The Singer and the Dancer

Name: The Singer and the Dancer
Duration: 52 min
Rating: 6.1
Cast: Ruth Cracknell, Elisabeth Crosby, Russell Kiefel

1977
52m

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

YOUR RATING

An elderly woman who is treated as a simple-minded invalid, periodically escapes to sit by the river and listen to the races on her radio. There she befriends Charlie, a woman who has come t... Read allAn elderly woman who is treated as a simple-minded invalid, periodically escapes to sit by the river and listen to the races on her radio. There she befriends Charlie, a woman who has come to seek a new life in the country.An elderly woman who is treated as a simple-minded invalid, periodically escapes to sit by the river and listen to the races on her radio. There she befriends Charlie, a woman who has come to seek a new life in the country.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos

User reviews2

6.120

Featured reviews

6PeterM27

Ruth Cracknell shines in Gillian Armstrong's debut

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.

uds3

Age and memories blend like wine and cheese by the lakeside

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!

More like this

7.1

My Brilliant Career

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
This picture was one of fifty Australian films selected for preservation as part of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Kodak / Atlab Cinema Collection Restoration Project.