The Trespassers

Clip 1: A totally casual thing

2 min 45 sec

Taken from the feature The Trespassers (1976)

Original title classification not known – this clip chosen to be PG

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Availability of the complete title

This clip contains medium-level coarse language.

Curator’s clip description

Penny (Briony Behets) comes home in the middle of the day and finds her husband Richard (John Derum) with another woman, Dee (Judy Morris). Both women are surprised and humiliated. After Dee leaves, Penny and Richard argue about Richard’s lack of communication.

Curator’s notes

The film is concerned with sexual mores among the young educated elite, specifically with the question of whether the changes in attitude brought about by the 1960s went further than skin-deep. The coolness with which all three react to the situation here establishes certain parameters – none of them is very shocked, although Penny is upset by the deception. Richard looks almost happy to be found out. The rest of the film tests out these parameters, in surprising ways.

Paul Byrnes, curator

australian screen