Sony Pictures Releasing have shared the first images of LADIES IN BLACK, the new comedy drama from Academy Award® nominated director Bruce Beresford. Based on Madeleine St John’s best-selling novel The Women in Black, the film is due for release in Australian cinemas on 18 October 2018.
Set in the summer of 1959, when the impact of European migration and the rise of women’s liberation is about to change Australia forever, a shy schoolgirl (Lisa) takes a summer job at the prestigious Sydney department store, Goode’s. There she meets the “ladies in black”, who will change her life forever. Beguiled and influenced by Magda, the vivacious manager of the high-fashion floor, and befriended by fellow sales ladies Patty and Fay, Lisa is awakened to a world of possibilities. As Lisa grows from a bookish schoolgirl to a glamorous and positive young woman, she herself becomes a catalyst for a cultural change in everyone’s lives.
At the start of production, Berseford had previous commented in a statement: “I’ve been obsessed with making a film of Madeleine St John’s The Women in Black since I first read the novel about 15 years ago, after being told about it by Clive James, who had also been at Sydney University with Madeleine and myself. I was attracted by Madeleine’s wit, her light touch, her deft characterisations and her portrayal of a Sydney I knew so well ‐ the Sydney of the 1950s and ‘60s ‐ a time when the whole of Australia began to change because of the influx of European migrants (most of them escaping a depressed war‐ruined Europe), who brought a whole range of talents (and invariably delicious cuisine) that created the successful multi‐cultural society of the Australia we live in today.”
The film features a massive ensemble cast that includes Julia Ormond, Angourie Rice, Rachael Taylor, Alison McGirr, Ryan Corr, Shane Jacobson, Noni Hazlehurst, Susie Porter, Luke Pegler, Nicholas Hammond (Spider-Man!) and Vincent Perez. Production began in October last year with shooting taking place in Sydney and the Blue Mountains.
Berseford is, of course, best known as the director of Breaker Morant (1980), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), and Mao’s Last Dancer (2009). His most recent work was the TV film Flint (2017) starring Marin Ireland, Queen Latifah, and Betsy Brandt.
