The centerpiece of this year’s London Australian Film Festival is a special double bill dedicated to a legend of Australian stage and screen, Mr Barry Otto. We follow the UK premiere of Otto By Otto, with the Australian actor’s first leading film role in Ray Lawrence’s gloriously dark surrealist comedy, Bliss (1985), adapted from the novel by Peter Carey.

Life is going great for Harry Joy (Otto), but after a startling near-death experience, the advertising exec awakens to a world that is not as he remembered it. The products he advertises cause cancer. His son (Miles Buchanan) and his daughter (Gia Carides) are doing drugs and sleeping together. His wife (Lynette Curran) is cheating on him with a business partner. To escape this newfound hell, Harry sets himself on an uncertain course: living a moral life.

Treated with hostility at Cannes, and winner of several AFI/AACTA Awards, including Best Film, this idiosyncratic and controversial film stunned audiences in 1985, and it remains just as powerful today. It also looks as fresh as the day it was made, having been digitally restored by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia as part of its NFSA Restores initiative.

Presented by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia in partnership with the London Australian Film Festival.

Australian snacks and sweets will be on sale, and a raffle will be held before the screening. With thanks to producer Anthony Buckley, and Elena Guest and Jane Stanley (National Film and Sound Archive of Australia).

WHY WE CHOSE THIS FILM

Laila (LAFF director): “I can’t believe this film is 40 years old and I can’t wait to see it on the big screen for the first time. Uniquely Australian and only Barry could pull off such a fantastic character”

Stephen (LAFF co-programmer): “A complete one of a kind, and a true Aussie cult classic, Bliss is a film that we’ve been itching to screen for years. This year, the timing simply couldn’t be better, and I’m really pleased to be pairing it with Gracie’s documentary about her brilliant father, and screening the recent NFSA restoration to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary."

Cast:
Barry Otto, Lynette Curran, Helen Jones, Miles Buchanan, Gia Carides