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Gillian Armstrong is a Director, Scriptwriter, Producer and Art Direction Australienne born on 18 december 1950 at Melbourne (Australie)
Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950) is an award-winning Australian director of feature films and documentaries.
Armstrong was a technical theatre student at Swinburne College while paying her tuition by working as a waitress. Originally, she attended school to become a theatrical set designer but the school that she attended also offered a film course. After she took it she was enamored by the great names of cinema and decided to enter the film industry. Then she won a scholarship to join the first 12 students at the country's first and only film school, the Australian Film and Television School. While she was in school, The Australian film industry was nonexistent, she recalls how weird the accent sounded in new films, because it wasn't American, it was Australian.
Soon, she became Australia's first female film director at the age of 27. During the time of the development of Australian Cinema Armstrong recalls in a Washington Post interview that tremendous tax breaks led to a frightful overproduction. Everybody was interested in doing deals and even stockbrokers were becoming directors. However, very few of them had the commitment to cinema that Armstrong and others had, and the films would be shown for a week or two, or not released at all. After Armstrong's second film My Brilliant Career, she had offers from Hollywood but quickly turned them all away, preferring to stay in Australia to make a deliberately small film called Starstruck. After the release of Starstruck, Armstrong went around giving interviews dressed in a large fuzzy blue sweater dress decorated with coloured beads, a black-and-white polka dot blouse, black tights and blue suede shoes all topped by a punk shag haircut.
Gillian Armstrong is married with two daughters.
Source : Wikidata
Gillian Armstrong
Birth name Gillian May Armstrong
Nationality Australie
Birth 18 december 1950 (73 years) at Melbourne (Australie)
Nationality Australie
Birth 18 december 1950 (73 years) at Melbourne (Australie)
Biography
Armstrong was born in Australia, Melbourne, Victoria on 18 December 1950. She went to a local high school, Vermont High School (now Vermont Secondary College), and was the middle child of a local real estate agent father and a primary school teacher mother who gave up work to have a family. Armstrong stated in The Australian that her parents were always very supportive of their hopes and dream, which was not always the way it was for women in the 1960s and 70s. Her father was a frustrated photographer who wasn't allowed to follow his dreams professionally, yet always practised as an amateur. Armstrong reminiscences of how she grew up in a dark room, learning all about photography. When she first decided to go to the art school, Armstrong didn't have a very firm grasp on what she wanted to do.Armstrong was a technical theatre student at Swinburne College while paying her tuition by working as a waitress. Originally, she attended school to become a theatrical set designer but the school that she attended also offered a film course. After she took it she was enamored by the great names of cinema and decided to enter the film industry. Then she won a scholarship to join the first 12 students at the country's first and only film school, the Australian Film and Television School. While she was in school, The Australian film industry was nonexistent, she recalls how weird the accent sounded in new films, because it wasn't American, it was Australian.
Soon, she became Australia's first female film director at the age of 27. During the time of the development of Australian Cinema Armstrong recalls in a Washington Post interview that tremendous tax breaks led to a frightful overproduction. Everybody was interested in doing deals and even stockbrokers were becoming directors. However, very few of them had the commitment to cinema that Armstrong and others had, and the films would be shown for a week or two, or not released at all. After Armstrong's second film My Brilliant Career, she had offers from Hollywood but quickly turned them all away, preferring to stay in Australia to make a deliberately small film called Starstruck. After the release of Starstruck, Armstrong went around giving interviews dressed in a large fuzzy blue sweater dress decorated with coloured beads, a black-and-white polka dot blouse, black tights and blue suede shoes all topped by a punk shag haircut.
Gillian Armstrong is married with two daughters.
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Filmography of Gillian Armstrong (14 films)
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Death Defying Acts (2007)
, 1h33Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Origin Australie
Genres Drama, Thriller, Romance
Themes Films about magic and magicians
Actors Guy Pearce, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Saoirse Ronan, Timothy Spall, Leni Harper, Anthony O'Donnell
Rating58%
In 1926, 13 years after his mother's death, illusionist Harry Houdini (Guy Pearce) has begun debunking mystics, psychics and others who claim to have paranormal powers. He offers US$10,000 to anyone who can quote his mother's dying words to him.
