Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Muriel’s Wedding (1994)

A video which normally appears on this page did not load because the Flash plug-in was not found on your computer. You can download and install the free Flash plug-in then view the video. Or you can view the same video as a downloadable MP4 file without installing the Flash plug-in.

Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip 'You embarrass us' education content clip 1, 3

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Muriel (Toni Collette) joins her friends, once the in-crowd from high school, at a local club. Tania (Sophie Lee) has discovered her new husband is having an affair. The others invite Tania to dump him and come on a holiday with them. Muriel doesn’t know about the holiday because they don’t want her to come. Nicole (Pippa Grandison) breaks the news to Muriel – they don’t want her to hang around with them anymore. Muriel’s reaction is extreme, even for her.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

The film was extremely clever at manipulating stereotypes for comic effect, while pushing the situations into the realm of tragedy. Toni Collette’s fears at the end are given extra screen time, to allow her despair to sink in. Most comedies would have cut away from this earlier, but Hogan lingers long enough for the scene to become truly emotional, as well as comical. This is important, because what Hogan is saying about these other characters could easily become vicious. Hogan keeps our sympathies focused on Muriel, whose pain justifies the way he treats these other characters. This manipulation of our sympathies is one of the most skilful aspects of the film, partly because Hogan gives even these reprehensible women – three witches from the high school playground – an edge of melancholy. They are not happy or fortunate; the difference between them and Muriel is that she knows she’s not.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer 'You embarrass us' from the feature film Muriel's Wedding as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
murielsw2_pr.mp4 Large: 22.1MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
murielsw2_bb.mp4 Medium: 10.4MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: