Ladies in Black
Oscar-nominated director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) adapts Madeleine St John's best-selling coming-of-age novel set in Sydney in 1959.
Set in the summer, where the impact of European migration and the rise of women’s liberation is about to change Australia forever, a shy schoolgirl takes a summer job at the prestigious Sydney department store, Goode’s. There she meets the “ladies in black”, who will change her life forever.
Beguiled and influenced by Magda, the vivacious manager of the high-fashion floor, and befriended by fellow sales ladies Patty and Fay, Lisa is awakened to a world of possibilities. As Lisa grows from a bookish schoolgirl to a glamorous and positive young woman, she herself becomes a catalyst for a cultural change in everyone’s lives.
- Director:
- Bruce Beresford ('Driving Miss Daisy', 'Breaker Morant', 'Mao's Last Dancer')
- Writer:
- Bruce BeresfordSue Milliken
- Cast:
- Julia OrmondAngourie RiceRachael TaylorRyan CorrVincent PerezAlison McGirrSusie PorterShane JacobsonNoni Hazlehurst
Reviews & comments
Flicks, Glenn Dunks
flicksTopics dominating the current news cycle get a sanitized but heartfelt and charming exploration in Bruce Beresford’s long-gestating passion project Ladies in Black. A frothy morsel that pops and fizzes as the women at a Sydney department store at the tail-end of the 1950s take centre stage, in a story of romance and female empowerment built around Australia’s history of multiculturalism and the cultural debt we owe the many refugees who have come here to make Australia their home.
Flicks, Sarah Voon
flicksSome elegant and accomplished production and costume design, by Felicity Abbott and Wendy Cork respectively, elevate this lighthearted film translation of the best-selling novel The Women in Black by Madeleine St John. Ladies in Black presents an evocative snapshot of Sydney in the summer of 1959, as we follow the lives of a group of women who work on the fashion floor of smart department store F.G. Goodes.
The Age
pressFrom our vantage point 60 years on, Ladies in Black offers a vision - idealised, but perhaps not wholly false - of a moment when it was possible to welcome newcomers to the country and the unfamiliar ideas they brought with them.
Stuff
pressThis is a deftly assembled and rigorously paced showcase for some truly excellent comic writing and performances.
Screen Daily
pressBeresford gives the material the warm, light, heartfelt embrace that it demands - and while the mid-section drags, the end result remains buoyant.
News.com.au
pressThe characters behave as though they are stuck in some kind of handsome display case. The filmmakers fail to bring them to life.
Hollywood Reporter
pressLadies in Black quietly but effectively points out the seldom-stressed positives of immigration and integration, and thus deserves attention far beyond its own native shores.
Flicks, Glenn Dunks
flicksTopics dominating the current news cycle get a sanitized but heartfelt and charming exploration in Bruce Beresford’s long-gestating passion project Ladies in Black. A frothy morsel that pops and fizzes as the women at a Sydney department store at the tail-end of the 1950s take centre stage, in a story of romance and female empowerment built around Australia’s history of multiculturalism and the cultural debt we owe the many refugees who have come here to make Australia their home.
Flicks, Sarah Voon
flicksSome elegant and accomplished production and costume design, by Felicity Abbott and Wendy Cork respectively, elevate this lighthearted film translation of the best-selling novel The Women in Black by Madeleine St John. Ladies in Black presents an evocative snapshot of Sydney in the summer of 1959, as we follow the lives of a group of women who work on the fashion floor of smart department store F.G. Goodes.
The Age
pressFrom our vantage point 60 years on, Ladies in Black offers a vision - idealised, but perhaps not wholly false - of a moment when it was possible to welcome newcomers to the country and the unfamiliar ideas they brought with them.
Stuff
pressThis is a deftly assembled and rigorously paced showcase for some truly excellent comic writing and performances.
Screen Daily
pressBeresford gives the material the warm, light, heartfelt embrace that it demands - and while the mid-section drags, the end result remains buoyant.
News.com.au
pressThe characters behave as though they are stuck in some kind of handsome display case. The filmmakers fail to bring them to life.
Hollywood Reporter
pressLadies in Black quietly but effectively points out the seldom-stressed positives of immigration and integration, and thus deserves attention far beyond its own native shores.
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