The first reason I chose Gillian Armstrong for my research paper is because I admire her dedication and ambition to become a director even though it was a male-dominated job at the time. She is an extremely ambitious and independent woman that didn’t let anything get in her way of pursuing her goal to become a director. The second reason I picked Gillian Armstrong is because she is the director of Little Women, which has been an all-time favorite film of mine since I was little. Armstrong has explored several genres, including gangster, musical, and most frequently, period drama.
The three films I am going to explore are My Brilliant Career, Mrs. Soffel and Little Women. These are all period drama films that evolve female characteristics and feature women in lead roles. These films demonstrate the stylistic pattern of story telling, (Carter, 2002).
Gillian Armstrong produced My Brilliant Career in 1979.
This film was the highlight of the period drama, which was popular in Australia at that time. Armstrong became the first woman to direct a feature length drama in Australia in 46 years, (Carter, 2002).
The film is about Sybylla Melvyn, a sensitive, passionate young woman with high hopes for a writing career. When offered the opportunity to escape her outback station home to stay with relatives in New South Wales, she accepts willingly. In New South Wales, her cultural openness and writing career is encouraged. She eventually meets Harry Beecham who is wealthy and handsome.
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Sybylla struggles with the tough decisions between ambition and independence, and between love and marriage. She eventually sacrifices romance with Harry and takes a job as a governess in the McScwatt household while still pursuing her goal as becoming a writer. Sybylla eventually finds success as a writer and also as an independent woman. Mrs. Soffel was produced by Armstrong in 1984. This film was directed in Pittsburgh, and was her first American film, (Carter, 2002).
This film is about a woman named Kate Soffel who is the wife of the warden of the Allegheny County jail. Her job is to distribute Bibles and read the scriptures to the prisoners. Kate is unhappy and unsatisfied with her lifestyle. She is tired of her husband constantly controlling what she can and cannot do. Kate eventually falls in love with Ed Biddle, who is a prisoner being wrongly sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of a grocer during a robbery. Mrs.
Soffel is about a woman who risks her life to find love. She eventually escapes from the prison with Ed and his brother Jack. It is on the road as fugitives that Kate and Ed build a bond that exceeds her marriage and his life of crime. The end is tragic when they are captured and can no longer share their love for one another. Armstrong produced Little Women in 1994. Little Women is one of Armstrong’s most loved and successful film of all times, (Carter, 2002).
Little Women is based on four March sisters as they grow up in Massachusetts during the Civil War. Their mother M armee raises the girls while the father is off at war. The central character of the film is based on Jo, who is talented at writing but stuck in a world where men are encouraged to be writers and women are supposed to assume the role of looking after the house. However, her mother helps encourage her to find the courage she needs to pursue her dream as a writer.
Eventually Josephine changes her identity to Joseph and finds a newspaper willing to print her stories in New York. She finally releases her true writing talent with the help of a German professor Friedrich Baer. Jo eventually tells Friedrich that it’s okay for him to love her and he does exactly that. All three films are based around women’s roles in society and them going against social norms. In all three films, women are the main characters.
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Iron Jawed Angels is a film which portrays the women's suffrage movement during the 1920's. The film is a documentary and a drama which uses live action and music to deliver the sympathetic and distressful mood the film creates. An example of the distressful mood is when the suffragists refuse to eat when they go to prison. This shows how passionate and distressed the suffragists are to get the 19 ...
Sybylla is the main character in My Brilliant Career, Kate is the main character in Mrs. Soffel and Jo is the main character in Little Women. These three women are not your typical women. They strive for independence and the desire for a better life.
Women following their dreams and their hearts are main themes throughout the films. Sybylla wanted to become a writer, and she eventually left everything she came from to pursue her goal. Kate wasn’t happy with her marriage and she fell in love with Ed, so left her marriage of sixteen years to escape with Ed. Lastly, Jo wanted to become a writer and therefore went to New York to fulfill her lifelong dream. Although all these women struggled, they eventually took risks and followed their hearts. These three films also share the common theme of personal growth.
In the beginning of My Brilliant Career, Sybylla is extremely unhappy living in the outback with her family. When Sybylla tells her mother she wants to become a writer, her mother suggests she get a position as a general servant. She stuns her family and friends by insisting of following her dream. Through this process, she grows from an insecure tomboy to an independent and self-assured woman. Kate in Mrs. Soffel also reveals the theme of personal growth throughout the film.
