My Brilliant Career

Plot synopsis:
Sybylla (Judy Davis), a headstrong, free-spirited girl growing up in late 19th century Australia, dreams of a better life to the detriment of her work on a country farm. Her parents, upset by her dreams of grandeur, send her to board with her grandmother in hopes of teaching her proper manners and behaviour. She is soon courted by two local men, jackaroo Frank Hawdon (Robert Grubb), whom she ignores, and well-to-do childhood friend Harry Beecham (Sam Neill), whom she grows increasingly fond of.
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. Frank attempts to derail the couple through rumours, which leads to increasing tensions between the two. The two 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 perhaps two years.
Sybylla is summoned by her grandmother, and is told she must take a job as governess/housekeeper to the 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 wallpapering their home. To her delight, she is sent home when the parents become convinced (incorrectly) that she is wooing their eldest son. Harry visits and proposes again, but she again rejects him, stating her intent is to become a writer.
The movie ends with her reading (in voiceover) from her novel, My Brilliant Career, before sending it off for publication.

Tags: romantic, historical

Review:
Judy Davis, as Sybylla Melvin, struggles with the conflicts that we all have between ambition, family, love, and guilt in a most remarkable manner.
Simple yet universal themes told with charm, wit, and a vulnerability that allows us to get right inside of her character and to understand her --- up to a point that is, a career is vital but I don't believe I'd have the strength to pass up Sam Neill under any circumstances, especially as cute as he is in this movie.
Gillian Armstrong's valentine to Miles Franklin's classic novel is one of the most beautiful movies ever made, and my personal favorite to watch over and over again.
I've seen it a few times since then, and found it improved in pace with my understanding.Apparently Judy Davis didn't like this character or sympathize with her.
As portrayed by Davis, in her breakthrough role, Sybylla is a font of boundless energy wanting desperately to escape the backwardness of her young life.
Sam Neill, also in one of the significant early roles of his career, is likewise charming as the young man who presents her with a tempting alternative to her ambition to become a writer and escape the frontier life forever.This is not a great or epic story, certainly, but it is a quiet, rewarding story of a young woman's quest for a better life.
Judy Davis and Sam Neill were incredible together, and I'm happy to say they would be in two other films together after this one.
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.
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.
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 get me wrong, I like Judy Davis & I like this movie because of the nice chemistry between her and Sam Neill.
If Sam Neill's character was an idiot I would understand, but he was about as perfect for Davis' character as she could ever hope for & her "career" didn't seem like much of a lifestyle......so her actions left me perplexed.Still, the movie was well done & the scenery was interesting.
She being one of the greatest of all actresses, or even actors, at the innate endowment of physically, mentally and emotionally residing in a character builds a rivetingly ambitious and combustible character that takes charge of herself and simply does not make a good follower at all and is whirled from early in her life by her independent attributes to have a career in the arts despite society doing all they can to tame her.
Her character is so enrooted and actualized that the love story that serves as the flesh of the film between her and the dark and magnetic character of Sam Neill is like a diverging extension of her nature.
The romantic element of the film, especially in its outcome, fits as a large-scale model of who she is and why she is born to be anything but what her cavalier and domineering family of early twentieth century Australia strives to mold her into.The support of the story, which is Davis's struggle to be independent of society's taming and manipulation is what is ultimately compelling and infuriating, very effectively putting us in her mad, aggressive shoes.
Sybylla (Judy Davis) is a young woman living in turn of the century Australia.
Unlike a lot of girls, she doesn't want marriage and a family, she would like to have "a brilliant career".
Women are who they are, even 100 years ago, and Sybylla wants to follow her best instincts, not the traditions of the time.
As Sybylla, Davis is flat-out brilliant, for, in her hands, we see this young lady's intelligence, beauty and fierce independence come to life.
Seeing a great film for the first time is a distinct pleasure.I can think of only two similar pleasures in life.Reviewers often focus on the story; its the common currency for discussion.
They influence nothing.The main character is presented as a sort of Jane Austen  both an Austen woman encouraged to marry, and Austen herself as a sort of author-in-her-own-book, like we saw in the 1999 film of Mansfield Park.
Watching this film made me think of what a strong character Sybylla is.
One thing that I really enjoyed about this movie is the relationship between Sybylla and Harry Beecham because of the way it was presented.
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.
Sybylla is cast from all three levels of societal income; from living in middle class, to visiting her wealthy aunt (all the while pampered like a baby) and even forced to becoming a servant to a poor family.
Even when she's proposed to by a wealthy man (Frank) and practically offered a life of leisure and prosperity, being the very independent young woman she is, gives up the offer, laughing at the very idea of marrying a man for money and not love.
