The girls attempt to create a popular social status by ingratiating themselves with the greenhill gang of. The film is based on the 1979 novel puberty blues, by gabrielle carey and kathy lette, which is a protofeminist teen novel about two yearold girls from the lower middle class sutherland shire in sydney. I went to school in the 50s and 60s and puberty blues brought back a lot of memories. Puberty blues is a 1981 australian comingofage film directed by bruce beresford. A television series based on the novel began airing in 2012. It has long been controversial with adults but much sought out by teenagers for its depictions of adolescent sex. Puberty blues 1979 is a novel by the australian writers gabrielle carey and kathy lette. The high school in the book puberty blues picador, 2002 is based on sylvania. Truth masquerades as fiction as kathy lette and gabrielle carey portray themselves, at thirteen years of age, as deb and sue in a tell all account of being a teenager in sydneys beachside suburbs during the 1970s. As susan dermody and elizabeth a feminist analysis of puberty blues is jacka. Pdf file created from a tiff image by tiff2pdf nova.
Puberty blues is a song written by new zealand musician tim finn for the 1981 australian film of the same name. New zealand recording artist jenny morris recorded the single version and released it in december 1981 as her debut single. Puberty blues follows the lives of two sunburnt 16 yearold best friends, raised in the beach city of cronulla in the sutherland. Based on the autobiographical novel by the outrageous salami sisters kathy lette and gabrielle carey, puberty blues is a comingofage chickflick with bite. I cannot say that i was a part of the culture described in the book but i. In the film, new zealand recording artist sharon oneill performs the song. Puberty blues is surely one those early 80s films with its own theme song that makes you just want to throw things at the tv screen, cringing at almost everything the film portrays. I first read puberty blues in 1981, and on rereading it this year to coincide with the new channel 10 miniseries based on the book, its hard to see where kathy stops and gabrielle begins, and vice versa.
Puberty blues is the biography which launched kathy lettes writing career and made her famous. Set in the 1970s, it follows the misadventures of debbie and sue, two cronulla girls angling to break out of dickheadland into the coolest surfie gang. Film victoria australian films at the australian box office pdf. With nell schofield, jad capelja, jeffrey rhoe, tony hughes.
Some of the darker moments of the book have been removed or softened for the film. This is a seamlessly coauthored book about a noholesbarred coming of age. Puberty blues 1981 is made in the social landscape tradition in australian. The mating rituals of two teenage surf chicks from the southern suburbs of sydney. According to the films press book, the first day of shoot was 19th january 1981. The single version has alternate chorus lyrics to that of the film. In puberty blues beresford, 1981 the action of the protagonists takes. Puberty blues is an australian, comingofage film directed by bruce beresford. It is based on the 1979 novel of the same name by gabrielle carey and kathy lette which is a protofeminist teen book about two year old girls, debbie vickers nell schofield and sue knight jad capelja, from the lower middle class sutherland shire in sydney. There were also supposed to be pdfs of jad capeljas script, press clippings. Puberty blues is a semiautobiographical novel written by kathy. Blues 1981 and blue crush 2002 seek to portray the.