THE NIGHTS BELONG TO THE NOVELIST
Australia, 1987, 50 minutes, Colour.
Elizabeth Jolley.
Directed by Christina Wilcox.
The Nights Belong to the Novelist is an appreciation of novelist Elizabeth Jolley with some insight into her work. The film was well received and won several Australian Film Institute awards. Elizabeth Jolley is interviewed - and we see something of her personality, her philosophy of life, her attitude towards her craft. There are also short dramatisations of several of her stories: Woman in a Lampshade, Miss Peabody's Inheritance, Mr. Scobie's Riddle, Some Landscapes from Palomino and the prologue to Milk and Honey.
Ruth Cracknell appears as The Woman in the Lampshade and as Miss Hailey in Mr. Scobie's Riddle. Kerry Walker is effective as both Miss Peabody and Miss Thorne in Miss Peabody's inheritance.
1. The impact of the film? Acclaim and awards?
2. The work of a crew and cast of women? A women's perspective?
3. The structure of the film: the Premier of new South Wales Award, Elizabeth Jolley's biography, her ideas and craft, the dramatisation of stories?
4. Elizabeth Jolley as a person: her personal beliefs, her appreciation of women, as a Western Australian (from England), her home? The farm?
5. The sketch of her work: her career, making notes, observation of life, her writing and conditions? Her use of words and appreciation of words? Her Creative Writing course?
6. The dramatisation of her stories: their insertion into the interviews and biography? her comments on the characters, their creation, the time taken for writing them, her control over them, as expressing her interests? Milk and Honey and themes? Palomino and landscapes? Her comments about her obsessions (and the criticism about her focus on lesbian relationships)? Her comment on old age and her work as a nurse?
7. The dramatisation of the characters, their stories, their being controlled by the novelist, a life of their own?
8. Miss Peabody and Miss Thorne: Miss Peabody and the letters, the collage of her receiving the letters from Miss Thorne? Her prim life? The contrast with Miss Thorne, education, the gels? Her friendship, the holiday with her friend, the shower sequence? Miss Peabody and the bath, the water fight, the drink? The focus on women's perspective, relationships, sexuality? Miss Thorne and Deborah, her dancing, the provocative song? Miss Thorne's temptation and resistance?
9. Miss Hailey and her place in the institution, her dancing, her playing 'The Flying Dutchman'? Mr. Scobie and his being followed, escaping through the toilet? Miss Hailey spending so long dancing? Elizabeth Jolley's comment on dance and expression, her own inability, dancing sequences in her work?
10. The Woman in a Lampshade, the artist, her writing, hitch-hiker, picking him up against advice, in the bed, her typing, the cup of tea?
11. Women, creative, relationships?
12. The absence of men in the stories? The hitch-hiker, Mr. Scobie?
13. Elizabeth Jolley's contribution to Australian literature? Film creatively capturing and communicating this?
