My Brilliant Career (1979)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

From my favorite movies..

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

My Brilliant Career is a simple and straightforward narrative skillfully told. You will never be required to sit on the edge of your seat, and half a bottle of port would do you nicely. The setting is mostly quaint -- often opulent and petulant -- in outback, and somewhat eccentric, Australia still inside the first one hundred years of white settlement.The story is about a young woman who is the daughter of a struggling rancher and who has a profound passion for the arts. "I'd like to be a pianist", she says with a burst of defiant emotion in a heated confrontation with her contemplative mother. In the end, though, she ends up becoming a writer, and what will torment her is the choice she will have to make.What she has to forfeit is a bright no-nonsense handsome young man. Two years after they had solemnly admitted their feelings for one another, they meet again. At this awkward moment her hands are covered in mud which, like God, stands between her and her lover. "… I've got to do it alone", she whispers to him guiltily. At this critical juncture it becomes manifestly clear that God, after all, is indeed a damnable thing. He alone can grant whatever talents we shall hope to have, and only on His terms we are obliged to direct our will.My Brilliant Career is one rare Australian motion picture that does not place emphasis on the scenery which, Australia being the dazzler that it is, is invariably tempting. Instead the interest is focused unabatedly, and without distraction, on the soul and substance of each and every character. It is this quality and discipline that imbued Gillian Armstrong's piece with the magical touch of durability shamefully scarce in Australian cinematography.

The previous comment suggested fast-forwarding through the movie to the denouement. If you do this you will lack a true understanding of just how important the choices made in the end are to the character Sybylla.Unless you watch a movie in its entirety you cannot say you have truly seen the movie. A movie may also move at a pace that you are not used to and the pace of a specific film is chosen for a reason. If the viewer stops to think about just why the final cut moved at that pace he or she may glean something quite important about that particular film.Beauty is in the eye of beholder. Australia does not possess (in the area where this movie was filmed) bold colors and subtlety was what was wont for this film.I rated it quite highly for many reasons including Judy Davis' acting, the strength with which the director was able to convey its message, the strong supporting cast, the exquisite shots (particularly in their composition) often lengthy in duration that so wonderfully show what action/adventure films cannot including again subtlety, nuance and the ability to make the viewer actually think-both during and for long after the film is viewed

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!

If not to see a young Sam Niel or for the gorgeous landscapes of Australia that set the film, see this movie for an interesting viewpoint on feminism and the outback all in one. The main character, Sybylla, is constantly insulted by her alleged friends and family, though they don't intend it directly. Her character's flaky-ness doesn't help her plight as a female in a society hell-bent on marrying her off, but the character's story is worth renting this for.