Adapted from the novel by Miles Franklin (the pen name for Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin), My Brilliant Career is the Australian story of one woman, two suitors, and a passion for the pen. Both men want marriage, and Sybylla (Judy Davis) does not. There’s a parallel here between Sybylla and the land. Australia circa 1900 is being colonized by force with the wealthy establishing their territories by squatting, erecting fences, and pretending it was there’s all along. Sybylla has no interest in being squat upon, though she does love Harry (Sam Neill). But she also knows that marriage comes with a price: The end of her career in letters. There are many similarities between Franklin’s My Brilliant Career and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, which is probably how My Brilliant Career director Gillian Armstrong got the gig directing ’94 adaptation of the March sisters.

My Brilliant Career (1979)
Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Screenplay by Eleanor Witcombe
Based on the novel by Miles Franklin
Produced by Margaret Fink
Starring: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, Robert Grubb, Max Cullen
Analysis Film Releasing Corporation, Rated G, Running time 100 minutes, Premiered May 16, 1979 at the Cannes Film Festival

---

---

The above review first appeared in the pages of Boulder Weekly Vol. 27, No. 41, “Home Viewing: Writers on Screen.”