BAD BOY BUBBY

Australia, 1993, 120 minutes, Colour.
Nicholas Hope, Norman Kaye, Claire Benito, Carmel Johnson, Ralph Cotteril.
Directed by Rolf de Heer

Bad Boy Bubby was written and directed by Rolf de Heer (Tale of a Tiger, Incident at Raven's Gate, Dingo, Epsilon, Quiet Room, Dance Me to my Song). It was produced, in Panavision, on location in Adelaide, for a budget of less than a million dollars.

The film is confronting: it focuses on Bubby, a 35-year-old man imprisoned, physically and emotionally, by his slatternly mother. He knows no life outside the rooms in which he lives - and learns by mimicking whatever he hears and sees. When he leaves the room, he discovers an outside world that is completely unfamiliar - and is treated, on the whole, very badly. This also he absorbs. However, he is attracted to music and finds some friendship with a rock group (and is able to join them in some hard rock performances, a kind of therapy in expressing his experiences with the music), as well as some people suffering from cerebral palsy and their kindly nurse, Angel. Nick Hope's performance as Bubby is excellent.

The film has explicitly religious dimensions with the mother using Jesus and God for power over her son, a visit to a church under reconstruction, a conversation with an organist (Norman Kaye) who turns out to be a scientist arguing that we need to argue God out of existence.

The rock score is strong. For budget purposes there were 31 different directors of photography, each contributing a special style to the film.

There are many complex themes in the film. It is also very frank in its language, presentation of human behaviour, of sexuality. It was in competition at the Venice Film Festival of 1993, winning the Jury Prize, sharing the International Critics' prize and winning the Bronze Plaque from the International Catholic Cinema Organization. Rolf de Heer won the AFI award for Best Director and Nicholas Hope for Best Actor.

1.A confronting film, interesting, entertaining? For what audience was it made? For what audience experience?

2.The title, the focus on Bubby and the baby name for a middle-aged man, the focus on good and bad, moral issues, moral judgments and the criteria?

3.The interiors of the room, its squalor? The contrast with the outside, the city, its ordinariness, ugliness, shops and restaurants, roads, venues for concerts, the engineering plant, homes, hostels?

4.The importance of the musical score, the range of songs, the hard rock, the performances, the lyrics - as therapy, as communicating with the fans?

5.Bubby's journey: a journey of identity, of individuation? At 35 - the classical halfway period of life? Audiences understanding his difficult birth, growing up solely with his mother, experiencing only life within the cement walls where they lived? His baby name? A tabula rasa? Absorbing everything from his mother, speech patterns, behaviour, criteria for behaviour? His mother's physical abuse, sexual abuse, lying to him, using religion and God? His friendship with the cat? Her going out - and his being forced to stay, his fear of venturing out, the gas mask? Finally going out, discovering a world, being absorbed by the world, treated well, treated badly, echoing people, the range of people met, death and murder, innocence to knowledge? His assuming the character mannerisms of his father, Pop? The experiences with the rock group, the music? Rachel and Angel? The cats? The possibilities for life? Victim? The specifically religious background, Christianity? Religious icons? The ending and birth, life, children and play?

6.The portrait of Flo, her appearance, gross physically, mentally, morally? Washing her son, the meals, the sexual encounters? Her slatternly behaviour? The statue of Jesus (and its head)? Jesus and God watching - and the threat of beating him brainless? Taking the mask? The effect on Bubby, his behaviour? Sitting all day without moving because Jesus would watch? Her reprimanding him for wetting himself? Bubby echoing her, his play, the insects, the cat? The mother and her using the clingwrap to illustrate what breathing was? His killing the cat?

7.Pop and his arrival, shouting, wanting Flo, the religious preacher, the clerical collar? 35-year absence? His gross appearance, language? Mocking Bubby, his profanity, sexual experiences with Flo? Bubby absorbing these? Taunting Bubby - especially about homosexuality? Bubby and his using the clingwrap, killing his parents? Later seeing the photos in Truth? The Truth-like title of The Clingwrap Killer? Later going back to the room and seeing the chalk outlines of where his parents died? Taking Pop's identity, the collar? The transformation?

8.Bubby's going out - fear, breathing, taking the mask? Finding that he could live, out into the city, the port area? Hearing the hymns and the music? Approaching the Salvation Army people, their voices, song, standing and singing with them? Going home with the girl and her surprising sexual experiences, singing the hymn to Jesus her friend? His further encounters - the lady trying to buy the eclairs in the shop, her taking him in the car, his behaviour in the car, the policeman and the abuse and bashing him, the man cutting the trees? His hearing and absorbing the abuse and the foul language?

9.Being given the lift with the band, their friendliness, the raucous song in the back of the truck, going for meals with them, going to the hall and no-one turning up for the dance?

10.His wandering the city, going to the church, the church under repair, the large crucifix - and the memories of the past? Hearing the organ, encountering the scientist, going to the large plant and the scientist's long discourse on the non-existence of God, God's cruelty to children, that humans have to shape the earth and can do it better than God? That God has to be argued out of existence?

11.The street arrest, going to jail, the attempts at friendliness of the guard, Bubby by himself, his being put in the cell with the rapist, the experience of the rape?

12.His going back for food, to the pizza restaurant? The irony of the band telling him to get money - and his using the mimicry of violence to get the cash? Wandering the city and the port, discovering the cat, sleeping, giving the cat pizza? The thugs brutalising the cat and killing it?

13.The performances with the band, his joining in, popular acclaim, recounting his experiences and mimicking all that he had heard? Therapy for him? Enjoyment for the fans?

14.The encounter with Rachel in the park, his understanding her, Angel and her sympathy? His going back to the home, the discussions with the group, being able to understand? The treatment by Angel - reminding him of his mother, her breasts? Their talking, going to her room? His work with the patients, with Rachel? The massage? The sadness of Rachel loving him and his loving Angel? Angel taking him home to her parents, the meal, all the Catholic icons on the sideboard? The parents and their humiliation of their daughter, the condemnation of those who are fat, calling her a slut? Bubby's reaction? The irony of his killing them - and her not realising it? Standing on the hill in the sunset and talking about their deaths, talking about the factories and the poisons?

15.The group of women, Bubby approaching them, thinking he was a pervert, their bashing and kicking him?

16.The burial of the cat - and his comments on God?

17.Going back to the band, Angel coming and listening to the songs? The fans and their behaviour, buying collars? Joining in enthusiastically?

18.Bubby and Angel, love and marriage? The sexual encounter? The birth of the child, the acclamation of the band, the exhilaration of new life? Bubby finding his own identity, giving up the identity of Pop, the final credits and his playing with the children? The meaning of the film and in finding life's meaning in ordinariness, joy, love and life?