Not only did Gillian Armstrong's direction serve the material superbly, but Judy Davis's Sybilla was one of the boldest film debuts I've ever seen.
The exploration of Sybylla (Davis) takes the audience through a character wrought by uncertainty and caged by tradition.The visual and aural elements of this film create a parallel to the textual narrative.
Composition also reflects Sybylla's conflict; in one scene, her aunt sits between her and Harry (Neill), each character figuratively and visual separated by vertical columns.Sentimentality aside, the cast provides strong performances, especially from Davis and Neill.
As she attempts to gain the attention of the farm children, we see that her view towards this family echoes the upper-class perception of a girl such as herself.Armstrong touches heavily on freedom of the spirit; although this could be considered a love story, the love between Sybylla and Harry is never completely reconciled.
Frank, a noble man who thinks that Sybylla (the main character) will marry him because she can't do any better (quite an insult to  this independent minded woman), is hilarious.
The pace of the film is perfect, with Judy Davis delivering a wonderful performance as the headstrong Sib. The most mermorable moments are the interaction between davis and Sam Neil - the scene by the river bank when she's telling him to wait for her, is heart-achingly beautiful.
Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) is a very odd woman who just doesn't fit in to the times in which she lives.
The film is set in Australia around 1890 and Sybylla has all sorts of very modern feminist notions...which weren't exactly practical or expected back in the day.
What's to become of Sybylla and her notions of life?This is a lovely film to look at with the lovely costumes and outdoor settings.
Although Judy Davis is clearly the star in this film, I particularly enjoy the scenes with Sam Neill.
My Brilliant Career offers viewers an obviously strong female main character - Judy Davis who is the proverbial radical with a cause.
Davis' character, Sybylla is quintessentially balanced by a debonair leading man, Sam Neill as Harry Beecham, who is up for her feminine challenge.
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!.
Adapted from Miles Franklin's eponymous novel published in 1901, which was written while the author was still a teenager, MY BRILLIANT CAREER, Aussie director Gillian Armstrong's feature debut made when she was 29, not only puts a young Judy Davis on the map as a formidable thespian, but also is immanent in effusing the story's heartening feminist viewpoint, and with hindsight, it is an inviting, robust production orchestrated with sublime delicacy and forward- looking brio.
Our heroine Sybylla (Davis), a young girl living with her family in the outback in the late 19th century, is the eldest of the brood, she is an unruly force of nature who aspires to a life steeped in literature, music and art, which sounds detrimentally airy-fairy for her strapped parents, they float the idea of a domestic job to her, as a way to shuck off another mouth to feed, and it enrages her.
So when her well-heeled matrilineal grandmother's invitation arrives, it brings immense elation to her, maybe, finally she can be delivered from the sticks and all the menial labor.Ensconced in a modestly plush rural estate, Sybylla has to stomach the affront that her plain looks are being openly addressed, often in front of her presence, a below-par trait doesn't fall in with the family's old money grandeur, and she is the ugly duckling, but swimming against the tide, she has no desperation/illusion to become a swan, she won't bat an eyelid to an oleaginous suitor for whom she has no affection, and unthinkingly returns bold backchat to her stern grandma Mrs. Bossier (Britton) when marriage is propounded because she is nubile, she doesn't want to get married, as later she confides to Harry Beecham (Neill), a childhood friend of gilded youth to whom she grows closer and vice versa, she must discover herself first, before even considering of becoming a part of someone else's life.
Around a pyrotechnic Judy Davis, whose glints of emotion are so sharp-edged and entrancing, the peripheral players are also cracking: a young Sam Neill is the projected prince charming but is also seethed with a farrago of contradictions and mix- feelings in mooning over a jolie-laide; Wendy Hughes is pretty radiant as the benign aunt Helen, whose caring nature doesn't prevent her from giving one of the wisest nuptial advice: the best marriage is a friendship marriage.
Determined to have a career and not just be a housewife like so many women of her generation, a headstrong young lady in 1890s rural Australia rebuffs marriage proposals and ignores advice of how to act ladylike in this critically acclaimed drama starring Judy Davis.
One's mileage with the film is, however, likely to vary depending upon how one relates to the Davis character.
Sam Neill also has a nice, understated performance as a man who Davis briefly has a romantic fling with and Wendy Hughes is solid as her spinster aunt who has trouble reigning her in, but relating to the main character seems to be key in appreciating what the film has to offer..
A tale about a plucky young heroine, Sybylla, (Judy Davis, in her first film role), who has grand romantic dreams about the life she wants to live, wanting to be first a concert pianist, and then a writer, despite the fact that she lives in poor rural Australia.
The movie is absolutely beautifully shot and directed by Gillian Armstrong, taking on her first feature film.
There she meets wealthy young Harry Beecham, who loves her and proposes marriage; convinced of her ugliness and aware of her tomboyish ways, Sybylla is unable to believe that he could really love her.
