Directed by:
Gillian ArmstrongScreenplay:
Eleanor WitcombeCinematography:
Donald McAlpineComposer:
Nathan WaksCast:
Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, Julia Blake, David Franklin, Gerry Duggan, Tony Hughes, Zelda Smyth, Robert Austin, Max Cullen, Simone Buchanan (more)Plots(1)
Headstrong young Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis, in a star-making performance), bemoans her stifling life in the backcountry, where her writerly ambitions receive little encouragement, and craves independence above all else. When a handsome landowner (Sam Neill), disarmed by her unruly charms, begins to court her, Sybylla must decide whether she can reconcile the prospect of marriage with the illustrious life’s work she has imagined for herself. Suffused with generous humour and a youthful appetite for experience, My Brilliant Career is a luminous portrait of an ardently free spirit. (Criterion)
(more)Reviews (1)
Australian films of that time weren't just focused on the indigenous population, nor were they solely about proper blood and gore. In the meantime, something else was growing, something that showed that film in Australia could be truly diverse and intellectually competitive with international cinema. In this case, that's definitely true. It's a universal story, yet it uses the Australian setting beautifully. ()