My Brilliant Career | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gillian Armstrong |
Screenplay by | Eleanor Witcombe |
Based on | My Brilliant Career 1901 novel by Miles Franklin |
Produced by | Margaret Fink |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Donald McAlpine |
Edited by | Nicholas Beauman |
Music by | Nathan Waks |
Production companies | The New South Wales Film Corporation Margaret Fink Productions |
Distributed by | GUO Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Budget | AU$890,000 [1] |
Box office | AU$3,052,000 (Australia) $2.5 million (US/Canada) [2] |
My Brilliant Career is a 1979 Australian period drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong, and starring Judy Davis, Sam Neill, and Wendy Hughes. Based on the 1901 novel of the same name by Miles Franklin, it follows a young woman in rural, late-19th-century Australia whose aspirations to become a writer are impeded first by her social circumstance, and later by a budding romance.
Filmed in the Monaro region, New South Wales in 1978, My Brilliant Career was released in Australia in August 1979, and later premiered in the United States at the New York Film Festival. It received significant critical acclaim, and was nominated for numerous AACTA Awards, winning three, while Davis won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. In the United States, it received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film.
Contemporarily, the film is regarded as being part of the Australian New Wave of cinema. In 2018, it underwent restoration by the Australian National Sound and Film Archive, and was issued on Blu-ray and DVD by the Criterion Collection the following year.
In 1897 in rural Australia, Sybylla, a headstrong, free-spirited young woman, dreams of a better life to the detriment of helping run her family's country farm. Considered a larrikin by her family, Sybylla dreams of having a career in writing or the performing arts. Her parents, upset by her notions of grandeur and believing her to be stalling her life, inform Sybylla that they can no longer afford to keep her in the household. They send her to board with her wealthy maternal grandmother in hopes of teaching her socially accepted manners and behaviour.
Upon arriving, Sybylla swiftly feels out of place in her new environs. She is soon courted by two local men, jackaroo Frank Hawdon, whom she ignores, and well-to-do childhood friend Harry Beecham, of whom she grows increasingly fond. Sybylla is sent to spend time at the Beecham estate, and her feelings increase toward Harry. She returns to her grandmother's home when Harry is sent on a tour of their properties, with everyone on both estates coyly approving of their romance. Sybylla's Aunt Helen warns her against Harry's courtship, and advises that Sybylla marry for friendship rather than love.
Frank attempts to derail Harry and Sybylla's budding relationship by sparking rumours, which leads to increasing tensions between the two. Harry and Sybylla take turns attempting to make the other jealous at a ball, leading to Harry's surprise proposal. Sybylla gruffly rejects him, to everyone's surprise. Harry later reveals his rush was to protect Sybylla from his potential financial collapse. Sybylla counters by asking Harry to wait while she discovers herself, and asks him to delay his proposal for two years.
Sybylla is summoned by her grandmother, and is told she must take a job as governess and housekeeper to the indigent family of an illiterate neighbour to whom her father owes money. Working in squalor, she manages to teach the children to read using the newspapers and book pages wallpapering their home. To her delight, Sybylla is eventually sent home when the parents become incorrectly convinced that she is wooing their eldest son. Harry visits and proposes again, but Sybylla again rejects him, stating her intent to become a writer; she tenderly explains that a marriage between the two would be emotionally damaging.
Returning to her family's farm, Sybylla completes a manuscript of her first novel, My Brilliant Career, which she hopefully mails off to a Scottish publishing house.
Margaret Fink had purchased the rights to Miles Franklin's novel of the same name, and the Australian Film Development Corporation suggested she hire a writer to adapt it [3] and Fink selected Eleanor Witcombe. Gillian Armstrong met Fink while working as an assistant art director on the latter's The Removalists (1975) and Fink was impressed with her short film "A Hundred a Day". [3] She subsequently hired Armstrong to direct. [4] [5] [6] Greater Union invested $200,000 in the project, the NSW Film Corporation invested $450,000 with the balance coming from private investors. [1]
Armstrong brought in editor Ted Ogden to work on the script, which caused tension between her and Witcombe. For a time Witcombe threatened to take her name off the credits but ultimately decided not to. [1] [7] Commenting on her aspirations for the film, Armstrong said in 1979: "I wanted to make the statement that the heroine is a full woman who can develop her talents and have a career. I didn't want to reinforce the old stereotypes that a woman who has a career only does so only because she can't get a man." [8]
The role of Sybylla was cast in January 1978 but when the actress was tested in costume it was felt she was wrong for the role. [1] Judy Davis was cast instead; it was her first leading role. [1]
Principal photography of My Brilliant Career took place over eight weeks in October and November 1978 in the Monaro region of New South Wales. [9] Some scenes were shot at the Ryrie homestead at Michelago, New South Wales with Camden Park Estate featuring as Harry Beecham's 'Five Bob Downs' property. [10] The film's theme music was an arrangement from "Of Foreign Lands and People" from Robert Schumann's Kinderszenen . [11] Davis plays her on-screen piano part herself. [1] Other pieces of classical music used in the film include arrangements of "Träumerei" from Kinderszenen, and of the Piano Quartet in E♭ minor by Schumann. [11]
My Brilliant Career was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979 [12] and received a warm reception. [1] The film had its international debut in New York City at the New York Film Festival on 1 February 1980, followed by a release in Japan on 2 January 1982, and in Poland on 23 July 2007 at Era New Horizons Film Festival.
