Jane Campion gives awkward, independent women time to be difficult without asking us to excuse them. We value her patience and humour, though the same willingness to wait can leave individual scenes drifting.
Fi1m perspective
Kerry Fox lets Janet Frame be awkward and stubborn in An Angel at My Table (1990), without appearing to ask our forgiveness. Campion allows us to find the behaviour funny without making Janet an object of ridicule. We felt protective of Alexia Keogh’s younger Janet because being noticed by other people seems such an ordeal for her. That unease survives the changes of actress as Janet grows up. This is where Campion earns our affection: she gives us time to get used to someone who does not make company easy.
Her feature debut, Sweetie (1989), had already brought an unsettling eye to family life. The Piano (1993) was the international breakthrough, joining her interest in desire to a use of landscape that conveys what people feel. Some critics found The Portrait of a Lady (1996) uneven or cold. In the Cut (2003) divided opinion over its erotic thriller elements and shifts in tone.
In An Angel at My Table, the collaborators help that patience work. Laura Jones’s screenplay lets Janet’s life develop unevenly, without requiring every difficulty to deliver a lesson. Editor Veronika Jenet makes the progression between Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson and Fox feel continuous, giving each performance time to settle. Don McGlashan’s restrained music leaves us some choice about how to feel, rather than insisting on pity. There are passages that drift, and Fox’s refusal to make every thought legible can be frustrating, but neither is reason to wish for a more instructive film.
Television gave that interest in sustained character study another form when Campion co-created and directed Top of the Lake (2013). Her return to features with the western The Power of the Dog (2021) brought psychological tension to the fore. We would begin with An Angel at My Table, where her care for performers is so easy to see. Set aside the time for it rather than hoping Campion will hurry.
Biography
Jane Campion is a New Zealand film director and screenwriter. She was born in Wellington in 1954 and studied anthropology at Victoria University of Wellington before training in film at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
Her early features include Sweetie (1989) and An Angel at My Table (1990). She wrote and directed The Piano (1993), which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Later works include The Portrait of a Lady (1996), In the Cut (2003), Bright Star (2009) and The Power of the Dog (2021). She co-created the television series Top of the Lake (2013).
Campion was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2016 for services to film.
