''A Girl's Own Story'' is a 1984 short Australian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films ''The Piano'' (1993) and ''The Power of the Dog (film), The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for ...

. It was screened in the

Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...

section at the

1986 Cannes Film Festival The 39th Cannes Film Festival took place from 8 to 19 May 1986. American filmmaker Sydney Pollack served as jury president for the main competition. British filmmaker Roland Joffé won the ''Palme d'Or'', the festival's top prize, for the drama f ...

. The short centers on the female

adolescent Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated w ...

experience—particularly female desire—using a fragmentary approach.

Plot

The film is set during the 1960s at the height of

Beatlemania Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles from 1963 to 1966. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom in late 1963, propelled by the singles " Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and " She Loves Yo ...

. It opens with schoolgirls singing a

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

song in the courtyard of their Catholic school to the delight of their classmates, but a nun arrives to break it up. Two girls, Pam and Stella, are in a bedroom where they kiss cutouts of Beatles members that are pinned to the wall. One of the girls is wearing the cutout of her favorite Beatle as a mask to practice kissing on her friend. This is intercut with scenes of one of the other schoolgirls, Gloria, who is at home playing a game of make-believe with her brother Graeme. Pam's home life is a scene of dysfunction due to her unfaithful father and a depressed mother. Despite the parents' marital strife, the couple ends up reconciling much to Pam's surprise. A

leitmotif A leitmotif or () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is a partial angliciz ...

of music-box notes plays intermittently throughout the film.

Cast

* Gabrielle Shornegg as Pam * Geraldine Haywood as Stella * Marina Knight as Gloria * John Godden as Graeme * Joanne Gabbe as Sister * Colleen Fitzpatrick as Mother *

Paul Chubb Paul Dunford (14 January 1949 – 9 June 2002), professionally billed as Paul Chubb, was an Australians, Australian film, television and stage actor and scriptwriter primarily in genres of comedy and drama. Early life He was born in Arncliffe, N ...

as Father * Jane Edwards as Deidre * Cynthia Turner as Nun 1 * Valda Diamond as Nun 2 * Katharine Cullen as Little Pam

Filming

Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian and American actress and producer. Known for Nicole Kidman on screen and stage, her work in film and television productions across many genres, she has consistently ranked among the world ...

admitted during an interview that at 14 she was originally cast as the lead in the film but turned it down because of her reluctance to kiss a girl and wear a shower cap.

Reception

''A Girl's Own Story'' received acclaim and won the 1984 Rouben Mamoulian Award at the Sydney Fim Festival and the Best Direction Award at the

Australian Film Institute The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Cinema of Australia, Australian film indu ...

. It screened in the

section at the

. Filmmaker

Todd Haynes Todd Haynes (; born January 2, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender ...

said "A Girl's Own Story''' is a film of acute tenderness and beauty". In a retrospective review, Cristina Álvarez López of

Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...

wrote the film "signals concisely the fragile, liminal territory to be explored: a space between childhood and womanhood, between desire and repression, and between curiosity and trauma".

References

External links

* *
A Girl's Own Story
' at

Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

*
A Girl's Own Story
' at

Senses of Cinema ''Senses of Cinema'' is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, ''Senses of Cinema'' publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girl's Own Story, A 1984 films Australian drama short films 1984 drama films 1984 short films Australian independent films Australian black-and-white films Films directed by Jane Campion 1984 independent films Films about puberty Films about adolescence 1980s feminist films 1980s English-language films English-language drama short films English-language independent films