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    In the Scene: Jane Campion
    In the Scene: Jane Campion
    In the Scene: Jane Campion
    Ebook213 pages2 hours

    In the Scene: Jane Campion

    By Ellen Cheshire

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    About this ebook

    A comprehensive overview of  the director Jane Campion and her work.


    Campion is one of the few women film-makers working today who has managed to create a unique body of work. A true independent film-maker, she has attracted many ‘A’ List Hollywood actors to appear in her films.



    Who else but Campion could have convinced a tattooed Harvey Keitel to run buck-naked through the New Zealand landscape in The Piano, or for the multi award-winning Kate Winslet to pee down her legs in the middle of the desert in Holy Smoke?


    Campion is also an outspoken champion in recent debates about the lack of women in senior creative positions within the film industry.


    This book covers Jane Campion’s remarkable career from her Palme d’Or winning debut short film Peel to her recent return to television with the Top of the Lake series, reflecting on the influence of her study in anthropology as well as her formative years growing up in New Zealand.


    Reviews


    “Ellen Cheshire’s rich and thoughtful study accessibly and incisively gets us to the heart of why Jane Campion’s films connect with viewers around the world. This book is hugely enjoyable and insightful.”  -- James Clarke, Writer, Media Labs, what you need to know.


    "I've been fascinated with Jane Campion's career ever since I saw "The Piano" make its debut at the movie theater. Ellen Cheshire did a very good job in detailing the gifted Campion's "brilliant career..."  ****-- Diane H, NetGalley


    "The strength of the book for me is the critical analysis from early short films to box office successes, ranging from the actors involved and the awards gained. I particularly like the appraisal of mood, colour, camera angles and locations which brings the movies alive again for me. A bit like those special box sets and DVDs that carried extra edited bits and alternative scenes/endings." **** -- Richard L, Net Galley


     


    About the author


    Ellen Cheshire has a BA (Hons) in Film and English and a MA in Gothic Studies and has taught Film at Undergraduate and A Level.
    She has published books on Bio-Pics, Audrey Hepburn and The Coen Brothers and contributed chapters to books on James Bond, Charlie Chaplin, Global Film-making, Film Form, Fantasy Films and War Movies.


    For Supernova Books, she has also written In the Scene: Ang Lee, and contributed to Silent Women; pioneers of Cinema eds. Melody Bridges and Cheryl Robson (voted best book on Silent Film 2016) and Counterculture UK; a celebration eds. Rebecca Gillieron and Cheryl Robson.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAurora Metro Books
    Release dateMay 9, 2018
    ISBN9780993220739
    In the Scene: Jane Campion
    Author

    Ellen Cheshire

    Ellen Cheshire is a freelance film researcher, writer and lecturer. She has published books on biopics (for Columbia University Press), Ang Lee and Jane Campion (for Supernova Books), Audrey Hepburn and the Coen Brothers (for Pocket Essentials), and has contributed chapters to books on James Bond and Charlie Chaplin (for Taschen Books), silent film and counterculture (for Supernova Books), fantasy films (for MS Publications) and war movies (for Ian Allen). She has lectured in film and media at the University of Chichester and Chichester College. In 2016 she was Film Historian for Worthing WOW’s Heritage Lottery funded project celebrating 120 years of film in Sussex.

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      Book preview

      In the Scene - Ellen Cheshire

      PART ONE

      Many budding film-makers start by making short films in their back yard with a Super 8 camera, and Jane Campion is no exception. However, it is more unusual for the film-maker to win a Palme d’Or at Cannes for their third short film.

      Campion made a stunning debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986. By then she had only made four short films – but three of them had been selected to show in various strands of the Festival – which was an unprecedented achievement for a young film-maker and can be directly attributed to the support, both financially and emotionally, of the Australian Film Commission.

      Campion’s first foray into film-making had been in 1980 when she taught herself to use a Super 8 camera. She made her first twenty minute film, Tissues, through which she secured a place at AFTRS. With only twenty-five students admitted each year, and female students few and far between, Campion was determined to build on the success of other female Antipodean film-makers such as Gillian Armstrong and Ann Turner and take advantage of Australia’s and New Zealand’s vibrant film industry.

      She had little support from her lecturers who were, on the whole, rather conservative. They thought Campion’s approach to film-making and particularly her chosen subject matters would prevent her from having any kind of appeal beyond her immediate circle of friends. They simply didn’t appreciate that her distinctive visual style and way of seeing the world would find a wider audience.

      Tissues (1980)

      Writer/Director/Editor: Jane Campion

      Story

      Black comedy about a father arrested for child molestation, and how his family try to deal with the situation. Every scene features paper tissues, and their importance in the family’s life.

      Background

      In the Washington Post, 20 May 1993 Campion described her first ignorant foray into film-making thus: My best film was my first film, I couldn’t find a fault in it. It was my last pure experience of happiness and joy. You know, someone would say, ‘There’s not enough wide shots.’ I’d say, ‘wide shots?’ This reaction galvanised Campion to begin her journey into gaining a better understanding of film

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