Looking For Alibrandi
Clip 1: The Alibrandi curse
3 min 3 sec
Taken from the feature Looking For Alibrandi (1999)
Original title classification M – this clip chosen to be PG
Availability of the complete title
This clip contains low-level sexual references.
Curator’s clip description
Josie (Pia Miranda) and her friends Sara (Leanne Carlow) and Anna (Diane Viduka) escape from ‘Tomato Day’ at Josie’s grandmother’s house to go to the beach. Josie’s mother Christina (Greta Scacchi) gives her a mouthful at home later for running around Bondi ‘half naked’. Josie senses that something is wrong. Christina finally admits that Josie’s father Michael Andretti is back in Sydney for a year, from Adelaide.
Curator’s notes
A distinguishing characteristic of the first half of the film is the intense energy with which it is played. The film captures the flavour of a girl in her late teens exploding with promise and life. Pia Miranda brings great joy to the role, and an equal measure of turbulent emotion. One of Josephine’s defining characteristics is that she never backs down. Nor do her mother and grandmother, which makes their confrontations memorable and sometimes bruising. Josie is continually testing the limits of what she can say – and sometimes she goes too far, as in clip two when she wounds her grandmother’s feelings.
Paul Byrnes, curator
have teachers’ notes.
