MRS CAREY’S CONCERT

Australia, 2011, 95 minutes. Colour.
MLC Burwood Staff and Students.
Directed by Bob Connolly and Sophie Raymond.

A film about music. But, importantly, a film about education.

Bob Connolly has directed only six documentaries over a period of almost thirty years. The two from the 1980s were filmed in Papua New Guinea. His last film, 2001, was also a music film, Facing the Music (Austalian Catholic Film Office winner for 2001). Connolly has photographed Mrs Carey’s Concert and co-director, Sophie Raymond, was responsible for the sound.

The school at the centre of the film is now called MLC College. Formerly it was Methodist Ladies College, in the Sydney suburb of Burwood, but when the Methodist Church became part of the Uniting Church of Australia in 1977, the school’s name retained the initials for its title. It is a Uniting Church school. There are 1200 students and the film takes us into the well-staffed Music School of the college.

Mrs Carey grew up in country New South Wales without any benefit of music education at school. It was at the Conservatorium that she heard Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion, a life-transforming experience leading to a realisation of what could be accomplished and communicated by team collaboration. In her work at MLC, she produces an annual concert at the Sydney Opera House that involves the whole school in one way or another (in this film everybody participating in playing and singing the march from Aida).

This means that there is plenty of music to delight music lovers, from Bach to Brahms to Ravel, with some music composed by the staff as well. The music is orchestral but with some soloists, especially violinists. One girl, Emily Sun, is chosen to perform a featured solo. We are taken into classes, rehearsals, the climax with the concert itself and Emily’s star turn as well as the special pieces conducted by different members of the staff.

But, the film is more about Mrs Carey’s education styles than her concert.

Mrs Carey is a strong woman who does not always suffer fools gladly. But, she is also sensitive and exercises tough love. We see it throughout the film in her insights into Emily, her coaxing some leadership qualities from her, her encouraging her to express her feelings, something difficult with Emily’s background of Chinese emotional reticence, her attempts to help her become more responsible, her offering her a challenge 12 weeks before the concert with a new piece to learn.

The directors were given considerable access to staff and students over a period of more than a year, editing the film into stages of two month intervals before the concert. We are privy to Mrs Carey’s reflections, staff discussions, interviews with students. We are privy to Emily’s acknowledging that she could run the risk of ruining everything by poor behaviour but we sense also her dedication to her music, her memory of her musician father, killed in an accident when she was young – and at the end we meet her mother. We also note how many students of Asian origin are students at the school.

While Emily’s struggles with her challenges might have offered sufficient opportunity for some drama, we are also introduced to problem student, Iris, who is disruptive, sometimes outspoken, sometimes passive aggressive, who is intelligent, (rightly) finds much of the rehearsal tedious for those who are not fully involved. She offers an interesting case study of someone who is bright, obnoxious and seemingly her own person and not open to teacherly persuasion.

We also get glimpses of several other students and their personalities or problems as well as getting to know, briefly, the music school staff.

Mrs Carey can get flustered, sometimes hesitating or doubting but still a determined woman who sees the potential for talent, achievement and self-esteem in the students to whom she undoubtedly dedicated.

1. The impact of the film? The music? The playing and the performance? Education?

2. The impact of the staff, the staff of the music school? Mrs Carey? The other lecturers, the conductors, composers?

3. The overall impression of the schoolgirls? The range of age? The ethnic backgrounds, especially Asian students? The girls and their behaviour in the school? In the grounds? At rehearsals? The reputation of some of the girls, the lying to their parents, the copy of the blogs and their boasting about their behaviour? Truancy? The troublesome girls? Iris?

4. The length of time the film-maker spent at the school? Access to the students and staff? The nods in the direction of the camera at times, especially Iris? Otherwise unobtrusive? The filming of classes, private meetings, staff discussions, the rehearsals, in the opera house, the concert itself, the audience, behind the scenes, on stage?

5. The range of music, the classics, contemporary music? As performed, the orchestra, the soloists?

6. Mrs Carey and her background? Growing up in the country, not having music at school? At the conservatorium? The transformation? Her work at the school, preparing the concert, liaison with the staff, her ideas and choices? Discussions with the students? Discipline? Tough love? The challenges to Emily? The praise of Dorita? The phone call from the girl who had to go to the wedding rehearsal and her sharp talk to the parents? At the concert, flustered? Her response to the music? Conducting the school at the end? Her achievement?

7. The details of the classes with the other teachers, their discussions, their appreciation of music, eliciting emotion? Their conducting their work? The composer, his relationship with Emily, puzzled by her? His own composition and the two violinists in the balconies of the opera house? His achievement?

8. Emily, her age, background? The comments about her being misled, her behaviour? Her own discipline, getting notes from teachers when she was late? The choice of her to do a solo, her diffidence? Her saying she didn’t have leadership qualities? Her agreement to work with Mrs Carey? Her teachers, the composer? The conductor and the discussions about feeling? Emily’s background, the death of her father, his talent as a musician? The accident? Her mother, her mother’s limits in English, support of her daughter? The mother’s story and handling the music school in China? With Emily, the buying of the dress? Her support of her before the performance at the concert?

9. Emily, getting to grips with the music, being asked about emotions, the Chinese reticence? Anger, passion, grief – or not? Inarticulate, saying she didn’t know? Her performance throughout the year, improvement? The challenge for the new piece? Her rising to the occasion? The buying of the dress? The scenes with her mother? The final performance, special dress, on stage, yet with the rest of the orchestra for the performance? Her achievement? The comparisons with the opening and the previous girl who was the soloist, her place in the school, Emily following in her footsteps?

10. The troublesome girls, their going up to Mrs Carey’s room? Their reactions, playing jokes, changing the colour on the computer? Fixing it? Iris, her passive aggression, her overt aggression? The discussions, her seeming to be reasonable in discussion? Yet finding the rehearsals tedious? Not wanting to be ordered around? Her point? Her seeming resistance, wanting to get out? At the performance, her singing, her entering into the spirit of things – as she said the concert would be a success?

11. The details of the other girls, the soloists for the composer? The girl and the piccolo and her lack of energy? The girl invited to the wedding rehearsal and Mrs Carey’s comments to her parents? The film-makers focusing on different girls, especially in performance?

12. Themes of education, noticing talent, affirming and giving opportunity for talent, growth in self-esteem, challenge? Mrs Carey’s theory about music communicating and challenging at an intellectual, emotional, physical, communication level? Music and its place in overall education? The effect on the girls all participating – the twelve hundred at the final concert?