My Brilliant Career grossed $3,052,000 at the box office in Australia. [13]
Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times lauded the film for its "resolute and courageous ending," also deeming it "beautifully written, photographed, directed, and acted." [14] The New York Times ' Janet Maslin also praised the film, noting in her review: "My Brilliant Career doesn't need to trumpet either its or its heroine's originality this loudly. The facts speak for themselves—and so does the radiance with which Miss Armstrong and Miss Davis invest so many memorable moments." [15]
It has an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 21 reviews. [16]
Award | Category | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
AACTA Awards (1979 AFI Awards) | Best Film | Margaret Fink | Won | [17] |
Best Direction | Gillian Armstrong | Won | ||
Best Adapted Screenplay | Eleanor Witcombe | Won | ||
Best Actress | Judy Davis | Nominated | ||
Best Supporting Actor | Robert Grubb | Nominated | ||
Best Supporting Actress | Aileen Britton | Nominated | ||
Patricia Kennedy | Nominated | |||
Wendy Hughes | Nominated | |||
Best Cinematography | Donald McAlpine | Won | ||
Best Editing | Nicholas Beauman | Nominated | ||
Best Production Design | Luciana Arrighi | Won | ||
Best Costume Design | Anna Senior | Won | ||
Academy Awards | Best Costume Design | Nominated | ||
ACS Award | Cinematographer of the Year | Donald McAlpine | Won | |
BAFTA Awards | Best Actress | Judy Davis | Won | |
Most Outstanding Newcomer to Leading Film Roles | Won | |||
Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | Gillian Armstrong | Nominated | [18] |
Golden Globe Awards | Best Foreign Film | My Brilliant Career | Nominated | |
Kansas City Film Critics Circle | KCFCC Award for Best Foreign Film | Won | ||
London Film Critics' Circle | Special Achievement Award | Gillian Armstrong | Won | |
Blue Underground released My Brilliant Career in a two-disc special edition DVD in 2005. [19] A Blu-ray edition was subsequently issued by Blue Underground in 2009. [20]
In 2018, the Australian National Film and Sound Archive restored the film, [10] and this restoration was subsequently issued on DVD and Blu-ray in 2019 by the U.S. home media company the Criterion Collection. [21]
My Brilliant Career has been noted by film historians as a part of the Australian New Wave of cinema. [22] In a retrospective essay celebrating the film's inclusion in the Criterion Collection, film scholar Carrie Rickey notes that both the film and its source novel alive have "become part of Australian identity." [23]
Though Judy Davis received critical acclaim for her performance, director Gillian Armstrong stated that Davis was never fond of the film [3] and disliked her character. [24]
Howards End is a 1992 period romantic drama film directed by James Ivory, from a screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based on the 1910 novel of the same name by E. M. Forster. Marking Merchant Ivory Productions' third adaptation of a Forster novel, it was the first film to be released by Sony Pictures Classics. The film's narrative explores class relations in turn-of-the-20th-century Britain, through events in the lives of the Schlegel sisters.
My Brilliant Career is a 1901 novel written by Miles Franklin. It is the first of many novels by Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (1879–1954), one of the major Australian writers of her time.
Paris, Texas is a 1984 drama road film directed by Wim Wenders, co-written by Sam Shepard and L. M. Kit Carson, and produced by Don Guest. It stars Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Aurore Clément, and Hunter Carson. In the film, disheveled recluse Travis Henderson (Stanton) reunites with his brother Walt (Stockwell) and son Hunter (Carson). Travis and Hunter embark on a trip through the American Southwest to track down Travis's missing wife, Jane (Kinski).