She is desperate for pleasure and hope within the prison walls. She is unhappy with her marriage to her husband and feels empty and instable. She finds true love with Ed Biddle and eventually finds the courage to escape with him. This shows how much Kate as grown because she goes against everything she has known for sixteen years and follows her heart. She leaves her husband, children and prison duties behind and finally finds happiness and love with Ed, even though it’s only for a short amount of time. Kate grew from an insecure and weak woman into a strong woman who took risks for love.
Jo in Little Women also goes through personal growth throughout the film. At first Jo dreams of being a writer but never believes she can actually fulfill this dream. However, her mother helps gives her the courage she needs to pursue her goals. She eventually believers in herself and grows from a little girl to an ambitious and dedicated women.
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Making the right decision is never easy, and this can also be said when it comes to choosing the right career path in life. However, when a person has passion and determination to do something, choosing would not be as difficult. Personally, I chose to be in the field of pharmacy due to numerous reasons. These reasons would not only fulfill me as a person but also as a member of the community. The ...
Another common theme throughout these films is the desire for a better life. Sybylla isn’t satisfied with her life in the outback. She doesn’t want to grow up having the same lifestyles as her some of her family members. She wants more from life than being a servant and marrying someone she doesn’t love. Kate is unhappily married with children.
She is always arguing with her husband about what she is and isn’t allowed to do. She is driven by repressed passions and isn’t satisfied with her lifestyle. She has the desire for a better life that includes passion, risks and love. Lastly, Jo struggles with her family during the Civil War while her father is off fighting. She has been brought up in time period where men are dominant and it is unheard of for women to have careers. She is disturbed by this and doesn’t want the lifestyle of cooking and cleaning.
She desires more in her life. She wants to pursue her talent and become a writer. Therefore, Sybylla, Kate and Jo all share the common theme of their desires for a better life. These three films all share similar themes. However, Little Women and My Brilliant Career share the most similarities. Both films are autobiographical, and about a girl who strives to become a writer and the conflicts she faces between a career and marriage.
Producer Denise di Novi pointed out that Little Women takes up where her first film finished: Jo March goes on to find both love and a career, (Carter, 2002).
Both films also have unusual yet intelligent older women as role models for Sybylla and Jo. Both films also show the unrequited love and restrained passion between men and women. As much as Sybylla loves Harry, she can never marry him and the same goes with Jo. Some other patterns shown within two of the three films are a strong sense of place and landscape in which they are set. My Brilliant Career has a strong design sense.
The sets are filled with wallpaper, lace, paintings and attention to detail that is accurate to the time period, (Carter, 2002).
The Essay on The important of career in your life
In present competitive era it is very important to pay more attention towards career. What is career ? A career is the sum total of paid and unpaid work, learning and life roles you undertake throughout your life. In today's world of work the term 'career' is seen as a continuous process of learning and development. For many people, careers are the most important priority in life. There are many ...
The set also features the Australian bush landscape. Mrs. Soffel features details of the city and the prison. The stones of the prison have a strong visual presence and sometimes bars obscure the prisoner faces. When the lovers escape, the set features large expanses of white, cold snow plains, (Carter, 2002).
Another pattern is how Armstrong uses strong parallels between her films and her life in My Brilliant Career and Little Women. In My Brilliant Career, Sybylla has a strong drive to become a writer. Armstrong could perhaps be relating herself with Sybylla and her own desire for a creative career. Little Women is about daughters and sisters growing up and coming of age. This film was produced when Armstrong’s own two daughters were growing up, (Carter, 2002).
Gillian Armstrong has made an enormous contribution to the Australian film industry and has been a role model to all women pursuing male dominated careers.
Armstrong has directed eight feature length dramas, two feature length documentaries and many short films throughout her career. She won seven Australian Film Institute Awards (including Best Director and Best Film) for the film My Brilliant Career. To sum it up, Molly Haskell writes, “Gillian Armstrong cuts closer to the core of women’s divided yearnings than any other director,” (Carter, 2002, p 5).
REFERENCE Carter, H. (2002).
Gillian Armstrong. great directors – a critical database. Retrieved March 15, 2004, from web.
