Kino Eye: My brilliant career
Long overdue in Kino Eye: a film from Australia. Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career (1979) was adapted from Miles Franklin’s novel of the same name, written in 1901 when Franklin was only 16 years old, and published in Britain by Virago in 1980. It tells the story of Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis), who lives on an isolated farm and dreams of becoming a writer. Her parents are not exactly overjoyed at this prospect and pack her off to board with their maternal grandparents, who they hope will make her see sense. She becomes close to Harry Beecham (Sam Neill), and he proposes, but Sybylla...