Judith Davis is an Australian actress in film, television, and on stage. With a career spanning over 40 years, she has been commended for her versatility and regarded as one of the finest actresses of her generation. Frequent collaborator director Woody Allen described her as "one of the most exciting actresses in the world". She is the most awarded recipient for the AACTA Award with nine accolades and has received numerous accolades, including three Emmy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards, and two nominations for Academy Awards.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is a 1992 American psychological horror film directed by David Lynch and written by Lynch and Robert Engels. It serves as a prequel to the television series Twin Peaks (1990–1991), created by Mark Frost and Lynch, who were also executive producers. It revolves around the investigation into the murder of Teresa Banks and the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer, a popular high school student in the fictional Washington town of Twin Peaks. Unlike the series, which was an uncanny blend of detective fiction, horror, the supernatural, offbeat humor, and soap opera tropes, the film has a much darker, less humorous tone.
Little Women is a 1994 American coming-of-age historical drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong. The screenplay by Robin Swicord is based on Louisa May Alcott's 1868–69 two-volume novel of the same title, the fifth feature film adaptation of the classic story. After a limited release on December 25, 1994, the film was released nationwide four days later by Columbia Pictures.
The Tales of Hoffmann is a 1951 British Technicolor comic opera film written, produced and directed by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger working under the umbrella of their production company The Archers. It is an adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's 1881 opera The Tales of Hoffmann, itself based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann.
Gillian May Armstrong is an Australian feature film and documentary director, best known for My Brilliant Career, Little Women, The Last Days of Chez Nous, and Mrs. Soffel. She is a Member of the Order of Australia.
A Touch of Zen is a 1971 wuxia film written, co-edited and directed by King Hu. Its screenplay is based on a classic Chinese story "Xianü" in the book Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling. The film is set in the Ming dynasty under the dominance of eunuchs and explores a variety of themes including the transcendence of dichotomies, Zen Buddhism, feminism, conservative female roles, and the ghost story.
Wise Blood is a 1979 black-comedy drama film directed by John Huston and starring Brad Dourif, Dan Shor, Amy Wright, Harry Dean Stanton, and Ned Beatty. It is based on the 1952 novel Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. As a co-production with Germany the film was titled Der Ketzer or Die Weisheit des Blutes when released in Germany, and Le Malin when released in France.
Starstruck is a 1982 Australian comedy-drama musical film directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Jo Kennedy, Ross O'Donovan and Margo Lee. The plot concerns two teenagers trying to break into the music industry. The film was shot on location in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was marketed with the tagline "A Comedy Musical." The hotel shots were filmed at the Harbour View Hotel in The Rocks, near the south pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Sweetie is a 1989 Australian black comedy drama film directed by Jane Campion, and starring Genevieve Lemon, Karen Colston, Tom Lycos, and Jon Darling. Co-written by Campion and Gerard Lee, the film documents the contentious and chaotic relationships among a woman in her twenties, her parents, and her emotionally unstable sister. It was Jane Campion's first feature film. It was entered into the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film in 1991.
Laura Jones is an Australian screenwriter.
Wake in Fright is a 1971 Australian New Wave film directed by Ted Kotcheff, written by Evan Jones, and starring Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay and Jack Thompson. Based on Kenneth Cook's 1961 novel of the same name, it follows a young schoolteacher who descends into personal moral degradation after finding himself stranded in a brutal, menacing town in outback Australia.
Secret Sunshine is a 2007 South Korean drama film directed by Lee Chang-dong. The screenplay based on the short fiction "The Abject" by Lee Cheong-jun that focuses on a woman as she wrestles with the questions of grief, madness and faith. The Korean title Miryang is named after the city that served as the film's setting and filming location, of which "Secret Sunshine" is the literal translation. For her performance in the film, Jeon Do-yeon won the Prix d'interprétation féminine at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. The film also won the award for Best Film at the Asian Film Awards and at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The film sold 1,710,364 tickets nationwide in South Korea alone.
Margaret Fink is an Australian film producer, noted for her important role in the revival of Australian cinema in the 1970s.
High Tide is a 1987 Australian drama film starring Judy Davis, from a script by Laura Jones, about the mother-daughter bond, directed by Gillian Armstrong. Armstrong reported that when she began work on High Tide she pinned a note above her desk: "Blood ties. Water. Running Away." Jan Adele plays Lilli's mother-in-law Bet, in her film debut.
Edens Lost is a 1989 Australian mini-series based on the novel of the same title by Sumner Locke Elliott, produced by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Central Independent Television.
Eleanor Katrine Witcombe was an Australian writer who worked extensively in radio, film and television.