AustLit logo
person or book cover
Screen cap from promotional trailer
form y separately published work icon The Getting Of Wisdom single work   film/TV  
Adaptation of The Getting of Wisdom Henry Handel Richardson , 1910 single work novel
Issue Details: First known date: 1978... 1978 The Getting Of Wisdom
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

In the early 1900s, the spirited and talented Laura Tweedle Ramsbotham arrives at an exclusive Melbourne ladies' college, only to be greeted with jeers and treated as a country bumpkin. Although she is defiant towards her peers, the pressure almost defeats her. She soon learns, however, to be as ruthless as the other girls. Caught out after inventing an illicit liaison with the handsome new minister, she becomes a pariah until she is taken under the wing of an older girl, the elegant and kindly Evelyn Suitor. Laura subsequently falls in love with Evelyn, causing the latter to leave the school in order to escape Laura's attentions. Laura eventually completes her schooling, winning a two-year music scholarship to study piano.

Source: Australian Screen.

Notes

  • The trailer for this film is available to view via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF-ULAYY7bo (Sighted: 10/8/2012)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: The Getting of Wisdom : From the Novel by Henry Handel Richardson
Form: screenplay

Works about this Work

Great Aussie Female Movie Characters Erin Free , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 8 March 2019;
From The Getting of Wisdom to Heartbreak High : Australian School Stories on Screen Michelle Smith , 2019 single work
— Appears in: The Conversation , 29 January 2019;

Going to school is one of the few life experiences almost everyone shares. From the time children began to be educated in small groups in Britain, there were school stories in popular culture, beginning with what many consider the first novel for children, Sarah Fielding’s The Governess; or, The Little Female Academy (1749).  (Introduction)

'I Will Survive!' : Australia's 10 Best LGBT Films Luke Buckmaster , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 7 April 2016;

— Review of The Getting Of Wisdom Eleanor Witcombe , 1978 single work film/TV ; The Sum of Us David Stevens , 1994 single work film/TV ; 52 Tuesdays Matthew Cormack , Sophie Hyde , 2014 single work film/TV ; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Stephan Elliott , 1994 single work film/TV ; Head On Andrew Bovell , Ana Kokkinos , Mira Robertson , 1998 single work film/TV ; Love and Other Catastrophes Stavros Kazantzidis , Yael Bergman , 1996 single work film/TV ; Remembering the Man Eleanor Sharpe , Nick Bird , 2015 single work film/TV ; The Suicide Theory Michael J. Kospiah , 2014 single work film/TV
(Sweet) Sixteen Great Australian Teen Films Erin Free (editor), 2016 single work column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 20 May 2016;
Behaving Badly : The Coming-of-Age of a National Cinema Alice Healy-Ingram , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 350-356)
'I Will Survive!' : Australia's 10 Best LGBT Films Luke Buckmaster , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 7 April 2016;

— Review of The Getting Of Wisdom Eleanor Witcombe , 1978 single work film/TV ; The Sum of Us David Stevens , 1994 single work film/TV ; 52 Tuesdays Matthew Cormack , Sophie Hyde , 2014 single work film/TV ; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Stephan Elliott , 1994 single work film/TV ; Head On Andrew Bovell , Ana Kokkinos , Mira Robertson , 1998 single work film/TV ; Love and Other Catastrophes Stavros Kazantzidis , Yael Bergman , 1996 single work film/TV ; Remembering the Man Eleanor Sharpe , Nick Bird , 2015 single work film/TV ; The Suicide Theory Michael J. Kospiah , 2014 single work film/TV
Cinematographer in the Frame for Highest Honour Adam Fulton , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23 November 2011; (p. 11)
y separately published work icon Words and Images : Australian Novels into Films Brian McFarlane , Richmond : Heinemann , 1983 Z286903 1983 single work criticism

Words and Images is the first Australian book to examine the relationship between literature and film. Taking nine films that had been released in the ten years previous to its publication, Brian McFarlane looks at some of the issues involved in transposing a narrative from one medium to another.

Behaving Badly : The Coming-of-Age of a National Cinema Alice Healy-Ingram , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 350-356)
Behaving Badly : The Coming-of-Age of a National Cinema Alice Healy-Ingram , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 350-356)
The Getting of Wisdom Kristina Gottschall , 2012 single work essay
— Appears in: World Film Locations : Melbourne 2012; (p. 41-42)

Awards

1978 winner Australian Film Institute Awards Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Source
Last amended 30 Aug 2017 10:40:32
X