The Year My Voice Broke

Background:

A prolific director who also penned the screenplays for his works and frequently explored coming-of-age and post Vietnam/1960s themes, John Duigan is considered as one of a handful of Australian filmmakers who have been able to attain both national and international victory. First earning critical success with his third feature, “Mouth to Mouth” (1978), he is perhaps best known as the writer/director of the critically acclaimed “The Year My Voice Broke” (1987), from which he won two AFI Awards, and its continuation, “Flirting” (1991), as well as the commercial and critical hit “Sirens” (1994). He also won two Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film Award, an Athens International Film Festival Award and a Stockholm Film Festival Award. For his work in “Lawn Dogs” (1997), starring Mischa Barton and Sam Rockwell. His latest movie, “Head in the Clouds” (2004), was named Milan International Film Festival Best Film in 2005. Other directorial credits include “The Firm Man” (1975, his directorial debut, “Winter of Our Dreams” (1981), “Room to Move” (1987, TV), “Romero” (1989, his first American film), “The Leading Man” (1996), “Molly” (1999) and “The Parole Officer” (2001).

Hampshire-Born

Childhood and Family:

John Lawless Duigan was born on June 19, 1949, in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, England, to an Australian father who served in RAF during WWII and remained in England after the war. He was raised there until his family moved to Malaya in 1959. They finally settled in Australia when John attended boarding school. John received a BA in philosophy and history from University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia.

John is linked to several Australian artists. His sister, Virginia Duigan, acted in his film, “Winter of Our Dreams” (1981), and is the writer of “The Leading Man” (1996), which he directed. She is married to director Bruce Beresford, and has a daughter, Trilby Beresford, who is an actress.

Sirens

Career:

John Duigan acted professionally on stage and in films while in college. At around this time, he also served as president of the Melbourne University Student Theatre and co-edited the Melbourne University Magazine. In 1971,he wrote and acted in the independent film “Bonjour Balwyn,” and in 1974 published his first novel, “Badge.” However, it was not until 1975 that Duigan wrote and directed his first film, “The Firm Man.” His follow-up, “The Trespassers” (1976), starring Judy Morris, centered around 1960s-era political activists who face the contradictions of their lives in the 1970s, and with the third feature “Mouth to Mouth” (1978), about four homeless, laid-off youths who set up a community in an uninhibited power station, he enjoyed critical success by taking home two Australian Film Institute (AFI) nominations for Best Film (shared with producer Jon Sainken) and Best Director. Unfortunately, his next directorial effort, “Dimboola” (1979), adapted by John Hibbert from John Power's popular stage comedy, was dismissed by most Australian critics as humorless and unfaithful to its source material.

Soon, Duigan proved he was back on the saddle again with his comeback in 1981, “Winter of Our Dreams,” which received widespread distribution in the USA and abroad. Detailing the complex relationship between a drug-addicted prostitute (played by Judy Davis) and a now booming former radical (played by Bryan Brown) who are brought together by the suicide of a mutual friend, the drama/romance won the writer/director Best Director and Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted AFI nominations as well as a Golden Prize nomination at the Moscow International Film Festival. He followed it up with “Far East” in 1982, which reunited Duigan with actor Brian Brown (who now portrayed an uncertain club owner), and “One Night Stand” in 1984, starring Tyler Coppin and Cassandra Delaney. Many critics found that “Far East” was a failed blending of Hollywood-style love story with a simplistic political thriller.

Duigan branched out to the small screen when he wrote and directed the children's TV special “Room to Move,” starring Nicole Kidman and Alyssa-Jane Cook. The story of two young girls from opposite background who become friends, “Room to Move” was originally aired as portion of the Aussie series “Winners” in 1985 and shown in US on PBS series “Wonderworks” two years later, in 1987. Still in 1987, in collaboration with Kennedy Miller Films, Duigan scripted, directed as well as produced episodes of the epic TV miniseries “Vietnam” for Australian network.

Duigan's next critical acclaimed also arrived that same year when he penned and helmed the semi-autobiographical film “The Year My Voice Broke”(1987), about the triangular relationship of the hero, Danny (played by Noah Taylor), the mysterious Freya (played by Loene Carmen) and the attractive inferior thief Trevor (played by Ben Mendelsohn). For his bright work, Duigan earned two AFI for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. After publishing his second novel, “Players” (1988), the award-winning filmmaker made his American directorial debut with “Romero” (1989), a biopic starring Raul Julia in the title character of the catholic priest archbishop who was assassinated in March 1980. Funded in part by Catholic groups, the film gained worthy attentions from critics.

Opening the 1990s, Duigan scored another critical hit with “Flirting” (1991), which was the continuation of the story of Danny from “The Year My Voice Broke.” In addition to Noah Taylor, who reprised his role, the film also starred Thandie Newton as Thandiwe, the African girl with whom Danny has an affair, and Nicole Kidman as a sexually pent-up senior at Thandiwes' school. He went on to helm “Wide Sargasso Sea” (1993), a prequel to “Jane Eyre,” but it was “Sirens” (1994), an art-house about a repressed couple (played by Hugh Grant and Tara Fitzgerald) who are emancipated by their meeting with a renowned painter (portrayed by Sam Neill), that gave the director/writer a commercially and critically success.

Following “The Journey of August King” (1995), an adaptation of John Ehle's novel, and “The Leading Man” (1996), scripted by sister Virginia and starring Jon Bon Jovi, Duigan, who moved to London in early 1990s, experienced further critical success with “Lawn Dogs” (1997), written by Naomi Wallace. The drama won several awards, including the Stockholm Film Festival Audience Award, the Athens International Film Festival Audience Award and two Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film for Golden Raven and Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver. He next helmed “Molly” (1999), about an autistic woman who is showed to be a genius after surgery to cure her of her mental illness.

Next up Duigan, he directed Jessica Alba and Iain Glen in the thriller film “Paranoid” (2000) and Steve Coogan in the comedy “The Parole Officer” (2001), which Coogan co-scripted with Henry Normal. His latest film, “Head in the Clouds” (2004), a romantic epic starring Charlize Theron, Penélope Cruz and Stuart Townsend, won Duigan a Milan International Film Festival for Best Film in 2005.

Awards:

• Milan International Film Festival: Best Film, “Head in the Clouds,” 2005

• Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film: Golden Raven, “Lawn Dogs,” 1998

• Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film: Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver, “Lawn Dogs,” 1998

• Athens International Film Festival: Audience Award, “Lawn Dogs,” 1997

• Stockholm Film Festival: Audience Award, “Lawn Dogs,” 1997

• Australian Film Institute: Byron Kennedy Award, 1991

• Australian Film Institute: Best Director, “The Year My Voice Broke,” 1987

• Australian Film Institute: Best Screenplay, Original, “The Year My Voice Broke,” 1987