(aka It's Lizzie to Those Close)
Written by a New Zealander, Elizabeth Gowans, who lived in London. It deals with the life of a young Englishwoman who emigrates to New Zealand in the 1860's and becomes a domestic servant on an isolated Canterbury farm.
Lizzie: Sarah Peirse
Cast: Jeremy Stephens
Cast: Derek Hardwick
Cast: Bruno Lawrence
With: Martyn Sanderson
With: Ian Watkins
Director: David Blyth
Producer: Grahame J. McLean
Designer: Grahame J. McLean
Original Screenplay: Elizabeth Gowan
Director of Photography: John Earnshaw
Composer: Mark Nicholas
Musical Co-Ordinator: Morton Wilson
Editor: Jamie Selkirk
Assistant Editor: John Gilbert
Pioneer woman isolated in male environment
Press, 26 July 1982
WANTED: Unmarried women and widows of good character for domestic work in select situations in New Zealand.
To a young British servant girl, this advertisement promised all the hope and opportunity expected of life in a new colony. But after 14 arduous weeks at sea, Lizzie must face reality — life in an isolated, high-country cottage. with three roughneck, taciturn men. With no money and no friends she must stick with her employers to survive. Her “good character" is the only thing that will see her through.
“A Woman of Good Character." which will be screened on Wednesday at 9 p.m. in One’s Festival of Television Arts, focuses on New Zealand’s early emotional history in the raw. The film explores the male-set-tler mentality from the viewpoint of a woman isolated in a harsh male-orientated environment, with her stoic acceptance of the status quo underlining her lack of choice.
In a household where expressed emotion and communication have long been forgotten Lizzie's odds for survival are not high: but. like many women of her period, she perseveres, bringing change where she can and laying the foundation for the emancipation women know today.
For the’ director, David Blyth. the film is a bow to the strength of New Zealand pioneering women. “It is a film about hope and the need to keep fighting — the story of a woman who flowed with life and simply coped with difficult men."
Blythe is a fifth-generation New Zealander — an indigenous film-maker whose aim is to make indigenous films.
“I have a genuine desire to define my own past — not a romantic idealised version of what this country was — I’m trying to present it warts and all." “I think we’re guilty of our own colonial myth — our glowing beginnings in a democratic utopia. In fact it wasn’t like that. Pockets of people suffered incredible poverty and hardship."
But next to the warts, Blyth asserts, there can be a beautiful rose. “A Woman of Good Character” contains no pessimism — it is a story of struggle and success, with the emphasis on reality, which means indigenous honesty.
“There is reality in the sparse dialogue and in the fact that characters walk out and you never see them again."
As well, there is reality in the location the back blocks of the Moke Valley, an hour's four-wheel drive from Queenstown. To get in, the crew had to blast out a track and then carry heavy equipment through the mud. When the weather got rough they dug in for the night — all this because it was totally authentic.
An existing stone house was patched up to its original dimensions with materials milled from timber on the site; there were no fences, no telephone wires and they could virtually film in 360 degrees. But isolation brought its problems as well — the crew and cast experienced some of the rigours of pioneering days, with a commitment that is evident in the final product.
Lizzie is played by an Auckland actress, Sarah Peirse, a newcomer to the film world, but an actress whom Blyth feels shows "incredible talent."
"Sarah has tremendous energy and vitality," he says. “Because the men were so heavy, we had to find a woman who had both strength and vulnerability. We needed somebody with a strong spark. The qualities that I saw in her are in the film, and the key to its success is that the audience immediately identifies with her.”
When Blyth first spotted Peirse she was working with the Auckland street theatre group, Debbie and the Dum Dums; since then she has worked at Theatre Corporate in Auckland and has been seen on television in the independently made "Queen Street.”
Derek Hardwick, who played the lead role in “Pumice Land,” plays the tormented, elderly farmer, who has not left the house or spoken to his sons in the 12 years before Lizzie arrived; Jeremy Stephens plays his elder son, who is running the farm and Bruno Lawrence plays the dumb, simple son. with whom Lizzie eventually develops a friendship.
Stephens has appeared m several Television New Zealand productions, including “Open File." "Mortimer’s Patch," and “Rachel," while Lawrence is best known for his work in the films “Battletruck," "Goodbye Pork Pie,” "Bad Blood." "Beyond Reasonable Doubt," and "Race For The Yankee Zephyr." Lawrence has just completed filming for the yet-to-be-released feature. "Utu."
For David Blyth. "A Woman of Good Character, is something of a departure from his first feature film, the controversial erotic fantasy, "Angel Mine," released here in 1978. "
‘Angel Mine.’ was a much-maligned film," he maintains. "It was an inexperienced effort but I believe it struck a nerve. It still has a strong cult following.”
Blyth’s interest in avantgarde films took him on a scholarship to England in 1980 where he worked with director Jim Sharman on the rock film. "Shock Treatment,” a follow-up to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
After extensive travel he returned to New Zealand with the script for "A Woman of Good Character." which was filmed at the beginning of this year.
Since then he has been contracted to Television New Zealand, where he is currently directing episodes for “Close to Home."
His next project, another television feature, is already in pre-production. He describes it as a "love and property in a small town drama, set in the 1930s.
“A Woman Of Good Character” has achieved four overseas sales to date, and more anticipated. “It has been fantastically successful,” says Blyth. "It was New Zealand’s best-selling film at the Cannes Television Festival.”
The Script
Novelization
She took ship for New Zealand as little more than a child. In the desolate beauty of the high country she very soon had to become a woman...
From relentless drudgery in the parched hills to the green-lawned luxury of a great house; from the wild passion of love to the deep despair of loss, from Victorian England to the highlands of Scotland.
A Woman of Good Character is the unforgettable story of Ceci Bowen, a story as rich as the land she came to call home.
In the bleak New Zealand outback Ceci and Ginger struggled to make their marriage work as their grown-up children loved and toiled in an untamed country.
And meanwhile, in another part of South Island, their friends Reg and Annie scratched a living from the parched soil-only to be besieged by plagues of predators...
Where Two Roads Cross is the unforgettable sequel to A Woman of Good Character, a story of great hardships shared and love triumphant.
Early N.2. women
Letter to the Editor, I, 2 August 1982
Sir,—Many readers will want to join me in congratulating Sarah Peirse and the rest of -the team. responsible for producing the. play “A Woman of Good Character” (TVI, July 28 ). What many people may not know is that about 20,000-young single women like Lizzie were brought out to New Zealand last century, to work as domestic' servants and to balance the disproportion/ of the sexes in the population.' For the last thee: years : I have been researching this group of women and <I- would be interested- in hearing from anybody who has one of these intrepid women among their forbears.
Yours, etc.,
CHARLOTTE MACDONALD.
History department,
Massey University.
July 29. 1982.
Between the 1840s and 1880s, thousands of young single women came to New Zealand as assisted migrants from Britain and Ireland. In this detailed study of forgotten lives, Charlotte Macdonald highlights the experiences and identities of a vitally important migrant group, one previously overshadowed by the stories of gold diggers, pastoralists, soldiers, adventurers and agricultural labourers.
Macdonald, a pioneer of research into women’s history, brings a new perspective on New Zealand’s European settlement. Her compelling study will appeal to anyone seeking to investigate the origins of contemporary New Zealand identity.
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