Happy 70th Birthday, Gillian Armstrong! Born today in 1950 as Gillian May Armstrong, this Australian documentary and feature film director specializes in period drama. Her films often feature female perspectives and protagonists.
Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Armstrong grew up in the eastern suburb of Mitcham. She was the middle child of a local real estate agent father and a primary school teacher mother who gave up work to have a family.
Armstrong went to a local high school, Vermont High School (now Vermont Secondary College), located in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Vermont, Victoria.
Armstrong stated in the broadsheet newspaper The Australian that her parents were always very supportive of their hopes and dreams, which was not always the way it was for women in the 1960s and 1970s.
Her father was a frustrated photographer who wasn't allowed to follow his dreams professionally, yet always practiced as an amateur.
Armstrong reminisces of how she grew up in a dark room, learning all about photography. When she first decided to go to art school, Armstrong didn't have a very firm grasp on what she wanted to do.
Armstrong was a technical theatre student at Swinburne College while paying her tuition by working as a waitress.
Originally, she attended school to become a theatrical set designer but the school that she attended also offered a film course.
After she took it, she was enamored by the great names of cinema and decided to enter the film industry.
She later won a scholarship to join the first twelve students at the country's first and only film school, the Australian Film and Television School.
While there, the Australian film industry was nonexistent, and Armstrong recalled how weird the accent sounded in new films, because it wasn't American, it was Australian.
She later attended Swinburne Technical College with the intention of becoming a theatre costume designer, but it was here where she became increasingly interested in film.
During this time, she was exposed to a range of artistic films that differentiated from the commercial cinema and television she was used to.
After graduating from art school in 1968, Armstrong was set on pursuing a career in film. She began making short films of two to ten minutes, and started work as an assistant editor in a commercial film house, which lasted a year.
In 1972, Armstrong entered, and later graduated from, the Australian Film Television and Radio School. She had paid her tuition during this time through waitressing.
Following a string of small jobs within the Australian film industry, Armstrong achieved her first directorial recognition five years later. This was through her fifty-two-minute 1977 Australian drama short film 'The Singer and the Dancer'.
Later that same year, the short won an award at the 23rd Sydney Film Festival. Afterwards, Armstrong became a film director at the age of twenty-seven.
During the time of the development of Australian Cinema, Armstrong recalls in an interview for The Washington Post that tremendous tax breaks led to a frightful overproduction.
At the time, everybody was interested in doing deals, and even stockbrokers were becoming directors.
However, very few of them had the commitment to cinema that Armstrong and others had, and the films would be shown for a week or two, or not released at all.
Two years later, Armstrong directed her first feature-length film. it was also the one of which she is best known. This was the 1979 Australian period historical drama film 'My Brilliant Career'.
Contemporarily, the film is regarded as being part of the Australian New Wave of cinema.
It was based on Australian writer and feminist Miles Franklin's 1901 fiction novel of the same name and was the first Australian feature-length film to be directed by a woman in forty-six years.
Set in 1897 rural Australia, creative, headstrong and free-spirited young Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) dreams of becoming a famous writer despite long odds and the objections of her family.
Forced by money problems to move in with her wealthy maternal grandmother Bossier (Aileen Britton), she soon makes the acquaintance of a handsome landowner, Harry Beecham (Sam Neill), and wins him over despite their class differences.
However, when Harry proposes, Sybylla must choose between romantic love and the brilliant career she craves.
Upon release, 'My Brilliant Career' received significant critical acclaim. It was nominated for seven AACTA Awards, but won six.
This was for Best Film, Best Direction, Best Lead Actress (Judy Davis), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design. This occurred at the 21st Australian Film Institute Awards that same year.
Two years later, the film won two BAFTA Awards. This was for Best Actress and Most Outstanding Newcomer to Leading Film Roles (both Judy Davis). This occurred at the 34th British Academy Film Awards on March 22, 1981.
One week later, 'My Brilliant Career' was nominated an Oscar for Best Costume Design. However, it didn't win. This occurred at the 53rd Academy Awards on March 31, 1981.
Armstrong's debut feature also brought considerable attention to its two main stars. These were Judy Davis and Northern Sam Neill, both of whom were relatively unknown at the time.
Armstrong is also known for directing the 1984 American drama/romance film 'Mrs. Soffel', starring Diane Keaton and Mel Gibson.
Armstrong is also known for directing the 1994 American coming-of-age historical drama/romance film 'Little Women' one decade later.
The latter was adapted from American novelist, short story writer and poet Louisa May Alcott's 1868-69 two-volume coming-of-age domestic comedy fiction novel of the same name. The film is dedicated to murder victim Polly Klaas and literary agent Judy Scott-Fox.
In 2018, 'My Brilliant Career' underwent restoration by the Australian National Sound and Film Archive, and was issued on Blu-ray and DVD by the Criterion Collection the following year.
The following year, Greta Gerwig's ('Lady Bird') adaptation of Little Woman was released on Christmas.
According to IndieWire, Armstrong had tweeted that she "plucked up courage" to see the newest film version of the Louisa May Alcott novel. It didn't disappoint.
The result, however, was wonderful: Armstrong loved it. She wrote that she “loved it. Very different! Brave new structure. Fantastic cast.” In Armstrong’s eyes, Gerwig’s film is “LW for this generation.”
Armstrong also angled to start her own hashtag to drum up Oscar season support for Gerwig, care of a simple “#gretaforoscar.”
Gerwig was previously nominated for both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for 'Lady Bird' (2017).
In a followup tweet, Armstrong added that “in this so far very male lineup for Oscars she has to [be] a contender.”
Armstrong isn’t the only talent involved with the 1994 version that has embraced Gerwig’s film: her own screenwriter, filmmaker Robin Swicord, had produced both films.
Armstrong's films often feature female perspectives and protagonists and focuses on themes such as the escape and struggle with traditional sex roles and its related drawbacks and progressions.
Furthermore, many people have called her a creator of "strong females" but she insists that she is simply making films about complex characters and the choices that they make.
Armstrong has a distinctive style in her work that resists easy categorization.
Most of her films cannot simply be stated as being either "women's films" or Australian ones, which are the two most generalized categories for women in her line of work.
Armstrong's films are described as mixing and intermingling genres in ways that recreate them as something vastly different than what they have been considered.
Nevertheless, the films that she creates can also be considered conventional in their appeal to the audience.
Armstrong has voiced her desire to reach a wide audience in her interviews, one that includes both men and women of all nationalities. However, her work continuously addresses sexual politics and family tensions.
Films focused on the escape and struggle with traditional sex roles and its related drawbacks and progressions.
These include the seven-minute 1973 Australian short film 'One Hundred a Day,' the 1987 Australian drama film 'High Tide', and the 1997 British-Australian romantic drama film 'Oscar and Lucinda' (and, of course, 'My Brilliant Career') continue to reflect the theme.
According to prolific American filmmaker and film scholar Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Armstrong has a "strong feminist bent" and a "mordant sense of humor".
Among her credits, Armstrong is also known for directing 'Charlotte Gray' (2002), 'Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst (2006), 'Death Defying Acts' (2007),'Love, Lust & Lies' (2010) and 'Women He's Undressed' (2015).
Armstrong's films possess sensitive and delicate cinematography, fluid editing, an evocative feel for setting and costume, and a commitment to solid character development and acting.
Armstrong has been active from 1970–present.
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