MAYBE THIS TIME

Australia, 1980, 100 minutes, Colour.
Judy Morris, Bill Hunter, Mike Preston, Jill Perryman, Ken Shorter, Michelle Fawdon, Leonard Teale, Jude Kuring, Rod Mullinar, Chris Haywood, Lorna Lesley, Lyndall Barbour.
Directed by Chris Mc Gill.

The futility of the pressures, uncertainties of modern living are frustrating. A common theme, but taken up here sensitively and from a woman's viewpoint. Judy Morris' excellently drawn Fran writes letters to a friend overseas, searches for a man who will love her and not see her as a fulfilment of fantasy, meets a variety of women in a wide range of circumstances and reflects on her past. The film has many accurate and well-perceived touches, fine support from Jill Perrryman, Michelle Fawdon and memorable characters by Lorna Lesley and Lyndall Barbour. The men embody many male Australian attitudes. Not a great film, some flaws, but in many ways, rewarding.

1. An interesting and enjoyable film? Its place in the Australian industry of the '70s? A look at contemporary life in the 1970s? Political background,, social comment? The portrait of a woman?

2. The technical credits of the film and their effectiveness: the beauty of the colour photography of Sydney. Canberra, the south coast? The evocation of the Australian environment in both city and country? The qualities of the location photography? The use of houses, streets, university campus, the harbour etc.? The contribution of the romantic score?

3. The contribution of the acting talent and its wide range? The stars? The variety of actors and actresses in cameo roles - their effectiveness?

4. The original title was Letters to a Friend. An effective title? In comparison with Maybe This Time? The framework of the letters - the soap opera device, how well used? Sentiment and strength? The importance of our understanding Fran by the way that she wrote the letters, their content, the tone of her voice, friendship with Gennie? The audience's sense of Gennie - and her friendship with Fran , sharing her experience, the relationship with Paddy, the importance of the European experience, the details of her trip? Fran's response - voice-over, language, poetry, rhetoric, questions? A device for communicating and revealing Fran to the audience? The impact of Gennie's death - on Fran, on the audience?

5. The strengths and weaknesses of the screenplay? How perceptive on character? The Australian way of life? Australian manners, idiom? The one-liners - and the sense of being cleverly overwritten? The sensitivity towards themes? The feminine perspective? The point of view of the screenplay on Australian society,, politics,, the Labor Party and November 1975? The place of women in Australian society, men? The emphasis on the woman - with some consequent ridiculing of the men? The futility of Fran's experience, her goals? Her background, education, sensibility? Insight into the woman? Male-female relationships?

6. Fran as the focus of the film and the audience seeing her as centre and other people within her circle? The past and the present? Men and women? The prospects for the future?

7. The portrait of Fran as a woman? Her capacity for life, involvement? The past: her family background, growing up with Margo, her mother? The friendship with Alan Russell and the passing of ten years? This being highlighted by the chance encounter with the past student in the shop and her chatter, the bets about getting married, her own divorce? The visit to Miss Bates and the discussion about learning, the past (Bronwyn sitting in on the discussion - an image of Fran from the past)? Fran's study, her teaching, her giving it up and moving to the university, her presence at tutorials, discussions with Paddy? The build-up to approaching middle age unfulfilled? The present: her job and its ordinariness, her relationship with Steven and its four years duration? The honesty and the lies? Sharing interests with Steven? The intimate sequences with him and his blase attitude? The plight and her going to Canberra? The party, the view of the Labor ministers? Her being caught by Meredith and her embarrassment? The later dinner with Steven as he moved upwards in his career? Her discussions about Meredith and visiting her? Discussing and drinking? The visit how and the encounter with Alan at the barbecue? The decision to spend the weekend with him, shared experiences, the sexual inadequacy, his pleading with her to marry him? The visit to the farm and the prospects for a future? The relationship with Paddy, her work at the university, his offhanded manner, quips? Moving into an affair with him? His refusal of commitment, open relationship? Academic futility? Sensual fulfilment but a puzzle about relationships? The future: Her birthday and turning 30, her bleak forecast about how she would change over the decades (in her letter to Gennie)? The possibility of marriage, family, children? People's expectations of her e.g. the student she met, her mother? Comparisons with Margo? Her hopes in the trip to Europe? The news of Gennie's death and her decision to go to Europe? Study, qualification, career? The film's finishing with Fran moving about Athens - the beauty of the past, images of the past? The possibility of building a future?

8. Judy Morris as Fran representing an ordinary Australian woman? The country town background, education, political views, Labor point of view, work? Self-preoccupied? Feminine, tough, cultured, friendly, lonely? Emotional needs? The range of her relationships? Encounters with men, women? Comparisons that the screenplay made? Comparison with her mother, Sister? Her being indecisive?

9. The women in the film: Margo and her children, the husband, bringing up the family, financial prospects, the visit home, the sharing of memories at their mother's birthday party, singing together? Seeing her off at the airport? The picture of family life? Her mother and her pressures, gossip, the birthday party? The mother gossipping with the neighbours? The possibility of a future with Alan - and the parallel with Margo and Jack? The contrast with Meredith - Steven's lies about her, her knowledge of the affair, the permissive sequence at the motel in Canberra, the later discussions about marriage and truth, the divorce? Miss Bates as the educationalist, the spinster, the intellectual? Bronwyn and her future? Gennie as model for Fran's behaviour, friendship, the relationship with Paddy?

10. The portrayal of men in the film: Steven and his Public Service position, self-importance, smugness, promiscuity? Attitudes towards his minister? Towards the new government? His deceiving Meredith? The shots of him being watched by Fran as he went out with the family? His later behaviour at the election time - on television? The meal with Fran and the harbour? The contrast with Alan and his being in New Guinea, the Country Party affiliation, the love for Fran, the weekend and his sexual inadequacy and embarrassment, the old man intruder and the spoiling of the weekend? His taking Fran to see the farm? Proposal? The contrast with Paddy and his secure world of the university, cynical, rubbishing the students, theorising about Churchill? Their liaison? Her birthday, the swim? Paddy's inability to commit himself? His carrying on with the girl student? Jack and his making a pass at Fran? The encounter with the minister and his geniality in Canberra, his losing his seat and his television interview, the pathos of the discussion on the ferry? Poetry, the ice cream that couldn't be bought? The incidental sequence of the salesman and his jokes, push? Men presented in a less than sympathetic way?

11. The political background, Labor Party government, 1975? The A.C.T., jobs, the minister and his defeat? The changing patterns after 1975?

12. The academic world: university, tutorials, the correction of papers, secure theorising?

13. The New South Wales countryside, towns, farm, Pitt Street farmers? The isolation of the country?

14. Feminist themes? The portrayal of feminine sensitivity? The rights of women, the place of women in society? Sexuality?

15. Themes of age, middle age, malaise, disappointment and futility, coping with life, hopes?