The Trespassers

Clip 2: A very close friendship

Taken from the feature The Trespassers (1976)

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

This clip contains low-level coarse language.

Curator’s clip description

Penny (Briony Behets) and Dee (Judy Morris) have gone to a house by the sea for a weekend alone but a succession of men passes through, including two men whose car has broken down. When they leave, Penny assumes that Dee has slept with one of them. She hasn’t, but Dee wants to know why she is concerned. When the two women are caught in a storm, they share a very close moment by the fire.

Curator’s notes

Penny’s more conventional reality is tested by Dee’s seemingly casual approach to sex; it makes her confused and angry, partly because she is becoming fond of her new friend. That is confusing in itself, since Dee has slept with her husband. The scene at the end suggests they are very close to becoming lovers, although we are not shown that. In clip three, Penny tells Richard that they are lovers. This may not be true, as we learn later in the film, but it’s never fully clarified.

Paul Byrnes, curator

Teachers’ notes

provided by The Le@rning Federation

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This clip shows the growing friendship between Penny (Briony Behets) and Dee (Judy Morris), who has had an affair with Penny’s husband Richard. The two women are shown at a cottage by the beach where Penny, believing Dee has had a one-night stand, voices her disapproval. A discussion ensues about men and relationships. In the following sequence, after being caught out in the rain, the two women are shown sitting together on a chair by the fire, and Dee, who is drying Penny’s hair, leans forward and lightly embraces her.

Educational value points

The relationship between Penny and Dee challenges expectations in that the two are not positioned as rivals, but rather bond through their shared experiences as women. Central to The Trespassers is the questioning of sexual conventions, a prime concern of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s. This movement was in part facilitated by the wider availability of reliable contraception, the concept of ‘free love’, musicals such as Hair, and second-wave feminism.

Penny’s disapproval of Dee’s supposed one-night stand is made clear in the judgemental tone in which she says ‘I don’t know how you do it’, and by the way she noisily clears the table and abruptly goes into the kitchen. While Penny explains her reaction by saying she finds one-night stands unsatisfactory and didn’t like the man in question, her response also suggests that she is jealous, and that her feelings for Dee may be more than that of friendship.

By contrasting Dee’s apparently casual approach to sex and Penny’s more conventional attitude, the clip reflects the tension between new and traditional ways of thinking. The sexual revolution began in the 1960s and challenged the idea that sex, particularly for women, should be confined to marriage. Penny grapples with the new sexual mores and the realisation that it is ‘stupid to think you’re the only person someone would be interested in’.

After Penny confronts her, Dee remains calmly seated and this composure suggests she is unperturbed by Penny’s censure, while Penny moves about the cottage, clearly flustered. The two are shown in separate mid shots that mirror Penny’s disapproval of, and consequent distance from her friend. It is only when Dee says she is not interested in men who view women as conquests that Penny sits down at the table with Dee, signalling that they have reached accord.

In the final scene in this clip the comfortable physical closeness of the two women as Dee dries and then gently touches Penny’s hair and their light embrace is indicative of their growing intimacy, but also hints at the possibility of a sexual relationship. The tenderness displayed here is in stark contrast to Penny’s bleak description of one-night stands with men who ‘don’t give much’ and who view women as conquests.

The Trespassers was the second feature film of director and writer John Duigan (1949–), who was among the new crop of filmmakers to emerge during the Australian cinema revival of the 1970s. Duigan’s third film, Mouth to Mouth (1978), brought him critical and financial success; however, he is best known for the award-winning The Year My Voice Broke (1987). His other films include Winter of Our Dreams (1981), Dimboola (1979), Flirting (1991) and Sirens (1994).

Judy Morris studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) and established a career in television, appearing in popular series such as Homicide, Division 4 and Certain Women, before the Australia cinema revival in the 1970s led to roles in films such as The Trespassers, The Picture Show Man (1977), In Search of Anna (1979) and Razorback (1981). More recently she co-wrote Babe: Pig in the City (1998) and was co-writer and co-director of Happy Feet (2006).

British-born Briony Behets, who plays Penny in The Trespassers, studied drama in London and came to Australia to appear in the short-lived television comedy series Birds in the Bush (1972). Her film credits include Raw Deal (1976), Inside Looking Out (1977), Long Weekend (1977), and Cassandra (1986), but she is perhaps best known for roles in a number of television soaps, including Number 96, The Box, Bellbird, Class of ’75, Prisoner, E Street and Neighbours.