PUBERTY BLUES

Australia, 1981, 87 minutes, Colour.
Nell Schofield, Jad Capelja, Geoff Rhoe, Tony Hughes.
Directed by Bruce Beresford.

Puberty Blues was a commercial success for Bruce Beresford. Beresford had made a breakthrough with the Australian film industry in 1972 with The Adventures of Barry Mc Kenzie (and followed it up in 1974 with Barry Mc Kenzie Holds His Own). In the latter part of the 1970s he directed The Getting of Wisdom and Don’s Party. After an action movie, The Money Movers, he won awards for Breaker Morant.

Soon after this, Beresford moved to Hollywood and made such films as Tender Mercies for which Robert Duvall won an Oscar and Driving Miss Daisy which won the Oscar for best film, Oscar for Jessica Tandy (but not even a nomination for himself). Beresford has continued his prolific career in Hollywood as well as making some films in Australia including The Fringe Dwellers and Paradise Road.

The film was based on a popular novel by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette. They looked at the beach culture south of Sydney in the 1970s and early 80s, centred on Cronulla. It is a picture of youth at the time, school, homes, the beach, the beach culture. It is both a picture and mirror of the times as well as offering something of a critique.

The film had a cast which was not well known – but were able to capture the as of the times and make an impact. The film was interesting to compare the styles and mores of 1980s with those of the previous decade as with those of the succeeding decades.

1. The popularity of the book, the film? The pros and cons: issues, accuracy, insight?

2. The adaptation of an episodic book to the screen? The shaping of the episodes into a story about the two teenage girls? The feminine approach to characters and situations: the original authors, the screenwriter, the producer, the perspective and talent of the actresses? The point of view of director Bruce Beresford? The impact of the story, situations, characters, development of issues, growth and insight?

3. Many Sydneysiders commented on the accuracy/inaccuracy of the film – how accurate and authentic did the film seem, the importance of facts or the importance of the spirit of teenage life in Sydney surf suburbs? The film reflecting the atmosphere and styles of the late '70s, early '80s? Sydney, suburban lifestyle, families, teenagers, parents, school, peer pressure, surf, search and growth, crises? The particularly Australian emphases? Universal impact?

4. The brevity of the film and its effective communication? The colour and Panavision photography: the beaches, affluent suburban homes, shops and shopping centres, drive-ins etc.? School; the bus, classrooms, schoolyard and assemblies, toilet blocks? The visualising of the beach style: the surf, the waves, surfing, the crowded beaches? The range of seasons? The colour, light, sunlight, movement of the Sydney suburbs?

5. The youthful point of view of the film – audiences looking with the eyes of the central characters? The scope and range of interests, the focus on the girl's interests and experience, the limitations of this range? The bias, interest in the peers, friendships, enmities, pressures? The aims of the girls, their hopes, experience at home, at school? The tendency to present adults, especially the parents, as one-dimensional? (And the girls seeing their parents that way?) The comment on the youthful point of view and the irony of its limitations – and their breaking out of the limits?

6. The focus on Debbie and Sue – as typical of the suburban girls? Ordinary girls, their abilities and potential, their capacity for breaking out of the pressure or being trapped within it? The framework of the film and their first walk on the beach, their being rejected, the horse and the sand? The transition to later walks on the beach and their being accepted, under the orders of the boys? The transition to the funeral pyre on the beach? Their final defiant walk and their success at surfing? The passing of time, the growth in experience, mistakes, happiness, the moving to a resolution of this stage of growth? The end of puberty blues?

7. The strength of the friendship of the two girls? Their knowing each other well, accepting each other, support? Sharing their questions and worries? Their conversations at the beach, visiting each other's homes, collaboration in class, Debbie's fight in the bus, the conversations during the jazz ballet class, the exam and the cheating, being called before the headmaster, being accepted by the group at the park, going to the drive-in, the outings and their beginning to be bored, holidays together, Debbie being dropped, the beach sequences, the visit of the boys during the holiday, their concern about Debbie's period, Sue's note and her being called to the headmaster? Their response to Gary's death? Their final defiance? The gesture towards Freda? The two girls as complementary, parallel? Debbie as leader, sue as led? Would Sue have come to insight without Debbie?

8. Debbie and her personality, an attractive girl, the sequences at home – her mother and the setting of the table, doing her homework and feeling persecuted and frustrated, the phone call to Bruce and her list of quest ions for him? Her mother in the garden, Bruce's visit and the awkward ness of his manner, observations, language, the inside of his van? Her mother's concern about going to the cinema and avoiding pushers on the aisle? The buying of the car, Debbie's lack of interest in the colour, the family meal at the Pizza Hut? Her mother's concern for her 'sickle'? Her father and his pleasant concern for his daughter? Carol and the fighting at home, her wanting fifty cents not to tell on the girls going out at night? How well drawn were Debbie's parents? The accuracy in their love for their daughter, not being in touch, their worries? The points made about contemporary parents and their understanding of their children and their children's growth?

