| Bad Boy Bubby | |
|---|---|
Blue Underground DVD cover |
|
| Directed by | Rolf de Heer |
| Written by | Rolf de Heer |
| Starring | Nicholas Hope Claire Benito Ralph Cotterill |
| Editing by | Suresh Ayyar |
| Release date(s) | 1993 |
| Running time | 112 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Box office | A$808,789 |
Bad Boy Bubby is an Australian black comedy/drama film written and directed by Rolf de Heer. It stars Nicholas Hope and Carmel Johnson. It was released in 1993.
Bubby became notorious for pushing the boundaries of good taste with its strong scenes featuring violence, incest and blasphemy amongst other taboo topics.
Contents |
Bubby (played by Hope) is a 35-year-old man who has never set foot outside his mother's (actress Claire Benito) dingy apartment in the back of a printing press in an industrial area of Adelaide. In addition to beating and sexually abusing him, she confines him to the apartment, telling him that the air outside is poisonous and warning him that he will die if he tries to leave. Bubby eventually escapes, joins up with a rock band, and embarks on a journey of self-discovery and shocking mayhem.
Director Rolf de Heer describes the movie as one large experiment, the most prominent of which is the method used to record the dialogue; binaural microphones were sewn into the wig worn by leading actor Nicholas Hope, one above each ear. This method gave the sound track a unique sound that closely resembled what the character would actually be hearing. The film also used 31 individual directors of photography to shoot different scenes. Once the character of Bubby reaches 'outside' a different director of photography is used for every location until the last third of the film - allowing an individual visual slant on everything Bubby sees for the first time. No director of photography was allowed to refer to the work of the others.[1]
Bubby won four 1994 Australian Film Institute awards; Best Director (Rolf de Heer), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Nicholas Hope), Best Original Screenplay (Rolf de Heer) and Best Editing (Suresh Ayyar). It was also nominated for Best Film (Rolf de Heer) and Best Cinematography (Ian Jones).
On 23 April 2007 Eureka Entertainment released Bad Boy Bubby on DVD for the UK market with all scenes intact. On the Blue Underground DVD, director Rolf de Heer claims that Bubby was the 2nd highest grossing film in Norway in 1995, second only to Batman Forever. In the UK it was cut for cruelty to a cat.[2] The film was released on DVD in April 2005 by the Blue Underground company, and a special Two Disc Collectors' Edition was also released in June 2005 by Umbrella Entertainment.
Bad Boy Bubby grossed $808,789 at the box office in Australia,[3].