It’s clear: Jane Campion is the most lauded and influential female director, not just “living”, but in the history of film. But while we’ll cheer her on at this year’s Oscars – where her latest film The Power of the Dog is nominated in 12 categories – do we really know her work? Of Campion’s 10 features, two TV series, and many shorts made over the past 40 years, who can easily list her oeuvre, quote her motifs, argue for favourite scenes, outline her artistic vision? Do we give Jane Campion her due?
In an attempt to answer this, here are my most memorable Campion moments – because film by its very nature consists of moments. What can Campion do in just 10 seconds of screen time?
HERE, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, ARE MY TOP FIVE:
The moment in (Campion’s first feature film, 1989) when Sweetie’s “normal” sister, Kay, comes home to find her boyfriend has wrenched the revolving clothesline out of the cracked concrete yard and replaced it with a sick-looking sapling as a symbol of their love. But Kay doesn’t like the new tree: “Where will
