Mouth to Mouth (1978) Online
Mouth to Mouth follows the lives of four young people, trying to improve their lives in a harsh and unforgiving city.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
 | Kim Krejus | - | Carrie |
| Sonia Peat | - | Jeanie |
 | Ian Gilmour | - | Tim |
| Serge Frazzetto | - | Sergio |
| Walter Pym | - | Fred |
| Michael Carman | - | Tony |
| Roslyn De Winter | - | Social Welfare officer (as Roz De Winter) |
| Thea Pritchard | - | Social Welfare officer |
| Janys Hayes | - | Girl in training center |
| Shona Stephen | - | Girl in training center |
| Jayne Craig | - | Girl in training center |
| Neil McColl | - | Mangles |
| Peter Finlay | - | Daryl |
| Robynne Bourne | - | Susan |
| Peter Ashby | - | Milkshake customer |
The picture represented a rare instance where an Australian film shot for less than Aust $150,000 (the budget was Aust $129,000) was successful at the box-office.
The production shoot for this film was shot over four weeks during June and July 1977.
The movie didn't premiere until July 1978, about a year after principal photography had been completed.
There were fourteen drafts of the screenplay.
Half of the lead cast had no acting experience.
The movie was nominated for three AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards in 1978 including Best Film. It failed to win any but did receive a special Jury Prize from the AFI.
The film is often compared alongside another 1970s Australian youth culture movie, Pure S (1975).
The movie features a memorable easy-listening tune "The More You Love The Harder You Fall" heard during the final credits but no song credits for it are billed during them.
Cinematographer Tom Cowan previously worked with director 'john Duigan' on Bonjour Balwyn (1971) where Duigan was the lead actor. The two would also collaborate on Dimboola (1979), One Night Stand (1984) and Winter of Our Dreams (1981).
The film had a crew size of only eleven people.
Director John Duigan third feature film. Duigan performed a number of roles on the movie, Duigan was writer, director and a producer.
The movie generally featured no improvisation or ad libbing by the actors.
Prior to filming, there was a two week rehearsal period at a house where the four person lead cast bonded and work-shopped the film.
Film funding bodies rejected the movie three times before the Victorian Film Corporation supported the picture with the Roadshow Organisation picking it up for distribution. The 16mm print was blown up to 35mm for its theatrical release.
Production manager Vicki Molloy was instrumental in keeping the movie on schedule.
Most of the film's cast were teenagers.
For the film's lead cast, it was the first feature film for three of them, Sonia Peat, Kim Krejus and Serge Frazzetto.
During the 1990s, the film's co-writer/producer/director John Duigan said of this film: "Mouth to Mouth (1978) was probably, in my early period of film-making in Melbourne, the film that I value most. I feel it is closest to what I set out for - and probably was the first film that I got close to achieving what I set out to do".
In a 1978 'Cinema Papers' interview, John Duigan said of this film: "It began with the idea of four teenagers spending a night on the town, and just extended from that. I decided to try and make a film that would involve a fairly wide-ranging audience in the experiences of four sympathetic characters who are battling to get some kind of life going at the lower end of society. Characters whom the middle-class audience generally reads about as numbers in the unemployment figures, or kids in juvenile courts".
User reviews