantana (2001), and in the intervening period he chiefly earned his living as a director of television commercials, several of which won industry awards. His third film, Jindabyne, was released in 2006.

Mr. Lawrence maneuvers his cameras to all-out colorful dramatic effect, and sometimes they provide a film equivalent to an illuminated manuscript, highlighting the proposition that this is indeed portentous business before us.

You could describe the style here as early Australian magic realism. Some of it is surreal, like the opening sequence when Harry's mother stands in the rain like some religious figure in a small boat outside a flooded church. The soaring camera beautifully captures Harry's out-of-body experience following his heart attack, and the scenes shot in the rainforest are appropriately lyrical.