Year My Voice Broke

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Recommended: British & American influences on Australian film

Good morning/afternoon Members of the Australian Journalists’ Association.
Today I will be analysing and presenting on the representations of culture shown throughout the Australian movie, “The Year My Voice Broke”. This is a classic Australian film, set in New South Wales during the 1960’s. It was directed by John Duigan in 1983. It begins in a very isolated pocket of New South Wales which the two main characters, Danny and Freya, frequently visit and call their “special place”. These two characters have been best friends since they were rather young; however, when Danny begins puberty, his feelings for Freya grow more personal and he starts to long for a proper relationship with her. His chance with her is ruined by the popular school football player, Trevor, who charms Freya and she easily falls for him. The three of them discover an abandoned house and learn that it was once owned by Freya’s now deceased mother as she …show more content…

Open, grassy and dry, the movie starts in Danny and Freya’s special place. Here, Danny and Freya are shown to be happy with themselves and content with where they are, even though they are quite alone. The audience is positioned to feel peaceful and relaxed while they are there. In this place, there are no distractions and they are calm and away from their problems. This contrasts the scenes when they are in Freya’s house with her ‘parents’ as the camera is zoomed in to make the people appear bigger and the room to look smaller, forming the illusion of the area being crowded, almost as if Freya is being suffocated by her family. It shows that her family is a large part of her problems as its dysfunction affects her. It’s as if the audience is positioned to feel like the parents are the enemies and that they are disturbing Freya with their troubled relationship with each

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