The Singer and the Dancer (1977) User Reviews

Ruth Cracknell shines in Gillian Armstrong's debut

[PeterM27 · 6/10 · 18 December 2021]

This is director Gillian Armstrong's debut film (at only 52 minutes, this is a shorter feature film, possibly a 'featurette') and was shown with another shorter feature (Love Letters From Teralba Road) on release at arthouse cinemas in 1977. I saw it then as well as more recently when I came across the film on Youtube.

It contains a delightful performance from Ruth Cracknell as the aging Mrs. Bilson, who dreams of her life before old age. The two women discuss their lives, shedding light on the restrictions put on women at each stage of life.

It's a gentle, slightly angry, feminist film which signaled the direction Armstrong's career would take as she examined the world of Australian and American women in her next dozen films.

Age and memories blend like wine and cheese by the lakeside

[uds3 · 10 November 2001]

Here's a great opportunity to catch an early Gillian Armstrong work as she paints a tapestry of interweaving lives, not happy ones - just REAL ones.

Ruth Cracknell is old Mrs Bilson, at odds with, and at an enforced distance from her own daughter with whom, for many reasons she does not speak. She seeks refuge from an unbearable home environment that she herself has helped to create. Her only pleasure these days is solace in quiet places, alone with her thoughts and bitter regrets. It is an acidic existence. Elizabeth Crosby is misbegotten young Charlie, hoping to solidify a rocky love affair with her boyfriend by removing him from what she sees as the 'temptations' of the city.

The two meet by chance one day, when Mrs Bilson is dropped off at her favorite spot by the lake. Despite the cultural and age differences, the two are drawn together and these meetings become regular therapeutic journeys of experience. Gillian Armstrong tenderly evokes a drama which explores choices, past and present, hope ever on the horizon, friendship in the most unlikely places.

Thought provoking and meditational cinema - the quintessential Gillian Armstrong. Cracknell and Crosby are on fire here. See it!