9. Mrs Knight and her love for Sue, the domestic sequences, Sue searching for her jeans, the bond between mother and daughter, her return home and their covering up their party, her going to her pottery class?

10. The sketch of the headmaster – his lecturing the boys and the girls about cheating, his standards of behaviour, their good families, their futures – Sue settling down and marrying and raising children? His assembly speech about children smoking on the buses in uniform? His reaction to Sue's note and discussion about sex? His tearing up the note? The dilemma about concern for discipline and the missing out on deeper issues? The exam supervisors, the teacher supervising and the smoking in the toilet? The teacher writing on the board "Your future, not mine"? The few adults in the rest of the film, the drive-in attendant and the girls sneaking in in the boot, the bus driver stopping the bus and ending the fight, the police and the ambulance men? The limited interest of the children in the adult world?

11. The character of Debbie: her age, experience, leadership? An equal to Sue but leading companion? Contrast with the other girls e.g. Cheryl? The clash on the beach with the sand and the horse, the fight in the bus? Helping the boys in the exam? The reaction of the headmaster to the cheating? Her capacity for study and her success? Her irritability at home, clash with her sister? Her wanting to be in the peer group? The acceptability and her going down to the park with Sue? Her being paired off with Bruce – the kiss and the expectation then for intercourse? Her ironic later comment about the courting rites? Her experiences of sex in the van, in Sue's home? Her lack of success and her feeling bad? Her problems about virginity? Her being told she was dropped? The beginnings of the friendship with Gary, his not pushing her? Their experiences shared together? Inviting the boys up for the holiday? Stealing out at night (with 50 cents to Carol) and the tenderness of her night with Gary? The collage of her being worried about her period – at home, at the car sale, the Pizza Hut, the sick day? Her relief when she had her period and communicating it to Sue? Her visit to Gary and disillusionment with him, her accusations of his selfishness? The discovery of Gary's death? Her presence at the memorial rites on the beach, putting her friendship ring on the sticks? Her presence with the boys playing cards, her declaration that they should do something interesting? (The alternate filming of her statements from inside and through the rain-covered window)? Her changing her mind about surfing, walking along the beach with Sue, the exhilaration of surfing and her success? Their being dropped – "Who cares?" A rounded character study of a girl at puberty?

12. Sue seen as companion to Debbie, led by her, her equal? Her taken for granted relationship with Danny? Discussions and sharing with Debbie? Her relationship to her mother? Her giving the note to Debbie in class? Being brought up before the headmaster? Would she have changed if Debbie had not changed?

13. Peer pressure, the girls being dropped and their decision not to worry? The peer pressures – the goals of belonging, 'sucking up to the other girls'? Belonging and acceptance, being part of a group – the way the girls were filmed sun baking while the boys surfed? The boredom of inactivity? Sexual relationships and brusque sexual encounters? Ignorance? The rough life of the girls in the group and the way they were treated by the boys? The need to break through peer pressure?

14. The sketches of the boys: Bruce and his van and its interior decoration, work, not wanting to do hard work, his language, the sexual encounters with Debbie in the back of the van – hitting his head on the roof and her apologising, the Vaseline at the Knights' house? His visit to Debbie's parents and his manner? His dropping Debbie? Danny and his ordinariness, along with the crowd, relating to Sue, expecting a sexual liaison? His cheering the girls with their surfing at the end? Strach and his hardness, sneering? His personifying the boys' attitudes? The baiting of Freda and the abuse of her? Gary and his ordinariness, his family and his mother looking after him, the pressures for exams, the relationship with Debbie, his tenderness, his use of drugs and preoccupation with them, his gradual withdrawal, the scene at home with Debbie's abuse, his death? The memorial rite – even after the others hadn't bothered about him while he was alive when he wasn't surfing much more? The emphasis on surfing and its rituals, the boys not allowing the girls to surf, the girls having to watch, fetch food for the boys, take their orders, go to the drive-ins, help them cheat in exams, accumulate rings (as Cheryl did), be ready to be dropped, make cakes for the boys to eat them, participate in the rituals? The fight with the lifesavers? The male chauvinist presuppositions – the role of the male in Australia and his presuppositions as he grows up?

15. The girls and their subservient role, sex objects, to look good, to be ready for 'rooting', fight, sit, admire?

16. How authentic a picture of puberty blues and the search for identity? Isolation, intimacy? The surf as a symbol for peer group, pressure, belonging?

17. Puberty and change, growth, behaviour, crises, relationships, the resolution of problems? Puberty rituals, 'rites of passage'?

18. The blues and the sad experience, moods, coping, relationship – especially with adults?

19. A satisfying blend of the funny, the sad, the humane? Girls' liberation? Insight into Australian behaviour and attitudes?