THE YEAR MY VOICE BROKE
Australia, 1987, 105 minutes, Colour.
Noah Taylor, Ben Mendelssohn, Loene Carmen, Graeme Blundell, Lynette Curran, Bruce Spence.
Directed by John Duigan.
The Year My Voice Broke was written and directed by John Duigan. It won the AFI Best Film award for 1987. Duigan subsequently made a sequel, Flirting, which won the AFI Best Film of 1990.
Duigan had made a number of significant films in the '70s and '80s including Winter of Our Dreams, Far East, One Night Stand. For television he was one of the writer-directors of the mini-series Vietnam, the director of a Winners film, Room To Move, as well as the biography of Damien Parer, Fragments of War. His first international film was Romero.
The Year My Voice Broke is a rites of passage film. However, unlike so many of the teenage films coming from the United States in the '80s, it is restrained, has a sense of humanity. Noah Taylor is effective as Danny Embling. He is a different kind of Australian hero - not the typical ocker, involved in sports, macho type, but rather more sensitive (even though he apes the macho styles at times). This is much more evident as Danny goes to boarding school in Flirting.
Loene Carmen is very good as Freya, the enigmatic young woman in the small country town, who is the object of Danny's affections and who encounters the town yahoo, Trevor. Trevor is played effectively by Ben Mendelsohn, who also won an AFI Best Supporting Actor award. There is a gallery of adult characters played by some of Australia's best character actors. These include Grahame Blundell, Bruce Spence, Harold Hopkins, Colleen Clifford.
The setting is the southern tablelands of New South Wales in 1962. Hence, there is a distancing effect for contemporary audiences - a comparison of old times with contemporary times, the similarities and the differences, comparisons and contrasts.
1.The impact of the film? Its popularity, awards and acclaim?
2.The writing and directing of John Duigan, his interest in people, relationships, environment? Australian youth, rites of passage?
3.The sensitivity of the film: presentation of characters, nuances of character and situations, relationships? A perspective on Australia's past, comparisons with the present? Sensitivity for the male and the female characters?
4.The Braidwood settings, Willy Hill, the town itself, houses, cafes, hotels? The countryside? The railway line? The contribution of the musical score, the contemporary songs, Vaughan Williams' `Lark Ascending" for the opening and the end?
5.New South Wales in 1962, the isolated small town, education, the pubs and cafes, the highway, the picture show, homes? The portrait of life day by day? The genial face of the small town? The ugly and shadow side of the town?
6.The title, the focus on Danny, the voice-over and his commentary, identifying with him? Adolescence, his own growth, puberty, reaching out, Freya and her influence? The rites of passage - and his observation of them? His relationship with Freya and Trevor? Learning from them? On the verge of manhood, responsibility?
7.Willy Hill, the special place, Danny's introduction (to Williams' `Lark Ascending')? The serious tone, introverted? Searching, values? His comments on Freya and her love for Willy Hill? The abrupt change and the horseplay of the boy and the girl? Their friendships, sequences together, ease of talking, sharing ideas, the drawings, the hypnosis, smoking, sexual passes? The sharing of sorrows and hurt? The puzzle about the house, visiting Mrs O'Neill, Freya's grandmother? The relationship with Trevor, the pregnancy, the miscarriage, hospital? Willy Hill as the place for the film to end - for the completion of this part of Danny's story, for memories, regrets?
8.Noah Taylor as Danny: age, the introduction, the intuitive type and his room, books, interested in telepathy, force fields, hypnotism? His wanting to be a singer, guitar and songs throughout the film, singing for Freya? His preoccupation about sex, thinking of Freya, taking the panties, Peyton Place, sexual preoccupations? His hopes and expectations in the town? Friendship with Freya, love for her, spying for her and the blind coming down, the panties and his embarrassment, his prayers? His disappointment with Freya and the friendship with Trevor? The scene at the swimming pool and her almost drowning? Watching the driving? Going to the pictures with Gail instead of Freya? The visits to Mrs O'Neill, the visits to Jonah, listening to his ideas? The dance and Trevor turning up? Danny and his cigarette and dark glasses? Her telling him about the pregnancy, his wanting to rescue her, questions of abortion, possibility of marriage? Knowing where she was, helping her with the miscarriage? Her farewell and his being hurt?
9.Freya, adopted, her step-parents and Gail, the grandmother and feeding her? Her retiring to Willy Hill? Her reputation in the school and the girls attacking her - and her spitting back? At home with Danny? Understanding him well? Trevor, the swimming-hole, the driving, the meetings, the film? Going to the old house, the sexual encounter - and Danny's presence? The pregnancy, Trevor going away, his death? The miscarriage and her experience? The hospital and Danny explaining to her who her mother was and the background? Her relationship with Nils - his drinking, his disregard for her? Her stepmother trying to look after her - but concerned about Gail? Going to the station, the farewell to Danny, the farewell to Gail? Her future?
10.Trevor and his hyperactivity, his laugh, sports and the match, sucking the oranges with Freya, the popular hero, the hyperactivity at the swimming-hole and the danger? His father staying at the pub? Stealing the cars, driving with Freya, the police watching him, running away? His going to the house, the frankness of his talk with Freya, sexuality? His breaking free and driving on the highway, the bashing of the man, the police after him, his death?
11.Danny and his parents, their running the pub, his free run of the hotel? Listening to stories about Sarah, the tensions, overhearing his parents talk about her, the accusations by his mother? His talking things through with each of them? The embarrassment of his father? The visits to Mrs O'Neill - her death, the gift for Freya? The friendship with Jonah, the effect of listening to the stories of the force fields, his sense of the world, he and Freya having a sense of the presence of the whole world in their town? Danny at school, the boys slinging off at him, reading his poetry aloud, putting his head down the toilet? At the swimming-hole, out in the fields with the hay - and the talk with Trevor about Freya? His sitting apart during the lunch break? Always slightly apart? The police and their treatment of him and his father taking him home from the police station?
12.The Olsens, their role in the town, the cafe? Lack of customers? Nils and his drinking, boasting about the racehorses? Laughing at Trevor's father and his discomfort about his son? Gail, the rivalry with Freya? The mother and her concern, the grandmother? Freya disowned by her family?
13.The Emblings, their work at the hotel, the background of Sarah, the truth about Danny's father and his relationship with her?
14.Jonah, the eccentric, working on his novel, the first Australian erotic novel? His theory about force fields - and understanding the aborigines with the world as a museum of energy of the past? His story of the Cootamundra Girl, the romance, her leaving him?
15.The men in the pub, drinking, Trevor's father, the football coach, Nils? The background of Sarah, their going out to her, the house as a brothel? Her death, the discussion about looking after her child, Nils being dobbed in?
16.Mrs O'Neill, the picture? The grave? Freya not knowing about her mother? Danny putting together Sarah's story, the men, his father seeing her as an attractive young girl, the birth, her death? The haunted house? His telling Freya?
17.The teenagers and the town, the boys, slinging off at Danny, their behaviour in the school? Trevor's being the hero and literally knocking them against the wall? The outings to the pictures, the flirting? The football matches?
18.Danny as a different kind of Australian hero, the gentling of the Australian hero? Sensitivity, imagination, more introverted, searching? The perspective on women from Danny's point of view, less macho, more sensitive?
19.The film as a piece of Australiana? Remembering the '60s? The perspective of the '80s?
