Jane Campion’s films don’t have a lot of dialogue, they speak to the audience through body language and visceral imagery. Although words are sparse in Campion’s screenplays, every word uttered is meaningful and poetic.
Born in New Zealand in 1954, Campion comes from a family dedicated to the performing arts. Her mother was an actress and writer; and her father a teacher, and theatre and opera director. Her parents founded the New Zealand Players, so Jane grew up in the theatre.
Jane studied Anthropology at the University of Wellington, where she graduated with a BA in 1975. In 1976 she moved to London, enrolling in the Chelsea Art School, spending her free time traveling throughout Europe. She then moved to Australia where she studied painting, graduating from the Sydney College of the Arts in 1981. Dissatisfied with painting, Campion turned to filmmaking. In 1984 she graduated from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Campion’s unique path to filmmaking gave her the foundations to understand human behaviour and fully develop characters in her films, and to visually express narratives on film as a painter uses brushstrokes.
In less than a decade following graduation from film school, Campion was the second woman ever to be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, and won Best Original Screenplay for The Piano (Campion, 1993). Campion was the first and only female filmmaker to receive the Palme d'Or for The Piano.
Romance, forbidden love, desire, passion, tragedy, these are themes throughout much of Campion’s work. In the Cut (Campion, 2003), based on Susanna Moore’s novel (published 1995), was adapted to the screen by Campion and Moore, and directed by Campion; produced by Nicole Kidman and Laurie Parker. Starring Meg Ryan in a beautifully visceral performance as Frannie Avery, Mark Ruffalo as Detective Giovanni Malloy, and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Pauline, Frannie’s sister.
Frannie and Pauline share a beautifully loving and affectionate relationship which is tender, and sweet. Frannie seems otherwise disinterested in people, but her close bond with her sister reveals a loving and caring soul. Frannie is an English professor, who notices poetry on the subway and collects words in her little black book from people around her. She meets Detective Malloy who is investigating a particularly brutal serial killer who disarticulates women. A word Frannie notes in her little black book. Frannie’s life becomes entangled, and she doesn’t know who to trust.
M.F.A. / Revenge Artist
