GEORGIA

Australia, 1988, 93 minutes, Colour.
Judy Davis, John Bach, Julia Blake, Alex Menglet, Marshall Napier, Lewis Fiander.
Directed by Ben Lewin.

Georgia was written by director Ben Lewin in collaboration with playwright Joanna Murray- Smith (Honour). It focuses on a young insurance investigator, played by Judy Davis. When she comes across a portrait of her mother, she becomes suspicious of the way that her mother drowned when she was still a baby. This leads to investigation and a probing of character.

Judy Davis was nominated once again for an Australian Film Institute best actress award for her performance. She has won five of these for Hoodwink, Winter of Our Dreams, Kangaroo, High Tide, Children of the Revolution. She is well supported by John Bach and Julia Blake.

Ben Lewin wrote and directed the celebrated miniseries The Dunera Boys as well as films like The Favour, The Watch and The Very Big Fish.

Unfortunately Georgia has not been well remembered or noticed in the history of Australian cinema or of Judy Davis’s film career.

1.The impact of the drama? The issues of relationships, mother-daughter? Absence of mother? The mystery?

2.The detail of the Melbourne settings? The past and the present? Urban Melbourne, Melbourne society? Melbourne lifestyle? The musical score?

3.The title, Nina’s curiosity about her mother, memories of her mother? The mystery of seeing her mother and the portrait? The mystery of her death? The suggestions?

4.Judy Davis’s performance as Nina and Georgia? The different nuances in each performance? Nina and the mystery, the development of the clues, her life, her work, photography, career, the exhibition? The interactions with Elizabeth and Lazlo? Karlin and her reaction? Her decision to pursue the case?

5.The structure of the film, the focus on the truth? Tracking down the solution to the mystery? The insertion of the flashbacks? The various versions of what had happened? Exploration of character, relationships? Arrival at the truth?

6.Nina, her character, age and experience, brooding, motivations, questioning, her detection? The interview? The building dangers, the threats?

7.The gallery of characters in support? As seen, suggestions about their deeper characters? Elizabeth and the past, Karlin, the affair? Georgia and the talk, the effect? Lazlo and the relationship? Elizabeth, the shower, the attack? Elizabeth and the deals? Georgia – and Nina’s father? The different versions?

8.The investigation, the police, the methods used, style, photography, dangers and the truth?

9.The issue of the tax fraud, the investigation? The stalker and the connection? The violence and the solving of the mystery?

10.The revelation of the character of Georgia? The insight into the character of Nina? The satisfaction in solving the mystery?