Girl Power

So it's all progressive, historic and what have you, that Australia now has their first female prime minister. It's just too bad it had to happen like this.

As usual the media has focused more on her hair (and the fact that she is unmarried, no kids and has a hairdresser for a boyfriend) than any other aspects but it doesn't help when she also proclaims to be the first redhead prime minister. Double standards for women sucks.

By the way the woman on the left is Julia Gillard the new PM, the one on the right is Quentin Bryce the governor general of Australia and she has the power to fire the PM*. It's only happened once. How fricken weird is Australian politics?

*simplified version, I may or may not know what I'm talking about.

On the Beach

So in between all the ups and downs that goes with fostering animals I was also reading this depressing book (Neville Shute) I've been wanting to read for some time. Why? I'm not sure, doesn't everybody like to read about humanity's untimely end? The way disaster movies gross millions of dollars maybe they do.

Basic plot line without giving too much away:

Set in the not too distant future (for the time) the world has been rocked by some kind of war where nuclear weapons were used in the northern hemisphere. The last few countries with the population still alive is Australia, some of South America and Africa, but the global air currents are slowly sending the fallout down to the southern hemisphere.

The only hope the navy is clinging to is that there is some unexplained Morse code transmitting from Seattle. The Australian navy organises for the American submarine to go and check it out. In the meantime people are coming to terms (or living in delusion land) about the nuclear fallout reaching them and the end of life as they know it.

I wanted to read this book ever since I saw the telemovie when I was in high school, according to IMDB it came out in 2000 so I must have been 16/17 which seems to be the age I view dooms day films (I must do a post on Threads sometime, that film will scare the shit out of any 14 year old). 

The things I remembered from the telemovie:

• some guy kills himself driving really fast and crashing in his Ferrari instead of waiting for the radioactive sickness
• the lead guy played by an American had a really cool name (Armand Assante)

So based on these observations from a decade ago, I'm still not sure why I wanted to read this. I know I am a sucker for post apocalyptic books/films (don't judge, there's a lot of us) but this one just really depressed me. Also the females came across as none too bright, seriously living in la-la land about the future and the possibility of having to murder a child with a government issued suicide pill or injection. I know I'd rather watch my daughter get slowly poisoned to death! I realise it is a coping mechanism to continually think ahead and just avoid the harsh reality but seriously? I think I would have just took a pill as soon as I found out instead of just sitting around waiting to die. But that's the human spirit isn't it?

My god even this review is depressing. I did like some things: the way it makes you question your own behaviour in a similar situation and the way that the dialogue in all old Australian novels still always sounds vaguely English.

My apologies for the sombre post, our latest foster puppy has just gone out on trial and I'm feeling a mite sad.

For the record the original movie came out in 1959 (2 years after the book was published) and had Americans playing Australians (Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins). Slightly worst than watching the dubbed version of mad max. Don't buy old Australian films in Bali, children.

My Brilliant Career

My Brilliant Career's (1979) heroine is Sybylla (Judy Davis) an outspoken independent young woman living with her family in Australia in the early 20th century. As she is now of a certain age, her mum wants to send her out to work as a servant much to Sybylla's disgust. She longs to be a writer and experience life outside of their home on the farm.
Fortunately for her it doesn't come to that and she is shipped off instead to her grandmother's to live there with her mother's brother and sister as well.
They live in relative luxury and it is here where she meets Harry Beecham (Sam Neill), a friend of the family's son. They share chemistry and though Harry has a reputation with the ladies it is Sybylla he wants. Sybylla won't commit to his marriage proposal though at the moment as she still wants to write and experience herself alone, which is the opposite of what her family want for her. They want to tame her wild side and make her a proper lady.
Unfortunately her father's bad business dealings lead her to move to a tiny house on a farm where she is working off his debt as a governess to 6 unruly children.
Luckily due to a misunderstanding with the eldest son and his parents (they think she's after him but as she owns no property they can't let them marry even though Sybylla had no intention to) Sybylla ends up home again with the debt lifted until they're in better circumstances. So she is back at the family home and helping a calf out of the mud when Henry shows up again and still wants to marry her. In a move which shocked me (surprisingly) she turns him down, at least for the moment. She still hasn't found herself and wants to keep writing. It's a bittersweet moment when Henry professes he still wants her but Sybylla explains she would 'destroy him.'
Henry leaves and Sybylla sometime later posts off her manuscript. The credits begin with the sentence that Sybylla's novel was published in 1901. And us true romantics can cling to the hope that maybe they will meet again and be together at a later time.

I always considered myself kind of a feminist, but I was surprised when the two didn't get together in the end. That damn film cover seduced me with it's picture of Henry and Sybylla embracing!
In the special features section there was a interview with Gillian Armstrong the director and she explained how back in 1981 this was particularly shocking and strange that the female lead turned her suitor down and that she's glad it is not so shocking anymore. I disagree to an extent not just from my own reaction but other movies I have seen recently, that don't seem to challenge this stereotype.

Okay characters: Judy Davis is perfect as Sybylla and I read somewhere that she actually can't stand to watch this movie anymore. Say it aint' so...she has this perfect flyaway frizzy hair and a great spirit that matches her character to the T.

Sam Neill's career I believe was also launched by this film, and he is pretty dashing in the film. One complaint was that I thought he should have had more character development although it is a testament to Judy and Sam's chemistry that they display so much just through facial expressions and their actions.

The scenery and set direction is really great, half the time I thought I was watching a period English film - the costumes were excellent.The contrast between the relative ease Sybylla finds herself living in, in her grandmothers house compared to the shanty little house when she is a governess is astounding.

I was pleased to read Davis was born and raised in my home town so maybe next time I'll review a movie with fellow Perth ite Melissa George. This may be a struggle, the only one I've seen lately was 30 Days of Night.
My Brilliant Career is definitely another Australian gem with a great central performance and not your usual ending or heroine.

Vote again...if you want

It's been a week so if you voted last week and don't mind doing it again please please click here on Ben's kitchen sucks. I promise I'll maybe only ask one more time!

Tomorrow My Brilliant Career and a dishy young Sam Neill.