Jenny Kissed Me (film)

Jenny Kissed Me is a 1985 Australian drama film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith.[3] The director calls it a "tearjerker for men".[4] It is inspired by Leigh Hunt's poem Jenny kiss'd Me, which appears in the opening credits.

Jenny Kissed Me
Video promotional poster
Directed byBrian Trenchard-Smith
Written byWarwick Hind
Based ona screenplay
by Judith Colquhoun
Produced byTom Broadbridge
Starring
CinematographyBob Kohler
Edited byAlan Lake
Music by
Production
company
Nilsen Premiere
Distributed byHoyts Distribution
Release date
6 February 1986
Running time
108 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$1.4 million[1]
Box officeA$1,824 (Australia)[2]

Plot

Jenny is the ten-year-old daughter of Carol, who lives with Lindsay. Carol has an affair and Jenny goes to live with Lindsay, who has a terminal disease.

Cast

Production

The film was funded by the Nilsen group in Melbourne who had invested in BMX Bandits (1983).[5] Trenchard-Smith said he identified with the "human tragedy" of the story where a man came home and lost his step daughter overnight.

One important element in the film is commitment to family and children, as opposed to individual selfishness and the fear of loss of freedom. I was trying to show that the narcissism of the seventies can put a family into a private hell. The seventies had a trade-it-in, throw-it-away attitude towards relationships: if they don't work out, move on. Well, there's a price to pay for moving on when children are involved: you irrevocably damage their lives. And I'm suggesting that in Australia, where has been a 40% failure rate in marriages, there has been a fairly flippant attitude that hasn't really been thought through.[4]

The original script was written by experienced TV writer Judith Colquhoun. Trenchard Smith wanted to "give the story more style" and "make the characters more sophisticated and the feeling more upmarket" but Colquhoun refused to make the changes so the director brought in Warwick Hinds to rewrite. He then cut six pages, rewrote some scenes and wrote two new scenes of his own.[4] Shooting started on 11 March 1985.[6]

Reception

The film was not widely seen, although it screened on Channel Seven. Trenchard Smith later said, "I am fond of the picture, a little florid and melodramatic perhaps, but I wanted to push the conventions of the "weepie."[5]

References
  1. "Production", Cinema Papers, March 1986 p62
  2. Australian Films at the Box Office - Report to Film Victoria Archived 9 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 5 October 2012
  3. David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p370
  4. Brian Jones, 'A Horse for all courses', Cinema Papers, March 1986, p. 28
  5. Jim Schembri, 'Not Quite Hollywood', The Age, 13 September 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2012
  6. "Facts and Figures", Cinema Papers, May 1985, pg. 64
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