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Clip description
The Summer of 77 can be viewed here in its entirety. Cathy (Mary-Ann Henshaw), age 36, recalls a youthful summer holiday romance involving herself (Brooke Ryan), surfer boy Mick (Tristan Roache-Turner) and her best friend Anna (Kassandra Lee). The older Kathy compares the failure of this romance to that of her recent relationship.
Curator’s notes
Filmmaker Wendy Chandler adopts a parodic tone in her treatment of Cathy’s misplaced affections. At the party, the mature Cathy, single again at 36, mistakenly returns a wave from a newcomer who is in fact greeting his gay friends. The heartthrob of her teenage years, the young, long-haired surfer, turns out to be a ‘nose picker’ looking for casual sexual encounters whose early likeness to American film idol James Dean has disappeared with age. The teenage Cathy’s fantasy of love and romance is subverted by the crudity of male seduction and nausea overcomes her passion.
The musical tracks of Australian bands Sherbet and Skyhooks play an integral role in the film’s re-creation of the 1970s era, Australian beach culture and teenage romance.
