Bruce Beresford on tolerance as Ladies in Black looms

Bruce Beresford’s first Australian film in almost a decade explores contemporary, global themes of immigration and acceptance.

Australian director Bruce Beresford at home ahead of the release of his new film, Ladies in Black. Picture: Chris Pavlich

Bruce Beresford’s first Australian film in almost a decade has 1950s Sydney as its dramatic backdrop, but its American backers are just as interested in its contemporary, global themes of immigration and acceptance of different cultures.

“That’s why we got money from Sony,” the acclaimed director said in Sydney yesterday. “When we went to Hollywood, they read the script and they said this is very germane to what’s going on today. They weren’t so interested in the period piece.”

But there’s still a touch of nostalgia in Ladies in Black, which opens in cinemas here on September 20. The film is based on the 1993 novel The Women in Black, by Madeleine St John, whom Beresford met when they were undergraduates at Sydney University in the late 1950s.

Beresford, who at 78 has more than 30 feature films to his name, starting with the 1972 classic The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, has been trying to make this movie since he optioned St John’s novel 25 years ago. There was a certain relief in getting it to the big screen, he said, and argued the themes of migration, acceptance and relationships were as relevant as ever.

The movie has backing from Screen Australia and Create NSW, but the decision by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions to come in was crucial in getting the film over the line after more than two decades of efforts to get funding.

Ladies in Black is set in a fictional department store almost certainly based on David Jones, and the fashion department sales women — “the ladies in black” — who receive lessons in tolerance thanks to the presence of an energetic, sophisticated emigre, Magda, in their midst. There are subplots, romance and cameo performances from actors Shane ­Jacobson, Susie Porter and Noni Hazlehurst alongside the bigger roles taken by Julia Ormond, Rachael Taylor, Ryan Corr and Angourie Rice.

The story of post-war immigration and the clash of cultures in Australia is an underlying theme but Beresford said it was also an amusing story with good characters. “It’s really a comedy of manners,” he said. “It’s a bit like Driving Miss Daisy (his 1990 film which won an Academy Award), which was often very funny.”

A light touch is important to Beresford, who is tired of seeing films that “bash him over the head” with their message. The message of Ladies in Black is clear. “Tolerance and (being) welcoming,” he said. “Look what they are doing to these poor bloody boatpeople.”

He is sanguine about international acceptance of such an Australian movie. “You just never know,” he said. “You can have a good film with good reviews and it never makes any money.”