My Year Without Sex

My Year Without Sex
Film poster
Directed bySarah Watt
Written bySarah Watt
Produced byBridget Ikin
StarringSacha Horler
Matt Day
Distributed byHibiscus Films
Release date
  • 28 May 2009 (2009-05-28)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Budget$4 million
Box office$1,125,871

My Year Without Sex is an Australian drama film written and directed by Sarah Watt, opening the 2009 Adelaide Film Festival[1] and given wider release in May 2009.

Cast

Synopsis

Set in Altona (suburban Melbourne), it is about a 30-something couple, Ross and Natalie, and their children Ruby and Louis, after Natalie suffers a ruptured brain aneurysm and is advised not to have sex for 12 months.

Watt has said[2] that after her first film Look Both Ways, she wanted to make a film "without a sex scene":

I didn't want to be coy and just avoid it, but once we started playing with that title, the whole thing became about sex.

My ideas were so broad, about anxiety and non-sustainable consumerism and how a non-ruling-class family were coping with how to save for the future and the uncertainty in the work force.

And sex seemed a good way to corral it. A lot of our consumerism is about looking sexually attractive or being anxious.

My Year Without Sex received strongly favourable reviews, and was touted by The Sydney Morning Herald as "possibly the best" Australian film of 2009,[3] as well as "the most accomplished" local film of 2009 by The Age.[4]

As with Look Both Ways, My Year Without Sex deals with the impact that serious illness has on individuals and relationships. The two films are reportedly part of a "proposed trilogy".[5] This film was the last film by Sarah Watt, about two years before she died of bone and breast cancer.

Box office

My Year Without Sex grossed $1,125,871 at the box office in Australia.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Adelaide Film Festival announcement[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ Kalina, Paul (23 May 2009). "No sex? Watt's the fuss about?". Age. Fairfax. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  3. ^ Byrnes, Paul (28 May 2009). "My Year Without Sex". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  4. ^ Wilson, Jake (23 May 2009). "Most accomplished local film of the year". Age. Fairfax. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  5. ^ Kalina, Paul (23 May 2009). "Getting by among the sharks". Age. Fairfax. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  6. ^ "Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2010.