, 1h22Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Genres Documentary
Themes Documentaire sur une personnalité
Actors Judi Farr
Rating68%
Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst chronicles the life of Florence Broadhurst, an Australian designer who owned her own fashion design company in London during the 1930s. Later in life she moved to Sydney, Australia, and became a painter, socialite and charity fund-raiser. At 60 years old she began her most prolific and successful occupation, becoming a wallpaper designer. Florence Broadhurst was murdered in her studio during 1977, at the age of 78. The film includes interviews, dramatizations and animations which are used to illustrate Broadhurst's unusual lifestyle.
Charlotte Gray (2002)
, 2h1Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Historical, Romance
Themes Political films, Histoire de France, L'Occupation allemande en France
Actors Cate Blanchett, Michael Gambon, James Fleet, Billy Crudup, Abigail Cruttenden, Rupert Penry-Jones
Rating63%
In 1942, a young Scot, Charlotte Gray, travels to London to take a job in a surgery. On the train, a man enters her compartment and chats with her, asking questions about her life and expressing interest that she is fluent in French. He gives her his card with the date, time and address of a book launch. Social life in London is in full swing and her friends convince her to go. She soon meets RAF Flight Lieutenant Peter Gregory, but is interrupted by Richard Cannerley, the older man from the train, who urges her to meet some of his acquaintances and asks her to contact him when she leaves.
Oscar and Lucinda (1997)
, 2h12Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Ralph Fiennes, Cate Blanchett, Ciarán Hinds, Richard Roxburgh, Clive Russell, Christian Manon
Rating64%
As a child living in Australia, Lucinda Leplastrier is given a Prince Rupert's Drop which sparks a lifelong obsession with glass.
Little Women (1994)
, 1h55Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romance
Themes Films about writers, Films about families, Feminist films, Political films, Children's films
Actors Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Trini Alvarado, Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Bale
Rating72%
The film focuses on the March sisters: beautiful Meg (Trini Alvarado), tempestuous Jo (Winona Ryder), tender Beth (Claire Danes), and romantic Amy (Kirsten Dunst), who are growing up in Concord, Massachusetts during and after the American Civil War. With their father away fighting in the war, the girls struggle with major and minor problems under the guidance of their strong-willed mother, affectionately called Marmee (Susan Sarandon). As a means of escaping some of their problems, the sisters revel in performing in romantic plays written by Jo in their attic theater.
The Last Days of Chez Nous (1992)
, 1h33Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance
Actors Lisa Harrow, Bruno Ganz, Kerry Fox, Miranda Otto, Bill Hunter, Lex Marinos
Rating64%
Fires Within (1991)
, 1h26Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller
Actors Jimmy Smits, Greta Scacchi, Vincent D'Onofrio, Earl Hindman, Luis Ávalos, Raúl Dávila
Rating47%
Set in the Cuban community in Miami, the story revolves around the relationship between Nestor, a recently released political prisoner, his wife Isabel, who had fled Cuba after Nestor was imprisoned, and Sam, the fisherman who had rescued Isabel from almost certain death at sea.
High Tide (1987)
, 1h44Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Genres Drama
Actors Judy Davis, Claudia Karvan, Frankie J. Holden, Colin Friels, Toni Scanlan, Mark Hembrow
Rating70%
Lilli is one of three backing singers for a touring Elvis impersonator until she is fired. Then, left alone at the beginning of winter she is stranded in a ramshackle beach town on the windswept coast of New South Wales. This remote, working class, tourist-town has a pervasive sense of rootlessness and movement. The people survive by changing their occupations with the seasons and work hard in small businesses. Here, stuck in the Mermaid Caravan Park, she encounters her teenage daughter Ally (Claudia Karvan). When Lilli's young surfer husband had died, she felt lost; she gave up her baby to her mother-in-law, Bet. Lilli has been drifting ever since, and getting wasted. Bet is a rowdy, belligerent woman, devoted to Ally—she has taken care of her for 13 years but she has no idea how unhappy the girl is. Lilli has an immediate rapport with the lonely Ally even before she knows that Ally is her daughter, and after she knows, she can't take her eyes off her. They belong with each other. but Lilli's terrified of taking on the responsibilities of motherhood, and Bet tells her she's riff-raff. When we first see Ally she is in the water; surfing is—"her refuge from the noisy junkiness of life with Bet. Bet isn't a monster, she's simply the wrong person to be raising the pensive Ally, whose emotions are hidden away, like her mother's. The drama is in our feeling that Lilli must not leave her daughter in the embrace of this raucous old trouper.
