{"id":31831,"date":"2013-06-24T20:39:30","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T03:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=31831"},"modified":"2021-01-01T11:17:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T18:17:14","slug":"my-brilliant-career-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=31831","title":{"rendered":"My Brilliant Career (1979)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Why does it always have to come down to marriage?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Poster-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-31832\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Poster-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Poster-86x128.jpg 86w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Poster.jpg 510w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nIn 1890s Australia, a strong-willed young woman (Judy Davis) is determined to transcend her family&#8217;s hard-scrabble life and pursue a career in the arts &#8212; but when she becomes close friends with a handsome, wealthy acquaintance (Sam Neill), romantic tensions begin to complicate her goals.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Australian Films<\/li>\n<li>Career-versus-Marriage<<\/li>\n<li>Feminism and Women&#8217;s Issues<\/li>\n<li>Historical Drama<\/li>\n<li>Romance<\/li>\n<li>Strong Females<\/li>\n<li>Writers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that &#8220;Judy Davis is perfectly cast&#8221; in director Gillian Armstrong&#8217;s &#8220;popular adaptation of [an] autobiographical novel&#8221; by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Miles_Franklin\">(Stella) Miles Franklin<\/a>, about &#8220;an aspiring writer and avowed bachelorette&#8221; in early 20th century Australia who &#8220;sees how repressed married women in all classes of society [are], and realizes that in order to write, she must remain single&#8221; &#8212; which means &#8220;turning down a kind, handsome, understanding, playful man (Sam Neill), although they love each other&#8221;. Peary argues that &#8220;while praised for its feminism, [the] picture has rightly been criticized for ignoring the fact that [the central character, Sybylla Melvyn] was a lesbian&#8221;. Regardless, &#8220;what is positive is that Davis truly enjoys the company of women (and they benefit from her friendship)&#8221;; however, while these women &#8220;don&#8217;t realize their potential because they married&#8221;, they nonetheless &#8220;expect free-spirited Davis&#8221; &#8212; who &#8220;knows better&#8221; &#8212; to &#8220;follow their lead&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Just as we can&#8217;t help questioning Jill Clayburgh&#8217;s ultimate romantic decisions in the final scenes of <em>An Unmarried Woman<\/em> (1978) (released the previous year), it remains somewhat challenging to watch Davis respectfully rebuffing Neill&#8217;s initial marriage proposal. (He&#8217;s so wealthy! So handsome! So playful! So PERFECT for her!) Indeed, the romantic purist in us desperately wants these two kindred spirits to be united. Yet it&#8217;s to Armstrong&#8217;s and screenwriter Eleanor Whitcombe&#8217;s credit that they maintain their film&#8217;s focus on its feminist &#8220;agenda&#8221;: evoking a particular historical era (the period sets are stellar) when to be married was truly much more of a &#8220;life sentence&#8221; for women than we can conceive of today. From our modern perspective, we wish youthful Davis would be <em>truly<\/em> radical and reconsider the terms of marriage altogether, thus having her cake and eating it, too. But her decisions are made within a very specific milieu: having seen so many females around her suffering &#8212; most notably her once-beautiful mother [Julia Blake], now burdened with too much work, a good-for-nothing husband, and far too many kids; and her quietly heart-broken aunt (Wendy Hughes), whose husband abandoned her &#8212; we ultimately admire her strength of will. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Judy Davis as Sybylla Melvyn (nominated by Peary as one of the Best Actresses of the Year in his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Davis.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Davis-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-31837\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Davis-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Davis-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Davis-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Davis.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Fine cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Cinematography-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-31836\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Cinematography-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Cinematography-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Cinematography-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Cinematography.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Remarkably authentic period sets<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-31834\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets2-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-31835\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets2-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets2-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets2-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/My-Brilliant-Career-Sets2.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, for Davis&#8217;s stand-out performance, and as a fine feature debut by a talented female director. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Important Director<\/li>\n<li>Noteworthy Performance(s)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> (<span style=\"color:red;font-weight:bold;\">Listed in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-static\/1001Movies.htm\"><em>1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die<\/em><\/a><\/span>) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0079596\/?ref_=sr_1\">IMDb entry<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/movies.nytimes.com\/movie\/review?res=9405E0DC1438E432A25755C0A9669D946890D6CF\">NY Times Original Review<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1627bril.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Why does it always have to come down to marriage?&#8221; Synopsis: In 1890s Australia, a strong-willed young woman (Judy Davis) is determined to transcend her family&#8217;s hard-scrabble life and pursue a career in the arts &#8212; but when she becomes close friends with a handsome, wealthy acquaintance (Sam Neill), romantic tensions begin to complicate her goals. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Australian Films Career-versus-Marriage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31831"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61017,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31831\/revisions\/61017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}