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Clip description
Cath (Lorna Lesley) is now in a relationship with Mike (Sam Neill), the temp teacher from school two years before. She is discovering art, culture, poetry, sexual politics and love.
Curator’s notes
This sequence shows Cath emerging from the limitations of family life. She is finding her feet in a world full of art, culture and study. She and Mike are in love and starting a serious relationship.
Cath is also getting interested in the ideas of the women’s liberation movement. Still a bit of a larrikin, she steals a book, The Female Eunuch (1970), written by Australian feminist Germaine Greer. This book, which questioned the position of women in society, changed the lives of millions of women around the world. By using this book in the scene the filmmaker is deliberately giving out the clue that Cath is on the way to questioning her life.
The sequence ends with Mike getting her to read his published poem. When Cath says she doesn’t understand it his reply is patronising. This foreshadows the conflicts to come as Cath tries to assert her opinions and needs in the relationship.
