Ladies in Black

A film set in Sydney in 1959. Lisa has finished school and is waiting for her examination results. For the summer she takes temporary work at one of the city's large department stores. The saleswomen on the ladies' floor wear black. Lisa wants to go to university. Her father is against it; he thinks education is unnecessary for girls and the subject is not discussed at home. At the store she meets several women. One is at odds with her husband, one wants to marry and cannot find what she is looking for. And there is Magda: she came from Europe after the war, runs the most expensive department in the store and is connected to the city's immigrant circles. Magda shows Lisa that another life is possible: different food, different conversation and educated women. What the film describes is not a great event but a city changing slowly: the immigrants arriving in Australia, women's working life and a girl's wish to study all cross in the same summer. The source is Madeleine St John's novel. Angourie Rice plays Lisa and Julia Ormond plays Magda. Rachael Taylor and Noni Hazlehurst are in the cast. Bruce Beresford directed. A pleasant choice for anyone who likes period films and calm narratives. For a viewer expecting conflict, the film moves softly and presses nobody very hard.