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The Getting of Wisdom (1978)

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clip 'What's your name? What's your father?' education content clip 1, 2

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Laura (Susannah Fowle) arrives in the refectory at her new school, an upper class ladies’ college in Melbourne, carrying a cake made by her mother. She is frightened and alone. The deputy headmistress, Miss Chapman (Patrick Kennedy) tries to be welcoming. After the meal, the other girls make fun of her name, her circumstances, and her dress. Evelyn Suitor (Hilary Ryan) tries to be kind, but Laura rebuffs her angrily.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

Beresford makes a memorable scene out of Laura’s introduction to her new school – partly by emphasising the difference between its formal and informal range of behaviours. The refectory is exceedingly proper, presided over by the remote and forbidding headmistress, played by Sheila Helpmann (sister of Robert Helpmann, the great ballet dancer), but the school corridors are the domain of the students, who are far from proper. Using words like 'bum’, 'bugger’, and 'damn’ would have been considered extremely improper, but these girls are mean as well as crude. The sense that this is a ritual they have all endured is created by the way Kerry Armstrong asks 'What is your name? What is your father?’. She is blooding the new girl, as she was blooded. Laura’s innate toughness comes straight to the surface, and earns her instant respect. The portrayal of these girls as relatively modern, in language and attitude, is perhaps intended to suggest that not much had changed in such places in the years since Ethel Richardson wrote the book.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows Laura Tweedle Ramsbothom (Susannah Fowle) arriving in the refectory of her new school where, amidst the stares and giggles of the other girls, she is greeted by Miss Chapman (Patricia Kennedy). In the garden Laura is surrounded by some of the girls, who taunt her about her name, her family and her dress. Laura is hurt and responds angrily to the girls’ questions and later to an older girl’s kind inquiry. The sounds of piano and violin practice are heard in the background.

Educational value points

  • These scenes, which appear early in the film The Getting of Wisdom (1978), quickly establish Laura’s status as an outsider in the elite boarding school. This is revealed by highlighting her unfamiliarity with the protocols of the school, such as sitting down when all the other girls are standing, and wearing a bright red floral dress, which stands out against the more muted outfits of the other girls.
  • The cinematography and editing in this clip reinforce the intensity of the girls’ cruel interrogation of Laura. The rapid sequence of close-up shots of the girls’ faces as they fire their questions at Laura, the way the shots flash from one to the other, followed by the camera panning behind the girls’ backs combine to create the sense that Laura feels surrounded and trapped.
  • In the refectory scene the pull focus (changing the depth of field from one character to another) is used to shift the physical and emotional focus of the scene. As the severe Mrs Gurley (Sheila Helpmann) reads from The Bible, the focus moves to the kindly face of Miss Chapman, who appears to be keeping an eye on Laura. The technique is used again when the focus moves from the girls’ downcast faces to Laura’s as a tear rolls down her cheek.
  • The scene depicting Laura’s interrogation by the other girls centres around the theme of bullying. This works to exclude Laura from the dominant group, but also shows her the behaviour and ethos of this group. They cruelly make fun of her brightly coloured homemade dress, her name (‘ram’s bum’) and even her father’s death (‘rum doctor couldn’t even cure himself’).
  • Laura’s response to the girls’ bullying offers an insight into her character. Although she seems initially hurt by the girls’ word play on her name, as the merciless interrogation proceeds she displays anger. Her face tightens and her responses sharpen as the girls try to ascertain her social class, ‘What’s your father?’, ‘How many servants do you keep?’. Her retort ‘What’s yours?’ indicates that she is not a person who is easily cowed.
  • In adapting Henry Handel Richardson’s novel to the screen, director Bruce Beresford and screenwriter Eleanor Whitcombe added scenes and themes from Richardson’s unfinished autobiography Myself When Young, and moved the story forward a decade so they could use electricity and avoid the cost of installing gas brackets on the sets. Eleanor Whitcombe won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1978.
  • Director Bruce Beresford (1940–) says he had wanted to make The Getting of Wisdom since he first read the book as a 15 year old. ‘I thought it wonderful that a heroine could be aggressive and often nasty and cheat and lie her way to success … the people around her, the conforming Australians I knew so well, seemed to me to deserve defeat’ (Coleman, Peter, Bruce Beresford: Instincts of the Heart, HarperCollins, 1992).
  • The novel The Getting of Wisdom was written by Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson (1870–1946), under the pseudonym Henry Handel Richardson. It was based on her experiences as a boarder at Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne. Like her character Laura, Richardson studied music in Leipzig, Germany, after finishing school. She is best known for the trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1930).

