My Brilliant Career (1979)

I spotted this title in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and then I spotted that it starred the lead actor for Jurassic Park, so I was intrigued to see what it involved, from director Gillian Armstrong (Little Women, Charlotte Gray). Basically, set in 1890's Australia, Sybylla Melvyn (A Passage to India's twice BAFTA winning Judy Davis) is the headstrong free spirited heroine, her family have had some ups and downs with poor business decisions and her father drinking heavily. She is relieved to be sent to live with her grandmother on her property where things become more comfortable, and there she meets young wealthy Harry Beecham (Sam Neill), who at first she finds a little annoying. But he falls in love with her and eventually proposes marriage, but she is convinced she is ugly and too tomboyish, therefore she does not believe that he truly loves her. After dismissing the proposal Sybylla's father's drinking has caused them to become caught up in debt, so she goes to work for an almost illiterate neighbour and family they owe money to as a housekeeper. She becomes accustomed to this job to the point where she doesn't mind doing it, but she is relieved to be sent home and kept away from the son of the family who apparently was falling for her. Then Harry returns to ask her to marry him again, but she once again dismisses him saying that she will make him unhappy, and wants to continue her writing and successful, which of course she did and wasn't afraid to brag about in her text at the beginning of the film. The film ends with her concluding the book she started in the opening, and we see her posting the manuscript, this is the conclusion and seemingly a suggestion that the film is about her brilliant career, or rather how it starts. Also starring Wendy Hughes as Aunt Helen, Robert Grubb as Frank Hawdon, Max Cullen as Mr. McSwatt, Patricia Kennedy as Aunt Gussie, Aileen Britton as Grandma Bossier, Peter Whitford as Uncle Julius, Alan Hopgood as Father and Julia Blake as Mother. Young Davis gives a well assured performance as the leading female character, and Neill is pleasantly cool and relatively charming as the possible love interest for her, I will admit I may not have caught up with everything going, but from what I gathered it is a pretty watchable period drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Costume Design, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. Very good!

I just bought the Australian DVD release of My Brilliant Career. All I can say it was worth every penny. I don't need to go into the specifics of the plot. There are plenty of comments listed on IMDb already. But the peformances, by then new and upcoming actors Judy Davis and Sam Neill, are beautifully timeless!! It's everything I'd hoped for and more. It just gets better with repeated viewings.Made on a shoestring budget by new director Gillian Armstrong, the commentary provided by her on the recently released Australian DVD in widescreen is a real treat to listen to! You'll chuckle at the stories she tells on how cast and crew achieved what you see on screen when little or no money was left in the budget. And you'll realize how lucky and fortunate Armstrong and producer Margaret Fink were at landing Judy Davis to play Sybylla.My Brilliant Career is currently out-of-print in the USA. Don't know why, but currently a DVD is out in Australia and the UK only. If only the Criterion Collection would select this film for a DVD release in the USA.....

My Brilliant Career offers viewers an obviously strong female main character - Judy Davis who is the proverbial radical with a cause. Her feminist stance is not well received in the early 1900's patriarchal society. Davis' character, Sybylla is quintessentially balanced by a debonair leading man, Sam Neill as Harry Beecham, who is up for her feminine challenge. The couple reflects a dance with daring, in what initially appears to be an amorous destiny. Sam's failure to recognize Sybylla's long-term determination ends in broken-hearted failure to their potential relationship. But what does all of this mean? How can we view this story in retrospect, and receive the value of current interpretation of feminism today? To begin considering these questions, the filmmaker takes a risk in begging the questions in the first place. In a more equitable society - similar to today - it takes far more that a gutsy, intelligent, determined woman to make a feminist mark. The lack of political, economic, and social ideologies, which support feminist thinking today is not apparent in this film. The social impact of the patriarchal society is heavily contrasted, but it does not necessarily reflect it's opposite. To view this story in retrospect, by assuming the culture of the day, and in light of this contrast, Sybylla is truly outstanding woman: physically, psychologically, and definitely mentally! Though her character is not representative of a archetypal feminist, but rather, one of a philosophical dreamer, with a very strong will and determination. If Sib's character is symbolic in some similar feminist manner, it may only be that she would eventually become a respected, foundational influence on other budding independent, female writers. And while Sib was challenged by other main characters, it is not clear that she actually changed their minds or values, and hence her impact was minimal at best. As an independent women, not feeling a need to be supported by a man, and in additional to her high determination, we might consider Sib a compatriot of Virginia Wolf - women who were coming into their own, but still very uncertain of the social and political climate of their day - not ours. While this movie is both charming and humorous, I definitely would have enjoyed seeing the outcome: an intelligent, strong headed woman succeeding in her writing, developing her sense of self - in conflict with her environment, and likely, the realization that a woman can have her Brilliant career and her man too!

Watching this film made me think of what a strong character Sybylla is. In a time when doing something like trying to have a career, as a woman, was basically not done we are introduced to someone who is so head strong that she doesn't care what anyone says. One thing that I really enjoyed about this movie is the relationship between Sybylla and Harry Beecham because of the way it was presented. Usually a love relationship in a film is something that is just expected after one interaction, the audience should just know that since we see these two characters together they are now in love, nothing that you see actually develop on screen with multiple encounters and a progress of feelings. I felt like a huge part of this story was the development of the Harry/Sybylla connection. It's obvious early in the film that she cares for no one else, when she throws the flowers given to her by Frank in the river we see she has no intention of giving him a second thought. We see through the numerous encounters with these two that they both have very strong feelings for the other and it is finally revealed when he proposes to her. She takes this offer very seriously but realizes that if she is to be true to herself she cannot accept his offer. This hurts both of them very much and we can see that when she is teaching the family that her father is indebted to and she is not able to write him a letter. When he shows up at her family's farm two years later and re-offers his proposal it is another account of just how much she means to him. When she declines again it is for her reasons and for her career that she is not able to accept. I think that this is a great characteristic of her in this film and helps to make the point of how she is such a strong willed woman who will not settle for less then what she knows she is capable of.