Bliss And Lantana Comparison

Ray Lawrence is an Australian film and television director who has made three critically acclaimed feature films over two decades. His first film, Bliss, initially struggled to gain an audience, but later grew to become an art-house hit (Byrnes, n.d.-a). Following Bliss, it wasn’t until 16 years later that he released his next film Lantana, and then another 5 years until the release of Jindabyne. These films are unique in that they tend to have more focus on the development of the characters rather than the progression of a narrative. Through these films Lawrence has developed a reputation for his one-take shoots and use of natural light. This essay will explore more deeply the similarities and differences between Lawrence’s most recent films

The film is said to be ahead of its time, and it initially struggled to gain an audience. During its first screening at the Cannes Film Festival, 400 people walked out of the original 130 minute cut. In Australia, no distributors wanted to touch it until the ‘R’ classification it received for the depiction of incest between Harry’s children, was overturned. The film was cut down to 112 minutes for theatrical release and eventually grew an audience and went on to win the AFI awards for Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Adapted Screen play for 1985 (Byrnes, n.d.-a). Despite the success, it took Lawrence another 15 years to get funding for his next feature film,

Lantana is metaphoric of the weed after which it is named. It is a thick bush that is hard to get rid of, but has a beautiful flower. This metaphor is established from the opening shot discussed before, that shows the beautiful green leaves and flowers before delving into the thorns that lay beneath, and the body of the deceased woman. The idea of what lies behind the beautiful flowers of someone’s life is something that runs through the film, and is revealed in the characters as the story goes on. The plant, lantana, is present throughout the film appearing again as the bush that Nik throws Valerie’s shoe into - again enforcing the metaphor of something behind the exterior flowers. Similarly, Jindabyne uses the metaphor of the town under the water as a representation of things being deeper than what is seen on the surface. For all of the characters in the film, there is something inside them that is always there, until something happens that brings those things to the