One of the highlights during the Australian cinematic New Wave, "My Brilliant Career" was the feature film debut of Gillian Armstrong which also introduced to the world the amazing talents of Sam Neill and Judy Davis. Set in 19th century Australia, our story follows Sybylla (Davis), a young woman living on an isolated country farm with her family. Headstrong and chafing against the societal conventions on how women are expected to act, she dreams of having a career in the arts, possibly as a writer. Sybylla's exasperated parents decide to send her off to live with her wealthy grandmother (Aileen Britton) in the city with the hopes she will learn how to behave like a proper, upstanding young woman and get married. But that does not happen, in fact Sybylla becomes to feel even stronger in her convictions as a nonconformist. Sybylla captures the attention of two men; Frank Hawdon (Robert Grubb), a local sheep rancher who she has no romantic interest in and a wealthy family friend, Harry Beecham (Neill) that she finds herself becoming enamored with. But Sybylla is soon torn between following her amorous heart or pursuing a desire to follow her own path in life.
Based on a novel by Miles Franklin, "My Brilliant Career" was a perfect vehicle to showcase the filmmaking gifts of Ms Armstrong. The director's first film is an assured effort, told with great passion and heartfelt emotions. As she would further display in her future work in "Starstruck", "Mrs. Soffel" and the 1994 version of "Little Women", Armstrong's career would focus almost entirely on female protagonists, telling the little-told and much-needed narratives of women who refused to bend easily to tradition, determined to find their own voices and demanding for them to be heard.
And with only her second film at the time, Ms Davis displays a commanding screen presence, capturing the fiercely independent yet deeply vulnerable spirit of a young woman who dared to question the limitations society had placed upon her solely because of her gender.
"The Bride Wore Red" (1937)
"The Bride Wore Red" is a routine 1930's Hollywood romantic-comedy that's only notable for marking the beginning of Joan Crawford's period of decline as a movie star (eventually being labeled "box-office poison") and being directed by the only woman working behind the camera during this era, Dorothy Arzner. Crawford plays Anni Pavlovitch, a singer at a sleazy nightclub in Trieste. She gets caught up in the amusement of a cynical Count Armalia (George Zucco) as he wants to prove a point to his friend, Rudi Pal (Robert Young who would later become better known on the television shows, "Father Knows Best" and "Marcus Welby, M.D."). With the belief that the only difference between the wealthy and the poor is a lot of luck, the Count arranges for Anni to spend two weeks living the good life at a glamourous resort hotel in the Alps. Posing as "Anne Vivaldi", a friend of the Count and daughter of an aristocrat, Anni takes quickly to the comforts of the rich. Rudi, unaware of this arrangement, sees "Anne" and becomes completely infatuated by her, despite being at the resort with his fiancée, Maddalena (Lynne Carver) and her parents (Reginald Owen, Billie Burke). But this soon turns in to a love triangle as a local postal clerk (Franchot Tone, Crawford's then-husband) also falls hard for Anni following their meeting during her arrival. Not wanting to give up this life of wealth and luxury, Anni struggles between snaring a rich yet unavailable man for security or following her heart for a man of more modest means.
While the gap between the wealthy and the working class has grown even wider since the film was made, I'm sure this farcical set-up was hard to swallow even back in 1937. Arzner has moments to shine as a filmmaker, eliciting great performances from her cast and subtly upending traditional views of women of the day. But the sluggish script by Tess Slesinger and Bradbury Foote works against her adding very little romance and barely any comedy. "The Bride Wore Red" is essentially nothing more than a star vehicle for Crawford and with only that in mind, the film is highly effective. With her looking stunning in dramatic, gorgeous costumes and displaying her lion in sheep's clothing screen persona, fans of this legendary actress will be thrilled. But for fans of amusing romantic-comedies, the thrills will be far more limited.
"The Perfection" (2019)
Bloody, gruesome and totally bonkers, "The Perfection" is a psychological thriller from co-writer and director, Richard Shepard that is filled with unexpected twists and insane turns. Charlotte Willmore (Allison Williams) is a gifted teenage cellist attending the prestigious music school, Bachoff in Boston. Her future looked promising but after her mother becomes gravely ill, she's forced to leave the academy. Years later, Charlotte is invited by Anton (Steven Weber), the director of Bachoff, to attend the selection of a new student in Shanghai. She meets Anton's current prize student, Lizzie (Logan Browning, star of the Netflix series, "Dear White People") and there is an instant connection between them. And their connection is so intense that after an evening of drinking and dancing, the ladies end up in bed together. This is where I should probably stop in order not to spoil what happens next as the story soars to histrionic and unhinged heights.
"The Perfection" plays like vintage Brian De Palma, ripe with a meticulously plotted story, high-tension melodrama, hyper-violence and overheated sexuality. But one key touch that Shepard employs is that once the story reaches a climatic moment, we visually rewind back to the beginning of the scene, revealing all of the hidden secrets and deceptions we were unaware had previously occurred. This happens twice in the film and while some may find this a bit of a cheat, there is no denying that it does knock you over with some shocking jolts.
"The Perfection" is certainly an inspired horror flick, shaking up convention and our expectations of what we have come to anticipate from the genre. But like some De Palma films, a little more care with the screenplay, in order for some key plot twists to seem less haphazard and other revelations to not feel so exploitive, would have made for a sharper and unforgettable thriller.
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