BOMB 118/Winter 2012
Gillian Armstrong. All photos by Robert MacFarlene, courtesy Fine Line Features.
“Her legs go up to her bum and they’re not for lunch,” the heroine’s grandma tartly rebuffs a mesmerized pub customer in Starstruck (1982), the musical odyssey of an eighteen-year old singer who’s practicing her tightrope act above the counter. Director Gillian Armstrong’s films seethe with saucy local idiom, interlacing a real Australian spunkiness into the drama, but their warmth and intimate human quality has a universal appeal that easily transcends the original locale. Armstrong directs with considerable lan in sumptuous landscapes or actively peopled interiors—favoring a dynamic open frame, and punctuating fluid camera choreography of sweeping amplitude with decisive point of view shots. No wonder, then, that in 1984 she became the first foreign woman approached by MGM/UA to direct a big-budget feature, Mrs. Soffel, starring Diane Keaton and Mel Gibson. The mother of two small girls who’s fortunately had “a long happy marriage,” Armstrong recently returned to Australia to shoot The Last Days of Chez Nous, a tightly drawn study of a successful forty-something author who’s not so fortunate, walking a proverbial tightrope as she tries to orchestrate maternal, conjugal, filial, and sibling loyalties. Or is she? And how will the arrival of Beth’s younger sister rattle her rambunctious Sydney household? This emotionally wrenching drama, which won its lead actress Lisa Harrow the 1992 Australian Best Actress award, complements the strong quixotic women portrayed by Judy Davis in Armstrong’s earlier films (A Brilliant Career, 1979, and High Tide, 1987) and keeps us on the edge. For someone with such an outstanding career, (she’s been awarded the Order of Australia) Armstrong is inspiringly unassuming, combining one hundred percent focus on the moment with steely authority and a quick sense of humor. I spoke to her all too briefly on her way to Sundance for the US premiere of Chez Nous, which Fine Line will release nationally in March.
(Interview)