Jane Campion

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by Dana Polan

British Film Institute

Due/Published November 2001, 209 pages, paper

ISBN 0851708560

With the phenonmenological success of The Piano (1993), Campion became revered by many as the leading female film director in the 90s, being previously known as a director of curious and striking art films including Sweetie (1989) and An Angel at My Table (1990). The release of The Piano however succeeded in inspiring intense responses from audiences (often split along gender lines) and Campion was heralded as a film-maker able to suggest new possibilities for a cinema of fervent emotionalism and the representation of feminine fantasy and desire on screen.

In this study of Campion, Dana Polan examines the phenomenon of The Piano and how it develops from the early shorts and first features which evoke an often surreal and critical distanced styles of looking at everyday issues. Looking at all of Campion's work before and since, including Holy Smoke (1999), which returned again to the battleground of gender politics, Polan concludes his survey of the director's work by offering some hypotheses about her upcoming erotic thriller In the Cut (2001), while providing analysis of a variety of approaches to the study of directors.