Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Living with Happiness (2001)

play Violence – low
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Imagined catastrophies

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

Clip description

A mother (voiced by Sigrid Thornton) calms herself with soothing images of the beach and sea. But her anxieties take over; she imagines disastrous scenarios at home, school and on the road. She arrives at the beach, unharmed.

Curator’s notes

The mother’s imagined accidents and catastrophies are so unlikely and extreme as to make us laugh and join in her self-ridicule. The gentle instrumental melody and peaceful sounds of the beach contrast sharply with the jagged sound effects of imagined disasters.