Mrs. Soffel (1984)
, 1h50Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Historical, Romance
Themes Prison films
Actors Diane Keaton, Mel Gibson, Matthew Modine, Terry O'Quinn, Edward Herrmann, Trini Alvarado
Rating60%
Kate Soffel is the wife of a Pittsburgh prison warden in 1901. They have four children. After several months of being sick in bed for no discernible reason that doctors can figure out, she suddenly regains her strength. She visits inmates to read Bible scripture to them and meets Ed Biddle and his brother Jack, both of whom may be innocent of the crimes that brought them here.
Starstruck (1982)
, 1h45Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Genres Drama, Comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Musical films
Actors Jo Kennedy, Max Cullen, Geoffrey Rush, Melissa Jaffer, Pat Evison, Mark Little
Rating67%
Jackie Mullens dreams of becoming a singing star and her cousin Angus thinks he has what it takes to be a successful manager. After a spot at the hip club in town (wearing a kangaroo suit) fails to win Jackie any paying gigs, Angus enters her in a major talent competition to be held on New Year's Eve. If Jackie wins, her career is assured, and the $25,000 grand prize will help keep her family's pub open.
My Brilliant Career (1979)
, 1h45Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Origin Australie
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama, Romance
Themes Films about writers, Seafaring films, Transport films
Actors Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, Robert Grubb, Max Cullen, David Franklin
Rating70%
Sybylla (Judy Davis), a headstrong, free-spirited girl growing up in late 19th century Australia, dreams of a better life to the detriment of her work on a country farm. Her parents, upset by her dreams of grandeur, send her to board with her grandmother in hopes of teaching her proper manners and behaviour. She is soon courted by two local men, jackaroo Frank Hawdon (Robert Grubb), whom she ignores, and well-to-do childhood friend Harry Beecham (Sam Neill), whom she grows increasingly fond of.
The Singer and the Dancer (1977)
, 52minutesDirected by Gillian Armstrong
Genres Drama
Actors Ruth Cracknell, Jude Kuring, Gerry Duggan, Kate Sheil, Kerry Walker
Rating62%
Mrs Bilson is treated as a simple minded invalid by her family and periodically escapes to sit by the river and listen to the races. She befriends Charlie, a young woman from the city who has come with her husband to seek a new life. Both realises they have much in common, including abusive and unfaithful husbands.
Scriptwriter
The Singer and the Dancer (1977)
, 52minutesDirected by Gillian Armstrong
Genres Drama
Actors Ruth Cracknell, Jude Kuring, Gerry Duggan, Kate Sheil, Kerry Walker
Roles Writer
Rating62%
Mrs Bilson is treated as a simple minded invalid by her family and periodically escapes to sit by the river and listen to the races. She befriends Charlie, a young woman from the city who has come with her husband to seek a new life. Both realises they have much in common, including abusive and unfaithful husbands.
Production
The Singer and the Dancer (1977)
, 52minutesDirected by Gillian Armstrong
Genres Drama
Actors Ruth Cracknell, Jude Kuring, Gerry Duggan, Kate Sheil, Kerry Walker
Roles Producer
Rating62%
Mrs Bilson is treated as a simple minded invalid by her family and periodically escapes to sit by the river and listen to the races. She befriends Charlie, a young woman from the city who has come with her husband to seek a new life. Both realises they have much in common, including abusive and unfaithful husbands.
Art
Promised Woman (1976)
, 1h24Directed by Tom Cowan
Genres Drama
Actors Kate Fitzpatrick
Roles Art Direction
Antigone arrives in Sydney from Greece to have an arranged marriage with Telis, but is rejected by him as he expected a younger woman. Telis's older brother, Manolis, sympathises with Antigone.