Bliss (1985 film)

Bliss is a 1985 Australian film directed by Ray Lawrence, coadapted by Lawrence and Peter Carey, author of the original novel Bliss from which it is adapted.

Harry Joy, an advertising executive in an unnamed Australian city who is known for his ability to tell stories, has a terrifying neardeath experience after suffering a massive heart attack, brought on by his dissolute lifestyle. Upon recovering, he believes himself to be either in a hellish version of the world he knew, or with his eyes opened to an altogether different view of that world. He eventually discovers that his wife is unfaithful, his dissolute daughter trades sex for hard drugs with his deviant son, and his latest client is a carcinogenic polluter.Harry tries to reform and steer a morally correct path, abandoning most of the trappings of his previous affluent life, to the dismay and disruption of everyone around him. He is also seemingly tested by a series of bizarre and frightening events including being sectioned to a psychiatric hospital. In one memorable sequence, Harry is dragged through a bizarre and blackly humorous chain of events, in which he smokes marijuana for the first time with a terminally ill waiter friend, then has his car crushed by an elephant and is finally arrested. The extended version of this sequence was cut from the original theatrical release after its premiere at Cannes, but the full length scene featuring a tourdeforce monologue by Barry Otto captured in a single unedited take was restored for the films reissue in the 1990s. ........

Source: Wikipedia