A CITY'S CHILD

Australia, 1972, 80 minutes, Colour.
Monica Maughan, Sean Scully.
Directed by Brian Kavanagh.

A City’s Child is a brief Australian film, released in the year of the Australian film renaissance, 1972, but before it developed. The director is Brian Kavanagh, editor and producer who directed to other films in the 1980s, the thriller Double Deal with Louis Jourdan and Angela Punch Mc Gregor and the film version of Michael Gurr’s Departure.

The film is a tour de force by veteran Australian actress Monica Maughan. She portrays a woman who is devoted to her sick mother. She is constantly serving her mother, lonely, alone. To cope with the stress, she retreats into a fantasy world. Support is from Sean Scully, who had a long career in films and television, even, in the 1960s, appearing in some Disney productions including Almost Angels.

1. This was an Australian short story. How impressive and effective was it? Why? The atmosphere of the city? The presentation of the central character? The gliding between reality and fantasy' The use of colour locations? Comment on the use of the music. Was it appropriate or too melodramatic?

2. The importance of the prologue to the film? How effective were the sequences between daughter and mother? Why was the mother so exasperating? Why was the daughter so submissive? The cat? How would you describe the relationship between mother and daughter? What were the implications of this relationship? How much did the daughter suffer? Your response to the mother's death?

3. How capable of living her own life was the daughter? How lonely was she? Why did she have to live alone? Her work, her routines, no friends, the cat, her cleaning of the house, her work in the garden? How well did the film communicate the daughter's attitude towards living alone? The details of her life?

4. How did this contrast with the life of the neighbours and their curiosity about her? How well communicated was this curiosity? Its use later in the film?

5. Why did the daughter change from living in reality to fantasy? The influence of her reading, her loneliness, the buying of the doll, the making of the clothes and the changes of clothes, the baby, starting to create a life for the dolls? How healthy was this in itself? What effect did it have on her?

6. The importance of sexuality, repression, Puritanism in the reality and fantasy of the woman? Her noticing of different men? Her fearful response to them? Yet her eagerness for relationship? Why did she imagine the men as she did? The day on the beach? The young man calling etc?

7. What was the reality of sexuality in her life? The lack of fulfilment? The fantasy? The creation of the baby - the including in the film of the baby's crying? Her disappointment? The day at the beach and her happiness? The resultant illness?

8. How creative therefore was her fantasy? How destructive? She created the lover and she also created his destructive response to her and the abandonment? How ironic and sad was this?

9. What was responsible for her breakdown? The city and its isolation, inhibitions, neighbours and their curiosity and lack of interest? The reaction of the neighbours when they got into the house - gossip and kindliness? What can be done for people in this lonely situation?

10. How satisfying was the ending? How sad and pathetic?

11. What was the main success of this film? How important was the performance of Monica Maugham? How impressive an Australian film was this?