Some of my blogging friends noticed
that my posts recently are on a heavy side. I have been aware of the fact that
I am overly preoccupied with issues of a serious nature and that this has
impact on subjects of my blogging. At the same time writing is some sort of
therapy for me and the way to clarify for myself bothering me issues. I also
know that I skirt around the real things which are serious challenges around my
health. I have cancer and go through the regular treatments that are not much
fun. There is also a lot of unknown ahead of me. One could say; isn’t it so for
anybody? Yes, but the remnants of a mathematician in me come to think about
probabilities and those are not in my favour. So, I worry and try to find
answers how to live well with the situation I am in. This spills to my blog in
some ways.
It is not a light start to what was
going to be a light post, but my intentions are to write about Ladies in Black,
the Australian film which is lovely, funny, intelligent and finishes with a
number of happy ends. Just what the doctor ordered and I really enjoyed.
For my current mood it was a panacea
of the first sort and I give it my personal, very subjective 10 out of 10.
The film is about Australia in 1959
when reffos (post war refugees from Europe) were finding their way to embrace
the new life and becoming millionaires. The conviction that Australia is the
land of opportunities, great weather, freedom and the place where if one wants
to, one becomes a millionaire without much of a problem. I must say that I feel
the same about the possibilities in this country, especially at the time of the
action of the film. And especially concerning reffos from Hungary who came here
after the horror of times of 1956. With their abilities, fresh outlook, knowledge
of European ways and often good education they were bound to be successful and
very rich as a result. I believe that statistics would confirm that. I often
thought that my clever father and talented mother would have made me a
millionaires’ daughter if they came of Australia after the war. Coming in 1979
I was not that clever or lucky, but I still have lived a good life here (at
least in some aspects).
One of my favourite scenes of the
film is the exchange between two Hungarian men who admire the weather and one
of them raises his hands towards the sky praising the weather and the water
views from the balcony of his house exclaiming: isn’t it wonderful! The other asks: Are you happy then? And the answer is somewhat hesitant: I would not be that trivial.
Very European, funny and very silly
in fact. Also, this is how I was and perhaps still am. One must have some
complicated Dostoevsky's feelings to be considered a sophisticated person.
Pure happiness is for simpletons. Hmm…
Ladies in black are ladies who work
in a prestigious department store for well to do Australians. The head of the fashion
department is a reffo, a very stylish one with Parisian experience and exquisite
taste in cloth. 
She takes under her wing a young and very clever girl who took
the job in the department store during the holidays after her HSC. She passed the
exams with flying colours and will have a great future ahead of her. Very
different to her mother as a new era is only just starting for women in Australia. Germain
Greer will soon start to provoke and change girls’ psyche. Our heroine wants to
be a poet, or and actress, or… a novelist. She reads Anna Karenina and she
wants to go to uni. Her father says that no daughter of his would go uni and we
are observing the change in his thinking under the influence of salami and wine
that he is introduced to and comes to the conclusion – I can get used to it. We all know that he will change his mind and
that his clever daughter will go to uni after all. With his blessing too. In the
meantime, she will be introduced to European society with Hungarians in
majority, learn to dress well, drink champagne and deal with being kissed on
the hand. I never liked this type of greeting, especially in Polish winter when
one had to take off one’s glove in very cold weather to let a man, who she was
saying hello to, clumsily kiss the frozen, shaking hand. Now I think that those
times had a lot of charm even (or especially) this continental kiss on the hand.
And Sydney of 1959 seems very attractive in the charming old fashion way.
She takes under her wing a young and very clever girl who took
the job in the department store during the holidays after her HSC. She passed the
exams with flying colours and will have a great future ahead of her. Very
different to her mother as a new era is only just starting for women in Australia. Germain
Greer will soon start to provoke and change girls’ psyche. Our heroine wants to
be a poet, or and actress, or… a novelist. She reads Anna Karenina and she
wants to go to uni. Her father says that no daughter of his would go uni and we
are observing the change in his thinking under the influence of salami and wine
that he is introduced to and comes to the conclusion – I can get used to it. We all know that he will change his mind and
that his clever daughter will go to uni after all. With his blessing too. In the
meantime, she will be introduced to European society with Hungarians in
majority, learn to dress well, drink champagne and deal with being kissed on
the hand. I never liked this type of greeting, especially in Polish winter when
one had to take off one’s glove in very cold weather to let a man, who she was
saying hello to, clumsily kiss the frozen, shaking hand. Now I think that those
times had a lot of charm even (or especially) this continental kiss on the hand.
And Sydney of 1959 seems very attractive in the charming old fashion way.
Lovely film that will be forgotten
soon as it is just charming fluff.