Dozens of girls stand in front of tables arranged in rows in a large dining hall. They chatter and snigger amongst themselves as Laura walks slowly in. She is wearing a colourful ruffled dress which is markedly different to the plain dresses worn by the other girls.
Mrs Gurley Silence!
Miss Chapman, the deputy headmistress, greets Laura. Laura hands her a cake.
Miss Chapman I’m Miss Chapman, the deputy… er… For the present you had better sit… over there, I think – yes.
Laura Tweedle Ramsbotham Thank you.
All heads turn to watch Laura as she walks to her seat. She pulls out the chair and goes to sit down. The other girls laugh as she realises that everyone else is still standing in front of their chair. She stands up again and everyone bows their head to say grace.
Mrs Gurley The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord, and thou givest them their meat in due season. Let the peoples praise thee, O Lord. Let all the peoples praise thee. The earth hath yielded her increase. God, even our own Lord, shall bless us. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. Amen.
Laura is silently crying as the prayer is read.
Girls Amen.

A large crowd of girls, Laura in front, walk outside and into the garden. The other girls are chattering and laughing.
Girl She looks like a parrot.
Girl This way to the parrot. Step up! A penny!
Once in the garden, the girls crowd around Laura, laughing and poking her. They stand around her in a circle.
Girl I can’t believe it. Look at it.
Maria What did you say your name is, kid?
Girl Go on, tell us.
Laura sighs.
Laura Laura Tweedle Ramsbothom.
The other girls shriek with laughter. Maria is laughing so hard she is rubbing her stomach.
Girl It couldn’t be.
Maria Oh, it’s too much, oh. Laura Tweedle Ram’s Bottom?
Laura Ramsbothom.
Maria Oh, sorry. Laura Tweedledum Ram’s Bum?
The girls all laugh again. Laura narrows her eyes at Maria, showing that she is fed up with the teasing.
Girl Really, Maria.
Girl I don’t believe it. No-one could have a name like that.
Girl She has. I saw it on her box. You should see her hat.
Girl What about this too marvellous dress?
Girl Look at the colours.
Girl Whoever made it?
Laura My mother.
The girls laugh hysterically.
Girl How many servants do you keep?
Girl Where on earth do you come from?
Girl Why didn’t you start at the beginning of term?
Girl What’s your father?
Laura Dead.
The girls laugh.
Girl 'Spose he was alive once.
Laura He was a doctor.
Girl What’d he die of?
Laura Consumption.
Girl Rum doctor. Couldn’t even cure himself!
The girls laugh again. Another girl approaches the group.
Kate Horner Who have we got here?
Girl The new kid. Ask her what her name is.
Kate What’s your name? What’s your father?
Laura replies rudely.
Laura What’s yours?
Kate is a little shocked by Laura’s rudeness but keeps her cool, giving a bemused look. The other girls laugh, mocking Laura.
Maria That’s one for you, Kate Horner. Not bad, Tweedledum. Or is it Tweedledee?
The school bell chimes.
Kate Oh, bugger, I have to go. Come on, Maria.

The other girls all rush off, leaving Laura alone in the garden. She heads back to the building, unsure of where she is going. Evelyn and another girl are walking past arm in arm. They stop and look at her kindly.
Evelyn Are you lost?
Laura answers rudely.
Laura No.
The girls look at each other and walk away chattering.