My Brilliant Career

AroView: A proud young woman in early 20th century Australia must choose between marriage and independence in this landmark Aussie film that set alight the brilliant careers of Judy Davis, who blooms with innocence and insolence, and Sam Neill, as her would-be suitor who has never been more dashing.

It’s also a touchstone feminist drama, with director Gillian Armstrong breaking the glass ceiling in adapting the 1901 novel by Miles Franklin and, unlike Franklin, does not assuming a male pseudonym. A young Jane Campion was likely drinking it all in and percolating ideas that would later become ‘The Piano’.