It tells the story about Sybylla Melvyn, a young and aspiring writer who lives with her parents who are farmers and her four younger siblings on the outback in Possum Gully, Australia in 1897.
Sybylla is not a believer in marriage and shows little interest for her grandmother's socialite friends, but one day she meets a revered landowner named Harry Beecham who courts her.
Finely and acutely directed by Australian filmmaker Gillian Armstrong, this finely paced period piece which is narrated by the protagonist and from her point of view, draws a refined portrayal of an independent-minded woman who finds herself caught between the expectations of others and her own beliefs and aspirations after meeting a man who touches her heart and who can offer her the kind of life that she has grown up with, but that goes against the dreams she pursues.
This literary and charmingly romantic late 1970s Australian New Wave feature film is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, subtle character development and the compelling and memorable acting performances by Australian actress Judy Davis in her first leading role and New Zealand actor Sam Neill in one of his earliest lead roles.
Although I never heard of Sybylla Melvyn, the writer on whose life this film is based, I was led after many years to "My Brilliant Career" by three names: Judy Davis, who plays Melvyn; Sam Neill, the male lead, and Gillian Armstrong, the director.
But the quality of the film lies in the direction and the cast, of which Davis and Neill are the star attractions.
This is the movie that launched Davis's career and it came reasonably early in Neill's.
An impossibly young Judy Davis is the star of "My Brilliant Career" - the movie that started hers - a 1979 film directed by Gillian Armstrong.
The story concerns Sybylla, growing up in the 1890s in the wilds of Australia who wants more from her life than marriage.
Though she falls for a wealthy young man (Sam Neil), she is true to what her heart tells her, desiring most of all to be a writer and an independent person.Davis does a wonderful job as Sybylla who, although headstrong, manages to make the best of whatever situation she's in.
Sam Neil is very attractive and romantic as Harry, who endeavors to understand this unusual woman.Beautifully photographed, "My Brilliant Career" is nevertheless no big, sweeping epic, and the focus stays on Sybylla, her challenges, and her determination to be, in every sense, ahead of her time..
The setting makes Judy Davis's character.
My Brilliant Career started out in the way many Australian films tend to where there is a focus on the setting and scenery.
It was almost as if the harsh bush farm setting made up Judy Davis's rural and unruly character, Sybylla Melvyn.
Overall this was a good film that could have kept continuing showing us what unfolds between Judy Davis's character of Sybylla and Sam Neil's character, Harry Beecham.
In particular, Judy Davis and Sam Neill were amazing as Sybylla and Harry, respectively.
(Interestingly enough, Judy Davis has also participated in another Gillian Armstrong Film, High Tide.)  Overall, it was a good film, but not great; I would be likely to watch it again.
However, I would be more likely recommend Oscar and Lucinda or Little Women when discussing Gillian Armstrong's films.
This period drama follows the coming-of-age of a young farm girl(Judy Davis) who wants to have a career in the arts, but doesn't want to be weighed down by marriage and other responsibilities, and she is also thrown from place to place, from fine turn-of-the-century homes and parties to dank, smelly farms.
The performances are very charming, especially Davis's, although Neill comes off as a little stiff-but this is only his fourth film, so it's forgiveable.
***SPOILERS***   ***SPOILERS***The movie My Brilliant Career takes place on the Austrailan frontier, in the year 1909.
The story is about this one girl Named Sybylla(played by Judy Davis) who had been living on a farm with her relitives after her mother died.
Sybylla then meets a man named Harry(played bye the vary young Sam Neill) From the First part where we see Harry we know that the two are going to be together.
Harry and Sybylla want two different things in life.
The to together make a deal, in two years when Sybylla knows what she is doing in life she will marry Harry.
Two years comes and Sybylla knows what she wants to do but she cant do it being Harrys wife.
A lovely, beautifully acted first feature that launched both Judy Davis, who is amazing in this, and director Gillian Armstrong.
Judy Davis heads an excellent cast bringing to life this rich story of an ambitious, head-strong girl seeking a professional career as a writer.
It hung on me, why could Sybylla not have her brilliant career and the man?
She wanted the attention, but was disgusted when she got it.I was further confused when I realized the director Gillian Armstrong also directed "Little Women" (another one of my favorite movies).
Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) lives a dreary existence with her impoverished farming family in rural Possum Gully in New South Wales, Australia in 1897.
While recovering from a cold, Sybylla tells them that she wants a career in literature or art or music, and has no intention of marriage.
The closing caption reads "'My Brilliant Career' was published in 1901." Directed by a woman, Gillian Armstrong, the movie is well-filmed among the natural countryside of meadows, lakes, and hillsides of New South Wales.
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.